8f[RcRe a`ced `_ eVcc`c R]Vce - Daily Pioneer

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T he Border Security Force (BSF) and the Coast Guard have been put on high alert along the international borders in Gujarat after intelligence inputs revealed that Pakistan Navy-trained terrorists and commandos are suspected to have entered the Gulf of Kutch in small boats through Harami Nala creek area. External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said the Government had received information on infil- tration by terrorists from Pakistan. Kumar also asked Pakistan to act like a responsi- ble neighbour. “Pakistan should behave like a normal neighbour, do normal talk, normal trade...This is not something that is happening from Pakistan. We would like them to behave like normal neigh- bours, do not push terrorists in the neighbouring country,” Kumar told reporters at the weekly briefing. According to the inputs, the commandos and terrorists are suspected to be trained in underwater attacks and may be on the prowl to hit port infra- structure and other vital instal- lations in Kutch region of Gujarat. Following the inputs, all the shipping agents have been directed to inform their vessels at Kandla outer anchorage, inner anchorage and berths besides incoming vessels to alert and maintain anti-terror watch. The agents have been asked to report any suspicious activities immediately to the nearest Coast Guard station, marine police station and port control. Following the inputs, secu- rity has been beefed up at Kandla and Mundra ports and other key installations in Kutch district. The latest security move comes days after the Indian Navy warned of a possible ter- ror attack from the sea route. Last week, the Navy had said it was on high alert and was pre- pared to defeat and deter any sea-borne threat with full force. The Adani Group’s Mundra port is one of the largest in the country and last year topped the rankings by volumes, while the State-run Kandla port (now known as Deendayal Port Trust) is a large bulk handling facility. Both these ports are locat- ed in the Gulf of Kutch in the Arabian Sea, in close vicinity of Pakistan. The region also boasts of other vital installations like the world’s largest oil refinery at Jamnagar run by Reliance Industries and a similar facili- ty operated by Russian oil major Rosneft at Vadinar. After the abrogation of Article 370 by Parliament, Pakistan has sought to inter- nationalise the Kashmir issue and has gone on record justi- fying jehad and terror attacks in the Valley. The Pakistan Prime Minister and his Cabinet colleagues have been spewing venom against India in their bid to portray the situation in the region as alarmist. Pakistan has even issued nuclear threat. T aking strong exception to Prime Minister Imran Khan’s provocative statements on Jammu & Kashmir after the abrogation of J&K special sta- tus under Article 370, India on Thursday condemned “highly irresponsible” statements by the Pakistani leadership and said the neighbour is using ter- rorism as a State policy. This comes after Khan talked about a nuclear war between the two countries and announced to raise the Kashmir issue at every international forum, includ- ing the UN. Making New Delhi’s stand clear, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said Pakistan has been using terrorism as state policy against India and it must stop export- ing terror. “We strongly con- demn highly irresponsible statements by Pakistani lead- ership on matters internal to India,” he said. “The provocative state- ments from Pakistan include call for jehad and inciting vio- lence in India,” Kumar said. The Pakistani Prime Minister has been consistently attacking India on its decisions on J&K in the last three weeks. Meanwhile, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh during a visit to Leh on Thursday said Pakistan should stop “crying” unnecessarily over India’s deci- sion to end special status of J&K and instead focus on dis- mantling terror infrastructure operating from its soil. He also said Islamabad does not have any locus standi on J&K and it must stop interfering in India’s internal affairs. In his first visit to this strategically key region after the Government’s decision on J&K, the Defence Minister said Pakistan should now focus on gross violations of human rights in Pakistan-Occupied- Kashmir (POK), including in Gilgit-Baltistan. In New Delhi, rejecting Pakistan’s contention on J&K, Kumar said a Pakistani Minister’s letter to the UN on J&K — which became contro- versial because it referred to comments by former Congress president Rahul Gandhi and Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar — was “not worth the paper it was written on”. “We condemn the irre- sponsible remarks and tweets by Pakistani leaders on matters internal to India,” said the Spokesperson referring to some Ministers making threats fol- lowing the Government’s deci- sion to end special status to J&K and split it into two Union Territories. Kumar said the statements included an apparent refer- ence to “Jehad within the ter- ritory of India to incite vio- lence”. Pakistan Railway Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed on Wednesday “predicted” war between the neighbours in “October or November”. “The main motive behind this is to form an alarming sit- uation for India which is far from ground realities. Pakistan needs to understand that they have been snubbed from all sides. The world has seen their provocative and unsubstanti- ated rhetoric based on lies and deceit,” he said. I n an unprecedented move, the Patna High Court issued an order withdrawing all cases from a sitting senior judge who turned whistleblower by ordering a CBI enquiry into corruption in lower judiciary while hearing a graft case against a former IAS officer. An 11-judge Bench of the High Court, headed by Chief Justice AP Shahi, also sus- pended Justice Rakesh Kumar’s order on the case on Thursday, saying the single judge Bench had no jurisdiction to pass such an order on a case that had been closed. According to an order issued by the Patna High Court Chief Justice, “all matters pend- ing before Justice Rakesh Kumar, sitting singly, including tied-up/part heard or other- wise, stand withdrawn with immediate effect”. “The registrar (list) will inform as to how and in what manner Cr. Misc. No. 4117 of 2018 that had been disposed of finally earlier was listed on Thursday at Sl. No. 1 under the heading ‘To be mentioned - Tied up’ before Justice Rakesh Kumar,” the order said. “The court concerned will submit his explanation to me as to under whose direction was the case listed in the cause list and as to whether any infor- mation was given to the regis- trar (list) or not,” it also said. Justice Kumar was appoint- ed in the HC in 2009 and is slated to retire in December 2020. He was a standing counsel for the CBI and has also acted as special public prosecutors in the fodder scam cases. Justice Kumar, while hear- ing the bail application of for- mer IAS officer KP Ramiah, had questioned how he was granted bail by a lower court when the HC as well as the SC had rejected his request for pro- tection from arrest because of the gravity of the allegations. W omen can ride DTC and cluster buses for free in Delhi from October 29 as the much-awaited “Free Ride Scheme” was approved by the the AAP Government Cabinet on Thursday. “Women commuters will be able to get free rides using ‘single-journey passes’ to be available with the bus conduc- tors. Those not willing to avail free ride may buy tickets,” Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal termed his cabinet’s approval to the scheme a “rev- olutionary step” towards “empowerment and safety of women”. However, women employ- ees of the city Government have to give up their transport allowance to avail the facility. According to a statement, women employees of the Delhi Government, local bodies and undertakings will not be enti- tled for transport allowance if they opt for free ride in DTC and cluster buses. “The departments, local bodies, autonomous bodies, etc, will take an undertaking from their women staff to the effect,” it said. T he Delhi Government on Thursday launched a fel- lowship scheme to fund high- er eduation of 100 eligible SC/ST students overseas. Meritorious students who have secured admission to MPhil, PhD, LLM, MTech and other higher education cours- es in foreign universities will be eligible to apply under the scheme, Delhi’s SC/ST Minister Rajendra Pal Gautam said. Candidates applying for the fellowship should be a bonafide resident of Delhi and their annual family income should not exceed 8 lakh per annum. “Students who have secured admission to foreign universities can apply online to avail benefits under the scheme. The applications will be vetted by a committee headed by the Principal Secretary of the SC/ST department,” said the Minister, adding that a scholarship of 10 lakh will be provided for two-year course, while up to 20 lakh will be provided for four-year course. “Only one child for the same parents/guardians will be eli- gible and to this effect a self–certification will be required from the candidates... The scheme is proposed to be implemented from the finan- cial year 2019-20 and will cost 5 crore to the exchequer,” a Government statement said. Due to financial con- straints, studying abroad remains a dream for many tal- ented SC/ST students from low-income groups. This scheme will encourage such students to enrol in foreign uni- versities, Gautam said. I n an unprecedented plea, former Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Thursday offered in the Supreme Court to remain in CBI’s custody till September 2 in the INX Media corruption case. Chidambaram’s CBI cus- tody will end on Friday and will be produced before the concerned trial court on Friday. The offer was made after a Bench of Justices R Banumathi and AS Bopanna said it would hear on September 2 the plea of Chidambaram challenging the orders passed by the trial court remanding him in the CBI custody in the case. I n a major boost to promot- ing afforestation and achiev- ing “green” objectives of the country, the Centre on Thursday handed over 47,436 crore of Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) funds to various States. Campa was constituted by the Supreme Court in July 2009 to ensure proper utilisa- tion of funds received from project proponents for diver- sion of forest land for devel- opment activities like erection of dams, mining and con- struction of roads and indus- tries. The amount collected under Campa differs from area to area. The apex court creat- ed Campa as the afforestation funds could not be utilised properly. On Thursday, Odisha received the highest allocation (5,933.98 crore), followed by Chhattisgarh (5,791.70 crore) and Madhya Pradesh ( 5,196.69 crore). Kerala received the least amount of 81.59 crore. After a meeting with the State Forest Ministers and authorities here, Union Minister for Environment Prakash Javadekar said, “It is expected that all States will utilise this fund towards forestry activities to achieve the objectives of the Nationally- Determined Contributions of increasing its forest and tree cover, which will create an additional carbon sink equiv- alent to 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide by 2030.” While asserting the State budget for forests shall remain unaffected and the fund being transferred would be in addi- tion to State budget, the Minister reminded them the Campa funds are not meant for payment of salary, travelling allowances, etc. Javadekar said, “Important activities on which the fund will be utilised are: compen- satory afforestation, catchment area treatment, wildlife man- agement, assisted natural regeneration, forest fire pre- vention and control, soil and moisture conservation works in the forest, improvement of wildlife habitat, management of biological diversity and bio- logical resources, research in forestry and monitoring of Campa works, etc.”

Transcript of 8f[RcRe a`ced `_ eVcc`c R]Vce - Daily Pioneer

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The Border Security Force(BSF) and the Coast Guard

have been put on high alertalong the international bordersin Gujarat after intelligenceinputs revealed that PakistanNavy-trained terrorists andcommandos are suspected tohave entered the Gulf of Kutchin small boats through HaramiNala creek area.

External Affairs MinistrySpokesperson Raveesh Kumarsaid the Government hadreceived information on infil-tration by terrorists fromPakistan. Kumar also askedPakistan to act like a responsi-ble neighbour.

“Pakistan should behavelike a normal neighbour, donormal talk, normaltrade...This is not somethingthat is happening fromPakistan. We would like themto behave like normal neigh-bours, do not push terrorists inthe neighbouring country,”Kumar told reporters at theweekly briefing.

According to the inputs,the commandos and terroristsare suspected to be trained inunderwater attacks and may beon the prowl to hit port infra-structure and other vital instal-lations in Kutch region ofGujarat.

Following the inputs, allthe shipping agents have beendirected to inform their vesselsat Kandla outer anchorage,inner anchorage and berthsbesides incoming vessels to

alert and maintain anti-terrorwatch. The agents have beenasked to report any suspiciousactivities immediately to thenearest Coast Guard station,marine police station and portcontrol.

Following the inputs, secu-rity has been beefed up atKandla and Mundra ports andother key installations in Kutchdistrict.

The latest security movecomes days after the Indian

Navy warned of a possible ter-ror attack from the sea route.Last week, the Navy had said itwas on high alert and was pre-pared to defeat and deter anysea-borne threat with full force.

The Adani Group’s

Mundra port is one of thelargest in the country and lastyear topped the rankings byvolumes, while the State-runKandla port (now known asDeendayal Port Trust) is alarge bulk handling facility.

Both these ports are locat-ed in the Gulf of Kutch in theArabian Sea, in close vicinity ofPakistan.

The region also boasts ofother vital installations likethe world’s largest oil refineryat Jamnagar run by RelianceIndustries and a similar facili-ty operated by Russian oilmajor Rosneft at Vadinar.

After the abrogation ofArticle 370 by Parliament,Pakistan has sought to inter-nationalise the Kashmir issueand has gone on record justi-fying jehad and terror attacksin the Valley. The PakistanPrime Minister and his Cabinetcolleagues have been spewingvenom against India in theirbid to portray the situation inthe region as alarmist. Pakistanhas even issued nuclear threat.

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Taking strong exception toPrime Minister Imran

Khan’s provocative statementson Jammu & Kashmir after theabrogation of J&K special sta-tus under Article 370, India onThursday condemned “highlyirresponsible” statements bythe Pakistani leadership andsaid the neighbour is using ter-rorism as a State policy. Thiscomes after Khan talked abouta nuclear war between the twocountries and announced toraise the Kashmir issue at everyinternational forum, includ-ing the UN.

Making New Delhi’s standclear, External Affairs MinistrySpokesperson Raveesh Kumarsaid Pakistan has been usingterrorism as state policy againstIndia and it must stop export-ing terror. “We strongly con-demn highly irresponsiblestatements by Pakistani lead-ership on matters internal toIndia,” he said.

“The provocative state-ments from Pakistan includecall for jehad and inciting vio-lence in India,” Kumar said.The Pakistani Prime Ministerhas been consistently attackingIndia on its decisions on J&Kin the last three weeks.

Meanwhile, DefenceMinister Rajnath Singh duringa visit to Leh on Thursday saidPakistan should stop “crying”

unnecessarily over India’s deci-sion to end special status ofJ&K and instead focus on dis-mantling terror infrastructureoperating from its soil. He alsosaid Islamabad does not haveany locus standi on J&K and itmust stop interfering in India’sinternal affairs.

In his first visit to thisstrategically key region after theGovernment’s decision on J&K,the Defence Minister saidPakistan should now focus ongross violations of humanrights in Pakistan-Occupied-Kashmir (POK), including inGilgit-Baltistan.

In New Delhi, rejectingPakistan’s contention on J&K,Kumar said a PakistaniMinister’s letter to the UN onJ&K — which became contro-versial because it referred tocomments by former Congresspresident Rahul Gandhi andHaryana Chief MinisterManohar Lal Khattar — was“not worth the paper it waswritten on”.

“We condemn the irre-sponsible remarks and tweetsby Pakistani leaders on mattersinternal to India,” said theSpokesperson referring to someMinisters making threats fol-lowing the Government’s deci-sion to end special status toJ&K and split it into two UnionTerritories.

Kumar said the statementsincluded an apparent refer-ence to “Jehad within the ter-ritory of India to incite vio-lence”.

Pakistan Railway MinisterSheikh Rashid Ahmed onWednesday “predicted” warbetween the neighbours in“October or November”.

“The main motive behindthis is to form an alarming sit-uation for India which is farfrom ground realities. Pakistanneeds to understand that theyhave been snubbed from allsides. The world has seen theirprovocative and unsubstanti-ated rhetoric based on lies anddeceit,” he said.

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In an unprecedented move,the Patna High Court issued

an order withdrawing all casesfrom a sitting senior judgewho turned whistleblower byordering a CBI enquiry intocorruption in lower judiciarywhile hearing a graft caseagainst a former IAS officer.

An 11-judge Bench of theHigh Court, headed by ChiefJustice AP Shahi, also sus-pended Justice Rakesh Kumar’sorder on the case on Thursday,saying the single judge Benchhad no jurisdiction to pass suchan order on a case that hadbeen closed.

According to an orderissued by the Patna High CourtChief Justice, “all matters pend-ing before Justice RakeshKumar, sitting singly, includingtied-up/part heard or other-wise, stand withdrawn with

immediate effect”. “The registrar (list) will

inform as to how and in whatmanner Cr. Misc. No. 4117 of2018 that had been disposed offinally earlier was listed onThursday at Sl. No. 1 under theheading ‘To be mentioned -Tied up’ before Justice RakeshKumar,” the order said.

“The court concerned willsubmit his explanation to me asto under whose direction wasthe case listed in the cause listand as to whether any infor-mation was given to the regis-trar (list) or not,” it also said.

Justice Kumar was appoint-ed in the HC in 2009 and isslated to retire in December2020.

He was a standing counselfor the CBI and has also actedas special public prosecutors inthe fodder scam cases.

Justice Kumar, while hear-ing the bail application of for-mer IAS officer KP Ramiah,had questioned how he wasgranted bail by a lower courtwhen the HC as well as the SChad rejected his request for pro-tection from arrest because ofthe gravity of the allegations.

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Women can ride DTC andcluster buses for free in

Delhi from October 29 as themuch-awaited “Free RideScheme” was approved by thethe AAP Government Cabineton Thursday.

“Women commuters willbe able to get free rides using‘single-journey passes’ to beavailable with the bus conduc-tors.

Those not willing to availfree ride may buy tickets,”Transport Minister KailashGahlot. Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal termed his cabinet’sapproval to the scheme a “rev-olutionary step” towards“empowerment and safety ofwomen”.

However, women employ-ees of the city Governmenthave to give up their transportallowance to avail the facility.According to a statement,women employees of the Delhi

Government, local bodies andundertakings will not be enti-tled for transport allowance ifthey opt for free ride in DTCand cluster buses.

“The departments, localbodies, autonomous bodies,etc, will take an undertakingfrom their women staff to theeffect,” it said.

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The Delhi Government onThursday launched a fel-

lowship scheme to fund high-er eduation of 100 eligibleSC/ST students overseas.

Meritorious students whohave secured admission toMPhil, PhD, LLM, MTech andother higher education cours-es in foreign universities will beeligible to apply under thescheme, Delhi’s SC/ST MinisterRajendra Pal Gautam said.

Candidates applying forthe fellowship should be abonafide resident of Delhi andtheir annual family incomeshould not exceed �8 lakh perannum. “Students who havesecured admission to foreignuniversities can apply online toavail benefits under thescheme.

The applications will bevetted by a committee headedby the Principal Secretary ofthe SC/ST department,” saidthe Minister, adding that ascholarship of �10 lakh will be

provided for two-year course,while up to �20 lakh will beprovided for four-year course.“Only one child for the sameparents/guardians will be eli-gible and to this effect aself–certification will berequired from the candidates...The scheme is proposed to beimplemented from the finan-cial year 2019-20 and will cost�5 crore to the exchequer,” aGovernment statement said.

Due to financial con-straints, studying abroadremains a dream for many tal-ented SC/ST students fromlow-income groups. Thisscheme will encourage suchstudents to enrol in foreign uni-versities, Gautam said.

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In an unprecedented plea,former Finance Minister P

Chidambaram on Thursdayoffered in the Supreme Courtto remain in CBI’s custody tillSeptember 2 in the INX Mediacorruption case.

Chidambaram’s CBI cus-tody will end on Friday andwill be produced before theconcerned trial court onFriday.

The offer was made after aBench of Justices R Banumathiand AS Bopanna said it wouldhear on September 2 the pleaof Chidambaram challengingthe orders passed by the trialcourt remanding him in theCBI custody in the case.

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In a major boost to promot-ing afforestation and achiev-

ing “green” objectives of thecountry, the Centre onThursday handed over �47,436crore of CompensatoryAfforestation FundManagement and PlanningAuthority (CAMPA) funds tovarious States.

Campa was constituted bythe Supreme Court in July2009 to ensure proper utilisa-tion of funds received fromproject proponents for diver-sion of forest land for devel-opment activities like erectionof dams, mining and con-struction of roads and indus-tries.

The amount collectedunder Campa differs from areato area. The apex court creat-

ed Campa as the afforestationfunds could not be utilisedproperly.

On Thursday, Odishareceived the highest allocation(5,933.98 crore), followed byChhattisgarh (�5,791.70 crore)and Madhya Pradesh(�5,196.69 crore). Keralareceived the least amount of�81.59 crore.

After a meeting with theState Forest Ministers andauthorities here, UnionMinister for EnvironmentPrakash Javadekar said, “It isexpected that all States willutilise this fund towardsforestry activities to achieve theobjectives of the Nationally-Determined Contributions ofincreasing its forest and treecover, which will create anadditional carbon sink equiv-alent to 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes

of carbon dioxide by 2030.” While asserting the State

budget for forests shall remainunaffected and the fund beingtransferred would be in addi-tion to State budget, theMinister reminded them theCampa funds are not meant forpayment of salary, travellingallowances, etc.

Javadekar said, “Importantactivities on which the fundwill be utilised are: compen-satory afforestation, catchmentarea treatment, wildlife man-agement, assisted naturalregeneration, forest fire pre-vention and control, soil andmoisture conservation works inthe forest, improvement ofwildlife habitat, management ofbiological diversity and bio-logical resources, research inforestry and monitoring ofCampa works, etc.”

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The farm producers andorchard owners of

Dehradun, Haridwar andmountainous areas of the Statecould benefit from going hi-tech by adopting this technol-ogy for fruits like litchi, man-goes and pomegranates toincrease their export potential.

Also, the large stores canincrease the shelf life of thecommonly used pulses, spices,seasonings and sea food by irra-diating the packed articles, saythe scientists. Presently only 15radiation processing plants arerunning in the country and twomore are to come up in Gujaratwhile Uttarakhand is far behindin adopting this technology toincrease export potential.

Speaking to this corre-spondent, J Souframanien fromNuclear Agriculture andBiotechnology Division ofBhabha Atomic ResearchCentre in Mumbai said, “At pre-sent 15 radiation processingplants are operating in thecountry. The nearest one to cap-ital city of Uttarakhand is in

Delhi. While Dehradun isknown for litchi production,there is no such processingplant here. In Bihar, litchi treat-ment plant was started whichhas been highly effective forexporters.

Recently MoU has beensigned for setting up radiationprocessing plants in Gujarat andMadhya Pradesh with BARCbut we are yet to transfer tech-nology to the mountain State ofUttarakhand.” Accepted world-wide by various agencies like

US Food and Drug adminis-tration, irradiation of food is yetto gain grounds in Uttarakhand.

In India two out of the 15food irradiation units are pri-vate, while 13 are run by BARC.Souframanien further addedthat BARC technology is a safeand novel chemical treatmentbased technology developedusing GRAS chemicals andradiation processing to extendshelf life of fruits. It helps inretaining natural pericarp (peel)color, reducing microbial load

to below detectable level,extending shelf life by about 60days and fulfilling quarantinerequirement.

Notably, till 2007 India wasnot permitted to export man-goes to US, Australia and othercountries but ever since thisradiation and chemical treat-ment technology came, mangoexports have increased from150 metric tonnes to 1150 met-ric tonnes since 2007 to 2017.Now litchis, pomegrenates arealso being exported.

Irradiation at 150 Gy iseffective against fruit flies(Dacus dorsalis and D. cucur-bitae) while a dose of 300 Gycan prevent the pupae of seedweevil (Cryptorynchusmangifera) into adults andadults if present are renderedsterile. Gy is Gray, unit ofabsorbed radiation. Discussingabout the safety of radiationprocess in food and cereals,Souframanein said, “The prod-uct is packed and put in the alu-minum carriers and is posi-tioned around the source rack.Then it is exposed to gammaradiations emitted by the sourcebut the food product never

comes in contact with radioac-tive material. It delays theripening of fruits.” Muzaffarpurin Uttar Pradesh which isfamous for exporting litchifruit across the world, getsalmost whole of its litchi pro-duce chemically treated.Uttarakhand litchi producersmust think on those lines too.

Like pasteurizing milk andcanning fruits and vegetables,irradiation can make food saferfor the consumer. Storage offoods in freezer of refrigeratorkeeps common pests duringmonsoon season away when itis most humid, same way irra-diation helps curb the microbialgrowth by treating them withgamma radiations.

The technique can be usedto prevent sprouting in potatoesand onions and increase theshelf life of delicate fruits likestrawberries and mangoes thusreducing insect infestation inthese fruits.

Food irradiation aims atdestroying bacteria by exposingthem to free radicals which arehighly reactive and can inter-rupt cell division and multipli-cation.

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On September 28 this yearthe chief justice of

Uttarakhand High Court willbe launching an initiative toeradicate drug and alcoholabuse in the State through the‘Sankalp NashamuktDevbhoomi’ scheme. Thescheme is an initiative ofUttarakhand’s State LegalService Authority (SLSA),under which paralegal vol-unteers will be detaining peo-ple who are addicts or are sell-ing drugs to others.

Member secretar y ofSLSA, Gyanendra Kumarsaid, “The idea is to targetevery person who is a peddleror an addict. For this we haveestablished a constitution taskforce which is combinedeffort of judicial and admin-istrative officers along withpolice to make a reformingtask force.

This team will include,one member of DeputySuperintendent of Police rank,two sub-inspectors frompolice department one maleand one female, judicial sec-retar y of Distr ict LegalService Authority (DLSA),one member from forestdepartment, one from rev-enue department, one mem-

ber of a rehabilitation centreand one person from a non-governmental organisation.”He further added, “Theseactions will be taken furtherin two phases. In the firstphase we will be giving coun-selling to the addicts andsending the dealers behindthe bars.

The counselling teamwill include one professionalcounsellor, one clinical psy-chologist, one doctor, onejudicial officer and one policepersonnel. In the secondphase we will provide treat-ment for those addicts whorequire medical attention. InDehradun we will be con-ducting this scheme as a pilotproject.”

Secretary of DLSA, NehaKushwaha said, “We havealready conducted a surveyand research at the possibleplaces where we could havefound the young children andother possible addicts.

At present there is noGovernment drug rehabilita-tion centre available here sowe are working in a flexiblemanner with the alreadyestablished drug rehabilita-tion centres. We will person-ally be ensuring to make surethat the facilities they provideare up to the mark.”

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���<������6�The pesky mosquitoes in collaboration with apatheticgovernment machinery and lack of basic civic sense inpeople have transformed the Doon valley once famousfor its salubrious environment into a hotbed of denguethese days. The dreaded vector borne disease has struckDehradun and nearby areas with such a vengeance thistime around that almost every other household of thevalley has come under its shadow. Proving true to itsreputation, the health department is busy devisingingenious ways like questioning the test reports of thedisease or ordering ‘death audit’ of the patients who hadsuccumbed to the disease in their endeavour to suppressthe data of the disease. The Municipal Corporation ofDehradun responsible for maintaining sanitation andpest control is also proving to be disoriented andincapable to handle the situation. When the diseasespiralling out of control with all hospitals and clinicsoverflowing with patients of dengue, a bureaucratheading the department recently convened a meeting ofcivic authorities and health department officials. Onewonders why such meetings involving authoritiesconcerned are not held at the start of the dengue seasonso that necessary pre- emptive measures to curb themenace of the disease are taken on time.

=#������6�=�=��Astounding it may sound but the fact is that theUttarakhand cabinet in its recent meeting had to discussand bring amendments in a government order and oneservice regulation, just to rectify typo error of sloppyBabus. The official machinery was failing to implementthe provision of all important government order for onetime settlement scheme for the private clinics, day carecentres and schools opened in residential areas due toinsertion of a wrong word by the official who prepared itsdraft. This word changed the entire meaning of the order.A similar error happened with service regulations ofarrangement officer in Uttarakhand Public ServiceCommission. These sloppy errors occurred at the highestlevel of government machinery that needed rectificationby council of ministers underlie the gross negligence andcarelessness of the Babudom. One can understand thatthe clerk or officer preparing the draft of an importantdocument like government order or some regulation canerr for it is a human nature but since there is a reviewingofficer and a chain of highly paid Babus in the systembefore the document is finally released, such mistakes areinexplicable.

