· new assemblies in arunachal pradesh, andhra pradesh, odisha and sikkim are likely to ... a...

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A s West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee prepared to hold a massive show of strength on Saturday, which will be attended by a galaxy of major Opposition leaders, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Friday wrote to her hailing the TMC chief ’s initiative to unite India against the BJP. The Congress president wrote, “I extend my support to Mamata Di on this show of unity and hope that we send a powerful message of a united India together.” Saying that there were “powerful forces afoot” angry with the Narendra Modi Government for ped- dling false promises, Rahul wrote these “forces are fanned by anger and disappointment of hundreds of millions Indians who have seen through the false promises and lies peddled by the Modi Government.” Rahul’s letter came at a time when political who’s who from all over the country including former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda, former UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and NCP chief Sharad Yadav had started land- ing at Kolkata. On united Opposition against the BJP, the Congress president wrote, “The entire Opposition is united in our belief that true nationalism and development can only be defended on the tested pillars of democracy, social justice and secularism, ideas that the BJP and Modi are intent on destroying.” While neither Sonia Gandhi nor Rahul Gandhi would be joining the rally, the Congress will be represented by the party’s Leader in Lok Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge. His pres- ence and Rahul’s letter tends to neutralise BJP’s argument that Mamata’s much-hyped Brigade rally lacked the backing of the second biggest party of India indicating at the schism with- in the much touted Opposition unity. Rahul’s support apart, Deve Gowda too praised Mamata for taking the “grand initiative to bring the entire Opposition together against the Narendra Modi Government. She is a hardworking leader and her endeavour will bring success,” Gowda said after landing at Kolkata. Congratulating the Chief Minister for bringing the whole India to Kolkata, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said, “Mamata Didi has sent a message by bringing all leaders to Kolkata. Every segment of the society is unhappy with the Modi Government and time has come for a new Prime Minister for the country.” Former Arunachal Chief Minister Gegong Apang who left BJP a couple of days ago said, “Mamata is a great leader and we all have come here to support her initiative.” Meanwhile, stage is set for the expected record-breaking rally even as thousands of TMC cadres poured in from districts. Kolkata prepared for a historic Brigade rally that according to a rough ruling party estimate break the Left Front record by assembling no less than 30 lakh people sources said. By Thursday late-noon a galaxy of politicians had land- ed in Kolkata led by former HD Deve Gowda, NCP chief Sharada Pawar, Gegong Apang, Akhilesh Yadav. Mamata had on Thursday said that leaders of about 20 Opposition parties would be coming to join the “Mahagathbandhan rally against the BJP’s misrule.” Apart from those who had already landed at Kolkata, oth- ers who were expected to join the rally are Karnataka Chief Minister Kumaraswami, his Andhra Pradesh counterpart N Chandrababu Naidu, National Conference leaders Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, DMK leader Stalin and BSP leader Amit Mishra, Mamata said. BJP leader Shatrughan Sinha and Yashwant Sinha were also likely to join the rally. Continued on Page 4 T he NDA Government’s decision to buy 36 Rafale jets instead of 126 as was decided by the UPA regime led to escalation of the price of each aircraft by 41 per cent and came as a windfall for French aircraft-maker Dassault, said Congress leader P Chidambaram citing an exhaustive report published by The Hindu newspaper. The Defence Ministry has denied the charges in detailed statement. Claiming that the Government paid Euro 25 mil- lion more per aircraft com- pared to the price negotiated by the Congress-led UPA, Chidambaram said the Government did not buy 90 more aircraft needed by the Air Force and paid Rs 186 crore more to French firm Dassault, maker of Rafale, for 13 India- specific enhancements in the medium multi-role combat air- craft (MMRCA). The former Finance Minister reiterated his party’s demand for a joint parliamen- tary committee (JPC) probe into the Rafale jet deal, saying the decision is not amenable to court but to a parliamentary panel. The Congress has alleged earlier that the Prime Minister increased the ‘Benchmark Price’ of Rafale deal from 5.2 billion Euros to 8.2 billion Euros and that the NDA Government paid over Rs 1,600 crore per aircraft against the UPA’s negotiated price of Rs 527 crore per aircraft, demand- ing answers as to who is responsible for the loss to the State exchequer. Chidambaram’s Press con- ference came in the backdrop of a media report claiming that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision to buy 36 air- craft instead of the 126 asked for by the Indian Air Force pushed the price of each jet up by 41.42 per cent. “The Government has wronged the country in two ways - firstly, it has compro- mised national security by denying to the Air Force 90 fighter aircraft that they des- perately need. Secondly, it has purchased two squadrons that will cost about 25 million more per aircraft. At the 2016 exchange rate, Euro 25 million is equal to Rs 186 crore. India will pay Rs 186 crore more per aircraft,” Chidambaram said. “There is no doubt any longer that Rafale aircraft deal deserves to be examined thor- oughly by a Joint Parliamentary Committee. The Congress reit- erates its demand for constitu- tion of a JPC,” he said. The Rajya Sabha member said he feels that Dassault “is laughing all the way to the bank”, as the NDA Government gave a “gift” to the French firm over amortisation or recovery on the cost of 13 India-specific enhancements sought in the aircraft that cost 1,300 million Euros. Continued on Page 4 A Whatsapp chat of two women bureaucrats in Shahdol district caused flutter in both political and bureau- cratic circles of Madhya Pradesh on Friday. The chat screenshot went viral in which the local collec- tor is asking the deputy collec- tor to work in favor of the Bharatiya Janata Party during just concluded assembly polls. However one of the officers involved in the chat—deputy collector Puja Tiwari, has denied any such conversation with the collector claiming she has lodged an FIR with local police urging them to initiate action against those who prepared this forged clip of the chat. In the viral chat, Tiwari messages the collector Anubha Srivastava that the Congress candidate Uma Dhurve was taking lead in Jaitpur assembly constituency and the collector reportedly responds to her say- ing she should ensure a BJP win if she wanted to take charge as SDM after the polls. Tiwari who is serving on probation cautiously agrees asking whether it could pose any trouble for her later to which the collector responds that she need not be concerned as she was there to take care. Srivastava also promised her she would be handed charge as SDM once BJP wins. While talking to media persons, after an FIR against unidentified persons was reg- istered, Tiwari claimed that she was posted as Assistant Returning Officer at Jaisinghnagar and had no con- trol over what was happening at Jaitpur. “We are also not allowed to keep mobile phones inside the counting centre,” clarified the officer saying she was busy in the counting of postal ballots around same time when the said chat had taken place. Declining to name anyone, the officer termed this a conspira- cy against her and the district collector. On the other hand, the col- lector however termed the viral chat mischievous act from someone. T he Election Commission (EC) may announce the schedule of the parliamentary elections sometime in the mid- dle of March, while the polls are likely to take place in April and May. The polling is likely to be conducted in several phases across the country and the EC is keen to ensure that the poll- dates do not clash with the school examinations as well as festivals in the States. The term of the present Lok Sabha ends on June 3. An EC spokesperson, how- ever, said, “No decision has been taken as yet on the date when the elections would be announced.” According to sources, the Commission is in the process of deciding the number of phases and the months in which polling would be held. The charting of the phases would also depend on the availability of security forces and other requirements, the sources said, adding the announcement of the mega exercise is likely to be made in first week of March. The polling to elect the new Assemblies in Arunachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Sikkim are likely to take place along with the par- liamentary elections. The state assembly polls in J&K, which is now under President’s Rule may also be held with Lok Sabha polls in April-May. Continued on Page 4 O n Thursday evening, in the midst of the wedding cer- emony in East Delhi’s Shakkarpur, when the bride, 19-year-old Pooja, and the groom, Bharat, were walking towards the stage to exchange garlands (varmala) at Shiv Mandir Dharamshala, Pooja was allegedly hit by a bullet. She was immediately rushed to a nearby hospital, but returned three hours later after a surgery to resume her wed- ding rituals. Pooja’s mother Joga Devi said, “Doctor advised her to take rest for a few hours but she was determined to go back to wedding procession. Now she is fine and taking rest.” Eyewitnesses said two bul- let shots were fired by the accused one was shot in the air, while the other shot hit the bride in the ankle of her right leg. It was revealed that the bul- let had brushed past her leg. Police said it is a case of cel- ebratory firing and hunt is on to arrest the accused identified as Rinku, a resident of Geeta Colony. Deputy Commissioner of Police (East) Pankaj Singh said they are looking into the matter and the accused was a guest from the groom’s side. However, the groom has denied this statement and claimed that he doesn’t know the accused. Pooja is a resident of Mandawali and Bharat is a flower merchant from Shastri Park. They were engaged a year ago. The wedding attendees alleged that the accused might have fled when the bride was being taken to the hospital. In a similar incident last November, a groom was shot at in the shoulder by two gunmen as he was riding a chariot to his wedding. A few hours later he returned to the wedding to carry-on with the marriage rituals. A fter inaugurating the three- day IAS Officers Meet, Chief Minister Kamal Nath here on Friday told the officers that the implementation of schemes as per the needs of the needy is the need of the hour today. Addressing the officers at the Convention Centre, he fur- ther said that there is a big dif- ference between success and satisfaction. The success of obtaining a post is not the basis for satisfaction. Satisfaction comes from suc- cessful results. Success can be retained till one holds a post whereas satisfaction lasts for- ever. Nath said that the entire world looks up to India for its powerful unity in diversity and not for its economic or defence power. Our biggest quality is our tolerance which has been prevailing since the times of Chandragupta and Ashoka. He said that we should all be proud that we are citizens of a coun- try where there are diverse religions, castes, traditions and languages. There is no other country like India in the world. Our attire also changes with the geographical changes. Our diversity is our strength. He said that its conservation is the biggest challenge today. Nath said that the need of the hour is to build a new-state and country along with the challenges of the rapidly chang- ing world. We have to be com- mitted and devoted for this. He said that the expectations of the general public have also changed along with the changes in the form of service. NATO's appearance on the global level has changed. Movements such as non-alignment are no longer discussed. He said the country has adopted these changes with expertise. The challenge before us is how we see and accept global changes? Nath said that today the biggest responsibili- ty before the officers is to take the country-state forward along with the new changes. We must think on how to make changes and improvements in gover- nance. He said that the state’s future depends on this fact. Nath said that the world scenario is fast changing and we are changing accordingly. He said that he had given his first address in year 1992 at Lal Bahadur Shastri Academy of Administration, Mussoorie. About 6-7 years later he went to the academy again and he got to see a major change in the fac- ulty, trainees and subject mat- ter there. In the year 1992, no one would talk about topics like technique and information technology in the Academy. Chief Secretary SR Mohanty told the officials will have to change their outlook. Junior officers can benefit from the experiences of seniors. Administrative decisions should be taken at the district level. Senior officials should also extend support in the decision- making of subordinate officers of the district. Mohanty said that today also the respon- sibility is the same but the response time has reduced. President of IAS Association Gauri Singh said that the cul- tural activities, sports pro- grammes organized during the meet will be good for the offi- cers and their mutual brother- hood and understanding. A committee has been con- stituted by the State Government under the chair- manship of Additional Chief Secretary, Public Relations M Gopal Reddy to probe into the activities of Makhanlal Chaturvedi National University of Journalism. Bhupinder Gupta, Officer on Special Duty, at Chief Minister's Office and Sandeep Dikshit of Vindhyachal Dairy Gam Gora, Bhopal have been made members. The committee will examine various points and present the report within 15 days. The committee will probe into the compliance of recruitment/reservation in the appointments made in year 2003 in the University and determine the account- ability if irregularities are found. The committee will exam- ine the changes made in favour of a specific ideology in university courses and aca- demic system / content and will probe for any bias done to benefit any individual / group in the research projects given by the University. RNI Regn. No. MPENG/2004/13703, Regd. No. L-2/BPLON/41/2006-2008

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Page 1:  · new Assemblies in Arunachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Sikkim are likely to ... a surgery to resume her wed-ding rituals. Pooja’s mother Joga Devi said, “Doctor advised

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As West Bengal ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjee

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

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

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

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

BJP and Modi are intent ondestroying.”

