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The much awaited “semi-finals” in the run up to the

Parliamentary elections nextyear is all set to begin onMonday when Chhattisgarhgoes for the first phase ofAssembly elections for 18 seatsin Naxal-hit districts, as part ofthe simultaneous polls in foursother crucial States — MadhyaPradesh, Rajasthan, Mizoramand Telangana.

The polls, however, havebegan with a Naxal attackwhere a BSF jawan was mar-tyred when Maoists detonatedan IED a day before the pollsin Kanker. In another incident,a Maoist was gunned down inan encounter with police.

Security has been tightenedin the eight districts going topolls in the first phase onMonday. Around one lakhsecurity personnel have beendeployed to ensure smoothconduct of elections.

Naxals have called for theboycott of polls in the State andhave executed half a dozenattacks in the last 15 days, threeof them major ones which left13 people dead, including acameraperson of nationalbroadcaster Doordarshan.

The elections in this Hindiheartland is being touted as aNarendra Modi-Rahul Gandhiface-off as Modi exudes confi-dence of retaining power forsecond term in 2019 while

Rahul looks to stop the Modijuggernaut by unitingOpposition parties.

If the Congress manages toupset its dominant rival inthese Assembly polls, then itwill be a big boost to theOpposition for the Lok Sabhapolls, while a good show by theBJP will energise its cadre andgive a fillip to its hopes ofretaining the power at theCentre in 2019.

In 2013, the BJP had won

165, 163 and 49 seats inMadhya Pradesh, Rajasthanand Chhattisgarh respectively,with the Congress securing58, 21 and 39 seats. InMizoram, the Congress hasbeen in power since 2008,while in Chhattisgarh and MP,the BJP has been ruling for thelast 15 years.

In 2013 ChhattisgarhAssembly polls, there was a dif-ference of 10 seats between theBJP and the Congress, the dif-

ference between their voteshare was just 0.75 per cent.The BJP is facing anti-incum-bency, while the Congress is upagainst the challenge of the AjitJogi-Mayawati tie-up.

Jogi-Mayawati’s supportbase comprises mostly mem-bers of the SC community andif they get a few seats, it will beat the expense of the BJP. TheBSP had won just one seat inthe State last time, but had gar-nered a 4.27 per cent vote,

which if it sticks to this time itcould prove to be the decisivefactor. Smaller regional coali-tions — such as the onebetween the GondwanaGantantra Party and theSamajwadi Party which hadsecured 1.5 7 per cent and 0.29per cent votes in the last polls— are another key factors.

The Congress-BJP battlehas become more bitter in theState after Congress’ workingpresident Ramdayal Uikeyswitched sides to the BJP.

In MP, the contest is toughas the anti-incumbency is a bigfactor in the State with theCongress consistently doingwell in the by-elections held inthe last one-and-a-half year.

Continued on Page 4

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With highly educatedyoung men, including

postgraduates and PhD schol-ars, picking up the gun inJammu & Kashmir, the securi-ty establishment has decided tointensify its efforts to reach outto the parents to counsel theirwards before it’s too late. Moreso, since the casualties amongterrorist ranks indicate thatthe survival tenure of newly-recruited ill-trained youths isjust six months from the timethey jump the fence.

Security forces have so farneutralised 200 terrorists thisyear and at least 60 per cent ofthem were in the age group of18-20 and all of them were localKashmiris who got swayed bythe so-called cause. Besidesurging parents to caution theirchildren about the conse-quences of resorting to vio-lence, the Army has alsoannounced that during an

encounter if a trapped localultra wants to surrender he willbe allowed to do so.

Elaborating upon this mea-sure, officials said here onSunday security forces realisethat gullible youths fell for thelure of the gun and allowingthem to surrender is a goodwillgesture.

However, they admittednotwithstanding the high casu-alty rate, nearly 165 youngmen have picked up the gun forthe cause as compared to 127for the entire last year therebyringing alarm bells in the secu-rity establishment over thespike. It means that reversesfaced by terrorist organisa-tions in terms of ultras killedhave failed to deter the impres-sionable minds from fightingfor the cause, officials said.

Anticipating that the num-ber of youths joining the terrorgroups may go up before theyear ends, the operational com-manders are also worried that

it may give a boost to the ter-rorists’ organisations with morethan 250 trained ultras alreadyactive in the Kashmir Valleyand 300 plus waiting to infil-trate into the State from acrossthe Line of Control (LoC) inthe coming weeks.

In fact, the security forcesare bracing themselves for adetermined bid by Pakistan-backed terrorists to sneak intothe State from the launch padsin Pakistan Occupied Kashmir(POK) in the next few daysbefore snow blocks ingressroutes in the upper reaches.The main objective of these ter-rorists is to increase levels ofviolence even during the win-ter months when generally ter-rorism comes down due toharsh weather conditions.

The security forces willmaintain the tempo of opera-tions even during the wintermonths to deny ultras freedomof space and movement.

Continued on Page 4

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The Central Vigilance Commission isslated to submit a report on its

enquiry against benched CBI DirectorAlok Verma on Monday. The CVC wastasked by the Supreme Court on October26 to probe within two weeks the alle-gations of bribery and meddling in highprofile cases by Verma as alleged by CBISpecial Director Rakesh Asthana througha complaint to the Cabinet Secretary onAugust 24.

The apex court is scheduled to hearthe matter relating to allegations againstVerma on Monday. After going throughthe CVC’s report, it may take a call if fur-ther probe is required against Verma.

The SC had appointed former apexcourt judge AK Patnaik to supervise theCVC enquiry against Verma.

Amid continuing public feudbetween Verma and his deputy throughallegations and counter allegations, theduo was sent on leave by the Governmenton October 23 and both were divested oftheir supervisory functions of the CBI tillthe CVC probe was over.

All eyes will be set on the hearing asVerma had appeared thrice before the vig-ilance watchdog as part of the enquiryagainst him. While Verma had denied theallegations levelled by Asthana againsthim, he could not explain his failure insubmitting the case files despite repeat-ed reminders by the CVC.

Verma’s plea challenging the

Government’s move against him washeard by a three-judge Bench headed byChief Justice Ranjan Gogoi on October26. The matter will now be heard onNovember 12 before a two-judge Benchcomprising the CJI and Justice SK Kaul.

During the hearing on Verma’s pleaon October 26, the SC had issued noticesto the Centre and the CVC while settinga deadline of two weeks for the CVC tocomplete the preliminary enquiry againstthe CBI Director.

The court had also restrained CBIJoint Director and IPS officer MNageswara Rao, who has been giveninterim charge of the agency, from tak-ing any major policy decision.

Continued on Page 4

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Former Karnataka Minister and mining baronGali Janardhan Reddy was on Sunday arrested

by the Central Crime Branch in connection with�600 crore fraud related to the Ambidant MarketingPvt Ltd “bribery” case.

He was produced before the 6th AdditionalChief Metropolitan Magistrate court, whichremanded him in judicial custody till November 24.

Janardhan Reddy is accused of taking a �20-crore bribe to bail Syed Ahmed Fareed, an accusedin a ponzi scheme case, out from the EnforcementDirectorate investigation.

The investigating agency said they have alsoarrested Reddy’s aide Mehfuz Ali Khan, who hadallegedly struck a �20-crore deal with Syed AhmedFareed of Ambidant Marketing Pvt Ltd to bail himout from the ED investigation.

After remaining elusive for three days, the for-mer Minister on Saturday appeared before the policein connection with an alleged ponzi scam, and justbefore surrendering he denied the allegationsagainst him as a “political conspiracy”.

Detailed report on P7

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Aplea has been filed in theDelhi High Court seeking a

direction to the Centre andUnique Identification Authorityof India (UIDAI) to utiliseAadhaar biometrics to identifyunnamed dead bodies.

A bench of Chief JusticeRajendra Menon and Justice VK Rao is likely to hear the peti-tion on Monday, which hasbeen filed by social activist AmitSahni seeking a direction to theCentre, UIDAI, National CrimeRecords Bureau (NCRB) and allthe States to scan biometrics ofunidentified dead bodies andprocess them with Aadhaar por-tal to trace any pre-existing bio-

metric details. In his plea, hesought directions to the Centreand UIDAI to share pre-existingAadhaar details, if already there,without any delay, with theNCRB and states for identifica-tion of dead bodies.

"In case the biometrics of thedead body pre-exists on Aadhaarportal, then directions be issuedto share Aadhaar details of suchdead persons with the respon-dents immediately without anydelay, so as to ensure, the hand-ing over of the dead body to thefamily or relatives of suchdeceased persons so thatrespectable and dignified exitcould be ensured by performinglast rites by affected persons(family)," the plea said.

Sahni, also an advocate, hassought directions to constitutespecial courts for speedy dis-posal of cases pertaining tounidentified dead bodies underAadhaar Act on the same day orthe next day, irrespective of hol-iday. A similar plea was earlierfiled by the petitioner before theSupreme Court which askedhim to approach the DelhiHigh Court where he hasalready filed a petition for usingAadhaar biometrics for the pur-pose of tracing and re-unitingmissing and mentally chal-lenged persons with their fam-ilies. Thereafter, he withdrew the

plea from the top court. The pleasaid despite registering bio-met-rics and scanning more than 1.22billion citizens at the AadhaarPortal, the same was not beingutilised for the purpose of iden-tifying unidentified dead bodies.

It added that thousands ofunidentified dead bodies arerecovered in the country everyyear. The petition sought direc-tions to the authorities, sayingusage of Aadhaar informationwould not only reduce man-power, expenditure and burdenon the State in disposing theunidentified bodies but the bod-ies could also be handed over tothe families in a short span oftime. A five-judge Constitutionbench of the apex court had onSeptember 26 declared theCentre's flagship Aadhaarscheme as constitutionally validbut had struck down some of itsprovisions, including its linkingwith bank accounts, mobilephones and school admissionsclause.

The Bench had held thatwhile Aadhaar would remainmandatory for filing of IncomeTax returns and allotment ofPermanent Account Number(PAN), it would not be compul-sory to link Aadhaar to bankaccounts and telecom serviceproviders cannot seek its linkingfor mobile connections.

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In an effort to find homes forabandoned dogs, the sixth

edition of 'Cause 4 the Paws'adoption drive was held hereon Saturday. The drive was heldby the Select Citywalk, in asso-ciation with Delhi-based NGO'People for Animals', the two-day event saw "close to 25dogs" from Sanjay GandhiAnimal Care Centre.

The adoption drive wit-nessed an "exclusive mix" ofpopular breeds such as GermanShepherds, Labradors, Mastiff,Himalayan Mastiffs, TibetanMastiffs, and native dogsamong others.

Eminent rights animalactivist and Cabinet Ministerfor Women and Child

Development Maneka Gandhiinaugurated the evening lastevening. "I am happy to be apart of this drive to find homesfor abandoned adult dogs. Overthe last five years, this initiativehas already helped rehabilita-tion and redemption of seven-ty dogs," said Maneka Gandhi.

Ambika Shukla, trustee ofPeople for Animals, also thankedpeople for their support towardsthe cause and said the drive givesabandoned dogs "a secondchance at life and love".

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In a tragic incident, a 14-year-old boy died after he met an

accident while driving hisfather's motorcycle around 7:30am in Shadhara district'sKrishna Nagar on Sunday, policesaid. Deputy Commissioner ofPolice Meghna Yadav said thata call regarding the incident wasreceived by Krishna Nagar policeat around 7:30 am.

According to police, whenthey reached the spot, the victimidentified as Divya Sharma, aneighth standard student, washurt in the accident. He wastaken to a nearby hospital wherehe was declared brought dead.

"The family was asleepwhen Divya took his fatherAmit Sharma's Bajaj Splendormotorcycle out for a ride," saidthe DCP, adding that they arestill looking for the vehicle."There is no information butprima facie, it appears that hewas probably hit by anothervehicle," said the DCP.

"We are checking CCTVfootages of the area to ascer-tain the exact the reasonbehind the incident," said asenior official, adding that aprobe is on to get to thedepth of the story and it isonly after which action will betaken.

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The Delhi Police SpecialCell has arrested a want-

ed Naxalite and an illegalarms supplier who carried areward of �2 lakh over hishead. Police recovered 45 pro-hibited bore cartridges ofIndian made INSAS, a SelfLoading Rifle (SLR) used bythe security forces of thecountry from his possession.

The accused 48-year-old,Ajeet Ray, was allegedlyinvolved in insurgent activitiessince 1990. He was arrestedfrom Gadchiroli district inMaharashtra, police said onSunday. "On the arrest of anarms dealer one Ram KrishnaSingh by the Special Cell on Julythis year, information was gath-ered about Ajeet. During Ram'sinterrogation, he disclosed thathe provided cartridges fromBihar to Maoist commandersthrough his contacts inGhadchiroli, Maharashtra,"Deputy Commissioner of Police(Special Cell) Pramod SinghKushwah said.

"On sustained interroga-tion, Ram told police about

Ajeet, a well-known arms sup-plier for the Naxalites inMaharashtra, Odisha andChhattisgarh. Ajeet has beenin the arms dealing businesssince 1990. Several effortswere made to arrest him buthe evaded arrest. At last hewas arrested," said the DCP.

According to the DCP,teams were deployed in Bihar,Odisha and Maharashtra toarrest Ajeet. He was earlierarrested by Odisha police inthe year 2005 and 2008, but hereceived bail and absconded. Areward of �2 lakh was declaredon his arrest by the DelhiPolice. Finally, on Saturday,specific inputs were receivedfrom sources deployed bypolice, stating that Ajeet Raywill be coming to BhamarGarh Road Near MannewarColony All Palli, under thejurisdiction of Aheri policestation, Garchiroli district inMaharashtra, a team lead byInspector Ajay Kumar laid atrap and he was arrested,police said.

Police recovered 45 car-tridges of prohibited bore ofINSAS and SLR from his pos-

session. "During his interro-gation, it was revealed thatAjeet is an active CPI (Maoist)sympathiser and ammunitionsupplier. He was a civil con-tractor before getting intocontact with MaoistInfluences. He disclosed thathe has been into the crimworld since 1990. He used toprovide logistical support toCPI (Maoist). Earlier, he wasproviding logistic support toShankar Anna, a Maoist com-mander," said the DCP.

It was revealed that Ajeetwas detained by Mulcherapolice station, in Gadchiroli,Maharastra, in 1992 for beinga Maoist supporter and close-

ly associated with Maoistcommander Santosh Anna.He was also arrested inOdisha, in a fake Indian cur-rency note (FICN) case in theyear 2005. He was arrested byOdisha police again in 2008along with three otherMaoists, said the DCP.

"Ajeet also confessed thathe is an absconder in all thecases and never attended thecourt after being released onbail. His associate Raj Bahadurwas also arrested in this case.Raj used to procure cartridgesfrom security personnel. Thecartridges were then suppliedto Maoist through accusedAjeet Roy," Kushwah added.

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Some 160 odd passengers onboard Chandigarh-Delhi

flight were taken aback whenthey saw customs officialsentering the plane and carry-ing out an arrest and seizureoperation of two alleged goldsmugglers.

Customs officials hadinformation about two menwho were smuggling threekilograms of smuggled goldworth nearly �1crore on Friday,sources said. The accused per-sons, hail from Karnataka andTamil Nadu and were travellingin a flight from Chandigarh toNew Delhi, they said.

The customs officials atthe Indira Gandhi International(IGI) Airport here, who got thelast-minute input that the duowere carrying smuggled gold,rushed to Terminal 1 which isabout a 15-minute drive fromTerminal 3 of the internation-al airport, the sources said.After reaching Terminal 1,they went inside the plane, theysaid. The officials formed twoteams that entered the planefrom the front and rear sides.

After entering the plane,the customs officials asked allpassengers to remain seatedand support in the law and

enforcement action being takenup by them on Friday after-noon, one of the passengerssaid. "It all appeared to be amovie-like scene for me. Thecustoms officials caught twopassengers who were sitting on

separate seats. We all weresurprised to see the passengerswere carrying the gold," he said,after coming out the airport.The duo was later arrestedand the gold was seized, cus-toms officials said.

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Trying to smuggle foreigncurrency, a man was arrest-

ed for reportedly hiding $27,500 equivalent to INR�20,07,500 in the soles of hisworn-out sandals, policerevealed Sunday.

The accused was intendingto depart to Dubai, when hewas arrested on November 5,officials said on Sunday.Additional Commissioner ofCustoms (IGI Airport)Amandeep Singh said on thebasis of suspicion, the man wasmarked as Random Referraland checked.

"During inquiries, hisdetailed checking and exami-nation was done through open-

ing the stitches of the soles inhis worn-out sandals. Foreigncurrency amounting to $27,500 was stacked inside thesoles," Singh said.

"The recovered currencyhas been seized under customsact and the passenger has beenarrested,” he added.

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With the focus on rejuve-nation of culturally sig-

nificant cities, Vastu KalaAcademy, College ofArchitecture in associationwith Indira Gandhi NationalCentre for the Arts (IGNCA)organised a seminar on thetopic "Culture as a fourth pil-

lar of sustainable development"on November 10, 11 at IndiraGandhi National Centre for theArts (IGNCA).

A senior official of VastuKala Academy said the seminarattempts to highlight the intan-gible and tangible cultural her-itage of cities and try to find outways and means to balance thedevelopmental requirements,

people's aspiration and heritageconservation.

"The seminar also delib-erated on issues concerningprotection of temple art andarchitecture, role of museumsin changing society, and also tomake an attempt to formulatea mechanism by which the folktheatre, art, music and paintingsurvives,” he said.

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UNIVERSITY ALIGARHTender Notice No. building/2018/034.pdf

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There was no respite toDelhiites as air quality

remained in the “severe” cate-gory on Sunday owing tounfavourable weather condi-tions and a significant increasein contribution from stubbleburning from the ne, authori-ties said.

According to data fromthe Central Pollution ControlBoard (CPCB), the overall airquality index (AQI) wasrecorded at 423. The city's airquality was recorded in the“very poor” category onSaturday morning, but it againslipped to the severe level in theevening, an official said.

According to data fromthe CPCB, on Sunday, thePM2.5 (particles in the airwith a diameter of less than 2.5micrometres) level was record-ed at 299, while the PM10 (par-ticles in the air with a diame-ter of less than 10 micrometres)

level was recorded at 477.Overall 28 areas across thenational capital, recorded airquality in the “severe” catego-ry, while seven areas recorded“very poor” air quality, accord-ing to the CPCB.

According to the IndianInstitute of TropicalMeteorology, the increase in

PM2.5 concentration is due tostable meteorological condi-tions trapping of the pollutantsin Delhi (very less dispersion)and significant increase in con-tribution from stubble burning.

Stubble burning in neigh-bouring states of Delhi onThursday was the “largest-everrecorded” this year, the IITM

had said Friday, adding that itcould lead to a further deteri-oration in the already “severe”air quality of the national cap-ital. It said about 2,100 firecounts were observed onThursday over north westernregion of India.

Delhi's air quality hasremained in the “severe” cate-gory for the past two days withthe highest pollution level ofthe year recorded a day afterDiwali on Thursday at an AQIof 642. It may be noted that theEnvironment Pollution ControlAuthority (EPCA) has askedthe departments concerned toextend the ban on constructionactivities, industries using coaland biomass and entry oftrucks till November 12 inview of the situation.

An AQI between 0 and 50is considered “good”, 51 and100 “satisfactory”, 101 and 200“moderate”, 201 and 300 “poor”,301 and 400 “very poor”, and401 and 500 “severe”.

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ADeputy Director from edu-cation department of

North Delhi MunicipalCorporation has filed a casewith the economic offenceswing of the Delhi Police againsta school inspector rank officerof Narela zone for alleged mis-appropriation of �3.82 crore,Delhi Police said on Sunday.

A complaint has been filedagainst the inspector rank offi-cer for allegedly withdrawingand issuing cheques to his rel-atives, they said. According to acomplaint filed on November 8,the school inspector RajenderChaurasia of Narela zone hasmisappropriated municipalfund of �3.82 crore, a seniorpolice officer said.

The complainant told thepolice that Chaurasia, who wasauthorised signatory to someofficial education departmentNarela zone, has illegally with-drawn and issued cheques to hisrelatives from November 2016to March 2017, the officer said.

According to the complaint,the issued cheques were encasedby the accused and his familymembers and the incident cameto notice of audit department inits preliminary enquiry whichrevealed that around 3.82 crorewas embezzled, the officeradded. A case was registered,police said, adding the case isbeing investigated.

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Apart from securing trains,stations premises and the

tracks of metro stations, theCentral Industrial SecurityForces (CISF) have launched aninitiative/drive to provide aid toMetro passengers especiallywomen who are in distress anddepression. With saving thelives by rescuing around 200women in depression and sad-ness, the force has also savedmany lives by preventing thepassengers from attempting tocommit suicide.

Also, the CISF and theDelhi Metro Rail Corporation(DMRC) have recently con-ducted a joint survey to iden-tify stations that required auto-matic screen doors and othermeasures to prevent suicidecases on platforms.

“Till last year, our staffsobserved many passengers andhelped them but from thisyear onwards, we decided tolaunch this initiative formallyand have started compilingthe data. In every station, CISFconstables especially womencommandos both in uniformand plain clothes have beendeployed to help the passengerin need and also to preventthem from committing sui-cide,” said Hemendra Singh,Assistant-Inspector General

(AIG), also the spokesperson ofCISF, Delhi.

As per the data shared bythe CISF, a copy of which iswith The Pioneer, showed thata total number of 40 suicide/suicide attempt cases were reg-istered this year from Januaryto till September from whicharound 11 people were savedfrom attempting to commitsuicide and 15 persons weresaved on time and hospi-talised. However, around 15people ended their lives byjumping before the runningtrains.

“Apart from controllingthe CCTV cameras of Delhimetro stations, CISF have alsodeployed personnel called as'observers' to keep an eye onpeople who look disturbed

and are hovering near the plat-form when a train is likely toarrive.CISF inspectors, con-stables and commandos aretrained to observe the bodylanguage, behaviour and othersymptoms of a person or pas-senger travelling. Moreover,one can easily identify the pas-sengers in distress and depres-sion through their way of star-ing, walking and other symp-toms. Many times we havefound people sitting in thestair cases of stations and plat-form for hours,” said Singh.

Further, as per the data, theCISF have also handed overaround 95 missing children tothe parents, Delhi MetroRailway Police (DMRP) andchild help line through the sta-tion controller.

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Cash-strapped East DelhiMunicipal Corporation

(EDMC) has adopted austeri-ty measures, including restrict-ing or banning the leave trav-el concession, media and tele-phone reimbursements, studyleave, inaugurations, refresh-ments, etc to sustain itselffinancially.

Additional Commissionerof EDMC Dr Brajesh Singhsaid that the austerity measureshave been taken in wake of theacute shortage of funds withthe Corporation. He said thateven though the revenue col-lected by the civic body hasincreased but it is not sufficientenough to cover the acutefinancial deficit.

“The civic body has notreceived financial support fromthe Government as recom-mended by the Delhi FinanceCommission (DFC) that fur-ther led to financial imbroglio,”he said.

He further said the EDMCis forced to curtail its expendi-ture considering its poor finan-cial condition. The move isexpected to save up to Rs 40-50 crore in a year, he said.

Singh also said that therestrictions would be imple-mented for a period of one yearinitially as the DelhiGovernment has failed toimplement the recommenda-

tions of 4th and 5th DFC.“The government had releasedRs 280 crore last year in whichRs 140 cr was allotted for dis-bursement of salary andremaining Rs 140 cr was meantfor maintaining sanitationissues in its areas. But this year,no funds have been released inthese areas, forcing the civicbody to take austerity mea-sures,” he added.

Every year, the sanitationworkers of EDMC go on strike,demanding regular payment ofsalaries, clearance of dues andregularisation of sanitationworkers. With the regularstrike, the trans-Yamuna regionof the national Capital facesserious garbage disposal andhealth crisis.

EDMC sanitation workers

had gone on strike onSeptember 12 this year,demanding regular payment ofsalaries and regularisation ofworkers. Citing impediment inconducting its businesses, thecivic body had terminated theservices of 26 contractual san-itation workers and suspended17 others, with immediateeffect citing creating anobstruction in work. The deci-sion was revoked later afterworkers returned back to thejob.

Blaming the StateGovernment, EDMC mayorBipin Bihari had said that thecorporation is not able to payits employees and workerssince it has not received anyfunds from the DelhiGovernment.

Earlier in October thisyear, Delhi Chief MinisterArvind Kejriwal accused BJPled Municipal Corporation ofplaying dirty politics on sani-tation workers issues. TheDelhi government had said ithad released Rs 770 crore to theCorporation in the current fis-cal.

The EDMC annual deficithas increased to ?3,500 crore.It has been financially strappedsince its formation in 2012. Thecorporation has been unable toinitiate developmental workand failed in providing civicamenities in the scarcity offunds.

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The Forensic ScienceLaboratory (FSL) in New

Delhi is all set to procure a '3Dimaging scanner', a technolo-gy used by the United States(US) law enforcement agencyFederal Bureau ofInvestigation. With the initia-tive, the work of forensic crimeteams will become easier andprecise as the proposed scan-ner can capture every detail ofa crime scene.

The 3D scanner which cancapture the distance betweentwo walls of adjacent rooms,are in the final stages of thetender process and soon theywill get the modern technolo-gy, said a senior official atForensic Science Laboratory,Rohini.

The official also claimedthat the Rohini centre would bethe first agency in India to havea 3D camera scanner.

