3;A aZed AcRXjR RXRZ_de 5ZXgZ[Rj - Daily Pioneer

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S etting the stage for an epic battle in Bhopal, the BJP on Wednesday fielded Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, facing trial in Malegaon blast case, in Lok Sabha elections, against Congress heavyweight and for- mer Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh. Out on bail, Sadhvi joined the BJP only hours before the party announced her name as its candidate from Bhopal. This is being seen as a clear attempt by the BJP to bring the Hindutva plank at the centre stage of polls in the State, where the BJP had won 27 out of 29 seats in 2014 LS polls. “I will contest the election from Bhopal and win. Former Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is with me,” Sadhvi said after emerging out of the BJP office at Bhopal. In a way, the face-off between Digvijay and Sadhvi will also be seen as a battle between the hardcore Hindutva represented by the likes of Sadhvi and equally dyed-in- the-wool “secularism” propa- gated by the likes of Digvijay. At a rally in Odisha, BJP president Amit Shah on Wednesday described Digvijay as the “creator” of “saffron ter- ror” phrase. The BJP has decid- ed to take the matter to the people’s court by fielding Sadhvi against Digvijay, he said, accusing the Congress of defaming India by coining terms like “Hindu terror” and “saffron terror”. Referring to the acquittal of several accused, including Swami Aseemanand, in Samjhauta Express blast case, Shah attacked the Congress and said people of Bhopal will punish Digvijay and Congress president Rahul Gandhi. A senior BJP leader said the party decided to field Sadhvi, who joined the party hours before her candidature was announced, against Digvijay as the latter has been one of the most visible “anti- Hindutva” faces of the Congress. Also being a high-profile seat as the Madhya Pradesh capital, it can help rally support for the BJP across the State and even outside, he added. Digvijay has been a bitter critic of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), the ideological guide of the BJP, and had allegedly linked it to the 2008 Mumbai terror attack carried out by Pakistani ter- rorists. The BJP also decided to field KP Yadav from Guna, a seat held by senior Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia who is contesting from there. The BJP has named Raj Bahadur Singh and Ramakant Bhargav as its nominees from Sagar and Vidisha respectively. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had won from Vidisha in 2014 but she is not fighting polls this time due to health reasons. Born in Bhind district of Madhya Pradesh, Sadhvi has had a long association with the Sangh Parivar. A post-graduate in history, she worked with the RSS student wing Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad and Durga Vahini, women’s wing of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad. Arrested in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, she was given a clean chit by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), but the trial court refused to discharge her from the case. The court dropped the charges under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) against her, and she is now being tried under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act. She was grant- ed bail by the Bombay High Court in 2017. T he second phase of Lok Sabha polls for 95 seats will decide the fate of several stal- warts, including Union Ministers Jitendra Singh, Jual Oram, Sadananda Gowda and Pon Radhakrishnan, former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda and DMK’s Dayanidhi Maran, A Raja and Kanimozhi. Altogether 1,600-odd contes- tants are in the fray from 11 States and the Union Territory of Puducherry. Thirty eight of the 39 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu will go to polls and bypolls will be held in 18 Assembly con- stituencies. The Election Commission cancelled the polling in Vellore Lok Sabha seat, which is currently repre- sented by the AIADMK, fol- lowing recovery of huge amount of cash allegedly from an associate of a DMK leader. The EC also announced postponement of polling in Tripura (East) Lok Sabha seat to the third phase on April 23, saying the prevailing law and order situation there is not conducive for free and fair polls. The stake is high for the AIADMK which had swept the polls in 2014 and has gone from one internal crisis to another after the death of its supreme leader J Jayalalithaa. The party has formed a strong alliance with PMK and DMDK to take on the might of DMK- Cong-Left alliance, which is expected to win at least two third of the 39 seats, as per var- ious opinion polls. A fter a fresh round of dis- cussion for the Congress- AAP alliance in Delhi and neighbouring States of Haryana and Punjab, the Aam Admi Party (AAP) on Wednesday said the Congress has refused to form an alliance in Haryana and thus the party does “not want a tie-up only in Delhi”. While AAP leader and Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singh said alliance talks between the AAP and the Congress was called off fol- lowing disagreement over tie- up in Haryana and Delhi, senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, who was part of the discussion on Wednesday, presented a defen- sive statement and said as par- liamentarians they keep meet- ing and declined to state any- thing about the meeting. “Alliance talks between AAP and Congress has been called off following disagree- ment over tie-up in Haryana and Delhi. The Congress has refused to form an alliance in Haryana, and we do not want a tie-up only in Delhi,” said Sanjay Singh , who earlier held a meeting with Azad following the fresh rounds of expression by party chiefs — Rahul Gandhi of the Congress and Arvind Kejriwal of the AAP. On his part, Azad said he was not aware of any alliances, particularly in Haryana of which he is also incharge. “Who is doing the alliance? As for Haryana there no such talks,” said Azad. When asked about AAP leader Sanjay Singh meeting him, Azad said as Member of Parliament we keep meeting each other so nothing new should be read about. Both Azad and Singh are members of the Rajya Sabha. When specifically asked in the Press conference about the Congress-AAP alliance for Delhi Lok Sabha seats, Azad said he is not aware as he is not the AICC incharge of Delhi. In very defensive answer about alliances, Azad said the Congress is always open to alliances as the party has done it in Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Jammu & Kashmir. According to the sources, Singh proposed 6:3:1 seat shar- ing in Haryana in which Congress would fight from six seats, while the Jannayak Janata Party (JJP)would field its can- didates for three seats and one candidate would be fielded by the AAP. T eetering for over four months due to cash- drought, Jet Airways, flying for over 25 years, on Wednesday said its last flight will takeoff on Wednesday night, after its lenders refused to offer a 400- crore lifeline. “With immediate effect, we are compelled to cancel all our international and domes- tic flights. The last flight will operate today,” Jet Airways informed the exchanges. The airline said the deci- sion follows the lenders refus- ing to offer a lifeline. “Since no emergency fund- ing from the lenders or any other source is forthcoming, the airline will not be able to pay for fuel or other critical ser- vices to keep the operations going... And has decided to go ahead with temporary suspen- sion of operations,” it said. The last flight of the airline, left the Amritsar airport at 10.30pm for New Delhi. After a board meeting on Tuesday, the management had authorised chief executive Vinay Dube to make one last appeal to the lenders for an emergency 400 crore funding, and if not the demand is not met, take a final call on the future of the airline on Wednesday. On Tuesday night, Jet Airways — which carries the slogan “the joy of flying” was informed by SBI, on behalf of the consortium of lenders, that they were unable to con- sider its request for critical interim funding, the airline said in the statement. A s many as 50 people died and several others injured due to unseasonal rain, dust storm and lightning in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat. It has caused damage to property, wheat crops, mango, and pota- toes and vegetables in north, central parts of the country. It is estimated that proper- ties and crops worth several hundred crores have been dam- aged. Several cattle were also killed in rain-related incidents. According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), unseasonal rain, thun- derstorm, lightning and high speed wind were caused by active Western Disturbance (WD) over eastern Iran that is moving towards east-north- eastwards across Afghanistan, Pakistan and northwest India. According to IMD, Uttrakhand, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Bihar, Gangetic West Bengal and Delhi-NCR on Wednesday witnessed squall (wind speed reaching 60-70 kilometres per hour) accom- panied with hail and lightning. The IMD has issued an amber-coloured warning for parts of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab and Bihar. An amber colour warning indicates that authorities have to remain alert for any weather-related exigency. The situation is expected to remain the same in the next two-three days in North-East and southern parts of the country. As per IMD, Kerala, Telangana, Sikkim, Karnataka, Assam, Jharkhand, Meghalya, West Bengal, Arunachal Pradesh and Puducherry may witness rain, thunderstorm with gusty wind on Thursday, while West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura, and Odisha are likely to get rain and thunder- storm on Friday. Several parts of north and central India have been wit- nessing thunderstorms, dust storms, lightning and heavy rain since Sunday. According to reports, Rajasthan witnessed the max- imum casualties with 21 peo- ple killed in overnight rain- related incidents followed by Madhya Pradesh where 15 were killed. 10 people were killed in Gujarat, three were killed in Maharashtra. Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to twitter in the morning to express anguish over the loss of lives in the rain in Gujarat and announced relief. Soon afterwards Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath hit out at the Prime Minister, accusing him of being concerned only about his home State Gujarat. The PMO in a tweet later said, “PM @narendramodi has expressed grief at loss of lives due to unseasonal rain and storms in MP, Rajasthan, Manipur & various parts of the country”. “An ex gratia of 2 lakh each for the next of kin of those who lost their lives due to unseasonal rain & storms in MP, Rajasthan, Manipur & various parts of the country has been approved from the PM’s National Relief Fund. 50,000 each for the injured has also been approved,” the PMO said. Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said the Government is closely moni- toring the situation in rain-hit areas and is ready to provide all possible assistance to States affected by rain and thunder- storm. Officials of the Agriculture Ministry said the assessment of loss of crops is being carried out. W idespread rainfall accom- panied by high-velocity winds at some places lashed vast swathes of Punjab and Haryana on Wednesday, lead- ing to crop loss in several areas. The maximum temper- atures dropped by several notches after the rains, Meteorological Department officials said. The day temperatures set- tled between 23 and 26 degrees Celsius at most places in the two States and Chandigarh, hovering eight to 11 notches below normal limits. Chandigarh, the common cap- ital of the two States, was also lashed by rains during the day. The change in weather was caused by a western distur- bance, weather officials said. There were also report of hail- storm lashing few places in the two States. Former Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal sought a special ‘girdawari’ by the state government to assess the crop loss following untime- ly rains. In a statement here, Badal also demanded interim relief and compensation to the farmers. He said that every affected farmer must be paid a minimum of 15,000 per acre as compensation. A special ‘girdawari’ must be ordered as quickly as possi- ble because revenue officials might soon get busy with poll duties in view of Punjab’s 13 Lok Sabha seats going to polls next month and this may result in delay in relief and disbursal of compensation to affected farmers, Badal said. The Opposition said farmers in Punjab have suf- fered “unprecedented losses” due to untimely rains and high-velocity winds, leaving their wheat crop flattened acres over acres. Leader of Opposition, Punjab, Harpal Singh Cheema, said the untimely rain has destroyed a major chunk of wheat crop, which was ready for harvesting. The AAP leader said that while the impact of the rain was widespread in the state, it was more in areas like Rupnagar, Jalandhar, Patiala, Fazilka, Kapurthala and Bathinda. Cheema urged the gov- ernment to get a ‘girdawari’ done on a priority basis to assess the losses and release compensation to the affected farmers within a given time frame. In Haryana, INLD demanded the State Government order a ‘giradwari’ to assess the crop loss. “The Government must come to the aid of farmers who have suffered damage due to untimely rains,” Abhay Singh Chautala said. Meanwhile, Haryana’s Finance and Revenue Minister Abhimanyu said the Revenue Department has been asked to immediately prepare a report on the loss caused to crops due to untimely rains, hailstorm and high speed winds.

Transcript of 3;A aZed AcRXjR RXRZ_de 5ZXgZ[Rj - Daily Pioneer

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Setting the stage for an epicbattle in Bhopal, the BJP on

Wednesday fielded SadhviPragya Singh Thakur, facingtrial in Malegaon blast case, inLok Sabha elections, againstCongress heavyweight and for-mer Madhya Pradesh ChiefMinister Digvijay Singh.

Out on bail, Sadhvi joinedthe BJP only hours before theparty announced her name asits candidate from Bhopal. Thisis being seen as a clear attemptby the BJP to bring theHindutva plank at the centrestage of polls in the State,where the BJP had won 27 outof 29 seats in 2014 LS polls.

“I will contest the electionfrom Bhopal and win. FormerChief Minister Shivraj SinghChouhan is with me,” Sadhvisaid after emerging out of theBJP office at Bhopal.

In a way, the face-offbetween Digvijay and Sadhviwill also be seen as a battlebetween the hardcore Hindutvarepresented by the likes ofSadhvi and equally dyed-in-the-wool “secularism” propa-gated by the likes of Digvijay.

At a rally in Odisha, BJPpresident Amit Shah onWednesday described Digvijayas the “creator” of “saffron ter-ror” phrase. The BJP has decid-ed to take the matter to the

people’s court by fieldingSadhvi against Digvijay, hesaid, accusing the Congress ofdefaming India by coiningterms like “Hindu terror” and“saffron terror”.

Referring to the acquittal of

several accused, includingSwami Aseemanand, inSamjhauta Express blast case,Shah attacked the Congress andsaid people of Bhopal will punish Digvijay andCongress president Rahul

Gandhi.A senior BJP leader said

the party decided to fieldSadhvi, who joined the partyhours before her candidaturewas announced, againstDigvijay as the latter has been

one of the most visible “anti-Hindutva” faces of theCongress.

Also being a high-profileseat as the Madhya Pradeshcapital, it can help rally supportfor the BJP across the State and

even outside, he added. Digvijay has been a bitter

critic of the RashtriyaSwayamsewak Sangh (RSS),the ideological guide of the BJP,and had allegedly linked it tothe 2008 Mumbai terror attackcarried out by Pakistani ter-rorists.

The BJP also decided tofield KP Yadav from Guna, aseat held by senior Congressleader Jyotiraditya Scindia whois contesting from there. TheBJP has named Raj BahadurSingh and Ramakant Bhargavas its nominees from Sagar andVidisha respectively.

External Affairs MinisterSushma Swaraj had won fromVidisha in 2014 but she is notfighting polls this time due tohealth reasons.

Born in Bhind district ofMadhya Pradesh, Sadhvi hashad a long association with theSangh Parivar. A post-graduatein history, she worked with theRSS student wing AkhilBharatiya Vidyarthi Parishadand Durga Vahini, women’swing of the Vishwa HinduParishad.

Arrested in the 2008Malegaon blast case, she wasgiven a clean chit by theNational Investigation Agency(NIA), but the trial courtrefused to discharge her fromthe case.

The court dropped thecharges under the MaharashtraControl of Organised CrimeAct (MCOCA) against her,and she is now being triedunder the Unlawful ActivitiesPrevention Act. She was grant-ed bail by the Bombay HighCourt in 2017.

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The second phase of LokSabha polls for 95 seats will

decide the fate of several stal-warts, including UnionMinisters Jitendra Singh, JualOram, Sadananda Gowda andPon Radhakrishnan, formerPrime Minister HD DeveGowda and DMK’s DayanidhiMaran, A Raja and Kanimozhi.Altogether 1,600-odd contes-tants are in the fray from 11States and the Union Territoryof Puducherry.

Thirty eight of the 39 LokSabha seats in Tamil Nadu willgo to polls and bypolls will beheld in 18 Assembly con-stituencies. The ElectionCommission cancelled thepolling in Vellore Lok Sabhaseat, which is currently repre-

sented by the AIADMK, fol-lowing recovery of hugeamount of cash allegedly froman associate of a DMK leader.

The EC also announcedpostponement of polling inTripura (East) Lok Sabha seatto the third phase on April 23,saying the prevailing law and order situation there isnot conducive for free and fair polls.

The stake is high for theAIADMK which had sweptthe polls in 2014 and has gonefrom one internal crisis toanother after the death of itssupreme leader J Jayalalithaa.The party has formed a strongalliance with PMK and DMDKto take on the might of DMK-Cong-Left alliance, which isexpected to win at least twothird of the 39 seats, as per var-ious opinion polls.

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After a fresh round of dis-cussion for the Congress-

AAP alliance in Delhi andneighbouring States of Haryanaand Punjab, the Aam AdmiParty (AAP) on Wednesdaysaid the Congress has refusedto form an alliance in Haryanaand thus the party does “notwant a tie-up only in Delhi”.

While AAP leader andRajya Sabha member SanjaySingh said alliance talksbetween the AAP and theCongress was called off fol-lowing disagreement over tie-up in Haryana and Delhi,senior Congress leaderGhulam Nabi Azad, who waspart of the discussion onWednesday, presented a defen-sive statement and said as par-

liamentarians they keep meet-ing and declined to state any-thing about the meeting.

“Alliance talks betweenAAP and Congress has beencalled off following disagree-ment over tie-up in Haryanaand Delhi.

The Congress has refusedto form an alliance in Haryana,and we do not want a tie-uponly in Delhi,” said SanjaySingh , who earlier held ameeting with Azad followingthe fresh rounds of expressionby party chiefs — RahulGandhi of the Congress andArvind Kejriwal of the AAP.

On his part, Azad said hewas not aware of any alliances,particularly in Haryana ofwhich he is also incharge.“Who is doing the alliance? Asfor Haryana there no such

talks,” said Azad. When asked about AAP

leader Sanjay Singh meetinghim, Azad said as Member ofParliament we keep meetingeach other so nothing newshould be read about. BothAzad and Singh are membersof the Rajya Sabha.

When specifically askedin the Press conference aboutthe Congress-AAP alliance forDelhi Lok Sabha seats, Azadsaid he is not aware as he is notthe AICC incharge of Delhi.

In very defensive answerabout alliances, Azad said theCongress is always open toalliances as the party has doneit in Bihar, Tamil Nadu,Maharashtra and Jammu &Kashmir.

According to the sources,Singh proposed 6:3:1 seat shar-

ing in Haryana in whichCongress would fight from sixseats, while the Jannayak JanataParty (JJP)would field its can-didates for three seats and onecandidate would be fielded bythe AAP.

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Teetering for over fourmonths due to cash-

drought, Jet Airways, flying forover 25 years, on Wednesdaysaid its last flight will takeoff onWednesday night, after itslenders refused to offer a �400-crore lifeline.

“With immediate effect,we are compelled to cancel allour international and domes-tic flights. The last flight willoperate today,” Jet Airwaysinformed the exchanges.

The airline said the deci-sion follows the lenders refus-ing to offer a lifeline.

“Since no emergency fund-

ing from the lenders or anyother source is forthcoming,the airline will not be able topay for fuel or other critical ser-vices to keep the operationsgoing... And has decided to goahead with temporary suspen-sion of operations,” it said.

The last flight of the airline,left the Amritsar airport at10.30pm for New Delhi.

After a board meeting onTuesday, the management hadauthorised chief executiveVinay Dube to make one last

appeal to the lenders for anemergency �400 crore funding,and if not the demand is notmet, take a final call on thefuture of the airline onWednesday.

On Tuesday night, JetAirways — which carries theslogan “the joy of flying” —was informed by SBI, on behalfof the consortium of lenders,that they were unable to con-sider its request for criticalinterim funding, the airlinesaid in the statement.

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As many as 50 people diedand several others injured

due to unseasonal rain, duststorm and lightning inRajasthan, Madhya Pradesh,Maharashtra and Gujarat. It hascaused damage to property,wheat crops, mango, and pota-toes and vegetables in north,central parts of the country.

It is estimated that proper-ties and crops worth severalhundred crores have been dam-aged. Several cattle were alsokilled in rain-related incidents.

According to the IndiaMeteorological Department(IMD), unseasonal rain, thun-derstorm, lightning and highspeed wind were caused byactive Western Disturbance(WD) over eastern Iran that ismoving towards east-north-eastwards across Afghanistan,Pakistan and northwest India.

According to IMD,Uttrakhand, Punjab, Haryana,Chandigarh, Bihar, GangeticWest Bengal and Delhi-NCRon Wednesday witnessed squall(wind speed reaching 60-70kilometres per hour) accom-panied with hail and lightning.

The IMD has issued anamber-coloured warning forparts of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab,

Uttarakhand, Rajasthan,Haryana, Punjab and Bihar. Anamber colour warning indicatesthat authorities have to remainalert for any weather-relatedexigency. The situation isexpected to remain the same inthe next two-three days inNorth-East and southern partsof the country.

As per IMD, Kerala,Telangana, Sikkim, Karnataka,Assam, Jharkhand, Meghalya,West Bengal, ArunachalPradesh and Puducherry maywitness rain, thunderstormwith gusty wind on Thursday,while West Bengal, AndhraPradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala,

Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoramand Tripura, and Odisha arelikely to get rain and thunder-storm on Friday.

Several parts of north andcentral India have been wit-nessing thunderstorms, duststorms, lightning and heavyrain since Sunday.

According to reports,Rajasthan witnessed the max-imum casualties with 21 peo-ple killed in overnight rain-related incidents followed byMadhya Pradesh where 15were killed. 10 people werekilled in Gujarat, three werekilled in Maharashtra.

Prime Minister Narendra

Modi took to twitter in themorning to express anguishover the loss of lives in the rainin Gujarat and announcedrelief. Soon afterwards MadhyaPradesh Chief Minister KamalNath hit out at the PrimeMinister, accusing him of beingconcerned only about his homeState Gujarat.

The PMO in a tweet latersaid, “PM @narendramodi hasexpressed grief at loss of livesdue to unseasonal rain andstorms in MP, Rajasthan,Manipur & various parts of thecountry”.

“An ex gratia of �2 lakheach for the next of kin of thosewho lost their lives due tounseasonal rain & storms inMP, Rajasthan, Manipur &various parts of the country hasbeen approved from the PM’sNational Relief Fund. �50,000each for the injured has also been approved,” thePMO said.

Union Home MinisterRajnath Singh said theGovernment is closely moni-toring the situation in rain-hitareas and is ready to provide allpossible assistance to Statesaffected by rain and thunder-storm. Officials of theAgriculture Ministry said theassessment of loss of crops isbeing carried out.

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Widespread rainfall accom-panied by high-velocity

winds at some places lashedvast swathes of Punjab andHaryana on Wednesday, lead-ing to crop loss in severalareas. The maximum temper-atures dropped by severalnotches after the rains,Meteorological Departmentofficials said.

The day temperatures set-tled between 23 and 26 degreesCelsius at most places in thetwo States and Chandigarh,hovering eight to 11 notchesbelow normal limits.Chandigarh, the common cap-ital of the two States, was alsolashed by rains during the day.

The change in weather wascaused by a western distur-bance, weather officials said.There were also report of hail-storm lashing few places in thetwo States.

Former Punjab ChiefMinister Parkash Singh Badalsought a special ‘girdawari’ by

the state government to assessthe crop loss following untime-ly rains. In a statement here,Badal also demanded interimrelief and compensation to thefarmers. He said that everyaffected farmer must be paid aminimum of �15,000 per acreas compensation.

A special ‘girdawari’ mustbe ordered as quickly as possi-ble because revenue officialsmight soon get busy with pollduties in view of Punjab’s 13Lok Sabha seats going to polls

next month and this may resultin delay in relief and disbursalof compensation to affectedfarmers, Badal said.

The Opposit ion saidfarmers in Punjab have suf-fered “unprecedented losses”due to untimely rains andhigh-velocity winds, leavingtheir wheat crop flattenedacres over acres.

Leader of Opposition,Punjab, Harpal Singh Cheema,said the untimely rain hasdestroyed a major chunk of

wheat crop, which was readyfor harvesting.

The AAP leader said thatwhile the impact of the rain waswidespread in the state, it wasmore in areas like Rupnagar,Jalandhar, Patiala, Fazilka,Kapurthala and Bathinda.

Cheema urged the gov-ernment to get a ‘girdawari’done on a priority basis toassess the losses and releasecompensation to the affectedfarmers within a given timeframe. In Haryana, INLDdemanded the StateGovernment order a ‘giradwari’to assess the crop loss.

“The Government mustcome to the aid of farmers whohave suffered damage due tountimely rains,” Abhay SinghChautala said.

Meanwhile, Haryana’sFinance and Revenue MinisterAbhimanyu said the RevenueDepartment has been asked toimmediately prepare a reporton the loss caused to crops dueto untimely rains, hailstormand high speed winds.

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Punjab Chief Minister CaptAmarinder Singh on

Wednesday ordered a specialgirdawari for the assessment ofcrop loss resulting from theuntimely recent rainfall andstorm in the state, even as theopposition parties —Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)— demanded higher compen-sation for the farmers on croploss.

Expressing concern overthe losses, the Chief Ministerordered “urgent steps” to ascer-tain the extent of damage tocrops so that due compensationcould be awarded to the affect-ed farmers at the earlier.

Chief Minister, in his direc-tive to the concern depart-ments and officials, asked themto commence, without delay,the process of conducting thespecial girdawari for damage

assessment due to the weatherdisruptions.

The directions came hoursafter the former Chief Ministerand Akali patriarch ParkashSingh Badal urged his succes-sor to immediately order spe-cial “girdawari” to determinethe magnitude of the farmers’losses following bouts of unsea-sonal rains and storm “becauserevenue officials might soon getbogged down in poll duties andthat might result in a danger-ous delay in relief and com-pensation disbursal”.

Spokesperson said that theChief Minister has directedthat the assessment be under-taken and completed on pri-ority.

