PUBLISHED FROM DELHI & KOLKATA VOL. 12, ISSUE 102 | Friday, 14 April 2017 | New Delhi | Pages 16 | Rs 3.00

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TMC SWEEPS KANTHI DAKSHIN, VOTE PERCENTAGE GOES UP; JMM CANDIDATE WINS IN JHARKHAND

BJP wins 5 out of 10 seats, Cong bags 3MPOST BUREAU

NEW DELHI: The BJP on Thurs-day won half of the 10 Assem-bly seats in by-polls across seven states and Delhi while the Con-gress bagged three and the TMC and the JMM one each with all but two of the seats being retained.

Of the five seats won by the BJP, the party retained three while it wrested the remaining two from the AAP in Delhi and the BSP in Rajasthan--Rajouri Garden and Dholpur respectively.

The BJP retained one seat each in Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Assam winning from Bandhavgarh, Bhoranj (SC) and Dhemaji respectively.

Maintaining its hold, the ruling Congress in Karnataka retained the Nanjangud and Gundlupet Assembly seats in which the party and the BJP had played for high stakes.

It also retained the Ater seat in Bhind district in MP by a close margin of 857 votes. Ater had wit-nessed violence on the polling day.

The TMC kept the Kanthi Dakshin seat in West Bengal

SC asks Centre, EC if EVMs are tamper-proof

MPOST BUREAU

NEW DELHI: The debate over the possibility of tampering of EVMs on Thursday echoed in the Supreme Court which decided to examine the alle-gations that these machines were not “foolproof” without a paper trail.

The apex court’s decision came on a petition filed by Mayawati-led Bahu-jan Samaj Party (BSP), which after the drubbing in the recent Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, has claimed large scale tampering of EVMs.

A bench of Justices J Chelameswar and Abdul Nazeer issued notices to the Centre and the Election Commission of India (ECI) asking them to respond to the plea challenging the use of EVMs without a paper trail.

“Technically, we agree that any tech-nology can be tampered with, but you have to have sufficient grounds for rais-ing doubts, the court told senior coun-sel P Chidambaram, who was appearing for BSP, in an oral observation.

“The EVM itself was introduced to stop practices and larger evils like booth capturing and others. This is a work in progress, the court, which fixed the matter for further hearing on

May 8, said.The matter came up for hearing

before the apex court a day after the ECI threw an “open challenge” to politi-cal parties and experts to come and try to hack the EVMs and show that they can be tampered with.

While Chidambaram claimed that almost every political party has pro-tested against the use of EVMs, senior advocate Kapil Sibal said Congress will also intervene in the matter say-ing “every technology can be hacked” and this was a cause of serious concern.

Sibal’s submission assumed signifi-cance as Punjab Chief Minister Ama-rinder Singh, at a function here, was on Wednesday categorical that he had no problem with the EVMs.

His colleague and senior Congress leader M Veerappa Moily had in per-sonal remarks also said that going back to the ballot paper would be a regres-sive step.

While reminding Sibal that the EVMs were introduced when Congress was in power, the top court directed the Centre and ECI to respond to BSP’s petition within three weeks after Chi-dambaram raised doubts over the accu-racy of voting through EVMs only.

In today’s paper

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qNIFTY 9150.80 (-52.65) qSENSEX 29,461.45 (-182.03) qDOW JONES 20,591.86 (-59.44) qNASDAQ 5,836.16 (-30.61) pRUPEE/DOLLAR 64.41 (+0.26) pRUPEE/EURO 68.41 (+0.15) pGOLD/10GM 29,850.00 (+90.00) pSILVER/K 42,900.00 (+150.00)

1. Dhemaji, Assam

Winner:- Ranoj Pegu (BJP): 50.13% Runner-up:- Babul Sonowal (Cong): 43.95%

2. Rajouri Garden, DelhiWinner:- Manjinder Singh Sirsa (BJP): 51.99% Runner-up:- Meenakshi Chandela (Cong): 33.23%

3. Bhoranj, Himachal PradeshWinner:- Anil Dhiman (BJP): 52.16%

Runner-up:- Parmila Devi (Cong): 34.46%

4. Littipara, JharkhandWinner:- Simon Marandi (JMM): 46.40% Runner-up:- Hemlal Murmu (BJP): 37.23%

5. Gundlupet, KarnatakaWinner:- M.C. Mohan Kumari (Cong): 51.59% Runner-up:- C.S. Niranjan Kumar(BJP): 45.37%

6. Nanjangud, KarnatakaWinner:- Kalale N Keshavamurthy (Cong): 55.15% Runner-up:- V. Srinivasa Prasad (BJP): 41.50%

7. Ater, Madhya PradeshWinner:- Hemant Katare (Cong): 48.01%

Runner-up:- Arvind Singh Bhadoria (BJP): 47.31%

8. Bandhavgarh, Madhya PradeshWinner:- Shivnarayan Singh (BJP): 54.95%Runner-up:- Savitri Singh (Cong): 36.13%

9. Dholpur, RajasthanWinner:- Shobha Rani Kushavah (BJP): 61.79%Runner-up:- Banwari Lal Sharma (Cong): 35.69%

10. Kanthi Dakshin, West BengalWinner:- Chandrima Bhattacharya (AITC): 55.89% Runner-up:- Sourindra Mohan Jana (BJP): 30.97%

where the BJP finished second while the JMM retained Littipara (ST) Assembly seat in Jharkhand defeating ruling BJP.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the performance of the BJP in the by-polls, calling it “impressive”.

He thanked the people for

their “unwavering faith in pol-itics of development and good governance”.

In a good showing for the BJP in Delhi ahead of the civic polls, Manjinder Singh Sirsa, the BJP-SAD joint candidate, handed down a humiliating defeat to the ruling Aam Aadmi Party(AAP),

whose nominee Harjeet Singh fin-ished a distant third and even lost its deposit.

The BJP wrested the Dholpur seat from the BSP with its can-didate Shobha Rani Kushwah defeating her nearest Congress rival Banwari Lal Sharma by a record margin of 38,678 votes.

The ruling BJP retained Dhemaji seat in Assam with its candidate Ranoj Pegu defeating his nearest Congress rival Babul Sonowal by 9,285 votes.

In West Bengal, the ruling TMC retained the Kanthi Dak-shin seat with its nominee Chan-drima Bhattacharya defeating

BYPOLL RESULTS: 10 Assembly Constituenciesher nearest BJP rival Sourindra Mohan Jana by 42,526 votes.

The Left and Congress candi-dates were relegated to the third and fourth positions respectively.

In Karnataka, Congress’ Kalale N Keshavamurthy defeated his nearest rival and former minis-ter V Srinivasa Prasad (BJP) by 21,334 votes in Nanjangud.

In Gundlupet, Geetha Mahadevaprasad (Congress) trounced BJP’s C S Niranjan Kumar by 10,877 votes, an elec-tion official said.

In Madhya Pradesh, BJP retained the Bandhavgarh Assem-bly seat after defeating rival Con-gress by a margin of over 25,000 votes.

In Ater, Congress’ Hemant Katare defeated BJP’s Arvind Bha-doria by a margin of 857 votes.

In Himachal Pradesh, BJP retained the Bhoranj (SC) Assem-bly seat. Dr Anil Dhiman defeated his nearest Congress rival Promila Devi by 8,290 votes.

JMM candidate Simon Marandi polled 65,551 votes against 52,551 votes garnered by BJP’s Hemlal Murmu in Littipara(ST) in Jharkhand.

All top private telcos to blame for call drops

US drops biggest non-nuclear bomb in Afghanistan targeting ISIS

GAUTAM LAHIRI

NEW DELHI: A Parliamen-tary panel headed by BJP MP Anurag Singh Thakur has held all major private telecom oper-ators responsible for the recent harassment of common con-sumers due to the call drop phenomenon. In a unani-mous report presented to both Houses of Parliament on the second last day of the Session, the committee said that one of the major reasons for call drops is that most service providers did not meet the benchmark for ensuring better services to consumers. For better services, telecom operators are supposed to install the Base Transceiver Station (BTS), a type of net-work equipment that facili-tates wireless communications between a device and the net-work. The panel also observed that in case of the worst effected

cells with more than 3 per cent drops, the service providers did not meet the benchmark in 16 License Service Areas under 2G for the quarter ending December 2016 (Aircel in 11, BSNL in one, TTSL (CDMA) in one, Telenor in two and Vodafone in one). In case of 3G, the same happened in the worst affected areas.

The committee reported that the major limitation of the mechanism of average assess-

ment is that it does not provide information about disparities in performance between differ-ent areas or cities such as rural or urban areas. The method of assessment of call drops and averaging the service areas as a whole does not give a realis-tic picture of services quality, as factors such as population density, vehicular traffic, hilly terrain etc are not uniform across a liscence service area, the panel pointed out.

In spite of claims by tele-com operators that their per-formance on call drops is well within telecom watchdog Trai’s 2 per cent benchmark, increas-ing complaints on call drops have been confirmed by sev-eral test drives conducted by the regulator from time to time.

The committee feels that there are critical gaps in the quality of service parameters which need a review. A tech-nical paper on call drops in cel-lular networks issued by Trai observes that the electromag-netic factor is responsible for 51.4 per cent call drops while 36.9 % are attributable to con-sumer faults. However, the House panel was not convinced by these argument. On the con-trary, it said that while holding consumers at fault, Trai has not undertaken any specific study to identify the factors that are responsible.

MPOST BUREAU

NEW DELHI: India has no knowledge of former navy officer Kulbhushan Jadhav’s location in Pakistan or his con-dition, the Ministry of Exter-nal Affairs said on Thursday and asserted that the govern-ment is making all efforts to get him back.

46-year-old Jadhav has been awarded death sentence by a Pakistani military court on charges of alleged “espionage and sabotage” activities.

“India has no knowledge of Kulbhushan Jadhav’s location and his condition. We are mak-ing all efforts to get him back but we can’t reveal the steps that will be taken to achieve it,” the MEA said. “We are in touch with Pakistan through our High Commission on this immensely important issue,” it said.

The issue has triggered fresh tension in Indo-Pak ties and India has warned Pakistan of the “consequences” Jadhav’s hanging could have on their ties and vowed to go “out of the way” to save him amid perva-sive outrage in the country.

No knowledge of Jadhav’s

whereabouts, working to get him back: MEA

WASHINGTON: U.S. forces in Afghanistan on Thursday struck an Islamic State tunnel complex in eastern Afghanistan with “the mother of all bombs,” the largest non-nuclear weapon every used in combat by the U.S. military, Pentagon offi-cials said.

The bomb, known offi-cially as a GBU-43B, or mas-sive ordnance air blast weapon, unleashes 11 tons of explosives. When it was developed in the early 2000s the Pentagon did a formal review of legal justifica-tion for its combat use.

The U.S. military headquar-ters in Kabul said in a statement that the bomb was dropped at

7:32 p.m. local time Thursday on a tunnel complex in Achin district of Nangarhar province, where the Afghan affiliate of the Islamic State group has been operating. The target was close to the Pakistani border.

Adam Stump, a Pentagon spokesman, said the bomb was dropped from a U.S. Air Force MC-130 transport, which he said had been brought to Afghanistan “some time ago” for potential use.

Army Gen. John W. Nichol-son, commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, said in a writ-ten statement that the strike was designed to minimize the risk to Afghan and U.S. forces conducting clearing opera-tions in the Achin area “while maximizing the destruction” of IS fighters and facilities. He said IS has been using impro-vised explosive devices, bun-kers and tunnels to strengthen its defenses.“This is the right munition to reduce these obsta-cles and maintain the momen-tum of our offensive against ISIS-K,” he added, using the U.S. military’s acronym for the IS affiliate. AGENCIES

PARLIAMENTARY PANEL REPORT

STATE GOVT SANCTIONS RS 24 CR TO PREVENT SOIL EROSION PG4

2002 GUJARAT RIOTS PROBE: SC RELIEVES SIT CHIEF RAGHAVAN PG6

PUTIN TELLS TILLERSON WHY US-RUSSIAN TIES IN BAD STATE PG10

IT’S A PRIVILEGE TO PLAY ARMY OFFICER: NIMRAT KAUR PG16

2% turnout in repoll in Srinagar LS constituency

Now, Justice Karnan asks CJI, 6 judges to appear before him

97 migrants missing as boat sinks off Libya

SRINAGAR: Only two per cent turnout was witnessed in repolling in 38 polling stations in Srinagar Lok Sabha constituency, officials said. Repolling had been ordered at these polling sta-tions by the EC following large scale violence during Sunday’s polls for the prestigious seat. The by-poll result will be declared on April 15. Barring a stone pelting incident at Soibagh area in Budgam district, the situation was peaceful in the areas where the polling was held, the officials said. Miscreants pelted stones at polling station at Soibagh but they were chased away by the secu-rity forces, they said. There was an altercation between opposition National Congress and rul-ing PDP workers at Badran in Beerwah area over allegations of bogus voting, officials said. MPOST

KOLKATA: A defiant Calcutta High Court Judge Justice C S Karnan on Thursday asked the Chief Justice of India and six judges of the Supreme Court, who have issued contempt notice to him, to appear before him at his “res-idential court” on April 28. Justice Karnan claimed that the seven judges of the bench have insulted him “wantonly and deliberately and with malafide intention”. He said the judges have been asked to defend themselves against the charge of violating the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act, levelled by him. Justice Karnan has been insisting that he is being discriminated against because he is a dalit. MPOST

TRIPOLI: At least 97 migrants went missing after their boat sank today off the Libyan coast, a navy spokesman said.

Survivors said those missing include 15 women and five children, General Ayoub Kacem said. He said the Libyan coast guard had rescued a further 23 migrants of various African nation-alities just under 10 kilometres off the coast of Tripoli. The boat’s hull was completely destroyed and the survivors, all men, were found clinging to a floating device, he said. AGENCIES

Adityanath scraps quota for pvt medical/ dental colleges in UP

OUR CORRESPONDENT

LUCKNOW: The Yogi Adity-anath Government in Uttar Pradesh has decided to end quota based reservations in private medical colleges and dental colleges in the state. The CM has passed an order to do away with the quota for candi-dates belonging to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Class.

The UP Government is also planning to revamp the education system in the state. Instead of class 6, the govern-ment schools in UP will now introduce English subject from nursery class.

The chief minister has also ordered a probe into the ration card distribution policy.

State government officials have been directed to conduct a fresh survey of BPL families in the state and also to prepare a new list in accordance with the latest survey.

Earlier, the Uttar Pradesh government had decided to not distribute over 60 lakh ration

cards printed by the Akhilesh Yadav government as they fea-tured a photograph of the for-mer Chief Minister.

The new Aadhaar-linked ration cards will also have sil-icon chips and barcodes. It will also have details of the beneficiary.

A task force to stop illegal possession of government land and taking appropriate action against the land mafia has also been constituted.

The BJP government in Uttar Pradesh is also plan-ning to organise mass wed-dings for poor girls belonging to religious minorities, in an apparent attempt by the Chief Minister to shed his Hindu hardliner image.

“Chief Minister Yogi Adity-anath has given his consent to mass weddings of poor girls belonging to minority com-munities and we have included it in the 100 days’ programme of the state government,” Min-ister of State for Minorities Affairs Mohsin Raza said on Thursday.

Women can retain maiden names in passports: Modi

MPOST BUREAU

MUMBAI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday announced that women are free to retain their maiden names in their passports now after the marriage.