The official further saidthat a 3D imaging scanner cancapture even the minutestdetails of a crime spot. “A 3Dscanner analyses a real-world

object and the data collectedcan then be used to create dig-ital models of the object. Thiscan help in understanding theenvironment of a crime scenewith much more accuracy,” hesaid.

“After we will have the 3Dimaging scanner, we will placeit at a crime scene and a timerof say three minutes will be set.It is a rotating camera that willcapture the images of the crimescene and even the measure-ments of the room, the distanceof the body from the variouspoints in the room,” said anofficial of the FSL, Rohini.

For instance, if someoneclaims they did not hear any

suspicious sound when a crime-say a murder- was committedsince they were in the otherroom, the 3D scanner wouldeven help investigators ascer-tain if the person was lying ornot, he explained.

“The FBI uses this tech-nology. A 3D imaging scannerat the scene of a crime shallfacilitate the investigation aswell as prosecution to under-stand the details and evidencesavailable there,” he said.

It would be a major assetto provide real-time pictureand measurements which shallenable the investigation to pro-ceed scientifically, the officialadded.

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Despite repeated remindersto the private and private

unaided schools to fill up theseats by the Directorate ofEducation (DoE), the privateschools haven't been able toadmit the students for theadmission under the categoryreserved for the children withdisabilities. Around 1,270 seatsreserved for the admission ofthe children with disabilities arestill lying vacant.

Also, unhappy with theattitude of the private schoolbranches, the DoE in a recentmeeting decided to call forfresh online applications againstthe remaining vacant seats atentry level classes (Nursery,KGand Class-I) for the session2018-19.

Yogesh Pratap, DeputyDirector of education (PrivateSchool Branch) directed to runa message on the departmentalwebsite that online applicationis open for admission in privateschools till 15th Novemberunder children with disabilitiescategory. Tentative date for thecomputersied draw of lots isscheduled on 20th November.

“Directorate of Educationissued notification issued noti-fication twice in July andAugust regarding the reserva-tion of three percent seatsunder the Economically

Weaker Section (EWS) in pri-vate schools of Delhi for admis-sion of children with disabili-ties but despite inviting appli-cation against the availableseats twice, around 1270 seatsare still lying vacant, againstwhich no online application isavailable.

Thus the department hasdecided to call fresh onlineapplications against again fromthe aspirants of children withdisabilities as per the Rights ofPersons with disabilities Act,2016 against these reservedavailable seats present,” saidYogesh Pratap, deputy directorof education while issuing thelatest order to all the con-cerned managers and Head ofDepartments of Private schools.

There are more than 100schools situated across the citywhere admission will be doneagainst the remaining seats ofthe children with disabilities.

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Organisers of events likeweddings where celebra-

tory firing takes place wouldalso be held responsible for anymishap that may occur due todischarge of firearms, the DelhiHigh Court has said.

Justice Vibhu Bakhru saidthe person organising the eventhas to ensure that his or herguests do not dischargefirearms and ought to informthe police if celebratory firingtakes place. The court saidthat if the Government has notformulated guidelines on theissue, then till such normscome, “we need to fix respon-sibility on the person whoorganised the event”.

“Something should bedone by the person organisingthe event. If you are conduct-ing a ceremony where celebra-tory firing takes place, youwill be held responsible. Youcannot say that you did not askthem (guests) to bring theguns,” the court said.

It was hearing a pleamoved by the father of ateenage girl, who died as aresult of celebratory firing dur-ing a wedding near her housein April 2016. He has sought �50 lakh compensation from thegroom's family for the death ofhis daughter.

An equal amount of com-pensation has been sought byhim jointly from the Centre,

Delhi Government and thepolice. The groom and hisfamily have claimed that theywere unaware about any cele-bratory firing by the guests inthe wedding procession andthat they had no control overuse of firearms by others. Thecourt did not accept the con-tention.

“You (groom and hisfather) held the event and cel-ebratory firing took place there.These two facts are sufficient tohold you also responsible,” thecourt said. It also asked theCentre, Delhi Government andthe police to examine the issueof who would be responsiblefor compensation in such inci-dents and listed the matter forfurther hearing on January 16,2019.

According to the petitionof Shyam Sunder Kaushal, hisdaughter died due to alleged“carelessness and negligence” ofthe groom and his family inchecking the activity of one oftheir guests who had fired his

gun in the air, leading to thetragic incident.

He has said in his plea thathis daughter was standing inthe second floor balcony oftheir house watching the mar-riage procession go by, whenone of the guests fired his gunin the air and the bullet hit her.She succumbed to r injuries ata hospital three days later onApril 19, 2016, the plea said.

The petitioner has urgedthe court to “impose strict lia-bility” and consequently, makethe people, who are organisersof such events and who fail tocontrol such instances of cele-bratory firing by their guests, topay the compensation in suchcases.”

By refusing to stop theirguest from brandishing hisfirearm in public and causingthreat to the life of others, theorganiser of the event is failingto discharge his duty properlyand is guilty of gross negli-gence,” the petition hasclaimed.

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In order to stop the misuse ofthe provisions pertaining to

the registration numer plates,the Delhi TransportDepartment has issued guide-lines to preserve the registra-tion numbers of the stolenvehicles to stop its misuse.

After receiving complaintsregarding the retention of theregistration number of thestolen vehicles, the transportdepartment reviewed a part ofthe Motor Vehicle Act andissued a circular laying downguidelines for retaining regis-tration number of stolen vehi-cles, by putting a cap of 180days for such applications aftergetting an untraced reportfrom the police.

“This guideline is for thestolen vehicles as earlier therewas no such time limit forapplying to retain registrationnumber of stolen vehicles, andcomplaints of misuse of theprovision were received,” said

a senior Transport departmentofficial.

As per the circular, now avehicle owner can apply forretaining his stolen vehicleregistration number after lodg-ing an FIR and producing theuntraced report along withapplication for retention ofexisting registration number ofthe vehicle. The stolen vehicleshould be duly insured as onthe day of FIR, stipulates thestreamlined policy

“Also, vehicle owners willbe required to submit anundertaking that the matter ofclaim of the stolen vehicle withthe insurance company and thecourt case, if arises any, afterretention of registration num-ber will be their responsibility,”added the official.

Further as per the report,the time limit for the applica-tion for retention of registrationmark of a stolen vehicle can bemade within 180 days onlyfrom the date of untracedreport.

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Ayoga-based rehabilitationprogramme in patients

with heart attack is as safe andbeneficial as the conventionalcardiac rehabilitation therapy,says a new study.

The results of the five yearstudy were presented in theAmerican Heart AssociationScientific Session in Chicago onSaturday. It was funded by theIndian Council for MedicalResearch (ICMR) and MedicalResearch Council (UK).

The study compared theeffectiveness of Yoga basedCardiac Rehabilitation (Yoga-CaRe) with EnhancedStandard Care (ESC) inpatients with heart attack onclinical outcomes like death,recurrent heart attacks, stroke,heart related emergency hos-pital admissions and quality oflife, said Dr Ambuj Roy,Professor of Cardiology at theAIIMS.

The study found that Yoga-CaRe has the potential to be analternative to the convention-al cardiac rehabilitation (CR)programs and address theunmet needs of CR for patientsin India and other countries.

The study was conductedin 24 centres in India and cov-ered close to 4,000 patients ator immediately after dischargefollowing a heart attack.

The patients were ran-domized to undergo a struc-tured Yoga-CaRe programcomprising meditation, breath-ing exercises and selected heartfriendly yoga poses in additionto life style advices. The controlgroup received usual life styleadvice.

The trial demonstratedthat, Yoga-CaRe is safe, feasi-ble and significantly improvesquality of life, and return todaily activities similar to thatbefore the heart attack, DrRoy said.

Among those patientswho attended at least 10 or ofmore of the planned 13 yogatraining sessions, the Yoga-CaRe program was efficaciousin improving clinical outcomesby reducing death and lower-ing hospitalizations suggestinga potential dose-response rela-tionship.

Professor Prabhakaran,Vice President of the PublicHealth Foundation of India(PHFI) and PrincipalInvestigator of the study said

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A32-year-old man was shotdead by his friend while

they were drinking in a rentedflat in Rohini district'sSamaipur Badli. Police receivedinformation about the inci-dent at 4:30 am on Sunday. Theaccused Vijay (35) reportedlysurrendered to the police fourhours after the incident.

Police revealed that the32-year-old was identified asVirendra Yadav. Late night onSaturday, the victim Virendraallegedly went to his friend'srented flat in Rohini's SamaipurBadli area where they startedconsuming alcohol. Accordingto police, a call was received ataround 4:30 am on Sundayregarding a case of murder. Oninspection the body was foundin a pool of blood, police said.

“The victim had gone tohis friend's rented flat when theshooting took place. It is a sus-pected case of drunken brawl,”police said. According to police,there were alcohol bottles andglasses in the table indicatingthat there was someone else inthe house during the incident.

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Sukma/Bijapur: Crossingrivers barefoot, wading throughjungles just sanitised by theaccompanying security per-sonnel and even airdropped bychoppers into the Naxal-affect-ed interiors, many on poll dutyin Chhattisgarh feel like thereal-life version of the protag-onist from Bollywood darkcomedy "Newton", while somesay they feel more like a revo-lutionary such as Bhagat Singh.

They are public sectorundertaking (PSU) employ-ees, teachers, anganwadi andpanchayat workers, amongnumerous others braving thetreacherous terrain of the infa-mous Bastar region, whichappears even more dangerousafter a recent spurt in Naxalattacks ahead of the polls.

Many areas of Chhattisgarhwill vote for the first time in 20years, while some security andlocal administration officialsproudly declare that a few ofthose are yet to make it to theGoogle Maps.

Talking to them, theimmediate recollection is ofRajkumar Rao-starrer"Newton", a film that took asatirical look at the Naxal prob-lem through the eyes of a pollofficer.

From walking up to 10 kmsto crossing rivers and spendingnights in Naxal-hit areas, the

poll officers will have to go pastnumerous hurdles and facelife-threatening challenges todo their duty, but none ofthem is complaining.

A few of them admit thatthey are a bit afraid, but theyalso assert that they still wantto do this.

A 25-year-old anganwadiworker, the mother of twochildren, from Sukma district,says she is doing this for herfather and brother, both ofwhom were part of the SalwaJudum and killed by Naxals.

Salwa Judum (meaning"Peace March" or "PurificationHunt" in Gondi language) wasa militia mobilised anddeployed as part of anti-insur-gency operations inChhattisgarh, aimed at coun-tering Naxal violence in theregion. The militia, comprisinglocal tribal youth, received

support and training from theChhattisgarh government. Itwas banned by a SupremeCourt order in 2011.

"I always wanted to dosomething revolutionary likemy father, so I am doing this forhim and my brother. We needpeace and hopefully, a suc-cessful election will lead tothat," the woman, whose hus-band is in the police and whohas left her kids with her moth-er-in-law, said.

"This is no less than a rev-olution for me,” she addedwith tears in her eyes.

For another 22-year-oldpanchayat worker from Sukma,who has been asked to go to thehypersensitive polling booth atChintalnar, it is a moment ofpride as he will be the first per-son from his village to sit in achopper.

"I am the only person from

my block panchayat who is tak-ing part in this exercise as myother colleagues are married.Being a bachelor, I was chosen.I am scared, but it is okay as Iwill be the first person from myvillage to sit in a chopper," hesaid with a broad smile on hisface.

The poll parties going tothe hypersensitive booths onthe 80-km stretch fromDornapal to Jagargunda weremostly airlifted and hadreached their respective des-tinations a day or two beforethe poll ing day, SukmaCollector Jai Prakash Mauryasaid.

A teacher from Bijapurdistrict, in his late 30s, who isgoing to the Usur block on pollduty, said he belonged to a fam-ily of freedom fighters andwas always inspired by BhagatSingh.

"I always told my studentsin the village that you shoulddo something for the country.Now, it is my turn to do some-thing. If you ask me how do Ifeel, I don't know, but I mightbe doing something like whatBhagat Singh did," he said.

All the 437 polling boothsin Sukma and Bijapur districtshave been declared as "sensi-tive".

Bijapur Collector KBKunjam said about 80 polling

parties were airlifted and 76relocated to a safer position, butthere were still 40-odd boothsthat were extremely risky.

"Some of the poll officersconveyed to us that some of thepolling booths, including thosein schools, were painted withmessages of boycotting thepolls. So, we are making tem-porary arrangements," he toldPTI.

Both Maurya and Kunjamsaid some of the poll partieswere dispatched two daysbefore the polling.

Besides the local police,Central Reserve Police Force(CRPF) personnel and at someplaces, Border Security Force(BSF) and Indo-TibetanBorder Police (ITBP) jawanswould accompany them, theysaid, adding that necessarysecurity arrangements wereput in place.

"This election process islike a war for us against Naxals,but without guns and withvoting machines," Maurya said.

On the request of the dis-trict collectors, the names of thepoll officers have not beenmentioned.

The 90-memberChhattisgarh Assembly will goto the polls in two phases — onNovember 12 and 20 — andthe results will be announcedon December 11. PTI

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From Page 1The BJP had in 2013

secured a 44.88 per cent voteshare to Congress’s 36.38. A keystatistic again here is that theBSP had bagged 6.29 per centvote share. The BSP could proveto be a game-changer if it holdsonto its clout.

Madhya Pradesh has alsohad its share of twists with sev-eral switching of camps by var-ious leaders. Among the notableswitches, Sanjay Singh Masani,the brother-in-law of MadhyaPradesh Chief Minister ShivrajSingh Chouhan and senior BJPleader Sartaj Singh joined theCongress, while PremchandGuddu, a Dalit leader, joined theBJP.

Rajasthan seems to be a dif-ferent battleground from MPand Chhattisgarh as a key sta-tistic here is that since 1998, theCongress and the BJP havewon Vidhan Sabha electionsalternately, neither able to retainpower for consecutive terms.

In the 2013 Rajasthan

Assembly polls, the BJP hadwon 45.17 per cent votes, whilethe Congress had got 33.07 percent. However, voters here tra-ditionally haven’t elected thesame party to power for twoterms in a row and hence anti-incumbency is a major playerhere than other States.

Both Modi and the Gandhiscion have been crisscrossing allthe poll bound States, includingTelangana, for hectic cam-paigns. Polls in MP andMizoram will take place onNovember 28, while Assemblyelections in Rajasthan andTelangana will be held onDecember 7.

Inspector General of Police(Raipur range) Dipanshu Kabrasaid a team of the BorderSecurity Force (BSF) was out onan area domination operation inview of the polls on Mondaywhen Naxals blew up theimprovised explosive device(IED) in a forest in Kanker dis-trict, around 200 km from theState capital Raipur.

BSF sub-inspectorMahendra Singh was seriouslyinjured in the blast and he suc-cumbed to injuries while beingtaken to a hospital, said Kabra,who is the nodal officer for elec-tion-related security in the State.This is the fourth IED blast trig-gered by Naxals in Chhattisgarhin the last 15 days.

In another incident, aMaoist, clad in ‘uniform’ wasgunned down in an encounterwith security forces in Bijapurdistrict, located around 450 kmfrom here. The exchange of firetook place at a forest in Bedrearea when a team of the SpecialTask Force (STF) was out on ananti-Naxal operation, a seniorpolice official said. The body ofthe rebel and a rifle were recov-ered from the spot.

Helicopters have beenpressed into service for air-lift-ing EVMs, polling personneland polling materials to pollingstations in sensitive remoteareas, a senior police official ear-lier said.

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On Monday, the top court would also peruse thedecisions taken by Rao from October 23, includingtransfer of investigations and change of investigatingofficers and is expected to pass appropriate order onsuch decisions.

During the last hearing, the court had said a listof all the decisions taken by Rao between “October23, 2018 and up to this hour including decisions withregard to transfer of investigations, change of inves-tigating officer(s) etc will be furnished to the court ina sealed cover on or before November 12, 2018 whereafter orders as would be appropriate will be passed bythe court.” Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appear-ing for the CVC before the SC, had said the CVC hasbeen conducting an enquiry into the allegations madein the August 24 note/letter of the Cabinet Secretarywith regard to Verma.

“We want to see preliminary probe report in 10days to decide whether it requires further probe,” theBench had said and later extended the deadline to 14days when the SG argued for more time to completethe enquiry by the CVC.

Asthana has also moved the SC with a separatepetition in the matter challenging the Governmentdecision to divest him of his powers and send him onleave. In his plea, Asthana had also sought removalof Verma from the post of CBI Director.

From Page 1The aim is to deter the ter-

rorists, especially the foreignultras, from gaining upperhand in the fight against ter-rorism, they said. There are atleast 70 to 80 foreign ultras nowhiding in north Kashmir.

Attributing the high num-ber of terrorists killed this yearas compared to 217 for theentire last year to improvedintelligence inflow from thelocal police, they said it hascome about despite severalpolicemen targeted by the ter-rorists as a warning twomonths back. Officials saidthe real time intelligence hashelped the security forces,including the Army and para-

military, to launch operationssometimes within seven to 10minutes after getting the vitalclue about the whereabouts ofthe terrorists.

As regard the overall situ-ation in terms of terrorismrelated violence, 14 incidents ofattacks on Army camps tookplace this year but the Armyfoiled most of them. However,two incidents saw casualtiesincluding six soldiers killedwhen ultras managed to getinto an Army camp in Sunjwannear Jammu this year. One sol-dier was killed on Thursdaywhen terrorists fired from adistance at sentry on guardduty of 42 Rashtriya Riflescamp in Tral.

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Patna: Four minor girls used their'dupattas' as a rope to climb down thesecond-floor balcony of a govern-ment-funded shelter home in Patnaand escaped early Sunday, policesaid.

Of the four girls, who escapedfrom Asha Kiran Home For Girls inPatliputra colony, three are of 16years of age and the fourth was 12years old, SHO Tarkeshwar NathTiwary said.

The girls were brought to theshelter home last month.

Tiwary said the reason for theirescape would be investigated.

He said the security guard of thehome was inside the building whenthe girls escaped.

An FIR was filed by the shelterhome's authorities and police wereinvestigating the matter.

In April, reports of over 30 girlsand women being allegedly raped ata state-funded shelter home inMuzaffarpur had come to light,sending shockwaves across the coun-try. Reports of girls escaping fromshelter homes, however, continued.

While a woman fled from ashelter home in Patna on September24, two minor girls escaped fromanother government-funded short-stay home in Khagaria district onOctober 29. The woman who fledfrom the Patna shelter home waslater found. PTI

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Aizawl: The Election Commission of India (ECI) has iden-tified 32 polling stations in Mizoram as 'critical' and 38'vulnerable locations', the State's Joint Chief ElectoralOfficer Zorammuana said on Sunday.

The State will have a total of 1,164 polling stations forthe November 28 Assembly polls.

Along with the State armed police, 40 companies ofCentral Armed Police Forces (CAPF) would also bedeployed in critical polling stations and also in those atvulnerable locations, Zorammuana told PTI.

While the training for poll officials is on, the State elec-tion machinery is preparing to conduct free, fair and peace-ful polls as was done in the past.

Meanwhile, poll campaign in the state is in full swingwith candidates including Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla,former Chief Minister and Opposition MNF president Zoramthanga campaigning not only in theirrespective constituencies but also in other parts of theState.

Public meetings, joint platforms and door-to-door can-vassing were being held in almost all the places. PTI

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New Delhi: RK Sinha, Chairman of Hindustan Samacharagency and Member of Parliament, released Gandhi'sDelhi: April 12, 1912 to January 30, 1948 and beyond,authored by Vivek Shukla here on Sunday. "I hope thatmore and more such books would come that traces Bapu'sconnections with other cities," Sinha said.

Vivek Shukla said, "My book tells that Delhi was anoth-er Noakhali for Gandhiji. After quelling riots in EastBengal, he went on a fast to put moral pressure on mis-creants in Delhi post partition of India in 1947. His fasthad a magical impact and riots were controlled here." PNS

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Aizawl: The MizoramGovernment has proposed thenames of three IAS officers, asdesired by the ElectionCommission (EC), for the postof a new chief electoral officer(CEO) in the State, an officialsaid on Sunday.

The poll panel had asked theState Government to suggest thenames after it decided to replaceCEO S B Shashank, who hadcourted controversy in the poll-bound State. The names sug-gested by the Government were— Lalhmingthanga, HLalengmawia and KLalthawmmawia — the officialsaid on the condition ofanonymity.

He also said DeputyElection Commissioner SudeepJain, who led the second ECteam to Mizoram Friday, hadtold officials that it would take

two-three days to select andappoint a new CEO.

Jain had also assured theNGO Coordination Committeeleaders — who were spear-heading the movement againstShashank — that the CEOwould be replaced and the Bruvoters housed in Tripura reliefcamps would exercise theirfranchise from Mizoram, whichwere the primary demands ofthe organisation.

The EC had initiated theprocess of finding an alternativeto the Mizoram CEO onSaturday. An EC spokespersonhad said in New Delhi that thepoll panel had "only decided tocall for a panel of names for thepost of the State CEO from thechief secretary of Mizoram".Shashank had reportedly soughtdeployment of additionalCentral Armed Police Forces

(CAPFs) in the north-easternstate and complained to the ECthat the state's former principalsecretary, LalnunmawiaChuaungo, was interfering in thepoll process. Chuaungo, a nativeof Mizoram and a Gujarat-cadre IAS officer, was relieved ofhis duties earlier this month.

Thousands of people took tothe streets and picketed in frontof Shashank's office for twodays since Tuesday.

The protesters, under theaegis of the NGO CoordinationCommittee, had also set anultimatum for Shashank to leaveurgently, prompting the EC tosend the first team to the Stateon Tuesday. Shashank leftMizoram Wednesday after beingsummoned by the chief electioncommissioner in Delhi, whichresulted in the withdrawal of theagitation. PTI

��/��1�5�� !�=�'��!!� ��!��>6�� New Delhi: The BJP on

Sunday announced its candi-dates for 131 of the 200 seatsof the Rajasthan Assemblywith Chief MinisterVasundhara Raje being fieldedfrom her traditional seat ofJhalrapatan.

The names wereannounced by senior partyleader J P Nadda following ameeting of the BJP centralelection committee which wasattended by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and its presi-dent Amir Shah besides othertop leaders.

Raje also attended themeeting.

The party has also fieldedits Lok Sabha MP Sona RamChoudhary in the assemblypoll and given tickets to 12women.

Party sources said about 25sitting MLAs have beendropped and 85 incumbent

legislators have been repeated."Party candidates for all

the seats we're discussed in themeeting. Names of other nom-inees will be announced soon,"Nadda told reporters.

The BJP is facing a strongchallenge from a resurgentCongress in the State with theOpposition party winning anumber of bypolls in the lastcouple of years.

A number of opinion pollshas also given an edge to theCongress but the BJP has insist-ed that it will be able to repulsethe Opposition's challenge.

The saffron party underRaje had won a whopping 163of the 200 Assembly seats inthe State in 2013, giving theCongress its worst ever drub-bing at its hands.

The State has for the lasttwo decades has seen theincumbent party losing theassembly polls. PTI

Chandigarh: Haryana ChiefSecretary D S Dhesi said onSunday it was unfair to blamethe State for Delhi's poor airquality, saying that crop residuewas burnt only on one per centof the total sown area of paddy.

Dhesi alleged that the roleof Haryana was being adverse-ly publicised regarding the pol-lution in the National CapitalRegion.

"But, actually, crop residuewas burned on only two percent area of total sown area ofpaddy in Haryana during (the)last year whereas this year, thecrop residue was burned ononly one per cent area," he saidin Hisar, according to an offi-cial release.

Dhesi said the role ofHaryana and its farmers wasnegligible, but rumours werebeing spread in this regard. "Itis being projected that farmersof Haryana are burning cropresidue in each and every agri-cultural field."

The chief secretary said inHaryana, paddy crop was main-ly sown on 13 lakh hectares areain 10 districts.

"As per the data receivedfrom HARSAC (Haryana SpaceApplications Centre, Hisar) thecrop residue burning caseswere reported on 12,473 placesin the state in 2017.

"Similarly, this year suchcases were reported on 7,273places which is only one percent of the total area," he said.

Dhesi added that cropresidue-based compressed biogas plants would be establishedKurukshetra, Kaithal and Jind.Apart from this, an MoU hasbeen signed between the IndianOil Corporation and RenewableEnergy Department, underwhich crop residue would bepurchased from farmers forthese plants and energy wouldbe generated out of it. PTI

8 ��9�� 2��6��(��&�� +9��%��%�Hyderabad: AIMIM leader

Akbaruddin Owaisi has claimedthat his life is under threat andalleged that 11 people from dif-ferent parts of the country hadarrived in Hyderabad to "kill"him.

Addressing a public meetingon Friday, Akbaruddin said hehad received "threat" letters andphone calls from some people,saying that they would kill him.

"Again they are telling theywill kill...I got letters and phonecalls that Akbar Owaisi... We willkill you.

He claimed that he came toknow from reports that 11 peo-ple from Banaras, Allahabad andKarnataka have arrived in thecity to kill him.

"I am ready to die. I amready to take a bullet on mychest and not on my back,"Akbaruddin , who is contestingfrom ChandrayanguttaAssembly constituency here forthe December 7 assembly polls,said.

He recalled the April 30,2011 incident when he wasattacked by a group of peoplehere with sharp weapons andfirearms near the MIM office atBarkas and said he had survived,despite being shot thrice.

