VOL. 13, ISSUE 148 | Tuesday, 29 May 2018 | New Delhi | Pages 16 | Rs 3.00

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81 FAMILIES OUT OF 100 HAVE THE LPG CONNECTION NOW: PM

MPOST BUREAU

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said his government had distributed 10 crore LPG connections in four years, including four crore free to poor women of which 45 percent beneficiaries have been Dalits and tribals resulting in a "big social transformation".

Underling his government's pro-poor credentials, Modi also took a dig at the previous regimes saying when he was young, the wealthy and influential people would get the LPG and tell the poor that it was unsafe to have a gas connection at home.

Interacting through video-con-ference with some women benefi-ciaries who received free cooking gas connection under the Ujjwala Yojana, a flagship welfare scheme aimed at increasing LPG coverage among the poor, the prime min-ister said ten crore LPG connec-tions have been given in the last four years as compared to 13 crore in six decades since independence.

Modi recalled his childhood saying his mother struggled with smoke emitting from cooking on firewood or cow dung, and asserted that his government would increase coverage of clean fuel to 100 per-cent households soon.

He said it was the rich and

influential who received the domestic gas connection earlier but his government has kept the poor at the centre of the drive.

He said 81 families out of 100

have the LPG connection now.The LPG reach is now 100 per-

cent in 70 percent villages and more than 75 percent in 81 per-cent villages, he said.

The clean fuel is leading to healthy India, Modi said, citing benefits of LPG fuel.

During the recent 'Gram Swaraj Yojna', 11 lakh people received LPG connection in one day, he said, adding more and more are joining the list of beneficiaries.

"Ujjwala Yojana has strength-ened the lives of the poor, margin-alised, Dalits, tribal communities. This initiative is playing a central role in social empowerment," Modi said. Ujjwala scheme was launched in May 2016 to provide in three years as many as five crore free LPG connections to women from extremely poor households. It also aims to reduce the use of pollut-ing fuels such as wood and dried cow dung that, according to the World Health Organization, cause 1.3 million premature deaths in India every year.

The target was raised to 8 crore this year by adding two additional years.

India aims to increase lique-fied petroleum gas (LPG) usage to cover 80 percent of its households by March 2019, against 72.8 per-cent in 2017.

Under the scheme, the govern-ment gives a subsidy of Rs 1,600 to state-owned fuel retailers for every free LPG connection installed in poor rural households without one.

‘10 cr LPG connections given in 4 yrs against 13 cr in 6 decades’

'No comprehensive dialogue with Pak till it shuns terrorism'

GAUTAM LAHIRI

NEW DELHI: There cannot be any extensive dialogue with Pakistan till it shuns terrorism, External Affairs Min-ister Sushma Swaraj said on Monday, asserting talks were not appropriate while people are dying on the border.

"We are always ready for talks with Pakistan but with a caveat that terror and talks cannot go together... There cannot be a comprehensive dialogue till Pakistan shuns terror," the minis-ter said while addressing a press con-ference at the completion of four years in power of the Narendra Modi-led government.

"Jab seema par janaze uth rahe hon, to baatcheet ki awaaz acchi nahi lagti (when people are dying on the border, talk of dialogue is not appro-priate," she added.

She was replying to a question on whether India-Pakistan talks can take place after the general elections there.

However, she admitted that the NSAs of India and Pakistan meet to hold "talks on terror".

The minister also hit out at Paki-

stan over its "Gilgit Baltistan Order 2018" relating to administrative con-trol over Gilgit-Baltistan, saying Paki-stan always "distorts history".

"Pakistan tries to teach us his-tory and geography. It is one coun-try which does not believe in, and I would say one thing to their answer 'look who's talking', Swaraj asserted.

Pakistan's Cabinet on May 21 approved Gilgit-Baltistan Order 2018 which was also endorsed by the assembly of the region. The order is being seen as Islamabad's efforts towards incorporating the disputed area as its fifth province.

India on Sunday summoned Paki-stan's Deputy High Commissioner Syed Haider Shah in New Delhi and lodged a strong protest over Islam-abad's latest move, saying any action to alter the status of any part of the territory under its "forcible and illegal occupation" has no legal basis.

On Monday Pakistan termed India's claim over Jammu and Kash-mir as "spurious" and said it contra-dicts everything from history to the situation on the ground.

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MPOST BUREAU

NEW DELHI: Bypolls were held on Monday in four Lok Sabha and ten assembly seats across the country, days after a joint opposition alliance claimed power in Karnataka.

As complaints about mal-functioning voting machines flowed in from Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh during the by-elections on Monday, the Election Commission said the "severe heat conditions" were interfering with the machines.

Calling the reports of large-scale voting machine malfunc-tion "an exaggeration", the commission said it is taking steps to correct it.

The four LS seats where by-polls were held are Kai-rana in Uttar Pradesh, Bhan-dara-Gondiya and Palghar in Maharashtra and the lone seat for the lower house of Parlia-ment in Nagaland.

The Kairana LS seat is the next big test for the BJP ver-sus a unified opposition. A by-poll is being held here because of the death of sitting BJP MP Hukum Singh. The saf-fron party has fielded Singh's daughter Mriganka Singh. She faces the Rashtriya Lok Dal's (RLD) Tabassum Hasan, who is supported by the Congress, the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).

Assembly bypolls - includ-ing one Assembly seat elec-tion - were held in Chenganur in Kerala, Noorpur in Uttar Pradesh, Rajarajeshwari Nagar, or RR Nagar in Karnataka, Ampati in Meghalaya, Sil-lia and Gomia in Jharkhand, Jokihat in Bihar, Maheshtala in West Bengal, Sahkot in Punjab and Tharali in Uttarakhand.

One of the Assembly bypoll contests to watch out for is the RK Nagar one in Karnataka. It's the one that's an election and not a bypoll. This constitu-ency didn't see Assembly polls on May 12 along with the rest of Karnataka.

Voting here was resched-uled for Monday, after 9,567 electoral photo identity cards were found in a flat in Jalahalli on May 9, three days before the state went to polls. Here, the contest is among the BJP, the Congress and the JD(S). The latter two are fielding separate candidates, despite coming together to form the govern-ment. Detailed report on P5

NEW DELHI: Kerala got good rains on Monday, prompting the private weather forecast agency Skymet Weather to declare the onset of monsoon in the state which marks the arrival of the rainy season in India. The country’s national weather forecaster - India Meteorological Department (IMD) - however, remained cautious, saying the monsoon will hit the state in the next 24 hours (on Tuesday) as predicted by it ten days ago.

“The wait for the arrival of much awaited southwest monsoon 2018 has finally come to an end on Monday. As per the weathermen, all the criteria required for the declaring the onset of monsoon over the Indian mainland have been met,” said the Skymet Weather which had pre-dicted May 28 (Monday) as the onset date.

Emphasising that the monsoon already reached Kerala on Monday, the Skymet Weather claimed that “all the criteria required for declar-ing the onset of monsoon over the Indian main-land has been met.”

The IMD, however, stuck to its prediction of May 29 as a date of onset. Mritunjay Mohapatra, additional director general of the IMD, said that the weather agency would formally announce its arrival on Tuesday after observing “consistency of all its parameters on the second day”.

He said, “Kerala got good rains on Monday, and all the conditions are favourable. We’ll go by our definition and criteria to formally announce the onset of monsoon.” AGENCIES

Monsoon hits Kerala, announces Skymet

YOGESH KANT

NEW DELHI: The 24.82-km Kal-kaji Mandir-Janakpuri West stretch of Delhi Metro's Magenta Line was opened on Monday, which will bring domestic terminal of the city airport on the DMRC network and cut travel time between Noida and Gurgaon by at least 30 minutes.

Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs (Independent Charge) Hardeep Singh Puri and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejri-wal inaugurated the corridor at Nehru Enclave metro station.

Speaking on the occasion, Kejri-wal said that the Delhi government would soon decide on the delayed Phase IV of the Metro network.

With the opening of this sec-tion, the total operational span of

the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) network has reached to 277 km, officials said.

Passenger services on the seg-ment, which has 16 stations — 14 underground, two elevated — will begin from tomorrow at 6 am from Kalkaji Mandir and Janakpuri West stations simultaneously.

After the inauguration, the dig-nitaries travelled in a train to the Hauz Khas metro station.

At 29 metres, the five-level new Hauz Khas station is the deepest metro station in the entire network and an engineering landmark as its tunnel goes beneath that of the exist-ing station on Yellow Line.

Hauz Khas (with Yellow Line) and Janakpuri West (with Blue Line) stations are the interchange facilities on this corridor, besides the exist-

ing Kalkaji Mandir station (with Violet Line).

This section is also the longest stretch to have been opened so far in the DMRC's Phase-III project.

With the opening of this stretch, the entire Janakpuri West-Botanical Garden Magenta Line corridor, cov-ering the city's arterial Outer Ring Road, has become operational.

Terminal 1 of the IGI Airport has also been connected to the metro network through this cor-ridor, with an eponymous station on it.

On December 25, Prime Min-ister Narendra Modi inaugurated the 12.64-km-long stretch of the Magenta Line's Botanical Gar-den-Kalkaji Mandir corridor, cut-ting down the travel time between Noida and parts of south Delhi by

more than 30 minutes.Now, with the opening of the

remainder of the Magenta Line, the travel time between Noida and

Gurgaon will shrink by at least 30 minutes.

"After the inauguration of this vital link, the approximate time to commute between HUDA City Centre (end of Yellow Line on Gur-gaon side) and Botanical Garden (on Blue Line in Noida) stations will be about 50 minutes," a DMRC official said.

"Currently, a metro journey from HUDA City Centre to Botan-ical Garden takes about an hour and a half with the interchange at Rajiv Chowk station," they said.

The corridor will operate with 24 trains which will gradually increase to 26 apart from the operating reserves.

The frequency will be 5 minutes and 15 seconds during peak hours through the whole section and if

passenger traffic demands shorter intermediate loops with higher rate will be introduced after studying the traffic pattern, they said.

The Delhi Metro is also touting the Magenta Line as a 'Knowledge Corridor' as four major universi-ties of the Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR), have been con-nected on it.

The Jawaharlal Nehru Univer-sity (JNU) and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) are the institu-tions which will get metro connec-tivity with the opening of the new corridor and Jamia Milia Islamia University in south Delhi and Amity University in Noida have already got metro connectivity with the open-ing of the Botanical Garden Kal-kaji Mandir section in December last year.

New corridor will cut commute between Noida & Ggn by 30 mins

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Central Board of Secondary Edu-cation (CBSE) on Monday announced that the results of Class 10 examinations would be declared Tuesday.

"The results will be declared on May 29 at 4 pm," an official from the CBSE said.

The board exams were marred by controversy this year with question paper leaks being reported from Delhi-NCR, Haryana and Jharkhand of Class 10 mathematics paper, but the HRD ministry had decided against conducting a re-examination in the "inter-est of students".

This was the first batch to appear for the Class 10 board examinations after the CBSE decided to junk the Continuous and Com-prehensive Evaluation (CCE) and reintroduce the board exams.

Over 16 lakh students appeared for Class 10 exams this year.

CBSE class 10 results to be

declared today

DELHI METRO MAGENTA LINE: KALKAJI MANDIR-JANAKPURI WEST CORRIDOR INAUGURATED

‘THERE’S FEAR OFBEING FORGOTTEN BY FILM INDUSTRY’ PG16

FRENCH PREZ MACRON HAILS HIS COURAGE

Malian to get French citizenship for Spiderman-style rescue

TN orders permanent closure of Sterlite Copper plant

PARIS: A Malian migrant who saved a four-year-old child hanging from a fourth-floor Paris balcony after scal-ing the building with his bare hands was honoured by French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday and offered citizenship.

Two days after his dar-ing Spiderman-style rescue -- viewed millions of times online -- Macron received Mamou-dou Gassama at the presiden-tial palace.

“All the (Gassama’s) doc-uments will be put in order,” Macron told the sporty 22-year-old who has become a national hero, referring to his immigration status.

In the meeting, live foot-age of which was carried on the president’s Facebook page, Macron gave Gassama a medal for bravery and also proposed

that Gassama join the French fire service.

“I was not thinking of any-thing. I went straight up”, Gas-sama, who wore jeans and a short-sleeved patterned shirt, told Macron, recounting the episode.

“Bravo,” Macron replied.“I’m pleased because it’s the

first time I’ve received a tro-phy like that,” Gassama, who arrived in France in Septem-ber 2017, said after receiving his medal.

Gassama leapt into action Saturday evening on seeing a child dangling in mid-air from a balcony half-way up an apart-ment block in the multi-eth-nic 18th district of the French capital.

The video shows him pull-ing himself up from balcony to balcony as a man on the fourth floor tries to hold on to the child by leaning across from a neighbouring balcony.

On reaching the fourth- floor Gassama, who lives in a hostel for immigrants, throws one leg over the balcony before reaching out with his right arm and grabbing the child.

Firefighters arrived at the scene to find the child had already been rescued, with a spokesman saying that “luck-ily, there was someone who was physically fit and who dared to go and get the child.” AGENCIES

MPOST BUREAU

CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu government on Monday issued a Government Order, direct-ing the state Pollution Con-trol Board to seal the Vedanta group's copper plant and close it down "permanently" follow-ing last week's violent protests during which 13 people were

killed in police firing.The Government Order

(GO) said it endorsed the recent closure direction of the Tamil Nadu Pollution Con-trol Board, and also asked the TNPCB to "seal the unit and close the plant permanently".

The document cited the Constitution's directive prin-ciples of state policy (Article

48-A) enjoining protection of environment and provisions of the Water Act, 1974, to order the permanent closure of the copper factory "in the larger public interest".

It referred to the PCB order of April 9 refusing to renew its consent to allow Vedanta's cop-per smelter plant at Tuticorin to operate. See P6

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, with Ministers of State MJ Akbar and V K Singh, at a press conference in New Delhi on Monday PIC: NAVEEN SHARMA

Highlights » The LPG reach is now 100 percent in 70 percent villages and more than 75 percent in 81 percent villages

» Ujjwala scheme was launched in May 2016 to provide in three years as many as five crore free LPG connections to women from extremely poor households

Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, along with Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and DMRC chief Mangu Singh take a ride in metro in Magenta line on Monday PIC/MPOST

Bypolls in 4 LS,10 assembly seats

EVM glitches reported in Maharashtra and UP

pNIFTY 10,688.65 (+83.50) pSENSEX 35,165.48 (+240.61) qDOW JONES 24,753.09 (-58.67) pNASDAQ 7433.85 (+9.43) pRUPEE/DOLLAR 67.43 (+0.35) pRUPEE/EURO 78.41 (+1.68) qGOLD/10GM 31,965 (-405) qSILVER/K 40,830 (-370)

2 MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Tuesday, 29 May, 2018

Although every possible care and caution has been taken to avoid errors or omissions, this publication is being sold on the condition and understanding that infromation given in this publication is merely for reference and must not be taken as having authority of or binding in any way on the writers, editors, publishers, and printers and sellers who do not owe any responsibility for any damage or loss to any person, a purchaser of this publication or not for the result of any action taken on the basis of this work. All disputes are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of competent court and forums in Delhi/New Delhi only

Printed & Published by Jaiyendra Kumar Sharma on behalf of Front Row Media Pvt. Ltd. and printed at The Indian Express Pvt. Ltd., A-8, Sector-7, Noida-201 301 (U.P.) and published from First Floor, Pratap Bhawan, 5 Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi 110 002. Editor: Durbar Ganguly, Executive Editor: Arya Rudra. Email: durbarganguly@gmail.com, Tel. No. 011-47777500

SATIATE YOUR CRAVINGSThe scorching heat of summer brings in plenty of happiness with mangoes. Beat the summer blues with ‘Mangolicious by Cafe Knosh - Maango More’ at The Leela Ambience Convention Hotel, Delhi. Be a part of a nostalgic journey that will take you through a mosaic of exotic chef specials infused with the ambrosial taste of the fruit King. WHEN: May 26 – June 25WHERE: Café Knosh, The Leela Ambience Convention Hotel, DelhiTIMINGS: 1 pm onwards

TREAT TO THE TASTE BUDSIt’s time for you to eat to your heart’s content with a wide selection of succulent, juicy Kebabs infused perfectly in mouth-watering Biryanis in the on-going ‘Kebab Biryani Festival’. Also, relish on a scrumptious array of finest blend of flavors ranging from Dum Mutton Seekh Kebab Biryani, Tandoori Prawn Biryani and a lot more.WHEN: Till May 31 WHERE: Chutney, Bar + Tandoor, The Metropolitan Hotel & SpaTIMING: 12 pm – 12 am

TALK ABOUT ENVIRONMENTTo mark the World Environment day, India International Centre(IIC) will be organising the sixth edition of the ‘Dialogue to Develop a Vision of the Environment of Delhi – 2025’. Speakers for the discussion include P.K. Tripathi, former Chief Secretary of Delhi; Professor Sanghamitra Sheel Acharya, Professor, JNU and others. WHEN: June 5 WHERE: Conference Room II, IIC TIMINGS: 6:30 pm onwards

EVENING NATURE BAZAAROn the ocassion of World Enviornment Day, Dastkar has brought up an exhibition ‘The Evening Nature Bazaar’ for Delhites – an exhibition concentrating on organic products and foods. Also, the event will be providing craftspeople the exposure and direct interaction with urban customers. WHEN: June 2 and 3WHERE: Nature Bazaar, Andheria Modh TIMINGS: 4 pm – 7:30 pm

DAYINDAYOUT What’s on Around Town

mp around town

Shopping online is fun and gives you access to brands from all over the world.

However, while making payments on the international platform, check for multiple pay-

ment options, read few reviews before you make the payment, suggest experts. Don’t forget to take a look at the below mentioned points before you spend a sin-gle penny:4Check for multiple payment options is one of

the most common advice you will come across when you are doing international payment. This is because chances of fraud are high on websites which are look-ing for only card details and do not accept cash on delivery or money from mobile wallets. Having mul-tiple options like payment with card, cash on delivery or online wallets present, suggest that the e-commerce firm is genuine.4Currency converter tool which converts the prices

in the country’s local currency where the user is brows-ing the site from be it anywhere in the world, will inspire trust from you as you will know instantly that if a com-

pany is catering to a lot of countries of the world it will have a strong solid foundation. Make sure you look for it or see if the prices are in your own currency so that your bank can track the transaction easily.4While doing international payment

always check for reviews to know how good the product is and whether you should buy it or not. You can read reviews about order tracking function that dismisses all doubts whether the com-pany is fraud or not.4Don’t be a

hoarder. A lot of times, businesses can be tempted to hold on to currencies, in the pursuit of better exchange rates. How-ever, businesses can also

suffer due to the same impetus. If hoarding money is having a bad impact on the cash-flows, opt for liquidity every time - attempting to correctly time foreign exchange market movements has no guarantee of working in your favour.4Make bigger payments. The fee for inter-

national transfers reduces proportionately as the amount increases. Hence, instead of making fre-quent, smaller payments, judiciously utilise your money in making bigger transfers. This would not only be convenient but will also help you save a lot of money in international transfers.4A pro forma invoice is an invoice which states

that the seller will fulfil his commitment to sup-ply goods to the buyer on the agreed price. This

information can be given on e-commerce websites with a link that says for bulk order contact here or a page which contains all the information on pro forma invoices and bulk orders.

Learning about the legitimacy of bulk orders will help you know that the company is legitimate.4Pay attention to the same product on different

websites and check for both type of prices before select-ing the best. The tax rate of every country is different so e-commerce sellers must do their homework when they are calculating prices of products so that the taxes levied on the products are not miscalculated. IANS

Tips to consider while doing

PAYMENTinternationalBy checking multiple payment options, reading reviews and making bigger payments, you can save a lot of money besides lessening the chance of frauds

During the season of heat waves, it’s best to avoid cer-tain edibles that can not only upset your stomach but also

cause some or the other infection. Try not to consume a lot of spicy

food and avoid overdose of non veg-etarian food.

Experts have listed food that must not be consumed in the summer season:4ICE-CREAM SANDWICH:

This treat usually packs nearly 500 cal-ories and gets a 60 per cent of its flavour from saturated fat. A better idea: Make your own ice cream sandwiches using lower-fat sorbet.4TOO MUCH SPICE: Spice

powders can certainly liven up a meal, but spices also can heat up the body as spices boost the rate of metabolism.4RICH NON-VEGETAR-

IAN FARE: Summer is not the time to tuck into rich meat gravies or tandoori, fish and chicken, or even seafood. In fact, this makes a person sweat more and causes digestive problems. It can

also lead to diarrhea.4OILY JUNK FOOD: You must

avoid burgers with meat patties, fries and other oily fare.4SALTY SNACKS: These con-

tain MSG (Monosodium Glutamate), a harmful additive that’s been linked to an increased appetite and weight gain.

4AVOID SAUCES: A cheese sauce is very avoidable too. It has close to 350 calories and it leaves you feeling bloated and sluggish. Some sauces also have too much MSG and salt. Instead, keep the meal nutritious and natural.4DEVILED EGGS: The risk of

Salmonella (infesction) is highest in deviled eggs when they are not held at the right temperature (at or below 40 degrees Fahrenheit). Salmonella can live on both the inside and outside of eggs and the egg can still appear per-fectly normal.

Dev-iled eggs are cooked, which should kill any germs in the eggs. But because you com-bine a bunch of eggs together for the fill-ing, and then it’s at room temperature, bacteria can grow to dangerous levels if an egg is undercooked or

contaminated after cooking.

Buy eggs only from stores or other suppli-

ers that keep them

refrigerated at or below 40 degrees Fahr-enheit, and serve deviled eggs on ice at all times.4LEFTOVERS: Leftovers

should be handled properly as well. Once everyone has eaten, put the food in its appropriate hot or cold environment. Food left out becomes a problem because it enters the tempera-ture danger zone, between 40 and 140 degrees Fahrenheit.

Count how many hours the food has been left out overall. If it is close to or over four hours, trash it.

Do this especially if the food was left out a good part of the day, and at

the hottest part of the day, just get rid

of it. IANS

Ice-cream sandwich, spicy food: Food to avoid during summer

BRAIN AREAS that are traditionally not asso-ciated with learning science can become active when people are confronted with solving phys-ics problems, finds a study.

This shows that the brain’s activity can be modified by different forms of instruction.

“The neurobiological processes that under-pin learning are complex and not always directly connected to what we think it means to learn,” said lead author Eric Brewe, Asso-ciate Professor at Drexel University in Penn-sylvania, US.

The findings, published in the journal Fron-tiers in ICT, showed that newer brain regions associated with attention, working memory and problem solving – the lateral prefrontal cortex and parietal cortex, sometimes called the brain’s ‘central executive network’ – showed activity when dealing with such problems.

Another area that became active was the posterior cingulate cortex, which is linked to episodic memory and self-referential thought.

“These changes in brain activity may be related to more complex behavioural changes in how students reason through physics ques-tions post- relative to pre-instruction,” Brewe noted.

“These might include shifts in strategy or an increased access to physics knowledge and problem-solving resources,” he said.

Using fMRI (functional magnetic reso-nance imaging) to measure blood flow in the brain, the researchers looked to map what areas

become active when completing a physics rea-soning task, both before a course on the con-cepts and after. A small group of students were taught a physics course that utilised ‘Modeling Instruction’, a style of teaching which encour-ages students to be active participants in their learning.

“This suggests that learning physics is an imaginative process, which is not typically how people think of it,” Brewe said, in reference to the study which aimed to explore how students use their own mental models to understand new concepts.

“The idea of mental models is something that people who research learning love to talk about, but have no evidence of what is happen-ing inside brains other than what people say or do,” Brewe said. “We are actually looking for evidence from inside the brain,” he added. IANS

Learning physics may activate new brain areas

OUR CORRESPONDENT

FUSING TOGETHER some of the fin-est works from well established artists, the art exhibition at All India Fine Arts and Crafts Society aims to serve the audi-ence a visual bonanza. Titled Genesis-18, the art show will be held from June 1-7.

Genesis-18 is an exposition by 34 art-ists in a manner that traces a timeline of developments in style, themes and schools of what has emerged today as Indian contemporary art.

The striking fea-ture of the works of the participating artists is the manner in which they straddle diverse cul-tures whilst still voicing the present context of Indian social, cultural and political life. The canvases pro-vide an introspec-tive and sometimes uneasy glimpse into modern India, yet are collectively global in their presentation. This exhibition

is a recognition of and respect for the influential antecedents of this genre of art. Clearly, the map has changed as these works demonstrate figurative and abstract, impatient yet unhurried, ancient spiritual-ity fused with modern cul-

ture.It is amazing to discern the similarity in the direc-

tion of thoughts of all art-ists, coming from diverse

milieus and diverse backgrounds.

Tracing the changing face of Indian contemporary art

mp city 3MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Tuesday, 29 May, 2018

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Three fresh cases of dengue have been reported in May, taking the total number of people affected by the vector-borne disease in the national Capital this sea-son to 15, according to the lat-est municipal report released on Monday.

Moreover, 14 cases of malaria have also been recorded till May 26, with 10 of them this month. Of the 15 cases of dengue, six were recorded in January, three in February, one in March, two in April and three this month, according to the report.

Cases of Vector-borne diseases are usually reported between mid-July and Novem-ber-end, but this period may stretch up to mid-December. There were no cases of any vector-borne disease till Jan-

uary 13. Meanwhile, domestic

breeding checkers have found mosquito-breeding at 19,205 households in the city till May 26, the report said. “24,084 legal notices have been served for mosquito-genic conditions

and 1,730 prosecutions have been initiated,” it said. South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) Commissioner P K Goel had last month issued an advisory on prevention and control of vector-borne dis-eases in Delhi. He had urged the heads of educational insti-tutions and offices to cooperate in checking mosquito breeding in their areas.

The SDMC Commis-sioner also advised people to buy coolers designed by the National Centre for Dis-ease Control (NCDC), which prevents mosquito-breeding, instead of conventional desert coolers. He also asked heads of various offices to nominate a nodal officer to ensure com-pliance with the advisory.

At least 10 people died in Delhi due to Dengue last year, according to the SDMC, which tabulates data for the entire city.

ROUSHAN ALI

NEW DELHI: The profit per cent on medicines and con-sumables at private hospi-tals and nursing homes in the city has been proposed to be capped at 50 in a draft advisory, Delhi Health Minister Satyen-dar Jain said here on Monday.

“Any patient cannot be compelled to purchase medi-cines from hospital’s chemist store,” the advisory draft states, according to which the sale price of medicines and con-sumables could be a maximum of 50 per cent more than the purchase price, or it could be the MRP, whichever is lower.

The draft advisory pro-posed by the Delhi govern-ment further states that private hospitals in the Capital “can-not hold hostage” bodies of patients, who have died during treatment there, even if families are unable to pay the due bills

before the last rites.Jain, however, said that the

proposal does not imply that the bills would be waived and hospitals can take legal action in case the payments are not made later by the families.

“Body of any deceased patient cannot be forcibly with-

held by a hospital and denied to the family for want of payment of due bills.

“There has to be dignity in death. A body cannot be held hostage just for bills. After death, a body belongs to the society, and final rites must be performed,” he said at a press

conference here on Monday.The draft advisory has been

prepared on the basis of recom-mendations of a nine-member expert panel, headed by Direc-tor-General of Health Services Kirti Bhushan, which was set up by the Arvind Kejriwal-led government on December 13 last year.

The panel was set up after allegations of excessive charges and unfair employment prac-tices by a few private facilities were reported.

“The draft has been put in public domain, inviting sug-gestions and objections for a period of 30 days. After that, we will implement the policy with revisions,” Jain said.

The Minister added that the draft also proposes that doc-tors at private hospitals and nursing homes should prefer-ably only prescribe drugs from the National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM) list and

patients should be consulted before administering drugs in the non-NLEM category.

The National List of Essen-tial Medicines of India, 2011, is a list of medicines, prepared by the Union Ministry of Health, which are considered essential in India.

“The draft advisory would be implemented by amend-ing the Delhi Nursing Homes Registration Act, and eventu-ally, it would mean that a pri-vate hospital or a nursing home could lose its licence to operate in Delhi, in case it violates these norms,” Jain said.

