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The Union Cabinet onFriday approved amend-

ments to strengthen theProtection of Children fromSexual Offences (POCSO) Actand included the death penal-ty for “aggravated” sexualassault on children, besidesproviding stringent punish-ments for other crimes againstthose below 18 years of age.Law Minister Ravi ShankarPrasad said children should beprotected from sexual offencesand the modification is madeto address the need for strin-gent measures required to deterthe rising trend of sexual abuseof children in the country.

“This is a wholesome ini-tiative whereby the entirePOCSO architecture is notonly strengthened but alsoenlarged so that artificial med-icines or hormones could notbe abused to kill the childhoodof a child. An unfortunatething was going on in thecountry, that children were

being administered hormonesto make them artificiallymajors”, said Prasad.

Addressing the media hereon decisions taken in the UnionCabinet meeting, Prasad saidthe amendments to Sections 4,5, 6, 9, 14, 15 and 42 of thePOCSO Act 2012 are made toaddress child sexual abuse in anappropriate manner. Sections 4,5 and 6 of the Act are proposedto be amended to provide theoption of stringent punish-ment, including the deathpenalty, for committing aggra-

vated penetrative sexual assaulton a child. These amendmentsare aimed at discouraging thetrend of child sexual abuse byacting as a deterrent, he said.

The Act defines child asany person below the age of 18years. It is a gender-neutral leg-islation, said the statementissued later.

The amendments are also

proposed to the Section 9 of theAct to protect children fromsexual offences in times ofnatural calamities and disastersand in cases where children areadministered, in any way, anyhormone or any chemical sub-stance to attain early sexualmaturity for the purpose ofpenetrative sexual assault, itsaid.

Sections 14 and 15 of thePOCSO Act are also proposedto be amended to address themenace of the child pornogra-phy. It is proposed to levy finefor not destroying or deletingor reporting the pornograph-ic material involving a child,the statement said.

The offender can be fur-ther penalised with jail term orfine or both for transmitting,propagating, administratingsuch material in any mannerexcept for the purpose ofreporting as may be prescribedand for use as evidence incourt.

“Penal provisions havebeen made more stringent forstoring/possessing any porno-graphic material in any forminvolving a child for commer-cial purpose,” the official state-ment said.

Prasad said, “The modifi-cation is made to address theneed for stringent measuresrequired to deter the risingtrend of child sex abuse in thecountry.”

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Aday after the Lok Sabhapassed the Triple Talaq

Bill with some contentiouspenal provisions for the desert-er husband, the Oppositionseemed to be united to stall itin the Upper House. TheOpposition has accused theGovernment of indulging invote bank politics and demand-ed that the Bill be referred to ajoint select committee.

According to sources,Opposition parties will meet todevise their strategy to blockthe Bill in the Rajya Sabha onMonday when it is likely tocome up for consideration.

Sources said all Congressmembers in the Rajya Sabhawould meet in Parliament onMonday morning, ahead of

the start of House proceedings,to evolve its strategy on the Bill.

The numbers are tilted infavour of the Opposition in theRajya Sabha, where the UPAhas 112 members and the NDA93. One seat is vacant. Theremaining 39 members of otherparties are unattached to eitherNDA or UPA and are likely toplay an important role in thepassage of the contentious Bill.

The Government had notagreed to the Oppositiondemand for sending the earli-

er Bill to the select committee,when it was brought before theHouse in the Monsoon Sessionof Parliament.

Though the NDA is wayshort of the halfway mark of123 in the 245-member House,it had emerged victorious in theelection of the DeputyChairman, with its nomineeHarivansh of the JD(U) bag-ging 125 votes against 101 forOpposition-backed Congressmember BK Hariprasad.

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India will send a three-mem-ber team to space for seven

days as part of the Gaganyaanproject which will entail a costof �10,000 crore.

The ambitious project,which was announced byPrime Minister Narendra Modiin his Independence Dayspeech, was approved by theUnion Cabinet in its meetingon Thursday night.

If successful, India willbecome the fourth country inthe world to send a mannedmission to the outer space. Sofar only the USA, Russia andChina have send manned mis-sion in the outer space.

Briefing about the out-come of the Cabinet meeting,Union Minister Ravi ShankarPrasad said the GaganyaanMission is expected to beundertaken by 2022 and Indiahas already inked pacts withRussia and France for assis-tance in the ambitious project.The testing for the mission willstart in December 2020.

“A human rated GSLV Mk-lll will be used to carry theorbital module which will have

necessary provisions for sus-taining a 3-member crew forthe duration of the mission.The necessary infrastructurefor crew training, realisation offlight systems and groundinfrastructure will be estab-lished to support the

Gaganyaan programme. ISROwill collaborate extensively withnational agencies, laboratories,academia and industry toaccomplish the Gaganyaan pro-gramme objectives,” said theGovernment in a statement.

The total fund require-

ment for the Gaganyaan pro-gramme is within �10,000 crorewhich includes cost of tech-nology development, flighthardware realisation and essen-tial infrastructure elements.Two unmanned flights andone manned flight will beundertaken as part ofGaganyaan programme.

Gaganyaan programmewill be a national effort in col-laboration with industry, acad-emia and other scientific agen-cies and laboratories as stakeholders along with ISRO. ISROwill be responsible for realisingthe flight hardware throughindustry.

National agencies, labora-tories and academia will par-ticipate in crew training,human life science technologydevelopment initiatives as wellas design reviews. First humanspace flight demonstration istargeted to be completed with-in 40 months from the date ofsanction. Prior to this, twounmanned flights in full com-plement will be carried out togain confidence on the tech-nology and mission manage-ment aspects, said the statement.

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Awar of words has eruptedbetween the Congress and

the ruling BJP over the yet tobe released movie TheAccidental Prime Minister, star-ring Anupam Kher asManmohan Singh. While theCongress termed it as BJP’spropaganda against its party,Union Minister RajyavardhanRathore asked whether the BJPdid not even have the freedomto extend wishes to a film.

The Congress locked hornswith the BJP after the rulingparty tweeted the trailer fromits official Twitter handle onThursday night. “Riveting taleof how a family held the coun-

try to ransom for 10 longyears. Was Dr Singh just aregent who was holding on tothe PM’s chair till the time heirwas ready? Watch the officialtrailer of The Accidental PrimeMinister, based on an insider’saccount, releasing on 11January,” the BJP’s official tweetread.

Asked by journalists tocomment on the film at theCongress’ foundation day func-tion at the party headquarterson Friday, Manmohan Singhwalked away with a cryptic “nocomment”.

On his part, Anupam Kher

said he will not back off fromthe snowballing controversyand took a swipe atMaharashtra Youth Congress’threats saying they should behappy a film has been made ontheir leader. Kher also referredto a recent statement byCongress president RahulGandhi that freedom of expres-sion is a fundamental right.

The Accidental PrimeMinister is based on a bookwritten by former PrimeMinister Manmohan Singh’smedia adviser Sanjaya Baru.The biopic stars Anupam Kheras Manmohan Singh andAkshay Khanna as SanjayaBaru. The trailer of the movieshows Singh as a victim of theCongress’s internal politicsahead of the 2014 elections.

Setting aside speculation ofa probable ban on the movie inthe Congress-ruled States, thenewly formed Kamal NathGovernment in MadhyaPradesh said it has not bannedthe film.

Continued on Page 4

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Come Lok Sabha polls, theBJP will remove the age-

bar on contesting and holdingpolitical posts as two of itsprominent women leadersSushma Swaraj and Uma Bhartihave suo moto announcedtheir intention to not contestand Speaker Sumitra Mahajanmay be opting out of the poll.

The post-2014 victory inthe Lok Sabha polls led the BJPto re-write rules of the gamesfor the party members whichincluded retirement from activepolitics after 75 and diminish-ing chances of getting partytickets after reaching 70.

The formation ofMargdarshak Mandal inAugust, 2014, to accommodateaged veterans like LK Advaniand MM Joshi had raised manyeyebrows even as they alsodid not find seat in BJP’s

Parliamentary Board, the allpowerful decision-makingbody of the party.

All that may change nowwith the onset of the electionseason. The BJP sees age 75with no-bar for contesting LokSabha polls, sources in theparty said. As the coming pollturning out to be a keen con-test, the party would put pre-mium on winning the seatrather than allowing “youthfulexperiment” a chance.

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Making it difficult for themto fly, the lethal combi-

nation of cold and pollution inthe National Capital has takenits toll on birds. Avian hospitalsin the city these days are busytreating 15-20 birds beingbrought with the complaints ofparalysis every day.

“Paralysis in birds hasbecome common now.Everyday the hospital admits15 to 20 birds affected withparalysis,” said Sunil Jain, hon-orary secretary, Birds CharityHospital, Chandni Chowk.

The hospital which spe-cialises in treating birds withdifferent ailments is now treat-ing birds which are apparent-ly the victims of cold and pol-lution, he added.

“See, there are three basicreasons behind their patheticcondition. First, there is a lot ofpollution in the air, second, thetemperature is falling drasti-cally, and third, the weather isnot up to the mark making it

difficult for them to survive,” he said.

Wasim Akram, manager,Special Projects of WildlifeSOS, Delhi, said that because ofthe winter season and pollu-tion, there is a problem of lowvisibility confronted by theavian population due to whichthey face survival issues.

According to Jain, while

the hospital treats a variety ofbirds throughout the year, thebirds which are coming noware mostly pigeons as they arethe ones without any propershelter.

“Most of the birds that weare treating these days are therescued ones and pet birdsbeing brought by their ownersare relatively fewer in number.

We are treating mostly pigeonsthese days; they are homeless,”said Jain.

Shockingly, the number ofparalysed birds in the hospitalhas risen alarmingly sinceOctober this year because ofrising pollution levels and theadvent of winters, Jain said further.

The story is not different inother areas as well, said WasimAkram as Wildlife SOS rescuesa number of birds from across

the city during winter months. As per data provided by

Wildlife SOS, the NGO rescued71 birds of different species inOctober and 54 birds of dif-ferent varieties in November. InDecember so far, the NGO hasrescued 53 birds of differentvarieties already.

“Wildlife SOS has a 24-hour helpline which receivesregular calls for birds in distressand in need of medical atten-tion. In the month of October

and November alone, we haverescued over 100 birds of var-ious kinds,” Akram said. Thecalls increase during wintermonths, he added.

This year, the NGO res-cued pigeons, kites, owls andpeacocks in the winter months,Akram said. Recalling specialcases he said, “We are not sureif it was due to cold or pollu-tion but we in the recent pastrescued a kingfisher, barn owland an Indian eagle owl in badcondition.”

Apart from paralysis, thebirds in this weather becomevulnerable also to serious res-piratory and digestive problems, added other veteri-narians.

Nevertheless, some birdscoming with paralysis are keptin Intensive Care Units (ICUs),others are discharged afterproper medication, Jain said.Owners are given prescrip-tions and recommendationsafter which the pet birds aredischarged from the hospital,he added.

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Cocking a snook over policedeployment, unidentified

miscreants on Friday after-noon allegedly broke the win-

dow glass of an Asian Games2018, shooter Silver medalistand took away his three bagscontaining 0.22 mm 200 livecartridges, 400 empty shells,cash and documents. The inci-

dent was reported inthe Ambedkar Nagararea of South Dlhi.

According to asenior police official,the incident occurredaround 2 pm on Fridaywhen Deepak Kumar,who hails fromAmbala in Haryana,along with other shoot-ers Kajal a resident ofRohtak and Ravi Rathi,a resident of Sampla inHaryana, had come tosubmit some docu-ments with theNational Rif leAssociation office nearT u g h l a q a b a dInstitutional area.

“I had to go toGermany in January

for which I had come for mydocuments verification here. Ihad parked my Honda WRVcar outside the office premisesand along with others was inNRA office when an officeemployee came and told methat someone had broken mycar’s window following whichI rushed to the car.

The miscreants took awaythree bags carrying ammuni-tion, cash, documents andother items, leaving our riflesin car,” said a distraughtDeepak Kumar.

“A case under appropriatesections has been registered atAmbedkar Nagar PoliceStation. Police team is scanningCCTV camera in the area toidentify the accused persons,”said senior police official.

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With the launch of ‘E-Malkhana’ in the remain-

ing 10 districts of nationalCapital, the Delhi Police hasbecome first in country tohave digitalised malkhana inPolice Stations of its all districts.

Speaking on the occasionChief Guest, DelhiCommissioner of Police (CP),Amulya Patnaik, said that themalkhana is critical in policefunctioning and digitisationof malkhanas is a very impor-tant achievement.

He said digitization of service delivery mechanismwill definitely make the wholesystem faster, smoother andeasier.

He acknowledged thatthough digitization on such alarge scale was a herculean task,the Deputy Commissioners ofPolice (DCPs), Joint CPs,Special CPs led from the frontand kept their personnel moti-vated to achieve this goal.

CP commended the efforts

of personnel instrumental inthe project and presented cer-tificate of merit to 14 person-nel (one from each District), fortheir outstanding efforts inachieving this goal in theirrespective districts.“Digitization of case propertieswould give a boost to prose-

cution and judicial systemowing to the ease in mainte-nance, location, retrieval ofcase properties and recordingtheir movements as well.Around 3,11,600 case proper-ties across all the police stationsof Delhi have been encryptedin digital form,” said Sandeep

Goel, Special CP, Law andOrder, North range.

A booklet on e-malkhanafunctioning was also releasedon the occasion. A short film showing how this feat wasaccomplished within such ashort span was shown on theoccasion.

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Cases of vehicle theft haveincreased by 5.21 per cent in

2018 as compared to the previ-ous year, however, GurugramPolice on Friday claimed that thecity had become a lot saferbecause heinous crimes likemurders, rape, robberies, loot,burglaries and snatching havedecreased. According to officialdata, 4,318 cases of vehicle thefthave been registered in 2018 ascompared to 4,104 last year.Presenting the annual crimedata at a Press conference,Commissioner of PoliceGurugram K K Rao, did con-cede that 18 to 20 per cent of thecases are still pending.

Rao claimed GurugramPolice is working towards friend-ly policing and the pendency willbe decreased by 15 percent innear future.”This year the cityhas witnessed decline in cases ofmurders, rapes, robberies, loot,burglaries, snatchings and othercrimes of all natures.

All crimes under theheinous category, witnessed a

sharp dip of 50 percent in 2018,as compared to the corre-sponding periodQ,” stated thePolice Commissioner.

“Apart from the decrease inheinous crimes, we were alsoable to improve our crime detec-tion rates. In 2018, we have dis-posed of 30,893complaints outof 33,113 total registered.Likewise, as compared to 2017,when 117 murder cases came tolight, the number was 77 in 2018that was a decrease of 38 per-cent. Also, cases of rape dippedby 15 percent. In the previousyear 132 cases of rape were reg-istered but in2018 around 139rape cases were registered ofwhich 38 were cancelled.

The district police have reg-istered 181 case of the Protectionof Children from SexualOffences (POCSO) Act in which12 were cancelled due to lack ofevidence.

There were 96 loot casesregistered in 2017 whereas in2018 the figure stood at 41(down by 55 percent) and bur-glary came down by 5 percent.The overall cases of burglary reg-istered in 2017 were 602. In the

current, the figure has comedown to 577 so far, the policechief said.

Besides that with 1,602 casesof simple theft so far, registeredin the previous year. In 2018,1,424 of such case we’re regis-tered. However, last year the cityroads had claimed 481 lives in1,214 road accidents. This yearso far such figure down by 442in 1,075 accidents.

Rao said the overall crimegraph has come down becauseof the preventive measures ini-tiated by the police and alsoreacting to any incident beingreported. The police chief cred-

ited the beat staff for the “ over-all improvement” in the crimerate in the millennium city.

“The response time of thepolice control room (PCR) isconstantly observed by an ACPrank officer. From the lastmonth, video recording of thePCR staff is being done. Withthese efforts we are just check-ing the response time of the PCRto reaching the crime spot,” theCommissioner said.

The police commissionersaid that the traffic situationremained an area ofconcern. “Itwas more due to the increase ina number ofvehicles and the

“lack of timely expansion” of theroad network. Thetop cop saidincreasing the use of technolo-gy and police presence on theroads had helped in speeding upa movement of vehicles”, headded. Rao said over Rs 23 crorewas recovered from more than13 lakh vehicles for violatingtraffic rules in 2018.

Meanwhile, the city policehave decided to attach proper-ties belonging to hundreds ofsuspects who have been declaredproclaimed absconders. Thislist includes dreaded criminalsand some other key people whoare on the run for quite a whileand are opting for unethicalways to evade arrest.

Rao said 782 abscondingcriminals have been declaredProclaimed Offenders (POs) inthe district. “The police willapproach the courts underSection 83 of CrPc to attachproperties belonging to peoplewho have been POs for a longtime,” Rao said.

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Gurugram Commissioner ofPolice KK Rao on Friday

said the Haryana Governmenthas given permission to furtherinvestigate the alleged landscam case registered againstRobert Vadra, brother-in-law ofCongress chief Rahul Gandhi,former Chief MinisterBhupinder Singh Hooda andothers.

“We had sought permissionfrom the State Governmentafter the case was registered ata Gurugram police station. Theauthorities have given a go-ahead to investigate the allegedscam,” said KK RaoCommissioner of Police.

The district police regis-tered the case against Vadra,Hooda and others onSeptember 1 at Kherki Daulapolice station.

Police had booked Vadra,Hooda, DLF and Gurugram-based Onkareshwar propertiesfor their alleged involvement ina land scam worth �5,000 crorein Gurugram in 2008.

The case was registered onthe complaint of Surender

Sharma, a resident of Tauru,alleging that a company belong-ing to Vadra’s SkylightHospitality had cheated peopleand the government.

Vadra’s company SkylightHospitality Pvt Ltd purchased3.5 acres of land in Gurugram’sSector 83 from OnkareshwarProperties for �7.50 crore in2008, and later sold it to DLF for�58 crore.

The Haryana governmentthen allotted 350 acres of landto DLF in violation of rules.

After the Bharatiya JanataParty came to power inHaryana, it set up a one-mancommission of Justice SNDhingra on May 14, 2015, toprobe the land scam.

The commission probedthe alleged irregularities in the

grant of licence by the HaryanaDepartment of Town andCountry Planning to somecompanies, including those ofRobert Vadra, son-in-law ofthen Congress President SoniaGandhi, in Sector 83 ofGurugram for developing com-mercial colonies.

Deals were allegedly inkedfor land in Shikohpur, Sihi,Kherki Daula and SikanderpurBadha villages in Gurugram.

A case was registered undersections of 420(cheating), 120B(hatching conspiracy), 467(forger), 468 (forgery for thepurpose of cheating), 471 (usingas genuine a forged document)of the Indian Penal Code (IPC),and Section 13 of the Preventionof Corruption Act, at the KherkiDaula Police Station.

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Delhi Customs Departmenthas arrested an Indian for

allegedly trying to smuggle ingold worth �41.11 lakh at theIndira Gandhi International(IGI) Airport on Thursday.

According to a seniorCustoms official, the 20-year-old passenger was interceptedafter his arrival from Bangkok

on Thursday.“He further

intended to depart toAmritsar but wasstopped by securitypersonnel. A detailedpersonal and baggagesearch of the passengerresulted in the recoveryof gold, weighing 1.3kg, concealed in hischecked-in baggage,,”said the senior

Customs official. “The gold was in the

form of three ‘kadas’ (bangles) and was coated in sil-ver colour to avoid detection,”said the Senior Customs officialadding that the passenger hasbeen placed under arrestedunder the provision of section 104 of the Customs actand further investigation isgoing on.

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With companies showinglittle interest in tender

process initiated by New Delhi Municipal Council(NDMC) to install “MistSpraying Cannon” at the fourcorners of Connaught Place, theplan has failed to take off.

The NDMC had floatedthe tender of more than �3 crorefor the ambitious project withpurpose to neutralise the thickblanket of smog that engulfs thenational Capital every winter ascool air traps a toxic blend ofpollutants, making it difficult forthe people to breathe.

A senior NDMC officialsaid the tender was dropped dueto fewer participants in theprocess. “The tender would

now be uploaded onGovernment e-procurementwebsite (GeM) soon,” he said.GeM is the National PublicProcurement Portal that facili-tates online procurement ofcommon use goods.

The move was conceptu-alised to curtail air pollution dur-ing the winter this year but dueto fewer participants the concepthas not been come on the groundthis year, he said. The official fur-ther said that the civic body isputting all the efforts to introduceit as soon as possible.

The smog fighting machinecommonly referred as “MistSpraying Cannon” spray tinydroplets of water up to a heightof 100 metres thus creating anartificial mist to which air-borne pollutants would stick and

subsequently grounded. Thetiny droplets fired by themachine are the same as parti-cles of PM2.5 and PM10. It com-bines with the dust and fine par-ticles and takes it down to theground.

In a similar exercise toreduce air pollution, the DelhiGovernment had also sprayedwater from an “anti-smog gun”to see whether it could make anyimpact in reducing pollutantsfrom the air. The anti-smog gunput on trial by the cityGovernment could spray atom-ised water (tiny droplets ofwater) up to a height of 50metres, at the highly-pollutedAnand Vihar area in Decemberlast year after pollution levels inthe national Capital went in thesevere category during winters.

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The Special Task Force (STF)of the Haryana police on

Thursday night arrested fourmembers of an inter-State ganginvolved in ATM theft from vil-lage Harsaru after a briefexchange of fire. The fourother members of the gangescaped successfully.

According to the STF, thearrested accuseds were involvedin 14 cases of murder, loot anddacoity which they had com-mitted in seven different States.The probe team suspects thatthe culprits could be involvedin more than 100 of such cases.

Following a tip-off,Inspector Dr Sunil Kumar ofthe STF nabbed the accused

from the Harsaru village inGurugram. The accused hasbeen identified as Sarfaraz,Ismu Deen and Azaad of Nuhdistrict in Haryana and Irfaanhail from Rajasthan.

“The members of the gangtheft several ATM kiosk andcommitted the crime in Delhi,Uttar Pradesh, Bihar,

Jharkhand, Telangana,Maharashtra andRajasthan. They weredeclared proclaimedoffenders most of thecases.

Delhi police hadimposed underMaharashtra Control ofOrganised Crime(MCOCA) Act on theculprits,” STF DeputyInspector General (DIG)

of Police Satheesh Balan said.“They used a gas cutter to

melt the ATM machine andwithdraw the money,” Balansaid. The accused were pro-duced before the court onFriday which sent them threedays police remand.

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The Delhi Police has regis-tered a First Information

Report (FIR) against a private-ly run shelter home in Dwarkaafter Delhi Commission ofWomen (DCW) chairpersonSwati Maliwal lodged com-plaint against those involved inthe management.

There are serious allegationsthat girl housed in the shelterhome were being physicallyabused by the shelter homepeople. The enormity of theabuse could be judged by thefact that the staff membersused to throw chilly powder ontheir private parts of the girls aspunishment and forced them tolive in abominable condition.

An FIR has been registeredwith the Dwarka Sector-23police station under Protectionof Children from SexualOffence (POCSO) Act, said a

police official. Inhuman treatment meted

out to the girls came to the forewhen the expert committee ofDCW, set by the Delhi govern-ment started conducting sur-prise inspections of private andgovernment run shelter homesin the National Capital Delhiand give suggestions for theimprovement of the living con-dition of the girl inmates.

“The committee compris-ing of four members of DCWvisited the home on 27thDecember 2018, and found thatthe girls with different agegroup were kept in a very poorcondition,” said DCW member.

The committee interactedwith girls of age group 6-9years, 10-13 years and 13-15years to understand their expe-rience of residing at the shelterhome.

The girls appeared petrifiedbut opened up once cajoled by

the committee members to nar-rate the problems they werefaced with. The elder girls(teenagers) told the membersand police, “Any sort of defiantbehaviour from the childrenwould be met with serious andexcruciating punishmentbecause of which the girls hadbecome submissive. The girlswere forced fed chilli powder inorder to discipline them. It washorrifying to know that chillipowder was thrusted publicly intheir vagina and butts by femaleshelter home staff as forms ofpunishment,” a report by the

DCW stated. The girls were alsopunished by beating with scalesfor not keeping the rooms cleanand for not listening to the staff.The girls were not permitted togo home during summer andwinter vacations.

The shelter home had onlyone staff and cook to look afterthe 22 girls. The expert com-mittee was appalled at the cruelbehavior being meted out to thehapless girls as forms of pun-ishment. “After witnessing thepoor state of the girls, the com-mittee immediately called theDeputy Commissioner for

Police, Dwarka who sent a teamof senior officers to the shelterhome in civil dress (to maintainchild friendly atmosphere) andrecorded statements of the chil-dren. An FIR has been regis-tered by Delhi Police against thestaff of the Home,” said DCWchief.

Maliwal said, the Ministerof Women and Child depart-ment took cognisance of thegravity of the situation andpenal action was initiatedagainst the accused staff mem-bers of the shelter home. Delhigovernment is mulling to set upan enquiry in the matter, sheadded.

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From Government officers tostudents, the art exhibition

at Janpath Subway, Outer Circle,Connaught Place organised byNew Delhi Municipal Council(NDMC) has given space to 36contemporary artists to show-case their talent for free. The artexhibition containing over 130paintings and sculptures hasbeen organised as a part of theirbeautification plans. “There areseveral artists in the city whocannot afford exhibiting theirart pieces in big galleries, so, aplace has been given to themhere for free,” said a seniorNDMC official.

According to the officialsapart from that, there are twomore reasons behind organis-ing the exhibition.

“Under NDMC Act, we areprivileged to promote Art andCulture. So, this effort hasbeen made to bring the artfrom the living rooms of theartists into the public domain,”the official said. The exhibitionhas also been organized topromote beautification andcleanliness, he said.

As many as 120 paintingsand 10 sculptures of 36 con-

temporary artists and art stu-dents across the city have par-ticipated in the exhibition.

Among various artistsChaitanya Jaipura, a student ofart has also participated.Highlighting the theme of hispainting he said, “My paintingis a contrast between happinessand destitute. The old man inmy painting is in rags but is stillhappy.” It took him a week tomake the charcoal painting, hesaid.

Similarly, Kiran SoniGupta, a senior governmentofficial has displayed five land-scape paintings. She has pre-pared some of the paintingstaking two months, she said.

The exhibition is a part ofthe forthcoming SwachhSurvekshan 2019. Inauguratedon Friday, the exhibition willend on January 12, 2019, theofficial added.

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The AAP national executiveon Friday decided to

contest Parliamentary polls inStates where the BJP is strongand monitor the emerging situ-ation in the country before tak-ing a call on joining the grandalliance.

Taking to reporters after themeeting, senior party leaderGopal Rai said the AAP hasdecided to fight “autocracy” ofthe Modi Government.

“The Aam Aadmi Party willfight against this autocracy bychallenging the BJP in Stateswhere it is strong,” he said. Rai,when asked about AAP’s par-

ticipation in ‘Mahagathbandhan’,said, “We will monitor the situ-ation in the country and take adecision accordingly.”

Mahagathbandhan is agrand alliance of oppositionparties against the BJP for the2019 Lok Sabha polls. The meet-ing also discussed the conditionof farmers in country.

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Delhi’s air quality showed aslight improvement on

Friday as it hurtled down to‘very poor’ pollution categorybut remained on the brink ofturning ‘severe’ due to drop intemperature. The drop in thetemperature has resulted slowdispersion of suspended par-ticulate matters (SPM).