Stating that he wanted women to be at the centre of the developmental schemes, Modi said his government is working in different ways to empower them through vari-ous schemes like Mudra and Ujjwala, among others.

“From now onwards, women will not have to change their names in the passport after their marriage,” Modi told a gathering of the Indian Mer-chants Chambers’ ladies wing over a video conference.

The government wants the

woman of the house to be the priority in all of its develop-ment schemes, he added.

Citing various women-ori-ented schemes launched by his government, the Prime Minis-ter said the maternity leave for the women has been extended now to 26 weeks from the pres-ent 12 weeks while another scheme provides for the trans-fer of Rs 6,000 to women, who chose to deliver in hospitals.

On the free cooking gas dis-tribution project launched last year under the Ujjwala scheme, Modi said, “The government has set a target of covering as many as 5 crore people from BPL families over the next two years. Within a year of its launch, the scheme has already benefited 2 crore women.”

Under the LPG subsidy surrender campaign, already 1.2 crore people have volun-tarily given up their benefits, he added.

Praising women for their entrepreneurial spirit, Modi said wherever women are given an opportunity, they have proved that they are two steps ahead of the men.

The biggest contributors to the dairy and livestock sectors are women, he said.

AFTER OPPN OUTCRY ON TAMPERING

CITY

BAN OUTSIDERS FROM ENTERING JNU: HC 3

NATION

SC NOTICE TO CENTRE, RAJ ON DOCS’ PLEA 5

EDIT

PILLAR OF STRENGTH & STABILITY 8

INTERNATIONAL

TRUMP SAYS NATO NO LONGER OBSOLETE 11

BUSINESS

INDIA TO BUILD PIPELINE TO BANGLADESH 13

SPORT

100 & COUNTING 15

Pack away the warm hues of winter and say hello to lively corals and florals because it’s time to usher

in the summer! Floral is one trend that can never go out of fashion, say experts.

Floral prints can make or break your look depending on

how you wear it and here are a few tips to go floral this summer:

* ADD COLOUR: Pick your best old sum-

mer outfit and add it with some bright

and fresh-ening flo-ral colours and floral prints to

add new life to your dull boring ward-

robe and make it more stylish and trendy.

* BLOOM IN BOTTOMS: Flo-ral print in your bottoms is your best bet if you do not want a splash of flowers all over you. You can team these with single coloured short kurti or tank tops. Long skirts and palazzos are making a stylish come-back so you can choose from those too. Just make sure that you keep the top simple.

* SPLASH SOME (FLORAL)

ON THE TOP: Kurti and Jeans will always be in fashion, whether it’s Anushka Sharma’s ‘Breakup’ song or Deepika Padukone’s air-port look in Piku. Be a little creative with your tops – floral kurtis with your ice blue ripped jeans will be a best match to enhance your sum-mer look.

* FLORAL SCARF OR DUPATTAS: If you want to play safe and don’t want to go overboard with the floral print, then you can simply add a floral scarf or dupattas to your ensemble. A floral dupatta will go extremely well with a muted tone outfit.

*

ACCESSORISE TO ADD MORE CHARM: If you love everything

floral, but want to do something beyond just outfits, then acces-sories are perfect for you. Flo-ral patterns on necklaces, belts, hair clips, earrings, bags, brace-lets, hats, footwear, and any-

thing else that you can think of, can add vibrancy to even

the simplest of looks. However, steer clear of

too many accesso-ries all at once,

as too many colours will make you look like a

flower pot.* NEON

FLORALS are also doing the

rounds. It is perfect for someone who loves

experimenting and making a statement.* YOU CAN ALWAYS STYLE

FLORALS with the rest of our out-fit or make the floral piece the main attraction. If you wear a blue and yellow floral skirt, always choose an existing colour in your skirt as your secondary piece of clothing.

So, instead of pairing your flo-ral skirt with a white top, pair it up with a blue top or a yel-

low top to get full marks on the fashion front! IANS

mp town2MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Friday, 14 April, 2017

Published & printed by Durbar Ganguly on behalf of Front Row Media Pvt. Ltd. from Pratap Bhawan, 5 Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi 110 002 & printed at The Indian Express Ltd., A-8, Sector-7, Noida-201 301 (U.P.) RNI REGN. NO.: DELENG/2005/15351, REGD. NO.: DL(S)-01/3420/2015-17 Editor: Durbar Ganguly, Executive Editor: Arya Rudra. Tel. No. 011-47777500, Email: durbarganguly@gmail.com, Lucknow Office: 401, Chintels House 16, Station Road, Lucknow Ph: 0522-4013126

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

DAYINDAYOUT What’s on Around Town

THE FOOD TRUCK FESTIVALA festival of magnanimous food lov-ers – Delhi Food Truck Festival would be a two day event of extravaganza for visitors to relish and indulge in the local, national and international cuisines served by Top Food Trucks in Delhi-NCR. The event will offer plethora of fun and entertaining activities for all with activi-ties like food partner hunt, Delhi craft beer carnival, rain dance concert and live performances by Jassi Gill and Bab-bal Rai on 14th and MTV Coke studio fame Goonj Band on 15th.WHEN: April 14 – 15WHERE: Jawahar Lal Nehru StadiumTIMING: 11 am – 9 pm

THROUGH THE EYES OF YAMUNAWitness the beauty of the capital city through the eyes of Yamuna by being a part of the Kathak production, a classi-cal dance form by Shivani Varma. This is the story of Delhi through the eyes of the Yamuna, who predates this gath-ering that is this city and still watches silently from the sidelines. This produc-tion is based on text written by Pavan K. Varma.WHEN: April 16WHERE: CD Deshmukh Auditorium, IICTIMING: 7pm

ATMA RATIModern individual indulges in self-explo-ration, self-reflection, self-actualization and of course selfies. A classical dance presentation ‘Atma Rati’ by Dr Dimple Kaur aims to show how the psychological view of Gita is still relevant in the mod-ern context, and the learnings from Gita need not be larger than life as por-trayed but can be inculcated in simple day to day acts.WHEN: April 18 WHERE: Stein Audito-rium, IHC TIMING: 7 pm

EASTER CELEBRATIONSEnjoy an Easter themed indulgent Sunday brunch painstakingly curated by culinary masters at award winning multi cuisine restaurant, Tamra. Featuring an organic egg counter for live cooking, grills, a kid’s buffet, classic Easter puddings and an interactive dessert counter, Tamra is the perfect place to treat yourselves and your loved ones to an Easter brunch!WHEN: April 16 WHERE: Shangri La’s Eros Hotel TIMING: 12:30 pm – 3:30 pm

summer wardrobeAdd some flower touch in your

Summer calls for the most vibrant and colourful

outfits to make a fashion statement. Try florals

this season and stand out in the crowd

OUR CORRESPONDENT

Capturing all the 28 phases of the moon over a period of one year, at various locations in the city beautiful Chandigarh,

photographer Madhu Pandit displays her romance with the moon at ‘Mehnaaz – The Moon’ – an ode to her love – mysti-cal, spiritual and poetic.

It is the journey of a conceptual pho-tographer who has captured canvases that leave everyone amazed. ‘Mehnaaz’ is her latest theme, where the Moon is her muse. Madhu’s love affair with the moon dates back to her childhood but picked up pas-sion and pace in the last 12 months.

On display at the India International Centre (IIC) are 34 art works of this pro-fessional photographer that beckon the Delhi residents to come and experience her spiritual and metaphysical journey

while shooting the Moon with the preci-sion of her camera. Her endeavor is that every visitor should enjoy the works and decipher his or her relationship with the moon through them.

‘Mehnaaz’ has been exhibited at the Art gallery of the Chandigarh Museum and National Centre for Performing Arts (NCPA); Mumbai (January 2016) where it has received a lot of appreci-ation. Madhu’s earlier works have also been acknowledged across the spectrum

and recognition has come her way for her three solo exhibitions held at Alli-ance Françoise, Chandigarh; Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi and National Cen-tre for Performing Arts (NCPA); Mum-bai on ‘Flowers and Ice – Fragrance of Eternity’. She also bagged top honours in “Chandigarh in the monsoon” contest by the Chandigarh Administration in Sep-tember 2007.

Madhu is a professional photographer whose works range from industrial and advertising photo shoots to still and art. In her pursuit of excellence, Madhu herself has attended Photography Workshops at Manohar Desai National Institute of Pho-tography, a Fashion Photography Work-shop with Vikram Bawa, Fashion and Portfolio workshop with Tarun Khaiwal at Mumbai and Photography and Photo Journalism Workshop with Raghu Rai at Chandigarh.

INDIVIDUALS’ different social net-working profile on sites like Face-book, Twitter, and LinkedIn stem from a desire to fit within the dis-tinctive culture or etiquette of each site, say researchers, including one of Indian-origin.

The findings showed that users are not explicitly modifying their profile, but rather subconsciously adapting the behaviour modelled to fit in.

“Despite our best efforts, we do still fit stereotypes of gender and age in the way we tailor our persona,” said Nis-hanth Sastry, Senior Lecturer at King’s College London.

For instance, a photo of someone’s colourful Starbucks drink may be pop-ular on Instagram, but the same image post to LinkedIn would be frowned upon.

“The users tend to portray them-selves differently in these different worlds,” added Dongwon Lee, Asso-ciate Professor at the Pennsylvania State University.

The findings will be presented at the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM)

in Canada.For the research, the team com-

piled information on over 100,000 social media users by utilising About.me – a site that acts as a social media directory – where users volunteer their own profiles, making it an extremely reliable dataset.

Upon analysing the profile pic-tures and biography information pro-vided by these users, the team also found some surprising differences in how different demographics portray themselves.

The results showed that women were less likely to wear corrective eye-wear, like reading glasses, in their pro-file pictures and users under the age of 25 were less likely to be smiling in their profile picture.

“Social media consumes an increasingly large portion of our lives. Therefore, understanding how we interact with each other on social media is important to understand-ing who we are in the online world, and how we relate to each other in virtual but still meaningful ways,” Sastry added. IANS

AIMING FOR THE MOON

IF YOU HAVE BEEN wondering whether it is better to eat or fast before a workout, researchers now have an answer. A new study has found that exercise on empty stomach is better for your health in the long term. The study analysed effects of eating versus fasting on gene expres-sion in adipose (fat) tissue in response to exercise. 

After eating, adipose tissue “is busy responding to the meal and a bout of exer-cise at this time will not stimulate the same (beneficial) changes in adipose tissue”, explained corresponding author of the study Dylan Thompson from University of Bath in Britain.

“This means that exercise in a fasted state might provoke more favourable changes in adipose tissue, and this could be ben-eficial for health in the long term,” Thompson added.

“We propose that feeding is

likely to blunt long-term adipose tis-sue adaptation to regular exercise,” the researchers noted in the study published in the American Journal of Physiology –Endocrinology and Metabolism.

The study participants were a group of overweight males who walked for 60

minutes at 60 per cent maximum oxygen consumption on an empty stomach

and, on another occasion, two hours after consuming a high-calorie carbohydrate-rich breakfast. The research team took multiple blood samples after eating or fasting and after exercising.The research-ers also collected fat tissue samples imme-diately before and one hour after walking.

Gene expression in the adipose tis-sue differed significantly in the two trials. 

The expression of two genes, PDK4 and HSL, increased when the men fasted and exercised and decreased when they ate before exercising.  The rise in PDK4 likely indicates that stored fat was used to fuel metabolism during exercise instead of carbohydrates from the recent meal. 

HSL typically increases when adi-pose tissue uses stored energy to support increased activity, such as during exercise, Thompson said. These results reinforce the view that “adipose tissue often faces competing challenges,” Thompson wrote. 

“This is the first study to show that feeding prior to acute exercise affects post-exercise adipose tissue gene expression,” the study said. IANS

Why exercise on empty stomach may be better for your health

Here’s why people have different persona on social media sites

mp city 3MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Friday, 14 April, 2017

ROUSHAN ALI

NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiromani Akali Dal combine on Thursday reg-istered a huge victory in the Rajouri Garden Assembly by-election here, handing a humili-ating defeat to the ruling Aam Aadmi Party which finished a distant third. AAP’s poor per-formance also lead to its candi-date losing his deposit.

Manjinder Singh Sirsa, the candidate of the BJP-SAD com-bine, secured 40,602 votes on the way to victory. He defeated his nearest rival Meenakshi Chandela of the Congress by a margin of over 14,000 votes.

Data from the Election Commission stated that Chan-dela managed a total of 25,950 votes; while AAP’s Harjeet Singh could eke out a mere 10,243 votes of the total 78,091 votes cast during by-election on April 9. Nearly 1,300 votes were divided among the other contestants.

The seat had fallen vacant after the previous MLA from AAP Jarnail Singh resigned to contest the Punjab Assembly polls on February 4.

Sirsa had won from Rajouri Garden in the 2013 Delhi Assembly elections, but lost to Jarnail Singh in the 2015 polls by margin of over 10,000 votes.

Elated by its victory in

Rajouri Garden Assembly bypolls, the BJP said that peo-ple had given the AAP a “fit-ting gift” by defeating it. The party, it said, was on the verge of extinction.

“Earlier, they lost Punjab and Goa Assembly polls and today’s (Thursday’s) result of the Rajouri Garden assembly bypoll is like the last nail in the

coffin for AAP. It is on the verge of extinction,” BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said.

The BJP leader also tweeted: “AAP and Kejriwal have not just lost their deposit, they have (also) lost their credibility.”

Patra said that Delhi Chief Minister Kejriwal never thought about the welfare of Delhi’s peo-ple. “Neglecting Delhi people, Kejriwal went to Punjab and Goa for assembly elections. Now the residents of Delhi have neglected him,” said Patra.

Reacting to AAP’s perfor-mance, Delhi’s Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said that voters of Rajouri Garden constituency were angry over AAP lawmaker Jarnail Singh’s resignation to contest the Pun-jab Assembly elections, which led to the party’s poor show in the bypoll.

“People in Rajouri Gar-den assembly constituency were angry after Jarnail Singh resigned. We tried to make them understand, but it seems they

are still angry with the AAP,” Sisodia said.

However, he said it was just a bypoll and that “we will keep preparing for the coming elections”.

The Rajouri Garden Assem-bly bypoll on Sunday witnessed a poor turnout, as only 47 per cent people came out to vote. In the 2015 Assembly elections, when the AAP had swept to power by winning 67 of the 70 Assembly seats, the constitu-ency had seen 72 percent voting.

Delhi Congress president Ajay Maken termed the Rajouri Garden bypoll result a “referen-dum” on the Kejriwal govern-ment in Delhi.

Maken said that the AAP’s vote percentage had fallen by four times than its vote share in the last election, while the Con-gress’ vote share increased three times its earlier figure in the constituency. “We have jumped from 12 percent vote share for the constituency to 36 percent in just two years,” Maken said.

BJP-SAD combine sweeps Rajouri Garden bypoll

The BJP-SAD candidate Manjinder Sirsa secured 40,602 votes to ensure vicotry; Congress came second with 24,950 votes, while AAP finished a distant third

BJP chief Amit Shah greets BJP-SAD joint candidate Manjinder Singh Sirsa for his victory in the Rajouri Garden bypoll on Thursday PIC/PTI

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: After its humbling defeat in the Rajouri Garden bypoll, Aam Aadmi Party leader and Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Thursday admitted that people were upset with the party over its previous legislator quitting to contest the Punjab Assembly election.

Sisodia said the party will pull up its socks in the upcoming MCD polls and try to convince people of Rajouri Garden by showcasing the “good work” done by the Delhi government.