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

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

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

Congratulating the ChiefMinister for bringing the wholeIndia to Kolkata, SamajwadiParty chief Akhilesh Yadavsaid, “Mamata Didi has sent amessage by bringing all leadersto Kolkata. Every segment ofthe society is unhappy with theModi Government and timehas come for a new PrimeMinister for the country.”

Former Arunachal ChiefMinister Gegong Apang wholeft BJP a couple of days agosaid, “Mamata is a great leaderand we all have come here to

support her initiative.”Meanwhile, stage is set for

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

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

“Mahagathbandhan rallyagainst the BJP’s misrule.”

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

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

Continued on Page 4

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The NDA Government’sdecision to buy 36 Rafale

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

The Defence Ministry hasdenied the charges in detailedstatement.

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

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

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

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

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

fighter aircraft that they des-perately need. Secondly, it haspurchased two squadrons thatwill cost about �25 millionmore per aircraft. At the 2016exchange rate, Euro 25 millionis equal to Rs 186 crore. Indiawill pay Rs 186 crore more peraircraft,” Chidambaram said.

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

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

Continued on Page 4

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AWhatsapp chat of twowomen bureaucrats in

Shahdol district caused flutterin both political and bureau-cratic circles of MadhyaPradesh on Friday.

The chat screenshot wentviral in which the local collec-tor is asking the deputy collec-tor to work in favor of theBharatiya Janata Party duringjust concluded assembly polls.However one of the officersinvolved in the chat—deputycollector Puja Tiwari, has deniedany such conversation with thecollector claiming she haslodged an FIR with local policeurging them to initiate actionagainst those who prepared thisforged clip of the chat.

In the viral chat, Tiwarimessages the collector AnubhaSrivastava that the Congresscandidate Uma Dhurve wastaking lead in Jaitpur assemblyconstituency and the collectorreportedly responds to her say-ing she should ensure a BJP winif she wanted to take charge asSDM after the polls.

Tiwari who is serving onprobation cautiously agreesasking whether it could poseany trouble for her later towhich the collector respondsthat she need not be concernedas she was there to take care.Srivastava also promised hershe would be handed charge asSDM once BJP wins.

While talking to mediapersons, after an FIR againstunidentified persons was reg-istered, Tiwari claimed thatshe was posted as AssistantReturning Officer atJaisinghnagar and had no con-trol over what was happening atJaitpur. “We are also not allowedto keep mobile phones insidethe counting centre,” clarifiedthe officer saying she was busyin the counting of postal ballotsaround same time when thesaid chat had taken place.Declining to name anyone, theofficer termed this a conspira-cy against her and the districtcollector.

On the other hand, the col-lector however termed the viralchat mischievous act fromsomeone.

����� 4�5#��"6

The Election Commission(EC) may announce the

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

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

According to sources, the

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

The polling to elect thenew Assemblies in ArunachalPradesh, Andhra Pradesh,Odisha and Sikkim are likely totake place along with the par-liamentary elections. The stateassembly polls in J&K, which isnow under President’s Rulemay also be held with LokSabha polls in April-May.

Continued on Page 4

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On Thursday evening, in themidst of the wedding cer-

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In a similar incident lastNovember, a groom was shot at

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

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After inaugurating the three-day IAS Officers Meet,

Chief Minister Kamal Nathhere on Friday told the officersthat the implementation ofschemes as per the needs of theneedy is the need of the hourtoday.

Addressing the officers atthe Convention Centre, he fur-ther said that there is a big dif-ference between success andsatisfaction. The success ofobtaining a post is not thebasis for satisfaction.Satisfaction comes from suc-cessful results. Success can beretained till one holds a postwhereas satisfaction lasts for-ever.

Nath said that the entireworld looks up to India for itspowerful unity in diversity andnot for its economic or defencepower. Our biggest quality isour tolerance which has beenprevailing since the times ofChandragupta and Ashoka. Hesaid that we should all be proudthat we are citizens of a coun-try where there are diversereligions, castes, traditions andlanguages. There is no othercountry like India in the world.Our attire also changes with thegeographical changes. Ourdiversity is our strength. He saidthat its conservation is the

biggest challenge today.Nath said that the need of

the hour is to build a new-stateand country along with thechallenges of the rapidly chang-ing world. We have to be com-mitted and devoted for this. Hesaid that the expectations of thegeneral public have alsochanged along with the changesin the form of service. NATO'sappearance on the global levelhas changed. Movements suchas non-alignment are no longerdiscussed. He said the countryhas adopted these changes withexpertise. The challenge beforeus is how we see and acceptglobal changes? Nath said thattoday the biggest responsibili-ty before the officers is to take

the country-state forward alongwith the new changes. We mustthink on how to make changesand improvements in gover-nance. He said that the state’sfuture depends on this fact.

Nath said that the worldscenario is fast changing and weare changing accordingly. Hesaid that he had given his firstaddress in year 1992 at LalBahadur Shastri Academy ofAdministration, Mussoorie.About 6-7 years later he went tothe academy again and he gotto see a major change in the fac-ulty, trainees and subject mat-ter there. In the year 1992, noone would talk about topics liketechnique and informationtechnology in the Academy.

Chief Secretary SRMohanty told the officials willhave to change their outlook.Junior officers can benefit fromthe experiences of seniors.Administrative decisionsshould be taken at the districtlevel. Senior officials should alsoextend support in the decision-making of subordinate officersof the district. Mohanty said that today also the respon-sibility is the same but theresponse time has reduced.President of IAS AssociationGauri Singh said that the cul-tural activities, sports pro-grammes organized during themeet will be good for the offi-cers and their mutual brother-hood and understanding.

��,���������������������� �������+�-�����**���������� "3�*�

Acommittee has been con-stituted by the State

Government under the chair-manship of Additional ChiefSecretary, Public Relations MGopal Reddy to probe intothe activities of MakhanlalChatur vedi NationalUniversity of Journalism.Bhupinder Gupta, Officer onSpecial Duty, at ChiefMinister's Office andSandeep Dikshit ofVindhyachal Dairy GamGora, Bhopal have been mademembers. The committee willexamine various points andpresent the report within 15days.

The committee will probeinto the compliance ofrecruitment/reservation inthe appointments made inyear 2003 in the Universityand determine the account-ability if irregularities arefound.

The committee will exam-ine the changes made infavour of a specific ideologyin university courses and aca-demic system / content andwill probe for any bias doneto benefit any individual /group in the research projectsgiven by the University.

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Page 2:  · new Assemblies in Arunachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Sikkim are likely to ... a surgery to resume her wed-ding rituals. Pooja’s mother Joga Devi said, “Doctor advised

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Chief Minister Kamal Nathhas given instructions for

conducting an immediate cam-paign to stop illegal business ofnarcotics from nitravet toopium besides other intoxicat-ing substances and illegal saleof liquor.

After high level discus-sions with the Director Generalof Police, Kamal Nath saidthat action should also betaken against police officers onreceiving report about illegalsale in their areas.

Besides, Kamal Nath men-tioned that several familieshave fallen victims of nar-cotics. Several youth are ruin-ing their lives by falling victimsto narcotics. He said that ille-gal sale of narcotics and its con-sumption is also the reason forcrimes including rape.

Nath said that sale of nar-cotics should be stopped nearschools and colleges to saveyouth from this habit. Templesof education must be saved

from this illegal activity.Narcotics and intoxicants arereason behind several heinouscrimes. Chief Minister gavestrict instructions that personinvolved in trade of narcoticsshould not be spared. A strictaction should be taken againstthem so that they shouldremember it for years. Suchpersons have no place in theState. Stringent action will alsobe taken against people pro-tecting them, he added.

Besides, Nath also gaveinstructions for strict actionagainst gambling and sattadens besides goons linked withthese kinds of activities. Peopleinvolved in extortion andlinked with illegal activity forpressurising people to vacatetheir houses should not bespared at all. Their illegal busi-ness and activities must bedestroyed.

The Chief Ministers men-tioned that we wish to make theState an island of peace. Wewish to free the State fromcrimes. Big and influential per-

son linked with the sale of ille-gal narcotics and intoxicatingsubstances will not be spared,he added.

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The Gwalior Traffic Policeare all set to involve the

public in solving the trafficproblems in the city and bringsome sense of order and con-trol to the present chaotic traf-fic system.

The Smart City authoritieshave been finding it tough toresolve the traffic related prob-lems in the city. One of themain causes of worry for theauthorities has been theabsence of any secondary roadsystem resulting in the unevendistribution of traffic over largeareas, and the overflow of localtraffic on to arterial roads,creating congestion.

Another big worry is theencroachment on the narrowroads and pavements, resultingin hours long clogging. Thereare also poorly planned junc-tions on major roads that causeregular traffic jams holdingup traffic over long distances.

According to sources, theTraffic Police and the SmartCity authorities will hold dis-cussions with the public atvarious points, soliciting sug-gestions and plans to solvethese issues. These suggestionsand plans will be sent to thePolice Headquarters in Bhopalfor taking the final call.

In this connection, ThePolice Head Quarters have

asked the city police to createmore awareness among thepublic about the various trafficrelated issues like wearing ofhelmets and seat belts, andobserving the signal lights.

The City Police have alsobeen told to issue e-challans inplace of on-the-spot physicalones so as to create more trans-parency in the system. ThePHQ has also issued instruc-tions to implement the SmartCard system which is expect-ed to save a lot of time andenergy for all concerned. Theyhave also asked the city policeto collect the data of drivers ofall public transport.

Speaking to the media per-sons, Navneet Bhasin, GwaliorSP said that talks will be sooninitiated with the public tofind ways to solve the trafficworries of the city. He alsoappealed to the citizens tomake this endeavor a success.

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The players of MadhyaPradesh exhibited a bril-

liant performance at IndiaYouth Games. The players havewon two gold medals in theIndia Youth Games in Tennisand Boxing games.

The first medal was won byMadhya Pradesh Tennis play-er Mehak Jain and the secondgold medal was won by boxingplayer Ruchir Shrivastav.

It is to be noted that theplayer of Madhya Pradesh StateMartial Arts Boxing Academy,Ruchir Shrivastava defeatedUttar Pradesh junior nationalchampion Manish Rathore by3-2 points. Ruchir defeated

Manish while showcasing tal-ent in the semi-final match ofthe boxing match played atIndia Youth Games and wonthe gold medal for MadhyaPradesh. Besides, in the finals,Ruchir Shrivastava defeatedHaryana's Anshul by 3-2points.

Besides, Boxing Academy'splayer Divya Pawar and AnjaliSharma made their place in thefinal by winning their semi-finals in Under-21 today. DivyaPawar defeated Chhattisgarhplayer Rajbala by 3-2 points.On the other hand AnjaliSharma defeated Maharashtra'splayer Gauri by 5-0 points.

Similarly, in the final of theIndia Youth Games played

here, Mehak Jain honoredMadhya Pradesh by defeatingMaharashtra player MahikaYadav 6-4 points, 6-1 to win thegold medal and made MadhyaPradesh proud.

Director Sports and YouthWelfare S.L. Thoussen encour-aged the players by giving

them grace and congratulatedthe players for their outstand-ing performance in the cham-pionship. Director Sports andYouth Welfare SL Thoussencongratulated Ruchir andMehak’s brilliant performancein the championship andbrought laurels to the State.

���**���������� "3�*�

Adelegation of Rashtriya IsaiMaha Sangh (RIMS)

members lead by Fr AnandMuttungal met the LawMinister PC Sharma at hisresidence on Thursday.

Fr Muttugnal said theMinister has agreed to with-draw the false cases of conver-sion slapped against Christians.We briefed him that theBharatiya Janatha Party ledGovernment in MadhyaPradesh has persecutedChristians in the name of con-version to take revenge becausethey believe that Christiansare supporters of the CongressParty.

He said even though manycases have been registered, noteven one incident has beenproved in the court of law. TheBJP and other fundamentalorganisations believe thatChristians and all those whobenefit from the works of theChristians too will support theCongress Party. So, they usedall means to stop Christianworks in the State.”