The Central PollutionControl Board (CPCB) datashowed the overall air qualityindex (AQI) at the ‘very poor’level of 394, while the Centre-run System of Air Quality andWeather Forecasting (SAFAR)showed an AQI of 372, whichfalls in the ‘very poor’ catego-ry.

According to CPCB data,11 areas recorded severe pol-lution, while 24 areas wit-nessed ‘very poor’ air quality.

The neighbouring Ghaziabadthe pollution level as ‘severewhereas Faridabad, Gurugramand Noida recorded ‘very poor’air quality.

The overall PM2.5 level -fine particulate matter in the airwith a diameter of less than 2.5micrometer - was recorded at241 and the PM10 level at 376in Delhi, the CPCB said.

The national capitalrecorded its second highest

pollution level of the yearSunday with an AQI of 450.The air quality remained‘severe’ Monday and Tuesday.There was a slight drop in thepollution level and the air qual-ity moved to the ‘very poor’ cat-egory Wednesday. OnThursday, the air quality againworsened and turned ‘severe’.

According to the IndianInstitute of TropicalMeteorology, the ventilationindex is marginally favourablefor dispersion of pollutants at5,000 sqm/second.

The ventilation index is thespeed at which pollutants candisperse. A ventilation indexlower than 6,000 sqm/second,with average wind speed lessthan 10 kmph, is unfavourablefor dispersion of pollutants.

According to the System ofAir Quality and WeatherForecasting and Research, the

air quality over Delhi has dete-riorated slightly and touchedupper side of the ‘very poor’category.

“However, now wind speedhas picked up slightly whichmay lead to slight improvementin the pollution level fromevening until tomorrow. Sincemoderate cold wave to severecold wave conditions are pre-vailing over major parts ofnorth india surrounding Delhi,appreciable improvement isnot expected,” it said.

“Such adverse weather isthe major reason for the sus-tained pollutant levels in thevery poor range. The AQI willcontinue to remain in the ‘verypoor’ category (340-370) in thenext three days and overallmass concentration of PM2.5will hover around 200 μg/m3and will not cross 250 μg/m3,”it said.

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The North Delhi MunicipalCorporation (NMC) has

issued notices to all the chemi-cal traders in the Walled city,directing them to close tradesand shift chemical units to theintegrated freight complex (IFC)in Narela before December 12.

In a notice issued by theNMC, it said that the HighCourt in its order titled ‘Societyfor Awareness and Developmentv/s Union of India and othershas granted time to traders inTilak Bazar, Khari Baoli andSadr Bazar etc till Dec 12 to shifttheir units. The corporationwould start sealing the premis-es of such units if they failed toshift their units before the dead-line, said a senior NMC official.

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Deputy Chief MinisterManish Sisodia on Friday

rolled out the pilot project for‘Entrepreneurship Curriculum’in IX-XII class of the AamAadmi Party (AAP)Government run schools fromApril -2019.

Sisodia, who is also theEducation Minister, has giventhe target of July for this cur-riculum in senior secondaryschools and the basic trainingsto be completed during sum-mer vacation in May-June.

Directing the officials ofDirectorate of Education(DoE), Sisodia, said that basictrainings be conducted duringthe Summer Vacations andsubsequently theEntrepreneurship Curriculumin all schools for Class IX to XIIbe launched in the first week ofJuly, 2019.

As per the directions ofDoE, Director State Council ofEducation Research andTraining (SCERT) will set up aworking group having facultiesof SCERT/DIET, Principals orTeachers of DoE and externalexperts/practitioners.

“This group should beempowered to engage the ser-vices of other experts and paythe remunerations to them asper SCERT’s norm,” he added.

Sisodia said,

“Unemployment is one of thebiggest problems being facedby our country. Every timewhen there is some job vacan-cy, even if at IV Grade, we seethousands of MBAs, Engineerseven PhDs., apply for the post.”The problem with education isthat in all schools and colleges,we are giving education to ournext generation just to seekjobs. I personally have askedthe students in various schoolsand colleges that ‘how many ofyou want to do job’ and ‘howmany of you want to becomeentrepreneur’. In 99.9 percentcases, I have found that everystudent is studying for job,” headded.

Delhi government will ini-tiate this program keeping theview of employment opportu-nity to the youngsters help tosustain in highly competitiveera. “Biggest question today iswhere are the job providers ? “Ihave seen entrepreneurship

programmes being carried outat various levels in someUniversities and Schools butthey are treating entrepre-neurship as a skill and not as amind set,” said Sisodia, adding,“That is why, despite so manyprogrammes at various levels,we have not been able to pro-duce entrepreneurship mindset who will ultimately becomejob providers in the society.This is a big lacuna.”

“Our best brains are work-ing to serve their companies.The hard work by best brainsbeing produced in our countryis giving economic benefits tothose countries where theiremployers are from,” he added.“ If we can produce large-scaleentrepreneurs in our countrythen they will not only solve theproblem of unemployment butalso will help the economygrow very fast,” Sisodia said.

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After Pink Line, the peopleof the Delhi — national

Capital Region (NCR) will geta New year gift by mid ofJanuary as the Delhi and NoidaMetro Rail Corporation hasbegan the trial runs on the 6.8kilometre long Noida CityCentre-Noida electronic Cityfrom Friday onwards. Thiscorridor will be the extensionof the presently operationalDwarka Sector 21 - Noida CityCentre (Line 3) also called asBlue Line.

Also, this Line will be Delhimetro’s third line in Noidaafter Noida Sector 15 - NoidaCity Centre and BotanicalGarden - Kalindi Kunj.Vaishali. The Noida - GreaterNoida Line of Noida Metro RailCorporation (NMRC) will alsothrown open the public soon inthe coming months.

Residents and employeesespecially who daily up anddown daily to and fro Delhi-Noida will be benefitted large-ly as opening of this corridorwill reduce the travel timefrom Delhi to Noida Sector 62,

besides facilitating ease of com-mute and improving connec-tivity. Noida’s Sector 62 on oneof the commercial area with anumber of commercial estab-lishments and offices.

Further, the extension ofthe Blue Line which will run tillthe Greater Noida will be com-pleted elevated with consistingsix stations: Noida Sector 34,Sector 52, Sector 61, Sector 59,Sector 62 and Noida ElectronicCity.

The officials at Delhi metro

said that these trials are justpreliminary and the Signallingtrials will begin soon. “Duringthe trial runs, the interaction ofthe Metro train with physicalinfringements (civil structure)will be checked to ensure thatthere is no physical blockageduring the movement of thetrain on the track. The entiresignaling system will alsoundergo rigorous testing,” saidAnuj Dayal, Executive Director(Corporate Communication),DMRC.

As per the officials, duringthese trials, the response of thetrain at different speeds, brak-ing of the train and the inter-connection with theOperations Control Centre(OCC) will also be monitored.The behavior of the track sys-tem and the Over HeadElectrification (OHE) will bechecked repeatedly during allthe trials.

Currently, the 49.93 kmslong Blue Line (Line 3) oper-ates between Dwarka Sector 21to Noida City Centre. Afteropening of this 6.8 kms longsection, the entire Blue Line(Line 3) will become 56.73kms in length which will be thesecond longest corridor of Delhi Metro after the Majlis Park — Shiv Vihar cor-ridor (Pink Line) which is 59kms long.

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Srinagar: Suspected terroristsattacked a paramilitary campon the outskirts of Srinagar onFriday night, but there was noloss of life, police said.

The camp that wasattacked is located in a powerstation at Wagoora area ofNowgam in Jammu &Kashmir's Anantnag district.The Central Industrial SecurityForce (CISF) personnel retali-ated and there was a briefexchange of fire before themilitants fled, the police said.

No loss of life or injury wasreported, a police officer said,adding that the area had beencordoned off.

In October, a CISF officerwas killed in a sniper attack atthe same camp. PTI

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Khliehriat (Meghalaya): IndianNavy divers on Saturday will jointhe operation underway to res-cue 15 miners trapped inside aflooded rat-hole coal mine inMeghalaya since December 13,officials said on Friday.

The Navy spokesman saidin a tweet that a 15-member div-ing team from Visakhapatnamin Andhra Pradesh will reach thesite in the remote Lumthari vil-lage in East Jaintia Hills districton Saturday morning.

"The team is carrying spe-cialised diving equipmentincluding a re-compressionchamber and remotely operat-ed vehicles capable of searchingunderwater," he said.

The Navy carried out an ini-tial assessment on Friday todetermine an effective response.

Pump manufacturing com-pany Kirloskar Brothers Ltdand Coal India were jointlymoving 18 high-powered

pumps to drain water out of the37-foot-deep mine. A team ofsurveyers from the two compa-nies also conducted an on-the-

spot assessment of the situation.They will submit a report to

East Jaintia Hills district author-ities on the technicalities about

positioning pumps for effectivelycarrying the operation, officialsat the site said.

The team would carry spe-

cial diving equipment includinga remote-operated vehicle capa-ble of conducting underwatersearch.

The Air Force has airlifted10 pumps from Bhubaneswar.Its personnel have landed inGuwahati, 270 kilometres awayfrom the coal mine, officialsources said.

The mine got flooded whenwater from the nearby Lyteinriver gushed into it onDecember 13, trapping the 15diggers.

A PTI reporter who went tothe site on Friday reported thatthe mine is located on top of ahillock fully covered with trees.To reach the mine, a person hasto pass the 30-foot wide Lyteinriver three times.

No habitation was foundnearby and 80-90 illegal coalmines dot the area.

The reporter was told bylocals that the illegal private

mine was closed for a long timeand opened for mining 2-3 daysbefore the the miners weretrapped on December 13.

The mine is owned by KripSchullet, a local who has beenarrested since the incident cameto the adminstration's knowl-edge, state officials said.

General Manager of NorthEastern Coalfields J Bora arrivedwith two officials of the com-pany Friday and they were fol-lowed by a 10-member team ofexperts of the Coal India (CIL)to the site to assess the situation,they said.

Bora said CIL is arrangingeight high-powered pumps forthe rescue operation.

"We are waiting for the ini-tial 10 high-powered pumps.They will be brought here thisevening," the Superintendent ofPolice said.

The high-powered pumpswill be transported by road

from Guwahati till about twokilometres from the accidentsite. From there, vehicles havebeen requisitioned to carry themto the mine, a senior district offi-cial said.

Meanwhile, a 20-memberteam of the Odisha Fire ServicesFriday left for Shillong withequipment, including high-pow-ered pumps, high-tech equip-ment and gadgets to assist thelocal administration in thesearch and rescue operation, areport from Bhubaneswar said.

Pumping of water from themine was suspended onSaturday as there was no visiblereceding of the water level in it.The district authorities had writ-ten to the state governmentseeking high-powered pumps asthe two 25 hp pumps, whichwere being used, were found tobe inadequate, an official of theNDRF, which is involved in therescue operation, said. PTI

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From Page 1The Department of Public

Relations of Madhya PradeshGovernment tweeted that thereis no decision by theGovernment to ban the film,adding that media reportsannouncing the ban were notfactual.

Responding to the BJP,Congress chief spokespersonRandeep Surjewala said onTwitter that “such fake propa-ganda” would not stop it fromasking the Modi Governmentquestions on “rural distress,

rampant unemployment,demonetisation disaster, flawedGST, failed Modinomics andpervading corruption”.

The Maharashtra YouthCongress too withdrew itsdemand for a special screeningof the film on the former PMclaiming that it did not wish tosee the “campaign movie of theBJP”. Maharashtra YouthCongress chief Satyajeet Tambehad written to the film’s pro-ducer demanding a specialscreening before the movie hitthe screens as well as “coursecorrection” in case there wasany distortion in the way eventsof the time were depicted in the

film. Taking a dig at the BJPover the biopic, RJD’s RajyaSabha member Manoj Jha saidthat movies should also bemade on alleged irregularitiesin the Rafale fighter jet deal,demonetisation and farmersuicides. He said films shouldalso be made on embattledliquor tycoon Vijay Mallya andfugitive billionaire jewellersNirav Modi and Mehul Choksi.National Conference leaderOmar Abdullah also tweetedon the film, saying, “Can’t waitfor when they make TheInsensitive Prime Minister. Somuch worse than being theaccidental one.”

From Page 1The age flexibility in the candidates selec-

tion for the Lok Sabha may thus see many‘seniors’ allowed to contest, if they are wantingto throw their hat in the ring again.

However, Lok Sabha Speaker SumitaMahajan, 75, may chose not to contest again aftergetting elected from Indore for the record eighthtime. According to sources, her decision maybe linked to health issue including a lingeringknee problem.

The two other prominent women BJPleaders Sushma Swaraj (66) and Uma Bharti (59)have already announced that they would be opt-ing out of the Lok Sabha polls.

With the BJP finding itself short of experi-enced hands while engaging a rather aggressiveOpposition in 2019, the party is mulling the pos-sibility of drafting its State satraps like Shivraj

Singh Chouhan (59) , Raman Singh (66) andVasundhara Raje (66) for the LS electoral fray.

Advani (91), Joshi (84) were earlier sidelinedby the BJP leadership leading provoking seniorparty leader Yashwant Sinha to claim in 2015that present BJP leadership had declared lead-ers above 75 as “brain dead.” Induction of BJPpatriarchs in ‘Margdarshak Mandal’ in 2014, hadthen also invited a sharp dig from the Congresswith the comment that “they have been put inan old age home”.

There has not been a single meeting of‘Margdarshak Mandal’ even as it includesPrime Minister Narendra Modi and HomeMinister Rajanth Singh as its members.

BJP had also dropped two MinistersBabulal Gaur and Sartaj Singh in MadhyaPradesh Cabinet from the State Cabinet, lastyear, after they attained the age of 75.

*6%��/��/��'000From Page 1

The Government has expressed hope thatthe bill, which criminalises the practice ofinstant divorce by Muslim men, will find sup-port in the Rajya Sabha, whose approval is nec-essary for the bill to become the law.

CPI member D Raja said the Oppositionhas the numbers and would press for referringthe bill to the Select Committee. “Oppositionparties are asking for referring the Triple TalaqBill to the Select Committee for further scruti-ny when the bill comes up for consideration inthe Rajya Sabha on Monday,” said Raja.

He alleged that the government wants to usethe bill for political purposes. “They are not gen-uinely interested in gender equality and gen-der justice,” Raja alleged.

Another leader claimed that opposition par-ties are united in referring the bill to the SelectCommittee as the proposed legislation needsto be examined properly.

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Pune: Ahead of the 201stanniversary of the battle ofKoregaon Bhima, the Pune ruralpolice have prohibited severalpersons including Hindu right-wing leader Milind Ekbote,members of the cultural organ-isation Kabir Kala Manch andothers from visiting the warmemorial and the surroundingarea.

The memorial of the 1818victory of the East IndiaCompany's forces which includ-ed Dalit Mahar soldiers over theBrahmin Peshwa's army is vis-ited by Dalits every year onJanuary 1.

However, the place, 40 kmfrom Pune city, witnessed vio-lence during the bicentennial

commemoration of the battle onNew Year's day in 2018.

"So far we have issuednotices under section 144 (2) ofthe Code of Criminal Procedureto several people and barredthem from visiting KoregaonBhima area," saidSuperintendent of Police SandipPatil.

Notices were issued to allthose against whom cases ofserious nature were registeredwith regard to the violence ofJanuary 1, he said. Right-wingleaders Sambhaji Bhide andEkbote are accused of instigat-ing the violence as they wereopposed to the celebration of theBritish victory in the 1818 bat-tle. On the other hand, some

members of the left-leaning cul-tural group KKM are accused ofinvolvement in the ElgarParishad conclave. According tothe police, provocative speech-es at the conclave, funded byMaoists, triggered violence atBhima Koregaon the next day.

Meanwhile, the Pune citypolice are issuing notices tothose who can create law andorder trouble ahead of January1, said joint commissioner ofpolice Shivaji Bodakhe.

Asked whether permissionhas been granted to Bhim Armychief and Dalit leaderChandrashekhar Azad's rally inthe city on December 30,Bodakhe said the decision willbe taken on Saturday. PTI

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Indore (MP): The chief of theMadhya Pradesh unit of theNational Students' Union ofIndia (NSUI), student wing ofthe Congress, has warned the-atre owners that they will beresponsible for the conse-quences if they screened thecontroversial film "TheAccidental Prime Minister".

The warning by State NSUIchief Vipin Wankhede cameeven as the Congress-ledGovernment in Madhya Pradeshsaid earlier on Friday that thefilm has not been banned in theState, contrary to some reports.

The Congress has termedthe film, based on formerPrime Minister Manmohan

Singh's media advisor SanjayaBaru's book, as a part of BJP'spropaganda. The film centresaround Singh's tenure as PrimeMinister.

"If theatres screen this filmwhich has falsehoods, theirowners will be responsible forthe damage," Wankhede said ina veiled threat on Facebook.

He could not be contactedfor comments despite severalattempts. Reacting toWankhede's warning, BJPspokesperson Umesh Sharmademanded that Chief MinisterKamal Nath order police pro-tection for all theatres wherethe Anupam Kher-starrer filmwill be screened. PTI

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Panaji: A whistleblower whobusted a racket in July this yearinvolving use of carcinogeniccadaver preserver, formalin, infish sold in Goa, has allegedharassment by the state govern-ment, in a petition filed beforethe Goa Human RightsCommission.

Food and DrugsAdministration officer IvaFernandes, who busted the rack-et during a field test of fish sam-ples imported from other states,in her affidavit filed before theCommission on Friday, has alsodemanded "examination ofphone records" of senior officialsof the department, which shesaid would establish their link-ages to fish traders involved inusing formalin to preserve fishstock. "I have attached evidenceduly signed by all officials ofFDA, who were present at sitefor the purpose of carrying outthe inspection with showedpositive for trace of formalin inthe fish, which instead of beingattended with seriousness, Ihave been sought to be target-

ed," Fernandes said.The controversy involving

use of formalin in fish eruptedin July this year. Fernandesfound traces of formalin in fishbeing sold in Goa during a raid.

The BJP-led coalition gov-ernment, has been on the backfoot ever since, after several ofits ministers were accused ofallegedly protecting fish-traderswho were allegedly importingformalin-laced fish consign-ments into Goa from AndhraPradesh, Tamil Nadu andKarnataka.

Fernandes has also claimedthat she was not allotted dutiesfor a considerable period oftime after the expose, whichforced her to approach theCommission. After the scandal,the state Government bannedimport of fish from neighbour-ing States, until fish traders reg-istered with the State FDA andcomplied with its norms relat-ed to storage and transportationof fish. The ban has resulted ina considerable increase in theprice of fish in Goa. IANS

��7��8�/'��/��'��

Nainital (U'khand): In a first-of-its-kind order, theUttarakhand High Court hasdirected a company run byYoga guru Ramdev to share apercentage of its profits withlocal farmers and communi-ties.

The High Court gave theorder while rejecting a peti-tion of Divya Pharmacyagainst the UttarakhandBiodiversity Board (UBB) andupholding the provisions offair and equitable benefit-sharing as provided underthe Biological Diversity Act,2002.

The bench of JusticeSudhanshu Dhulia held that itwas a fact that biologicalresources constitute the mainingredient and raw materialsin the manufacture ofayurvedic and nutraceuticalproducts. It ordered thepharmacy to share �2 croreout of its �421-crore profitwith the farmers of the rawproduct.

Previously the UBB haddirected the pharmacy toshare the amount with thefarmers and local communi-ties out of its profit as per theBiological Diversity Act. Thepharmacy had claimed thatthe UBB neither had the pow-ers nor jurisdiction to passsuch an order and it was notliable to pay or make any kindof contribution.

The court held that Indiawas a party to the UnitedNations Convention onBiological Diversity and thecountry was under an oblig-ation to give effect to theprovisions of the treaty.

6��7��&��8��

Puducherry: PuducherryChief Minister VNarayanasamy on Fridayaccused Lt Governor KiranBedi of taking a "negativestand" on the implementationof various decisions of the cab-inet while the latter denied hav-ing "obstructed" any welfareschemes.

Referring to the imple-mentation of various welfareschemes in the Union Territoryby his Government,Narayanasamy said, "the nega-tive stand of Lt Governor KiranBedi impeded implementationof decisions of the Cabinet."

"We decided to distributePongal gift hampers for allration card holders.

But Bedi returned the fileand insisted that only familiescoming under 'below povertyline' should be covered and thiswas one such example wherethe government was put toembarrassing predicament," healleged. PTI

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New Delhi: Thousands ofyoungsters from across thecountry will hold a march in thenational capital on February 7to demand education and jobs,a youth organisation saidFriday.

The youth will be marchingunder the Young India NationalCoordination Committee,which came into existence withthe coming together of morethan 50 youth movements, stu-dent unions and organisations.

According to JawaharlalNehru Students' Union presi-dent N Sai Balaji, the youngsterswill take out the Young IndiaAdhikar March from Red Fortto Parliament to demand theirrights.

"Like the kisans of thecountry, the youth will now callout the bluff of the Modi gov-ernment. We have been deniedour rightful education, digni-fied employment and when weraised our voice, we were called

anti-national. In the last fiveyears all of us have struggled,now we will unitedly march andchallenge the present govern-ment," he added.

The Charter of Young Indiawas also released.

"Fill all vacant governmentjobs and end the regime ofpaper leaks and corruption inrecruitment. Spend at least 10per cent of the budget on edu-cation. Stop the policy of schoolclosure, seat-cut, fund-cut, fee-hike and reservation-cut inhigher education," the charterread.

"End gender discriminato-ry rules, ensure girls' hostel andeffective anti-sexual harass-ment cells. End saffronisation ofeducation. Ensure academicfreedom and freedom ofexpression in campuses. Fulfilconstitutionally-mandatedreservation. Institute anti-dis-crimination cells in all cam-puses," it added. PTI

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Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh ChiefMinister Kamal Nath distributedportfolios to his cabinet Fridayevening, keeping PublicRelations, Industrial Policy andInvestment PromotionDepartment and EmploymentDepartment among others withhimself, an official said.

Tribal MLA Bala Bachchan,who was minister in the previ-ous Digvijay Singh-led Congressgovernment, was given Homeand Jail, while another seniorMLA, Tulsi Silawat, got Health,the Public Relations depart-ment official said.

Govind Rajput was allocat-ed Revenue and Transportdepartment, while Tarun Bhanotwas given the Finance depart-ment.

Nath also kept Public

Service Management depart-ment and the TechnicalEducation with him, he said.

MLA PrabhuramChoudhary, who belongs to aScheduled Caste community,was given School Education, hesaid.

Another Digvijay Singhcabinet member, VijaylaxmiSadho, got Culture and MedicalEducation Department.

Hukum Singh Karada, alsoa minister in the previousCongress government, got WaterResources Development.

Another former senior min-ister Dr Govind Singh was givenCooperatives and ParliamentaryAffairs. Sajjan Singh Verma,who was Urban AdministrationMinister in Digvijay Singh gov-ernment, has got the PublicWorks Department in KamalNath's cabinet, the official said.

Arif Aqueel, the loneMuslim minister, got Minoritiesand Other Backward ClassWelfare, besides Bhopal GasRelief and Rehabilitation. PTI

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The Modi Government onFriday approved new rules

governing India’s coastlineskeeping tourism promotion,employment generation andeconomic development alongwith nature conservation inmind. The new regulationsstipulate a No DevelopmentZone (NDZ) of 20 metres fromthe High Tide Line (HTL) forall islands, but allows tempo-rary tourist facilities on thebeaches, falling under theCoastal Regulation Zone-III,like shacks and changingrooms. The temporary tourismfacilities would, however, haveto be 10m from the High TideLine.

The Union Cabinet chairedby Prime Minister NarendraModi approved the CoastalRegulation Zone (CRZ)Notification, 2018, wherein itdelegated powers to give clear-ances to projects falling inCRZ-II and III at the State levelwith necessary guidance.

“The proposed CRZNotification, 2018 will lead toenhanced activities in the

coastal regions thereby pro-moting economic growth whilealso respecting the conserva-tion principles of coastalregions. It will not only resultin significant employment gen-eration but also to better lifeand add value to the economyof India. The new notificationis expected to rejuvenate thecoastal areas while reducingtheir vulnerabilities,” an officialstatement said.

The CRZ notification waslast reviewed and issued in2011. The move comes in thebackdrop of a series of repre-

sentations received by theEnvironment Ministry fromvarious coastal States/UTs andother stakeholders.

“Temporary tourism facil-ities such as shacks, toiletblocks, change rooms, drinkingwater facilities etc. have nowbeen permitted on beaches.Such temporary tourism facil-ities are also now permissiblein the NDZ of the CRZ-IIIareas as per the Notification.However, a minimum distanceof 10m from HTL should bemaintained for setting up ofsuch facilities,” the statement

said.The notification also

streamlined the process of CRZclearances and only projectslocated in the CRZ-I(Ecologically Sensitive Areas)and CRZ IV (area coveredbetween Low Tide Line and 12nautical miles seaward) willnow be dealt by the UnionEnvironment Ministry forclearance.

“The powers for clearanceswith respect to CRZ-II and IIIhave been delegated at theState level with necessary guid-ance,” the statement said.

“For islands close to themain land coast and for allbackwater islands in the mainland, in wake of space limita-tions and unique geography ofsuch regions, bringing unifor-mity in treatment of suchregions, NDZ of 20 m has beenstipulated,” it added.

All ecologically sensitiveareas have been accorded spe-cial importance and specificguidelines related to their con-servation and managementplans have been drawn up as apart of the notification.

“Pollution abatement hasbeen accorded special focus. Inorder to address pollution inCoastal areas treatment facili-ties have been made permissi-ble activities in CRZ-I B areasubject to necessary safeguards.Defence and strategic projectshave been accorded necessarydispensation,” it said.

According to the state-ment, as per CRZ, 2011Notification, for CRZ-II(Urban) areas, Floor SpaceIndex (FSI) or the Floor AreaRatio (FAR) had been frozen asper 1991 Development ControlRegulation levels.

�� 067�8619)

India for the first time willhost an international level

competition of UnmannedAerial Vehicles (UAV) named“Drone Olympics.’’ It will beheld during the forthcominginternational aerospace exhi-bition Aero India 2019 inFebruary next year atBengaluru. The top three win-ners of the drone competitionwill be honoured with totalcash prize of �38 lakh.Aerospace exhibition will takeplace from February 20 to 24.Prime Minister Narendra Modiis likely to inaugurate it.

Giving details of the uniqueevent, Defence Ministrysources said here on Friday itwill not only encourage theUAV manufacturing in thecountry but will also provide anopportunity to the armed

forces to assess the capabilitiesthat exist in the world.

The market of UAV is oneof the fastest growing in theworld and role of the UAVs indefence sector is ever increas-ing on account of new features

being added to them makingthese machines fit for intelli-gence, surveillance, reconnais-sance, electronic warfare andstrike missions, they said.

As regards the DroneOlympics, officials said it is

open to both Indian and inter-national players. Three cate-gories of events include sur-veillance challenge to deter-mine surveillance capability,supply drop challenge to assessthe weight dropping capabili-ty of the UAV and formationflying challenge to demon-strate different shapes withgroup of UAVs. A newlydesigned webpage waslaunched on Friday for DroneOlympics for registration ofUV players.

On the Aero India 2019event, they said it will be the12th edition of the biennialexhibition. The coming eventwill see Indian origin US astro-naut Sunita William attendingthe show and other womenachievers will also be presentthere, officials said.