The Rajouri Garden bypoll was necessitated after AAP MLA Jarnail Singh quit to contest from Lambi in Punjab against then Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal. Jarnail came third in the contest.

The BJP-SAD candidate Manjinder Singh Sirsa trounced his nearest rival and Congress’ Meenakshi Chandela by over 14,500 votes. AAP’s Harjeet Singh came in a distant third.

“There was anger among people after Jarnail went to Punjab. We tried convincing them, but with the results we

are realising that people were not convinced and remained upset.

“We will pull up our socks in the upcoming polls and also try to convince the people of Rajouri Garden. Whatever work was done by Jarnail we will carry it forward,” Sisodia said.

When asked about the possible impact of the Rajouri Garden bypoll on the MCD election, Sisodia said the BJP too lost several bypolls after its resounding victory in 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

Meanwhile, Jarnail Singh on on Thursday issued a statement that the party needs to conduct an “honest introspect on its drubbing in the by-election.”

“Win or loss is part of

electoral politics, but the party needs a deep and honest introspection. Party fights collectively and win or loss is a collective responsibility,” he said. He, however, declined to elaborate on his remarks.

His comments came just hours after Sisodia acknowledged that people were upset with the AAP over Jarnail Singh’s resignation as Rajouri Garden MLA to fight in the Punjab Assembly election.

Sources said that Jarnail Singh is also unhappy over how the party functioned in Punjab during the Assembly polls in the state.

AAP was expected to fare well, but it managed to bag only 20 seats in the 117 seat Assembly.

AAP to now focus on MCD polls, Jarnail calls for introspection

We will pull up our socks in the upcoming (MCD) polls and try to convince the people of Rajouri Garden

MANISH SISODIA

Win or loss is part of electoral politics, but the (Aam Aadmi) Party needs a deep and honest introspection

JARNAIL SINGH

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday suggested the need to ban entry of outsid-ers inside the Jawaharlal Nehru University campus for things to improve.

“We have to close the cam-pus to students of other uni-versities. If the JNU campus is closed for outsiders, things will improve,” said Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva.

The Court, questioning the varsity and Students’ Union of JNU, said, “Every day we are reading in the newspaper

about protests in the Jawaha-rlal Nehru University campus. Is this the way an educational institution functions?”

“For the last many years, JNU has been known for its own culture inside the cam-pus. It has never allowed others to interfere in its functioning. Today, however, outsiders are more active on the campus,” the court noted.

Earlier, the varsity admin-istration knocked the High Court’s door to seek direc-tion to restrain its students from staging any demonstra-tion within 100 metres of the

administrative block.Later, the court reversed its

order and stated that students could hold demonstrations as long as they were peaceful and noise levels were kept to a min-imum. It also prohibited stu-dents from blocking access to the administrative facility.

The plea by JNU admin-istration was filed before Jus-tice Sanjeev Sachdeva, who had recently asked the students to ensure they maintain decent decibel levels during the pro-tests so that there was no dis-turbance in the functioning of the University.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Commission for Women has taken the suo-moto cogni-sance and issued a notice to DCP, North District seeking reasons behind the police’s inaction over the initial com-plaints of 21-year-old Delhi University student who com-mitted suicide allegedly due to threats and harassment by her former boyfriend.

“It is stated in the report that the girl had approached the police several times to report the threats and harass-

ment faced by her, but no action was taken by the police,” the Commission stated.

Considering the serious allegations stated by the girl, the Commission has asked the police to provide infor-mation on the reasons behind the inaction. The Commission has further asked for the copy of the FIR lodged in the case. Also, asked for status reports by April 20.

The girl student, who com-mitted suicide, had been in a troubled relationship as she kept getting incessant calls from her former boyfriend,

who threatened to post their intimate moments on social media.

Following this, she then decided to approach the Delhi Police. She complained at the Roop Nagar police station, but the personnel failed to take timely action. She commit-ted suicide by hanging herself from the ceiling fan in North Delhi’s Chandrawal area on April 8.

After the girl’s suicide, police registered a case of abetment to suicide against the accused, identified as Ved Prakash, who hails from Patna.

Ban outsiders from entering JNU till things improve: HC

DCW issues notice to Delhi top cop over 21-yr-old girl’s suicide

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Delhi Water Minister and Delhi Jal Board chairman Kapil Mishra directed the Board’s staff to ensure adequate water supply to all the piped consumers dur-ing the summer season.

Mishra held a review meet-ing with the CEO and other senior officers of DJB on Thursday over the water sup-ply situation in Delhi. He also emphasised on better manage-ment. The main issue pertained to judicious use of water.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party National Convener Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday questioned the credibility of “open challenge” by the Elec-tion Commission (EC) to hack it’s electronic voting machines (EVMs).

“Has anyone actually seen any official statement from CEC (Chief Election Com-missioner)? Am trying to get it since ever. Is this news cor-rect,” tweeted Kejriwal.

Mishra calls for proper water

supply for summer

Kejriwal questions credibility of EC’s EVM challenge

mp city4MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Friday, 14 April, 2017

Elevated highway, tunnel, Metrino to IGI Airport soon: GadkariOUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: There may soon be an elevated parallel highway to IGI Airport, a tunnel from Haryana side and Metrino that would go a long way in decon-gesting traffic, Union Trans-port Minister Nitin Gadkari said.

The proposal to construct an elevated parallel highway and a tunnel from Haryana side connecting the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI) will be in addition to the ambitious Metrino project and Dwarka Express Highway, the

work on which will start soon."We are examining a pro-

posal to build an elevated par-allel road to the airport and traffic from Haryana side can be diverted to it. The main obstacle is there are two radars on the sides of the proposed elevated road," Gadkari, who had a high-level meeting with Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajpathi Raju earlier this week, told PTI.

He said the issue for chang-ing the position of radars were taken up in the meeting and its feasibility is being examined.

The minister said the gov-

ernment will also construct a tunnel from Haryana side and connect it with the Terminal 3 of the airport to reduce fre-quent traffic jams.

"We have given these two proposals to him (Raju)," Gad-kari said.

The minister said the two proposals are in addition to the proposed Dwarka Expressway for which he "took a review meeting with Union Civil Avia-tion Minister Raju and Airport authority to resolve issues".

Gadkari said that earlier the Haryana government was con-structing the Dwarka Express-

way but now the Centre will do it by declaring it a national highway.

"The process of land acqui-sition between Delhi and Hary-ana has started. We will start the work soon," he said.

Meanwhile, work on the ambitious Rs 800 crore pilot pod taxi project - also known as Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) or Metrino - is also likely to start soon.

The minister had recently said that the Rs 800 crore proj-ect will be implemented under NHAI.

The pilot project will be for

about Rs 800 crore for a 12.3-km stretch from Delhi-Hary-ana border on NH 8 (near Ambience Mall) to Badshah-pur via Rajiv Chowk, IFFCO and Sohna Road.

Four global companies -- one from London which has done work in this regard at the Heathrow airport, second from the UAE, third from the US and the fourth from Poland --

have qualified in initial tech-nical bids.

The Rs 4,000-crore public transport project provides for

travel in driver-less pods sus-pended on a ropeway in NCR.

The first phase will be con-necting the 70-km stretch from Dhaula Kuan in Delhi to Manesar in Haryana to decon-gest NCR and ease traffic.

A few months back, a pre-sentation on the project was made before Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Union Cabinet.

Gadkari has said the mas-sive work is underway to reform the face of the high-way sector and the pilot proj-ect will be one such step in that direction.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Enforce-ment Directorate (ED) on Thursday conducted multiple searches against tax professionals and chartered accountants (CAs) in the national capital in connection with an operation to unearth black money being generated using shell companies.

Officials said the Enforce-ment Directorate teams searched premises of these professionals in Karol Bagh, Laxmi Nagar, Model Town, Azadpur, Dilshad Garden and few other areas as part of their probe in the generation of alleged stash funds to the tune of thousands of crores.

They said the agency is

carrying out the raids as part of its mandate to check money laundering and hawala like transactions by usage of shell firms by misusing banking channels.

A clutch of over two dozen CAs, company secretaries and other tax professionals are being searched, they said, adding the action is part of a follow up of the country-wide searches the agency carried

out early this month against 500 shell companies sus-pected to be generating huge amounts of black money.

Also, certain cases of huge cash deposits, in which the agency had arrested two brothers, made by the tax professionals is under the scanner of the agency.

The ED had conducted nationwide raids on April 1 in 16 states as part of its

operation against shell firms and to hunt down those allegedly dubious and sus-picious companies which the agency believes are the "backbone" of black money in the country.

Shell companies are firms set up with nominal paid-up capital, high reserves and surplus on account of receipt of high share pre-mium, investment in unlisted companies and no dividend income or high amount of cash-in-hand. Such firms also characteristically have private companies as majority share-holders, low turnover and operating income, nominal expenses, nominal statutory payments and stock in trade and minimum fixed assets

ED conducts searches on CAs, tax professionals

The ED had conducted nationwide raids on April 1 in 16 states

Cops finally crack 8-yr-old Balbir Vihar murder case

ANAND MOHAN J

NEW DELHI: Eight years after an 18-year old woman was found murdered with her head smashed with a blunt object, Delhi Police finally nabbed her killer from Bal-bir Vihar at Kirari Suleman Nagar on Tuesday.

A senior police official said that Bijender had killed Aarti and disposed of her body with help from his associate Rahul, who was also arrested.

After killing Aarti, Bijen-der tried to carry her body to Najafgarh in a cab.

When the cab driver asked him about the woman, Bijender had claimed she was possessed by evil spirits and he was taking her for an exorcism.

The case came to light on September 24, 2008, when Aarti’s body, wearing a yel-low suit, was found lying in

the bushes near Najafgarh’s Surakhpur Road.

As her face was crushed, police were unable to iden-tify her. As her features were similar to that of women from the hilly states, police teams were deputed to Him-achal Pradesh, Uttrakhand and Nepal.

Yet no headway was made.

However, on March 11, the local police station got information that Rahul would come near the BDO office in Najafgarh in the evening.

The local police consti-tuted a team which reached the spot and arrested Rahul upon identification.

Based on information from Rahul, Bijender was nabbed too.

Crime Branch investiga-tors found that Bijender and Aarti were in a relationship with each other in 2006 and began living together in 2008.

However, a few months later a dispute arose between them and Bijender strangu-lated her to death, a senior police official said.

Later, he contacted Aarti’s parents and told them that she ran off with another man.

He also sent a letter signed in her name to convince them, the official added.

Two constables arrested from Vikaspuri for

extortion

Bizman who opened fire at

partner’s house is critical

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Two Delhi Police constables posted at West Delhi’s Janakpuri were arrested from Vikaspuri on Monday, along with another person, for alleg-edly extorting Rs 1 lakh from a website designer working in the same area.

Investigation revealed that the accused cops were hand in glove with their informer for extorting money from the vic-tim. The incident took place on Monday night when the victim Vikrant Chauhan was working in his office in New Krishna Park area.

Chauhan, who had began operations two months ago, told police in his complaint that they were about to wind up work around 12.15 am, when two men in police uniform and another person in plain clothes barged into the office and asked all of them to hand over their cell phones.

Later, the three men demanded Rs 5 lakh and later settled for Rs one lakh. The money was supposed to be handed over at District Centre.

Chauhan reached the loca-tion in half an hour and handed over the bag to the accused men, following which they fled.

“But before they fled, we noted car’s number,” said Chauhan.

“Chauhan shared with us the car details and described the people who were involved in the crime. During prelimi-nary enquiry, it was established that a total of four persons were involved, two of whom were constables posted at Janak-puri police station,” said Vijay Kumar, Deputy Commissioner of Police (West).

Police said that an FIR under sections 384 and 411 of the IPC was registered at Vikaspuri police station.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NOIDA: Noida businessman, Rajesh jolly who shot his busi-ness partner, Ajay Khurana’s wife, and son on Tuesday night is on ventilator and also critical, said doctors.

Jolly is battling for his life at Kailash hospital while Ajay and his son Amit have been discharged.

According to a senior doc-tor from Kailash Hospital, no one from his family came to visit him. “Jolly has suffered serious brain injuries. His condition had improved on Wednesday night but has again deteriorated. He is an asthma patient,”

Jolly who hails from Agra and has been living in Mayur Vihar Phase-1 for the past 20 years.

Khurana’s relatives said, “Jolly and Ajay Khurana were together into property busi-ness for the past 18 years. For 14 years they lived in the same locality. As they both shared a healthy relation among them-selves over a long period of time, the incident is quite shocking.” Cops are waiting for Jolly to gain consciousness as the actual motive behind the murder is yet to be ascertained.

Gurugram lags behind in registering data on expectant mothers

PIYUSH OHRIE

GURUGRAM: All steps taken by the State Govern-ment seems to yield no result as Gurugram continues to languish at the bottom in gov-ernment registration of preg-nant women.

In the latest Government data for March, Gurugram has reported only 56.7 per-cent placing it higher to only Nuh at 43.9 percent.

Further, while Nuh has shown remarkable improve-ment in its figures from 38.2 percent to 43.9 percent, the registration statistics for Gurugram has dropped from 57.8 percent to 56.7 percent.

Even though it has seen a slight dip, its neighbour Faridabad has also fared bet-ter than Gurugram with a score of 63.9 percent.

With 90 percent registra-tions, Jhajjar has topped the list of registration of pregnant women followed by Hissar at

88 percent and Kaithal with 87.3 percent.

In order to prevent cases of female infanticide in the state, the Haryana Govern-ment is keeping an official record of pregnant women.

Besides providing cer-tain Government benefits, the main objective is to reduce the female infanticide cases and improve the sex ratio.

With the view of keeping a track abortion of females, the Haryana Government has encouraged pregnant women to register themselves with the State Government.

Under this initiative, the government has even utilised the services of Aanganwadi workers.

In the Millennium City,

more than one thousand Aan-ganwadi workers are being used for registration of preg-nant women.

Haryana that has been tagged for skewed sex ratio showed a remarkable improvement with 950 females for 1000 males.

However, Gurugram which is one of the rich-est cities in the country in terms of per capita income per individual continued to have a skewed sex ratio of 893 females for 1000 males.

“Not only are female infanticide cases are reported from the poor households but also the middle-class house-holds indulge in the punish-able act,” said sources.

Privacy under threat with fake call centres selling user data to corporates

ANAND MOHAN J

NEW DELHI: With the Digital India initiative making strides, many people are increas-ingly uploading and updating their data on digital platforms to conduct transactions. As a result, a treasure trove of data is available for corpora-tions across the world to be used to sell a myriad of prod-ucts and services.

However, 33-year-old Puran Gupta and his associ-ates went a step ahead and pro-cured the online data of around one crore people and sold it to prospective buyers.

Gupta and his associ-ates set up a fake call centre, procured data of unsuspect-ing people and divided it into several categories to be sold to prospective buyers as per their requirements.

On March 4, South East District police had arrested one Ashish Kumar Jha; based on his confession, Gupta was arrested on March 10.

On raiding Gupta’s office in south Ganesh Nagar, police found a laptop containing data of around one crore credit card holders. An array of folders was found in the laptop in which Gupta had meticulously cat-egorised his victims.

The list ranged from data of senior citizens, matriculates and university students, to state and court-wise lawyers’ data, WhatsApp data, company-wise car owners’ data, stockbrokers and election card data.

The data would be sold to buyers at Rs 5,000-Rs 10,000 for 50,000 people.

A single credit/debit card account data was sold at a price of 10-20 paise.