��66��6�=#��Irrespective of different regulations and claims of theofficials, the nuisance of ragging in the educationalinstitutes is refusing to subside. In the professionalinstitutes such as medical colleges and engineeringinstitutes this menace is more prevalent. A bureaucratspearheading the health department was astounded whenduring his recent visit to a government medical college hefound students with almost tonsured heads. On beingasked the reason behind this large scale change in hairdoof the newly admitted students, the students underobvious terror of their seniors gave ridiculous reasonslike irritation induced by hot weather. The officerhowever immediately understood ragging as the obviousreasoning behind such miserable condition of first yearstudents and gave orders to the college authorities toprevent ragging in the campus. Ragging in educationalinstitutes is fairly widespread and difficult to prevent buttimely intervention by the faculty members and effectivesteps by the authorities can help in reducing the scale ofthe menace. This would help in de -stressing the newentrants in the professional colleges some of whom getpushed to take extreme steps like suicide.

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The suspected murder of a man fromKerala in Dehradun had the entire dis-

trict police in turmoil since Wednesday latenight. The deceased was taken by four ofhis accomplices to a private hospital onMussoorie Road, where he succumbed tohis injuries. According to official sources,the police have detained four men.

The body of deceased man is report-edly covered with several bruises, based onwhich police suspect that he might havebeen brutally tortured. Dehradun SeniorSuperintendent of Police (SSP) ArunMohan Joshi said that the investigation isongoing and that a few suspects have beendetained.

According to the sources, under thedirect supervision of Superintendent ofPolice (city) Shweta Choubey a combinedteam of Rajpur and Premnagar police sta-tion was set up. Police found it suspiciousthat the four men who took the deceasedin severely injured state to the hospital ranaway afterwards. During the initial inves-tigation police also faced difficulties inascertaining the identity of the deceased.There are also rumours that transaction of

crypto-currency and heavy loss because ofthis transaction was the reason for himbeing tortured. The police are investigat-ing this aspect as well. Sources further stat-ed that the suspects were posing as privatecollege students in order to rent therooms they were staying in. They werereportedly in Dehradun for the past 30days. The deceased man is reportedly 25years old. SP city said, “We have found

some leads on which we are still investi-gating. Soon the accused will be behindbars.” The deceased has been identified asAbdul Shakoor, native of Kerala. Accordingto local police the deceased was admittedat the emergency ward of a private hospi-tal at 11:20 on Wednesday night by fewother men. They came through a privatecar which they then left at the the hospi-tal premises and ran away.

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The decomposed carcass of atusker was discovered in the

Kalagarh range of Corbettnational park here on Thursday.One of the tusks of the elephantwas discovered about 200 metresaway from the carcass. After apost mortem, the carcass wasburied. The Kalagarh sub divi-sional officer Ramakant Tiwariinformed that the department’steam was on patrol when theysmelled the stench of an elephantcarcass. The department then

got a special patrol conductedafter which they came across anelephant carcass about 10 daysold lying at a spot about five kilo-metres from the common path.The SDO informed that the sitewhere the carcass of the tuskerwas discovered is at a steep gra-dient of a hill.

It is being surmised that thetusker possibly died as a result ofa fight with another elephant orthat it fell off the hill side anddied as a result. The age of thedead tusker was estimated to beabout 40 years.

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Four accused persons havebeen arrested by Raipur

police for allegedly thrashing,threatening and then firingtwo rounds at a fast food shopowner at Dobhal Chowk onWednesday night.

The victim reportedly isnot wounded by the shots firedbut has suffered several bruis-es and possible fracture on hisleft thumb. Locals from thearea have alleged that this is notthe first time that people areraising ruckus in the area afterconsuming alcohol.

In fact one of the shops atthe Chowk entertains peopletill late night in order for themto consume alcohol illegally.

The accused arrested havebeen identified as ShobhitBaurai (29), resident of KargiChowk, Sanjay Upadhyay (48),resident of Nehrugram, AnandSingh Panwar (34), resident of

Majra and Ankit Kapoor (30)resident of Patelnagar.According to the informationprovided by the local police, thevictim Shammi Chettri com-plained that on Wednesdaynight Sanjay Upadhyay andhis three friends in drunkenstate came at his fast foodshop. They asked for two platesof dumplings which Chettriprovided.

After that when the shop-keeper asked for payment theaccused with his friends start-ed shouting abuses. Soon theverbal abuse escalated intophysical violence and later oneof the accused shot two roundsat the victim.

After hearing the gunshotand shouts when people start-ed gathering they then threat-ened him one last time andthen drove away from the areain a private car.

Police recovered a.32 pistolfrom the accused Shobhit, one

sharp edged weapon fromaccused Sanjay Upadhyay andtwo empty shells were found atthe crime scene. Station HouseOfficer (SHO) of Raipur policestation Chandrabhan Singhsaid, “The accused Shobhithas claimed that he has licenceto keep the pistol that was usedin the crime. The details will bepart of the ongoing investiga-tion.”

When asked whether anysuch information came in hisknowledge earlier he said, “Inthe last seven months that Ihave been in charge here this isthe first case of its kind.

From any other place if weget information about any suchthing, immediate actions aretaken.”According to eye wit-nesses, the accused intended tothreaten the victim because ofwhich they shot in the air. Fromtheir actions, it didn’t seem likethey were attempting to shoothim fatally.

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Three men were arrestedwith a live pangolin by a

joint team of Special TaskForce, Forest department andWildlife Crime ControlBureau from Delhi. The triohas been booked under theWildlife Protection Act.

The WCCB Delhi teamhad received information thatsome persons are involved inwildlife contraband smug-gling.

This information waspassed on to DIG RidhimAgrawal who directed theSTF Kumaon team to takenecessary action in the case.The STF team was formedwhich along with the forestdepartment Rudrapur range’steam and WCCB team con-

ducted intensive checking atDineshpur. When the teamstopped a car driven by JugalMitri from Madhya Pradesh

with Dineshpur residentsSanjiv Gain and AmrendraSingh in it, they checked thecar and found a live pangolin

weighing about 15 kilo-grammes. Terai central forestdivision’s divisional forestofficer RK Singh informedthat the pangolin is aSchedule I wild animal justlike the tiger.

During questioning, thetrio did not clearly state as towhere they brought the pan-golin from.

Varying their statements,they are saying that they gotthe pangolin from the junglesof Vilaspur and then claimingthat they got it from the agri-cultural fields in Dineshpur.

The department is tryingto ascertain where they gotthe pangolin from.

Meanwhile, with the per-mission of the court, thedepartment released the pan-golin in the forest.

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A21 year old man was killedin a road accident reported

on Thursday at Vasant Viharpolice station. The deceasedhas been identified as Gaurav, aresident of Mehuwala whichfalls under Patelnagar policestation. According to localpolice he was reportedly goingfrom Panditwari towards VasantVihar when deceased who was

riding a scooty and a TATASumo had a head on collision.The victim was severely injuredafter collision and later suc-cumbed to his injuries.

Local police stated thatwhile going from Panditwaritowards Vasant Vihar, thedeceased tried to overtake avehicle from wrong side becauseof which he collided with fourwheeler that was coming fromopposite direction.

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The State’s dairy develop-ment minister Dhan Singh

Rawat along with MP AjayBhatt inaugurated the 70thgeneral convention of Nainitaldairy producers cooperationfederation here on Thursday.

Addressing the gatheringon the occasion, Rawat said thatthe state government is takingvarious measures to bring abouta white revolution in the state.The government is going tobenefit the milk producersthrough DBT under the Rs fourper litre dairy price encour-agement scheme.

He also said that the gov-ernment will set up a one lakhlitre capacity modern dairytank at Nainital dairy federa-

tion. Further, the employees ofdairy cooperatives running inprofit will be accorded the ben-efit of the seventh pay com-mission. The government hasalso decided to provide 50paise per litre as encouragementto secretaries of dairy commit-tees in mountainous regions.

Under the chief minister AmritAnchal scheme, 1.86 lakh chil-dren in Anganwadis will beprovided Anchal milk free ofcost. He also spoke about thevarious schemes and develop-ment plans of the state govern-ment. Speaking on the occasionBhatt said that the state gov-

ernment is working to uplilf themilk producers. Top priorityhas been accorded to financialdiscipline and management inthe State.

The dairy federation headMukesh Bora and others alsoexpressed their views on theoccasion.

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The Union minister ofEnvironment, Forests and

Climate Change, PrakashJavadekar has approved Rs2675 crore budget underCompensatory AfforestationFund Management andPlanning Authority (CAMPA)for Uttarakhand.

The Union minister hand-ed a cross cheque to the State’sForest and Wildlife ministerHarak Singh Rawat at a meet-ing of forest ministers held bythe ministry in the nationalCapital on Thursday. CAMPAfund is used for increasingforest area, water conserva-tion in forest area and improve-ment of degraded land in for-est areas.

Rawat requested Javadekarthat due to it being a moun-tainous and forest state,Uttarakhand has the authorityfor forest land transfer of up toone hectare which should beincreased to five hectare. Thiswill enable effective imple-mentation of developmentworks in the state.

He also said that as in thecase of Himachal Pradesh, onthe basis of the technical reportof the Forest Research Institute(FRI) the felling of over-matured trees at altitudes above

1000 metres should be allowedin Uttarakhand so that newtrees can be planted in theirplace. Rawat further said thatonly by bringing about a total

ban on production of all itemsmade from single use plasticwill the use of such items beeradicated. Earlier, Rawat toldJavadekar that as expected by

the Prime Minister, the use ofsingle use plastic has been cur-tailed considerably in the state.Efforts have been made toincrease and improve the for-

est area. Only about 29 per centof the state’s geographical areais used for agriculture andhuman settlement while rest ofthe area is under forest cover.

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There are considerableopportunities for invest-

ment in Uttarakhand in thesectors of tourism, biotech-nology, renewable energy,film shooting and informa-tion technology. Stating this,the Chief Minister TrivendraSingh Rawat invited indus-trialists to invest inUttarakhand, while speak-ing at the eighth Invest Northprogramme in Bengaluru onThursday. He said that thestate government is eager toprovide all necessary facilitiesfor investors. Systematicattempts have been madeduring the past two years toencourage investment in thestate, he said.

Rawat said, “Uttarakhandis fast emerging as a majordestination for investments. Itis one of the fastest growingeconomies in the nation. TheState government has madethe various improvementsproposed by DPIIT and theWorld Bank. Uttarakhand isat the top when it comes tobusiness related improve-ments made by mountainstates. Various basic infra-structural schemes have beenstarted to strengthen the basiclogistics structure and makebusiness convenient.

The all-weather road pro-ject and expansion of theDehradun airport are alsounderway. In addition to this,the Amritsar-Kolkata indus-trial corridor proposed by theUnion Government will facil-itate better logistics for indus-tries in Uttarakhand andUttar Pradesh,” said Rawat.

To strengthen industrialdevelopment in the state,integrated industrialestates/areas have been devel-oped with international-levelinfrastructural facilities.Strong law and order system,an industrial electricity rate

less compared to other States,availability of quality humanresource, cordial labour rela-tions and minimum damageto working days among otheraspects are the major factorswhich have madeUttarakhand a very suitabledestination for investment.Rawat referred to the firstinvestors summit‘Destination Uttarakhand’held in October 2018, statingthat it had attracted morethan 4,000 delegates fromacross the nation and abroad.MoUs amounting to morethan Rs 1,24,000 crore weresigned with more than 600investors during the summit.Concrete steps have beentaken for execution of theseMoUs. In about 10 monthsafter the investors summit,the grounding of investmentproposals amounting to morethan Rs 17,000 crore hasbeen achieved.

Stating that there is con-siderable scope for industri-alisation in Uttarakhand,Rawat said that the State hasidentified automobiles,AYUSH and wellness,biotechnology, informationtechnology, tourism, renew-able energy and other sectorsfor this purpose. Specialpolicies have been imple-mented in order to encourageinvestments in these sectors.The State is also focusing onsuch projects which can facil-itate employment for resi-dents of mountainous regionsand strengthen the localeconomy.

The chief minister alsospoke in detail about theinvestment opportunities inrenewable energy, tourism,film making, informationtechnology and allied ser-vices, biotechnology andother sectors. The State’s cab-inet minister Satpal Maharajalso expressed his views onthe occasion.

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With dengue threatening toassume epidemic pro-

portions in the provisional statecapital, the health departmenthas inducted the medical stu-dents in the anti dengue drive.On the instruction of thedepartment teams of students ofGovernment Doon MedicalCollege (GDMC) have startedvisiting the residential areas.These teams are creating aware-ness in the masses about dengueand measures they should taketo reduce its menace. The direc-tor general (DG) state healthservices, Dr R K Pandey said 21teams consisting of 169 officers,employees and Asha workersare working in Dehradun forconducting door to door sur-veys. He claimed that 4000houses were surveyed by theseteams on Thursday. Dr Pandeysaid that team found larvae ofdengue spreading mosquito in200 houses. He added that 65patients of the disease areundergoing treatment atGDMC Hospital while 29 areadmitted in Gandhi centenary

eye hospital. The DG said thatdengue patients are being toppriority in treatment and facil-ity of ELISA test is made avail-able in five hospitals.

He said that the students ofGDMC are organising streetplays to create awareness aboutthe disease. The menace ofdengue is showing no sign ofreceding as 13 new cases of thedisease were reported by districthealth department of Dehradunon Thursday. With them thetotal number of dengue patientsin Dehradun since the out-break of the disease has jumpedto 648.

The district vector bornediseases officer Subhash Joshisaid that 623 patients are the res-idents of Dehradun while 25 arenatives of other districts.

He said that teams of healthdepartment and MunicipalCorporation of Dehradun(MCD) are visiting the affectedareas and activities like foggingand spread of insecticides arebeing undertaken apart fromspreading awareness on pre-ventive measures to be adoptedfor the disease.

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The State administrationwill undertake an anti-

encroachment drive once againfrom September 3 to rid theareas of encroachments wherethey have been done after theprevious anti-encroachmentdrive conducted on the ordersof the high court.

The additional chief secretaryOm Prakash informed that

on the directions of the highcourt, the MussoorieDehradun DevelopmentAuthority (MDDA), MunicipalCorporation of Dehradun(MCD) and the district admin-istration had in the past demol-ished encroachments fromfootpaths, public roads, streetsand other sites.

However, complaints arebeing received from the gen-eral public about encroach-ments being made again at var-ious places. Considering this,an anti-encroachment drivewill be undertaken fromSeptember 3 more efficientlythan in the past.

The additional chief sec-retary appealed to the ownersof buildings encroaching onGovernment buildings, toremove the encroachmentsthemselves.

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The director Nationalhealth Mission (NHM),

Dr Anjali Nautiyal reviewedthe progress of nutritionalrehabilitation centres ofPauri, Tehri, Dehradun,Udham Singh Nagar andHaridwar districts onThursday.

Dr Nautiyal said that inthe meeting, the quality ofservice and treatment givenat the Sick New Borne CareUnits and nutritional reha-bilitation centres was

reviewed. She informed thatthe strategy to reduce thechild mortality was also dis-cussed in the meeting.

Dr Nautiyal informedthat during April to July2019, 1151 new born weregiven special treatment. Themeeting was attended bymedical superintendents ofnutritional rehabilitation cen-tres and child specialists.

The union ministry ofhealth and family welfarehad sent an official of(UNICEF) as its representa-tive in the meeting.

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Prime Minister NarendraModi will sound the poll

bugle for BJP in its bid to retainpower in Haryana at a rally tobe held in Rohtak onSeptember 8. He is likely toaddress more than three lakhBJP volunteers and local peo-ple at the rally.

Earlier, Union HomeMinister and BJP presidentAmit Shah had addressed apublic rally in Jind to kick offthe party's election campaignin the State on August 16. TheBJP has smartly chosen Rohtakin the Jatland, the strongholdof former CM BhupinderSingh Hooda, for the rally.

Sources in BJP said thatChief Minister Manohar LalKhattar is personally oversee-ing the arrangements for therally. Along with this, Haryanaparty affairs in-charge andBJP general secretary AnilJain, Haryana CooperationMinister Manish Grover andstate general secretariesSandeep Joshi and Ved Pal arekeeping a close watch on thearrangements for the rally.

Rohtak MLA and StateCooperation Minister ManishGrover said, “PM’s rally will behistoric in Rohtak. Lakhs ofpeople of the state wouldattend the rally. The rally willstrengthen the party at the

booth level. This rally willattract youth and energiseworkers and also, gear up thecadre for upcoming polls.”

Meanwhile, aiming toreturn to power in the Stateagain in 2019 polls, the BJPleaders have geared up to makePM’s Rohtak rally a historicand successful event. The BJPis leaving no stone unturned tomake Modi’s Vijay SankalpRally a massive show ofstrength with the participationof the gross-root workersnamed ‘panna pramukhs’ (incharge of voter list pages),who were instrumental in theBJP winning all 10 seats in thelast Lok Sabha elections.

The rally is being seen asan attempt by the BJP to con-solidate its hold in Rohtakand adjoining areas and con-solidating the Jat vote bank asRohtak is known as the turf ofJat leader and former ChiefMinister Hooda. Sources saidsome BJP MLAs who won theprevious Assembly election

are not confident of winningthe election this year. Thisrally will give positive momen-tum to the party in the upcom-ing Assembly election, partic-ularly in the marginal seats.

Moreover, State BJP hasalready moved into poll mode.Khattar’s Jan Ashirwad Yatra isat the peak and has already tra-versed a large part of the state.The Prime Minister’s rally isbeing organised as the grandfinale to the 22-day JanAashirwad Yatra currentlybeing undertaken by the ChiefMinister.

Khattar will come on thebus of Jan Ashirwad Yatrafrom Julana to Rohtak toattend Prime Minister Modi’srally in Rohtak on September8.

A senior BJP leader said,“The plan to register over 3lakh ‘panna pramukhs’ spreadover 19,500 polling boothshas been chalked out and itwould be ensured that all thoseregistered attend the rally.

From September 1 to 3,those in charge of districts andother prominent leaders wouldregister the ‘panna pramukhs’and extend a formal invitationto them to participate in therally.

The Election Commissionis likely to announce the sched-ule of the Assembly electionsjust after the Rohtak rally inthe second week of September.

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Punjab Health Departmenton Thursday dispatched

three medical relief vans withspecialist doctors for the floodaffected areas of the state.The vans have the teams ofpara-medical staff membersbesides the MedicalSpecialists, dermatologists andgynaecologists to conductproper medical check up ofpatients.

The state Health andFamily Welfare MinisterBalbir Singh Sidhu, after send-ing off the vans, said that thesemedical relief vans wouldensure 100 percent qualityhealthcare services in thestate’s flood-affected areas.“Specialists doctors have alsobeen deputed in the ReliefVans. Apart from medicinesavailable in the medical

camps, each medical van iswell stocked with many kindsof essential medicines to caterto around 5,000 adult patientsand 2,000 children. To curbthe water-borne diseases, twolakh chlorine tablets are alsobeing sent in these vans,” hesaid. Talking about the med-ical camps, the HealthMinister said that health checkup of around 17,000 patientshas been conducted in thecamps from August 18 to 28,and treatment pertainingviral, loose motion, vomiting,skin and other common dis-eases are being provided to thesuffering patients.

He said that vaccinesregarding snake bite, dog biteand other animal bites are alsobeing provided in the floodaffected areas of State. TheMinister said that 74 specialteams have been set up to

tackle vector-borne diseasesdue to stagnating water, whichare incessantly spraying thelarvicide and pesticides tocover affected areas of citiesand villages. He said thatteams of Health Departmentare working jointly with teamsof Local Government andRural DevelopmentDepartment, while the author-ities have been instructed tocollect samples of drinkingwater in all affected areas.

At the same time, Sidhuappealed to the people tocontact toll free number 104helpline to avail the healthcareservices. “Instructions havealready been issued to theCivil Surgeons to personallymonitor the functioning ofmedical camps so as to ensurethe quality treatment ser-vices,” he said.

Breach in Bharwai -

Bikaner canal pluggedAverting major damage,

the timely action by FerozepurDistrict Administration hasled to immediate plugging ofbreach in Bharwai-BikanerCanal.

An official spokespersonof the government said that onearly Thursday morning, a 20feet wide breach in Bharwai-Bikaner Canal, near Luthervil lage, was reported.“Ferozepur DeputyCommissioner and the SeniorSuperintendant Police rushedto the spot, and the work ofplugging the breach com-menced around 7:30 am andhas been successfully accom-plished,” said the spokesper-son. To accomplish the plug-ging operation at war footing,the employees of WaterRecourses Department divert-ed the water of Bikaner canal

to East Canal which eased theplugging by reducing thewater pressure, said thespokesperson added that thelocals also supported theadministration in the pluggingoperation. Although waterentered the surrounding fieldsbut major damage has beenaverted as it was preventedfrom entering the villagehouses, said the spokespersonassuring that the people wouldbe compensated for the loss ofcrops at the earliest as DeputyCommissioner has beendirected to furnish the crop-loss report.

Massive cleanliness driveinitiated in flood ravaged vil-lages

Aiming to prevent postdeluge spread of disease orepidemic, a massive cleanli-ness drive has been initiatedin the flood-hit villages of

Punjab.Hundreds of sanitation

workers from various munic-ipalities have been deputed inthese villages along with thetractor-trolleys and earth-movers to remove the garbagefrom the streets, said an offi-cial government spokesper-son.

Spokesperson said thatsanitation teams have beenformed in each village underthe super vision of theExecutive Officers to ensurecleaning of every nook andcorner for prevention of out-break of epidemic.

The mud, dirt ,vegetation, plastic waste, etc brought byfloodwater is being cleaned upby sanitation teams, said thespokesperson adding that fog-ging is being carried out,twice in a day in these villagessince past few days.

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Due to rain fury and floods,record harvest of apples

this season after two consecu-tive lean years of its productionhave not brought cheers on thefaces of the growers inHimachal Pradesh.

Farmers and trade insiderssay this season the overall pro-duction, which has been errat-ic in the past, is good but floodsin many states has drasticallyreduced its demand that fur-ther created a glut-like situa-tion, turning the apple business'sour'. “As harvesting began inJuly, growers started piling uptheir crop in the markets toearn higher rates. Within a fewweeks, the price started tum-bling owing to glut-like situa-tion,” trader Abhishek Nanta atthe Dhalli wholesale fruit

marker, near here, told IANS.Later, floods in most of theprominent states like UttarPradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthanand Maharashtra has reducedits demand drastically.

Superior grades like RoyalDelicious, Red Chief, SuperChief, Oregon Spur and ScarletSpur also started arriving bymid-August but the price failedto pick up owing to glut-likecondition in most of the mar-kets outside the state, mainlyChandigarh and Delhi.

Sher Singh Chauhan, afarmer based in Nankhari inShimla district, said apple pro-duction this season was opti-mum after eight to 10 years, butthe demand was poor. “Thefloods in Maharashtra andGujarat that are the prominenttrading hubs of Tamil Nadu,Andhra and Pradesh and

Karnataka have impacted ourearnings. This year the qualityof the fruit was good but the

prices was bad,” he said.Chauhan said the bumper pro-duction has made his businessnot profitable. This season wasdoubly whammy for the fruitgrowers. “Earlier, the bumperproduction of cherries had

dropped the prices. Now thelow price of apple is hitting thegrowers,” Chauhan said, addingonly the plum was remunera-tive crop this time. Accordingto him, a 20 kg box of RoyalDelicious is fetching between�1,200 and �1,800 in Dhalli,while it was around �2,800last year. Likewise, Spur vari-eties are getting up to �2,000a box, almost �1,000 lesscompared to last year.

State HorticultureDirector M.L. Dhiman toldIANS that about 3.7 croreboxes of apples are beingestimated in the state this year.He said 60 per cent of the crophas been harvested till date.

Himachal Pradesh is oneof India's major apple-pro-ducing regions, with morethan 90 per cent of the pro-duce going to the domesticmarket.Last year, the Stateproduced 2.18 crore appleboxes, the second consecutiveyear of less-than-normal yieldof 2.5 crore boxes. In 2017-18,the apple production was 2.23crore boxes. The deliciousvariety of apples from

Kinnaur district, known fortheir natural sweetness, colourand succulence, will hit themarkets in mid-October. Agrocommodities trading houseAdani Agrifresh has targeted toprocure 23,000 tonnes of applesthis season.

Besides Adani, otherprominent private tradinghouses like CONCOR,Reliance Fresh, Mother Dairy,Big Basket and Dev Bhoomi arealso procuring apples.

Surveys of the HorticultureDepartment show the produc-tivity of apple ranges from sixto 11.5 tonnes per hectare inthe State, in comparison to 35to 40 tonnes per hectare inmore advanced countries.

The area under apple cul-tivation in Himachal Pradeshhas increased from 3,025hectares in 1960-61 to 112,500hectares in 2017-18, whichconstitutes more than 50 percent of the total area under fruitcultivation. To rejuvenate theapple plantation, which large-ly dates back to British era, andthe long-term development ofthe horticulture sector, the$171.50 million (�1,134 crore)World Bank-funded project isbeing implemented in the statethrough the Himachal PradeshHorticulture DevelopmentSociety.

Till date, the expenditure of�91.60 crore has been incurredon various activities. About13.48 lakh planting materialhas been imported,Horticulture MinisterMohinder Thakur informedthe Assembly in a written replyon August 23. The duration ofthe project is seven years andwill last till 2022-23. Besidesapples, other fruits like pear,peach, cherry, apricot, kiwi,strawberry, olive, almond andplum are the major commercialcrops of the State.

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Bholath MLA and PunjabEkta Party (PEP) president

Sukhpal Singh Khaira onThursday questioned the “moral-ity” of Punjab Chief MinisterCapt Amarinder Singh for con-tradictory stand of PunjabGovernment and the DGP(Investigation) on taking backprobe of Bargari sacrilege casefrom the Central Bureau ofInvestigation (CBI).

Khaira said that DGPInvestigation, Punjab Police,Prabodh Kumar has written a“controversial” letter to CBIDirector to continue the inves-tigation into the Bargari sacrilegecase after CBI filed closure reportin the Mohali CBI court.“Parbodh Kumar is directlyworking under Capt Amarinderwho also holds Home portfolio.

A DGP cannot dare to write sucha letter which is against the inter-est of the State Governmentwithout the consent of the ChiefMinister,” he said. Khaira saidthat Capt Amarinder was takingstand in public that CBI shouldreturn the case files because it(CBI) has no jurisdiction tocontinue the probe after PunjabVidhan Sabha passed a resolu-tion to get back probe from thecentral agency, “but in practice,he is trying to support theaccused by asking CBI to con-tinue the probe. What is going onin Punjab,” he asked.

Khaira said that the actionsof Capt Amarinder spoke loud-er than words and one can eas-ily read between the lines thatCM is hell bent to white wash thesins of Badal family.

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The functioning ofGovernment Doon

Medical College (GDMC) gotaffected on Thursday due tothe strike of contractual work-ers. These workers assembledin the hospital in the morningwhere they held a vehementprotest.

The hospital at presenthas 57 contractual workersout of whom contract of 32 has

not been renewed. The agitated workers said

that they have not receivedsalaries from last six monthsdue to which they are facingmany hardships.

One worker said that thecontractual workers havepleaded many times beforethe senior officials in the pastbut nothing has happened dueto which they are forced tostrike. He said that the officialsare also misguiding the chief

minister of the state on theissue.