For the first time, the coun-try’s civil aviation exhibition

will be subsumed into theupcoming edition of AeroIndia. So far, Aero India hasbeen defence oriented while aseparate civil aviation exhibi-tion was held in Hyderabad.

The biennial Aero Indiabegan in 1996 and has emergedas the largest aerospace exhi-bition in Asia attracting allmajor aerospace manufacturersaround the globe given India’slarge armed forces looking atmajor modernisation.Yelahanka Air Force station inBengaluru has hosted all the 11editions so far. The tag line ofAero India 2019 is “runway fora billion opportunities.” Thelogo is inspired by indigenousLight Combat Aircraft (LCA)Tejas.

Several firsts are planned inthe 12th edition of the showwhich includes a round table ofglobal Chief Executive Officers

(CEO), a student’s event, aca-demic seminars and photogra-phy contests.

The CEOs round table isscheduled on the inauguralday and in which about 15-20CEOs from global aerospacemajors are expected to partic-ipate

Students will be encour-aged to present projects relatedto the industry and is being pro-moted and monitored by theDefence Ministry. A JointSecretary in the ministry isoverseeing the effort, they said.Two international level acade-mic seminars based are alsoplanned.

There will be two photog-raphy competitions, one beforeand one during the event, theofficial said and added thatthere will be two categories, onefor professional and one for thegeneral public.

�� 067�8619)

Concerned over the fall inonion prices, the

Government on Friday dou-bled the export incentive forthe kitchen staple to boostshipments and ensure betterreturns for farmers. At present,onion traders get 5 per centexport incentive on fresh cropunder the Merchandise Exportsfrom India Scheme (MEIS).Commerce Minister SureshPrabhu has sought �179.16crore from the FinanceMinistry to double the incen-tives for onion exporters amidsignificant fall in prices of thevegetable.

Meanwhile, seeking to pro-vide relief to coconut growers,the Cabinet Committee onEconomic Affairs (CCEA) onFriday announced a steep hikein minimum support price ofcopra by up to �2,170 perquintal to �9,521-9,920 for2018-19 season. The MSP(minimum support price) ofball copra has been increasedby �2,170 per quintal to �9,920

per quintal for the 2018-19 sea-son from �7,750 per quintal inthe last year, an official state-ment said. The support price ofmilling copra has been raisedby �2,010 per quintal to �9,521per quintal for the currentyear from �7,511 per quintal inthe last year.

In a communication toFinance Minister Arun Jaitley,Prabhu said the Ministry ofCommerce is keen to increaseexport incentives under MEISfrom 5 per cent to 10 per cent.Under Merchandise Exportsfrom India Scheme (MEIS), thegovernment provides duty ben-

efits depending on productand country.

“The Government todayincreased the export incen-tives under the MEIS fromexisting 5 per cent to 10 percent in the interest of farmers,”an official statement said.

This will result in betterprice for onion in domesticmarkets. Wholesale prices ofonion are ‘subdued’ at presentdue to increase in the arrival ofthe fresh crop in the mandis, itsaid.

“To contain the situation, ithas been decided by the gov-ernment to encourage export of

onions so that the domesticprices stabilise,” the statementsaid. With the current increase,onion enjoys one of the high-est incentives for agro-exports.This timely intervention wouldhelp the farmers who haverecently harvested their pro-duce and who have sowed orrecently planted their seedsand expected better prices, itadded.

In July 2018, theGovernment had introduced 5per cent export incentive forfresh onions.

India’s exports of fresh andchilled onion stood at $256million during April-October2018-19.

It was $511.5 million in2017-18. Good monsoon instates like Karnataka, Gujaratand Madhya Pradesh has led tohuge production of onion,resulting in less demand fromsouth and north region.

Due to this, onion fromMaharashtra has not beentransported to other states,which caused a glut and sharpdecline in prices.

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The Union Cabinet onFriday approved the draft

National Commission forIndian Systems of Medicine(NCIM) Bill, 2018, which seeksto replace the existing regula-tor, the Central Council forIndian Medicine (CCIM), witha new body to ensure trans-parency and accountability.

The draft Bill provides forthe constitution of a NationalCommission with fourautonomous boards entrustedwith conducting overall edu-cation of Ayurveda under theBoard of Ayurveda and Unani,Siddha and Sowarigpa underthe Board of Unani, Siddha andSowarigpa.

There are two commonboards namely Board of assess-ment and rating to assess andgrant permission to educa-tional institutions of Indian sys-tems of Medicine and Board ofethics and registration of prac-titioners of Indian systems ofmedicine to maintain National

Register and ethical issues relat-ing to practice under theNational Commission forIndian Medicine, the state-ment stated.

Union Minister RaviShankar Prasad said, “It alsoproposes a common entranceexam and an exit exam, whichall graduates will have to clearto get practicing licenses.Further, a teacher’s eligibilitytest has been proposed in theBill to assess the standard ofteachers before appointmentand promotions.” Till nowthings were adhoc, he added.

Prasad said the govern-ment was committed to pro-mote Indian System ofMedicine, from Ayurveda toSiddha to Unani. “But it isequally important that weremain alive to having valueaddition in terms of eligibility,quality, in terms of having asystem which produces quali-ty practitioners and qualityteachers. It is a major step inthis direction,” he said.

The draft Bill, according tothe statement, is aimed atbringing reforms in the med-ical education of Indian med-icine sector in lines with theNational Medical Commissionproposed for setting up forAllopathy system of medicine.

The proposed regulatorystructure will enable trans-parency and accountability forprotecting the interests of thegeneral public, it said.

The NCIM will promoteavailability of affordable health-care services in all parts of thecountry, according to the statement.

�� 067�8619)

Union Home MinisterRajnath Singh on Friday

informed Lok Sabha that theCentre is committed to demo-cratic process in Jammu &Kashmir, while replying to thedebate on the StatutoryResolution on the imposition ofPresident’s Rule in the troubledstate. The Statutory Resolutionon imposition of President’sRule in Jammu & Kashmir,which requires Parliament’sapproval, was adopted withvoice vote amid din in theHouse. The Opposition termedthe decision to dissolve theAssembly as “unconstitutional”.

Countering the argumentsof the Opposition parties, theHome Minister said that noparty in the Assembly was in aposition to form theGovernment even a day beforethe decision to imposePresident’s Rule. He also reject-ed claims of some Oppositionparties that the BJP was prop-ping up a regional party underthe leadership of Sajjad Lone to

form Government, saying if hisparty had such an intention, itwould have done so within sixmonths of the Governor’s Rule.

“The Government doesn’tconduct elections but theGovernment is ready for elec-tion. It is the responsibility ofthe Election Commission tohold elections... We are totallycommitted to democraticprocess,” he said. The Ministerassured the House that securi-ty requirement of the ElectionCommission will be met forfree and fair Assembly electionin the State.

Soon after imposition ofthe Governor’s Rule in June,Singh said, the Governor’s

report of June 19 to thePresident indicated that noparty or coalition of parties inthe state was in a position toform government. TheStatutory Resolution will nowgo to Rajya Sabha for approval.

Initiating the debate,Congress MP Shashi Tharoorsaid Governor Satya Pal Malikacted in “gross violation” of theSupreme Court order in SRBommai case that had statedthat whether an alliance has amajority or not can be decid-ed only on the floor of theassembly. Malik’s decision toimpose Governor’s rule afterthe NC, PDP and the Congressmade a move to form theGovernment in the State wasalso in “violation” of theSarkaria Commission’s guide-lines on Centre-state relations,he said.

Trinamool Congress’Saugata Roy termed theGovernor’s decision as “arbi-trary” and claimed the Centrehad propped up a rival allianceled by Sajjad Lone, who had thesupport of “only two MLAs”.

�� 067�8619)

The CBI has registered twoseparate cases of illegal

trafficking of women and chil-dren to the United States ofAmerica and Kenya.

Both the cases were regis-tered on Thursday and thefirst relates to a complaintfrom the US embassy whichreported that an attempt wasmade by a woman GaganGupta, in August last year, tosmuggle four minor children tothat country allegedly usingassumed identities of four stu-dents of St Joseph’s Convent inShaheed Bhagat Singh Nagardistrict in Punjab. Five personshave been named as accused inthe case. The second case reg-istered following a referencefrom the Ministry of ExternalAffairs which stated an unreg-istered recruitment agency wasinvolved in trafficking girlsand women to Kenya on thepretext of providing thememployment.

The embassy said that thestaff of United Airlines-83flight stopped them fromboarding the flight as the facesof four children did matchwith their photographs in thepassport, according to the usEmbassy complaint to the CBI,which is now part of the FIR.

However, their passportswere not seized and they wereallowed to leave the IndiraGandhi International Airport.The airline staff did not contactthe local police but it provid-ed photos of the minor sub-jects, of the passports and theairline tickets to the embassyofficials.

During inquiry by theembassy, it surfaced visasissued to the kids were part ofa school group from St JosephConvent for which a trip to theUnited States was organised byClick Education Services Pvt

Limited.The school was allegedly

sending its students for a cul-tural trip to the US for whichthe passports of student andstaff were collected by an agentpromising them to help in thevisa process. The agent alleged-ly tried to send four of its clientson the assumed identity by pro-viding them passports of thestudents to whom the visaswere issued for the cultural trip.

The embassy conductedits own enquiry and managedto get vital information beforeit sent a detailed complaint onFebruary 7 this year to the CBI.

The five named in the caseinclude Balraj Singh of KingsPunjab Travels, a travel agencybesides other agents whichinclude Gagan Gupta, ChetanSabharwal, Lovepreet Singhand Tilak Raj.

The second case has beenregistered on a complaint fromthe External Affairs Ministrythat Indian embassy in Nairobi,Kenya has rescued three younggirls who were allegedly traf-ficked to Mombassa on thepretext of giving employment asdancers but were coerced intoprostitution, The girls weretaken to Nairobi by ShamaJavaid Deen, a Kenyan nation-al and an agent Aryan whoallegedly ran an “organisedcrime syndicate” which involvedher family members too.

“It appears that the abovementioned persons are runninga human trafficking network bypushing young Indian girlsinto prostitution abroad with afalse promise of good job andsalary”, Col Rahul Dutt,Director (OverseasEmployment) said in com-plaint in March, 2018.

“They were forced to con-sume alcohol and smokeagainst their will and werealso being coerced to enter intoprostitution.

�� 067�8619)

Sonia Gandhi will convene ameeting of General Body

meeting of the CongressParliamentary Party (CPP) onJanuary 2 to discuss theremaining course of actionwithin Parliament scheduledtill January 8 and also deliber-ate upon issues related toGeneral elections 2019, thealliance partners and otherstrategy for the party ahead.The grand old party alsoobserved its 134th FoundationDay with Rahul Gandhi hoist-ing the party’s flag at its head-quarters on Friday.

Sources said that CPPmeeting will be presided asSonia as she continues to behead of CPP after steppingdown as Party president lastyear which was taken over by

Rahul Gandhi.A Congress MP said that

though he was not aware of theagenda of the CPP, but assumedthat Rahul Gandhi’s success inthe recent concluded assemblypolls may be discussed and thenew chart of action for the LokSabha polls. A decision toreached out to “like-mindedparties” to defeat the BJP in thenext general election couldalso be discussed.

In her last year CPP addressthis year, Sonia had said that theparty needs to ready itself forthe challenge. “I will work withthe Congress president (RahulGandhi) and other colleagues indiscussions with like-mindedpolitical parties to ensure thatin the next election the BJP isdefeated and India is restored toa democratic, inclusive, secular,tolerant and economically pro-

gressive path,” she had said inFebruary 2018.

Celebrating the founda-tion day on Friday, the partystated it will continue to fightthe propagators of hate withpeace, unity and love. On theoccasion, Rahul Gandhiacknowledged the selfless ser-vice and contribution of lead-ers and workers in building theparty.

The event was attendedby senior party leaders, includ-ing former Prime MinisterManmohan Singh, RajasthanChief Minister Ashok Gehlotand former defence ministerAK Antony.

Top party leaders AhmedPatel, Ghulam Nabi Azad,Motilal Vora and Kapil Sibalwere also present on the occa-sion during which a cake wasalso cut.

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New Delhi: Days after theUnion Health Ministrydumped its plan to set up �100crore fund for treatment of rarediseases, its research wing, theIndian Council of MedicalResearch (ICMR) is mullingformation of a task force topromote therapeutic researchand expedite new drug devel-opment for the sector.

However, Ministry’s U turnafter it had announced fund of�100 crore under the Nationalpolicy for the rare diseases hasupset the patients and theirfamilies who cannot affordhuge treatment cost.

The Ministry recentlydecided to “reframe” the poli-cy citing bureaucratic hurdlesand financial shortage.

Compounding the prob-lem is the fact that there aresome rare diseases like

Gaucher, MPS, Pompe,Duchenne MuscularDystrophy, Spinal MuscularAtrophy etc., for which treat-ment is available but is unaf-fordable due to exorbitant costs.In many cases, the treatmenthas been seen to drasticallyimprove the quality of life of apatient. The high cost of treat-ment, thus, increases inequal-ity with respect to access totreatment for rare diseasepatients. A senior official fromthe MInistry said that theICMR’s task force studies arenational initiatives that arecentrally planned, coordinatedand implemented on a multi-centric basis.

The projects have definedtargets and specific timeframe.With the new programme, theICMR is encouragingresearchers in areas such as clin-

ical and molecular genetics,genomics, bioinformatics andnew drug development to col-laborate and come up withinnovative plans to tackleorphan diseases. Infact, theCouncil has already startedaccepting proposals fromresearchers. Apart from R&D,the task force will exploreoptions to improve diagnostic,prenatal diagnostic and coun-selling facilities across the coun-try.. Short-term training pro-grammes for clinicians to recog-nise and diagnose rare geneticdiseases are also on the cards.

It is estimated that one in20 Indians is affected by one ofthe 7,000 diseases listed asrare diseases. Last year, theICMR had joined hands withAIIMS and JNU to launch thecountry’s first Rare DiseaseRegistry. PNS

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It was Tamil Nadu’s responseto cow vigilantism and mob-

lynching which has becomefrequent affairs in North India.In Christmas day, Ponganallurin south west Tamil Naduplayed host to this century’sfirst ever ShodasaMahalakshmi Maha Yagamwhich saw hundreds of priestsoffering special Pooja andYagya for the Global peace,safety, security and prosperityof the country and its people,especially the farming com-munity.

The three day event whichcommenced on December 23culminated on December 25and nearly five lakh peopletook part in the Yagam, accord-ing to ThirunavukarassuElangovan, president, HinduMunnani, the lead oraganisersof the event. “ShodasaMahalakshmi Maha Yagam isto propitiate the 16 MahaLakshmis while we are famil-iar with only AshtalaksmiPoojas. Shodasa means 16,”Elangovan told The Pioneer.

He said ShodasaMahalakshmi Maha Yagamswere held during the days ofthe Chola, Pandya Kings inlines with Aswamedha Yaga. “It

was mandatory for the rulersto perform MahalakshmiYagam before assuming thecharges of administering thecountry. The yagam is a decla-ration to the people and thecountry that his life was dedi-cated to the prosperity and wellbeing of the people,” saidElangovan.

The three day event beganwith Aswa Pooja , worshipping108 horses to placate the Godof Power. “The last day saw thepriests and the participantsoffering poojas to 1,600 cows,all native breeds, mobilisedfrom various places in TamilNadu,” said G K Nagaraj, organ-iser of the event who is afarmer leader from Kongunadu,south west Tamil Nadu.

The enthusiasm of the peo-ple could be understood from

the way coupons for the eventwas sold out. “More than1,22,000 tickets costing �180/-per ticket was sold out a weekbefore the Yaga. We chargedentry fees to ensure that peo-ple attend the event,” saidElangovan.

Sreepriya Iyer travelled allthe way from Chennai to takepart in the three day event.“Normally, we performAshtalakshmi Poojas in ourhouses. But Maha Lakshi is wor-shipped in 16 forms during theShodasa Maha Yagam and it isa rare event,” said Iyer, a seriousstudent of Indian culture.

Rama Gopalan, octoge-narian founder of HinduMunnani who has been con-fined to a wheel chair led thethree day Yagam. “YasoLakshmi, Vidya Lakshmi,

Dhairya Lakshmi, DhanaLakshmi, Santana Lakshmi,Dhanya Lakshmi, GajaLakshmi, Veera Lakshmi,Samrajya Lakshmi, MokshaLakshmi, Sowmya Lakshmi,Sidha Lakshmi, Sri Lakshmi,Sowbhagya Lakshmi, PrasannaLakshmi, Jaya Lakshmi are theforms of Lakshmi we wor-shipped during the three days,”said Rama Gopalan.

Nagaraj said the ShodasaMahalakhmi Yagam, thoughnot held frequently, wasimbibed in the Kongunaduculture. “We wish people withthe words Pathinaru SevangalPettu Peruvaku Vazhka (Tamilfor “Live prosperously with allthe 16 assets which are themanifestation of 16 MahaLakshmis)”, said Nagaraj.

The event culminatedpeacefully but there was anattempt to derail it as membersof the Periyar DravidaKazhagam, followers of late EV Ramasamy Naicker hadapproached Madras HighCourt with a plea to ban theevent because of their fear thatthe cows may cause the spread-ing of anthrax in and aroundTirupur. The court is hearingthe case after the Christmasvacation but by that time thecows would have reached theirshelters after the Pooja.

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Islamic seminary DarulUloom Deoband issued a

fatwa forbidding women fromparticipating in marriage pro-cessions with men.

It is common for womenrelatives of the groom to par-ticipate in such processionswith other men in the family.Sometimes, music is also playedin these processions.

The fatwa came after aSaharanpur resident raisedquestions regarding the practicewith the fatwa department ofthe seminary. The seminaryresponded that not only werewomen forbidden from partic-ipating in such social functionswith men, they were also for-bidden from eating food along-side men on such occasions.

The seminary also assertedthat Muslims should not eatfood while standing and advisedthem to refrain from such activ-ities.

Deoband has come up withsuch bizarre fatwas at a remark-able frequency. Earlier inFebruary, the Islamic seminarydecided to issue a fatwa againstMuslim women from taking

help of men while trying ban-gles in shops.

Prior to that, Darul Uloom

Deoband clerics had issued afatwa against life insurance, asthey claimed that life and deathwere in the hands of Allah andno insurance company couldguarantee a man’s longevity.

In the past, a cleric of theseminary issued a fatwa againstwomen watching footballmatch, on the plea that watch-ing men playing with bare kneeswas forbidden for women.

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Islamic seminary DarulUloom Deoband has

opposed the triple talaq billpassed by the Lok Sabha onThursday, terming it as “inter-ference in religious affairs ofMuslims”.

Reacting strongly to thetriple talaq bill which seeks tocriminalise instant divorce,Mohtamin (Vice-Chancellor)of Darul Uloom Deoband,Maulana Mufti Abul Qasim

Nomani, said that the bill notonly targeted Muslim men butwas also against the welfare ofMuslim women.

“The move of (Narendra)Modi Government to bring alegislation to criminalise tripletalaq is a direct interference inthe religious freedom ofMuslims. It is an infringementof Shariat law. Muslims want tolead their life and conducttheir family and social affairsstrictly as per provisions ofShariat,” Nomani said.

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Bulandshahr (UP): A courtFriday sent to 14-day judicialcustody the man who allegedlyshot dead a police inspector dur-ing mob violence in UttarPradesh's Bulandshahr districtearlier this month.

Prashant Nat, who wasarrested Thursday fromSikandrabad, was produced inthe court of the additional chiefjudicial magistrate.

"He was not named in theFIR but was held based on localintelligence, eyewitness accountsand assessment of the videofootage that was gathered.During the probe, we evenrecreated the crime scene,"Bulandshahr SeniorSuperintendent of Police (SSP)Prabhakar Chaudhary said.

Mob violence broke outnear Chingrawathi police poston December 3 after cattle car-casses were found strewn in afield near Mahaw village.Inspector Subodh Kumar Singhand 20-year-old Sumit Kumarwere shot dead as the mobattacked the police.

Chaudhary said Nat, around27, was absconding sinceDecember 3 and has confessedto shooting at the inspector. PTI

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Justifying the “clean chit”given by his predecessor ear-

lier in the alleged Sohrabuddin-Tulsiram fake encounter cases,Additional Sessions Judge SJSharma has indicted the CBI,saying that it had a “premedi-tated" theory and a "script”intended to "anyhow implicate"political leaders and it nearlydid what was required “toreach that goal rather thanconducting an investigation inaccordance with law”.

In the concluding portionof his 350-page judgementcopy of which was accessed bythe media on Friday, SpecialCBI court Judge Sharmaobserved: “Having given mydispassionate consideration tothe entire material placedbefore me and having exam-ined each of the witnesses andthe evidence closely, I have nothesitation in recording thatthe premier investigatingagency like CBI had before it apre meditated theory and ascript intended to anyhowimplicate political leaders.

“And the agency there afternearly did what was required toreach that goal rather thanconducting an investigation inaccordance with law, the judgenoted.

“It clearly appears that theCBI was more concerned inestablishing a particular pre

conceived and pre meditatedtheory. Rather than finding outthe truth. My predecessor has,while passing an order of dis-charge in the apicatuonnofaccused number 16 (Amit Shah)clearly recorded that the inves-tigation was politically motivat-ed,” Judge Sharma observed.

It may be recalled that thethen Special Judge M.B. Gosavi,while discharging BJP PresidentAmit Shah had on December30,2014 observed that thecharges against BJP presidentAmit Shah in the SohrabuddinSheikh and Tulsiram Prajapatifake encounters had a politicalundertone. “I found substancein the main contention made bythe applicant (Mr. Shah) that hewas involved in the case by theCBI for political reasons,” spe-cial CBI judge M.B. Gosavi hadsaid.

The concluding portion ofthe crucial judgement in theSohrabuddin Tulsiram “fake”encounter came into publicdomain exactly seven daysafter the CBI court acquitted allthe 22 accused in the case forlack of “satisfactory” evidence.

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In what is being as the biggestdrug haul in recent years, the

Anti-Narcotics Cell (ANC)sleuths of the Mumbai policeseized �1,000 crore worthbanned Fentanyl and arrestedfour drug peddlers from VileParle (East) in north-westMumbai.

Acting on a tip off about thedelivery of Fentanyl, the ANSpersonnel seized 100 kgs of therecreational (party) drug andfrom a car parked near the ser-vice road at Shakti Nagar locat-ed in the vicinity of the Mumbai

Airport at Vile Parle (East) onWednesday.

Fentanyl is a potent narcot-ic analgesic, abuse of whichleads to habituation or addiction.It is primarily a mu-opioid ago-nist. Fentanyl is also an opioidused as a pain medication andtogether with other medica-tions for anaesthesia.

Fentanyl is also made ille-gally and used as a recreationaldrug, often mixed with heroinor cocaine to increase its euphor-ic effects. It is 50 to 100 timesmore potent than morphine. Itis prescribed in the form oftransdermal patches or lozenges.

Most recent cases of fen-tanyl-related harm, overdose,and death in the United Statesare linked to illegally madeFentanyl. It is sold through ille-gal drug markets for its heroin-like effect. There were as manyas 20,000 Fetanyl over dose-related deaths in the UnitedStates in 2016.

“We have seized 100 kg ofthe banned Fentanyl. One kilo-gram of Fentanyl is wortharound �10 crore. In essence wehave seized �1,000 crore worthdrugs,” Deputy Commissionerof Police and ANC chiefShivdeep Lande said.

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Averring that “togethernessis the essence of yoga”,

President Ram Nath Kovindsaid here on Friday that “Yoganot only helps us in connect-ing body, mind and soul but italso plays an important role inconnecting different commu-nities and countries”.

Speaking at the inauguralceremony of centennial cele-brations of ‘The Yoga Institute’in Mumbai, Kovind said: “It isnot appropriate to link yoga toany religion or sect. It is a com-mon heritage of mankind.. Itbelongs to everyone who islooking forward to healthy life.A healthy person makes ahealthy family, healthy com-

munity, healthy country andfinally a healthy world”.

The President said that itwas our responsibility to estab-lish good yoga institutes andskilled yoga teachers, since onIndia’s initiative yoga was get-ting more popular across theworld. Maharashtra GovernorCh Vidyasagar Rao released abook ‘Yoga for All’ written bydirector of the institute HansajiJayadeva Yogendra, on theoccasion. The book is based onhundred years of research byThe Yoga Institute.

Maharashtra ChiefMinister Devendra Fadnavis,Union minister of state forAYUSH Shripad Naik andother dignitaries were presentat the function.

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Sagar Island (WB): Comingdown heavily on the BJP for itsproposed Rath Yatras in WestBengal, Chief Minister MamataBanerjee on Friday said suchyatras are typically conducted inthe name of God, and notmeant to indulge in "danga"(riot).

The Supreme Court onMonday declined an urgenthearing on a BJP plea chal-lenging a Calcutta High Courtorder disallowing its Rath Yatrasin the state.

"There are yatras for LordKrishna and Lord Jagannath, wetake part in those rath yatras.

Those who carry out yatras tokill common people indulge in'danga' yatras," Banerjee said ata public distribution pro-gramme here.

"We don't insult anybody.We respect everyone irrespec-tive of their religious affinity,"she added.

The three-phased RathYatra, also being called the'Save Democracy Rally', wasscheduled to be held thismonth, covering all the 42 LokSabha constituencies in thestate. The rallies were to beflagged off by BJP presidentAmit Shah. PTI

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Lucknow: Amid growing pres-sure from partners in the rul-ing alliance, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi on Saturdaywill visit Varanasi andGhazipur, the areas where twoNDA allies have considerableinfluence.

The Prime Minister's tripto his Lok Sabha constituencyVaranasi will be his second visitthere in the last two months.

He will inaugurate theInternational Rice ResearchInstitute (IRRI) and South Asia

Regional Centre (ISARC) onthe campus of National SeedResearch and Training Centre(NSRTC) in Varanasi.

The centre will serve as ahub for rice research and train-ing in South Asia and theSAARC region.

Modi will also attend the'One District, One Product'Regional Summit at DeendayalHastakala Sankul (TradeFacilitation Centre & CraftsMuseum) in Varanasi.

A commemorative postal

stamp on the MaharajaSuheldeo will be released by thePrime Minister in Ghazipur,where he will also address apublic rally at the RTI groundthere.

However, senior ministerin the Yogi Adityanath gov-ernment and SBSP presidentOm Prakash Rajbhar, an MLAfrom Zahoorabad assemblyconstituency in Ghazipur dis-trict, announced that he willnot attend the Prime Minister'sprogramme. PTI

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Ahmedabad: A minor firebroke out on Friday on theIndian Space ResearchOrganisation (ISRO) campushere, an official said.

The fire broke out in astoreroom in ISRO's SpaceApplication Centre, the officialsaid. Chief Fire Officer M FDastur said the fire was broughtunder control in an hour, addingthat five fire tenders weredeployed for the operation, butonly one was used.

"The fire started in a storeroom in the SAC campus onFriday morning”, he said. PTI

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Bengaluru: KarnatakaTransport Minister and JD(S)leader DC Thamanna onFriday took a jibe at BJP lead-ers using an analogy of streetdogs while rebutting seniorBJP lawmaker Umesh Katti'sclaim that the Congress-JD(S)coalition Government wouldcollapse soon.