The case came to light when the complainant in the case, Sushil Chandra Ras-togi, informed police that someone called him and told that his Citibank credit card has been blocked and if he wants to reactivate it, some details are required. After giving the details, he found that Rs.1,46,000 had been transferred

During investigation, Jha’s role came to light and it was found that he had earlier worked in several banks and

financial Institutions as a sales executive.

In 2013, he became a tele-marketer and sold health insur-ance from his own web portal. For this purpose, he used to purchase data from data pro-viders, which gave him the idea to start his own online credit card cheating scam.

“Ashish Kumar Jha dis-closed that he was running a call centre and would procure details of four-five people on a daily basis and sell the same to Puran, who worked as a data

entry operator in 2010 and got the idea to procure the data and sell them,” said DCP (South East) Romil Baaniya.

However, it was only after Gupta’s arrest that cops realised that they had just found the tip of the iceberg.

Gupta had set up a com-pany involved in data col-lection, data entry and data market research. He used to purchase some of the data, such as credit card informa-tion, from Mumbai.

Using the data, the accused would use social engineering techniques usually used by hackers to lure victims from their safe space and make them jeopardise their own security protocol, as was seen in Ras-togi’s case.

Police are now on the look-out for the main supplier of the credit card data.

14 Ggn Romeos rounded up under Operation Durga in 24 hours

PIYUSH OHRIE

GURUGRAM: Similar to the Uttar Pradesh’s new drive, the Anti Romeo drive, the Haryana Government’s new initiative ‘Operation Durga’ was launched on Wednesday. In one day, 14 men have been rounded up in the Millennium City.

In just 24 hours, the drive has held 72 people across the state. The operation is being out by a team of Chief Minister Flying squad.

The team under Operation Durga are taking punitive action against people who have been accused of stalking and pass-ing lewd comments at women in the state.

Officers involved in the operation have also rounded up people in Gurugram.

Four people were held in Old Gurugram for stalking college girls. There were also 10 who were rounded up late Wednes-day night at MG road.

It is noted as an insecure area for women. The city police under ‘Operation Majnu’ had carried out anti-stalking oper-ations on numerous occasions. In 2016, more than fifty stalk-

ers were rounded by the cops in MG road itself. In the past Operation Majnu has also been carried out by Gurugram Police in 2011 and in 2012. But, this is definitely a first when anti-stalking operations on a large scale are being carried across the state of Haryana.

There have been mixed responses from the citizens of the city on the latest anti -stalk-ing operations that have been initiated by the Haryana Gov-ernment. “It is good that the Haryana Government has initi-ated Operation Durga modelled in lines of Anti Romeo drive that is happening in Uttar Pradesh. However, there is also skepti-cism that this operation is not

carried out just to create hype but there should a committed sincere effort by the officials. There must not be moral polic-ing that must be done by the Police,” said Rama Sachdeva, a resident of MG Road.

He also stated that it is a shame that even though MG road one of the most prominent areas not only in the city but in the country, the level of safety and security for women at MG road only is extremely poor.

“Even though there have been similar operations that have been carried out at MG road and in the city there is still an uneasy calm among the women in the city,” added Sachdeva.

After recurrent delays, GMDA to

function from April 18

40-year-old man held for paramour's murderOUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: A 40-year-old man was arrested from South Delhi’s Mehrauli on Wednesday for killing his lover after he sus-pected her of having a relation-ship with other men

The accused, Dharmender Sirohi, had lured the victim on the pretext of going on a trip to Agra and later slit her throat and dumped her body in a tun-

nel, along with the weapon of offence.

The case came to light on April 9 when personnel at Sikandra police station in Agra found the woman’s body with her throat slit. The local police began an investigation but could not crack the case.

“The Special Staff of South District had received informa-tion that a lady, whose in-laws’ home was in Mehrauli, had been

reportedly gone missing from her parental home in Farid-abad and that she has been mur-dered at an unknown place. The informant also disclosed that the missing lady had been in a long extra-marital affair with a person who also resided in Mehrauli,” said a senior police official.

The Special Staff investigated the case and later, using local sources, zeroed in on Sirohi and

arrested him.During interrogation, Sirohi

had revealed that he was in an extra-marital relationship with the deceased woman, Mamta, all the way since 2004.

Mamta and Dharmender were already married, but continued their relationship anyway.

“However, soon their fam-ily members got wind of it. This, however, did not act as

a deterrent and they kept their love affair going, albeit with secrecy. However, of late, signs of discord appeared when the accused started suspecting that the deceased was showing a lack of interest in him and interro-gation of the distraught lover soon established that Mamta was involved in other rela-tionships too,” said Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) Chinmoy Biswal.

PIYUSH OHRIE

GURUGRAM: Announced on September 5 last year by Chief Minister ML Khattar, the Centralised Body of Guru-gram Metropolitan Develop-ment Authority (GMDA) was expected to be formally opera-tional from November 1, 2016.

Yet, various hurdles con-tinue to delay the formation of GMDA. With the Haryana cabinet ministry expected to meet on April 18 on the issue of GMDA, it is expected that GMDA formation will finally see the light of the day.

Speaking to Millennium Post, Rao Narbir Singh, the Cabinet minister in Haryana Government confirmed that there will be a meeting by Hary-ana Cabinet ministry in Chan-digarh where the bill of GMDA will be passed.

The once formed central-ised body is expected to be responsible for key infrastruc-tural developments in the city like development and main-tenance of land records, road networks, drainage systems and horticultural projects.

It will also be accountable for the collection of External Development Charge (EDC)

builders and utilise it for the civil maintenance projects in the city.

Sources said that the Chief Minister will be supervising affairs of the proposed body.

Various challenges and dis-sent over the formation of the body have prevented the for-mation of the body in the past.

GMDA seems to face a major challenge from the work-ers from Haryana Urban Devel-opment Authority (HUDA) whose certain functions is expected to be taken over by GMDA. There have been fre-quent strikes by the worker in HUDA resisting the formation of the body.

Major differences have also been expressed over the key ministers and bureaucrats handling the affairs of the body from Chandigarh than from Gurugram.

“The multiple civic agen-cies in Gurugram have stalled the infrastructural works in the city. The formation of GMDA will be an important step in the improvement of infrastructure in the city. After many hurdles it is going to be a relief for the citizens of the city that GMDA will finally be formed,” said R S Rathee President Gurugram Citizens Council.

A few months back, a presentation on the project was made before Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Union Cabinet

Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari

18-year-old Aarti

In just 24 hours, the drive has held 72 people across the state

In the latest Government data for March, Gurugram has reported only 56.7 percent placing it higher to only Nuh at 43.9 percent

Police arrested two people who procured the online data of around one crore people and then sold it to prospective buyers for around 10-20 paise

Officials said the Enforcement Directorate teams searched Karol Bagh, Laxmi Nagar, Model Town, Azadpur, Dilshad Garden and few other areas as part of their probe in the alleged stash funds to tune of thousands of crores

5MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Friday, 14 April, 2017

mp nation

PRESIDENT CONFERS PADMA AWARDSNEW DELHI: President Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday conferred coveted Padma awards to 44 persons which included celebrities and unsung heroes who have worked for the society. In a formal ceremony in the imposing Durbar Hall of Rashtrapati Bhavan here, Mukherjee conferred Padma Vibhushan to mystic guru Sahdguru Jag-adish Vasudev and singer K J Yesudas. Wife of former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Sunder Lal Patwa received the award on his behalf. The focus of this year’s Padma awards, according to the officials in the Home Ministry, was on recog-nising talent of unknown and unsung heroes of the country.

NGT JUNKS PLEA ON MAKING ELECTRONIC VOTING MACHINES MANDATORYNEW DELHI: The National Green Tribunal on Thursday refused to entertain a plea seeking directions to make the use of electronic voting machines (EVMs) mandatory in all elections across the country to save enormous amounts of paper from being wasted every year. A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar said there was nothing substantial with regard to environment and ecology in the plea. “Why don’t you approach the Election Commission. You have not raised any contention with regard to the environment,” the bench said.

BOOZE BAN: SC TO HEAR PLEA AGAINST DENOTIFYING CHANDIGARH ROADSNEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to hear after summer vacation a plea challenging a decision of Chandigarh adminis-tration to denotify certain roads allegedly with an aim to “circumvent” its verdict banning liquor vends within 500 metres from the state and na-tional highways. A bench headed by Chief Justice J S Khehar, however, observed that the decision to denotify must have been taken to ensure the flow of funds required to maintain the roads.

BRIEFSNATION

SC asks Haji Ali Dargah Trust to remove encroachments by May 8

SC asks Centre to include Urdu in NEET from 2018-19 onwards

TV news channel CMD arrested for ‘disturbing

communal harmony’

MPOST BUREAU

MUMBAI: A special court to hear cases under the PMLA here issued a non-bail-able warrant (NBW) against controver-sial Islamic preacher Zakir Naik on Thursday in connection with a money laundering case. The Enforcement Direc-torate sought the NBW against Naik, saying that the preacher has not joined the investigation so far. The central probe agency, which moved the court earlier this week, had said that although Naik was served summons repeatedly, he had failed to appear before it. It said Naik needed to be questioned in connection with the money laundering.

The ED registered a criminal case against Naik and others last December after taking cog-nisance of an NIA complaint under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. The ED is looking into the charges of alleged illegal funds laun-dered by the accused in the case and the subse-quent proceeds of crime thus generated.

Naik, 51, who is said to be staying in Saudi Arabia to evade arrest after some perpetrators of the Dhaka terror strike last year claimed they were inspired by him, has been booked along with unnamed Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) officials under section 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion and doing acts prejudicial to the main-tenance of harmony) of the IPC, besides various sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Haji Ali Dargah Trust to remove the encroachments in a 908 sq mt area around the famous Mumbai mosque by May 8 while making it clear that the area containing the shrine will remain protected.

The order was passed after the Haji Ali Trust volunteered to take up the task of removing the encroachments.

A bench headed by Chief Justice J S Khehar also said that the removal of the encroach-ment will be subject to the sat-isfaction of the two authorities indicated in the Bombay High Court order of February 10.

The High Court had ordered the formation of a joint task force compris-ing the Municipal Corpora-tion of Greater Mumbai and the Collector to remove ille-gal encroachments on the approach road leading to the Haji Ali Dargah.

The bench, also comprising Justices D Y Chandrachud and S K Kaul, passed the order after senior advocate Gopal Subra-maniam informed that he has

the instruction from one of the trustees that the trust itself will volunteer to carry out the removal and demolition of the encroachment.

“We thereby allow the trust to remove encroachments besides the 171 sq mt area cov-ered under the lease where the mosque subsists,” the bench said.

While appreciating the Trust for volunteering to remove the encroachments, the bench asked it to ensure

that the encroachments shall be removed on or before May 8.

The bench also clarified that in view of the offer made by the Trust, it is restraining the joint task force from removing the encroachments as ordered by the high court.

The bench also gave liberty to the Trust to place for consid-eration before the apex court the beautification and archi-tecture plan for maintaining the access and surroundings of the area.

The bench also made it clear that no other court other than the apex court will enter-tain the petition relating to the removal of encroachment around the shrine.

It also said it will be open for any party desiring modifi-cation of its order to approach the apex court with an appli-cation in the pending petition.

Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court had asked the counsel for the Haji Ali Dargah trust to take instruction and

inform whether it was ready to assist in the removal and demo-lition of encroachment in the 908 sq mt area.

The court also assured that 171 sq mt land on which the mosque is built will be protected.

The bench had made it clear that 171 sq mt land having the mosque on it will be protected, but the encroachments in the remaining area have to be removed and demolished.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Centre was on Thursday directed by the Supreme Court to include Urdu as a language in the NEET exam, the common test for admission into medi-cal courses, from academic ses-sion 2018-19 onwards.

The apex court made it clear that it cannot ask the govern-ment to do “miracles” and include Urdu as a language for this year’s NEET examination.

“In any case, we are saying it is not possible this year. There

are lot of difficulties. Please try to understand that we cannot ask them (government) to do miracles.

The exam is scheduled on May 7 and on Thursday is April 13. Lot of process is involved in this,” a bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra told the counsel appearing for the petitioner.

“We direct the Union of India to include Urdu as a language in NEET examination from academic session 2018-19 onwards,” the bench, also comprising Justices A M Khanwilkar and M M Shantanagoudar, said.

PMLA court issues non-bailable warrant

against Zakir Naik

ICA-734(22)/2017

Mamata BandyopadhyayHon’ble Chief Minister, West Bengal

the Architect of Indian Constitution on his birthday

Dr. B. R. Ambedkar,Homage to

Department of Information and Cultural Affairs, Government of West Bengal

China uses its hard and soft powers effectively: Tharoor

MPOST BUREAU

NEW DELHI: With India tak-ing great pride in its soft power, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said this alone can only go so far, and the real art lies in com-bining both the powers hard and soft effectively, something that the “Chinese are doing better”.

“Hard power without soft power is bullying, but then soft power alone at the end of the day is a weak force. However, if you can combine both the powers effectively then you have that self vigor, and this is where the Chinese are doing a better job at the moment,” Tha-roor said at the launch of ‘My Driver Tulong and Other Tall Tales from a Post Pol Pot Con-

temporary Cambodia’ here at India Habitat Centre.

Referring to Cambodia, Sri lanka and neighboring coun-tries, Tharoor argued that India should think of offering some-thing different to these nations, because if it is about pump-ing in resources then “Indian investment cannot quite com-pare to the large investible sur-plus of China”.

“I have said this in Par-liament also that the biggest challenge with Indian foreign policy is not Pakistan, it is the Ministry of Finance. We have our prime ministers and for-eign ministers going abroad and making commitments and then the ministry of finance cheerfully refusing to fulfil them when the time comes.

SC notice to Centre, Raj on docs’ plea on PG coursesOUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday sought a response of the Rajasthan government and the Medi-cal Council of India on a plea seeking quashing of a High Court order allowing incen-tive marks to MBBS doctors who have served in remote areas in NEET this year for PG admission.

A bench of Justices Dipak Misra and M M Shantana-goudar issued notice to them on the 10 per cent incentive marks seeking their response, while refusing to stay the ongoing counseling process.

The bench, however, made it clear that the admissions to the PG courses for the current session will be subject to the outcome of the petition.

“The counselling pro-cess will go on. However, the admission will be subject to

the outcome of this petition,” it said and fixed April 17 as the next date of hearing.

The plea, filed by Amit Bagra and other doctors, who have MBBS degrees but are not in government service, chal-lenges the April 7 order of a division bench of the Rajast-han High Court by which the state government was allowed to continue with its policy decision to award 10 per cent incentive marks in NEET, 2017 to its doctors serving in hospi-tals in remote areas.

The larger bench of the high court had vacated the stay granted by a single judge bench on the state govern-

ment’s notification on the issue. The appeal, filed through lawyer Sahir Hussain, alleged that the Rajasthan government decided to give 10 per cent incentive marks to in-service MBBS doctors without even defining remote areas.

It contended that the process of selection for the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) 2017 had begun in September 2016 whereas the state government notification came on March 20 this year.

The petitioners are MBBS students of non-service cate-gory who appeared in NEET-PG 2017 and cleared it.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

LUCKNOW: The Editor-in-Chief and Chief Managing Director of a news channel has been arrested for allegedly pro-moting enmity between differ-ent groups in Sambhal, a senior police official said on Thursday.

Suresh Chavhanke was arrested on Wednesday night by Sambhal police with the help of local police from the Chow-dhury Charan Singh Airport, when he was about to leave the city, the official said.