In the protest, laboratorytechnicians, radiology techni-cians, staff nurses, OperationTheatre (OT) workers, MedicalSocial workers, library staff,speech therapist, audio visualtechnicians and lab techni-cians engaged in ELISA test fordengue. The strike affectedgeneral functioning of thebiggest Government hospital ofthe State.

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Former president of DelhiCongress Ajay Maken said

the national Capital has thehighest electricity rates perunit in the country but theAam Aadmi Party (AAP)

Government has projectedthat it is cheapest as compareto other States. Maken said therate of electricity per unit inDelhi was 7.36 paise in 2013-14 which has reached 8.45paise per unit by 2019. "TheAAP Government has given�8,532.64 crore subsidy to

private power distributioncompanies in the last six years.Interestingly, the same partyin order to upgrade and aug-ment its transmission capac-ity had promised in its man-ifesto to give subsidy to DelhiTransco instead of power dis-coms," he said.

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BJP working president JagatPrasad Nadda said on

Thursday that the abrogation ofspecial status to Jammu &Kashmir under Article 370bore a positive impact on theparty’s membership drivewhich is set to increase itsnumbers by a whopping sevencrore, taking the total count to18 crore. With 18 crore mem-bers on its roll, only eightcountries have populationwhich exceed the BJP’s num-bers, Nadda said.

The membership drive,said the BJP working president,yielded unexpected results inWest Bengal with one crorepeople, particularly those from“weaker sections” enrollingthemselves with the BJP. The

party had fixed 12 lakh as thetarget in West Bengal but itkept increasing and reached afabulous mark, Nadda said.

As the membership drivethat commenced from July 6concluded on August 20, theparty would now engage in thenext phase of enrolling ‘activemembership’ that would entailparty members enroll at least50 or 100 members.

Nadda said the organiza-tional elections would be com-pleted by the year-end when anew President would also beelected. Nadda claimed themembership drive was alsoquite successful in Jammu andKashmir, where the decision onArticle 370 impacted positive-ly on the BJP’s drive with longqueues of people waiting to beenrolled as party members.

Nadda said the process ofcollecting the data of the sevencrore new members was stillon. He said an overwhelmingsupport for the BJP was visibleduring its membership drive asthe target was to recruit 2.2crore members. The member-ship drive had with PrimeMinister Narendra and BJPpresident Amit Shah launchingit from Varanasi and Telangana

respectively on party ideo-logue Syama Prasad

Mookerjee’s birthanniversary.

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Parliament’s Public AccountsCommittee (PAC), headed

by Congress’ Adhir RanjanChowdhury, has selected 107subjects and related CAG Auditreports including controversialsubjects like Rafale fighter jetspurchase.

The other controversialsubjects which the PAC isgoing to scrutinise are theassessment on the implemen-tation of Goods and ServiceTax (GST) and its tax collectionnetwork GSTN, which invitedam series of criticism from var-ious stakeholders includingfrom CAG.

The five aspects of GSTand its related matters will beprobed by the PAC. The objec-tives of GST, Revenue andreturn filing trends, IT audit ofGSTN, Lack of access to dataand Audit of TransitionalCredits are the subjects underGST to be examined by thePublic Accounts Committee.The PAC also selected the sub-ject “Operational readiness ofIndian Air Force.

After analyzing the CAGreport, the PAC will examinethe top officials of the con-cerned Ministries before sub-mitting its report to theParliament.

The examination of pur-chase of Rafale jets is expectedto be a major point of con-tention between theGovernment and Opposition.Though the PAC is headed by

an Opposition MP, the major-ity of the members belong tothe ruling BJP.

The other important sub-jects selected by the panel arescrutinising the performanceaudit report on National RuralDrinking Water Programme,engagement of contract labourby Indian Railways, andNamami Ganga project.

The Public AccountsCommittee’s scrutiny has manyat times led to confrontationbetween the Government andOpposition.

In 2010, BJP leader MurliManohar Joshi-led PAC’s probeon 2G Scam created a furore,leading to Prime MinisterManmohan Singh suo motodeclaring that he was ready toappear before the panel, anoffer that was promptly shotdown by the Congress highcomman.

The Joshi-led panel sum-moned many cororpate bigwigsincluding Ratan Tata in theprobe related to the telecomscam. It also summoned allChiefs of Army, Air Force andNavy in connection with thescrutiny of supply in DefenceCanteens.

In recent times, the PACsheaded by Congress leaders KVThomas and MallikarjunKharge had summonedFinance Ministry officials andRBI Governors on scrutinizingthe affects of demonetisation.

The PAC consists of 15 LokSabha MPs includingChairman and seven MPs fromRajya Sabha.

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Potato yield is expected to goup by 3.4 per cent while a

dip is expected in tomato pro-duction. Onion production isexpected to remain flat at 23.28million tonne in the 2018-19crop year. The production ofvegetables and fruits is margin-ally higher this year at 0.6 per-cent as compared to last year.

According to the agricul-ture ministry’s latest advanceestimate for horticulture pro-duction, overall vegetables pro-duction is estimated to bearound 185.88 million tonne,higher than 184.39 milliontonne achieved last year.

As per estimates, the totalproduction of horticulturecrops is pegged slightly higherat 313.85 million tonne for the2018-19 crop year, as against311.71 million tonne in the pre-vious year.

“As area under horticulturecrops has remained broadly atthe same level, the higher pro-duction owes mainly to pro-

ductivity gains,” the agricultureministry said in a statement.

There is an estimatedincrease in production of fruits,vegetables, spices, flowers andhoney, whereas decline is seenin production of plantation andaromatic and medicinal cropsfrom over the last year, it added.

Among vegetables, onionoutput is expected to be 23.28million tonne in 2018-19 asagainst 23.26 million tonne inthe previous year. Tomatoproduction, on the other hand,is projected to be around 19.39million tonnes, which is 1.8 percent lower than the productionlast year. Onion is currently rul-ing between Rs 50-60 per kgwhile tomato price loweredfrom Rs 80 per kg to Rs 40-50per kg in the retail market.

According to estimates,potato production is estimatedto be around 53.03 milliontonnes -3.4 percent higher thanlast year while tomato produc-tion is down by 1.8 percent at around 19.39 milliontonnes.

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Former Union Minister TariqAnwar, who recently

returned to the Congress foldafter quitting NCP, is all set totake the command of DelhiCongress after party’s inchargefor Delhi PC Chacko in a surprise move sought to be relieved from the position.

AICC sources said thatAnwar is most likely to beassigned the charge of DelhiCongress in view of the assem-bly elections in the nationalCapital a few months fromnow.

Ever since it lost power inDelhi, the State Congress haswitnessed several turbulentphases and is yet to recoverfrom the losses due to internalbickering between severalcamps revolving aroundChacko.

Chacko had on Wednesdaymet Congress president Sonia

Gandhi and conveyed his deci-sion to quit the post on theground that he has been occu-pying it for the last four andhalf years.

The former MP, however,said he does not want to goback to Kerala politics andwants the Congress leadershipto consider him for a different assignment withinthe party.

“I have expressed my will-ingness to be relieved. I do notknow if they have decided torelieve me. If I am relieved, Iwill be happy,” said Chackowho alonwgith former DelhiCongress chief Ajay Makenwas hell bent to forge analliance with Aam Admi Partyfor the Lok Sabha polls. Theplan, however, did not materi-alize due to stiff resistancefrom Sheila Dikshit, who diedrecently.

“I have apprised party pres-ident Sonia Gandhi about mywillingness to be relieved dur-ing my meeting with her on

Tuesday in which selection ofthe Delhi Congress presidentwas discussed,” Chacko furthersaid.

Chacko said he has beenworking as AICC incharge ofDelhi Congress for the pastfour and half years and hasoverseen many elections. It istime that some new inchargetakes over along with a newpresident.

His desire to be relievedfrom the post has also beencommunicated to former partychief Rahul Gandhi. Chackosaid it was up to the party toconsider him for any otherresponsibility.

The party leader, however,rejected insinuations that hisdecision was prompted by theCongress’s massive defeat in theLok Sabha polls in Delhi thisyear.

Delhi goes to electionslater this year and the Congressis seeking to wrest power fromthe(AAP in the national capital.

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The CPI(M) Politburo onThursday said that the new

FDI policy to allow 100 percentforeign direct investment incoal mining would hit publicsector undertaking Coal IndiaLtd. Terming the Centre’s moveas reckless, the Left party saidthe new policy would enableforeign companies to plunderthe mineral resources of thecountry.

“The Polit Bureau of theCPI(M) strongly opposes thedecision of the UnionCabinet to allow 100 per centFDI in coal mining for allcommercial purposes alongwith 100 per cent FDI incontract manufacturing. Thisreckless measure will enableforeign companies to plunderthe mineral resources of ourcountry.

“This decision will alsohave a harmful effect on CoalIndia Ltd. which is the premiernational coal miner. The Modigovernment is bent upon

weakening the public sectorcoal company. It had alreadyopened coal mining to Indianprivate entities during its lasttenure. The BJP government issurrendering national controlover the mineral resourceswhich is highly detrimental tothe country’s interests,” saidPolit Bureau in a statement.

CITU general secretaryTapan Sen also termed themove as utterly retrograde andsaid it will hinder meeting ofincreasing domestic require-ment of coal both for house-hold consumption and indus-trial requirement particularly inpower, steel, fertilizers andother sectors.

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The National Human RightsCommission has issued a

notice to the Madhya PradeshGovernment over reports ofalleged botched up cataractsurgeries at an eye hospital inIndore, leading to loss of visionfor four out of 15 patientsoperated upon.

The victims also include adoctor, who went for cataractsurgery at this hospital onAugust 5. “The NationalHuman Rights Commissionhas taken suo motu cognisanceof a media report about allegedbotched up cataract surgeriesleading to loss of vision in anumber of patients at IndoreEye Hospital,” the NHRC said ina statement on Thursday.

Reportedly, four personsout of 15 who underwentcataract surgery at this hospi-tal have lost eyesigh.TheCommission has issued anotice to the chief secretary ofthe Madhya Pradesh govern-

ment seeking a detailed reportin four weeks.

The Commission hasobserved that the contents ofthe news report, if true, amountto gross violation of humanrights of the victim patients.

“Losing eyesight not onlymakes a person handicappedbut also puts the victim undertremendous stress and mentalagony. The reported incidentsindicate towards somethingterribly wrong at the particularhospital which is immediatelyrequired to be addressed so thatmore people do not suffer,” thestatement said.

It has further observed thatit is extremely necessary for thestate and district administrationto immediately look into thegrievance and take effectiveaction against the medical teampurported to have acted in a“negligent manner” causingsuch “irrevocable loss” to thevictims, and to provide reliefand rehabilitation to them, itsaid.

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The CBI has sought sanctionfrom Lok Sabha Speaker

Om Birla to prosecute three sit-ting Trinamool Congress MPsand a former parliamentarianof the party in the Narada stingoperation case.

The agency sought thesanction to prosecuteTrinamool Congress MPsSaugata Roy, Kakoli Ghoshand Prasun Banerjee, officialssaid here on Thursday.

The agency has also soughtpermission for prosecution offormer MP Suvendu Adhikariwho is currently transport min-ister in the State Government.

While Roy, 73, is a repre-sentative of Dum Dum con-stituency, Ghosh, 59, representsthe Barasat constituency andPrasun Banerjee, 64, is an MPfrom Howrah.

If the sanction is accorded,they may be named by theagency in its chargesheet in thecase which is likely to be filed

soon, sources said.The Narada sting case

relates to some TMC politiciansand West Bengal bureaucratswho were allegedly caught ontape accepting money from ajournalist posing as a repre-sentative of a private company.

All four leaders werenamed as accused in the CBIFIR filed on April 16, 2017 afternearly a month-longPreliminary Enquiry initiatedat the behest of Calcutta HighCourt.

In its FIR, the CBI hasalleged that the sting operationshows Roy, Ghosh andAdhikari accepting Rs five lakheach from the person posing asrepresentative while Banerjeecould be seen receiving Rsfour lakh for helping in a busi-ness venture.

The agency had questionedTrinamool Congress’ RajyaSabha member K D Singh inconnection with the case.

The sting was broadcast

on various channels in 2016before West Bengal Assemblypolls by Narada news editorMathew Samuel who had pro-vided the recordings to theCBI purportedly showingalleged payments received bypoliticians and senior bureau-crats of West BengalGovernment.

The CBI had booked 12top TMC leaders, includingMPs and West Bengal minis-ters, and an IPS officer in con-nection with the case.

In its FIR, the agency saidsuspect public servants wereidentified who were shown tohave either accepted money incash given by Samuel posing asa representative of a Chennai-based company or asked him tohandover the money to some-one else on their behalf.

An FIR was lodged foralleged criminal conspiracyunder the Indian Penal Codeand relevant provisions of thePrevention of Corruption Actdealing with bribery and crim-inal misconduct.

TOP TMC LEADERS SUMMONED BY CBI

Leaders like TMC strong-man and Minister SubhenduAdhikary a former MP, seniorleader and Minister SubrotoMukherjee, Madan Mitra, for-mer Kolkata Mayor andMinister Sovan Chatterjee whohas recently joined the BJP, anIPS officer have summoned bythe CBI to appear before it inKolkata within next week,sources said adding their voicesamples would be taken forforensic examination.

For his part, formerKolkata Police CommissionerRajiv Kumar who has been fac-ing investigation in Sharadachit fund case for allegedly sup-pressing evidence as the chiefof the Special InvestigationTeam was on Thursday given athree-day respite from arrest bythe Calcutta High Court.Kumar who is presently theADGP, CID has offered toappear before the Agency offi-cials on Monday.

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The Supreme CourtThursday said it will pro-

nounce on September 5 theorder on plea of former financeminister P Chidambaram inthe INX Media money laun-dering case lodged by theEnforcement Directorate.Abench of Justices R Banumathiand A S Bopanna also extend-ed interim protection fromarrest granted to Chidambaramtill next Thursday. The formerUnion minister offered beforethe bench to remain in the cus-tody of CBI till Monday.

The court refused to com-ment on it after solicitor gen-eral Tushar Mehta said thatextension of remand can onlybe done before the CBIcourt.The bench also directedthe ED to place before it in asealed cover the material whichthe probe agency wanted toproduce for the court’s perusal.

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AGujarat resident has soughtintervention of Chief Justice

Ranjan Gogoi for early hearingof criminal cases, pending forfour years in the Supreme Court,involving social activist TeestaSetalvad and her husband.

Raiskhan Azizkhan Pathan, aformer close aide of Setalvad

and who worked in her NGOCitizens for Justice and Peace(CJP), has written a letter toJustice Gogoi drawing hisattention to the two casesinvolving her and said theyhave not been listed for hear-ing after the lapse of four years.

Pathan has mentionedcriminal cases of allegedembezzlement of funds andviolations of ForeignContribution Regulation Act(FCRA) lodged againstSetalvad and her husband bythe Gujarat Police and the CBIrespectively. These matters hadreached the apex court in 2015.

He also referred to anoth-er case in which a differentNGO, Subrang Trust, run bythem, received funds from theHRD Ministry allegedly fraud-ulently and came up for hearingin the apex court in March thisyear. This matter was taggedwith the embezzlement case.

These cases are related to theanticipatory bail of the cou-ple.”Please look into the matteras to why the first cases (allegedfund embezzlement and FCRAviolation) after the lapse of fouryears could not be listed for hear-ing and why the second case isalso not coming on board,”Pathan wrote in the August 11letter to the Chief Justice of India.

Pathan, who had workedwith Setalvad for the victims ofthe 2002 riots in Gujarat butlater parted ways with her,claimed that he was the worstsufferer because of her activi-ties. In the letter, he men-tioned the issues reportedabout the management of casesby the apex court registry.

“Numerous cases of man-agement in registry of the topcourt are coming up in the pub-lic domain where your good selfhas also taken a serious note ofit. I am the worst sufferer in thehands of this lady Teesta Setalvadwho is very powerful...,” Pathanwrote to the CJI.

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The glimmering Taj Mahal,said to be at its aesthetic

best in moonlight, could nowbe thrown open after sunset forall tourists.

So far, night access to theglobally renowned monumentwas allowed at a premium onlyfor five nights in a month.

Union Tourism andCulture Minister Prahlad SinghPatel told IANS in an interviewthat the Taj Mahal will remainopen even beyond its 10.00 a.mto 6.00 p.m. public access time.

“We have been receiving alot of requests to keep themonument open during thenight hours. We are dedicatedto make this a reality,” Patelsaid.

The Tourism Ministry isalso planning to illuminate thearea around the monumentand develop other infrastruc-ture required to deal with nightrush.

Night viewing of the TajMahal is available on five daysin a month -- on full moonnight and on the two nightspreceding and following the

full moon. Only 400 tourists -- 8

batches of 50 people -- areallowed on these nights forwhich Rs 510 per adult ischarged, while a single childticket costs Rs 500. Foreignnationals have to pay Rs 750each.The Tourism Ministry iscurrently engaged in getting

clearances for the new planfrom various departments.

Taj Mahal sees an averageof 22,000 visitors a day, with thefigure running into millionsannually.The government hasdecided to extend the visitinghours of 10 popular monu-ments across India from sun-rise till 9 p.m.

The monuments areRajarani Temple Complex(Odisha), Dulhadeo Temple,Khajuraho (Madhya Pradesh),Sheikh Chilli Tomb (Haryana),Safdarjung Tomb (Delhi),Humayun’s Tomb (Delhi), thegroup of monuments atPattadakal and Gol Gumbaz(both Karnataka), the group of

temples Markanda, Chamursi(Maharashtra), Man Mahal,Vaidhshala (Uttar Pradesh)and Rani Ki Vav (Gujarat).

Prime Minister NarendraModi has welcomed the deci-sion to extend visiting hours atthese 10 sites and has linked itto the #IncredibleIndia cam-paign.

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Roadside eateries inChennai and suburban

regions would soon spotnew looks and ambiencethanks to an initiativebeing launched by theTamil Nadu Government incollaboration with celebri-ty chef K Damodaran.

There are no officialstatistics about eateries in thecity, especially those operatingfrom footpaths, walkways andpublic places. These “restau-rants” patronised by the work-ing classes and migrant work-ers were epicentres of all kindsof contagious diseases becauseof poor hygiene and sanitation.

“Big money could be madeout of eatery business as insti-tutional expenses are nil com-pared to graded restaurants andhotels. A slight tinkering hereand a small rearrangementthere would make these estab-lishments real money spin-ners,” K Damodaran told ThePioneer.

Damodaran , who wasrecently elected as the presidentof the South India Chef

Association (SICA) said he hassubmitted a comprehensiveplan to the State government tohelp the eateries to emerge asspot new looks and making thecustomers happy. “Most of theseeateries are run by people with-out any educational qualificationor professional experience. Butmost of them are good inpreparing tasty food. All we haveto do is to convince them aboutmaintaining hygiene while cook-ing and serving the dishes. Wewill make them understand theimportance of sanitation, neat-ness and hygiene which could beexecuted without major expens-es,” explained Damodaran.

He pointed out that thekind of water they use and thevessels in which they serve the

foods and how it was servedare points the SICA wouldgive emphasis. “The trainingsessions would be held byGovernment agencies whichwill take the initiative ininviting the people man-ning these eateries. Since theproprietors of these eatingplaces stand to gain in thelong run we are confidentthat they would join thisscheme,” said Damodaran.The aim is to convert the

road side eating places to that ofglobal level. “What makes theeateries in Tamil Nadu lookweak compared to other placesis the poor hygiene and sanita-tion associated with them. Mostof the people owning thesetemporary hotels do not knowthe financial potential of theseventures . Some of the eateriesin Marina Beach and T Nagarare money spinners which gen-erate thousands of rupees asprofit after a night’s sale,” said anauditor who helps the owners tomanage their money.

So, next time when youcome to Chennai , be preparedto eat in different kind ofroadside eateries which wouldbe neat, clean and hygienic.

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For the first time in the 126-year history of sarvajanik

(public) Ganeshotsav celebra-tions, a prominent associationwill unveil gigantic ‘eco-friend-ly’ idol of Lord Ganesha, herenext week.

The 22x19 feet idol, withLord Ganesha shown in a gen-tle, but striking, sitting pose,was commissioned by theTejukaya SarvajanikGaneshotsav Trust (TSGT), inthe Lalbaug area.

“After a lot of deliberations,we decided to forego the reg-ular inexpensive Plaster ofParis (PoP) idol in favour of aneco-friendly one this year. Weexpect it to be a trend-setter

and shall continue to makeonly eco-friendly idols henceforth,” TSGT vice-presi-dent Ashish C Rampure told IANS.

The approximately 1.20tonne idol has been designedand crafted by legendary artistRajan Zad, known for makinghuge idols for different organ-isations across Maharashtra.

“Initially, he made a claymould of the Tejukayacha RajaGanesh idol and then coveredthat with papier mâché, a stickymixture comprising ordinarypaper mixed with either flouror glue or water.

“Then the idol took shapewith several layers of papiermâché to make it a solid struc-ture. It’s stone-hard but can eas-

ily dissolve in water, barelywithin an hour,” Rampure said.

However, the idol cost wentup to Rs 12,00,000, against thenormal Rs 400,000 for a regu-lar clay idol of this size. The risein cost is also attributed to totalabsence of clay moulds in themarket for making eco-friend-ly Ganesh idols, and the longtime taken to dry it, accordingto Zad.

After the idol was dried, itwas painted with natural watercolours to bring out the magi-cal qualities of the LordGanesha.

The idol will be unveiledon Monday, the first day of the10-day festival of Ganeshotsavacross Maharashtra and otherparts of India.

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Large number of school-going children remained

stranded inside their class-rooms in one of the middleschools along the Line ofControl in Mendhar sector ofPoonch during heavy firing byPakistan Army early onThursday morning.

As the mortar shelling con-tinued for about two hours inthe forward area, the schoolchildren along with their teach-ers took shelter inside theirclasses to ensure their safety.

Since August 15, thePakistan Army is bent upon tar-geting civilian areas along theLine of Control (LoC) to pro-voke strong Indian retaliation.

According to eyewitnessreports, during the brief lullperiod, the school authorities,directed the children to shift tosafer places away from theschool building. Eyewitnessessaid, the children were seenrushing out of their class roomsand climbed hillocks to reachsafer places. According to offi-cial sources, no student washurt in the firing. All of themreached homes safely, officialsources said.

According to Defence PROin Jammu, Lt-Col DevendraAnand, “The Pakistan Armyinitiated ‘unprovoked’ ceasefireviolation in Mendhar sector ofPoonch around 11.30 a.m”. Hesaid Pakistan army used smallarms firing and mortar shellingto target the forward areas”.

In response, “The IndianArmy gave befitting reply andretaliated effectively andstrongly,” he added.

Meanwhile, tension pre-vailed in the forward areas asintermittent firing continuedfrom both the sides.

Indian Army has lost threejawans and one civilian inrecent incidents of ceasefireviolations. Giving befittingreply to Pakistan Army, IndianArmy too has caused heavydamages on the other side ofthe line of control anddestroyed several Pakistaniposts and inflicted heavycausalities to the PakistanArmy soldiers.

According to officialsources, Pakistan army isresorting to at least 10 ceasefireviolations in different sectorsand desperately trying to pushheavily armed group of terror-ists inside the Indian territory.Indian army too is maintainingtight vigil along the line of con-tol to foil these attempts. SinceAugust 2019, over 270 inci-dents of ceasefire violationshave been reported along theline of control in Jammu andKashmir, official sources said.

Since January 2019, over1,850 incidents of ceasefireviolations have been reportedin the region.

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Pakistan should stop “crying”unnecessarily over India’s

decision to end special status ofJammu & Kashmir and insteadfocus on dismantling terrorinfrastructure operating from itssoil, Defence Minister RajnathSingh said on Thursday.

As tension between Indiaand Pakistan escalated overthe Kashmir issue, Singh saidIslamabad does not have anylocus standi on Jammu &Kashmir and it must stop inter-fering in India’s internal affairs.

In his first visit to thisstrategically key region after theGovernment’s historic deci-sion on Jammu & Kashmir, theDefence Minister said Pakistan should now focus ongross violations of humanrights in Pakistan OccupiedKashmir (PoK), including inGilgit-Baltistan.

“I want to ask Pakistanwhen was Kashmir with youthat you keep crying about it.In fact, Pakistan is part ofIndia. On what issue are youaggrieved? Why you are unnec-essarily crying? Stop crying,”Singh said addressing an eventorganised by Defence Researchand Development Organisation(DRDO).

“Truth is that PakistanOccupied Kashmir includingGilgit-Baltistan has been underPakistan’s illegal occupation.Pakistan should focus onaddressing human rights vio-lations and atrocities in PoK,”

he added. Singh also referred toa resolution by Parliament in1994 which said entire PoK,including Gilgit-Baltistan ispart of India.

“We respected your exis-tence after Pakistan became aseparate country. It does notmean you keep saying whatev-er you want to say and keepcommenting on Kashmir in aplanned way. No country in theworld will allow it. Kashmir ispart of India and nobody hasany doubt about it,” he said.

In his address, Singh saidLadakh is a strategic area forthe country and theGovernment will ensure itsall-round development.

“Why are you concerned?

You first end terrorism in yourcountry. Pakistan is our neigh-bour. We and our prime min-ister want cordial relations withPakistan. We are for resolvingissues through dialogue. Buthow can talks take place whenyou keep trying to destabiliseIndia by using terror. The entireinternational communityknows about it,” he said.

The Defence Minister saidabrogating provisions of Article370 of the Constitution towithdraw special status ofJammu & Kashmir has been along-standing promise of theBJP and the decision was nottaken in a hurry.

“No country is withPakistan on the current issue,”

Singh said. He also cited Hindiproverb ‘begani shaadi meinAbdullah deewana’ to assertthat Pakistan had nothing to dowith Kashmir.

“There is no need toindulge in unnecessary melodyon Kashmir, to show concernover Kashmir...We respect peo-ple’s wish. People’s will prevailin any healthy democracy,”said Singh.

He said US DefenseSecretary Mark Esper, during atelephonic conversation, toldhim that abrogation of provi-sions of Article 370 was aninternal matter of India.

“When we made a law tomake Ladakh a separate UnionTerritory then we not onlyrespected the public sentimenthere but also gave a solution tothe problems of the people,”Singh said.

“Our Prime Minister hasmade it clear that localisedsolution will be brought in forIndia’s strategic areas,” he said.

Singh, who was here toattend the ‘Kisan Jawan VigyanMela’, organised by DefenceInstitute of High AltitudeResearch (DIHAR) DRDO, saidthe event is a big step towardsstrengthening the strategicecosystem in Ladakh.

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The mystery surroundingthe sudden disappearance

of a post-graduate student,who levelled harassmentcharges against BJP leaderSwami Chinmayanand, con-tinued on the sixth day as herfamily awaited any concreteinformation about her.

The woman, a student at acollege run by Chinmayanand’strust, has been missing sinceAugust 24, a day after sheposted a video on social media,alleging that the former UnionMinister was harassing andthreatening to kill her.

She had not namedChinmayanand in the videobut said “a senior leader of thesant community”. The politician,who faced similar accusations in2011 and was booked for rap-ing a woman who stayed at hisashram, has disputed the charge.

The UP Police claimed thestudent was spotted at a Delhihotel on Wednesday but hadleft the place before officialsreached there. A search isunder way to trace her.