RIMS’ spokespersonRichard James said there have-been about 264 cases in MadyaPradesh during the long 15years of rule in the State. Thefundamental organisation,supporting the BJP, has takenhelp from the police andadministration to persecuteChristians working in the fieldsof social work, education andreligious activities. They haveused power to defameChristians and stop the worksdone for the poor.

State Secretary in charge ofRIMS Office Mohit Ratre said,“We are writing letters to all thevictims, office bearers of RIMSand in-charges of variousChurches to help the victims toavail the benefits of theGovernment.”

���**���������� "3�*�

Executive Director of Bankof India AK Das said that

the Central Government haslaunched a website called 59minutes, in which the small,micro and medium enter-prises have been given thefacility to apply from homeitself.

Das was addressing anevent organised in Bhopal onFriday. Das said that as smallas the development of theindustry, the young will getjobs. Das told that all bankshave been added to this website and applicants can choosethe bank on their own.

The 100 day event of pro-gramme by the CentralGovernment is being con-ducted in 104 districts. Bank ofIndia is working as a leadingbank in Bhopal district andwith the help of various banksand district business center,Mega Camp was organised inBhopal on Friday, this is thefourth Mega Camp in thesame series. In addition, 5other camps have been organ-ised by the Bank of India in thedistrict.

During the camp, 283applications were received forthe Prime Minister's SecurityInsurance Scheme and 118applications were receivedunder Prime Minister JeevanJyoti Bima Yojna. 107 benefi-ciaries of the mudra scheme,28 beneficiaries of PSB Lone In

59 minutes and 14 beneficia-ries of SMEs were sanctionedloan on this occasion.

Over 400 participantsattended the program.Information about the pro-gramme was given by ShailendraShrivastav, District Manager,Bhopal, General Manager, Bank

of India, NBG Central AK Jain,Zonal Manager, Bank of IndiaBhopal Zone Biswajit Mishra,Assistant General Manager KBLal and Vinay Singh, GeneralManager of IDBI Bank Revdekargave information about variousschemes launched byGovernment of India.

���**���������� "3�*�

Fuelled with old enmity a 24-year-old youth was attacked

by four miscreants with sharp-edged weapons and woodensticks at Bhainskhedi underGunga police station policestation area on Wednesdayevening.

Police said that a youth wasrushed to hospital after he wasattacked by four armed mis-creant at farms in Bhainskhedi.The injured was identified asSumer Vishwakarma who wasattacked by his uncle andcousins with sharp edgedweapons and wooden sticks.

In the initial investigation,the victims were identified asNeeraj his father Narayan,Santosh and Sanjay. Neeraj isvictim’s cousin. Neeraj andNarayan attacked victim withsharp edged weapon in victim’shead.

In his complaint, the victimtold the police that he wascrossing his farm and Neerajstarted a verbal spat and whenhe opposed Neeraj, Narayan,Santosh and Sanjay attackedwith sharp edged weapons andescaped the spot.

Based on the complaintafter the preliminary investi-gation, the police have regis-tered a case under section 307of the IPC. Police found thatthe dispute was due to bound-aries of the farm and pathbetween their farms which wascommon to reach farms.

The victim is undergoingtreatment at Shri Sai hospitaland is under observation.Search has been intensified forthe absconding accused whoare still at large.

Police have increaseddeployment of police person-nel and as the victim’s friendsand family would try to settlescore with the accused andtheir family members. The vic-tim and accused are farmersand have old dispute overfarms.

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Valuables worth �90,000were burgled from Old

Minal Homes under AyodhyaNagar police station area onThursday.

According to the police,the victim A Thomas hadgone to Kerala in the monthof December and when shereturned on Wednesday, shefound that valuables wereburgled and on Thursday, acomplaint was lodged with theAyodhya police.

In her complaint, victimstated that she had gone toKerala in the month ofDecember and few days agoshe received information thather house was targeted bymiscreants.

After her return shechecked the burgled valuablesand found that electronicgoods and around gold jewel-ry worth �90,000 were bur-gled.

Based on the complaintafter the preliminary investi-gation the police have regis-tered a case under section 457and 380 of the IPC and havestarted further investigation.

Police said that the neigh-bors have expressed igno-rance over burglary while thedomestic help and securityguard would be quizzed in theinvestigation.

The victim is retired nurseand was deployed at Hamidiahospital.

Meanwhile valuablesworth �60,000 were burgledfrom Kalpana Nagar underPiplani police station area onThursday.

The victim, Anup Singh,had gone for work onThursday and when hereturned after work the lockwas found broken and onentering the house valuableswere found burgled.

The total loss was around�60,000 including �25,000cash claimed the victim.

The police have registereda case under sections 457 and380 of the IPC and started fur-ther investigation.

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Acollection of new Hindibooks will be released in

Swami Vivekananda Libraryon Sunday. There will be acollection of 50 books onMega Hindi CollectionLibrary.

Library Manager YatishBhatele said that this collec-tion includes Hindi transla-tion books by, Paulo Coelhoand Arundhati Roy and otherauthors have been included.

Some of the books includeGod of the ordinary things byArundhati Roy, Adulti byPaulo Coehlo, It is the night ofthe world, by Pankaj Raga,Zindagi by Krishna Sobati,Saying truth, Sun ocean of SunValley by Shrilal Shukla,Chirag by Mirza Ghalib,Pattariaa by Bhishma Sahni,Popular stories of byKamleshwar, Sarfaroshi KiTamannaa by Kuldeep Nair,Paki Nagme by Gulzar, MereBaad by Rahat Indori, KathaChanakya by RadhakrishnanPillai and more.

Yatish Bhatele said thatmost of the books in this col-lection are translated books inHindi. The library launches 4 to5 collections every month in thelibrary, he added. Yatish Bhatalesaid that most of the books inthis collection include Hindi lit-erature, biography, fiction andnon-fiction.

Collections such as MovieDVD Collections, EnglishBooks Collections, NewMagazine Collection, NewHindi Books Collections,Children Books Collection areincluded in the Library fromtime to time.

In the same way, the librarytakes suggestions from mem-bers for books, DVDs, maga-zines that have to be includedin next collection.

Yatish Bhatele said thatevery month Hindi books arebeing added to the collectionlibrary.

He also said that everySunday anew collection islaunched.

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Minister for Public Healthand Family Welfare

Tulsiram Silawat gave instruc-tions for action against onedoctor and four medical staff ofJP Hospital for negligence. Hesaid that if need arises, thenstrong action will also be takento improve arrangements of thehospital.

Silawat further mentionedthat improvement must come inthe arrangements at all the dis-trict hospitals and health centresof the state. A strong action willbe taken for negligence againstwhoever it is, on whichever posthe/she holds. Silawat visited JPhospital on Friday to take stockof health facilities and arrange-ments at the hospital.

Silawat talked directly withpatients present at the hospital.Rekha Soni of Bhim Nagarinformed that she could not meetdoctor despite her several visitsto her chamber. After hearingthis, Silawat gave instructions tothe civil surgeon to issue showcause notice to the Dr KaminiShrivastava. Praveen Jain com-plained that doctor has writtenfour kinds of medicine in theprescription but he has only

received one medicine from themedicine distribution centre andhas been told that the remaining3 medicines are unavailable at thecentre.

Silawat inspected the med-icine distribution centre. It wasfound during the inspectionthat out of the four medicinestwo were given to Praveen Jainand one substitute medicine ofdifferent name was given inplace of third medicine. Silawatwhile enquiring about the phar-macist at the centre instructedthat warning should be issued toBK Kushwaha.

Besides, instructions weregiven to issue notice and imme-diate removal of the store in-charge Mahendra Tandekar forunavailability of 74 types formedicines at the store and for notsending demand on time. Silawatgave instructions to arrange forall types of medicine at thestore.

Besides, Silawat enquiredabout the health services fromthe patients admitted in theward. Expressing unhappinessover the dirty bed sheet found infemale ward, Silawat instructedfor removal of in-charge sister BBala from the ward and froissuance of show cause notice. Heinstructed that bed sheets in the

ward should be changed dailyand blanket should be given topatients after dry cleaning.

Besides, Silawat also con-ducted inspection of registrationcounter at the hospital. Severalpatients told him that they haveto stand in queue for at least 2hours for registration. On hear-ing this, Silawat said that num-ber of registration countersshould be increased. He also tookstock of drinking waterarrangement at the hospital. Hegave instructions for regularcleaning of all the water tanksand ensure that water coolers arefunctional. He also saw stretch-ers and wheel chairs at the hos-pital and said that patients shouldbe taken on stretchers by hos-pital employees, in case of neg-ligence action will be taken, headded.

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Page 3:  · new Assemblies in Arunachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Sikkim are likely to ... a surgery to resume her wed-ding rituals. Pooja’s mother Joga Devi said, “Doctor advised

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Chief Minister Kamal Nathwill hoist the national flag

on Republic Day on January 26at Chhindwara district head-quarters and will address thegeneral public. Nath will alsotake the salute of the parade.The state government has fixedand allotted districts to theministers for hoisting thenational flag at various districtheadquarters of the state andfor the district-level RepublicDay ceremony. MadhyaPradesh Assembly SpeakerNarmada Prasad Prajapati willhoist the flag in Narsinghpurand Madhya Pradesh AssemblyDeputy Speaker Hina LikhiramKanwre in Balaghat.

As per the order releasedby the Department of GeneralAdministration, MinisterVijailaxmi Sadho will hoistflag at Khargone districtheadquarter, Sajjan SinghVerma in Dewas, HukumSingh Karada in Shajapur,Govind Singh in Bhind, BalaBachchan in Badwani, ArifAqueel in Sehore, BrijendraSingh Rathore in Tikamgarh,Pradeep Jaiswal in Seoni,Lakhan Singh Yadav Morena,Tulsiram Silawat in Khandwa,Govind Singh Rajput inSagar, Imarti Devi in Gwalior,Omkar Singh Markam inDindori , PrabhuramChoudhur y in R aisen,Priyavrat Singh in Rajgarh,Sukhdev Panse in Betul,Umang Singhar in Dhar,Harsh Yadav in Vidisha,

Jaivardhan Singh in Guna,Jitu Patwari in Indore,Kamleshwar Patel in Sidhi,Lakhan Ghanghoria inJabalpur, Mahendra SinghSisodia in Ashoknagar, PCSharma in Hoshangabad,Pradyumna Singh Tomar inShivpuri, Sachin SubhashYadav in Ratlam, SurendraSingh Honey Baghel inJhabua and Tarun Bhanot inMandla district headquar-ters.

The 20 district head-quarters where the districtcollectors will hoist thenational flag are Sheopur,Datia , Aagar-Malwa,Mandsaur, Neemuch,Alirajpur, Burhanpur, Harda,Damoh, Panna, Chhatarpur,Katni , Rewa, Shahdol,Anuppur, Ujjain, Umaria,Singrauli, Satna and Niwadi.

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A10-year-old girl and 35-year-old woman died

while six persons of a familywere injured after their carrammed into road divider at 11Mile area under Misrod policestation area late in the night onThursday; victims were ontheir way to Nasrullahganjafter attending marriage.

Police said that eight per-sons including women andgirl were rushed to nearbyhospital where a girl and awoman were declared deadwhile six others were admit-ted for treatment at JPHospita l . The doctorsclaimed that the two died onthe spot due to the impact ofthe accident which provedfatal for the two.

The deceased were iden-tified as Neha Pawar (10) andSurekha Pawar (35) whileSurekha’s husband Santosh,her son Sonu, his parents andniece Neha.

The statements of theescaped injured persons areyet to be recorded as they arenot in a condition to record

statement.After the preliminary

investigation the bodies weresent to the postmortem. Thepolice have registered a caseunder section 174 of theCrPC and started furtherinvestigation.

During the investigationif it would be found that thedeaths are caused due tonegligence by the driver dri-ving the speed at very high

speed a case under section304 A of the IPC would beregistered.

The initial investigationsuggests that the car wasmoving over 100 km/pr anddriver failed to spot thechange in the road andrammed and turned turtle.