Katti had recently claimedthat 15 disgruntled MLAs ofthe ruling coalition were intouch with him and that thesaffron party would form thenew Government in Karnatakaby next week.

Hitting out at Katti,Thammana said, "J H Patel (aformer Chief Minister) hadonce narrated a story in theState Assembly about an ele-phant and street dogs. Herecalled Patel saying an ele-phant was walking ahead ofstreet dogs who were hopingsomething would fall fromatop the tusker that they wouldeat.

"Neither did the food fall,nor the dogs got something toeat. This story fits perfectlywith BJP leaders, who areexpecting this Government to

fall," he told reporters atMaddur near Mysuru.

Replying to a query,Thamanna said Katti has beenpredicting the Government'sfall "today or tomorrow" forquite some time.

"For the past seven months,we are hearing this every daybut this has not materialised,"he said. Soon after Katti's claim,state BJP chief and Leader ofthe Opposition B SYeddyurappa had ruled outany attempt by his party todestabilise the present dispen-sation. PTI

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Security forces shot dead aterrorist during a brief

encounter in south Kashmir’sPulwama district on Friday.Clashes erupted in the southernarea after the encounter and theauthorities halted train ser-vices as a precautionary mea-sure.

Sources said the slain ter-rorist, Ishfaq Yousuf Wani, hadjoined the terror ranks lastyear abandoning his fruit busi-ness. Before starting his ownbusiness he had quit job with aleading national bank.

Police said that on the basisof credible input about thepresence of militants a cordonand search operation waslaunched in Banderpora villagein Awantipora area of Pulwamadistrict, 30 kilometers fromhere.

“As the searches were goingon, the search party was firedupon by the terrorists. The firewas retaliated leading to a gun-fight. In the ensuing encounter,one terrorist was neutralised,” apolice spokesman said.

Wani was wanted by thelaw for his complicity in a

series of terror crimes includ-ing attacks on security estab-lishments and civilian atrocities.

Sourced said that Ishfaq’sfather was a militant and hadbeen killed in an encounterwith security forces in 1996.Ishfaq had pursued masters inmanagement before joining aleading bank. The reasons forhis joining militancy were notknown.

Clashes erupted in Wani’sKoil village after his body washanded over to his family forlast rites. The authorities sus-pended train services in thearea after the clashes.

Meanwhile, General

Officer Commanding in Chief,Northern Command Lt GenRanbir Singh arrived inKashmir Valley to review theprevailing security situation. Adefence spokesman said thatthe Army Commander visitedthe forward areas in frontierdistricts of Kupwara andBaramulla where he was briefedby the commanders on groundon operational preparedness.He also visited the hinterlandformations for feedback oncurrent situation and recentcounter terrorist operations.

Gen Singh was accompa-nied by the XV CorpsCommander Lt Gen AK Bhatt.

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The “Game Changer”promised in November

2017 by Union Minister forWater Resources Nitin Gadkarito the farmers of the fourSouth Indian States of TamilNadu, Andhra Pradesh,Telangana and Karnatakaremains a non-starter.

While speaking to journal-ists at Chennai on November23, 2017, Gadkari had said hewould soon call for a meetingof the Chief Ministers of thefour States to evolve an actionplan to transfer surplus watersof Godavari to Cauveri foraddressing the perpetual waterscarcity in Tamil Nadu andAndhra Pradesh.

“My Ministry has decidedto transfer surplus water fromGodavari river to Krishna, toPennar river (Karnataka) andfinally to Cauvery,” the Ministerhad said. His Ministry was dis-cussing with the States con-cerned, he said, adding “in nearfuture we will come up with aconcrete action plan.” But tilldate no such meeting has takenplace, according to farmers inTamil Nadu. Meanwhile anoth-er legal battle has erupted in

Supreme Court between TamilNadu and Karnataka over theMekadattu reservoir beingplanned by the latter acrossRiver Cauvery.

The Minister had also saidthat 3,000 Thousand MillionCubic (TMC) feet of waterwas being wasted fromGodavari into Bay of Bengal.This along with the diversionof a portion of the 2,000 TMCft of water being wasted intothe Arabian Sea from theHemavati River would havebrought an end to the woes offarmers in Tamil Nadu, accord-ing to KattumannarkoilKannan, farmer leader in TamilNadu’s Cauvery Delta.

“The recent Cyclone Gajawhich devastated a portion ofthe Nagapattinam district andThanjavur and Thiruvarur dis-tricts have upset the lives offarmers in the region,” saidKannan while speaking to ThePioneer. Since no farming

operations was possible in hisfarm land, Kannan has turnedauthor and is writing a bookon the sufferings of the ryots inthe region. Farmers inTamilNadu stand to lose 50 percent of the yield this yearbecause of Cyclone Gaja andan attack by a new breed ofpests, said Kannan.

“There are readymadesolutions to address the prob-lems faced by the farners butwhat the governments at theState and Centre lack the willpower to execute them. TheModi Government hadpromised many times that itwould launch the inter linkingof major Indian rivers, but silentbout it now,” he pointed out.

According to Kannan andArpathi Kalyanam, anotherfarmer from Nagapattinam,the Narendra ModiGovernment missed a goldenopportunity to earn the goodwill of the people by not takingup the inter linking of rivers.“More than waiving of loans,what we require is the infra-structure for agricultural oper-ations. “Making water and fer-tilisers available round the yearis the responsibility of theGovernment,” said Kannan.

Mohammed Raffi, former

associate professor, Centre forAdvanced Studies in MarineBiology (CASMB), Porto Novo,Cuddalore, said he was shockedover the apathy shown by thegovernment in taking up theproject to divert a portion ofwater from the west flowingrivers of Netravati to Cauverythrough Hemavati river. “Thisis a win-win situation for allstake holders in Karnataka andTamil Nadu. The flash floods inCauvery and Netravati could beavoided and water would beavailable to the farmersthroughout the farming sea-son,” said Raffi who has workedwith the Cuddalore districtfarmers for years.

Late Bhavani Shankar, whowas the chief engineer ofKarnataka Government hadsubmitted many proposals tothe authorities stating that itwas possible to transfer thewest f lowing waters ofNetravati to Cauvery by a net-work f canals.

Vijayakanth, leader of theDMDK, had cast his lots withthe BJP in the 2014 Lok Sabhaelection based on the assurance given by theHindutwa party that it wouldtake up the project to inter linkthe Indian rivers.

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The Bengal Government hasdecided to file an FIR

against the Metro Railways aday after 47 passengers travel-ling in a Dum Dum-boundtube train fell ill and had to behospitalised after a fire brokeout in the engine of a runningtrain inside the tunnel barely100 metre off the MaidanStation.

Apart from the FIR beingregistered Trinamool CongressMP and Railways StandingCommittee chairman onFriday directed Metro RailwaysGeneral Manager to submit areport on the Thursday’s inci-dent within three days so thatthe same could be taken up fordiscussion in Parliament.

Bengal Fire Minister SujitBose who met top police offi-cers at Lal Bazar Police head-quarters on Friday said “we aretaking appropriate actionbecause this was no small inci-dent and many people mighthave been killed. We haveasked the Police to file an FIRand start a case,” adding theforensic experts had been askedto investigate the matter too.

Meanwhile a three-mem-ber committee comprising elec-trical engineers and traffic offi-cers had started an inquiry andwere likely to submit a reportwithin ten days’ time, sourcessaid.

A mild blast and fire some-where around the front wheelof the front coach got theentire passengers of the fullycrowded train running insidethe tunnel trapped. “Many feltsuffocated by the noxious fumeand people had to literallybreak the windows and jumpon to the track risking theirlives as power supply to thehigh voltage third railway linewas still on,” passengers said.

One of the victims awoman had lost voice tem-porarily and she was unable tospeech even 24 hours of theincident, doctors said.

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Gyandas Mahant, the highpriest of Kapil Muni

Ashram at Ganga Sagar, onceagain drenched Bengal ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjee ina cascade of praise sayingonly she could construct aRam Temple at Ayodhya.

A highly revered priest inthe Hindu order, Ganga Sagarmahant said, “we want a Ramtemple washed by milk, not byblood and that can only bedone by our Didi even as theChief Minister stood by hima tad embarrassed, but notaltogether disliking thepraise.

Attacking Modi, the cel-ebrant said “we do not want

a Prime Minister like himwho only talks big loud butdoes nothing. Rather wewant a Prime Minister likeour Didi, Mamata Banerjeewho means business andconverts her promises intoaction.”

If Banerjee is made thePrime Minister of India then“definitely India wil lprogress,” he said advising“conflict can never achieve ahuman goal.”

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Mumbai: Sharad Kalaskar, asuspected right-wing Hinduactivist arrested in an arms haulcase, has sought bail contend-ing that the MaharashtraGovernment is more interest-ed in ensuring smooth conductof the Sunburn festival thanconducting his trial.

Kalaskar, Avinash Pawarand Shrikant Pangarkar, allarrested in August, moved aspecial court here Friday seek-ing bail. Judge D E Kothalikarwill hear the pleas on January 7.

The Anti-Terrorism Squad(ATS) of state police has arrest-ed a total of 12 people under theUnlawful Activities (Prevention)Act (UAPA) following raids atmultiple places and seizure ofarms and explosive materials.

The bail applications ofPawar and Pangarkar con-

tended that the material onrecord does not contain anyevidence against them, notdoes it prove any offence underthe UAPA.

Kalaskar said in his pleathat "social media reports sug-gest that the state home min-istry is too busy with preventiveactions for ensuring a smoothconduct of the Sunburn festivalnext week (at Pune)."

"Such smooth conduct hastaken priority over smoothand speedy trial. There is noseriousness for the State...Toconduct this case.

The liberty of accused can-not be curtailed for satisfyingwhims and fancies of politicalrulers who prioritise theirresources for their own culturaland political agenda," the pleaadded. PTI

Ahmedabad: The GujaratGovernment on Friday askedthe Vigilance Commissioner toprobe the allegations of corrup-tion in carrying out projects atreligious sites by the pilgrimagedevelopment board and orderedsuspension of an officer.

Chief Minister Vijay Rupaniordered the suspension of anofficer whose audio clip broughtthe issue of alleged corruption inthe board to the fore.

In an official release, thegovernment said the CM hasasked the VigilanceCommissioner to probe theallegations of corruption againstthe Gujarat Pavitra YatradhamVikas Board.

The issue came to the foreafter a purported audio clip, hav-

ing conversation of a senior gov-ernment officer and an RTIactivist, went viral on socialmedia platforms.

In the purported clip, AnilPatel, additional secretary inthe state panchayat department,can be heard admitting large-scale corruption in the boardwhere he was once posted.

Patel can be heard sayingthat corruption took place incarrying out various works atpilgrimage places such asPavagadh, Rameshwar,

Bahucharaji, Shabri Dham andDwarka.

As per the governmentrelease, Rupani has asked theVigilance Commissioner to sub-mit preliminary inquiry reportas early as possible.

The CM also asked the cor-ruption watchdog to take actionagainst those found guilty dur-ing the probe.

Terming Patel's conduct as"inappropriate", the CM hasordered his suspension forengaging in "indiscipline", saidthe release.

Patel has violated variousprovisions of the service conductrules by "criticising the govern-ment" and providing informa-tion "without having any author-ity" to do so, it added.

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Lucknow: The NHRC onFriday issued notices to theUttar Pradesh Governmentover the death of a Dalit manallegedly in police custody inAmroha district, while theUP SC/ST Commissionordered a probe into the mat-ter and action against thoseguilty.

The National HumanRights Commission (NHRC)noted that the incidentamounted to "gross violationof human rights" of the victim.

Taking suo motu cogni-sance of media reports thatBalkishan, 30, died in policecustody at the Dhanora Mandi

Police Station on December26, the human rights watch-dog issued notices to thestate's chief secretary and thedirector general of police,seeking a detailed report with-in four weeks.

It asked why the NHRCwas not intimated about hisdeath in police custody.

Balkishan was arrested bythe police in connection witha case of theft on December23. His family members havealleged that police personnelasked for a bribe of �5 lakh tolet him off, which they couldnot arrange and, therefore, hewas "tortured". PTI

Chennai: In yet another case ofalleged medical negligence inTamil Nadu, a woman hasclaimed that she contracted theHIV virus following blood trans-fusion at a Government hospi-tal where she underwent treat-ment for low haemoglobin.

The Government hospitalhas refuted the allegation.

The affected woman, said tobe in her 20s, told a Tamil TVchannel Friday she underwentthe transfusion in April whilebeing pregnant.

She came to know she hadHIV only when the hospitalinformed her after conducting

tests in August when she wentthere for check-up.

The women said though shehad been regularly visiting alocal public health centre whenshe was pregnant, she was onlyadministered vaccines there.

"The blood transfusion hap-pened at the GovernmentKilpauk Medical College andHospital (GKMCH) only. Thatis where the mistake happened,"she said.

Refuting the allegation, hos-pital dean Dr P Vasanthamanisaid the woman was transfusedwith "100 per cent HIV free"blood. PTI

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Globally, ‘veterans’ naturallygravitate towards conserva-tive parties as the Centristand Left-of-Centre parties aretraditionally perceived to be

‘soft on security’. The Republican Party inthe US and the Conservative Party (theTories) in the UK usually garner more sup-port than the Democratic Party or theLabour Party, respectively. With politicsassuming more nationalistic undertones,political appropriation and positing of the‘soldiers’ and their ostensibly-related caus-es has become more blatant and common-place. UK Prime Minister Theresa May hadslammed FIFA’s decision to disallowEnglish football players from wearing‘poppy’ lapels (in remembrance of soldierswho died in wars) as “utterly outrageous”;whereas US President Donald Trumpcame back from the Bastille Day militaryparade in Paris, wanting to replicate andtop the same with his own version of agrand military parade. Clearly, centeringthe ‘soldier’ makes for good politics.

However, beyond the immediate trac-tion, overplaying the symbolic hand on thistact without doing anything concrete ormeaningful has diminishing returns.Already, the unprecedented cuts in the UK’sDepartment for Work and Pensions, affect-ing the ‘veterans’, have made ‘ex-service per-sonnel account for one in 10 rough sleep-ers across the UK’. Indeed, in the US,Trump’s shocking mock of the post-trau-matic stress disorder (PTSD)-affected sol-diers or the ‘privatisation’ of the veteranhealth services, militate against the pro-fessed concerns for the uniformed frater-nity. The lazy perception that these menand women of honour could join theAdministration of the ruling political dis-pensations as ‘trophy-candidates’ and loyal‘yes-men’, to project militaristic muscular-ity, patriotism and decisiveness on thebankrolling party, is slowly coming undone.It is true that the institutional ethos andregimental/corps spirit bequeaths thesecombatants with certain outwardly machis-mo, steel and heroic ‘branding’, but beyondthe razzmatazz of their medals, uniformsand swagger, lie decades of hands-onexperience, blood-sweat-toil in disturbedareas and years of training and reflectionthat make these people amongst the mostbalanced and nuanced individuals who donot suffer from knee-jerk reactions.

Usually, what comes as a surprise to thepoliticos is the latent gravitas, inherentsense of self-respect and the undyingspirit of speaking the truth (gently but sure-ly), that ultimately make the politicalmasters uncomfortable in their midst. Theretired Marine Corps General James Mattis(who recently quit as the US Secretary ofDefence) is famous for telling his troops:“You are part of the world’s most feared andtrusted force. Engage your brain beforeyour weapon.”

The healthy institutionaldiversity within the ‘barracks’and the societal bonhomieunder the most trying of cir-cumstances make these veter-ans life-long believers in plural-ity and ‘inclusiveness’ that isabove the regressive dividesthat beset and define partisanpolitics.

Combatants are also hard-wired into believing “dissent isnot disloyalty”, albeit, expressedin a certain form with the req-uisite context, form and digni-ty. Thus, the unmalleable spir-it of ‘brothers-in-arms’ thatswears only to the hallowedConstitutional spirit of thenation, riles against the politi-cal necessities, compromisesand bigotry that usually accom-pany partisan politics.

Contrary to some carica-turised perceptions, soldiersare not war-mongering orblood-lusting cadres, as thenobility of the soldiers codeensures a more professional,rationale and reasonableinstinct that differentiates a sol-dier from a mercenary. Thelegendary General DouglasMacArthur famously said:“The soldier above all prays forpeace, for it is the soldier whomust suffer and bear the deep-est wounds and scars of war”.

The recent case of a similarrealisation dawned on the draft-evader, Trump, who, in order toinject some testosterone of mus-cularity that befitted his con-tours of ‘America First’, got car-ried over by the CaptainAmerica-like superhero imageof the iconic, four-star General,

James Mattis (popularly knownas ‘mad dog’ and ‘warriormonk’), and inducted him as theSecretary of Defence.

Perhaps, unknown toTrump was the erudition,sagacity and profundity thatalso came along with thePattonesque-persona, whosereal-time combat experiencewas enhanced by the scholar-ship that came with a person-al library of over 7,000 books,unlike the empty rhetoric andvacuous bluster of a DonaldTrump. The officer-like conductin Mattis had insisted on a cer-tain decorum and dignity inengaging with the allies, and notin the fanciful flights of tem-peramental rants that defineTrump. Mattis’ exit and inabil-ity to get along with Trumpmirrored the similar fate thatbeset other veterans, like theprevious National SecurityAdvisor, Lt Gen McMaster.

Historically, in India, too,veterans-turned-politicians havebeen amongst the most respect-ed, well-read and responsibleleaders like the classic cavalierJaswant Singh, Maj GenKhanduri and Rajesh Pilot —each of who did imminent jus-tice and service to their respec-tive political parties and admin-istrative responsibilities.However, in the last few years,a new phenomenon emerged ofnewsroom-warriors plumed intheir regimental regalia, thun-dering political invectives andpositions dominating theprime-time slots. Thankfully,time and tide forced some intointrospection, reflection and

realisation that the politicosappropriated and misused theimagery of the ‘soldier’ for theirown partisan purposes andbasically the institutional inter-ests and concerns remainedunanswered, as before.

Election time is alwaysfraught with the risk of suchtactical propping of veterans as‘show-horses’ for posturingpatriotism and political muscu-larity. Care must be taken toensure that the apolitical-con-struct and wiring of the ArmedForces is respected, and no ‘fir-ing from the shoulders’ ofthese veterans is done to justi-fy political pettiness, nefariousdesigns and selfish electoralobjectives.

Like the veterans of yore,no implied extension of theirmilitary service should beencouraged to suggest an ‘insti-tutional’ preference towardsany political party — the veter-ans should propagate their par-tisan preferences in their indi-vidual capacity and certainlynot on behalf of the ‘institution.A delicate line must be main-tained. Irrespective of the polit-ical parties, matters concerningthe ‘soldier’ have remainedunaddressed and in crunch sit-uations, the discomfort ofpoliticians with the perspectiveand concerns of the ‘soldiers’ —be it in the US, UK or India —has led to the steady diminish-ment of the ‘institution’ in thenational narrative.

(The writer, a military vet-eran, is a former Lt Governor ofAndaman & Nicobar Islandsand Puducherry)

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Sir — This refers to the report,“Terror bids foiled in nick of time”(December 27). The timely inter-vention of the NationalInvestigation Agency (NIA) savedthe nation from a great deal ofchaos. That the investigative bodyseized a huge stash of bomb-mak-ing materials and a country-made rocket launcher from theterrorists’ hideouts, testifies theirvery intent. It is now up for theNIA to make a water-tight caseagainst these terrorists, undertakea thorough enquiry to get an in-depth details about their plansand modus operandi. Politicalparties must not politicise thismatter to score brownie points.

Yvonne FernandoChennai

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Sir — This refers to the editor-ial, “Annus Horribi l is”(December 27). I totally agreewith the views expressed in theeditorial. This past year, theBJP has seen many ups anddowns. However, despite themany losses, the Indian elec-

torate bestows faith on the PrimeMinister who still enjoys massivepopularity. His charisma is intactand his credibility remainsstrong.

A little jerk was the mostessential for the BJP to unshack-le it from day-dreaming aboutthe Modi wave. That alone can-not lead it to register victory inthe 2019 General Election.

Honestly, there is no close

substitute to Modi yet. It should,therefore, not be troublesome forthe BJP to get back to track onceagain.

All they need is proper strat-egy and a tactical plan to harmo-niously tie up with allies inregional areas and build robustbond with the electorate todefeat the nemesis.

Kirti WadhawanKanpur

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Sir — This refers to the report,“LS criminalises triple talaq”(December 28). While the LokSabha successfully passed thetriple talaq Bill yesterday, itsjourney will not be so smooth inthe Upper House. Already, oppo-sition parties, including theCongress, the Trinamool

Congress and the SamajwadiParty, staged a walk-out. Further,the ruling party does not have thenumbers in the Rajya Sabha.

Most Muslim countries havediscarded this practice. In fact, asection of the Indian Muslims,too, do not follow it. It is also a factthat attributing criminality andimprisoning of Muslim menwould have a cascading effect onthe livelihood of the affectedfamily. Reform must happen butone that benefits the community.

Syed Nissar Hyderabad

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Sir — This refers to the editor-ial, “Moment to movement”(December 28). Harassment orsexual exploitation against anygender can never be justified. Itis of utmost importance that noinnocent man/woman becomesa victim of allegations. It’s theduty of the courts to punish andfine those against whom allega-tions have been proved right.

Mahesh KumarVia email

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On December 14, 2018, PrimeMinister Imran Khanuploaded two short videos of

eminent Islamic scholar Dr IsrarAhmed. I am not quite sure whichyear the videos were from but theywere obviously at least eight yearsold, since he passed away in 2010. Inone of the videos, Ahmed quotes anexcerpt from a diary written by DrRiaz Ali Shah, who was a physicianof Pakistan’s founder, MuhammadAli Jinnah, when the latter was suf-fering from tuberculosis. Jinnahpassed away in September 1948.

In the video, Ahmed informedhis audience that he had picked theexcerpt from an article publishedin a September 1988 edition of theUrdu daily Jang — 40 years after

Jinnah’s demise. Ahmed quoted the1988 newspaper article about RiazAli’s ‘diary’ in which he wrote thatas Jinnah lay on his bed sufferingfrom tuberculosis, he (Jinnah)spoke about his vision of a Pakistanthat would be an Islamic state, ora 20th century manifestation of astate, constructed during the ruleof Is lam’s f irst four cal iphs(Khilafat-i-Rashida).

Riaz was one of the four doctorspresent during Jinnah’s last hours.According to an article in the PulseFortnightly written by Lt Gen (Rtd)M Ahmad Akhtar and published onNovember 1, 2014, four physiciansaccompanied Jinnah when he trav-elled to the vacation resort ofZiarat in Balochistan. They were:Dr M Ali Mistri, Dr Illahi Bakhsh,Dr Ghulam Muhammad and DrRiaz Ali Shah. Dr Mistri wasJinnah’s personal physician who,according to Lt Gen Akhtar, hadmoved to Karachi from Bombay onJinnah’s request after the creation ofPakistan.

Nothing was reported about

Jinnah’s ‘last words’ as such until theappearance of a book in 1978 by DrIllahi Bakhsh, which was re-printedby the Oxford University Press in2012. Dr Illahi’s book, With theQuaid-i-Azam during his Last Days,is largely a detailed account of theQuaid’s illness and how Jinnah triedto live with it. There is nothing in thebook about a man ravaged by a crip-pling disease but one lucidly advo-cating the creation of an Islamic state.

There is also a PDF copy avail-able online of an Urdu translationof Dr Il lahi Bakhsh’s book.However, attached to it is an Urdutranslation of notes supposedlykept by Riaz Ali Shah in a diary. Thenotes appear in the shape of a book-let called Quaid-i-Azam Kay AkhriLamhaat (The Quaid’s LastMoments). It does not mention thedate of publication. It is not avail-able in any of the major bookstoresin Pakistan nor on Amazon. And itis not mentioned in the long list ofbooks and papers on Jinnah thatappears on the Government ofPakistan’s website dedicated to the

study of Pakistan’s founder.In a 2003 article for The

Concept, Raja A Khan wrote thatthe booklet by Dr Shah was pub-lished in 1950. However, Raja onlyspeaks about Jinnah sharing hisviews on Kashmir with Riaz. Onewonders though, how many diversetopics the founder was discussingwith the good doctor during hisvery last moments. What is moreimportant is that after goingthrough the online version of thebooklet, I found no mention ofJinnah speaking to Dr Shah aboutthe idea of the caliphate.

The booklet is only scarcely ref-erenced in the papers and bookswritten on Jinnah. Moreover, when-ever it is, as in Masud-ul-Hasan’sAnecdotes of Quaid-i-Azam (1976)and in an article in the 2002 issue ofSouth Asian Studies, they simplyquote Riaz as saying that Jinnah’s lastspoken words were, “Allah, Pakistan.”Therefore, Imran Khan may havegotten a tad too excited — like animpressionable teenager — aftercoming across the mentioned clip of

Dr Ahmed. Without much thought,the Prime Minister used it in thesame manner in which Jinnah wasconcocted by the Gen Zia dictator-ship in the 1980s.

This is why I believe the confu-sion in this respect is rooted in whattranspired during the Zia regime. Forexample, only quotes of Jinnah thathad the word ‘Islam’ in them wereallowed to be used in state-ownedmedia. From 1978 onward, thesequence of words of Jinnah’s motto,“unity, faith, discipline” was switchedto “faith, unity, discipline.”

In 1982, a portrait of Jinnahpainted by artist Ahmad S Nagi wasreplaced in the waiting lounge of theKarachi Airport just because itshowed Jinnah wearing a suit and atie. An article on Nagi that appearedin the September 2, 2006 edition ofDawn said that the painting was fin-ished in 1944 and then brought toKarachi after the creation of Pakistan.It was placed in the airport loungebut replaced in 1982 with anotherportrait of Jinnah in which he is seenwearing a sherwani.

Then in 1983, the Zia regimegleefully announced the ‘discovery’of a diary kept by the founder inwhich he had expressed his desireof an Islamic state. KK Thomas, inthe 1998 issue of Asian Recorder,and author Khaled Ahmed in his2001 book Pakistan: Behind theIdeology Mask: Facts About GreatMen We Don’t Want to Know, writethat the state-owned media enthu-siastically began discussing thecontents of the so-called diary.

According to Ahmad, Jinnah’spersonal secretary, KH Khursheedand veteran Muslim Leaguer,Mumtaz Daultana, challenged thediscovery. Consequently, the claimwas quietly dropped. Most inter-esting is the similarity betweenwhat Zia claimed Jinnah wrote inhis diary and what Dr Ahmedclaimed Dr Riaz wrote in his. Onecan thus conclude that may be athird party was involved who, forpolitical reasons, concurrentlyascribed the mentioned quotes toJinnah as well as Dr Riaz.

(Courtesy: Dawn)

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The global climate change negotiation underthe United Nations Framework Conventionon Climate Change (UNFCCC) is held

periodically under the aegis of the Conference ofParties (CoP). The 24th CoP to the UNFCCC,COP24, was held in Katowice, Poland, fromDecember 2 to 14. After the historic ParisAgreement on Climate Change in 2015, theKatowice meet was the most significant. It wassupposed to lay down the contours for climatechange action plans. This year marked the dead-line, as agreed by signatories of the ParisAgreement, to adopt a “work programme for theimplementation” of commitments that weremade in 2015. An analysis of the decision takenin CoP24 clearly indicates that the shadow of theUS’ withdrawal from the climate change talk isover. A new global leadership has emerged andIndia is leading from the front.