On Thursday, Kotwalipolice station incharge PraveshSingh said the woman’s hostelroom in Shahjahanpur wassealed last evening to avoidtrespassing and evidence tam-pering. Her mother had visit-ed the hostel on August 24 afterthe news the student had beenmissing spread but she foundher room locked.

Her college’s principal toldPTI that though classes beganon August 5, she has notattended any since. He said shehad begun working at a libraryafter college hours in July 2018.

In the video she postedonline, the student alleged shehas “evidence” that the 72-year-old three-time Lok Sabhamember, who was a Minister ofState in the Atal Bihari VajpayeeGovernment, had harassed andthreatened to kill her.

Her father later filed a

written complaint, accusingChinmayanand of sexuallyharassing his daughter. But thepolitician’s lawyer Om Singhclaimed his client was beingblackmailed and had receiveda message on WhatsApp onAugust 23, the day the videosurfaced, demanding Rs 5 croreransom.

“There is not an iota oftruth in their claims,” thelawyer said. The student’smother has said she talked toChinmayanand over phoneafter visiting her hostel and hetold her he was in Haridwarand will try to find her after hisreturn to the city.

The same day, her fathersaid, the family received a callfrom the woman and she toldher mother she was fine. Herfather said he called back onthe phone number and was toldit was the reception of a hotelin Mahipalpur in Delhi. But,according to the UP Police, shewas spotted in a hotel in Delhi’sDwarka on Wednesday and shewas seen accompanying a manin the CCTV footage.

Shahjahanpur Superinten-dent of Police S Chanappa saidChinmayanand has beenbooked on charges related toabduction for murder andcriminal intimidation.

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Armed with a SupremeCourt order, CPI(M) gen-

eral secretary Sitaram Yechuryon Thursday met his ailingparty colleague MohammedYousuf Tarigami who has beenunder house arrest sinceAugust 5.

Yechury arrived here inthe afternoon and was escort-ed by police to meet Tarigamiat his Gupkar Road residencein Srinagar’s Civil Lines area.Officials said the CPI(M)leader spent nearly three hourswith Tarigami.

Yechury had landed inSrinagar on August 9, too, but

was turned away from the air-port by the State administration.It was four days after the Centreannounced the revocation ofJammu & Kashmir’s special sta-tus under Article 370.

On Wednesday, theSupreme Court rejected theCentre’s contention thatYechury’s visit may endanger

the situation in the State.“Why do you have any dif-

ficulty if a citizen of this coun-try wants to go there and meethis friend and party colleague,”a bench headed by Chief JusticeRanjan Gogoi asked SolicitorGeneral Tushar Mehta, whowas opposing Yechury’s visit.

The apex court made it

clear that Yechury was allowedto visit Jammu & Kashmironly to meet his party col-league. Attention was drawn toan interim application seekingthe court’s orders to bringTarigami to the All IndiaInstitute of Medical Sciences,New Delhi, for better medicalfacilities.

The Bench said it would beconstrued a violation of thecourt order if Yechury wasfound to be “indulging in anyother act of omission and com-mission”. In accordance withthe apex court’s direction,Yechury will be filing an affi-davit about what transpired inJammu & Kashmir.

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Congress leader RahulGandhi on Thursday

sought early compensation andspeedy rehabilitation for flood-affected people of his parlia-mentary constituencyWayanad. Rahul also attendeda meeting of local self-govern-ment members at Mambad inWandoor and said the prima-ry aim of the elected represen-tatives was to work for theinterest of the people.

He also visited the flood-hit at Odayikkal regulatorbridge area, and met the floodvictims and the business com-munity at Thiruvambady inKozhikode.

Besides his new office atKalpetta, the Wayanad MP onThursday opened his secondoffice at Mukkam and said the

doors would always remain openfor people of the constituency.

While interacting with localsat the St Claret Public Schoolhere on the third day of his visitto Wayanad, Rahul said he haddemanded Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and Kerala Chief

Minister Pinarayi Vijayan thatcompensation and relocation bedone fast and quick.

Rahul said he had beenassured that the needful wouldbe done. “United DemocraticFront (UDF) workers shouldput pressure on the Kerala

Government to ensure thatcompensation and relocation isdone quickly and fast,” he said.

The Congress MP said hecould not help but salute thespirit of people, especially chil-dren, of Wayanad, which hasbeen hit by devastating floods.“Yesterday, I met a little girl, whowas standing in front of herdamaged house, but still had asmile on her face. I asked her ifshe was scared during the floodsand her reply was no,” he said.

Pointing out that pic-turesque Wayanad hadtremendous tourism potential,he said there was need todevelop it in a sustainablemanner. “I love Kerala, butwhen people say God’s owncountry, they should think ofWayanad,” Rahul said.

He assured the people ofhis constituency that he would

raise their problems inParliament and said the issuesfaced by farmers in the regionhad been raised by him in theLower House.

The Congress leader alsomet flood-affected people atAaram Mayil in Pozhithanapanchayat. Rahul would beconcluding his four-day visit toWayanad on Friday after visiting a family who lost twoof their members and meetingthe flood affectedat Pathar andKaippini.

Heavy rain and floods hadtriggered a series of landslidesand caused havoc in the north-ern districts of Wayanad andMalappuram early this monthin which at least 125 people losttheir lives. While 60 peopledied in Malappuram, 14 losttheir lives in rain-related inci-dents in Wayanad district.

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Little did a 55-year-oldMumbai doctor suffering

from liver cancer, and a 36-year-old Kolhapur farmer putting upwith end-stage liver failure,realise till four months ago thattheir destinies would be soclosely intertwined — that theywould have successful livertransplants through exchange oftheir donor livers and becomeconnected forever.

Suffering as they were withterminal ailments, the two —the doctor and the farmer —had lost all hope of life-savingliver transplants, as the onlyavailable family donors — theirrespective wives — were of dif-ferent blood groups.

A rare donor liver exchangewas successfully performed onthem three weeks ago at Sir HNReliance Foundation Hospitalhere by a liver transplant teamheaded by renowned liver sur-geon Dr AS Soin.

Congratulating his teamfor its achievement, Hospital’sCEO Dr Tarang Gianchandanisaid that a team of 35 doctors

toiled for 14 hours in 4 operat-ing theatres to perform the twoliver transplants. “Apart fromSir HN Reliance FoundationHospital, Mumbai, only a hand-ful of other hospitals in Indiaand abroad have the infra-structure, expertise and coor-dination to pull off such achallenging case,” she said.

Dr AS Soin, Director andChief Transplant Surgeon said:“Atam (name changed) and hiswife’s blood groups were B andA and that of Bikram (namechanged) and his wife’s, A andB respectively. An exchange ofthe livers donated by eachdonor allowed us to transplantboth patients and save them.The biggest challenge in swaptransplant surgery is that allfour operations (two patientsand two donors) must takeplace simultaneously, other-wise the donor for the secondtransplant (first recipient’s rel-ative) may refuse to undergosurgery once their own lovedone has been transplanted”.

Dr Soin’s team comprisedsurgeons and anesthetistsincluding Dr Amit Rastogi, Dr

Thiagarajan, Dr Soumil Vyas,Dr Pravin Agarwal, Dr HemantMehta and Dr Vijay Vohra.

While kidney swaps arecommon, they are rare in livertransplantation as the opera-tions are far more intricate, takeeight to ten hours each, must bedone with zero error, and apartfrom blood group, also needliver size matching betweenpatients and donors.

“Out of nearly 3,100 livertransplants, we have done 43swaps in 86 patients, which isthe highest such experienceglobally,” Dr Soin said.

“We are now developing anAI-based liver exchange algo-rithm that matches incompat-ible patient-donor pairs tomaximize the number of trans-plants. In fact, we are now con-templating inter-hospital and

inter-city swap transplants. Theethics of possible swapsbetween different organdonors, for example — ‘liver fora kidney’ swap, are also beingdebated,” Dr Soin said.

Dr Chetan Bhatt, Director,Gastroenterology andHepatobiliary Sciences said:“The pre-transplant prepara-tion of both patients was verychallenging, as they were verysick – one with advanced can-cer and the other with recur-rent life-threatening bleedingand liver failure-related kidneydysfunction. Neither of themwould have survived morethan a few months without atransplant. The successfulexchange was an outstandingexample of how the sharing ofhuman suffering and joy tran-scended social barriers andunited two families.”

“The swap option is ablessing at the time of organdonor shortage,” Dr Bhatt said.

Three weeks after thetransplants, both patients andthe donors are on normal diet,convalescing well, and fastreturning to normal lives.

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In an early morning operationon Thursday, sleuths of the

National Investigation Agency(NIA), barged into multiplelocations in Coimbatore as partof its probe into reports of infil-tration by Lashkar-e-Tayyeba(LeT) into Tamil Nadu.

“The NIA is conductingraids in Coimbatore in housesUmar Farooq, Janaabar Ali,Sameena Mubin, MohammedYasir and Saddam Husseinrelating to the possible links ofthese people with Islamic Stateand LeT infiltrated terrorists inTamil Nadu,” a source on theNIA team told The Pioneer.

Residents of five personswere raided by the team of NIAofficials which reached the cityfrom its Kochi office.

Sources in NIA tod thisnewspaper that the raids werepart of the investigation into theintelligence alert of August 23about terrorists belonging to theLeT had entered various partsof Tamil Nadu to create extrem-

ist activities. Coimbatore isalready in the radar ofIntelligence and security agen-cies as there are reports thatIslamic youth were on a missionto set up the dreaded Ansarullamodule in the district.

Various parts ofCoimbatore has come under asecurity blanket as the city isall set to celebrate VinayakaChathurthui in a big way.

Though the raids lasted fornearly six hours no arrest hasbeen made with either by theNIA or the State Police. Someof the houses raided onThursday were the same ones

searched by the NIA after theAugust 23 alert.

The NIA probing the linksof Easter bombings in Sri Lankahad conducted searches at var-ious locations in Tamil Nadu aspart of its probe into the‘Ansarulla’ terror module case inJuly. During that raid five per-sons were taken into custodyfrom various places in the State,including Ramanathapuram,Theni , Coimbatore, Tirunelveliand Chennai. The five personswere arrested following the cap-ture of 11 youth in Delhi, whowere deported from a WestAsian country.

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Even as MK Stalin, the DMKpresident, continued his

slanging, Edappadi KPalaniswami, Chief Ministerof Tamil Nadu reached Londonon Thursday morning as partof his fortnight long foreigntour to the UK, the USA andthe UAE to woo investmentsfrom Tamil diaspora settled inthese countries for the indus-trial development of the State.

J News, the news channelowned by the AIADMK airedvisuals of the chief ministerclad in suit and accompaniedby Health Minister VijayBhaskar visiting head quartersof London Ambulance Servicesto get himself familiarised withthe functioning of life savingmissions undertaken by theagency. The delegation led bythe chief minister signed MoUswith the National HealthMission of Britain for cooper-ation and collaboration inhealth related issues, the chan-nel said quoting a member of

the Chief Minister’s entourage.The CM is expected to visit

the advanced dairy units in UKand USA as part of his initia-tive to set up a world class dairyunit in Salem. The verbal duelbetween the chief minister andleader of the opposition Stalinpeaked as the former boardedthe aircraft from Chennai air-port late on Wednesday.

Earlier in the day Stalin gadquestioned the purpose behindthe foreign tour of the chiefminister within seven monthsof holding the Global InvestorsMeet . “The Government hadclaimed that the GIM had suc-ceeded in attracting more thanRs 3 lakh crore worth of invest-ments to the State. If that istrue, why the chief minister isleaving on a fortnight longtour,” said Stalin while com-

menting about the first officialvisit in 20 years by a TamilNadu CM to Europe and US.

He claimed that his fatherKarunanidhi (former chiefminister) was instrumental inbringing in investments andindustries to the State withoutgoing anywhere in search ofcapital and entrepreneurs. “Allmajor industries which you seein Tamil Nadu were set up byKarunanidhi and that too bystaying in Chennai,” said Stalin.

But Palaniswamy retorted bytelling that he was an ordinaryfarmer and has no personalinterests or motives behind thetour. “ I am going abroad for theeconomic development of TamilNadu and to create jobs to theeducated youth of the State.Investors and entrepreneurs whohad come for the GIM held inJanuary had asked me to under-take a trip like this for interact-ing with industrialists based inUK and USA and hence thistour. Ill be meeting perons ofTamil origin to seek their help inthe economic development ofthe State,” the CM said.

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Telangana Health MinisterEtela Rajender, who is in

the thick of controversy overalleged ‘leaking’ of details ofChief Minister KCR’s meetingat Pragathi Bhavan last weekwith Ministers and officials todiscuss new Revenue Act torevenue employees union lead-ers, has stirred up yet anothercontroversy on Thursday.

Etela said that his Ministerpost is not a ‘bhiksha’ (alm)given by anyone to him and hegot Minister post based on hisseniority, efficiency and loyal-ty to TRS and KCR.

Etela also claimed that he isone among the owners of ‘gula-bi jenda’ (TRS flag) as he is withTRS since its inception and notlike other some other leaders inTRS, who joined from otherparties in the middle.

Etela was responding to thereports in the media that KCRis angry at him for leaking con-fidential information to rev-enue staff and CM is all set todrop Etela from his Cabinet.

Etela said, “Minister postgiven to me is not a biksha byanyone. It came in recognitionof my seniority, efficiency andloyalty to TRS and KCR. Inever sought Minister post inBC quota.”

He rubbished reports thathe got minister post under BCquota as he hails from Mudirajcommunity.

Condemning mediareports on alleged ‘leaks’ ofCM’s meeting, Etela said, “Ihave no need to give explana-tion on these cheap reports.

Everyone knows who is what.Everyone know what is EtelaRajender.”

Responding to reports thathe indulged in heavy corrup-tion as Minister for the past fiveyears due to which he couldbuild a palatial bungalow inShamirpet on city outskirts,Etela said, “If anyone provesthat I took even Rs 5,000 bribefrom anyone, I will quit polit-ical permanently. Why some-one should feel jealous of me ifI construct my own house.”

Stating that in democracyit’s the people who will decidethe fate of politicians and notleaders, Etela said, “Who is ahero, and who is a zero will beknown very soon. I am alwaysa lighting lamp. My journeywill continue.”

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Former Union FinanceMinister P Chidambaram’s

arrest in the INX Media cor-ruption and money launderingcase is “good news”, IndraniMukerjea, the prime accused inthe Sheena Bora killing case,said on Thursday.

Chidambaram was arrest-ed by the CBI on August 21 foralleged corruption in Rs 305crore clearance given to theINX Media group when he wasthe Finance Minister.

The group, once promotedby Indrani Mukerjea and herhusband Peter Mukerjea, bothin jail in the case of killing theformer’s daughter Sheena Bora,had allegedly made paymentsto a firm linked to the formerFinance Minister’s son Karti Chidambaram, the CBIearlier claimed.

“His (Chidambaram) arrestis good news. He is now cor-nered from all sides,” IndraniMukerjea told reporters whenshe was produced before a spe-cial CBI court here to attend thetrial proceedings in the SheenaBora case.

She added the bail grantedto Karti Chidambaram, who isalso an accused in the INXMedia case, should be can-celled. In July this year, sheturned approver in the caseagainst P Chidambaram andhis son and recorded her con-fessional statement.

In her statement, Mukerjeasaid she and her husband hadmet P Chidambaram at his

office in Delhi’s North Block(when he was the FinanceMinister).

She alleged that the formerUnion Minister had asked herto help his son in his businessand make overseas remittancesin lieu of granting ForeignInvestment Promotion Board(FIPB) approval to INX Media.

The CBI registered an FIRon May 15, 2017, alleging irreg-ularities in the FIPB clearancegranted to the INX mediagroup for receiving overseasfunds of Rs 305 crore in 2007during P Chidambaram’stenure as the Finance Minister.

Thereafter, the ED alsolodged a money launderingcase in this regard in 2018. PChidambaram’s son was arrest-ed by the CBI in the case inFebruary 2018. Later, the DelhiHigh Court granted him bailon March 23, 2018.

New Delhi: Amid tensions inthe South China Sea (SCS)region, India on Thursday saidit firmly stands for the freedomof navigation and over-flight,and unimpeded lawful com-merce in the internationalwaters. The assertion cameamid tensions in the region overa Chinese survey ship antago-nising Vietnam since July.

The ship sailed thoughwaters near the Spratly Islandswhere Vietnam has several oiland gas projects. Asked aboutthe issue, MEA SpokespersonRaveesh Kumar said, “SouthChina Sea is part of the globalcommons. India, therefore, hasan abiding interest in the peaceand stability in the region.”

“India firmly stands for thefreedom of navigation and over-flight, and unimpeded lawfulcommerce, in the internationalwaters, in accordance with inter-national laws, notably UNC-LOS,” he said. India believes anydifference must be resolvedpeacefully by respecting legal anddiplomatic processes, and with-out resorting to threat or use offorce, he said. PTI

Shillong: Meghalaya ChiefMinister Conrad K Sangma onThursday walked from his offi-cial residence to the venue ofthe ‘Fit India’ Movement’ func-tion here and urged the peopleof the State to walk to theiroffice, school and college atleast once in a week.

The CM announced thathe would be walking from hisofficial residence to his officeevery Wednesday and urgedone and all to follow suit. “Irequest all officials, studentsand whoever who would like tojoin this campaign to walk towork and their institutions onWednesdays,” he said.

The CM said the people areaware of fitness which has beena part of tradition and culture.“Problem is that in our day today lives and different respon-sibilities we have as a student,officer or public leader we some-times tend to forget that aspectand this programme today is toremind us to take out a certaintime in our day to remain activeand fit,” Sangma said. PTI

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The Bombay High Court tolda special NIA court here on

Thursday to conclude the trialin the September, 2008Malegaon blast case, in whichBJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur isa prime accused, expeditiously.

Neither the prosecutionnor the accused should try anddelay the trial, the judges said.

A division Bench headed byJustice Ranjit More was hearinga petition filed by SameerKulkarni, one of the accused,claiming that the trial was pro-ceeding at a snail’s pace as theprosecution summoned onlyone witness every day. “If thatwitness is unable to attend, thewhole day is wasted. Even theaccused keep filing some or theother application, which leads toadjournments,” Kulkarni said.

Sandesh Patil, the lawyer forthe National InvestigationAgency (NIA), informed thecourt that so far, 128 prosecu-tion witnesses had deposed,while 369 more were yet to tes-tify. The court, after hearing thebrief arguments, directed thespecial court to conclude thetrial as expeditiously as possible.

“We also do not want any-one, including the prosecutionand the accused, to make anyattempt to delay the trial pro-ceedings,” the court said, dis-posing of the petition. Six per-sons were killed and a hundredothers injured when a bombattached to a motorcycle wentoff near a mosque in Malegaon,a communally-sensitive townin north Maharashtra, onSeptember 29, 2008.

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Aday after a reference to LeoTolstoy’s famous work

“War and Peace” was attributedto him by a section of themedia sparked a controversy,the Bombay High Court JudgeJustice Sarang Kotwal onThursday his displeasure overthe manner in which the mediamisinterpreted the questionsposed by him to the counsel ofan accused in the Bhima-Koregaon-Elgaar Parishad casein the courtroom onWednesday.

As the daily hearing inbail applications filed by theBhima Koregaon-Elgaarparishad case began, Dr YugMohit Chaudhary, appearingfor Sudha Bharadwaj, alludedto reports in the media aboutthe hearing held in the court onWednesday and said the bookseized from Vernon Gonsalves’home was ‘War and Peace inJunglemahal’ by Biswajit Roynot Tolstoy’s “War and Peace”.

The reports in a section ofthe media had quoted JusticeKotwal as asking an activistarrested in connection BhimaKoregaon-Elgar Parishad case inthe courtroom on Wednesdayas to why he had Leo Tolstoy’sWar and Peace at his homewhen the book was “about a warin another country”.

Voicing his displeasure overthe misrepresentation of ques-tions posed by him to the aca-demic and accused VernonGonsalves in the courtroom onWednesday, Justice Kotwalsaid, “What was reported wasdisturbing, it sends a wrong sig-

nal. Before that there was ref-erence to other materials. Inever turned to War and Peace.What kind of irresponsiblereporting is this?. I hope this isclarified. But the damage hasalready been done”.

At Wednesday’s hearing,Justice had alluded to all theseized material and asked thecounsel of the accused, “Natureof the books suggests you area part of a banned organisation,why did you have these booksat home?” Since Biswajit Roy’s“War and Peace inJunglemahal” was not namedon Wednesday, those present inthe high court had presumed itwas Leo Tolstoy’s War andPeace. The fact remained thehigh court had not made ref-erence to any specific book.

Continuing his submis-sions seeking bail for his clientGonsalves, who has beenaccused under the UnlawfulActivities (Prevention) Act,senior Counsel Mihir Desai

told the court that mere pos-session of books or literaturecannot be incriminating. “Noneof these books seized from myclient’s home is banned underSection 95 of CrPC. My clientis a writer, journalist. He needscertain books for literary pur-poses.” Desai argued.

Maintaining that none ofthe witnesses had spokenagainst Gonsalves, Desai saidthat even the “hidden witness”whose statements have beenrecorded twice, had stated hehad never met his client. Theother witnesses had also saidthat they had not met or heardhis client Gonsalves.

Desai substantiated hisarguments citing several judge-ments of the Supreme Court,US Supreme Court and theHigh Court at Bombay, Delhiand Gujarat. He said that on thebasis of his arguments,Gonsalves — who had been injail for more than a year — begranted bail.

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US President Donald Trumpovercame his mercantilistinstinct to “mediate” in theIndia-Pakistan muddle andreason was restored in the

debate, albeit temporarily, given his whim-sicality and penchant for “deals.” The ini-tial hoopla to “mediate” was unnecessari-ly created by an over-enthusiastic Trump,who rode roughshod over the deliberate-ly-calibrated position articulated by previ-ous presidential regimes in deference to“bilateralism” as the preferred means toaddress India-Pakistan differences.

Trump had waded the perenniallyshort-of-facts-and-sensitivities into thesub-continental quagmire and incredulous-ly stated that he “would love to be a medi-ator”, without realising the inadvertent twistthat such a reckless statement was afford-ing. Soon, the revert to “bilateralism” as thestrategic framework was clarified by thebumbling-fumbling US President on thesidelines of the G-7 summit as he restoredAmerica’s position by stating, “I have verygood relationship with both the gentlemen(Prime Ministers Narendra Modi andImran Khan) and I’m here. I think they cando it (resolve the issue) themselves.”

Part businessman’s braggadocio andpart his genuine sovereign concern to keepthe Pakistani establishment in goodhumour — given the tactical urgency tosolicit Islamabad’s help in extricating itselfout of Afghanistan — Trump had almostacceded to the Pakistani aspiration of“internationalising” the India-Pakistandifferences instead of insisting on “bilat-eralism” between the two disagreeing par-ties as was maintained by the US for long.

The immediate battleground for theIndo-Pakistan war of words is essentiallyon the disagreeing framework of a possi-ble peaceful solution ie, should it be con-ducted in a “bilateral” manner as Indiathinks appropriate or should third-party“mediate” as is the wont on Pakistan?Legally speaking, there ought to be noambiguity as the last-standing agreementbetween the two sovereigns, overriding allprevious understandings, is the SimlaAgreement (1972) that unequivocallystates that both countries will “settle theirdifferences by peaceful means throughbilateral negotiations.”

The Simla pact also captures theessentiality of “non-interference” in eachother’s internal affairs and conducting hos-tile propaganda — features that have uni-laterally been violated by Pakistan with itsproven support to insurgencies and terrorgroups in India, with Kargil emerging asthe apogee of its misadventures and machi-nations. Today, despite much posturing tothe contrary, having been found guilty on32 counts of the total 40 parameters relat-ed to terror financing, Pakistan has beenput on the “enhanced blacklist” by the glob-al watchdog, the Financial Action Task

Force (FATF). This backdrop ofsovereign immorality, incorri-gibility and duplicity is whatunderlies the Pakistani aversionto “bilateralism.”

There are various reasonsas to why Pakistan abhors“bilateralism”. Conceptuallyand practically, the delibera-tions that are conducted in a“bilateral” framework areimplicitly more focussed,nuanced with historical per-spective and sensitivities andabove all, lead to the fastestpossible resolutions.

Ironically, the efficacy of“bilateralism” is what hauntsthe Pakistani narrative. Peacewith India is the ultimate dele-gitimiser of the troika inPakistani establishment ie, mil-itary, politicos and the clergy.The entire edifice and rationaleof the Pakistani state is basedon a regressive, competitive andflawed concept of “two-nation”theory that militates against thetenets of inclusivity, secularityand prosperity of the Indianstate.

The creation ofBangladesh in 1971 destroyedthe foundational raison d’etreof Pakistan. This was a deepwound that dangerously ques-tioned its military and the rul-ing politicos of that time and,

thus, germinated the seeds ofthe third vector of thePakistani establishment ie,clergy, to inter-mingle, mutateand atrophy the societal-polit-ical-cultural moorings of thestate. Post 1971, for BenazirBhutto to Zia-ul-Haq as alsosubsequent regimes over theresuch as the Pakistan PeoplesParty (PPP), Pakistan MuslimLeague (Nawaz) [PML-N] andnow Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf(PTI) led by Imran Khan, theunderlying, accompanyingand unsettled fixation to“even” with India by keepingthe fires burning is a predom-inant national instinct.

“Bilateralism” works onreconciliation, confidence-building steps, gradualism —all of this is an anathema to thevery existence of the Pakistanitroika/establishment. Thethird-party “mediation” allowsthe much-needed obfuscation,escalation and pandering tounrelated emotions that keepthe issue “live”, thus necessitat-ing the relevance of each of theelements of the Pakistani estab-lishment. Third-party media-tion is also sought via friend-ly and leverage-able countriesand organisations who canprovide the much-needed tilt inthe battle of positions.

Resorting to pitching theKashmir issue within theprecincts of an organisation likethe Organisation of IslamicCountries (OIC) by defaultallows Pakistan to posit thesame from a narrow religiouslens and emotion as opposed tothe reality of historical facts,agreements and any other soci-etal lens. On the other hand,the Constitutional construct ofIndia auto-rejects religiosityas a basis of difference, prefer-ence or concern. Equality of all,irrespective of their race, reli-gion or region, is theConstitutional guarantee.

“Internationalising” theKashmir issue is the only uni-fying aspiration for a nationthat is deeply polarised, com-busting and enfeebled (finan-cially, socially and economical-ly). However, Pakistan has notbeen able to replicate thewounded sense of “Palestine” asthe comparable actions of theIndian state and Israel inaddressing their respective con-cerns have been starkly differ-ent. With all its systemic flaws,occasional mistakes and mis-steps, India has always sought,invested and aspired for“peace.” This legitimises thelarger Indian narrative.

Globally, there is an

increasing amount of plain-speak, impatience and intoler-ance with roughish duplicitous-ness that naturally lends itselfto isolating nations that stillinsist on carrying on the tracksof the past.

The recent retraction ofTrump to re-suggest “bilater-alism”, the haunting silence ofthe Arab Sheikhdoms towardsthe rote Pakistani pitch onKashmir and the unrelentingpressure on Islamabad bymultilateral organisations likeFATF, are all symptomatic ofthe times that be.

Unfortunately, there is aparallel need to sustain theskeletal-structure of gover-nance in Pakistan as it is, as thealternative to this can be farworse than the one that existstoday — Libya, Iraq, andYemen are cases in point of dis-mantling imperfect structures.