"I was not killed despitebeing hit by three bullets.Willyour bullets kill me?" theyounger brother of AIMIMchief and Hyderabad MPAsaduddin Owaisi, said. PTI

New Delhi: Over 140 Pakistanis are visit-ing the tomb of Sufi saint Sheikh AhmadFarooqui in Sirhind this year to pay theirobeisance during the annual Urs, thePakistan High Commission said on Sunday.

The traditional 'chaddar' on behalf ofthe people and the government of Pakistanwas offered at the shrine Sunday withPakistan's High Commissioner to IndiaSohail Mahmood travelling to 'SirhindSharif ' to take part in the chaddar-layingceremony, along with the pilgrims fromPakistan.

This year, 144 Pakistani pilgrims arevisiting Sirhind in connection with theannual Urs celebration and to pay obei-sance at the shrine, the Pakistan HighCommission said in a statement.

The Pakistani envoy held an interac-tive session with the Pakistani pilgrims,who shared their observations and sug-gestions.

The high commissioner highlightedthe role of visits to religious shrines(under the 1974 Protocol) in the contextof people-to-people exchanges betweenPakistan and India, the statement said. PTI

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Jaipur: Former Union minister Arun Shourie onSunday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi andBJP president Amit Shah of creating an atmosphereof "intolerance" in the country.

"Modi and Shah have created an atmosphereof intolerance in the country. Media should thinkabout its implications and should openly speakabout this," Shourie said at a programme at PinkCity Press Club here.

He said when leaders create such an atmos-phere, local goons too follow them in acts like gag-ging media but the media should throw light onthem.

In the age of internet, he said, journalists shouldfind ways to reach out to maximum number of peo-ple, reveal truth and raise voice on matters of pub-lic good.

Targeting the Modi-led central government ondemonetisation, Shourie, a former BJP leader, saidthe exercise to junk a bulk of currency in circula-tion in November 2016 was the "biggest moneylaundering scheme".

The Government has defended the decision,saying it helped increase the tax base and formalisedthe Indian economy. PTI

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For effective implementationof the Real Estate Act, the

Housing and Urban AffairsMinistry will hold a day-longworkshop for home-buyers,bank representatives, buildersand other stakeholders fromnorthern States on Thursday.

According to the official, theparticipants from the northernStates, including Uttarakhand,Uttar Pradesh, Haryana,Himachal Pradesh and Punjab,will discuss issues pertaining tothe legislation of 2016, whichprovides proper protection tohome-buyers.

The Real Estate (Regulationand Development) Act wasenacted by Parliament and Stateswere given powers to notify theirrespective rules and appoint

regulatory authorities.The official said home-buy-

ers can raise issues pertaining todelay in delivery of flats in theworkshop. The legislation pro-vides for timely delivery ofhousing units by builders whoseprojects are registered under it.

“It has been two years sincethe legislation was enacted byParliament. We want all stake-holders — banks, regulatoryauthorities, home-buyers andbuilders — to discuss issues per-taining to its implementation,”the official said. Similar work-shops had been organised inPune and Chennai earlier.

Till last month, 13 States andunion territories have appoint-ed a permanent regulator, while14 have interim regulators.Kerala is in the process of settingup a regulator. As many as 22

States and union territories havefunctional web portals under thelaw. As many as 32,923 realestate projects have been regis-tered under the legislation acrossthe country. Also, 25,247 realestate agents have been regis-tered under it. The official saidthat barring West Bengal, sixnortheastern States and Jammu& Kashmir, all states and unionterritories have been imple-menting its provisions.

In the Northeast, ArunchalPradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur,Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkimhave not notified the legislationand its rules so far due to land-related and other issues. WestBengal has notified its own realestate act — the Housing andIndustrial Regulation Act, 2017(HIRA) — instead of imple-menting the central law.

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Congress on Sunday accusedPrime Minister Narendra

Modi of benefitting “friends” bypromoting private and cronycapitalists at the expense ofpublic institutions anddemanded an independentjudicial probe into the new ‘59-minute loan scheme’ for theMSME sector.

Alleging the scheme a“scam”, Congress leader GauravVallabh demanded that theaffairs of portalwww.Psbloansin59minutes.Com, processing loans to smallindustries, be fully investigat-ed and its contract with theGovernment cancelled. Therewas no immediate responsefrom either the Government orthe PMO or the ruling BJP overthe charges made by theCongress.

Prime Minister Modilaunched a new facility for

micro, small and mediumenterprises (MSMEs) along-side a slew of measures for thesector, which, Vallabh said,incidentally has been batteredfor a long term due to demon-etisation in November 2016.

He said a platform to facil-itate quick loans was launchedon November 2, 2018 with“pomp and promotion showtypical in nature of varioustypes of propaganda of thisGovernment”. The Congressleader alleged that the web por-tal is supported by public sec-tor institutions such as SIDBIand PSU banks as partners,even though it is owned byAhmedabad-based privatecompany CapitaWorldPlatform Pvt Ltd.

He alleged that the com-pany is charging �1,000 andanother �180 as GST fromeach small industry registeredon its website and so far lakhsof entities have been “cheated”

by it. Based on the euphoricresponse, if 1 million MSMEsapply for the same, the saidcompany stands to gain �100crore for lead generation, hesaid and asked, “Should aGovernment scheme beallowed to enrich private par-ties?”

“The Congress partydemands that the agreementwith a private party(CapitaWorld) to ‘loot’ MSMEsector should be cancelledwith immediate effect and anenquiry on the role of PrimeMinister’s Office and FinanceMinister in this ‘massivefinancial fraud’ should be ini-tiated by an independent judi-cial body,” Vallabh toldreporters.

“To benefit his ‘friends’,Prime Minister Modi has givena contract to manage the‘www.Psbloansin59minutes.Com’ to Ahmedabad-basedCapitaWorld private limitedand the company was incor-porated on March 30, 2015 andas per financial year 2017 itsincome is �15,000 odd withoutany operations till then,” hesaid.

He also alleged that itschief executive officer has been

a part of Modi’s poll campaignin 2014 general elections, whohas now been “benefitted” inthis form.

The Congress leader saidthe company was valued at�19.216 crore pre-investmentas of April 2018 and based onthis valuation nine entities,including SIDBI, Bank ofBaroda and SBI, invested �22crore into this company for 54per cent shareholding and itspost-investment valuation is�41 crore.

Vallabh said the RBI hasraised red flags on bad loans,cyber security and bank fraudsand such “euphoric schemes”initiated by the Government isfraught with very high risks.

SIDBI has, however,claimed that CapitaWorld —the company behind the ‘loanin 59 minutes’ portal launchedby Modi last week — is a pub-lic-sector firm. Public sectorunit (PSU) institutions have anoption to increase stake from56 per cent to 74 per cent in thefuture. “A consortium of sixpublic banks led by SIDBI held56 per cent in the fintech com-pany Capita World which gaveit a public sector character,”SIDBI tweeted.

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National Commission forMinorities chief Ghayorul

Hasan Rizvi on Sunday saidRam temple must be built inAyodhya so that Muslims canlive “peacefully” and “respect-fully”. Rizvi also stressed that thedispute should be resolved soonto help strengthen ties betweencommunities.

Some Muslim organisationshad sought the panel’s inter-vention in the Ayodhya title suitcase, Rizvi said. The commissionin its November 14 meeting willdecide whether to approach theSupreme Court for an earlyhearing on the matter or not, headded.

“The National MinorityWelfare Organisation and someother outfits have sent us reportsthat the Muslim community inthe country is living in fear. Theyhave urged the commission totake an initiative to improve thecurrent atmosphere,” Rizvi said.

“During the November 14meeting, we will hold discus-sions on the matter. But, as it issub-judice, we can only urge the

apex court for an early hearing,”he said.

Rizvi further said that theorganisations wanted Muslimsto help in the construction ofRam temple at the disputed siteand make sure that no such con-troversy erupts in future again.The minority panel chief alsomade it clear that there was nopossibility of building mosquesor offering namaz in Ayodhya.

“Even I believe that inAyodhya, neither mosques canbe built, nor namaz can beoffered. The place has a senti-mental value for 100 croreHindus,” Rizvi said. “Therefore,Hindus must be allowed tobuild a Ram temple there(Ayodhya) so that Muslims canlive peacefully, respectfully andwithout any fear while con-tributing to the development ofthe nation,” he added.

New Delhi: The Indian AirForce is “very much alive” toemerging threats that couldarise in the Indo Pacific region,Air Chief Marshal B S Dhanoasaid on Sunday, and assertedthat his force was prepared todeal with any challenge to pro-tect India’s national interests.

He also said there is causefor concern over the rate ofmodernisation and inductionof new equipment in India’sneighbourhood, even as Indiafaces challenges emanatingfrom “unresolved territorialdisputes” and “sponsored” non-state and transnational actors.But the IAF is capable of, and

is moving ahead, for counter-ing them effectively, he told PTIin an interview.

Asked whether the IAFcan play a role in smashing ter-rorist training camps across theLine of Control in Jammu &Kashmir, he did not rule outsuch a possibility.

“The IAF is well equippedto take on threats which occurfrom across the border, be it inthe realm of sub conventionalor other domains,” the AirChief Marshal said.

Referring to India’s imme-diate security challenges, with-out naming China andPakistan, he said, “The current

challenges emanate from unre-solved territorial issues, spon-sored non-state actors andtransnational actors who actagainst national intereststhrough the global commons.”

“The IAF is prepared 24x7for any threat and is ready fora befitting response to anycontingency with all our avail-able assets,” he told PTI.

Dhanoa also made an indi-rect reference to China’s rapidmodernisation of its air forceand also about the infrastruc-ture development Beijing hascarried out in the TibetAutonomous Region (TAR)bordering India.

“The IAF is well equippedto take on challenges across theentire range of threats thatcould emanate across our bor-ders. While there is a cause forconcern as regards to the rateof modernisation and induc-tion of new equipment in ourneighbourhood, the IAF isnevertheless, moving aheadwith appropriate measures tocater to these new develop-ments,” he said.

Asked whether the IAFwas capable of playing a role toexpand India’s geo-politicalinfluence in the Indo-Pacificregion, he replied in the affir-mative and talked about IAF’s

capabilities including havingthe second largest fleet of C-17s.

“We have the secondlargest fleet of C-17s in theworld. Therefore, India willpull its heft in helping outfriendly nations in times ofhuman distress and humani-tarian relief. In addition, theIAF is very much alive to theemerging threats that couldarise in the Indo Pacificregion,” he said. At present, theIAF has a fleet of ten C-17Globemasters, used for strate-gic airlift missions, transport-ing troops and cargo for long-range missions. PTI

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In the wake of a clashbetween Army and police

personnel in ArunachalPradesh’s Bomdila town,Union Minister Kiren Rijiju onSunday said both the institu-tions should respect each otheras they are serving the nation.

In a Facebook post, Rijijusaid the Army is country’spride which secures “ourmotherland” and police are thepillar of internal security.

“We must respect bothgreat institutions. Every indi-vidual and institution func-tions under a system governedby law... Let’s respect andstrengthen each other,” hewrote. The Minister’s com-ments came in the wake ofsome soldiers allegedly van-dalising the Bomdila policestation, and assaulting policepersonnel and civilians lastweek.

During a visit toArunachal Pradesh, DefenceMinister Nirmala Sitharamanand Rijiju took stock of the sit-uation arising out of the clash-es between Army and policepersonnel.

“Our uniform people sac-rifice their personal comfortand family for thenation...There are always ele-

mentary human errors whichcan be taken care of and thematter will be resolved. Iappeal everyone not to jumpinto the matter with loosecomments without knowingthe facts with prejudice mind-set (sic),” he said.

Rijiju, who hails from theState, said the “spontaneous”decision of the DefenceMinister to visit Bomdila,where she interacted with localpeople and district adminis-tration, has “generated a hugegoodwill” among the resi-dents.

Sitharaman met local peo-ple during a visit to ArunachalPradesh to celebrate Diwalialong with soldiers posted inthe forward areas along theSino-Indian border. In aTwitter post, the UnionMinister of State for homesaid that due to “indecorous”acts at individual level, a “rep-

rehensible” incident took placebut the whole institutions can’tbe dragged along.

“My constituency peopleare peace loving. But some out-side elements are making hate-ful comments on social mediawithout any factual knowl-edge,” he tweeted. The Bomdilaincident occurred when agroup of soldiers allegedlymisbehaved with civilians andpolice personnel at the BuddhaMahotsav celebrations lastweek, officials said.

Following this, the localstation house officer went tothe spot and two soldiers werebrought to police station. Afterthat some soldiers allegedlyvandalised the Bomdila policestation, assaulted police per-sonnel and civilians, they said.

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Air India on Sunday ground-ed its chief of operations

Captain AK Kathpalia after heallegedly failed to clear pre-flight alcohol test. Kathpaliawas to operate the airline’sLondon-New Delhi flight onSunday afternoon.

Sources said that Air Indiahad to call another pilot toreplace him and operate theflight (AI-111) which depart-ed after a delay of 55 minutes,causing inconvenience to pas-sengers. “We have groundedCapt A K Kathpalia as he failedtwice in the breath analyser test.He was to operate the Londonflight from New Delhi, but hefailed to clear the pre-flightalcohol test,” said soures.

“He was given anotherchance, but the second test wasalso found positive followingwhich he was grounded,” hesaid. Air India spokespersonhowever was not available forcomments on the matter.

Rule 24 of the AircraftRules prohibits crew membersfrom partaking any alcoholicdrink 12 hours prior to thecommencement of a flight,and it is mandatory for him/herto undergo an alcohol testboth before and after operating

a flight.The prescribed punish-

ment for such offences underthe DGCA rules is suspensionof flying licence for threemonths in case of first breach.For violating the norms for a

second time, the licence is sus-pended for three years and fora third time, the licence is per-manently cancelled.

Earlier, Kathpalia’s flyinglicence was suspended in 2017for three months by theDirectorate General of CivilAviation (DGCA) for alleged-ly skipping the breath analysertest before a flight. He was sub-sequently removed from thepost of executive director, oper-ations. However, he was laterappointed to the post of direc-tor (operations) in Air IndiaLtd for a period of five years. Asenior official at the DGCAsaid that a decision onKathpalia’s flying licence isexpected to be taken onMonday.

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Prime Minister NarendraModi will inaugurate two

major national highways andan inland waterways project athis parliamentary constituen-cy, Varanasi, on Monday. Thetwo roads have a combinedlength of 34 km and have beenlaid at a cost of �1,571.95crore. The 16.55-km VaranasiRing Road Phase-I has beencompleted at a cost of �759.36crore, while the four-laning andconstruction of 17.25-km-longBabatpur-Varanasi Road onNH-56 has cost �812.59 crore,read a statement from the PM’soffice.

The Babatpur AirportHighway will link Varanasi tothe airport and go on to linkJaunpur, Sultanpur andLucknow. With the flyover atHarhua and a road over bridge(ROB) at Tarna, the new road

plan will reduce travel timefrom Varanasi to the airport,providing relief to the localsand tourists coming here, thestatement said.

The Ring Road, with twoROBs and a flyover, is expect-ed to reduce traffic, fuel usageand pollution on NH 56(Lucknow-Varanasi), NH 233

(Azamgarh-Varanasi), NH 29(Gorakhpur-Varanasi) andAyodhya-Varanasi highway, thestatement said.

Further the ring road isexpected to provide smoothroad access to Sarnath, arenowned Buddhist pilgrimagesite. On the day, at a separateevent, the prime minister will

inaugurate the first multi-modal waterways terminal onthe Ganga river as part of theCentre’s Jal Marg Vikas Projectwhich aims to develop thestretch of the river betweenVaranasi and Haldia for navi-gation of large vessels weighingup to 1,500 to 2,000 tonnes, anofficial statement said.

The objective of the projectis to promote inland waterwaysas a cheap and environment-friendly means of transporta-tion, especially for cargo move-ment. The Inland WaterwaysAuthority of India (IWAI) is theproject implementing agency.

National Waterway-1(Haldia-Varanasi stretch) isbeing developed with technicalassistance and investment sup-port from the World Bank.

The total estimated cost ofthe project is �5,369.18 crore,which will be shared betweenthe Government of India and

the World Bank on a 50:50 ratio.The project entails con-

struction of three multi-modalterminals (Varanasi, Sahibganjand Haldia), two inter-modalterminals, five roll-on-roll-off(Ro-Ro) terminal pairs, newnavigation lock at Farakka,assured depth dredging, inte-grated vessel repair and main-tenance facility, differentialglobal positioning system(DGPS), river information sys-tem (RIS), river training andconservancy works.

Operation, managementand further development of theterminal is proposed to beentrusted to an operator onpublic-private partnershipmodel and selection of theoperator through an interna-tional competitive bidding is atan advanced stage and isexpected to be completed byDecember, an official state-ment said.

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Muzaffarnagar: Four uniden-tified persons were on Sundaybooked for the alleged murderof a 2013 Muzaffarnagar riotsaccused, police said.

The body of Ram Das aliasKala (30), bearing a bulletinjury, was found from hishome in Kutba village here.

Circle Officer (CO)Hariram Yadav said the policeregistered a case after a com-plaint was filed by the victim’sbrother, Sanjiv who alleged thatthe four assailants had come onmotorcycles and shot his broth-er. Meanwhile, security wasbeefed up in and around thecommunally sensitive villagewhere eight people had report-edly died and several left injuredduring the 2013 riots.

Extra police personnel weredeployed as a precautionarymeasure to prevent any unto-ward incident, officials said.

The communal clashes inMuzaffarnagar and adjoiningareas in August and September2013 had claimed more than 60lives while over 40,000 peoplewere displaced. PTI

#��&�� &;�� %%&�� New Delhi: Candidates failing

to put out advertisements list-ing their criminal records dur-ing electioneering could facecontempt of court proceedingsand those publishing wronginfo about their rivals’ crimi-nal antecedents could end uppaying penalty for indulging incorrupt practices, the ElectionCommission has said.

Following a SupremeCourt direction, the poll panelhad on October 10 made itcompulsory for candidatescontesting polls to advertisetheir criminal antecedents inTV channels and newspapersat least three times duringelectioneering.

The directive comes intoforce in the Assembly electionsin five States — MadhyaPradesh, Rajasthan,Chhattisgarh, Mizoram andTelangana — in November-December.

According to the directive,political parties too will haveto publicise criminal records oftheir candidates.

In a set of ‘frequentlyasked questions’ issued forthe five poll-bound States, the

commission has made it clearthat candidates who do nothave criminal record or ongo-ing cases, need not issueadvertisement.

It said the candidates andtheir parties would have tobear the cost of advertise-ments and it would form partof their election expenditure.

To the question “whathappens if such candidates orsuch political parties do not publicise in the mannerprescribed”, the commissionsaid, “Such failure may be aground for post-electionaction like election petition orcontempt of Hon’ble SupremeCourt.”

Any candidate or voter of

a constituency can file an elec-tion petition in the High Courtof that State challenging theelection of the winning can-didate.

On the issue of “someonepublishing false informationabout criminal cases of anoth-er candidate”, the EC saidthere are already provisions todeal with any case of publica-tion of false statement in rela-tion to a candidate, includingSection 171G of the IndianPenal Code which deals withcorrupt electoral practices andprescribes a fine for suchoffences. PTI

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Aryama Sundaram will besmiling on November 13,

Tuesday, when he appearsbefore the Constitution Benchon behalf of the TravancoreDevaswam Board, (the KeralaGovernment department thatadministers the temples in theState) to argue why the apexcourt verdict allowing womenof child bearing age intoKerala’s Sabarimala Templeshould stay.

Aryama Sundaram, senioradvocate, is the grandson of SirC P Ramaswamy Aiyar, the for-mer Dewan of the princelyState of Travancore who wasphysically assaulted and drivenaway from Trivandrum by theCommunists. November 13also marks the 139th birthanniversary of Sir CPRamaswamy Aiyar (Sir CP tofriends and acquaintances)making it a sweet revenge forSundaram.

The Communists may beperforming an atonement forthe sins they committed againstSir CP in 1947 by pleading withhis grandson to save themfrom a major embarrassment.In their over enthusiasm toimplement the court verdict,the CPI-M led Government hasbecome thoroughly unpopu-lar with the devotees.

On September 28, aConstitution Bench led by thethen Chief Justice of India

Dipak Misra had lifted thelong standing ban on the entryof women in the child bearingage to the temple in a 4-1 ver-dict. Devotees includingwomen had come out andstaged rallies against the verdictin Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

Various organisations hasfiled pleas in the apex courtchallenging the September 28verdict. The court will hear thepleas on Tuesday because thefestival season of Sabarimalacommences on November 17.The shrine had witnessed mas-sive protest against the move bythe CPI(M)-led KeralaGovernment to allow womenin the temple.

More than 4,000 devoteeshave been arrested under var-ious section of the IPC to pre-vent untoward incidents. TheTravancore Devaswam Boardhas sought the services of SirCP’s grandson to argue in thecourt in support of theSeptember 28 verdict.

Travancore witnessedunprecedented economic andsocial development during SirCP’s tenure as the Dewan(1936-1947). Sir C P acceptedthe post of Dewan on the con-

dition that all temples in theprincely State should be thrownopened to the untouchableswho hitherto were not allowedinside temples. “It was at theinstance of Sir CP the templegates were thrown open for thelowers castes on November23, 1936, the birthday of thethen Maharaja of Travancore,”reminiscences Dr NandithaKrishna, Sir CP’s great grand-daughter.

Sir CP who saw throughthe evil designs of theCommunists and took anuncompromising stance againstany kind of anti-developmentactivities. He suppressed theviolent uprising organised bythe Communists against theState under the pretext of agrar-ian agitation which later earnedthe sobriquet of PunnapraVayalar Struggle. The Leftsretaliated by deputing a partyworker to assassinate Sir CPwho was seriously injured dur-ing an attack on him on July 25,1947. Later, after ensuring thatthe State of Travancore wasacceded to the Union of India,Sir CP submitted his resigna-tion as Dewan and leftTrivandrum on August 18,1947 for Coonnor.

The Marxists in Keralakeep on attacking Sir CP, whopassed away in 1966. Thosewho had participated in thePunnapra- Vayalar agitationslater conceded that it was a ployby the Lefts to tarnish theimage of Sir CP.

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Afarmer on Sundayattempted suicide by con-

suming pesticide at a publicgathering of Gujarat ChiefMinister Vijay Rupani inPransli village of Gir Somnathdistrict, some 400 kilometresform here, police said.

Mashribhai Dodiya wasupset with local authorities forfailing to remove an encroach-ment on a panchayat land at theentrance of his farm in Dolasavillage in Kodinar taluka of thedistrict, Gir SomnathSuperintendent of Police RahulTripathi said.

"Someone has illegally cap-tured a panchayat plot outsidethe agricultural land belongingto the farmer, making it hardfor him to enter his own land.Orders had already been issuedby the collector to remove theencroachment but local author-ities have not acted upon it," theSP added.

Dodiya consumed pesti-cide as soon as CM Rupanistarted addressing the public atthe village where he earlierinaugurated a new marketingyard, Tripathi said.

"The victim was held by thepolice deployed at the venueand rushed to a governmenthospital in Veraval. Doctorshave said his condition is sta-ble," he said.

Dodiya told reporters thatthe encroachment of the pan-chayat land, which he claimed

was the handiwork of the landmafia, had made it difficult forhim to enter his own farm.

"Some land mafia closedthe road leading to my farm byencroaching upon a land. I hadapproached the chief minister,who had ordered that theencroachment be removed, butnothing has happened so far,"Dodiya said.

"I have made repeatedappeals to the village Panchayatofficials and the taluka devel-opment officer (TDO) but invain. Fed up of runningaround, I decided to end mylife," he told reporters at thehospital.

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Union Minister and RLSPchief Upendra Kushwaha

Sunday said he would appriseBJP chief Amit Shah of the"humiliation" he had suffered atthe hands of Bihar ChiefMinister and JD(U) supremoNitish Kumar.

Kushwaha said he wouldalso request Shah to clear the"confusion" over seat-sharingamong the National DemocraticAlliance (NDA) constituentsin the State at the earliest.

Before leaving for NewDelhi, the Rashtriya LokSamata Party (RLSP) chief toldreporters at the airport herethat he had sought an appoint-ment with Shah.

Kushwaha said he metRam Vilas Paswan, the presi-dent of NDA constituent LokJanshakti Party (LJP), earlier inthe day and the latter con-curred with his view that seat-sharing talks should be held atthe earliest, involving all thecoalition partners.

Kushwaha has reportedlybeen peeved after the BharatiyaJanata Party (BJP) and theJanata Dal (United) decided tocontest an equal number ofseats in the 2019 Lok Sabhaelection in Bihar.

The state sends 40 mem-bers to Parliament and after theBJP-JD(U) deal, there is spec-ulation that this would meanfewer seats for other allies likethe RLSP and the LJP.

Kushwaha is also unhappywith Kumar for his alleged"neech" statement. It was madeat a television programme abouta week ago when the JD(U)

chief had refused to commenton reports that the RLSP mightend up getting fewer seats thanit had fought and won in the2014 Lok Sabha polls.

Kushwaha took exceptionto Kumar's response that com-menting on the issue would"lower the standard of thediscourse". The UnionMinister has alleged that theremark is tantamount to himbeing called "lowly".

RLSP supporters took outa protest march here Saturday,demanding an apology fromthe Chief Minister.

"During my meeting withShah, I intend to raise both theissues — seat sharing as well asthe humiliation by NitishKumar," Kushwaha said.

He has been maintainingthat his party has a tie-up onlywith the BJP and not with theJD(U).