Senior Badal, in his state-ment, stated that the farmerswere already reeling under fis-cal stress because of CaptAmarinder’s “betrayal” of themon complete waiver of all kindsof debt for every farmer in the

state.“Farmers trusted him as he

took an oath in the name of SriGuru Gobind Singh ji’s sacred‘charan’. Their trust has beencruelly betrayed and they arecompletely heart-broken andunder severe financial stress,”he said.

Demanding immediateinterim relief and compensa-tion to the beleaguered farm-ers, Badal said that underchanged circumstances, everyfarmer must be paid a mini-

mum of Rs 15,000 as compen-sation per acre.

“Not doing so would notonly leave them with no pennyto pay back crop loans and tobuy inputs for the next crop butalso make it impossible forthem to meet daily expenses.That could only lead to des-perate measures. TheGovernment must step in toaddress the farmers’ frustrationto avert the impending socialtragedy,” he said.

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Expressing serious con-cern over the unprecedentedlosses that the farmers in thestate have suffered due untime-ly rains coupled with highvelocity winds leaving theirwheat crop worth lakhs flat-tened acres over acres, AAP onWednesday demanded fromthe Central and the StateGovernments to frame farmer-friendly policies to mitigatefarmers’ sufferings.

“Governments should floatcertain farmer-friendly insur-ance schemes and other toenable them to meet a crisis ofthis kind,” said AAP MLA andthe Leader of Opposition inVidhan Sabha Harpal SinghCheema.

Cheema said that both theState and Central Governmentsshould take an urgent call onthe concerns of the farmers andbail them out from the seriousfarm crisis and financial messthey were trapped in forcingthem to commit suicides due to

heavy debts.He urged the Government

to get ‘girdawri’ done on a pri-ority basis to assess the lossesand release 100 percent com-pensation to the affected farm-ers within a time frame.

Cheema said that theuntimely rain had destroyed amajor chunk of wheat crop onTuesday night ready for har-vesting, and it had proved tobe double whammy for thebeleaguered community asthey were already grapplingwith farm issues and con-cerns.

“While the impact of therain was widespread in thestate, it was more conspicuousin areas like Ropar, Jalandhar,Patiala, Fazilka, Kapurthala,Bhatinda and many more,where crops were totallydestroyed incurring a loss ofworth lakhs of rupees. InRopar district only, 500 vil-lages were affected where ripewheat crops over 2000 acres ofland was damaged by the way-ward rains. A large number ofdistressed farmers from thesevillages held a ‘dharna’ to pressthe government for release ofcompensation,” he said.

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Shimla: Over 2.50 lakh votersof Sirmaur district in HimachalPradesh on Wednesday askedthe two national parties -- theBJP and the Congress -- tocome out with a detailed actionplan on granting them tribalstatus, a demand pending forfive decades.

It found mention in theBJP's election manifestos forthe Assembly in 2009 and theLok Sabha in 2014, but failed tobe implemented.

"Our demand to grantScheduled Tribe status hasbeen caught in Central gov-ernment's red-tapism despiterepeated assurances by both thenational parties for fivedecades. Our counterparts inUttarakhand were granted trib-al status way back in 1967,"Hatti Sangharsh Samiti GeneralSecretary Kundan Shastri toldIANS.

The Hatti community isbased mainly in the 133 pan-chayats dotting the trans-Giriarea, which is part of theShimla (reserved) seat, and isfighting for Scheduled Tribestatus on the lines of the resi-dents of Jaunsar-Bawar area inadjoining Uttarakhand.

Shastri said the communi-

ty was analysing the intentionsof both the parties before itgoes out to vote.

The state's ruling BJP,which has dropped its two-timeMP Virender Kashyap, has pit-ted greenhorn Suresh Kashyapagainst Dhani Ram Shandil ofthe Congress.

"During his tenure,Virender Kashyap tried hisbest to get us the tribal status,but he failed on the promise hemade in the 2014 elections thatthe status would be grantedbefore the next general elec-tions," Shastri said.

He said Kashyap and ChiefMinister Jai Ram Thakur evenraised the issue with PrimeMinister Narendra Modi andHome Minister Rajnath Singhat a meeting in New Delhi onFebruary 14, 2017.

"The Congress largelyremains insensitive towardsour demand," he said, addingthat a delegation led byKashyap also met PrimeMinister Manmohan Singh inthis regard on December 20,2011. BJP candidate SureshKashyap said demand for spe-cial status was raised by the BJPalone, both during the UPAand the NDA tenure. IANS

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Welcoming the Punjab andHaryana High Court’s

decision for redeeming thehonour of Shaheed BakhshishSingh — an associate of

Shaheed Kartar Singh Sarabha— after 72 long years, theAam Aadmi Party (AAP) onWednesday said that it was atight slap on the faces of theCongress party and Akali Dal.

AAP MP from Sangrurand Punjab unit chiefBhagwant Mann said that thecourt, in its landmark judg-ment, had redeemed the hon-our of the great martyr byallowing compensation of Rs25 lakh for 33 acres of landreported to have been confis-cated by the then BritishGovernment — a rare instanceof honour accorded to a mar-tyr who fought against thetyranny of the alien dispensa-tion.

“The historic court orderhas not only unearthed thehollow claims of the preced-ing governments which havebeen laying tall claims infavour of the martyrs but didnothing on the ground whenit came to redeeming theirhonour. The injustice metedout to the members ofBakhshish’s family for morethan 33 years is a fit case ofhighhandedness on the part ofthe subsequent governments,”he said.

Mann demanded that thepreceding governmentsshould tender their uncondi-tional apologies to theaggrieved families for deni-grating the honour of themartyrs and humiliating theirfamilies.

“Some of the martyrs of1965, 1971 battles and others,whose families had been allot-ted land around the riverbeds,have been fighting for justicefor a pretty long time now.The Capt Amarinder Singhgovernment should immedi-ately intervene and securethem justice without furtherloss of time thus restoringtheir honour,” he said.

He added that the PunjabGovernment should take acue from the DelhiGovernment led by ArvindKejriwal which delivers acheque for Rs one crore athomes of those from Army,paramilitary or police force onattaining martyrdom.

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The Indian National Lok Dal,which appears to be in a

catch-22 situation in the ongo-ing Lok Sabha elections, hasretained its sitting MP from Sirsaand fielded five new faces in thepolls.

The party on Wednesdayannounced six candidates forgeneral elections in Haryana,which goes to polling on May 12.

Facing an uphill task toturn the tide in its favor thiselection, the INLD has field-ed party’s sitt ing MPCharanjeet Singh Rori fromSirsa constituency, known asChautala’s bastion.

The party had won twoseats including Sirsa and Hisarout of 10 Lok Sabha seats inHaryana in last general elec-tions 2014.

Chautala, INLD secretarygeneral on Wednesday whileannouncing party candidatesfor six parliamentary seatssaid, “After holding discus-

sions with party leaders andworkers, the INLD hasreposed its faith on CharanjitSingh Rori, who had won theSirsa seat in 2014 polls. Roriwill be fielded from Sirsa con-stituency again.”

The party has fieldedRampal Balmiki from Ambalaconstituency (reserved).Balmika had served as deputymayor in YamunanagarMunicipal Corporation, hesaid.

Other candidates includedDharambir Padha fromKarnal, Surender Chhikarafrom Sonipat, Suresh Kothfrom Hisar and MahendraSingh Chauhan fromFaridabad.

The candidates forGurugram, Rohtak,Kurukshetra and Bhiwani-Mahendragarh seats will beannounced on Friday afterholding discussion with partychief OP Chautala. The stateparty president Ashok Aroraand senior leader RampalMajra will meet the partysupremo to finalize the nameof other four party candi-dates, Abhay said.

With party’s dwindlingpolitical fortunes, several sit-

ting MLAs and senior INLDleaders have reportedlyrefused to contest Lok Sabhapolls forcing it to field newfaces in the elections.

Notably, the INLD, whichwas fighting the 2014 LokSabha polls with its back to thewall after the conviction ofparty chief OP Chautala andhis son Ajay Singh Chautala inJBT teachers’ recruitment case,had managed to secure Sirsaand Hisar seats.

Sirsa, one of the tworeserved Lok Sabha con-stituencies in Haryana isknown as the bastion ofChautalas. INLD’s Sikh can-didate Rori had trouncedCongress’ Ashok Tanwar bymore than 1.15 lakh votes inlast general elections.

An aggressive campaign

by INLD in its bastion andsympathy over conviction ofits two top leaders had workedfor the party in 2014 polls butthis election, the party faces atough task to retain Hisar seatand its citadel-Sirsa.

Sirsa is a Dalit dominatedseat with more than 7 lakhDalit voters, over 3.4 lakhPunjabi and Sikh voters andaround 3.34 lakh Jat voters.This time again, INLD’s Roriwill face Congress state partychief Ashok Tanwar in theelectoral battle while the BJPhas fielded former IRS officerSunita Duggal in Sirsa.

In the last general elec-tions, top leaders of Punjab’sShiromani Akali Dal (SAD) —former Chief Minister ParkashSingh Badal and SAD chiefSukhbir Singh Badal — having

family ties with Chautalas,had also backed INLD’s Sikhcandidate in Sirsa and cam-paigned for him but this time,the SAD has announced sup-port to BJP candidates inHaryana.

On the other hand, Hisaris represented by JannayakJanta Party leader and OPChautala’s grandson DushyantChautala, who is likely to con-test again from this seat.

After the split in INLDand formation of its splintergroup-Jannayak Janta Party,the INLD has remained on theback foot and will be battlingfor its existence in the LokSabha polls.

Abhay Chautala hadrecently lost the position ofLeader of opposition inHaryana Assembly with two ofINLD’s MLAs joining the BJPand the party’s strength com-ing down to 15 MLAs in the 90member House, lesser thanCongress’ 17 MLAs. TheINLD had earlier this year alsofaced a humiliating defeat inJind bypoll, with its candidatefinishing at fifth spot andcould not even save his secu-rity deposit.

When asked about the

Jannayak Janta Party and AamAadmi Party alliance inHaryana, Abhay Chautala reit-erated that the alliance is notformed on political reasonsbut to ensure that INLD chiefOP Chautala stays in Delhi’sTihar jail and does not comeou The AAP led DelhiGovernment and JJP havehatched a conspiracy to ensurethat Chautala Sabha is notallowed to get parole, headded.

Further commenting onAAP-JJP and BJP-SADalliance in Haryana, Abhayattacked the alliance partnerson the issue of Sutlej YamunaLink canal. Both AAP andSAD are against the construc-tion of SYL canal so JJP andBJP should make their standclear on the SYL canal issue, headded.

Notably, a multi-corneredcontest is expected on all 10parliamentary seats in thestate with BJP, Congress,INLD, JJP-AAP, LSP-BSP inthe fray. Failed to forge analliance with any politicalparty for Lok Sabha polls, theINLD is compelled to go italone on all 10 seats inHaryana.

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Haryana chief electoralofficer Rajeev Ranjan on

Wednesday said that if voterswhose birthday is falling onMay 12, the day of the pollingin Haryana, exercise theirfranchise on that day, theywill be made the voters’ brandambassadors.

Programmes would beorganised in districts on May28 to administer oath of eth-ical voting to them, he said.

The voting to 10 LokSabha seats in Haryana will beheld on May 12.

A total of 20,428 votersare in the state, whose birth-day is falling on May 12. Onthe day of polling, these vot-ers could make their birthdaymemorable by clicking theirselfie with ink mark on theirfinger after casting their vote,Rajeev Ranjan said.

He said that the birthdaysare always a special occasionfor everyone. This time, thebirthday of those born onMay 12 in the state is fallingon a day when crores of peo-ple will stand in a queue tocaste their vote and partici-pate in democratic process ofworld’s largest democracy,which should be a matter of

pride for them. Provisionwould be made for a specialsurprise for some of them onthe voting day, he said.

Such voters wouldencourage and motivate vot-ers in their neighborhood forcasting vote, he added.

Ranjan further said thatearlier also, 2375 voters ofHaryana who had their birth-days on January 1, 2019 andwho first time became voters,have been felicitated at thedistrict level and they havealso been administered anoath of ethical voting.

He said that the process ofmaking new votes is inprogress. The last day forsubmitting the applicationswas April 13 till 3 pm and byApril 23, the integratedrevised new voters list wouldbe issued.

He appealed to the votersthat they must use their fran-chise which is their biggestright.

Ranjan said that this time,the representatives of 26countries and four interna-tional organizations wouldalso come to observe andlearn the electoral process ofLok Sabha general electionsand would visit Gurugramand Faridabad during its two-

day tour on May 11 and 12.On May 11, the delega-

tion would interact with elec-toral agents and microobservers. On May 12, thedelegation would also visitSakhi polling centres run bywomen and would also inter-act with the voters. At thesame time, they would alsolearn about the process ofsending the polling party andcomplete process when theyreach the polling stations.

He said that the countrieswhose representative wouldbe visit ing includedAfghanistan, Austral ia ,Bhutan, Bosnia-Herzegovina,Fiji, Georgia, Korea, Mexico,Burma, Nepal, South Africa,Suriname, Yemen, Cambodia,Indonesia, Kazakhstan,Kenya, Lesotho, Malaysia,Philippines, Romania, SriLanka, United Arab Emirates,Uzbekistan, Zimbabwe andBangladesh. Apart from this,four international organiza-tions include Association ofWorld Election Bodies,International Foundation forElectoral System, USA, theMalaysian CommonwealthStudy Center and theInternational Institute forDemocracy and ElectoralAssistance.

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Aday after the cricketer-turned politician Navjot

Singh Sidhu stoked a contro-versy by making a communalappeal to Muslim voters urgingthem to vote for Congress inorder to defeat Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, Punjab ChiefMinister Capt Amarinder Singhon Wednesday distanced him-self from his party colleague andstate Cabinet Minister’s contro-versial vote appeal.

Capt Amarinder, in aninformal chat with the media,said: “See, now this issue hasreached the ElectionCommission. Let us see what’sthe decision. The fact is that weare one country and there areplenty of religions, castes and allof us are Indians, this is the atti-tude of Congress party.”

Sidhu, while addressing arally in Bihar's Purnia a daybefore, had targeted AsaduddinOwaisi for seeking Muslimvotes, after which he called outthe “64 percent Muslim popu-lation” in the region to vote toremove the government-led byPrime Minister Modi.

“Muslim brother, peoplelike Owaisi want to win bydividing the Muslim vote here.

64 percent is your (Muslim)population is in majority hereand if you will get together andcast your votes, then Modi willbe finished,” Sidhu had said ina public rally in Purnia onTuesday.

District authorities inKatihar have lodged an FIRagainst the Congress party’s starcampaigner Sidhu for hisremarks in which he allegedlywarned the Muslim communi-ty that efforts were on to dividetheir votes in Bihar.

Hours later, Sidhu also jus-tified his statement saying thathe “was not trying to divide any-one. Was only saying thatMuslims need to unite againstPM Modi who doesn't have theirbest interests at heart”.

The Model Code ofConduct, currently in motion,bars political leaders from mak-ing any communal comments inrun up to 2019 elections.

However, polarising speech-es, seeking votes on religiousterms, have emerged signifi-cantly during the campaigningwith top leaders like BSP supre-mo Mayawati, Uttar PradeshChief Minister Yogi Adityanath,and Union Minister ManekaGandhi coming under theElection Commission’s radar.

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Police on Wednesday arrestedtwo persons for allegedly

making ransom calls to theCongress MP from AmritsarGurjit Singh Aujla.

The two arrested has beenidentified as Vijay Sharma andhis accomplice Deepak Kumar,both from Amritsar.

Confirming the same,Amritsar police commissionerSS Srivastava said that Aujlareceived a ransom call few daysback which his personal assistant,who was having the parliamen-tarian’s mobile phone, did nottake seriously. After Aujlareceived similar calls one afteranother, a complaint was lodgedwith the Amritsar city police.

It has been learnt that thecallers, who claimed to be agangster, demanded over Rs 30lakhs as ransom.

Available information sug-gests that the two were arrestedafter the police laid a trap andcalled the callers to a particularplace for collecting the saidamount. “Besides the twoaccused, the police has alsoseized the amount.

The police has also seizedthe mobile phone, from whichthey were making calls,” said thepolice official.

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Launching the election campaignfor his son Brijendra Singh,

Union Steel Minister and RajyaSabha MP Birender Singh onWednesday said that he is passingon the baton to his son and the peo-ple of the state should extend thesame support to his son that theygave him all these years.

“The people of Jind should beproud of the fact that the candidatefor the Hissar Lok Sabha seat,Brijendra Singh, is selected by thePrime Minister Narendra Modiand BJP president Amit Shah,”said Birender Singh while address-

ing a rally near the Kapas Mandihere.

Brijendra, 46, who will be mak-ing his poll debut, launched his elec-tion campaign from Uchana Kalanon Wednesday. His mother, PremLata, who is a BJP MLA in Haryanafrom the Uchana Kalan assemblyconstituency was also present at therally.

After getting the BJP ticket tocontest from Hisar Lok Sabha seat,the Haryana cadre IAS Brijendrahas already sought voluntary retire-ment from service and submittedhis papers to the Haryana chief sec-retary.

Seeking votes for his son,Birender Singh, a prominent Jatleader on Wednesday said that themaximum margin of win should befrom Uchana segment out of thenine segments forming part ofHissar Lok Sabha seat because thesegment is their ancestral area.

Birender Singh said that hefought political battle for the bet-terment of the area for 47 years.Now, Brijendra Singh will carryforward the mission to work for thebetterment of the area, the UnionMinister said while adding that thepeople should extend the same sup-port to his son that they gave himall these years.

He said that the thoughtprocess of the youth has to be takenforward. The country today needsa change which only the youth canbring, he said.

The Union Minister said thatthe voters of the country are awarethat the future of the country is safein the hands of Prime MinisterNarendra Modi who alone canensure prosperity in the countryand security for the nation.

He said that his son was thepersonal choice of the PrimeMinister and the BJP chief for theHissar Lok Sabha constituency.Not only the people of Uchana, butof entire constituency should beproud that Brijendra has beenselected by Modi and Shah, he saidadding that voters must ensure thatthe BJP gets the Hissar seat withmaximum margin.

While addressing the gathering,Brijendra said that his father will becharioteer of his political Rath. Hesaid that he was taking the first stepin politics from his native place.

I was not aware that my father

would have to pay a heavy price bysubmitting resignations from hisposts on me taking the first step inpolitics, Brijendra said.

“While in service as an IAS offi-cer I would have offended manydue to official constraints. Butthere, my responsibility was towardslaws and to work within the frame-work of the rules and regulations,he said adding that but now he hadentered politics to serve all with fullhumility and dedication.

Seeking support of the peoplehe said that the relationship wouldnot be of five years, but it would belifelong.

Later, while talking to the medi-apersons, Brijendra said that he willbe filing his nomination on April20.

I wanted to join politics froma long time but wanted to make myown identity first. Hence, I servedas an IAS for about 21 years, headded.

Notably, 1998 batch IAS officerBrijender will nmake his politicaldebut in the Lok Sabha polls fromHisar constituency, which his fatherhad won in 1984 by defeating for-mer Chief Minister Om PrakashChautala.

His father, Birender Singh is thegrandson of Sir Chhotu Ram, oneof the tallest Jat and farmer leadersof pre-Partition era. Birender hadjoined the BJP in 2014 after endinghis four-decade old associationwith the Congress following dif-ferences with then Haryana ChiefMinister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

After his son was given ticketto contest the polls, Birender Singhhad on Sunday offered to resignfrom the cabinet and from RajyaSabha.

Shimla: Himachal Pradesh BJP chiefSatpal Singh Satti on Wednesday gotanother notice from the ElectionCommission over his "inflammatoryremarks" against Congress PresidentRahul Gandhi.

The poll panel gave him 48 hours torespond to the notice saying prima faciehe is guilty of violating the Model Codeof Conduct, citing his taunting remarksagainst Gandhi over his bachelorhood.

A day earlier, a criminal case was reg-istered against Satti for using a slur againstGandhi while campaigning.

The Election Commission also issuednotice to him seeking his reply within 24hours. Satti targeted Gandhi and his fam-ily at a public meeting in Nalagrah'sRamashehar town in Solan district onApril 13.

Responding to Gandhi's "chowkidarchor hai" taunt aimed at Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, he said that the Congresschief and the entire Gandhi family are"thieves".

Satti has been booked under theIndian Penal Code's Section 294 (obsceneacts and songs).

Facing flak for his remarks against areligious sect in Punjab, Satti alsoexpressed regret.

Asking the political parties to exer-cise restraint, BJP leader and ChiefMinister Jai Ram Thakur said: "Weshould not use unparliamentarily lan-guage against any individual. This shouldbe restrained not only by our party lead-ers but by leaders of all political parties."

Polling to Himachal Pradesh's fourLok Sabha seats will be held in the lastphase of the polls on May 19.

HP CM demands ban on Rahul's pollcampaigning

Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister JaiRam Thakur on Wednesday demandedban on poll campaigning by CongressPresident Rahul Gandhi alleging that hisrepeated "chowkidar chor hai" jibe allud-ing to Prime Minister Narendra Modiwas violative of the model code of con-duct.

After the Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) submitted a memorandum to theChief Election Commissioner, Thakursaid, "Rahul Gandhi is indulging inmudslinging against the Prime Minister.Calling the Prime Minister a thief is aninsult to the 130 crore people of India."

"Not only that, to give his words cred-ibility, Gandhi made a reckless effort tomisuse the name of the Supreme Court,which on BJP's contempt petition clari-fied that it hadn't made any commentagainst the Prime Minister. All this is toodangerous for the democracy," Thakursaid.

The Chief Minister said Gandhihimself was accused of scams worththousands of crore. "Rahul Gandhi, hismother Sonia Gandhi, brother-in-lawRobert Vadra and several other nation-al level Congress leaders are out on bailin various cases. Such tainted politicianshave no moral right to call the PrimeMinister a thief," he said.

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Punjab Chief Minister CaptAmarinder Singh on

Wednesday called for furtherstrengthening of his govern-ment’s innovative ‘Connectwith Your Roots’ (CYR)

Programme, urging a visitingdelegation of Punjabi youthsettled in UK to act as culturalambassadors to complementand create awareness aboutthe state’s growth story.

He was interacting withthe delegation of 17 youth, on

a 10-day visit to differentparts of the state, over tea athis official residence here.

"As you all have witnessedPunjab's phenomenal growthfirst hand, I urge you tospread this positive messageand dispel any false notionsabout the state’s law and ordersituation back in UK,” theChief Minister exhorted theyouth.

Expressing concern overthe misconceptions being cre-ated by some vested interestsabout Punjab, CaptAmarinder said their visithad equipped the youth tojudge for themselves the dif-ference between the percep-tion being built by some vest-ed interests settled abroadand the actual situation on theground in the state, which was

a symbol of prosperity andpeace.

Seeking free and frankinputs from the youth, theChief Minister asked them togive their first hand assess-ment about Punjab. Majorityof the youth told the ChiefMinister that before theirvisit to the state they wereunder the impression thatthere was a problem of law

and order but they had nowrealised that there wasabsolutely no such thing aspeople were living in perfectharmony and in a peacefulenvironment.

They also expressed theirgratitude towards the ChiefMinister and lauded theTourism Department forarranging their visit to reli-gious places, especially the Sri

Darbar Sahib in Amritsar.The programme was

launched by the ChiefMinister from London (UK)in September, 2017 to providea platform to Indian youthsettled abroad to connectwith their roots by visiting thebirth place or the native vil-lage of their ancestors inPunjab.

The first batch of young-

sters had toured Punjab for ten days in Augustlast year.

Others who were presentat the interaction includedformer Union Minister ofExternal Affairs NatwarSingh, Secretary NRI AffairsRahul Bhandari, ADGPIntelligence Varinder Kumar,and Programme CoordinatorUK Varinder Singh Khaira.

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In Haryana, a total of 84cases have so far been

selected under ‘ChinhitApradh’ by the state levelcommittee since the schemestarted in October 2018 onthe basis of recommenda-tions of district level com-mittees.

The scheme was started toidentify serious and sensa-tional crimes, which adverse-ly impact the psyche of themasses, to ensure speedy andproper trial to secure convic-tion of the accused personsthrough an institutionalmechanism.

The state level committeereviewed the progress madein trial of cases selected under‘Chinhit Apradh’ and identi-fied the bottlenecks in pros-ecution and take correctivemeasures. The cases selectedunder ‘Chinhit Apradh’ arebeing followed up at districtlevel to ensure speedy andproper trial to secure convic-tion of the accused persons,said Additional ChiefSecretary, Home, SS Prasadon Wednesday.

Prasad chaired the 5thmeeting of the state level com-mittee to review the progressof various cases under ‘ChinhitApradh’ scheme.

During the meeting, itwas also apprised that out of84 selected cases, 20 cases hasbeen decided by the Courts.Conviction rates for thesecases comes out to be 55 percent which is far ahead of the

conviction rate of 29.04 percent for cases decided bycourts in calendar year 2018.