Thus, it is only the collec-tive global pressure to “man-age” the Pakistani establish-ment and limit its nefariousabilities that can usher in rela-tive peace as the existing issuesare foundational, existentialand regime-sustaining.

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

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Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “Funding the economy”(August 28). It is hard to believethat the Reserve Bank of India(RBI) deferred to the CentralGovernment to the extent ofalmost emptying its coffers on itsown without any prodding fromthe beneficiary of its bonanza. Itis all too evident that the Centralbank has become lessautonomous and more pliant.

The Government was eyeingthe RBI cash for a long time andit did as a first resort what itshould have done as a last resort— taking what was saved by theRBI over the years for a “rainyday.” “Exhaust all sources ofmoney” seems to be the princi-ple followed by the ModiGovernment. That it had to tapinto RBI’s reserves is an admissionthat all is not right with the econ-omy.

It would be a grossly exagger-ated claim to say that RBI’s sur-plus cash transfer will reverse theslowdown in economic growth.At best, it might ease some of thefiscal pressure of theGovernment’s own making.Rahul Gandhi’s analogy that the

transfer of �1.76 lakh crore sur-plus from the RBI to the CentralGovernment is like “stealing aband-aid from a dispensary andsticking it on a gunshot wound”is striking and is not completelywithout substance.

The payout of �1.76 lakh

crore will make it that muchmore difficult for us to ensurefinancial stability in the event ofa global economic crisis and anintensification of trade wars. TheGovernment is sure to use a por-tion of the bonanza to meet theshortfalls in revenue collections

and recapitalise banks and it hasto make a judicious use of the bal-ance if it is to succeed in justify-ing the receipt of the windfall. Weare okay with the cash transfer ifit brings tangible benefits.

G David MiltonMaruthancode

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Sir — Recently, Congress parlia-mentarian Shashi Tharoor court-ed controversy for praising PrimeMinister Narendra Modi.Enraged at this, the Kerala unit ofthe Congress has been demand-ing its pound of flesh fromTharoor. The party wants todemonise the Prime Ministerinstead of praising him butTharoor is made of sterner stuff.He cannot be a political puppetto act as per the whims and fan-cies of the party.

He has already made it clearthat he is a true Congressman butwhatever good the Prime Ministerdoes cannot be hidden. He hasalways criticised Modi when hewent wrong. So, he is of theopinion that whatever Modi doesgood for the country must beacknowledged rather than criticis-ing it. One should not remainmyopic. Tharoor’s stand on thisissue is praiseworthy. He shouldnot be singled out or sidelined inthe party for speaking the truth.

TK NandananChennai

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In the Indian Constitution, the Governor ofa State occupies a unique position. He is, byvirtue of his oath, expected to preserve, pro-

tect and defend the Constitution of the coun-try and uphold the law. No other high func-tionary, except for the President of India, issworn in as per such phraseology.

While the oath that a Governor takes is sim-ilar to that of the President, unlike him, theGovernor is allowed a certain degree of discre-tion, albeit within constitutional limits. Forinstance, Article 163 (2) reads, “If any questionarises whether any matter is or is not a matteras respects which the Governor is by or underthis Constitution required to act in his discre-tion, the decision of the Governor in his discre-tion shall be final, and the validity of anythingdone by the Governor shall not be called in ques-tion on the ground that he ought or ought notto have acted in his discretion.”

At the time of formation of a StateGovernment, when the Chief Minister and theCouncil of Ministers are yet to be sworn in, con-stitutionally there is no one to aid and advise theGovernor as per the provisions of Article 163(1). However, over time, precedents and conven-tions have evolved which are usually followedby the Governor.

Also, in this matter, the SarkariaCommission that was set up in 1983 by theCentral Government to examine the Centre-State relationship on various portfolios and sug-gest changes within the framework of theIndian Constitution, had given some concreteadvice.

One of the key suggestions made by theCommission was that while going through theprocess of Government formation, the Governorshould select a leader who, in his opinion, is mostlikely to command a majority in the Assembly.

In this context, Article 164 (1) lays down thatthe Chief Minister shall be appointed by theGovernor and further as per Article 164 (4), aminister who for any period of six consecutivemonths, is not a member of the Legislature ofthe State, shall at the expiration of that periodcease to be a Minister.

In this context, an unprecedented situationcontinues to prevail in the sensitive State ofSikkim, where Prem Singh Tamang alias PSGolay of Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) wassworn in as the Chief Minister on May 27, 2019.The unusual thing about this swearing-in is thefact that Golay, during his tenure as Minister forAnimal Husbandry in 1996, was held guiltyunder the Prevention of Corruption Act for mis-appropriating �9.5 lakh meant for the purchaseof milch cattle. Golay’s conviction was upheldby the High Court and he was released only afterserving a one-year prison sentence last year.

This conviction and subsequent imprison-ment has brought Golay under the ambit ofSection 8 (1) (m) of the Representation of thePeople Act, 1951, entailing disqualification fora period of six years from the date of his releasefrom prison.

Perhaps it was only on account of this dis-qualification that Golay did not contest the elec-tion to the State Assembly held in April 2019.This also disqualifies him from becoming amember of the State Legislature in accordance

with the provisions of Article 173. Despite the disqualification, the SKM elect-

ed Golay as their leader and Governor GangaPrasad swore him in as the Chief Minister, beingthe leader of the party with an absolute major-ity. It is obvious that the Governor had used hisdiscretion and not followed the principles laid down by the Supreme Court in such mat-ters.

The Governor is at liberty to appoint a per-son as the Chief Minister, who may not be amember of the Legislature, at that time, provid-ed the State Legislature endorses such achoice, with the condition that he has to gethimself elected within a period of six months.

Keeping this rule in mind and in a last-ditch effort to secure his position, Golayrequested the Election Commission of Indiato waive his disqualification from contestingpolls. He cited Section 11 of the Act, whichallows the Commission to remove any disqual-ifications under Chapter 3 of the Act (whichincludes Section 8) or to reduce the period ofsuch disqualification. Golay argued that heneeded to be elected to the Assembly withinsix months of his appointment.

On the other hand, there is this case wherethe person so elected has the confidence of theHouse but is not qualified to be elected as alegislator. It was argued in late J Jayalalithaa’scase by KK Venugopal, the incumbentAttorney-General that, in a parliamentarydemocracy the will of the people must prevail.

Justice Patnaik, however, ruled inJayalalithaa’s case that with the disqualificationunder Section 8 (3) of the Representation ofPeople Act staring him in the face, the Governorwould be acting beyond his jurisdiction andagainst the constitutional inhibitions and normsin appointing a disqualified person as the ChiefMinister on the sole reasoning that he/she had

been elected as leader of the majority party.The plea taken by the SKM that the rele-

vant amending clause of the Representation ofPeople Act has since been repealed, may nothave much strength, as after the amendmenthas been incorporated in the main body of theAct and notified as such, repealing of theamending Act at a later date would not makean impact.

But this is also a matter on which the apexcourt has to take a view whether the repeal-ing of this Act was constitutional or not.

The Supreme Court, in Jayalalithaa’s case,also went on to say that the Governor was afunctionary under the Constitution and can-not, in exercise of his discretion, do anythingthat is contrary to the Constitution of the coun-try and its laws.

When requested to wait for the period ofsix months allowed under Article 164(4) toexpire before pronouncing the judgment, thecourt had taken the view that “appointment ofa person to the office of Chief Minister whois not qualified to hold it should be struckdown at the earliest.”

The situation as it prevails today is that a per-son disqualified under the law has been in theChief Minister’s chair for the last three months.It is now for the apex court to decide whetherthe discretion used by the Governor was con-stitutional or was a matter of indiscretion.

In the latter case the appointment ofSikkim’s Chief Minister and his entire Councilof Ministers would become invalid as happenedin the case of Jayalalithaa in Tamil Nadu. Whatthe future holds and what precedents will be setthrough the Golay case, only time will tell.

(The author is a former Governor and asenior advisor at the Pranab MukherjeeFoundation)

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The untimely demise of formerFinance Minister Arun Jaitleyhas been variously mourned as

the passing away of a political andlegal giant, a strategist par excellence,both in the court of law and in thepeople’s court, an erudite orator andabove all, a great human being.Jaitley’s acts of benevolence touchedmany hearts and were duly men-tioned by many people in theirremembrances.

However, there was one aspectof his personality that was not writ-ten about much, and that was Jaitley,the institution builder.

Today, the Vivekananda Instituteof Professional Studies (VIPS), theinstitution I head, ranks among the

top centres of higher educationwith state-of-the-art facilities. Eachyear, thousands of VIPS studentsenter the fields of law, media, busi-ness and the IT sector.

Unknown to them, they all havea huge debt to pay to Jaitley becauseit is due to his skills as a lawyer andhis benevolence that they got theiralma mater.

More than a decade ago, theinstitute was given a five-acre plot bythe Delhi Development Authority(DDA) for a hefty sum. However, theDDA was not forthright about thefact that there was a jhuggi clusteron the plot. The DDA intended tohand over the plot to us withoutbothering to clear the settlement, asit should have done.

We filed a suit and the mattercame up before the Delhi HighCourt. Our lawyers advised us tohire a senior advocate and suggest-ed Jaitley’s name. I was acquaintedwith Jaitley but did not know himtoo well. When I accompanied mylawyer for a meeting with Jaitley, heoffered us a cup of coffee, heard usthrough and said, “Dr Vats, I am told

that your law school is doing verywell. In fact, my son refers to thetutorials that you give to your stu-dents.” I was taken aback and did-n’t know how to react to this highpraise.

Going back to the case at hand,Jaitley told my lawyer that it wouldbe a long-drawn court battle need-ing several court appearances; nev-ertheless he would fight for the insti-tute.

Amazingly, after the first hear-ing in the matter, he told his legalclerk not to raise any bills as he wasoffering his services pro bonobecause the future of students wasat stake.

In all, there were over 20 hear-ings before the High Court andJaitley, who was a senior SupremeCourt advocate, would appear foreach of them. In case there was adelay for some reason like the DDAcounsel not turning up, he wouldsettle down in the High Court can-teen, have cups of coffee while chat-ting with the lawyers there and waitfor his turn before the Bench.

There was only one hearing for

which he did not appear as there wasa pressing meeting of the Board ofControl for Cricket in India (BCCI)in Mumbai.

On the day of the final argu-ment, Jaitley spoke with erudition,authority, conviction and aplomb fornearly 45 minutes. He concluded bysaying that the plot was meant for aneducational institution of eminenceand not for a five-star hotel, hence,the land allocating authority couldnot apply similar parameters for

handover. Needless to say, we gotrelief from the HC. It was a monu-mental judgment that forced theDDA to revise its land allocation pol-icy.

Thankfully, Jaitley’s associationwith us did not end with the case andhe began taking a keen interest in thedevelopment of VIPS. In fact, he vis-ited the VIPS campus twice after itscompletion.

His second visit to the campuswas as Finance Minister and he tookthe time out from his busy scheduleto preside over the convocationfunction. In his address, he spokelike a true scholar and impressed thefaculty and the students alike withhis knowledge of diverse issues.

His last public function too waswith us, as a few days before his 66thbirthday in December 2018, heagreed to release a book on photog-raphy published by VIPS. This booktitled Wide Angle showcased myefforts and that of the students andfaculty. Since he was recuperatingfrom a kidney transplant surgery, itwas difficult for him to travel all theway to the VIPS campus in Pitam

Pura. Jaitley requested for a venue inthe heart of Delhi and despite healthrestrictions, he arrived on time.

Once again he spoke with sim-ilar affection and enthusiasm for theinstitution he had helped build. Hespoke about the new avenues in edu-cation and how the art of photogra-phy not only encouraged creativitybut also created employment oppor-tunities.

He encouraged young minds tomove off the beaten track and lookfor newer and richer employmentavenues. Jaitley was very clear thatevening about his vision of ‘NewIndia’, which he and his long-timefriend and comrade-in-arms PrimeMinister Narendra Modi had gottogether to implement.

I am sure that Jaitley must havehelped several other institutionslike VIPS to overcome obstacles cre-ated by obdurate systems. I cannotspeak for others but for us at VIPS,he shall ever remain a guiding star.

(The writer is a former MLA andChairman, Vivekananda Institute ofProfessional Studies, GGSIPUniversity)

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The Reserve Bank’s contin-gency fund, useful in fight-

ing any exigency, has plungedto Rs 1.96 lakh crore as of June30, after the Rs 52,000 croreexcess payout to the govern-ment, says the central bank’sannual report for FY19.

The RBI board has decid-ed to transfer the excessreserves to government basedon the Bimal Jalan committeereport on the appropriate eco-nomic capital framework.

In the annual report, thecentral bank makes it clear thatas of June 30, 2019 it “stands asa central bank with one of thehighest levels of financialresilience globally.”

After the payout to the gov-ernment, “the balance in thecontingency fund as of June 30,2019 was Rs 1,96,344 crorecompared to Rs 2,32,108 croreas of June 30, 2018,” the annu-al report said.

It can be noted that theexcess capital amount of Rs52,000 crore had undershotmarket expectations of over Rs1 lakh crore, and had beenarrived at after arriving at alevel for the reserves.

As per the committee, thesurplus distribution policy tar-gets having the capital reservesbuffer in the range of 5.5-6.5percent of the entire balancesheet.

According to people in theknow, the committee had delib-erated a lot before arriving atthe level, and the 5.5 percentlevel will be sufficient to take

care in the event of the 10 topbanks going down and yetallow the RBI to play the roleof the lender of last resort.

Apart from the Rs 52,000crore, the RBI had also paid asurplus from its profit worth Rs1,23,000 crore to the govern-ment, which is virtually doublethe size of the average of recentpayouts.

Sources had on Wednesdayexplained that the higheramount was due to the gains ofRs 56,000 crore from the mas-sive open market operations, Rs21,000 crore from the changesin accounting norms of itsforex operations, while therewas also an advantage of zeroprovisions, which helped.

The annual report pub-lished Thursday says the RBIcomputed exchange gains/loss-es using weighted average costmethod resulting in an impact

of Rs 21,464 crore.It also said income from

domestic sources increased132.07 percent to Rs 1,18,078crore from Rs 50,880 crore inthe previous fiscal.

It was mainly because ofthe coupon income followingan increase in the portfolio ofrupee securities, net income oninterest under liquidity adjust-ment facility/marginal standingfacility operations due toincrease in net liquidity injec-tion to the banking system andalso write back of excess riskprovision from the contin-gency fund.

A table on expenditureexplained that the overall pro-visions plummeted more than99.5 percent to Rs 64 crorefrom a high Rs 14,190 crore inthe year-ago period as thebuffer has demarcated at muchlower but comfortable level.

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Mumbai, Aug 29 (PTI)Despite the many an effort toshift to digital payments andusher in a digital paymenteconomy, the currency in cir-culation has jumped by a hefty17 percent to Rs 21.10 lakhcrore as of March 2019, theReserve Bank says in its annu-al report for 2019.

The demand for the Rs 500bill, which is the second high-est denomination after the Rs2,000 note, has soared thehighest and now accounts forover 51 percent of the value ofcurrency in circulation, says thereport released Thursday.

“The value and volume ofbanknotes in circulationincreased by 17 percent and 6.2percent to Rs 21.10 lakh croreand 1,08,759 million pieces,respectively, in FY19,” thereport says.

It can be noted that one ofthe objectives of the note-banof November 8, 2016 renderingas much as 86 percent of theoutstanding bill useless and hada crippling impact on the econ-omy as a whole, was to encour-age digital payments and bringdown the use of cash.

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The microfinance industrywitnessed a 42.9 per cent

growth in first quarter of2019-20 over the correspond-ing period last year with thetotal loan portfolio at Rs1,90,684 crore as on June 30,2019, MicrofinanceInstitutions Network (MFIN)said in a report.

The total number ofmicrofinance loan accountsstood at 9.27 crore in April-June quarter of financial year2019-20 (as on June 30, 2019)as compared to 6.68 croreaccounts in April-June quar-ter of financial year 2018-19,MFIN, a RBI recognised self-regulatory organisation andindustry association of themicrofinance industry inIndia, said in its 30th issue ofits Micrometer report.

“The entire microfinanceindustry has witnessed agrowth of 42.9 per cent in Q1FY 2019-20 over Q1 FY 2018-19 with the total loan portfo-lio (GLP) at Rs 1,90,684 croreas on June 30, 2019,” it said.

“The larger share is pri-marily due to the merger ofBharat Financial InclusionLimited (BFIL) with IndusIndBank,” it added.

Non-Banking FinancialCompany-Micro FinanceInstitutions (NBFC-MFIs) arethe second largest provider ofmicro-credit with a loanamount outstanding of Rs57,601 crore, accounting for30.2 per cent of total industryportfolio, the report stated.

Small Finance Banks(SFBs) have a total loanamount outstanding of Rs32,406 crore with total shareof 17 per cent, NBFCs accountfor 10.8 per cent share, whileother MFIs account for 1 percent share in the microfi-nance universe.

“The increase in the loanportfolio and the loanaccounts is symbolic of theenhanced needs and growingaspirations of microfinancecustomers across the country.The fact that this growth isbalanced by an equally goodportfolio quality is importantas it reflects the industry’scommitment to grow respon-sibly,” MFIN CEO HarshShrivastava said.

Karnataka, Tamil Nadu,Bihar, Odisha and UttarPradesh are the five top statesin terms of loan amount out-standing and account for 52per cent of the total loanportfolio, as per the report

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The rupee gave up most of itslosses to close down by 3

paise at 71.80 against the UScurrency on Thursday even asuncertainty over the US-Chinatrade talks and recession fearskept investors on edge.

Losses in domestic equitymarkets and unabated foreignfund outflows hit the rupeesentiment, forex dealers said.

At the interbank foreignexchange, the rupee openedlower at 71.96 and fell furtherto the day’s low of 72.09 againstthe US dollar after inverted USyields fuelled fears of a possi-ble recession.

Positivity surrounding theUS-China trade talks afterChina indicated that it may notimmediately respond to recentUS tariff hikes helped revive thesentiment.

Chinese currency yuangained 0.20 per cent, cuttingshort its 10-day losing streakagainst the dollar.

The domestic currencytouched a high of 71.70 duringthe session before settling at

71.80, down by 3 paise.The BSE Sensex ended

382.91 points, or 1.02 per cent,lower at 37,068.93, while thebroader NSE Nifty shed 97.80points, or 0.89 per cent, to fin-ish at 10,948.30.

Foreign investors pulledout Rs 986 crore on a net basisfrom equities on Thursday,provisional exchange datashowed.

“continues to take resis-tance around 72.20 zone, untilit is trading below this the viewwill be bearish for dollar.However, further developmentsregarding US China trade warwill keep Chinese yuan, Indian

rupee and other emergingmarket currencies on edge,”Rahul Gupta, CurrencyResearch Head, Emkay GlobalFinancial Services Limited,said.

Brent crude futures, theglobal oil benchmark, declined0.08 per cent to USD 60.44 perbarrel as recession fears grippedmarkets.

The dollar index, whichgauges the greenback’s strengthagainst a basket of six curren-cies, rose 0.08 per cent to98.29.

The 10-year governmentbond yield was up at 6.58 percent.

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The National Company LawTribunal (NCLT) has

ordered start of insolvencyproceedings against NCR-based realty firm Three CProjects Ltd and also appoint-ed an Interim ResolutionProfessional (IRP) to take overthe management of the debt-ridden company.

A two-member principalbench, headed by PresidentJustice M M Kumar, admitteda plea filed by five flat buyerswho had booked homes in thecompany’s Lotus Zing projectin Noida, Uttar Pradesh.

“We are satisfied that adefault has occurred and theapplications under sub section2 of section 7 (of IBC) is com-plete,” said NCLT.

“As a sequel... This petitionis admitted and Manish KumarGupta is appointed as theInterim ResolutionProfessional,” it added.

NCLT also directed theex-management of Three CProjects to “provide all docu-ments in their possession andfurnish every information intheir knowledge” within a peri-od of one week to the IRP.

The tribunal declared amoratorium, protecting thecompany from the lenders byprohibiting them from recov-ering their dues for a certainperiod.

The NCLT order came ona petition filed by flat buyers of

the company for its projectLotus Zing, through theircounsel Aditya Parolia, Partner,PSP Legal.

Flat buyers, who are nowtreated as financial creditorsafter recent amendments in theInsolvency and BankruptcyCode (IBC), had paid money tothe realty firm as per their con-struction-linked payment planson various dates.

According to the buyeragreements, the flats were to bedelivered in 33 months in theyear 2014.

Three C Projects submittedthat the petition against it wasnot maintainable and that theproject was delayed due tovarious factors, includingdemonetisation, order fromNGT and farmers’ unrest.

However, NCLT rejectedthe builder’s argument, sayingthat “submission made by therespondents (Three C Projects)is whole unsustainable.”

According to the tribunal,

objections like water supplyinterruptions and farmers agi-tation “are merely lame excus-es to deny the claim of thefinancial creditors.”

“The maximum period of33 months has already expiredeither in 2013 or early 2014.The possession as per stipula-tion has not been handed overtill date,” the tribunal observed.

NCLT said while there wassome delay due to reasonsspecified in the clauses of thebuyer agreements, home buy-ers could not be expected towait till eternity.

“The clause cannot begiven a literal meaning to meanthat till eternity the corporatedebtor would defer possessionand the financial creditors arebound to wait.

“A reasonable construc-tion of any such clause wouldbe to grant maximum period ofone year. Even then, the pos-session should have been deliv-ered in 2015,” it said.

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US tech titan Apple onThursday said it is keen

on offering online and in-store experiences to Indianusers at par with its globalstandards and aims to open itsmaiden retail store in India.

The comments comeafter the government onWednesday eased the FDInorms for single-brand retail,offering more flexibility onlocal sourcing norms. It alsodid away a provision thatrequired companies tomandatorily set up a brick-and-mortar store before get-ting into online retail trading.

Welcoming the move,Apple in an e-mail statementsaid it looks forward to “oneday welcoming customers toIndia’s first Apple retail store”.Apple, which competes withcompanies such as OnePlusand Samsung in the premiumsmartphone category, did notspecify the timeline for itsplans.

“We love our customersin India and we’re eager toserve them online and in-store with the same experi-ence and care that Apple cus-tomers around the worldenjoy... It will take us sometime to get our plans under-way and we’ll have more toannounce at a future date,”the statement added.

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Beijing hinted Thursday itmay break the cycle of

retaliation in the trade warwith the United States, as thepunishing tariff battle threat-ens global economic growth.

Last week China and theUS exchanged the latest blowsin the year-long trade dispute,with Beijing announcing itwould hit $75 billion worth ofUS goods in retaliation forWashington taking aim atabout $300 million of its goods.

US President DonaldTrump lashed out immediate-ly in return by increasingexisting and planned tariffs ona total of $550 billion inChinese products.

“China has sufficientmeans to take counter-mea-sures, but under the currentsituation, we believe that theissue that should really bediscussed is cancelling furthertariffs on $550 billion ofChinese goods, and preventingthe trade war from continuingto escalate,” said commerceministry spokesman Gao

Feng.China has lodged a diplo-

matic protest with the USover it, Gao said.

In earlier rounds of esca-lation, Beijing had pledged tohit back at any US tariff hike.

“The escalation of thetrade war is not beneficial toChina, and it is not beneficialto the United States,” said Gao.

Trump has blown hot andcold this month, thunderinglast week that US companiesshould withdraw from Chinabut then optimistically pre-dicted a deal on Monday.

Trump’s recent, moremoderate tone helped stanchbleeding on Wall Street butwas quickly met with scepti-cism by investors, since Beijingdid not seem to share thatoptimism.

Gao stopped short of con-firming face-to-face trade talksnext month, saying “the twosides are discussing this issue”.

“The most importantthing at the moment is that thetwo sides create conditions forthe continuation of consulta-tions,” Gao said.

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The number of cases offrauds reported by banks

saw a jump of 15 per cent year-on-year basis in 2018-19, withthe amount involved increasingby 73.8 per cent in the year,RBI’s annual report showed.

In FY19, banking sectorreported 6,801 frauds involvingRs 71,542.93 crore as against5,916 cases involving Rs41,167.04 crore reported in2017-18.

Among bank groups, PSBs,which constitute the largestmarket share in bank lending,have accounted for the bulk offrauds reported in 2018-19. Itwas followed by private sectorbanks and foreign banks.

In the reporting year, state-run banks reported 3,766 casesof frauds worth Rs 64,509.43crore as against 2,885 casesinvolving Rs 38,260.8 crore.

The report said that theaverage lag between the date ofoccurrence and its detection bybanks was 22 months.

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Passenger vehicle sales inIndia is likely to decline inthe range of 4-7 per cent

this fiscal and agricultural out-put, revival in economic andindustrial growth would becritical for auto sector’s growthdespite recent governmentmeasures to rekindle demand.

The auto industry hasalready registered a 21.6 per centplus de-growth in the first fourmonths of 2019-20, ICRA said,adding that in the short-term,prevailing subdued rural andurban sentiments would matterbesides the upcoming BS-VIemission norms.

“As per ICRA’s analysis ofthe auto sector, the likely declinein passenger vehicles is esti-mated to be in the range of 4-7per cent and 0-5 per cent declinefor M&HCV trucks in FY2020,”the rating agency said in a state-ment.

The auto industry has beengrappling with a tough timesince the beginning of the sec-ond quarter of FY2018-19 andgrowth has slowed down, itadded.

Weak consumer sentimentacross urban and rural marketsdue to weak farm inflows, sub-dued agri-commodity prices,rising cost of ownership as aresult of regulatory changes

including safety, emissions, vehi-cle registration, along with a risein interest cost/EMI, haveimpacted demand.

Moreover, tight liquiditysituation among financiers,banks and especially NBFC seg-ment; revision in axle loadnorms, a slowdown in govern-ment spending on infrastructureand; uncertainty related to selec-tion between BS-IV versus BS-VI among buyers, have alsoplayed roles in the slowdown,ICRA said.

Commenting on the out-look for the sector, ICRA SeniorGroup Vice-President SubrataRay said, “In the short-term,much would depend on themeaningful demand recoverypost monsoons, especially giventhe fact that many parts of thecountry have witnessed flood-ing. Agricultural output, revival

in economic and industrialgrowth would be critical.”

It, however, remains to beseen how the auto demandrecovers during the festive sea-son and likely pre-buying in Q4FY2020, in anticipation of postBS VI price hikes, he added.

Stating that the recent stepsannounced by the governmentis a positive for the sector, Raysaid, “The liquidity supportannounced for the banking sys-tem and government spend oninfrastructure can be a signifi-cant catalyst for the automotiveindustry.”

In the long-term, thedemand drivers would beincreasing disposable income,poor public transport infra-structure and increasing financ-ing penetration in India, espe-cially in urban and semi-urbanareas, he added.

On the two-wheelers front,ICRA said growth will be con-tingent upon the introduction ofBS VI across all models fromApril 1, 2020, which will lead toprice increases across the indus-try.

“Therefore, the quantumof price hikes will be determinedby the prevailing market senti-ments and overall marketdynamics,” it added.

Overall, ICRA said it esti-mates the industry capex expen-diture to be around �5,000-6,000 crore, to be largelyincurred towards upgradation ofexisting platforms, new modelsand BS VI.