An FIR was been lodged against Chavhanke, head of Sudarshan news channel under various sections of the IPC including those dealing with promoting enmity between dif-ferent groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth and over content to cause, or which is likely to cause, fear or alarm to the public, or to any section of the public and other sections on April 10 in Sambhal.

Provisions related to delib-erate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insult-ing its religion and Cable Tele-vision Networks (Regulation)

Amendment Act, 2000, have also been invoked against him.

It was alleged that the chan-nel had telecast a programme in which its Editor-in-Chief and CMD Suresh Chavhanke dished out objectionable con-tent because of which tension prevailed in the city.

The FIR was registered by the SHO when the matter was raised during a meeting of the Peace Committee in Sambhal on April 9, in which prominent citizens pointed out the pro-gramme telecast between April 6 to April 8. When contacted for its response, the channel had said that it condemned any attempt to suppress and intimi-date the media. “We condemn any act to suppress and the intimidate the media. To pro-test this I will reach Sambhal on April 13,” a statement issued by Chavhanke said.

‘Non-disclosure of other policies not fraudulent concealment’OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Non-disclosure of other insurance policies can-not be considered as fraudu-lent concealment, the apex consumer commission said while asking an insurance firm to pay Rs 15 lakh to kin of a man whose claim was rejected.

The National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commis-sion (NCDRC) asked the Aviva Life Insurance Company Ltd to pay the claim to Gujarat resident Rekhaben Ramjibhai Parmar, wife of the insured, late Ram-jibhai Parashotambhai Parmar.

“In our opinion, the non-disclosure of other insurance policies does not fall within the ambit of ... the Insurance Act, as the concealment was neither wilful nor fraudulent,” the com-mission bench headed by its president justice D K Jain said.

The apex commission, while upholding state commis-sion’s order allowing the plea of Rekhaben against the district forum’s verdict, said the agent himself had admitted that it is the normal practice that in non-mediclaim policies, the question regarding existence of other insurance policies is not asked.

The Bombay High Court had ordered

the formation of a joint task

force comprising the Municipal Corporation of

Greater Mumbai and the Collector to remove illegal encroachments on the approach road leading to Haji Ali Dargah

Order was passed after the Haji Ali Trust volunteered to take up the task of removing the encroachments

Suresh Chavhanke

mp nation6MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Friday, 14 April, 2017

3 OFFICIALS SUSPENDED DURING CHG GOVT'S 'LOK SURAAJ' CAMPAIGNRAIPUR: Three officials of various departments of Chhattisgarh Government have been suspended for dereliction of duty on directions of Chief Minister Ra-man Singh during ongoing 'Lok Suraaj Abhiyaan' of his government. Similarly, notices have been served to some other officials against whom complaints have been received. "Three officials of different departments were suspended and many others have been served with notices this week for dereliction in discharging their duty," a public relation official said here on Thursday.

CBI REGISTERS FIR AGAINST BANK OF MAHARASHTRA OFFICIALNEW DELHI: The CBI has filed an FIR against an of-ficial of Bank of Maharashtra for allegedly allow-ing deposits of demonetised currency notes totalling more than Rs 28 crore post-demonetisation. It is alleged that Rs 28.87 crore was deposited in new benami accounts at the Ambawadi branch of the bank in Gujarat's Ahmedabad district after Novem-ber 8, 2016 in violation of rules, CBI spokesperson R K Gaur said here on Thursday.

RAILWAYS GIVING BIG PUSH TO RENEWABLE ENERGY: PRABHUNEW DELHI: Stressing on adopting green technology, Union Minister for Railways Suresh Prabhu said that Railways is giving a big push to renewable energy to attain cost efficiency and the ministry is hoping to save significant energy by investing in renewable energy in the next 10 years. Supporting the initiatives of Indian Electrical & Electronics Manufacturers’ As-sociation, the minister said that ELECRAMA is a portal to the future as it’s about adapting to change.

NARAYAN RANE RUBBISHES REPORTS HE IS IN PARLEYS TO JOIN BJPMUMBAI: Senior Congress leader Narayan Rane on Thursday refuted speculations of joining the BJP. The denial came in wake of television channels showing pictures of both Rane and Maharashtra Chief Minis-ter Devendra Fadnavis in the same vehicle which was reportedly on its way to BJP President Amit Shah's residence in Ahmedabad last night. The former CM admitted being in Ahmedabad last night but denied reports that he met Shah along with Fadnavis. "There is something wrong in the pictures. They are not true."

COASTAL SECURITY EXERCISE TO BE HELD IN GOA NEXT WEEKPANAJI: 'Sagar Kavach', a comprehensive Coastal Security exercise will be held in Goa on April 20 and 21 to test the preparedness of various agencies and stakeholders along the state's coastline. This exercise involving all the concerned agencies is being con-ducted under the aegis of Government of Goa since 2009," a government press release said.

'

BRIEFSNATION

OUR CORRESPONDENT

JAIPUR: Enthusiastic over the trends indicating a major victory in Dholpur bypoll, the Rajasthan BJP on Thursday expressed confidence that it would win the 2018 Assembly and 2019 Lok Sabha elections in the state.

BJP state President Ashok Parnami said the people have voted for the party and have expressed faith in the leader-ship of Prime Minister Naren-dra Modi and Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje.

"The trends clearly show that people have voted for develop-ment. They are happy with the development carried out by the BJP government in the last three years," Parnami said. He exuded confidence that the BJP would win the 2018 Assembly elections and 2019 Lok Sabha elections in the state.

"PCC chief Sachin Pilot had said the results will reflect the three years of works of the BJP government and the trends now show that the people are happy with the government's function-ing," he said.

Parnami alleged that the Congress has always followed divisive policies and divided people in the name of caste and religion. State Home Minister Gulabchand Kataria said it was the victory of the works carried out by the BJP government in the state.

"This is the victory of the efforts of the chief minister and the party leaders. The party will create history in the 2018 Assembly elections," he said.

Media baron Ramesh Agrawal laid to rest

MPOST BUREAU

NEW DELHI: Mobile and broadband connectivity have the power to change the lives of poor and backward commu-nities, and give them a brighter future. This can be easily seen in Khadi and Village Industries Commission – one of biggest job providers in the country – which is bringing to life Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of Digital India.

The KVIC – the nodal agency of the Prime Minister Employment Generation Pro-gram (PMEGP), had taken vari-ous steps of digitalization – to increase organizational capac-ity to meet the various require-

ments towards implementation of this scheme. Earlier PMEGP was implemented offline. Till June 30, 2016, total applications received were 59,479. From July 1, KVIC launched online portal and as many as 4,04.354 online applications were received. The software used for digita-lization of PMEGP was devel-oped in-house by the IT team of the KVIC, subsequently sav-ing approximately Rs 20 crore of the government exchequers as some external agency could have charged this for it.

KVIC Chairman Vinai Kumar Saxena said that earlier the Ministry had set a target of Rs 1,100 crore for PMEGP in 2016-17, but KVIC achieved

it only on March 15. “Later, the ministry added another Rs 100 crore in the target, which also was achieved on March 25. Again, Rs 50 crore was added in it, but our overall achievement also crossed it with the annual figure of Rs 1,281 crore in 2016-17,” he said, adding, “Altogether 3,98,955 new employment were generated, with an estimated project cost of Rs 4,778 crore and that is a huge growth of approximately 24 percent with respect to financial year 2015-16.”

He further said that the online portal had brought trans-parency and expedited disburse-ment of Margin Money subsidy under the PMEGP scheme.

NEW DELHI: The National Green Tribunal directed the Delhi Pollution Control Com-mittee on Thursday to look into the issue of waste disposal dur-ing the upcoming IPL matches to be held at Feroz Shah Kotla stadium in the capital.

A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Swatanter Kumar asked the pollution control board to examine the concern raised in a petition seeking com-pliance with the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016 during IPL matches. It, however, dis-missed the petition while not-

ing that it did not mention about the source of waste generation.

"What kind of waste is gen-erated during the matches? What is the source of waste gen-eration? Your petition does not mention about it. We find no merit in this plea," the bench said. Advocate Rahul Khurana, appearing for the petitioner, told the bench that there was mismanagement during IPL 2016, when approximately 10 metric tonnes of waste was gen-erated at Feroz Shah Kotla sta-dium which was lifted without segregation. AGENCIES

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Holding that a government cannot be allowed to be insensitive towards the plight of the drought-hit farm-ers who commit suicide, the Supreme Court said the state must take necessary steps to grant relief to them.

A bench of Justices Dipak Misra, A M Khanwilkar and M M Shantagoudar pulled up the Tamil Nadu government for its failure to come to the rescue of the farmers who are suffering due to famine in the state and sought explanation on steps taken by it to address the agrarian problem.

"The state stands on the position of a loco parentis to the citizens and when there are so many deaths of farm-ers in the state of Tamil Nadu, it becomes obligatory on the part of the state to express con-cern and sensitiveness to do the needful and not allow the impe-cunious and poverty stricken farmers to resign to their fate or leave the downtrodden and the poor to yield to the idea of fatalism," the bench said.

"The concept is alien in the welfare state and social justice

which is required to be trans-lated into a democratic body polity. As is manifested from the assertions and the griev-ances, deaths are due to famine and other natural causes and also due to immense financial problem.

"The state, as the guardian, is required to see how to solve these problems or to meet the problems by taking curative measures treating it as a natu-ral disaster. Silence is not the answer," it said.

The court passed the order on a plea filed by Tamil Nadu-based NGO seeking court's direction to the state govern-ment to provide relief to farm-ers. It approached the apex court after the Madras HC had refused to entertain its plea.

Agreeing to entertain the plea, the bench said, "The peti-tion depicts a picture which has the potential to disturb the conscience of any sensitive soul, for it relates to deaths of farm-ers, which has its significance in a society where agriculture is of paramount importance and most of the farmers exclusively depend upon the same for their sustenance".

"On a perusal of the order passed by the High Court, we find that it has really not touched the issue that was required to be appositely dealt with. On a perusal of the petition and the averments made, we notice that the petitioner has suggested cer-tain aspects by which the con-ditions of the farmers can be ameliorated," it said

2002 Gujarat riots probe: SC relieves SIT chief Raghavan

OUR CORRESPONDENT

BHOPAL: The mortal remains of Dainik Bhaskar Group Chairman Ramesh Chandra Agrawal, who died on Wednes-day following a heart attack, were consigned to flames at the Bhadbhada cremation ground here on Thursday.

His eldest son Sudhir Agrawal lit the funeral pyre amid the presence of a large number of people who came to pay their last respects to the departed soul. Agrawal, 73, suf-fered a heart attack upon his arrival at Gujarat's Ahmedabad airport on Wednesday. Though

he was rushed to Apollo Hos-pital near the airport, he could not be saved. Later, his mortal

remains were flown to Bho-pal for the last rites. Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj

Singh Chouhan, former CMs Digvijaya Singh and Babu-lal Gaur, Rajasthan's ex-Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, for-mer Union Minister Suresh Pachouri, a number of minis-ters from the state including Narottam Mishra and Gauri Shankar Shejwar, senior NCP leader Praful Patel, BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijay-wargiya, among others, were present during the funeral.

Some markets in the state capital were closed till noon as a mark of respect to the departed soul, New Market Vyapari Mahasangh president Satish Gangrade said.

MPOST BUREAU

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed R K Raghavan, who was head-ing the apex-court appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe 2002 Gujarat riots cases, to be relieved as the head of the team.

A bench comprising Chief Justice J S Khehar and Justices D Y Chandrachud and S K Kaul considered the submis-sion of senior advocate Har-ish Salve, who is assisting the court as an amicus curiae, that Raghavan be relieved from the duty of heading the SIT.

The bench hailed the work done so far by the SIT and allowed the request of Salve, while asking A K Malhotra, another member of the SIT, to oversee the functioning of the probe team.

It also relieved another member K Venkatesam from the SIT and asked Malhotra to continue filing quarterly sta-tus report about the progress in the riots cases in the apex

court.The top court-appointed

SIT has been probing nine major post-Godhra riots cases including the Naroda Gam riots case pertaining to the killing of eleven members of a community.

The apex court had on Sep-tember 19 last year granted six months to a lower court in Gujarat to conclude trial in the 2002 Naroda Gam riots case, one of the nine post-Godhra

riots matters probed by the SIT, after Salve and Ragha-van sought the same saying the trial court has to examine nearly 300 witnesses.

The apex court was earlier informed that in other eight cases, investigation has been completed, the trial courts have pronounced the judge-ments and the cases are at the stage of appeal in the High Court. Eleven persons belong-ing to the minority commu-

nity were killed at Naroda Gam in 2002 riots during a bandh called to protest the Godhra train burning inci-dent. A total of 82 persons are facing trial in the case.

In June last year, a special court had convicted 24 per-sons in the Gulberg society riots case in which 68 people, including former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, were killed.

The apex court had on Feb-ruary 22, 2016 paved the way

for pronouncement of judge-ment by Ahmedabad trial court in various cases includ-ing the Gulberg Society mas-sacre case.

It had said there was no restraint on the trial judge to pronounce the verdict and granted him three months for it.

The apex court had on August 5, 2015 granted an extension of another three months to wind up proceed-ings in the case.

The apex court has been monitoring nine sensi-tive cases after the National Human Rights Commission and various NGOs termed the investigation into these as shoddy and unreliable.

The cases were about the riots in different parts of Gujarat, including the Gul-berg Society, Ode, Sardarpura, Narodao Gaon, Naroda Patya, Machipith, Tarsali, Pandar-wada and Raghavapura.

An estimated 2,000 peo-ple were killed in post-Godhra riots in 2002.

Graft complaints soar by 67%... Railways tops: CVC

MPOST BUREAU

NEW DELHI: Corruption complaints against various government departments jumped by a whopping 67 per cent in 2016 over the previous year, with the Railways top-ping the list.

Over 11,000 complaints were received against the pub-lic sector behemoth, the Cen-tral Vigilance Commission (CVC) has said.

In its annual report tabled in Parliament recently, the probity watchdog said it received a total of 49,847

complaints in 2016, as against 29,838 in 2015 – an increase of 67 per cent.

"The Commission received a considerable number of complaints against public servants working in the state governments and other organ-isations who do not come under the jurisdiction of the Commission or which are of administrative nature," it said.

The number of complaints received by the CVC in 2015 were 50 per cent less than a total of 62,363 received by it in 2014. The CVC had got 31,432 and 37,039 complaints

of alleged corruption during 2013 and 2012 respectively, the report said.

Giving details, the CVC said the highest of 11,200 such complaints were against rail-way employees. Of these 8,852 were disposed of and 2,348 were pending. Further, a total of 1,054 complaints against railway employees were pend-ing for more than six months.

The number of complaints against those under govern-ment of National Capital Ter-ritory of Delhi has declined with a total of 969 received last year as against 5,139 in 2015.

Apex court hailed work

done so far by SIT and allowed the request of Harish Salve,

while asking A K Malhotra, another

member of the SIT, to oversee the functioning of the

probe team

MPOST BUREAU

NEW DELHI: The Enforce-ment Directorate on Thursday issued fresh summons to Him-achal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh after he failed to appear before it in connec-tion with a money laundering probe case.

The fresh summons require him to be present before the Investigating Officer (IO) of the case here on April 20.

Officials said the fresh sum-mons were issued under PMLA provisions after the chief minis-ter failed to keep the scheduled date on Thursday.