The meeting was alsoattended by Director Generalof Police, Manoj Yadava,Additional Director Generalof Police (Law and Order)Navdeep Singh Virk,Addit ional LegalRemembrancer, ADGP CIDAnil Kumar Rao, DirectorProsecution and other officersof CID and Forensic ScienceLaboratory, Madhuban.

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Chandigarh: Condemning as"totally barbaric and inhuman"the recent beheading of twoPunjabis by the authorities inSaudi Arabia, Punjab ChiefMinister Amarinder Singh onWednesday said he would seeka detailed report from theMinistry of External Affairs(MEA) on the matter.

The two men -- SatwinderKumar of Safdarpur Kallian vil-lage in Hoshiarpur district andHarjit Singh of Ludhiana dis-trict -- were executed by Saudiauthorities on February 28 thisyear without any prior infor-mation regarding their execu-tion being shared with theIndian Embassy in Riyadh,Prakash Chand, Director(Consular), MEA stated in awritten communication datedApril 10, 2019.

Chand said in the com-munication, sent to Satwinder'swife Seema Rani through thecounsel at the Punjab andHaryana High court as she hadpetitioned before the courtregarding her husband, that theEmbassy had no informationabout the mortal remains ofboth men and was awaiting thesame from the Saudi authori-ties.

Both men were arrested onDecember 9, 2015 in connec-

tion with the murder of anoth-er Indian national, ArifImamuddin. All three(Satwinder, Harjit and Arif)had committed robbery anddue to a dispute in sharing theloot money, Arif was killed bythe other two.

Satwinder and Harjit werearrested over a case drunkenbrawl. During deportation for-malities and finger-printingfor final exit from Saudi Arabia,they were found to be involvedin Arif 's murder. They weresent to the Riyadh prison wherethey allegedly confessed tokilling Arif, the communica-tion pointed out.

The embassy officials werefollowing the case against thetwo Punjabi men and theyeven used to visit them inprison. The jail list regardingtheir case was collected tillFebruary 18, 2019.

Expressing shock and griefover the vicious act, whichhas been confirmed by theMEA to have taken place onFebruary 28, Amarinder said:"It is atrocious that such inci-dents continue to happen incivilised nations in this day andage."

The Chief Minister alsoflayed the MEA for failing toprevent, and then not disclos-

ing the execution of the twomen till it was forced to do soby a petition filed bySatwinder's wife.

Amarinder said he wouldapproach Minister for ExternalAffairs Sushma Swaraj tosecure more details about theexecution of the two men.

"He would seek from theMEA information regardingthe charges and would alsoquestion them on whether duelegal representation was pro-vided to the two men," aspokesperson for the ChiefMinister's Office said.

"If the executions wereundertaken without priorinformation even to the IndianEmbassy in Saudi Arabia, withthe victims not provided legalcounsel, it amounted to a graveviolation of the internationalhuman rights," the ChiefMinister said.

He called upon the UnitedNations and other globalhuman rights organisations totake serious cognizance of theincident and put pressure onSaudi Arabia to end its ancientand blatantly illegal practices,which are against all norms ofhumanity.

Referring to media reportsthat the families of the victimswould not get their bodies due

to restrictions in place in SaudiArabia, the Chief Minister saidhe would seek Sushma's per-sonal intervention to take upthe matter with the Saudiauthorities at the highest levelon this count.

"That the families shouldbe deprived of the chance evento see their deceased kin andperform the last rites makes thewhole affair even moreappalling and shocking," headded.

Pointing out that just daysbefore the reported beheadings,India had hosted the SaudiCrown Prince, whom PrimeMinister Narendra Modi hadreceived personally, in a breakfrom protocol, the ChiefMinister said.

"Given the friendly rela-tions between the two leaders,getting the bodies of the twomen back to India should notbe difficult for the MEA. Ifneeded, the Prime Ministerhimself should intervene toensure the return of their mor-tal remains," he added.

The Indian governmentshould also take steps to ensurethat such incidents are notrepeated and no Indian isdenied justice or his/her legit-imate right in any manner inthe future, Amarinder said.

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New Delhi: Unable to convincethe Congress, the Aam AadmiParty (AAP) on Wednesdaysaid there will be no pollalliance with the Congress asthe two parties could not reachan agreement on seat-sharingin Delhi and Haryana in theLok Sabha elections.AAPspokesperson Sanjay Singh toldthe media that AAP wanted toforge an alliance with theCongress in order to stop theBJP "but it seems the Congressis not interested".

"We wanted an alliance on18 seats, but unfortunately,Congress is not ready for anycompromise on seat sharing.Together, we could have defeat-ed BJP," he said.

The two parties wereengaged in alliance talks for thepast several weeks.

Singh said he met Congressleaders - Ghulam Nabi Azad,P.C. Chacko and Ahmed Patel- but alliance could not befinalised.

He said the two parties ini-tially agreed on 4:3 seat distri-bution in Delhi where fourseats would be allocated toAAP.

Singh said AAP had alsoproposed a 6:3:1 seat sharing inHaryana under whichCongress would fight from sixseats, Jannayak Janata Partywould field its candidates inthree seats and one candidatewould be fielded by the AAP.

"Congress is not interestedin forging alliance. We tried outall possible arrangements. Itseems Congress is not ready tocede an inch of ground forAAP. The alliance talks areover," he said. IANS

Bhubaneswar: Bharatiya Janata PartyPresident Amit Shah on Wednesday saidthe BJP would end the "babu raj" in Odishaif it came to power in the state.

Democracy has collapsed in Odisha.Under (Chief Minister) Naveen Babu, MPsand MLAs stand as servants, while thebabus (bureaucrats) run the state," Shah said at an election rally in Dhenkanal. "Bring the BJP government inthe state if you want to end this babu raj,"he said.

Claiming that 35 per cent people inOdisha were yet to get safe drinking waterdespite Naveen Patnaik being in power for20 years, the BJP chief promised to pro-vide piped drinking water, pucca houses

and electricity to every household by 2022.He also criticised the BJD government

for not implementing the AyushmanBharat Yojana. "The BJP government haslaunched Ayushman Bharat scheme to give50 crore people free treatment up to Rs 5lakh. But Naveen Babu did not implementthe scheme due to the fear of Modi," saidShah.

The BJP chief also accused the BJDleaders of protecting scamsters who hadlooted the hard-earned money of the poorvia the chit fund scam. The accused of chitfund scam and those involved in the min-ing scam would be jailed after the BJPforms the government in Odisha, saidShah.

Referring to recent attacks on BJPworkers, he said, "I want to tell the BJD ifthey think they can intimidate us by attack-ing our workers, the BJP knows very wellhow to reply without resorting to violence."

"The Congress ruled Odisha for years.You have given 20 years to the BJD. Givethe BJP just five years and we will makeOdisha the number one state in the coun-try with double-engine growth," saidShah.

The Dhenkanal parliamentary seat willgo to polls in the third phase on April 23.Elections for 21 Lok Sabha and 147Assembly seats are being held in the statein four phases.

IANS

Shimla: Himachal PradeshChief Minister Jai Ram

Thakur on Wednesdaydemanded ban on poll cam-

paigning by Congress President RahulGandhi alleging that hisrepeated "chowkidar chor hai"jibe alluding to Modi wasviolative of the model code ofconduct. After the BJP sub-mitted a memorandum to theChief Election Commissioner,Thakur said, "Rahul Gandhi is indulging in mud-slinging against the PrimeMinister. Call ing the Prime Minister a thief is aninsult to the 130 crore peopleof India." IANS

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Two tweets by Uttar PradeshChief Minister Yogi

Adityanath with communalovertures have been takendown by Twitter following adirective from the ElectionCommission. The tweets post-ed on April 5 had referred to theIndian Union Muslim League(IUML) as a “green virus”.

The IUML had moved thecommission against the tweetsand had urged it to blockAdityanath’s twitter account.

“The tweets have beenremoved from the timeline ofthe Twitter account of the UPCM,” an official said.

A message in place of thetweets reads, “This Tweet from@myogiadityanath has beenwithheld in India in responseto a legal demand.”

The development comesafter the EC Monday imposeda 72-hour campaigning ban onthe chief minister for makingcommunal remarks at a recentelection meeting in Meerut.

The ban came into force fromTuesday morning.

“If the Congress, the SP andthe BSP have faith in Ali, thenwe too have faith in BajrangBali,” Adityanath had said at therally, attracting the ire of the EC.

He had also been makingthe “green virus” remark atelection rallies across UttarPradesh.

Social networking plat-forms Twitter, WhatsApp andFacebook had removed morethan 500 posts, advertisements,accounts and other objection-able content found to be vio-lating the model code of con-duct (MCC), following direc-tions from the EC, betweenApril 10 and 11.

“Facebook - 468 posts werereported and removed. Theposts included violations ofMCC and voter misinforma-tion. One post from Karnataka,two posts from Assam and theremaining from Telangana. 32ads active in Telangana wereremoved,” the EC had said onApril 11.

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Former Kolkata PoliceCommissioner Rajeev

Kumar alleged in the SupremeCourt that he was targeted byCBI in the Saradha Chit fundcase due to “mala fide intent”and “conflict of interest” of for-mer interim CBI director MNageshwara Rao as his familymembers were under the scan-ner post-demonetisation.

Kumar alleged that postdemonetisation in November2016, investigation was initiat-ed into some shell companiesthat prima facie were involvedin receiving huge deposits anda FIR was registered.

During the probe of shellcompanies, role of one firmAgela Mercantiles Pvt Ltd cameunder the scanner for collect-ing money from public unau-thorisedly, he said, allegingthat during further investiga-tion of the case names of wifeand daughter of Rao have cometo light and the matter is beingfurther probed.

“The mala fide intent of the

petitioner/CBI herein espe-cially in light of the fact thatFebruary 3, 2019, a Sunday, wasthe last day in office of theinterim CBI Director, is writlarge on account of the conflictof interest, in the instant mat-ter,” Kumar said in his 89-pageaffidavit.

It said that after thedemonetisation, on receipt ofinformation, the West BengalPolice initiated investigationinto some shell companies thatprima facie appeared to beactively involved in a scam,wherein these companies werereceiving huge sums ofdeposits.

“Taking due cognizance, aFIR was registered in thisregard, being Bowbazar...DatedJanuary 27, 2017. That, duringthe investigation into the saidcase, role of one company,namely Agela Mercantiles PvtLtd (AMPL) came under thescanner in connection withvarious dubious transactionsand also for collecting moneydeposits from the public unau-thorisedly,” it said.

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The Election Commission (EC) hasmade it cleared that the NaMo TV

will have to comply with the 48-hour‘election silence period’ ahead ofevery phase of voting. “Live coverage

can be done on NaMo TV but any pre-recorded content cannot be streamedfor 48 hours before the polling dateunder the ‘silence period’ stipulated inthe electoral law”, the EC said.

The EC has asked the chief elec-toral officer of Delhi to ensure that itsdirections are followed in each of theremaining six phases of the ongoingLok Sabha elections. The EC has alsosaid that all expenditure incurred onprogrammes and advertisements onNaMo TV should be identified appro-priately and attributed to candidatesor political parties.

The directions were issued to theDelhi CEO as he is the nodal officerto pre-certify political content in TVchannels and similar platforms whichare beamed nationally. He has alsobeen provided with a committeespecifically for the purpose, a sourceaware of the development said.

Section 126 of the Representationof the People Act “prohibits” displayof any “election matter” by means of“cinematograph, television or othersimilar apparatus”, 48 hours before thehour fixed for conclusion of poll in aparticular constituency.

This phase is called the ‘silenceperiod’ as it allows a voter to make uphis or her mind on whom to vote with-out being influenced by political cam-paigning. Section 126 is not applica-ble on the print media.

The direction, sources said, wasissued to bring clarity on the applic-ability of ‘silence period’ on NaMo TV.

On Thursday last week, the EChad concluded that since NaMo TV issponsored by the BJP, all recorded pro-grammes displayed on the platformshould be pre-certified by media cer-tification and monitoring committeeof Delhi and all political publicity con-tents being displayed without pre-cer-tification should be removed imme-diately.

After the Congress filed a com-plaint with the poll panel about thechannel disturbing the level playingfield, the EC had asked the Delhi CEOto file a report on the issue.

Earlier, the Ministry ofInformation and Broadcasting told thepoll panel that it was an advertisingplatform that did not require a licensefrom the ministry. The Delhi CEO hadapproved the logo of NaMo TV, whichthe BJP said is part of the NaMo Appthat it owns, but did not “certify” thecontent as it contained the old speech-es of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

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Having asserted to contestagainst Prime Minister

Narendra Modi from Varanasi,Bhim Army chiefChandrashekhar Azad onWednesday made a U turn say-ing his outfit will support theSP-BSP alliance so that theDalit votes remain intact todefeat the BJP.

Chandrashekhar’s remarkscomes a few days after BahujanSamaj Party chief Maywatitermed him a BJP agent andaccused him of dividing Dalitvotes.

The Dalit group’s founderalso said the Bhim Army willsupport the SP-BSP alliance ifit fields Satish Chandra Mishra,Mayawati’s general secretaryand Brahmin face of the BSP,from the Varanasi seat.

Earlier, the Bhim Armychief had accused Mishra ofmisleading Mayawati and con-spiring against the Dalit group.

“I have decided not to con-test from Varanasi because I donot want that my decisionshould strengthen the BJP orModi in anyway. We all want todefeat the BJP,” he said.

On Mayawati’s criticismof him, he said, “Our own peo-ple are calling us agents of theBJP, but I still want her tobecome prime minister.”At an event to mark BRAmbedkar Jayanti in Madhya

Pradesh’s Mhow on April 14, he had said

that the Bhim Army and notMayawati was the “real well-wisher” of Dalits.

Chandrashekhar said thatif the SP-BSP alliance fieldedMishra from Varanasi, theywill also be able to get someupper caste votes.

He had earlier attackedSamajwadi Party chief AkhileshYadav “for giving promotion toofficers who inflicted atrocitieson dalits”.

“His (Akhilesh) father saysin Parliament that he wantsModi to become prime minis-ter again. They are agents of theBJP, not me. They call me anagent for questioning them.Yes, I am an agent of B RAmbedkar... If my own peoplewere not in my way, I wouldhave shown you (Akhilesh)that if we can vote you topower, we can pull you downtoo,” he had said.

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The Congress on Wednesdayaccused the Modi

Government of “protecting”those involved in illegalexchange of money post-demonetisation by not order-ing a probe into video tapesreleased by the party even as itput forth another set of clipsshowing people involved inthe “loot” claiming proximityto the powers-that-be.

Simultaneously, the partyalso accused the Centre of tar-geting opposition leaders byusing agencies like the IncomeTax department andEnforcement Directorate. Itsaid the people of India willgive a befitting reply to the BJPin these elections.

Senior party leader KapilSibal asked why the “chowki-dar” (the watchman) was“asleep” when all this hap-pened. He alleged the absenceof any investigation into thevideos given as “proof ” indi-cated that “those involved inthis loot are being protected”.Prime Minister often refers tohimself as “chowkidar” (thewatchman) emphasising histough stand on corruption.

“It now appears that thedecision to demonetise mayhave helped criminals to mon-etise by looting the treasuryand the poor,” Sibal claimed.Those who have collaboratedwith corruption cannot pretendto be clean, he told a press con-ference, where he played the

fresh videos purportedly show-ing how huge amount ofmoney was exchanged in con-nivance with bank officialsand some others close to thepeople in power.

He, however, did notauthenticate the videos andthere was no immediate com-ment available from the BJP orthe government. The partyreleased similar videos onMarch 26 and April 9.

Sibal alleged that in theApril 9 “expose”, the party hadindicated the alleged involve-ment of one Rahul Ratharekar,a field assistant, and sought toprove his identity through hisidentity card, which was seenin the videos released that day.

He claimed that soon afterthe videos were released onApril 9, the Cabinet Secretariatissued a statement claimingthat “Rahul Ratharekar hadbeen a Constable level employ-ee of the Cabinet Secretariat butwas dismissed in June, 2017(after 5 years of service) on sus-picion of his role in exchangeof old currency notes, post-

demonetisation”.“This statement clearly

demonstrates that the exposemade on the scam, as reflect-ed in the videos shown onMarch 26, 2019 and April 9,2019, is genuine and the eventsseen in the video reflect themanner in which theseexchanges took place. “Theinvolvement of governmentfunctionaries, bankers and stateauthorities clearly demonstratea conspiracy to loot the trea-sury in a manner never seenbefore,” he alleged.

When asked about the ITand ED raids, Sibal claimedthat BJP is “flooded” withmoney and yet authorities aretargeting the Oppositionwhich is facing a cash“drought”. “We all know that ifany party is flooded withmoney, it is the BJP. The oppo-sition is going through adrought period. And who isbeing targeted, those who aresuffering from drought andthose who are flooded are notbeing targeted. That’s the beau-ty of Indian democracy andthis government,” Sibal said.

Election officials hadTuesday held searches at theresidence of DMK leaderKanimozhi in Tuticorin insouth Tamil Nadu from whereshe is contesting. Congresschief spokesperson RandeepSurjewala alleged that moti-vated I-T raids is the only toolleft with Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, and said thepeople can see through this.

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The Congress on Wednesdaylanded in a huge contro-

versy after its senior leader andRajasthan Chief MinisterAshok Gehlot said Ram NathKovind was made the Presidentof India because of caste con-siderations.

While the BJP called thecomment “anti-Dalit, anti-poorand anti-constitutional” anddemanded an apology andstrong action, Gehlot said itwas unfortunate that his com-ments during a Press confer-ence have been misquoted bya few media houses. Gehlot toldreporters that ahead of the 2017Assembly elections in Gujarat,the BJP was worried about itschances of forming theGovernment and the choice ofPresidential candidate was madewith votes in mind.

“People even say that RamNath Kovind was made

President considering theGujarat assembly elections in2017. I was reading an article.He (Prime Minister NarendraModi) was afraid that he wasnot going to form the govern-ment in Gujarat. BJP chiefAmit Shah might have givenhim suggestion after which itwas decided to make RamNath Kovind the president,”Gehlot had said.

“(Lal Krishna) Advani wasleft out though he had tobecome the President. Peopleof the country had expectationthat he (Advani) will get thehonour which he deserved butwas deprived. Though it isBJP’s internal issue, I am dis-cussing it because I read anarticle,” the Rajasthan chiefminister added.

Besides demanding anapology from Gehlot, the BJPurged the ElectionCommission to take cogni-sance of the matter and take

action against him. “It is veryunfortunate that RajasthanChief Minister Ashok Gehlot,a senior Congress leader whohimself is on a constitutionalpost made casteist remarkagainst the President, who isthe custodian of theConstitution,” BJP spokesper-son GVL Narsimha Rao said.

“A very low attack by theCongress against the highestconstitutional functionary inthis country,” the BJP said at apress conference held in Delhiwithin hours of Gehlot’s self goal.

“Is the Congress against aperson who comes from apoor background and belongsto the Dalit community?President Kovind is a highlyaccomplished individual. Thisis a condemnable statement.We expect apology and strongaction,” the BJP’s GVLNarasimha Rao said. Rao saidthe remark showed “anti-Dalit”mindset of the Congress.

Seeking to damage controlfollowing a outrage, Gehlot said:“I have the greatest regards forthe President of India, and per-sonally for Ramnathji whom Ihave met in person and highlyimpressed with his simplicityand humbleness,” Gehlot said inhis clarification after the outrage.

The Chief Minister’s Officesaid it was not Gehlot’s per-sonal opinion, he was quotingfrom an article he had read.

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Following the directions of theSupreme Court, the Election

Commission (EC) on Wednesday set upa high-level committee to review thebiopic on Prime Minister NarendraModi and furnish its recommendationby April 18. For its part, the BJP wrotea letter to the EC over a biopic alleged-ly being made on West Bengal ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjee anddemanded the Commission to reviewthe movie before its release in a simi-lar way the biopic of Modi wasreviewed.

“This is to draw your attention tothe news in the media that a biopicallegedly of Mamata Banerjee will bereleased on May 3, 2019 [namedBaghini],” the BJP said in the letter.

According to EC, senior DeputyElection Commissioner Umesh Sinha,Deputy Election CommissionersSandeep Saxena and Chandra BhushanKumar, Senior Principal Secretary KFWilfred , Director General DhirendraOjha and Delhi Chief Electoral OfficerRanbir Singh will be the member of thecommittee which will review the Modibiopic. The EC has asked the produc-ers of the film to arrange for a screen-ing for a committee set up for the pur-pose.

The Supreme Court on Mondaydirected the Commission to watch thefull biopic on Modi and take aninformed decision on banning its panIndia release by April 19. A bench head-

ed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi alsodirected the poll panel to submit itsdecision to the court in a sealed coverand said it will consider the matter onApril 22.

The Modi biopic, starring VivekOberoi and directed by Omung Kumar,tells the story of PM Modi’s rise topower from his humble beginnings.Acting on the complaints of politicalparties, including the Congress, the pollpanel had asserted that any biopic mate-rial with the potential to disturb thelevel playing field should not be dis-played in areas where Model Code ofConduct was in force.

On the other hand, the biopic onWest Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee“Baaghini” is being released on May 3.The EC has asked for a report fromWest Bengal Chief Electoral Officerover the biopic. “BJP requests theElection Commission of India and itsrepresentative in West Bengal the CEOto review the said biopic before release,on similar lines that was done by the ECin the case of another biopic depictingNarendra Modi,” the letter read.

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All the stakeholders in mar-itime security including

the Indian Navy and severalother agencies conducted abrainstorming exercise overthe outcome of the ‘Sea Vigil’exercise — the first-of-its-kindmulti-agency drill covering theentire 7,516 km-long Indiancoastline and ExclusiveEconomic Zone(EEZ).

The debriefing was heldon Tuesday after the Sea Vigildril l was conducted onJanuary 22 and 23 in which 13coastal States and UnionTerritories along with all mar-itime agencies participated tocheck the efficacy of maritimesecurity and surveillance inthe seas.

Nearly 150 ships, 40 air-craft and a number of otherstrategic assets of the Navy andCoast Guard were part of theexercise which, according to

the Navy, was “unprecedented”in its scale and size. Navy offi-cials said here on Wednesdaythe debriefing on the exercisewas held on Tuesday duringwhich significant resultsachieved in the course of thetwo-day drill were deliberatedupon.

The debriefing was chairedby Deputy Chief of the NavalStaff Vice Admiral MurlidharSadashiv Pawar, and wasattended by top functionariesof the Navy, Indian CoastGuard and concerned unionministries, agencies and rep-resentatives of the coastalstates.

“He complimented thestrong inter-agency coordina-tion and interoperabilityachieved during the exerciseand reiterated the need forflexibility and agility to dealwith security challenges,” NavySpokesperson Captain DKSharma said here.

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Acontingent of 41 battalions(41,000 personnel) of

Central paramilitary forces willbe deployed in West Bengal forthe conduct of theParliamentary polls in WestBengal for the remaining 40seats in six phases.

The polls for two seatswere held in the first phase onApril 11. For three seats, it willbe held on Thursday in the sec-ond phase. The significantdeployment comes in the back-drop of reports of violence inthe past elections, officials said,adding the number of theforces is the maximum to havebeen deployed in the State.

The State has a total of 42Parliamentary constituenciesand elections are being held ina staggered manner in sevenphases.

Elections to two con-stituencies was held in phaseone on April 11 with 8,400paramilitary men on theground for conduct of the pollsin Coochbehar and Alipurduar,while three seats will go to pollson Thursday in the secondphase. The state will haveseven-phased polls with theelections ending on May 19.

For polls in three seats ofJalpaiguri, Darjeeling andRaiganj on Thursday, as many

as 19,400 personnel aredeployed for the conduct of freeand fair polls.

The idea behind significantdeployment of Central forces is85 to 90 per cent of of thepolling booths in the State arecovered by the paramilitaryforces to check any incident ofvoter intimidation, boothattack or looting of EVMs aswas witnessed the panchayatpolls held in the State last yearand the Assembly polls in2016.

In view of the past trends,a number of polling boothshave been declared sensitivefrom the standpoint of possi-ble violence and suspicion ofdistribution of poll induce-ments, officials said.

About 2.7 lakh Centralparamilitary forces are beingmobilized for the conduct ofLok Sabha polls that began onApril 11 and will end on May19. The counting of votes isscheduled for May 23.

New Delhi: A day before thesecond phase of elections,Congress faced an embarrass-ment from within as a seniorspokesperson took to socialmedia to criticise the party lead-ership. Congress nationalspokesperson PriyankaChaturvedi on Wednesdayexpressed her displeasure afterher party decided to reinstateeight leaders who had allegedly“threatened” her at a press con-ference in Mathura recently.