“The outlook for the indus-try is stable. Going forward,credit profile of most OEMs willcontinue to remain stable owingto modest leverage and strongliquidity position,” it added.

Ray said in the short-term,prevailing subdued rural andurban sentiments would matterbesides the upcoming regulato-ry changes regarding emission(BS VI) norms.

“Whereas the long-termchallenges pertain to high invest-ment requirements for techno-logical advancement, lack ofpolicy consensus for EV adop-tion and increasing traffic con-gestion in urban areas may leadto unforeseen regulatorychanges,” he added.

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Benchmark indices nursedlosses for the second

straight session on Thursday,dragged by heavy selling inbanking and financial stocks, asAugust series derivativesexpired amid tepid global cues.

After a highly volatile ses-sion, the 30-share BSE Sensexended 382.91 points, or 1.02per cent, lower at 37,068.93.

Similarly, the broader NSENifty shed 97.80 points, or0.89 per cent, to finish at10,948.30.

Most Asian markets endedin the red amid reports that theUS and China are preparing for

their next round of trade nego-tiations in September, whileEuropean equities opened inthe positive territory.

Top laggards among theSensex pack included YesBank, SBI, HDFC, Axis Bank,Kotak Bank, ITC, RIL, M&M,Tata Motors and ICICI Bank,losing up to 3.61 per cent.

On the other hand, SunPharma, Vedanta, NTPC,ONGC, Asian Paints, Infosysand HUL were the top gain-ers, spurting up to 5.31 percent.

Besides continued con-cerns over an impending glob-al recession, domestic marketwitnessed high volatility on the

back of weekly and monthlyexpiration of the August futuresand options (F&O) contracts,experts said.

“Further policy measuresawaited are expected to bringsome clarity over the markettrend, however for the timebeing it’s better to focus on todefensive segments like IT andpharma stocks,” said VinodNair, head of research at GeojitFinancial Services.

Sectorally, BSE bankex,finance, energy, auto, FMCGand industrials indices fell upto 1.92 per cent.

Healthcare, metal, realty,power, oil and gas, utilitiesand telecom climbed up to 1.50

per cent.The broader BSE midcap

and smallcap indices too fell upto 0.62 per cent.

Elsewhere in Asia, HangSeng, Kospi and Nikkei settledon a negative note, whileShanghai Composite Indexended in the green.

Equities in Europe weretrading significantly higher intheir respective early sessions.

Meanwhile, the Indianrupee appreciated marginally to71.73 against the US dollarintra-day.

Brent crude futures, theglobal oil benchmark, slipped0.03 per cent to USD 59.91 perbarrel.

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Gold prices on Thursdayjumped �250 to breach

the record �40,000 per 10 gramlevel for the first time at thebullion market here on strongdemand from investors amidgrowing fears of global eco-nomic slowdown.

Maintaining its record-breaking run for the secondday, gold spurted by �250 to afresh life-time high �40,220 per10 grams, according to the

All-India Sarafa Association.The precious metal had soaredby �300 to close at �39,970 per10 grams on Wednesday.

Closing in on the �50,000-mark, silver rose by �200 to�49,050 per kg on robustdemand from industrial unitsand coin makers amid strongoverseas trend.

Lingering worries over apossible global recession anduncertainty over the US-Chinatrade talks boosted the demandfor safe-haven bet gold, traders

said.Fresh buying by jewellers

ahead of the festive seasonalso aided the rally in the pre-cious metal.

HDFC Securities senioranalyst (commodities) TapanPatel said gold prices have keptthe firm trading so far onmixed global cues as inversebond yields from the US andGermany have raised econom-ic slowdown fears.

“The development onBrexit will be the next thing for

the markets to watch out whileprogress in US-China tradetalks and US Federal Reserve’sstance (on rate cuts) are con-stant factors to determine theprice trend for gold,” Pateladded.

Gold was firm in globalmarkets on possible recessionfears. Gold was trading at USD1,539 an ounce in New Yorkafter hitting a high of USD1,550 an ounce. Silver was up1.15 per cent at USD 18.63 anounce

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New Delhi (PTI): Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’sstimulus package for the automobile sector is “too little, too late”to prevent a contraction in vehicle sales, and a cut in GST ratestogether with a vehicle scrappage scheme will be needed to pre-vent the decline, Fitch Solutions Macro Research said on Thursday.In its outlook for India’s automobile sector, it said the first stim-ulus package, however, indicates that the government is willingto intervene in the sector, which offers upside risk that the nextstimulus package will be more targeted and more extensive.

Script Open High Low LTPRCOM 0.92 0.92 0.89 0.89YESBANK 59.00 59.30 55.00 57.35RBLBANK 314.65 332.70 298.40 319.40IBULHSGFIN 433.90 455.45 421.10 449.35TATAMOTORS 116.35 118.45 112.10 114.35SUNPHARMA 428.00 438.50 421.25 434.65IDEA 4.98 5.26 4.83 4.88SBIN 283.00 284.30 273.50 274.65RELIANCE 1257.95 1260.00 1235.50 1242.20TATASTEEL 334.40 342.35 328.55 335.55MARUTI 6130.00 6199.00 6060.00 6111.75ICICIBANK 411.70 411.70 399.50 404.70ICICIPRULI 420.00 425.00 414.10 422.35HDFCLIFE 545.00 550.10 540.00 541.50JINDALSTEL 95.80 96.50 91.10 94.05RPOWER 3.04 3.07 2.91 2.97DLF 162.25 166.95 161.05 164.85DHFL 48.00 49.10 46.50 47.20LICHSGFIN 416.95 418.10 405.60 414.15SPARC 152.40 157.25 151.00 153.25SPICEJET 129.15 129.90 127.00 127.90LEMONTREE 57.35 57.45 50.30 52.70JSWSTEEL 204.50 214.50 201.90 212.00ITI 68.00 74.85 68.00 71.90COALINDIA 182.90 190.10 182.00 189.00PEL 1870.00 1998.40 1836.00 1981.95BANKBARODA 93.90 95.90 91.40 91.90RELCAPITAL 34.00 34.80 32.40 34.20BOMDYEING 79.10 83.65 77.80 79.25ERIS 378.10 381.50 357.80 373.30VEDL 133.00 137.95 130.85 135.80HINDPETRO 265.00 268.95 260.70 266.35RELINFRA 37.40 38.10 35.00 36.20LT 1340.00 1354.80 1333.00 1342.85HDFCBANK 2249.90 2254.50 2221.00 2227.60SUZLON 4.13 4.13 3.64 3.67INDUSINDBK 1361.50 1380.00 1338.50 1351.20BEL 103.95 106.35 100.80 104.70ESCORTS 489.60 521.30 487.25 517.75INFY 798.90 809.65 796.00 806.85HDFCAMC 2398.70 2454.90 2371.05 2432.25UJJIVAN 283.90 294.90 280.75 294.00BAJFINANCE 3352.00 3352.00 3277.00 3299.45HDFC 2175.10 2176.40 2121.05 2128.55STRTECH 122.90 122.90 113.35 114.65AXISBANK 676.50 676.50 658.70 660.95L&TFH 95.50 95.90 91.90 93.05JUSTDIAL 707.05 714.40 695.90 699.55TATAGLOBAL 282.90 282.90 271.60 274.40IBREALEST 72.00 72.00 66.35 67.45ITC 244.50 245.45 240.35 241.40ONGC 121.00 124.25 119.55 123.40SRTRANSFIN 986.00 999.05 960.10 969.00NBCC 35.50 37.15 34.85 36.60ASHOKLEY 66.30 66.30 64.40 65.75EDELWEISS 117.50 119.95 114.75 116.60SAIL 30.80 31.75 30.05 31.35COLPAL 1216.00 1258.65 1213.00 1252.60MARICO 391.00 391.00 384.30 390.55PNB 65.45 66.20 63.75 65.10GMRINFRA 15.85 15.85 14.79 15.10HINDUNILVR 1822.00 1842.40 1814.50 1830.25HEXAWARE 388.55 392.60 378.60 391.75IOC 122.60 128.00 121.55 124.95TCS 2239.00 2248.00 2222.05 2233.30IBVENTURES 181.00 182.40 169.00 172.45BIOCON 220.60 228.80 219.30 227.80TITAN 1119.00 1119.00 1096.50 1107.00DBL 374.40 376.20 351.80 363.00DISHTV 22.55 23.30 21.40 22.30RAYMOND 577.00 577.00 547.15 562.00NTPC 119.90 124.15 118.00 123.05GRAPHITE 281.40 281.40 273.00 273.80KOTAKBANK 1474.60 1479.00 1447.00 1450.30FEDERALBNK 81.85 81.85 79.25 80.40OBEROIRLTY 541.75 556.40 534.00 548.35ZEEL 362.90 366.95 358.55 362.40TATAPOWER 55.40 56.00 54.50 55.60CANBK 225.80 226.75 217.70 220.70MOTHERSUMI 97.75 98.70 95.00 96.70NCC 59.40 59.40 55.00 56.05HEG 931.10 955.00 915.00 922.00M&M 539.90 544.20 524.75 528.20RNAM 278.90 283.80 268.15 271.50HAVELLS 663.55 676.05 655.05 665.95PCJEWELLER 35.80 35.80 32.35 33.30UFLEX 210.60 212.55 205.55 207.50ACC 1527.35 1546.00 1495.00 1502.80BBTC 889.90 917.65 855.00 860.75HINDALCO 176.00 180.90 175.00 179.65DMART 1550.00 1574.00 1533.35 1554.40ADANIENT 138.00 138.25 130.40 132.40BRITANNIA 2709.90 2731.65 2652.55 2691.95GLENMARK 377.00 385.30 376.20 385.30EQUITAS 103.00 109.90 103.00 108.30NIITTECH 1505.10 1528.50 1472.00 1516.65GNFC 180.25 181.00 175.20 176.60BANKINDIA 67.70 68.00 64.65 65.85IPCALAB 931.95 948.40 904.95 937.60AMARAJABAT 611.30 614.00 580.85 610.10SWANENERGY 110.00 114.55 110.00 112.30NESTLEIND 12620.00 12887.00 12620.00 12727.60PFC 102.10 103.20 98.75 100.80TATACHEM 570.00 575.00 557.55 575.00TATAELXSI 649.55 650.65 626.65 629.45MINDACORP 91.05 105.60 87.25 98.00MUTHOOTFIN 619.80 619.80 593.80 616.50ASIANPAINT 1604.00 1620.00 1589.50 1613.60ADANIPOWER 59.15 59.60 56.10 57.35

RITES 227.00 227.00 220.95 222.10BHARTIARTL 343.70 349.70 341.25 344.75STAR 376.20 380.00 365.70 371.20TATAMTRDVR 53.70 53.90 51.15 52.90UPL 558.00 563.00 550.60 558.25PETRONET 261.05 264.50 258.80 264.50WOCKPHARMA 250.00 250.00 242.50 245.10HEROMOTOCO 2570.00 2577.00 2537.20 2548.35MMTC 19.30 21.30 19.00 20.55CANFINHOME 404.65 416.90 394.20 399.05TECHM 691.25 693.75 680.90 692.00ICICIGI 1250.00 1253.90 1225.00 1232.00WIPRO 247.50 250.20 247.20 249.00JUBLFOOD 1177.65 1214.20 1172.00 1201.00APOLLOTYRE 168.30 172.45 167.75 168.25ULTRACEMCO 4192.00 4192.00 4048.35 4072.90EICHERMOT 15811.30 16700.00 15811.30 16520.50GRASIM 713.20 713.20 695.00 709.25SOBHA 529.90 540.30 518.35 536.90NMDC 80.50 81.50 77.25 79.50IDFCFIRSTB 42.75 43.40 41.70 42.90SBILIFE 827.95 839.55 821.50 837.00MCX 937.10 960.00 931.10 940.95BPCL 350.95 357.10 346.40 354.50JUBILANT 417.00 430.00 413.25 429.05NOCIL 90.65 90.65 87.30 87.85RADICO 301.95 308.80 293.00 302.80J&KBANK 38.00 38.00 35.85 36.85INDIGO 1660.00 1667.35 1641.25 1660.35M&MFIN 320.20 321.70 311.30 314.75BHEL 51.25 51.50 50.05 50.60IDBI 26.65 26.70 25.70 26.15HCLTECH 1120.00 1125.00 1110.00 1117.70BAJAJFINSV 7050.00 7050.10 6935.05 6981.55SUNTECK 452.00 472.40 442.80 471.00KEC 242.50 246.60 230.35 243.60BEML 804.20 821.45 792.65 795.50CIPLA 464.00 468.25 456.90 464.45AUROPHARMA 592.00 596.50 584.30 591.00UNIONBANK 60.50 60.65 58.55 59.70REPCOHOME 316.00 318.10 308.20 308.20OIL 143.40 150.30 142.90 147.00PIDILITIND 1395.00 1395.00 1359.15 1382.00POWERGRID 205.90 206.90 203.70 205.40

ADANITRANS 235.60 237.00 234.00 237.00HINDCOPPER 31.00 32.80 30.75 31.85INFRATEL 250.45 263.65 245.45 259.55INDIACEM 75.50 76.65 73.50 75.65APOLLOHOSP 1524.00 1529.25 1506.25 1525.00KTKBANK 77.50 77.50 74.60 75.15DABUR 433.40 444.65 431.85 442.65DRREDDY 2521.00 2535.00 2495.40 2533.00CHOLAFIN 266.95 272.75 261.50 267.90FCONSUMER 28.80 28.80 26.80 27.70SRF 2760.00 2785.50 2729.70 2746.80VOLTAS 626.00 631.95 617.30 630.75JAICORPLTD 74.00 75.60 72.65 73.95GRUH 252.00 252.60 245.10 249.95MGL 852.00 852.00 841.00 847.25AJANTPHARM 997.00 1008.85 983.35 1005.25PVR 1570.00 1581.00 1526.25 1536.00BATAINDIA 1509.00 1515.00 1492.00 1514.40GAIL 128.05 129.35 126.45 128.75RAJESHEXPO 700.00 711.35 693.50 708.00NATIONALUM 39.70 40.35 39.00 40.15GODFRYPHLP 1034.00 1061.10 1019.40 1021.55MANAPPURAM 120.70 122.90 119.25 122.20WESTLIFE 281.05 286.00 279.00 282.30CASTROLIND 123.60 123.75 120.25 121.60DELTACORP 169.95 169.95 162.60 163.40DCBBANK 198.90 202.00 198.70 199.50AEGISLOG 194.15 194.30 186.70 189.35BAJAJ-AUTO 2783.00 2786.25 2740.05 2757.45ABCAPITAL 87.95 88.90 86.50 88.60CADILAHC 221.90 222.80 217.20 219.80HEIDELBERG 200.00 204.60 196.80 197.95FORCEMOT 1250.70 1250.70 1214.00 1218.45GODREJPROP 890.40 906.90 890.00 900.70RCF 41.65 42.45 40.50 40.65AMBUJACEM 203.65 205.00 199.50 200.10BERGEPAINT 364.30 371.50 363.20 370.30

ENGINERSIN 104.00 106.45 103.35 106.05FSL 47.90 48.30 47.40 48.00BHARATFORG 388.80 391.05 381.45 383.70TRENT 482.25 485.00 467.00 469.70SUVEN 255.50 262.00 255.00 258.00MAHINDCIE 159.05 159.90 145.25 153.30GODREJIND 425.05 427.30 420.75 422.25TIINDIA 341.05 341.05 333.00 333.00ADANIGAS 146.45 147.45 143.30 143.30IGL 333.30 333.30 326.00 328.65UBL 1322.00 1376.25 1322.00 1376.25SUNTV 443.00 448.60 431.40 438.30THOMASCOOK 140.00 140.00 131.50 133.65REDINGTON 113.00 113.00 104.05 108.75ADANIPORTS 365.10 370.30 361.25 366.20DIVISLAB 1585.35 1631.75 1572.10 1621.45TVSMOTOR 357.30 358.35 350.00 353.70NLCINDIA 55.00 55.10 49.15 50.70BLISSGVS 101.00 105.35 95.30 102.25INTELLECT 212.20 217.55 211.30 212.05KNRCON 220.00 220.00 206.20 214.75SOUTHBANK 11.25 11.25 10.90 11.06LUPIN 730.00 740.50 729.00 735.05SIEMENS 1176.00 1191.25 1161.30 1174.40KAJARIACER 471.00 473.90 465.60 470.00JINDALSAW 66.45 67.60 66.00 67.10HATHWAY 33.65 34.80 31.75 32.60IRB 78.65 81.50 77.75 79.85CENTURYTEX 846.50 855.95 837.60 844.35GODREJCP 601.00 605.30 594.50 601.95MOIL 125.00 129.50 122.20 126.60HUDCO 36.50 37.75 35.70 36.70ABB 1351.60 1360.20 1328.70 1335.00HSCL 79.15 79.65 76.55 77.40BANDHANBNK 472.70 475.30 460.60 466.85RECLTD 140.75 140.75 136.90 138.75NHPC 23.20 23.20 22.95 22.95PHILIPCARB 113.90 115.60 110.65 111.70KANSAINER 475.00 475.50 461.60 463.05INDIANB 192.60 194.50 190.15 191.00CEATLTD 904.60 917.50 900.55 917.00MINDTREE 676.35 691.50 671.00 687.05PNBHOUSING 649.90 654.60 640.20 650.30VENKYS 1370.35 1375.00 1342.25 1365.00HINDZINC 210.85 214.70 209.30 212.95AVANTI 308.15 309.75 304.40 306.90SYNGENE 302.40 306.20 301.10 305.80GSPL 220.70 221.50 218.00 220.00GSFC 72.50 74.80 72.50 74.50TATACOFFEE 75.00 75.90 72.90 73.60MINDAIND 334.50 337.35 324.60 329.50JSWENERGY 67.10 67.90 66.60 67.80TAKE 119.00 119.55 115.50 117.60PTC 58.00 58.00 55.85 55.95CONCOR 483.90 499.90 482.55 497.00RAIN 79.75 80.75 78.25 79.15VIPIND 411.15 427.15 411.00 421.05BALKRISIND 744.75 753.25 741.00 745.00LTTS 1592.10 1614.00 1589.00 1608.00JKTYRE 58.00 58.00 55.70 57.40DEEPAKFERT 82.15 83.65 79.10 79.95TORNTPOWER 280.45 281.50 276.10 277.10CHAMBLFERT 153.05 157.25 153.00 153.95BAJAJELEC 391.05 397.00 388.15 388.15GRANULES 92.70 92.85 90.50 90.55WELCORP 117.45 120.20 117.40 118.85LAKSHVILAS 38.85 39.35 38.75 38.75GICHSGFIN 180.00 180.00 173.60 177.00EXIDEIND 178.00 179.25 175.90 176.80ALBK 34.60 34.65 33.55 33.65TATACOMM 413.00 443.50 413.00 417.50ENDURANCE 890.80 915.00 877.40 880.00LAOPALA 176.00 188.00 168.30 177.60IFCI 7.17 7.17 7.00 7.09ESSELPRO 94.00 99.00 94.00 97.45EIHOTEL 160.60 160.95 157.95 160.00SUPRAJIT 169.60 171.95 169.60 170.95CARERATING 563.25 563.25 527.45 529.55NAUKRI 1995.00 2038.50 1980.95 2005.00MRPL 46.30 46.60 45.70 46.00DEEPAKNI 279.50 287.35 278.10 280.55ITDC 173.00 181.70 171.00 172.60NETWORK18 23.00 23.00 21.50 22.30MFSL 430.75 430.85 422.90 425.95CUB 193.80 194.50 190.80 193.85ASTRAZEN 1872.00 1872.00 1835.20 1835.20GESHIP* 238.10 242.50 236.55 239.25LTI 1636.85 1654.00 1626.55 1627.00BALMLAWRIE 174.00 174.35 170.70 172.60PIIND 1115.00 1119.00 1092.00 1092.00ORIENTBANK 68.00 69.90 66.30 69.90RELAXO 447.05 456.00 446.35 454.90SCI 28.25 28.45 27.30 27.60KALPATPOWR 437.00 454.20 436.00 448.25OMAXE 195.85 195.85 193.50 193.80COFFEEDAY 78.65 78.65 78.65 78.65ADANIGREEN 43.80 44.30 43.05 43.50OFSS 3045.00 3049.95 2881.20 2987.35AUBANK 670.00 671.00 658.00 662.20JYOTHYLAB 145.35 145.75 143.00 143.15TRIDENT 56.65 56.65 55.15 55.40QUESS 465.05 466.85 461.00 462.35FRETAIL 397.00 397.00 389.80 394.65KEI 468.00 473.60 464.95 464.95INDHOTEL 137.00 139.50 134.40 138.90NAVINFLUOR 718.40 732.55 700.00 714.70CUMMINSIND 571.45 575.00 562.45 568.15EMAMILTD 297.00 303.00 292.00 294.40ABFRL 190.80 192.00 187.80 189.85SJVN 24.15 24.40 23.85 24.00

JAMNAAUTO 32.85 33.05 32.15 32.25IRCON 340.00 344.00 333.30 336.95DCAL 170.00 170.00 165.60 167.65JPASSOCIAT 2.05 2.18 1.95 2.13SADBHAV 129.90 132.60 128.55 131.95INOXLEISUR 280.00 293.00 262.85 266.90VINATIORGA 2179.50 2214.00 2169.15 2184.00JKLAKSHMI 323.00 330.00 321.25 323.25GUJALKALI 396.40 397.40 385.05 387.20TV18BRDCST 22.30 22.30 20.30 20.45ATUL 3496.95 3512.60 3455.35 3491.00HFCL 18.70 18.90 18.65 18.70TIMETECHNO 65.05 65.05 61.00 61.70IBULISL 86.75 86.75 83.25 84.00CYIENT 432.05 434.70 428.00 428.15DCMSHRIRAM 391.55 397.25 384.20 388.25BAJAJHLDNG 3290.10 3320.00 3290.10 3312.45TATAINVEST 766.80 775.00 754.35 757.90RAMCOCEM 748.45 751.80 734.85 741.60JAGRAN 63.85 64.90 63.00 64.00IDFC 33.60 34.10 33.10 34.00BAYERCROP 3100.00 3118.00 3072.25 3118.00EIDPARRY 154.05 156.35 152.15 154.90THYROCARE 467.05 474.80 460.10 461.10PAGEIND 18023.85 18179.30 17771.40 17908.40PGHL 4310.00 4332.70 4189.10 4189.10TORNTPHARM 1674.95 1692.35 1660.00 1682.55GODREJAGRO 455.00 459.80 447.00 447.00WHIRLPOOL 1542.20 1552.95 1538.75 1550.85IFBIND 659.65 687.60 659.65 677.15INFIBEAM 39.45 40.00 39.30 39.55TVTODAY 314.35 320.40 302.60 304.85FINCABLES 363.80 364.25 360.00 362.50MOTILALOFS 590.00 590.00 565.00 579.90GILLETTE 7000.00 7118.55 6995.00 7114.50SONATSOFTW 318.00 319.60 314.30 315.00NATCOPHARM 538.70 544.70 534.35 540.00WABAG 281.35 281.40 275.50 277.35PERSISTENT 541.30 543.95 532.00 533.85PARAGMILK 136.50 140.10 136.50 139.00NILKAMAL 980.00 987.60 972.00 982.00PHOENIXLTD 687.60 690.00 680.00 685.00JSLHISAR 62.90 63.35 61.05 61.05MPHASIS 969.65 971.25 963.00 971.25ZYDUSWELL 1650.00 1655.00 1623.70 1631.45ADVENZYMES 148.50 148.50 142.00 145.70SHANKARA 261.70 272.80 246.00 265.00NIACL 106.15 107.55 104.35 107.55BOSCHLTD 14202.00 14303.00 13865.25 14008.10GALAXYSURF 1299.95 1313.30 1269.15 1273.00GDL 98.55 98.55 96.10 96.20RALLIS 156.40 157.25 153.80 154.30GICRE 171.55 171.55 166.50 169.60SYMPHONY 1236.65 1243.55 1226.75 1226.75MEGH 45.90 46.05 45.10 45.25PRESTIGE 298.05 298.05 289.50 294.65KRBL 221.50 223.45 218.80 218.80VGUARD 228.50 229.70 224.80 229.70CORPBANK 17.40 20.60 17.00 17.25SHREECEM 19210.00 19210.00 18410.45 18502.20ASTRAL 1313.70 1315.00 1275.85 1280.00TIMKEN 690.00 706.10 690.00 705.95TEJASNET 81.50 82.40 77.70 80.50INOXWIND 34.20 35.00 31.00 31.40LALPATHLAB 1171.50 1194.25 1171.50 1194.25SANOFI 5950.00 6025.00 5948.30 5950.00ABBOTINDIA 9022.10 9125.00 9022.10 9125.00CROMPTON 226.35 227.50 225.50 225.65MAHSEAMLES 375.90 398.30 371.00 373.40ASTERDM 117.10 118.00 116.00 116.40MAXINDIA 62.00 62.00 58.50 60.00TATAMETALI 505.45 513.90 501.00 501.40CENTRALBK 19.85 19.85 18.90 19.05HERITGFOOD 331.25 350.00 330.25 344.00UCOBANK 15.20 15.20 14.75 14.75ISEC 228.00 228.00 223.30 228.00SCHNEIDER 77.10 77.65 75.25 75.50GLAXO 1200.00 1200.00 1187.00 1195.00ASHOKA 99.50 99.50 95.25 95.70FLFL 436.75 446.95 428.05 429.00FORTIS 121.35 124.55 121.35 121.85APARINDS 547.15 549.65 534.90 534.90JMFINANCIL 71.75 71.90 70.65 71.30SYNDIBANK 30.40 31.00 30.00 31.00VBL 647.35 653.95 642.60 647.55CHOLAHLDNG 443.55 447.95 430.00 433.65ANDHRABANK 18.95 18.95 18.00 18.25SKFINDIA 1843.05 1865.00 1843.05 1862.30TNPL 191.00 191.90 188.55 190.90SHILPAMED 218.05 224.35 207.90 207.90APLLTD 496.90 499.10 495.05 498.55MAHABANK 12.79 12.79 11.70 11.80BLUESTARCO 740.30 740.30 722.00 722.00JKCEMENT 1057.65 1064.00 1035.00 1064.00BDL 281.00 284.40 275.05 279.50GEPIL 780.50 802.15 771.30 772.00JISLJALEQS 19.85 19.85 19.40 19.55MAHLOG 340.00 344.30 336.75 340.00LINDEINDIA 509.90 510.00 491.20 496.00LAXMIMACH 3721.85 3758.70 3690.00 3705.00IOB 10.10 10.10 9.90 10.00LUXIND 1049.00 1074.65 1040.50 1062.15GREAVESCOT 124.20 125.00 122.35 123.00ITDCEM 69.90 70.10 68.40 69.75HONAUT 24724.15 24874.75 24528.20 24675.00PNCINFRA 179.00 179.75 175.10 175.20CENTURYPLY 134.10 135.00 131.50 131.80AAVAS 1537.45 1550.00 1478.30 1550.00COROMANDEL 382.00 387.30 373.75 386.30MRF 57650.00 57938.90 57300.00 57616.95