Thanks to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’sleadership, his actions, determination anddynamism ensured that the commitments madeat the 2015 United Nations Climate ChangeConference, COP 21, reached the ultimate goaldespite the many problems faced by our country,most important of them pertaining to the growthin population. The second most important leaderin the global climate leadership is FrenchPresident Emmanuel Macron, who readily agreedto Prime Minister Modi’s proposal for setting upthe International Solar Alliance (ISA), which wassigned by both leaders earlier this year. More than120 countries have become signatories to the ISA.In October 2018, more than 48 countries alongwith 25 heads of states attended the ISA confer-ence that was hosted by India.

Another reason for the progress of climate-related talks is the trust factor. Most low andmiddle income countries bestowed faith inPrime Minister Modi’s capability to steer the cli-mate change proceedings due to his stature asa global leader. The only other country thatholds similar potential is China. But then, it suf-fers from trust deficit. It would be worthwhileto discuss some of the takeaways from theCoP24 and India’s role in the successful conclu-sion of the climate change conference. Prior tothis, we saw the then Minister for Environment,Forest and Climate Change, Jairam Ramesh, reg-istering similar impact on India’s idea of climatediplomacy. Ramesh also espoused the cause ofthe developing world.

Global rules are necessary to ensure thatevery percentage of the emission released intothe atmosphere is accounted for. In this way,progress towards the limitation goals of the ParisAgreement can be measured accurately.Currently, climate actions of rich nations for thepre-2020 period are being guided by the KyotoProtocol. The UN climate change conferenceadopted a rulebook for the implementation ofthe Paris Agreement only after protractednegotiations. This deal is meant for climateaction by all countries across the globe.

Its success was explained by Michal Kurtyka,CoP24 president: “We have worked on this(Katowice) package for three years. With 200countries in the room, it is not easy to findagreement on a deal so specific and technical.But under these circumstances, every single step

forward is a big achievement.”The Katowice climate package

includes guidelines that will opera-tionalise the transparency framework.It sets out how countries will provideinformation about their NationallyDetermined Contributions (NDCs)that describe their domestic climateactions. This information includesmitigation and adaptation measures aswell as details of financial support forclimate action in developing countries.

With this, countries can chalk outa roadmap for the implementation ofthe Paris Accord that covers the peri-od from now till 2020. The Katowicepackage also includes guidelines forestablishing new targets on financefrom 2025 onwards to follow on fromthe current target of mobilising $100billion per year from 2020 to supportdeveloping countries. The other guide-lines include how to conduct the glob-al stock-taking of the effectiveness ofclimate action in 2023 and how to assessprogress on the development andtransfer of technology by the developednations. The guidelines, known as theParis rulebook, will promote trustamong nations that all countries areplaying their part in addressing thechallenge of climate change.

The word ‘trust’ signifies the mostpositive outcome of the KatowiceConference. However, issues that stillhave to be taken into account circle theuse of cooperative approaches as wellas the sustainable development mech-anism, as contained in the ParisAgreement’s Article 6. These wouldallow countries to meet a part of theirdomestic mitigation goals through theuse of so-called ‘market mechanisms.’

On this matter, the Paris Agreement

recognises the need for global rules tosafeguard the integrity of efforts of allcountries. It is hoped that this issue willbe decided in future meetings, andIndia is expected to play a key role.

The Indian delegation reiteratedits stand with overwhelming supportthat the Paris Climate Agreement was“non-negotiable” and there could beno compromise on the basic princi-ples such as equity and common butdifferentiated responsibilities andrespective capabilities. It effectivelycountered the attempts of rich coun-tries, led by the US and the EuropeanUnion, to dilute this provision.

India stressed the need for usingscientific findings on climate changeand welcomed the recentIntergovernmental Panel on ClimateChange’s (IPCC) Special Report,which said that human activities areestimated to have caused approximate-ly one degrees celsius of global warm-ing above the pre-industrial levels andare currently increasing at 0.2 degreescelsius per decade.

India in its statement stood for thepoor, marginalised and vulnerablecommunities as they are worst-hit bythe vagaries of climate change. On thefirst day of CoP24, India made it clearto the world that it was well oncourse to achieve all its climate targetsmuch ahead of the deadline it set foritself. It asked its developed counter-parts to meet their obligations, includ-ing those relating to providing finan-cial and technological help to thedeveloping countries.

The Institute for Energy Economicand Financial Analysis (IEEFA), a US-based organisation that conductsresearch and analysis on financial and

economic issues related to energy andenvironment, showed that India waslikely to attain the goal of having 40 percent of its electricity generation com-ing from renewable sources by the year2020, instead of the original target of2030. It said that by the year 2027,renewable energies like solar, wind andbiomass would generate about 275GW of electricity, comprising 44 percent of India’s total power generationof 619 GW. Hydro and nuclear energy,which are also considered as cleansources of energy, would contributeanother 80 GW or about 13 per cent.

The Government, however, needsto take some more pro-active action,especially in tackling the landscape.This (because India is a tropicalnation facing the vagaries of climatechange) has already started affectingits landscape and consequently thelivelihoods of the poor. It has causeduncertainty in agriculture and dis-turbed hydrological cycles.

The Himalayan glaciers are reced-ing and the flow of rivers originatingfrom these glaciers is making thewhole living scenario precarious.There is a need to adopt a holisticapproach for the overall develop-mental process in which climatechange mitigation and adaptationshould be a collateral benefit.Otherwise, it will jeopardise the goalsof sustainable development in the longrun. Also, joint forest managementmust be made the central theme of theentire mitigation and adaptation pro-cedure. It is to be hoped that theGovernment takes action on the sug-gested lines.

(The writer is a Retired Civil Servant)

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To address farmers’ distressahead of 2019 general elec-

tions, the Government is con-sidering waiving interest oncrop loans for farmers who payon time, costing an additional�15,000 crore to the exchequer,according to sources.

Currently, farmers have topay 4 per cent interest rate ifthey repay their loans withindue date.

There is also a proposal tocompletely waive premium fortaking insurance policy forfood crops. The premium onhorticultural crops could alsobe reduced, they said.

When asked about theGovernment’s plan ofannouncing big farm package,Law Minister Ravi ShankarPrasad said: “The Governmentis committed towards farmers’welfare. Going forward, what-ever decision taken, will beannounced.”

He was speaking at aCabinet briefing here. The rul-ing BJP Government hasswung into action to address

distress in the agriculture sec-tor after it lost power to theCongress in Madhya Pradesh,Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh inthe recent state polls.

According to sources, sev-eral rounds of meetings havetaken place at the highest levelin the past few days to chalk outa plan to address difficultiesfaced by farmers in view of lowrealisation in several cropsamid bumper production.

To provide immediaterelief, one of the proposalsbeing studied is to waive the 4per cent interest rate on farm-ers repaying farm loan prompt-ly within the due date.

Currently, farmers getshort-term farm loan of up to �3lakh at 7 per cent interest rate.However, the interest ratecharged is only 4 per cent in casefarmers pay their loan withindue date. Normally, loans aregiven at 9 per cent interest rate.

The Centre bears a cost ofaround �15,000 crore annual-ly for the interest subsidies of2 per cent in normal cases and5 per cent in the case of promptrepayment of farm loans.

The Government has set atarget to provide �11 lakhcrore credit to farmers in thecurrent fiscal. It extended�11.69 lakh crore credit tofarmers last fiscal, surpassingthe target of �10 lakh crore.

Sources said the interestburden could double to�30,000 crore if the interest iscompletely waived for promptrepayment of farm loans.

Besides, the Government iscontemplating tweaking thePradhan Mantri Fasal BimaYojana (PMFBY) to bringdown the farmers’ premiumburden by fully waiving it onfood crops and reducing a biton horticultural crops.

Launched in April 2016,PMFBY provides comprehen-sive crop insurance from pre-sowing to post-harvest againstnon-preventable natural risks atextremely low premium rate of2 per cent for kharif crops, 1.5per cent for rabi crops and 5per cent for horticulture andcommercial crops.

The balance premium ispaid equally by the Centre andstate. Claims are settled on thebasis of yield loss assessed at theend of the season.

According to sources,farmers are paying currentlyabout �5,000 crore as insurancepremium to cover their kharifand rabi crops. The farmers’burden will reduce if the pre-mium is further subsidised.

During the 2017-18 cropyear (July-June), 4.79 crorefarmers were covered underPMFBY.

Political experts said farm-ers’ distress would be a majorelectoral issue in the 2019 LokSabha polls.

The agrarian crisis and theannouncement of loan waiversby the Congress were key fac-tors for the defeat of the saffronparty in three Hindi heartlandstates in the recent state polls,they added.

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The Government on Fridaysaid action has been taken

against more than 6,000 officersof nationalised banks last fiscalin cases of lapses that led to badloans.

In written reply, FinanceMinister Arun Jaitley said thatminor and major penaltieshave been imposed againsterring officials. These include,dismissal, compulsory retire-ment and demotion.

“As per the inputsreceived from nationalisedbanks, in FY 2017-18, 6,049off icers have been heldresponsible on account ofstaff delinquency in NPAaccounts...,” Jaitley said.

Depending upon the grav-ity of lapses, the Minister said“minor penalty/ major penal-ty have been imposed againsterring officials” and in all thecases, depending upon theamount involved, CBI andpolice complaints have beenlodged.

The 19 nationalised banks,including PNB and CanaraBank, reported a net loss of�21,388 crore in the first halfof the fiscal. This compareswith a combined loss �6,861crore in the similar period of2017-18.

In another written reply tothe lower House, Shukla said asa result of transparent recog-nition of bad loans, the non-performing asset (NPA)amount of all commercialbanks rose from �5.66 lakhcrore at end-March 2016 to�9.62 lakh crore at end ofMarch 2018.

Since then the amount hasdeclined to �9.43 lakh crore.

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Various initiatives taken bythe Government have

yielded results, with the badloans of public sector banksdeclining by over �23,000crore from a peak of �9.62lakh crore in March 2018,said a senior FinanceMinistry official.

At the same time, publicsector banks (PSBs) havealso made a record in recov-ery of �60,726 crore in thefirst half of the current finan-cial year, which is more than double theamount recovered in the corresponding periodlast year.

“Gross non-performing assets (NPAs) ofPSBs have started declining after peaking inMarch 2018, registering a decline of �23,860crore in the first half of the current financialyear,” Financial Service Secretary Rajiv Kumarsaid.

According to the latest Finance Ministrydata, non-NPA accounts overdue by 31 to 90days (Special Mention Accounts 1 & 2) of PSBshave declined by 61 per cent over five succes-sive quarters - from �2.25 lakh crore as of June2017 to �0.87 lakh crore in September 2018.

“This has substantially pared down creditat risk,” he said.

Talking about various initiatives, Kumarsaid, recognition of restructured standard assetsas NPAs, initiated with Asset Quality Review in2015, and discontinuation of restructuringschemes, the recognition exercise is nearly overwith such assets declining from the peak of 7per cent in March 2015 to 0.59 per cent as ofSeptember 2018.

He also said that the resolution process hasbeen strengthened by changing the creditor-debtor relationship through the Insolvency

and Bankruptcy Code and debarment of wilfuldefaulters and connected persons, which hasresulted in record recovery this year.

“Reforms have accompanied recapitalisationin the form of a comprehensive PSB reformsagenda that addresses the root causes of poorasset quality, and commits banks to clean lend-ing and rolling out of next-generation bankingservices by leveraging benefits of technology andformalisation of the economy,” the secretary said.

Banks have got capital support of over �3lakh crore since commencement of clean-up in2015-16.

Earlier this month, Finance Minister ArunJaitley said the Government will invest an addi-tional �41,000 crore into state-owned lendersover and above what was announced earlier tostrengthen their capital base. This wouldenhance the total recapitalisation in the currentfiscal from �65,000 crore to �1.06 lakh crore.

On December 20, the Government soughtParliament’s approval for infusion of an addi-tional �41,000 crore into the lenders.

Jaitley had said that this would enhance thelending capacity of PSBs and help them exit theReserve Bank of India’s Prompt CorrectiveAction (PCA) framework that imposes curbs oncertain business operations at the banks.

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State-owned Central Bank ofIndia on Friday said it will

raise about �200 crore by issu-ing shares to staff under theemployee stock purchasescheme.

The board of directors ofthe bank at their meeting heldon December 28, 2018approved the proposal to raisecapital by issuance of shares toemployees through EmployeeStock Purchase Scheme (ESPS)to the extent of approximately�200 crore, the lender said ina regulatory filing.

The Committee ofDirectors will decide all oper-ative steps, including conven-ing of extra-ordinary generalmeeting of shareholders topass the resolution and deter-mination of pricing methodol-ogy and discount, Central Banksaid.

Last week, Syndicate Bankhad informed about raisingup to �500 crore by issuing 30crore shares to its staff underthe employee stock purchasescheme.

Punjab National Bank saidit has mobilised �500 crorethrough ESPS.

The Government inMarch 2017, had allowed pub-lic sector banks to offer stockoptions to their employees,aimed at retaining experi-enced hands and better incen-tives besides a means for rais-ing capital.

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In spite of the previlaing con-cerns around non-bank

lenders due to defaults byindustry major IL&FS, theReserve Bank on Friday said itwill ensure that growth in theshadow-banking sector is sus-tained and liquidity fears areeased.

The NBFC sector is liq-uidity crisis after a series ofdefaults by InfrastructureLeasing & Financial Services(IL&FS) and its many sub-sidiaries since late August.

“While in 2018-19, thoughconcerns surrounding the sec-tor due to debt defaults amidsttemporary asset liability mis-matches arose, the inherentstrength of the NBFC sector,coupled with the RBI’s con-tinuing vigil on the regulatoryand supervisory front, willensure that the growth of thesector is sustained and liquid-ity fears are allayed,” RBI saidin its annual report on ‘Trends& Progress of Banking in 2017-18’, released on Friday.

The report said the NBFCsector, with a size of around 15percent of the commercialbanks’ combined balance sheet,has been growing robustly inrecent years, providing analternative source of funds tothe commercial sector in theface of slowing bank credit.

The financial performanceof these shadow-banks, includ-ing profitability, asset qualityand capital adequacy,improved during FY18 as theyweathered the transient effectsof demonetisation and GST

implementation, the reportnoted.

Consolidated balance sheetof NBFCs expanded in 2017- 18and in 2018-19 (up toSeptember), buoyed by strongcredit expansion, the report saidwithout quantifying the same.

Category-wise, the balancesheet of NBFCs-NDSI expand-ed by 13.4 percent, while thebalance sheet of deposit- tak-ing NBFCs registering robustgrowth at 24.4 per cent in2017-18 on account of a sharprise in loans and advances.

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Markets regulator Sebi onFriday imposed a penalty

of �50 lakh on Citrus CheckInns and its directors for non-compliance of its order, where-in it had barred them from rais-ing funds from the public.

The regulator, through itsorders passed in June andAugust 2015, had directed thefirm as well as its directors —Omprakash Basantlal Goenka,Prakash Ganpat Untekar,Venkatraman Natarajan andNarayan Shivram Kotnis — notto collect any more money frominvestors through the existing ornew schemes.

Citrus collected �770 crorefrom about 4.5 lakh members inMarch 2013 through its various‘holiday plans’ which later wentup to �1,600 crore in 2015, theorders had noted.

The direction came after theSecurities and Exchange Boardof India (Sebi) found that the

company was raising moneyfrom investors through collec-tive investment scheme (CIS)without obtaining requisiteapproval from it.

In a fresh order passed onFriday, Sebi said the companycontinued to collect moneyfrom the existing investorsthrough periodic instalments.

“It is established thatnoticees collected/raised moneyfrom the investors even afterSebi prohibited them from doingso vide orders dated June 3, 2015and August 24, 2015 ....Andthereby noticees failed to com-ply with the directions containedtherein,” the regulator noted.

Accordingly, the regulatorhas slapped a penalty of �50 lakhon Citrus and its directors. Thefine is to be paid ‘jointly and sev-erally’ by them.

The regulator had began theprobe after receiving a complaintalleging that Citrus was runninga ‘Ponzi Scheme’ and ‘mis-sell-ing’ its schemes to the public.

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The Government has detect-ed GST evasion worth

�38,896 crore in 6,585 cases inthe April-October period of2018-19, Parliament wasinformed on Friday.

Minister of State forFinance Shiv Pratap Shuklasaid while central excise eva-sion of �3,028.58 crore in 398cases was unearthed during theseven-month period, servicetax evasion of �26,108.43 crorewas detected in 3,922 cases.

Customs evasion wasdetected in 12,711 cases involv-ing �6,966.04 crore and Goodsand Services Tax (GST) evasionworth �38,895.97 crore wasunearthed in 6,585 cases, hesaid in a written reply in theLok Sabha.

The total amount of eva-sion in indirect taxes (GST, ser-vice tax, excise and customs)during April-October adds upto about �75,000 crore.

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The US-India StrategicPartnership Forum

(USISPF) has dubbed the newe-commerce rules as “regres-sive” and said that the changeswould harm consumers, createunpredictability and have anegative impact on the growthof online retail in India.

The Forum asserted that “itis not the government’s businessto micromanage businesses” andalleged that the amendmentsannounced came out withoutany consultation and were akinto changing rules in the middleof the game.

Earlier this week, the gov-ernment appeared to have yield-ed to demands of domestictraders and put in place newnorms, which would end dis-counts and cashback offers thatonline platforms with foreigninvestment are offering. Thenew rules are set to come intoeffect from February 2019.

“The amendment to theFDI in e-commerce policy isregressive. It harms the con-sumer, who is ultimately theking in any retail environment.It is not the government’s busi-ness to micromanage business-es. This amendment bars Indianmanufacturers and sellers fromeffectively competing in theglobal online marketplace,”USISPF president and chiefexecutive officer (FPO) MukeshAghi said in a statement. He fur-

ther stated that the amendment“highlights the lack of trans-parency in policy making andcreates unpredictability”.

USISPF, which highlightedhow American companies haveled investments into e-com-merce platforms in India andfacilitated job creation, is con-sulting its members on thecourse of action and plans tomeet government officials nextweek on the matter.

With about a month tocomply, American retailerWalmart-backed Flipkart andUS-based Amazon — the twolargest players in the Indian e-commerce sector — would be hitthe hardest. Smaller traders have,in the past, cried foul allegingthat preferential treatment wasgiven to certain sellers that areaffiliates of these larger onlinemarketplaces. This, they said,created an unfair marketplace.

Amazon India, in an e-mailed statement on Friday,said the company had “alwaysoperated in compliance with thelaws of the land” and it was eval-uating the new guidelines “toengage as necessary with thegovernment to gain clarity”.

The company has commit-ted an investment of USD 5 bil-lion — a large chunk of whichhas already been pumped inacross various entities (likewholesale, marketplace and pay-ments) that it operates in India.

Flipkart, which saw Walmartpicking up 77 per cent stake for

a whopping USD 16 billion ear-lier this year, has said the gov-ernment should follow a con-sultative process in framing rulesthat have long-term implica-tions, and any changes should befor driving the industry forward.

The new rules, announcedon Wednesday, bar online plat-forms from selling productssupplied by affiliated companies,and from offering customersspecial discounts. For retailerssuch as Walmart, the new rulesmay hinder selling productsunder their own private brands.

Market watchers said that sofar, wholesale companies con-trolled by Amazon (AmazonWholesale) and Flipkart(Flipkart India) would buygoods in bulk at cheaper ratesfrom manufacturers, whichwould then be sold on theonline marketplaces through‘select sellers’ (like Cloudtail)who would also offer discountsand cashbacks.

The new rules clamp downon exclusive deals; this could casta cloud on partnerships seen inthe past including those withelectronic and smartphonebrands like ASUS, OnePlus,BPL and others.

However, smaller playerssuch as ShopClues and Snapdealhave welcomed the move, say-ing the development will “closethe back door” that has been“blatantly exploited” by largercompanies and provide a level-playing field for all.

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Benchmark indices surgedfor the third straight ses-sion on Friday on across-

the-board buying by foreignfunds amid a rebound in therupee and upbeat global cues.

The BSE Sensex rallied269.44 points or 0.75 per centto finish at 36,076.72, while thebroader NSE Nifty spurted80.10 points, or 0.74 per cent,to 10,859.90.

During the week, the Sensexgained 334.65 points, while theNifty advanced 105.9 points.

Apart from telecom, allsectoral indices on the BSE fin-ished in the green in Friday’s

session, led by consumerdurables and healthcare.

The biggest gainers in theSensex pack were Sun Pharma,Bajaj Finance, Vedanta, YesBank, ICICI Bank, HDFC, TataMotors, HCL Tech, IndusIndBank and Axis Bank, rising upto 2.98 per cent.

On the other hand, TCS,Bajaj Auto, Hero MotoCorp,Bharti Airtel, PowerGrid andInfosys shed up to 0.70 per cent.

The gains were led by bank-ing stocks, which rallied onreports that the government waslikely to infuse �28,615 croreinto seven public sector banks(PSBs) through recapitalisationbonds by the end of this month.

Yes Bank, ICICI Bank, Bank ofBaroda, SBI and Kotak Bankgained up to 2 per cent.

“Nifty ended this weekabove 10,800 mark led bybanking and FMCG stocks.The domestic sentimentremained optimistic withreports that the government iscontemplating several incen-tives for farmers ahead of the2019 Lok Sabha elections,” saidHemang Jani, head (advisory),Sharekhan by BNP Paribas.

The rupee, meanwhile,strengthened against the USdollar and was trading 37 paisehigher at 69.98. Brent crudefutures rose 1.95 per cent toUSD 53.76 per barrel.

On a net basis, foreign port-folio investors (FPIs) boughtshares worth �1,731.91 crore onThursday, while domestic insti-tutional investors (DIIs) were netsellers to the tune of �663.00crore, provisional data avail-able with BSE showed.

Elsewhere in Asia, Korea’sKospi ended 0.62 per centhigher, Hong Kong’s HangSeng gained 0.09 per cent andShanghai Composite Indexrose 0.44 per cent, while Japan’sNikkei slipped 0.31 per cent.

In Europe, Paris CAC rose1.47 per cent, while Frankfurt’sDAX fell 1.56 per cent.London’s FTSE gained 1.67per cent.

New Delhi (PTI): NationalMedical Devices PromotionCouncil, set up under theDepartment of IndustrialPromotion and Policy, willhelp promote growth of thesector and pave way for afford-able access to good qualitypharma instruments to people,CII said on Friday.

The industry chamber saidthat it was a long-standingneed of the medical devicesindustry in India. “Time hascome for the medical technol-

ogy sector to have an exclusivepromotion council that willsafeguard the interests of thepatients, industry and all stake-holders,” said Himanshu Baid,chairman of CII MedicalTechnology Division (CIIMTD) in a statement.

He said that this councilwould provide anchorage andan environment for conducivegrowth for this sector. “We arelooking forward to seeingstrong Indian presence in theglobal medtech map in the next

few years,” he added.The CII MTD is an indus-

try association comprising ofover 50 major domestic andglobal medical device compa-nies. The council aims at boost-ing manufacturing, attractinvestments and promoteexports of the fast-growingsector. The industry plays acritical role in the healthcareecosystem and is indispensableto achieve the goal of health forall citizens. Although the indus-try has been growing in dou-

ble digits, it is predominantlyimport-driven, with importsaccounting for over 65 percent of the domestic market.

The council will undertakeseveral activities including hold-ing seminars and workshops togarner views of industry andunderstand best global prac-tices. It would also identifyredundant processes and rendertechnical assistance to the agen-cies and departments concernedto simplify the approval process-es involved in the sector.

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New Delhi: CommerceMinister Suresh Prabhu hassought `179.16 crore from theFinance Ministry to doublethe incentives for onionexporters amid significant fallin prices of the vegetable.

In a communication toFinance Minister Arun Jaitley,Prabhu said the ministry waskeen to increase export incen-tives under MEIS from 5 percent to 10 per cent.

Under the MerchandiseExports from India Scheme(MEIS), the government pro-vides duty benefits dependingon product and country.Rewards under the scheme arepayable as percentage of realisedfree-on-board value and MEISduty credit scrip can be trans-ferred or used for payment of anumber of duties including thebasic customs duty. The rewardfor exports of fresh onionunder this scheme is 5 per centtill January 12 next year.