“Deeply saddened thatlumpen goons get preference inthe party over those who havegiven their sweat and blood,”Chaturvedi said while retweet-ing the Uttar Pradesh CongressCommittee letter suspendingaction against the accused.The leaders, who reportedlymade a ruckus out of the pressbriefing, were reinstated byCongress General Secretaryincharge of Western UPJyotiraditya Scindia on thegrounds of apology tendered.

“Having faced brickbatsand abuse across board for theparty but yet those who threat-ened me within the party get-ting away with not even a rapon their knuckles is unfortu-nate,” she said.

The UPCC letter, men-tioned Chaturvedi’s complaintabout “undignified behaviour”by eight leaders at press con-ference regarding Rafale deal.In the letter, the eight leaderswere told not to do anything inthe near future that will tarnishthe party’s image.

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More than 5.86 crore votersspread across 38 Lok

sabha constituencies in TamilNadu will march to the pollingbooths on Thursday to casttheir votes to elect 38 lawmakers who would representthem for the next five years.

Though there are 39 LokSabha constituencies in theState, the President of Indiaheeding the request of theElection Commission of Indiarescinded the election fromVellore following large scaleseizure of cash from the resi-

dence and business premises ofthe DMK candidate KathirAnand. The date for the newelection from Vellore would beannounced afterwards.

Along with the 38Members of Parliament, elec-torate in 18 Assembly con-stituencies will elect their leg-islators to fill the vacancycaused by disqualification ofsome of the AIADMK MLAs bythe Speaker. Though there are22 vacancies in the Tamil NaduLegislative Assembly, electionfor the remaining four seatswould be held on May 29. Theresults of all the elections would

be announced on May 23.The high decibel campaign

for the Lok Sabha and 18Assembly by-election came toan end on Tuesday evening.Four more Assembly con-stituencies in the State wouldelect their representatives onMay 19 as the ElectionCommission could declare theschedule to these constituen-cies only after getting clearancefrom the Madras High Courtwhich was hearing petitionswith respect to these con-stituencies.

Hence a total of 22 by-elec-tions are being held in Tamil

Nadu. What is unique about thebye-election is that if the DMKmanages to win 21 of the 22seats, then there would be achange of Government in TamilNadu. The DMK alliance has 97members as of now and requires21 seats to unseat the AIADMKGovernment which has only113 members (excluding theSpeaker). M K Stalin, the DMKchief has been claiming from dayone onwards that his partywould win all the 22 seats.If Edappadi Palaniswamy’sAIADMK wins five seats, hewould get the absolute major-ity but it would be advisable if

he has at least 130 MLAs forsmooth sailing in the House.

The April 18 election inTamil Nadu would go down inhistory as the most fiercelyfought poll. By Tuesday evening,when it was time for switchingoff microphones and loudspeakers, Stalin raked up therefusal by Edappadi

Palaniswamy adminis-tration to intern his father

M Karunanidhi at theMarina Beach. It was at theinstance of the Madras

High Court which over ruledthe Opposition from the

AIADMK-led Government that

Karunanidh could be buried inMarina Beach though there areno rules which mandate that aformer chief minister should beburied at Marina Beach.

While the DMK-ledSecular Progressive Alliancebegan the campaign much ear-lier and with a clear advantageover the AIADMK-led front,the latter picked up momentumand caught up with the rivals.Though two more parties,AMMK of TTV Dhinakaranand MNM of film star KamalHaasan are also in race, it iswidely believed that they wouldend up as ‘also ran’.

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Voters on Wednesday askedfor cent per cent CAPF

coverage of polling boothseven as Bengal prepared forsecond phase of elections forthreeparliamentary con-stituencies of Darjeeling,Jalpaiguri and Raiganj onThursday amid tight security bandobast.

In an apparent bid to avoidelectoral violence like in thefirst phase the Commission hasappointed senior IAS officer

Ajay V Nayak as the SpecialObserver. He will work in tan-dem with Special PoliceObserver Vivek Dubey.

The ECI has requisitioned195 companies of Centralforces for the three con-stituencies out of which 64companies will alone be usedfor Raiganj witnessing a four-cornered contest featuring out-going MP of CPI(M) Md Salim,Congress’ Deepa Dasmunshi,TMC KL Agarwal and BJP’sSupriyo Sarkar.

Darjeeling which also has

a history of political violencewill be manned by 69 compa-nies of CAPF whereasJalpaiguri will get 52 companiesof central forces, EC sourcessaid. Out of 69 companies forDarjeeling seat 31 companieswill be deployed at Darjeeling,29 companies at Siliguri and 9company at Kalimpong.

Police Observer said about80 per cent of the boothswould be manned by the CAPFwhile the armed State policewill handle the remainingbooths.

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With absolutely no wave inthe air and severe drought

conditions spelling trouble forthe ruling Sena-BJP alliance, theOpposition Congress-NCPalliance smells a real opportu-nity to improve vastly upon itsmiserable 2014 tally of two inthe second phase of polls for 10Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtrascheduled for Thursday.

Like in the case of sevenconstituencies of easternMaharashtra that went to pollsa week ago, the ten poll-boundconstituencies — six of whichfall in Marathwada, three inVidarbha region and one inwestern Maharashtra — havebeen reeling under one ofworst agrarian crises that thestate has witnessed in recentdecades, a situation that hasmade matters very difficult forthe ruling saffron alliance.

Though it attempted toease the farmers’ distressthrough its the Rs 34,022 croreloan waiver scheme, the BJP-led saffron alliance has lost theperception battle against theOpposition which has madeagrarian crisis a major issue inthe polls. No wonder that thereare not many takers for chiefminister Devendra Fadnavis’claim that the saffron alliancegovernment has waived farmloans amounting to nearly Rs24,000 crore and benefitting 51lakh farmers (out of the total 89lakh beneficiaries).

Notwithstanding the claimsthat the Maharashtra govern-ment has extended relief to theaffected farmers, the suicides byfarmers are continuing unabat-ed in Vidarbha and Marathwadaregions, More than 300 debt-trapped farmers have commit-

ted suicide during the threemonths of the current year.

With the Modi magic notworking on ground and anti-incumbency factor weighing itdown, the BJP and Shiv Sena —which had collectively woneight out of ten seats in the2014 Lok Sabha polls — arestruggling to retain its hold inmore than half the poll-boundconstituencies.

On the contrary, theCongress — which had pickedup the only two seats it hadwon in the 2014 polls inMaharashtra from Marathwada— and the NCP — which hadbagged all its four seats fromwestern Maharashtra in theprevious polls — are showingsigns of making a recovery thistime around.

The constituencies that aregoing to polls on Thursday are:Hingoli, Nanded, Parbhani,Beed, Osmanabad, Latur (SC),all from Marathwada,Buldhana, Akola, Amravati(SC), all from Vidarbha andSolapur (SC), which is in west-ern Maharashtra.

The main contests arebetween the BJP-Sena combineand Opposition Congress-NCPin a majority of the con-stituencies. In a few of the con-stituencies like Akola,Osmanabad and Solapur, theDalit-Muslim front of VanchitBahujan Aghadi (VBA) arethreatening to cut into the tra-

ditional Congress-NCP votes.At stake are the reputations

of senior leader and formerUnion Home Minister SushilKumar Shinde (Solapur), for-mer chief minister AshoChavan of the Congress AshokChavan (Nanded) and late BJPleader Gopinath Munde’sdaughter Pritam Munde(Beed).

Shinde, who suffered ahumiliating defeat at the handsof Sharad Bansode of the BJPby a massive margin of 1,49,784votes, is taking on BJP’sMahaswami JaisiddheshwarShivacharya and BharipBahujan Mahasangh leaderPrakash Ambedkar, who isalso contesting from his homeconstituency of Akola.

Chavan, who was inciden-tally is one of the two Congresscandidates (out of its 26 can-didates) elected to Lok Sabha in2014 polls from Maharashtra inthe face of a fierce Modi wave,is seeking re-election againstBJP’s Pratap Patil-Chikhalikarin his home constituency ofNanded in Marathwada region.

Barring four terms,Nanded has been under thecontrol of the Congress since1952. While late S B Chavanrepresented the constituencytwice (1980 and 1984), AshokChavan himself was elected toLok Sabha once in a bye-elec-tion in 1987, following theresignation of his father. Late S

B Chavan’s son-in-law andAshokrao’s brother-in-lawBhaskarao Khatgaonkar hasrepresented the constituencythrice (1998, 1999 and 2009).In 2014 LS polls, Chavanromped home comfortably.

Pritam Munde, daughter oflate senior BJP leader GopinathMunde, is re-contesting thepolls on a BJP ticket fromMundes’ home constituencyof Beed against the NCP’sBajrang Sonawane.

The contest in Beed hasbecome a prestigious battlebetween Pritam’s sister and aminister in MaharashtraCabinet Pankaja Munde andher cousin and leader of theMaharashtra LegislativeCouncil Dhananjay Munde ofthe NCP. Dhanjay had rebelledagainst his late uncle GopinathMunde and joined the NCPwhen the latter was still alive.

In the politically significantconstituency of Osmanabad inMarathawada, NCP’s Ranajagjitsinh P Patil is taking on hiscousin and Shiv Sena nomineeOmraje Nimbalkar.

Ranajagjit sinh is the son ofMaharashtra’s senior formerminister and Sharad Pawar’sclose confidant Padamsinh Patil.Padamsinh is one of the nineaccused others in the much-dis-cussed murder case of 2006 inwhich Congress leaderPawanraje Nimbalkar and hisdriver Samad Abdul Wahid Kaziat Kalamboli, near Panvel, wereshot dead on February 3,2006.

In Amravati, four-timeSena MP Anandrao V. Adsul ispitted against South Indianactress Navneet Kaur Rana ofthe Yuva Swabhiman Party(YSP), supported by theCongress-NCP ledMahagathbandhan.

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The Madras High Court in Wednesday upheld the decisionof the Election Commission rescinding the Lok Sabha elec-

tion from the Vellore parliamentary constituency in Tamil Nadu.A Division Bench consisting of Justices S Manikumar andSubramanium Prasad dismissed the petitions filed by ACShanmugham, the AIADMK candidate and an independent can-didate seeking an order from the court for quashing the ElectionCommission’s decision. President Ram Nath Kovind rescindedthe Vellore Lok Sabha election on Tuesday. The judges said theEC which has the power to issue notification for conducting elec-tions, also has the power to recommend for cancellation if it hasarrived at the view that it is necessary to halt the election.

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Wayanad/Alathur: Launchinga blistering attack on NarendraModi, Congress Chief RahulGandhi said all that the PrimeMinister “does is tell lies andsteal from the poor people.”

Rahul, who addressed threeelection rallies in his WayanadLok Sabha constituency, spreadover the districts of Wayanad,Malappuram and Kozhikodeand campaigned in Thirthala inPalakkad district, attacked Modiand RSS and touched on cor-ruption.

“All the PM does is tell liesand steal from the poor people.Six airports were given to hisfriend Adani on the day thePulwama attack took place.And he (Modi) says they werefighting black money. Modisaid demonetisation was tofight black money, but itdestroyed the Indian economy.Fifty lakh people lost theirjobs after demonetisation,” theCongress chief said while wind-ing off his campaign atThrithala on Wednesday.

All praise for Wayanad,thesecond constituency from whereRahul is contesting for which hewas attacked by Modi and BJP,Gandhi said he wanted to rep-resent the remote district as the“beautiful place” symbolises dif-ferent ideas and cultures.

Addressing a rally inNagpur last week, BJP presi-

dent Amit Shah had chidedRahul for selecting his secondseat in north Kerala, saying“when a procession is taken outthere, it is difficult to make outwhether it is India or Pakistan.”

Shah was referring to theIUMLs green flags duringRahul Gandhi’s roadshow inWayanad on April 4 after filinghis papers. Rahul also said thesaffron party was arrogant andbelieved that they can re-defineIndian history.

“Only the Indian peoplecan define, decide about thecountry. It does not matter thatUttar Pradesh is much biggerthan Nagaland.The voice of allIndians matter. This is thefight that is taking place. Whydo these people want to defineIndia? The entire goal to re-define India is to steal fromIndia. The entire idea is to cre-ate two Indias.One India for theAmbanis, Adanis, Nirav Modis,Mehul Choksies, Vijay Mallyasand one for others”, Rahul saidlashing out at the PM.

He also said poor farmerswho took meagre loans ofaround Rs 20,000 were behindbars for non-repayment whilethe rich who availed loansover Rs 35,000 crore werewalking free. Continuing histirade against Modi and theRSS, the Congress presidentsaid issues of Kerala should be

decided by the people and notby Modi or the RSS chief.

In three rallies in Wayanad,he tore into BJP-led NDAGovernment and said the saf-fron party was only interested inimposing its ideology on peopleof the country. “Who is MohanBhagwat to teach us about cul-ture and history? Kerala shouldbe run by the people ofKerala.This is same sentiment inState after State,” he said,addressing a rally in Wayanad.

Taking a jibe at Modi, Rahulsaid he was not here to tell his‘Mann Ki Baat’, but understandthe various difficulties, includingthe night travel ban, man-animalconflicts and lack of medicalfacilities being faced by the peo-ple here. “I understand there arecomplex problems here. Thereare man-animal conflicts. Thereis a conflict between develop-ment and environment. I wantto see a solution. I don’t believein imposing a solution. I believein the wisdom and intellectual ofour people in resolving suchissues,” Rahul said. “I am not likethe Prime Minister. I am notgoing to make false promises andtell you I will give you two crorejobs or Rs 15 lakh in bankaccounts or that I will give farm-ers whatever they want. I am notgoing to lie to you. Because Irespect your intelligence, yourwisdom,” he added.

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Not happy with mere can-cellation of the business

visa of Bangladesh cine starFirdaus for taking part in anelection rally favouring RaiganjTMC candidate Kanhaia LalAgarwal, the BJP onWednesday upped the anteagainst the facilitators of theincident demanding “exem-plary punishment — if possi-ble incarceration and even can-cellation of the candidature —against those who flouted thevisa rules and used the foreignactor for electoral purpose.”

Bengal BJP vice presidentJP Majumdar said “it is notenough to send the actor backor cancelling his visa. The BJPalso wants the people who

used him by flouting the visarules to be jailed and if possi-ble the candidature of the can-didate concerned cancelled.”

The saffron leadership hadlaunched a formal complaintwith the Election Commissioneven as its leaders from Delhiquestioned Mamata Banerjee’ssecular credentials. “This is theway she is trying to send com-munal signal to the electorate bybrining Bangladesh stars to

influence a particular commu-nity in the elections,” said BJPleader GVL Narsimha Rao.

TMC leader and outgoingSerampore MP KalyanBanerjee however said he had“no information of any elec-toral law that debars foreign cit-izens in taking part in electionrallies.”

Elsewhere, the BJP andthe CPI(M) launched anothercomplaint against a TMC MLAfrom Chakdaha, Jharna Ghoshfor “inciting her party men tochase away the CRPF withbroom sticks.”

JP Majumdar quotedGhosh citing a video footage“telling her party women tochase away the CRPF withbrooms as ‘during a battle norule but only victory matters’

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Prime Minister NarendraModi on Wednesday said

he did not fall prey to Pakistan’snuclear blackmail, becauseIndia has the “mother ofnuclear bombs”.

Addressing three poll ral-

lies in his home State, Modialso claimed that the then UPAGovernment arrested BJP pres-ident Amit Shah and somepolice officers in Gujarat totopple the State Governmentthen headed by him.

At a campaign rally atSurendranagar, Modi referredto the surgical strikes and airstrikes by India inside Pakistanin response to terrorist attacksin Uri and Pulwama.

“Earlier, terrorists fromPakistan would come here andgo back after conducting anattack. Pakistan would threat-en us, saying it has the nuclearbomb and will press the button(if India retaliated).

“We have nuclear ofnuclear bombs (the mother ofnuclear bombs). I decided totell them, do whatever youwant to do (but we will retali-ate),” the Prime Minister said.

“In the past our peoplewould weep, go around theworld saying Pakistan did this,did that....It is now Pakistan’sturn to weep. “Didn’t ourjawans kill them by enteringtheir houses? Shall we not killthem by entering their houses?Shall we not take revenge forour martyred soldiers?” heasked the large crowd which

replied in the positive.“Today is Mahavir Jayanti,

the day to observe peace. Butwhen shall we have peace? Willanyone listen to a weak manmaking an appeal for peace orto the warning of a strong manwho can flex his mussels? Onlythe peace appeal of a strong manwill be respected, not that of aweak person,” Modi said.

He also alleged that theCongress spoke ill of the armedforces. “You must have seen howthe character of the Congressparty has changed in this elec-tion. The way the Congressspreads lies, and questions thecountry’s military, saying itsseniors are street goons, the AirForce chief is a liar...If you saysomething like this, will it notmake Pakistan happy?” he said.

Modi also slammed theCongress for seeking proof ofaction against terrorists. “When

we conducted surgical strike,Congress questioned us. Whenwe conducted air strike, it askedfor proof. Do you (Congress)trust your own sons or Pakistan’srhetoric?” the PM said.

Earlier, speaking at a pollrally in Himmatnagar, Modisaid the then UPA Governmentarrested BJP president AmitShah and some police officers inGujarat to topple the stateGovernment then headed byhim. Modi also said this electionwill decide if nationalist forceswill rule the country or thosewho want to help the “tukdetukde gang” by scrapping sedi-tion law. “From 2004 to 2014,there was a ‘remote controlgovernment’ and you knowwho was in control. In those 10years, those sitting in Delhi triedto damage the interest of Gujaratand acted as if the state is not inIndia,” Modi said.

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Slamming NCP chief SharadPawar for raising questions

about his family, PrimeMinister Narendra Modi onWednesday took a vicious digat Pawar for “serving” only onespecial (Nehru-Gandhi) fami-ly from Delhi for some manydecades.

“You (Pawar) are elder tome. You have a right to saywhatever you want to. Pawarcan say anything as per hisunderstanding and values. But,let me tell you that the life thatModi is leading is based on theinspirations of various families.I have been inspired by the fam-ily traditions of the greats likeMahatma Jyotiba Phule, BhagatSingh, Sukhdev Rajguru, SardarVallabhbhai Patel, Veer Savarkarand others,” Modi said.

Modi said the NCP chiefwould have learned more aboutfamily traditions if the latter hadtaken inspiration from late Y BChavan whom Pawar consideredhis “mentor”. “I know it is beyondyour capacity to lead the life ofModi. But, please learn from thefamilies of those who sacrificedtheir lives to the country.”

“But your model is a spe-cial family (Nehru-Gandhi)from Delhi. You have learnedthings only from them and youhave been serving only thatfamily,” Modi said.

Addressing a public rally inSolapur, Modi said he hadbeen at the receiving end ofabuses from Opposition lead-ers. “Despite that, I have beensincerely working for progressof nation and empowerment ofpoor people.

Exhorting the people tovote for a “stable” and “strong”government, Modi said:” In2014. you gave me a full major-ity and I could work with fullstrength to take firm decisionsand work for public welfare.You have witnessed how I ranthe country past five years”.

“The country needs astrong Government, not a ‘maj-boor’ (helpless) one. Only theBJP can provide a strong gov-ernment not the Congress-NCP alliance.... Even in yourvillages, you want a tough cop,not a ‘dheela-dhaala’ (weakand loose) policeman. Thesame is required for runningsuch a vast country, we need astrong leader,” Modi said.

Panaji: Senior BJP leader NitinGadkari said here onWednesday that four genera-tions of the Nehru-Gandhifamily have promised to erad-icate poverty without success.

Only the poverty ofCongress leaders was alleviat-ed in the process, he quipped,addressing BJP workers inMandrem Assembly con-stituency in Goa.

A by-election will be heldin Mandrem on April 23. TheUnion minister said thatJawaharlal Nehru, the country’sfirst PM, fought elections onthe plank of poverty eradica-tion. “But people remainedpoor...Later Indira Gandhifought the elections on thesame issue but she too could donothing,” Gadkari said.

Rajiv Gandhi as prime min-ister and Sonia Gandhi when shebecame Congress presidentrepeated the same ‘Garibi Hatao’slogan, he said. “In the currentelection, the great grandson ofNehru (Rahul Gandhi) is con-testing on the same plank ofGaribi Hatao (eradicate pover-ty),” he said. PTI

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Chief Minister YogiAdityanath continued to

send out subtle political mes-sages on the second day of histhree-day curb on campaigningin the ongoing Lok Sabha elec-tion by visiting a Dalit’s homefor lunch and meeting tripletalaq victims in Ayodhya onWednesday.

Yogi offered prayers atHanumangarhi temple andrecited Hanuman Chalisa. Inthe evening, he went for dar-shan of Ram Lalla and thentook part in aarti on the banksof the Saryu river.

The Chief Minister startedhis Ayodhya sojourn by visit-ing the house of Mahavir, aDalit, at Suthati Malin Basti and had food with the familymembers.

Mahavir’s wife Savitri saidthat the visit of the ChiefMinister to their house was like

god paying them a visit. “We did not have enough

to offer. The Chief Minister hadroti and sabzi and later took gur(jaggery) and water,” she said.

Savitri told reporters thatthe Chief Minister was painedat the condition of her houseand offered help to get itrepaired.

Before lunch, Yogi met asix-year-old girl, Neha Soni,and took her on his lap afterwhich the girl came up withseveral innocent questions.

When the Chief Ministerasked whether she was afraid ofcoming there, the girl saidwhere was the fear when Yogijiwas there. She even sang asong, much to the amusementof the Chief Minister.

Later, Yogi went to nearbyAshrafi Bhawan on foot andspoke to the people standing inthe by-lanes. He also spoke tostudents and enquired abouttheir studies.

Mumbai: Union MinisterMukhtar Abbas Naqvi onWednesday said Congress gen-eral secretary Priyanka GandhiVadra poses no threat to PrimeMinister Narendra Modi evenif she contests against himfrom Varanasi Lok Sabha seat.

He also criticised Congresspresident Rahul Gandhi for cre-ating a “fake narrative” againstthe BJP. “Someone is going to bethere in the fray (from Varanasi).But Priyanka does not pose anychallenge to Modi. The so-called ‘mahagathbandhan’(grand alliance) is already fallingapart...,” Naqvi said.

“I am not even sure howmany parties will contestagainst Modi in Varanasi, butthe outcome is not going to bedifferent. Modi will definitelywin the seat,” the BJP leader added.

There has been a specula-tion that Priyanka GandhiVadra may take on Modi fromVaranasi seat. She formallyentered politics and wasappointed the Congress generalsecretary for eastern UttarPradesh in February. PTI

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Asking the voters to shun theCongress and the Left for

their RSS links MamataBanerjee on Wednesdayappealed to the voters to send-maximum number ofTrinamool Congress MPs toParliament “so that Bengaltakesthe lead in forming aGovernment in Delhi” byremoving the “Gabbar Singh ofa Prime Minister.”

Attacking Narendra Modifor disturbing the peace of thecountry in his bid to dividevotes, Banerjee said “ModiBabu thinks that he is themostpowerful person in the coun-try. In his lust for power he hasset one community against theother and has divided India asnever before.If he is not defeat-ed this time then he will demol-ish the democratic set up of thecountry once and for all.”

Equating the PrimeMinister with as dreaded a per-son as Gabbar Singh of Sholayfame Banerjee said “todaywhenever the people hear of hisname they think that GabbarSingh has come. He scareseverybody into submission likethe Bargis (the Marathainvaders of Bengal of early17th century) used to do.”

Banerjee was addressing a

huge rally at Kandi inMurshidabad which has threeparliamentary constituenciestraditionally dominated by theCongress and the Left.

Attacking the PrimeMinister for trying to suppressvoice of Opposition she said“whenever anyone raises hisvoice against the PrimeMinister officers of IncomeTax and EnforcementDirectorate are sent to hishouse… See what they aredoing against ChandrababuNaidu in Andhra Pradesh,Kumarswamy in Karnatakaand MK Stalin in Tamil Nadu.”

It was this habit of clubbingthe opposition to silence withthe help of central agencies thatthe people would not take kind-ly. “The BJP will be defeated forthis haughtiness of theirs.”Attacking the Congress for hav-ing been a “stooge of the CPI(M)all these years,” she said.

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This time, Easter has tested thepatience of its believers, almost tothe limit. It usually happens exact-ly one month after the SpringEquinox. The festival shifts irreg-

ularly in the compass of 35 days, rangingfrom March 22 to April 25. But this shift isnot akin to that of a Hindu festival, say Holior Ram Navami. All Hindu festivals followa pendulum-like trajectory while shifting asper the lunar tithi year-on-year.