"I also discussed the issue ofseat-sharing with Paswan. Hetoo was of the opinion that for-mal talks on seat-sharing, tak-ing all NDA constituents inBihar on board, ought to be heldat the earliest in order to dispelconfusion," the RLSP chief said.

Paswan's son and LJP par-liamentary board chairman

Chirag Paswan had recentlysaid his party would like tocontest the same number ofseats it had done in the last LokSabha polls, but he was readyto make a "sacrifice" in the larg-er interests of the NDA.

Kushwaha, however, hasbeen maintaining a stubbornstance, pointing out that anydemand for sacrifice by theRLSP was irrational as of all thecoalition partners, only hisparty was denied a ministerialberth in the NDA Governmentin Bihar, formed after theJD(U)'s return to the alliancelast year.

A former JD(U) leader him-self, Kushwaha had quit theparty in 2013 and floated hisown outfit. He had joined theNDA at a time when Kumar hadsnapped ties with the BJP andhas been viewing the JD(U)'sreturn to the coalition last yearwith much consternation.

The opposition GrandAlliance — comprising theRashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), theCongress and the HindustaniAwam Morcha — too has beentrying to woo Kushwaha intoits fold.

Meanwhile, RLSP MLASudhanshu Shekhar met JD(U)national vice-presidentPrashant Kishor, triggeringspeculation of a major crisis inKushwaha's party.

The RLSP had won twoseats in the 2015 BiharAssembly polls. The otherMLA of the party, LalanPaswan, has already sided witha dissident group headed byJehanabad MP Arun Kumar.Shekhar has so far remainedloyal to Kushwaha.

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The terror infrastructure inPakistan remains intact and

around 160 terrorists are wait-ing across the Line of Control(LoC) to infiltrate into Indianterritory, a senior Army officersaid on Sunday.

Lieutenant General ParamjitSingh, who took over as the gen-eral officer commanding of theNagrota-based White KnightCorps, commonly known asXVI Corps, also said that cross-border terrorism will stop onlyif Pakistan changes its policy andintentions.

The officer, involved inthe planning of the 2016 sur-gical strikes on the terrorinfrastructure in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir, told PTIin an interview that the Armywas not letting up on "ourpreparedness and the

counter-infiltration grid isstrong enough to deal withinfiltrators".

Lt. Gen. Singh, who hasserved in all three regions ofJammu and Kashmir, said, "140to 160 terrorists at differentlocations in Pakistan are beingpushed into the state."

"The terror infrastructureis intact, and Pakistan's inten-tions have not changed. ThePakistan Army and the ISI'scomplicity in planning infil-tration and terror attacks isevident and it continues," theofficer, who has a vast expe-rience in high-altitude war-fare, said.

To a question on the situ-ation along the LoC, he saidceasefire violations have abat-ed after the DGMO-level talks.

"For troops on the LoC,there is no ceasefire... Thoughperiodic unprovoked firing by

the Pakistan Army andattempts to cause harm to for-ward posts continue. We do notinitiate fire, but we give it backin adequate measure. There isno let up on preparedness andour counter-infiltration gridis strong to deal with infiltra-tors," he said.

Talking about challengesduring winter, Lt Gen Singh,

who is part of the eliteParachute Regiment (SpecialForces), said the Army antici-pates that Pakistani troops willmake an attempt to push infil-trators through heavy snow-bound areas and non-tradi-tional routes.

"We have all contingencyplans ready. We have coordi-nated with all security agencies,and plans are being imple-mented smoothly," said Lt GenSingh, who commanded a spe-cial forces' battalion that par-ticipated in the surgical strikesafter the attack on an Armybrigade in Uri in 2016.

Referring to the recentincident of firing of 107-mmrocket on the Poonch brigade,he said, "Despite DirectorGeneral of MilitaryOperations-level talks in Mayduring which the two countriesagreed to abide by the 2003

ceasefire agreement, Pakistanitroops targeted these loca-tions."

"In response, we conveyedthat Pakistan must exercisecaution before indulging inany misadventure," Lt GenSingh said.

Replying to another ques-tion about causalities sufferedby Pakistani troops in retalia-tory fire by the Indian Army,the officer said, "Pakistan hasnever been open about itscausalities unless the soldier isfrom Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir".

As Major General GeneralStaff at the NorthernCommand headquarters, Lt.Gen. Singh played a pivotal rolein strategising militaryresponse to agitations thaterupted in 2016 after the killingof Hizbul Mujahideen com-mander Burhan Wani.

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The Jammu & KashmirPolice on Sunday claimed

to have busted an inter-Stategang of drug smugglers byarresting two persons alongwith 26 kg of high-qualitycannabis in Samba district.

Acting on a tip-off, a vehi-cle was stopped for checking atMansar Morh and the allegeddrug peddlers were arrestedafter the narcotics was foundconcealed in specially-designed chambers inside thebody of the car, a policespokesperson said.

A case under the NarcoticDrugs and PsychotropicSubstances Act has been regis-tered, the spokesperson said,

adding that more arrests wereexpected.

Meanwhile, in Rajouridistrict, two persons weretaken into preventive cus-tody on Saturday for theiralleged involvement in unlaw-ful activities, the spokesper-son added.

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Itanagar: Defence MinisterNirmala Sitharaman on Sundaypitched for dialogues betweenIndia and China on variousissues, saying differencesbetween the two nations shouldnot be allowed to become dis-putes. Both India and Chinashould respect each other andresolve issues through dia-logues and join hands togeth-er for peace and prosperity,Sitharaman said. There are various issues such asdefence, border disputes, bordertrades and presence of Indianand Chinese defence forces inthe Indian Ocean which can beresolved through continuousdialogues, the minister said.

"Competition is normal,but contest must not turn intoconflict. Differences shouldnot be allowed to become dis-putes, she said here.

"Solution lies in dialogue,solution lies in peaceful engage-ment. But for this, mutual trustshould be there." However, sheadded, mutual recognition ofsensitivity in each countryshould be respected and resolvedthrough dialogues. Sitharamanwas delivering the seventhmemorial lecture of former RSSactivist from Arunachal Pradesh,Rutum Kamgo, on the theme:'Towards Bridging the Indo-China Relationship for anEmerging Asia'.

On a proposal of ChiefMinister Pema Khandu foropening up border trade withChina through Bum La Pass,Sitharaman said trade was pos-sible with the border villages ofboth the countries, like the cur-rent border haats at Nathu La inSikkim and Moreh in Manipur.

However, she added, thebalance of trade between the

countries was in favour ofChina. "Trade between Indiaand China is done in large scaleamounting to USD 80-90 bil-lion. But, sadly, we are pur-chasing from them in hugequantities. But, for our prod-ucts, their market is not open."

"We have several productslike telecommunication, vegeta-bles, tea, soya, raw sugar, phar-maceuticals etc in which Chinaevinces keen interest," thedefence minister said, addingthat there were certain areaswhere both the nations couldcooperate, especially in con-taining terrorism and promotingsustainable development. Theminister termed India and China

the growth engines for the entireworld, saying that emergence ofboth the countries would pavethe way for an emerging Asia.

"Peace, security and devel-opment in Asia are possiblewhen India and China are devel-oped. Development of both thenations is possible only whenthere is mutual respect andunderstanding among the twocountries." She quoted PrimeMinister Narendra Modi as say-ing that both the countriesshould follow the mantra ofsamman (respect), sambad (dia-logue), sahyog (cooperation),shanti (peace) and samriddhi(prosperity) for development.

PTI

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Chennai: A deep depression inthe bay of bengal has intensi-fied into a cyclonic storm andis likely to cross the NorthTamil Nadu and South AndhraPradesh coast betweenCuddalore and Sriharikota onNovember 15, regional weath-er office here said on Sunday.

The cyclone, christened'Gaja', which lay around 860kms northeast of Chennai andmoving at a speed of 12 kmphis likely to intensify into a'severe cyclonic storm' withinthe next 24 hours, a bulletinissued at 4 PM said.

Gales reaching 80-90 kmsper hour was likely over TamilNadu, Puducherry and AndhraPradesh.

Speaking to reporters, AreaCyclone Warning CentreDirector S Balachandran saidcoastal areas of north TamilNadu would experience mod-erate rainfall and heavy rainfall

in isolated places from thenight of November 14.

"On November 15, manyplaces will receive moderaterainfall and isolated places willget heavy rainfall."

Fishermen have beenadvised not to venture into thesea from November 12 andthose already in deep sea havebeen asked to return.

The Indian meteorologi-cal department however saidthe storm is likely to weakengradually while crossingtowards north Tamil Naduand south Andhra Pradeshcoasts as a 'cyclonic storm'during forenoon of November 15.

Listing out measurestaken to face the cyclone,Revenue AdministrationCommissioner K Satyagopaltold reporters in Tirunelvelithat medical teams were onstandby in all districts. PTI

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Pakistani Army Sunday car-ried out yet another sniper

attack in Nowshera sector ofRajouri in which one Indianjawan sacrificed his life. In a briefstatement the Indian armytermed it a 'grave' provocationwhile assuring befitting response.

The 'sniping' incident,how-ever, triggered fresh firing inthe forward area with Indianside choosing to retaliate'strongly' and 'effectively' inresponse to the extreme provo-cation from the Pakistani side.

This is the third incident of'sniping' in a row in last threedays. At the time of filing thereport, tension prevailed inforward area along the line ofcontrol in the region.

The Indian army is alsoanticipating spike in infiltrationbids by heavily armed terroristsfollowing closing down ofmountain passes in the higherreaches of North Kashmir owing

to fresh snowfall in the area. Intelligence reports have

also reported presence of largenumber of trained terrorists inthe launching pads close to theline of control. According toDefence Spokesman Lt-ColDevendra Anand, "Pakistanarmy resorted to an 'unpro-voked' ceasefire violation inNowshera sector around 2.45p.m in which 29 year old NaikGosavi Keshav Somgir, injuredcritically, later succumbed tohis injuries". He hailed fromNashik district in Maharashtraand is survived by his wife.

Meanwhile, 21 year oldRifleman Varun Katal, mar-tyred in Sunderbani sector on

Saturday, was cremated withfull military honours in hisnative village in Samba.

His mortal remains wereescorted in a big procession bylocal villagers. Holding tricolourin their hands the villagersshouted slogans against Pakistanand hailed Indian army for giv-ing them a befitting reply.

Rifleman Varun, survivedby his father had last interact-

ed with him on saturday short-ly before he was targeted by asniper fire from across the lineof control. He had promised hisfather to return home soonahead of the marriage cere-mony of his elder sister.

A civilian porter deployedby the Indian army had alsosuccumbed to his injuries afterhe was hit by a sniper fire inAkhnoor sector on Friday.

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The minimum temperaturesincreased across Jammu

and Kashmir on Sunday as theweather office forecast rainand snow for the next threedays in the state.

"There is a likelihood oflight to moderate widespreadrain and snow beginning fromMonday," an official of theMET department said.

"The spell is likely to beless severe than the previousone witnessed here on

November 3."The overnight partial cloud

cover has helped in theimprovement of temperatures

in the state.The minimum tempera-

ture was 3.2 and 13.5 degreesCelsius in Srinagar andJammu cities respectively,while Pahalgam recorded 0.7and Gulmarg minus 3.5degrees.

Leh town recorded minus1.3 and Kargil 6.6 as the night'slowest.

In the Jammu region, Katrarecorded 12.4 degrees Celsius,Batote 7.6, Bannihal 4.6 andBhaderwah 4.3, the MET offi-cial said.

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Former Karnataka Ministerand mining baron Gali

Janardhan Reddy was arrest-ed by the Central CrimeBranch on Sunday in the�600 crore fraud case. Hewill now be produced to themagistrate. The CCB hasarrested Reddy in connectionwith Ambidant Marketing pvtLtd 'bribery' case.

Janardhan Reddy is accusedof taking a �20-crore bribe tobail Syed Ahmed Fareed,accused in a ponzi scheme case,out from the EnforcementDirectorate investigation.

The investigating agencysaid they have also arrestedReddy's aide Mehfuz Ali Khan,who had allegedly struck a�20-crore deal with SyedAhmed Fareed of AmbidantMarketing Pvt Ltd to bail himout from the ED investigation.

After remaining elusive forthree days, the former Ministeron Saturday appeared beforethe police in connection withan alleged ponzi scam, anddenied the allegations as a"political conspiracy".

Earlier on Saturday Reddysaid he never panicked as nei-ther his name figured in theFIR nor was any notice servedon him.

Reddy who had dramati-cally appeared before the CCBpolice on Saturday was arrest-ed and interrogated for alleged-ly shielding a father-son duowho have been accused of run-ning a ponzi scheme in thename of 'Islamic Banking'.

The CCB police confirmedhis arrest and produced himbefore a magistrate's residencein Bengaluru on Sunday. TheAdditional CP Alok Kumar ofCCB said "We have taken thedecision to arrest him on thebasis of credible evidence andwitnesses statements. We aregoing to recover the (Ponzischeme) money and give it tothe investors."

On Saturday before his

dramatic appurtenance beforethe CCB investigating officersReddy released a recordedvideo to the media and claimedinnocence. In his recordedmessage from an unknownlocation along with his lawyer,Reddy denied all allegationsand said it was a political con-spiracy. He said he was notabsconding and very much inthe city. Reddy asserted thatthere was no need for him toflee as he was clean.

Reddy allegedly shielded afather and son, accused in the�954-crore Ponzi scheme, frombeing investigated by theEnforcement Directorate (ED)for alleged money launderingin violation of the ForeignExchange Management Act(FEMA). Reddy was on con-ditional bail since January 2015in the multi-crore mining scamthat rocked Karnataka in 2012.The then BJP Chief MinisterYeddyurappa had to resigndue to the illegal mining scam.

The CCB has also arrestedReddy's close aide, Ali Khan,who had allegedly struck �18-crore deal with the accusedduo - Syed Ahmed Fareed andhis son Syed Afaq Ahmed ofAmbident Marketing Ltd, acity-based company that ran thePonzi scheme and duped about15,000 investors by launderingtheir money from Dubai.

The ED had earlier thisweek charged the duo withrunning a potential Ponzischeme offering huge interest

to investors in the name of'Islamic banking'.

"Investigation revealed thatAmbidant has been operatinga potential Ponzi scheme andduping thousands of investorsin the name of Islamic bankingand a 'Halal' investment," saidED in a statement here.

According to ED sources atransaction of �18 crore wastracked and revealed that themoney was sent to RameshKothari, owner of AmbikaJewellery. The money was thenrouted to another man namedRamesh, who owned a jew-ellery store in Bellari inKarnataka. The source con-firmed that after police inter-rogation, Ramesh said that themoney was given to JanardhanaReddy's personal assistant Aliin the form of gold bars.

Since inception onDecember 20, 2016, the com-pany received cumulatively awhopping �954 crore as invest-ments under Haj/Umrah andUltimate plans.

"We have written to theReserve Bank of India (RBI) tohave a re-look into the schemeto protect the interests ofinvestors/depositors beingduped by the company," said anED official in the statement.

The Ponzi scheme is to col-lect huge money by companiesfraudulently from depositorspromising high interest rate butuses it to pay heavy interest ondeposits raised earlier fromanother set of investors.

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The BJP is not makingmuch headway in West Bengaland its desperation is similar tothat of a turtle turned upsidedown, Trinamool CongressSecretary General ParthaChatterjee said on Sunday.

He charged that theBharatiya Janata Party, in itsdesperation, was makingprovocative statements in orderto gain a foothold in the state.

His comments came a dayafter West Bengal BJP women'swing chief Locket Chatterjeewarned that those trying tostop the party's scheduled 'rathyatras' in the state will be"crushed under the wheels ofthe chariot".

"Be it Locket Chatterjee,Dilip Ghosh (state BJP chief),or Rahul Sinha (BJP NationalSecretary), they always makesuch destructive comments.Their condition is like that ofa turtle turned upside down. Itkeeps throwing its limbs in theair but that is of no use," saidChatterjee, who is also theEducation Minister.

The BJP has planned three'rath yatras' from three parts ofWest Bengal which would con-verge in Kolkata after travellingacross the State.

BJP President Amit Shah isscheduled to flag off the 'yatras'on December 5, 7 and 9.

"Sometimes they are talk-ing about killing our men,sometimes they want to crushpeople under the chariot. It isevident that the BJP is gettingdesperate as it is not able tomake much headway inBengal," the Trinamool leader said.

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In what could be a worryingsign for the Goa BJP, former

state RSS chief SubhashVelingkar, an arch rival of ChiefMinister Manohar Parrikar, onSunday announced his plungeinto electoral politics.

The announcement comesat a time when the the state BJPas well as the BJP-led coalitiongovernment in Goa are facingimmense flak over the contin-uance of ailing Parrikar asChief Minister despite beingtreated for advanced pancreat-ic cancer for the last ninemonths.

"I will be actively workingfor the Goa Suraksha Manch,"Velingkar told reporters inPanaji.

Asked if he would be con-testing the upcoming bypolls inGoa's Shiroda and Mandremconstituencies which have beennecessitated due to resignationsof Congress MLAs from bothseats, Velingkar said the deci-sion would be taken at "theappropriate time".

He also said that consider-ing the political chaos in thestate, following Parrikar's illnessand comfortable numbers inthe Assembly still eluding theBJP, the Goa Assembly wouldbe dissolved and fresh pollswould be announced in Goaalong with Lok Sabha electionsin 2019.

Velingkar, 66, has served asthe state RashtriyaSwayamsevak Sangh chief formore than two decades and isconsidered responsible for thepolitical grooming of the stateBJP's top leaders includingParrikar, Union Minister ofState for AYUSH Shripad Naikand former Chief MinisterLaxmikant Parsekar.

He was sacked from theRSS in 2016 after he took onParrikar, who Velingkaraccused of backstabbing the

principles of both the Sangh aswell as BJP.

Velingkar later foundedand mentored the GoaSuraksha Manch, a rightwingconservative political partywhich considers the BJP itskey rival.

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Ailing Goa Chief MinisterManohar Parrikar on

Sunday underwent a routinecheck-up at a state-run hos-pital near here, a statementissued by his Office said.

"The Chief Minister under-goes routine check-up at theGoa Medical College," it said.

Parrikar is suffering fromadvanced pancreatic cancerand has been in and out ofhospitals in Goa, Mumbai,New York and Delhi for near-ly nine months.

He returned from NewDelhi's All India Institute ofMedical Sciences on October14 and has not moved out ofhis private residence, for anyofficial event since.

The Opposition has beendemanding Parrikar's resig-nation, claiming that theadministration has come to astandstill due to his absence.

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It is probably the first timethat Rashtriya Swayamsevak

Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwatand Prime Minister NarendraModi will be in Varanasi on thesame day on Monday, and theyare likely to have a brief meet-ing against the backdrop of2019 Lok Sabha election withfocus on Ram Mandir.

Bhagwat has alreadyarrived in the temple city whilePrime Minister Narendra Modiwill be arriving on Monday.

The Prime Minister is slat-ed to inaugurate the Ring Roadand the Babatpur airport roadin Varanasi besides dedicatingto the nation the InlandWaterways Terminal on riverGanga.

The RSS will be holding asix-day meeting in Varanasifrom November 11 toNovember 16. Bhagwat will bein Koirajpur to discuss theRSS ideology and nationalismwith workers of the organisa-tion. The issues of Ram templeand Lok Sabha poll will also bediscussed.

RSS workers from six statesalong with senior leaders of theorganisation will be attendingthe meet.

“This is a chance that Modiand Bhagwat will be inVaranasi together for a fewhours on Monday. There is alllikelihood that the RSS chief

and the PM may have a briefmeeting,” a senior RSS leadersaid.

“The meeting will be sym-bolic so as to send a messageacross the eastern UttarPradesh and Bihar that PrimeMinister enjoys the backing ofthe RSS,” he said.

Varanasi has been the ful-crum of political activities ineastern UP and Bihar. Themessage from Kashi has far-reaching significance andtherefore the backroom man-agers of RSS and BharatiyaJanata Party are trying for abrief meeting between Modiand Bhagwat. They also wantsto make it a photo-op.

Security has been tightenedin the city in view of both theprogrammes while SpecialProtection Group has takenover the security of the venuesto be visited by the PrimeMinister.

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With activities hotting up inAyodhya over the issue of

construction of Ram temple andleaders of Shiv Sena regularly vis-iting Karsewakpuram, UttarPradesh government spokesmanand Health Minister SidharthNath Singh said that everyonewas welcome in Ayodhya butbefore paying obeisance to RamLalla, they should understand themeaning of Ram rajya.

“We welcome leaders of allpolitical hues in Ayodhya. Thisgovernment has imposed norestriction on ‘darshan’ of RamLalla. But we expect leaders vis-iting Ayodhya to understandthe ethics of Ram rajya and

support the government inMaharashtra,” Singh said in anoblique reference to SanjayRaut’s visit to Ayodhya.

This will be the third visitof senior Shiv Sena leaderSanjay Raut, who is also thespokesman of the party. It isbelieved that Shiv Sena chiefUddhav Thackeray is alsoexpected to visit Ayodhya soon.

“The law and order situationin Uttar Pradesh is very good.Whosoever tries to disturbcommunal peace will be severe-ly dealt with. The leaders arewelcome in UP but they shouldnot give vitriolic statements,”Singh said here on Sunday.

Meanwhile, activities haveintensified in Ayodhya over the

proposed ‘dharma sansad’ to beheld there on November 25.

Besides Ayodhya, similar‘dharma sansads’ will be held inBengaluru and Nagpur. It willbe followed by a ‘dharma sabha’in New Delhi on December 9.

Vishwa Hindu Parishad’ssenior leader Champat Raireviewed the preparation forthe ‘dharma sansad’ inAyodhya. Local Member ofParliament Lalloo Singh,Mayor Rishikesh Upadhayaand local legislator of theBharatiya Janata Party held ameeting with VHP leaders.The ‘dharma sabha’ will beheld at Panch Kosi ParikramaMarg from 12 noon onNovember 25.

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Lucknow: To give impetus tothe Ram Mandir movement,Bajrang Dal has started a‘trishul diksha’ campaign toraise a dedicated force that canact when required.

Under this campaign, over10,000 Bajrang Dal activistshave been given ‘diksha’.Bajrang Dal is the youth wingof Vishwa Hindu Parishad.

VHP secretary of AwadhPrant, Devendra Mishra, con-firmed that so far 10,000Bajrang Dal activists of theAwadh region had been given‘trishul diksha.’

“At present we are concen-trating only on Awadh regionbecause Lucknow is the heartof this region. If needed, theBajrang Dal activists of otherregions would be imparted thesame training,” Mishra told‘The Pioneer’ here on Sunday.

He said that as the agitationin favour of Ram Mandir con-struction gathered pace, theVHP would be needing youthswho could come out on theroads within stipulated time.

“Therefore, we are nowconcentrating on Awadh regionby giving ‘trishul diksha’ toBajrang Dal activists of theregion,” the VHP leader said.

The Awadh region com-prises 12 districts but for theVHP it has 25 zones.

Incidentally, VHP stoppedits ‘trishul diksha’ campaignafter the Dara Singh incident ofOdisha in 2006, though everyyear, firearms training campsare held at various venues.

In 2016, the firearms train-ing camp was held in Ayodhya,and it sparked a major contro-

versy. In 2017, the camp washeld in Hardoi.

Last year, the VHP hadlaunched a membership driveunder which over 10 lakhyouths were enrolled in BajrangDal. The criteria for new mem-bership was that the personshould be in the age group of15-35 years and swear by theideology of ‘Seva, Suraksha,Sanskar’.

Muslims were not enrolledin the Bajrang Dal but werewelcome in Rashtriya MuslimManch, the Muslim cell ofRashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.However, Christians were notaccepted in any RSS orBharatiya Janata Party wing.

The issue of ‘ghar vaapsi’,protection of Hindu communi-ty and opposition to ‘love jihad’,besides service to the poor anddowntrodden are some of theprime activities of Bajrang Dal.But now its focus is only on theconstruction of Ram temple.

“We are not discussing anyother issue other than con-struction of Ram temple,”Mishra added.

He said the governmentwas left with one option — ofbringing a legislation for con-struction of Ram temple.

“Every Hindu is now ques-tioning why there is a delay inconstruction of the Ram tem-ple,” Mishra added.

He agreed that the gov-ernment could face some prob-lems in the Rajya Sabha (for thepassage of such legislation) asit does not have the requirednumber but it could go for ajoint sitting of the two Housesof Parliament. PNS

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Thiruvananthapuram: Thewife of a CPI-M Minister inKerala on Sunday quit her postin the University of Kerala fol-lowing criticism that her hus-band played a role in gettingher the job.

Jubilee Navaprabha, wifeof Public Works Minister G.Sudhakaran, told the media that a section in KeralaUniversity was out to malignher husband after she applied and got selected forthe post.

"I retired as Vice Principalof SD College at Alappuzha.I saw the (University) adver-tisement and applied. Thenour detractors said the postwas tailor made for me," she said.

"My husband has a veryclean track record and wehave been together for the past36 years. After hearing all theallegations, I decided to dumpthis job in the dustbin. I amquitting. For us, it is not thejob that matters but my hus-band's credibility," saidNavaprabha.

After her retirement asVice Principal, she wasappointed the Director at theDirectorate of ManagementTechnology and Educationthat oversees the functioningof autonomous colleges underKerala University.

Earlier, IndustriesMinister E.P. Jayarajan had toquit in 2016 following reportsthat he had appointed his rel-atives in state-run organisa-tions. Early this year, he wasreinstated after the court gavehim a clean chit.