“The higher reward ratesare expected to bolster theexports and would be necessaryto support the domestic prices.In view of the urgency of thesituation, the Finance Ministryis requested to allocate addi-tional funds of �179.16 crore,so that MEIS reward at 10 percent can be provided for theexport of fresh onion up toJune 30 next year,” Prabhusaid. PTI

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Script Open High Low LTPRCOM 14.39 15.03 14.36 14.69SUZLON 5.49 5.50 5.41 5.42PCJEWELLER 88.30 90.00 86.35 87.80JPASSOCIAT 7.64 7.73 7.54 7.63SUNPHARMA 415.10 428.05 413.95 424.60YESBANK 180.05 183.20 180.05 181.55RELCAPITAL 216.00 229.90 215.80 228.15JETAIRWAYS 272.00 277.35 267.40 276.10IBULHSGFIN 846.25 857.80 838.95 848.75DHFL 240.95 243.40 237.75 240.20RELIANCE 1123.30 1135.90 1122.00 1125.80IOC 134.40 138.60 134.20 137.65SBIN 294.70 297.05 293.60 294.45TITAN 905.00 925.90 899.25 922.50VEDL 198.40 200.50 197.20 199.40FRETAIL 514.00 520.40 484.50 510.35INFY 662.80 663.90 656.00 657.60LT 1415.00 1446.85 1415.00 1439.05HINDPETRO 252.10 257.50 251.10 256.50NBCC 55.00 57.85 54.35 56.65SAIL 51.85 55.00 51.85 54.85DMART 1580.00 1667.80 1575.05 1656.35TATAMOTORS 169.90 172.15 169.20 170.80RELINFRA 306.40 316.20 304.05 311.90SPICEJET 87.50 88.70 86.20 88.30ZEEL 469.00 477.95 461.10 473.20BAJFINANCE 2590.15 2638.50 2587.00 2631.65TATASTEEL 507.80 516.60 507.80 513.70COALINDIA 242.80 243.30 239.90 242.35TCS 1909.45 1921.00 1893.75 1895.80PFC 101.95 106.15 100.90 105.05RECLTD 117.90 123.00 116.85 121.45BLISSGVS 140.80 159.60 140.00 156.25MARUTI 7539.00 7575.75 7492.00 7510.70BEML 907.00 916.40 899.35 907.75UNIONBANK 84.05 87.20 84.05 86.00JUBLFOOD 1230.05 1266.55 1230.05 1249.75ASHOKLEY 103.40 104.40 102.40 102.80BANKINDIA 103.00 103.55 102.20 102.95ONGC 148.50 151.25 148.00 150.45HINDUNILVR 1811.00 1834.00 1811.00 1820.10AXISBANK 622.95 628.10 620.50 625.25JINDALSTEL 161.00 163.20 159.25 161.00LEMONTREE 77.15 77.15 73.50 74.65ICICIBANK 357.35 362.75 357.35 361.05INFIBEAM 47.30 48.30 46.75 47.85SUNTV 588.00 618.00 588.00 614.75JISLJALEQS 67.40 70.55 67.30 69.15BHEL 70.20 72.25 70.20 72.05HDFC 1956.30 1989.00 1953.10 1980.10DELTACORP 245.00 252.60 241.90 250.65ITC 279.75 283.95 279.55 281.95SIEMENS 1021.00 1059.00 1021.00 1044.40EDELWEISS 183.45 184.25 179.90 180.80BHARTIARTL 316.55 321.00 314.35 316.20ESCORTS 691.00 707.00 690.95 701.35HEG 3700.00 3728.00 3670.70 3691.20SPARC 195.95 197.00 189.00 190.05RPOWER 28.85 30.05 28.55 29.10PNB 77.90 79.00 77.90 78.35ADANIPORTS 384.10 390.00 384.10 386.30NCC 84.40 87.10 84.40 86.50CGPOWER 44.50 45.95 43.90 45.65AJANTPHARM 1184.95 1196.95 1172.35 1191.05ICICIGI 862.05 868.40 828.00 850.60JAICORPLTD 113.50 114.60 111.80 112.25BPCL 362.50 369.20 359.00 362.35MPHASIS 980.00 1009.90 975.00 998.55BOMDYEING 112.30 116.60 112.30 113.90PEL 2309.00 2373.00 2304.65 2354.25STRTECH 287.00 293.60 286.00 289.00WIPRO 328.10 333.35 326.15 331.05HDFCBANK 2114.10 2137.00 2114.10 2122.90L&TFH 155.00 156.00 153.50 154.50BBTC 1284.50 1346.00 1282.50 1317.80KOTAKBANK 1241.20 1252.45 1236.75 1244.65GRAPHITE 774.00 778.95 761.05 769.70BANKBARODA 117.30 118.90 117.10 118.40M&M 797.10 806.30 796.95 803.15NTPC 147.80 151.00 146.50 149.35ORIENTBANK 95.50 97.00 95.00 95.40GAIL 357.00 360.90 356.00 357.55WOCKPHARMA 511.00 520.00 506.90 518.05UPL 758.00 770.75 752.55 757.70JUSTDIAL 509.95 514.90 502.70 504.25ASIANPAINT 1372.10 1384.25 1361.00 1365.35INDUSINDBK 1587.00 1600.00 1573.50 1582.65BEL 87.30 88.30 87.00 87.75CANBK 274.00 279.00 272.65 277.55INDIGO 1145.00 1186.95 1145.00 1177.75IDFCBANK 43.40 43.40 42.60 42.90IBVENTURES 377.45 390.45 371.50 380.40CUMMINSIND 835.00 860.00 830.85 858.10DLF 176.50 180.65 176.50 177.75IBREALEST 88.30 89.15 86.65 87.25BATAINDIA 1134.00 1143.00 1130.00 1138.10WESTLIFE 383.95 392.05 378.15 380.65ADANIPOWER 51.35 51.65 50.50 50.85RBLBANK 579.00 583.60 574.20 580.55CENTRALBK 36.65 37.95 36.00 36.05AVANTI 389.50 397.50 386.00 388.00BHARATFORG 505.00 515.25 502.00 507.25SUVEN 227.75 233.30 227.60 229.90JSWSTEEL 294.00 300.35 294.00 297.80INDIACEM 93.60 96.10 93.50 95.20HEXAWARE 327.00 333.50 326.75 330.20SBILIFE 599.85 603.40 588.00 596.60BANDHANBNK 543.10 549.00 531.25 536.10

BALKRISIND 909.20 927.65 907.50 914.80BAJAJFINSV 6460.00 6523.15 6425.05 6496.50ACC 1465.20 1493.50 1465.20 1480.00OIL 172.00 177.80 171.35 177.20TVSMOTOR 557.00 568.40 548.85 564.30JYOTHYLAB 203.45 214.30 202.60 208.95AUBANK 601.00 601.15 570.00 584.10GLENMARK 685.00 700.00 679.80 696.50PETRONET 224.00 228.25 222.45 225.90DABUR 431.00 437.00 428.95 433.90TECHM 708.95 718.20 708.80 712.30HINDALCO 220.65 225.75 220.65 223.30TATAPOWER 77.20 77.80 76.85 77.15BIOCON 614.05 623.25 612.00 621.85M&MFIN 464.95 478.60 458.00 475.30MUTHOOTFIN 497.40 509.65 496.10 505.15LUPIN 841.80 851.90 835.90 839.05PIDILITIND 1121.85 1126.80 1098.00 1102.00FSL 47.50 48.00 46.60 46.70HEROMOTOCO 3131.55 3159.85 3118.35 3130.20CEATLTD 1284.00 1303.60 1279.25 1295.80HDFCLIFE 393.85 393.85 385.00 388.65UJJIVAN 273.00 276.65 271.85 272.85POWERGRID 197.75 198.25 195.50 197.75AUROPHARMA 713.00 726.80 713.00 723.35GODREJPROP 672.00 686.55 663.50 666.30APOLLOHOSP 1248.55 1251.30 1226.00 1240.50FORCEMOT 1627.95 1631.00 1606.00 1612.10PAGEIND 24000.00 25052.25 24000.00 24937.40EQUITAS 124.90 126.90 123.20 124.80CIPLA 519.00 525.00 518.20 522.00LTI 1687.30 1737.00 1683.50 1728.65TATAMTRDVR 91.95 93.00 91.55 91.95IDEA 37.40 38.10 37.40 37.60MHRIL 194.10 212.45 194.10 208.05KTKBANK 110.90 113.60 110.45 112.80LICHSGFIN 479.00 491.00 478.75 488.80

BAJAJ-AUTO 2745.00 2759.45 2719.00 2723.30SRF 2001.00 2034.00 1996.85 2003.25GRASIM 817.35 827.05 817.35 824.30FEDERALBNK 94.25 94.45 92.85 93.20GSFC 110.00 113.05 109.80 112.60DEEPAKNI 212.85 218.00 212.85 216.35NMDC 92.55 96.15 92.55 95.45ENGINERSIN 126.50 127.35 124.90 126.75ALBK 46.15 47.40 46.15 46.80ICICIPRULI 324.65 330.50 324.35 327.40CANFINHOME 289.35 293.40 286.45 292.20ITI 90.40 94.00 90.40 91.80SYNDIBANK 38.10 39.70 38.10 39.50STAR 458.70 469.25 458.05 464.80MANPASAND 88.45 90.00 88.00 88.35ABCAPITAL 98.30 100.25 98.15 99.75RAIN 131.10 136.75 131.10 132.95CENTURYTEX 904.00 928.35 902.05 918.50GNFC 343.00 345.80 341.00 342.80TATAELXSI 1019.00 1023.00 1009.00 1013.10TATAGLOBAL 221.90 223.10 219.65 220.55RCF 63.80 64.65 63.55 63.80IDFC 43.50 43.75 42.95 43.30RAJESHEXPO 571.55 597.30 570.50 572.20PTC 90.35 92.50 90.15 91.75PHILIPCARB 201.00 202.80 199.10 199.50MOTHERSUMI 163.15 164.55 162.30 162.90GODREJCP 819.00 823.40 806.60 813.55NATIONALUM 63.00 64.20 62.75 63.55DRREDDY 2606.00 2633.00 2604.10 2622.05IFCI 15.05 15.06 14.73 14.85HCLTECH 948.00 960.00 948.00 956.55SUNTECK 351.95 353.00 343.10 347.40KEI 350.00 362.00 347.10 350.80LALPATHLAB 925.70 931.25 900.80 910.00RADICO 407.70 409.70 401.10 402.85SRTRANSFIN 1220.00 1232.40 1217.00 1225.45PNBHOUSING 924.95 942.00 908.75 914.35UBL 1374.90 1388.25 1365.00 1375.60LTTS 1697.75 1707.00 1664.50 1700.60EXIDEIND 266.05 269.85 264.50 265.25CADILAHC 340.95 347.30 340.35 344.65BRITANNIA 3089.95 3116.75 3083.50 3098.00IGL 265.95 267.95 263.80 265.50JKTYRE 102.40 105.95 102.40 104.00NOCIL 163.00 165.00 162.00 162.65MANAPPURAM 90.15 92.80 90.00 92.30CHENNPETRO 288.00 293.10 288.00 289.45OMAXE 214.55 215.20 213.60 213.80HAVELLS 699.00 699.00 684.70 690.85RALLIS 171.95 180.00 171.85 179.00

JMFINANCIL 91.15 93.00 90.00 91.85SCI 49.60 49.70 47.40 47.75TATACOMM 524.25 526.90 517.55 522.45MARICO 374.60 381.45 370.15 378.10INTELLECT 219.75 228.85 219.75 223.40COLPAL 1309.00 1326.90 1305.50 1319.85NESTLEIND 11009.00 11287.85 10960.00 11235.60PVR 1588.20 1600.45 1577.55 1585.45JSLHISAR 86.50 89.25 86.50 88.65IBULISL 375.95 388.25 364.50 387.30TATACHEM 707.65 714.40 707.25 711.25SHANKARA 532.00 534.55 522.00 525.05TORNTPOWER 261.00 264.20 256.70 258.50TATACOFFEE 95.50 98.25 95.35 97.05MERCK 2940.60 3100.00 2921.30 3049.25MAXINDIA 84.20 86.00 83.80 84.05TRENT 345.60 365.70 345.45 359.90APOLLOTYRE 233.50 236.10 231.55 234.90CONCOR 667.35 674.50 667.35 670.70DIVISLAB 1477.90 1481.65 1462.80 1465.85NIITTECH 1151.00 1164.70 1147.00 1153.55KPIT 221.25 222.80 217.20 217.80GODFRYPHLP 871.00 892.40 871.00 888.25RAMCOCEM 640.00 646.75 621.00 637.20MOTILALOFS 680.00 697.95 675.55 681.70ABFRL 206.45 208.00 204.30 204.90INDIANB 239.95 244.70 239.95 242.75TV18BRDCST 37.50 38.45 37.50 38.25AMBUJACEM 218.05 222.75 217.25 220.75WELSPUNIND 60.00 60.40 59.05 59.55ENDURANCE 1172.50 1230.00 1169.00 1219.50MCX 727.55 736.85 725.70 733.15SOUTHBANK 15.20 15.45 15.20 15.35NAUKRI 1480.00 1480.00 1438.00 1452.90HFCL 21.15 21.60 20.95 21.05INFRATEL 269.80 269.80 262.00 263.65FORTIS 134.45 138.75 134.10 137.45DEEPAKFERT 150.90 152.50 149.45 150.20ADANITRANS 196.90 202.60 196.55 197.65GUJALKALI 521.35 550.00 521.35 545.20VIPIND 504.25 514.00 504.25 508.75KEC 287.90 299.75 285.80 298.60TORNTPHARM 1748.55 1785.00 1747.20 1779.90WELCORP 138.75 141.20 137.95 139.05BERGEPAINT 330.00 333.90 327.25 329.90RAYMOND 836.05 839.80 831.75 835.30GET&D 286.70 303.00 286.65 294.05DCMSHRIRAM 334.25 341.90 332.65 338.95WHIRLPOOL 1330.00 1386.80 1330.00 1373.85DISHTV 37.70 38.50 37.20 37.95DCBBANK 164.95 167.35 163.10 166.30BAJAJELEC 500.10 504.95 493.65 496.20SYNGENE 561.05 565.00 550.10 560.75EICHERMOT 23094.00 23287.25 23068.60 23110.65CASTROLIND 153.20 154.55 151.80 152.15VENKYS 2394.00 2425.00 2391.00 2398.10VOLTAS 553.95 556.60 550.00 551.55HINDCOPPER 50.00 51.25 50.00 50.70REPCOHOME 392.55 403.95 391.85 401.65PFIZER 2802.70 2812.90 2741.00 2789.50AMARAJABAT 741.00 741.95 733.85 736.35JAMNAAUTO 64.85 64.90 64.00 64.00HUDCO 43.70 43.80 42.80 42.90JUBILANT 710.05 716.00 703.45 706.40SREINFRA 35.95 36.20 35.30 35.75GRUH 312.50 315.90 309.90 312.60NLCINDIA 67.40 69.85 67.15 69.70MAHABANK 15.11 15.24 14.71 15.10GREAVESCOT 120.15 121.60 118.70 119.55JSWENERGY 67.40 69.80 67.40 69.35MMTC 30.20 30.50 29.75 29.85SYMPHONY 1104.95 1192.20 1103.05 1178.95WABAG 260.00 262.75 258.10 260.10MFSL 439.40 448.75 433.45 443.75INDHOTEL 147.35 150.10 147.35 148.25UCOBANK 20.70 20.85 20.50 20.60GODREJIND 533.40 542.70 528.15 537.55GMRINFRA 16.10 16.35 16.00 16.20ABB 1310.00 1322.00 1310.00 1314.10MRPL 74.70 75.55 74.55 74.80CHAMBLFERT 143.30 147.75 143.30 146.95NHPC 26.25 26.25 25.80 26.00JINDALSAW 83.65 85.60 83.65 84.60MGL 881.00 900.70 881.00 895.30MEGH 59.70 60.60 59.50 60.05CHOLAFIN 1243.85 1253.35 1233.05 1248.40UFLEX 272.95 279.85 272.80 277.95MINDTREE 865.50 869.00 859.00 863.15J&KBANK 37.00 37.60 36.70 37.35KSCL 577.20 587.90 571.80 576.65SUPREMEIND 1145.35 1200.00 1135.00 1191.40OBEROIRLTY 456.80 461.85 451.00 453.05FCONSUMER 45.95 46.65 45.55 45.75VGUARD 235.65 235.65 229.30 231.45IRB 157.00 162.40 157.00 161.65ULTRACEMCO 4000.00 4021.00 3994.55 4004.90ELGIEQUIP 253.35 271.05 252.85 269.25DBL 424.80 426.20 418.10 420.35IDBI 61.30 61.55 61.10 61.40SJVN 24.75 25.25 24.65 25.15TEJASNET 211.15 213.80 205.00 210.80IPCALAB 790.00 798.75 780.25 784.20LAXMIMACH* 5735.75 5770.00 5676.15 5751.70PARAGMILK 246.65 254.15 246.60 252.75MAHINDCIE 244.10 250.00 242.90 248.85SWANENERGY 100.90 102.00 100.60 101.40CENTURYPLY 174.05 178.20 174.00 176.70CORPBANK 28.85 30.20 28.85 29.50HINDZINC 276.00 277.80 272.50 274.95

ISEC 262.80 264.30 256.00 258.95GRANULES 89.90 90.50 88.45 89.70DCAL 231.05 236.25 228.50 232.95GICRE 261.70 264.15 254.50 255.90CUB 186.15 189.20 185.60 187.55AARTIIND 1435.30 1435.30 1412.45 1423.80KNRCON 217.30 218.90 210.50 212.15LAOPALA 221.00 222.00 215.60 219.00NAVKARCORP 56.50 56.85 55.45 55.60NILKAMAL 1480.05 1505.00 1475.00 1485.50FDC 173.75 177.25 172.50 173.85CARERATING 982.15 988.85 975.00 980.80JSL 32.50 33.30 32.45 33.00DENABANK 17.20 17.25 17.05 17.15VIJAYABANK 50.25 50.60 50.05 50.35NETWORK18 39.00 40.95 39.00 40.40APLLTD 574.15 577.65 563.10 574.20KPRMILL 552.10 567.15 552.10 562.80EMAMILTD 405.40 412.30 405.00 407.55BLUESTARCO 612.75 621.60 611.30 613.90TATAINVEST 882.80 885.00 880.00 881.30ASTRAL 1128.80 1165.00 1121.00 1153.60HSCL 130.15 131.85 130.10 130.85PERSISTENT 635.05 641.05 623.60 632.00QUESS 641.50 646.25 633.00 638.55TRIDENT 65.95 65.95 65.10 65.55KAJARIACER 488.90 493.00 485.10 485.55GODREJAGRO 497.30 504.00 497.25 498.50EIHOTEL 194.35 201.00 192.55 194.55KANSAINER 486.25 486.25 479.65 480.45RNAM 158.40 162.80 158.35 159.40NATCOPHARM* 686.95 688.95 678.40 684.20ADANIGREEN 42.00 42.55 41.45 41.65NBVENTURES 118.80 120.00 117.55 118.90GLAXO 1490.90 1515.00 1488.45 1509.15ALKEM 1870.75 1907.05 1866.30 1897.40BOSCHLTD 19400.00 19640.00 19300.00 19581.15OFSS 3649.85 3690.15 3638.70 3662.00ASHOKA 124.90 126.65 124.50 125.20PRSMJOHNSN 87.00 89.00 87.00 88.25SHREECEM 17014.10 17575.95 16995.00 17338.45DHANUKA 464.00 472.50 462.05 464.65ASTRAZEN 1507.00 1510.55 1430.40 1465.90SONATSOFTW 301.65 302.25 300.00 300.25SUNDRMFAST 525.05 534.45 525.05 532.75MINDACORP 145.65 146.50 144.60 145.55MOIL 170.20 171.10 168.90 170.20BAJAJHLDNG 2911.05 3004.20 2911.05 2934.35BHARATFIN 1001.30 1015.00 1001.30 1005.15CROMPTON 225.00 226.35 222.90 224.30GUJFLUORO 877.40 901.50 876.45 895.05KRBL 289.80 292.00 280.00 281.80KALPATPOWR 379.40 381.50 374.25 378.10BALMLAWRIE 202.00 205.00 200.55 201.05COCHINSHIP 386.00 386.00 376.90 379.05COROMANDEL 446.40 450.90 446.40 449.70VBL 744.15 760.00 744.15 756.85CYIENT 609.95 615.45 605.05 613.20TATAMETALI 625.05 628.50 615.55 617.75GSPL 175.90 177.70 174.05 174.65ASAHIINDIA 243.00 248.65 241.00 245.00HEIDELBERG 151.05 154.55 150.65 151.35ANDHRABANK 29.30 29.80 29.30 29.50CENTRUM 37.90 37.90 34.65 35.45MINDAIND 324.30 324.75 321.30 322.40ITDCEM 108.50 114.80 108.50 112.75EVEREADY 190.35 190.40 186.65 186.95TIMETECHNO 100.05 102.25 99.70 100.20BIRLACORPN 634.90 634.90 597.55 601.95EIDPARRY 204.95 206.95 204.30 205.45PRESTIGE 208.40 215.45 208.40 214.00GMDCLTD 87.25 89.00 87.25 88.35GICHSGFIN 254.20 261.00 254.20 257.00TIINDIA 335.70 344.90 332.60 341.50BASF 1571.00 1617.45 1568.00 1583.80VMART 2589.90 2729.25 2589.90 2617.25IEX 166.25 166.60 163.35 164.05HSIL 231.55 234.65 229.70 230.65VINATIORGA 1664.90 1664.90 1610.00 1625.90NAVINFLUOR 702.70 703.80 691.20 695.10ITDC 303.60 308.25 303.05 303.65PIIND 853.00 860.00 851.00 855.20NIACL 175.55 181.00 175.55 178.50LUXIND 1460.00 1473.00 1351.80 1364.65MRF 67350.00 67448.35 66700.00 66976.00THOMASCOOK 231.05 233.95 228.05 231.20ZENSARTECH 233.95 235.10 226.00 229.453MINDIA 20798.55 21124.55 20510.55 20970.00AIAENG 1682.00 1692.45 1652.70 1681.35INDOSTAR 340.15 350.00 340.15 348.55GUJGAS 670.00 671.55 664.00 664.85CAPPL 385.50 387.25 382.20 383.75PHOENIXLTD 566.50 573.85 555.00 559.50GESHIP 315.05 315.10 308.50 309.35RELAXO 725.00 737.50 710.00 730.35LINDEINDIA 675.95 687.15 675.95 685.15GHCL 238.55 242.35 238.05 240.30SOBHA 450.00 453.75 445.80 447.00COFFEEDAY 271.50 278.40 269.40 273.85HIMATSEIDE 218.20 220.55 215.10 216.05HERITGFOOD 550.75 550.75 520.20 533.30GSKCONS 7593.05 7700.00 7593.05 7667.35ABBOTINDIA 7525.00 7525.00 7432.40 7462.60PGHH 9792.00 9900.00 9781.30 9875.00ADVENZYMES 179.00 181.00 176.40 177.00INOXWIND 75.80 78.00 75.80 77.20NESCO 440.85 453.45 440.85 448.10BDL 270.10 277.90 270.10 275.90TAKE 151.10 151.15 147.00 147.85

BLUEDART 3210.20 3350.00 3191.25 3299.75MAHLOG 509.00 519.15 508.30 517.40GREENPLY 138.00 139.70 136.20 138.60AEGISLOG 189.00 193.55 189.00 192.45HONAUT 21350.00 21888.00 21201.05 21803.45THERMAX 1080.35 1086.00 1065.75 1075.70JAGRAN 114.35 115.00 112.60 112.95WABCOINDIA 6845.95 7000.00 6770.60 6961.50HAL 776.00 793.10 776.00 789.75ESSELPRO 107.85 108.65 105.05 108.15NAVNETEDUL 103.00 107.35 103.00 105.55SOMANYCERA 331.55 333.00 325.15 328.60BAYERCROP 4220.00 4300.00 4216.00 4284.65IOB 14.72 15.00 14.72 14.84INOXLEISUR 244.00 244.90 240.80 241.20SADBHAV 207.00 209.00 206.50 207.70JKCEMENT 719.20 727.75 711.00 712.10ISGEC 5070.00 5070.00 5005.15 5010.70APARINDS 667.00 676.00 654.90 656.70SCHNEIDER 100.90 101.65 100.10 101.25AKZOINDIA 1633.25 1695.00 1631.90 1673.95SANOFI 6211.00 6399.00 6151.05 6307.70GPPL 101.10 103.25 100.15 102.55APLAPOLLO 1110.55 1123.80 1100.00 1104.15SUDARSCHEM 340.90 343.00 339.50 341.85KIOCL 145.00 152.00 120.00 148.50NH 200.00 201.00 193.20 197.45SHOPERSTOP 506.20 554.90 502.40 537.25REDINGTON 87.35 88.15 87.25 87.85DBCORP 175.00 175.00 168.00 168.10ZYDUSWELL 1370.40 1375.65 1355.45 1360.55TEAMLEASE 2820.00 2860.50 2806.50 2837.10TIMKEN 559.90 570.00 556.00 561.60JKLAKSHMI 284.35 290.90 284.15 288.30CARBORUNIV 354.30 359.90 353.00 358.80MAHLIFE 388.10 396.40 388.10 391.70ASTERDM 148.20 152.20 148.00 151.85TRITURBINE 117.05 119.00 112.55 113.35SUNCLAYLTD 3428.00 3739.85 3411.00 3594.80FINCABLES 456.80 461.05 455.45 459.80LAURUSLABS 381.00 392.50 381.00 385.00TVSSRICHAK 2473.25 2500.00 2450.00 2482.45ATUL 3443.65 3451.00 3408.25 3424.95BAJAJCORP 363.00 364.30 358.70 359.85SHARDACROP 306.60 309.95 304.95 305.55JBCHEPHARM 293.10 301.25 293.10 299.75FLFL 391.00 398.00 388.15 395.50SFL 1460.00 1469.70 1450.00 1455.70ERIS 674.30 687.60 666.45 681.90GDL 130.95 131.15 129.65 131.00ALLCARGO 107.50 109.10 107.50 108.95LAKSHVILAS 87.00 87.15 86.50 86.80ECLERX 1111.00 1111.00 1086.10 1092.25FINOLEXIND 550.05 557.95 548.00 550.85CERA 2377.75 2404.90 2352.50 2378.85SHILPAMED 389.15 389.20 371.00 378.05MAGMA 110.95 111.55 108.75 110.25SUPRAJIT 217.45 220.00 214.30 219.05CRISIL 1623.80 1625.55 1600.00 1600.90PNCINFRA 145.50 148.00 144.80 147.70FORBESCO 2424.90 2424.95 2360.00 2400.00GRINDWELL 540.00 560.00 540.00 556.60GALAXYSURF 1205.90 1209.85 1188.75 1201.50SUPPETRO 207.60 211.55 206.00 209.10STARCEMENT 107.00 107.00 101.25 103.65GULFOILLUB 828.95 829.00 820.00 823.85THYROCARE 543.90 543.90 536.50 537.95TIFHL 506.00 515.45 505.50 509.90RATNAMANI 935.85 950.00 935.85 949.20SHK 170.50 172.00 170.50 171.85GEPIL 816.25 823.10 816.25 820.10JCHAC 1800.00 1800.00 1771.00 1786.15SOLARINDS 1051.50 1070.00 1042.30 1058.65SHRIRAMCIT 1571.90 1599.00 1569.10 1589.75ORIENTCEM 81.00 82.25 81.00 81.50TTKPRESTIG 7398.00 7500.00 7390.00 7459.40SKFINDIA 1947.00 2000.00 1895.35 1899.60HATSUN 622.70 627.00 622.10 623.95MONSANTO 2577.10 2639.00 2577.10 2619.00IFBIND 849.95 850.00 832.05 840.80CCL 272.20 272.70 271.25 271.55SCHAEFFLER 5578.90 5650.00 5553.05 5635.35GILLETTE 6497.55 6498.00 6460.60 6491.65TNPL 252.10 254.50 252.00 253.00SIS 768.55 769.80 753.95 759.85TVTODAY 370.50 370.55 370.00 370.10VTL 1029.65 1035.50 1029.65 1035.50

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SCRIP OPEN HIgh LOW LTP CHANGENIFTY 50 10820.95 10893.60 10817.15 10859.90 80.10TITAN 904.00 925.75 898.80 924.15 36.50SUNPHARMA 415.00 428.70 413.50 425.00 13.85IOC 134.60 138.70 134.20 138.20 4.30ZEEL 461.25 478.70 461.25 474.50 10.10BAJFINANCE 2603.00 2643.80 2585.95 2641.00 53.85VEDL 197.65 200.65 197.00 199.90 4.05YESBANK 180.00 183.30 180.00 181.65 3.55TATAMOTORS 169.40 172.20 169.15 171.40 3.15BAJAJFINSV 6424.00 6530.00 6412.60 6522.00 116.95JSWSTEEL 294.40 300.60 294.40 298.00 5.05HCLTECH 952.10 963.00 950.00 963.00 14.20HDFC 1959.00 1990.00 1952.00 1978.15 29.30INDUSINDBK 1578.85 1600.50 1571.00 1586.50 22.50GRASIM 814.90 827.95 814.90 825.10 11.35ICICIBANK 358.30 362.80 358.30 360.55 4.90HINDALCO 221.00 226.05 221.00 223.65 3.05DRREDDY 2605.00 2633.00 2601.10 2622.90 35.45AXISBANK 623.90 628.00 620.00 625.80 8.25HINDPETRO 253.50 257.00 251.00 255.80 3.10TATASTEEL 508.20 516.45 508.05 512.35 5.85UPL 752.50 771.00 752.50 758.00 8.35LT 1426.55 1448.00 1426.30 1440.00 14.95M&M 799.35 807.00 797.00 803.80 8.15NTPC 147.45 151.60 146.50 149.80 1.50HDFCBANK 2117.35 2137.75 2115.50 2124.00 18.95ADANIPORTS 384.95 390.75 384.00 387.20 3.20CIPLA 514.30 525.35 514.30 522.00 4.10SBIN 293.60 297.10 293.55 294.45 2.30ONGC 148.20 151.50 148.00 150.60 0.90TECHM 710.00 718.40 710.00 713.00 4.10EICHERMOT 23011.00 23310.00 22995.00 23120.00 125.50ULTRACEMCO 3986.60 4022.00 3985.00 4004.00 21.50WIPRO 326.20 332.90 325.80 329.10 1.65RELIANCE 1125.50 1135.25 1121.20 1125.65 5.45ITC 279.15 284.00 279.15 282.00 1.25IBULHSGFIN 850.00 858.00 838.90 847.50 2.40HINDUNILVR 1817.90 1834.90 1815.70 1820.00 5.10MARUTI 7548.00 7580.00 7490.00 7518.00 18.05KOTAKBANK 1244.25 1250.90 1235.05 1239.65 -0.60INFY 663.35 663.50 653.30 656.10 -0.70POWERGRID 197.50 198.35 195.60 196.25 -0.30HEROMOTOCO 3138.05 3160.00 3110.75 3123.45 -5.35BHARTIARTL 316.90 321.00 314.50 316.10 -0.60GAIL 356.45 361.35 355.05 355.50 -0.95COALINDIA 242.90 243.35 239.75 242.30 -0.65ASIANPAINT 1383.00 1383.00 1359.00 1365.00 -7.50BAJAJ-AUTO 2753.90 2759.95 2711.75 2720.00 -17.00TCS 1915.00 1920.00 1893.00 1897.00 -11.95BPCL 361.80 369.80 360.20 361.20 -3.40INFRATEL 269.05 269.75 262.00 262.65 -4.15