The expert panel appointed by the Delhi government include then Indian Medi-cal Association president Dr KK Aggarwal, Delhi Medical Council president Dr Arun Gupta, former president of Delhi Medical Association Dr RK Gupta, and other experts and senior bureaucrats.

Govt proposes to cap profit on drugs, consumables at 50%

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Delhi Power Minister Satyender Jain on Monday once again expressed his anguish over the Centre not supplying coal to thermal power plants in Delhi and NCR.

The minister expressed apprehension over a possible blackout that the Capital may face in the next two days, because power plants do not have reserve coal for 24 hours.

Addressing the media here, Jain again slammed Union Coal Minister Piyush Goyal for the shortage and said he had written to Goyal on May 17 but the latter has not responded yet.

“There is no coal in power plants in the NCR. Dadri I, II, Badarpur, Jhajhar (plants), none of them has stock (coal) for more than one day. We always had extra power but today there is no extra power.

If any problem arises, there will be a blackout This is a man-made disaster in making,” Jain told reporters on Monday.

The Minister said that power plants used to have a reserve coal stock for 14 days. However, now the stocks are only for 24 hours.

Earlier in his letter to Goyal, Jain had stated, “It has also been gathered that this coal shortage is due to non-availability of transportation rakes/wagons with Indian Railways.”

Jain also requested the Union Coal Minister to issue necessary instructions to resolve the issue and make sure that it does not repeat in the future.

“With the rising temperature and increasing power demand, this coal stock position is very alarming and needs immediate attention in order to avoid load shedding or any major grid incidence,” Jain said in the letter.

Proposal a part of draft advisory prepared by Delhi govt’s expert panel on health

Centre yet to supply coal for power,

blackout likely: Jain

Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain at a press conference announcing the draft advisory here on Monday PIC/NAVEEN SHARMA

SAYANTAN GHOSH

NEW DELHI: High crude oil prices and its cascading effect on diesel and petrol rates has made the going harder for veg-etable and fruit sellers of Delhi.

Vegetable growers in Uttar Pradesh have reportedly said they prefer to let their crops rot in the fields than harvest it.

The ongoing heat wave and hiked oil prices have hit the mandis hard, resulting in a steep hike in prices of vegeta-bles and fruits. In the past few days, retail and wholesale rates of all seasonal vegetables have shot by Rs 5-10.

Vendors lament that they have hardly been able to recover from the price rise they had witnessed during the thun-

derstorm at the beginning of the month, that they are now having to battle with the rise in diesel prices.

Vegetables such as ladyfin-ger, which was sold at Rs 50 per

kg in the retail market, is now priced at Rs 60.

Cucumber and potatoes are fetching a rate of Rs 40 and Rs 20 a kg, respectively. Till last week, they were available at Rs

30 and Rs 15, respectively.Wholesalers are a worried

lot as they feel that the prices may increase further if diesel charges shoot up unchecked.

“The farmers are obviously a worried lot,” said a member of the vendors’ committee of Ghazipur Mandi.

Farmers with large acreage deploy tractors these days, as getting bullocks to plough is not viable.

However, not everyone owns tractors and the cost of renting one has gone up by 40 to 80 per cent for an hour, due to rising fuel prices. “We fail to understand as to what’s going on in the country,” he said.

“The government earlier had announced fixed prices, and then remunerative prices.

Whatever is in the govern-ment’s hands logs a surge in prices, while whatever is with the farmer logs a dip in prices.

“Nationalised banks charge a higher rate of interest mak-ing it difficult for us to borrow. Electricity and water costs are higher now. Transportation costs are up. But my tomatoes fetch a meagre Rs 1 or 2 per kg,” the committee member said.

People from other strata of society too have been affected by the rise sharp in diesel prices.

As high vegetable prices have skewed the household budget, people are contemplat-ing carpooling to curtail their monthly expenditures. House-wives claim to be cutting cor-ners to run their kitchen.

The rise in transport prices comes at the end of the mango season in Uttar Pradesh. Fresh stock hitting the markets is being sourced from Maharash-tra, and from Gujarat.

The prices of mangoes sold in India cannot rise, but man-goes exported can be priced up.

“The rise in transport costs does not help the farmer as the price of mangoes cannot go up much, for it is perishable and is available in plenty in the mar-ket. The transportation costs for a truck of mangoes to Jaipur or Jodhpur has gone up, from Rs 40,000 to almost Rs 60,000. Farmers can’t pass on these costs to the consumer because there is no shortage of mangoes in the market,” said Naresh Singh a mango wholesaler.

The rise in transport prices comes at the end of the mango season in Uttar Pradesh REPRESENTATIVE IMAGE/PTI

Vegetable, fruit sellers hit hardest by fuel price hike

CNG price hiked by `1.36, up to 41.97 a kg

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: CNG price in the national Capital was on Monday hiked by Rs 1.36 per kg as input raw material got costlier because of rupee depreciation and rise in natural gas price.

Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) will now cost Rs 41.97 per kg in Delhi, with the new price coming into effect Tuesday midnight, Indraprastha Gas Ltd (IGL) said in a statement here.

In adjoining Noida, Greater Noida and Ghaziabad, rates were increased by Rs 1.55 to ?Rs 48.60 per kg.

The increase was warranted “to offset the impact on its input costs as a result of recent appreciation of dollar vis-a-vis rupee and revision in proportions of domestic gas allocation,” the statement said.

IGL said it will continue to offer a discount of Rs 1.50 per kg in the selling prices of CNG for filling between 12.30 am to 5.30 am at select outlets.

Thus, the consumer price of CNG would be Rs 40.47 per kg in Delhi and Rs 47.10 per kg in Noida, Greater Noida and Ghaziabad during 12.30 am

to 5.30 am at the select CNG stations across the region.

However, the price of piped cooking gas has not been revised.

“There has been a steep appreciation of the dollar as compared to rupee since the last CNG price revision. The base price of natural gas being procured by IGL from its sources is dollar linked thereby making the entire input price totally dependent on price of dollar vis-a-vis rupee,” the statement further said.

IGL said the increase would have a marginal impact on the per km running cost of vehicles.

For autos, the increase would be 4 paise per km, for taxi it would be 7 paise per km and in case of buses, the increase would be nearly 40 paise per km.

“With the revised price, CNG would still offer over 60 per cent savings towards the running cost when compared to petrol driven vehicles at the current level of prices. When compared to diesel driven vehicles, the economics in favour of CNG at revised price would be nearly 40 per cent,” the statement added.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) on Monday announced the e-auction of three premium hotels, including Taj Mansingh, for a licence period of 33 years.

The last date for submission of bids for Taj Mansingh with 292 rooms, The Connaught with 85 rooms and Hotel Asian International with 38 rooms, is June 7 and the auction will be conducted on June 19, 20 and 21, respectively.

“NDMC announces the launch of e-auctions of license rights of an iconic 5-star hotel property situated at 1, Man-singh Road, another hotel property situated at 37, Sha-heed Bhagat Singh Marg and a tourist lodge situated at 1, Jan-path Lane,” the Council said in a notification.

“All the three properties are located at the heart of New Delhi and have excellent con-nectivity to major demand cen-tres and transportation hubs,” it added. The e-auction will be conducted through MSTC, a government company.

SAYANTAN GHOSH

NEW DELHI: After a gruel-ling week where the heat wave led the mercury to soar to 45 degrees Celsius in Delhi, the weather department is expect-ing some relief over the next few days.

The regional weather fore-casting centre in New Delhi has predicted that there could be a dust storm on Tuesday, fol-lowed by rain and a thunder-shower on Wednesday.

This could bring down the temperature to around 41 degrees.

On Sunday, the day temper-ature at the Safdarjung obser-vatory was recorded at 44.2 degrees Celsius, four degrees above normal.

“A heat wave is a condition when the maximum tempera-ture of a place shoots beyond 40 degrees Celsius and is at least five degrees above the normal,” said Kuldeep Srivas-tava, a senior scientist with the regional weather forecasting centre.

Even though the core city did not record a heat wave, other areas such as Palam, Aya Nagar and Ridge area experi-enced heat wave as the temper-ature in these areas was at least five degrees above the normal.

At the Palam observatory, the mercury touched 45.8 degrees Celsius, while the day temperature at Aya Nagar and Ridge area was recorded to be 45.9 degrees and 44.9 degrees, respectively.

The city had recorded the season’s first heat wave last Saturday.

“We are expecting a dust storm on Tuesday followed by some rain on Wednesday. This could bring down the temper-ature to around 41 degrees by Wednesday in all places includ-ing Safdarjung, Palam, Aya Nagar and the Ridge area,” said Srivastava.

The Indian Meteorological Departnment has forecast that some parts of the country may get relief from prevailing heat waves like condition in the next 24 hours.

NDMC to auction off Taj Mansingh, two

other hotels

Dust storm, rain likely to bring respite

from heat wave

Vishwas apologises to Jaitley, defamation suit junkedOUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: As dissident Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Kumar Vishwas apolo-gised to Union Finance Minis-ter Arun Jaitley, the Delhi High Court on Monday disposed off a defamation suit filed by the latter against Vishwas as withdrawn.

Vishwas tendered a writ-

ten apology to Jaitley and his family for causing any harm to their reputation. In his letter, Vishwas said that the remarks made by him and other party leaders against Jaitley were based on information shared by their leader and AAP National Convenor Arvind Kejriwal, the Delhi Chief Minister.

“Arvind used to show us papers saying he had collected

the same as proof against var-ious leaders. Like any other party workers, we trusted him.

“When a leader takes a stand after a public statement, the workers repeat his words. We too, without questioning, trusted our leader’s illogical words,” reads Vishwas’s letter.

Jaitley’s counsel told Jus-tice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw that his client had accepted Vish-

was’s apology and wanted to withdraw the case, which the court allowed.

On April 3, the high court had accepted a joint applica-tion made by Chief Minister Kejriwal and AAP leaders San-jay Singh, Ashutosh, Deepak Bajpai, and Raghav Chadha to seek withdrawal of a civil defamation case filed by Jaitley against them.

Kejriwal and other AAP leaders also apologised to Jait-ley and his family for level-ling charges of corruption that they claimed occurred dur-ing Jaitley’s 13-year stint at the Delhi and District Cricket Association.

Jaitley had, however, con-tinued with the proceedings against Kumar Vishwas as he had not tendered the apology.

15 dengue cases this year

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Another case of atrocities committed against a Jharkhand girl from was reported in the Capi-tal, as Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) rescued the victim from forced labour in west Delhi’s Rajouri Garden.

The victim, who hails from Jharkhand’s Gumla district, had been held captive for two years and forced to work as a domestic help.

DCW, in a press release on Monday, said that an NGO Shakti Vahini approached it with the information that the

girl was being forced to work as a domestic help in a residence in Rajouri Garden.

“The girl has been missing from Jharkhand for the past two years, where a missing FIR was registered. Her par-ents had complained that the 15-year-old girl was missing for the last two years and had been held captive and working as a domestic help in Rajouri Garden,” said a DCW official.

The Commission, along with Delhi Police personnel, reached the house and found the girl. She said she had been placed at the said location by a placement agency.

DCW further stated that the girl claimed she had been working in the house for the past two years and had been placed there by her aunt. Her brother had also taken Rs 10,000 from the employer.

“She said that she never received any payment from the employer and had also been forced to work at other houses in Mohan Nagar,” said a DCW official.

The employer, meanwhile, alleged that he paid Rs 1 lakh to the placement agency for two years, but was unable to pro-duce papers in this connection when questioned by cops.

The matter has been reg-istered at the local police sta-tion, after which the girl was produced at the Child Welfare Committee.

DCW chairperson Swati Maliwal stated, “Strong sec-tions under the Bonded Labour Act and ITPA Act should be added to the FIR and strong action should be taken against the culprits. Repeatedly, girls are being trafficked from the poorest parts of Jharkhand to Delhi. Trafficking rackets run by placement agencies should be busted and steps should be immediately taken to ensure that this crime ends.”

Jharkhand girl rescued from forced labour in Rajouri Garden

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: A man was arrested from south east Del-hi’s Badarpur area on Monday, after he killed a 24-year-old by stabbing him several times with a sharp object, Delhi Police said.

Reports claimed that after murdering the youth, the accused Sonu informed his father of the incident.

Police said they are yet to verify this.

According to police, the deceased lived in Badarpur and was a neighbour of the accused.

The incident came to light in the early hours of Monday,

after a PCR call was received about the murder. Immediately, a police team rushed to the spot and took the victim to a hos-pital, where he was declared brought dead.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (South East) Chinmoy Biswal said that Sonu suspected that the victim was in having an affair with his wife.

The victim’s family told cops that after he left the house late Sunday night on the pre-text of some work, he did not return home.

Soon, the victim was found at Sonu’s house, where his body was found with multiple stab wounds.

Reports from the area also claimed that the accused him-self told the victim’s family of the murder.

Police was informed about the murder which took place inside the deceased house. “Several facts in the case is being verified,” said an investigator

When asked whether the accused had stabbed him more than 10 times, Biswal said it could not be ruled out. Cops said that the deceased was ran a mobile shop in the same local-ity. A case has been registered in this regard. Cops are inves-tigating whether Sonu had ear-lier threatened the deceased.

Man stabs 24-yr-old to death over suspected affair with wife

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: “I have no desire to live...all I pray for is death.” This is what Sunanda Pushkar wrote in an e-mail to her husband Shashi Tharoor nine days before she was found dead in a luxury hotel room here, police on Monday told a city court.

The police also said that Sunanda’s death was due to poi-soning and 27 tablets of Alprax were found in her room but it was not clear how many pills she had consumed.

While quoting from the charge sheet, the Delhi Police told Additional Chief Met-ropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal that Sunanda had inju-ries on her body which were received prior to her death

which is reflected in the post-mortem report. In an e-mail sent to Tharoor on January 8, 2014, she had written, “I don’t care about the test. I have no desire to live...all I pray for is death,” the police claimed. Sunanda’s mail and messages on social media should be

taken as a “dying declaration”, the police told the court, which today reserved for June 5 its order on whether to summon Tharoor as an accused in the case.

Referring to Section 113A of the Indian Evidence Act, Special Public Prosecutor Atul Shrivastava said, “It is pre-sumed that if she has com-mitted suicide, she must have been subjected to cruelty before death. Court may take cogni-sance of this fact that it is a case of abetment, as the death has taken place within seven years of the marriage, and under the law, a case of abetment is made out.”

Under Section 113A of the Act, a court “may presume, having regard to all the other circumstances of the case, that

... suicide had been abetted by her husband or by such relative of her husband” if she kills her-self within seven years from the date of her marriage. To drive home the point that Pushkar was subjected to cruelty, he also alleged that Tharoor did not bother to take care of his ailing wife who was suffering from high fever. He said that Pushkar used to write poems, the contents of which showed that everything was not right with her.

Delhi Police had on May 14 accused the Lok Sabha MP from Thiruvananthapuram of abetting Pushkar’s suicide and urged the court that he should be summoned as an accused in the four-and-half year-old case, claiming there was sufficient evidence against him.

Sunanda sent mail to Tharoor saying she had no ‘desire to live’: Delhi Police to court

Police said that Sunanda Pushkar had sent the mail to Shashi Tharoor on January 8, 2014

mp city4MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Tuesday, 29 May, 2018

This IPL, gamblers exploited technology to dodge probe

As per data, over 750 persons held between April 1 and May 15 for gambling

INDIAN RAILWAY IS ON CLEANLINESS MISSION STEADILYNEW DELHI: Indian Railways is the third largest rail network with 66,000 route kilometre stretch covering more than 8,000 stations. Consequent to the launch of ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’ on October 2, 2014 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Indian Railways had also launched ‘Swachh Rail Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’ to achieve the vision of ‘Clean India’ by October 2, 2019, which shall be the 150th Birthday of father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi. To take forward the momentum of ‘Swachh Rail Swachh Bharat’, a series of measures to improve the cleanliness of stations were announced in the Rail Budget presented in 2015, 2016 and 2017. One of the measures given in 2016 Budget is ranking of A1 and A category stations based on regular periodic third party audit and feedback from passengers, with a view to identify unclean spots/gaps and to improve cleanliness standards and also to propel healthy competition among railway stations. The same is being incorporated in trains.

TWO MEN ATTACKEDNEW DELHI: Two men were attacked after they had an argument with a few men in their neighbourhood in central Delhi’s Chandni Mahal area on Sunday night. Police said that the men managed to flee from the spot and search is going on. Police said that the matter came to fore when they received a call from one of the passersby, informing them about the men lying in pools of blood.

CITY BRIEFS As Khattar intervenes, registry of fourth floor may be allowed in city

Depleting bunds waiting to be replenished in Gurugram

OUR CORRESPONDENT

GURUGRAM: Good news may be in store for thousands of builders and residents who have recently made the build-ing structures upto fourth floor following the new building code of Haryana Urban Devel-opment Authority (HUDA). After the intervention by Hary-ana Chief Minister ML Khat-tar, there is a possibility of the public body of withdrawing its order of not registering the fourth floor. This is the sec-ond time in quick succession when the CM office has inter-vened in HUDA’s order that has been contested bitterly by the residents.

Earlier, builders and cer-tain residents protested against the move to restrict the sale of the fourth floor in the builder floors. According to the aggrieved residents, the HUDA in its new building code introduced in March 2017 had allowed the fourth floor to be constructed along with the

stilts parking. Residents and builders also claim that the public agency had also taken the registry fee and assured occupancy certificate to the required parties. However, now they have backtracked.

The aggrieved parties have also maintained that failure of the public agency to review their decision will result in more protests. This is for sec-ond time in quick succession when residents have openly protested against the pub-lic agency’s move after the increase in the enhancement fees. Earlier, HUDA had sent notices to over 3,000 plot own-ers asking them to pay the extra charges. Most of the protestors claimed that they had already paid a substantial amount in purchasing their plot and now they were not in a finan-cial condition to pay extra amount. Meanwhile, there are also reports that several people have not been able to get the possession of their plots even after more than 15 years.

PIYUSH OHRIE

GURUGRAM: Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Sunday inaugu-rated the beautification drive of the Badshahpur drain. To be undertaken by the Munici-pal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG), the 6.5-kilometre stretch that runs from National Highway-8 to Sohna road will now be beautified by setting up cycle tracks and walkways. The total length of Badshahpur drain is 28 kilometres.

Besides the plan to beau-tify the drain, the civic body is also tasked with the process of elongating the drain. It is, however, facing a major chal-lenge as human settlements have come up around the area.

In the past, hundreds of drain channels and bunds were created in Gurugram for the proper drainage of water in the Najafgarh drain. Public and private organisations are com-ing together to preserve these vital channels. The present sit-uation of water logging across

different parts of Gurugram highlights that another oppor-tunity may be lost in enhanc-ing the groundwater levels that

are falling at an alarming rate. One of the major reasons cited for the scarcity of water is the depletion of ponds and bunds

or small water dams.For a city that used to have

ponds and bunds, today most of them are encroached and built up areas. Most of the bunds that have now become extinct were set up during the British times. Those that are surviving continue to remain in a neglected state. Pleas have also been filed at the green courts to prevent the encroach-ments along drain channels.

While MCG has started a drive this monsoon to clean the water ponds in and around the district, the environmental-ists and residents do not seem to be impressed by the work of MCG officials on the ground. After 2016 when the city was flooded as there was no effec-tive space to channel out the water, the public agencies took cognisance of the seriousness of the situation. Many private organisations have also been roped in to enhance such chan-nels. In one such case, a pri-vate organisation successfully revived one-kilometre stretch along the Wazirbad bund.

The 6.5-kilometre stretch that runs from National Highway-8 to Sohna road along Badshahpur drain will now be beautified by setting up cycle tracks and walkways

ZAFAR ABBAS

NEW DELHI: Wearing ghunghroo and dressing like a woman proved costly for a 22-year-old man who was taken to the jungle and bru-tally murdered after he resisted teasing by a group of hooligans in South-East Delhi’s Okhla Industrial area. The deceased Kalua was stabbed by seven including three juveniles using a Swiss knife.

It was on the intervening night of May 22 and 23 when at around 2 am Kalua dressed in black was stopped by the hoo-ligans of the area who were all in inebriated state. The accused started making fun of his dressing. He told them not to make fun of him. On this, the accused caught hold of him and took him to the jungle and started beating him. “The accused were carrying a Swiss Army Knife along with him and they stabbed in his chest. Kalua succumbed to the inju-ries on the spot. After this, the

accused fled the spot on their motorcycles,” said DCP South East Chinmoy Biswal.

The accused were identified as Naveen (20), Aman Kumar Singh (20), Mohit Kumar (25) and Sajal Kumar Maheshwari (19), all residents of Govin-dpuri. Three juveniles were also apprehended. Cops said the accused consumed alco-hol before the murder. The

deceased had no permanent address and was a vagabond of Kalkaji Mandir area. Kalua was an orphan and was raised in a Dharamshala near Kal-kaji Mandir. He used to keep the company of kinnars and at times also dressed like them. On the fateful night, he wore a black suit-salwar with ghun-ghroo, which was made fun of by the accused.

ABHAY SINGH

NEW DELHI: The 2018 Indian Premier League (IPL) wit-nessed a change in the modus operandi of gamblers. This year, the racket was more organised and instead of using registers and notepads for betting, the accused misused technology to earn money and dodge police investigation. The overall data related to gambling, which was accessed by the Millennium Post, claimed that from April 1 to May 15, more than 200 cases were registered and over 750 persons were nabbed from different parts of the Capital. The arrests also included those who were involved in the IPL betting.

The highest number of the arrests came from Shah-dara district which busted the

modus operandi where bet-ting racket software and gam-ing websites were being used for the illegal activity. The use of the betting software was to maintain records of gambling whereas for gambling websites an account was created by a

person living outside India or in a country where betting is legal and the password was sent to the Indian associate and they played the gambling here.

The district also busted another technique of live bet-ting. One of the accused sits

in the stadium from where he provides the details to other bookies over the phone. Due to the difference in time in the television broadcast, they used to know the details of the game before the telecast and manip-ulate the whole bidding. The Shahdara district police also conducted a drive against gam-bling and arrested more than 50 persons.

One IPL gambling racket was busted by Farsh Bazaar Police Staion where 13 per-sons were arrested and cash Rs 44,510, output box having 19 parallel lines, 28 mobile phones, 1 LED TV and others seized. The accused were oper-ating racket by creating a mini exchange.

The North-East Delhi also arrested four persons who were using the old technique

of betting through watching TV and contacting other book-ies regarding the rate. Police said they used to watch live IPL matches and note down bets from gambler by using mobile phones. The cash was collected in advance from the gambler as token money. The West Delhi also busted a gang in which the accused used to take the Bet-ting Rate’s of IPL 20-20 Cricket Match of Delhi Vs Chennai per ball per over from one person over the phone and further gave the same to the punters.

The Feroz Shah Kotla ground witnessed seven IPL matches in Delhi which were guarded by more than 800 police personnel including five additional DCPs. Six cases of pickpocketing have been registered in IP Estate police station.

One IPL gambling racket was busted and cash Rs 44,510, output box having 19 parallel lines, 28 mobile phones, 1 LED TV and others seized

OUR CORRESPONDENT

GURUGRAM: Barely a day after a menial worker from Uttar Pradesh allegedly com-mitted suicide by jump-ing in front of the Metro train, on Monday there was another worker who was found dead in mysterious circumstances.

A man in his early 30s was found hanging in the under construction Rajiv Chowk underpass. He committed sui-cide by creating the rope from plastic materials.

Meanwhile, the police have begun their investigations and taken the body for post-mor-tem. As the deceased had no identity card, he is yet to be identified. While some peo-ple in the vicinity said he was a worker, others said he was a vagabond.

“Initial investigations reveal that this is a case of sui-cide. However, we will carry out our investigations to exam-ine whether there was any-thing else that was involved in the unfortunate death of the youth,” said a senior police official.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Police crime branch has busted a fake recruitment racket with the arrest of three persons. The accused engaged in cheating innocent unemployed youth of Haryana promising them jobs with "Territorial Army".

The gang members used to conduct fake physical tests in Delhi Cantt, get fake medical tests done in a hospital, and interviews were conducted in the parking area of the units. They even issued fake appoint-ment letters and even joining letters.

The matter came to light when a complainant, Sudheer, told the police that in June-July last year, one Sunil Jogi of his village had introduced him to one Pradeep, a resident of Sanjarwas, who induced him by offering an employment in “Territorial Army” for the post of G D and demanded Rs 5 Lakhs for the same. The vic-tim was trapped in the lucra-tive offer made by Pradeep. Pradeep took the complainant

to Delhi and introduced him to an army personnel, namely Amit at Army Unit who also further assured employment to the victim in “Territorial Army”. Thereafter, the alleged persons took Rs 5 lakh in cash from the complainant on vari-ous occasions in June, July and August on the pretext of physi-cal test, medical test, interview and final selection.

The alleged army person-nel had conducted fake physi-cal and medical tests in Delhi Cantt through a so-called doctor namely Sandeep and finally, Pardeep gave an Indian Army joining letter to the vic-tim, dated 18/08/17,” said Ram Gopal Naik, DCP Crime. How-ever, on reaching Bangalore, Pradeep's phone was found to be switched off. Several oth-ers approached the police with similar allegations against the gang. “Our team has arrested three members of recruit-ment racket -- Amit Kumar alias Amit Fauji, Suni Kumar alias Jogi, and Devender -- all resident of Haryana,” said the officer.

NEW DELHI: A Meerut-based gang who used to steal costly SUVs from the streets of Delhi was arrested from East Delhi area. The accused used to dispose of the vehicle in other states or countries. Also, they used to steal the vehicle on the demand of the receiver. The accused were identified as Isteyaq (40) and Mohammad Israar (57) and Furkhan (40). Police claimed that on May 19 the team was checking vehi-cles on Karkari More Flyover when they nabbed Isteyaq. The accused was so desperate that he even tried to break open the picket barricades and scuffled with the police officers.

Deputy Commissioner

of Police (East) Pankaj Singh stated that during interroga-tion Isteyaq revealed that he was arrested earlier also in MCOCA case at Hauz Khas police station. During the raids, the other accused were nabbed from Uttar Pradesh. “Isteyaq along with his associates used to steal the stereo from the car. Later, he came across another accomplice who met him in the jail. From him, he learnt how to compromise the security fea-tures of luxury vehicles,” police said. Later, they made a gang who usually came in a stolen vehicle and parked it adjacent to the vehicle being targetted. They stole the vehicle within a few minutes.

Meerut-based gang of car thieves busted

Man dressed as woman objects to teasing, stabbed to death

The accused have been arrested

RAHUL SINGH

NOIDA: In a major fire inci-dent, over 200 shanties were gutted in fire that broke out in Barola area of Noida on the intervening night of Sunday and Monday. Officials sus-pect a short circuit in one of the shanties was responsible for the blaze. While there was no loss of human life, the resi-dents lost their important doc-uments, clothes, valuables and other household goods in the fire.

According to reports, a short-circuit occurred at around 1 am on Monday in one of the shanties built in an open ground in Barola village under sector 49 of Noida and triggered the fire. The slum area sparked the fire which engulfed an LPG cylinder. The cylinder blast spread fire to nearby houses in which other cylinders went off and the fire turned uncontrollable.

Around hundred small LPG cylinders blasted as the

fire became massive gutting more than 200 shanties. Heavy damage was reported till the fire tenders reached the spot. No casualties were reported but many were left stranded in the scorching sun on Monday morning.

Fire officials said that around a dozen fire tenders were pressed into action and the flames were doused after six hours of efforts.

While the station officer reported that 120 shanties have been damaged, locals claimed that the number was over 200. Locals also alleged that the fire tenders reached late at the spot even after several calls were made to them.

"Despite numerous calls, the fire brigade reached the spot after one and a half hour," said Yaseen, a resident of the area. He added that the fire

spread quite quickly, forcing everyone out of their houses.

The slum area is built at a vacant plot and around 200 families reside over there. Most of them belong to Ben-gal, Bihar and eastern part of the country and work as daily waged labourers, rick-shaw pullers and house help in nearby societies. The fire has left them with no food, clothes or shelter.

RAHUL SINGH

NOIDA: Residents of various posh sectors of Noida have complained that the water being supplied to them is inad-equate and of very poor quality, over past few days, increasing the risk to various water-borne diseases.