IANS

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AJaish-e-Mohammad (JeM)terrorist from Pakistan was

killed in a shootout on Sundayafter the ultras attacked a secu-rity forces party in Handwaraarea of Kupwara district ofJammu and Kashmir, policesaid.

"In the afternoon hours, agroup of terrorists while mov-ing through Handwara wasintercepted by a naka partynear Chattipora which led toa brief exchange of gunfire,"a police spokesman said.

He said in the gunfight, amilitant was killed.

Some arms and ammuni-tion and incriminating mate-rial were recovered from theslain terrorist who was identif ied as Ishtiyaaq from Pakistan, the spokesmansaid.

"Ishtiyaaq was affiliatedwith proscribed terror outfitJeM and was involved in aseries of terror attacks on secu-rity establishments and manyother civilian atrocities in thearea," he said.

Police have registered acase and initiated investigation,the spokesman said.

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Tamil Nadu Chief MinisterK. Palaniswami on

Saturday wondered why DMKleaders didn't take up checkdams being built across Palarriver with Chandrababu Naiduwhen he visited M.K. Stalin'shome on Friday.

On Friday the AndhraPradesh Chief Minister metStalin at DMK leader's residencein Chennai for forging opposi-tion unity against the BJP for the2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Palaniswami said if theDMK really cares about TamilNadu and its people, it should

have raised the issue of checkdams across the Palar.

Queried about AIADMK'sopposition to Vijay-starring'Sarkar' movie, Palaniswamisaid the issue has been settled.

Palaniswami, however, saidthe movie industry is "suckingthe movie-goers' blood by sell-ing Rs 100 ticket at Rs 1,000"during the initial couple of daysafter the movie's release.

Refuting the allegation thatAIADMK cadres tore the ban-ners of the movie, Palaniswamisaid since the general public alsoopposed some of the scenes inthe movie, the producer and thedirector agreed to remove thosescenes.

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Jammu: A group of Kashmirimigrant pandits on Sundaystaged a sit-in here demandingstrict action against those whomurdered a community mem-ber on the eve of his daughter'smarriage, officials said.

Dilip Langar (59) wasallegedly stabbed to death bythree youths on Wednesdayafter he objected to a fightbetween two groups of men atK K Resorts, where his relativeswere staying for the marriageof his daughter the next day.

All the three accused werearrested later. On Sunday, a theprotesters including familymembers of the deceased gath-ered at the exhibition groundhere demanding severe punish-ment for the culprits and mon-etary compensation for thebereaved family. NationalConference provincial presidentDevender Singh Rana joined theprotesters and expressed soli-darity with them. "The death inmost tragic and has shocked thesociety of Jammu as a whole.Such sort of lawlessness is wor-risome for all," said Rana, theMLA from Nagrota constituen-cy where Langar resided. PTI

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China is a country full ofdichotomies. Take Buddhism.On one side, China promotesBuddhism; on the other hand,Beijing severely represses the

Buddha dharma. On October 28, theWorld Buddhist Forum opened with fan-fare at Putian, in Fujian Province. Accordingto the official release, it was attended by arecord number of over 1,000 Buddhistmonks, scholars and representatives from55 countries. Zong Xing, Vice President ofthe Buddhist Association of China (BAC)and Xiao Hong, a deputy secretary of theChina Religious Culture CommunicationAssociation (CRCCA), the joint hosts, gavea press conference.

Xiao announced that the forum want-ed “to carry forward the positive Buddhistcultural spirit, promote exchanges betweenBuddhism and other religions and makecontributions to building a community witha shared future for humanity.” That soundsgood. One of the themes of the meet was“Buddhism and the Belt and Road Initiative(BRI)”, a project dear to President XiJinping. A couple of weeks earlier, the GlobalTimes had reported that a two-day sympo-sium in Qinghai Province discussed the wayBuddhism could better serve the BRI andresist separatism.

The website tibet.cn noted: “Guided bythe core socialist values, the symposiumaims to encourage Tibetan Buddhism toadapt to the socialist society and teach thereligion to serve the construction of the BRI.”Was the Fujian Forum a great success? Itdoes not appear so reading the rare com-ments which appeared in the ChinesePress. One of the problems was that MasterXuecheng, the BCA president and Abbot ofLongquan Temple in Beijing, had to resignin a hurry in August.

The 52-year-old was accused to havecoerced nuns into having sex, overseen ille-gal construction work and embezzledfunds. The claims were made in a 95-pagedocument published on July 31; it imme-diately went viral on Chinese social media,bringing support to China’s #MeToo move-ment. It is not that Xuecheng was not well-connected with the Communist Party; hewas a member of the Chinese People’sPolitical Consultative Conference (CPPCC),but in the present days, even tigers fall(President Xi had warned the ‘tigers’ and the‘flies’ that he would not accept corruption).

One of the BCA’s Vice Presidents wasGyaltsen Norbu, the Chinese-selectedPanchen Lama. He made a timid appear-ance on the first day. He spoke on, “to livetogether in harmony through the MiddlePath”, a purely religious topic; Norbuemphasised a common future for human-ity and the fact that the creation of a ‘com-mon-destiny community’ is more andmore accepted the world over. He men-tioned the Buddhist precepts of living in

symbiosis, equality, tolerance,compassion and harmony: “Weare one family living in the samehouse,” he said. There was noword of praise for Xi.

His presence was hardlyreported by the Chinese media,probably because he did noteulogise Xi Jinping and he ‘for-got’ about the BRI in his speech.The only big shot was YouQuan, director of the UnitedFront Work Department, whichlooks after religious affairs forthe Party’s Central Committee.He hoped that “Buddhist com-munities would look deeperinto Buddhism values and con-tribute wisdom to promotingthe well-being of humanity andsafeguarding world peace.”

Here comes the dichotomy.While Beijing promotesBuddhism’s humanitarian pre-cepts, it takes repressive mea-sures against Buddhist practi-tioners. For the third consecu-tive year, the authorities banneda major Tibetan prayer festivalin Larung Gar, the largestBuddhist institute in Tibet, sit-uated in Serthar County in theGarze Tibetan AutonomousPrefecture of Sichuan Province.The monastery had a popula-tion of 30,000 Buddhist nunsand monks before it was par-tially destroyed by the ‘author-ities’ last year.

According to Radio FreeAsia (RFA), a Chinese officialannounced that the DechenShingdrup festival would bebanned this year. He citedChinese ‘religious affairs man-agement laws’. Further, out-siders should not be invited toLarung Gar. A source told RFA’s

Tibetan Service: “The noticeadvised village leaders andChinese Communist Partycommittee members to informthe public that they would notbe allowed to enter the villagefor any religious events. …Inpast years, when it was allowed,the festival lasted for a wholeweek.” Human Rights Watchpublished a new report on the‘Four Standards Policy’ recent-ly introduced in the TibetanAutonomous Region (TAR).The ‘standards’ are competencein Buddhist studies, politicalreliability, moral integrity capa-ble of impressing the public andwillingness to play an active roleat critical moments. In otherwords, be good CommunistBuddhists.

Sophie Richardson, Chinadirector at Human RightsWatch, commented: “Chineseauthorities have always placedheavy constraints on religiousfreedom, especially in Tibetanand other minority regions,compelling Tibetan monks andnuns to be propagandists for theCommunist Party takesGovernment intrusion in reli-gion to abhorrent new levels.”

The new policy is a contin-uation of the 2005 Regulationson Religious Affairs but withmore oppressive clauses. OnOctober 25, the Global Timessaid that the TAR Governmentwas encouraging Tibetanmonks and nuns “to learn aboutthe laws, a move experts hailedas using education to raise localpeople’s legal awareness.”

Tibet’s Department ofJustice announced that “profes-sional working teams organised

by the regional department ofjustice taught the monks aboutlegislation and law enforce-ment in the region. …Teams arecomposed of prestigiousmonks, legal professionals andofficials that were dispatched totemples.” Xiong Kunxin, a pro-fessor at Tibet University inLhasa, summarised the issue:Legal education on law enforce-ment was weak in Tibet“because some Buddhist prac-titioners consider themselves aspeople beyond judicial reach.”

Already in August, whenWang Yang, the CPPCCChairman and a member ofthe Politburo’s StandingCommittee, visited the Seramonastery near Lhasa, hementioned the new theme ofXi Jinping’s religious cam-paign, “Sinicisation of thereligions in China.” Wangsaid that more efforts shouldbe made to integrate TibetanBuddhism into China’s social-ist society; he asked themonks “to firmly uphold theleadership of the CPC, inher-it and promote patriotismand be courageous to battle allseparatist elements, in orderto further protect the nation-al reunification, ethnic unityand social stability.”

Though China is keen tobecome the world leader inpromotion of Buddhism, itwill never happen because ofthe gap between the Marxisttheory and the repression onthe ground, which are incom-patible.

(The writer is an expert onIndia-China relations and anauthor) ��

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Sir — This refers to the editorial,“Surviving pollution” (November10). Diwali witnessed very highlevels of pollution in Delhi. It con-cerns all of us that Delhi, whichis at forefront of important nation-al and international activities inthe country, has become so muchpolluted.

Many factors have con-tributed in making Delhi’s air so toxic. Industrial pollution, pol-lution caused by constructionactivities, vehicular pollution,pollution due to burning of cropstubble in neighbouring States aresome of the reasons that aremaking air in the NationalCapital’s so toxic. In order tomake Delhi’s air salubrious again,efforts should be converged anddirected in achieving a specificobjective and that is to make thequality of air safe again.

Devendra Khurana Bhopal

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Sir — The emphatic win ofCongress-JD(S) combine inKarnataka by-polls is safely attrib-

utable to the numerical superior-ity of the secular vote. Clearly, theappeal of Hindutva, which wasonce overarching or overwhelm-ing, is now waning for theBharatiya Janata Party (BJP) toromp home in the face of a unit-ed secular Opposition. By now theBJP must have realised that‘Congress mukt Bharat’ is not anachievable political goal.

Congress-JD(S) success in

Karnataka should persuade thesecular forces to join hands toensure India’s continued exis-tence as a democracy.

By stitching up state-wisealliances, the Opposition partiescan thwart BJP’s Hindutva cam-paign to return to power and pre-vent the consequences of a retreatfrom secularism.

It is a political peculiarity ofIndia that the dynamics of Lok

Sabha election varies from state tostate. The mutual vote transfer tothe alliance partners in Karnatakawas indicative of the shared ide-ology of voters supporting differ-ent secular parties.

The Opposition parties musttake a cue from Karnataka bypollresults and join hands to fight theBJP in 2019 General Election.

G David MiltonMaruthancode

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Sir — In a meeting with formerPrime Minister H D DeveGowda, Andhra Pradesh ChiefMinister N Chandrababu Naiduclaimed that to save democracyand the nation, the Oppositionmust be united. The TeluguDesam Party (TDP) was formedby his father-law, the late NTRama Rao, about 35 years agowith the sole aim to defeat theCongress. Naidu was enjoyingpower with the BJP till recently.But he left the BJP coalition sinceit did not honour his demandfor the special status for AndhraPradesh. Now, Naidu is claimingthat he intends to save democ-racy and the nation and so hasaligned with the Congress. It issheer opportunism. GeorgeBernard Shaw once said: Politicsseems to be the last resort of thescoundrels. Politicians today areonly interested in power andmoney. Time and again, theyprove this to be right.

Sravana RamachandranChennai

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The period of Diwali and com-bination of industrial andvehicular pollution combined

usually take a huge toll on the envi-ronment every year. This year is notan exception except for the fact thatthe authorities are now taking moreaggressive measures to rein in therunaway pollution. For instance, theSupreme Court-appointed theEnvironment Pollution PreventionAuthority (EPCA) is now planningto bar trucks from entering Delhiand is also banning the plying ofprivate diesel vehicles from usageduring peak pollution periods. Butis this enough?

Given the worsening ambientair quality, it seems not and lookslike the authorities have their guns

trained on wrong sources of pollu-tion as well. India has planned itscities in such a way that whilemotorised vehicles rule the roads,pedestrians, cyclists, and users ofpublic transport face an existentialcrisis. Emission reduction by haltingusage of certain type of vehicles with-out improving fuel, vehicle technol-ogy and public transport, cannotensure sustainability in transport letalone reduce air pollution on along-term basis.

In 2017, India switched to BharatStage IV norms and by 2020, it willswitch to Bharat Stage VI norms,however, this seems more like a knee-jerk reaction considering the fact thatother countries in the world are farahead in this sector.

The Government’s vision of elec-trification of all transport modes maysee light of day soon but India doesnot have an integrated alternativetransport policy, including non-pol-luting modes of mobility such ascycles, which can play a pivotal rolein reducing pollution. While bicyclesare a zero emission mode, buses and

cars contribute 33 per cent and 31per cent of carbon dioxide (CO2)emissions respectively. However,buses carry 58 per cent of all passen-gers while cars carry only four percent. Although two-wheelers formthe majority of motorised vehicles onIndian roads, the number of two-wheelers is same as the number ofhouseholds owning bicycles — about111 million. Thus, it is imperative toprotect and plan for sustainablemodes of transport. The failure to doso can lead to all bicyclists switchingto two-wheelers, which will increaseemissions by 20 per cent.

Of the total commuters who useroad-based transport modes, carsand two-wheelers carry only 20 percent. However, their combined shareof CO2 emissions is as high as 50 percent. Although bicycle users arethrice the number of car users, theGovernment spends much more tofacilitate car-based travel. The cur-rent scenario itself shows what thefuture will be if we were not able tocurtail the number of cars and two-wheelers. The number of registered

motor vehicles in the country hasalso increased 700 times, from 0.3million in 1951 to 210 million in2015. From 2005 to 2015, vehicles inIndia grew at a Compound AnnualGrowth Rate (CAGR) of 9.8 per cent.As of March 2015, the total numberof registered two-wheelers increasedeight times since 1951. While theshare of two-wheelers was 73.5 percent, the share of four-wheelers was13.6 per cent.

Buses constituted one per centand goods vehicles constituted 4.4per cent of the total registered motorvehicles. The share of other vehicles,which include tractors, trailers, three-wheelers (passenger/light motorvehicles ) and miscellaneous vehiclesincreased from 1.3 per cent in 1951to 7.5 per cent in 2014-15. Even theaverage speed on India’s roads isdeclining as roads have becomemore congested. The number ofregistered vehicles for every 100km of road witnessed an increasefrom 1,630 in 2001 to 3,861 in 2015,or by 137 per cent.

The number of vehicles per

1,000 persons increased from eightin 1981 to 167 in 2015. However, ascompared to developed countries,the total motor vehicle penetrationin India is low. In contrast, the pen-etration of two-wheelers in develop-ing countries is higher than thedeveloped countries.

Developed countries, such asGermany and the US have car pen-etration rates (car/1,000 persons)higher by factors of about seven andfive to that of China and by factorsof 29 and 19 to that of India, respec-tively. However, in India and a fewother developing countries, the pen-etration level of two-wheelers ismuch higher compared to developedcountries.

Clearly, the motorisation rateposes a worrying scenario at suchlow level of vehicle ownership. It isfor anyone to imagine the implica-tions if Indian vehicle ownershipcomes close to that of developednations. According to the Society ofIndian Automobile Manufacturers(SIAM), more than 25 million vehi-cles, including passenger, commer-

cial vehicles, three and two-wheelers,were produced in India in 2016-17alone. This was at a growth of 5.41per cent than the previous year. Oneimportant fact to note is 2016-17 sawan increase of 24 per cent in thenumber of vehicles manufacturedfrom 2011-12. Similarly, the sale ofautomobiles witnessed the same sce-nario. A total of almost 22 millionvehicles have been sold in India in2016-17, a growth rate of 6.81 percent as opposed to 2.49 per cent in2012-13.

Given these factors, is Indiadoing enough to make a robust pub-lic transport robust given the poten-tial it has? The Paris-basedInternational Energy Agency (IEA)estimates that a bus can displace any-where between five to 50 other vehi-cles and allows enormous oil and pol-lution savings. The Government mustcapitalise on this inherent potential ofthe public transport, as this alone candeliver us from the vexing problem ofvehicular pollution.

(The writer is an environmentaljournalist)

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In May 1974, India announced its entry intothe exclusive club of nations that hadnuclear weapons of their own. Courageouslyconfronting criticism and internationalsanctions, it went ahead with Pokhran II in

1998. Now, after another 20 years, the 6,000-tonnenuclear ballistic missile submarine, Arihant, isfully functional. It has caused ripples in interna-tional circles, particularly amongst China andPakistan. India launched its first satellite —Aryabahatta — in 1975 and progressed towardsthe spectacular launch of 104 satellites in one goin 2017. Leaving other aspects apart, everyIndian is proud of the achievements of its vision-ary scientists, dexterous technical experts and boldpolicy-makers. India is also proud of its institu-tions like Tata Institute of Fundamental Research,Indian Space Research Organisation, BhabhaAtomic Research Centre, Defence Research andDevelopment Organisation, and several others.

Young Indians have earned global commenda-tion for their intellectual proficiency in NationalAeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) andsubsequently at the Silicon Valley. Amongst all therecollection of Indian achievements in science, tech-nology, space physics and ICT, my mind drifts toteaching and learning science in Indian schools. Iam convinced that only around 30 per cent of chil-dren in Indian schools are getting education at an‘acceptable level’. Could some institutional researchprove me wrong in this hypothesis? The HRD min-ister announced a couple of months ago that thecurriculum load in schools would be reduced by50 per cent. If achieved successfully, it would be amemorable landmark in school education. Onelooks forward to it with great expectations of tan-gible changes in teaching and learning of sciencethat would be woven around the power of imagi-nation, curiosity and creativity. The pre-requisiteis to prepare teachers who internalise the difference,making children memorise the content in sciencetextbooks vis-à-vis learning the ‘science’ con-tained in it. Over the last three-four decades, com-placency has damaged the system.

Deterioration in the quality of teacher prepa-ration, delays in recruiting regular teachers andneglect of practical work in school laboratorieshave also contributed to the malaise. Our suc-cess in science and technology should not leadus to ignore that in majority of schools, scienceteaching, particularly laboratory work, is border-ing on farce. Proper teaching and learning of sci-ence could effectively contribute in total person-ality development, particularly in bringing the bestout of body, mind and spirit. This would be pos-sible only when certain basics are comprehend-ed properly by all those responsible for teachingscience — right from policy formulation to teach-ing science, and that too, not only in classrooms,but more of it outside, in real life situations.

Dr Radhakrishnan, former President, whiledelivering a convocation address in Bangalore in1965, posed a couple of simple queries andanswered them: “What is science? It is the pur-suit of the truth. What is truth? It is the under-standing of nature and its mysteries. Can youunderstand nature and its mysteries if you are apart of nature? The man, the human being hasin him a spirit which makes him different fromthings, from objects, from materials, et al. It is the

capacity to reflect on nature, to sit injudgement on nature, to mould natureto his own pattern; it is that which dis-tinguishes the human being from oth-ers. There is a spark which is not nat-ural, which is non-natural, which issuper-natural. The pursuit of truth tellsus that man is capable of remouldinghis own environment, changing it,making it into a different pattern alto-gether.”

While the 20th century wasacknowledged as the century ofunprecedented change, the 21st issurely the century of the ‘pace ofchange’. The credit goes to the advancesin science and technology that haveimpacted human lives beyond recogni-tion. From an information society, wehave moved towards knowledge soci-ety, and the words of wisdom like“future empires shall be empires ofknowledge” are often emphasised bylearned ones across the globe. At thisstage, we are face-to-face with one prac-tical reality: Man has proved — beyondan iota of doubt — his dexterity, capac-ity and creativity in moulding ‘his ownenvironment’. Even two simple terms —connectivity and mobility — are suffi-cient enough to convey how miracu-lously human ingenuity has trans-formed the Earth into a global village.But has all this advancement been in theright direction? To comprehend thecontrast, one may recall that in mid50s of the last century, school childrenwere writing essays on the “age of sci-ence”, and then it was “boons of tech-nology” that quickly transformed to“ICT revolution”. The last one heardrecently was the “age of accelerations.”

Never before, human beings hadsuch a profound familiarity with andcomprehension of the secrets andforces of nature, and the skill to utilisethe bounties of nature for human wel-fare. Man has moulded nature to hisown patterns and liking. But probablyhe forgot to reflect on the man-nature

relationship — on his responsibility toensure that this sensitive bond betweenthe two is not disturbed because of hismaterialistic pursuits and inherenttraits to ‘acquire and accumulate’.

It appears that under the influenceof the gadgets that offered more andmore comfort in daily life, man forgotto ‘reflect on nature’. On one hand, sys-tems are under human control thatcould annihilate poverty, hunger, ill-health from the surface of the globe,and on the other hand, nations are suf-fering violence, wars, hunger, migration,rejection and malnutrition on anunprecedented scale.

What should children learn in sci-ence in schools must be determined bythe facets of the world before them, andwhat could be the challenges ahead ofthem. If man had reflected on Nature,one lakh children would not be dead inIndia in a year, only because they weredeprived of their divine right to breathefresh air. India would not be sufferingthe ignominy of having 10 out of 15most-polluted cities of the world. If manhad realised that in the man-nature rela-tionship, responsibility lies solely on him,there would be no need to organise Earthsummits, global meets on environ-ment, climate change or ozone depletionand the like.

We have reached a stage in whichsystems of governance have deteriorat-ed in basic elements of humanity.What happened in Kedarnath was cer-tainly a man-made disaster. TheKerala floods of this year are anotherexample. In fact, there is no shortage ofevidence explaining how the race forquick materialistic gains have obliter-ated the human vision, the conse-quences of which are polluted rivers,low quality air, vanishing ponds anddeforestation.

We were not deficient on knowl-edge, skills, understanding or tradition.We knew which tree is to be plantedwhere — near the home or away from

human population — what were theiruses in the daily life of people. But lackof developing scientific temper, sharingand caring has proved disastrous.

Dr Homi Bhabha and Dr VikramSarabhai were the pioneers in India’snuclear and space research initiatives.They put India on par with developedcountries in these sectors. Dr Bhabhaplanned the Atomic Research Centre inMumbai, now known as the BhabhaAtomic Research Centre (BARC), withunmatched scientific, artistic and aes-thetic sense. All those who visit BARCmarvel at the landscape designing of thecampus. One old mango tree that hadlived there for over 100 years stood atthe spot that was to be swallowed by anewly-planned road. The engineer, asexpected, recommended cutting of thetree. It disturbed and distressed the sci-entists. To save that one tree, DrBhabha suggested re-alignment of theroad. The tree still survives. Should suchan anecdote not find a place in text-books of Class V or VI? The motiva-tional impact would be everlasting.

Now is the time to re-orient theprocess of learning of science by push-ing it towards real life situations and theperils that face us because of unwise useof science and technology. Could onethink of children learning science out-side the classrooms of elementaryschools? Relate the process to local ele-ments, environment, flora, fauna, waterbodies, forests, people, social habits,cleanliness, health issues, pollution andadulteration. A fresh look on how toimprove experiential and experimentallearning in school science is necessary.

India has done well in science so farbut it has the responsibility to continu-ously upgrade the teaching and learn-ing experience of science in a majorityof its schools at the earliest.

(The writer is the IndianRepresentative on the Executive Boardof UNESCO)

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As an unprecedented fightplays out between the RBI

and the Government, it is thecentral bank’s 18 board mem-bers who are being keenlywatched for their next courseof action — they are not onlycentral bankers andGovernment officials but alsobusiness leaders, economistsand activists.

The RBI board is sched-uled to meet next on November19 amid an ongoing tusslewith the Government on mul-tiple fronts.

Going by the public utter-ances of the RBI andGovernment officials so far, thecontentious issues are how tomanage the huge surplus theRBI has accumulated, howshould it deal with errantlenders and borrowers amid apersisting bad loan crisis andwhat could be the ‘public inter-est’ for the Government todictate directions so that it isnot seen as an attack on thecentral bank’s autonomy.

As per the RBI website, itscentral board currently has 18members, though the provisionis that it can go up to 21.

The members includeGovernor Urjit Patel and hisfour deputies as ‘full-time offi-cial directors’, while the rest 13have been nominated by theGovernment, including twoFinance Ministry officials —Economic Affairs SecretarySubhash Chandra Garg andFinancial Services SecretaryRajiv Kumar.

There are also Swadeshiideologue SwaminathanGurumurthy and cooperativebanker Satish Marathe, nomi-nated by the Government as“part-time non-official direc-tors”.

The entire board isappointed by the Governmentunder the RBI Act, which man-dates the central board with“general superintendence anddirection of the Reserve Bank’saffairs”.

The Government cannominate 10 ‘non-official’directors from various fieldsand two Government officials.The four non-official directorsare one each from the fourregional boards of the RBI.

Besides Patel, the four offi-cial directors are N SVishwanathan and ViralAcharya, both of whom havegone public with their direct orindirect criticism of anyattempt to undermine the RBI’sautonomy, as also B P Kanungoand M K Jain.

Patel became Governor inSeptember 2016 after serving asDeputy Governor since January2013. Previously, he had servedat the International MonetaryFund (IMF) and was also ondeputation from the IMF to theRBI during 1996-1997. He wasa Consultant to the Ministry ofFinance from 1998 to 2001 andhas a PhD in economics fromYale University, an M Philfrom University of Oxford anda BSc from the University ofLondon.

Acharya is a New YorkUniversity Professor of

Economics, while Kanungoand Vishwanathan are careercentral bankers. Jain wasappointed as a DeputyGovernor in June 2018 andpreviously headed IDBI Bankand Indian Bank, among otherprofessional banking roles.