It was not immediately ascertained if Singh had com-municated to the ED about the reasons for this absence on Thursday. The agency had, earlier this week, issued sum-

mons to Singh for personal appearance for on Thursday and in order to question him and record his statement under the provisions of the Preven-tion of Money Laundering Act

(PMLA). The latest ED action has come close on the heels of filing of a charge sheet by the CBI against Singh, his wife and others for allegedly amass-ing assets worth around Rs 10 crore disproportionate to their known sources of income.

The agency had summoned Singh earlier also, but then he had excused himself stating his official commitments.

The ED has already ques-tioned his wife Pratibha and son Vikramaditya in connec-tion with the case. It had filed a case under the anti-money laundering law against the Himachal Pradesh CM.

Tamil Nadu govt can not remain silent on farmers' suicide: SC

Himachal CM fails to keep ED date; agency issues fresh summons

NGT asks DPCC to look into waste disposal during IPL

Will win 2018 Assembly, 2019 LS polls in Raj: BJP

PM Modi’s ‘Digital India’ gets big boost from Khadi

OUR CORRESPONDENT

HYDERABAD: Starting Friday and for a week, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao will be the state’s Coolie No 1, available for hire for two days against daily wages.

KCR, as he is known, has decreed that all ministers, leg-islators, leaders and activists from his party will raise funds by working as coolies, offering themselves for physical labour for two days each. The money earned will be used to fund the expenses of the annual conven-tion of the Telangana Rashtriya Samiti. The gathering will held next April 21 at multiple loca-tions across the state, followed by a gigantic public meeting at

Warangal, considered the heart-land of Telangana.

By offering themselves for hire for two days, including as farm-hands, TRS leaders are expected to earn enough to pay travel and food expenses to attend their party convention.

The CM has titled the week-long initiative “Gulaabi Cooli Dinalu’’ or “Pink Labourer Days.'

Telangana CM K Chandrasekhar Rao 'to work as coolie for 2 days'

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Haryana government assured the farm-ers that without their consent, lands would not be acquired for any developmental work in the state. Even the rates pre-scribed for land to be acquired for development works would be paid to the farmers without any delay.

The Chief Minister of the state Manohar Lal Khattar announced this on Thursday and mentioned that, "Since agricultural land was shrink-ing, the farmers could earn

more by getting engaged in agriculture-related business or horticulture. They could earn profit by taking produce to the mandis located in Delhi and Noida where there is huge demand of fruits, flowers and vegetables. About four crore

people reside in Delhi and nearby areas, and the farm-ers of Haryana could cater to their needs."

The Union Minister of Steel Birender Singh also said that, "Time had come for the farm-ers to turn to sectors other than farming to increase their income. Only farming would not be enough. Farmers and their children would have to enter into different sectors oth-erwise they would lag behind."

Adding more to it the Haryana CM said, "The num-ber of government jobs was limited and it was not possible

to provide government job to everyone. A university is being set up for developing and hon-ing the skills of youths through about 800 technical courses."

Besides, the state gov-ernment has been providing employment to youth under its ‘Saksham’ scheme and so far, about 9,000 capable youths have benefitted from it. With to view to providing employ-ment and self-employment opportunities to the youth, the state government is con-sidering a proposal to expand the provisions of the scheme, he added.

Haryana land not to be acquired without farmers' consent

Workers fix name plate of Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh at his New Delhi residence on Thursday

Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan attends the funeral procession of Ramesh Chandra Agrawal, in Bhopal on Thursday

CBSE show cause notice to over 2k schools for not sharing info

NEW DELHI: The Central Board of Secondary Educa-tion (CBSE) has issued a show cause notice to over 2,000 schools affiliated to it across the country for not making cer-tain information public.

As per the norms, all CBSE schools are mandated to make details public right from the number of water taps, wi-fi facilities with speed details to a complete breakup of monthly fees of each class, admission results, reserve funds and bal-ance sheets. The schools were asked to fill the information

online through the link given on the board’s website and also upload on their respective web-sites by October last year.

“Over 2,000 schools have failed to comply with the man-datory disclosure order. The identified schools have been sent show cause notices. They will be given one last chance failing which they will have to pay a fine of Rs 50,000 each,” a senior board official said.

CBSE has also warned schools to follow the prescribed norms regarding the fee struc-ture. AGENCIES

SP GOVT AVOIDED CENTRAL FUND TO ENSURE NO CREDIT TO MODI: UP CMLUCKNOW: The SP government was not willing to take the Centre’s funds for developmental schemes to not let the credit go to the BJP and the Narendra Modi government, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath claimed here on Thursday. “In democracy, the gov-ernment elected by the people has to be responsible for them and the example (of BJP) is before you. The Centre wanted to give money for development of Uttar Pradesh, but the previous government did not want to take it to avoid the from credit going to the BJP and Narendra Modiji,” he said. For this, they (the Samajwadi Party) did not care about the 22 crore people of the state, the Chief Minister claimed at a gathering on the occasion of the launch of ambulance services at his 5 Kalidas Marg residence here.

KHARGE SET TO BECOME PAC CHIEFNEW DELHI:The Congress party’s leader in the Lok Sabha floor Mallikarjun Kharge is all set to become next Chairman of Public Accounts Committee (PAC). KV Thomas is demitting office on April 30 after com-pleting consecutive three-year term in the office. The Chairman of the Congress Parliamentary Party Sonia Gandhi has written to the Speaker Sumitra Mahajan to nominate Kharge as the Chairman of the PAC. Kharge , though he is the floor leader of the main opposition party of the Loksabha, he did not get the status of opposition leader which is a cabinet rank.

NO BLACK MONEY CHANNELISATION AT BAREILLY BRANCH, CLAIMS SBINEW DELHI: State Bank of India on Thursday refuted allegations that its officials connived with anyone to facilitate unaccounted cash deposits at its Bareilly branch in Uttar Pradesh during demonetisa-tion. “We would like to clarify that all new accounts during the period of demonetisation were opened after complying with KYC guidelines,” the bank said in an exchange filing after being asked to clarify on media reports alleging channelising of black money through new accounts.

BRIEFSNATION

7MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Friday, 14 April, 2017

mp nationPakistan promoting ‘civil

resistance’ in Kashmir: MHA

No surprise in MP by-poll results; 1-1 for Cong-BJP DHIRENDRA KUMAR

NEW DELHI: If you are a student or a teacher or a par-ent and running from pillar to post to get your grievances addressed, the Ministry of Human Resource Develop-ment, which is led by Prakash Javadekar, has come out with a helping hand with a robust mechanism to resolve the unattended woes.

The HRD Ministry has strengthened its grievance redressal mechanism to help aggrieved students, teachers and parents at the time of their need. The mechanism has been prepared in such a way that not even a single com-plaint would get missed even if the issue is not so ‘urgent’ in nature. Considering the

importance of timely resolu-tion, a special team has been formed to monitor grievances and find solutions as per the norms on a priority basis.

“Ever since the grievance redressal mechanism became operational, the ministry is getting above 200 complaints every day. As majority of complaints are from retired

teachers about non-payment of their dues, which are very local in nature, the forward the complaints to concerned local authorities after direct-ing them for early redressal,” the official said, adding that the complaints about insti-tutions and individuals are being handled by the minis-ter’s office directly. According

to the official, the grievance redressal mechanism is open for all and those wishing to get their complaints resolved, can either go through the link given on HRD Ministry web-site, or write an email to the minister on minister.hrd@gov.in. The minister’s twitter handle is @PrakashJavadekar, which is also regularly moni-tored by the grievance team.

The performance of HRD Ministry’s grievance redressal cell is much better than other ministries as about 97.4 per cent cases are being resolved. The cell has resolved about 3,447 complaints in less than two months. Notably, there are only three pending cases for 2-6 months while one case was not resolved in the last one year.

MHRD bolsters grievance redressal mechanism Javadekar condemns text as sexist, orders action

NEW DELHI: Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar on Thursday condemned the definition of a “perfect female body” in a class 12 textbook as “sexist” and has ordered action in the matter even as the pri-vate publisher has decided to stop the print-ing and sale of the book.

Excerpts from the Physical Education textbook defining “36-24-36” as the “best body shape for females” on Wednes-day created an outrage on social media with critics demanding that the text be withdrawn. The book titled “Health and Physi-cal Education” written by V K Sharma and published by Delhi-

based New Saraswati House, is taught at various schools affili-ated to CBSE. CBSE, however, clarified that it “does not rec-ommend any books by private publishers in its schools”. “I con-demn the remarks in the book as sexist. The text is non-defend-

able and unac-ceptable. We have taken serious note

of it. I have instructed the offi-cers to take appropriate action in this regard,” Javadekar told reporters. “It is not an NCERT book but by a private publisher and action will be taken against them. We are also asking CBSE schools to follow NCERT books rather than private publishers ,” he added. MPOST

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SCHOOL BOOK ROW

By-polls: Congress retains 2 Assembly seats in Karnataka

‘One will be anti-national even for not using Patanjali facewash’

NAGPUR: Stating that many sections of society are living in “an environment of fear”, stu-dent leader Kanhaiya Kumar on Thursday said one will be dubbed “anti-national” even for not using a Patanjali brand face wash in the pres-ent scenario.

“Such is the environment of fear in the country now, that if you do not use Patan-jali face wash, then you will

be called anti- national,” the former president of the Jawa-harlal Nehru University Stu-dents’ Union (JNUSU) said.

Patanjali Ayrved is the Indian FMCG firm founded by Yoga guru Baba Ramdev.

He was addressing a gath-ering to launch ‘Bihar Te Tihar’, the Marathi version of his Hindi book, on the eve of the birth anniversary of dalit icon Dr B R Ambedkar. MPOST

OUR CORRESPONDENT

BHOPAL: The BJP on Thurs-day won the Bandhavgarh Assembly seat, while the Congress emerged victorious at Ater in Madhya Pradesh, though with a reduced margin.

With this, the ruling and opposition parties have retained the respective Assem-bly seats where by-polls were held on April 9.

BJP candidate Shivnara-yan Singh defeated his nearest rival, Savitri Singh of the Con-gress, at Bandhavgarh (ST) in Umaria district by 25,476 votes. Shivnaryan polled 74,356 votes, while Savitri bagged 48,880.

At Ater in Bhind district, Congress’ Hemant Katare defeated BJP’s Arvind Singh Bhadoria by a narrow margin of 857 votes. Hemant secured 59,228 votes, while Bhadoria got 58,371.

The by-election in Ater was necessitated due to the death of Hemant’s father Satyadev Katare, the then Leader of

Opposition in the Assembly, in October 2016.

The Congress, while field-ing Hemant, had counted on the sympathy votes, but the BJP put up a spirited fight and did not allow the opposition party to secure an easy win.

In the 2013 Assembly elec-tion, Congress’ Satyadev had won the seat with a margin of 11,426 votes.

Congress spokesman Pan-kaj Chaturvedi said the hard work of the party’s chief whip in the Lok Sabha Jyotiraditya Scindia paid off at Ater. The 46-year-old MP from Guna commands a strong influence in the region.

At Bandhavgarh, the by-election was necessitated due to the resignation of sitting BJP MLA Gyan Singh, who was elected to the Lok Sabha in November last from Shah-dol in a by-poll.

In 2013, the BJP had won the tribal-dominated seat by a margin of 18,654 votes. This time around, the saffron party significantly improved its vic-tory margin.

Video of youths beating CRPF jawans in J&K: FIR registered

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Pakistan has changed its strategy of “super-imposition” of militancy onto Jammu and Kashmir by pro-moting “civil resistance” through radicalisation, the Home Ministry has said in its annual report.

The ongoing militancy in the state is intrinsically linked to infiltration of terrorists from across the border, both through the International Border as well as the Line of Control, the report for 2016-17 released on Wednesday said.

“The year 2016 has seen a change in Pak tactics follow-ing a strategy of superimposi-tion of militancy over civilian resistance through radicalisa-tion by vested interest groups and social media (sic),” it said.

The Home Ministry said 2016 saw a significant increase in terrorist violence and casual-ties suffered by security forces in comparison to the year before. However, civilians casu-alties have decreased in com-parison to 2015.

“The year 2016 witnessed a 54.81 per cent increase and a 110.25 per cent increase in the number of terrorist incidents and fatalities of security forces in comparison to the corre-sponding period of 2015,” it said.

However, there is a 11.76

per cent decrease in civilians casualties in comparison to the corresponding period of 2015. During 2016, 38.89 per cent more terrorists have been neutralised.

In 2016, 322 incidents of violence were reported in Jammu and Kashmir in which 82 security forces personnel, 150 terrorists and 15 civilians were killed.

In 2015, 208 incidents of violence occurred in the state in which 39 security forces per-sonnel, 108 terrorists and 17 civilians were killed.

The Home Ministry’s report said there has been a spurt in infiltration attempts from Paki-stan during 2016.

The state government and security forces have also responded, as a result of which infiltrating terrorists were increasingly neutralised.

SRINAGAR/NEW DELHI: Jammu and Kashmir Police registered an FIR on Thurs-day on a complaint filed by the CRPF over a video clip showing some youths beating its jawans during bypoll to the Srinagar parliamentary constituency on April 9.

“Police have registered an FIR on our complaint in Jammu and Kashmir. Law will take its course,” acting Direc-tor General of CRPF Sudeep Lakhtakia told PTI in New Delhi. Sources said the police have identified the youths who attacked the CRPF person-nel and action against them is expected soon.

Earlier in the day, Inspec-tor General of CRPF Ravideep Singh Sahi told PTI in Srinagar, “During investigation, we found that the video is authen-tic. We have identified the com-pany of the force involved and the location of the incident.”

Sahi said the incident hap-pened in Kralpora area in the Chadoora assembly segment in central Kashmir’s Budgam district. MPOST

OUR CORRESPONDENT

BENGALURU: Maintaining its hold, the ruling Congress in Karnataka on Thursday retained the Nanjangud and Gundlupet Assembly seats in its kitty in the by-polls.

Congress’ Kalale N Kesha-vamurthy defeated his nearest rival former minister V Srini-vasa Prasad (BJP) by 21,334 votes in Nanjangud.

In Gundlupet, Geetha Mahadevaprasad (Congress) trounced BJP’s C S Niranjan Kumar by 10,877 votes, an elec-tion official said.

Both the seats were held by the Congress which faced a tough fight from its principal opponent the BJP, making it a prestigious battle ahead of the Assembly polls to be held in the state in about a year.

The electoral outcome comes as a boost to Chief Min-ister Siddaramaiah who is facing murmurs of dissonance within his party over his style of func-tioning, particularly from the old guard, exemplified by the recent exit of senior leader S M Krishna, a former Chief Minister.

Siddaramaiah had devoted the last eight days for the cam-paign crisscrossing both the constituencies and mobilised his

ministers on a large scale, as the BJP went all out to make inroads into the Congress’ stronghold.

It had also turned into a per-sonal battle between Siddara-maiah and State BJP President and former Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa, who had camped in the two constituencies for more than three weeks.

During the campaign, the two leaders made no-holds-barred personal attacks.

“We respect the mandate of the electorate. It is however

a well known fact that the rul-ing party enjoys advantage in a by-election,” Yeddyurappa told reporters.

To a question, he said the results were not a “setback” to the BJP’s goal to secure 150 Assembly seats in the next elections.