According to the resi-dents, the water supply to their houses has been contaminated and they get black coloured, foul smelling water whenever they open their taps. They

also alleged that the author-ity has not arranged any water tankers for them which have forced them to buy water from the market to meet their basic needs.

“Even after the hiked prices of water by the Noida author-ity, we are getting dirty water for the past three days. For-get drinking, the water is not suitable for bathing or even washing clothes. Looking at the color of the water flowing through the taps, it looks like we are getting a direct supply

from a gutter as the water is totally black or dark brown in color. We are forced to buy expensive water bottles to use it for bathing and other basic needs” said Gulab Singh Bhati, a resident of sector 20 Noida.

Residents also claimed that the problem of dirty water sup-ply in these sectors in not new as they have been battling with a poor supply of water from past many years.

The residents appealed to Noida authority to address the issue at the earliest.

Fake ‘Territorial Army’ racket busted, 3 held from Haryana

Man commits suicide in Gurugram

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Delhi Police continued their 10-hour long search to reconstruct a sequence of the event about an accident which includes a costly Harley-Davidson bike and a car on South East Delhi's DND flyover on Sunday. Police claimed that they suspect that the bikers might have fallen in Yamuna river but they are yet to find the bodies.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (South East) Chinmoy Biswal stated that on Monday they carried out the search operation but yet to find any

person or body. "We searched almost all nearby hospitals but no headway in the case," said the police official.

Police are also unable to contact the relatives of the owner of the vehicle as they have no clue about that. Police stated that on Sunday at about 3 am an information about the accident at DND flyway was received at Sunlight Colony police station.

The police team rushed to the spot which was on Yamuna bridge from Noida to Delhi. The police found that a Harley Davidson bike having Delhi number plate and Toyota Etios

car were found in accidental condition.

According to a senior police officer, the impact of the collision between the high-end bike and the Etios car was such that both the vehicles were found to be in a mangled condition.

Police have registered a case of the accident under rel-evant sections of the law.

Police said that they are scanning the CCTV footage from the cameras installed near the DND flyover. "We are connecting the sequence of the event how the accident took place," said the police officer.

DND flyway mishap: Police yet to find any bodies

Over 200 shanties gutted in Noida fire

Important documents, clothes, valuables and other household goods were destroyed in the fire

Noida people complain of dirty water

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Monday sought the DMRC’s response to a PIL seeking in-depth inquiry into the safety of rails procured through a Swiss company for metro tracks. The petition, which came up for hearing before a bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar, alleged that the rails supplied by the Swiss com-pany -- East Metal AG -- may have high content of Hydrogen making them more susceptible to breaks or fractures which could lead to a major disaster.

Rails are continuous line of steel bars laid on the ground as one of a pair forming a railway track. The court issued notice to the DMRC and the Swiss company, which won the con-tract for supplying the rails, and sought their response to the plea by October 9, the next date of hearing. AGENCIES

PIL questions safety of rails

supplied to DMRC by Swiss firm

BEFORE

AFTER

mp nation 5MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Tuesday, 29 May, 2018

OUR CORRESPONDENT

BENGALURU: JD(S) Supremo HD Deve Gowda said on Monday he had offered to support a Congress-led gov-ernment in Karnataka after the fractured verdict in the Assem-bly polls but the latter insisted on HD Kumaraswamy becom-ing the chief minister.

Gowda said during his hour-long discussion with senior Congress lead-ers Ghulam Nabi Azad and Ashok Gehlot, he was told that the decision to back his son Kumaraswamy for the post of the chief minister was taken by the Congress high-command.

"There was discussion between me, Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and Ashok Gehlot. I told them, you form (the government), I have no problem. They insisted that Kumaraswamy become the chief minister and that it was their high-command's deci-sion," the former prime min-ister told a press conference.

Amid reports of contin-ued differences in the newly-formed JD(S)-Congress coalition over portfolio allo-cation and farm loan waiver, which has delayed the expan-sion of the Kumaraswamy min-istry, Gowda indicated it would be difficult to keep the promise of relief to farmers.

"How? With 37 members (MLAs of the JDS), we have to run the government with the support of another party. We

will also have to continue with their programmes. Without their support it is difficult.

"That is why he (Kumaras-wamy) said I will give resigna-tion, if need be. He was under Congress' will and not under the will of 6.5 crore people. He has called himself child of cir-cumstances," he said.

Kumaraswamy had prom-ised to write of farm loans total-ling Rs 53,000 crore within 24 hours of coming to power, but has now sought time cit-ing coalition compulsions and the need to assess the financial condition of the state. The BJP has appealed to farmers and all sections of society to observe a state-wide bandh today to protest Kumaraswamy's fail-ure to honour his promise of loan waiver.

"Yesterday, he (Kumaras-wamy) said with pain that he

was under Congress' will and not under the will of 6.5 crore people...who has rewarded him for his fight?" Gowda asked.

Kumaraswamy had yester-day said he was at the "mercy" of the Congress and not the 6.5 crore people of Karnataka as his party had not received the full mandate which it had sought.

Karnataka Congress lead-ers as also Kumaraswamy are in the national capital for discus-sions on portfolio allocation, and reports said there were differences among them on who should get key ministries, including the finance minis-try. When asked about Kuma-raswamy's earlier statement that he would form the gov-ernment with those who agree to implement the JD(S) mani-festo, Gowda said,"Discussions are going on. What can be done when finance ministry is not

given (to his party)."  "It is left to them...Congress is a major party, we are a minor partner. We did not ask for power, they themselvescame. I said make someone from Congress the chief minister, Iwill support. There is no hiding this. I am not after power," Gowda said in response to a question about whether the Congress was not supporting Kumaraswamy's good decisions. Gowda termed

as "low level" the speech by the Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly B S Yeddyurappa ahead of the trust vote sought by Kumaraswamy. "I saw the proceedings on TV. As a com-mon man I'm saying, I have not seen such low level speech," he added. Calling the JD(S)-Con-gress alliance "unholy", Yeddy-urappa had attacked the Gowda family, saying, "The father and sons will finish the Congress".

Congress insisted on making HDK the CM: Deve Gowda

NEW DELHI: The Congress and the JD-S are likely to seal the deal over portfolio allo-cation in Karnataka within a day or two, a senior Con-gress leader said on Monday after the two coalition part-ners held deliberations over the issue.

Top leaders of the two parties including Chief Min-ister HD Kumaraswamy and deputy chief minister G Parameshwara met here at the residence of Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad.

Senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel and AICC incharge of party affairs in Karnataka K C Venugopal were also present during the meeting.

"We held discussions with Chief Minister H D Kuma-

raswamy and other leaders of our ally in Karnataka. We are likely to finalise the portfo-lio-sharing issue within a day or two. We will be meeting again this evening and hold further discussions," senior party leader Venugopal said.

After the meeting, Kuma-raswamy exuded confidence that an amicable power shar-ing arrangement will be worked out.

JD-S leader Danish Ali, who was also part of the dis-cussions, said that the talks were "constructive" and would yield a positive out-come. The two partners in Karnataka are involved in hectic bargaining over port-folio sharing ever since they got together to form a government in the southern state. MPOST

Cong, JD-S leaders meet to work out power-sharing arrangement

Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy meets Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in New Delhi on Monday PTI

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Opposition parties and the ruling BJP on Monday moved the Election Commission claiming “hun-dreds” of EVMs and paper trail machines deployed for Kai-rana Lok Sabha and Noorpur assembly bypolls developed snags and were not replaced for hours.

But the Election Commis-sion termed as “exaggerated projection of reality” reports of ‘large scale’ failure of EVMs during Lok Sabha and assembly bypolls in Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra and said adequate number of reserve machines are provided for any eventu-ality. Sources in the poll panel did say that shoddy handling of VVPAT machines by the ground staff, especially when the temperature is high, led to their heating, resulting in their malfunctioning.

SP leader Ramgopal Yadav and RLD chief Ajit Singh along with others met top EC officials claiming that the faulty EVMs were not replaced on time.

The leaders demanded that repoll should be announced in polling stations where EVMs were not replaced for over one-and-a-half hours. At poll-ing stations where EVMs were replaced within one-and-a-half hours, additional time should be granted to voters to exer-cise their franchise, they told reporters after meeting the EC.

They alleged that poll offi-cials “took their own time” in replacing EVMs in rural areas, the base of their voters. The EVMs were, however, replaced with alacrity in urban areas.

A BJP delegation, including general secretaries Bhupender Yadav and Arun Singh besides its media head Anil Baluni, informed the Election Com-mission that EVM machines were dysfunctional for a long period in 197 booths in Kai-rana and Noorpur.

Yadav told reporters that they urged the EC to hold repolling in booths were elec-tion process was severely affected. They asked the EC to send observers to identify such booths and also find out rea-

sons for EVM malfunction.Concerns were also

raised about the function-ing of paper trail (VVPAT) machines. Sources in the EC noted that failure on part of the ground staff led to heat-ing of the machines. An official said those who skipped train-ing programmes and “spent time on their phones during training sessions” placed the machines at places where ‘heat sensitive’ nature of the device created problems.

A poll panel spokesperson later said a joint delegation of the RLD, SP and Congress and a separate delegation of BJP representatives met the EC and brought to its notice concerns about functioning of VVPAT machines in some of the poll-ing booths in bypolls today.

“The Commission assured them that all necessary action will be taken on issues raised. They were also assured that the concerns related to VVPAT have been verified on ground and appropriate actions have been taken by the District Elec-tion teams. The Commission has also informed that on the basis of reports of RO, DEO and Observers, further action will be taken.”

The EC said voters who have queued up outside poll-ing stations will be allowed to cast votes despite end of poll-ing hours. But in a statement, poll panel denied that the fail-ure of the voting machines was unusual. “... the Commission allocates sufficient reserve of

EVMs and VVPATs for every general and by election to the Lok Sabha or state assembly.

“It is pertinent to mention that during commissioning of EVMs and VVPATs, apart from EVMs and VVPATs required for deployment at every poll-ing station, adequate number of reserve EVMs and VVPATs (around 20-25 per cent) are prepared to replace any defec-tive machine on poll day at the polling station,” it said.

It said the reserve EVMs/VVPATs are kept with sector officers, who replace the defec-tive EVMs/VVPATs. Since each sector officer is entrusted with only 10-12 polling stations, the time taken to replace any EVM/VVPAT is normally less than 30 minutes.

“The replacement of defec-tive EVMs/VVPATs during actual polls is a normal pro-cess and does not vitiate the integrity or credibility of the poll process in any way whatso-ever,” the statement read.

The poll panel also rejected reports that polling was can-celled in 35 booths in Bhan-dara-Gondiya LS constituency in Maharashtra.

“Also, the reports emerging in some quarters about EVMs/VVPATs failing in 25 per cent polling booths in the same con-stituency are also incorrect. It is clarified that voting has not been cancelled in any polling station in Bhandara-Gondiya constituency and voting is con-tinuing smoothly after neces-sary replacements,” it said.

Bypolls: Parties say EVMs, VVPATs malfunctioned

BJP MLA Suresh Rana, 4th from right, waits in a queue to cast his votes for Kairana parliamentary constituency bypolls, in Shamli on Monday PTI

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: None of the seven recognised national and 59 state parties have responded to the Law Commission’s con-sultation on the ‘working paper’ on holding simultaneous Lok Sabha and state assembly polls, a proposal being pushed by the government.

May 8 was last date of sub-mitting response. Among the prominent people who have responded to the document are V Narayanasamy in his capac-ity as Puducherry chief minster and former chief election com-missioner H S Brahma.

BJP, Congress, CPI, CPI-M, Trinamool Congress, BSP and NCP are the national par-ties recognised by the Election Commission (EC).

Highly-placed sources in the Commission said Naraya-nasamy was of the view that simultaneous polls cannot be held without amending the Constitution. He said any move to amend the Constitution to extend or reduce the term of the state assemblies would be against the federal structure.

Brahma has supported the idea of holding the two sets of elections together, the sources said.

Seeking to give shape to the government’s concept of one nation, one election’, the Law Commission’s internal work-ing paper has recommended holding of simultaneous Lok Sabha and assembly polls in two phases beginning 2019.

The second phase of simul-taneous polls can take place in 2024, the document states.

The document has pro-posed amending the Consti-tution and the Representation of the People Act to shorten or extend the terms of state legis-lative assemblies to effect the move.

The states which are recom-mended to be covered under phase I are where assembly polls are due in 2021.

States which will come under phase II are Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Delhi and Punjab. To hold elections in these states along with LS polls, the terms of the assemblies have to be extended.

Based on a suggestion made

by the Election Commission, the working paper also says that a no confidence motion against the government should be followed by a confidence motion.

This would ensure that if the opposition does not have numbers to form an alterna-tive government, the regime in office cannot be removed.

Chief Election Commis-sioner Om Prakash Rawat had a word of caution on simulta-neous polls when he recently said that the legal framework required for holding of the two elections together will take a lot of time to get ready.

We cannot put the cart before the horse. Logisti-cal issues are subservient to legal framework. Unless legal framework is in place, we don’t have to talk about any-thing else because legal frame-work will take a lot of time, making constitutional amend-ment to (changing) the law, all the process will take time,” he had said.

He had said once the legal framework is ready, the EC will deliver.

Political parties cold to law panel consultation on simultaneous polls

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Tribal organisations across Telan-gana region have threat-ened to boycott Congress party in coming elections if the party high command failed to suspend former Rajya Sabha MP Renuka Chowdhury.

Participating in a dharna programme in Khammam district of the state on Monday, Lambada and Banjara tribal organ-isations have demanded immediate action on senior Congress leader for alleged cheating of a tribal leader.

Supporting Bhukya Kalavati, widow of Dr Bhukya Ramachandra Naik, a surgeon and Con-gress supporter from Wyra in Khammam district, the Lamabada rights organisa-tion state president Ravi-chandra Chouhan asked the Congress to prove its com-mitment to the tribals who have been supporting the party for decades, by tak-ing serious action against Chowdhury.

Other leaders who par-ticipated in the rally and dharna advised the Con-gress not to antagonise trib-

als by not taking action on Chowdhury.

Speaking to mediaper-sons, Kalavathi alleged that Chowdhury took Rs 1.10 crore from her husband, promising to get him a ticket to contest from Wyra Assembly constituency in 2014 elections.

She further alleged that the ticket was not allotted to her husband and when he sought the money back, Chowdhury refused to return it. She said her hus-band had borrowed the money to pay Chowdhury, and was under immense pressure to repay the debts, which led to his untimely death last November at the age of 48.

Chowdhury has denied any wrongdoing. The Con-gress leader said it was totally “baseless, unsub-stantiated and politically motivated”.

In the 2014 elections, the Congress had an alli-ance with the CPI, which was allotted the Wyra seat. In the 2009 elections, Naik, who ran the Sri Harshini Nursing Home in Kham-mam town, contested on a Congress ticket but lost to the CPI candidate.

Telangana tribals ask Congress to sack Renuka Chowdhury

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kuma-raswamy on Monday said he is committed to waive farm loans or else he will retire from politics, and asked people not to fall prey to the "BJP's conspiracy".

The JD-S leader, who was sworn-in Karnataka Chief Minister last week after the Congress extended uncondi-tional support to his party, said he is ready with the guidelines on farm loan waiver, details of which will be disclosed on Wednesday.

Kumaraswamy was talking to reporters here today after meeting Prime Minister Nar-endra Modi. "I have clearly said that I will waive farm loans. I had promised during election that I will do it in 24 hours. That is true. At least you should give time to breathe. Today, I have limitations.

"If I don't do it, have clearly said that I will retire from pol-itics and I will resign as chief minister. Why cannot you wait for some time?," Kuma-

raswamy told reporters.He said he has heard state-

ments by BJP leaders including BS Yeddyurappa on the issue of farm loan waiver. "I am not sitting quiet. I am not Yeddy-urappa to sit quiet."

"The guidelines to waive farm loans have been kept ready. They will be shared before the public on Wednes-day in Bengaluru," he told reporters.

The Karnataka chief min-ister accused the BJP of con-spiring against him and urged the people not to fall prey to it. The JD-S leader said his government is for the people and he will serve the people till the time he is the chief min-ister. "Don't panic and get con-fused (by BJP statements). Not only on farm loan issue, I will work on other matters related to people. There will be a dif-ference when I work as CM," he claimed.

Before his meeting with the prime minister, Kumaraswamy also met top Congress leaders in the national capital to work out power-sharing arrange-ment with the ally.

Will retire if I fail to waive farm loans: Kumaraswamy

NEW DELHI: BJP chief Amit Shah, along with five cabinet ministers, met top function-aries of the RSS here on Mon-day to deliberate upon various polices of the Narendra Modi government, including the for-mulation of the much-awaited education policy.

The coordination meeting of the Sangh, its affiliates, the BJP and the government was chaired by RSS joint general secretary Krishna Gopal.

The meeting was held over several rounds between the ministers and representa-

tives from the Rashtriya Sway-amsevak Sangh's (RSS) Sewa Samooh (social work wing), Shiksha Samooh (education wing), Samajik Samooh and Vichar Samooh (ideological issues wing).

The BJP was represented by Shah, party vice-president Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, gen-eral secretary Ram Madhav and secretary (organisation) Ram Lal.

The government was rep-resented by the five minis-ters -- Rajyavardhan Rathore, JP Nadda, Maneka Gandhi, Mahesh Sharma and Prakash Javadekar.

The RSS was represented by the Seva Bharti, Arogya Bharti, Rashtriya Sevika Samiti, Vidya Bharti and Sanskar Bharti among others. MPOST

BJP chief, Mins meet RSS functionaries

But poll panel says reports exaggerated

MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Tuesday, 29 May, 2018

PUNJABI SINGER FOUND SHOT DEADCHANDIGARH: A 23-year-old Punjabi singer was found dead in Dera Bassi near Chandigarh, police said here on Monday. Navjot Singh’s body, bearing four to five bullet injury marks, was found few metres away from his car at village Rampur Sainian in Dera Bassi, Mohali, at around 1 am, said Inspector Mahinder Singh, police station (Dera Bassi). The singer’s family, living in Mohali, was frantically searching for him after he did not reach home last night, police said.

COP SHOT AT, INJURED IN UPCHANDAULI (UP): A sub-inspector was shot at and injured by three bike-borne assailants in Barahauli area which comes under the jurisdiction of Alinagar police station, police said on Monday. Santosh Kumar (45) was fired upon by the three bike-borne assailants while he was on duty last night, leaving him injured, Su-perintendent of Police Santosh Kumar Singh said.

5 OF A FAMILY FOUND DEAD IN BIHARLAKHISARAI: Five members of a family including three minor children were found dead at their home at Lakshmipur village in Bihar’s Lakhisarai district, police said on Monday. The husband was found hanging from a ceiling fan while his wife and their three children had strangulation marks on their neck, Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO) Manish Kumar said. Prima facie, it seems to be a case of family feud, the SDPO said.

ULTRAS LOOT `1.7 LAKH FROM BANKSRINAGAR: Two militants looted Rs 1.7 lakh in cash from a bank and took away a 12-bore rifle from its guard in Anantnag district of Jammu and Kashmir on Monday, police said. The armed militants barged into the Jammu and Kashmir Bank branch at Srigufwara in Anantnag district this afternoon and looted Rs 1.72 lakh at gunpoint, a police official said. He said the gunmen also snatched the 12-bore rifle of the bank’s private security guard before fleeing the place.

YOUTH BEATEN TO DEATH IN UPGORAKHPUR: A 20-year-old man was hung upside down from a tree and allegedly beaten to death after he was found in a compromising position with his girlfriend by her family members, the police said on Monday. On the complaint of the deceased’s father, a case was registered against four people and they were arrested, a police offficial said. “The youth had entered the girl’s house in Lala Tola village last night but was caught by her family members who hung him upside down and beat him to death,” Pipraich SHO, Arun Shukla said.

NATION BRIEFS

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‘GILGIT-BALTISTAN’ ISSUE

OUR CORRESPONDENT

CHENNAI/TUTICORIN: The Tamil Nadu government on Monday ordered the state Pollution Control Board to seal and “permanently” close the Vedanta group’s copper plant in Tuticorin following last week’s violent protests over pollution concerns during which 13 peo-ple were killed in police firing.

Soon after the issuance of the Government Order (GO), top Tuticorin district officials sealed the copper smelter unit premises and pasted the order at the main gate.

Palaniswami told reporters in Chennai the “plant has been permanently closed”.

The government’s decision came a day ahead of the start of the state Assembly session where it is likely to come under intense Opposition fire over the Tuticorin incidents.

“Now the plant is perma-nently closed. The GO has been implemented,” Tuticorin Dis-trict Collector Sandeep Nan-duri said.

The closure of the cop-per plant caps sustained pro-tests and campaign for the last several years by the local people against copper factory

over enivornmental pollution concerns.

The Government Order (GO) said it endorsed the recent closure direction of the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board, and also asked the TNPCB to “seal the unit and close the plant permanently”.

The document cited the Constitution’s directive prin-ciples of state policy (Article 48-A) enjoining protection of environment and provisions of the Water Act, 1974, to order the permanent closure of the copper factory “in the larger public interest”.

It referred to the PCB order of April 9 refusing to renew its consent to allow Vedanta’s cop-

per smelter plant at Tuticorin to operate.

The order recalled how on May 23 the TNPCB had issued directions for closure of the unit and disconnection of power supply to it. The power supply was disconnected a day later.

Chief Minsiter K Palaniswami said the govern-ment has issued the GO in def-erence to the sentiments of the people.

The locals were protesting for the closure of the factory for 99 days. Protesters turned violent on May 22, the 100th day of their stir, and 13 peo-ple were killed in police action against them last Tuesday and Wednesday.

Asked what he had to say to the people of Tuticorin, the chief minsiter said, “Peace has returned to the town and it must continue, and peo-ple should cooperate with the government. Their demand has been fulfilled by Amma’s government.”

Palaniswami said people of Tuticorin were seeking perma-nent closure of the plant since it did not meet the environ-ment related conditions of the National Green Tribunal and the Tamil Nadu Pollution Con-trol Board.

Recalling the efforts initi-ated by late J Jayalithaa in 2013 for the closure of Sterlite plant following a gas leak incident that year, he said on March 29, 2013, the unit’s closure was ordered. Subsequently, power supply to it was discontinued and the unit was shut.

However, the plant approached the National Green Tribunal which allowed opera-tions on August 8, 2013, he said.

The government had appealed against this direction in the Supreme Court and its petition is pending there, he said.

On April 9, the TNPCB had rejected a plea of the plant man-

agement for renewal of consent as pollution control norms were not being followed, and since May 24 the unit was not get-ting power and water supply, he said.

He said representatives of the protesting groups met him, Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam and other top government officials at the Sec-retariat on Monday.

Earlier, Panneerselvam met those injured in last week’s police-public clashes and fir-ing at a government hospital in Tuticorin and asserted that the government will take “resolute” steps for the permanent closure of the copper plant.

“Today, the main demand of the people is that the copper plant should be permanently closed. In keeping with their demand, it is shut now. I would like to make it clear that Ster-lite plant will be permanently shut,” he said.

Quoting Jayalalithaa’s pop-ular slogan of “Makkalal Naan, Makkalukagavey Naan (I am by the people and I am for the people),” Palaniswami said his was “Amma’s government” that followed in her footsteps and was committed to the welfare of the people.

TN Govt orders permanent closure of Sterlite plant

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday refused to urgently hear a plea seeking direction to Tamil Nadu gov-ernment to file a status report on its efforts to control arsenic and cadmium pollution in the ground water around the Ster-lite Copper’s smelting plant at Tuticorin.

At least 13 persons were killed and hundreds injured in the recent police firing at Tuti-corin on thousands of protest-ers demanding closure of the Vedanta Group-run Sterlite Industries for allegedly pol-luting the area causing severe health problems for the local residents and depletion of the water table.

The fresh plea has demanded a status report regarding the steps taken to remove the cop-per sludge deposited by the company that the petitioner alleged had polluted the ground water across Tuticorin.

A bench of Justices L Nag-eswara Rao and MM Shanta-nagoudar said the petition will come up in due course in July after the summer vacation and refused to list it for an urgent hearing.

The plea filed by social activ-ist P Shiv Kumar, through advo-

cate N Rajaraman, also sought filing of a status report for implementation of the guide-lines of the National Human Rights Commission for regis-tration of information regard-ing the deaths in an encounter between a police and others in a register in so far as the death of 13 people in the Tuticorin police firing on May 22 and 23.

Last week, a separate peti-tion was filed in the top court by an advocate G S Mani seeking a court-monitored CBI probe into the deaths of protesters during the anti-Sterlite rally in Tamil Nadu. The plea has also sought registration of an FIR for the alleged offence of mur-der against Tuticorin Collector, Superintendent of Police and other police officials.

The petition has termed as inadequate the compensation of Rs 10 lakh to the families of those killed during the protest. It has sought compensation of Rs 50 lakh to the families of those killed and Rs 25 lakh to those seriously injured in the firing.

SC no to urgent hearing on plea on pollution from Tuticorin plant

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear on Friday a plea against alleged rampant culling of stray dogs in Sitapur district of Uttar Pradesh following deaths of sev-eral children in the area over the past few months.

The plea was mentioned for urgent hearing before a bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao and MM Shantanagoudar which said it would hear the matter on June 1.

The petition has sought a direction to Uttar Pradesh government to ensure that no more killings of community dogs take place in the state as an after-effect of death of 13 chil-dren in the past seven months in the Sitapur district unless it

was established that dogs were behind such attacks.

The plea said that subse-quent investigations had pointed towards attacks on children by wild animals and not stray dogs.

It has alleged that there was “indiscriminate and inhuman killing” of stray dogs in Sitapur on the mere assumption that the deaths were being allegedly caused by dog attacks.

The plea claimed that “owing to lack of proper and timely efforts by the district adminis-tration to contain the number of attacks and the reason behind the same, the attack increased drastically which has as per the reports has led to death of 13 children”.

The petition, filed by advo-cate Gargi Srivastava, has claimed that the magnitude of

the problem grew this month when unconfirmed reports of attacks being carried out by stray dogs appeared in the media after statements by the district mag-istrate of Sitapur.

“Following such newspaper reports, indiscriminate and bru-

tal killing of community dogs by hanging them alive, burying them alive, hitting them with ‘lathis’ (wooden stick), leav-ing them to bleed to death in a pile of garbage and shooting them point blank started,” the plea said.

Top court to hear plea on Jun 1 against culling of stray dogs in Uttar Pradesh

OUR CORRESPONDENT

AHMEDABAD: The Guja-rat High Court on Monday extended the protection from arrest to activist Teesta Setalvad and her husband Javed Anand till June 13, in a Rs 1.4 crore fund embezzlement case.

Earlier today, Justice AY Kogje, in whose court the mat-ter was listed, recused himself from hearing it saying “not before me.”

The matter was then taken up by the court of Justice Biren Vaishnav, who extended the activists’ interim protection from arrest till June 13.

The court has listed the case for next hearing on June 12.

The Supreme Court had last month granted temporary relief to Setalvad and Anand,

extending their interim pro-tection from arrest and transit anticipatory bail from May 2 to May 31, granted to them by the Bombay High Court.

The apex court had said the duo will not be arrested till May 31, but before that they would have to approach the compe-tent court in Gujarat which will decide the matter on merits.

Setalvad and Anand had moved the Gujarat High Court after a lower court rejected their anticipatory bail plea in

the Rs 1.4 crore fund embezzle-ment case related to their NGO Sabrang Trust.

The duo had moved the plea for anticipatory bail after an FIR lodged against them on March 30 this year by com-plainant Raeeskhan Pathan.

Opposing the bail plea in the lower court, the Crime Branch had claimed that the couple misused the money granted to their NGO by the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development between 2010 and 2013 for their “personal and political cause”.

In its submission, the Crime Branch said the accused mis-used the funds “to pay wit-nesses in serious cases in Gujarat (2002 riot cases) to make false deposition.”

Guj HC extends relief from arrest to Teesta till June 13

OUR CORRESPONDENT

RANCHI: Three Naxals were killed and two others surren-dered after an encounter with security forces in Jharkhand on Monday, a senior official said.

The official said the encounter took place between the Maoists and a joint squad of the CRPF and state police in the Chatarpur police station area of Palamu district early on Monday.