After attending the mar-riage family members wereon their way back but metaccident.

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Aplay based on theBundelkhand folktale

Karni Bharni’, was staged atMadhya Pradesh State TribalMuseum on Friday. The playwas all about a saying ‘WhatYou Sow, So Shall You Reap.’

Scripted, directed and con-ceptualised by RajkumarRaiekwar and the play is pre-sented in Swang style ofBundelkhand by Rang PrayogTheatre Group, Sagar.

It narrates a story of twofamilies Panna-Phullo andLambardar-Kallo who live in avillage. Panna and his wifePhullo belong to poor familywho has a buffalo, Gori. Theylook after gori very well so thatshe used to give milk 10 litresin morning and evening dailyand she becomes very popularin village.

On other hand, there isanother family of Lambardarand (Zamindar) and his wifeKallo who has 10 buffaloes butdon’t give so much milk likeGori. Even they left their buf-faloes under their servants. Sothey are unable to digest thepopularity of Guari. AlsoLambardar has to bear thetaunts of Kallo due to Gori.

So, one day, Lambardar

kills gori to become annoyfrom his wife taunts. Panna andhis wife Phullo break down tosee the death body of Gori.After that they decide to sell theskin of Gori in market. Pannagoes market to sell but heunable. So, he thinks to returnhome. But he got late in return-ing spends night on tree in for-est. Suddenly some robberscome and left their booty there.When Lambardar came toknow that Panna got lot ofmoney in exchange of the dead

skin of his buffalo then he killhis all buffaloes in greed ofmoney. Later, Lambardarrepents on his foolishness.

The play begins and endswith Rai dance ofBundlekhand. In between nar-rator narrates the story. Algoza(a kind of flute), mridang,mridangiya, dholak, manjeera,jhula were used as musicalinstruments that created tune-ful folk music of Bundelkhandand added the special charm inplay.

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The company is all set tolaunch the much-awaited

SP2i in 2019 with an aim to beamongst the top 5 automak-ers in India within three yearsKia is planning to expand itsportfolio to at least 5 vehiclesby 2021 said Manohar Bhat,Head - Sales and Marketing,Kia Motors India while inter-acting with media personsduring a press conference inthe state capital on Friday.

He said that staying trueto the company's global com-mitment of ‘The Power toSurprise’, Kia plans to provideexperiences that go beyondexpectations.

The brand is deeply focus-ing on future mobility, design,product and capacity along

with world-class vehicle main-tenance and repair servicesfacilities to create strong foun-dations in the country byproviding the best car owner-ship experience to Indian cus-tomers.

Kia SP2i would belaunched in India during sec-ond half of 2019 and will beequipped with power-packedperformance and world-classquality. Anantapur plant isnearly ready with annualinstalled capacity of produc-ing over 300,000 vehicles,while creating more than3,000 direct jobs in the region.

The upcoming car SP2i isbeing manufactured in the

company’s Anantapur plantwil l rol l out aroundSeptember 2019.

The car truly fits into the‘Make in India’ segment andcombines everything Indiancustomers desire in a carpromising state-of-the-arttechnology with a sporty, styl-ish design.

Kia Motors Corporationwould launch 16 electric vehi-cles by 2025 and make theplanet greener and cleaner forthe generations to come.

Kia has been a global cus-todian of sports partneringvarious global sporting eventssuch as FIFA World Cup andAustralian Open.

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Minister Harsh YadavFriday said the BJP

should stop daydreamingabout returning to power inthe state and claimed theCongress-led governmentwould complete its five-year

tenure and also get re-elected.The Madhya Pradesh New

and Renewable EnergyMinister was talking toreporters in Datia after pray-ing at the Peetambara Peethahere, a popular Baglamukhitemple established in the1920s.

"The BJP should stop day-dreaming. The MadhyaPradesh chief minister (KamalNath) is a management guruand the Congress governmentin the state will last for 10years," Yadav said, claiming,“Many BJP MLAs were in con-tact with us and they en masseare going to join the Congress.”

Yadav's statement comes aday after BJP MLA GopalBhargava, the Leader ofOpposition in the MPAssembly, had Thursday saidthe state government wouldcollapse after general elections

slated for this year.Bhargava, speaking in

Damoh, had said, "ThisCongress government will fallown its own three monthsafter the Lok Sabha elections.It has kidneys and other vitalbody parts of different parties,which can't gel."

Last week, BJP generalsecretary Kailash Vijayvargiyahad also claimed that the MPCongress government wasrunning at the mercy of hisparty. A mere sneeze of the saf-fron party's central leadershipcould bring it back to power inthe state, he had claimed.

In the 230-member MPAssembly, the Congress has114 MLAs against the BJP's109. The Kamal Nath govern-ment has the support of fourIndependents, two BSP legis-lators and one Samajwadi PartyMLA.

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Page 4:  · new Assemblies in Arunachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Sikkim are likely to ... a surgery to resume her wed-ding rituals. Pooja’s mother Joga Devi said, “Doctor advised

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Chandigarh: The 20-year-oldson of dismissed BSF constableTej Bahadur Yadav was founddead at his home in Haryana'sRewari district, police said onFriday.

Rohit Yadav was founddead with bullet injuries on histemple at his home in MadhuVihar locality on Thursday,they said.

His father Tej BahadurYadav, who was dismissed fromthe force after he posted a videoonline complaining about poorquality food being served to the

troops in 2017, had gone toKumbh mela in Uttar Pradesh,police said.

His mother was also not athome when the incident tookplace, they added.

Police said as per the state-ment of Tej Bahadur Yadav, hehad hidden his licensedweapon in the house but hisson somehow traced it out.

The bullet probably gotfired when his only son was fid-dling with the pistol, they saidquoting the statement of thefather, who returned homeFriday morning.

His body was lying in apool of blood with his father'slicensed pistol in his hand,said a police official of RewariModel Town police station.

Police said inquest pro-ceedings under section 174 ofthe Code of CriminalProcedure have been initiatedin the case.

Tej Bahadur Yadav hadposted the video online com-plaining about poor qualityfood being served to the troopson icy heights along the line ofcontrol in Jammu and Kashmir.He was later dismissed oncharges of indiscipline. PTI

Jodhpur: Thirty-five-year-old socialactivist Shipra Sharma had called hermother to inform that she "safelyarrived" in Kabul soon after landing inthe strife-torn country on Monday.

Minutes later, Sharma was killed ina terror attack when the buildingwhere she was staying collapsed afterbeing hit by an RDX-laden truck onJanuary 14.

Her relatives fondly recalled her lastphone call to her mother as they con-signed her mortal remains to flames inJodhpur on Friday.

After much efforts from theGovernment, her body was brought toIndia in an Indian Airline flight onFriday afternoon.

"It was difficult for all of us to bearwith this tragic truth, that it was sameShipra sleeping for eternity, who hadleft home barely a week ago after cel-ebrating New Year with the family," saidher maternal uncle Raj Kumar Sharma.

"We all had concerns over her join-ing Afghanistan Institute for CivilSociety (AICS), an NGO, but she dis-missed our concerns saying 'why to fearbombs and explosions. Death candescend anywhere," Raj Kumar Sharmasaid.

Her mother was dead against herdecision but she always wanted to dosomething different, which hardlyanybody could dare to, he added.

Shipra had joined AICS barely

three months ago in October and wasworking as the Director (Certification)in Kabul, responsible for rehabilitationof terror attack victims in Afghanistan.

The building she was staying in hascollapsed, the family was informed bythe Indian embassy hours after she hadleft her home here to get on with herprofessional responsibilities in Kabul,Nagendra Sharma, a family friend, toldPTI. Having worked with four NGOsin Mumbai and Jodhpur, she kept seek-ing satisfaction with her job profileswhich came in when she decided toreturn to Jodhpur with her son in early2018. That's when the offer fromAfghanistan came and she readilyagreed, her uncle told PTI. PTI

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Shillong: Family members of atleast five of the 15 peopletrapped inside a coal mine inMeghalaya failed to identify thedecomposed body of a victim onFriday from the videos record-ed underwater, officials said.

Navy divers detected thebody using an unmannedremotely-operated vehicle(ROV) at a depth of around 160feet inside the main shaft onWednesday.

Though the ROV hadpulled the body to half way, doc-tors at the site advised not to pullit further fearing disintegrationof the body parts before itcould be identified, they said.

Operation spokesperson RSusngi told PTI that the fami-ly members of five of thosetrapped could not identify thevictim.

They were shown videoscaptured by the ROV inside theman-sized horizontal holes --often referred to as rat-holes -- used by the miners to take outcoal from inside the mine.

Of the five families, threewere from the Lumthari villagenear the mine in East JaintiaHills district, while the two oth-ers are from Assam's Chirangdistrict.

The family members ofother trapped miners hailingfrom West Garo Hills districtare yet to arrive at the site andthe district authorities are wait-ing for them in case they couldidentify the body, he said.

Pumping from the nearbyabandoned mines continuedon Friday as the operation torescue the trapped minersentered the 37th day. PTI

Kolkata: Former ArunachalPradesh Chief Minister GegongApang, who quit the BJP aftera four-year association earlierthis week, on Friday said he willform a new political party.

Asserting that he will notjoin any other party, Apangsaid, "I will float a new party."

The 69-year-old leaderarrived here to attendSaturday's mega Oppositionrally at the invitation of WestBengal Chief Minister andTrinamool Congress supremoMamata Banerjee.

He praised Banerjee as a'great leader' and expressedsupport for her initiative todefeat the Narendra ModiGovernment at the Centre.

Apang has been the chiefminister of Arunachal Pradeshfor 22 years in two stints —from January 1980 to January1999 and again from August2003 to April 2007. PTI

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Kolkata: The stage is set forWest Bengal Chief Ministerand Trinamool Congress supre-mo Mamata Banerjee's megaOpposition rally against theNarendra Modi Government.

More than 20 national lead-ers, including former PrimeMinister H D Deve Gowda, for-mer Union Ministers YashwantSinha, Shatrughan Sinha andArun Shourie; three presentChief Ministers ArvindKejriwal, Chandrababu Naiduand H D Kumaraswamy; andformer Chief Ministers FarooqAbdullah, Omar Abdullah,Akhilesh Yadav and GegongApang will attend the meeting,TMC sources said. Most ofthem have already arrived inthe city.

"I have met Deve Gowda-ji, Hemant-ji (Hemant Soren ofJharkhand Mukti Morcha) andAkhilesh Yadav. I will meetother Opposition leaders too,"Banerjee told reporters.

With Bharatiya JanataParty's recent defeats in theHindi heartland states ofRajasthan, Madhya Pradeshand Chhattisgarh, Banerjee has

raised the pitch to be unitedagainst the saffron party in the2019 general election.

Bahujan Samaj Party gen-eral secretary Satish ChandraMishra, Nationalist CongressParty supremo Sharad Pawar,Samajwadi Party supremoAkhilesh Yadav, NationalConference president FarooqAbdullah, too, have alreadyarrived. The other leaders willeither arrive on Friday night orby Saturday morning, thesources said.

Large scale preparationshave been made to ensure thatit is a complete success. Besidesthe huge stages, 20 watch tow-ers have been erected and 1,000microphones and 30 LEDscreens put up so that the spec-tators can see and hear thespeeches of the leaders clearly.

Lakhs of TMC supportersand workers are expected toattend the rally and huge num-bers of them from various cor-ners of the State have alreadystarted pouring into the city.They have been put up in theoutskirts of the city and in someauditoriums and stadiums. PTI

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Mumbai: A 54-year-old woman allegedlytried to commit suicide by setting herself onfire outside the Maharashtra secretariat hereon Friday, police said.

According to police, she took the stepdue to debt burden.

"The woman, Sharda Kamble, a residentof Chembur, tried to set herself ablaze. Butthe police personnel, who were posted onduty there, stopped her from doing so," apolice official said.

"She claimed that she tried to end herlife due to debts," the official said adding thatthey were verifying her claims. Furtherinvestigation is on. PTI

Malegaon (Maha): Three farm-ers allegedly committed suicidein separate incidents hereapparently due to crop failureand mounting loan burden,police said on Friday.