Yeddyurappa had headed the first-ever BJP government in the South after the 2008 Assem-bly polls and is now tasked to revive the party’s fortunes to return to power.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Congress has become “weaker” from the days of the UPA government and it is left with “no other option” but to stitch alliance with regional forces to halt the BJP’s electoral juggernaut, NCP supremo Sharad Pawar has said. The veteran leader has made the observation in his book, ‘Apani Sharto Par: Zameeni Hakikat Se Satta Ke Galiyaro Tak’ -- the Hindi translation of his autobiogra-phy ‘On My Terms: From The Grassroots To The Corridors Of Power’ -- released here in the presence of several oppo-sition leaders including Con-gress’ Ghulam Nabi Azad two days ago.

“Looking at the current political scenario, it seems a challenging task for the Con-gress to emerge as an alterna-tive to the BJP at national-level.

“The Congress has no other option left, but to join hands with small and regional parties to combat the BJP’s

surge,” Pawar observed.He though said that for

such an alliance to work, the Congress will have to instil confidence in coalition part-ners that it will run the show the way former Prime Minis-ter Atal Bihari Vajpayee led the previous NDA government.

“Manmohan Singh did exhibit such a skill during the decade-long UPA regime. But we should not forget that the Congress of today is weaker than the Congress of the UPA days,” the Maratha strongman said cryptically.

The book, however, does not touch upon the situation post the recent assembly polls in five states including Uttar Pradesh, which the NDA major swept.

‘Weaker’ Cong has to stitch alliance to defeat BJP: Pawar

Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar

mp editorial

In Tamil Nadu, what we are wit-nessing after the demise of J. Jay-alalitha and the disappearance of M. Karunanidhi from the pub-

lic space is a leadership crisis. It is felt increasingly in the state’s political space as controversy hovers around the death of J. Jayalalitha and the imprisonment of V.K. Sasikala based on the judgment of the Supreme Court. How long they lamented J. Jayalalitha’s death? Even the main opposition party is involved in the discourse. It is a pity that Tamil Nadu politics has not moved an inch beyond the old narratives.

There is no new narrative in Tamil Nadu politics based on the real issues facing the state. Tamil society faces a plethora of problems--drought, farmer suicides, inadequate water supply, ille-gal sand quarrying, poor quality of pri-mary and higher education, stagnated industries, continuing law and order problems, regularised corruption in every walk of life, depletion of natural resources, loss of ecology, rising unem-ployment and the death of fisher folk at the hands of the Sri Lankan Navy. All these issues are deeply rooted, and it is not so easy to find a readymade solution. Despite the seriousness, the issues have not drawn the attention of politicians. No doubt, Tamil Nadu is one of the fast developing and urbanising states in India. The rural-urban divide in terms of population is 50:50 in Tamil Nadu.

Tamil Nadu politics has always been a trendsetter for other states. K. Kamaraj had laid the foundation for robust eco-nomic development through building the basics for agriculture development and industrialisation. In the same way, M. Karunanidhi had laid the ground-work for administering social develop-ment even before the concept gained currency in other states. M.G. Ramach-andran set a new trend in helping the poor through direct transfer of benefits. By following the tradition of M.G.R., J. Jayalalitha had implemented pro-poor, pro-women, and pro-children schemes

which became a model for other states. It is one of the progressive states in India despite certain negative trends like con-tinuing and soaring corrupt practices in public sphere and authoritarianism in politics. The practice of democracy remains a challenge, and yet the state has developed significantly. Till date, Tamil Nadu is known for its perfor-mance in taking care of the poor. There is no distress migration in Tamil Nadu. For this, whole credit goes to our past leaders who relentlessly pursued pro-poor policies.

K. Kamaraj and M. Karunanidhi, M.G. Ramachandran, and J. Jayala-litha had distinct leadership qualities and styles, and they made indelible marks in governance, administration, and process of development in Tamil Nadu. E.V. Ramasamy Periyar and C.N. Annadurai made a significant contri-bution in changing the discourses of politics through their ideas in Tamil

Nadu politics. Unfortunately, the pres-ent day leadership has not lent anything substantial to create a new narrative after the demise of J. Jayalalitha. Had M. Karunanidhi been active today he would have taken politics to a differ-ent level. Even at the age of 92, he was up to date, and he has the perspective to look at issues. It is unfortunate now we do not have such qualities among the leaders of the parties now.

A few political parties talk about the real issues, but they possess a weak voice which has not drawn the attention of the media. As a result, the Tamil media both electronic and print narrating and spin-ning stories on an around the death of J.Jayalalitha. It seems that some forces are constantly working to ensure that the real issues do not come into the pub-lic space for discourse. In the local press today, non-issues are seemingly up for debate. Public, youth, students, opin-ion makers are in search of alternative

politics and new leaders with a different style. Jallikattu and Neduvasal agitations have demonstrated the loss of credibility on the part of the political parties and their leaders among the public.

People have started feeling that there is no credible leader to lead Tamil society. People have lost hope in the political parties as they perpetuate the corporate style of functioning. Politi-cal parties barring a few smaller enti-ties have no real concern on the issues but even their activities always around formations of an alliance to win a few seats in the election and to form a gov-ernment if it is a major political front. It is a total vacuum in Tamil Nadu pol-itics. What is going on in Tamil Nadu at present is only a political show, and people are witnessing it as a cinema rather than a political discourse. Where is my leader?

(The views expressed are strictly personal.)

8MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Friday, 14 April, 2017

The recent terror crackdown in Bangladesh under Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s dis-pensation continues to dem-

onstrate her determination to cleanse the system of the poison that has long plagued Bangladeshi society and polity and had become especially acute in the last few years. Hasina’s persistence with the War Crime Trials, despite unfair and unwarranted international pressure from some quarter that were inspired and schemed by Pakistan, which has always been wary of its genocidal past, merits approbation and support.

The hanging of Harkat-ul-Jihadi Islami chief Abdul Hanan because of his direct role in the Sylhet bombing in 2004, the recent countrywide crack-down on terror networks and modules is direct proof that the legal process in Bangladesh is on a robust footing and that those who have waged war against the very idea of Bangladesh, against the spirit and ideals of the Liberation War and those of Bangabandhu are gradu-ally but surely being brought to justice. However, the Pakistan beholden Ban-gladesh-Jamaat, though it faces deple-tion at the senior leadership level, still continues to survive and to pose a con-tinued threat to the democratic spirit and character of the country.

Over the years the Jamaat and its supporting Razakar networks have managed to survive by infiltrating var-ious other outfits both social and politi-cal. The Jamaat’s formidable sustaining framework – its industrial and com-mercial bases, its international linkages and fronts in Bangladesh and across the world have made it capable of resisting pressure, it is these which needs to be exposed and eradicated.

One of Sheikh Hasina’s major con-tributions to stability in the region has been her relentless pursuit and deci-mation of those who collaborated with external forces to dissolve Bangladesh. The pledge to work together to “create a secure environment” in the region that both Prime Ministers Modi and Sheikh Hasina made during the latter’s impressive state visit to India is a cru-cial pointer indicating both India’s and Bangladesh’s determination to root out terror elements in the region.

In an unequivocal signal to terror networks, to terror sponsors and to

those who distinguish between “good and bad terrorists”, both Prime Min-isters “strongly condemned the recent barbaric terror attacks in India and Ban-gladesh and expressed their convic-tion that the fight against terrorism should not only seek to disrupt and eliminate terrorists, terror organisations and networks, but should also identify, hold accountable and take strong mea-sures against States and entities which encourage, support, and finance ter-rorism, provide sanctuary to terrorists and terror groups, and falsely extol their virtues. They shared the view that there should be no glorification of terrorists as martyrs. They called on the interna-tional community to end selective or partial approaches to combating ter-rorism and, in this regard, jointly called for the early finalisation and adoption of a Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism by the UNGA.”

It is to the failed state of Pakistan, the chief sponsor of global terrorism and of terrorism especially in this part of the world that this section of the joint statement is comprehensively applica-ble. It is Pakistan which has held hos-tage Bangladesh’s forward march and in Hasina, the Pakistani establishment finds a huge roadblock to their plans of re-colonising Bangladesh. Hasina’s call

for declaring March 25 as Genocide Day in remembrance of the atrocities com-mitted by the Pakistan army on that day in 1971 certainly needs greater voice and support.

Serious efforts need to be initiated and a sustained momentum given to this legitimate demand. Elimination of an entire generation of the East Paki-stan intelligentsia, mass elimination of Bengali intellectuals and of Bengali Hindus was carried out by the Paki-stan army. Their specific orders were to violate women, to decimate the intelli-gentsia and to empty East Pakistan of Hindus. But just because it was found to be a useful and willing pawn in the game of the Cold War then and global realignment now, Pakistan has always got away with this genocidal past in its recent history.

Hasina herself needs to further restructure her domestic politics as she nears the general election of 2019. She needs to streamline and focus on a number of issues that still create hurdles and stand in her way of gaining that undisputed leadership which comes with a democratic mandate. She needs to look within to discern the deadwood and the internal wreckers who still sur-vive, inspired by the razakar mentality and ideology.

Undoubtedly Hasina continues to remain a re-assuring pillar of stability in the region and for Bangladesh con-tinues to be the best leader to pull the country further towards democratisa-tion, towards growth and global recog-nition – in short she continues to pull Bangladesh out of the morass it had itself in till a decade back.

While other parties flounder – to take the case of the BNP, which remains stymied in internal uncertainties and appears to be tainted because of its unabashed courting of the Jamaat – while radical Islamists continue efforts to regroup, Hasina’s leadership persists in providing hope and stability and is seen to be a performing one – all essentials ingredients for the success of a democratic polity.

Prime Minister Modi was right when he talked of a “shonali adhyay” – golden era or chapter in India-Ban-gladesh relations, this golden chapter is certainly going to continue beyond 2019 under the leadership of both Modi and Hasina. However, over the next two quick years it needs to be further plated, chiselled, insulated, and reinforced.

(Dr.Anirban Ganguly is Director, Dr.Syama Prasad Mookerjee Research

Foundation, New Delhi. The views expressed are strictly personal.)

Pillar of strength & stabilityEDITORIAL

Under the leadership of Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh can push for greater security, democratisation, economic growth

The pledge to work together to “create a secure environment” in the region that both Prime Ministers Modi and Sheikh Hasina made during the latter’s impressive state visit to India is a crucial pointer indicating both India’s and Bangladesh’s determination to root out terror elements in the region

Tamil Nadu is one of the progressive states in India despite certain negative trends like continuing and soaring corrupt practices in public sphere and authoritarianism in politics. The practice of democracy remains a challenge, and yet the state has developed significantly

In a significant development on April 9, the Election Commission of India decided to countermand the by-poll for the Dr Radhakrishnan Nagar Assembly seat in Tamil Nadu merely hours before campaigning

was to end. The poll body alleged that the ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (Amma) faction led by VK Sasikala had attempted to bribe voters. Following the untimely death of the former Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, in December the RK Nagar seat was left vacant. As many of those following recent events in Tamil Nadu are well aware, the AIADMK split into two camps after the late chief min-ister’s demise—one led by former aide Sasikala and other by rebel leader and former interim Chief Minister O Pan-neerselvam. The ECI’s decision, however, follows a raid conducted by the Income Tax Department on Tamil Nadu Health Minister C Vijaya Baskar’s properties in Chennai on April 7. On the following day, the Central Board of Direct Taxes had submitted its report to the ECI, alleging that the VK Sasikala camp had kept aside nearly Rs 90 crore to be distributed among voters to gain support for their candidate TTV Dinakaran (Sasikala’s nephew). As per the documents seized during the raid, each voter was to receive Rs 4,000. Senior ministers from the party were allegedly deputed to distribute cash in particular wards. The AIADMK (Amma) has denied all these charges, although the practice of bribing voters is not an uncommon feature during elections held in the state. Under these circumstances, the only step left for the ECI was to countermand the by-poll. This decision was relatively straightforward, but what followed points to the institutional shortcomings of the poll body.

Reports indicate that no cases have been registered against either the minister or senior leadership of the AIADMK (Amma), despite the apparent mountain of evidence collected during the IT raid. Health Minister Vijaya Baskar continues to occupy his post. Instead, the IT department has asked the Chennai Police to register cases against some party func-tionaries for disrupting the work of their officials. Last May, the poll body had rescinded elections to the Thanjavur and Aravakurichi constituencies after it caught parties openly distributing cash among voters. Since the introduction of electoral reforms in the 1990s, the ECI has shown greater intent in cleaning up the corruption that has distorted ver-dicts and introduced better logistics to ensure peace during voting. Despite attempts to weed out corruption and force parties into following the rules through its imposition of the Model Code of Conduct, it has been unable to change much. In fact, the ECI was unable to act against the candidates responsible for such blatant acts of bribery in the Thanjavur and Aravakurichi constituencies and the same set of candi-dates contested again when the election was held in October. On this occasion, the ECI has put the onus of getting rid to such electoral malpractices on political parties. “It is high time that they (top leadership of the party) exert the moral influ-ence and legal authority to reign in their erring candidates and electoral managers without loss of time if democracy is to flourish and deepen its roots in our country,” the poll body in an official statement. For all intents and purpose, TTV Dinakaran, who happens to be Sasikala’s nephew and the party’s deputy general sectary, is the party leadership. Does the ECI seriously expect him to pay heed to their sermons? “The panel has done what it can within the powers granted to it by the Constitution,” said former Chief Election Com-missioner, N Gopalswamy, to The News Minute. “There are limitations to the body’s power. The commission can only file a complaint, the police and courts have to take up the mat-ter from here. Change must come in the form of fast track courts, which ensure political cases are dealt with immedi-ately because otherwise, political parties and people will not fear the law,” he added. What the recent RK Nagar episode represents is a serious test for the poll body’s credibility. If it does not act against the likes of TTV Dinakaran or Vijaya Baskar, the commissions’ reputation for conducting free and fair elections could take a hit. Parliament could also amend the Representation of Peoples Act, arming the ECI with pow-ers to disqualify candidates or parties caught bribing voters. But there are also those who believe that the ECI cannot be given too much power. Such powers will lead to dangerous outcomes, they argue. Successive governments at the Centre have promised electoral reforms including public funding of elections. Numerous commissions have released reports in this regard, but most of these files are collecting dust in the government’s archives. Instead, in the recent Finance Bill passed by the Centre, a host of amendments about election funding saw the light of day. It lifts the cap on how many donations a company can give to parties. It also enables any-one to donate anonymously using electoral bonds issued by “approved” banks. They do little to enhance transparency in the electoral process. There are seemingly bigger issues that the ECI needs to deal with instead of all the hue and cry sur-rounding electoral voting machines.

Bigger concerns for ECI

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millenniumpost.inKEEPING THE STATUS QUOdear

EDITOR

It has been over two decades the security forces have been holding together the special state of Jammu and Kashmir. This throws open yet again a series of questions and concerns regarding the state of governance in the region as well as the Army continually playing a certain role. Clearly, the military is maintaining a status but improving that state of affairs is the responsibility of the government. Decisions must be made and executed to improve the situation instead of being complacent with the Army just managing it in questionable ways. Supplying more pallet guns is no solution. The continued AFSPA is a symptom of the lack of reforms that the military needs.