“After the encounter, the bodies of three Maoists were recovered along with an AK-47 assault rifle, two self-loading rifles (SLRs) and another rifle.

“Two Naxals who were injured in the gunbattle have surrendered before the forces,” he said. A search operation in the area is still on, he said.

3 Naxals killed in Jharkhand

encounter

NEW DELHI: Investigating agencies are mulling pressing criminal charges under the Tele-graph Act as part of their cor-ruption and money-laundering probe against journalist Upen-dra Rai and others after they claimed to have recovered the call detail records (CDRs) of a senior Enforcement Directorate (ED) official and an IAS officer, who was earlier posted in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.

PTI had first reported yes-terday that the ED and the CBI had seized the CDRs of some senior government officials, following a recent raid on the premises of Sanjay Snehi, an associate of Rai.

At least 10 CDRs, including one of a senior ED officer prob-ing the Supreme Court-mon-itored Aircel-Maxis case and another of an IAS officer who served as a joint secretary in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs a few years ago, were recovered.

Sources said the ED officer was also probing the 2G spec-trum allocation scam, in which a firm where Rai was employed was under the scanner, and the

IAS officer was supervising the affairs of the said company dur-ing her tenure in the ministry for alleged misappropriation of funds.

Charges under various sec-tions of the Indian Telegraph Act like sections 24 (unlawfully attempting to learn contents of messages), 25 (intentionally damaging or tampering with telegraphs), 26 (telegraph offi-cer or other official making away with or altering messages) and 31 (bribery) could be pressed in light of new revelations, official sources said.

Obtaining CDRs was a cog-nizable offence, they said, add-ing that the ED and the CBI would exchange notes on the new development.

The offences under the said provisions were punishable with prison terms, they said.

Apart from the CDRs, the probe agencies have claimed to have recovered a number of other “incriminating docu-ments” like a confidential com-munication between the Indian High Commission in Singapore and a former ED chief. PTI

Upendra case: Agencies mulling fresh charges for illegally obtaining CDRs

SAJJAD HUSSAIN

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Monday summoned India’s Deputy High Commissioner J P Singh and issued a demarche over the Indian statement that the entire state of Jammu and Kashmir, which also includes the so-called ‘Gilgit-Baltis-tan’ areas, is an integral part of India by virtue of its acces-sion in 1947.

Pakistan Cabinet on May 21 approved Gilgit-Baltistan Order 2018 which was also endorsed by the assembly for the region. The order is being seen as Paki-stan’s efforts towards incorpo-rating the disputed region as its fifth province.

India yesterday summoned Pakistan’s Deputy High Com-missioner Syed Haider Shah in New Delhi and lodged a strong protest over Islamabad’s latest move, saying any action to alter the status of any part of the ter-ritory under its “forcible and illegal occupation” has no legal basis.

The Ministry of Exter-nal Affairs said it conveyed to Shah that the entire state of

Jammu and Kashmir, which also includes the so-called ‘Gil-git-Baltistan’ areas, is an inte-gral part of India by virtue of its accession in 1947.

Commenting on India’s remarks, Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman Dr Moham-mad Faisal on Monday said that Singh was summoned on the issue.

Faisal, who is also the Director General (South Asia & South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) issued the demarche to Singh.

Singh was summoned “to register Pakistan’s categorical rejection of the Indian state-ment on the Gilgit Baltistan Order 2018 and its baseless,

fallacious claim” over Kashmir, according to a statement issued by Faisal’s office.

It said a written demarche to this effect was also handed over to Singh.

The Foreign Office spokes-man in a statement yester-day claimed that the “Jammu and Kashmir was a disputed territory”.

“Pakistan categorically rejects India’s protest against the Gilgit-Baltistan Order 2018 and its claim over Jammu & Kash-mir as an ‘integral part’ of India. Everything from history to law to morality to the situation on the ground belies India’s spuri-ous claim,” the spokesman said.

“These resolutions, pledging the right to self-determination to the people of Kashmir, were accepted by India, Pakistan and the international community,” he said, referring to UN Secu-rity Council resolutions.

The spokesman said that Pakistan as a responsible mem-ber of the international com-munity, had always taken steps consistent with UN Security Council resolutions on Jammu & Kashmir dispute. PTI

Pakistan summons India’s Deputy High Commissioner

India’s Deputy High Commissioner JP Singh

OUR CORRESPONDENT

THIRUVANANTHA-PURAM: A special investiga-tion team has been formed to trace a 20-year-old woman, who had gone missing under myste-rious circumstances from her home in Pathanamthitta dis-trict in March.

DGP Loknath Behera des-ignated Range IG, Manoj Abra-ham to lead the 15-member SIT, a statement said here.

The state police also announced a reward of Rs five lakh for those providing information about the missing woman, Jasna Mariya James, a second year graduation student.

Though the police had ear-lier announced Rs two lakh reward, no information had been received so far.

There were rumours that Jasna was spotted in Benga-luru recently.

Though a police team rushed to the place, they could not trace the woman or ensure veracity of the information.

According to her family, Jasna, who was on her study leave, had gone missing from her home at Vehoochira in Pathanamthitta on March 21.

Kerala police forms SIT to trace missing woman

OUR CORRESPONDENT

PANAJI: The state-run Goa Medical College and Hospi-tal (GMCH) has kept under observation a patient, who arrived here from Kerala and was found having symptoms of the Nipah virus.

State health minister Vish-wajit Rane said the man was under observation at Goa Medical College and Hospi-tal , located near here in North Goa district, and it was not yet confirmed if he was infected with the deadly virus.

The blood samples of the patient were sent for testing to the National Institute of Virol-ogy in Pune, Rane said, adding that there was no need to panic.

The patient’s identity was not disclosed by GMCH.

A senior Goa Medical Col-lege and Hospital official said the man arrived in Goa from Kerala yesterday and com-plained of having symptoms similar to the Nipah viral infection.

“The patient himself sus-pected that he might be infected with the virus. So, adequate precaution has been taken by the hospital, as per the protocol drawn by the state government,” he said.

The virus has so far claimed 13 lives in Kerala.

Man with Nipah symptoms kept

under observation in Goa hospital

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: On the eve of his visit to Indonesia, Singa-pore and Malaysia, Prime Min-ister Narendra Modi said on Monday that India had a robust strategic partnership with all the three countries and his visit would provide a further boost to the country’s Act East Policy.

In Singapore, he will deliver the keynote address at Shangri-La Dialogue, an annual secu-rity meet, on June 1. “This will be the first time that an Indian Prime Minister would deliver

this address. It would be an opportunity to articulate India’s point of view on regional secu-rity issues and maintenance of peace and stability in the region,” he said. In a statement posted on his Facebook page, the prime minister said he would be in Jakarta tomorrow on the invitation of Indonesian President Joko Widodo.

“This is my first visit to Indonesia as PM. I am looking forward to my discussions with President Widodo on 30 May, as also to our joint interaction with the India-Indonesia CEOs

Forum. I will also address the Indian community in Indone-sia,” he said. He said India and Indonesia enjoyed strong and friendly ties and shared deep historical and civilisational linkages. “Both countries are multi-ethnic, multi-religious, plural and open societies. I am confident that my visit to Indo-nesia will create greater syn-ergy between Asia’s two largest democracies and further ele-vate our bilateral ties,” he said.

He said, on May 31, on his way to Singapore, he will make a brief halt in Malaysia to con-

gratulate the new Malaysian leadership and looks forward to meet Prime Minister Maha-thir Mohamad.

“In Singapore, I will be focusing on enhancing India-Singapore partnership in areas of Fintech, skill development, urban planning and artificial intelligence. Singapore entities have become major partners with India in areas like urban development, planning, smart cities and infrastructure devel-opment. My visit in Singapore presents an opportunity for both countries to engage fur-

ther,” he said. On 31 May, Modi will visit the India-Singapore enterprise and innovation exhi-bition and will also address a business and community event followed by a roundtable meet-ing with select top CEOs of Sin-gapore to discuss business and investment opportunities.

On June 1, the PM will call on Singapore President Halimah Yacob and hold del-egation level talks with Sin-gapore Prime Minister Lee (Hsien Loong). “(I) am look-ing forward to my visit to the Nanyang Technological Uni-

versity where I would interact with young students,” he said. Later in the evening, he will deliver the keynote address at Shangri-La Dialogue. “This will be the first time that an Indian Prime Minister would deliver this address. It would be an opportunity to articu-late India’s point of view on regional security issues and maintenance of peace and sta-bility in the region,” he said. On June 2, he will unveil a plaque at Clifford Pier, where Gandhiji’s ashes were immersed in sea on March 27, 1948.

Visit to Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia to boost Act East Policy: PM

mp nation 7MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Tuesday, 29 May, 2018

REVAMPED IRCTC PORTAL

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Former UP chief ministers Mulayam Singh Yadav and his son Akhilesh Yadav on Monday moved the Supreme Court seeking “appropriate time” for vacating their official residences allotted by the Uttar Pradesh government.

The top court had on May 7 held that former chief ministers of Uttar Pradesh cannot retain government accommodation after demitting office and said that a chief minister was at par with a common man once his or her term ends.

The two former Chief Min-isters had earlier moved the UP government’s estate department seeking two years’ time to vacate their official residences and shifting to their private accom-modations in Lucknow.

In their pleas filed through advocate Garima Bajaj, they have sought appropriate time to vacate their official bungalows on various grounds.

While the plea filed by Mulayam Singh Yadav sought sufficient time from the apex court to make arrangements for alternate accommodation, the one by his son Akhilesh has urged the court to consider the

security of his family.“We are requesting the

Supreme Court to grant us suf-ficient time to make arrange-ments for a suitable alternate accommodation, taking into consideration the security of the petitioner and his family mem-bers,” Akhilesh said in his plea.

“Grant us sufficient time to make arrangements for a suit-able alternate accommodation, taking into consideration the security of the petitioner, age and ill health,” plea by Mulayam Singh Yadav said.

The pleas by the father-son duo has been filed in the back-drop of the May 7 apex court judgement that had struck down an amendment in a state legis-lation allowing former Chief Ministers to retain govern-ment accommodations even after demitting office.

Shortly after this verdict,

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Rajasthan governor Kalyan Singh, who were Chief Ministers earlier, had informed the estate department that they will vacate the government bungalows.

Rajnath Singh and Kalyan Singh are among the six for-mer chief ministers who have been asked by the estate depart-ment to vacate the bungalows within 15 days in pursuance of the Supreme Court’s order.

However, former UP chief minister and BSP supremo Mayawati recently put up a signboard outside her offi-cial accommodation in Luc-know announcing that it was a memorial named after the party founder late Kanshiram.

The top court had passed the order on a petition filed by an NGO Lok Prahari challeng-ing the amendments made by

the erstwhile Akhilesh Yadav government to the ‘UP Minis-ters (Salaries, Allowances and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1981’.

In its order, it had observed that a Chief Minister cannot continue to occupy public prop-erty like government bungalows which belong to the people of the country and said the provi-sion had the effect of creating a separate class of citizens for conferment of benefits by way of distribution of public prop-erty on the basis of the previ-ous public office held by them.

The court, in its 29-page order, had said once such per-sons demit public office, there is nothing to distinguish them from the common man.

The apex court had also said that in a democratic republican government, public servants, entrusted with duties of public

nature, must act in a manner that reflects that the ultimate authority is vested in the citizens and it is to the citizens, that the holders of all public offices are eventually accountable.

The NGO had also chal-lenged another UP law of 2016 called ‘The Allotment of Houses under Control of the Estate Department Bill-2016’ to regu-late the allotment of government accommodation to trusts, jour-nalists, political parties, Speaker and Deputy Speaker of legisla-tive assembly, judicial officers and government officials.

The apex court had sought the UP government’s response in November 2016, after the plea claimed that state government has sought to skirt the Supreme Court verdict of August 1, 2016 by amending the law.

In that verdict, the apex court had held that the practice of allotting government bunga-lows to former chief ministers of Uttar Pradesh was bad in law and they should hand over their possession in two months.

It had also said the state gov-ernment should recover appro-priate rent from the occupants of these bungalows for the period of their “unauthorised occupation”.

MSY & Akhilesh move SC for time to vacate official homes

DHIRENDRA KUMAR

NEW DELHI: The new gen-eration ticket booking system is all set to offer user-friendly features such as changing of boarding point if required, enquiring/searching trains and checking availability of seats without login, etc.

According to a senior Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) official, the major attraction of the revamped booking system is its new feature of ‘waitlist prediction’, through which one can predict the chance of a waitlisted or RAC ticket getting confirmed on the basis of historical booking trends.

“Different filters as per departure/arrival time, class, train, and quota have been pro-vided for facilitating journey planning of the passengers. The user-friendly layout of the por-

tal has been prepared in such a way that passengers would modify their journey details without any hassle,” the offi-cial said, adding that the avail-ability lookup for other days and fare break up has also been provided.

“The feature of managing the payment options by mark-ing six banks as preferred banks under My Profile’ sec-tion has also been provided to fast-track the ticket booking during peak hours,” the official said, adding that the enhanced ‘Vikalp’ feature with easy navi-gation provides user, the option of choosing alternate accom-modation in case of wait-list tickets in different trains, including specials.

Technological innovations in the development of new user interface have been deployed to facilitate seamless navigation in mobiles, desktops, laptops and tablets.

Change boarding point, predict waitlist ticket

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu has dif-fered with former Prime Min-ister late Jawaharlal Nehru in the matter of religion and its importance. Speaking at the Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine in Jammu on Mon-day, Naidu paid tributes to Nehru for his push to science and technology as an integral part of the national planning and stated his differences with a former PM on the issue of religion.

Naidu said, “Scientific advances may illuminate our understanding of the universe. But it is the religion which provides answers to the unex-plored universe.”

“The issues of mind and soul and the relentless inter-nal unrest and lack of inter-nal peace constitutes this vast

unexplored universe. It is the religion which provides some answers to these raging issues,” he said.

The Vice President further stated that Nehru’s emphasis on scientific temper and his out-look on religion may make him agnostic and some may even call him an atheist.

“While I pay my tributes to Nehru, whose death anni-versary was observed yester-day, for promoting the cause of science and scientific spirit, I beg to differ with him in the matter of religion and it’s utility for humanity,” Naidu said.

Naidu further said, “Every religion is a body of values and prescriptions for its followers to abide by. In the absence of this disciplining force and code of conduct, it would be difficult to enforce social order on such a larger scale.”

Naidu differs with Nehru on religion

NEW DELHI: Prime Min-ister Narendra Modi gave a strong retort to his Brit-ish counterpart Theresa May on Vijay Mallya’s extradition case, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj informed on Monday.

“Prime Minister Modi told British Prime Minister that UK courts asking about the condi-tion of Indian jails is not right, as these are the same prisons where they had jailed our lead-ers like Gandhi and Nehru,” Swaraj said while address-ing the media on the comple-tion of 4 years of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government.

Prime Minister Modi’s stern message to the Brit-ish PM was conveyed when the two leaders met in Lon-don in April, during the meeting of Commonwealth Heads of Government Meet-ing (CHOGM) and discussed Mallya’s extradition, wherein he had complained to the UK courts about the conditions of Indian jails.

Liquor baron Vijay Mallya is absconding and currently living in the United Kingdom.

His assests in India have

been seized by the Indian authorities as he faces money laundering charges to the tune of more than Rs 9000 crore.

Swaraj also added, “We have sent out Mallya’s extradi-tion request. One of the cases in the court is by the State Bank of India (SBI) consor-tium, which involves 12 banks. They have won the case and the money can now be recovered.”

In April last year, Mallya was arrested by Scotland Yard on an extradition warrant.

Apart from this case, the High Court of London on Feb-ruary 12 ordered Mallya to pay an estimated $90 million to a Singapore-based aircraft leas-ing company in claims

The case involves a number of aircraft leased by Vijay Mal-lya’s now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines from BOC Aviation in 2014.

Mallya is among 53 per-sons, who are facing pros-ecution complaints from the Enforcement Director-ate under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, and they are absconding, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) had said in July last year. AGENCIES

When PM Modi gave stern message to Theresa May

VADODARA: A lion cub was found dead in the Tulsi Forest Range of Gujarat’s Amreli dis-trict and nail marks on its body and post mortem confirmed that it had been killed by an adult lion, a senior forest offi-cial said on Monday.

The cub, around a year old, was found dead in Bhaniyavidi village of Khambha tehsil in Amreli district yesterday, said Range Forest Officer PR Patel.

“There were nail marks on the body of the lion cub. A post mortem confirmed that the cause of death was infight-ing,” Patel said.

The forest department team that rushed to the spot also found the presence of an adult male lion close to where the cub’s body was found.

The fight between this adult lion and the cub possibly took place about 18 hours ago and

the adult might have visited the spot a second time, Patel said.

The cub’s carcass was cre-mated at the same spot where it was found, he said.

The 14th Lion Census, which took place between May 2-5 in 2015, had estimated the total number of lions in Guja-rat at 523.

Of these, 201 were adult lionesses, 109 adult males and 213 sub-adults and cubs. MPOST

‘Lion cub dead in infighting in Amreli’

OUR CORRESPONDENT

RAIPUR: Twelve Naxals were on Monday arrested from sep-arate places in Chhattisgarhs insurgency-hit Bijapur district, police said.

Bijapur Superintendent of Police Mohit Garg told PTI that six Naxals were apprehended from the forest near Dalla vil-lage under Basaguda police station limits, five from areas falling under Bedre police sta-tion and one from Tarnichhil-patpara in Jangla village.

Six Naxals were nabbed after a joint team of the Central Reserve Police Forces (CRPF) 168th battalion and District Force acted on a tip-off and launched a search operation near Dalla in Basaguda, he said.

Basaguda is located about 450 kilometres from the state capital.

The six arrested from the forest near Dalla village have been identified as Madkam Hunga (24), Oyam Manglu (26), Kunjam Hunga (45), Punem Bandi (35), Uika Podia (25) and Nupo Pandu (20), the SP said. PTI

Police arrest 12 Naxals in

Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district

LUDHIANA: In yet another case of lax security inside Faridkot’s Modern Jail, an inmate went live on Facebook for about three minutes and made objectionable remarks against Punjab Chief Minis-ter Captain Amarinder Singh, DGP Suresh Arora and Jail Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa.

The inmate, Gobind Singh, who has been lodged at Faridkot jail since April, also threatened the CM, say-ing his countdown had begun and Akal Purakh (God) had assigned him this duty.

In the video, Govind, who hails from village Mari Bhaini, Faridkot, also charged Ama-rinder Singh for making a false pledge in a Bathinda rally to end the drug menace in Pun-jab before the Vidhan Sabha elections.

“You (CM) should go to the Golden Temple and apologise for taking a false pledge. Drugs are rampant in Punjab. They

are readily available every-where and my brothers and sis-ters are falling prey to drugs,” Govind says in the video.

The inmate further said he had to send out the mes-sage through Facebook as he didn’t have the phone numbers of the CM or DGP. “Other-wise, I would have called them directly,” he says.

Govind then goes on to rant about the lack of facilities and water scarcity in the jail. “Baba Farid society of Faridkot must provide water supply for inmates if they see this video,” Govind says.

Stating that the gurudwara in the jail premises had lim-ited arrangements, Govind asked Amarinder to visit the place himself to take a stock of the condition. “There needs to be a bed for Guru Granth Sahib and flooring needs to be done. A langar should also be organised inside the jail,” he asserts.

Taking cognizance of the

video, Faridkot police lodged an FIR against Gobind and another inmate Kuldeep Singh who recorded the remarks. Faridkot SSP Dr Nanak Singh said police was inquiring as to how internet facility was avail-able inside the jail along with the mobile phone. Gobind has three cases against him, includ-ing a murder and another of attempt to murder, while Kul-deep Singh has an NDPS case against him. Both have been booked under 42 and 52A of Prison Act, confirmed SSP Faridkot.

In the past 6 months, over 50 mobiles have been seized from Faridkot jail. In Novem-ber 2017, gangster-turned-social activist Lakha Sidhana had also gone live on Facebook from jail and asked farmers not to burn paddy stubble.

In April this year, five pictures of Bhola “Shooter” celebrating his birthday inside the jail were posted on Face-book. AGENCIES

‘Your countdown has begun’: Inmate threatens Punjab CM in FB live video

NEW DELHI: The Central Information Commission (CIC) has sought from the CRPF detailed records related to a report submitted to the force by its Inspector General Rajnish Rai about a “fake encounter” in Assam in 2017. The commis-sion’s directive came on a plea of a journalist who had sought the disclosure of the report on the grounds that alleged extra judicial killings were violation of human rights and did not come under the exemption given to the CRPF from making disclo-sures under the RTI Act.

In response to his RTI query seeking a copy of the report on the fake encounter by a joint squad of security forces in Assam in which two persons were killed in cold blood, the CRPF cited Section 24 of the RTI Act to deny its disclosure.

The section exempts the CRPF and other listed organ-isations from ambit of the RTI Act, but it does not apply when the information sought pertains to allegations of human rights

violation and corruption.In such a scenario, the dis-

closure depends on whether any of the exemption provisions of the RTI Act is applicable or not.

During the hearing on the issue, the CRPF, which had earlier not applied any of the exemption clauses under Sec-tion 8 of the RTI Act while rejecting the petition, started citing every possible exemption clause under the statute.

“Having heard the parties...the commission is of the view that the appellant has made a prima facie case warranting dis-closure of information sought, by bringing it within the ambit of first proviso of Section 24 of the RTI Act,” Information Com-missioner Azad has said. MPOST

CIC seeks CRPF IG’s report on ‘fake encounter’ in 2017

NEW DELHI: An alleged Lash-kar-e-Taiba (LeT) member, who recently turned approver in a case of receiving funds from Pakistan and UAE-based LeT operatives to further terror activities in India, has moved a Delhi court alleging the NIA had “pressured” him to confess to the crime. In an application moved before District Judge Poonam A Bamba, accused Mahfooz Alam, currently in judicial custody, has sought to retract his confessional state-ment given earlier, which will come up before the court during hearing on July 3. “The appli-cant/accused has given the con-fessional statement before the Magistrate, which he wants to withdraw as the same was given under pressure and out of fear of the investigating agency. “It is, therefore, prayed that he may kindly be allowed to retract his confessional statement,” advo-cate MS Khan, who represented Alam, quoted from application moved before the court. MPOST

NIA pressured to confess crime,

LeT man to court

NAGPUR/NEW DELHI: The RSS has invited former pres-ident and veteran Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee to address newly recruited RSS workers on June 7 in Nagpur.

Mukherjee has given his consent to participate in the programme, RSS’ Akhil Bhar-tiya Prachar Pramukh Arun Kumar said.

Mukherjee will be the chief guest at the valedictory session of the Tritiya Varsh Varg’ or the Third Year Course organised by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in June this year.

The Sangh leadership invites eminent people for the annual event held at its headquarters at Reshim Bagh in Nagpur.

We have invited the former President of India and it is his greatness that he has given his consent for participating in the programme, Kumar said.

Earlier this year, Mukherjee had also invited top Sangh lead-ers at the launch of the Pranab Mukherjee Foundation here.

RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat had also called on Mukherjee during the last days of his ten-ure as President.

Mukherjee had also invited RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat for lunch at Rashtrapati Bhavan. MPOST

RSS invites Pranab to address its

workers

mp editorial8MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Tuesday, 29 May, 2018

NANTOO BANERJEE Capricious US trade and dip-lomatic policies seem to have thrown world diplomacy into disorder. Countries in

Europe and Asia are getting increasingly confused and uncertain about staying ‘allied’ with the US. With President Donald Trump appearing as a highly unpredictable ‘ally’ even to tradition-ally close Britain, Germany, and France, nations are confused over a changing diplomatic order. Russia and China have certainly gotten closer to protect them-selves against the US whim-whams in their region. India seems to be at its wit’s end as the US is pushing hard to block imports from India under one pretext or the other, restrict movement of intel-lectual persons, move more exports to India and exercise penal restrictions on trade with countries not in sync with US policies. The pressure threatens India’s independent trade and diplo-matic policy pursuits.

India is so fed up with the US threats on the trade and economy fronts that on last Thursday, it took an unprecedented retaliatory action raising import duties up to 100 per cent on five products, including wheat, shelled almond, wal-nut, and protein concentrate, imported mostly from the US. It invoked “emer-gency powers” to increase import duties under Section 8A of the Customs Act. Earlier, India told the WTO that it pro-poses to raise duties by up to 100 per cent on 20 products such as almonds, apple and specific motorcycles imported from the US if Washington does not roll back high tariffs on certain steel and aluminium items. The US has moved the World Trade Organisation (WTO) against India’s export schemes. India, along with a number of countries such as China and Russia, has dragged the US to WTO for creating artificial tariff barriers. Under the circumstances, no one is too sure about the possible out-come of a US-India 2+2 dialogue that may be held in July.

Meanwhile, the unilateral US pull-out of the international nuclear pact with Iran, followed by its threat, last week, to impose sanctions on Tehran and also on foreign companies dealing with Iran are causing new headaches for oil-starved India. Other signatories of the international nuclear agreement with Iran — France, Germany, Britain, Russia and China — too are concerned. They disagree with the US and say they

would try to salvage the deal and keep Iran’s oil trade and investment flowing. India is highly concerned about the US action against Iran. Because, it is the second largest oil importer from that country, after China. India is also under agreement with Iran to construct the Chabahar port, the first part of which was completed in December. India and Iran agreed to develop Chabahar on the Gulf of Oman outside the Strait of Hor-muz, near Iran’s border with Pakistan. The port and road project, when com-pleted, is expected to give India a direct access to Afghanistan and oil-and-gas rich central Asia, bypassing Pakistan.

Now, here comes the possibility of a US embargo on countries and compa-nies dealing with Iran. Indian Oil Cor-poration (IOC), the largest importer of Iranian oil, may be forced to turn to other oil exporting countries, includ-ing the far-flung US, to prevent sup-ply disruptions, further pushing up oil import costs. IOC planned to buy 140,000 barrels per day of Iranian oil during this financial year and has an option to buy an additional 40,000 bpd. Indian refiners have raised oil imports from Iran after the latter agreed to steep shipping discounts. IOC is now think-ing of tapping the spot market to buy US oil. IOC recently bought three mil-

lion barrels of US oil through a tender.Like the rest of the world, India too

was stunned on last Thursday when President Trump cancelled his planned summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Singapore on June 12, blam-ing the increasingly hostile rhetorics from Pyongyang. The US president said he was pulling out of the meeting because of the ‘tremendous anger and open hostility’ in a recent statement from Kim. Even as the summit date was nearing, both the leaders were busy engaging themselves in shadow boxing and brinksmanship, playing hardball.

The sudden cancellation of the Trump-Kim summit stunned almost everyone. Yet, within 24 hours of his announcement, President Trump sang a different tune, saying the summit could still be on. On Saturday, May 26, Kim Jong-un met South Korean Presi-dent Moon Jae-in for the second time in a month, holding a surprise sum-mit at a border truce village to discuss Kim’s potential meeting with Presi-dent Trump. Global leaders in Europe and Asia are trying to reorganise their diplomatic policies and usher in new dialogues in the interest of peace and security in the region.

This could probably explain Russian President Vladimir Putin’s initiative

to rope in Prime Minister Narendra Modi, earlier in the week, over their informal meet for almost six hours at Bocharev Creek in Sochi, to work on a “non-bloc security architecture” in the Indo-Pacific region. This is despite the fact that India is working with the US, Japan and Australia to bring stability for a rules-based order in the region. India is engaged with the US and its allies Japan and Australia across bilat-eral, trilateral and quadrilateral formats to bring stability in the Indo-Pacific region and make it inclusive amid Chi-na’s ambitions and BRI (belt and road initiative) projects.