The business leaders on theRBI board include Tata groupchief NatarajanChandrasekaran, formerMahindra group veteran BharatNarotam Doshi, TeamleaseServices co-founder ManishSabharwal and Sun Pharmachief Dilip Shanghvi.

The other members areSudhir Mankad (retired IASofficer whose last assignmentwas as Gujarat Government’sChief Secretary), Ashok Gulati(agricultural economist),Prasanna Mohanty (ex-IASofficer and economist), SachinChaturvedi of Delhi-basedthink-tank Research andInformation System forDeveloping Countries (RIS)and Revathy Iyer (a formerDeputy Comptroller andAuditor General).

In the past also, the RBI’sboard has had several businessleaders such as Ratan Tata,Kumar Mangalam Birla, NRNarayana Murthy, AzimPremji, G M Rao, Y CDeveshwar and K P Singh.

Recently, the tenure ofboard member Nachiket Mor,who had previously been anexecutive director at ICICI Bank,was cut short — nearly a yearafter he was re-nominated by theGovernment in August 2017 fora second term of four years.

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Former Union FinanceMinister P Chidambaram

on Sunday asked the Centrewhat was its “tearing hurry” to“fix” the capital framework ofReserve Bank of India when theruling dispensation had justfour months to complete theterm.

In a series of tweets, thesenior Congress leaderslammed the Government forallegedly seeking funds fromthe RBI despite claiming that its(Centre) fiscal math was cor-rect.

“The NDA Governmenthas competed 4 years and 6months of its term. It haseffectively 4 months left. Whatis the tearing hurry to ‘fix’ thecapital framework of RBI?” hesaid.

Chidambaram said if theGovernment did not need anymore money this financial year,why was it “mounting pressure”on the central bank in the lastfour months of its tenure.

“Why did it keep silent for4 years and 6 months?” he said.

The Congress leader saidthe Government had claimedthat its “fiscal math is correct”and “boasts” that it had givenup �70,000 crore of borrowingfor 2018-19.

“If so, why does it needmoney from the reserves ofRBI this year?” he said.

The central Governmenthad on Friday said it was dis-cussing an “appropriate” size ofcapital reserves that the central

bank must maintain, butdenied seeking a massive cap-ital transfer from the RBI.

The RBI has a massive�9.59 lakh crore reserves andthe Government, if reportsare to be believed, wants thecentral bank to part with athird of that fund — an issuewhich along with easing ofnorms for weak banks andraising liquidity has broughtthe two at loggerheads inrecent weeks.

Economic Affairs SecretarySubhash Chandra Garg took toTwitter on Friday to clarify thatthe government was not in anydire need of funds and thatthere was no proposal to askthe RBI to transfer �3.6 lakhcrore.

“There is no proposal toask RBI to transfer (�) 3.6 or (�)1 lakh crore, as speculated,” hetweeted.

“Government’s FD (fiscaldeficit) in FY 2013-14 was5.1%. From 2014-15 onwards,Government has succeeded inbringing it down substantially.We will end the FY 2018-19with FD of 3.3%. Governmenthas actually

foregone (�) 70,000 croreof budgeted market borrowingthis year,” Garg said.

The official said the onlyproposal under discussion wasto “fix appropriate economiccapital framework of RBI”.

Economic capital frame-work refers to the risk capitalrequired by the central bankwhile taking into account dif-ferent risks.

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India’s 12 major ports wit-nessed a 5.31 per cent rise in

cargo traffic at 403.39 milliontonnes (MT) during April-October of the current fiscal, theIndian Ports Association (IPA)data showed. These top portshad handled 383.05 MT cargoduring the corresponding seven-month period of the last fiscal.

The growth in the cargotraffic was mainly attributed toincrease in handling of coal,mainly coking coal, containersand petroleum, oil and lubri-

cants (POL). Among the 12major ports, Kamarajar Port(erstwhile Ennore) recordedthe highest growth in trafficduring the April-October peri-

od with an increase of 20.42 percent, followed by Cochin Port13 per cent, Paradip Port 11.22per cent, Kolkata Port (includ-ing Haldia) 8.65 per cent and

Deendayal Port (erstwhileKandla Port) 8.46 per cent.

Jawahar Lal Nehru Port(JNPT) recorded 6.93 per centgrowth, Vishakhapatnam portrecorded a 5.58 per cent rise incargo traffic, New Mangalore3.56 per cent and Chennai3.11 per cent. However, VOChidambaranar, Mumbai andMormugao have recorded neg-ative growth during the period.

In terms of maximumcargo volume, Deendayal Porthandled 68.47 MT cargo, fol-lowed by Paradip’s 62.03 MTand JNPT Port at 40.54 MT.

There are 12 major portsunder the control of the Centrebesides 187 minor/intermedi-ate ports under the jurisdictionof states along the 7,517 kmlong coastline of the country.

The 12 major ports —Deendayal Port, Mumbai Port,JNPT Port, Mormugao Port,New Mangalore Port, CochinPort, Chennai Port, KamarajarPort, V O Chidambarnar Port,Visakhapatnam Port, ParadipPort and Kolkata Port (includ-ing Haldia Port) handled -approximately 61 per cent ofthe country’s total cargo traffic.

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China’s e-commerce giantAlibaba broke last year’s

‘Singles’ Day’ record by logging$24.3 billion in sales by mid-day during the annual onlineshopping fiesta on Sunday.

The Alibaba Group’s vari-ous shopping platforms brokethe 10 billion-yuan ($1.44 bil-lion) sales threshold withinthe first two minutes and fiveseconds, after the e-commercegiant kicked off the 10th yearof its iconic Double 11 shop-ping gala (also called 11.11sale).

The Alibaba Group sur-passed last year’s Singles’ Dayrecord with more than eighthours to go before the end of the24-hour shopping festival,cementing its position as theworld’s biggest retail event andassuaging concerns that Chineseconsumer sentiment is soften-ing, Hong Kong-based SouthChina Morning Post, which isowned by Alibaba, reported.

Also known as Double 11,the shopping extravaganza willdraw to a close at midnight.Consumers spent a total of168.5 billion yuan ($24.3 bil-lion) by the afternoon, thereport said.

Last year, the AlibabaGroup reported $25.3 billion oforders.

Other brands and e-com-merce retailers like JD.Com,Mogujie and VipShop tooreported heavy sales.November 11 is being cele-brated since 2009 as an onlineantidote to the sentimentalitysurrounding Valentine’s Day. Itwas named “Singles’ Day”

because its date, 11/11(November 11), consists offour “ones,” representing foursingles.

November 11 has becomea default date for people to snapup things and binge on enter-tainment shows. Alibaba isalso using the occasion to testthe limits of its cloud comput-ing, delivery, and paymentcapabilities, as well as try outnew business endeavours thatare uprooting traditional retail-ers.

Sales were helped by theparticipation of Alibaba’sSoutheast Asia unit Lazada, aswell as subsidiaries Ele.Me,Koubei, supermarket chainHema and other business units.

The total gross merchan-dise volume (GMV) for thisyear’s Singles’ Day — or thevalue of total transactions onthe platform — is keenlywatched as a barometer ofconsumer spending and retailhealth in the world’s second-biggest economy amid thetrade war with US.

The US has slapped addi-tional tariffs on $250 billionworth of goods demanding

China toreduce $375billion tradedeficit.

Within halfan hour ofSingles’ Day, 30brands, includ-ing Nike,Uniqlo, Adidas,Procter &G a m b l e ,Xiaomi andApple hadcrossed 100

million yuan in sales. In justone second, 3,700 Singles’ Dayspecial edition MAC lipstickswere sold out.

Health supplementstopped the list of most popu-lar imported items purchasedby consumers in China as of 12pm, followed by milk powder,facial masks and milk powder,according to Alibaba. Skincareproducts were also among themost-bought items fromabroad, the data showed.

Residents of Shanghai werethe biggest spenders, followedby those in Beijing, Hangzhouand Guangzhou.

Alibaba hosted a star-stud-ded gala on Saturday night inShanghai, featuring superstarsinger Mariah Carey andCirque du Soleil to pump sales.

Pre-sales prior to the eventwere brisk, with 33 brands onTmall reporting 100 million-yuan worth of pre-orders, thecompany said. Down paymentsfor consumer electronics onTmall have jumped nearly six-fold year-on-year, with popu-lar brands including Apple,Huawei, Siemens and Dyson,state run China Daily reported.

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Anew suburban corridor onthe Central Railway (CR)

was inaugurated Sunday, link-ing Nerul and Belapur in NaviMumbai with Kharpokar inUlwe, a rapidly developingnode in the satellite city.

The 12km Nerul-SeawoodsDarave-Belapur-Kharkopar cor-ridor in Navi Mumbai was com-missioned by Railway MinisterPiyush Goyal along withMaharashtra Chief MinisterDevendra Fadnavis. This is thefirst phase of the 27km Nerul-Belapur-Uran corridor on theHarbour route of the CR thatextends suburban trains toadjoining Raigad district.

Regular services on thecorridor will start fromMonday and link Ulwe node inNavi Mumbai with ChhatrapatiShivaji Maharaj Terminus(CSMT) and Panvel on theHarbour route besides Thaneon the Trans-Harbour corridor.

The Ulwe node is locatedopposite the upcoming NaviMumbai International Airport.

This is the first suburbancorridor in the Mumbai met-ropolitan region in 13 years andcomes after the Trans- HarbourLine, connecting Thane withNavi Mumbai, was thrown

open in 2005.Speaking after commis-

sioning of the corridor at theKharpokar railway station,Fadnavis said in the modern eratransportation and mobility playkey role in human settlement.

“In earlier days of civilisa-tion, people would settle nearrivers where they could easilyget water. But now people starthabitation at places which areequipped with means of trans-portation and mobility,” he said.

Fadnavis said large-scaleinvestments are being made inMumbai’s suburban railwaynetwork to enhance connec-tivity and improve passengeramenities.

“We are also investing Rs 1lakh crore in various metroprojects that will also be inte-grated with suburban net-works,” the Chief Minister said.

The Seawoods-Belapur-Uran line was conceived in late1990s to augment the Harbourrail network. The commission-ing of the new rail corridor wasto take place in December 2017,but it got delayed by nearly a year.

The CR will operate 40 ser-vices daily from Monday, ofwhich 20 will run betweenKharkopar and Nerul and therest between Belapur andKharkopar stations.

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Midea Group, a consumerappliance maker and a

Fortune 500 Company, laidthe foundation stone for theTechnology Park at SupaParner in Maharashtra. ThePark will have manufacturingfacilities for home appliances,HVAC and compressors.

The foundation stoneswere laid by MaharashtraChief Minister DevendraFadnavis, Midea Groupfounder Xiangjian He andMidea Group Chairman PaulFang.

“The Technology Park isexpected to generate employ-ment opportunities for morethan 2,000 people. The com-plex is likely to commencecommercial operations at thebeginning of 2020,” CarrierMidea India and MideaGroup Managing DirectorKrishan Sachdev told ThePioneer.

The technology park willalso attract investment fromother ancillary units to supplyto Midea’s factories.

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Shareholders of Usha Martinhave approved the sale of the

company’s steel business toTata Steel as a going concern ona slump sale basis.

A special resolution in thisregard was passed with requi-site majority at Usha MartinLimited’s extraordinary gener-al meeting, with 99.99 per centshareholders voting in itsfavour, the company informedthe exchanges in a regulatoryfiling late night on Friday.

Tata Steel had earlier saidit has executed definitive agree-ments for the acquisition ofUML’s steel business for �4,300-4,700 crore through a slumpsale on a going concern basis.

According to Usha MartinLimited (UML), the sale of itssteel business to Tata Steel willhelp the company significant-ly reduce its debt.

UML’s steel business com-prises the specialised 1 milliontonne per annum (MTPA)alloy based manufacturingcapacity in long products seg-ment based in Jamshedpur, aproducing iron-ore mine, acoal mine under developmentand captive power plants, TataSteel had said.

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Despite the overall increase inlending rates, for first time

in over five years, bank creditrose by a healthy 14.41 per centduring the fortnight to October26, the Reserve Bank has said.

This growth is at a five-yearhigh, after the 16.6 per centachieved by the system inOctober 2013 and the data comeamid reports of an increase indemand from the troubled non-bank finance companies(NBFCs) from banks.

NBFCs are facing liquid-ity pressure and has around�60,000 crore worth repay-ments between November 1and 9. They another �90,000crore repayments by the endof the month, of �70000 croreare commercial paperredemption.

Provisional figures releasedby the central bank showed theoverall bank credit increased14.41 per cent to �93.01 trillionas of October 26 from �81.29trillion in the year ago period.

Bank credit grew 4.45 per

cent for the fortnight toOctober 12, the data show.

According to reports,NBFCs are finding it difficultto secure short term fundingfrom the money markets andare increasingly looking up tobanks for their liabilities.Money markets have beenimpacted following thedefaults by IL&FS.

Apart from that, analystssay liquidity problems atNBFCs offer an opportunity forthe banks for recoup theirmarket shares by lendingdirectly to the segments servedby the shadow banks.

A host of banks, startingwith the largest lender SBI,have shown greater confidenceon credit growth for the ongo-ing fiscal year in recent man-agement commentary.

The systems depositgrowth came in at 8.83 per centto �120.71 trillion, which how-ever is marginally down fromprevious fortnight of onOctober 12, when it had stoodat �120.87 trillion, the RBIsaid.

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Sri Lankan strongmanMahinda Rajapaksa, who

was appointed Prime Ministerin a controversial move byPresident Maithripala Sirisena,on Sunday ended his five-decade-long association withthe SLFP and joined the newly-formed Sri Lanka People’s Party(SLPP).

Rajapaksa’s move signalledthat he would contest the snappolls, to be held on January 5,under his own party bannerand not that of Sirisena’s SriLanka Freedom Party (SLFP).

The former Presidentobtained the membership ofthe SLPP, launched by his sup-porters, Sunday morning.

His father Don AlwinRajapaksa was a foundingmember of the Sri LankaFreedom Party, which wasformed in 1951. The SLPP wasformed last year by Rajapaksa’ssupporters to create a platformfor his re-entry into politics.The party in February’s localcouncil election won two-thirdof the total 340 seats. The 72-year-old strongman, who ruledLanka for a decade from 2005,was unexpectedly defeated byhis deputy, Sirisena, in thepresidential election held inJanuary 2015 with the supportfrom Wickremesinghe’s UnitedNational Party (UNP).

However, the power-shar-ing arrangement betweenSirisena and Wickremesinghebecame increasingly tenuouson several policy matters, espe-cially on economy and securi-ty. Finally, on October 26,Sirisena abruptly oustedWickremesinghe and replacedhim with Rajapaksa, after

three-and-a-half years of anestranged relationship withhim. The island nation plungedinto a constitutional crisis fol-lowing the move.

Sirisena had suspendedparliamentary proceedingsuntil November 16. Later,owing to domestic and inter-national pressure, he issued anotice to reconvene parlia-ment on November 14.

However, on Friday,Sirisena dissolved parliamentand announced snap polls onJanuary 5 next year after itbecame evident that he did nothave enough support in theHouse to prove the premiershipof Rajapaksa. Rajapaksa need-ed the support of minimum113 parliamentarians in the225-member House to provehis majority.

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Accusing PresidentMaithripala Sirisena of

“usurping” the rights of legis-lators, Sri Lanka’s parliamen-tary Speaker Karu Jayasuriyaasked public servants not tocarry out his “illegal orders”.

Jayasuriya also hit back athis critics who suggested thathis improper conduct forcedSirisena to dissolve parliamentlast Friday.

On October 26, Sirisenaabruptly sacked RanilWickremesinghe as prime min-ister and replaced him withMahinda Rajapaksa, afterthree-and-a-half years of anestranged relationship withhim. The island nation plungedinto a constitutional crisis fol-lowing the move.

Sirisena had suspendedparliamentary proceedingsuntil November 16. Later,owing to domestic and inter-national pressure, he issued anotice to reconvene parlia-ment on November 14.

However, on Friday,Sirisena dissolved parliament

and announced snap polls onJanuary 5 next year after itbecame evident that he did nothave enough support in theHouse to prove the premiershipof Rajapaksa.

“I have watched over thelast two weeks as the executivebranch has seized the rightsand usurped the powers ofmembers of parliament whowere elected to represent thepeople,” Jayasuriya said.

“I call upon all public ser-vants to refuse to execute anyillegal orders they may receive,no matter from whom,” hesaid.

Referring to remarks bySirisena loyalist SarathAmunugama, Jayasuriya said,“I lament that the purportedforeign minister, a highlyregarded politician, has falselyalleged that I intended to pre-vent the president from deliv-ering the statement of govern-ment policy when parliamentwas set to reconvene onNovember 14. It is on thisimaginary premise that theminister suggests that parlia-ment had to be dissolved.”

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UN chief Antonio Guterreshas expressed concern

over Sri Lankan PresidentMaithripala Sirisena’s decisionto dissolve the nation’sParliament, underlining the“utmost importance” ofrespecting democratic process-es and resolving differences inaccordance with the rule of law.

Sri Lanka’s political crisisdeepened Friday as PresidentSirisena dissolved theParliament and announcedsnap polls on January 5 after itbecame evident that he did nothave enough support in theHouse for Prime MinisterMahinda Rajapaksa, who wasappointed by him under con-troversial circumstances.

The Secretary-General“learned with concern”Sirisena’s decision to dissolveSri Lanka’s parliament andmove to new parliamentaryelections, a statement issued on

Saturday by Secretary-GeneralGuterres’ Deputy SpokesmanFarhan Haq said.

Guterres underlined the“utmost importance of respect-ing democratic processes andinstitutions and resolving dif-ferences in accordance with therule of law and due process.”

He renewed his call on theSri Lankan government toensure peace and safety for allthe countrymen and uphold itscommitments to human rights,justice and reconciliation.

Sri Lanka was plunged intoa political crisis after Sirisenasacked Prime Minister RanilWickremesinghe on October26 and replaced him with for-mer president Rajapaksa.

Wickremesinghe, whodubbed the move as a “consti-tutional coup”, has refused tovacate his official residence,saying he is the lawful primeminister and that the presidenthas no constitutional right toreplace him.

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World leaders gathered inthe driving rain in Paris

on Sunday to mark 100 yearssince the end of World War I,with host Emmanuel Macronwarning against nationalism ata time of growing strainbetween Europe and DonaldTrump’s America.

Around 70 leaders includ-ing US President Trump andhis Russian counterpartVladimir Putin marked thecentenary of the 1918Armistice in the French capi-tal at 11am local time (1000GMT).

After church bells rang outacross France, the leaders sattogether at the Tomb of the

Unknown Soldier at the Arc deTriomphe for a memorial thatincluded a performance bystar cellist Yo-Yo Ma and thereading aloud of letters byWWI soldiers.

Macron delivered a 20-minute speech that called onhis fellow leaders not to forgetthe lessons of the past andworldwide hopes for peace.

“Ruining this hope with afascination for isolation, vio-lence or domination would bea mistake for which futuregenerations would rightly findus responsible,” Macron toldthem.

He also delivered a stingingindictment of nationalism, call-ing it “the exact opposite” of thepatriotism shown by soldiers.

“Nationalism is a betrayal,”he said.

“By saying our interestscome first and others don’tmatter we are erasing whatmakes a nation precious, whatmakes it live, what makes itgreat and most importantly ofall, its moral values,” he said,watched by Trump, who prideshimself on being called anationalist.

The service concluded withthe bugle call that was playedat 11am on November 11, 1918to signal the end of fighting onthe Western Front.

Elsewhere, ceremonies inNew Zealand, Australia, India,Hong Kong and Myanmarbegan a day of remembranceservices around the world for

a conflict that involved millionsof troops from colonised coun-tries in Asia and Africa.

The leaders ofCommonwealth nations —whose forces were deployedunder British command 100years ago — also deliveredmessages of peace.

“This was a war in whichIndia was not directly involvedyet our soldiers fought worldover, just for the cause ofpeace,” Indian Prime Minister

Narendra Modi said on Twitter.“For our tomorrows, they

gave their today,” AustralianPrime Minister Scott Morrisontold people gathered at a cere-mony in Canberra.

British Prime MinisterTheresa May and PrinceCharles, standing in for QueenElizabeth, attended a separateremembrance event in Londonwhere thousands of well-wish-ers also paid their respects tofallen soldiers.

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At least 61 combatants havebeen killed in clashes in

Yemen’s flashpoint Hodeida,medics and a military sourcesaid Sunday, and dozens ofwounded taken to hospitalsoutside the city. Medics in theRed Sea city reported 43 Huthirebels and nine loyalists killedin clashes over the past 24hours.

Another nine loyalist fight-ers were reported killed bymedics at a hospital in gov-ernment-held Mokha, south ofHodeida. A government military source confirmed thetoll.

Dozens of wounded rebelswere transferred to hospitals inthe provinces of Sanaa and Ibb,further inland, a source at theHodeida military hospital said.

A pro-government alliance,led by Saudi Arabia and theUnited Arab Emirates, are

pushing to seize Hodeida fromYemen’s Shiite Huthi rebels,who are linked to Iran.

More than 400 combatantshave been killed in 10 days ofclashes in Hodeida, a city onYemen’s Red Sea coastline thatis home to the impoverishedcountry’s most valuable port.

Government forces havepressed further into the strate-gic port city, seizing its mainhospital in heavy fightingSaturday, as they try to advanceon Hodeida’s vital docksHodeida has been controlled bythe Huthis since 2014, when therebels seized the capital Sanaaand a string of port cities.

The World HealthOrganisation estimates nearly10,000 people have been killedsince 2015, when Saudi Arabiaand its allies joined theGovernment’s war against theHuthis, driving the insurgentsfrom the Red Sea coastline butfailing to retake Hodeida.

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French police on Sundayarrested three topless rights

protesters who approachedthe motorcade of US PresidentDonald Trump on theChamps-Elysees in Paris head-ing to a ceremony marking100 years since the end ofWorld War I.

One of the protesters, whohad slogans including “fakepeacemakers” and “hypocrisyparade” written on their chests,got within metres of the rearof the motorcade after jump-ing over a barricade.

She was grabbed by apolice officer, while a secondwoman could be seen beinghauled away by security ser-vices on the edge of thefamous thoroughfare.

A third woman, who waspositioned a little higher upthe avenue, also managed to

breach the security cordonand run towards Trump’s con-voy with her arms raised.

She too was quickly over-powered by the police and allthree were arrested.

The incident revealedchinks in the tight security putin place for the event, withsome 10,000 security forcemembers deployed around acity which has been hit by aseries of jihadist attacks since2015.

Interior MinisterChristophe Castaner saidTrump’s security had “in noway been threatened”.

Inna Shevchenko, one ofthe leaders of radical feministgroup Femen, confirmed thegroup was behind the protest.

“FEMEN activists ‘wel-comed’ the cortege of@realDonaldTrump twice onhis way to Arc de Triumph,”she tweeted.

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Dhaka: Bangladesh’s mainOpposition BNP, led by impris-oned ex-premier Khaleda Zia,on Sunday said it would par-ticipate in the general electionnext month, after it boycottedthe 2014 polls that returnedPrime Minister Sheikh Hasina’sAwami League to power due tofears of rigging.

Opposition parties haveexpressed concern that thepolls will not be democraticand have threatened protests.

The BNP is part of thenewly-formed oppositionalliance - National Unity Front

(NUF) which has demandedthat the December 23 polls bedeferred by one month.

“We have decided to par-ticipate in the polls as part ofour movement,” said BNP sec-retary general Mirza FakhrulIslam Alamgir said at a pressconference with senior NUFand BNP leaders present.

Prime Minister Hasinaimmediately welcomed theopposition party’s decision say-ing “it will strengthen thedemocracy.... We will jointlycontest the poll to reflect theverdict of the people”. PTI

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ASomali-origin man, whoset a car on fire and

stabbed three people, killingone of them, before being fatal-ly shot in the Australian city ofMelbourne, did not have a“definite link” to the dreadedIslamic State but was “inspired”by it, the Government said onSunday.

Hassan Khalif Shire Alistabbed three members of thepublic and attacked police offi-cers in the Bourke Street onFriday before he was shot andkilled by the police.

The 30-year-old, who wasdriving a Ute, loaded with gasbottles, into the Bourke Street,

allegedly set it alight and beganstabbing members of the public.

Home Affairs MinisterPeter Dutton said authoritiesdid not believe Ali, who had hispassport cancelled in 2015,was a member of the IslamicState and had not been knownto be ready to act.

“There was no evidenceavailable to the police... Thatany attack was imminent orthat he had been part of plan-ning,” Dutton told reporters.

“The judgment that wasmade (by authorities) was …that he was not in the planningstage of an attack,” he added.

“In relation to his connec-tions with ISIL (another name

for IS) or with any terroristgroup... There’s not, as I’madvised, a membership of anorganisation or a definite linkto ISIL.”

However, the terror group’spropaganda outlet, Amaq, ear-lier said “The perpetrator of theoperation... In Melbourne...Was an Islamic State fighter andcarried out the operation... Totarget nationals of the coalition”fighting the Islamic State.

“The working theory is atthe moment, (it’s) a case wherethis person has been down-loading information or receiving messages in his ownmind about what he should bedoing. It’s an inspiral (sic) asopposed to affiliation,”

Duton said.There was “no evidence”

available to intelligence servicesthat the terrorist behind theBourke Street stabbings waspreparing an imminent attack,Dutton added.

He added that theAustralian intelligence agencieswere in touch with their UKand US counterparts to see ifother technological solutionswere available to assist inanalysing thousands of docu-ment.