JSL 29.85 30.65 29.60 30.65JETAIRWAYS 41.75 41.75 41.75 41.75PFIZER 2917.45 2919.50 2880.00 2896.40TTKPRESTIG 5690.00 5794.40 5690.00 5751.10BASF 1021.05 1035.00 1014.00 1020.95FINOLEXIND 505.85 514.75 505.00 508.00SUNDRMFAST 422.05 428.00 421.40 428.00GUJGAS 179.00 179.00 175.80 177.00VMART 1924.70 1924.70 1823.00 1920.80ORIENTCEM 82.00 82.15 80.20 80.20NH 233.05 234.75 230.45 234.75APLAPOLLO 1264.00 1283.95 1246.40 1283.95BIRLACORPN 535.40 541.55 527.00 532.40CAPPL 411.90 416.00 411.50 413.00HAL 644.20 653.35 644.20 652.50GET&D 152.00 154.00 149.45 152.95WELSPUNIND 48.60 49.25 48.50 49.25MHRIL 213.55 217.30 213.15 214.50DBCORP 136.00 138.00 134.85 135.80SUDARSCHEM 313.35 319.00 313.35 315.60GHCL 195.35 197.20 192.50 193.50SOLARINDS 1156.50 1163.50 1103.85 1107.00VTL 886.40 890.25 874.65 877.00GAYAPROJ 109.70 109.70 103.10 107.75MAHLIFE 370.00 373.95 369.00 369.25SHK 129.25 132.90 128.75 129.05VARROC 438.65 448.00 429.75 436.80MAHSCOOTER 4000.00 4000.00 3832.20 3851.00BAJAJCON 255.00 255.15 250.35 254.85CCL 242.35 242.45 237.05 237.05CENTRUM 27.55 27.55 26.30 26.30SREINFRA 10.97 11.21 10.78 11.00COCHINSHIP 343.25 346.45 343.25 345.00IEX 132.95 132.95 128.90 131.70TEAMLEASE 2743.85 2754.80 2703.50 2754.80ALKEM 1821.70 1827.00 1806.55 1813.85CRISIL 1295.95 1299.10 1271.50 1271.55THERMAX 1013.15 1015.00 1002.00 1008.90EVEREADY 81.50 83.00 80.30 80.50LAURUSLABS 327.50 330.20 327.40 328.50GSKCONS 7932.80 7932.90 7836.00 7920.00GULFOILLUB 851.95 851.95 825.45 835.00SOMANYCERA 289.00 294.40 287.00 290.00TCNSBRANDS 680.35 684.45 660.40 660.40CHENNPETRO 186.05 188.35 186.00 187.20PGHH 10048.05 10180.00 10002.55 10050.00MAGMA 68.00 68.00 65.75 65.75SUPREMEIND 1110.05 1110.05 1092.30 1099.00PRSMJOHNSN 87.90 89.10 87.35 87.85DHANUKA 314.80 318.50 313.00 313.00ECLERX 456.00 457.90 448.50 450.35JBCHEPHARM 376.50 378.00 375.05 377.70ALLCARGO 92.10 93.05 90.15 90.35SHRIRAMCIT 1369.10 1373.10 1340.10 1348.75AIAENG 1543.40 1570.55 1540.00 1540.00KPRMILL 567.85 568.90 552.20 555.20MONSANTO 2055.65 2059.90 2007.25 2050.00RATNAMANI 911.50 929.80 910.20 924.75CGPOWER 9.95 9.95 9.95 9.95TVSSRICHAK 1741.00 1782.70 1740.45 1782.70UNITEDBNK 9.48 9.57 9.43 9.47NESCO 527.00 529.25 524.00 527.65JSWHL 2705.15 2800.00 2700.00 2700.00HIMATSEIDE 128.05 132.45 127.40 128.90GMDCLTD 65.05 65.05 63.10 63.15GRINDWELL 543.75 547.20 543.10 543.55AKZOINDIA 1704.00 1705.50 1698.25 1700.00ZENSARTECH 221.10 224.00 219.15 224.00JCHAC 1605.00 1620.05 1551.25 1575.10FDC 160.30 161.15 159.00 160.10SIS 758.50 768.70 749.00 751.25ASAHIINDIA 185.55 186.45 181.55 186.45CARBORUNIV 285.35 285.35 280.75 281.50ORIENTELEC 151.65 155.40 151.65 154.35MASFIN 594.60 594.60 580.00 585.45CREDITACC 520.00 525.30 519.90 524.20ELGIEQUIP 244.00 244.00 240.30 244.003MINDIA 20509.70 20769.45 20383.75 20412.05STARCEMENT 97.45 97.45 95.00 95.00SCHAEFFLER 4070.00 4115.10 4000.20 4023.20GPPL 79.00 79.00 78.10 78.15WABCOINDIA 6130.00 6135.50 6077.95 6133.80TRITURBINE 101.00 102.45 100.00 100.00SHOPERSTOP 390.75 398.95 390.00 394.15NBVENTURES 81.30 82.40 80.30 80.30INDOSTAR 281.90 283.00 281.00 281.15SFL 1224.35 1253.60 1205.00 1241.75FINEORG 1429.95 1429.95 1410.00 1417.10HATSUN 588.95 601.75 588.95 594.45CERA 2498.00 2498.00 2477.85 2495.00BLUEDART 2211.00 2229.20 2207.00 2207.00

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SCRIP OPEN HIgh LOW LTP CHANGENIFTY 50 10996.05 11021.10 10922.40 10948.30 -97.80SUNPHARMA 428.00 438.60 421.10 434.00 20.90INFRATEL 246.35 264.35 245.35 257.40 8.60JSWSTEEL 203.80 214.55 201.75 212.00 6.25VEDL 132.70 137.95 130.80 135.80 3.45COALINDIA 183.30 190.30 182.10 189.75 4.70NTPC 118.75 124.15 117.90 122.80 2.90ONGC 120.00 124.25 119.50 123.50 2.30EICHERMOT 16299.00 16700.00 16137.65 16538.70 241.25IOC 123.20 128.20 121.55 124.65 1.75GAIL 127.15 129.40 126.50 129.10 1.05ASIANPAINT 1602.85 1619.90 1589.00 1616.00 12.85MARUTI 6103.40 6198.00 6065.00 6150.00 46.60INFY 795.50 809.70 795.50 808.30 5.80BPCL 350.80 357.40 346.50 352.85 2.30DRREDDY 2515.00 2535.00 2493.95 2527.85 15.75HINDALCO 176.80 180.90 174.90 179.25 0.85HINDUNILVR 1817.00 1843.65 1814.10 1836.00 7.90TECHM 684.15 694.00 681.00 692.00 1.80UPL 558.00 562.65 550.20 558.40 1.40ADANIPORTS 367.00 370.30 361.30 366.65 0.70TATASTEEL 334.00 342.65 328.60 337.35 0.40POWERGRID 205.75 206.80 203.65 205.65 -0.10LT 1339.90 1355.00 1332.25 1344.00 -0.65CIPLA 465.50 468.00 456.55 463.75 -0.50BAJAJ-AUTO 2762.00 2786.75 2738.40 2760.00 -6.75TCS 2222.20 2248.20 2222.20 2232.00 -7.25TITAN 1111.50 1115.00 1096.55 1107.00 -3.95WIPRO 247.05 250.25 247.05 248.30 -0.95BHARTIARTL 342.35 349.75 341.15 344.40 -1.40BRITANNIA 2703.20 2737.00 2651.50 2690.00 -13.10IBULHSGFIN 432.00 455.70 420.80 455.00 -2.25BAJAJFINSV 7025.00 7055.00 6931.20 6997.00 -38.95HCLTECH 1113.00 1125.70 1110.00 1117.15 -6.80GRASIM 713.50 713.50 695.00 709.00 -4.50HEROMOTOCO2564.90 2577.80 2533.30 2550.00 -18.50INDUSINDBK 1357.00 1381.00 1338.00 1355.00 -10.85BAJFINANCE 3323.70 3330.00 3276.00 3296.00 -30.35HDFCBANK 2246.00 2253.70 2220.30 2225.50 -22.00ULTRACEMCO 4105.00 4147.95 4045.50 4078.80 -41.00ZEEL 364.20 367.00 358.20 359.50 -4.70ICICIBANK 409.90 410.80 399.35 406.30 -6.65TATAMOTORS 116.50 118.50 112.10 114.45 -1.90M&M 536.00 544.20 524.25 530.80 -8.90RELIANCE 1256.45 1260.25 1235.30 1242.05 -21.25ITC 243.95 245.45 240.15 241.65 -4.30AXISBANK 674.00 676.75 658.90 663.20 -15.00KOTAKBANK 1479.50 1479.50 1446.75 1450.90 -32.75HDFC 2176.00 2179.00 2120.40 2129.70 -57.45SBIN 283.20 284.30 273.30 275.50 -9.40YESBANK 59.25 59.30 55.00 57.50 -2.00

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SCRIP OPEN HIgh LOW LTP CHANGENIFTY NEXT 50 25979.60 26099.20 25820.25 26046.90 14.75PEL 1875.00 1999.75 1835.00 1980.00 84.40COLPAL 1218.00 1259.00 1213.00 1257.95 44.90UBL 1329.40 1377.30 1325.10 1377.30 47.90BIOCON 218.90 228.95 218.90 228.00 7.15DIVISLAB 1581.10 1634.00 1572.00 1623.00 46.35MCDOWELL-N 605.00 618.70 602.00 616.85 17.05CONCOR 485.00 499.85 482.15 497.00 11.80DABUR 434.75 445.00 432.00 443.45 8.65ICICIPRULI 420.00 425.00 413.80 424.80 7.85HINDZINC 212.00 214.80 209.10 214.65 3.80DLF 163.00 166.90 161.00 166.50 2.30HDFCAMC 2400.00 2454.00 2370.00 2429.50 29.35SAIL 30.95 31.75 30.00 31.40 0.30SBILIFE 827.80 839.80 822.30 835.00 6.55PETRONET 259.45 264.40 258.75 261.65 1.60NIACL 106.30 109.90 104.20 107.75 0.65DMART 1546.10 1574.20 1533.20 1560.00 6.70PIDILITIND 1372.95 1385.00 1358.35 1383.50 5.15LUPIN 739.00 740.45 728.55 734.65 2.55BAJAJHLDNG 3284.10 3320.00 3284.10 3310.00 6.35GODREJCP 596.00 605.45 593.60 601.35 1.15HINDPETRO 263.20 269.20 260.50 265.30 0.25AUROPHARMA 591.00 596.50 583.95 591.55 0.45NHPC 23.10 23.30 22.95 23.05 0.00HAVELLS 662.00 676.70 654.50 665.80 -0.40MARICO 390.35 391.55 384.20 390.45 -0.50SIEMENS 1173.90 1192.10 1161.00 1175.95 -2.00INDIGO 1661.00 1667.45 1641.00 1655.10 -4.15PGHH 10175.00 10200.00 9965.00 10011.00 -43.90MRF 57950.00 57988.00 57188.05 57660.00 -264.50MOTHERSUMI 96.65 98.75 94.95 96.80 -0.80OFSS 3007.00 3050.00 2949.95 2976.15 -30.30ICICIGI 1250.00 1253.00 1225.00 1234.00 -15.85PAGEIND 18100.00 18179.00 17751.00 17830.00 -231.55HDFCLIFE 544.25 549.75 540.00 540.55 -7.15L&TFH 94.80 95.90 91.90 93.20 -1.30BOSCHLTD 14130.00 14330.00 13844.00 14000.00 -198.45GICRE 170.00 172.55 166.15 169.00 -2.50CADILAHC 221.90 222.55 216.95 219.70 -3.55NMDC 80.50 81.40 77.15 79.70 -1.30ASHOKLEY 65.90 66.30 64.35 65.65 -1.10BHEL 51.35 51.45 50.00 50.45 -0.90BANDHANBNK 474.40 475.05 460.25 466.00 -8.70IDEA 5.00 5.30 4.80 4.90 -0.10ABB 1364.00 1364.00 1325.10 1333.00 -28.40SRTRANSFIN 980.00 987.35 960.00 970.00 -21.65AMBUJACEM 203.55 205.15 199.40 200.35 -4.65BANKBARODA 94.00 96.00 91.35 92.20 -2.30ACC 1530.15 1546.00 1494.20 1497.05 -45.30SHREECEM 19110.20 19210.95 18400.00 18490.15 -620.05

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President Donald Trump onThursday said that US

troop levels in Afghanistanwill drop to 8,600 if a deal isreached with the Taliban andthat a permanent presence willremain.

"We're going down to 8,600and then we make a determi-nation from there," Trump saidin an interview with Fox Newsradio. "We're always going tohave a presence." T r u m palso said that if another attackon the United States originat-ed from Afghanistan "we would

come back with a force like...Never before."

US troops were first sent toAfghanistan after theSeptember 11, 2001 terroristattacks on US soil carried outby Al-Qaeda, which was shel-

tered by the former Talibanregime.

Washington now wants toend its military involvementand has been talking to theTaliban since at least 2018.Trump says that troops willonly be reduced when theTaliban gives a guarantee thatits territory will not be used byAl-Qaeda or other interna-tional militant groups.

Trump underlined thatthere was to be no completewithdrawal, keeping a forcethat would provide "high intel-ligence." "You have to keep apresence," he said.

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British Prime Minister BorisJohnson is gambling his

future on the audacious propo-sition that he can blunt aneffort to halt his Brexit plan bysimply suspending "the moth-er of all parliaments" for keyweeks ahead of the October 31departure date.

If Parliament isn't in ses-sion, it can't conduct officialbusiness and won't be able totake concerted action to pre-vent him from pushingthrough a "no-deal" Brexit thatwould abruptly sever tiesbetween Britain and theEuropean Union if he is unableto reach a new deal by that date.

Johnson knew full wellthat asking Queen Elizabeth IIto suspend Parliament would

provoke howls that he is mas-terminding an anti-democrat-ic coup.

But if he is able to makegood on his frequent vow toleave the EU on October 31,Johnson stands to be remem-bered as the leader who madethe results of the 2016 Brexitreferendum a reality.

"If it works, many will saythat it was a brilliant piece ofpolitical theater and leader-ship," said Anthony Seldon, ahistorian at the University ofBuckingham. "And if it doesn't,it will quite possibly spell theend of his premiership."

Johnson is betting that thepolitical boost would over-shadow any financial costs,despite dire warnings frominfluential business leaders andeconomists that a sudden break

of European ties would plungeBritain into a prolonged reces-sion accompanied by a loss ofjobs and consumer buyingpower.

It is a step that his prede-cessor, former Prime MinisterTheresa May, was unwilling totake. She repeatedly pulledback from the brink and soughtan extension from the other 27EU nations rather than departwithout a deal on future eco-nomic arrangements.

But if the gamble fails,Johnson may well face a generalelection that would put hisConservative Party's leader-ship at risk, or find his Brexitbid blocked by an energizedParliament determined toimpose its will in what hasbecome a historic politicalclash.

Even if that happens,Seldon said, Johnson could bewell positioned for a generalelection because he couldblame Parliament for thwartingthe will of the people by mak-ing Brexit impossible despitethe majority that backed it inthe referendum.

The prime minister's deci-sion drew predictable con-demnation from some Britishnewspapers that are vehe-mently opposed to a no-dealdeparture. The Independentsaid Johnson is using "devious"means to undermine Britain'sdemocratic institutions.

"With just 63 days until the31 October deadline, anunelected prime minister hasmade himself unaccountable toMPs for five weeks," it said."Not only does Boris Johnson

want to deny voters the FinalSay, he is now silencing theirrepresentatives." Johns onhas very little leeway for anypolitical slippage. He was notelected in his own right and hisparty does not enjoy a major-ity in the House of Commons,relying instead on an agree-ment with a small NorthernIreland party to back it on keyvotes.

Both of his predecessors —May and David Cameron —were brought down by Brexitsetbacks, and Johnson seemsdetermined to avoid their fate.

By suspending Parliamentfor much of the period beforethe departure date, he is reduc-ing the time available for hispolitical opponents to come upwith a solid legislative plan toblock a no-deal Brexit.

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Europe's Brexit drama ishurtling toward a new cli-

max at the wrong time for theregion's economy, threateningto sow chaos for businesses justas a large part of the continentis sliding toward recession.

British Prime Minister BorisJohnson's move to suspendParliament for weeks ahead ofthe October 31 Brexit deadlinemeans lawmakers will have lit-tle time to pass laws to keep thecountry from crashing out of theEuropean Union without a deal.A disorderly divorce is a worst-case scenario that both sideshave been trying to avoid sincethe Brexit vote three years ago -and many experts now see it asa likely outcome.

Economists describe anightmarish setting for com-panies: new tariffs overnight ontrade between Britain and theother 27 EU countries, border

checks for people and com-merce, the sudden loss of busi-ness licenses, and countlessother regulatory problems.

This all would play out ata time when the Europeaneconomy is already taking amighty hit from uncertaintyover the US-China trade war,with powerhouse Germanyhalfway into recession.

"Germany could have takenthe UK's departure from the EUin its stride a couple years agobut it will be hit quite badly if ano-deal Brexit occurs in twomonths' time," says AndrewKenningham, chief Europeaneconomist at Capital Economicsin London.

Where Germany goes, sodoes Europe. The EU's largesteconomy contracted in thesecond quarter and is expect-ed by many analysts to shrinkagain in the third, putting it inwhat is technically defined asa recession.

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Pakistan has successfully test-fired nuclear-capable sur-

face-to-surface ballistic missile'Ghaznavi' with a range of upto 290 kms, the Army said onThursday, amid fresh Indo-Paktensions after India revokedJammu and Kashmir's specialstatus.

Pakistan Civil AviationAuthority on Wednesdayclosed three aviation routes ofKarachi airspace till August 31,leading to reports that thePakistan Army may conduct amissile test from a flight testrange in Balochistan.

The Pakistan military'smedia spokesperson, MajorGeneral Asif Ghafoor on

Thursday shared a video of the"night-training launch" of theshort range ballistic missile onTwitter.

The Ghaznavi missile iscapable of delivering multipletypes of warheads up to 290kms, that could cover parts ofIndia.

According to experts, theGhaznavi missile could be animproved 'Scud' type ballisticmissile. The missile's warheadcan be conventional, highexplosive (HE) and nuclear.

Maj Gen. Ghafoor saidthat the Pakistan ChairmanJoint Chiefs of Staff Committee(CJCSC) and the three serviceschiefs congratulated the teamof experts for successfully test-ing the missile.

President Arif Alvi andPrime Minister Imran Khanalso conveyed their apprecia-tion to the team, and congrat-ulated the nation on the feat, hesaid.

The nuclear-capable mis-sile was launched amidPakistan's efforts to interna-tionalise the Kashmir issue

after India abrogated provisionsof Article 370 of theConstitution to revoke Jammuand Kashmir's special statusand bifurcated it into twoUnion Territories.

Prime Minister Khan hasrepeatedly raised the threat ofa nuclear war in the region asa result of India's decision onKashmir.

"In a nuclear war, no onewill win. It will not only wreakhavoc in this region, but theentire world will face conse-quences. It is now up to theinternational community," hesaid last week in his address tothe nation on the Kashmir

issue. Pakistan expelled theIndian High Commissionerafter it downgraded the diplo-matic ties with India in protestto India's decision to endJammu and Kashmir's specialstatus. Pakistan also suspend-ed its trade with India andstopped the cross-border trainand bus services.

India has categorically toldthe international communitythat the scrapping of Article370 was an internal matterand also advised Pakistan toaccept the reality.

Prime Minister Khan onceagain raised the nuclear capa-bilities of the neighbours, say-ing there are no winners in anuclear war. Earlier in May,Pakistan conducted a success-ful training launch of Shaheen-II, a surface-to-surface ballis-tic missile.

In January, Pakistan suc-cessfully launched the tacticalballistic missile Nasr as part ofthe Army Strategic ForcesCommand training exercise.

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The EU's diplomatic chiefsaid Thursday the bloc

would support talks betweenthe United States and Iran, butonly if the current nuclear dealwith Tehran is preserved.

Washington and Tehranhave been locked in a bitterstandoff since last year whenUS President Donald Trumpunilaterally pulled out of the2015 deal that gave Iran relieffrom sanctions in return forcurbs on its atomic pro-gramme.

Tensions have risen dra-matically in the Gulf, whereIran has seized tankers, but EUcountries are reluctant to joina US-led operation to protectcommercial shipping.

Instead, EU foreign anddefence ministers meeting inHelsinki discussed the possi-bility of launching their ownobservation mission in the

Strait of Hormuz, a strategicallyimportant choke point at theentrance to the Gulf.

The idea of direct talksbetween Washington andTehran as a way out of the cri-sis grew this week after Trumpmooted the idea and the newUS defence secretary urgedIran's leaders to engage.

The European Union hasdesperately sought to preventthe deal from collapsing com-pletely, arguing it is the bestway to stop Iran developingnuclear bombs. EU diplomat-ic chief Federica Mogherinigave a cautious welcome to theidea of negotiations, afterTrump said Monday he wasready to meet Iran's PresidentHassan Rouhani within weeks.

"We are always in favour oftalks, the more people talk, themore people understand eachother better, on the basis ofclarity and on the basis ofrespect," Mogherini said as she

arrived for the Helsinki meet-ing. But she added that "firstand foremost what is existingneeds to be preserved" -- refer-ring to UN Security Councilresolutions and specifically the2015 deal known formally asthe Joint Comprehensive Planof Action or JCPOA.

"We will always advocatefor the full respect by all sidesof the UNSC resolutions andthat includes the JCPOA," shesaid. At the recent G7 summitin Biarritz, Trump showedopenness to French PresidentEmmanuel Macron's proposalof a summit with Rouhani.

US Defence SecretaryMark Esper followed up onWednesday by urging Tehranto negotiate, but IranianForeign Minister MohammadJavad Zarif insistedWashington must respect thedeal and halt what he called"economic terrorism" againsthis country.

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US President Donald Trumpon Wednesday complained

that the often friendly Fox Newstelevision network is not loyalenough and has stopped "work-ing" for him. "Fox isn't workingfor us anymore!" he said at theend of three tweets expressingoutrage that the network hadgiven too much airtime toDemocratic party opponents.

As US president, Trumphas no equivalent of the state TVchannel used to serve leaders inmany less free countries, likeRussia. But for much of his firstterm he's at least been able to relyregularly on Fox for friendly cov-erage. While Trump routinelylashes other networks as "fakenews," he or his top aides makealmost daily appearances to giveoften softball interviews on Fox.

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The United States staged asecret cyberattack in June

against a database used byIran's Islamic RevolutionaryGuard Corps to plot attacks onoil tankers in the Gulf, TheNew York Times reported.

The newspaper, quotingsenior US officials, said theJune 20 attack had degradedthe ability of Iran's paramilitaryforce to target shipping in theGulf.

It said Iran was still tryingto recover information andrestart military communica-tions networks and other sys-tems knocked offline.

The Times said the cyber-strike was the latest in anongoing cyberconflict betweenthe United States and Iran.

It said the cyberattack wentahead after President DonaldTrump had called off a retalia-tory military airstrike againstIran for shooting down a USdrone.

The newspaper said theWhite House viewed the cyber-attack as a proportionalresponse to the destruction ofthe unmanned drone.

It said the database target-ed in the attack was used by theGuards to choose which

tankers to target.No tankers have been tar-

geted since the June 20 opera-tion although Iran did seize aBritish oil tanker after one of itsvessels was detained, the Timessaid.

US Defence SecretaryMark Esper urged Iran onWednesday to enter into dis-cussions with the United Statesin order to ease tensions in theGulf region.

"We are not seeking conflict with Iran. We want toengage with them diplomati-cally," Esper said in his first formal press conference

after being confirmed lastmonth.

Breaking with his prede-cessor Barack Obama, Trumpenacted a policy of "maximumpressure" on Tehran over itsdisputed nuclear program andlast year unilaterally withdrewfrom the landmark 2015 inter-national deal that placed lim-its on Tehran's nuclear activi-ties.

Tensions over that movehave gradually risen, with Iranseizing tankers in the Gulf inrecent months and Britaindetaining an Iranian tanker offof Gibraltar.

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Pakistan on Thursday said theresolution of the Kashmir

issue as per the UN resolutionswas its top foreign policy agen-da.

India has not been engagingwith Pakistan since an attack onthe Air Force base at Pathankotin January of 2016 by Pakistan-based terrorists, maintainingthat talks and terror cannot gotogether.

Addressing a weekly mediabriefing here, Foreign Officespokesman Mohammad Faisalsaid Pakistan has always sup-ported bilateral talks with India,but the Indian leadership wasnot ready for it.

"Resolution of Kashmiraccording to UN resolutions iscorner stone of our foreign pol-icy," Faisal said.

He also said ForeignMinister Shah MahmoodQureshi would visit Geneva toattend the meeting of UNHuman Rights council.

Earlier in the day, PakistanPrime Minister Imran Khancalled for nation-wide demon-strations to protest India's actionof revoking the special status toJammu and Kashmir.

"I want all Pakistanis tocome out tomorrow (Friday) 12noon -12.30 pm to show soli-darity with the Kashmiri peo-ple...," he tweeted. "We mustsend a strong message toKashmiris that our nation standsresolutely behind them," headded.

Pakistan has been trying tointernationalise the Kashmirissue after India abrogatedprovisions of Article 370 of theConstitution to revoke Jammuand Kashmir's special statusand bifurcated it into twounion territories.

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Sepia-tinted images of trains,practically bursting with peo-ple who cling on to every

available space, with their belong-ings spilling out, are the firstthings to pop in your mind whenyou say the word Partition. Sincethe day the Radcliffe Line wasannounced, trains started stream-ing into stations with a deathlysilence, carrying corpses ofrefugees and splashed with bloodon their walls. Those were knownas the ‘blood trains’, in which peo-ple crossed the newly-formedborder and very often, a stream ofred would would seep from underthe carriage doors. But it was themain and the most chosen modesof commuting during those trou-bled times. And it is not just amere coincidence why the 1947Partition Archive chose MandiHouse Metro Station to put uptwo photograph exhibitions —Women of Partition, curated byAanchal Malhotra; My HeartBelongs in Delhi, curated by ErinRiggs and Ritika Popli anddesigned by ArshiyaLokhandwala.

When commuters changetheir routes from the violet and

blue lines at the station, they cannotice a series of life-sized black-and-white photographs on thewalls. They are of a few women intheir 20s and the another series isof small and big photos represent-ing memories from Delhi in 1947.

Guneeta Singh Bhalla,founder of the archive and cura-tor, says, “There was a big factorof symbolism around trains heresince a number of people com-muted via them during thePartition. They were an importantpart of that period of migration.And public attention to such sto-ries is important.”

Some of the stories read: ‘Mymaternal grandparents were killedin a small village called Mukhtasarduring the Partition riots. Mymother, who longed to see them,never quite came to terms withtheir death.’ ‘My father was post-ed in Algon Kahlon, near KhemKaren, when the Partition wasannounced. He sent knives for meand my sister for our protection.’‘While travelling from Ferozepurto Jhang, across the newly-madeborder, we saw a bare leafless tree,from which hung the dead bod-ies of five men.’ ‘Years after the

Partition, I visited Lahore andreunited with a friend from col-lege. The Partition was sadbecause it separated friends andfamily on both sides of the bor-der. We had never expected sucha thing to ever happen.’