Modi and Putin now agree to a pro-posed document on a fight against extremism, separatism and terrorism, to be signed at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in China next month. Russia is keen to connect the Indo-Pacific region with its initia-tives in the Eurasian hemisphere. Rus-sia views India as a key player in that process. The developments may see the world order taking a new direction if the US continues with its freak diplo-matic manoeuvres across the globe, including with countries such as Iran, the two Koreas and Turkey. IPA

(The views expressed are strictly personal)

Messy diplomatic orderEDITORIAL

Unpredictable Trump has disrupted the entire global order, disarraying diplomacy and pushing India closer to Russia and China

India is highly concerned about the US action against Iran because it is the second largest oil importer from that country, after China. India is also under agreement with Iran to construct the Chabahar port, the first part of which was completed in December

On Monday, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said during the annual press conference of her Ministry that India is not softening its stance against Pakistan even though the two countries

have allowed track-II diplomacy and some official engage-ments to take place. She also criticised Pakistan for its reply on India’s protest against the Pakistan government’s order on Gilgit-Baltistan. India, on Sunday, had summoned the Paki-stan deputy high commissioner Syed Haider Shah to protest against Islamabad’s order on holding more powers in the Gil-git-Baltistan region. India sees this as an attempt by Pakistan to annex this strategically important region, which shares its border with China. The proposed China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) that connects mainland China with Gwadar Port in the Baluchistan province of Pakistan passes through this region. The Gilgit-Baltistan Order, 2018, promulgated last week, entrusts the Prime Minister of Pakistan with indisput-able authorities in matters over the Gilgit-Baltistan Order. The order also cancels the power of the Gilgit Baltistan Council and transfers it to the Gilgit Baltistan Assembly, which will have powers to make legislation regarding the mineral, hydropower, and tourism sectors. The latest move by the Pakistan govern-ment is being seen as an attempt to make Gilgit-Baltistan a separate province. In a statement, the Ministry of External Affairs said that India had conveyed to Pakistan that Jammu and Kashmir, including the Gilgit-Baltistan area, is an integral part of India by virtue of its accession in 1947. Replying to a question on whether India is ready to hold talks with Pakistan, Swaraj said that India is always ready to talk to Pakistan but there is a caveat that Pakistan must stop supporting terrorists. Talks and terror cannot go hand-in-hand. At a time when the Indian Army is being attacked on the border, India cannot talk with Pakistan, she said. She said that talks can happen even before the elections in Pakistan on July 25, but the condition remains that Pakistan will have to denounce terrorism and stop supporting terrorists. She also said that talks are going on with the US over the H1B and H4 visa policy and the Indian government is making all-out efforts to ensure that the new US policies do not affect Indian workers. On the question of MEA helping out Indians all over the world, she said that her ministry has rescued 90,000 Indians from hostile places all over the world. Indian foreign minister Swaraj is known for offering prompt help to Indians across the globe. She is usu-ally available on Twitter readily and responds promptly to any distress call from an Indian anywhere in the world. Just a day ago, she directed the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu to help a group of 15 mountaineers who were stranded in the Everest region for the last two days due to inclement weather. One of the group members had left a message on Swaraj’s Twitter account seeking help from the Indian government. As Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been holding mega diaspora meets during his trips abroad, Swaraj’s prompt help to Indi-ans living out of the country complements Modi’s outreach programme among the Non-Residents Indians. Though most of the decisions in the realm of Indian foreign policy is taken by Prime Minister Modi himself, Swaraj has been instru-mental in improving relations with neighbours like Bangla-desh, Myanmar and Nepal through concerted dialogue and bilateral visits. She has also played a key role in preparing the ground for the Indian Prime Minster’s recent informal sum-mits with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Modi’s frequent foreign visits and engage-ments with top world leaders coupled with Swaraj’s enlight-ened backroom support has ensured that Indian viewpoints are better calibrated and presented at the international level. During his foreign visits, Modi has been trying to expose the challenges from Pakistan and China besides keeping his focus on improving trade relations. The Indian foreign policy has been successful in exposing Pakistan as a hub for terror activi-ties and the country stands isolated, with the US consistently pressurising Pakistan to mend its ways and end its support for terrorist organisations presently flourishing in the country. In the case of China, India recognises its recent advancements and has allowed trade relations to flourish between the two countries but it firmly opposed the Chinese military’s efforts to build a road near the international border in Doklam. The idea was clear that India will not be bullied by an aggressive China. India’s relations with other world powers like the US, Germany, France and the UK have also witnessed new dyna-mism and a vibrant exchange of ideas. The credit for all this, in part, goes to Indian foreign minister Swaraj, who together with the Indian Prime Minister, makes for a formidable com-bination to drive the Indian foreign policy.

The world could only sit and watch last week as two men seemed to play with the fate of humanity, on the flawed assumption that Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un had the collective best interests of all at heart.

Trump has shown the dangers of placing millions of lives in the hands of a couple of fragile men. In this month alone, he torpedoed the successful Iran nuclear deal and all but the best hope of North Korea engaging in direct diplomacy as a means to denuclearise. He threatened mass murder of millions of innocent civilians while pulling out of the upcoming summit with Kim Jong-un for reasons of hurt feelings and strong lan-guage. But that is the lie nuclear states have been telling us for 70 years. Mankind is safest living a breath away from annihi-lation because there are “good guys” with a nuclear weapon (Trump), who will discourage ‘bad guys’ from ever wanting them (Kim). Sounds familiar? In reality, the greatest threat we face is the existence of nuclear weapons. South Korean President Moon Jae-in lives within the range of conventional weapons permanently aimed at Seoul that can be launched even before the US nuclear weapons destroy the North Korean regime. Knowing this, his worst nightmare came true this year with Trump’s war of words that pushed all to the brink of nuclear destruction. His solution? Careful diplomacy with the North on one hand, and gentle ego stroking of Trump on the other. And, imagine, Trump is hoping for the Nobel prize for Peace! North Korea, largely in a symbolic gesture, put on a show by blowing up their nuclear test site. Trump responded by blow-ing up the peace process. All of this goes to show no one can rely on these piecemeal agreements to guarantee world safety. Men with fragile egos should not have the world’s faith placed in them to solve these existential crises. There is a solution. These weapons are now prohibited by treaty and it is a matter of getting every state on board. Last year, 122 nations adopted the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons at the UN, and it is well on its way to becoming international law. Quite simply, the possession of nuclear weapons by anyone is a grave humanitarian threat that cannot be countenanced. There is still hope for the Koreas. Trump has accused others of clinging to a magical vision of a nuclear-free world. There is a legitimate path forward to denuclearisation for all using a multilateral treaty that cannot be torn up if someone’s feelings are hurt. At a time when peace is at such a premium, this is the only solution to ensure mankind does not become extinct.

Swaraj’s sound stance

Denuclearisation for all

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EDITOR

Even after 7 decades of Independence, two hundred million people in India are deprived of grid-connected electricity, although, as of now, the total installed power generating capacity stands at 345 GW. The Government has to increase the power generation capacity to 850GW by the end of the year 2032 which can only be done with the proper Energy mix from the different options. The Government has set an ambitious but difficult target of achieving adding 175GW of Renewable Power by the year 2022. For that, a drastic reform in the power sector is necessary. AMAR NATH BHADRA Via email

Electricity can transform people’s lives, not just economically but also socially

Quote martial

PIYUSH GOYAL

Forest fires have been raging in pine forests of Dharamshala for the last three days, causing

a significant loss of tree cover. Although the exact extent of fire is not clearly known, at least 618 sites reportedly caught fire in this region. Strong winds in the region on Sunday morning further pushed the fire to other areas, including near Dharam-shala cantonment.

Problem with pineThis is the time of the year

when pine trees shed their leaves, covering large chunk of open land within forests. With summer temperature already hovering in mid-30s, the pine needles take hardly three to four hours to get completely dry. These heaps of needles become highly inflammable and eas-ily catch fire. However, there is another facet to it: practice of waste burning by the com-munities living in the vicinity of these forests.

“In absence of a proper waste collection and disposal system, the communities find it convenient to burn their waste. Although they keep a watch and stand close to the burning garbage, embers often burst out to nearby forests, triggering a massive fire,” says Dharmesh Kumar, Sub-divisional Magis-trate, Dharamshala.

The forest department has been planting pine saplings in the region for the past few decades due to high survival rate of the tree. There are 27,910

hectares of pine forests in the Dharamsala circle, which com-prises 20 per cent of the total forest area in that circle. How-ever, these trees create problems for the forest department as well as the native farmers.

“As pine trees produce bio-chemicals that do not allow any kind of vegetation to grow, the forest department does con-trolled burning of pine forests to ensure there is growth of grass during monsoon months and animal fodder is available. The villagers, at times, take this exercise upon themselves and set these needles on fire, which

slowly spreads beyond their control. Recently, a cabinet meeting was held to explore possibilities of making com-mercial use of pine needles,” adds Kumar.

Experts say that there is technology available to con-vert these pine needles into combustible bricks.

Closer to the capital city, Kasauli has already been reeling under high maximum tempera-ture. It has also witnessed a mas-sive forest fire in area around the Air Force Station. A helicopter was pressed into service by the defence authorities on May 26

to douse flames. Despite suffer-ing from depleting water level, water had to be sourced from the Sukhana Lake in Chandi-garh to douse fire.

“Whoever promoted pine trees and planted in this state has done great disservice to the people. Why can we not phase out pine trees and replace them with deodar (Cedrus deodara) or ban (White Oak)? A state, which is already reeling under drinking water crisis, has to now use its water to stop for-est fires. If we do a compara-tive study between places that grow only pine and deodar, we

will see that incidents of forest fires are much less in the latter,” Kumar affirms.

Scorching summer in the hillsWhile pine trees are the

principal convict, a part of the blame also goes to extremely high summer temperature pre-vailing in the region in the last few days. Heat wave conditions continued unabated in the lower hills of Himachal Pradesh, with Una registering the hottest tem-perature at 43.6 degrees Celsius on Sunday. Maximum departure from the normal temperature in most districts has been high.

According to the circular issued by India Meteorological Department on May 27, max-imum temperatures in some parts of Himachal Pradesh were “appreciably above nor-mal” (3.1°C to 5.0°C). In fact, Himachal Pradesh has been witnessing a steady increase in maximum temperature over the decades. According to state-level climate change trends released by the IMD, the highest increase in annual mean maximum temperatures during 1951-2010 was observed in Himachal Pradesh (+0.06°C/year).

In a sign of temporary respite, the local meteorologi-cal office has forecast rains or thundershowers in the mid-hills for five days from May 28 to June 1 and rains and thun-dershowers in the lower hills on May 30 and 31. DOWN TO EARTH

(The views expressed are strictly personal)

This is the time of the year when pine trees shed their leaves. With summer temperature already hovering in mid-30s, the pine needles take hardly three to four hours to get completely dry. These heaps of needles become highly inflammable

Extremely high summer temperature and inflammable pine needles cause fire to engulf forests in the state

Why Himachal pines for respite

Pine trees create problems for the forest department as well as the native farmers. [Photo: Vikas Choudhary]

With Trump disrupting the global order, Russia and India could strengthen their alliance

SUBHOJIT GOSWAMI

RICHA AGARWAL

Social norms dictate that a woman should protect her modesty by dressing and behaving “appro-

priately”. Despite such norms being strictly followed in India, in many parts of the country, women are expected to bathe in the open.

It is shameful that even today safe and private bathing do not exist in a majority of the rural areas for women. Accord-ing to the 2011 Census, 55 per cent of rural households do not have any kind of enclosed bath-ing space within the premises and this proportion rises to an alarming high of 95 per cent in the poorer pockets of the coun-try. Women have no option, then, but to bathe fully clothed in nearby ponds, wells, hand pumps or streams.

Apart from hygiene, this compromises their dignity too. The water in which they bathe is used for washing uten-sils, clothes and even menstru-ation clothes, which can lead to various bacterial and fungal infections. The problem gets acute when there is a scarcity of water and multiple commu-nities and castes live together. Often, long walks for carry-ing water results in the neglect of sanitation and hygiene. To probe this issue, focus group discussions and interviews were conducted from Septem-ber 2016 to September 2017, with women from rural areas of Jharkhand, Bihar, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Rajasthan.

In an exploratory study con-ducted in Gaya, Bihar, a major-ity of the participants admitted to facing inconveniences due to the absence of private bathing spaces. Although women from

upper caste families had bath-rooms, they were not ready to be interviewed. Women from lower castes usually bathe either in the open or in some kind of makeshift arrange-ments where sari/plastics cover a small portion in the house or in the backyard. Out of the 55 women interviewed, 53 per cent had either a temporary arrangement or bathed inside the house when men were not present. The rest of them sim-ply bathed near a hand pump or a pond. In almost all the vil-lages, women have separate spaces for bathing where men are prohibited. However, this is not followed in some com-munities, causing women to experience eve-teasing and lewd comments. Women face

embarrassment when walking back home in wet clothes. They are also unable to clean their private parts, leading to skin infections and rashes.

Talking about their men-strual hygiene practices, around 49 per cent reluctantly shared that they had to wait to change their soiled clothes when no one was around. It can be imagined how a daily chore can turn into a trouble-some task for these women. 63 per cent admitted that they cleaned the menstrual cloth or threw the used sanitary nap-kin in the same place where they bathed. A middle-aged woman from Kusa village in Sherghati block of Gaya said, “We are aware that not bath-ing daily can cause infections

and bathing near a hand pump fully clothed does not allow us to clean ourselves properly. But what choices do we have? We do not have enough time or money to waste on building bathrooms. When you have so many mouths to feed, you tend to prioritise them rather than building bathrooms.”

Our research in Gaya and some villages in Jharkhand, Odisha, and Rajasthan show that the compromise and drudgery that rural women face due to the absence of secured bathing spaces is far more severe than one can expect.

In spite of feeling uncom-fortable and insecure, these women either do not complain or are unaware of the grave

health risks that bathing in the open can lead to. For them, bathing is an age-old practice that has been carried out in the open. It is paradoxical how this issue has not been raised in the public forum when talks about building toilets are in full swing. Can it be because women tend to suffer in silence accepting it as their destiny? Or is it related to their lack of access to resources?

The physical stress of car-rying water from hand pumps and other sources and the men-tal strain of performing all their household chores along with maintaining hygiene with lim-ited water takes a toll on their health and life. Many devel-opmental activists say that women’s struggle with sanita-tion arises due to the lack of water. While there is a long way to go for the construction of bathrooms to become a pol-icy mandate, it is important to place greater stress on making water available to every rural household.

Past literature and qualita-tive research suggest that access to water, toilet, and bathroom facilities have a significant rela-tion to a woman’s well-being. That said, the issue of lim-ited access to secured bathing spaces with adequate water needs immediate attention. When the movement of build-ing toilets under the Swachh Bharat Mission is in a full-fledged swing, it is time to find a way to integrate secure bath-ing spaces with access to water in that programme. DOWN TO EARTH

(The authors are junior research fellows at Vikasan-vesh Foundation, an initia-

tive of TATA Trusts. The views expressed are strictly personal)

To promote waste segregation among residents, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation came out with a plan to bring together citizen volunteers called ‘Swachhdoots’ who will visit individual households and commercial establishments to apprise citizens on the practice on segregation

Apart from hygiene, this compromises women’s dignity too. The water in which they bathe is used for washing utensils, clothes, and even menstruation clothes which can lead to various bacterial and fungal infections. The problem gets acute when there is a scarcity of water and multiple communities and castes live together

Divide and conquerCities that have adopted robust waste segregation policies have been

successful in instating their ambient hygiene

Sanitation and well-being

In 2016, the Centre for Science and Envi-ronment (CSE) came out with a report on Solid Waste Management titled, “Not in My Backyard: Solid Waste Manage-

ment in Indian Cities”. It was clear from the report that the cities that are segregating their waste have been able to effectively process and treat it. While some have achieved the status of zero landfill cities, others are work-ing towards becoming Zero Waste. With the objective of promoting segregation, CSE, on December 12, 2017, launched a platform called the ‘Forum of Cities that Segregate’. This one-of-a-kind initiative was launched in 20 cities from 13 states of the country to develop a knowledge exchange platform for participating cities on solid waste manage-ment (SWM), training and capacity building on the source-segregation model of SWM, tracking and assessing the progress of cities on source segregation among other param-eters and collating the feedback and inputs from the forum cities and providing policy-relevant information to the state governments and Centre on SWM.

The argument that segregation is the key for waste management was only strength-ened recently with the release of the Swachh Survekshan 2018 results. Most of the cities in the country that are ensuring segregation of waste at source have been in the list of the awardees. It is now well understood that seg-regation at source is at the heart of the waste management solution. It improves collection efficiency and leads to better efficiency in the processing of waste and resource recovery.

Five out of 20 Forum cities were adjudged in various categories for their work on waste management and sanitation. Indore and Bhopal ranked 1st and 2nd in 2017 (last year’s cleanest cities) and have shown signif-icant improvement this year in segregation at source and opted for decentralised waste management approaches. Mysuru, which has been a pioneer in waste management for the past many years, has been awarded India’s cleanest city in the 300,000 to 1,000,000 pop-ulation bracket. Greater Hyderabad has been recognised for the best solid waste man-agement practice in all capital cities/UTs of the country. The city has undertaken mass campaigns for source segregation. When it comes to cities with less than 100,000 popu-lation, Panchgani has emerged as the cleanest in the west zone. This small hill station has incorporated practices such as 100 per cent source segregation, collection and process-ing of solid waste.

Managing solid wasteFor the second year in a row, Indore and

Bhopal have secured first and second rank as India’s cleanest cities. Both have initiated source segregation among the residents as they firmly believe that waste management is only possible if the waste is segregated at source. Indore has achieved 100 per cent source segregation not only in households but

also in commercial spaces. Citizens are being encouraged to practice home composting, while more than 700 temples, market areas, parks, gardens and other bulk generators are treating wet waste in a decentralised manner.

Residents who are composting can sell their home-made compost at a centralised facility at a fixed rate. All the wet waste in the city is being composted while all the dry waste is being channelled for recycling. The remaining non-recyclable dry waste is made into refuse-derived fuel (RDF), which will be used when the waste-to-energy plant, which is under construction, is ready. Less than 10 per cent of the city’s waste now goes to the landfill.

Bhopal has also successfully implemented 100 per cent source segregation in house-holds, commercial establishments and bulk generators of the city. Both centralised and decentralised processing is being practised in

Bhopal. About 275 tonnes of waste is being treated by the centralised composting centre at Bhanpur and 25 tonnes of waste is treated via decentralised methods. Few RWAs and bulk generators are also segregating and treat-ing their wet waste in-situ.

Currently, the city is setting up an inte-grated waste management facility spread over an area of 46 acres in Adampur Chavni area. The facility will have a waste-to-energy plant, compost plant, provision of dry waste to RDF centre, and sanitary landfill and leachate treatment plant. Even though there is a cen-tralised treatment unit, the bulk generators and households are encouraged to treat maxi-mum waste at source. The Bhopal Municipal Corporation (BMC) launched ‘KABAAD SE JUGAAD’ — a people-driven initiative towards solid waste management in which BMC is just a facilitator and the entire pro-cess is run by the community.

Mysuru: Pioneering waste managementMysuru has been adjudged as one of the

cleanest cities in the country for many years. This is not only because of the aesthetic clean-liness but also due to the waste manage-ment system that the city has strengthened over the past few years. The city encourages its residents to hand over segregated waste to the collector. The city has 47 dry waste collection centres apart from a Zero Waste Management Unit (ZWM) in seven zones. Segregated waste from two or three wards out of five or 10 wards in each zone goes to the ZWM where the wet waste is compos-ted and dry waste is further segregated into as many as 28 fractions. These seven ZWMs are run by local NGOs and self-help groups who make money from the sale of compost and dry recyclables.

Mysuru treats close to 60 tonnes of wet waste and 90 tonnes of dry waste per day

through decentralised waste management and 85 per cent of the city is segregating its waste.

The wet waste from all other wards and commercial spaces goes to a centralised com-posting facility run by Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS) while the dry waste is stored in dry waste collection cen-tres and are sold by waste collectors for extra income. Less than 20 per cent (90 tonnes) of the total waste generated (447 tonnes) goes to the dumping ground. The city sets an exem-plary model for waste management, involv-ing all stakeholders.

Panchgani leads the wayPanchgani, a famous tourist destination,

has made outstanding efforts in making its city clean while ensuring few options for waste processing and disposal. Through con-stant effort of the municipal council, it has been successful in implementing 100 per cent segregation in all its 2,755 households and commercial spaces. The city generates some seven tonnes of waste every day and processes every bit of it. After collecting seg-regated waste, the dry waste is segregated fur-ther in as many as seven categories such as glass, metal, rubber, clothes, recyclable plastic or bottles, shredded plastic, and footwear. The wet waste is composted and sold while the dry waste is sent for recycling to Pune. The previous garbage disposal site has now been converted into a garden, which also serves as a tourist point named Swachh Bharat Point.

Practicing segregationTo promote waste segregation among

residents, the Greater Hyderabad Munici-pal Corporation (GHMC) came out with a plan to bring together citizen volunteers called ‘Swachhdoots’ who will visit individual households and commercial establishments to apprise citizens on the practice on segre-gation. The city has brought together 3,000 swachhdoots who are not only now apprising the citizens but also monitoring the segrega-tion status in the city.

The city has also been working on inte-grating waste pickers into the formal setup of waste management by offering them a vehicle in turn for service under a pro-gramme called ‘Swachh Autos’. Each person is expected to collect segregated waste from 600 households and the money made from the collection of user fee and sale of dry waste goes to the collector and helper directly. This is one of the many other initiatives of GHMC. Another initiative is called the ‘Black bag campaign’, introduced with an aim of creating awareness and promoting the 3R principle — Reduce, Reuse and Recycle — for plastic waste. Money made from the sale of recyclable plastic goes towards livelihood development of the informal sector in the city. DOWN TO EARTH

(The views expressed are strictly personal)

With Swachh Bharat Mission in full-swing, the debate of women’s access to safe bathing spaces must be accentuated, discuss Minaj Ranjita Singh and Meghna Mukherjee

tweetRETWEET

RAVI SHANKAR PRASAD @rsprasad

Members & office bearers of BJP Mahila Morcha of Odisha met me at Bhubaneswar. It was great to share #DigitalIndia initiatives that are leading to women empowerment. They all thanked me for #StreeSwabhiman initiative of CSC for setting up sanitary pad units in rural areas.

KAPIL SIBAL @KapilSibal

EVM's in Kairana (UP) and in Bhandara-Gondia, Palghar (Maharashtra) Lok Sabha polls hit by heat wave says Election Commission. Opposition protests. It seems the heat wave is also getting selective. The heat wave seems to have bypassed EVM's where BJP is confident!

MARKANDEY KATJU @MKATJU

The Mahagathbandhan of Opposition parties, without any common principle except the lust for power and pelf, reminds me of Lord Shankar's baraat described so vividly in the Ramcharitmanas.

JAMES WILSON @jamewils

Rains.. Nothing makes a pluviophile so ecstatic!! #Kerala #MyClicks

9mp in focusMILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Tuesday, 29 May, 2018

Bathing in public spaces severely compromises women’s hygiene (Representational Image)

Waste segregation at the source is the most effective way to get rid of landfills polluting major cities

mp world10MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Tuesday, 29 May, 2018

Super-elastic electronic fibre paves way for smart clothes

GENEVA: Scientists have developed a tiny, super elas-tic fibres that can incorporate electrodes, paving the way for smart clothing and artificial nerves for robots.

The fibres can detect even the slightest pressure and strain and can withstand deformation of close to 500 per cent before recovering their initial shape.

Scientists at Ecole Polytech-nique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland came up with a fast and easy method for embedding different kinds of microstructures in super-elastic fibres.

For instance, by adding electrodes at strategic loca-tions, they turned the fibres into ultra-sensitive sensors. The method can be used to produce hundreds of metres of fibre in a short amount of time.

To make their fibres, the sci-entists used a thermal drawing process, which is the standard process for optical-fibre manu-

facturing. They started by cre-ating a macroscopic preform with the various fibre compo-nents arranged in a carefully designed 3D pattern.

They then heated the pre-form and stretched it out, like melted plastic, to make fibres of a few hundreds microns in diameter. While this process stretched out the pattern of components lengthwise, it also contracted it crosswise, mean-

ing the components' relative positions stayed the same.

The end result was a set of fibres with an extremely com-plicated microarchitecture and advanced properties.

Until now, thermal draw-ing could be used to make only rigid fibres. However, research-ers used it to make elastic fibres. With the help of a new criterion for selecting materi-als, they were able to identify

some thermoplastic elastomers that have a high viscosity when heated.

After the fibres are drawn, they can be stretched and deformed but they always return to their original shape.

Rigid materials like nano-composite polymers, met-als and thermoplastics can be introduced into the fibres, as well as liquid metals that can be easily deformed.

"For instance, we can add three strings of electrodes at the top of the fibres and one at the bottom. Different elec-trodes will come into contact depending on how the pres-sure is applied to the fibres," said Fabien Sorin from EPFL.

This will cause the elec-trodes to transmit a signal, which can then be read to determine exactly what type of stress the fibre is exposed to - such as compression or shear stress, for example," said Sorin.

Scientists integrated their fibres into robotic fingers as artificial nerves. Whenever the fingers touch something, elec-trodes in the fibres transmit information about the robot's tactile interaction with its environment.

The research team also tested adding their fibres to large-mesh clothing to detect compression and stretching.

"Our technology could be used to develop a touch key-board that's integrated directly into clothing, for instance," said Sorin.

The researchers see many other potential applications. Especially since the thermal drawing process can be eas-ily tweaked for large-scale production.

This is a real plus for the manufacturing sector. The tex-tile sector has already expressed interest in the new technol-ogy, and patents have been filed. AGENCIES

To undo US damage to N-deal, China’s Xi to host Iran’s Rouhani BEIJING: Iran's president will attend a summit with his Chi-nese and Russian counterparts next month, officials in Bei-jing said on Monday, as they try to salvage the nuclear deal thrown into upheaval by Don-ald Trump.

China, Russia and Euro-pean powers, all of which signed the 2015 Iran nuclear accord, are scrambling to save the pact following the US president's decision to quit the agreement and reinstate sanctions.

China's President Xi Jin-ping will meet Iran's Hassan Rouhani on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organ-isation (SCO) meeting on June 9-10 in Qingdao, said Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will also attend the sum-mit, he added.

Wang did not include the nuclear deal in a readout of the summit's formal agenda.

But Beijing, which is Iran's top trade partner and one of the biggest buyers of its oil,

has signalled that it intends to keep working with the Islamic regime despite the US move.

Chinese businesses are expected to step up activities in Iran to fill the void left by the exit of US companies and the possible withdrawal of Euro-pean rivals for fear of punitive measures enforced by the US.

Iran is currently an observer member of the SCO, though it has long sought full membership.

The regional bloc focus-ing on security and trade also includes four ex-Soviet Central

Asian republics and two new members, Pakistan and India.

The summit will discuss a three-year action plan to "fight the three evil forces" -- terror-ism, separatism and extremism -- and strengthen coopera-tion on tackling cybersecurity breaches and drug trafficking, Wang said.

China will also push for "reforms to the multilateral trading regime" connecting the markets of SCO members, which account for nearly 40 per cent of the global population, he said. AGENCIES

Hidden mountain ranges discovered under Antarctica iceLONDON: Researchers have discovered mountain ranges and three huge, deep subgla-cial valleys hidden beneath the Antarctica ice.

The findings, published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, are the first to emerge from extensive ice pen-etrating radar data collected in Antarctica as part of the Euro-pean Space Agency PolarGAP project.

Although there are exten-sive satellite data that help image the surface of the Earth and its deep interior, there was a gap around the South Pole area, which is not covered by satellites due the inclination of their orbits.

The PolarGAP project was

therefore designed to fill in the gap in the satellite data cover-age of the South Pole and in particular acquire the missing gravity data.

Airborne radar data were also collected to enable map-ping of the bedrock topogra-phy hidden beneath the ice sheet. The data reveals the topography which controls how quickly ice flows between the East and West Antarctic ice sheets.

The team, led by researchers from Northumbria University in the UK, has mapped for the first time three vast, subglacial valleys in West Antarctica.

These valleys could be important in future as they help to channel the flow of ice

from the centre of the conti-nent towards the coast.

If climate change causes the

ice sheet to thin, these troughs could increase the speed at which ice flows from the cen-

tre of Antarctica to the sea, rais-ing global sea levels.

The largest valley, known

as the Foundation Trough, is more than 350 kilome-tres long and 35 kilometres wide. Its length is equivalent to the distance from London to Manchester, while its width amounts to more than one and a half times the length of New York's Manhattan Island.

The two other troughs are equally vast. The Patuxent Trough is more than 300 kilo-metres long and over 15 kilo-metres wide, while the Offset Rift Basin is 150 kilometres long and 30 kilometres wide.