The Easter is reckoned according tothree factors — Spring Equinox (March 21),full moon and day of the week (Sunday). Itis the principal movable feast in the Christianliturgical calendar. Notwithstanding itsirregularity, future Easter dates could be pre-dicted hundreds of years in advance, algo-rithmically. However, determining its place-ment has been subject to major controver-sy in the past. Ironically, it was this contro-versy that triggered the reform of the Juliancalendar in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII.

Easter celebrates the supernaturalResurrection of Jesus Christ after his mor-tal death on the Cross. While theResurrection is in the domain of belief, hisdeath may be a historical event. There musthave been a date for it as per the Julian solarcalendar, applicable throughout the Romanworld then. The Romans were the mastersof Israel-Judea during the lifetime of Christ.Though Jesus was crucified according to theorders of a Roman Governor viz, PontiusPilate, the date of his crucifixion was eithernot recorded as per the Julian calendar orat any rate not available to us. In fact, it wasnever available to the Church, which led toa lot of kite-flying.

But evidence in the Gospel shows thatJesus was crucified around the Passover feastof the Jews. The Jews celebrate the Passoverfeast — in remembrance of their deliverancefrom Egyptian captivity by Moses — on the14th day of the month of Nissan of theHebrew calendar. Each month of the Hebrewcalendar begins on the morrow of the newmoon (which is actually no-moon oramavasya), the 14th day would be full moon.On that day, every Jewish family eats the rit-ually slaughtered and roasted Passoverlamb. Jesus had occasionally likened himselfto a lamb in the Gospel. His martyrdomcoinciding with the Passover feast carries areligious analogy. His last supper is believedto be the Passover feast meal.

The Jewish calendar is lunisolar, whichmeans an intercalary month is added (as inthe case of Vikram Samvat in India) to keepit abreast of seasons. The Nisan is a springmonth. But in ancient times, intercalationwas not done through any algorithm but byan arbitrary decision taken by the Jewishgrand assembly viz, Sanhedrin, based inJerusalem. Sanhedrin was in existence till thedestruction of ancient Israel in 70 AD. Thus,a day cannot be transposed from the oldJewish calendar to Julian Calendar with reli-ability.

One good way of determin-ing Easter for the Church was toconsult the Hebrew calendaritself. This was exactly what theearly Eastern churches, whichwere in closer communicationwith the Jews, did. Thus, theycelebrated the Easter feast on fullmoon on the month of Nisan,regardless of other factors. Butfor the Western churches, head-quartered in Rome, the day ofthe week was equally important.The concept of the week, as agrid of seven days, was incorpo-rated into the Julian calendar bythe Church. The week is astro-nomically an arbitrary conceptand ancient Romans were igno-rant of it. The Roman Churchemphasised the fact that Jesusrose from the dead on a Sunday,which is celebrated every weekin the form of a Sunday mass.Thus, Easter must be held on noother day expect Sunday. Sincethe Gospel says he rose from theday on the third day he was cru-cified, Friday became his day ofcrucifixion. This is called “GoodFriday.”

During the first centuryAD, the churches in the East andthe West mutually tolerated,celebrating Easter on differentdays. But towards the end of thecentury, there was a heatedexchange among correspon-dences on the subject betweenPolycrates, the bishop ofEphesus and Victory, the bish-op of Rome (equivalent toPope). Victor sternly severed thewhole Eastern Church frombeing in communion with the

Roman Church. This wasindeed the beginning of a splitin the Church into Western andEastern domains, which wascompleted a thousand yearslater in 1054 AD. TheEcumenical Council of Nicaeain 325 AD ruled that Eastershould be celebrated on Sunday,following the full moon, follow-ing the Equinox.

If the full moon happens tocoincide with the Equinox as ithappened this year or previous-ly in 1981, one will have to waitfor the ensuing full moon toapply the formula. But if the fullmoon occurred even a day later(provided it is not as late in theweek as of Saturday) the Eastercould be marked on that verySunday. But in the latter case, thefull moon should occur latest byFriday. This because GoodFriday has to precede the Easter.

The Equinoxes and Solsticestogether form the four pillars ofthe tropical calendar inaugurat-ed by Julius Caesar in 44 BC.These astronomical phenome-na were known to the ancientGreek astronomers long before.But Caesar made it an integralpart of the Western calendar,though it was not necessary thatthe year or month should beginfrom those points. In innovat-ing quadruple leap year, Caesarhad assumed the length of atropical year to be 365 days andsix hours; whereas in reality, itwas 11 minutes shorter (365days five hours 48 minutes and46 seconds). The surplus 11¼minutes remaining unadjusted

led to the Julian year over-shooting the natural year bythree days in the course of fourcenturies. Thus, by the time ofthe Nicaean Council in 325AD, the Spring Equinox hadshifted from original March 24to March 21.

But in the absence of a cor-rective mechanism, the Equinoxshifted to March 11 over thenext 12 centuries. The Churchmight not have bothered itselfwith Equinox but for determin-ing the Easter. How Equinoxesand Solstices had shifted overage is pithily described in a let-ter written by French theologianand astronomer Cardinal Pierred’Ailly (1350-1425) to Pope(now regarded as Anti-Pope)John XXIII Baldassare Cossa in1411.

Pierre d’Ailly’s ambitiousplan to reform the Julian calen-dar could not be taken up at theEcumenical Council at Rome in1412 nor at the Council ofConstance in 1414-18. But it cre-ated a tempo which culminatedin the Gregorian reform of thecalendar in 1582. By cancelling10 days from the calendar in1582, the Spring Equinox wasrestored to March 21 as in daysin Nicaean Council in 325 AD.Pope Gregory XXIII wanted afixed date for Easter, likeChristmas, a demand that con-tinued to be echoed till the 20thcentury by various stalwarts.This, however, has not comeabout.

(The writer is an indepen-dent researcher)

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Sir — The Supreme Court hasbeen just in allowing the use ofthe three leaked ‘classified’ doc-uments as evidence in the Rafalereview case, dismissing theGovernment’s objections. Themonumental efforts put forth byYashwant Sinha, Arun Shourie,Prashant Bhushan and N Ram toexpose the murky Rafale dealdeserve accolades.

One hopes that the SupremeCourt will soon bring the case toits logical end after the recently procured evidence,shedding light on the wilfuldefaults in the surreptitiousdeal, is examined. Culprits mustbe brought to book.

Tharcius S FernandoChennai

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Sir — This refers to the editor-ial, “EC’s test of faith” (April 17).Following a severe stricture onthe Election Commission (EC)by a Bench headed by ChiefJustice of India Ranjan Gogoi,the electoral body was forced totake a flurry of actions, leading

it to issuing gag orders on somesenior leaders, including UttarPradesh Chief Minister YogiAdityanath Samajwadi Partyleader Azam Khan and BJPleader Maneka Gandhi.

Earlier, the EC had cut asorry figure when it came to bellthe cat and rein in politicalparties who flexed their muscles.The court reminded the EC ofthe powers vested in it by the

Constitution and reprimanded itseverely for failing to dischargeits duties.

Some leaders have regular-ly been violating the modelcode of conduct and were alsoon a spree of spitting hatespeeches. Sadly, the EC failed toact and remained a mute spec-tator to such incidents. Now, theSupreme Court has done well tostrengthen the EC to ensure just

and fair election.The general election in our

country is touted to be thelargest democratic process in theworld and every citizen must feelproud that he/she is somebodywho has played a role in decid-ing who should head the newGovernment at the Centre. Inthis process, the EC is the cus-todian to oversee that “just andfair election” takes place. The

country does not need a sem-blance of just and fair election,but a real ‘just and fair’ electionin every sense must take placeand a real Government out ofthe will of the people mustcome to take the country for-ward. In this regard, the role ofthe EC is greater than what itplaying now.

TK NandananKochi

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Sir — This refers to the editorial,“EC’s test of faith” (April 17). Itis shameful that the SupremeCourt had to step in to remind theElection Commission (EC) aboutits constitutional powers. But it isencouraging that after beingpulled up by the top court, the ECdid take action against four errantpolitical leaders who had madesome shocking and divisive state-ments. The EC may be a toothlesstiger but it deserves credit for hav-ing taken swift action againstthese leaders.

SaritaVia email

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The might of the mountainranges is almost mythical. Thesenatural formations have not

only shaped history and topographybut have also played a pivotal role inconserving the ecology. These onceformidable ranges — be it the WesternGhats along the south-western coastof India or the Aravallis in the North— have existed unchallenged through-out the history of time. But the reignof supremacy for these colossal won-ders seems to be waning thanks todeteriorating environmental and wors-ening climate conditions. The nega-tive role played by mankind is unfor-tunately expediting the end of thesemarvels of nature.

The Aravalli mountain range isone of the oldest in the world. It

extends across more than 693 kmsfrom Gujarat to Delhi (throughRajasthan and Haryana). TheAravallis, with their vast landscapeand biological diversity, have shapedIndia’s northern landscape in moreways than one.

They guide the monsoon cloudsand act as a groundwater rechargezone. Thus, they are important forlong-term ecological security of Indiancities. The Aravallis also help in pre-venting long-term desertification.They act as a barrier against the wind,carrying sand from the Thar Desertand prevent it from entering theDelhi-NCR region.

Greenery associated with thismountain range has been replacedwith dry and dusty shrub-like environ-ment. This is due to the mountainrange being subjected to decades ofabuse and threats from mining activ-ities and large-scale real estate devel-opments. The degradation of theAravallis has led to a decline inwildlife habitat, thus adding to the ani-mal-human conflict. The revival of theAravallis has become almost an uphill

task, thanks to the many problemsassociated with it and the continuousintervention of humans. The situationhas been exacerbated due to a declinein rainfall in the past few decades,which has led to the depletion of thegroundwater table.

As the Aravallis paid the price ofbeing close to human habitations,human intervention sadly did not stopat deforestation of the mountains. Thereal estate lobby and the miningmafia started eyeing the geologicalwealth of the mountain ranges.Political protection and apathy of theauthorities further compromised the

already delicate condition of therange. And it’s not that only the ter-rain has been affected. People andcommunities, who were dependent onthe Aravallis, are now faced with anuncertain future. Further, large-scalemining with dynamites blowing uphuge tracts of granite rocks causedrelentless vibrations and tremors thatled to the permanent displacement ofmany bird species that were native tothe area.

Prosperity of a region is directlyproportionate to the concern and careshown by the local people towardstheir natural assets and resources. This

is exactly the problem with conserva-tion initiatives for the Aravallis as thepeople as also the officials have notrealised the potential of natural mar-vel that they have at their disposal.They could only decipher the econom-ic value of the range. As a result, thisamazing creation of nature with all itsunique flora and fauna was taken forgranted and exploitation started to fin-ish off large stretches.

To make matters worse, theHaryana Government recentlypassed an amendment in the PunjabLand and Preservation Act, a law thatwas drafted by the British in 1900.With a change in the law, it is nowbeing feared that large areas of theAravalli forest area, that were earli-er protected, will now face the riskof being used for development pur-poses. But the Haryana Governmentdefended the Act by stating that eventhough the protection of forests wasits priority, the present scenario alsorequired changes to be done, espe-cially at a time when the State has toprogress ahead.

This is shocking as the authori-

ties admit that the State’s progressmust happen at the cost of ecologyand the environment.

There is no way to undo the dam-age done to the Aravalli range.Humans have exacted a terrible pricefrom nature. The sad thing is that allof this is happening under the super-vision of State authorities. Miningmafia trucks ply day-in and day-out,carrying loads of stone extractedfrom the quarries deep within theAravallis.

In the midst of these dreary andgrim conditions, all hope is not lost.The judiciary of India is playing a van-guard role by taking up critical issuespertaining to the well-being of thecountry and environment is certain-ly one of them. The National GreenTribunal (NGT) has intervened manytimes to ensure that the environmentis safe. In matters pertaining to theAravallis, too, the judiciary mustintervene. This alone can stop the oth-erwise certain doom and death for themuch-fabled Aravalli ranges.

(The writer is an environmentaljournalist)

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By now, it’s common knowledge thatMahatma Gandhi, without whom thecall for independence from Britishrule would never have reached theIndian masses, had wanted the Indian

National Congress (INC) to be disbanded afterindependence. That it was a party of the Britishand the Indian English-educated elite was clearto him and he knew that this was not what“freedom” truly meant. The purpose of INC asenvisaged was to achieve independence fromBritish Raj and to not hand over the countryto them on a platter. Gandhiji was clear that theINC needed to be disbanded after the Britishleft India. But what he wanted did not happen.He increasingly became disillusioned after inde-pendence. After his assassination, pressure tohave a truly representational democracy tooka backseat and the corrupt cronyism of the INCheld sway.

Gandhiji was indeed right about INC. It didnot quite truly understand what nationalismwas. It still does not and does not even seemto care about it. As the 2019 election campaignis in full swing right now, we can see how thegrand old party relentlessly disparages thenation, fails to stand by our brave armed forcesand even scoffs the country’s phenomenalachievements —Mission Shakti and the testingof the first anti-satellite missile system thatmade us the fourth nation in the world to havethis critical defence capability are a few exam-ples. With 70 years of independence, we are nowa witness to some of the most negative state-ments against the nation by INC members. Somuch so that today, even those Indians, whowere supportive of the Congress, are stunnedat the lows the party has taken.

In no other democratic country does theOpposition party ridicule the nation’s achieve-ments or take sides with the enemy country —when its soldiers have been massacred by ter-rorists like in Pulwama — as in India. For, theiropposition is to the ruling party and never totheir nation. The INC’s behaviour as anOpposition party will be unthinkable say inBritain or the US where leaders’ loyalty to theircountry remains unquestioned — it defines whothey are as a people.

So, why is it that in India we have a partylike INC, whose statements, like the one doubt-ing the Balakot strikes, sound like they are thesame as the ones made by politicians inPakistan? Why is it that the leading Oppositionparty is unable to distinguish between the nationand the ruling party and spares no opportuni-ty to belittle the country? It’s, therefore, worthasking: Does this disconnect with the countryhave much deeper roots, going back to the for-mation of the INC itself?

INC still not rooted in India: The partywas founded in 1885 by AO Hume, a Britishimperial civil service officer. But did the partyask for complete independence soon after it wasformed? No. It was only after 44 years of its for-mation that the INC demanded poorna swara-jya for India in December 1929. Until then, allthat it meekly asked the British was a domin-ion status for the country. And who were theparty’s members? They were a part of theBritish elite — those Indians who were educat-ed in England and who held wealth and socialstanding. The formation of the INC can itselfbe seen as a smart move by the British to main-tain a sense of stability, badly shaken as theywere by the First War of Independence or whatthey called the Mutiny of 1857. It is an unde-niable fact that early members of the INClooked up to British education and governanceas means to achieving a “stable India.” Thereare documented references to past Indian pres-idents of INC eulogising the British Raj and oneof its presidents, Pandit Bishan Narayan Dar,

even said that British rule in India was the“greatest gift of providence to his race.”

Point to be noted here is that nowhere doesthe INC website mention about Hume. Historyof this party is one that was never actually root-ed in India’s cultural identity as a basis fornationhood. This is a deeper theme in itself.

In the historical context, recent public pro-nouncements by INC members, who havealarmed many Indians and provided fodderdangerously enough to Pakistan, bears referenceto the party’s history. The INC was indeed socosy with the British that its prominent mem-bers failed to create a national identity thatcould resonate in its being — either before orafter independence. The ones, who stood fora stronger and more assertive tone in demand-ing legitimate rights for the people, werestaunch nationalists but were deemed as“extremists.” And this is well-known viz, thedivisions between the “moderates” and the“extremists” in the INC.

The firebrand, who gave the first clarion callfor swarajya before Gandhiji, was LokmanyaBal Gangadhar Tilak, who said, “Swarajya is mybirthright and I shall have it” in 1906. This callcame at a time when the INC was led by themoderates (which was true for its first 20 yearsof existence, working only on policy changesthrough administrative means). INC’s topleaders didn’t really want to let go off the Britishrule as they thought of it as being beneficial tothe nation. This can be seen in the stated posi-tion of several INC presidents of the early days.

What is INC’s position on nationalism?The party has never come to terms with whatits position on India as a nation is and what itmeans to be an Indian. This could be becauselike many Indians believe, there was no armedstruggle by its members to achieve indepen-dence, no suffering and no pain. It was, in fact,the armed resistance by the Indian NationalArmy (INA), led by Netaji Subhash Chandra

Bose, that pushed the British to the wall andraised the daunting prospect of an outrightmutiny — the INA’s contribution to India’s inde-pendence is undeniable. The sacrifices made byINA soldiers are, however, not what we thinkabout in the common narrative of India’s inde-pendence.

Unlike other nations, India did not reallywin a war and defeat foreign forces to reclaimits sovereignty. So, post-independence, the INCcaptured national consciousness by means ofeducational propaganda that highlighted theparty’s role in the freedom struggle when thefact remains that none of the prominent lead-ers from INC lost their lives to gain indepen-dence. The great sons of India, who sacrificedtheir lives like Shaheed Bhagat Singh, Rajguru,Chandrashekhar Azad and Khudiram Bose,were not talked about in the public domain.Instead, India’s freedom from the British wasand is still showcased as being an INC affair,failing to highlight the internal struggles with-in the party in its early days with the “moder-ates” toeing the British line of administrativereform and discussions and “extremists”demanding freedom from foreign rule beforeGandhiji came to India and led the struggle.Needless to say, these “extremists,” or assertivenationalists, didn’t really make it big in INC astime went on after independence.

This then is the problem with INC: It neverbelieved in the main pillars that define a coun-try — a unified core cultural identity and mil-itary strength that builds a nation. This is whywhen quite naturally all Indians would feel aswell of pride on the achievements of the mil-itary, Congressmen don’t. The INC’s disparag-ing stand on the brave and impactful Balakotstrike by the Indian Air Force even disturbedformer party leaders like Tom Vadakkan, whospoke about it later when he was asked as towhy he decided to join the BJP.

A disconnect with India: With no clear

policy except for mentions like secularism, theparty members’ lack of national pride remainedobfuscated from public knowledge all thesedecades except for the occasional mention of1971 and Bangladesh (of course, it didn’texplain why 90,000 PoWs had to be returnedto Pakistan to keep aflame the fire of hatredagainst India in them as free Pakistanis and goon to spawn anti-India terrorism). The truthof the INC — as a party still comprising theEnglish-speaking elite, scoffing at all that isanti-thetical to its understanding — is beingexposed now. All of this reveals a well-entrenched disconnect with Indian ethos andpride of the people.

In the 10 years of UPA rule, there was noth-ing much to feel proud about but much to bedisheartened about, including the cowardlysilence by the Congress’ powers-that-be in Delhiafter the horrendous Mumbai 26/11 attacks. Butafter losing power in 2014, party leaders havemaintained a unified stance to run down India’ssignificant achievements.

Since the last five years, India has touchedsignificant highs on defence and technologyfronts, something it had not pursued in its yearsin governance. So its principal strategy is toattack Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Given its origin, it is difficult for the INCto internalise the idea of India, the nation, itspride, its spirit and its civilisational sanctity. Forit, poll time means reviving divisive agenda andlet’s not forget that the divide and rule policyworked well for the British, who inspired andfounded the INC anyway. And so this sagaendures. It is time for the voters to inform them-selves of the history of the INC and realise thatit never really came around to re-modellingitself from its British past as colonised subjects.And any party, which chooses to ally with theINC now, is also standing by the same credoof perpetuating that legacy.

(The writer is a social activist)

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Cracking thewhip on

budget carrierIndiGo over theissue of faultyPratt & Whitneyengines, aviationregulator DGCAhas served show-cause notices toits chief operat-ing officer ande n g i n e e r i n ghead, sourcesclose to thed e v e l o p m e n tsaid onWednesday.

T h eD i r e c t o r a t eGeneral of Civil Aviation(DGCA) is also carrying out aspecial safety audit of the car-rier as it has found issues in“operations and engineeringof the country’s largest airline,”an official source said.

While IndiGo confirmedthe receipt of show-causenotices and the safety audit,DGCA chief BS Bhullar saidthe regulator carries outdetailed audit of all airlines at

least once a year.He, however, did not com-

ment on the show-cause noticesaying, “we conduct detailedaudits of all airlines at least oncea year. IndiGo’s audit is thismonth, and another airline’s isin June. Every audit involvessome action.”

“The DGCA has issued ashow-cause notice last week toIndiGo’s chief operating officer

Wolfgang Prock-Schauer andengineering head SC Guptaover the Pratt & Whitneyengines issues,” the source said.

“The regulator is also con-ducting a special safety audit ofthe airline after coming acrossissues in its operations andengineering,” he said.

IndiGo and GoAir, whichhave Pratt & Whitney-poweredAirbus A320 Neo planes, havebeen facing problems with

these engines, manufactured bythe US firm, since their induc-tion three years ago.

“We confirm that there iscurrently a DGCA audit onIndiGo which is combinedwith the annual main baseaudit. We have received a lim-ited number of show causenotices,” IndiGo said in astatement to PTI.

The airline also said it has

responded accordingly and itcan only comment on thismatter after it has discussionswith the regulator on the mat-ter but refused to comment onthe reasons for the audit.

“We can confirm that ouroperations are run in morestringent ways as prescribed byregulatory framework. As thisis an ongoing audit we can onlycomment after the process isover,” the airline added.

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India’s fastmoving con-

sumer goods(FMCG) indus-try is likely togrow at a slow-er pace at 11-12percent in 2019,almost 2 per-cent lower thanthat in 2018,says a report.

The indus-try is alsoexpected to grow at 12-13 per-cent during the April to Junequarter of the calender year2019, according to Nielsen.

“In line with the FMCGgrowth forecast for Q1 2019 at13-14 percent, this sector grewat 13.6 percent. We are wit-nessing a softening of growth by1-2 percent sequentially everyquarter leading to healthy dou-ble digit growth in the first halfof the year followed by a highsingle digit growth in the secondhalf of the year,” Nielsen said.

Nielsen maintained thatthe FMCG industry growthoutlook will be in the range of11-12 percent in 2019, almost2 percent lower than that in2018.

The volume growth whichpeaked in 2018 to 11 percent isexpected to be healthy butlower at 8.5- 9.5 percent inFY19, it added.

It noted that the 13.6 per-cent growth in first quarter isslightly lower than the lastquarter of 2018 (-2.3 percent

from the previous quarter).“Similar sentiments are

witnessed in the economy witha 6.6 percent GDP growth inthe December quarter of 2018against an expected 6.8 percent.Inflationary pressure is alsoseen mounting in recentmonths from 2 percent inJanuary 2019 to 2.9 percent inMarch 2019,” it added.

“While slight drop is wit-nessed in urban growth, thereis a significant softening ofgrowth trends in rural which isdampening the overall FMCGindustry growth from thirdquarter of 2018 to first quarterof 2019.

Historically, rural hasgrown 3-5 percent points fasterthan urban and the recentslowdown in rural growth hasbrought the growth closer tothe urban growth.

“The overall drop wit-nessed in rural growth ismajorly driven by slow down inpackaged food category,” itnoted.

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The NCLAT has sought aresponse from Reliance

Group Chairman Anil Ambaniwithin 10 days over a contemptplea filed against him andother officials by the minorityshareholders alleging non-pay-ment of dues by one of itsgroup firms.

An NCLAT bench headedby Chairman Justice S JMukhopadhaya said he wouldlike to hear Ambani and otherrespondents over the contemptpetition filed by HSBC DaisyInvestments (Mauritius) andsome other minority share-holders of the company overalleged breach of undertakingfor payment by group firmReliance Infratel.

“We intend to hear thelearned counsel appearing onbehalf of the contemnor-respondents (Anil Ambani andothers),” the bench said.

“They may file short replywithin ten days. Rejoinder, ifany, may be filed by the appel-lants within a week thereof,” itadded.

The National CompanyLaw Appellate Tribunal(NCLAT)has directed that thematter be listed on May 20,2019 for admission.

HSBC Daisy moved theappellate tribunal over allegeddefault of payment of �230crore by Reliance Infratel.

During the proceedings,counsel appearing for HSBCDaisy submitted that the order

passed by NCLAT on June 29,2018 amounts to an undertak-ing given by the parties in aconsent decree over payment of�230 crore and a breach of suchundertaking amounts toContempt of Court.

As per the consent terms ofthe agreement betweenReliance Infratel, HSBC Daisyand others, recorded by theNCLAT in its order dated June26, 2018, the Anil Ambani-owned firm was to pay theamount in the next six months.

The six-month period hascome to an end followingwhich HSBC Daisy and othernine minority shareholdersholding 4.26 per cent stake inReliance Infratel filed the con-tempt plea.

Earlier, on January 2,NCLAT had disposed of thecontempt plea filed by HSBCDaisy on technical grounds.

However, the tribunal hadgiven it the liberty to withdraw

its plea to approach again withits contempt plea against theofficials of Reliance Infratel.