Though there have beennumerous exhibitions that havebeen set up by the archive, shesays that these are parts of exhibitsthat haven’t been shown in a pub-lic space before. When we askGuneeta as to why they chose onlythese nine stories to be displayed,she says, “Well, because several ofthousands of them wouldn’t havebeen accommodated there(laughs).” Talking about the selec-tion criteria, she says, “They were

chosen on the basis of diversity ofreligion and ethnicity. We had tobring together people from differ-ent spheres and immigrants fromdifferent locations.”

The next exhibits representmemories from Delhi during thetime of Partition. Among manyothers, it features Abdus Salam,who currently runs a bookstore,which was founded by his fatherin 1937, near Jama Masjid. Heremembers how he and his fam-ily had travelled to Multan,when the riots broke out, on aplane without seats. People hadsat on their luggage. They feltthat they would eventuallyreturn in some time. However,it’s only five years later in 1952

that they got the “permission” toreturn to Delhi.

It was in 2009 when Guneetafirst began collecting oral histo-ries and stories from peoplewho had witnessed the commu-nal riots in 1947 around theworld. Why does she think thatPartition is relevant and impor-tant to be revived even after 73years of our independence? Shepoints out that “Our peoplewent mad” has been often heard.Yet, after gathering thousands oforal histories, the findingsshowed how most people “didnot” participate in the violenceand were largely innocent vic-tims. “In addition, a vast major-ity surprisingly did not even har-

bour ill feelings toward the‘other’ religion. Importantly, ina significant finding, for thevast majority of the cases, vic-tims did not recognise theirattackers. And so, contrary topopular understanding, friendsand neighbors didn’t kill eachother indiscriminately. Peopledidn’t turn on each other sud-denly, in the name of religion,but rather offered protection toeach other,” she highlights andadds that it’s an integral part ofcommunal tensions that are tak-ing place even today. They needto be talked about constantly inorder to keep learning fromthem.

For someone, who has col-lected 8,000 stories of Partitionwitnesses, how has it trans-formed or shaped her as both ahistorian and an individual? Shedisagrees with what WinstonChurchill had “famously pro-claimed” — ‘Hindus andMuslims could not live witheach other.’ She says that one ofthe most important findingsthat she came across throughthese interviews was that the vio-lence and separation of Muslimsfrom non-Muslims was not an“inevitable” outcome. She adds,“It is that fringe elements werearoused by political rhetoric andtheir criminal acts victimised allof humanity in those regions.Disarray in the armed forces anda temporary lull in governancesparked the massacres which, itappears, could have been pre-vented.”

She also points that we arestill impacted by how Partition ledto a “massive loss of life and liveli-hood and was a big hit to educa-tion and economies in SouthAsia in many ways. And eventhough many of these aspectsmight have not been thoroughlystudied yet, we cannot deny theimpacts. Mass trauma from thatperiod still lingers amongst mil-lions.”

The archive is yet to get on thefield at the station to get theresponses from the passersby,she informs.

(The exhibitions are on tillSeptember 30.)

Cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar treated fanswith a special video in which he is seen play-

ing gully cricket with Bollywood stars AbhishekBachchan and Varun Dhawan, on the NationalSports Day.

“It’s always good tomix work with play.Had a lot of fun playingcricket with the crewduring a shoot and waspleasantly surprisedwith Varun droppingby along with Abhishekwho joined us for sometime,” Sachin captionedthe video. From thevideo, it is clearly visiblehow much fun the triohad while playing thesport with each other.

For Abhishek, itwas his dream to play with the Master BlasterSachin. He commented, “Been trying to controlmy excitement since yesterday... A dream cometrue! Thank you for not smacking my ball out ofthe park.”

Like Abhishek, Varun could not resist hisexcitement and shared his fan moment withSachin on social media. “#SportPlayingNation,what a brilliant initiative this is sir. Had a lot offun running into you that day sir,” Varun tweet-ed.

Not only this, Sachin and Varun made a videoin which they discussed about the importance offitness and lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modifor launching ‘Fit India Movement.’

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Before I start out, I would liketo comment on the cattle

crisis on Indian roads. There areterrible accidents that are occur-ring where people are dyingbecause cattle are roaming onthe highways. I genuinely haveno sympathy for farmers whosecattle have been mowed downby trucks and the last week inRajasthan, I noticed quite a fewdead ones on the roads but Ialso saw two accidents wherecars had been destroyed bybovines. Not only are India’s cat-tle contributing immensely toglobal warning, they are a clearand present danger to Indianroad users, both on highwaysand in cities.

But that said, the handlingand the braking performance inmodern vehicles help in cowavoidance. And that is a trulyincredible because not so longago, when you bought a carfrom a mass market brand, youwere not buying performancebut transportation. My firstcar in 2002 was a Maruti Altoand the only thing I wish

from those times are thepadded seats. I’m not a fanof slimline, single-piece seats

either on planes or cars but theykeep costs down so havebecome a fact of life.

But what has also becomea fact of life is just how goodmost new cars are. The lastweek I drove the new Maruti-Suzuki XL6 and the Hyundaii10 Nios. Both vehicles areincredibly refined, feature-richand of great value. And whileMarutis and Hyundais havealways ticked the value box, inthe past, you wouldn’t havedescribed the steering as preciseand the handling as sharp,unless you had an old-schoolMaruti 800. I got off the Niosand drove the support car, a

Grand i10, which isn’t a car atall, but the new generationvehicle is just so much.

But let us talk of the Marutifirst, the XL6 is the premiumversion of the Ertiga. It replacesthe bench in the middle-rowwith captain seats and gets anew front-end with fancy LEDprojector headlights and someextra plastic cladding on theside. It is the not-so-rich man’sversion of the Toyota InnovaCrysta, which isn’t surprising,given that Maruti and Toyotaare now BFFs and there is a dis-tinct possibility that Maruti-Toyota India Limited is not sofar away. And the XL6 couldwell wear a Toyota badge soon-er.

From drivability, thanks toSuzuki’s new Heartech plat-form, which does service on alltheir new vehicles. It rides andhandles very well. While dri-ving on the winding andtwisty road up toJaigarh Fort outsideJaipur, it did notfeel like youwere drivingan MPV. TheK15 engine,the same asthe Ciaz hasmore thane n o u g hpower andyou never feel alack of it unlessyou really, really want togun it down the highway. Butthat sort of driving might get

the people in the back sick so Idecided to quit my drivingduties and sat at the back. Thisis because I feel that most XL6owners will be driven aroundand the third-row might alsoget used during family outings.

The XL6 may not be aslarge as the Crysta but truth betold, it does not feel that smallin the middle row. Leg-roomand comfort is quite good actu-ally even with the front seats allthe way back. The third-row isreclinable and while it isn’twhat you’d call great, the factthat the second-row has captainseats means that leg-room feelsbetter than the Ertiga becauseone leg is free to be in the tun-nel between the second-rowseats. Both the second andthird-rows have cupholders

and 12V power outlets althoughMaruti should give more directUSB points. As for negatives,again, given what I feel thisvehicle will be used for and itspremium nature, thanks to thefact that it will be sold throughNexa, it should have had at leastthe option of a six/seven airbagvariant. That is another changefrom even a decade ago, whereI would not be cribbing abouta lack of a multiple airbag vari-ant but that is a negative.Indeed, the lack of multipleairbag variants has become atalking point on several newcars and not just the XL6 butalso the Seltos. And given that,we have hordes of cattle on theroad, which pose a massive haz-ard. It should be somethingIndian carmakers should con-

sider.On to the i10 Nios,

which we have alreadyestablished is far better

than the outgoingcar. There is a clearstyling resemblanceto the Santro fromthe front and therear, a newHyundai designlanguage if youmust, the very widefront grille and the

compact tail lights.Inside too, there is the info-

tainment display and digitalinstrument console, all inone unit, everything is whereit should be and there are two

USB charging ports and a

wireless charging tray at thefront. Rear leg-room is actual-ly quite good for a car of its classand so is the luggage space,making this the perfect car foryoung families and it will be instiff competition with the Swift.

And the competition withthe Swift will not be on practi-cality but also performance. The1.2 engine on the i10 Nios hasbeen tuned not just for fueleconomy. On the highway, it issurprisingly adept at accelerat-ing in fifth gear from 50 to 90.Handling, never a virtue on ear-lier Hyundais is great on theNios, particularly when youconsider this is a mass-pro-duced hatchback. Many yearsago, my then girlfriend (andnow wife) owned an earlyHyundai Santro, the one withthe linear tail lights and frankly,that car wallowed in corners. Itis remarkable to think thatboth cars came from the samemanufacturer. Hyundai hascome a long way indeed.

Negatives? Well I’m reallynot convinced by the AMT onthe automatic version. I wouldnot use the term ‘lazy’ todescribe it rather the termlanguid. And even when youuse the shifter manually, it feelsslow. Then there is the kick-down when you go to a lowergear. There is this hesitationwhen you floor the acceleratorpedal like the gearbox askingyou whether you’re sure youwant to do what you’re doing,and then it goes nuts —revving till the redline. Yes,AMTs have made automaticgearboxes affordable in Indiaand in some cars, they’re pret-ty good, — the new Santro.The AMT on the petrol i10Nios is not one of themthough. I’m sure Hyundai willfix that or get a better gearboxbut one thing they shouldreally consider on this car is tofit the GDI engine from theVenue in this. And with thesteering and handling so solid,that car could be a pocket rock-et and India needs a newpeppy hatchback.

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The walls were whatdrew my attention first

as I entered the restaurant.While one side was plas-tered with cris-cross wood-en sticks, the other hadcandles enclosed withinwooden circles. It took justa few seconds for Pa Pa Yaat Select CityWalk, Saket,to teleport me to the vin-tage era with a pinch ofmodernism and a warmambience. So much detailhad gone into creating theperfect atmosphere that Iwas sure of good things tocome and placed my firstorder without much appre-hension.

But at the very first, Iencountered a hiccup. Iordered Life on the Beachmocktail, but since it wasunavailable, it was theirsignature mocktail —Papaya — that I had. Theflavour was mild with amusky undertone. It tastedof papaya, cranberry and apinch of lime, which addeda punch.

The second mocktail,Exotica, had passion fruitsyrup as its base and wasblended with lime andorange juice where the lat-ter overpowered all theother flavours. It tingled inmy mouth due to its bitterand tangy yet amazingtaste.

The light backgroundmusic allowed me to feelrelaxed and savour everybit of the mocktails. Butthen, food was what I washere for. So for starters, Ihad Roaster avargen, adumpling, which was thechef ’s speciality. It hadroasted brinjal as its fillingwhich had been toastedwith several sauces. AMushroom bao, a steamedfermented bun in the shapeof a fungi with a spicycheese filling, accompa-nied the avargen. ChefDurgesh Tyagi told us that

they used coco powder togive the dish its colour.Next up was the Crystal,which were the potato andwheat starch-infuseddumplings. Filled withasparagus and corn, theyweren’t as spicy as the pre-vious dish but what madethem delectable was thefact that they were soft andlight as cotton. Their per-fectly light flavour cutthrough the spiciness ofthe mushroom bao.

Cheung fun was upnext. The rice pepper rollwas served with soy sauceand filled with crispy, fine-ly-chopped vegetables likecarrot, bell peppers andgarlic. In the chef ’s words,they tried to “bring this outdifferently.” Usually, it iscrispy on the outside andsoft on the inside, but hereit was the other way roundas the crunchy vegetableslike asparagus filled up thedimsum while their cover-ing was soft.

I was then served theXialongbao, which is asteamed dumpling filledwith soup. Its aroma tanta-lised my olfactory sensesand as I bit into it, the hot

juices mixed with veggiesoozed out and satiated mygastronomical ones as well.It was perfection in a bite.

Before I switched ontothe main course, the chefmade sure that I hadLaomaigai, their speciality.He told me that the dish isusually made with chickenbut they have a vegetarianversion as well. For this,they mixed a variety ofvegetables like brocolli andasparagus with steamedjasmine rice. The mixturewas then wrapped in alotus leaf and steamed togive it a smoky flavour.

Though the maincourse was yet to reach mytable, I was already full.However, my culinaryjourney so far had been soimpeccable that I decidedto order some more.Jasmine rice, Thai greencurry and Yak Udon noo-dles, which were thick andsmooth mixed with soy-based vegetables, followed.And they didn’t disappointas well. The first notes ofthe curry tasted sweet butas it travelled down mythroat, spiciness took over.

Next in line were thedesserts. Before I couldorder anything, the chefsuggested me to taste hissignature ice creams first.He presented four differentflavours — Vanilla truffle,Strawberry banana, Mangobasil and Salted caramel.But to give them a twist,these were covered with asheet of rice starch. Each ofthem was creamy and richwith flavours but it was thestrawberry banana that Iwanted a second helpingof.

And all in all, myevening turned out to beindeed a scrumptious oneas the restaurant offered abefitting tribute to theextensive cultural legacy ofAsia.

In India, we do not considereggs as vegetarian,” thewords spoken by a much-

respected food writer threwChef Ibrahim Yaman a little offkilter, but just for a momentbefore he laughed and shiftedthe bowl containing a solo eggtowards the back of his workstation. There were small bowlscontaining a lot of greens, awhite powder, egg and blackpepper laid out in front of him

We were attending a master-class on Turkish cuisine whichwas hosted by Pullman NewDelhi Aerocity in associationwith Swissotel The Bosphorusfrom which chefs Ibrahim andAbdullah Olgun from SwissotelIstanbul, had been especiallyflown in by the Turkish Airlines.

The chefs were all set todemonstrate one vegetarian anda non vegetarian dish to a mot-ley group of 10-12 people whoby appearances defied everyattempt to club them together asthey were as varied, in agegroup and sizes, as could be. Butwe were all bonded by our col-lective love of food and thedesire to click Instaworthy pic-tures.

But coming back to what wewere here for, the chef decidedto swing into action and decid-ed to demonstrate the way tomake Mujver. He picked up apiece of zucchini which he grat-ed. “The green side, that’s whatyou need to use,” he said indi-cating the skin of the vegetablein heavily-accented English. Hesprinkled some salt over it andkept it aside. “This has to rest for20 minutes and we have alreadyprepped this,” he said picking upanother bowl.

In this he added the egg,parsley, stalks of spring onion,flour, coarsely ground blackpepper, sprig of dill and mint.The thick batter was poured outinto a heated pan smeared witholive oil. “That looks like anomelette,” a voice floated fromthe back. “A pizza,” anothersaid. Chef Ismail gave ac o n s p i r a t o r i a lsmile as he useda flat spoonto gentlypress theround discto ensurethat it wasp r o p e r l ycooked andthen expert lyflipped it over to theother side. Once well done,he removed it from the pan andgarnished it with yogurt and asprig of dill.

A bite and one realised thereason for the smile for the dishdefied either of the descriptions.It was slightly crunchy, yet softbut what made it delectablewas the burst of freshness thatcame from the sprig of dillwhich garnished it and theherbs that it was infused withinside.

Next up was Hunker begen-di. The young Abdullah Olgun

t o l dus that it

was hisfavourite as whatever be thefeast in Turkey, this was sure tomake its way to the table. Thisinvolved cooking the lamb withcaramelised onions (nothumongous quantities that areinvolved in Indian cookingrather a really small amount)and garlic. To this was addedtomato paste, salt pepper andchopped tomatoes. The ensem-ble was placed into an ovenwhile Chef Ismail got busymaking the side dish.

And again there were Indian

inferences as baked or roastedeggplant was mashed, drawingbaingan ka bharta cries from theaudience. But that is where thesimilarity ended. Mixed withflour and copious quantities ofmilk, this was served alongsidethe lamb which was cooked bythis time. The succulent lambwas practically falling off thebone. The flavours were simpleand clean without overburden-ing the palate but no one couldlabel it bland. Certainly a bal-ance that is hard to achieve.

But then as Chef Ismailpointed out that Turkish foodwas all about balance, betweenregions and flavours, “The foodin Turkey is largely the heritageof Ottoman cuisine, which is afusion and ref inement ofCentral Asian, Caucasian,Middle Eastern, Mediterraneanand Balkan cuisine.”

The Chef told us if one

wants to partake an entirespread, it should ideally consistof a meze, a tray or table of smalldishes including stuffed vineleaves, salads, and a variety ofother items, as well asshishkebab grilled on a skewer. Ricepilaf is very common, and breadand soups are important parts ofthe diet. One vegetable, theeggplant (aubergine)is verymuch a part of Turkish cookingand widely known.

“Also, fish is fairly plentifulalong the Bosporus and thecoast, but tends to be expensive.Further, the most importantingredients are tomato pasteand oil. The oil choice mostlyvaries depending upon theregion. While, meat is a com-mon ingredient and it is oftengrilled. Further, Turkish dessertsinclude baklava (a dessert ofsyrup and pastry), Kadayif andMuhallebi. Turkishcoffee(Kahve), a thick brew isserved in small cups with near-ly every meal,” he added.

What made an impressionon many of us was the fact thatthe Turkish cooking techniquesare simple and easy to learn.“The cuisine uses fresh andhealthy ingredients, that's whythe Turkish dishes have theright balance combining allkinds of flavours,” he added.

When asked about thefavourites, the chefs had a longlist, “Our favourites are AdanaKebab, Purslane with yogurt,Muhammara, haydari. And indesserts, Irmik halva with pinenut, Oven baked mastic ricepudding, Pumpkin with clottedcream. But it is not as if the chefspalate is restricted to Turkishcuisine as they also like Italianand Peruvian cuisine.

For dessert, we were servedKunafa, which seemed to com-bine best of both the worlds. Itwas a round disk made out ofvermicelli which was fried,soaked in sugar syrup andserved on a terraotta dish. Butit when when you dug into itthat the real secret was revealed.Stringy cheese oozed out and asyou wrapped it around thespoon, more followed till justtrying to bite into it was an exer-cise in restraint. Unlike theBaklava, which is a tad toosweet for my taste buds, thisspelt perfection.

An absolutely perfect way toend the afternoon. Only regretwhich can be interpreted as awish too: We need to come backto learn how to make the delec-table Kunafa for sure.

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Paralympic Silver-medallist Deepa

Malik on Thursdaybecame the first Indianwoman para-athleteand the oldest to beconferred the RajivGandhi Khel Ratnaaward but trainingcommitments kept co-awardee Bajrang Puniaaway from the ceremo-ny at the RashtrapatiBhawan.

Malik, who won aSilver medal in the shotput F53 category in the2016 Rio Paralympics,was joint winner of thetop honour with Asianand CommonwealthGames championPunia, who is in Russiato prepare for theupcoming WorldChampionships inKazakhstan.

Malik became onlythe second para-athleteafter double ParalympicGold-medallist javelinthrower DevendraJhajharia, who receivedthe recognition in 2017,to have won the presti-gious award. At 49, shealso became the oldestathlete ever to haveclaimed the honour.

“I am very happy.This whole journey hasbeen more aboutchanging the attitude ofpeople towards disabil-ity and the hiddenpotential in people withdisability,” Malik said. “Ithink the award is goingto be a huge inspirationto women athletes indisability. It took 70years for independentIndia to win a medal bya woman athlete inParalympics,” sheadded.

W o r l dC h a m p i o n s h i p sBronze-medallist shut-tler B Sai Praneeth,woman cricketerPoonam Yadav, AsianGames Gold-winnerheptathlete SwapnaBarman, footballerGurpreet Singh Sandhu,

two-time world Silver-medallist boxer SoniaLather, Asian GamesSilver-medallist eques-trian Fouaad Mirza,motorsports ace GauravGill and Kabaddi cap-tain Ajay Thakur wereamong the 19sportspersons whoreceived the ArjunaAward from PresidentRam Nath Kovind.

Malik becamefourth-time lucky asshe was ignored for theaward for the pastthree years, leadingher to question andcriticise the decision.

Prominent absen-tees from the event,apart from Punia, werecricketer RavindraJadeja, Asian GamesGold-medallist shot-putter Tejinder PalSingh Toor, Silver-win-ner quartermilerMohammed Anas andshooter AnjumMoudgil, all of whowere picked for theArjuna award thisyear.

Jadeja is currentlyon national duty with

the Indian Test team inthe Caribbean. Toor,on the other hand, istraining in Europewhile Anas is compet-ing in the NationalInter-State AthleticsChampionships inLucknow right now.

H e p t a t h l e t eSwapna Barman saidwinning the ArjunaAward was a dream-come-true moment forher.

“It’s a dream-come-true moment forme. I would like tothank the AthleticsFederation of India forrecommending myname. This award willinspire me to achievegreater things infuture,” she said.

While the KhelRatna award carries aprize purse of � 7.5lakh, the Arjunaawardees are given � 5

lakh each, along withcitations.

Besides the KhelRatna and Arjunaawards, the Presidentalso gave awayDronacharya andDhyan Chand awardsto coaches, theTenzing NorgayNational Adventureawards, Maulana AbulKalam Azad Trophyand Rashtriya KhelProtsahan Puraskar.

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Rishabh Pant will be desperate to payback the faith reposed in him bythe team management when India

look to steamroll West Indies withanother dominant show in the secondWorld Test championship encounterstarting today.

Having won the first Test by 318runs, India are runaway favourites goinginto the second and final match at theSabina Park against a team that neithershowed the resolve nor the aptituderequired to put up a sustained fight infive-day cricket.

“The conditions here are good andthe pitch also looks good. We are expect-ing another good performance,” bowlingcoach Bharath Arun said on Wednesday.

Jasprit Bumrah (match haul of 6wickets) and Ishant Sharma (8 wickets)exposed the opposition’s technical frail-ties and they will be gunning for morein the second game.

It is unlikely that India will be tin-kering with their playing XI after a bigwin even though Pant’s form has been abit of a concern of late.

More than the runs scored, it is themanner of his dismissals that is causingfrustration, considering that the Indiancricket establishment has invested heav-ily in the 21-year-old.

His sequence of scores across formatsduring this current tour has been 0, 4, 65not out, 20, 0, 24, 7.

With veteran Wriddhiman Sahaback in the dressing room and the gutsyKona Srikar Bharat, waiting in the wings,Pant can ill-afford to take things for grant-ed, especially the kind that one saw in thesecond innings of the first Test.

The pressure was completely off afterIndia took a handsome lead. What theside required from the flamboyant left-hander was something in the range of asolid 30 not out but what it got insteadwas another impetuous shot.

The slog sweep has brought about hisdownfall more often than not and savea fifty in the dead rubber in the T20series, he has done precious little with thebat.

Opener Mayank Agarwal wasn’t inhis elements either in the first Test butit is expected that he would get anotheropportunity, which he rightfully deserves

having worked hard in Australia.The Indian middle-order performed

admirably with Ajinkya Rahane back inform with an under-pressure half-centu-ry and a century.

Hanuma Vihari also justified hisselection with a 93 in the second innings,meaning that Rohit Sharma’s wait tomake the side could just get a bit longer.

However, Agarwal would be on histoes.

He may not get too many opportu-nities if the team management decides tofit in an impact player like Rohit at thetop of the order alongside KL Rahul inthe coming Test series against SouthAfrica at home.

While Rohit’s technique against themoving red ball is a bit suspect but in thesub-continent, he could prove to be ahandful.

The pace bowling was near flawlessin the first game with Ishant and Bumrahlooking menacing with five-wicket haulseach. Even Mohammed Shami was veryeffective in short bursts while RavindraJadeja proved his utility as an all-rounder.

“Any seamer are at their best whenthey are getting wickets. The five-wick-et haul for both (Ishant and Bumrah) ofthem will give them tremendous con-fidence. Also Shami looked good when-ever he was given the ball and it augurswell for the team,” Arun said.

For West Indies, there hasn’t beenmuch to write home about as none oftheir players even got a half-century intwo innings.

Talented players like ShimronHetmyer and Shai Hope didn’t measureup while the normally dependableRoston Chase also looked out of sortsin the second innings.

The only saving grace for them wasthe new ball pair of Shannon Gabrieland Kemar Roach, who bowled theirhearts out without much support fromothers.

TEAMSIndia: Virat Kohli (captain), KL Rahul,Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara,Ajinkya Rahane, Hanuma Vihari,Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravindra Jadeja,

Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma,Jasprit Bumrah, Wriddhiman Saha(wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, UmeshYadav, Bhuvneshwar KumarWest Indies: Jason Holder (c), KraiggBrathwaite, Darren Bravo, ShamarhBrooks, John Campbell, Roston Chase,Rakheem Cornwall, Shane Dowrich,Shannon Gabriel, Shimron Hetmyer,Shai Hope, Keemo Paul, Kemar Roach.

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Rohit Sharma has to wait for a spot in theIndian Test eleven with Ajinkya Rahane and

Hanuma Vihari justifying their selection, saidformer opener Gautam Gambhir on Thursday.

ODI vice-captain Rohit has been in sublimeform of late and is part of the Test squad tour-ing the West Indies but was not picked for thefirst Test with Rahane and Vihari doing well inthe series opener and it is unlikely he will fea-ture in the second and final Test.

“He (Rohit) has got to wait for his oppor-tunity. There is Rahane, who has done well nowand Vihari too. So he has to wait and when getsthat opportunity, he needs to perform,” Gambhirsaid.

An under pressure Rahane scored a time-ly 81 and 102, his first hundred in two yearswhile Vihari made 32 and 93.

“I am not at all surprised (with Rahane’s per-formance) but it was a much needed perfor-mance, both from individual and team’s pointof view. And when it comes in a winning cause,it doesn’t get better than that,” said Gambhir.

Rishabh Pant is now India’s first choicewicketkeeper across formats, getting ahead ofTest specialist Wriddhiman Saha, who is backin the squad after a long injury lay-off. Saha wasthe number one choice at the time of his injury.

Gambhir feels Saha too has to wait for hisopportunity. “When someone (Pant) is averag-ing 48 (45.43 actually) with the bat and scoreda hundred each in England and Australia, hedeserves to be playing Test cricket. Saha needsto wait for his opportunity as Pant has grabbedhis opportunity with both hands,” Gambhiradded. A couple of days back former Indianwicketkeeper Syed Kirmani had said that Sahashould be given an opportunity instead of Pant.

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���������� �Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award:Deepa Malik (para-athletics),Bajrang Punia (wrestling)Arjuna Awards: Ravindra Jadeja(cricket), Mohammed AnasYahiya (athletics), Gurpreet SinghSandhu (football), Sonia Lather(boxing), Chinglensana SinghKangujam (hockey), S Bhaskaran(bodybuilding), Ajay Thakur(kabaddi), Anjum Moudgil(shooting), B Sai Praneeth (bad-minton), Tajinder Pal Singh Toor(athletics), Pramod Bhagat (parasports-badminton), HarmeetRajul Desai (table tennis), PoojaDhanda (wrestling), Fouaad Mirza(equestrian), Simran Singh

Shergill (polo), Poonam Yadav(cricket), Swapna Burman (athlet-ics), Sundar Singh Gurjar (parasports-athletics), Gaurav SinghGill (motorsports).Dronacharya Award (regular cat-egory): Mohinder Singh Dhillon(athletics), Sandeep Gupta (tabletennis) and Vimal Kumar (bad-minton). (lifetime category):Sanjay Bhardwaj (cricket), RambirSingh Khokar (kabaddi), MezbanPatel (hockey).Dhyan Chand Award: ManojKumar (wrestling), C Lalremsanga(archery), Arup Basak (table ten-nis), Nitten Kirrtane (tennis),Manuel Fredricks (hockey).

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