"As there were gaps in satel-lite data around the South Pole, no one knew exactly what was there, so we are delighted to be able to release the very first findings to emerge from the

PolarGAP project," Kate Win-ter, a research fellow at Nor-thumbria University.

"We now understand that the mountainous region is preventing ice from East Ant-arctica flowing through West Antarctica to the coast. In addition we have also discov-ered three subglacial valleys in West Antarctica which could be important in the future," Winter said.

"If the ice sheet thins or retreats, these topographically-controlled corridors could facilitate enhanced flow of ice further inland, and could lead to the West Antarctic ice divide moving," she said.

"This would, in turn, increase the speed and rate

at which ice flows out from the centre of Antarctica to its edges, leading to an increase in global sea levels," she added.

"By mapping these deep troughs and mountain ranges we have therefore added a key piece of the puzzle to help understand how the East Antarctic Ice Sheet may have responded to past change and how it may do so in the future," Fausto Ferraccioli, principal investigator of the European Space Agency PolarGAP proj-ect. "Our new aerogeophysi-cal data will also enable new research into the geologi-cal processes that created the mountains and basins before the Antarctic ice sheet itself was born," said Ferraccioli. AGENCIES

US team in North Korea to prepare for Kim summit, reveals Trump

WASHINGTON DC: President Donald Trump on Monday said a US team was in North Korea to plan a summit with its leader Kim Jong Un, indicating that the much-anticipated meeting could take place as scheduled.

Trump withdrew from the planned June 12 Singapore sum-mit with Kim on Thursday but quickly announced that it could get back on track. The cancel-lation apparently followed Sec-retary of State Mike Pompeo setting some strict ground-rules ahead for the meeting, which in turn resulted in a North Korean minister reportedly saying that Pyongyang could make the US taste an appalling tragedy and that a stalemate could lead to a nuclear-to-nuclear showdown.

Later, the North Korean leaders said they were ready to meet anytime and anywhere. Kim had an unscheduled meet-ing with South Korean Presi-dent Moon Jae-in wherein they discussed ways to revive the

summit. "Our United States team has arrived in North Korea to make arrangements for the Summit between Kim Jong Un and myself," Trump said in a tweet.

"I truly believe North Korea has brilliant potential and will be a great economic and finan-cial Nation one day. Kim Jong Un agrees with me on this. It will happen!" Trump said in the same tweet.

While the US did not

announce the delegation's members, The Washington Post reported earlier Sunday that Sung Kim, a former US ambas-sador to South Korea and for-mer nuclear negotiator with the North, had been called in from his posting as envoy to the Phil-ippines to lead the preparations.

Sung Kim met with North Korea's Vice-Foreign minis-ter Choe Son Hui, who said last week that Pyongyang was "reconsidering" the talks, the

daily said. The two officials know each

other well - both were part of their respective delegations that negotiated the 2005 denuclear-isation agreement through the six-party framework.

The talks are expected to continue on Tuesday at Tongil-gak, or "Unification House," the building in the northern part of the demilitarised zone where Kim met Moon on Saturday, The Post reported.

Last year, Trump and Kim were threatening war after Pyongyang tested its most pow-erful nuclear bomb to date and launched test missiles it said were capable of reaching the United States. Tensions were calmed after Kim extended an olive branch to Seoul by offering to send a delegation to the Win-ter Olympics in South Korea, sparking a sudden detente that led to Trump agreeing to hold direct talks with the North Korean leader. AGENCIES

China approves 13 new Ivanka Trump trademarks in 3 months

SHANGHAI: China has approved 13 Ivanka Trump trademarks in the last three months and granted provi-sional approval for eight more, raising fresh conflict-of-inter-est questions about the White House.

The most recent approval from China came Sunday, and more are likely to come. Trade-mark office records show at least 25 Ivanka Trump marks awaiting review.

The new marks could allow the First Daughter's brand to

market a host of things from baby blankets to coffins, as well as perfume, make-up and furniture.

Trademarks can be signs of corporate ambition, but they can also be filed defensively, to block copycats.

Ivanka Trump and her father have filed for trademarks in dozens of countries.

Critics say foreign pow-ers could try to use valuable intellectual property rights to curry favor with the White House. AGENCIES

Ivanka photo with son sparks backlash over border splits WASHINGTON DC: Ivanka Trump is facing an online backlash for tweeting a "tone deaf" photo of herself cud-dling her son as outrage grows over a federal government policy to separate the children of undocumented migrants from their parents. The eldest daughter of President Donald Trump, who serves as an advi-sor to her father, posted the picture of her with her infant son on Sun-day. AGENCIES

Eight killed in Pakistan fireKARACHI: Eight members of a family, including four women, were killed after be-ing trapped inside their burning house in Pakistan's largest city on Monday. Police officials said the eldest son of Gulzara Bibi, who had survived the blaze in Baldia Town area, told them his mother was men-tally unstable and set a room on fire after locking the house from inside. "The mother, her three daughters and four sons were in one room where Gulzara Bibi allegedly first set fire," one official said.Neighbours of the family which resided in Malang Goth, a low income area in Baldia town, said Bibi was men-tally unstable. AGENCIES

Kabul library bus drives Afghan children to readKABUL: The door of the blue bus slides open and dozens of children excitedly bound up the steps, eager to get their hands on hard-to-find books in Kabul's first mobile library.

Named Charmaghz -- the Dari for walnut, which is asso-ciated with logic in Afghani-stan because the nut resembles a brain -- the converted public bus is hard to miss as it winds through the dusty streets of the Afghan capital.

The library-on-wheels offers pupils and street kids free access to children's books, which are in short supply at public schools and libraries.

It also offers one of the few spaces outside the home that children can use in a city where fear is increasingly keeping resi-dents behind closed doors.

As both the Taliban and the Islamic State group step up their attacks in Kabul, with civilians paying the price, many parents -- traumatised by the violence, some of them already devastated by loss -- have stopped taking their children out in public.

Charmaghz, used by as many as 300 children every

day, is a rare exception.The vehicle, which is rented

from a state-owned bus com-pany and takes precautions to avoid government buildings, main roads or other crowded areas targeted by militants in Kabul, is a relatively secure place for them to read, play chess and see friends. "Boys, you sit in the back and girls in the front. It is important to be organised," one of three volunteers tells the chil-dren as he pulls books from an overhead shelf and places them in outstretched hands.

Unlike traditional libraries where chatting is discouraged, the constant hum of voices fills

Charmaghz.Children sit cross-legged on

the carpeted floor or at desks reading aloud from some of the 600 books that have been donated by Afghan publishers.

"I come to the bus once a week to read books," 13-year-old Zahra said.

"On Monday I'm reading about how to improve your health. I'm reading what I should do and what I should eat." "When I go home I share the stories I read here with my brothers and sisters."

The library bus was launched in February by Oxford Univer-sity graduate Freshta Karim,

who has dedicated herself to improving the reading and sto-rytelling abilities of children in Afghanistan -- an opportunity she never had as a child.

Karim grew up a refugee in Pakistan and returned to Afghanistan after the fall of Tali-ban in 2002. She completed her undergraduate degree in Kabul before winning a Chevening scholarship to study a master's in public policy at Oxford.

"When we were children we did not have access to... libraries for children," Karim, 26, said.

"I remember as a kid at school we didn't even have chairs -- we were sitting on the floor to study." The library bus stops at schools, parks or orphanages throughout the week, and is an "efficient" way to reach lots of children, Karim said, helping to improve Afghanistan's low general rate of literacy of just 36 per cent.

Even now most public schools in Afghanistan do not have libraries, said Shafiullah, who used to work at Kabul's main public library and now helps non-profit organisations publish children's books. AGENCIES

New Zealand to slaughter 150,000 cows to end bacterial disease

WELLINGTON DC: New Zealand plans to slaughter about 150,000 cows as it tries to eradicate a strain of dis-ease-causing bacteria from the national herd.

Politicians and industry leaders announced the ambi-tious plan on Monday. They say it will cost hundreds of millions of dollars, and, if suc-cessful, would be the first time an infected country has elimi-nated Mycoplasma bovis.

Farming is vital to the econ-omy in New Zealand, whose isolation has helped protect it from some diseases which affect herds elsewhere.

Last July, Mycoplasma bovis was found in the country for the first time. Found in Europe and the US, the bacteria can cause cows to develop mastitis, pneumonia, arthritis and other diseases. They are not consid-ered a threat to food safety, but do cause production losses.

Officials say they plan to kill all cows on any farms where

the bacteria are found, even if some of the animals are healthy. They say many of the cows will be slaughtered at processing plants and used for beef, but some cows will have to be killed and buried on the farms or dumped in approved landfills.

Officials have the legal authority to forcibly enter farms and kill animals even in cases where a farmer might resist, but they said they hope they don't have to use those powers. Katie Milne, the national president of the advo-

cacy group Federated Farmers, said it was important to try to get rid of Mycoplasma bovis while there was still a chance. She said they would try to make sure affected farmers had all the support they needed, including adequate compensation.

"This is a tough time, and the pain and anguish they're going to go through is really hideous," she said of the affected farmers. "And we have to support them as neighbours, community members, farmers, friends." AGENCIES

2 women struck by lightning as summer storms lash Germany

BERLIN: German authorities say two women have suffered serious injuries after being struck by lightning in the west-ern city of Bochum.

The city's fire service says the women, in their early 20s, were walking on a footpath when lighting struck late Sun-day. One of them had to be resuscitated by paramedics at the scene.

Western and central Ger-many saw heavy storms Sun-day, flooding roads and basements. Firefighters in the state of Hesse rescued two women who were trapped in their car by a mudslide.

Dozens of flights were can-celled at Frankfurt Airport, Germany's busiest, because of storms. Germany and other parts of Europe have been experiencing an unusually long stretch of very warm weather in May. AGENCIES

mp worldMILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Tuesday, 29 May, 2018

11

Spain’s far-Left Podemos leader wins confidence vote over luxury home

MADRID: Spain's far-left party Podemos has said its leader has won a confidence vote called after an outcry over his purchase of a luxury home. Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias along with his partner who is Podemos par-liamentary spokeswoman Irene Montero, won 68.4 per cent of the nearly 190,000 votes cast.

Nearly a third, 31.6 per cent, voted against the couple remain-ing in their roles, Pablo Eche-nique, the party's secretary of organisation, said in a Facebook post on Sunday.

The party's nearly 500,000 members were eligible to vote online from Tuesday until on Sunday as to whether the cou-ple should stay on in their roles.

The couple, who are expect-ing twins, called the vote ear-lier this month after they were accused of hypocrisy for buying a house for over 600,000 euros

(USD 700,000) with a swim-ming pool and guest house.

The purchase caused unease among the rank and file of Podemos, which was formed in 2014 to represent "the peo-ple" against "the caste" -- as it called the country's political and business elites. In the past Iglesias had made much of the fact that he lived in a modest apartment in Vallecas, a working class Madrid neighbourhood, that belonged to his great-aunt and bought his clothes in super-markets. AGENCIES

DR Congo shows French president Macron his placeKINSHASA: The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) reacted angrily on Monday after French President Emman-uel Macron met the head of the African Union (AU), appar-ently suspecting closed-door dealings on the crisis-riddled country's future.

Government spokes-man Lambert Mende blasted Macron for "dog-whistle remarks" that he made last Wednesday in Paris after meet-ing with Rwandan President Paul Kagame, who is also the AU's current chair.

The comments caused "dis-comfort, not to say anger" in Kinshasa, Mende told a press conference.

Macron had said, "France supports the initiative taken by the president of the African Union, in strict concertation with the president of Angola," but did not elaborate. Angola President Joao Lourenco was visiting Paris on Monday.

The verbal broadside from the DRC comes in a context of mounting tensions ahead of presidential elections sched-uled for December 23.

Countries in central Africa are casting a worried eye, amid fears that the sprawling, vol-atile state could spiral once more into war, possibly draw-ing them into it.

DRC President Joseph Kabila, 46, has been in power since 2001 and should have stepped down at the end of

2016 after he reached his two-term constitutional limit -- a constitutional clause has allowed him to remain in office until his successor is elected.

Kabila's presidency has been stained by a reputation for corruption, oppression of free speech and poor governance. The DRC's armed forces are struggling to repress conflict in the vast, lawless east, which is under the sway of multiple rebel groups.

Mende said, "We do not accuse the French president of anything.

The question is about know-ing what may have been said between him -- because he spoke about it -- and the pres-ident of Rwanda concerning the DRC without us know-ing about." "When the answer comes, if it is unsatisfactory, you can be sure that we will draw all the consequences," Mende said. "No-one has the right to envisage solutions to our problems without us," he said, condemning "people who

are nostalgic for the colonial order" and "closed-door meet-ings and open plotting against our country's sovereignty."

The representatives of France, Rwanda and Angola were called to the foreign min-istry in Kinshasa on Saturday after Macron's remarks.

Previous conflicts in the DRC -- from 1996-97 and from 1998-2003 -- sucked in coun-tries around central Africa, including its neighbours, Angola and Rwanda.

Mende on Monday did not address speculation about whether Kabila would run again in the elections, which are at the legislative and local level as well as presidential.

But he made it clear Kabila planned to remain a key figure in national politics through his role as party chief.

Kabila "is head of the presi-dential majority," Mende said, referring to the majority of pro-Kabila MPs in parliament.

"When we hold the elec-tions, he will be the head of the presidential majority. And since we intend to win, Kabila will be the head of the pres-idential majority after the elections," he said. "There's nothing unconstitutional about this." AGENCIES

‘Some people, who are nostalgic for the colonial order, hold closed door meetings and plot against our country's sovereignty’

Blockchain publicity stunt using Mao lookalike creates uproar in China

BEIJING: A publicity stunt featuring a Mao Zedong loo-kalike at a conference on block-chain in China on Monday sparked an uproar on social media, with some users saying the "shameful" disrespect to the founding leader could hurt the industry's image.

Dressed in a grey Mao suit and speaking in an accent from Mr Mao's birth province of Hunan, an actor told the audi-ence at the 2018 Boao Asia Blockchain Conference that he wished the event a success.

"You are worthy of being called the great sons and daughters of the Chinese nation, and I thank you in the name of Mao Zedong," the actor said, according to vid-eos posted on WeChat, a social media platform.

Chinese law prohib-its using images of past and current leaders in television advertisements.

Actors are also banned from promoting goods and ser-vices in the image of national leaders, according to the State Administration for Industry and Commerce.

Mr Mao, who died on Sep-tember 9, 1976, is still vener-

ated by the ruling Communist Party as the founder of modern China and his face appears on banknotes.

Some social media users denounced the stunt.

"This is shameless," wrote one user on WeChat.

Others said it could hurt the future in China of blockchain, a technology that underpins bitcoin and other digital cur-rencies. A ticket for the two-day conference on the southern Chinese island of Hainan cost up to 2,980 yuan ($466).

Chinese authorities have cracked down on the cryp-tocurrency business to try to limit risks as consumers pile into a highly speculative mar-

ket that has grown rapidly.While Beijing has banned

initial coin offerings, shut cryp-tocurrency trading exchanges and limited bitcoin mining, it has continued to flourish through alternative channels in China.

“Blockchain is a fledg-ling business that warrants the attention and open atti-tude from the government, and we will not tolerate any scam behaviour that disrupts industry order in the name of blockchain,” said another user on WeChat.

Conference organisers apologised for the perfor-mance, co-organiser Bikuai said on its website. AGENCIES

125 mn-yr-old dandruff shows how dinosaurs shed their skinLONDON: Scientists have dis-covered 125 million-year-old dandruff preserved amongst the plumage of feathered dino-saurs and early birds, revealing the first evidence of how the giant predators shed their skin.

Just like human dandruff, the fossil dandruff is made of tough cells called corneocytes, which in life are dry and full of the protein keratin.

The study, published in the journal Nature Communica-tions, suggests that this modern skin feature evolved sometime in the late Middle Jurassic, around the same time as a host of other skin features evolved.

"The fossil cells are pre-served with incredible detail - right down to the level of nanoscale keratin fibrils. What is remarkable is that the fos-sil dandruff is almost identical to that in modern birds - even the spiral twisting of individual fibres is still visible," said Maria McNamara from University of Bristol in the UK. "There was a burst of evolution of feath-ered dinosaurs and birds at this time, and it's exciting to see evidence that the skin of early birds and dinosaurs was evolv-ing rapidly in response to bear-ing feathers," McNamara said.

The dandruff is the first evi-dence of how dinosaurs shed their skin. The feathered dino-saurs studied - Microraptor, Beipiaosaurus and Sinorni-

thosaurus - clearly shed their skin in flakes, like the early bird Confuciusornis studied by the team and also modern birds and mammals, and not as a sin-gle piece or several large pieces, as in many modern reptiles.

"It's unusual to be able to study the skin of a dinosaur, and the fact this is dandruff proves the dinosaur was not shedding its whole skin like a modern lizard or snake but losing skin fragments from between its feathers," said Mike Benton, from the University of Bristol in the UK

Modern birds have very fatty corneocytes with loosely packed keratin, which allows them to cool down quickly when they are flying for extended periods.

The corneocytes in the fos-sil dinosaurs and birds, how-ever, were packed with keratin, suggesting that the fossils did not get as warm as modern birds, presumably because they could not fly at all or for as long periods. AGENCIES

‘NAB using war on graft to wage war on Pak democracy’

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's anti-graft body, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), established by a dictator to "pressurise" politicians, is cre-ating circumstances that are "damaging" the country, out-going Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has said.

Abbasi's remarks came days after NAB Chairman Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal ordered a probe against the embattled former prime minister Nawaz Sharif for allegedly laundering USD 4.9 billion to India.

The NAB, in a press release on May 8, had said that its Chairman had taken notice of media reports claiming that the former premier allegedly laun-dered USD 4.9 billion to India. The media reports had cited a purported report of the World Bank, which it later denied as "incorrect".

Sharif, 68, later slammed the NAB chairman for failure on his part to probe the report at internal level before going public with it. He also slapped a legal notice to NAB chairman demanding an apology for his "insulting" press release and pay Rs 1 billion as damages within the next 14 days.

Abbasi also said that there was a need for a national dia-logue, that whatever the NAB was doing whether it is in the nation's interest. "The anti-graft body was established by a dic-

tator to pressurise politicians, who want to disband the NAB through consensus. It should be pondered over in the (national) dialogue whether it is in inter-est of the country whatever the NAB has been doing," Abbasi told Geo TV on Sunday, attack-ing the anti-graft body.

The NAB was established by former military ruler Pervez Musharraf, who established it in the late 90s.

"The circumstances created by the NAB at present have been causing damage to the country," the Prime Minister said.

Abbasi also hailed Sharif as

a leader who was ready to go to the prison for the sake of his principles. Speaking about the National Security Committee meeting, which was called soon after Sharif 's statement on the 2008 Mumbai attack, he said it was necessary to put an end to the situation after the statement by PML-N supremo. For the first time, Sharif, in an interview to the Dawn newspaper, had pub-licly acknowledged that mili-tant organisations were active in Pakistan and questioned the policy to allow the "non-state actors" to cross the border and "kill" people in Mumbai. AGENCIES

Former chief justice Mulk appointed caretaker PM

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's for-mer chief justice Nasirul Mulk was on Monday named as the country's caretaker prime min-ister for a two-month period, ending the political wrangling between ruling PML-N and the Opposition ahead of the general elections on July 25.

The announcement was made by Leader of the Oppo-sition Khursheed Shah at a press conference here which was also attended by incumbent Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq.

Mulk, 67, is likely to be sworn in on Friday, June 1. The present government will com-plete the tenure on May 31 and the caretaker government will remain in office until a new gov-ernment is set up through elec-tions. Shah expressed hope that Mulk will successfully conduct free, fair and impartial elections in Pakistan on July 25.

The announcement came after weeks of deadlock between the PML-N and the Opposition over the name of the caretaker prime minister. It took the gov-ernment and the opposition six meetings to decide on a name

for the position.Though, Abbasi spoke first

but he let Shah announce the name of the caretaker leader.

Abbasi described the agreed-upon candidate for the caretaker prime minister as someone "who no one can object to".

"His role as a caretaker PM will be in favour of the coun-try and the democratic pro-cess," he said.

Announcing the name, Shah said the NA speaker had played a major role in both parties reaching an agreement.

"We have made a democratic decision. I am thankful to the PM, to the speaker, for making this decision with patience, set-ting aside emotion. The name of the person I would like to pres-ent is very respectable," the vet-eran PPP leader said.

"The name is Nasirul Mulk, who has remained a chief jus-tice. He has played a historic role... in the judiciary and when he was a lawyer," he said.

The job of the caretaker prime minister is to keep the country running between the dissolution of parliament and the new government being sworn in. AGENCIES

Italy prez names technocrat & IMF puppet Cottarelli as PM

ROME: Italy's president was set to appoint a pro-austerity economist as prime minister on Monday as the country lurched into fresh political chaos after a bid by two populist parties to form a government collapsed.

Carlo Cottarelli, an econo-mist formerly with the Interna-tional Monetary Fund, arrived at the presidential Quirinal pal-ace on Monday morning, with a temporary technocrat gov-ernment on the table as Italy faces the strong possibility of new elections in autumn.

The crisis was sparked when President Sergio Mat-tarella vetoed the nomination of fierce eurosceptic Paolo Savona as economy minister, enraging the far-right League and leading to the anti-estab-lishment Five Star Movement calling for his impeachment.

The two parties' approved nominee for prime minister, lawyer and political novice Giuseppe Conte, stepped aside over the decision, exacerbat-ing the political turmoil nearly three months after March's inconclusive general election.

Mattarella said he had accepted every proposed min-ister except Savona, who has called the euro a "German cage" and has said that Italy needs a plan to leave the single cur-rency "if necessary".

The leaders of Five Star and the League, Luigi Di Maio and Matteo Salvini, furiously denounced the veto, decrying what they called meddling by

Germany, debt ratings agencies and financial lobbies.

Cottarelli, 64, was direc-tor of the IMF's fiscal affairs department from 2008 to 2013 and became known as "Mr Scissors" for making cuts to public spending in Italy.

European stock markets and the euro received an early boost Monday after the veto of the fiercely eurosceptic econ-omy minister, which poten-tially averted a eurozone crisis.

But Milan's stock exchange proved volatile, turning to losses in mid-morning trad-ing, in a sign that early positiv-ity may not last.

Cottarelli will struggle to gain the approval of parliament with Five Star and the League commanding a majority in both houses.

"They've replaced a gov-ernment with a majority with one that won't obtain one," said Di Maio. A livid Di Maio later called for the president to be impeached.

"I hope that we can give the floor to Italians as soon as pos-sible, but first we need to clear things up. First the impeach-ment of Mattarella... then to the polls." "Why don't we just say that in this country it's point-less that we vote, as the rat-ings agencies, financial lobbies decide the governments." Sal-vini, who was Savona's biggest advocate and a fellow euroscep-tic, declared that Italy was not a "colony", and that "we won't have Germany tell us what to do".

On Monday, Salvini threat-ened to break his alliance with the League's pre-election righ-twing coalition partner Silvio Berlusconi should the media mogul's Forza Italia party vote for the government.

The 81-year-old billion-aire former prime minister released a statement on Sun-day in which he praised Mat-tarella's efforts to "safeguard this country's families and businesses". AGENCIES

The National Accountability Bureau, established by a dictator to ‘pressurise’ politicians, is ‘damaging’ the country, warns outgoing Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi

Executive EngineerProvincial Division No. 4 P.W.D. B&R Br. Rohtak

PRDH-Advt. No:-1081/11/5003/1819/66164 Phone 01262-282871Dated: 28.05.18 e-mail: pwd-eepd4-rohtak@hry.nic.in

mp business12MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Tuesday, 29 May, 2018

NEW DELHI: State-owned Oil India Ltd on Monday reported a net profit of Rs 866.5 crore for the March quarter on the back of higher oil prices.

The company had a net profit of Rs 19.31 crore in the January-March quarter of 2016-17 owing to one-time impairment it had taken.

In a statement, OIL said it got $64.93 per barrel for crude oil it produced in the January-March quarter of the fiscal 2017-18 as compared to $52.50 a barrel in the same period of the previous year.

Its output was however flat at 0.8 million tonnes while gas production was margin-ally lower at 0.7 billion cubic metres during the quarter under review.

OIL's turnover increased to Rs 3,784.91 crore in the March quarter, from Rs 3,308.98 crore a year ago.

For the entire 2017-18, the company posted 72 per

cent jump in net profit to Rs 2,667.93 crore.

Oil production was up 3.5 per cent at 3.39 million tonnes while price realised increased by over $8 to $55.72 per barrel in the fiscal. Natural gas rates however declined to $2.69 per million British thermal unit from $2.78 per mmBtu, the statement said. MPOST

OIL oils Q4 profit to 866 cr

NEW DELHI: State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) plans to adopt stringent report-ing standard on environment, social and corporate gover-nance (ESG) to help improve its credit rating, top company officials said.

ONGC, India's top oil and gas producer, will be the first public sector company to adopt reporting standards that are at par with international bench-marks, which will bring greater transparency.

Officials said the new ESG reporting would help raise the company's credit rating, which will increase its capacity to raise funds - both debt and equity - from markets worldwide.

Under the new reporting

format, the three parameters of environment, social and corpo-rate governance are extensively studied.

Under the environment head, factors such as energy and emissions, preservation of the ecosystem, water utilisa-tion and waste management are covered. Under the social head, key factors such as com-munity engagement, local employment, human rights and workforce inclusiveness are emphasised.

Under the corporate gov-ernance head, parameters like health and safety, ethics and compliance and customer pro-tection are covered.

ONGC plans to hire a con-sultant shortly to revamp its

integrated reporting system to strengthen its corporate gover-nance policy and ensure greater transparency in its business, they said.

ONGC Chairman and Man-aging Director, Shashi Shanker, said the company is continu-ously striving to improve its statutory reporting system in order to strengthen its policies pertaining to sustainability and corporate governance.

"The ESG reporting will be benchmarked with the world's best practices in terms of sustainability reporting. As an energy company, ONGC relentlessly pursues to promote environmental consciousness and protect the ecosystem," he said. PTI

Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for the 2,400-mw first phase of NTPC’s Patratu Super Thermal Power Project in Jharkhand on May 25, 2018. The project is a 74: 26 Joint Venture between Government of Jharkhand and Patratu Vidyut Utpadan Nigam Ltd (PVUN), a subsidiary company of NTPC establishing a total capacity expansion of 4,000 mw. Jharkhand Governer Droupadi Murmu, Chief Minister Raghubar Das, Union Minister of State (I/C) for Power and New & Renewable Energy R K Singh, and other senior officials from Ministry of Power and NTPC were present on the occasion

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated ‘Bangladesh Bhavan’ at Visva Bharati University campus in the presence of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on May 25, 2018. NBCC (India) Ltd, a Navratna CPSE under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, is the implementing agency for this Rs 24.22 crore project. The Bhavan will house a cultural complex including a library and a museum. It is a barrier-free building with 453 capacity state-of-the-art auditorium equipped with international standard audio system and two seminar halls

CORPORATE KALEIDOSCOPE

As part of Swachh Pakhwada celebrations, Health Awareness and Menstrual Hygiene Program was organised by NTPC-Ramagundam under CSR-CD in association with Dhanwantari Hospital on May 28, 2018 at Dr. B R Ambedkar Hall, TTS. Dr. Sasmita Dash, CMO spoke in details on Health Awareness with special thrust on Menstrual Hygiene. Sanitary napkins were distributed among the participating women besides carrying out blood test

A two day ‘Train the Trainers’ program was arranged by IndianOil Eastern Region’s Learning & Development Department for training the coordinators of Nodal Training Centers of Eastern region. A compendium and CD on Building Trust was inaugurated by IndianOil’s Executive Director (Regional Service) Amit Kumar Basu, Executive Director (West Bengal State Office) Dipankar Ray and Calcutta University Professor(Organization Behaviour) Sharmistha Banerjee

ONGC has been adjudged the winner in the ‘Oil and Gas Exploration’ category of the Dun & Bradstreet Corporate Awards 2018. The award was received by Director (Finance) Subhash Kumar on behalf of the organization from Minister of State for Finance Shiv Pratap Shukla on May 25, 2018 at Mumbai

NEW DELHI: Traders body CAIT on Monday said it has approached the Competition Commission of India (CCI) against the Walmart-Flipkart deal, stating that it will cre-ate unfair competition and an uneven level playing field for domestic players.