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SCRIP OPEN HIgh LOW LTP CHANGENIFTY NEXT 50 27863.40 28123.65 27860.90 28063.20 282.25SAIL 51.95 54.90 51.80 54.85 3.35DMART 1580.00 1669.50 1574.00 1656.00 85.85SUNTV 591.00 618.50 588.20 616.90 30.70OIL 172.45 178.45 171.30 178.00 7.25NMDC 92.40 96.25 92.40 95.55 3.25BHEL 70.05 72.40 70.05 72.20 2.20PEL 2308.00 2373.70 2302.15 2360.00 69.10LICHSGFIN 481.00 490.40 478.50 489.15 10.95AMBUJACEM 217.10 222.80 217.10 221.75 4.90CADILAHC 340.25 347.60 339.35 345.95 7.15BEL 87.00 88.25 86.60 87.90 1.75COLPAL 1302.05 1327.65 1302.05 1326.00 25.65BANKBARODA 117.25 119.05 117.10 118.50 2.10ABCAPITAL 98.50 100.25 98.05 99.85 1.70BIOCON 612.75 623.60 611.50 621.90 10.45PETRONET 224.00 228.70 222.30 226.20 3.70AUROPHARMA 712.00 727.35 712.00 723.30 11.45ICICIPRULI 324.00 331.00 323.45 328.00 5.15SHREECEM 16900.00 17350.00 16800.00 17200.00 252.60MCDOWELL-N 636.95 640.00 634.00 640.00 8.40ACC 1465.00 1493.00 1465.00 1478.00 18.80BOSCHLTD 19395.00 19678.00 19270.15 19640.00 230.85DLF 177.90 180.70 176.70 177.70 2.05SBILIFE 600.00 605.00 587.25 597.50 6.90NIACL 177.00 179.55 176.95 178.10 1.95INDIGO 1151.20 1188.00 1147.05 1176.00 12.20IDEA 37.25 38.10 37.25 37.50 0.35SIEMENS 1030.00 1060.00 1025.00 1041.75 9.75DABUR 431.85 437.25 428.50 433.00 3.05MRF 67279.00 67475.00 66980.00 67150.00 463.65HAVELLS 686.05 696.60 684.05 689.35 4.50PGHH 9790.00 9960.00 9751.00 9850.00 56.85ABB 1319.95 1323.35 1309.05 1316.50 7.50BRITANNIA 3083.00 3114.35 3080.95 3089.10 13.70CONCOR 670.00 674.20 666.60 669.00 2.55HINDZINC 276.00 277.70 271.50 276.00 0.85MOTHERSUMI 163.60 164.50 162.10 162.80 0.35OFSS 3660.00 3695.50 3637.50 3670.00 6.45L&TFH 154.25 155.95 153.30 154.50 0.25ASHOKLEY 103.05 104.40 102.55 102.95 -0.05LUPIN 841.00 852.00 836.80 837.65 -1.05MARICO 375.25 381.65 370.15 375.80 -1.05SRTRANSFIN 1224.00 1231.90 1216.25 1222.75 -3.95GODREJCP 819.00 824.00 805.15 808.55 -6.80NHPC 26.10 26.20 25.85 25.95 -0.25PIDILITIND 1123.20 1127.45 1098.00 1101.40 -12.30HDFCLIFE 391.40 393.40 384.50 386.00 -4.60BANDHANBNK 543.00 549.00 532.00 533.35 -7.25GICRE 260.50 264.50 254.50 255.00 -5.10ICICIGI 865.00 865.00 844.95 847.75 -27.60

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The partial US Governmentshutdown is all set to drag

on to the new year asOpposition Democrats andRepublicans refused to show any sign of compromise Thursday to endthe impasse over PresidentDonald Trump’s demand forborder wall funding.

Trump has refused to signany stopgap spending bill thatdoes not has provisions tofund a wall along the US-Mexico border which he says isessential to stop the flow of ille-gal immigrants.

The Democrats, who willhold majority in the US Houseof Representatives in 2019 andcarries the crucial numbers inthe Senate despite being inminority, has argued that sucha move is waste of taxpayers’money.

Statements issued by boththe camps on Thursday indi-cated that the impasse is all setto continue in the new year.The partial Government shut-down that started last Saturdayhas affected 800,000 federalemployees, who have eitherbeen furloughed or are work-ing without pay.

President Trump contin-ued to blame Democrats for theshutdown. In a tweet, Trumpsaid the government shutdownis not about the wall.

“Everybody knows that aWall will work perfectly (InIsrael the Wall works 99.9%).This is only about the Demsnot letting Donald Trump andthe Republicans have a win.They may have the 10 Senatevotes, but we have the issue,Border Security. 2020!” he said.

White House press secre-tary Sarah Sanders also criti-cised Democrats on Thursday,saying in a statement that theyhad “decided to go home” overthe Christmas holiday ratherthan stay in Washington tonegotiate.

“The President has made

clear that any bill to fund theGovernment must adequatelyfund border security to stop theflow of illegal drugs, criminals,MS-13 gang members, childsmugglers and human traf-fickers into our communities -and protect the American peo-ple,” the White House said.

“The administration under-stands this crisis and made a rea-sonable, common-sense solutionto Democrats five days ago -we’ve not received a singleresponse,” it said in a statement.

The President and his teamstayed in Washington overChristmas hoping to negotiatea deal that would stop thedangerous crisis on the border,protect American communi-ties, and re-open theGovernment, it said.

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Washington: US Secretary ofState Mike Pompeo will meetnext week in Brazil with IsraeliPrime Minister BenjaminNetanyahu as Washington pre-pares to withdraw troops fromSyria, the State Department saidon Thursday.

Pompeo and Netanyahuwill meet in Brasilia where bothwill be attending the New Year’sDay inauguration of president-elect JairBolsonaro, a right-wingfirebrand who has vowed tomove Brazil closer to Israel andUS President Donald Trump.

Netanyahu has met fre-quently with Pompeo and enjoysa warm relationship withTrump, happy about his with-drawal from a denuclearizationdeal with Iran and his landmarkshift of the US embassy toJerusalem. But Netanyahu hasfor the first time found himselfat odds with Trump after the USleader’s sudden announcementlast week that he will bring homeall 2,000 American troops fromwar-ravaged Syria, where Israelsaw Washington’s presence as abulwark against Iran and coun-terweight to the influence ofRussia. AFP

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Michael Cohen, DonaldTrump's former attor-

ney, denied Thursday that hehad ever visited Prague, shoot-ing down a report that he hada meeting with Russian offi-cials there during the 2016presidential election cam-paign.

"I hear #Prague#CzechRepublic is beautiful inthe summertime," Cohentweeted. "I wouldn't know asI have never been."

"#Mueller knows every-thing!" he added in a referenceto Special Counsel RobertMueller, the former FBI direc-tor who is investigatingwhether Trump's campaigncolluded with Russia to gethim elected to the WhiteHouse.

Cohen's tweet came sev-eral hours after the McClatchynews service reported thatcell phone records showedthat Cohen was near Prague inthe summer of 2016, support-

ing claims that he met therewith Russian officials.

Cohen, who was sen-tenced to three years in prisonthis month after pleadingguilty to tax evasion and othercrimes, has denied ever visit-ing Prague.

Since then, however,Cohen has turned on his for-mer boss and has been coop-erating with Special CounselRobert Mueller, the formerFBI director who is investi-gating whether Trump's cam-paign colluded with Russia toget him elected to the WhiteHouse.

Details of Cohen's coop-eration with the Mueller probehave not been publiclyrevealed and Trump vehe-mently denies any collusionwith Russia. The purportedmeeting between Cohen andRussian government officialsin Prague was first reported ina document with compromis-ing material on Trump com-piled by former British spyChristopher Steele.

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British Foreign SecretaryJeremy Hunt on Friday crit-

icised Donald Trump’s view ofthe world after the USPresident’s announcement of awithdrawal of American troopsfrom the fight against theIslamic State group in Syria.

“President Trump makes aspeciality of talking in veryblack and white terms aboutwhat’s happening in the world,”Hunt told BBC Radio 4’s Todayprogramme.

“We have made massiveprogress in the war againstDaesh (Arabic acronym forIS), but it’s not over and,although they have lost nearly all the territory theyheld, they still hold some ter-ritory and there is still somereal risk,” he said.

“We have to continue to bevigilant,” he added.

Trump announced thepull-out last week, stunningallies including Britain andFrance who warned that thefight against jihadists in Syriawas not finished.

Some 2,000 US troops,joined by other foreign forces,have been assisting local fight-ers battling against IS.

Britain takes part in thecoalition by carrying out airstrikes in IS-held areas in Iraqand Syria.

During a visit to Iraq this

week, Trump declared an endto the US role of being theworld’s “policeman”.

“We don’t want to be takenadvantage of any more bycountries that use us and useour incredible military to pro-tect them,” he said.

Asked what would happenif US troops also withdrewfrom Afghanistan, Hunt said:“We will continue to do every-thing we need to do to makesure the streets of Britain aresafe.

“This is a security issue forthe UK as well as forAfghanistan,” he said.

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Seven members of a UK-based Indian-origin family

were involved in a freak acci-dent in Iceland when theirSUV crashed off a bridge onThursday, killing two womenand a child.

Four others, including twoBritish Indian brothers andtwo young children, remain incritical condition after beingairlifted to a hospital inIceland's capital Reykjavik.

The family was reportedlyon holiday in the Nordic islandcountry when their hiredToyota Land Cruiser slammedthrough a railing while cross-ing a high single-lane bridge atSkeidararsandur, a vast sandplain in the southern part of thecountry.

Icelandic Police have onlyidentified the victims as British,with their names to be releasedon formal identification.

Local media reports havenamed the deceased women assisters-in-law Rajshree andKhushboo Laturia and aninfant girl.

Rajshree's husband,Shreeraj, and his brotherSupreme remain in hospitalwith two young children.

The Indian Ambassador to Iceland, TArmstrong Changsan, visitedthe injured at Landspítali hos-pital, where he spoke to hospi-tal staff and the chaplain beforecontacting family members inIndia.

He confirmed that threepeople died, one of them ayoung child, and said the otherfamily members were in a "sta-ble" condition in hospital onThursday night.

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The number of people evac-uated after Indonesia’s

deadly tsunami has nearly dou-bled to some 40,000 whilemore than 7,000 were injuredin the disaster, officials saidFriday, as they trimmed theofficial death toll.

Authorities said 426 peoplehad been killed — down froma previous tally of 430 — withdouble-counting by differentdistricts blamed for the change.Two dozen people remainmissing almost a week after thedisaster.

The fresh figures come aday after Indonesia’s disasteragency raised the danger alertlevel for an erupting volcanothat sparked the killer tsunamiat the weekend.

They have also warnedthat fresh activity at the craterthreatened to trigger anotherdeadly wave.

Previously, the number ofdisplaced — including manyleft homeless — stood at22,0000 but that figure has nowjumped to just over 40,000,according to the latest tally.

Some 7,202 people suf-fered injuries, jumping from1,495, while nearly 1,300 homeswere destroyed as the wavescrashed into the coastlines ofwestern Java island and southSumatra, authorities said.

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Nice (France): If EmmanuelMacron is hoping for some hol-iday respite from the anti-gov-ernment protests which haverocked France, he might wantto avoid the presidential retreatalong the Mediterranean coast.

Around 40 "yellow vest"demonstrators on Thursdaytried to storm the medieval fortof Bregancon that serves asMacron's summer retreatbefore being turned back bypolice, the mayor of nearbyBormes-les-Mimosas, FrancoisArizzi, told AFP on Friday.

"It's madness. For peoplewho want more democracy,they should start by respectingother people's property," Arizzisaid, saying many of the pro-testers had tried to infiltrate thefort by crossing private land.

He added that some of theprotesters had indicated theywould try again on Friday.

The yellow vest movementhas morphed from anger overfuel taxes to a broad rebuke ofMacron, whom critics accuse ofneglecting the rising costs ofliving for many in rural andsmall-town France. AFP

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Pakistan Army Chief GenQamar Javed Bajwa has

confirmed death sentenceshanded down to 22 "hardcoreterrorists" by military courts, areport said on Friday.

The terrorists were con-victed by military courts whichwere set up after the 2014Peshawar school attack thatkilled 150 people, mostlyschoolchildren, Radio Pakistanreported.

Their terrorist acts result-ed in the deaths of 176 people,including 19 armed forces per-sonnel, 41 police and leviesofficials and 116 civilians andinjured 217 others, it said.

Besides those given deathsentences, 15 convicts wereimprisoned while two wereacquitted.

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Actress and theatreveteran LushinDubey feels thattheatre has becomemore fearless over

the years in terms of breakingthe norms. She also calls themedium the father of films andstresses that it’s best to partic-ipate in both and not treateither like a poor cousin of theother.

“I think theatre has becomemore fearless over the years interms of scripts, direction,music, costumes, breaking ofnorms and ideas. I do believethat having conviction in a pro-ject is more than 50 per centsuccess,” Lushin said.

“Theatre is the father offilms. For those who believethat success in the arts field isnot measured by just moniesand it’s makings, they willattest that theatre is a toweringmedium of expression, morepowerful than most othermediums because it demandsso much from an individuallike expression, voice, physiqueand so many other skills,”Lushin said when asked aboutthe changes that she has seenin the people’s mindset towardstheatre over the years.

The Indian stage actor anddirector has directed, acted inand scripted many drama pro-ductions over 20 years. She isknown for her solo playsUntitled and Pinki Virani’s BitterChocolate with theatre directorArvind Gaur.

She acted in films Partitionand Perfect Husband in 2007and Murder Unveiled in 2005— for which she won the 2006Gemini Award for BestPerformance by an Actress ina Featured Supporting Role ina Dramatic Program or Mini-Series.

Now she is back with yetanother theatre productionreinventing the popular story ofThe Sleeping Beauty along withBubbles Sabharwal.

“Kids World (her produc-tion company) has written anddirected innumerable produc-tions over the years and thisone is a classic re-written.Importance is linked not just tothe classic replaying (albeit animprovised version) but to all

these factors that interplay inthe kids presentation of theiracting prowess on stage. Eachenvironment offers a podiumfor fearlessness to grow andconfidence to grow,” she said.

However when asked iftheatre is facing challenges

when it comes to attractingyouth, she said that most youthare there in it.

“Some are immersed andsome are impatient, wanting tomake it quickly in the bigworld of films. It’s not that sim-ple. Filmline and a successful

entry into it may or may nothappen. So it’s best to partici-pate in both and not treateither like a poor cousin of theother. I strongly believe thatworking in both the mediumsis important,” she said.

Lushin calls theatre herbaby as is Kids World. “Itbelongs to us I am not depen-dent on anyone for its opera-tion or its movement forward.It belongs to us and our chil-dren. Not to be dependent onanyone gives us a liberated feel-ing. Besides, a film is a direc-tor’s medium and theatre is anactor’s medium. Even in myadult acting and solo perfor-mances, I am dependent on noone but myself,” she said.

Does she feel that senioractors are not getting enoughroles in Bollywood films now?

“In India, age defines a loton screen. There are a hugenumber of films being made.Mumbai is congested withactors wanting to make it —young, middle aged and olderones. There is no dearth ofactors. Whatever has come myway has come through with nopushing from my side,” shesaid.

“I don’t even live inMumbai. Also, I live partly inthe US, so I do films becausefilms have sought me, not theother way round,” she added.

Asked about her plans,Lushin said that her next pieceis for adults.

“I plan to direct (the piece),but cannot disclose much aboutit right now. I like to soak offlife. To never stop. To keepgoing with new thoughts, newideas and beginnings. I like thefact that I am restless and livein a world of imagination anddreams. Though I dream andplan I always surprise myselftoo. According to me that is theessence of joy, to not haveeverything predicted for you,”she said.

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The year bore witness to a plethora ofnew material from various metalartistes. As they — old and new, the

famous and the underground — decidedon innovations and new ideas, it energiseda whole genre.

At the same time, rock charts showedlittle or no creativity by most of the alter-native and Indie bands that dominate,rehashing the sound of their past. That,however, does not mean that rock is dead.There were still bands putting out somereally cool stuff.

Here’s a look at the top metal and rockofferings which made a difference duringthe year.

10. Metal: Pal by Kalmah. The Finnishmelodic death metal legends returned withyet another brilliant album after fiveyears. While no means groundbreaking,Pal features amazing arrangements,melodies and death metal aggression andtechnical dexterous precision.

Rock: Eat The Elephant by A PerfectCircle. American rock band’s fourth stu-dio album was worth its 14-year wait. Thisrecord is more of an atmospheric art rockrecord and lacks the band’s previousheavier alternative metal sound. Butnonetheless, it’s a great piece.

9. Metal: Cobra Speed Venom by TheCrown. The Swedish melodic death andthrash metallers have come back withadded energy. There is a lot of violent fer-vour, growls, heavy thrash riffs, melodicleads and powerful drumming. It is a com-bination of thrash or death metal LP.

Rock: Prequelle by Ghost. While def-initely not a straight-up pop rock albumas it does contain plenty of heavy elements,this is far removed from metal, though itdoes have a lot going on: Hard rock, poprock, and for the first time arena rock. Mostsongs have the element of catchiness dueto the openly pop influences here such asABBA.

8. Metal: The Wake by Voivod. One ofthe most underrated and creative bands,

the Canadian progressive thrash metal vet-erans have released one of the greatestalbums of their career. It manages to rivaltheir original classics like Killing Technologyand Dimension Hatross while combiningmodern production.

Rock: Stone Temple Pilots by StoneTemple Pilots. The self-titled album of theSan Diego legends brings their trademarksound of distortion-filled heavy hard rock

riffs, marked by a psychedelic but alsogrooving melodic atmosphere. New leadsinger Jeff Gutt does a splendid job.

7. Metal: Electric Messiah by High onFire. You can always count of Matt Pike ifyou want something barbaric. This is def-initely one of High On Fire’s best. Thisalbum descends upon you with a pletho-ra of monstrously heavy riffs and is juststraightforward metal.

Rock: Still Cyco Punk After All TheseYears by Suicidal Tendencies. While essen-tially a near complete re-recording of front-man Mike Muir’s 96 solo album Lost MyBrain, it is still fully energetic, raw, fast,hard and fun.

6. Metal: Rainier Fog by Alice inChains. The band is renowned for theirdark and heavy sound and bleak subjectmatter. Rainier sounds a bit closer to their

older stuff while nonetheless having thesensibilities of their newer sound. Anothertruly brilliant record by AIC.

Rock: Living the Dream by Slash Ft.Myles Kennedy and Conspirators. Whenmaking a rock’n roll record with heavinessand attitude one can never truly go wrongwith the guitar legend Slash and vocalistMyles Kennedy. Bluesy hard rock riffs andpassionate soaring vocals, grooving drumsand strong bass make this record yetanother strong hard rock piece.

5. Metal: Devouring Radiant Light BySkeletonwitch. Rather underrated,Skeletonwitch is an American band whichplays blackened melodic thrash metal. InDevouring, there is a change in vocalistsand the style is different. The black metaltendencies are less and the music packsprogressive tendencies and a powerfulatmospheric element.

Rock: Time and Space by Turnstile.American punk band’s second album is aninstant classic for the hardcore scene. It haspretty much everything you want — raw,loud, aggressive, heavy, short and does notmess around with any experimental ten-dencies.

4. Metal: Automata Part I and II byBetween the Buried and Me. A double-partconcept album, about a man whosedreams are broadcasted worldwide as aform of entertainment. While the secondpart of this record is superior, the first isno slouch either. The band beautifully bal-ances their progressive elements with arefined melodic technical death metalsound.

Rock: Ember by Breaking Benjamin.Rarely has a band sounded so consistentand yet not managed to grow dull. It hashard heavy metallic riffs, melodic chorus-es with clean singing and raw screamspacked with a dark emotional atmosphere.Nothing different and yet everythingsounds fresh and original.

3. Metal: Thunderbolt by Saxon. Oneof the most legendary bands in heavy metal

history, Saxon were part of the New Waveof British Heavy Metal. Anyone whothought that Saxon’s quality may havedropped as a result of their age is in for asevere shock. This album has everything.Just listen and be transported to Valhalla.

Rock: Book of Bad Decisions by Clutch.Full of hard, raw gritty engaging songs,with southern rock and blues influences.And it packs a punch.

2. Metal: Firepower by Judas Priest.One of the first metal bands in history. Itis just full-on energy packed, no messingaround, straight-up melodic metal.Another masterpiece by The Metal God.

Rock: Vaxis Act 1: The UnheavenlyCreatures by Coheed And Cambria.Having influences in hard rock, alterna-tive rock, progressive rock, metal andpunk, it is a continuation of the conceptbased on frontman Claudio Sanchez’scomic book series The Armory Wars.Engaging to say the least.

1. Metal: Queen of Time by Amorphis.It is one of the greatest Finnish metalbands. While their style has changed,Amorphis have come out as an evolvedanimal, their sound being a unique mix ofmelodic death metal, heavy metal, folkmetal and progressive metal. Everythingabout it speaks perfection.

Rock: Lost on the Road to Eternity byMagnum. What is astounding about theBritish progressive rock veterans is howinspired Bob Catlin and Tom Clarkin, thecreative core of Magnum, manage tosound in their 70s. It is all you can want— melodic, catchy, progressive and full ofpomp.

Honourable mentions:Metal: Love In Shadow by Sumac; A

New Kind Of Horror by Anaal Nathrakh;The Science by Sleep; Our Raw Heart byYOB; Diluviu by Obscura; and SunshineDust by Skyharbor.

Rock: Vicious by Halestorm; ResistanceIs Futile by Manic Street Preachers and JoyAs An Act Of Resistance by Idles. H�-3�

This year, on a profession-al note, has been a verysatisfying one. It began

with performances at interna-tional festivals in Hungary andGermany and went on to sever-al other workshops during thesummer, encompassing variouscountries of Europe and Turkey.It was a series of whirlwind per-forming tours at several nation-al festivals in various cities andtowns.

However, one thing thatremained common in all theinternational and national work-shops was that the participantsshowed a tremendous interest inthe Indian classical dance form,Kathak. It dates back to over twoand half thousand years, pre-dat-ing the Natyashastra. I was sim-ply bowled over by the questionsasked by the students and mem-bers of such meets and work-shops, be it abroad or in Indiancities.

This drove some innovationin performances. Two of themost challenging acts that theyear welcomed were the balletproductions based on RamdhariSingh Dinkar’s Rashmirathi andon the select verses of theBhagwad Gita, with lesser-known episodes of theMahabharata titled TheBhagwad: Ma Ganga Dhyayati.

Dinkar’s celebrated workRashmirathi, centering aroundthe sorrowful life of Karna,Kunti’s first-born child whomshe had abandoned as he wasborn before her marriage, pre-sented the poignancy of Karna

and Kunti with all hues ofhuman emotions trapped inmoral dilemmas. On the otherhand, The Bhagwad’s themecentred around the pessimisticthoughts of mind that pollute theenvironment through ouractions as human weaknesseshave constantly been exhibitedages after ages, be it in the peri-od of Mahabharata as well. Setin five acts, it explores the prac-tice of virtues of abstentionfrom greed, non-egoism, ofeschewing pride, anger anddesire for revenge, for they spelldisaster in the long run as hasbeen exhorted in the Holy

Bhagwad Gita.There were more wonderful

performances, in which I wasinvolved as well — Kalidasa’spoetic work Shakuntala. Theperformance saw music com-posed by the early 19th centu-ry famous Austrian composerFranz Schubert. The perfor-mance, staged at packed hous-es in three cities, Delhi, Kolkataand Mumbai, was played live by

the Austrian ChamberOrchestra and sung by themembers of Shillong Choir.

Another challenging assign-ment that I was involved withwas acting in a feature film thatis scheduled for release sometime in 2019. I am looking for-ward to it as it’s an eternal storyof dilemmas and uncertaintiesthat each individual in all pro-fessions go through and is anattempt at diversifying my artis-tic expression. As a guru, it wasmost heartening to see my dis-ciples Shivani Varma, Mrinalini,Ragini Madan and KristinaDolinina (Lithuanian) winninggreat accolades from artistesand connoisseurs alike.

On the academic front, mynew book Illuminating ClassicalDance through Yoga waslaunched at the InternationalFestival on Health and Yogaunder the aegis of Ministry ofAYUSH at Goa. The ongoingresearch on Kathaks of kathakvillages (villages named after thecommunity of story-tellers),sprung several surprises that ledto awareness of a living traditionof the kathaks in the temples ofAyodhya and such other holyplaces.

On the artistic scene, theyear has seen creativity at vari-ous levels from artistes of sever-al genres bursting forth non-stopdespite challenging circum-stances, especially in the field ofKathak. It was heartening to seesuch dedication to a classicaldance form in the pop cultureenvironment of today.

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Growing up, GeorgeHardeen never thoughttoo much about beingrelated to arguably themost famous magician

of all time, whose name is synony-mous with great escape.

But at 66, the Arizona man isdelving into the history of his great-uncle Harry Houdini in a journey atthe heart of a new series on theScience Channel.

“We spoke to many collectors andhistorians. These guys live Houdini allthe time,” Hardeen said. “They knowmore about Houdini than I will everbe able to.”

Houdini’s Last Secrets, whichbegins airing on January 6, followsHardeen as he and escape artist LeeTerbosic explore the engineeringbehind some of Houdini’s most leg-endary feats.

The Hungarian-born illusionist,who came to the U.S. as a child, gen-erated headlines in the early 1900s forescaping from handcuffs, straitjack-ets and even a milk can.

Each of the four episodes focus-es on a different stunt, including beingburied alive and the water torture cell,in which Houdini was lowered upsidedown into a water tank with his feetlocked in stocks. A stunt builder con-structs the props, and Terbosic re-enacts the stunts.

“No one knows how Houdini didthe tricks. So, we pondered it andcame up with our own methodologyso that Lee could perform the trick,”Hardeen said.