The cultivators hailed fromMalegaon taluka of Nashik dis-trict in North Maharashtra.

One of them, DnyaneshwarShivnakar, consumed poisonwhile sitting on a heap of hisperished onions at around 9.30am Friday, they said.

The 35-year-old, whohailed from village Kandhane,was frustrated due to crop fail-ure caused by inadequate rainssince the past three years, thepolice said, adding he hadtaken a loan of �3 lakh.

In the second incident atvillage Nandgaon-budruk, 23-year-old farmer Chetan KedaBachhav hanged himself in hisfarm house on Friday, the policesaid.

He had taken loans of �5.65lakh from private finance com-panies, the police added.

In the third incident,culti-vator Vasant Sonawane con-sumed some poisonous sub-stance on Thursday and died ina hosptial on Friday, they said.

The 45-year-old agricul-turist had a debt of �1 lakh, thepolice added. PTI

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From Page 1He said the cost of these

enhancements has been recovered byDassault in 36 aircraft and the sameshould have been recovered by it for126 aircraft instead.

“That is a windfall for Dassault.That is the gift that the NDAGovernment has given to Dassaultand that is why I said Dassault islaughing all the way to thebank....The windfall to Dassault wasa deliberate decision of NDA gov-ernment and is highly questionable,”he said.

“The increased price per aircraftis a gift to Dassault that the NDAGovernment gave between April2015 and August 2016,” he also said.

Chidambaram earlier said in thelight of new facts and revelations,“the question gains greater urgency:why did the government buy only 36Rafale aircraft instead of 126 aircraftrequired by the Air Force?

Chidambaram took to Twitterand said serious issues are beingraised in media reports about theprocess of decision-making in theNDA Government and alleged that“the man who got away was MrManohar Parrikar who passed thebuck to the Cabinet Committee onSecurity. Clever man.”

Meanwhile, the DefenceMinistry on Friday said the deal forpurchase of 36 Rafale fighter jets in

2016 achieved the objectives of bet-ter price, better delivery period andbetter terms compared to the earli-er proposal. Making this assertion,the Ministry said Defence MinisterNirmala Sitharaman had answeredin detail about all issues related to thecontract in an open debate inParliament in the recently conclud-ed winter session.

In a statement, the Ministry saidpricing details, which are of confi-dential nature and covered by theIndo-French security agreement of2008, were shared with the SupremeCourt in a sealed cover. The SupremeCourt has gone through the detailsof pricing and commercial advan-tage. The Court has not found any-thing adverse in the deal and hasrefused to order an investigation.Moreover, the Comptroller andAuditor General (CAG) has beengiven access to all the files related toRafale deal. It is best to await thereport of an authoritative agency likethe CAG, it said.

As regards questions raisedabout India Specific Enhancements(ISE) for the Rafale jets and allega-tions that the NDA Governmentpaid 41 per cent more than dealbeing negotiated by the erstwhileUPA Government, the ministry saidthese enhancements were part of therequirements of the Indian AirForce to achieve tactical superiori-ty over our adversaries.

Also these ISE were part of the2007 bid and continued to be partof the 2016 deal. The cost of the IndiaSpecific Enhancements was on a

fixed basis in the 2007 bid which wasnegotiated down in the 2016 deal.However, to compare the cost for thenow scrapped Medium Multi-roleCombat Aircraft (MMRCA) con-tract which never materialized withthe cost of the 36 aircraft procuredin 2016 is fallacious, the statementsaid.

Allegations about the price ofISE as 1.4 billion Euro in 2007 hasfailed to include the in-built escala-tion factor that would have workedbetween 2007 and 2015. Moreover,comparisons were made betweenun-escalated price of 2007 with theprice of 2016 without considering theescalation factors inherent in theprice bid, it said.

The statement said the changefrom a firm and fixed price to a flex-ible rate was possible only becausethe deal was structured under anInter Governmental Agreement withFrance.

This factor is expected to lead toa substantial commercial advan-tage over the delivery period of 36Rafale aircraft, it added.

On the issue of dissent withinthe Indian negotiation team whilefinalising the 36 Rafale jet deal, thestatement said it was answered bySitharaman in Parliament. In thehighest traditions of the Civil Service,all views are aired and recorded anda collegiate decision taken afterconsidering such opinions.

Decisions on the deal weretaken after due process of inter-min-isterial consultation, the ministrysaid.

From Page 1The immensity of the rally

could be gauged from the 100-feetlong stage and four other mini-stages to accommodate other dig-nitaries. In a symbolic statementthe ambience of the rally groundis being kept “absolutely party-neutral and federal,” a seniorTrinamool Congress leader saidadding the backdrop of the 100-feet stage will show a huge cutoutof India with no picture of anyleader and not even MamataBanerjee gracing it.

According to past records, theBrigade Parade Ground has amaximum capacity of 12-14 lakhs.If the crowd surpasses that figure“which we expect it to do then theprocessions will be stopped mid-way, sources said adding “forthose who would not be able tocome to the ground will be ableto watch the leaders speak ongiant screens fixed at about 20points across the city.

From Page 1The Assembly in J&K was

dissolved in November, 2018and the upper limit ends in May.In normal circumstances, theJ&K Assembly’s six-year termwas to end on March 16, 2021.The other State Assemblies andthe Lok Sabha have a five-yearterm. The State Assembly elec-tions in Maha and Haryana arescheduled to be held later thisyear. While the term of theSikkim Assembly ends on May27, 2019, the terms of AndhraPradesh, Odisha and APAssemblies end on June 18, June11 and June 1 respectively.

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Mumbai: As many as 7,000persons, mostly graduates, hadapplied for 13 vacant posts ofcanteen waiters in Mantralaya,the Maharashtra secretariat,an official said on Friday.

The Government officialsaid a 100-mark written examwas recently conducted for theposts, for which educationalqualification required was hav-ing passed Class IV.

"The exam formalities gotcompleted on December 31 andcurrently the joining process ison. Out of the 13 selected appli-cants, eight are men and the restwomen. Two-three people areyet to submit their documentsand officially join," he said.

He further said of theselected persons, 12 are grad-uates and one has passed Class12, adding that the maximum

applicants for the 13 postswere graduates and those whohad cleared Class 12.

He informed that the agegroup of selected applicantswas between 25-27 years.

Slamming the StateGovernment over the inductionof graduates as waiters in theMantralaya canteen, Leader ofOpposition in the LegislativeCouncil Dhananjay Munde saidMinisters and secretaries shouldbe ashamed of taking the ser-vices of educated individuals.

"Seven thousand applicantsfor merely 13 posts is a blatantexample of the employmentconditions in the country andMaharashtra. It is unfortunategraduates were selected for theposts when the eligibility cri-teria was Class 4 pass," the NCPleader said. PTI

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After Bihar andMaharashtra, Congress

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

The anti-BJP alliance inthe State has also agreed toproject JMM working presi-dent Hemant Soren as the CMcandidate for the StateAssembly polls later this year.

Of the 14 seats inJharkhand, JMM will contestin four seats, according tosources. One seat - eitherPalamu or Chatra - will go toRJD. JVM will be contesting intwo seats and CPI will contestfrom Hazaribagh, a seat heldby Union Minister JayantSinha. Congress will field itscandidates on the remainingseats.

The BJP won 12 of the 14seats in Jharkhand in the last

Lok Sabha elections. Theremaining two were won bythe JMM. The Congress whichcontested in nine seats inalliance with the JMM lost inall nine.

As a pre-condition for atie-up in Lok Sabha elections,the JMM has been insisting onprojection of Soren as thechief ministerial candidate forthe Assembly polls. Thedemand seems to have beenmet by the alliance partners.

The ties between the JMMand the Congress had souredlast month when the formersupported an Independentcandidate in the Koleberabypolls to the State Assembly.The Congress, however, man-aged to win the seat defeatingthe BJP by more than 10,000votes. Congress presidentRahul Gandhi had earlier saidwe will contest the StateAssembly elections underSoren’s leadership and it wasreiterated in the meeting,”Jharkhand Congress presidentAjay Kumar said after a meet-ing of Opposition parties inRanchi on Thursday.

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Against the backdrop ofstrong protests over the

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

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

The controversial Bill waspassed in the Lok Sabha onJanuary 8.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Citizenship(Amendment) Bill, 2016, pro-

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

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

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The EnforcementDirectorate (ED) has issued

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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In a move to identify eligiblepeople who are left out under

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

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

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

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

Puri also announced thatthe ‘Shehri Samridhi Utsav’,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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It is not only India but evenseveral countries across the

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

care system, remain wanting. Dengue is yet another

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

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

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

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The Indian Space ResearchOrganisation will select

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

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

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

The programme will befunded entirely by ISRO, hesaid.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The state has witnessedviolent protests over the issue.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Page 6:  · new Assemblies in Arunachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Sikkim are likely to ... a surgery to resume her wed-ding rituals. Pooja’s mother Joga Devi said, “Doctor advised

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sameer BhoiBargarh

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

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

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

the path of self-destruction.Devendra Khurana

Bhopal

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

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

Kirti WadhawanKanpur

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

Jubel D’CruzMumbai

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Page 7:  · new Assemblies in Arunachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Sikkim are likely to ... a surgery to resume her wed-ding rituals. Pooja’s mother Joga Devi said, “Doctor advised

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

between Mohajir and Sindhi youthelsewhere in Sindh.

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

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

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

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

(Courtesy: Dawn)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Nevertheless, the Partition added

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Page 8:  · new Assemblies in Arunachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Sikkim are likely to ... a surgery to resume her wed-ding rituals. Pooja’s mother Joga Devi said, “Doctor advised

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Militants lobbed threegrenades on police and

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

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

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

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

exploded outside the camp anddid not cause any damage.

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

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

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

ital Srinagar.Security experts said that

militants usually up the anteahead of Republic Day inKashmir.

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

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

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

The BRO pressed into ser-

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Singh, however, maintained that his

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

KPCC campaign committeechief.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Under severe criticism from theOpposition and other quarters

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Page 9:  · new Assemblies in Arunachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Sikkim are likely to ... a surgery to resume her wed-ding rituals. Pooja’s mother Joga Devi said, “Doctor advised

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The DMK, which demandedearlier this month that the

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

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

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

when the High Court Registrylists the matter before them foradmission.

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

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

the Lower House of Parliamenton that day, he claimed

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

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

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

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

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

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

Minister.Maintaining that the SP

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

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

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Sabarimala ActionCommittee, an umbrella

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

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

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

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

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

Devotees from Tamil Nadu

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

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

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

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

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

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

A six-year long movement

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

President Ram NathKovind has since given hisassent to the bill.

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

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Facing the heat over straycattle menace, the Uttar

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

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

Briefing media personshere, State Government

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

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

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

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

Police are investigating thematter. PTI

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Page 10:  · new Assemblies in Arunachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Sikkim are likely to ... a surgery to resume her wed-ding rituals. Pooja’s mother Joga Devi said, “Doctor advised

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Markets closed marginallyhigher on Friday after a

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

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

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

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

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

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

company.Bharti Airtel, L&T, Axis

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

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

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

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

According to analysts,

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

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

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

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

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

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Ordnance Factory Nalandahas got ISO certificate

for producing Bi Modularcharge System (BMCS) andNitrocellulose.

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

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

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

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

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

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Former Nissan boss CarlosGhosn received nearly eight

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ghosn faces three formalcharges.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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French carmaker Renaultunveiled record sales on

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

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

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

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

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

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Toyota Kirloskar Motor, theIndian arm of the Japanese

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

ductory price of �36.95 lakhs.Yoshimura who arrived in

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

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

Yoshimura added thatToyota is betting big on hybrids

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

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RBI Governor ShaktikantaDas on Friday said efforts

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

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

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

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

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

systems in banks.Citing incidence of finan-

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Wipro board on Fridayapproved an issue of

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

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

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

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

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Page 11:  · new Assemblies in Arunachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Sikkim are likely to ... a surgery to resume her wed-ding rituals. Pooja’s mother Joga Devi said, “Doctor advised

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The US has announced anew missile defense policy

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Colombia’ s Governmentdeclared three days of

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Britons who have changedtheir minds since voting to

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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US President Donald Trumphas announced his

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

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

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

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

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Democratic presidential aspirantTulsi Gabbard apologised on

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Page 12:  · new Assemblies in Arunachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Sikkim are likely to ... a surgery to resume her wed-ding rituals. Pooja’s mother Joga Devi said, “Doctor advised

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Maria Sharapova stunneddefending championCaroline Wozniacki to

sweep into the Australian Openlast 16 on Friday and join ice menRafael Nadal and Roger Federer,who clinically disposed of theiropponents.