HSBC Daisy and otherminority investors of RelianceInfratel had moved NationalCompany Law Tribunal(NCLT) Mumbai allegingoppression and mismanage-ment after the company hadallegedly not taken their con-sent for selling the tower andfiber assets.

NCLT in March 2018 halt-ed the sales process, followingwhich Reliance Infratel movedNCLAT challenging the order.

Later, on June 29, RelianceInfratel and its minority share-holder, HSBC Daisy submittedfinal consent terms of their set-tlement before NCLAT overthe sale of tower and fibreassets.

Following this, the appel-late tribunal had disposed ofthe appeal filed by RelianceInfratel.

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The Indian traveller hascome of age, spending

approximately $94 billion in2018, on approximately 2 bil-lion domestic and internation-al trips, helping the Indiantravel and tourism industryachieve unprecedented scale.The momentum is expected tocontinue and the industry willgrow at a 13 percent CAGR to$136 billion by 2021, accordingto a new report titled, ‘HowDoes India Travel’, released byBain & Company and GoogleIndia today.

The report outlines, howIndia as a market spends ontravel, the influence of onlinechannels in their purchasingjourney and potential growthopportunities for travel busi-

nesses up until 2021.Deep diving into the $136

billion spending, the reportcites a 12 percent growth intransportation ($50 billion),as well as a 13 percent growthin lodging ($21 billion) andconsumption. This includesspending on shopping, recre-ation and food, which are set togrow at 13 percent ($65 billion)over the next three years.Additionally, as more peoplecome online, smartphone pen-etration will continue toimprove and the use of digitalpayments goes up, with thereport estimating that Indiantravellers will spend an addi-tional $24 billion on onlinetravel bookings over the nextthree years, a growth from 25percent in 2018 to 35 percentin 2021.

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Protectionism does not real-ly help preserve jobs and

offers little defence against thejob-destroying effects ofautomation and ArtificialIntelligence, Former ReserveBank of India GovernorRaghuram Rajan has said,asserting that industrial anddeveloping nations cannotafford to ignore the democra-tic reaction from those leftbehind by globalisation andtechnological change.

Delivering the keynoteaddress at the 2019 ECOSOCForum on Financing forDevelopment at the UNHeadquarters on Monday,Rajan said the open liberaldemocratic market system thatbrought the world enormousprosperity in the six decades orso after the second World Waris now under attack.

“Interestingly the criticsare not the usual radical acad-emics or leftist leaders, insteadthey come from some of themost prosperous nations in

the world. These are nationsthat have benefited tremen-dously from the open worldorder,” he said.

Rajan, the KatherineDusak Miller DistinguishedService Professor of Finance atthe University of ChicagoBooth School of Business, said,“We know that protectionismdoes not really help preservejobs. In this competitive world,jobs gained by a country in theprotected sector are often lostin other sectors that are nowrendered uncompetitivebecause they pay higher pricesfor inputs.

He added that protection-ism offers “little defence”against the job destroyingeffects of automation andArtificial Intelligence, whichoften are the larger source ofjob losses.

“The only guaranteeagainst redundancy is to helpthe workforce stay aheadthrough constant retraining. Aspopulations age in industrialcountries, more of them willbecome reliant on foreign

demand from younger coun-tries outside, especially devel-oping countries and emergingmarkets to boost growth,” hesaid.

“Is it wise to block importstoday from the very countriesyou will have to export to in thefuture? Probably not,” he said.

Rajan said that whilenations recognise the cost ofprotectionism, it is true that“we cannot afford to ignore thedemocratic reaction fromthose left behind by globali-sation and technologicalchange. This should be trueboth of industrial, countriesand developing countries. Wehave to pay more attention tothose left behind.”

He added that if concernsof these people are to beaddressed while preservingan open world, “we shouldstart by recognising that theglobalisation of trade andinvestment flows has disem-powered people and theircommunities.”

The ECOSOC Forum onFinancing for Development

follow-up (FfD Forum) is anannual platform to promoteconsensus among key stake-holders on financing for sus-tainable development.Ministers, senior UN officials,high-level finance officials, civilsociety, business representa-tives and local authorities, aremeeting at UN Headquartersfor the four-day FfD Forum,which will run from April 15 to 18.

Rajan told the audience atthe forum that there is a needto preserve a world open totrade and investment but “weneed to keep democratic sup-port in order to do it.”

“I would argue that wemust follow the principle ofsubsidiarity much more strict-ly going forward. Decisionsshould be taken at the lowestlevel consistent with effectivegovernance. These decisionsmust be taken with an idea ofcooperation, they must betaken responsibly given thespillovers both to the countryas well as to the rest of theworld,” he said.

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Markets regulator Sebi hasbarred Bengaluru-based

Siyaram Development andConstruction Ltd and its eightdirectors for at least four yearsfrom the securities market forillegally raising funds.

Besides, the regulatordirected the entities to refundthe money collected by thecompany along with 15 percent interest.

Based on a complaint byan investor regarding non-payment of maturity amountof his investment, Sebi con-ducted a probe to ascertainwhether the firm had madeany public issue without com-plying with the relevant pro-visions of Sebi and theCompanies Act.

During the probe, the reg-ulator found that the firm

had allotted securedredeemable debentures (SRDs)between financial years 2010-11 and 2012-13 and raised atleast �4.22 crore from morethan 49 allottees.

The number of allotteesand the amount of moneyraised during the said periodcould be more, Sebi said.

Moreover, the firm creat-ed a charge for an amount of�70 crore and appointedKalpana Guha as its debenturetrustee.

As the number of allotteeswas more than 49, it wasdeemed to be a public issueand required a compulsorylisting on a recognised stockexchange.

Further, the company wasrequired to file a prospectus,among others, which it failedto do, Sebi said in an order onTuesday.

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Pine Labs on Wednesdayannounced that it has

signed a definitive agreementto acquire Bangalore-basedgift card solutions provider,Qwikcilver, for $110 million,subject to closing conditions.The transaction has beenfunded from the company’scash reserves and additional

funding from existinginvestors.

Pine Labs processes annu-alized payments of $20 billion.This acquisition will bringtogether the strengths of PineLabs’ merchant-focused andQwikcilver’s brand-focusedsoftware-as-a-service (SaaS)technology platforms, and aug-ment their Indian and inter-national market reach.

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The Government has invitedinitial bids for selling its

entire stake in IndianMedicines PharmaceuticalCorporation Ltd (IMPCL).

IMPCL is engaged in man-ufacture and supply of‘ayurvedic’ and ‘unani’ medi-cines and is under the Ministryof AYUSH.

The Government holds98.11 per cent stake in IMPCLand the rest 1.89 per cent isheld by UttarakhandGovernment PSU KumaonMandal Vikas Nigam Ltd.

The Government has comeout with a “global invitation” forExpression of Interest for theproposed strategic disinvest-ment of its entire stake inIMPCL.

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Embattled liquor tycoonVijay Mallya on

Wednesday took to socialmedia once again, this time toexpress his solidarity with JetAirways founder NareshGoyal and repeat his ownoffer to repay all the moneyhe owes to India’s public sec-tor banks.

The 63-year-old, fightinghis extradition to India oncharges of fraud and moneylaundering amounting to analleged �9,000 crores, claimsprivate airlines were discrim-inated against by the IndianGovernment, which bailedout state-owned Air Indiabut did not assist his ownKingfisher Airlines and nowJet Airways.

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The meeting of 25 WTOmember countries on May

13-14 here is expected to comeout with a declaration on crit-ical issues including ‘specialand differential treatment’ fordeveloping nations andimpasse over the appointmentof members to the appellatebody of dispute settlement,sources said.

The other issues that couldfigure in the meeting include

fishery subsidies and publicstockholding in agriculture,they said.

India has convened a meet-ing of 25 developing membernations of the World TradeOrganisation (WTO) on May13-14 here.

The meet assumes signifi-cance as several countries areraising questions over the rele-vance of the Geneva-based glob-al trade body. Many countries arealso taking protectionist mea-sures, impacting global trade.

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China Wednesday dismissedreports that the US, the UK

and France have served an ulti-matum to Beijing to lift its“technical hold” by April 23 onbranding Pakistan-based JeMchief Masood Azhar as a glob-al terrorist by the UN butclaimed the vexed issue was“moving towards settlement”.

After the Pulwama attack, afresh proposal to designateAzhar under the 1267 Al QaedaSanctions Committee of theUN Security Council wasmoved by France, the US andthe UK.

However, China, a closeally of Pakistan, blocked the bidby putting a “technical hold” onthe proposal. Following this, theUS backed by the UK andFrance moved directly to UNSecurity Council (UNSC) toblacklist Azhar. China, a veto-wielding member of the UNSC,opposed the move, saying theissue should be resolved at the1267 Committee itself whichalso functioned under the topUN body.

Reacting to reports that thethree countries have fixed April23 as a deadline for China to liftits technical hold in the 1267

Committee or else they wouldpress for a discussion on theissue at the UNSC itself, ForeignMinistry spokesman Lu Kangsaid, “I don’t know where you getsuch information.”

He said both the UNSC andits subsidiary body 1267Committee have clear rules andprocedures.

“You need to get clarifica-tion from the sources aboutwhere you get such information.China’s position is very clear.This issue should be resolvedthrough cooperation. We don’tbelieve that any efforts withoutthe consensus of members willachieve a satisfying results,” hesaid.

“On the issue of listingAzhar, China’s position remainsunchanged. We also stay incommunication with relevantparties. The matter is movingtowards the direction of settle-ment,” he said.

“The relevant parties are for-cing new resolution through theUN Security Council. We firm-ly oppose that. In fact, the rele-vant discussion in UNSC, mostmember expressed wish that thisissue should be discussed with-in the 1267 Committee andthey don’t hope to bypass it tohandle the issue,” he said.

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Two-thirds of the largelymedieval roof of the famed

Notre Dame cathedral in Parishave “gone” after the devastat-ing fire, but UN culturalexperts are standing by to offerhelp in rebuilding the iconicstructure, UNESCO WorldHeritage Centre DirectorMechtild Rossler said.

Rössler, who visited the siteTuesday, told UN News that thecathedral is a universal symboland the centre of France and itsdevastation has left peopleacross nations shocked.

She described seeing peo-ple praying outside the strick-en symbol of the city and thenation, still trying to take in thescale of the disaster.

“I saw many, many peoplegoing from the Metro, to thesite of Notre Dame, and I haveto say many are still in a stateof shock, because it’s not onlythe Christian community, it’s abuilding for all of us,” she said.“Really, it’s a universal symboland it’s the centre of France …Ithink this is really shockingpeople profoundly and they lostsomething that is part of theiridentity.”

Rössler said that a team ofUNESCO experts is on hand to

investigate the stability of thestonework and potential dam-age to stained glass windows,echoing a statement by theUNESCO Director-General,Audrey Azoulay, in which sheannounced that a “rapid dam-age assessment” would be car-ried out as soon as possiblewith the authorities.

After visiting the site ofNotre Dame on Monday night,Azoulay said “we are all heart-broken.”

The Cathedral is part of theWorld Heritage site officiallyknown as “Paris, Banks of theSeine”, inscribed on the World

Heritage List, in 1991. “NotreDame represents a historically,architecturally, and spiritually,outstanding universal heritage.It is also a monument of liter-ary heritage, a place that isunique in our collective imag-ination,” said the UNESCOchief, adding that the infernowhich engulfed the cathedral,but appears to have left themedieval stonework intact,“reminds us of the power ofheritage that connects us to oneanother.

We are receiving messagesof support from all over theworld.”

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Indonesia’s Joko Widodo wason track to be re-elected leader

of the world’s third-biggestdemocracy with pollsters givinghim a wide lead over rivalPrabowo Subianto, a firebrandex-general, hours after votingclosed Wednesday across the17,000-island archipelago.

While official results arenot due until next month, aseries of so-called “quick counts”by pollsters showed Widodoholding a strong lead witharound 55 per cent of the voteto Subianto’s 44 per cent.

The vote officially ended at1:00 pm (0600 GMT) inSumatra, although some of the800,000 polling stations acrossthe volcano-dotted nationremained open late due to delaysand long queues.

From the jungles of Borneoto the slums of Jakarta,Wednesday saw millions ofIndonesians cast their ballots inone of the world’s biggest exer-cises in democracy. Horses, ele-phants, motorbikes, boats andplanes were pressed into serviceto get ballot boxes out across thevast country that is home tohundreds of ethnic groups andlanguages.

More than 190 million vot-

ers were asked to choosebetween the incumbentWidodo, lauded for his infra-structure driven economic push,and his fiery nationalist rival,who has strong ties to the coun-try’s three-decade Suharto dic-tatorship.

The call to prayer had rangout as voting began at first lightin restive Papua province in theeast.

Almost 90 per cent of thepopulation of the 4,800 kilome-tre-long country are Muslim.

The campaign was punctu-ated by bitter mudslinging anda slew of fake news online --much directed at the presiden-tial contenders.

Leading in pre-vote polls,President Joko Widodo, 57,pointed to his ambitious drive tobuild much-needed roads, air-ports and other infrastructureacross Southeast Asia’s largesteconomy.

But Widodo, a political out-sider with an everyman per-sonality when he swept to vic-tory in 2014, has seen his rightsrecord criticised owing to anuptick in discriminatory attackson religious and other minori-ties, including a small LGBTcommunity, as Islamic hardlin-ers become more vocal in pub-lic life.

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Sudan’s military rulers havetransferred ousted president

Omar al-Bashir to prison, afamily source said Wednesday,as demonstrators keep up theirsit-in outside the army complexcalling for a swift transfer tocivilian government.

Following the dramaticend to Bashir’s rule of threedecades last week, he wasmoved late Tuesday “to Koberprison in Khartoum”, thesource said without revealing

his name for security reasons.Witnesses near the prison

in north Khartoum said therewas a heavy deployment of sol-diers and members of a para-military group outside.

The 75-year-old’s where-abouts have been unknownsince a military takeover onThursday, when the country’snew rulers said he was beingheld “in a secure place”.

The detention of Bashir hasfailed to pacify protesters, wholaunched anti-governmentdemonstrations in December

and have for days beencamped out in front ofKhartoum’s army headquar-ters.

Sudan’s military rulershave made some concessionsto protesters, including thesacking Tuesday of prosecu-tor general Omer AhmedMohamed, but demonstra-tors fear their uprising couldbe hijacked.

“We faced tear gas, manyof us were jailed. We have

been shot and many have died.All this because we said whatwe wanted to,” protester FadiaKhalaf told AFP.

Officials say at least 65people have been killed inprotest-related violence sinceDecember, with some of thosekilled immortalised in aKhartoum mural.

While there have beenscenes of celebration -- withdemonstrators singing andwaving their national flag -- theprotest site has grown moretense amid concerns the armywill try to clear the sit-in withforce.

“Now we fear that our rev-olution could be stolen, whichis why we are keeping ourground here. We are stayinghere until our demands aremet,” said Khalaf.

Earlier this week witness-es said several army vehicleshad surrounded the area andthat troops were removing thebarricades which demonstra-tors had put up as a security

measure.On taking power on

Thursday the army said a mil-itary council would run thecountry for two years, sparkingan immediate backlash fromprotest leaders who have issueda series of demands.

Just a day later formerdefence minister General AwadIbn Ouf stepped down as coun-cil chief, sparking jubilation onthe streets of Khartoum.

His successor GeneralAbdel Fattah al-Burhan over-saw weekend talks with polit-ical parties, which failed tomake headway.

Sudan’s foreign ministerhas said Burhan is “committedto having a complete civiliangovernment” and has called onother nations to back the coun-cil. The military rulers dis-patched an envoy to theAfrican Union’s headquartersin the Ethiopian capital AddisAbaba, but the regional blocthreatened to suspend Sudanover the coup.

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AUN report says around athird of all conflict-relat-

ed detainees in Afghanistan

report being subjected to tor-ture or ill-treatment.

UN officials interviewed atotal of 618 detainees held in77 facilities across the countrybetween January 2017 andDecember 2018. The allegedtorture included suffocation,electric shocks, pulling of gen-itals and suspension from ceil-ings.

The UN mission toAfghanistan and the U.N.Human Rights Office releasedthe joint report on Wednesday.

The US-backed Afghangovernment is holding thousands of detainees, many of them captured aspart of the ongoing war withthe Taliban.

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President Donald Trump onTuesday vetoed a resolution

from Congress directing him toend US support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen, thesecond such move of his pres-idency.

The resolution was a harshbipartisan rebuke to Trumpthat took the historic step ofcurtailing a president’s war-making powers -- a step hecondemned in a statementannouncing his veto.

“This resolution is anunnecessary, dangerousattempt to weaken my consti-tutional authorities, endanger-ing the lives of American citi-zens and brave service mem-bers, both today and in thefuture,” Trump said.

The veto was the second ofhis presidency, after he over-rode a congressional resolution

that aimed to reverse the bor-der emergency he declared in order to secure more fund-ing for his wall between theUnited States and Mexico inMarch.

Vetoing the measure is an“effective green light for the warstrategy that has created theworld’s worst humanitariancrisis to continue,” saidInternational RescueCommittee president and CEODavid Miliband.

“Yemen is at a breakingpoint with 10 million people onthe brink of famine. There areas many as 100 civilian casual-ties per week, and Yemenis aremore likely to be killed athome than in any other struc-ture.” Trump argued that USsupport for the bloody warbetween the Saudi-backedYemeni government and Iran-aligned Huthi rebels was nec-essary for a variety of reasons,

“first and foremost” to “protectthe safety of the more than80,000 Americans who residein certain coalition countries.”These countries “have beensubject to Huthi attacks fromYemen,” he said, referring todrone and missile strikes theSaudi-led coalition has eitherclaimed were intercepted ordenied altogether.

The president also said theresolution would “harm theforeign policy of the UnitedStates” and “harm our bilater-al relationships.”

And it would “negativelyaffect our ongoing efforts toprevent civilian casualties andprevent the spread of terroristorganizations such as Al-Qaedain the Arabian Peninsula andISIS, and embolden Iran’smalign activities in Yemen,”Trump said, referring to twoSunni Muslim militant groupsand his Shiite bete noire.

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US President Donald Trump’sadministration has issued

an order that could keep someasylum seekers in jail for monthsor years as they wait for theircases to be heard, The New YorkTimes reported Tuesday.

The order from AttorneyGeneral Bill Barr directs immi-gration judges to no longer all-ow asylum seekers who are ap-prehended after entering thecountry illegally to post bail, thenewspaper said. The order —which will not go into effect for90 days — does not affect thosewho apply for asylum at a legalport of entry, the Times report-ed. The move was quickly con-demned by the American CivilLiberties Union rights organi-zation, which vowed to chal-

lenge it in court.“Our Constitution does not

allow the government to lock upasylum seekers without basicdue process. We’ll see theadministration in court. Again,”the ACLU tweeted.

Trump has staked his pres-idency on his insistence that theUnited States is being overrun bymigrants and asylum seekers.

But opponents, mostly inthe Democratic Party, say hispush for building more walls onthe Mexican border and hisalmost daily denunciations ofmigrants as dangerous criminalsincites racial hatred.

The president declared anemergency to bypass Congressand unlock funds for his con-troversial wall project, and hasalso deployed troops to the bor-der with Mexico.

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Turkish President RecepTayyip Erdogan on

Wednesday met with Iran’sforeign minister, who arrived inAnkara to brief him on hismeeting with Syria’s PresidentBashar al-Assad.

Turkey supports Syrianopposition rebels and Iranbacks Assad in Syria’s longwar, but the two sides havebeen expanding contacts amidinternational efforts to end thefighting.

Kazakhstan will host afresh round of Syria talks onApril 25-26 in its capital,recently renamed from Astanato Nur-Sultan.

“I had a long interview with Bashar al-Assad.I will be giving details of thesediscussions to Mr. Erdogan,”Iran’s Foreign MinisterMohammad Javad Zarif told

reporters in translated com-ments.

Ankara broke ties with Damascus in 2011 after the start of the Syrian war,and Erdogan has in the past described Assad as an

“assassin”.But Erdogan

acknowledged in February that low-level contacts have been taking place and his rhetoric has also softened in tone in recent months.

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NASA scientists have founda simple yet ingenious way

to spot tiny near-Earth objects(NEOs) early as they hurtletowards the planet, an advancethat may aid the efforts to pre-vent dangerous impacts.

The Chelyabinsk meteor,which was a mere 17-20 metresacross, caused extensive grounddamage and numerous injurieswhen it exploded on impactwith Earth’s atmosphere inFebruary 2013.

“If we find an object onlya few days from impact, itgreatly limits our choices, so inour search efforts we havefocused on finding NEOs whenthey are away from Earth, pro-viding the maximum amountof time and opening up a

wider range of mitigationpossibilities,” said AmyMainzer from NASA’s JetPropulsion Laboratory(JPL).

However, it is a dif-ficult task -- like spottinga lump of coal in thenight’s sky, Mainzer said.

“NEOs are intrinsi-cally faint because theyare mostly really smalland far away from us inspace,” she said in a statement.

“Add to this the fact thatsome of them are as dark asprinter toner, and trying to spotthem against the black of space is very hard,” Mainzersaid.

Instead of using visiblelight to spot incoming objects,Mainzer’s team at JPL/Caltechhas leveraged a characteristic

signature of NEOs -- theirheat.

Asteroids and comets arewarmed by the sun and so glowbrightly at thermal wavelengths(infrared), making them easi-er to spot with the Near-EarthObject Wide-field InfraredSurvey Explorer (NEOWISE)telescope.

“With the NEOWISE mis-

sion we can spot objectsregardless of their sur-face colour, and use it tomeasure their sizes andother surface proper-ties,” Mainzer said.

Discovering NEOsurface properties pro-vides an insight intohow big the objects areand what they are madeof, both critical detailsin mounting a defen-

sive strategy against an Earth-threatening NEO, researcherssaid.

For instance, one defensivestrategy is to physically “nudge”an NEO away from an Earthimpact trajectory, they said.

However, to calculate theenergy required for that nudge,details of NEO mass, and there-fore size and composition, are

necessary.Astronomers also think

that examining the composi-tion of asteroids will help tounderstand how the solar sys-tem was formed.

“These objects are intrin-sically interesting because someare thought to be as old as theoriginal material that madeup the solar system,” Mainzersaid.

She is now keen to leverageadvances in camera technolo-gy to aid in the search forNEOs.

“We are proposing toNASA a new telescope, theNear-Earth Object Camera(NEOCam), to do a muchmore comprehensive job ofmapping asteroid locations andmeasuring their sizes,” Mainzersaid.

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Peru’s former president AlanGarcia shot himself in the

head at his home on Wednesdayas police were about to arresthim in a sprawling corruptioncase, his lawyer and hospital offi-cials said.

The 69-year-old Garcia wasundergoing emergency surgeryfor “a bullet wound to his head”at the Casimiro UlloaEmergency Hospital in Lima,the hospital said. Peru’s HealthMinister Zulema Tomas saidGarcia was in “very serious andcritical” condition.

“We’ve had to resuscitatehim three times. He’s had threecardiac arrests,” said Tomas.

“He is in a delicate conditionand the prognosis is reserved,”added the health ministry, which

said the bullet went straightthrough Garcia’s head.

The attempted arrest tookplace at 6:30 a.M. (1130 GMT)at Garcia’s home in the poshMiraflores neighborhood ofLima. “This morning there wasa regrettable accident: the pres-ident took the decision to shoothimself,” Erasmo Reyna, Garcia’slawyer, told reporters outside thehospital.

Garcia, who was presidentfrom 1985-90 and again from2006-11, is suspected of havingtaken bribes from Brazilian con-struction giant Odebrecht inreturn for large-scale publicworks contracts.

In November he soughtrefuge in the UruguayanEmbassy and applied for asylumbut he left the next month afterit was denied.

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14 Members of an Afghan family, including

women and children, werekilled in a road accident whenthe vehicle they were travellingin collided head on with a truckon the Karachi-Quetta highwayhere.

Six family members were injured in the accidentthat took place on Tuesday after the driver of the truckcoming from the oppositedirection lost control of thevehicle near Mastung on thehighway.

The final rites of thedeceased were held onWednesday.

An official of the Edhi Welfare Trust said thedeceased belonged to an extended family that residedin Karachi and were Afghanswho were going to Qila Abdullah in Baluchistanfor the funeral of a relativewhen they met with the acci-dent.

“Nine people had died on the spot after the accident while five otherspassed away later in hospital,”he said.

Earlier in July last year, 20 people including womenhad lost their lives after their vehicle fell down off theroad near Mastung on thehighway.

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The dictionary defines her-itage as ‘features belongingto the culture of a partic-

ular society, such as traditions,languages, or buildings, thatwere created in the past and stillhave historical importance’. Sowhen one talks in terms ofplaces, the United Nations hasselected some which can beconsidered as humanity’s mostsignificant locations. Thesecover patches which range fromhistorical icons like Venetian

Lagoon to the Imperial Palacein Beijing and the Chartres

Cathedral. This World HeritageDay, here is a list of some ofmankind’s highest achievementsas well as natural wonders whichshould feature on every trav-eller’s wishlist.