Wyatt Channell, a ScienceChannel executive producer, saidHoudini knew how to create a per-sona and hold people’s interest but theprogramme tries to look at him froma different perspective.

“Everybody thinks of him as anescape artist, illusionist and magician.But there was a ton of engineeringbehind what he was doing,” Channellsaid.

The production companyapproached Hardeen about a year ago.

“I think, in many ways, the showis George’s journey,” Channell said.“George is really the one, as the every-man, asking the questions we all arewondering — How Houdini did thesethings.”

It also touches on other questions,such as whether Houdini could havebeen recruited to be a spy. For that,Hardeen interviewed JohnMcLaughlin, former acting director ofthe CIA and a lifelong magician andHoudini fan.

Hardeen’s grandfather TheoHardeen was Houdini’s youngerbrother and an illusionist in his ownright. George Hardeen’s father didn’ttell his son about his magical lineage

until he was about 10.“My sister found a piece of mail

that came addressed to my dad,Harry Houdini Hardeen. He alwayswent by Harry H. Hardeen,” Hardeensaid. “That’s when he basically told us.”

The show has helped Hardeenlearn more about the man behind themagician.

Houdini, who died on Halloween1926 at 52, and other family membershad an incredible work ethic andaimed to be the best, Hardeen said.Houdini ran 10 miles (16 kilometers)a day to keep his body in peak shapebut also was a hoarder with a compul-sive side, he said.

“It jibes with stuff my dad toldme,” said Hardeen, a communicationconsultant for an Arizona utility.

The show brought him to theHouse of Houdini, a museum in hisancestral home of Budapest, Hungary,where he hopes to take his three chil-dren.

His youngest daughter, ShonieHardeen, said she would love thatopportunity. The 24-year-old from theArizona mountain town of Flagstaffsaid the show has increased her inter-est in her dad’s family and Houdini.

“Some people are from Europe,and they can’t pinpoint it. I guess it’seasier for my family to figure out stuffbecause he’s been written about for solong,” Shonie Hardeen said. H-%

The exhilarating and terrifyingjourney of the Winchesterbrothers continues as

Supernatural enters its 14th thrillingseason. Jared Padalecki as Sam andJensen Ackles as Dean have spenttheir lives on the road, battling everykind of supernatural threat. Overthe years, after countless adventures,they have faced vampires, ghosts,demons, shapeshifters, angels andfallen gods – but what will thebrothers encounter next? Lets catchup with Jared Padalecki to findout…

After 13 seasons ofSupernatural, how much do youenjoy playing the role of SamWinchester?

I enjoy Sam Winchester, nodoubt in that. Selfishly, I learn a lotabout Jared by playing Sam. Plus, Ienjoy the hell out of the people Iwork with. It’s no secret that me andAckles are dear friends. I met themother of my kids on the show, andI enjoy Misha [Collins, who playsCastiel]. I think people sense the factthat we all legitimately enjoy eachother. There’s no bad apple here. Ienjoy telling the journey. I love beinga storyteller, and I can’t think ofanother TV show or movie that I’drather be on as an actor. I get to doeverything in this show. I get to docomedy, play different characters. I

get to die and then come back. Ieven get to be in Scooby-Doo. I’mreally happy to do it.

How would you describe Sam’srole at the start of season 14? Doeshe have more leadership respon-sibilities than before?

It’s different to when he ledhunters against the British Men ofLetters. There he was like, “Okay, wecan do this. I need to lead this fac-tion.” Now he’s the de facto leader.It’s like, “Oh God… I guess it’s all onme now. Okay, what do I do? But I’mworried about my brother, and thisand that.” He has people from a dif-ferent universe living in the Men ofLetters bunker. These people wantto kill Michael. It’s a tricky situation.Sam’s goal is to save Dean and killMichael. Michael destroyed theirplanet. They don’t care about Dean,but they obviously want to exactvengeance on this archangel whodestroyed everybody they knew, soSam has to calm the waters. It’ssomething I think that Sam is goodat.

How much do you enjoyexploring the new side to thecharacter of Sam?

I enjoy the parts of Sam wherehe goes, “I am lion. Hear me roar!”But I also enjoy the almost com-manding general part of Sam bet-

ter; the behind-the-scenes thing.Sam knows he’s got brawn, but Ithink he also knows that his powerlies in his brain. The powerful Samis cool and fun, but I prefer the moremeasured approach from him. Ienjoy the thoughtful, pensive, aca-demic, and research-driven Sam.

How does it feel to have JensenAckles play the big bad in?

It’s fun. We approached it a lit-tle bit before when he was demon– but this is different. There havebeen times where Dean and Samhave been at odds; where Dean’sbeen in the wrong or Sam’s been inthe wrong, but that’s always fun to

explore. This is a totally new dynam-ic, but it’s going to be interesting tosee how it all pans out.

At Comic-Con in San Diego,you made a joke about the discus-sions on whether or not you couldhave facial hair in Supernatural.Was there really a big debate?

For me, it wasn’t as much of anissue. I think Jensen wanted facialhair, but they were like, “No.” I wasallowed facial hair, but there’s somereasoning behind it. When the newseason starts, it’s a couple monthsafter the finale. I enjoy the fact thatthere was a passage of time. At thatpoint in time, I figured there’s a lot

going on with Sam. There are thehunters in the Men of Lettersbunker. Sam is trying to findMichael and Dean. He’s also tryingto help Jack [played by AlexanderCalvert] who’s now human. At thestart of the season, I feel like Sam isat the point where’s he’s a little toodistracted to eat. Everything’s on thego. He’s aware of the ticking clock.He has more important things tothink about than tweezing his eye-brows and lathering up his face totake care of some facial hair.

Did you have to ask permis-sion to have facial hair?

Yes, but it wasn’t too much a

debate. When we started shooting,I had a beard. I was very proud ofmy beard, but it was too much. Ireached out [to the show’s executiveproducers] to find out theirthoughts on the matter. I was like,“Hey Bob. Hey Andrew. I read thefirst few episodes. What do youthink about a little bit of facial hair?”I talked about a few other things inthe script, too. They said, “Yeah, let’sgo with full stubble.” They would-n’t say the word ‘beard’ but they said‘full stubble.’ We trimmed it down.

Let’s talk about the future ofthe show, Jared. WhenSupernatural finally comes to anend, what would you like to seehappen? Would you like the storyto end violently or to see Sam andDean ride off happily into the sun-set?

It feels weird to talk about theend of Supernatural. Believe me, I’vethought about it before, but I don’tlike it. We have talked and thoughtabout it. As a fan of storytelling andbooks, I think the boys have to die.Why? Because I think that’s whatneeds to happen. If the boys arealive, they will continue to hunt.And if they’re hunting, I want to seethem. For that reason, I think oneor both the boys has to go. I knowit would be difficult, but those aremy thoughts on the matter. I’m nota writer. I don’t get my say. If theykeep it open, I would love to keepon going – but that’s what I think.

After 13 seasons ofSupernatural, each of the charac-ters in the show have incrediblydeveloped. There are definingtraits in everyone. If you couldborrow one trait from anothercharacter that could then beexplored more for Sam, whatwould it be?

I enjoy the quirkiness of Charlie[played by Felicia Day]. I enjoy thatshe gets to read the fantasy books.Sam reads and he’s aware of what’sgoing on, but he doesn’t get to nerdout over stuff that he likes as muchas I wish he did. I’d love to see moreof that in the show. That would befun.

When Salman Ali sang Karu Main TeraSajda for the first time on the stage ofIndian Idol season 10 as he auditioned

for the talent hunt show, there were threespeechless judges and applause all around tocommend his voice that had limitless capaci-ties. Who knew he would survive a fierce 25-week competition emerging as the winner?

Well, it hasn’t been easy even for someonewho began singing at the age of seven, or so hebelieves. Salman, who hails from a family of pro-fessional singers, said that struggle is a part ofeveryone’s life and the only way out is to put yourheart and soul into whatever one’s passion is.

The singer believed that everyone’s aimwhile entering such a show is to win. “So wasmine. To win. Even though I never expected thatit might come true for me, but I did all my effortsinto it to make it happen. I also thank all theviewers and audience who voted for me,” he said.

When asked what has been one of the mostmemorable experiences while being a contes-tant on the reality TV show? He revealed thatit was meeting the two Khans — Shah Rukh andSalman — and singing with the veteran singerKumar Sanu that he “will cherish all his life.They joined me in my performance, liked it andwished me luck. What better a thing than that?”

While there have been numerous debateson how reality TV shows work in the real sce-nario and that do they even help the youngaspiring artists battling to win?

Salman, who has also been a part of the real-ity TV show, Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Li’l Champs dur-ing his childhood, said, “It does mount to atough competition where you feel that you mightlose or someone else is better than what you have

to offer. But the biggest thing is your resistanceand determination throughout the period ofstruggle.”

However, reality TV talent hunt shows dohelp the budding artists to a bit come closer totheir dreams, he felt. “It is not just about appear-ing on national TV and that so many people areable to watch you. It is also about how you asa person evolve. Honestly, Neha Kakkar (mam)and all the mentors have been really helpful tomake me grow as a person as well as a singer.”

He talked about the rehearsals and the rig-orous routine that they have to follow. “We haveto rehearse over and over for one song. It’s atough schedule but important to follow,” saidhe.

As more and more people are engagingthemselves on social media and targeting it asa platform to showcase their talents, whichmedium is the easier one? Salman answered,“Definitely, it’s social media. People today haveonline channels to showcase their dancing,singing, and even magic talents. They don’t haveto wait for a particular show on TV to show-case what they have. Though, yes it takes timeto get noticed there. The competition has risen.”

The 20-year-old singer, who has beenawarded with �25 lakh cash prize, and a Datsuncar, said that he will use the amount particu-larly to boost his singing career. “I am lookingforward to collaborate with Vishal Dadlani (sir)as he promised one to me on the show. I wantto try out my luck in singing for Bollywoodfilms as a playback singer,” he said.

However, he will also try out “acting” inBollywood now that he is “done with hissinging,” he laughed.a

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Pacer Jasprit Bumrah had Australia'sbatsmen tied up in knots with hisimmaculate line and length, giving

India the decisive advantage that with-stood a second innings batting collapse inthe third Test here on Friday.

Called a "genius" on air by Australia'sformer captain Michael Clarke, Bumrah'scareer-best figures of 6/33 in 15.5 oversalso made him the first bowler from thesubcontinent to take a five-for or more inSouth Africa, England and Australia in thesame year.

At the end of day three, India, afterbowling out Australia for 151 in responseto their first innings total of 443/7declared, took a 346-run lead. The visi-tors were struggling at 54/5 in 27 overs intheir second essay but had the upper-hand.

Debutant Mayank Agarwal (28 bat-ting), who scored an impressive 76 in thefirst innings, and Rishabh Pant (6) wereat the crease after 15 wickets fell in all onan exciting day.

In their second innings, India werejolted by Pat Cummins (4-10), who tookfour wickets for two runs in the space of19 balls, including Virat Kohli (0) andAjinkya Rahane (1) caught off successiveballs.

Rohit Sharma (5) prevented his hat-trick, but fell before end of play.

This was after Bumrah's outstandingeffort handed India a 292-run lead.

Bumrah returned second-best fig-ures for an Indian bowler in Australia afterKapil Dev's 8-106 at Adelaide in 1985. Buthe surpassed B Chandresekhar's twinhauls of 6-52 in each innings at thisground in 1977.

Post tea, Australia's innings lasted foronly four overs as Bumrah quickly cleanedup the worrisome tail. First he got rid ofTim Paine (22) caught behind, and thentrapped Nathan Lyon (0) lbw.

Three balls later, he bowled JoshHazlewood (0) as India took a hefty lead.Kohli though decided not to enforce thefollow-on and the Indian mini-collapsefollowed thereafter.

Cummins bounced out HanumaVihari (13) for the second time in thisTest, while Cheteshwar Pujara (0) wascaught at short square leg for a duck fol-lowing his hundred in the first innings.

India were reduced to 32-4 with a

double break against Kohli and Rahane.Rohit Sharma was caught at slip off JoshHazlewood (1-13) as India finished five-down but still in control of the game.

Earlier, Australia sunk to 145-7 at tea.Post lunch, it took only four overs forBumrah to strike again as he bowledTravis Head (20), playing on in the 37thover.

Australia were in dire straits at 92-5and things didn't improve when RavindraJadeja (2-45) struck for a second timeagainst Mitchell Marsh (9). The batsmantried an exaggerated onside flick, but

ended up edging to slip as the ballexploded off the pitch.

The hosts managed to cross 100 in the41st over, but were struggling at 102-6.The next pair then batted with morepatience and cut down on attackingstrokes for the next hour.

In doing so, Paine and Pat Cummins(17) added 36 runs for the seventh wick-et and added some respectability to thetotal amid the ruins. To India's credit, theynever relented the bowling pressure andexecuted their plans to near perfection.

It could have been different, but

Cummins was dropped on 2 by keeperRishabh Pant off Hanuma Vihari in the50th over.

Just when it appeared that Australiamight avoid another dismissal,Mohammed Shami (1-27) got into theattack and bowled him to give India theadvantage again.

The visitors struck four blows in themorning session as Australia were reducedto 89-4 at lunch.

Starting from overnight 8-0, Australiawere under the pump early on as IshantSharma (1-41) and Bumrah gave them noroom for manoeuvring.

Ishant struck in the fifth over of themorning as Mayank Agarwal scooped upa sharp catch at short mid-wicket to sendback Aaron Finch (8). The fielder was sta-tioned there for any aerial shot and theplan worked to get an early breakthrough.

Four overs later, Marcus Harris (22)went for an uncontrolled pull and foundthe fine leg fielder as Bumrah celebratedhis first wicket of the day.

India used the scoreboard pressure togood effect as Jadeja came on to bowl withclose-in fielders all around the bat. UsmanKhawaja (21) fell to this ploy, caught atshort leg, as Australia slipped further to53-3 in the 20th over.

Shaun Marsh (19) and Head thenadded 36 runs for the fourth wicket andbrought some semblance of stability to theAustralian innings. They used good foot-work against Jadeja to smother the pos-sibility of turn from the rough.

But Bumrah came up with an inspi-rational yorker at the stroke of lunch, andthe slow dipping delivery caught ShaunMarsh plumb in front of the wicket, asAustralia's top-order was completelyblown away on this third morning.

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Centuries from Tom Lathamand Henry Nicholls put

New Zealand in line for adefining victory over Sri LankaFriday in the second Test witha 659-run second innings leadand the tourists losing earlywickets in their record chase.

New Zealand, who lead by74 on the first innings,declared their second inningson day three in Christchurchat 585 for four with Lathamscoring 176 to go with hisunbeaten 264 in the drawn firstTest.

Nicholls was not out on acareer best 162 with healthycontributions from Jeet Raval(74) and Colin deGrandhomme (71 not out).

Sri Lanka at stumps were24 for two with DineshChandimal on 14 and KusalMenis on six.

Victory for New Zealandwould give them a fourth con-secutive series win for the firsttime after wins over the WestIndies, England and Pakistanin the past year.

With more than two daysleft, Sri Lanka had reason forpatience but lost both openers— Dimuth Karunaratne with-out scoring and DanushkaGunathilaka (four) — in thefirst two overs.

No team has ever scoredmore than 418 in a successful

fourth innings run chase andthe pitch continues to offersome assistance to the NewZealand bowlers.

Sri Lanka, however, wereless effective with the ball andde Grandhomme in particularwas scoring freely when KaneWilliamson declared midwaythrough the final session.

De Grandhomme, whohad six fours and two sixes inhis whirlwind innings, passedthe 50 mark in a New Zealandrecord 28 deliveries, one bet-ter than the previous best byTim Southee against England10 years ago.

New Zealand resumedFriday at 231 for two and

Latham, whose unbeaten 264in the drawn first Test is thetop score in all Test cricket thisyear, continued his purplepatch with grim determinationthrough 370 deliveries.

For the most part, it was anear fault less innings,although he was dropped byDushmantha Chameera on 32and survived an lbw review on75. But, on the stroke of tea,Chameera made the break-through when he had Lathamcaught behind off a faint leg-side edge.

The only reward with thenew ball in the morning ses-sion came when LahiruKumara trapped Ross Taylorin front to claim the seniorbatsman's wicket for 40.Latham and Nicholls put on214 for the fourth wicket withLatham achieving his eighthcentury and Nicholls hisfourth.

Only three times in crick-et history has the winning sidescored more than 400 in thefourth innings, while the cur-rent record held by the WestIndies is 418 for seven againstAustralia 15 years ago inAntigua.

The highest fourth inningsscore in the modern era isNew Zealand's 451 chasing550 against England in 2002,while England scored 654 forfive after being set a target of696 by South Africa in 1939.

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Dean Elgar and Hashim Amla hithalf-centuries as South Africa

beat Pakistan by six wickets inside threedays in the first Test at SuperSport Parkon Friday.

The pair survived some early scaresand put on 119 for the second wicketbefore Elgar was caught behind offpart-time medium-pacer Shan Masoodfor 50, one ball after reaching his half-century.

Amla finished a year in which hefound top form by making 63 not out.

The value of the partnershipbetween Elgar and Amla was shown asTheunis de Bruyn and captain Faf duPlessis both fell cheaply before TembaBavuma swept Yasir Shah for four totake South Africa past their target of149 shortly before tea on the third day.

Both captains, Du Plessis andPakistan's Sarfraz Ahmed, made 'pairs'by being dismissed without scoring inboth innings.

Pakistan made an ideal start whenHasan Ali trapped Aiden Markram legbefore wicket before a run had beenscored.

Hasan and Mohammad Amir didnot concede a run off the bat untilAmla clipped Hasan for four in thesixth over.

There were two crucial incidentswith the total on 16, either of whichcould have swung the game inPakistan's favour.

Amla, on eight, was dropped byFakhar Zaman at third slip off Hasanwhen he slashed hard at the ball, whichflew at chest height to the fielder. In the

next over, Elgar, on four, edged newbowler Shaheen Shah Afridi low to firstslip where Azhar Ali appeared to takea diving catch.

On-field umpires Bruce Oxenfordand Sundaram Ravi conferred beforereferring to television umpire JoelWilson with a 'soft' signal of out, indi-cating they thought it was a clean catch.

After looking at several replays,including super-slow close-ups, Wilsonruled the ball had bounced and Elgarwas reprieved.

The decision clearly astonished thePakistan players and coach MickeyArthur was seen leaving his place onthe players' balcony and going to theadjacent office of match referee DavidBoon.

Elgar and Amla survived some test-ing bowling from the Pakistan seam-ers and gradually began to lift the scor-ing rate on a pitch which favouredbowlers throughout.

South African fast bowler DuanneOlivier was named man of the matchfor his match return of 11-96.

The second Test begins in CapeTown on January 3.

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France beat Croatia 4-2 in thefinal played at Moscow toemerge champions of the

2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia. Star striker Antoine

Griezmann, Paul Pogba and KylianMbappe were in the score sheet forLes Blues while Ivan Perisic andMario Mandzukic scored forCroatia.

However both Mandzukic andPerisic were guilty of handingFrance an advantage in the final, asJuventus striker first scored anown goal to give France an earlyadvantage in the final whereasPerisic's handball land France apenalty which was successfullyconverted by Griezmann to furtherbuild on his side's advantage.

This was the second timeFrance won the elite title, their firstafter 20 years.

It was also the moment to cher-ish for French coach DidierDeschamps, under whose leader-ship France won its first everWorld Cup in 1998.

19-year-old sensation KylianMbappe emerged as the star play-er for the French side as he becomesthe first teenager after Pele to score

in the World Cup final. In total hescored four goals in the tournamentout of which his brace againstArgentina in the round of 16 clashscripted France's epic victory. Hewas named as the FIFA's bestyoung player of the tournament.

France were put ahead in the18th minute of the match by anown goal from none other thanMario Mandzukic. He had thedubious honour of becoming thefirst man to score an own goal in aWorld Cup final but he would get

to make amends later in the match.Exactly 10 minutes later, IvanPerisic equalised for Croatia aftera deft set-piece routine triggered bythe inconquerable Luka Modric.

The drama was not to endthere. Just over five minutes beforehalf-time, then referee, with assis-tance from VAR gave France apenalty kick due to an apparenthandball by Perisic. The validity ofthat decision was debatable –replays indicated that Perisic did notmove his hands towards the ball –but Antoine Griezmann was in nodoubt as to what he wanted to dowith it. He calmly rolled the ballpast Danijel Subasic into the bot-tom left-hand corner and Francewere in the lead at halftime.

The second half started withCroatia all over the French defence.Deschamps’ men weathered thatstorm and it was not too long beforethey extended their lead Paul Pogbasent in a thunderous strike from theedge of the box and extendedFrance’s lead to 3-1.

Minutes later, Kylian Mbappescored a similar goal, from outsidethe box and that marked the thirdrecord of the day — Mbappe

became the first teenager to scorea goal in the World Cup final sincethe great Pele. Croatian shouldersslumped at that point but thismatch was not done yet.

France goalkeeper and captainHugo Lloris has built a reputationof having a sturdy pair of hands anda calm head to go with them in theyears in which he has beenTottenham Hotspur and France’sNo 1 goalkeeper but he chose a verywrong time to make an uncharac-teristic blunder. He literally put theball into the path of Mandzukicwho tapped it in to goal.

Mandzukic became the firstplayer since Netherlands’ ErnieBrandts in 1978 to score for histeam and an own goal in the samegame. All those second-half goalswere scored within the space of nineminutes and after that, France heldon.

They kept making attackingmoves whenever they could andeventually, the Croatian players’body language said that they knewit was now a lost cause. The finalwhistle came and tears flowed onboth camps, albeit for opposite rea-sons.

Croatia and RealMadrid midfielder

Luka Modric endedLionel Messi andCristiano Ronaldo'sdominance in the Ballond'Or awards by winningthe prestigious Frenchfootball award.

It was for the firsttime in 10 years that nei-ther Messi nor Ronaldowas able to win thisaward which they havewon record five timeseach in past decade.

The midfielder, 33,who helped Croatiareach the men's WorldCup final in Russia inthe summer, is the firstCroatian to win theprestigious prize, whichis voted for by journal-ists.

On a historicevening in Paris, theceremony had awomen's category forthe first time since itsinception in 1956, with

Norway's AdaHegerberg crowned theinaugural women'sBallon d'Or winner.

Kylian Mbappe,who dazzled for Franceas Les Bleus triumphedin Russia in the summer,won the newly-formedKopa award for the best

young player.The 19-year-old fin-

ished fourth overall,above Messi in fifth.Ronaldo was second,with France and AtleticoMadrid striker AntoineGriezmann third andLiverpool and Egypt starMo Salah sixth.

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In the most surprisingannouncement of the

year, Arsene Wenger, whoserved as Arsenal’s manag-er for more than last twodecades decided to leave theclub at the end of 2017-18season, ending his 22-yearcareer as the longest-serv-ing manager in the PremierLeague.

The Frenchmen duringhis stay won seven FA Cuptitles along with threePremier League while at thehelm of the north Londonclub, the last of which cameas a result of the unbeaten'Invincibles' season in2003/04.

In the Premier Leaguecycle, Chelsea sack ItalianAntonie Conte at the end of2017-18 season, whileManchester United partedways with Jose Mourinhoafter his side loses 1-3against Liverpool in theEnglish Premier Leaguegame.

In other major falloutswithin a week after winningthird UCL in as manyattempts, Zinedine Zidane calls it time over his Real Madridjob, he was replaced by former Spain boss Julen Lopeteguibut even his spell lasted for only 138 days and he was sackedafter Real loses against Barcelona 5-1.

This was a massive setback for Julen as he lost hisSpanish national team job for Real and within fivemonths he was out of favor from Madrid based club also.

Also, Unai Emery was released by Paris Saint Germaindespite successful Ligue 1 title win while Argentina part-ed ways with Jorge Sampaoli after poor show in Russia.

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Two times defending championReal Madrid tharsh Liverpool 3-

1 in the final played at Kiev to winrecord third consecutive UEFAChampions League title.

After an evenly poised goallessfirst half and their star strikerMohamed Salah back into the dugoutafter getting injured during a clashwith Real Madrid's captain SergioRamos. Karim Benzema opened thescoring for Spanish giants in the 51stminute of the game after a goal-keeping error by Loris Karius.

Benzema deflected a throw byKarius back into the Liverpool's netto put his side ahead in the big final.However Real's advantage was veryshort lived as Sadio Mane scored the

equalizer for the Merseyside club justfour minutes after Benzema's open-er to bring match back on the levelterms.

In the 61st minute, Real substi-tuted Gareth Bale in place of Isco andwithin two minutes of his arrival theWelshmen scored using an acrobat-ic bicycle kick to finish cross byMarcelo. And then in the 83rdminute another mistake by Kariushelps Bale to net his second of thenight. This time a long range short byBale went through his (Karius) handsinto the net.

Real's star forward CristianoRonaldo wasn't able to make into thescore sheet but he was the chief archi-tect to Real's triumph to glory.

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Kylian Mbappe, Richarlison,Jodan Sancho, Vinicius Junior,

Arthur Melo, Matthijs de Ligt andFrenkie de Jong are some of thosenames which you will hear inmany more years to come. Byvirtue of their stellar performancein 2018, these stars have shownthat why they are considered asthe future superstars.

While Kylian Mbappe helpedFrance to win the World Cup andis leading the goalscorer in Ligue1, Richarlison gained immensespotlight while playing forEverton.

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In the most unexpected transfer of2018, Portugal’s star Cristiano

Ronaldo leaves Real Madrid to joinSerie A champions Juventus for 100million Euros.

After spending nine seasons atSpanish capital and scoring 450 goalsin 438 games, five time Ballon d’Or win-ner calls it time and move to Turin insearch of new challenges. His new dealwill see him play for the Turin basedclub for next four years.

However in 2018, Ronaldo’s trans-fer wasn’t the only major highlight inthe transfer window. A couple of newage stars also opted for new roles andjoined new teams.

England’s club Liverpool looked tobe the biggest gainer via these transfers.The Merseyside club strengthened itsside by adding Brazilian goalkeeperAlisson Becker, Dutch defender VirgilVan Djik, Swiss playmaker XherdanShaqiri, Neby Keita and Fabinho andall these five have added strength to theReds side because of which they are sit-ting at top of the Premier League table,still unbeaten and six points ahead ofsecond placed Tottenham.

Meanwhile, Borussia Dortmund

compeleted signing of Spanish forwardPaco Alcacer from Barcelona, who onhis loan spell at Bundesliga createdmagic on the field for Dortmund byrepeatedly making his presence in thescoresheet.

In the January transfer market,Brazilian midfielder Philippe Coutinhoswitched to Barcelona for 120 millioneuros plus 40 million benfits.

Also former Atletico and Chelseagoalkeeper and World Cup goldenglove winner Thibaut Courtois landedin spanish capital again but this timeto join the other Madrid club.

In process of let the Belgian go andjoin Real, Chelsea brought KepaArrizabalaga from Athletic Bilbao for80 million euros to London which is arecord price for any goalkeeper.

Premier League championsManchester City also boosted its attack-ing strength by adding Riyad Mahrezfrom Leicester for whooping amountof 67.8 million euros.

But Alexis Sanchez stint at OldTrafford turned out to be a bad dreamfor the Chile international as he failedto find form under Jose Mourinho andwas later sidelined due to injury.

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