He said over 400 peoplewere being probed by policeand intelligence services butneed a tip-off or alert from thepublic to stop a spontaneous act.

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Europe should not spendhigher defence budgets on

US-made weapons, FrenchPresident Emmanuel Macronsaid in an interview due to airon Sunday, after a defence rowwith President Donald Trump.

One of dozens of worldleaders attending World War Icommemorations in Francethis weekend, Trump tweetedafter landing in Paris thatMacron’s call for a “realEuropean army” was “insult-ing”.

In an interview recordedon Saturday with CNN aftertalks with Trump, Macron saidthe two leaders had spokenabout what his office has por-trayed as a misunderstanding.

“We had a regular discus-sion this morning and he con-firmed in front of the press thathe was ok,” Macron told CNN.

Both leaders agree thereshould be “better burden-shar-ing within NATO”, meaningEurope should be less reliant onUS spending for its defence,Macron said.

But Macron told CNN:“To be very direct with you,what I don’t want to see isEuropean countries increas-ing the budget in defence inorder to buy American and

other arms or materials com-ing from your industry.”

Macron had last monthcriticised Belgium’s decisionto buy US-made F-35 fighterjets instead of European planes,saying it “goes againstEuropean interests”.

In his CNN interview hestressed the need for Europe totake charge of its defence.

Whereas “after the SecondWorld War we needed the USto be present for our security,I think now the momentum forEurope is to build its ownsecurity and its own sover-eignty,” he said. He refrainedfrom commenting on Trump’s“insult” tweet, beyond saying,“I always prefer having directdiscussions or answering ques-tions than making my diplo-macy through tweets.”

In a radio interview thisweek, Macron had named theUnited States alongside Chinaand Russia as sources of risk.

He said the EU needed tobe less dependent on theUnited States, not least follow-ing Trump’s withdrawal from aCold War-era nuclear treaty.

Trump on Friday calledMacron’s comments “veryinsulting”. The French presi-dency later sought to defuse therow, saying Macron remarkshad been misinterpreted.

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Pakistan police has arrestedthree suspects in connec-

tion with the assassination oftop cleric Maulana Samiul Haq,who was also known as the‘godfather of Taliban’, accordingto a media report.

Haq, the 82-year-old cler-ic was stabbed to death onNovember 2 by unidentifiedattackers at his residence in thegarrison city ofRawalpindi.

Police have arrested threesuspects involved in the mur-

der of the chief of the hardlinepolitical party Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Sami (JUI-S). The sus-pects have been shifted to a safecell under strict security andare being grilled, The ExpressTribune reported.

The suspects were takeninto custody on Saturday withthe help of Haq’s mobile phonedata and geo-fencing of the pri-vate housing society where hewas stabbed to death, the reportsaid.

Three different teams wereset up for the investigations ofthe murder.

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The two Koreas begandestroying 20 guard posts

along their heavily-fortifiedfrontier Sunday under a plan toreduce tensions on the border.

Under an agreement madebetween their generals in lateOctober, North and SouthKorea agreed to each remove10 posts and preserve one oneither side of the frontier.

The militaries on Sundaybegan destroying the 20 borderguard posts in the DemilitarsedZone dividing the two Koreas

after withdrawing troops andequipment from them, Yonhapnews agency reported, citingSeoul’s defence ministry.

South Korea has around 60such posts along the rest of theborder while the North hasabout 160, Yonhap said.

The border truce village ofPanmunjom — or the JointSecurity Area (JSA) — is theonly spot along the tense, 250-kilometre (155-mile) frontierwhere soldiers from the twoKoreas and the US-led UN Command standface to face.

'��%��>�*�� %��'�� "��'��Moscow: An Air France flightcarrying 282 passengers fromParis to Shanghai made an unex-pected stop in Siberia on Sundayafter smoke and a bitter smellfilled the cabin, the companysaid. No passengers were hurtand they were put up in a hotelnear Irkutsk airport in easternSiberia, Air France told AFP.

“The crew of AF116 on aBoeing 777 from Paris toShanghai decided to divert toIrkutsk in Russia after an acridsmell and light smoke appearedon board,” the French carriertold AFP. AFP

>�!�$,�'��$'��'��+�'�#�'#%-��,#%-��%�,(�$!��Yangon: Top Myanmar officialssay the repatriation of ethnicRohingya Muslims fromBangladesh, to which morethan 7,00,000 fled since lastyear to escape deadly violencecarried out by Myanmar’s secu-rity forces, will begin onThursday. Minister Win MyatAye said on Sunday at a newsconference that Bangladeshhad informed Myanmarauthorities that repatriation.

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Excessive use of social mediaincluding Facebook, Snapchat,

and Instagram is associated withpoor well-being which could lead todepression and loneliness, researchershave warned.

The study, published in theJournal of Social and ClinicalPsychology, showed that limitingscreen time on these apps couldboost one’s wellness.

“When you are not busy gettingsucked into clickbait social media, youare actually spending more time onthings that are more likely to makeyou feel better about your life,” saidMelissa Hunt from the University ofPennsylvania in the US.

For the study, researchers fromthe varsity, included 143 undergrad-uate participants.

The team designed their experi-ment to include the three platformsmost popular with the participants.

They collected objective usagedata automatically tracked by iPhonesfor active apps, not those running inthe background, and asked respon-dents to complete a survey to deter-mine mood and well-being.

The participants were then ran-domly assigned to a control group,which had users maintain their typ-ical social-media behaviour, or anexperimental group that limited timeon Facebook, Snapchat, andInstagram to 10 minutes per platformper day.

In addition, the participantsshared iPhone battery screenshots forthe next three weeks to give theresearchers weekly tallies for eachindividual.

The team then looked at sevenoutcome measures including fear ofmissing out (FOMO), anxiety, depres-sion, and loneliness.

The results showed that using lesssocial media than you normallywould lead to significant decrease inboth depression and loneliness.

However, young people agedbetween 18 to 22 should not stopusing social media altogether, suggest-ed the findings.

“Because these tools are here tostay, it is incumbent on society to fig-ure out how to use them in a way thatlimits damaging effects,” Hunt noted.

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Teams of elite chefs vie to impress theworld’s toughest palates as they whip up

iconic dishes from nine nations in this star-packed competition. The show features 12teams by two chefs as they compete in dif-ferent challenges, winners of which will thenhave a chance to compete at the final table,featuring chefs such as Enrique Olvera,Grant Achatz, Yoshihiro Narisawa andAnne-Sophie Pic as the chef judges who willpick a final winner.

Each episode will focus on a country ofone of the judges, taking in local cuisine, cul-ture and traditions along the way. Amongthe nine judges are Anne-Sophie Pic fromFrance, Andoni Aduriz from Spain, CarloCracco from Italy, Clare Smyth from the UK,Enrique Olvera from Mexico, Grant Achatzfrom the USA, Helena Rizzo from Brazil,Yoshihiro Narisawa from Japan, and VineetBhatia from India.

The show releases on Netflix onNovember 20.

Witness the birth of the Mexicandrug war in the 1980s as the new

Narcos saga chronicles the true story ofGuadalajara Cartel.

Led by Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo(Diego Luna), we’re going to witness thetragic events that unfold as American DEAagent Kiki Camarena (Michael Peña) andother Narcos officials try to dismantle it.

Before becoming the most powerfulfigure in the Mexican cocaine trade,Gallardo sees potential among Mexico’sindependent and relatively disorganisedmarijuana growers. Unlike more flam-boyant cartel leaders like Pablo Escobar,Gallardo is quiet and focussed as he useshis business sense and high-poweredconnections to build a confederation ofgrowers and dealers.

Describing his character in theseries, Luna said that Gallardo’s story isneither black nor white. “It is not astereotypical drug dealer that we have

seen before. Definitely not a cliche. Heis much more of a businessman. He isone step ahead of everyone. The storyis not black and white. His story staysin the grey areas,” he said.

Keeping the show authentic, it willhave actors speak in their native lan-guage and also in English. Talkingabout having subtitles in the show,Luna said that it was one of the thingsthat he celebrated. “If you are going totell a story then you should be authen-tic and respect the context, and whenyou show respect to stories like that,people appreciate it. I grew up watchingcinema with subtitles, and for me it wasnormal,” he added. Starring MichaelPeña, Diego Luna, Tenoch Huerta, theshow is created by Carlo Bernard, ChrisBrancato, Doug Miro.

The series is set to release on Netflixon November 16.

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Not everybody who marries ismeant to be a parent. Wemarry, plan our lives and

eventually even have children butwhat if we discover much later thatraising a child is not our cup of tea?Or that we assumed it to be a nat-ural task of life?

Director Vinod Kapri exploresa dark fear and urban nightmare inPihu, the story of a little girl con-fined, or may be trapped, in herapartment, doing her own thingunpoliced and unwatched, as shetries to draw the attention of herdead mother on the bed, the adultprobably a victim of domestic vio-lence. The trailer showed us how thetwo-year-old child roams andwrecks a house as she goes abouttrying to cook, entertain herself andin the end almost tips over a bal-cony! So is this film about parentalnegligence, domestic violence or asocietal numbness to the needs ofits young? Kapri does not confirmany theory but says that in the endthe film deals with family concernsand is definitely not a thriller.

The film grabbed eyeballs whenpeople got calls from a crying childand then the phone line went dead.On calling back people heard apromo for Pihu. While some peo-ple were offended, Kapri said thatbeing a former journalist he knowsthat it was a good way to go forwardas those from the profession like tofocus on negative stories. “I hopethat those who were offended alsocome to watch the film. When youhave a single protagonist smallbudget film, you try innovativesales methods,” says he.

The germ for the story came tohim while he contemplated what

his pet does when his family goesout for a couple of hours or whenhe heard of maids leaving childrenalone at home for a few hours, tak-ing advantage of the fact that bothparents were working profession-als. But the idea of this film cameto him when he heard about a four-and-a-half-year-old boy in Delhibeing trapped at home for days.Asked if he was inspired byRajkummar Rao’s Trapped, he saidthat Rao’s film was shot after Pihu,which was shot in 2015 when theyoung actor was only two.

“There are many single protag-onist films like Buried, 127 Hoursbut this one is unique since we seeit through the eyes of a child,” hetells us.

The woman we see in the trail-er is her real mother PrernaVishwakarma, a journalist. Prernaand Rohit Vishwakarna helpedKapri understand the young child,whom he met when she was onlyone year and eight months old. Herinnocence was an immediate pulland he ended up amending hisscript to fit the thinking of a child.

“I had a screenplay ready by thetime I met her but I spent monthsobserving and engaging with herwhich led me to change the screen-play because with a child you can’texpect them to give multiple retakes.We used three cameras to shoot themovie over 33 days during whichher parents were on set with us,” hesays.

Despite the hints of domesticviolence that the trailer showed us,he called it a family film that canbe watched by everyone. The filmhas received an U certificationalready. Asked if he thinks India is

ready to watch a film on parentalnegligence and guilt, he refuses toconfirm if that is the subject of thefilm but says that not everybody ismeant to be a parent even if that’swhat society expects of marriedcouples. He did not think of delib-erately exploring dark fears ofpeople living in the urbanscapewhen making Pihu but knew intu-itively that this was a subject thatneeds to be dealt with.

Maybe, the film, backed bySiddharth Roy Kapur and RonnieScrewvala, would put the audienceon toes about child safety in Indiaor it could be only a thrilling enter-tainer. Either way, the trailer is proofof how many heartstrings the filmhas the potential to pull.

Kapur, who has produced themovie, says, “He (Kapri) has kept itso gripping, so edge of the seat... It’slike a thriller but a very emotionalfilm at the same time and I think ouraudience will find it a very uniqueexperience. Ronnie Screwvala andI both watched it and decided thatthis is something we would definite-ly have to back.”

The special screening of the filmhere saw Union Science andTechnology Minister HarshVardhan Harsh Vardha, Congressleader Rajeev Shukla, BJP’s Delhichief Manoj Tiwari, Rajya Sabha MPAmar Singh and more in atten-dance.

According to a statement,Shukla said after the screening: “Iwas not expecting that this film willbe such a shocker; it takes time foryou to absorb the incidents happen-ing in the film. The girl has done afantastic job and it is worth show-ing on an international platform.”

China is set to overtakeFrance as the world’s

number one tourist destina-tion by 2030 as a growingmiddle class in Asia looks tospend more on travel, accord-ing to experts at marketresearch group EuromonitorInternational.

In a report published at anindustry conference inLondon, Euromonitor said itis predicting that there will be1.4 billion trips made in 2018,up by five per cent from thelast year. Stronger growth inmany major economies meansindustry receipts will rise byan estimated 11 per cent.

By 2030, internationalarrivals are expected to haverisen by another billion, cor-responding to around $2.6trillion in receipts. China isexpected to have overtakenFrance by then to become theworld’s number one traveldestination.

Much of the sustainedboom in travel and tourism,which has outpaced growth inthe global economy for eightyears, is centered in the Asia-Pacific region, where trips areexpected to grow by 10 percent this year. The region hasbenefited from rapidly grow-ing economies as well as anexpanding middle class thatseeks to spend disposableincome on leisure.

Euromonitor’s senior trav-el analyst, Wouter Geerts saidthe gradual process of loosen-ing visa restrictions has madetravelling in the region easier,with 80 per cent of arrivals inAsia originating from theregion. He also said that sport-ing events will likely boost theregion further, with Tokyohosting the 2020 SummerOlympic Games and Beijingthe 2022 winter event.

“Tourism is a key pillar ofthe Chinese economy, andmuch investment has beenmade to improve infrastruc-ture and standards, in additionto tourism-friendly policiesand initiatives,” he said. Otherbright spots in the forecast arecountries like Egypt, Tunisiaand Turkey, which have seen

sharp falls in tourist numbersover the past few years linkedto security concerns.

Egypt, in particular,appears to be doing well, fol-lowing a long period ofdecline largely linked to thepolitical upheaval since a pop-ular uprising in 2011 and thedowning of a Russian passen-ger plane over Egypt’s Sinaipeninsula in 2015 by an affil-iate of the Islamic State group,killing 224 people.

Though Egypt’s bookingswere up 134 percent in 2017-18 from the year before,according to Euromonitor,the industry is still short ofwhere it was in 2010. Egyptiangovernment figures show 8million tourists visited thecountry last year, way downon the 14 million recorded in2010.

Europe is also provingresilient and growing strong-ly despite economic and polit-ical turmoil in some countriesand a slew of extremist attacksin recent years.

One source of uncertain-ty for the outlook centers onBrexit. A ‘no-deal’ Brexit,which would see Britaincrashing out of the EuropeanUnion in March, would seemillions opting to stay athome — an estimated 5 mil-lion in 2022 — rather thanbook overseas holidays, thereport says. That would havea ripple effect across manydestinations, notably in Spain,where UK travellers accountfor around a fifth of thetourist-related revenues.Euromonitor also warned thatthe US tourism industry couldface a hit if the trade tensionsbetween the US and Chinaescalate.

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The whole world is facing manyglobal problems which are

connected with each other direct-ly or indirectly and which, togeth-er, have created a very complex andgrave situation. These problems aretoo many and too well-known toneed any listing here. Till datemany solutions have been tried tosolve these problems but it hasbeen noticed that every solutionhas, in the process or at the end,created some new problems evenif it has partially solved the oldones. The solutions chosen or theremedies applied have been thesociety’s response to the situation,confronting it. Man’s response tothese problems, some of whichthreaten even the survival ofhumankind, generally emanatefrom his knowledge of some aca-demic disciplines and so, it istermed as economic, political,social, legal, technological or mil-itaristic response. Or, if it is basedon his intuition or common sense,it is called his intuitive or layman’sresponse.

Since there has been anunprecedented advancement inthe above mentioned and otherdisciplines during the last two cen-turies or more, it would be natur-al for anyone to expect that ourproblems should have gottensolved by now but the truthremains that we are nowhere nearcomplete or final solution. On theother hand, it is strange but truethat most of our problems haverisen during a period when ourknowledge of the academic disci-plines had tremendously beenincreasing and a larger and largernumber of people have beenreceiving high-level education. Infact, as our efforts to resolve prob-lems gain momentum our prob-lems have been multiplying insteadof abating. The reason why thesolutions, adopted by man, havebeen unable to fulfil his dream isnot only that the solutions havebeen piecemeal and of ad-hoc andfragmentary nature but what ismost important is that some essen-tial element, that should generatehappiness and inner satisfactionhas been missing. So, even afterstrenuous efforts and huge expen-diture, the result achieved has notbeen a lasting respite and relief.There is, therefore, the need toknow or to explore that missingelement. An analysis of humanaction, in general, would suggestthat our response is, invariably andalways, based on our belief system.There is no person, educated andcultured or rustic and unlettered,who does not have a set of beliefswhich serve as the springboard forhis behaviour and actions. Ourbelief system includes in it our cho-sen goal and our role model. Ourvalues also emerge from our beliefsystem. These together determineour perception and interpreta-tion of a given situation and formour outlook and attitude and lead,

finally, to our response or action. At present, our outlook, our

values, our attitudes and ouractions are often prompted by thebelief system that is built from ourknowledge of science and technol-ogy and other disciplines such aseconomics, politics, etc., and there-fore, our response is mainly mate-rialistic, secular, mundane or influ-enced by body-conscious. It is notmoral and spiritual or of a quali-ty higher. Our motives, goals andefforts are coloured by merelyworldly or material considera-tions and immediate concerns.They do not take into account thedurable gain and a higher, noblerexperience. They violate moral andspiritual laws for immediate gainand neglect the well being of thesoul to attain a short-lived, plea-surable, sensual experience. Ourpresent predicament thus is due tothis missing element which shouldelicit the soul-conscious or the spir-itual response.

Spiritual response is a blend ofvalues like universal love, goodwill,co-operation, concern for the well-being of mankind, based on theconstant and living awareness thatwe are souls and children of oneSupreme and are divine in ournature and origin. We must thusremember that without this kindof spiritual response, no problem,whether you call it political, eco-nomic, ethnic or by any othername, can be solved.

The current education system inIndia is perhaps slightly flawed

given its massive impetus on theo-retical learning alone. There is a lackof practical application and theconstant marathon to attain marksshatters the thirst of true learning.The aim of education must be todrive students to significantly con-tribute towards social and econom-ic growth. However, the current cur-riculum fails to accomplish this.

Internships in curriculum designThe current design is outdated

as students remain unprepared andunaware of how the economic,social or political sectors function.They are merely given a picture atface value but hardly have any per-spective on realistic problem solv-ing. The only way this practicalknowledge can be earned is viaincorporating internships in thecurriculum. It is the sole way to pushstudents to gain exposure in sever-

al industries and allow their vaguecareer choices to become clear.

The optimal goal must be toprepare a student for the organisa-tional world as much as possible.This would significantly reduce thecosts of training incurred by com-panies while providing enhancedgrowth prospects. In addition, it isthe vital experience gained from var-ious internships that elevatesprospects of attaining jobs via pre-placement offers in college. This isbeneficial for colleges as well sinceit is not possible for them to teacheverything.

Prior work experienceThere are certain concepts that

can be learnt only via practical expe-riences like work ethics, work-lifebalance and professionalism, whichcan’t be taught by academia. Hence,to an extent it can be said that theamount and quality of work expe-rience can overshadow the number

of degrees an individual has in thedynamic work environment today.Companies prefer to employ orrecruit candidates with quality workexperience prior to joining theirorganisation. This substantiallystrengthens the initial trust laid onthe candidates. Companies opt forthis method of recruitment where

field work is given more emphasisbecause it primarily saves time andeffort.

There exists a wide gap betweenthe demand of corporates today andthe supply of fresh talent where thelatter are unable to satiate the for-mer. This points to a lack in quali-ty experience in a particular field.

There are however leading institu-tions that have embarked on bridg-ing this gap by inculcating credits forinternships in the curriculum itself.This makes it mandatory for stu-dents to gain work experience eitherduring vacations or after collegehours.

It is thus advisable that schoolsand colleges urgently lay moreemphasis on internships andhands-on work experience. Ratherthan increasing the quantity of the-oretical assignments and projects,it is perhaps best to send studentsout into the real world to gain expe-rience that cannot possibly beattained within the walls of theclassroom. The sense of profession-alism can only be acquired throughexperience, which in turn makes amassive difference in an individual’sperformance later.

(The author is the founder ofa platform for connecting with

industry experts.)

India is a country which has his-torically been the most vegetari-an in the world but the recent

increase in meat consumption isalarming. Indeed, recent governmentstudies highlight this shift (reportinga clear decline in vegetarianism overthe last decade surveyed), and newsstories continue to confirm thesefindings.

But what does this all mean? Italked to my Indian colleagues, whohave been doing critical work in thefood justice space, to find out. Itseems that more Indians than everbefore are enthused about eatingmeat, often because they feel doingso reflects a more aspirational or pro-gressive way of life. Eating meat isperceived by some as saying no towhat they see as outmoded traditionsor religious doctrine, and saying yesto rationality, open-mindedness,innovativeness, progressivism andfreedom.

However, unbeknownst to most,this new meat-eating ethic is in someways regressive, often much more sothan the attitudes and practices theyassociate with the traditional vege-tarianism that they are rejecting. Plus,in the land that gave birth to the com-passionate value of ahimsa, this newethic is rooted squarely in himsa, andit brings with it the potential for

tremendous harm to India. Thenew trend toward eating meat is insome important ways a step back-ward, not forward. So, how is thisincrease in meat-eating fosteringthe opposite ideals to those that someIndians are claiming to embrace inthe name of modern values?

��,�()��!��!�##�,�(��'There is more to the story than mostpeople — Indians and Westernersalike — realise. Carnism is the invis-ible belief system, or ideology, thatconditions people to eat certain ani-mals. To better understand howentrenched carnism is, think of thecult-classic film The Matrix. In it, thecharacters believe themselves to beliving normal lives when in fact theyare hooked up to machines that haveimprisoned their minds. Like thematrix, carnism is invisible, so peo-ple don’t realise how the system hasshaped their attitudes, feelings andbehaviours — their whole perceptionof reality.

And carnism is a global system:in meat-eating cultures around theworld, people learn to think of asmall handful of animals as appro-priate to eat, deeming all other ani-mals off limits and often disgustingand even offensive to consume. Theonly thing that varies across cultures

is the type of species considered edi-ble. Most of us go through our entirelives and never wonder why we may,for instance, care about dogs but eatchickens, or care about a dog we’venamed but eat dogs who remainanonymous.

It relies on a set of psychologi-cal defence mechanisms that distortour thoughts and numb our feelingsso that we act against our core val-ues such as ahimsa and justice.

�,��,&�(��-��#.(��,�#�,#$(��'And just what are the consequencesof carnism? For one, animal agricul-ture is a leading cause of extensiveharm to all animals (includinghumans) and to the natural environ-ment. More farmed animals areslaughtered in one week than thetotal number of people killed in allwars combined. Even contemporarydairy farming, which was originallymeant to honour the sacredness ofthe cow, follows brutal carnisticproduction methods whereby cowsand buffaloes are forcibly impregnat-ed, cruelly beaten and made to diepainful deaths. In addition, accord-ing to the Food Safety and StandardsAuthority of India, almost 70 per centof the dairy that Indians consume iscontaminated with additives, rang-

ing from water to salt to detergent.Furthermore, the World HealthOrganisation has linked meat con-sumption to some of the most preva-lent and deadly diseases in the worldtoday. The United Nations reportsthat animal agriculture is a key con-tributor to some of the most seriousenvironmental threats our planetfaces. The increase we’re seeing inmeat and dairy consumption inIndia forebodes a potentially massiveincrease in animal suffering, publichealth problems and pollution.

Carnism discourages our aware-ness of the problems it causes in partby teaching us to believe in a set ofmyths that I call the three Ns of jus-tification: eating meat is normal, nat-ural and necessary. And the three Nshave been used to justify all oppres-sive systems, including patriarchyand casteism. Moreover, these mythsare institutionalised, embraced andmaintained by all major institu-tions, from the family to the state. Sowhen we study nutrition, for exam-ple, we actually study carnistic nutri-tion.

Because carnism and its mythsare invisible, we don’t realise how ourthoughts, feelings and behaviourshave been guided by this ideology.Most people believe that eating meatreflects exercising their freedom ofchoice but in many ways it reallyreflects carnistic conditioning, whichis essentially another form of indoc-trination.

&�%�,�()�But there is a way forward.

Veganism, which is a new kind ofvegetarianism, is just beginning totake root in India. It is a rejection ofcarnism that is being exported by theWest to developing countries. Thisnew vegetarianism is at once future-oriented, critically informed, ratio-nal and compassionate. Indeed, it isbased on ahimsa, a value that isdeeply rooted in India than anywhereelse on earth.

You may be wondering how youcan help. I recommend, for those inpositions of privilege, people who areeconomically or geographically ableto choose what foods they consume,to try to be as vegan as possible. Thismeans reducing, and ideally eliminat-ing, your consumption of carnisticproducts. And it’s also important toinclude veganism in the critical con-versations about social justice andenvironmental sustainability thatare increasingly gaining attention.Since vegetarianism was birthed in India, what better place for thevegetarianism of the future to beraised?

(The author is a Harvard-edu-cated American psychologist.)

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Liverpool took advantage ofManchester City's later kick-offagainst Manchester United on

Sunday by beating Fulham 2-0 tomove top of the Premier League,while Chelsea stumbled in a 0-0 drawwith Everton. But that joy lived veryshort as Pep’s men beat United 3-1at Etihad to take revenge of last defeatas well as consolidate their top posi-tion.