The Russian five-time GrandSlam winner, who has struggledsince returning from a drugs banin 2017, was at full throttle in end-ing the Dane's dream of a secondmajor title.

Sharapova won 6-4, 4-6, 6-3with the roof closed on Rod LaverArena and will next play in-formlocal hope Ashleigh Barty, whobounced Greece's Maria Sakkari,for a berth in the quarter-finals.

"I thought the level was quitehigh. I knew it would be a toughmatch," said the 2008 champion,who has been in sizzling form atthe tournament as she chases herfirst Slam title since Roland Garrosin 2014.

"These types of matches arewhat I train for and it was reallyrewarding to win that last point,"added the 30th seed.

Second seed Nadal calledyoung Australian Alex de Minaur"one of the best in the world"ahead of their evening clash, thenproceeded to hand him a tennislesson, dismantling the teenager 6-1, 6-2, 6-4.

"I hit a good serve and playeda solid game," said the 2009 cham-pion who is searching for an 18thGrand Slam title.

He paid tribute to De Minaur,who saved six match points.

"He's a big fighter and superquick. Alex has an amazingfuture."

Nadal's reward is a meetingwith Tomas Berdych, who rallied

to beat Argentine 18th seed DiegoSchwartzman 5-7, 6-3, 7-5, 6-4.

The Czech veteran reached thesemi-finals in 2014 and 2015 butis unseeded this year as he returnsfrom a back injury that almostforced his retirement last year.

Swiss great Federer was alsoon fire in taming big-servingAmerican Taylor Fritz 6-2, 7-5, 6-2 to stay on track for a third suc-cessive title at Melbourne Park anda 21st Grand Slam crown.

On a rain-affected day that

delayed play on outside courts, the37-year-old showed no mercy tothe 21-year-old in his 100th matchon the centre court in Melbourne.

"I had a really good feeling outhere today against someone whocan be dangerous," said Federerafter reaching the Melbournefourth round for the 17th time —more than anyone else ever.

"Taylor played really well. Heis going to have many more yearson tour playing at this level."

The double defending cham-

pion is gunningfor a record sev-enth Australiantitle. If he goes onto win the tour-nament, he will

become the first man ever toclaim seven or more crowns at twoSlams, having already won eightWimbledons.

Next up for him is fiery Greek14th seed Stefanos Tsitsipas, whobeat Georgia's 19th seed NikolozBasilashvili 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (9/7), 6-4.

The man who lost to Federerin the final last year, Marin Cilic,battled back from two sets down,surviving two match points to beatSpain's Fernando Verdasco in a4hr 18min epic.

9 "�����!�*��������Barty beat Greece's Sakkari 7-

5, 6-1, with the 15th seed yet todrop a set in her best performanceat Melbourne Park.

She has won seven of eightmatches this month to back up atitle victory in Zhuhai late last yearto shape up as a dangerous oppo-

nent for Sharapova."It's getting to the point now

where I'm feeling more and morecomfortable on the court and canplay my brand of tennis, whichwhen I execute I know it worksagainst the best in the world," saida confident Barty.

No Australian woman haswon the season-opening GrandSlam at Melbourne Park sinceChristine O'Neill in 1978.

Germany's second seedAngelique Kerber, the 2016 titlewinner, steamrolled Australianyoungster Kimberley Birrell 6-1, 6-0 as the Wimbledon championscontinued her under-the-radarprogress.

Meanwhile, unseededAmerican Amanda Anisimovacontinued her dream run, ousting11th seed Aryna Sabalenka instraight sets. The 17-year-old willplay eighth seed Petra Kvitova fora place in the quarter-finals.

Russia's AnastasiaPavlyuchenkova also advanced,crushing Aliaksandra Sasnovichfor a showdown with fifth seedSloane Stephens.

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Saina Nehwal scripted a hard-fought straight-game win over

former world champion NozomiOkuhara of Japan to enter thewomen's singles semifinals but afighting Kidambi Srikanthcrashed out of the $ 350,000Malaysia Masters on Friday.

Seventh seeded Saina, who

had a 8-4 head-to-head recordagainst Okuhara before Friday,fought back from 9-15 and 14-18 down in the two games toextend her dominance over thesecond-seeded Japanese with a21-18, 23-21 win in a 48-minutequarterfinals at the Axiata Arena.

"Again a great match with@nozomi_o11 .. Nice to b on thewinning side ..21-18 , 23-21

#quarterfinals #malaysiamasterssuper500," tweetedSaina after the match.

The 28-year-old from Hyderabad, who had wonthe title in 2017 and was a runners-up in the 2011edition, will face a tough test next when she facesthree-time world champion Carolina Marin of Spainon Saturday.

Saina has defeated Marin five times and has lostto the Spaniard as many times in the last 10 meet-ings.

However, Srikanth squandered a one-gameadvantage to go down 23-21, 16-21, 17-21 to fourthseed Korean Son Wan Ho in the men's singles quar-terfinals that lasted an hour and 12 minutes.

The women's singles match started on an evenkeel as both Saina and Okuharafought hard, moving togethertill 9-9. Okuhara registered sixstraight points to create a hugegap but Saina showed her met-

tle as she slowly erased the deficit and grabbed a 17-16 lead at one stage.

Okuhara made it 17-17 before Saina closed outthe opening game by grabbing the remaining points.

The Indian was 4-2 up early on in the secondgame but Okuhara jumped to a 8-5 lead before Sainawrested a 11-9 advantage at the break.

After the interval, Saina led till 14-12 butOkuhara reeled off six points to take a comfortable18-14 lead. But Saina again slowly started dominat-ing the rallies and clawed her way back to 19-19.

Okuhara then squandered two game pointsbefore Saina converted the first match point that cameher way to secure the semifinal berth.

Srikanth, who was on an unbeaten run at therecently-concluded Premier Badminton League, hadrecovered from a 4-11 deficit to pocket the first gamebut he couldn't breach a 4-9 gap in the second gameto allow Son to take the game into the decider.

The seventh seeded Indian then wasted a 5-1advantage in the third game to allow Son march aheadafter leading 11-10 at the break.

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Barcelona overturned a first legdefeat to beat Levante in the

Copa del Rey but could yet bethrown out of the competition afterbeing accused of fielding an ineligi-ble player.

Barca won 3-0 at the Camp Nouon Thursday, with Lionel Messi set-ting up two Ousmane Dembele goalsand then scoring himself to seal a 4-2 victory on aggregate.

Their place in the quarter-finals,however, is under threat afterLevante president Francisco JavierCatalan confirmed shortly beforekick-off that the club would lodge acomplaint to the Spanish FootballFederation on Friday.

Levante claim Barcelona defend-er Juan Brandariz 'Chumi' playedillegally in the first leg as he shouldhave been serving a suspension.

Chumi was banned after hereceived a yellow card playing forBarcelona's B team in the SegundaB division.

Barcelona, however, insist achange in the rules in Novembermeans the suspension does notcarry over into the Copa del Rey.

Levante may feel precedent is ontheir side after Real Madrid were dis-qualified from the Copa del Rey in2015 for fielding Denis Cheryshev,despite the player being suspended.

Madrid had overlookedCheryshev receiving three yellowcards while playing for Villarreal in

the competition the previous season.Messi started, along with fellow

regulars like Jordi Alba,Clement Lenglet, Ivan Rakiticand Arthur. Luis Suarez,Gerard Pique, SergioBusquets and Marc Andre terStegen all began on the bench.

Barcelona were dominant fromthe outset, as a curling Messi free-kick was pushed wide and PhilippeCoutinho, excellent again, shotover.

Messi and Arturo Vidal bothwent close and finally in the 30thminute, Dembele made the break-through, latching onto Messi's pass

before bundling the ball into thenet.

A minute later, theFrenchman had a second.Coutinho found Messi on thebreak and he slipped free thesprinting Dembele, who ran

round Aitor Fernandez and scuffedthe ball home off the goalkeeper'soutstretched leg.

Levante were still only a goalaway from extra-time but Messiended any hopes of a comeback.Dembele freed Nelson Semedodown the right and he found theArgentinian in the middle. Achipped finish was all it needed.

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AJamie Santos Colado strike in thesecond half helped East Bengalbeat Indian

Arrows 1-0 to jump tothe second place in theI-League here on Friday.

Santos scored theall-important goal in the48th minute at the atVivekananda YubaBharati Krirangan.

The Kolkata giantsnow have 22 points --five shy of leadersChennai City FC -- from12 matches.

The Arrows remainat eighth position with13 points after an equalnumber of games.

East Bengal'sSpanish coach AlejandroGarcia made twochanges to the startingeleven from their previ-ous game againstChennai. RegularLalrindika Ralte was sus-pended and Kamalpreetgot a start while SamadAli Mallick sat on thebench as LalramChullova came back inafter suspension.

The Arrows coachFloyd Pinto fielded an unchanged sidefrom their 3-0 victory against ShillongLajong in their previous game.

It was Santos who had the first shotat goal in the 12th minute when helatched onto a second ball but hisattempt was off target.

He then fed Joby Justin from the rightflank but the striker's header was well col-lected by Prabhsukhan Gill at the Arrowsgoal. The closest East Bengal came to

scoring in the first halfwas when FrenchmanKassim Aidara's scorcherfrom 20-25 yards outoff a loose ball hit theright upright and cameback.

The winning goalcame just three minutesinto the second half.Joby latched on to a ballon the right flank, just aminute after he hadattempted another won-derful cross from thesame position, but thistime cut the ball backinto the box instead ofdriving it across.

The ball seemed tohave been interceptedby the Arrows defence,but they fumbled andSantos, lurking around,pounced on the openingand blasted it into thenet.

The Arrows thenhad a couple of chancesbut KP Rahul's shot hitthe side-netting in the81st minute.

In the 84th, Jobyagain found Santos with a cross after dart-ing inside the box but the Spaniard couldnot connect it.

Defender Borja Gomez was adjudgedHero of the Match and left-back ManojMohammad saw red in injury time as thegame drew to a fiery close.

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Romelu Lukaku'sManchester Unitedfuture is in the

spotlight as Ole GunnarSolskjaer plots to main-tain his 100 percent win-ning record againstBrighton on Saturday.

Solskjaer is the firstmanager in the club's his-tory to begin his careerwith six straight victoriesand the feel-good factor isback at Old Trafford aftera miserable spell underJose Mourinho.

A former super-subhimself, Solskjaer warnedhis players when he tookover from Mourinho thatsome would have to takethe opportunities given tothem from the bench,and Belgium strikerLukaku has been one ofthe losers from the switchin tactics and positivevibes that have arrivedunder the Norwegianinterim boss.

Mourinho stood loy-ally by the 25-year-olddespite a drop in formand productivity during aseason that eventuallycost the manager his job.

Solskjaer's own deci-sion about the forwardpositions was made forhim when he took over atOld Trafford beforeChristmas, with Lukakuon leave from the club forpersonal reasons.

That meant the

Norwegian was able toplay with a more dynam-ic, versatile and speedyforward line for his debutgame at Cardiff, and hehas not looked back sincethat 5-1 victory.

Marcus Rashford hasbeen the main beneficia-ry, starting all five leaguegames under Solskjaerand scoring four goalswhile operating as thefocal point of the Unitedattack.

Behind him,Anthony Martial andJesse Lingard have alsomade telling contribu-tions, with French inter-national Martial, in par-ticular, appearing to ben-efit from an end to hisfraught relationship withMourinho.