The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) said the deal would deny market access to non-preferred sellers and impact small traders on offline platform.

The confederation has "filed its objection petition in CCI against the Walmart-Flipkart deal," it said in a statement.

"The merger of two compa-nies will create an unfair compe-tition and uneven level playing field and will indulge in preda-tory pricing, deep discounts and loss funding," it alleged.

It also claimed that Flipkart is a combination of exclusive

tie-ups and preferential sellers, where even online vendors face discriminatory conditions.

Walmart, it said, would sell its inventory on the platform of flipkart.com either directly or through a web of associated preferred sellers.

"This will create an unhealthy competition much to the disadvantage of both offline

and online sellers," CAIT said, adding that this transaction would result in vertical inte-gration which no other player in India would have.

"The complainant appre-hends that the deal is bound to circumvent established laws and FDI (foreign direct investment) policy of the government since the ultimate object of Walmart is to enter the retail trade of the country and in the absence of any policy on e-commerce or retail trade, it would be easy for them to reach out to retail market," it added.

Earlier this month, Walmart Inc had announced the acqui-sition of 77 per cent stake in Flipkart for about $16 billion (Rs 1.05 lakh crore) in the larg-est e-commerce deal which will give the US retailer access to the Indian online market that is estimated to grow to $200 billion within a decade. PTI

CAIT files CCI petition against US Walmart’s Flipkart deal

ONGC mulls new reporting standard to up credit rating

NEW DELHI: The Indian equity market is moving towards a less volatile structure, thanks to rising ownership by domes-tic investors and this will lead to a more stable structure going forward, says a report.

According to a report by Sanctum Wealth Management, even as foreign investors have been sellers of Indian equities in 2015, 2016, and 2018, the market is within a comfortable shooting distance of all time new highs.

"This is important, because it suggests that the Indian market is morphing towards a more sta-ble and less volatile structure," said the Investment Strategy note by Sunil Sharma, Chief Investment Officer, Sanctum Wealth Management.

As per the report rising SIP flows are a game changer. For-eign investors selling caused a major sell-off in 2015, however foreign investors selling in 2016, 2017 and 2018 has been offset by domestic investors buying and "we expect stabler, deeper equity markets going forward".

The report further noted that equities beat other asset classes even when bought at market peaks, and valuations are likely to stay elevated due to the Modi premium, demo-graphics, financialisation and equity returns.

The BSE benchmark Sensex surged about 241 points to end at 35,165.48 on Monday.

In the last four years of the

Narendra Modi government, the Indian markets have wit-nessed a significant rise.

Since May 26, 2014, the day Modi was sworn in as the Prime Minister, the benchmark Sensex has risen by 10,207.99 points or 41.30 per cent, while the NSE Nifty spurted 3,246.10 points or 44.11 per cent. The Sensex hit a life-time high of 36,443.98 on January 29, 2018.

The report noted India's macro situation could be improving soon after the Sau-dis and Russian President Vladi-mir Putin representing two of the three largest suppliers of oil globally, voiced concerns about high oil prices and stated an intent to increase crude pro-duction in the second half of the year.

"A case can be made that crude has peaked for the year. That's great news for equities and India, and markets made a sharp recovery late in the week," the report said adding "equities look better positioned on Mon-day than they have in some time now". PTI

Equity market turning more stable on rising domestic ownership

NEW DELHI: Bank of India on Monday reported widen-ing of its net loss to Rs 3,969.27 crore in the March quarter due to higher provisioning for mounting bad loans.

It had reported a net loss of Rs 1,045.54 crore for the Janu-ary-March period of the pre-ceding fiscal, 2016-17.

In the previous quarter, October-December, of 2017-18 the loss was at Rs 2,341.20 crore.

The bank's asset qual-ity worsened as on March 31, 2018. The gross non-perform-ing assets (NPAs) hit 16.58 per cent of the gross advances, as against 13.22 per cent by end March 2017, the bank said in a regulatory filing.

Net NPAs rose to 8.26 per cent, as against 6.90 per cent.

In absolute terms, the gross NPAs or bad loans reached Rs

62,328.46 crore as on March 31, 2018, sharply up from Rs 52,044.52 crore a year ago. Net NPAs were Rs 28,207.27 crore, compared with Rs 25,305.05 crore.

Income in the March quar-ter of 2017-18 also fell to Rs 10,722.07 crore, from Rs 12,335.71 crore a year ago.

Provisions for bad loans for January-March, 2017-18 were increased to Rs 6,699.23 crore from Rs 4,483.53 crore year ago same period.

BoI said: "Due to non avail-ability of profit, no dividend is proposed." PTI

Bank of India Q4 loss widens to 4K crore

MUMBAI: The rupee contin-ued its unabated rise for the third-straight day, surging by 35 paise to end at a new two-week high of 67.43 against the US dollar after a surprise crash in crude prices quickly faded near-term trade deficit and inflation worries.

The domestic currency mar-ket heaved a sigh of relief fol-lowing a significant easing in crude prices that will lead to considerable improvement in India's position on fiscal front, bolstering investor confidence towards the home currency.

Global crude oil collapsed after Saudi energy minis-ter Khalid al-Falih endorsed prior comments from his Rus-sian counterparts calling for self-imposed output curbs to be relaxed, perhaps as soon as

June.The meltdown could be a

blessing in disguise for India as gradual uptick in inflation made investors jittery and they fear the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) may shift its stance from neutral to tightening which led to hardening of yield.

logs 3rd straight gain, soars 35 paise to 2-week

high on crude comfort NEW DELHI: Fortis Health-care on Monday said the Mun-jals-Burmans combine, whose bid for investing Rs 1,800 crore was approved by its board, have consented to re-opening the bidding process to enable the company to move ahead with the fund-raising transaction.

The development comes at a time when there is an uncer-tainty over the process of sale of Fortis as four of the directors, who had approved the Munjals-Burmans bid, are no longer on the company's board.

In a regulatory filing, Fortis Healthcare said it has received a letter from Hero Enterprise Investment Office and Burman family Officer ...giving their con-sent to re-open the bidding pro-cess to enable the company to move ahead with the fund-rais-ing transaction. In a letter to the board of directors, Mun-

jals-Burmans combine said "it appears that there may be inde-cision on the part of the com-pany regarding the bid process, which we understand could be on account of a few sharehold-ers indicating their preference to the company for re-open of the bid process".

While expressing "deep anguish and regret" over the matter, Munjals-Burmans com-bine said they have has con-sented to re-opening of the bidding process "in order to facilitate the company to expe-ditiously finalise and close its fund-raising so that the compa-ny's business does not suffer any further". Fortis Healthcare, how-ever, did not clarify whether it will re-open the bidding process.

When contacted, a Fortis spokesperson said the compa-ny's board will take a decision on the matter without specify-

ing when the meeting would take place.

"Necessary intimation to the regulator and stock exchanges would be given accordingly," the spokesperson added. Fortis' board of directors is scheduled to meet on May 30 to consider and approve the audited finan-cial results for the quarter and financial year ended March 31, 2018.

In their letter, Munjals-Bur-mans combine said "this situa-tion may have arisen largely on account of the lack of informa-tion available to stakeholders.

Munjals-Burmans combine said it expects the re-bidding process to be conducted in a fair and transparent manner, with full clarity to all stakeholders and bidders regarding the cri-teria and objectives which will be considered relevant by the company for this purpose. PTI

Munjal-Burman combine gives consent to re-opening of Fortis bidding process

NEW DELHI: To formulate the strategies for enhancing export in each sector which comes under the Ministry of Textiles and to resolve the problems and challenges faced by the Hand-icrafts Sector, Piyush Goyal, Union Minister of Finance and Smriti Zubin Irani, Union Min-ister of Textiles called a meeting with the heads of Export Pro-motion Councils on Sunday at New Delhi.

O P Prahladka, Chairman- EPCH gave an overview of the sector and also placed before the Ministers strategies being adopted by the EPCH for export

growth. Prahladka informed that

both the Union Ministers gave a patient hearing to the issues raised by him and assured all

possible cooperation towards resolution of all the issues, which are hampering the exports of handicrafts from the Country. The major suggestions placed by

the Chairman included:• Enhancement of list of

essential embellishment, trim-mings, tools and consumables to be imported duty free and Exemption from payment of IGST on import of such items.

• Inclusion of ‘Merchant Exporters’ in the list of export-ers eligible for benefit of ‘interest equalization scheme’ (previously known as “interest subvention scheme”).

• Issuance of eBRC in case of Exports of Handicrafts to Iran.

• If Issuance of eBRC is not done by the bank within stipu-lated time, banks to pay penalty

to the exporters.• Scheme of ‘ Rebate of State

Levies’ (ROSL) on Exports of Handicrafts

• Engagement of Foreign Designers in the handicrafts sector to be made easy, cap to be reduced.

• Enhance Allocation of funds under Market Access Ini-tiative and relaxation in Opera-tional Guidelines for Funding Under the MAI Scheme to include Markets of USA, Can-ada, EU, Japan, and other devel-oped markets for extending invitation to buyers to RBSM’s organized in India. MPOST

Since May 26, 2014, Sensex has risen by 10,207.99 points or 41.3%, while the NSE Nifty spurted 3,246.10 points or 44.11%

KOLKATA: Coal India Ltd has pegged its production esti-mate at 630 million tonne for the 2018-19 fiscal, the mining major's Chairman and Man-aging Director A K Jha said on Monday.

"We are now projecting to produce 630 million tonne of coal and supply to power sector will be 525 million tonne," the newly-appointed Chairman and Managing Director said here at an interaction with the media on his first day in office. PTI

Goyal, Smriti fix strategy with EPCH to firm up textile exports

EPCH Chairman O P Prahladka at a meeting with Acting Finance Minister Piyush Goyal and Textiles Minister Smriti Irani

SYDNEY: US private equity giant Blackstone has made a 3.1 billion Australian dollars ($2.4 billion) bid for office property giant Investa, the Australian-listed firm said on Monday.

Investa Office Fund -- which has 4.0 billion Austra-lian dollars of Australian assets under management -- said the 5.25 Australian dollars per share bid was unsolicited.

The company's board is set to "unanimously recom-mend" the proposal, saying it presented shareholders "with an opportunity to realise their investment... for significant value and certainty".

The bid came just over a month after Blackstone made a lower, confidential offer, Investa added.Shares in Investa surged 10.26 percent to 5.10 Australian dollars in intra-day trading in Sydney on Monday.

Blackstone in $2.4 bn bid for Oz office realty giant

Coal India targets 630 million tonnes

output in FY19NEW DELHI: Fertiliser major IFFCO and Indian Potash Ltd (IPL) have acquired 37 per cent stake in Jordan's largest mining and chemical firm JPMC for about Rs 900 crore.

The shares have been pur-chased from Kamil Holdings, owned by Brunei Investment Agency, which is the largest shareholder in Jordan Phos-phate Mines Company (JPMC).

"IPL and IFFCO have jointly bought 37 per cent stake in JPMC for about $130 million

(nearly Rs 900 crore)," IFFCO Managing Director U S Awasthi said. The deal will ensure phos-phatic reserve security to Indian farmers and help achieve bal-anced use of fertilisers in the country, he added. India is dependent on imports for phos-phatic fertilisers.

Awasthi said IPL has bought about 27 per cent stake, while IFFCO through its subsidiary Kisan International Trading has purchased around 10 per cent in JPMC. PTI

Iffco, IPL buy 37% stake in top Jordan mining firm

CMD Utpal Bora

mp business 13MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Tuesday, 29 May, 2018

We take care of pregnant women till delivery, have lowered infant mortality rate from 48 to 30

BHUBANESWAR: The gov-ernment is planning a "holis-tic strategy" to find "long-term solution" to spike in petrol and diesel prices triggered by a spurt in international rates, Oil Min-ister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Monday.

He did not share any details of the strategy.

Petrol and diesel prices were on Monday hiked for the 15th day in a row, taking the cumu-lative increase this month to the highest in at least five years.

Petrol price has been hiked by Rs 3.64 a litre and diesel by Rs 3.24 in Delhi since state-owned oil firms ended a 19-day pre-Karnataka poll hiatus to resume daily price revision on May 14.

The prices are at an all-time high.

"I have already categorically stated (on) this issue several times. The present oil price hike is due to three main factors. Hike in the international price of crude, fluctuation in the dollar and Indian currency ratio, and some of the tax issues are also there," he told reporters here.

Petrol in Delhi costs Rs 78.27 a litre and diesel is priced at Rs 69.17. Delhi has the low-est fuel price among all metros and most state capital due to lower incidence of local sales tax or VAT.

"For a long-term solution, Government of India is plan-ning for a holistic strategy... bringing petroleum products within the ambit of GST is one among them," he said. "We are

sensitive let's see how things are unfolding".

Pradhan was replying to questions on when consumers can expect relief from rising fuel prices.

He, however, did not elabo-rate on the solution or the holis-tic strategy. He also refused to say if the government is plan-ning a cut in excise duty to pro-vide relief to consumers.

The government had raised excise duty on petrol by Rs 11.77 a lire and that on diesel by 13.47 a litre in nine instal-ments between November 2014 and January 2016 to shore up finances as global oil prices fell, but then cut the tax just once in October last year by Rs 2 a litre.

The government had in June last year junked a 15-year old practice of revising rates every fortnight and introduced daily revisions which worked well except periods immediately pre-

ceding an election.There was a 19-day freeze in

revising rates before Karnataka went to polls, and since the time the hiatus ended on May 14, rates have gone up by on every single day - petrol price was on Monday raised by 15 paisa a litre and diesel by 12 paisa, according to a price notification issued by oil marketing companies.

Last week, after a weekly meeting of the Union Cabi-net Law Minister Ravi Shan-kar Prasad had stated that the government is working on a long-term solution to address the volatility and frequent revi-sions in rates.

"The government is keen that instead of having an ad hoc measure, it may be desirable to have a long-term view which addresses not only the vola-tility but also takes care of the unnecessary ambiguity arising out of frequent ups and downs.

That process is underway," he had said.

State-owned Indian Oil Corp (IOC), Bharat Petro-leum Corp Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) were in April 2002 given freedom to revise rates of petrol and diesel on 1st and 16th of every month based on aver-age rate of benchmark interna-tional petroleum product prices and rupee-US dollar rates in the preceding fortnight.

The revisions continued till just before the general elec-tions in 2004 when oil com-panies went slow and after a Congress-led UPA came to power the entire process was reviewed as the international oil prices started moving up. Rates at refinery gate were revised on fortnightly basis but not all of the desired hike was passed on to the consumers and that increase not passed on con-verted into a subsidy.

The UPA government finally freed petrol price in June 2010 and the diesel rates were decon-trolled by the current BJP gov-ernment in November 2014.

The central government lev-ies Rs 19.48 excise duty on a litre of petrol and Rs 15.33 on die-sel. State sales tax or VAT var-ies from state to state. Unlike excise duty, VAT is ad valorem and results in higher revenues for the state when rates move up.

Every rupee cut in excise duty on petrol and diesel will result in a revenue loss of Rs 13,000 crore. PTI

Holistic strategy to find long-term solution to fuel prices: Pradhan

NEW DELHI: The oil minis-try has given its in-principle approval for futures trading in petrol as well as diesel and the final clearance from regu-lator Sebi should come soon, a top official of commodity derivatives exchange ICEX said on Monday amid rising fuel prices.

The development also comes at a time when state-run oil marketers have hiked petrol and diesel prices contin-uously for the past two weeks.

"The Petroleum and Natu-ral Gas Ministry has given an in-principle nod to launch pet-rol and diesel futures contracts and we are hoping that Sebi will give final approval in this regard soon," ICEX Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Sanjit Prasad said.

He said the decision was taken by the ministry after con-sultations with oil marketing companies and other experts. The contracts are expected to help hedge against volatility in oil prices. The Indian Com-modity Exchange (ICEX) had approached Sebi seeking its nod to launch petrol and die-sel futures contracts. Following

this, the capital markets watch-dog had sought views from the ministry in this regard.

ICEX was asked by the ministry to give a detailed presentation on petrol and diesel futures contracts to oil minister Dharmendra Prad-han, senior bureaucrats and oil marketing companies, Prasad noted.

"After getting approval from the regulator, we will soon launch the product as we have all the infrastructure in place for this," he added.

Petrol price has been hiked by Rs 3.64 a litre and diesel by Rs 3.24 in Delhi since state-owned oil firms ended a 19-day pre-Karnataka poll hiatus to resume daily price revision on May 14. Last month, the com-modity exchange launched 30-cents diamond futures con-tracts in addition to its product basket of 1-carat and 50-cents contracts.

The bourse had launched the world's first diamond derivatives contracts in August 2017 with 1-carat futures contracts, and had subse-quently added the 50-cents contracts. PTI

Oil ministry has given ‘in principle’ nod to petrol and diesel futures: ICEX

JAPAN: Coca-Cola launched its first ever alcoholic drink on Monday in Japan — a fizzy, lemon-flavoured concoction laced with spirits that seeks to capitalise on the growing pop-ularity of "chuhai" alcopops enjoyed especially by young women.

Although the US firm dab-bled in the wine business in the 1970s, the experiment in Japan is "unique" in the com-pany's 125-year history, said Coca-Cola Japan president Jorge Garduno.

From Monday, three new "Lemon-Do" drinks — con-taining three, five and seven percent alcohol — will be avail-able in the southern Kyushu region of Japan.

A 350-millilitre can will set you back 150 yen ($1.40).

"This is a pilot project in the region which has a sizable mar-ket," Masaki Iida, spokesman for Coca-Cola's Japanese unit, told AFP.

He declined to reveal the exact spirit in the drink, as the recipe is a closely guarded secret.

Coca Cola product devel-opers got the idea after visit-ing Japanese-style "izakaya" pubs, where they discovered that lemon-flavoured drinks are very popular, according to the firm's website.

The popular "chuhai" drinks — which contain vodka or a distilled, grain-based spirit called "shochu" — come in a range of flavours such as grape,

strawberry, kiwi and white peach.

They range in strength from between three and nine percent and are particularly popular with young drinkers, especially women.

Coca-Cola is wading into an already competitive market, where major Japanese compa-nies such as Suntory, Kirin and Asahi dominate the shelves.

And the firm's president has already dampened hopes of people hoping to get a tipple outside Japan, saying there are no plans to launch "Lemon-Do" outside of the country.

However, the push is seen as part of a broader campaign to diversify beyond sodas as health concerns see con-sumers in the US and other developed markets weaning themselves off sweet drinks and diet colas. PTI

132 years after making Coca-Cola, firm enters alcoholic drinks market

NEW DELHI: State-run power major NTPC on Monday posted a 40.69 per cent jump in its standalone net profit at Rs 2,925.59 crore for the March 2018 quarter, mainly on the back of higher revenues.

The company's standalone net profit was Rs 2,079.40 crore in the corresponding quarter a year ago, NTPC said in a BSE filing.

Its total income on stand-alone basis stood at Rs 2,3617.83 crore in Q4 of 2017-18, against Rs 20,886.85 crore a year ago.

For the entire 2017-18 fiscal, its consolidated net profit came in at Rs 10,501.50 crore, mar-ginally down from Rs 10,713.94 crore in the previous fiscal. On a consolidated basis, its total income for the fiscal stood at Rs 89,641.59 crore as against Rs 83,009.31 crore in 2016-17.

The company said sales include Rs 210.33 crore, as on March 31, 2018, on account of income tax refundable. Sales also include Rs 66.98 crore on

account of deferred tax mate-rialised which is recoverable from beneficiaries.

During the quarter, the company paid an interim divi-dend of Rs 2.73 per equity share (par value Rs 10 each) for 2017-18. The board of directors rec-ommended a final dividend of 2.39 per equity share (value Rs 10 each). Total dividend (including interim dividend) for 2017-18 is Rs 5.12 per equity share (of Rs 10 each).

The plant load factor (PLF) or capacity utilisation of coal based plants was down at 79.03 per cent in March quarter from 81.21 year ago. During 2017-18, the PLF of coal based plants

was 77.90 per cent down from 78.59 per cent in 2016-17 .

Gross power generation was 68.58 billion units (BU) in March quarter up from 63.77 BU a year ago. During 2017-18, the gross generation of elec-tricity was 265.79 BU, up from 250.31 BU. The average power tariff of the company was Rs 3.23 per unit.

The imported coal con-sumption was up at 0.10 mil-lion tonnes in March quarter from 0.08 million tonnes a year ago. However, during 2017-18, the imported coal consump-tion was 0.32 million tonnes as against 1.03 million tonnes in the previous fiscal. PTI

NTPC energises Q4 profit by 41% to `2,926 crore

NEYVELI: The Earnings Before Interest,Tax and Depreciation & Amortisation (EBITDA) of the company for the year 17-18 stood at Rs 3706.79 crores com-pared to Rs 3006.13 crores in the previous year registering a growth of 23.3 per cent.

For the financial year 2017-18, NLC India Ltd, achieved a turnover of Rs 8496.20 crores as compared to Rs 8652.59 crores in the year 2016-17 with a decline of 1.81 per cent mainly due to unprecedented surrender of power to the tune of 2566 MU impacting the revenue of the company adversely by around Rs 783 crores.

Besides the benefit of around Rs 750 crores was passed by the company to the beneficiary DISCOMS (on account of non applicability of Clean Environ-ment Cess and Excise Duty with roll out of GST) which if included would have resulted in a total turnover of Rs 9246.20 crores showing a growth of 6.86 per cent.

The company’s Profit after Tax (PAT) in 2017-18 stood at Rs 1848.78 crores as compared to previous year’s PAT of Rs 2368.81 crores included tax and other regulatory gains of around

Rs 679.33 crores on transition from IGAAP to INDAS which when excluded results in a com-parative growth of PAT by 9.43 per cent in the year 2017-18.

The achievements are due to operational efficiency and prudent Cost Management ini-tiatives, which helped to score a PAT of Rs 1848.78 crores inspite of huge set back due to power surrender and passing of around Rs 750 crores benefit to the consumers taking a hit on its turnover. MPOST

NLCIL records 23.3% EBITDA rise in FY18

CMD Sarat Kumar Acharya

NEW DELHI: State-run hydro power giant NHPC on Mon-day posted an 18 per cent jump in its net profit at Rs 185.33 crore for the quarter ended March 2018, helped by lower expenses.

The company's net profit was Rs 156.88 crore for the quarter ended on March 31, 2017, a BSE filing said.

Total revenue in the quarter dipped to Rs 1,434.43 crore in the quarter from Rs 1,604.99 crore a year ago. Total expenses were Rs 1,352.07 crore in the quarter, down from Rs 1,742 crore in the corresponding three months of 2016-17.

On annual basis, its con-solidated net profit came in at Rs 2,781.04 crore for the entire 2017-18 fiscal, down from Rs 3,485.90 crore in the previous financial year.

The board of directors in a meeting on Monday has also recommended the payment of final dividend at the rate of 2.8 per cent of face value of Rs 10 per equity share (Rs 0.28 per share) for 2017-18, subject to approval of shareholders in ensuing Annual General Meet-ing (AGM).

This dividend is in addi-

tion to the interim dividend of Rs 1.12 per equity share already declared in February 2018, thereby making total div-idend for 2017-18 to Rs 1.40 per equity share, on the face value of Rs 10 each.

Additionally, 330 MW (3x110 MW) Kishanganga Power Station in Jammu & Kashmir and 50 MW Solar Project in Tamilnadu were commissioned in FY 2017-18. With commissioning of these two projects NHPC crossed 7000 MW mark in installed capacity.

Overall cumulative PAF of NHPC Power Stations for

the FY 2017-2018 stood 85.32 per cent against 83.41 per cent achieved during 2016-17.

Unit – 1 of Parbati-II HE Project was successfully syn-chronized on partial load. Unit-2 has also been success-fully spun and spinning at rated speed has been completed.

Also, an interim dividend of Rs 849.80 crore was paid to Government of India for finan-cial year 2017-18.

A total interim dividend of Rs 1149.05 crore has been paid for the year 2017-18 as against total dividend of Rs 1984.61 crore for the financial year 2016-17. MPOST

NHPC powers Q4 profit by 18% to `185 crore

CMD Balraj Joshi announcing the audited financial results for FY18 in the presence of Director (Personnel) N K Jain and Director (Finance) M K Mittal on Monday in New Delhi

Industrial powerhouse Gujarat has also made huge leaps in health & social sectors: Dy CM

SIMONTINI BHATTACHARJEE

GANDHINAGAR: With reports of the death of 111 new-born babies in five months at an Adani-run hospital in Bhuj, Gujarat’s health care system is once again facing questions. However, Deputy Chief Min-ister and the Health Minister Nitin Patel claimed that the incumbent BJP government has done intensive work in this sector and has introduced many schemes to take a measure on mortality rate and infant mor-tality rate (IMR).

Speaking to Millennium Post, Patel asserted that the Government has initiated a survey on women and families in both urban and rural areas. "Our health and family welfare schemes take care of a preg-nant woman till she delivers her child. The health policies do also ensure a healthy baby and its proper care. The rate of delivery of a child in maternity hospitals is 100 per cent in the entire state of Gujarat," Patel pointed out.

"The maternal death rate and infant death rate have decreased in the state and making the graph further low

is our key target. We have also come up with more specialty and super-specialty hospitals in both the urban and rural areas," the minister added.

NITI Ayog Chairman Rajiv Kumar had claimed in an inter-view early this year that Gujarat has done a lot of good work in industrialisation but its progress in the education and health sec-tors has not been commensu-rate. Patel said he is not aware of such a statement but emphati-cally asserted that there are no loopholes. Even last year, the death of 18 new-borns within three days reported at Ahmed-abad Civil Hospital caused a massive outrage in Gujarat, forcing the state health depart-ment to order a probe. This time too it ordered an inquiry on Friday.

Gujarat Health Commis-

sioner Jayanti Ravi observed, "The government has appointed health officers in various parts of the state. They visit differ-ent places, including sensitive zones, and stay at night depend-ing on the seriousness of the sit-uation. The government is also trying to strengthen new-born babies’ care. This has resulted in a decrease in IMR from 48 to 30."

"Iron tablets, nutritious foods are being provided to pregnant women and the mother of a newborn under 'spot feeding' scheme through

Micro Self-help groups," she added. With the collaboration of IGNOU and Indian Institute of Public Health, the Gujarat government has also planned nursing bridge courses . It is a six-month course and aims to fill up the vacancies in the rural health care system. "Sometimes MBBS doctors are reluctant to serve in remote areas. There-fore, this will eventually fill the gap," explained a government health official .

The data further shows that the number of MBBSes in the state has increased from 1,300

in 2001 to 4,200 in 2018.Nitin Patel also added that

the state government is plan-ning a combined health insur-ance scheme of MA Yojana (of the state government) and of the new health insurance scheme by the centre.

Recently, GVK EMRI, which operates 108 ambulance ser-vices in the state, launched two boat ambulances for the coastal region. It has also come up with neonatal ambulances in order to ensure emergency transfers for neonates who require more spe-cialist treatment at another hos-pital. This is primarily launched to reduce the IMR as part of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and is specially designed to attend pediatric emergencies.

There are a total of 580 ambulances run by by GVK EMRI across the state apart from Tamil Nadu, Goa, and Madhya Pradesh.

ASHA workers in the village areas have also been provided with TeCHO mobile applica-tion -- a community-based safe motherhood and child survival platform inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the last year.

Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister and Health Minister Nitin Patel

The company’s profit after tax in 2017-18 stood at `1848.78 crore

SAIL supplied 43,000 tonnes of steel for Eastern Peripheral ExpresswayNEW DELHI: Steel giant SAIL on Monday said it supplied 43,000 tonnes of steel for the country's first smart and green highway - Eastern Peripheral Expressway (EPE), contributing to the infrastructural architecture of the country. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on Sunday inaugurated the country's first green and smart express highway - EPE, built at a cost of Rs 11,000 crore. The total quantity supplied by SAIL for this project includes TMT rebars, plates and structurals which have been supplied for construc-tion of this 135 km long Eastern Peripheral Expressway. SAIL is also sup-plying steel for the swiftly upcoming Western Peripheral Expressway. SAIL has been supplying steel for various infrastructure projects. MPOST

mp sport14MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Tuesday, 29 May, 2018

‘Watson still good enough to play’SYDNEY: A day after veteran Aussie Shane Watson single-handedly helped the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) to a third Indian Premier League (IPL) crown, all-rounder Marcus Stoinis feels the retired Watson could still be a force in interna-tional cricket in case he wants to come out of retirement.