While, Wolves hold Arsenal 1-1at Emirates. Both Liverpool andChelsea remain unbeaten in theleague after 12 games, but JurgenKlopp's men now enjoy a two-pointadvantage over the Blues thanks togoals either side of half-time atAnfield from Mohamed Salah andXherdan Shaqiri.

Despite a fine start to theirleague campaign, Liverpool's chancesof Champions League progress wereput in peril by a shock 2-0 defeat toRed Star Belgrade on Tuesday.

Klopp's side got back on trackagainst rock bottom Fulham, whosuffered a seventh straight defeat.

But Liverpool needed a hugeslice of luck in 14 seconds that com-pletely changed the game shortlybefore the break.

Aleksandar Mitrovic headedhome for the visitors only to bewrongly ruled offside.

The hosts quickly broke upfieldand Trent Alexander-Arnold's passfreed Salah to score his eighth goalof the season.

"The most important thing isreacting in a situation like thatand that was brilliant. Allison,Trent, Mo and done, it was afantastic situation," said Klopp

"Good routine. At the endwe were a bit lucky."

Under-pressure Fulhamboss Slavisa Jokanovicdescribed the situation as"absurd".

"We didn't defend wellthis counter-attack but this counter-attack shouldn't exist. It's a com-pletely absurd situation we have todefend."

Shaqiri hadn't made the trip toBelgrade in midweek due to concernsover the hostile reception the

Kosovo-born Swiss internationalwould receive for his controversialgoal celebration against Serbia at theWorld Cup.

But he showed why his guile andeye for goal was missed by turning

home Andy Robertson's crosseight minutes into the second-

half.At Stamford Bridge,

Maurizio Sarri's unbeaten startas Chelsea boss in all compe-titions stretched to 18 games,

but the hosts couldn't find away past inspired Englandnumber one JordanPickford.

In keeping with Chelsea'sseason so far, Eden Hazard was themajor threat for the hosts, but AlvaroMorata failed to build on his doubleagainst Crystal Palace last weekendin a frustrating afternoon for theSpanish striker.

Pickford saved Morata's best

effort from Hazard's inviting crossbefore the Belgian took centre-stage.

Twice he forced Pickford intoflying saves, while Willian firedwide from Hazard's pass that openedup the visitor's defence.

But Everton stood firm and gotthe luck they needed when MarcosAlonso's effort came back off thepost to pick up a very creditablepoint.

Earlier on Saturday late night,Mauricio Pochettino insisted henever had any doubt goalkeeperHugo Lloris would repay his faithafter the French number one keptCrystal Palace at bay as Tottenhamground out a 1-0 win at SelhurstPark.

Argentine centre-back JuanFoyth's first senior goal 24 minutesfrom time was the differencebetween the sides as a torrentialdownpour affected conditions.

� �■ (D�A�0(

Paco Alcacer scored the winner asBundesliga leaders Borussia

Dortmund twice came from behindto beat defending champions BayernMunich 3-2 and move seven pointsclear of their third-placed rivals.

The result on Saturday pilesadded pressure on Bayern headcoach Niko Kovac, as his side'schances of winning a seventhstraight title in his first season incharge took another blow.

"We allowed ourselves to bebeaten twice on the counter, thatshouldn't have happened," saidKovac.

"We should have been morecompact and unfortunately we losta game which should have been adraw," he added after RobertLewandowski had two second-halfgoals disallowed for offside.

Bayern have now been beaten inthree of their last six Bundesligagames after defeats byHertha Berlin andB o r u s s i aMoenchengladbach,managing just eightpoints from the last 21available.

Lucien Favre'sDortmund remainunbeaten and four points clear ofsecond-placed Gladbach at the topof the table.

After Lewandowski twice gaveBayern the lead at Signal Iduna Parkagainst his former club, Dortmundcaptain Marco Reus hit two equalis-ers before substitute Alcacer struckin the 73rd minute.

"We didn't trust ourselves in thefirst half, but we played awesomefootball after the break and it wasgreat fun," said Reus.

Alcacer has now scored eightgoals in six league appearancessince signing on loan fromBarcelona.

Bayern took a deserved leadwhen Serge Gnabry curled in a crossfor Lewandowski to power a head-er past stand-in Dortmund goal-keeper Marwin Hitz on 26 minutes.

It was 1-0 at the break, butDortmund drew level when ManuelNeuer brought Reus down in thearea in the 49th minute and the skip-per calmly converted the penalty.

Lewandowski restored the leadthree minutes later, heading homehis second — his 14th goal in 16matches for Bayern againstDortmund, who he left in 2014 ona free transfer.

Reus had a chance cleared offthe line on 59 minutes, just beforeLewandowski had the ball in theDortmund net, but was flagged foroffside.

��It was end-to-end stuff as

Alcacer, then Reus blew goldenchances before both made amendswith goals.

Reus finally fired Dortmundlevel when he volleyed home aLukasz Piszczek cross in the 67thminute.

Then when FranckRibery gave the ballaway, Alcacer showedsome classy finishing byrounding Neuer to putDortmund ahead for thefirst time.

Bayern kept thepressure on during a

tense five minutes of added time.Lewandowski had the ball in the

net for a fourth time, but again theflag went up for offside to thedelight of the home fans in the sell-out 81,365 crowd.

"That was a crazy game, a greatadvert for the Bundesliga and thewin wasn't undeserved," saidDortmund boss Favre.

On Sunday, Defending cham-pions Bayern Munich droppeddown to fourth in the Bundesliga asRB Leipzig leap-frogged them intothird with a 3-0 home win againstBayer Leverkusen.

After Bayern lost 3-2 onSaturday at league leaders BorussiaDortmund, who are now sevenpoints ahead of their rivals, Leipzig'svictory pushed the Bavarians furtherdown the table.

� �■ /��-'D�

Barcelona lost at home in La Ligafor the first time in more than

two years as Real Betis pulled off astunning 4-3 victory at the CampNou on Sunday, despite LionelMessi scoring twice on his returnfrom injury.

Barca last endured defeat ontheir own patch against Alaves inSeptember 2016 but, following 42games unbeaten, their run washalted by a brilliant, counter-attack-ing display from Betis.

After five games out injured,Messi returned to Barca's startingline-up but his two goals, one fromthe penalty spot and another deepinto injury-time, proved little morethan consolations.

Junior Firpo and Joaquin hadput Betis two up at the intervalbefore Messi sparked hopes of acomeback from the spot.

Giovani Lo Celso then capi-talised on a rare mistake fromMarc-Andre ter Stegen onlyfor Barca to come again,Arturo Vidal making it 3-2, having come on as a sub-stitute.

Ivan Rakitic was sentoff, however, with nineminutes left and SergioCanales added a fourth forBetis before Messi pokedhome in the 92nd minute.

Barca stay top of thetable despite the defeat

but their lead is down toone point, with AtleticoMadrid now breathingdown their necks in sec-

ond, while Espanyol willhave a chance to movelevel on points with theCatalans when they visit

Sevilla.Ernesto Valverde's Barca play

Atletico at the WandaMetropolitano after the interna-tional break.

Betis seemed faster, sharperand hungrier while Barcelona'smidfield was repeatedly carvedopen on the break.

It took five passes for the open-er, the last a first-time drive fromWilliam Carvalho to free Juniordown the left. He weaved insideSergi Roberto and found the net.

Betis were soon pouring ontoBarca´s defence again, with Junior'scross evading everyone before find-ing Lo Celso on the opposite sideof the box. His cute cut-back pickedout veteran winger Joaquin, whostabbed in Betis' second.

Vidal replaced the jaded ArthurMelo at half-time and shot withina minute of the restart.

Barca had the momentum andin the 68th minute, they pulled oneback, with Jordi Alba pulled downby Tello, and Messi converting thepenalty for his eighth league goal ofthe season.

But the comeback stalled threeminutes later as Betis restored theirtwo-goal advantage. Ter Stegenmade the error, letting Lo Celso'sshot slip through his fingers andinto the far corner.

Barca were not done yet. Twosubstitutes combined for a second,Munir El Haddadi laying on Vidalto make it 3-2 but no sooner had therecovery began again, it was halted.

First, Rakitic was sent off, a sec-ond yellow card for a late challengeon Lo Celso, and then Canalespushed in Betis' fourth from Junior'scross.

Messi added his second ininjury-time, tapping a Vidal passover the line. The video assistant ref-eree deemed Messi onside but therewas no more late drama as Betisheld on for a shock victory.

� �■ �#'��

Defender Gianluca Manciniscored for a third consecutive

game as Atalanta ended InterMilan's unbeaten run with a 4-1 vic-tory on Sunday which sees LucianoSpalletti's title-chasers dropfrom second to third inSerie A.

Mancini headed inafter 62 minutes inBergamo to add to HansHateboer's eighth-minuteopener, with Berat Djimsitiand Alejandro Gomez sealing allthree points for the hosts late-on.

Inter captain Mauro Icardi hadequalised when he slotted in apenalty just after the break, but his

side finished with ten men afterMarcelo Brozovic was sent off twominutes into injury time.

Inter slip three points behindsecond-placed Napoli, who camefrom behind to beat Genoa 2-1 onFriday.

Roma got back to win-ning ways with a 4-1 successover Sampdoria to moveup to sixth, within twopoints of the ChampionsLeague places behind ACMilan and Lazio, both inaction later.

Spalletti's Inter had been chas-ing their eighth consecutive leaguewin but came up against a doggedAtalanta, who extended their win-ning run to four games, moving up

to eighth to boost their EuropaLeague hopes.

The hosts dominated Inter fromthe outset on a muddy pitch inBergamo and after Hateboer's open-er they could have been furtherahead in northern Italy but for somefine Samit Handanovic saves.

Inter had chances, with a way-ward Ivan Persic header and aBrozovic volley going over the barjust before the break.

But Icardi drew Inter level afterthe break from the spot afterMancini handled in the penaltyarea.

Mancini made amends by head-ing in off an Ilicic free-kick, withanother set-piece from the boot ofthe Slovenian midfielder settingup Djimsiti to head in as the clockticked down.

Gomez finished off the rout twominutes after Croatian World Cuprunner-up Brozovic was sent off forhis second yellow card.

��,��In the Stadio Olimpico, Roma

followed their 2-1 win over CSKAMoscow in the Champions Leaguewith their first league success in amonth.

Stephan El Shaarawy scored asecond-half brace with Juan Jesusand Patrich Schick also on target asSampdoria fell to a third straightdefeat.

Rock-bottom Chievo earned a2-2 draw at home against Bologna,to move onto zero points, havinghad three deducted for falseaccounting.

� �■ ��D�9�0'D

Record-breaking LewisHamilton claimed his 10th

pole of the season and Mercedes'100th in Formula One on Saturdaywhen he dominated a rain-threat-ened qualifying session forSunday's Brazilian Grand Prix.

The new five-time worldchampion clocked a track recordbest lap in one minute and 7.281seconds on his second run in thefinal session to boost his hopes ofa rare Interlagos victory andMercedes bid for a fifth straightteams' title.

That lifted him clear ofSebastian Vettel of Ferrari byalmost one-tenth of a second withhis Mercedes team-mate ValtteriBottas, who took pole last year,third ahead of Kimi Raikkonen inthe second Ferrari.

The leading four drivers werescrapping for any advantage for

their teams as Ferrari bid to out-score Mercedes by 13 points to keepalive their bid to stop them retain-ing the constructors' championship.

It was a record-increasing 82ndpole for Hamilton, who has wononly once in Brazil, in 2016, and thefirst time he has taken a pole posi-tion in any races after he has wonthe championship.

Max Verstappen was fifthahead of his Red Bull team-mateDaniel Ricciardo, Marcus Ericssonand his Sauber team-mate CharlesLerclerc, Romain Grosjean of Haasand Pierre Gasly of Toro Rosso.

Hamilton was delighted withpole.

"That was a tough session," hesaid. "The weather was going upand down.Ferrari are very quickthis weekend, but we did a lot ofwork to make sure we are ready.

"It's great to be here in Brazil— I have Ayrton Senna's design onmy helmet."

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Shikhar Dhawan smashed acareer-best 92 to guide India toa thrilling six-wicket win over the

West Indies in the third and final T20International, thus completing a 3-0clean sweep, here on Sunday.

Dhawan hit 10 fours and twosixes in his 62-ball innings and forgeda scintillating 130-run partnershipwith Rishab Pant (58) for the thirdwicket to take India home in the lastball of the innings.

There was some drama towardsthe end as India lost the wickets ofPant and Dhawan leaving the host toscore one run off the last deliverybowled by Fabian Allen to secure thevictory.

Manish Pandey and DineshKarthik ran the single after Allen mis-fielded the former's shot to pick up thewinning run.

Earlier, left-handed batsmanNicholas Pooran's quick-fire half-cen-tury powered West Indies to a com-petitive 181 for 3.

Chasing the target of 182 to win,Dhawan and Rishab came together at45 for 2 after India had lost skipperRohit Sharma (4) and K L Rahul (17).

The Delhi duo put up a splendidshow, treating the spectators at the MA Chidambaram stadium to somespectacular shots with Pant, in par-ticular, showing a penchant to go forthe big shots.

After an indifferent run in thefirst two matches, Dhawan found hisgroove early and stroked the ball flu-ently. Boundaries flowed from his batas he kept the scoreboard ticking. Thetwo were quick between the wicketsand also ran twos at will.

The Indian innings started on adisappointing note for Rohit Sharma'sfans as the skipper fell after scoringa boundary, caught by his oppositenumber Carlos Brathwaite off KemoPaul's bowling.

He started the innings 69 runsshort of overhauling New Zealand'sMartin Guptill as the highest run-

maker in T20 Internationals but thein-form Mumbai batsman exited inthe third over.

The stylish K L Rahul, whocame in at the fall of his skipper'swicket, hit four boundaries in his briefstay, before nicking one from thepacer Oshane Thomas to the wick-et-keeper Denesh Ramdin.

Dhawan and Pant then joinedhands and dominated the WestIndies attack which seemed cluelessas to how to stop the flow of runs.Both went on the rampage and noneof the bowlers could provide a break-through.

Pant, who reached his 50 in 30balls became the second youngestIndian to score a T20I fifty at 21 yearsand 38 days. Skipper Rohit Sharmaat 20 years and 143 days holds therecord.

The dashing Pant hit some auda-cious shots and hoisted three sixes inhis attacking half-century beforebeing bowled by Paul in the 19th over.

Dhawan seemed to have regained

his touch ahead of the tour ofAustralia as he flayed the bowlers allround the park and fell when one runwas required for a win.

He clubbed a ball from spinnerAllen straight down the throat ofKieron Pollard at long-on.

Paul was the most successfulWest Indies bowler with 2 for 32while Thomas and Allen took a wick-et each.

Earlier, Pooran blasted fourboundaries and as many sixes in his25-ball unbeaten innings. His blis-tering 87-run unbeaten partnershipin 43 balls with fellow southpawDarren Bravo (43 off 37 balls)enabled the team move from 94 for3 to 181 in the allotted 20 overs.

Reeling after two crushingdefeats, the West Indies showed thestomach to fight as they batted witha lot more purpose here.

Pooran, who has been on thefringes for a while and did well in theCaribbean Premier League (CPL),showed why he is rated highly, bat-

ting with a lot of enterprise.He wasn't afraid to go for his

shots and also employed the switch-hit on a few occasions, includinghammering a six off Chahal. Bravooffered him great support and hit acouple of big sixers of his own.

Chahal, who got a lot of turn offthe wicket, was the most successfulIndian bowler with 2 for 28 from hisfour overs, but faced the heat towardsthe end when Pooran and Bravo wenton the attack.

Washington Sundar, who tookthe wicket of Denesh Ramdin (15),was the other wicket-taker.

Young pacer Khaleel Ahmedhad a good start to his spell but hecouldn't make much of an impres-sion. Experienced BhuvneshwarKumar too remained without wick-ets.

Earlier, openers ShimronHetmyer (26) and Shai Hope (24) gotthe visitors off to a brisk start andlooked to score from the word goafter captain Carlos Brathwaite won

the toss and elected to bat.Hetmyer, one of the success sto-

ries of the series for the Windies,cracked the first boundary in the sec-ond over bowled by WashingtonSundar. Hope too got into the act inthe next over from Khaleel.

The stylish right-hander hit thefirst six of the innings, lofting KrunalPandya over long-on. He perished ingoing for another big hit, caught onthe boundary by Sundar offYuzvendra Chahal's first ball of thematch. His contribution was 24 in afirst wicket partnership of 51.

Hetmyer slammed four bound-aries and a six in his 21-ball 26 butwas dismissed when trying to cut adelivery from Chahal. The ballbounced a little more than the south-paw expected and his shot was snaf-fled by Pandya.

India brought in Chahal andSundar for Kuldeep Yadav and JaspritBumrah, who have been rested whileWest Indies retained the XI thatplayed in Lucknow.

� �■ �D/��A�

David Miller and Faf du Plessisplundered big-hitting centuries

in a batting masterclass as SouthAfrica beat Australia by 40 runs towin their one-day series and inflictanother defeat on Justin Langer'smisfiring side.

The pair shared in a 252-runstand to power the Proteas to 320-5 in the third and final match inHobart - a record fourth wicket part-nership by South Africa against thehosts in Australia.

They came together at 55-3 inthe 16th over with Miller swatting139 for his fifth limited-overs cen-tury and du Plessis smashing 125 —his 10th one-day ton.

A composed Shaun Marshcracked a fighting 106 in the runchase, ably supported by MarcusStoinis (63) and Alex Carey (42) - an

improvement on recent batting dis-plays but still not good enough.

Pace spearheads Kagiso Rabadaand Dale Steyn both took threewickets. The victory handed SouthAfrica their first ODI series win inAustralia since 2009.

After winning the toss andputting the visitors into bat, Australiagot a dream start with Quinton deKock out in the third over.

And after few more setbacks,hard-hitting Miller joined skipper duPlessis and the scoreboard began rac-ing along.

Du Plessis was dropped on 29and Miller escaped an lbw dis-missal on 41 that was overturned onreview.

They made the most of their sec-ond lives and began swinging theirbats as du Plessis reached his centuryin 105 balls with 11 fours and onesix before falling to Stoinis going for

another big hit at the death.Miller made the landmark in 95

balls, including eight fours and twosixes, and was finally caught atdeep midwicket off Josh Hazlewoodin the last over.

Australia experimented withChris Lynn as opener for the runchase, but it spectacularly backfiredwhen Steyn snared him for a gold-en duck. Australia's woes werecompounded when Aaron Finchsoon followed him back to thepavillon.

It was down to Marsh andStoinis to open their shoulders andlook for boundaries. They put on animpressive 107 before Stoinis wascaught at backward point.

Carey supported Marsh as hemade his sixth one-day ton in 98balls, with six fours and four sixes,before he was caught at deep mid-wicket and hope began to evaporate.

� �■ (��$�

Mominul Haque andMushfiqur Rahim shared

a record partnership with cen-turies apiece to put Bangladeshin a strong position in the sec-ond Test against Zimbabwe inDhaka on Sunday.

Mominul made 161 whileMushfiqur added an unbeaten111 as Bangladesh reached 303-5 at stumps on the opening dayat Sher-e-Bangla NationalStadium.

Mominul and Mushfiqur

shared 266 runs in their fourthwicket stand, helpingBangladesh bounce back from26-3 to cross the 200-run markfor the first time in their last nineTest innings.

Mominul faced 242 ballsand hit 19 fours in his seventhTest century, while Mushfiqursmashed nine fours for his sixthTest hundred.

They surpassedBangladesh's previous record-high for a fourth wicket stand of180 runs, shared by Mominuland Liton Das against Sri Lanka

earlier this year.After some early success,

Zimbabwe had to wait for thesecond new ball to break thepartnership, when TendaiChatara forced Mominul to givea catch at gully to Brian Chari.

Kyle Jarvis removed night-watchman Taijul Islam for fourin the penultimate over of theday to give Zimbabwe a boostbefore stumps.

Zimbabwe, buoyed by their151-run victory in Sylhet —their first Test win in five years— applied pressure in the firsthour through their seamers andwere rewarded early.

The visitors hammeredBangladesh in the morning ses-sion as paceman Jarvis removedopeners Imrul Kayes and Litonwhile Donald Tiripano handeddebutant Mohammad Mithun aduck.

Jarvis forced an inside edgeform Imrul Kayes to earn thefirst breakthrough as wicket-keeper Regis Chakabva tookthe catch. Imrul, who faced 16balls, was unable to open hisaccount.

Fellow opener Liton pickedout the midwicket fielderMavuta after he flicked Jarvis inthe bowler's next over.

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Veteran Mithali Raj smasheda aggressive half century to

guide India to an easy 7-wick-et victory over arch-rivalsPakistan in the ICC Women'sWorld T20 here on Sunday.

Raj anchored the Indianrun chase with a 47-ball 56which she made with the helpof seven fours in the Group Bmatch which was marred byunprecedented docking of 10penalty runs on Pakistan.

Even before a ball beingfaced, 10 runs were on India'sscoreboard after Pakistan weredocked five-run penalty twiceduring their innings onaccount of their batswomenrunning on the danger area ofthe pitch during their innings.

India chased down the tar-get of 134 with six balls tospare, reaching 137 for 3 in 19overs. Previous game centuri-on and captain HarmanpreetKaur and Veda Krishnamurthyremained not out on 14 and 8respectively.

With the win on Sunday,India (with four points) madea big step towards making it tothe semifinals from the five-team Group B. Two teams eachfrom the two groups qualify forthe semifinals.

India also avenged theirnarrow 2-run defeat under D/Lmethod against Pakistan in

New Delhi in the previous edi-tion of the tournament in 2016.

India made a strong startwith openers Raj and SmritiMandhana (26) finding theboundaries at regular intervalsin their 73-run stand from 9.3overs. Mandhana fel l toBismah Maroof with OmaimaSohail taking a superb catch atdeep square leg.

The 18-year-old JemimahRodrigues (16), who scored ahalf century in the previousgame against New Zealand,seemed to continue from whereshe left but she played a shottoo many and perished in theprocess, caught and bowledby Nida Dar in the 15th over.

Earlier, Indian bowlerspinned Pakistan down for mostpart of their innings beforeallowing them to wriggle outfor 133 for 7.

Opting to field after win-ning the toss, India made agreat start with the ball, reduc-ing Pakistan to 30 for 3 in theseventh over.

Pakistan made a fine recov-ery thanks to half centuriesfrom Bismah Maroof (53) andNida Dar (52) as the duostitched 93 runs for the fourthwicket to take their side to acompetitive total.

India also dropped at leastthree easy catches, whichallowed Pakistan to come backinto the Group B match.

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GKevin Anderson overpow-ered Dominic Thiem 6-3, 7-

6 (12/10) to win his ATP Finalsopener on Sunday as RogerFederer prepared to launch hisbid for the 100th title of his sto-ried career.

South African giantAnderson came into the matchwith a healthy 6-2 lead overThiem in head-to-heads but hadlost their two most recent meet-ings, including a straight-setsdefeat at the US Open.

The Wimbledon finalist,who stands at 2.03 metres (sixfeet eight inches) tall, estab-lished an early grip on the matchat London's O2 arena, dominat-ing the early exchanges andsecuring the crucial break.

The 32-year-old, making hisdebut at the season finale, won84 percent of his points on servein the first set, compared withjust 58 percent for his raggedAustrian opponent.

Thiem tightened up hisgame in the second set andlooked far more aggressive, withhis serving numbers rocketinghigher but Anderson held firmto take the set into a tie-break.

In a see-saw tie-break, 25-year-old Thiem had two chancesto level the match but Andersonkept his cool to seal the victorywith an ace on his fourth matchpoint.

In the later match in theLleyton Hewitt group, secondseed and six-time championRoger Federer takes on Japan'sKei Nishikori.

The title is contested bythe eight players whohave accumulated themost ranking pointsover the season and isin a round-robin for-mat, with the best fourplayers reaching theknockout semi-finals stage.

World num-ber one NovakDjokovic, whoheads the GugaKuerten group,will be in actionon Monday

against John Isner whileAlexander Zverev takes onMarin Cilic.

Djokovic, who is gunning fora sixth title to equal Federer'srecord, has stormed back to thetop of men's tennis from theunlikely position of 22nd in theworld as recently as June, win-ning Wimbledon and the USOpen along the way.

In the second game of theopening day in the season endtourney, Australian Openchampion Roger Federer willstart his campaign for his

record 100th title in ATP circuitwhen he face US Open

semifinalist KeiNishikore, who

made it to thet o u r n a m e n t

after US Openfinalist JunaMartin delPotro with-

draws afterinjury.

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Greece's Stefanos Tsitsipascapped a breakthrough

season by rallying from a setdown to beat Australian Alexde Minaur in the Next GenATP final on Saturday.

The 20-year-old Tsitsipas,ranked 15th in the world, camethrough 2-4, 4-1, 4-3 (7/3), 4-3 (7/3) against 19-year-old deMinaur after one hour and 41minutes for his second title afterStockholm last month.

Tsitsipas, one of the sport'smost improved players thisyear after starting the seasonranked 91st, also finished run-ner-up to Rafael Nadal inBarcelona and Toronto.

The top seed claimed thetitle by winning all five of his

matches during the week, tosucceed South Korea's ChungHyeon, who won the inaugur-al edition last year in whichTsitsipas only played an exhi-bition match.

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#!"* dV^Z WZ_R]d SVXZ_ Z_ 4¶XRcY - Daily Pioneer

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