As part of that tacti-cal reshuffle, Solskjaerhas also been able to getmore out of Martial'scompatriot Paul Pogbaby pushing him into amore advanced midfieldposition. It has left a ques-tion mark over Lukaku'srole in this new attackingset-up.

� ����� �������Lukaku has played

just 64 league minutessince Solskjaer's arrival,although the striker hasmanaged to score twice inthat time and bag a goalin his only start to dateunder the Norwegian, the2-0 FA Cup win over

Reading.Lukaku has been

making his mark as animpact substitute but thatis not the usual role of aplayer bought for 75 mil-lion pounds ($97 mil-lion), plus add-ons.

Alexis Sanchez willalso present Solskjaerwith an issue when he isfinally fully fit from ham-string troubles that havelimited him to just onestart in the past twomonths. Chilean Sanchezis unavailable forSaturday's visit ofBrighton alongsidedefenders Chris Smallingand Marcos Rojo.

The 30-year-old wassidelined when Solskjaertook over but played hisway back to fitness, play-ing 27 minutes in the 2-0win at Newcastle at thestart of the month.

A recurrence of hishamstring injury, in thewin over Reading a fewdays later, once again senthim to the treatmentroom, although he couldbe back for United's visithis former club Arsenal inthe next round of thecup.

Despite his recentlack of playing time,Sanchez would appear tobe a better fit forSolskjaer's preferred styleof play than Lukaku, withhis versatility and mobil-ity meaning he can fill avariety of attacking roles.

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Cesc Fabregas is set for his homedebut as a Monaco player, whileParis Saint-Germain look for

revenge against their recent Cup con-querors Guingamp in Ligue 1 onSaturday.

Cesc Fabregas got his first taste of theunusual experience of a matchday inMonaco in midweek, but the Spain starhad to watch from the stands as ThierryHenry's side drew 1-1 with Nice, coachedby another former Arsenal star in PatrickVieira.

Signed from Chelsea last week,Fabregas impressed on his debut in a 1-1 draw at Marseille, but the 31-year-oldwas ineligible against Nice, a match thatwas originally due to be played inDecember before being postponed.

Just hours after admitting to jour-nalists it had been a wrench to leave thePremier League, Fabregas sat next to fel-low new signings Naldo, Fode Ballo-Toure and William Vainqueur to watchthe Cote d'Azur derby.

Now the new signings are availableagain as Monaco host Strasbourg stillsearching for a first home win of the sea-son as the relegation-threatened side lookto climb the table.

"With the new signings we are goingto do some interesting things in the weeksahead. I am convinced of that," said

Monaco's French World Cup-winningfull-back Djibril Sidibe.

On Saturday, PSG — still unbeatenin Ligue 1 this season and 13 points clearatop the table — host bottom-of-the-tableGuingamp with revenge on their minds.Guingamp visited the Parc des Princesjust last week and won 2-1 in a LeagueCup quarter-final, inflicting a first domes-tic Cup defeat on Paris in five years.

Meanwhile the derby between Saint-Etienne and Lyon is the most authenticin the French game, and can be one ofthe most fiery anywhere in Europe.

Les Verts are still unbeaten at homethis season and lie third in the table, twopoints better off than Lyon, who need-ed a late Nabil Fekir free-kick to draw inToulouse in midweek.

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An untimely series ofinjuries to defenders hasleft Liverpool manager

Jurgen Klopp short-handed at theback as he tries to keep thePremier League leaders on trackfor a first title in 29 years at hometo Crystal Palace on Saturday.

Right-back Trent Alexander-Arnold joined a growing injurylist with a knee problem picked upin the warm-up ahead of lastweekend's 1-0 win at Brightonthat could keep the English inter-national out for up to a month.

Centre-backs Joe Gomez,Dejan Lovren and Joel Matip arestill working their way back to fit-ness, while the decision to letNathaniel Clyne leave on loan toBournemouth earlier this monthhas been questioned.

However, Klopp has beenable to rely on the versatility ofsummer signing Fabinho to coverboth at the heart of defencealongside the commanding Virgilvan Dijk, and at right-back.

The 25-year-old, signed fornearly 40 million ($ 51 million)from Monaco, took his time toadapt to English football, some-thing Klopp predicted wouldhappen as far back as July whenFabinho made his pre-seasondebut against non-league Chester.

But recent weeks have shownthat Klopp's vision for Fabinho toserve as a vital and versatile cogin his championship-challengingsquad have come to fruition.

"Fabinho is a brilliant player.To have a good footballer in thatposition when you have the ballis great," said Klopp.

"He has a defensive brain andcan play in a lot of positions."Fabinho had played at right-back, where he has recently start-ed for Brazil, and as a defensivemidfielder for the Ligue 1 side,where he caught Klopp's eye.

Yet the German also saw hispotential as providing cover in thecentre-half positions, an obser-vation that became particularly

important at Brighton.Alongside the immaculate

Van Dijk, Fabinho turned in amature display as Liverpool kepta 13th clean sheet in 22 PremierLeague games to maintain animportant four-point cushionover their closest rivalsManchester City.

"Some weeks ago, I knew thiscould be an option because wehad some players out injured andwe only had two centre-backsavailable," Fabinho told theLiverpool website.

"When Dejan got injured, Iknew it would be logical that I'dplay in that position.

"I had some training ses-sions playing in that position,which helped me adapt better andpick up certain aspects, like posi-tioning and movements you needto be natural at to play in this posi-tion." Fabinho had to be patientto make an impact on the PremierLeague.

Not until late October atstruggling Huddersfield didKlopp hand him his league debutoff the bench and a first start fol-lowed a week later against Cardiffin his more natural midfield role.

But the Brazilian has sincestarted a further eight leaguegames and his adaptability andversatility suggests he will have aconsiderable role to play inLiverpool's bid for honours bothin the Premier League andChampions League with VanDijk suspended for the first leg oftheir last-16 tie against BayernMunich next month.

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A'good job' usually involves a mea-sure of positive stimuli, whichencourages the worker to per-

form well and gain job satisfaction as aresult -this is not stress. Many jobsinvolve negative factors that put unwant-ed pressure (stress) on the worker, lead-ing to adverse consequences. Stress is nota disease or injury in itself, but can leadto mental and physical ill health, and canalso be a factor in workplace accidents.

Workplace stress has never beenhigher and remaining calm at the work-place is the key to success and deliveringdesired performance.

To survive and thrive, we need to findways to deal with pressure and uncertain-ty. There are a number of scientific stud-ies out there that show the deep connec-tion between staying calm and produc-tivity.

No matter how carefully we plan,there's always a chance that a situation willpop up that takes precedence over every-thing we've planned.

Not all tasks are equally important.Some of them can remain undone forlater with no major consequences. Settingpriorities helps me to maintain a sense ofcontrol.

Blame it on ever shorter deadlines, thepace of a digitally enabled world, or thegrowing complexity of most industries.Whatever the reason, it’s never beentougher to stay calm at work and stillexcel.

Write down the type of person youwish to be. Not your career goals, just thekind of human being you aspire tobecome. Few people have ever donethis, yet it can be incredibly inspiring andclarifying to do so. Be sure to include asentence or two about remaining calmunder pressure, being unattached, or per-haps staying optimistic in all circum-stances.

Becoming this person should becomeyour primary aim. Read the summary ofthe Ideal you every morning, think andmake it a constant part of your life. Themore you do this, the more you will beginto exhibit the same excellent charactertraits of this person.

Discipline yourself to remain totallysolution oriented, no matter how toughyour circumstances may be.

To remain solution focused is hardwork. To do so, you need to make it a cen-tral part of your core self image. Onceagain, the more you choose to see your-self as a totally solution focused person,the more you will develop that quality. Itshould appear in your Ideal You visionand be addressed daily.

There are sometimes good reasons tochange our plans, such as a new set of cir-cumstances arising or receiving newinformation about a situation. In theabsence of a compelling reason, howev-er, stick to the plans we have outlined forourselves. Random changes will only con-fuse us and put us behind schedule.

Meltdowns do not solve any problemand cause a bunch of others. Some peo-ple are much better at managing transientemotions than others, and that tells ussomething very important. That meansthat there is a way to manage pressure,because some are able to do it.

Letting the storms set us off isn’t pro-ductive or healthy. As soon as the stressresponse goes off, we are not in controlof our modern brain anymore. Stressundermines intellect. We make decisionsfrom fear, panic, or rage.

We can change the thoughts that turndemands into pressures our cluelessancient brain thinks we can’t cope with.The definition of stress is high demandsand low control over them. That’s also thedefinition of being overwhelmed. Whenwe feel we can’t cope, that triggers the

stress response, which causes everythingto feel more overwhelming, since it exag-gerates the threat.

It’s really about self-regulation.Calmness and patience give us impulse tocontrol ourselves. We’re not children. Wedon’t have to go off when something flaresup. Patience is the exercise of managingpace, ego, and emotions.

Scolding ourselves for all we didn't getdone, does not help. Instead we are farbetter off being grateful for all that we diddo. The more we practise looking on thebright side of things, the less frighteningand grim a stressful situation seems.There

are many situations during the course ofa day that can make us lose our cool: mak-ing a mistake in plain view, getting intoan argument, having to listen to criticism,dealing with bad news or facing a loom-ing project deadline with everyoneinvolved moving way too slowly.

It's easy to shine when everything isgoing well, but it's how you respond tothese stressful events that set you apartfrom the crowd. Losing your cool in frontof customers, employees or other stake-holders has to be one of the most devalu-ing events.

Losing your temper once in a while is

forgivable we've all been there. But doingso on a regular basis signals to others thatyou're not in control of your emotions, andthis creates a doubt that puts a dent in yourcredibility.

There's a lot of well-meaning adviceout there on staying calm, such as not tak-ing things personally or staying positive.For most people, however, the truth is,these are hard to do in the heat of themoment when we're about to lose our cool.What's more realistic and actionable is tofocus on self-care practices and make thema way of life.

To prevent worries, stress and anxietiesfrom sapping your brain power when youneed it, get in the habit of writing downyour worrisome thoughts. You can do thisany time during the day, but it's mostimportant just before a high stakes event

To strengthen your calming muscle,practise relaxing at a deep level. Listeningto this piece of music is one of the waysto do this. Give yourself these eight min-utes every day.

Some people are naturally gifted witha calm personality, and it gives them acompetitive advantage. For the rest of us,putting some of these practices to use is awise thing to do.

To manage your emotions, you needto know your hot buttons—those situationsand people that are likely to make you loseyour patience and composure. Chancesare, most of the things that irk you are ofa recurring nature they are a catalyst or atrigger that gets your adrenaline going. Sostart by raising your self-awareness in thiscrucial area, because self-awareness pre-cedes self-management.

If you plan ahead, you can train yourbrain to tame your reaction to these events.For example, tell yourself that when you'redealing with a certain person or issue,you'll deal with whatever happens withequanimity.

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

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

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

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

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

How much did you enjoy writing forJensen Ackles?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Page 15:  · new Assemblies in Arunachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Sikkim are likely to ... a surgery to resume her wed-ding rituals. Pooja’s mother Joga Devi said, “Doctor advised

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sayani agreed that comparisons are

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Page 16:  · new Assemblies in Arunachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Sikkim are likely to ... a surgery to resume her wed-ding rituals. Pooja’s mother Joga Devi said, “Doctor advised

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Legspinner Yuzvendra Chahaltook a record 6-42 to propel Indiato a seven-wicket win over

Australia in the third one-day inter-national and a 2-1 series win on Friday.

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

Chahal, who missed the first twoODIs, helped India to bowl outAustralia for only 230 after captainVirat Kohli won the toss on a rainyafternoon in Melbourne.

After fast bowler BhuvneshwarKumar removed both Australia open-ers, Chahal ran through the middleand lower order to end the inningswith eight balls left in their 50 overs.

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

Mahendra Singh Dhoni onceagain closed out India's match andseries victory with an unbeaten inningsof 87 from 114 balls in a perfectly

paced run chase, completing the winwith four balls to spare for the secondconsecutive match.