Watson, who turns 37 next month, retired from interna-tional cricket in 2016 but on Sunday defied age to overcome a sluggish start and a ham-string problem and hammer an unbeaten 117 from just 57 balls in the IPL final, his sec-ond century of the tournament

spurring CSK to the title.Stoinis believes Watson

was under appreciated by the Australian public during his 14-year international career and went on to say that the all-rounder could still dominate in the shortest format.

“He’s still good enough to play for Australia, for sure,” Stoinis told RSN, as reported by cricket.com.au.

“(But) I think he enjoys having family time. He played a lot of cricket for Australia in a demanding time, so I think he’s just enjoying playing the odd tournament and then going back (to his family).

“We sat down over there (in India) and he’s mentored me for a couple of years now. His hunger to keep getting better at the end of his career, it’s no coincidence why he’s so good.

“I don’t think the Austra-lian public realised how good he was when he was playing for Australia,” added Stoinis, who plied his trade for the Kings XI Punjab in the just-concluded IPL. AGENCIES

Shami replaces Pandya in World XI

De Villiers retirement a blow to World Cup

bid, says Gibson

DUBAI: India fast bowler Mohammed Shami has replaced an indisposed Har-dik Pandya in the ICC World XI squad for the May 31 T20 International against the West Indies at Lord’s.

England wrist-spin-ner Adil Rashid has also been added to the World XI squad.

All the proceeds from this match will be used to rede-velop the stadia in the Carib-bean, which were damaged due to hurricanes last year.

Shami has replaced all-rounder Pandya, who has pulled out due to a viral inflection and will join Dinesh Karthik as the second Indian player in the side. AGENCIES

JOHANNESBURG: Coach Ottis Gibson admit-ted on Monday that the retirement from inter-national cricket of AB de Villiers was a blow to South Africa’s hopes of winning the Cricket World Cup next year.

Gibson revealed that he had spoken to De Villiers the day before last week’s announcement by the star batsman but had been unable to con-vince him to change his mind.

“We had a conversation,” said Gibson, who was briefing journalists ahead of the South Afri-can squad getting together to undergo their annual fitness and medical assessments.

“He called me the morning before he made the announcement,” said Gibson. “We had a long conversation around whether he was making the right decision. He reckons he is. He has spoken to the people in his close circle.” Gibson said De Villiers’ decision had been a shock to him.

“He is one of the best players in the world. He could have made a huge difference in the World Cup and he knows that... he’s chosen to walk away from the game at this time and it is what it is.” Gibson said the World Cup in England and Wales in June 2019 was still a year away.

“We’ll have to alter our plans obviously but it gives us enough time to do that.” De Villiers, 34, announced his retirement last Wednesday, say-ing he was “tired” after a 14-year international career during which he was hailed as one of the best players in the game.

He said it had been a tough decision but that “I would like to retire while still playing decent cricket”.

“It’s disappointing for the country and world cricket that AB de Villiers isn’t playing cricket anymore,” said Gibson. AGENCIES

Being dropped from ODIs gives me more time to prepare

for England Tests: RahaneMUMBAI: Ajinkya Rahane is an eternal optimist, who is ready to find a silver lin-ing in everything, including his rejection from India’s limited overs team.

He believes that being overlooked for the limited overs leg of the UK tour will give him more time to do his homework for the big-ticket five-match Test series against England, starting August 1.

“It is important that you get time to prepare yourself and clarity is impor-tant, when you know that you are not in ODI squad and you just going to play Test matches in England. I will get good amount of time for the Afghanistan Test and after that for the England tour,” Rah-ane told reporters on the sidelines of the CEAT Cricket Awards.

Even if there is an element of frustra-tion, Rahane doesn’t want to show that.

“No, I am not at all frustrated; actu-ally the thing is I can tell you this is actu-ally motivating me, because I am actually looking to make a comeback. Right now, my focus is on Test cricket. I still believe that I can come back and do well in shorter formats with World Cup (2019) coming up.”

While there are enough indications that he has fallen off the radar as far as India’s limited overs scheme of things are concerned, Rahane is still hopeful that he can turn the table.

“I still believe in myself. I did well in ODI cricket whenever I got my opportu-nities. In West Indies, I got man-of-the-series award (with four half-centuries). Against Australia, I did really well. In South Africa, the team management asked me to bat at No. 4 and I did well, so it is just a matter of time. I am still con-fident that I will make a comeback and do well for my country in shorter format,” the right-hander put up a brave front.

Pakistan may have walloped England inside three and half days in their first Test at the Lord’s but that doesn’t mean

India will have it easy when they embark on their gruelling five-Test tour of the Old Blighty, feels Rahane.

Asked about England’s comprehen-sive defeat at the hands of Pakistan and its implications, a cautious Rahane said: “It is very hard to judge (England) right now. Playing in England at their own backyard is always a challenge. Yes, Pakistan played very well. They bowled and batted well but there is still sometime to go for our series. We can’t take England for granted as they can comeback anytime.”

Before the England Test series, Rahane will be leading India against Test debu-tants Afghanistan in the historic one-off Test in Bengaluru, starting June 14. “Right now, our focus should be on Afghanistan Test match and then think about England. We can by no means take Afghanistan lightly. The world accepts and respects Rashid Khan as a quality bowler. Whether in life or cricket, nothing can be taken for granted,” the stylish Mumbaikar said. “Qualifying for a Test is the biggest thing for Afghanistan cricket and that is good for cricket. We need to go out there and play with the good intensity like we play with every other team,” he said. AGENCIES

Under shadow of Tuticorin tragedy, CSK welcomed

CHENNAI: Chennai Super Kings’ return to the city following a fairytale IPL tri-umph received the rapturous welcome it deserved, even as murmurs of scaling down an elaborate reception plan swirled in the wake of the Tuticorin tragedy.

CSK beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by eight wickets in an authoritative display in the final last night to win the trophy on its return after serving a two-year suspension.

Australian all-rounder Shane Watson did the star turn with a blistering century.

A large number of fans were waiting at the city airport to welcome the team members and went into raptures when the players emerged.

CSK officials were at hand to receive the players. Later, the players were wel-comed at Crowne Plaza hotel by the staff with garlands. Here too, a number of fans had gathered. Former BCCI president N Srinivasan greeted the players at the hotel.

The players were to attend a private dinner later on Monday.

The team’s players, including Harb-hajan Singh and South African veteran Imran Tahir, tweeted that they were delighted to win the trophy for the fans.

Harbhajan mentioned that the team was dedicating the triumph to the people.

Meanwhile, CSK officials, including CEO K S Viswanathan, took the trophy to the Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthanams Information Centre temple in the city.

The glittering trophy was placed before the idol of Lord Venkateswara, the presiding deity.

A group of fans said though they were not able to see the CSK team play at home (M A Chidambaram stadium), they were

happy that the “Men in Yellow” man-aged to win the trophy, making it a dream comeback after missing two years owing to suspension.

CSK head coach Stephen Fleming has admitted that his franchise experienced a difficult time during the two-year ban from the IPL and his players were moti-vated to win the title.

Reinstated into the IPL after a two-year-ban for their team management’s role in the 2013 spot-fixing scandal, CSK outplayed Sunrisers Hyderabad by eight wickets in the summit clash here on Sun-day night to clinch their third title, with Shane Watson leading the charge with an

unbeaten 117 off 57 balls.“It was difficult two years for the fran-

chise. The desire to get back to the com-petition was high. It was sustainable to keep winning throughout. The players were motivated (to win),” Fleming said after his side beat SRH to clinch the title.

“I am proud of how different individu-als stood up at key times. I am proud the way experienced players showed their way. We believe experience coming back into the competition was going to be a key component. There were lots of emotions in the franchise for what had happened, there was a lot of reasoning behind this team,” said Fleming. AGENCIES

AFGHAN PACER ZADRAN OUT OF INDIA TEST DUE TO KNEE INJURYNEW DELHI: Afghanistan pacer Dawlat Zadran has been ruled out of the one-off Test against India. “Fast bowler @dawlat_zadarn suffered a knee injury during the training camp in India. He has been advised one month’s rest by doctors. Therefore, he will not be available for the T20I series against Bangladesh as well as Afghanistan’s one-off Test against India,” a tweet said.

ROMA CONFIRMS SIGNING OF ZAGREB’S CORIC UNTIL 2023 ROME: Italian football club Roma on Monday announced the signing of Croatian midfielder Ante Coric for five years. The 21-year-old midfielder joined Roma from Dinamo Zagreb for $6.9 million, reports Efe. “I am very pleased to be at Roma, one of the biggest European clubs,” the Croatia international said, according to Roma’s official website.

ROMA LEGEND ANNOUNCES AUTOBIOGRAPHY ON ANNIVERSARY OF FINAL MATCHMILAN: Roma legend Francesco Totti revealed on Monday he is writing his autobiography as he marked the anniversary of the day he played his final match for the Italian club. “I’m writ-ing the story of my life, both football and extra-curricular,” the 41-year-old said in an internet video post. “For me it’s a very important project, slowly I will reveal the details,” he added.

PAK PENALISED FOR SLOW OVER-RATE DUBAI: Pakistan have been penalised for maintain-ing a slow over-rate in the Lords Test against England, which the visitors won by nine wickets to go one-up in the two-match series. According to an ICC statement, match referee Jeff Crowe imposed the fine after the side was ruled to be three overs short of their target when time allowances were taken into consideration. AGENCIES

PTI

CENTRAL PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENTPRESS NOTICE

NOTICE INVITING e-TENDERS

The Executive Engineer(E), DCED, CPWD, 20-Subhash Road, Dehradun-248001 invites Percentage rate bid on behalf of President of India from Approved and eligible registered contractors in Composite Category in appropriate class in CPWD for the following work:-1. NIT No. 23/DCED/2018-19. Name of Work:- Remnovation of electrical Intallation in IInd fllor DMC office at G&RB, Survey of India Dehradun..Estimated Cost: Rs. 13,24,034/-Earnest Money Rs. 26,481/- and Period of Completion: 02 Months, Last Time & date of submission of bid: 02-06-2018 at 3:00 PM. & the same shall be opened on the same day at 3.30 PM.The tender forms and other details can be obtained from the website www.tenderwizard.com / CPWD or www.cpwd.gov.in,

CENTRAL PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENTPRESS NOTICE

NOTICE INVITING e-TENDERS

The Executive Engineer(E), DCED, CPWD, 20-Subhash Road, Dehradun-248001 invites Percentage rate bid on behalf of President of India from Approved and eligible registered contractors in Composite Category in appropriate class in CPWD for the following work:-1. NIT No. 24/DCED/2018-19. Name of Work:- Remnovation of electrical Intallation in Computer Hall, Conference Hall & Tech Section Room at NGDC, Survey of India Dehradun. (SH-Electrical Works).Estimated Cost: Rs. 22,54,399/-Earnest Money Rs. 45,088/- and Period of Completion: 02 Months, Last Time & date of submission of bid: 02-06-2018 at 3:00 PM. & the same shall be opened on the same day at 3.30 PM.The tender forms and other details can be obtained from the website www.tenderwizard.com / CPWD or www.cpwd.gov.in,

OFFICE OF THE DIVISIONAL MANAGER CTU & DIRECTOR TRANSPORT, UNION TERRITORY; CHANDIGARH.

Ref. No.SPA/CTU/2018/5346 Dated 28.05.18 e-TENDER NOTICE.

The Chandigarh Transport Undertaking invites e-tenders in two bid system i.e. technical bid and financial bid which are to be submitted online separately from the firms/manufacturers/companies/authorized dealers/distributors/stockiest/suppliers for the purchase of Lubricants, Grease and Oil Items for the use of buses of CTU, Chandigarh. (As per list as Annexure-A’ to the tender documents available on the website i.e. ctuchd@nic.in & http://chandigarh.gov.in The prospective bidders can also be visit in the office of CTU during office hours on any working day by contacting General Manager, CTU-I (Mobile No. 07015765795), Assn. Controller (F&A) (Mobile No. 9815552432), CTU-///Works Manager-I (Mob No.7889090848)/Store Purchase Assistant (Mobile No. 09417524603), or mail Id ctu-chdnic.in CTU Administrative Block, Plot No. 701, Industrial Area, Phase I, Chandigarh for any kind of information with regard to the items. The tenderers are required to quote their landed rates (excluding all taxes/GST) for a period of 1 (one) year for each tender as per BOQ to the tender documents on the website. The detailed terms and conditions of the tender can be downloaded from the website of Chandigarh Administration i.e., http://chandigarh.gov.in. Or website http://etenders.chd.nic.in/nicgep/app.

The important dates for submission of e-tender is as under:- 1. Date and time of receiving the tender : 28.6.18 upto 2.00 P.M2. Date and time of opening the tender (technical): 28.6.18 upto 3.00 P.M. 3. Earnest Money Deposit (EMD): Rs.1,50,000/- in the shape of Bank

Demand Draft/FDR/Bank Guarantee from any scheduled Bank in favour of Director Transport, UT, Chandigarh.

4. Date of Pre-Bid meeting: 12.06-18 at 11.30 a.m. in the office room of General Manager-I, CTU, Plot No. 701, Industrial Area, Phase 1, Chandigarh.

The undersigned reserves every right to (a) cancel/withdraw/amend the advertisement or extend the due date at his sole discretion or (b) accept or reject any tender without assigning any reason.

Divisional Manager CTU & Director Transport Memo No 4096-98/PRC-53(Advt) U.T., Chandigarh.

mp sport 15MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Tuesday, 29 May, 2018

SL says pitch-fixing claims ‘difficult to believe’

Real Madrid fans urge Ronaldo to stay during CL celebrations

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s cricket board on Mon-day described allegations of pitch-tampering at Galle International Stadium as “difficult to believe” but agreed to cooperate fully with an international investigation.

TV news channel Al Jazeera broadcast a doc-umentary Sunday showing a groundsman and a player allegedly discussing altering the pitch at Galle during Australia’s 229-run loss in the sec-ond Test against Sri Lanka in 2016.

Australia lost all their 20 wickets and were beaten inside three days.

Galle groundsman Tharanga Indika and pro-fessional cricketer Tharindu Mendis also alleg-edly speculated about fixing the pitch to ensure a result in under four days in the Test against England in November.

Both men have been suspended by Sri Lanka Cricket pending the outcome of an investigation by the International Cricket Council. A third man, provincial coach Jeevantha Kulathunga, was also suspended.

But the board’s vice-president Mohan de Silva said there had been no complaints about the Galle pitch from captains, umpires or the referee during the match between Australia and Sri Lanka in 2016.

“There is no need to investigate the Test. Players did not complain. Captains report, umpires report and the match referee’s report did not say anything about the pitch,” he told reporters. “There is nothing adverse about the pitch. It is difficult to believe there was any wrongdoing.” Indika and Mendis were stood down Sunday after a trailer for the Al Jazeera documentary was aired.

Kulathunga was suspended after the full pro-gramme by the Qatari channel alleged corrup-tion at the highest levels of world cricket. AGENCIES

MADRID: Real Madrid sup-porters urged Cristiano Ron-aldo to stay at the club during celebrations at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium on Sunday to mark their third consecu-tive Champions League title after an open-top bus parade through the Spanish capital.

Ronaldo had overshad-owed Madrid’s 3-1 win over Liverpool in Saturday’s final in Kiev to lift a record-extending 13th European Cup by drop-ping a hint that he was about to leave the club in an inter-view moments after collecting the trophy, declaring “it was beautiful to be at Real Madrid”.

The Portuguese looked in a far better mood during the celebrations in Madrid and lifted supporters’ hopes that he would not be leaving by declaring “See you next year” while the team were gathered at the Cibeles fountain where they traditionally celebrate tro-phy wins. Ronaldo was given a hero’s welcome at the Bernabeu as fans chanted his name and sang “Cristiano please stay”.

Madrid’s all-time top scorer gave an optimistic speech say-ing: “I feel proud to play at the biggest club in the world. I’m very comfortable here.” AGENCIES

Formally convey policy regarding Indo-Pak series: BCCI tells govtNEW DELHI: The BCCI has requested the Union government to formally convey its position with regards to Indo-Pak bilateral cricket series, which is on hold since 2012 due to political tension be-tween the two neighbours. The BCCI has repeatedly clarified its stance that it won’t be able to engage in bilateral contests unless the government gives clearance. It is understood that the richest cricket board wants a formal communication before they head to ICC Disputes Resolution Forum where they are set to counter PCB’s compensation claim of $70 million for not honouring the MoU, signed in 2014. “The BCCI would be grateful if you could formally convey the policy/position of the Government of India on the need or requirement of prior clearance from the Government of India for the Indian cricket team to play the Pakistan cricket in in-bound or out-bound tours,” BCCI recently wrote to the ministry. When asked about the latest e-mail, a senior BCCI official told PTI: “These are routine communications on part of BCCI. It is our duty to seek permission from the government with regards to bilateral series.” AGENCIES

Wawrinka stunned, Djokovic winsPARIS: Former French Open cham-pion Stan Wawrinka continued to struggle with form and fitness as he was dumped out in the first round by Guillermo Garcia-Lopez on Monday, a defeat which will send his world rank-ing plummeting, but Novak Djokovic cruised through in straight sets.

Wawrinka, who lost to Rafael Nadal in last year’s final and won the 2015 title, was beaten in a five-set thriller 6-2, 3-6, 4-6, 7-6 (7/5), 6-3 by the Spanish world number 67 on Court Suzanne Lenglen.

The 33-year-old has been plagued by a knee injury and arrived at Roland Garros having won just one match on clay in Geneva last week, his first event in three months.

The defeat means that the three-time Grand Slam champion will slip from 30th in the world to outside the top 250 after the tournament, having failed to defend the ranking points he gained in 2017.

“There is no frustration (at rankings slip). It’s just tough,” said Wawrinka.

“But again, I knew from the begin-ning that it will take a long, a lot of time to get back. I knew that from the sur-gery that it will take a year at least to get where I want to be.”

There were worrying signs for his fans when he pulled up and called for a medical timeout after just six games, but he played down fears he had caused further damage to his already trouble-some left knee.

“My knee is good. I blocked some-thing else at the beginning of the first set, and that’s why I had to ask,” he said.

The 23rd seed found his rhythm from nowhere after a poor first set, crunching two massive forehands to break for a 3-1 lead in the second.

A fired-up Wawrinka duly levelled the match, and saved a break point to serve out the third set after breaking in the opening game, as 34-year-old Garcia-Lopez threw his racket to the ground in disgust.

The match looked to be all but over when Wawrinka broke in game five of the fourth set, but he became ragged and Garcia-Lopez forced a decider by edging a tie-break.

Wawrinka’s form totally deserted him in the fifth set, and Garcia-Lopez comfortably wrapped up victory.

Serbian star Djokovic had little trouble in reaching round two, though, seeing off Brazilian world number 134 Rogerio Dutra Silva 6-3, 6-4, 6-4.

The 12-time Grand Slam cham-pion dropped serve three times and will have to markedly improve to chal-lenge Rafael Nadal in the latter stages of

the tournament, but he was still far too good for Dutra Silva on Court Philippe Chatrier.

“It was good to start this year with a win. I wasn’t at my best, he played with a lot of spin.

“I didn’t play very well, but I won in three sets,” said the 20th seed, who will next face David Ferrer or Jaume Munar.

Former world number one Victoria Azarenka’s return to Grand Slam ten-nis lasted just two sets as the Belarusian slumped to a 7-5, 7-5 loss to Katerina Siniakova.

Azarenka, who missed much of last season after being embroiled in a cus-tody battle over her son, was broken to love in the 12th games of each set to be dumped out by the Czech world number 57.

It was Azarenka’s first Grand Slam match since losing to Simona Halep in the Wimbledon fourth round last July, but she still believes she can return to the top of the game.

“No doubt about it. Maybe not today, but no doubt about it,” the now-world number 82 insisted.

Petra Kvitova also found life hard, but the two-time Wimbledon cham-pion fought back from a set down to beat Paraguay’s Veronica Cepede Royg 3-6, 6-1, 7-5 on Court Philippe Chatrier.

The 28-year-old Kvitova is one of the favourites to win a maiden Roland Garros title after winning four titles this season, including on clay in Prague and Madrid.

“I’ve won 12 matches straight on clay, but I’m still a long way from Rafa,” she said in reference to Rafael Nadal’s upcoming bid for an 11th men’s singles crown. AGENCIES

NEYMAR READY FOR WORLD CUPRIO DE JANEIRO: Brazil-ian national team striker Neymar has admitted that he is not yet 100 percent game-ready after the injury that has kept him off the pitch for nearly three months, but said that there is still enough time for him to fully recover before next month’s FIFA World Cup in Russia. “I’m not 100 percent ready yet,” the PSG striker said in a press conference. AGENCIES

Indian Overseas Bankbf.M;u vksojlht cSad -SGAD COMPLEX, NAINITAL ROAD, RURDRAPUR, US NAGAR, UTTARAKHAND, Tel: 05944-247626, E-mail: iob.1591@iob.in

Notice Inviting E-tender

PRDH-Advt. No:-1052/11/3484/1819/66161 Xen/TS DivisionDated: 28.05.18 HVPNL, Rohtak

Executive Engineer, DGIPR/2018/2019/1016 Public Works Division, Nanded

millenniumpostNO H ALF TR U THS

millenniumpost.in

I, Ajay Kumar S/o Shri Ram R/o WZ-75, Khayala Village New Delhi-110018. That in my passport No E0589011 my father name mentioned wrongly Ram Kumar instead of Ram both are same perons. That my father actual name is Shri Ram for all future purposes.

CHANGE OF NAME

‘Women in Veere... have taken script to another level’

mp Entertainment16 MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Tuesday, 29 May, 2018

MUMBAI: Actor Diana Penty says it is a constant battle for her between giving into the temptation of doing more movies to stay visible or signing projects she genu-inely believes in.

Diana, who has done four films in her eight-year-old career, began her stint in Bollywood in 2010 with Cocktail, which was commercially successful.

After a gap of nearly four years, she went on to star in Anand L Rai’s hit romantic-comedy Happy Bhaag Jayegi.

Looking at her Bollywood journey so far, Diana says the four-year gap between her first two films made her feel that the industry had forgot-

ten her.Asked if she ever had the fear of being

forgotten, the actor said, “I think it actually happened with me – the time that I took between Cocktail and Happy Bhaag Jayegi, a lot of people told me, ‘out of sight is out of mind’, and it did happen.”

“Just because I wasn’t around, people just assumed I was doing other things and was not interested in films which I thought was unfair,” she added.

But she said that at the same time, she realised, that’s how it works, it’s human nature. And it is true, there is this fear.”

Diana admits that there are times when she is concerned about the slow pace of her career, “Sometimes you wake up with mini panic attacks where you feel like ‘Oh my God! I don’t have a film right now! Should I just do something that comes my way because I don’t have another film’? But I feel at the end of the day, your gut takes over. I have never been able to go against my instinct.”

She says, her idea of visibility is dif-ferent from those actors who make more news with their “airport appearances” than through the movies they do.

“If you are a complete hermit, some-times it is difficult for people to (remember you). It’s very natural for, maybe, a film-

maker to not think of you because you are not in the radar. Diana says it is about the balance and what is more important is the visibility through one’s films.

The actor is currently seen in Parmanu – featuring John Abraham in the lead.

She found the film extremely engaging at the script level and believed it would be a great story to be brought on screen.

“When I began reading the script, I felt it was very well written,” said Diana. PTI

‘THERE’S FEAR OFBEING FORGOTTEN BY FILM INDUSTRY’

MUMBAI: Actor Sumeet Vyas, who will soon be seen in Veere Di Wedding, says his co-stars Kareena Kapoor Khan, Sonam Kapoor Ahuja, Swara Bhasker and Shikha Talsania have taken the script of the forthcoming film to another level.

Veere Di Wedding is directed by Shashanka Ghosh and co-produced by Rhea Kapoor, Ekta Kapoor and Nikhil Dwivedi.

“It was a special experience. They’re all supremely talented people and so focused. It was inspiring to see how committed Kareena is. She’s so focused and driven. Same goes for Sonam, Swara and Shi-kha. They’ve really taken the script to another level,” Sumeet said in a statement to IANS.

Veere Di Wedding is an upbeat coming-of-age story revolving around the lives of four childhood friends through life’s ups and downs and the trials and tribu-lations with regard to family, marriage, accep-tance and societal perceptions.

The film is set to release on June 1. IANS

MUMBAI: Actor Arjun Rampal and Mehr Jesia have called it quits after 20 years of marriage.

There was speculation about the status of their relationship for long. And the couple set the record straight by announcing their decision to part ways through a joint statement.

The statement read: “After a 20 year long beautiful jour-ney filled with love and beautiful memories, we would like to share, that all journeys have different paths and we feel that it is time for us to move on to different destinations hence forth.

“We have always been solid when it has come to us, we will continue to be solid for each other and our loved ones, as we embark upon a new journey.”

They added: “Both of us being extremely private peo-ple feel strange to be making this statement, but such are the circumstances of our lives. Where the truth can get dis-torted and lost.”

Arjun and Mehr got mar-ried in 1998 and have two daughters – Mahikaa and Myra.

They might have separated, but will always “be there for one another”.

“We are a family, our love for each other is forever intact and we shall always be there for one another and most impor-tantly for our children Mahikaa and Myra. We would therefore appreciate our privacy through this time. Thank all for their support. Relationships can end but love lives on.”

“We won’t be commenting on this any further.” IANS

Arjun Rampal, Meher part ways AFTER 20 YEARS

We have always been solid when it has come to us, we will continue to be solid for each other and our loved ones

The Happy Bhaag Jayegi actor is currently seen in Parmanu – featuring John Abraham in the lead

Because I wasn’t around, people assumed I was doing other things and was not interested in films anymore

The High Jack actor says that it was a special experience working with such supremely talented and focussed co-actors

LOS ANGELES: ‘13 Reasons Why’ star Katherine Lang-ford has confirmed that she will not be returning to the controversial hit series for a third season.

Though a season three is yet to be ordered by Netflix, the 22-year-old actor, who played the lead Han-nah Baker, signed off from the show in a heartfelt Instagram post.

Langford thanked the cast and crew as well as fans in her post and also shared a pic-ture of a blackboard mural dedicated to her character, Hannah.

“‘Hannah... I love you... And I let you go’. Those are the words I was able to say six months ago, and now can finally share with you... As most of you know @13reasonswhy was my first ever job and I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to tell Hannah’s story so fully in

season 1, and to be asked back for a season two.

“Thankyou to @netflix @paramountpics @anoncon-tent , the incredible produc-ers, creatives, cast and crew for making these last two years so special. And to all of you here – Thankyou for filling my life

with love and light,” she wrote.Langford added the show

will always be a “special part of my life”. The actor promised, “There is a lot coming up this next year, and I can’t wait to share it with you.” PTI

LOS ANGELES: Singer-songwriter Shawn Mendes says his mentor John Mayer

is one of the most “intellectual” artistes around and he always has a unique point of view on the happenings in the world. The 19-year-old singer, who has been a long-time fan of the ‘Gravity’ singer, says he has a great influence on him. “The most incred-ible thing I learned from (him) is

that no matter how much expe-rience you have, you never are done learning,” he said.“He’s a bada**. He’s just so smart and intellectual. He has a very interesting view

on the world - a view I’ve never heard from anyone else,”

Mendes told People magazine. The ‘Believes’ hitmaker says Mayer, 40, is a collabora-tive artiste and believes in pushing himself as a musician.“He’s always trying to learn and wants to get bet-ter; he always wants to grow with the people and not get left behind,” he says. In April last year, the duo first performed together at May-er’s concert collaborating on a duet mash-up of Mendes’ ‘Mercy’ and Mayer’s ‘In Your Atmosphere’. PTI

Katherine Langford confirms exit from ‘13 Reasons Why’

‘John Mayer has an interesting view on the world’