�����With 52 noteworthy sites,

China ranks second inUNESCO’s World Heritage List.

The Imperial Palace of theQing Dynasty consists of 114

buildings constructedbetween the years 1625–26and 1783. It contains animportant library and testi-

fies to the foundation of thelast dynasty that ruled Chinabefore it expanded its power tothe center of the country and

moved the capital to Beijing.This palace then became auxil-iary to the Imperial Palace inBeijing. This architectural edi-fice offers important historicaltestimony to the history of theQing Dynasty and to the cultur-al traditions of the Manchu andother tribes in the north ofChina.

� �!"Italy is home to 53 UNESCO

world heritage sites, which ismore than any other country.Apart from these must-sees, italso has the largest number of cul-tural sites that one must experi-ence. Celebrated throughout theworld for its singular beauty,Venice and its lagoon were added

to the list of UNESCO WorldHeritage Sites in 1987.

��#��World Heritage sites aren’t

simply ancient stones. UNESCO’slist also includes natural wonders— the Kaziranga National Park,situated in Assam. It is one of thelast areas in eastern India which

is undisturbed by a human pres-ence. It is inhabited by more than2,000 rhinos and is home to alarge breeding population of ele-phants, wild water buffaloes andswamp deer.

�$����France boasts of 41 heritage

sites preserved under the

UNESCO. Though it had morethan 1.3 million visitors each year,after the devastating fire, ChartresCathedral or Notre Dame is nowoff the list of visitors for six years— the time that it will take torebuild. Admire it from afar or bet-ter still take part in the process ofrebuilding by contributing to thenational fund set up by the Frenchgovernment for the purpose.

%&���Spain is home to a staggering

45 UNESCO sites, third in num-ber only to Italy and China.Mérida, a model Roman city wasestablished in 25 BC and accord-ing to UNESCO is a “remarkableexample of a Roman city builtaccording to all the Roman urbandesign rules.” From anAmphitheatre to an intricate watersupply system, the city offers aglimpse into the ancient past.Apart from this, another must-visitplace is the Toledo — situated incentral Spain. This city of three cul-tures was added to the UNESCOlist for its extensive history span-ning 2,000 years, as well as for itsmany years of co-existence amongJewish, Christian and Muslimgroups, earning it the nicknameCity of three cultures. Synagogues,mosques and churches are some ofthe popular sites.

If actress Kangana Ranaut’s tirade against Alia Bhatt was-n’t enough, the former’s sister Rangoli Chandel enteredthe ‘war of words’ zone, as did the Raazi actress’ moth-

er Soni Razdan and co-actor Randeep Hooda.Kangana has been calling out Alia since earlier this year

for not supporting her film Manikarnika: The Queen ofJhansi, and had claimed this was all a part of a “strange sortof racket” in a section of the film industry. She had also calledAlia a product of Karan Johar’s “nepotistic gang.”

Ever since, Kangana has made several referencesregarding Alia, the latest being over her “mediocre” perfor-mance in the otherwise widely lauded Gully Boy.

But Alia said, “I respect Kangana’s work a lot and Irespect her opinion. If she feels a particular way she musthave reason to feel that way. I would rather remember howmuch she had praised me after watching Raazi. And I’d justlike to focus on my work. Maybe she will appreciate me againif I work hard enough.”

The controversy took a different turn with Kangana’ssister hitting out at Alia and her mother Soni Razdan, call-ing them “non Indians who are living off this land, usingand abusing its people and its resources, lying about intol-erance and spreading hatred.”

“Time to think about their agenda and not to get car-ried away with their provocations,” Rangoli

had written on social media recently, refer-ring to an article about the mother-daughter duo’s British passports.

Soni finally broke her silence overthe issue. In a now-deleted tweet, shewrote, “Mahesh Bhatt is the man whohas given her a break... She goes on toattack his wife and daughter over andover again. What is left to be said thenabout abusing and hatred I wonder.Apart from character of course.Agenda. What’s hers?”

Rangoli had a response soonafter. “Dear Soniji, Mahesh Bhattnever gave her a break, AnuragBasu did. Mahesh Bhattji works asa creative director in his broth-er’s production house. Pleasenote that he doesn’t own thatproduction house. After WohLamhe, when Kangana refusedto do a film written by himcalled Dhokha, where he want-

ed her to play a suicide bomber,he got so upset that he not only

shouted at her in his office, but laterwhen she went for Woh Lamhe pre-view to a theatre, he threw a chappal(slipper) on her. He didn’t allow herto see her own film. She cried thewhole night, and she was just 19 yearsold.”

Alia’s Highway co-star RandeepHooda also stepped in, saying,“Dearest Alia, I’m so glad you are notletting the opinions of very occasion-al actors and chronic victims affect youand your work. Kudos to you for yourcontinued efforts to outdo yourself.”

But Rangoli retorted sayingRandeep has been pushed to come for-ward in Alia’s support as the “nepotism

gang” didn’t have the courage. Sheeven called him a “permanent fail-

ure.” F%�(�

As soon as the teasers ofKalank came out, thecomparisons betweenMadhuri Dixit’s por-trayal of Chandramukhi

in Devdas and Bahaar Begum in thenew film became inevitable.However, Madhuri feels that whilethe appearance might be similar, ingrain, they are different women.“Bahaar Begum is a very reticentperson. She is an introvert and isemotionally scarred because of apast tragedy which has made herwhat she is. She is silent, yet conveysa lot through her eyes. As comparedto her, Chandramukhi wore herheart on her sleeve. Her love forDevdas was there for everyone tosee. She could go all out and singMaar Daala,” says the actor, whocritics say, “lit up the screen in everyframe” in her newest outing.

Madhuri, known for her danc-ing prowess, reunites with SanjayDutt in Kalank, to whom she wasrumoured to be romantically linkedin her younger days. But she valuesthe co-star bit. Besides, she steppedinto the shoes of Sridevi who wassupposed to essay the role before hertragic death. She says, “There wasan emotional context to taking upthe role. They were about to startand then things went haywire.Karan (Johar) is a friend and Idecided to help them.”

The film talks about ‘EternalLove’ and Madhuri believes that itdoes exist. “I am a romantic personand I do believe it exists as whetheryou find it or not is your journey.There was a dialogue in Dil To PagalHai where I said Kahin na kahin, koina koi mere liye banaya gaya hai...aur kabhi na kabhi main usse zaroormilungi. And I used to believe inthat and I did meet Ram (ShriramMadhav Nene). He is my soulmate,”she says.

The film also stars youngeractors Varun Dhawan, Alia Bhatt,Sonakshi Sinha and Aditya RoyKapur and she says, “The charactersare complicated as their lives are notstraight and each of their paths isinterwoven with the others. Allcharacters have a lot of angst andregrets. They are all grey and that iswhat makes the story interesting.”

She is all praise for the four withwhom she has worked this timearound. “They are very profession-al. They are always on time. Theylearn their lines and work hard.”

While the youngsters oftenimbibe the nuances of acting fromher, there are tricks that they havetaught her. “You see a new side toeverything with them. It is wonder-ful to see this generation which is notonly acting in movies but has a pres-ence on the social media. There areso many different things that they do.You get to learn from them and theyget to learn from us. So we inspireeach other. It is a symbiotic relation-ship. There is a lot of synergy,” shesays and as someone, who too hassigned up on various platforms,goes on to add, “I enjoy socialmedia as it is a great tool to connectdirectly to fans. One can voice any-thing that has happened or if youhave been misquoted, you can reachout to your fans directly throughTwitter. You can share things when-ever you want to.”

Not just the stars, but even theway that the film industry functionshas changed drastically since the timeshe made her debut in Abodh in 1984and ruled the silver screen during the

greater part of the nineties. Madhurisaw both commercial and criticalsuccess and received six FilmfareAwards, which she topped up witha Padma Shri in 2008. She says,“Films are made professionally now.When I was doing a film like Tezaab,the only women that we saw on thesets were the co-stars, hairdressersand me. There were only two womendirectors, Sai Paranjpye and AparnaSen. Women could only be hairdressers and not make-up artists asmen blocked their entry and madesure that they were confined to onerole. However, when I walk on to thesets today, there seem to be womeneverywhere. There is no concept ofyou can do this and you can’t. Everydepartment has women.”

This is also reflected in the kindof stories that are now being told.With more women writers, there arecharacters with more flesh andblood. “Men perceive women in adifferent way. Earlier, it a was verypatriarchal, male-dominated view

that was put out in the films.Women are no longer caricatures.They are not victims or avengers,they are roles and characters. Thethought process of this generationis very different and this is reflect-ed in the scripts. Otherwise, youwouldn’t have a Badhaai Ho, GulaabGang or Dedh Ishqiya,” says the actorwho proved her acting chops witha film like Mrityudand (1997) byPrakash Jha. She also famouslyserved as a muse for painter MFHusain who made Gaja Gamini(2000) starring her.

So, would she say that it is a bet-ter time for women like Alia to be inthe films as there are more roles forwomen? “Why just them?,” she asksand adds, “It’s a great time for me aswell. The audience has matured andwants to see different kinds of sub-jects. In Andhadhun, Tabu’s charac-ter is so different from the usual.”

Clearly, there is a lot more on theanvil from the actress.

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India has inherited a rich Vediccultural legacy from its glorious

past. It is also a well-known factthat all the rishi-munis and yogisaccept Vedas as their soul. RishiKashyap after studying Vedas con-tinuously for 300 years expressedhis views that their knowledge isendless and eternal. So, it shall notbe out of place to mention thatwomen have always enjoyed highrespect from the society in theVedic period.

We must not forget the invalu-able lesson from Atharvavedmantra — Stree Hee BrahmaBabhuvith — which means thatwomen have been given the title ofBrahma. Even Yajyen consideredwoman as Brahma as she alwaysgives Vedic advice to everyone.

If we delve deep into our his-tory, especially of Vedic age, we dis-cover various names like Sita,Ansuiya, Madalsa, Savitri, Bhamati,Katyayini, Lopamudra, King Janak’sacharya Gargi and Kunti, whothrough their devotion, dedicationand deep knowledge of Vedasenlightened mankind. There arenumerous quotes in our scrip-tures including that the Devtaalways experiences divine pleasureand gives blessings to those whorespect women.

A child owes a lot to his/hermother because she is the one whonurtures him/her from the begin-ning. Her teachings hold muchmore importance than even theteacher in the school. She is themoral builder, that is why we eulo-gise her by saying, “Matri DevoBhava” i.e. serve the motherbecause she gives birth and nurs-es the child and “Mata NirmatriBhavati” i.e. mother constitutes thebright future of the child.

The veteran warrior and wiseman of Mahabharat, BhishmaPitamah is respected even todaybecause his mother Ganga, gavehim the right kind of educationfrom the beginning. It was she whopersuaded Guru Parshuram, thegreatest teacher in weaponary andwarfare at that time to teach himthe skills of fighting. For theknowledge of scriptures, she sentBhishma Pitamah to Brihaspati, thebiggest scholar of Vedas at thattime. Thus he became not only agood warrior but also a greatscholar and spiritualist. The cred-it goes to none else but to his moth-er.

Women, after the Mahabharatperiod, due to the lack of knowl-edge of Vedas, have been mistreat-ed and abused. By not educatingthem in the Vedas, we are depriv-ing the country of the ability to bestronger.

There is the story of extreme

sacrifice by a wife for her ascetichusband. Once, there lived aphilosopher, Vachaspati Mishr,who was married in his childhood.He forgot his wife as he was med-itating intensely. After the death ofher parents, the girl attained puber-ty and went to his ashram in thehope of a happy married life.Finding Vachaspati deeplyengrossed in meditation, she decid-ed not to disturb him. She startedmanaging the affairs of the ashramand serving the rishi day in and dayout. With the passage of time, shecrossed the age of 75. One daywhen Vachaspatiji was busy writ-ing a book in the light of an oillamp, the flame started flickering.Seeing that the oil was finished, shetried to pour in some to replenishit. It was a moonlit night and thegleam fell on her face. He was sur-prised to see her and asked her whoshe was. The woman tried to makehim remember their marriage dur-ing their childhood. When hecame to know this, he felt ashamedthat he could not look after his wiferather she was left to manage theaffairs of his ashram. The aged rishislowly started moving towards hiswife to embrace her. Immediatelyshe moved back and said that byserving him for several years, shehad experienced the divine plea-sure of maintaining Brahmacharya,so she should be allowed to remainso. The rishi stopped and wenttowards his seat. He asked hername. She replied that it wasBhamati. By then the rishi hadcompleted his spiritual book basedon Vedas but he was yet to give ita title and named it Bhamati.

Sometimes I wonder why thebirth of a girl is not welcomed.Whereas Vedas preach that adaughter is a lamp and enlightenstwo houses — one of her parents’and the second of her husband’slike maa Sita.

So, a family must rejoice at thebirth of a daughter considering heras a pure blessing, harbinger ofgood fortune and glory to thefamily. As quoted above, woman is“Brahma”, so a creator must berevered.

(The author, Swami RamSwarup Yogacharya is the chiefeditor of Ved Ishvareeya Vani, a bi-annual magazine.)

From pristine sandy beach-es to lush jungles, bustlingbusy cities and tradition-al villages, Michelin-starred menus to roadside

noodle stalls, historic Buddhisttemples to 21st century skyscrapers,Thailand could be truly amazing.The country also has world-classgolf facilities.

The Tourism Authority ofThailand, New Delhi, has intro-duced a FAM trip to Thailand toexplore the various possible ways tomake ‘Thai Golf Passport’ a successand an exciting golf travel loyaltyprogrammes for those who [pursuethe sport avidly. The highlight of theevent would be the Thai New Year— The Songkran Festival.

There are more than 200 golfcourses around the country, by thesea, mountains, lakes, in the citiesand even besides its airports. FromPhuket to Bangkok and Pattaya,there are golf courses to suit differ-ent preferences.

Anil Dev, managing director,Golf Plus Monthly said, “When itcomes to golf tourism, there is nodestination which comes close toThailand. The Thai Golf Pass is aunique programme that pushesplayers to experience the sport inthis paradise. The programme hasbeen appreciated by the golfingcommunity in India as well as thevarious partners of the programme.”

Besides networking with thegolf suppliers, the delegates canexperience the hospitality of theZign Hotel in Pattaya and CentrePoint Sukhumvit 10; the teeing offat the Chee Chan Golf Resort andPattana Golf Club freezing tour ofice sculptures at the frost magical iceof Siam.

Rishi Tomar, chief operatingofficer, SLW Golf Managementsaid, “The initiative was launched inIndia to offer Indian golfers a seam-less experience in Thailand.”

He added, “A number of qual-ity service providers like ThaiAirways, Cox & Kings, Callawayand other golf courses, resorts andhotels have come together to part-ner this initiative.”

Isra Stapanaseth, director,Tourism Authority of Thailand,said, “I would like to congratulateall the partners of Thai Golf Pass,

Anil Dev and his team for thesuccess of the project. With‘Amazing Thailand,’ golf paradisewith more than 250 internationalstandard golf courses, professionalcaddies, warm hospitality,wellness, food and entertainment,we look forward to Indian golfersbeing a part of this loyaltyprogramme and experienceservices.”

Commenting on the initiative’ssuccess, Chitranjan Bakhshi, busi-ness head, Golf Holidays, Cox &Kings said, “We believe in provid-ing quality service to our customersand this initiative will also help in

validating this claim. We are proudto be associated with TourismAuthority of Thailand and thisfirst-ever golf travel loyalty pro-gram.”

Rajan Sehgal, president, IndianGolf Travel Association, said thatgolfing in Thailand is memorable.He said, “The programme is uniqueto India. While hotels and airlineshave loyalty programmes, this willbe a first of its kind where a coun-try will be executing something likethis. With well-maintained courses,professionalism, high connectivityand great hospitality, golfing inThailand has always been a great

experience for me.”Adding to that, Meraj Shah,

writer and producer, Wion Traveller,said, “I have been to Thailand forgolfing many a times. I’ve played inHua Hin, Pattaya, Phuket, Khao Yai,Chiang Mai, to name a few places.I couldn’t be happier heading backto the same places. It’s my favouritecountry to visit — for the golf, itsfood and beaches and its nightlife.”

With NokScoot Airlines provid-ing direct flights from Delhi toBangkok, travel has become smoothand hassle-free.

Yodchai Sudhidhanakul, chiefexecutive officer, NokScoot Airlines,said, “NokScoot has recentlylaunched direct flights from Delhito Bangkok, offering high servicestandards at affordable prices. We

hope to welcome more golfers fromIndia to enjoy the world-class cours-es which the country has to offer,along with the famous Thai hospi-tality.”

The programme will also give‘Amazing’ rewards on redemption ofloyalty points. With the fully-auto-matic and user-friendly online pro-gramme, it aims to bring all the sup-pliers under one platform.

The activities that began fromDecember 2018 has the followingfocus points — To integrate theirwebsite with their travel partnerwebsites; To host promotional eventsin India with three of them inThailand; To increase the numberof loyalty partners to 200, Toincrease membership’s base to cover5,000 golfers.

The ReputationM a n a g e m e n t

Consultancy in its ReputationPoll International announcedthe 2019 list of the 100 mostreputable persons on earth.

The list features person-alities from various sectorslike entertainment, politics,religion, education, philan-thropy, business, politics, etc,from 44 countries and recog-nises leaders who have dis-charged their duties andmaintained a high level ofcredibility, and have keptexemplary reputation for pub-lic emulation.

Looking at the statistics,the USA had the largest shareof reputed personalities in thelist with a representation of 38females, 61 males and 1 cou-ple. According to the age, theoldest reputable person inthe list is Queen Elizabeth II,92, whereas, the youngestbeing Pakistani activistMalala Yuzafzai, 21.

The list features sevenIndian personalities, fivemales and two females —Prime Minsiter NarendraModi, Indian business mag-nate Mukesh Ambani, CEO ofGoogle Sundar Pichai, NobelLaureate Kailash Satyarthi,

motivational speaker RobinSharma, founder and globalchairperson of All LadiesLeague (ALL) and WomenEconomic Forum (WEF) DrHarbeen Arora, and Bio-chemist Priyanka Joshi.

The list also featuresinfluential international per-sonalities like Dalai Lama,Michael Bloomberg, TimCook, Michelle Obama, XiJinping, Pope Francis, WarrenBuffet and Ismail Ahmed.There are also actors andpersons from the entertain-ment industr y l ike EdSheeran, Emma Watson,Nicole Kidman and JohnLegend.

The N F Railway celebrated the64th railway week with proper

gaiety and merriment at RangBhawan, Maligaon.

N K Prasad, general manager ofthe construction organisation, whowas the chief guest, gave away prizesto the awardees and also addressedto the congregation comprising ofofficers, staff and N F Railway fra-ternity.

In a nut-shell GM spoke to thegathering about achievement done inthe previous year, ongoing projects

and also future projects to be under-taken.

A K Yadav, chief administrativeofficer cited last year’s record break-ing performance completion ofBogibeel Bridge Project in particu-lar which was inaugurated by the PMon December 25, 2018.

A group cash prize was alsoawarded to the staff whose dedicat-ed services made possible to com-plete India’s longest Rail-cum-RoadBridge and Asia’s 2nd longestBogibeel Bridge Project.

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The 11-member ‘HimalayanHeights Motorcycle

Expedition,’ flagged off fromKaru in Leh on April 7, tra-versed the challenging terrainof eastern Ladakh, across theChang La pass. The expeditionreached the mighty Karakorampass situated at an altitude of18,176 feet on the Karakoramrange on Tuesday.

The joint expedition com-prises six Indian Army person-nel from the Army ServiceCorps, four from Royal Enfieldand one from the HimalayanMotorsports Association. TheFire & Fury Corps and theexpedition is celebrating the20th Anniversary of KargilVijay Diwas, that marked thevictory of the Indian armedforces over Pakistan in 1999.

With temperatures as lowas -40 degrees Celsius, the featis unprecedented over haz-

ardous and unforgiving terrains.In freezing winds, it is a remark-able tribute to the immortalcourage and bravery of theIndian army. In a rare gestureof encouragement for the expe-dition members, Lt Gen YKJoshi, general officer command-ing, Fire & Fury Corps reachedthe Karakoram pass to meetand motivate the riders.

Speaking on the occasion,Lt Gen YK Joshi lauded theefforts of the team, especiallythe two women officers fromthe army service corps and thewoman member of the RoyalEnfield team who “proved equalin strength, skill and spirit to theother members.”

The expedition salutes thevictory of the Indian armyduring the Kargil war of 1999.They aim to “remember, rejoiceand renew” their spirit of for-titude, bravery and adventure.

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The 128th birth anniversary of DrBhim Rao Ambedkar was observed

in Chittaranjan Locomotive Work’s(CLW) administrative office.

Ram Prakash, Ravij Seth, B KSingh, S P Marandi along with seniorofficers and other members of SC/STassociation garlanded the portrait of DrAmbedkar and paid the tribute.

S P Marandi recalled the efforts ofDr Ambedkar on upliftment of social-ly downtrodden people and theirrights in society. Sanjiv Kumar deliv-ered a speech on political contributionof Ambedkar from national freedomstruggle to strengthening of Indiandemocracy.

Praveen Mishra, general managerof CLW also expressed his respect to

Dr Bhim Rao and stressed upon to fol-low the path shown by him.

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Hydroelectric power generation company,NHPC celebrated the 128th birth anniver-

sary of Bharat Ratna Dr B R Ambedkar, the prin-cipal architect of the Indian Constitution andsocial reformer.

Balraj Joshi, chairman and managing direc-tor of NHPC along with N K Jain, director (per-sonnel), and Janardan Choudhary, director(Technical), graced the occasion.

Joshi described the life of Dr Ambedkar asa “shining example for others to follow.” He high-lighted his role in the country’s development andin laying down one of the most descriptiveConstitutions in the world. A special highlightof evenings was a talk on Manavta ka Utthan byBodhisattva Bhante Dr Karunashil Rahulji.

A documentary highlighting the life andcontributions of Dr Ambedkar was also screenedduring the event. Other attendants of the eventwere office-bearers of NHPC, SC/ST employeewelfare association and OBC association.

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Ajax stunned Juventus to reachthe Champions League semi-finals for the first time since

1997 as Matthijs de Ligt's thumpingsecond-half header secured a 2-1 sec-ond-leg victory in the last eight inTurin on Tuesday.

Cristiano Ronaldo, bidding forhis sixth Champions League title,scored a 28th-minute header to putJuve ahead after a 1-1 first-leg draw,but Donny van de Beek levelled forAjax before half-time.

Teenage centre-back De Ligt struckmidway through the second period,though, to seal a 3-2 aggregate win andset up a last-four clash with eitherManchester City or Tottenham.

The young Dutch side had alreadyeliminated three-time defendingchampions Real Madrid en route to thequarters, overturning a 2-1 homedefeat against the Spanish side with amemorable 4-1 victory at the SantiagoBernabeu.

Juventus had been looking toreach the Champions League semi-finals for the third time in the past fiveseasons.

But Ronaldo, who scored an awaygoal last week with a diving header inAmsterdam, was Juve's only weaponagainst the impressive Dutch side.

The 34-year-old was signed for 100million euros ($117 million) last sum-mer from Real Madrid in a bid to winthe European trophy for the first timesince 1996, when theybeat Ajax in thefinal.

"Ajax deservedto qualify," said Juvec o a c hM a s s i m i l i a n oAllegri.

8"���������������&"�Allegri had been forced to reshuf-

fle his side because of injuries, withPaulo Dybala returning in place of theinjured Mario Mandzukic, while captainGiorgio Chiellini was also sidelined.

Ajax's defence took a hit whenNoussair Mazraoui, who had replacedthe suspended Nicolas Tagliafico, limpedoff on 11 minutes with an ankle injury,with Daley Sinkgraven coming on.

Ajax goalkeeper Andre Onana divedto keep out a scorching Dybala half-vol-ley in the 20th minute.

But Ronaldo latched onto a MiralemPjanic corner with a downward head-er that left Onana with no chance.

It was the Portugal star's 126thChampions League goal and sixth of thiscampaign, having now scored in his pastsix European games against Ajax, net-ting nine goals in total.

But Van de Beek soon silenced thecheers of the home crowd when he con-trolled a wayward Hakim Ziyech shotsix minutes later, rolling the ball pastSzczesny to cancel out Juventus' awaygoal and make it 2-2 on aggregate.

Teenage striker Moise Kean replacedDybala after the break, but it was theDutch who turned on the style, withonly Szczesny's reflexes keepingJuventus in the tie.