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

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

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

9������������"��������Former skipper Mahendra Singh

Dhoni on Friday said he has no pref-erence in the Indian batting order andis ready to bat at any position as perthe need of the team.

Dhoni was adjudged the Man ofthe Series after he guided India to acomfortable seven-wicket win in

Melbourne.Batting at number

four, Dhoni, who generally bats atnumber six, anchored India's chasewith a 114-ball 87 not out which wasstudded with six boundaries.

"I am happy to bat at any number.The important thing is where the teamneeds me," said Dhoni, when askedwhere he wants to bat.

"Whether I play at 4 or 6, weneed to see if the team balance canbe retained. I'm happy to bat lowerdown at 6. I can't say I can't bat atNo 6 after playing 14 years," he saidafter the match.

Dhoni and Kedar Jadhav shareda 121-run partnership for theunconquered fourth wicket whilechasing a tricky target of 231.

Asked what the game plan was,

Dhoni said: "It was a slow wicket, soit was difficult to hit whenever youwanted to. No point going after thebowlers who were bowling well, so wewanted to take it deep and that was theplan.

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

India captain Virat Kohli praisedthe team for the win.

"It wasn't a great wicket to bat on,so we had to take it deep, but they wereprofessional in getting the job done,"he said.

"Kedar with bat and ball is alwayshandy. Kuldeep had played a fewgames, so you don't want to makethings too predictable. So we broughton Yuzvendra Chahal, and he playedbeautifully."

It is the first time India remainedunbeaten on Australian soil in all threeformats and Kohli said it augurs wellfor the upcoming World Cup.

"It's been an amazing tour for us.We drew the T20 series, won the Testand the ODI series. We are feeling con-fident and balanced as a side with theWorld Cup in mind," he said.

Playing his first match in theseries, Chahal sizzled with a maidensix-wicket haul to be adjudged theMan of the Match.

Meanwhile, Australian captainAaron Finch said: "We took it down tothe wire. Our batting in the first cou-ple of games was very good. Maybe weshould have set our targets lower onthose sort of pitches.

"When you give great players acouple of chances, it's alwaystough...We did put down chances, butthe boys gave it their all. Their battingin the first couple of games was verygood."

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No one is more committedto Indian cricket" than

Mahendra Singh Dhoni andbatting at number five is theideal spot for him, said ViratKohli in stout defense of theformer captain.

Dhoni faced criticism forslow batting in the ODI series-opener in Sydney beforeredeeming his pride and rep-utation with match-winningcontributions in the Adelaideand Melbourne ODIs.

Acknowledging Dhoni'scontribution in the historicseries-triumph in Australia,Kohli defended the formercaptain, saying he should beallowed breathing space.

"I think firstly as a team weare very happy for Dhoni. Thathe is amongst the runs, becauseit is very important to getruns under your belt to get thatrhythm and get that confidenceback. Especially when youhave not been playing so muchinternational cricket," said theIndia captain at the post-matchpress conference.

"Many things happen onthe outside. People say a lot ofthings but as an individual we

know that there is no onemore committed to Indiancricket than Dhoni and peopleshould let him have his spacebecause he has contributed somuch for the nation.

"They should let him fig-ure out things on his own andwhat he needs to do. He is oneof the most intelligent crick-eters and he is not someonewho is not aware about whatneeds to be done. As a team weare totally in sync with what heis doing and we are all veryhappy for him," said Kohli.

The skipper also reckonsthat the just-concludedAustralia series has provedthat number five is the mostlogical spot for Dhoni.

"Dhoni batted at numberfour in 2016 for a while. Butafter that he has been prettyhappy playing at five and sixfor the team. We felt thatnumber five was the idealposition for him. And if yousaw him bat at Adelaide as wellhe was pretty comfortable inthat position because thatallows him to do a bit of both- get some game time as wellas finish games off, attacking asand when required," Kohlisaid.

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Australian coach Justin Langer paid tribute to MahendraSingh Dhoni as a superstar and an all-time great of the

game after the veteran wicketkeeper-batsman produced a mas-ter class run-chase in India's ODI series clinching win.

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

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

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

Dhoni was dropped twice — when on 0 and 74 — andLanger said that cost his side the match. He also said that Dhoni

gave his young side a batting tutorial on how to goabout in such a run chase.

"You drop MS Dhoni a couple of times and youdon't win. You don't give great players chances. Wedid that tonight. We get down the 49th over and MSis there again. It was a great lesson for our squad.We talk about match winners, getting the job done— he showed us again. It is a great tutorial for ourbatters," he added.

"If M S Dhoni can come out and run betweenwickets like that after keeping wickets for 50 overs,that is the level the whole world should be aspiringto. I would be amazed if they (Australian players)don't learn from playing against those guys. For ayoung squad, there is no better lesson and learning

to rub shoulders with great players. I'm glad we have had theexperience," he said.

Dhoni copped a lot of criticism from all quarters for hisslow strike-rate at the start of the series, but has sounded backwith three half-centuries in three matches to be adjudged Manof the Series.

����� 7�� 3:'4�

Ravi Shastri has seen SachinTendulkar get "angry at

times" but not MahendraSingh Dhoni, "a once in 40years player" who will be verydifficult to replace once hebids adieu to the game,according to India's headcoach.

The 37-year-old Dhonishowed glimpses of his gold-en days by anchoring India toa series win with unbeatenknocks of 55 and 87.

"He is a legend. He will godown as one of our greatcricketers. I have never seen anindividual so sound. I haveseen Sachin at times get angry.Not this man," Shastri told the'Daily Telegraph'.

Shastri made it clear thata player of Dhoni's calibre can'tbe replaced.

"You can't. Such playersonly come once in 30 or 40years. That is what I tellIndians. Enjoy while it lasts.

When he goes you will see avoid that will be very hard tofill," he said.

The coach is hopeful thatRishabh Pant would live up tothe hype surrounding him butinsisted that Dhoni is some-thing else.

When former Englandcaptain Michael Vaughanasked if Pant could be Dhoniin the next 20 years, Shastrireplied: "I would love to. Hehas the talent. His hero is MS.Every day he is on the phoneto MS. I think during the Testseries he must have spokenmore to MS than anyone else."

����� 7�� 3:'4�

India captain Virat Kohli on Fridaysaid the number four slot in the

batting line-up is still to be "solidi-fied", months after he backed AmbatiRayudu for the position till this year'sWorld Cup.

The skipper said that there hasbeen a lot of experimentation atnumber four, and while the battingline-up at Adelaide, where Rayudubatted at four, was an ideal one, theywould like to keep things mixed upuntil someone assumed responsibil-ity at number four.

"If you look at that last game,Ambati Rayudu batted at four, Dhoniat five and Dinesh Karthik at six.Because we brought in Vijay Shankarand Kedar Jadhav, we didn't wantKarthik to change his spot becausehe is doing a good job," he said afterthe third and final ODI of a historictour of Australia.

Rayudu was backed for the posi-tion by Kohli during the home seriesagainst West Indies last year.

"...The middle order we saw inAdelaide is pretty much the most bal-anced if you look at it. The numberfour position, again, has been a sortof an area which we want solidified,"he said.

"But because of the combinationswe want to play, sometimes you haveto make those changes. Anyone who

bats at four will have to take theresponsibility for the World Cup,whoever it might be. That person willhave to take responsibility at num-ber four," he added.

The skipper credited the victo-ry to Yuzvendra Chahal, who pickedup the best figures for an Indian spin-ner on Australia soil and restrictedthe hosts to a low total.

"...Taking six wickets at the MCGis no small feat for a spinner. He isvery intelligent bowler and he gets usthose breakthroughs. He andKuldeep are definitely a force to bereckoned with. When they playtogether, it is our most potent spinattack...," he added.

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Captain Manish Pandey and Karun Naircracked brilliant half centuries as

Karnataka registered a comprehensivesix-wicket win over Rajasthan to storm intothe semifinals of Ranji Trophy on Friday.

Pandey (87) and Nair (61) shared anunbeaten 129-run partnership for the fifthwicket in just 24.5 overs on the fourth andfinal day to help Karnataka chase down atricky 184-run victory target.

Karnataka will now meet eitherSaurashtra or Uttar Pardesh in the semi-finals.

Rajasthan had scored 224 in their firstinnings, riding on fifties by skipperMahipal Lomrov (50) and Rajesh Bishnoi(79).

In reply, Karnataka put on 263 all outbefore returning to bundle out Rajasthanfor 222 in their second innings, thus set-ting themselves a 184-run target.

Karnataka were 45 for 3 in 18 overs atstumps after day 3.

Starting the final day needing 139 runsto win with seven wickets in hand, thehosts lost nightwatchman Ronit More earlyin the morning which forced Pandey towalk into the middle.

Pandey spent some time on the wick-et, before taking on the formidableRajasthan bowling lineup.

He unleashed an array of delightfulshots, cobbling up a match-winning knockin 75 balls, which was embellished with 14boundaries and two sixes.

Pandey chased down the remaining 14runs in five balls as Karnataka players start-ed to celebrate the fantastic win in thedressing room.

Nair gave an able support to Pandey,who remained unbeaten on 61, a knockdecorated with six boundaries off 129 balls.

Though Pandey hogged the limelighton fourth day, Vinay Kumar's unbeaten 83in first innings was an equally importantinnings as it forced Rajasthan to concedelead for first time this season.

Vinay also bagged two wickets in

Rajasthan's first innings to bag the Man ofthe Match.Brief scores: Karnataka first and secondinnings: 263 all out in 87.4 overs and 185for 4 in 47.5 overs (Manish Pandey 87 notout, Karun Nair 61 not out (AniketChoudhary 2/32)Rajasthan first and second innings: 224 in77.1 overs and 222 all out in 67.2 overs(Robin Bist 44, Mahipal Lomror 42;Krishnappa Gowtham 4/54,Shreyas Gopal 3/52, AbimanyuMithun 2/26).

+�!������������������ ��� Reigning championsVidarbha were in complete controlof their quarter-final againstUttarakhand after taking a huge 274-runfirst innings lead and then striking bigblows later on the fourth day of the game.

At stumps, Uttarakhand were strug-gling for survival at 152 for 5 in their sec-ond essay with India pacer Umesh Yadavhaving grabbed three of those wickets in

a fiery exhibition of fast bowling.The visitors were adrift by 122 runs

with five wickets in hand and would needto bat out of their skin to force a drawwhich will, however, be enough forVidarbha to enter the semis.

Earlier, resuming at their overnightscore of 559/6, Vidarbha added 70 runs totheir tally before their innings ended with

a massive tally of 629.After Wasim Jaffer (206) and

opener Sanjay Ramaswamy(141), Aditya Sarwate becamethe third centurion for thehosts when he made 102 in 185balls, striking 11 fours, after

resuming at his overnight scoreof 67.

Batting for the second time, open-ers Vineet Saxena (27) and KarnaveerKaushal (76) gave the visitors a steady startby putting up 72 for the first wicket.

But Yadav trapped Saxena in front toend the partnership and Vidarbha bowlerscame on top.

One-down Vaibhav Bhatt (0) becameYadav's second victim, while Kaushal wascleaned up by slow-left arm orthodoxbowler Sarvate as Uttarakhand werereduced to 3 for 152.

Avneesh Sudha, who hit a valiant 91in the first essay, could not repeat the featand fell for 28 and then Vidarbha tookanother wicket at the far end to reduce theRanji debutant to 152 for 5.

When stumps were drawn, firstinnings centurion Saurabh Rawat (0 notout) was at the crease.

While in the other quarterfinal gamein Lucknow, Saurashtra need 177 runs onthe final day to reach last four against UttarPradesh.

Chasing 372 to win, Saurashtra is bat-ting at 195 for two wickets in 67 overs.Brief scores: Uttarakhand 355 and 152 for5 (Karnaveer Kaushal 76, Avneesh Sudha28; Umesh Yadav 3-22) versus Vidarbha629 (Wasim Jaffer 206, Sanjay Ramaswamy141, Aditya Sarvate 102; D K Sharma 3-101).

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