The Polish keeper deniedZiyech from close range withone hand, and minuteslater tipped Van deBeek's curlinge f f o r t

over the bar.The Juventus back-line struggled

with the pace of the Dutch team withPjanic doing well to deny Ziyech a tap-in.

But Ten Hag's side's incessant pres-sure paid off with 19-year-old skipperDe Ligt towering above Alex Sandro andDaniele Rugani to head home LasseSchone's corner on 67 minutes.

Ziyech looked as if he had fired athird past Szczesny, but his goal was

ruled offside after a VAR check.And the Dutch visitors held on,

with Ronaldo unable to make a dif-ference after his incredible hat-trick had pulled Juventus into thequarter-finals in the last-16win over Atletico Madrid.

Four-time winners Ajaxwon their third consecutivetitle in 1973 at the expenseof Juventus, and last liftedthe trophy in 1995, withtheir last semi-finalappearance ending indefeat by Juve 22 yearsago.

Juventus now turntheir focus back toSerie A where they

can win an eighthconsecutive title

on Saturday.

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Lionel Messi pounced ontwo Manchester United

mistakes to score twice and endtheir hopes of another come-back at Camp Nou asBarcelona breezed into theChampions League semi-finalson Tuesday.

After an excellent start,United were undone twice infour minutes by Messi, whofirst nicked the ball off the care-less Ashley Young and thenwatched as a weak shot fromdistance squirmed underneathDavid de Gea.

Philippe Coutinho, in per-haps his best performance ofthe season, added a third witha curling effort into the top cor-ner and by the end, an out-classed United might havebeen relieved the score was notmore traumatic than 3-0, 4-0on aggregate.

A dizzying opening spell,in which Marcus Rashfordhad hit the crossbar, was long-forgotten, even if it could offerBarca's next opponents someencouragement.

Liverpool, who take a 2-0lead to Porto on Wednesday,are now the most likely obsta-cle between them and their firstChampions League final sincethey last won this tournamentin 2015.

Instead, United's pair ofearly errors made this anothernight about Messi and ensuredany faint hopes of repeating thecomeback against Paris Saint-Germain, or even the famous1999 rescue act against BayernMunich, on this same pitch,were dashed.

Messi now has his 109thand 110th Champions Leaguegoals and, potentially, threeextra matches to reduce the gapon Cristiano Ronaldo's 126,after Juventus were dumpedout by Ajax. Barcelona's fanscelebrated that too.

They could have hardlyhave asked for a better start.

United were brilliant for eightminutes and could have beenahead within 30 seconds asRashford raced onto a curvingPaul Pogba pass and toed awaya shot, which Marc-Andre terStegen bravely left to graze hisown crossbar.

��% ������ Barca were flustered, so

much so the crowd evencheered with relief whenArthur Melo played his team'sfirst convincing pass.

Then, Barcelona had theirown eight-minute flurry asUnited almost conceded apenalty, ruled out after Fredtook the ball before bringingdown Ivan Rakitic, and thendid concede, twice, to Messi.

Both could have beenavoided, even if Young's turnon the edge of his own box waspunished in devastating fash-ion. Young lunged in to atonefor his mistake but Messiskipped away from him, pokedit through Fred's legs and thenwhipped the ball into corner.

The second was simpler.

���� �4�0"/

Injured Bayern Munichgoalkeeper Manuel Neuer

on Wednesday quashedrumours of his imminentretirement and says he wantsto return in time to face RBLeipzig on the penultimateday of the Bundesliga season.

"It is difficult to say whenI will be back but I thinkLeipzig is a realistic target," hesaid at a press conference,with league leaders Bayernaway to third-placed Leipzigon May 5.

Neuer, 33, was substitut-ed off during Bayern's 4-1win over Fortuna Duesseldorflast Sunday after aggravatinga recurring calf injury.

The knock sees him side-lined at a crucial phase of theseason, with Bayern seekingto stay a point ahead ofBorussia Dortmund in theBundesliga title race and bid-ding to reach the GermanCup final.

Neuer has had a relent-less struggle with injury inrecent years, and after theclub announced that hewould give a press conferenceon Wednesday, there wassome speculation that hemight be about to end his

career."We smiled about that,"

Neuer admitted when askedabout the rumours.

The Bayern shot-stopperinsists he is taking this latestsetback in his stride aftertwice breaking a bone in hisfoot in 2017.

"I was out for a wholeyear last season when I brokemy metatarsal and I was oncrutches for a long time," hesaid.

"When you are out forthat long, your body has toadapt so you expect to havesmaller muscle injuries after-wards."

"I actually expected tohave a muscle injury earlierthis season."

Neuer said he knewinstinctively that he had suf-fered a muscle fibre tearwhen he pulled up during theDuesseldorf game.

The Bayern goalkeeperpraised his understudy SvenUlreich and wants to supportthe team in the comingweeks.

"Even if I can't play I wantto be around the team," hesaid.

Bayern face back-to-backgames against in-formWerder Bremen in the nextweek.

They host Bremen in theleague on Saturday beforetravelling north for a GermanCup semi-final tie on Tuesday.

Neuer described bothgames as "finals" and warnedhis teammates not to under-estimate Bremen, who cur-rently sit seventh in theBundesliga.

���� �&��!�")*-&

Rafael Nadal charged out of theblocks on Wednesday to

hammer Roberto Bautista Agut6-1, 6-1 in his opening match atthe Monte Carlo Masters.

The 11-time championshowed no sign of the kneeproblems which forced him toquit ahead of an Indian Wellssemi-final against Roger Federera month ago.

The 32-year-old hadexpressed pre-tournament cau-tion regarding the health of hisknee — a worry which appearedto be groundless after a 76-minute masterclass.

Nadal collected the openingfive games of the afternoon in 17minutes as he set the tone foranother dominant display in theprincipality.

He was equally in controlduring the second set, where hesaved three break points in thefourth game and two more in thesixth.

"It was a great start, it's goodto be back here," the 17-timeGrand Slam winner said.

"I've had some greatmoments on this court, I reallyenjoy playing here.

"It's not easy to come backfrom injury, I had to do a lot ofmental work as well to be pre-pared.

"I tried to play solid, domi-nate with my forehand when Ihad the chance."

Bautista Agut has now lost tohis Spanish countryman in allthree of their meetings, while

Nadal improved hisincredible record here to69-4 as he takes aim at afourth consecutive titleat the event.

Third seed AlexanderZverev rediscovered tracesof his best form with a 6-1, 6-4 defeat of Felix Auger-Aliassime.

The German, locally based,reached the third round as hetamed the 18-year-old who brokethrough for a Miami semi-finallast month.

"�9����7�����The 21-year-old Zverev

played the semi-finals in MonteCarlo a year ago but has yet to hithis stride this season.

That may be starting tochange.

Canadian Auger-Aliassimehas made a fast rise in the rank-ings from 175 a year ago to his

current position of 33rd.Zverev swept the

opening set in 30 minutesbut had to get through aseries of three straightbreaks of serve betweenhim and his opponent

before finally advancing in 78minutes.

The third seed broke sixtimes and will next face Italy'sFabio Fognini, who reached thethird round when French oppo-nent Gilles Simon was unable toplay their match due to backproblems.

Greek sixth seed StefanosTsitsipas moved ahead, defeatingMikhail Kukushkin 6-3, 7-5.

Britain's Cameron Norriedefeated Marton Fucsovics ofHungary 7-6 (7/3), 6-3, whilePierre-Hugues Herbert stunned2018 finalist and fifth seed KeiNishikori 7-5, 6-4.

���� �).*0.

Atletico Madrid goalkeeper JanOblak has signed a new contract

until 2023, the club announced onWednesday.

Oblak's commitment comes as aboost to Atletico, with the 26-year-oldestablishing himself as one of theworld's finest goalkeepers since join-ing the club in 2014.

"Jan Oblak has extended his con-

tract with Atletico Madrid until June30, 2023," a club statement read.

"The Slovenian player has signedhis new contract that commits him toour club for four more seasons."

Oblak's previous contract con-tained a release clause of 100 millioneuros, which is likely to have beenincreased, rather than removed, in hisnew deal. According to reports in theSpanish press, the adjusted releaseclause will be 120 million euros.

���� -&�.&�

Cameron Bancroft hit anunbeaten 151 on his one-day

debut for Durham as the dis-graced Australia batsman start-ed to repay the English county'sfaith in him.

Bancroft was banned fornine months after being caughtin the Australia ball-tamperingscandal during their tour toSouth Africa last year

The 'sandpaper-gate' inci-dent during the Newlands Testagainst South Africa also led toBancroft's Australia team-matesSteve Smith and David Warnerreceiving year-long suspensions.

After returning in Australia'sBig Bash League in December,and playing a role in the back endof Western Australia's currentSheffield Shield campaign,Bancroft has joined up withDurham with a view to makingAustralia's Ashes squad.

Durham, now under a newAustralian director of cricket inMarcus North, attracted criticismin some quarters when theyrecruited Bancroft.

But the 26-year-old was con-troversially appointed Durhamcaptain and, making his maidenlimited overs appearance,Bancroft piled up the runs intheir One-Day Cup clash withNorthamptonshire at Chester-le-Street on Wednesday.

Bancroft, who played in the2017-18 Ashes, plundered fivesixes and eight fours in a 188-minute stay at the crease.

He and Michael Richardsonput on 208 for the fourth-wick-et before the latter was ousted inthe final over.

Durham went on to score342 for five from their 50 overs.

Fred and Scott McTominay closedin on Coutinho and the ballspilled out to Messi, whose drib-bling shot with his right footshould have drawn a routinesave. Instead, De Gea let it squirmunder his body for 2-0.

Pogba lashed out at theincreasingly influential Arthurand Barca could have had a thirdbefore half-time, De Gea scram-bling across to save on the linewhen Sergi Roberto should havefinished.

Messi could have had his hat-trick too after Suarez found himwith a superb cutback and therewas an almost comical sequencein the second half when Leoplayed with his United chasersbefore finally being bundled overby McTominay.

Rashford might have made itinteresting if he had controlledPogba's ball over the top butBarcelona were in exhibitionmode, helped by a vintageCoutinho curler after he had cutinside from the left.

Messi even attempted a bicy-cle kick and there were celebra-tions from the home fans whennews went round that Ajax hadtaken the lead in Turin. Theybelieve this is their year.

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Young wicket-keeper RishabhPant and veteran batsman

Ambati Rayudu were onWednesday named among thestandbys for India's World Cupsquad, reigniting their dashedhopes of making the trip to the UKin case an injury setback hits theside.

Speedster Navdeep Saini alsofound a place in the list of threeback-ups for the mega-event start-ing on May 30.

With the ICC doing awaywith the practice of letting coun-tries announce a probables' listbefore the final squad, the BCCIalso has the option of includinganyone apart from these three butit is unlikely to happen.

"Just like ICC ChampionsTrophy, we have three standbys.Rishabh Pant and Ambati Rayuduare the first and second standbyswhile Saini is the bowler in the list.So if anyone gets injured, as perrequirement, one of the three will

be going," a senior BCCI officialsaid on Wednesday.

While Khaleel Ahmed, AveshKhan and Deepak Chahar will betravelling with the team purely asnet bowlers, they can also bedrafted in if the management feelsso.

"Khaleel, Avesh and Deepakare not designated standbys. Incase of bowlers, that possibility isthere but when it comes purely tobatsmen, it will be either Rishabhor Rayudu," the official said.

In other developments, therewill be no Yo-Yo Test for the WorldCup-bound players as the IPL isgoing to end only on May 12, justa few days before India head to theUK.

"The players are already in themiddle of a gruelling T20 season.Once the IPL ends, they will needrecovery time.

"It's not like that there is a gapbetween two series and you arehaving a test. If you are tired, theresults may vary," the officialexplained.

�� �� .4�)0�

India coach Ravi Shastrion Wednesday said he

would have preferred a16-member World Cupsquad instead of the man-dated 15 and urged thosewho missed out to "notlose heart".

India on Mondayannounced a 15-strongsquad for the mega-event,starting May 30, and theomissions of young keep-er-batsman Rishabh Pantand veteran AmbatiRayudu triggered adebate on the choicesmade by the selectors.

Shastri steered clearof commenting on thefurore.

"I don't get involvedin selection. If we haveany opinion, we let thecaptain known," Shastriwas quoted as saying bythe 'Sport360' website.

"When you only have15 to pick, there is boundto be someone or theother who misses out,which is very unfortu-nate. I would have pre-ferred 16 players. We hadmentioned to the ICCthat in a tournament thatlong, 16 players makessense. But the diktat was15," he added.

Shastri said thosewho missed the final 15should look ahead asopportunity can knockanytime.

"They (who missedout) shouldn't lose heart.It's a funny game. Therecould be injuries. So younever know when youcould be called up," hesaid.

When pressed onVijay Shankar's selectionfor the No 4 slot monthsafter captain Virat Kohlideclared Rayudu as thefront-runner for theposition, Shastri said thespot remains a flexibleone.

"Total flexibility (onNo 4 position) depend-ing on conditions, oppo-sition. I would say the topthree… but after thatyou can be very flexible,"he said.

���� -&�.&��

England chief selector Ed Smith is confidentthe call-up of uncapped all-rounder Jofra

Archer will have no adverse affect on teammorale in the run-up to the World Cup.

Rising star Archer was included onWednesday in a 17-man squad for nextmonth's one-day internationals againstIreland and Pakistan.

The dynamic Barbados-born Archerwas left out of the 15-man preliminaryWorld Cup squad also announced bytournament hosts England.

But he could have as many as sixone-day internationals — one againstIreland and five against Pakistan —tostake his claim before England con-firm their final World Cup squad onMay 23.

Sussex paceman Archer, 24, hasan English father and holds a Britishpassport.

He completed a three-yearqualification period on March 17after the England and WalesCricket Board changed its residen-cy rules.

Under the previous system, he would nothave been eligible until the winter of 2022 aftera seven-year residency.

Archer and another Barbados-born Sussexplayer Chris Jordan were both added to the 15-man squad that played a one-day series in theWest Indies earlier this year.

They were also included in the 14-strongparty for a one-off Twenty20 against Pakistan.

Archer has been impressing in the IndianPremier League, where he took three for 15

for the Rajasthan Royals against Kings XIPunjab on Tuesday.

"The selection panel has beenimpressed with Jofra Archer's per-formances in domestic and fran-chise cricket," said Smith. "He is avery talented and exciting crick-eter.

"In line with ICC regulations,we have to name a preliminary

squad of 15 for the ICC Men'sCricket World Cup before April 23.

"However, all 17 players named inthe Royal London ODIs againstPakistan can stake a claim to be in thefinal 15-man squad, finalised at the endof that series."

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Battling concerns over the form and fitness ofsome of their players, the Pakistan selection

committee headed by Inzamam-ul-Haq hasdecided to announce the World Cup squad onThursday with two reserves.

The selection committee has decided to utilisethe five-match one-day series against England andsome side matches as the barometer for makingchanges in the 15-member World Cup squad, ifrequired, by the deadline of 23rd May.

"The selectors after consulting head coach,Mickey Arthur have more or less decided on the15-member World Cup squad and two reserveswho will be on the flight to England for the WorldCup and before that play at the one-day seriesagainst England and some side matches," said asource close to the selectors on Wednesday.

"The concerns are over the fitness of left armspin allrounder, Imad Wasim, the present formof experienced left arm pacer, MuhammadAamir and a debate on who will be the reserveopener in the World Cup.

The source said Imad would be picked in thesquad with the other left-arm spin allrounderMuhammad Nawaz among the reserves so thatif Imad is unable to be 100 percent fit before theWorld Cup he can be replaced.

Muhammad Aamir managed to snap just fivewickets in his last 14 ODIs and the source saidselectors and team management have some reser-vations over the form of the experienced pacer.

"Fakhar, Imam, Haris, Babar Azam, ShoaibMalik, Muhammad Hafeez, Muhammad Rizwan,Sarfaraz Ahmed (Capt), Shadab Khan, FaheemAshraf, Junaid Khan, Emad Wasim, Shaheen ShahAfridi and Muhammad Aamir are certain selec-tions while for the one slot the toss up is betweenAbid Ali and hard-hitting middle order batsman,Asif Ali.

"The reserve players will include MuhammadNawaz and Muhammad Hasnain."

�� �� �!(�.!-/0

Australian great Ricky Ponting on Wednesdayexpressed surprise at Rishabh Pant's exclusion

from India's World Cup squad, saying he could havebeen the X factor in the playing eleven.

Ponting met Pant on Monday night, hours afterthe India squad was announced with DineshKarthik being preferred over the 21-year-old for thereserve wicketkeeper's slot.

"Yes I was surprised when he was left out of theIndian squad. I thought he would be in and hewould be in the starting eleven. I thought someonelike him batting at four or five could have been thatX factor and the difference between India and theother teams,"said the DelhiCapitals headcoach.

Ponting hadnothing butwords ofencouragementfor the starDelhi Capitalsplayer.

"One thingwe know aboutIndian cricketthat there is a lotof depth aroundin batting andthis t imeRishabh hasmissed out.Knowing whathe is like andthe talent he has,I would be sur-prised if hedoesn't play in at least three world cups before hiscareer is over.

"I had a quick chat with him. He seems to havetaken it pretty well. There is no doubt that he is dis-appointed, he would have loved to be in that squadbut the thing he still has to remember is, potential-ly he will get the opportunity to play in three to fourWorld Cups.

"What is negative thing for the Indian team ispositive for Delhi capitals. Really happy that thedecision has been made and he can focus on theback half of the tournament."

Pant at times has been criticised for throwingaway a good start. Asked if that could be the rea-son selectors did not pick Pant, Ponting said: "I don'tknow the selection criteria. Don't know why he isnot being picked. I don't know why the other guyshave been picked ahead of him. To be honest it isnone of my business.

"Though I don't think he is impatient, he is avery smart player. I think he sums up situations andconditions really well. But they obviously have theirreasons for not picking him and I am not going tocomment on that.

"I actually think he missing out you will see adifferent player in the IPL. His determination willshine through and I am sure he will score heavilyin the back half of the tournament," he said.

�� �� /6.!*)�).

Sunrisers Hyderabad bowled anagging line and length torestrict Chennai Super Kings

to 132 for five in their IndianPremier League match here onWednesday.

Leading the side in the absenceof Mahendra Singh Dhoni, whowas rested for the game because ofback spasm, Suresh Raina opted tobat after the coin landed in hisfavour. But the decision did notwork wonders for the visitors as theSunrisers bowlers produced a dis-ciplined effort to pick up five wick-ets for 22 runs.

Opener Faf du Plessis top-scored with a 31-ball 45 andadded 79 runs for the openingwicket with Shane Watson (31).CSK did not have much to cheerabout after that as the hosts madea remarkable comeback. Ignoredfor the World Cup, Ambati Rayaduremained not out on 25 off 21 balls.

While leg-spinner RashidKhan was the most successful

bowler with economical figures of2/17 in four overs, seamersBhuvneshwar Kumar (0/21) andKhaleel Ahmed (1/22) were alsomiserly.

It was a quite beginning forCSK as Bhuvneshwar concededjust one run in the opening over.Complementing his senior pacepartner, Khaleel also bowled a tightfirst over, giving away only three

runs.In a manner least convincing,

CSK found their first boundarywhen Watson's thick edge went fly-ing over the slip cordon.

Du Plessis drove Khaleel overhis head for a boundary in thefourth over, a proper cricketingshot this time around, and CSKfollowed that with a flurry offours and sixes.

While Watson found the fencefour times, Du Plessis hit two max-imums to up the ante at the RajivGandhi International Stadium.

Having added 79 runs in justunder 10 overs, Watson wasbowled by left-arm spinnerShahbaz Nadeem, giving the homefans something to cheer about aftera prolonged wait.

The Australia's dismissal trig-gered a collapse, from which theSuper Kings struggled to recover.

9�����������"����"����Struggling with back spasm,

Chennai Super Kings skipperMahendra Singh Dhoni was onWednesday rested for their IPLclash against SunrisersHyderabad, the first time he is notleading the yellow brigade since2010.

Suresh Raina was handedover the captaincy for the awaygame at the Rajiv GandhiInternational Stadium.

"Dhoni wanted to take somerest, he'll be back in the nextgame," Raina said at the toss.

The decision to rest the vet-eran was a precautionary mea-sure.

The two-time World Cupwinning captain had sufferedthe injury against Kolkata KnightRiders and after that game, Dhonihad said, "It's a little tight rightnow but hopefully, it will get bet-ter".

Ahead the match, Dhoni wasseen warming up by playingsome football before Rainawalked out for the toss.

This is only the fourth timeDhoni is not playing for ChennaiSuper Kings in the cash-richleague.

Dhoni has been in good formfor Chennai Super Kings in the2019 IPL, leading the team's runchart with 230 runs from eightmatches, including two fifties.

CSK, who have won sevenout of their eight matches in thisIndian Premier League so far,need another win to secure aplay-off berth.

�� �� �!(�.!-/0�

Rishabh Pant will be in focusafter his fiercely-debated

World Cup exclusion when abuoyant Delhi Capitals aim toreplicate its stellar away form athome against the MumbaiIndians here at Feroz Shah Kotlaon Thursday.

Pant has been mum onbeing ignored for the World Cupin favour of Dinesh Karthik andit would be interesting to seehow the 21-year-old's batresponds to the disappointment.

With 10 points from eightgames, both teams are on courseto make the play-offs. While thatcounts as familiar territory forthree-time IPL championsMumbai Indians, Capitals are inthe middle of a remarkableresurgence, having not finishedin the top-four since 2012.

The celebrated duo of headcoach Ricky Ponting and men-tor Sourav Ganguly has man-aged to instill belief in the teammembers and that is visible onthe field. The team now seemsto believe that it can win the titleafter a long spell as the perenni-al underachiever of the compe-tition.

The South African pacecombine of Kagiso Rabada andChris Morris have delivered forthe team. Even in the previousgame against SunrisersHyderabad, the two pacersshared seven wickets to fashionan unlikely win for Capitals whosuccessfully defended 155 bybowling out the hosts for 116.

West Indies pacer KeemoPaul too has come to the partyin the last two games by picking

up five wickets. The battingunit, led by captain ShreyasIyer, is also hitting its strides withDhawan back among the runsfollowing a few quiet games.

His opening partner is duefor a big knock after making lit-tle impact in the last five games.

But the centre of attentionwill be Pant, who will be play-ing his first game after missingout on a World Cup spot, a deci-sion that has divided opinions.

The focus will also be on theKotla pitch which has alreadycopped criticism for its slowishnature. Ponting had described itas the "worst possible" track forthe home team after a loss ear-lier in the tournament.

Apart from the super overgame against KKR, the othertwo matches here have beenlow-scoring affairs with thehome team ending on the wrongside of the result on both occa-sions.

Like Capitals, Mumbai isalso getting better with eachgame and look a more potentoutfit with the return of LasithMalinga. Hardik Pandya is alsofiring on all cylinders.

Capitals got the better ofMumbai Indians at Wankhedeearlier in the competition, soexpect the Rohit Sharma-ledsquad to come back harder atKotla.

���� "&-&��&

Veteran pacer Lasith Malingawas sacked as ODI skipper

with Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) onWednesday naming Test captainDimuth Karunaratne to lead thecountry at the 50 over Worldcup in England beginning May30.

The World cup squad willbe announced on Thursday,SLC said.

"Karunaratne's appoint-ment was ratified by theMinister ofTelecommunications, ForeignEmployment and SportsHonorable Harin Fernando,"Sri Lanka Cricket said in arelease.

31-year-old Karunaratne,who didn't play a single ODIsince the 2015 World Cup, hasonly featured in 17 ODIs andaverages 15.83 with a high scoreof 60.

He will replace Malinga,who had captained the teamduring the 0-5 loss to SouthAfrica in the ODI series.

Malinga, who led Sri Lankato a World T20 trophy in 2014,had personal disagreementswith the team managementand certain senior players,which also soured his stint ascaptain.

Karunaratne, a Test opener,forced himself into the ODI cap-taincy following his success inthe Test arena. He led Sri Lanka

to a historic 2-0 Test triumph inSouth Africa and made SriLanka the only Asian side to wina Test series in South Africa.

The other option wasAngelo Mathews, who has beenSri Lanka's ODI captain in twoseparate stints before. ButMathews is said to have declinedthe offer to captain citing his dis-agreements with coachChandika Hathurusinghe.

The news will come as ablow for Malinga, who hadplayed a domestic match inKandy, only 14 hours after play-ing an IPL match for his fran-chise Mumbai Indians inMumbai, earlier this month.

Apart from Malinga andMathews, Sri Lanka had alsotried Dinesh Chandimal andThisara Perera to lead the sideat various stages over the pasttwo years since the retirement ofKumar Sangakkara and MahelaJayawardene in 2014.

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