ANIRBAN GANGULY

When I lost my rifle, the Army charged me 85 dollars. That is why in the Navy the Captain goes down with the ship

Quote martial

DICK GREGORY

After the demise of Jayalalithaa, the state is in desperate need of a new leader with vision, writes G. Palanithurai

Need a new narrative in Tamil polity

Earlier this week, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh announced plans to move towards total pro-hibition of alcohol. Reports indicate that the alcohol ban will be put in place in a phased manner, start-

ing with villages having a population of 3,000 and more. This announcement comes days after Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan hinted that the state would implement a total ban on alcohol in a phased manner. The MP government is already closing down all liquor shops situ-ated within a radius of five kilometres from the banks of Nar-mada. “In the next phase, the liquor stores will not be allowed to open in residential localities, near educational institutes or religious places,” Chouhan said. At present, Bihar and Gujarat are the only states that have a total ban on alcohol in place. States like Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh had also sought to implement such a measure but failed. As a matter of policy, prohibition has never quite worked. The standard argument issued by those in defence of prohibition is based on the directive principles of state policy (DPSP) written into the Constitution. According to Article 47, “The State shall endeavour to bring about prohibition of the consumption except for medicinal purposes of intoxicating drinks and of drugs which are injurious to health.” Unlike fundamental rights, DPSP is not enforceable in a court of law. These prin-ciples are only meant to act as guidelines when legislatures frame laws. While heavy consumption of alcohol does result in serious health problems and significant social costs, the kind of bans issued by the courts and state governments are counterproductive. Many studies contend that prohibition results in a significant drop in crucial revenue, the formation of mafias with illegal sales and outright corruption. Other ways to curb drinking are higher taxes, limiting the construc-tion of outlets and drinking places, and banning the sale of arrack or hooch in plastic pouches. If the rationale for prohi-bition is to prevent those from low-income households from spending their hard-earned money on liquor, then the state would be well-advised to improve governance and enable job creation. In Andhra Pradesh, the measure resulted in the rise of wealthy politicians, who stood to benefit from its ille-gal sale. The road to disaster is paved with good intentions.

NAMRATA BHAT Via email

The demise of Jayalalithaa has left a vacuum in Tamil Nadu politics

Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina

India’s famed and acclaimed diver-sity is everywhere, in thought, word, and deed. We speak over 230 languages and dialects, eat

many kinds of food cooked in myr-iad styles, dress, customs, worship, all in a variety of hues. This diversity, however, is most striking in locomo-tive forms with varying speeds on our roads. So bullock carts, horse-drawn carriages, cycle rickshaws, hand-pulled carts, motorised cycles, bicycles, piston-stroked three-wheelers of many shapes and sizes, motor cars from swank lim-ousines to expanded trunks on wheels called Nano, minibuses to double-deck-ers, mini-trucks to container carriers, e-rickshaws, and lastly, those without any right to be on the roads: the pedes-trians, all can be seen in the space of a couple of minutes competing for get-ting ahead in the race to wherever is their destination.

By law, India drives on the left but by usage and custom, we drive every-where. By law, we have to overtake from the right, but by usage, we overtake from any side that gives us the scope to squeeze through. By law, we are advised to give way to the traffic on our right, by usage of our right we give way to nobody and dare the transgressor to assert his right of way for the least the offender will receive is a choice exple-tive in the local dialect. Notwithstand-ing these hazards, we continue to drive and going by the number of vehicles being added every other day, we are prepared to risk our lives, supremely confident that ‘it’ doesn’t happen to us. Our road engineering does not know or believe in making safe roads--abys-mal road direction, verges, intersec-tions, and mindless speed breakers or unlit police barriers that raise the bar of traffic hazards.

A recent study by the Central Road Research Institute says that over 1500 people were killed in various accidents on Delhi roads in 2016. According to a report in one of the dailies, it has been said, “a large number of road projects in Delhi lack the safety norms”. The quote goes on to say that, “Delhi has 33,000 km of road network. Out of which the arterial ways measure about 1,800 km of road length. These arterial routes accommodate nearly 80 per cent of Del-hi’s traffic, and thus proper road design and safety measures become very

important”. Sadly, their audits showed that these roads ignored all design and safety norms leaving road users highly vulnerable. This is not exactly a revela-tion to those who must undertake the hazardous journeys every day to make a living. The CRRI report finds most long stretches designed for non-stop traffic flow in the Capital have basic design flaws. Is there anything left to be said?

Our Parliament has enacted a new law almost as this is getting written, making traffic offences punishable with harsher laws. The Act stipulates that a state government can specify a multiplier of not less than one and not greater than ten, to be applied to each fine under the Motor Vehicles law. Significantly, it is proposed to create a National Register for Driving Licences and vehicle registration as well. It is hoped that the increased penalties will act as a deterrent against traffic viola-tions. All these measures are aimed at halving the fatalities in road accidents in the next five years, from the pres-ent 1.5 lakh deaths per annum out of over half a million road accidents that happen. It is a game-changing law that needed to come into being.

If city driving is chaotic, the high-ways are equally unsafe. The variety in

types of road users is plentiful. Again, our road designs and the way we drive, both contribute to the enhanced risks of being out there on the highway. For a start, there is little or no regulation of speed or parking. Anything goes, even though we have speed limit signage but these are largely decorative as there is no one to police the highway. Yes, some patrol cars are seen, now and then, but these are usually to escort some digni-tary through the jurisdiction or con-duct some specious paper checks and can easily be negotiated by the smart transporter. Besides, no rule of driving is observed by any variety of motorist. Ever since the highways got widened to three lanes, each way, all caution has been thrown to the winds and staying in any lane is a matter of passing con-venience rather than a discipline to be adhered to as a faith. Almost everyone wants to occupy the right lane instead of leaving it for overtaking. And if you want to stop, by all means, do so on the side of the road, usually to answer the call of nature for yourself or your pas-sengers, without warning of your inten-tions to other drivers. No wonder, we are prone to mindless accidents!

It is a fact that the volumes have increased hugely on highways as well

as on our city roads. The callousness of all the road users has endangered lives, and some only because medical atten-tion did not happen in time. Laws have always been there, but their non-obser-vance made a mockery of the regime coupled with non-enforcement that made them look ineffective. To have a policeman at every cross-section is just not possible and even more impossible it is to have a policeman every inch of the way. And yet, to ensure certainty of punishment of every offender is the only way that our roads will become safer for travel. A behaviour change of national proportion is called for but who or what will trigger this super-human conversion? It happens only through hard work, comprising total, and without exception enforcement, culminating in exemplary punishment. Our fine art of rule by exception is the cause of misgovernance. If only, we can let the law rule, the government’s ambi-tion to reduce accidents by half in five years can be achieved. This can be the unifying thread that our diversity of road users need and need it now. Or else, we will live in fond hope.

(The writer is a former Director, India Habitat Centre. Views

expressed are strictly personal.)

9mp in focusMILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Friday, 14 April, 2017

In the absence of any official figures—the government has little information about indigo despite the fact that the cash crop has been cultivated and used in India for 4,000 years and 16 indigo species are endemic to the country—thousands of farmers have shifted to indigo from other major cash and food crops in the past five years, and that the state produces 300-500 tonnes of indigo a year

The measures are aimed at halving the fatalities in road accidents in the next five years, from the present 1.5 lakh deaths per annum out of over half a million road accidents that happen. It is a game-changing law that needed to come into being

Colour me indigoThere is a renewed demand for natural indigo across the world

My way on every roadway!

KUNDAN PANDEY

RAJ LIBERHAN

A hundred years ago, indigo symbol-ised colonial oppression. Now it marks high-end fashion products. Though the natural blue dye never

lost its sheen, its production in India under the British saw a tremendous decline after the development of synthetic indigo dye by German chemist Adolf von Baeyer in 1878.

Farming of indigo was at its peak in the late 19th century. India produced nearly 19,000 tonnes of indigo in the 1850s and almost all of it was sent to Europe where the textile industry was experiencing a boom fol-lowing the industrial revolution. The demand for natural indigo declined after German chemical company Badische Anilin und Sodafabrik started commercially producing synthetic indigo. Unlike natural indigo, the colour of which depends on the climate of the area where the plant grows, the synthetic dye gave uniform results which were of benefit to the industry. By 1914, the production of natural indigo had reduced to 1,100 tonnes.

The synthetic indigo still rules the market. But there is now a renewed demand for natu-ral indigo worldwide as people are becoming more health-conscious. This has prompted farmers to once again embrace the blue gold.

Its revival is particularly evident in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka, where hot and humid climate is conducive to the crop. In fact, during the Colonial period the kurpah (Cuddapah) indigo grown in the Madras region was quite popular in the inter-national market because of its high colour content. S Kamalnathan from Vellupuram district, Tamil Nadu, is one such farmer who shifted from moringa, a major cash crop, to indigo two years ago. He makes a profit of around Rs 2 lakh per season from his 3.6 ha farmland. “The leaves, which are processed to extract the dye, can be harvested two-three times a year. Besides, it requires less water and inputs,” says Kamalnathan.

Indigo belongs to the leguminosae fam-ily of plants. Their root nodules fix atmo-spheric nitrogen in the soil and thus do not require nitrogenous fertilisers. After the ini-tial profits, Kamalnathan now plans to take 16.4 ha on lease so that he can grow indigo on a large scale.

In the absence of any official figures—the government has little information about indigo despite the fact that the cash crop has been cultivated and used in India for 4,000 years and 16 indigo species are endemic to the country—Kamalnathan says thou-sands of farmers in Vellupuram have shifted to indigo from other major cash and food crops in the past five years, and that the state produces 300-500 tonnes of indigo a year. However, he says, procuring good quality seeds remains a concern as the crop is neither grown by many nor promoted by the govern-ment. Most indigo farmers in Vellupuram procure the seeds from Andhra Pradesh, where the crop is witnessing a revival of sorts.

The enthusiasm around indigo is spurred by the fact that the farmers do not have to make an extra effort to sell the produce. “Almost 70 per cent of our produce is bought by textile designers in Delhi and Hyderabad, and the remaining are procured by traders who supply indigo to Rajasthan and Gujarat, the traditional dyeing centres of the country,” says Kamalnathan.

Shiv Keshav Rao, co-founder of Hyder-abad-based design studio Creative Bee, is one such designer. His studio works with nearly 400 handloom weavers of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and produces 2,000 metres of textile dyed or printed with natural indigo. Rao, who exports 50 per cent of the fabric, says demand for such products has doubled in the last decade. “It is a class symbol. People conscious of their status buy the fabric where natural indigo is used,” he says.

Agrees Mamata Reddy, founder of Hyder-abad-based designing firm Kalam Creation, which uses natural indigo for preparing intri-cate kalamkari, a hand-painted or block-printed cotton textile. She says when she set up shop two decades ago, the demand for indigo was negligible. Now, it has grown by 100 per cent. “Everyone involved in the

sector seems to be noticing the charm of this colour,” says Reddy, who buys indigo from Chennai. Of late, the market has been flooded with products that claim to contain natural indigo. Rao and Reddy say such a trend only indicates the rising demand for natural indigo. Reddy offers a trick to sepa-rate the real from the fake: “Once oxidised, natural indigo dye turns green, which is not the case with the synthetic one.”

Chippa Yaseen, a block-printing arti-san from Pipar city in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, says the demand is so high that they cannot meet it despite working round-the-clock. Yaseen’s family has been doing indigo print-ing for generations. “There was a time when 105 families in Pipar were engaged in block-printing. But synthetic indigo forced them to quit the business,” he says. Yaseen could continue in the business because of a chance meeting with people from Fabindia, a chain store retailing garments. Today, he receives orders for hand-block printed and natural-dyed dupatta, sari and fabrics not only from India but from countries like Japan.

M Sanjappa, an indigo expert who was former head of the Botanical Society of India, says the demand for natural indigo products

has particularly increased in the past five years. This is because people have become more health-conscious and want to use nat-ural products. Some non-profits working with farmers and artisans are also spreading awareness about indigo through seminars and workshops, he adds.

GLOBAL RESURGENCEThere has been an amazing revival of

indigo all over the world, says Jenny Bal-four-Paul, an indigo researcher and author of Indigo: Egyptian Mummies to Blue Jeans and Indigo in the Arab World. “This is majorly because the younger generation is more aware of environmental concerns. They will have fewer clothes but of better quality and made using sustainable products. Natural indigo is the perfect sustainable product as it can be grown along with rice. Farmers also use it as green manure,” she says, adding that the surge in indigo farming is being wit-nessed in Bangladesh, El Salvador, the Carib-bean, and the US.

The revival is particularly interesting in Bangladesh, where indigo has been a symbol of pain and struggle for thousands of farm-ers during the Colonial period and remained

almost erased in people’s memory till the early 2000s probably for this reason. In 2004-05, Tushar Kumar, a Bangladesh-based tex-tile designer, spotted some indigo plants while passing through Rangpur division and inquired about it. But no one could rec-ognise the plant. Tushar managed to extract dye from the plants. “It motivated us and we decided to work with local farmers,” says Mishael ‘Mika’ Ahmad of Nijera Cottage and Village Industries (NCVI), a worker and arti-san-owned social enterprise in Bangladesh. In 2008-09, NCVI worked with farmers of Rajendrapur in Rangpur Sadar upzila (sub-district) to grow indigo and is now helping them market the produce under the brand name “Living Blue”.

“The indigo we produce in Bangladesh has some magic, richness,” says Ahmad. Today, at least 3,000 farmers associated with NCVI are growing indigo. Most of them are landless. NCVI provides them land and seeds so that they get employment during monga—the lean period between two crop seasons. “There is a growing market for products pre-pared using natural indigo. But cost is a major hurdle. For instance, the denim prepared using synthetic indigo is much cheaper,” says Ahmad. Almost halfway across the world in Guatemala, indigo is making a come-back after a similar tumultuous past. The use of indigo is known in the country since the Maya civilisation, says Olga Reiche, a textile designer who has been promoting natural indigo for the past three decades. In fact, the Mayans are known to have used natural indigo to develop the Maya blue, a unique azure blue pigment. In the 16th cen-tury, when the Spaniards introduced the foot loom, women wove skirts using threads dyed with natural indigo. But natural indigo started losing its appeal across Central Amer-ica with the introduction of synthetic dyes in the 1880s. Farmers again started growing the crop almost after a century. That was the time when organic farming, natural medicine, and natural healing therapies were in vogue.

“I began working with natural organic indigo in the 1990s and immediately realised that people were interested in it,” says Reiche. “It is now in high demand among people in Europe, Japan, and the US. But there are countries that never stopped using it, for example, China, Laos, and India.”

But the plant, which has been the cause of atrocities on farmers and uprisings, can-not be revived without government patron-age. Consider Champaran, where soil and climate are suitable for growing indigo. “No one talks about indigo here,” says Arvind Mohan, senior journalist from West Cham-paran. “While the demand for indigo is grow-ing worldwide, people here are not aware of its commercial importance. They still con-sider it a taboo.” DOWN TO EARTH

(With inputs from Vibha Varshney. The views expressed are personal.)

Inability to enforce road safety laws renders them ineffective

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For the 5th time in a row, Bengal has again bagged the prestigious “Krishi Karman Award” of GOI for excellence in agriculture.

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mp world10MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Friday, 14 April, 2017

US-RUSSIA RELATIONS AT ‘ALL-TIME LOW’

Man dragged from United

flight launches legal action

WASHINGTON: A man dragged off an “overbooked” United Airlines flight in an incident which shocked the world has launched legal action against the passenger carrier. Dr David Dao, 69, refused to give up the seat he had paid for after being asked to leave, and was dragged by his hands on his back off the parked plane, which had been bound for Louisville, Ken-tucky. He was left bloodied after the Sunday evening inci-dent at Chicago Airport and the footage provoked interna-tional outrage, reported CBS News. The Dao family issued a statement expressing grat-itude for the “outpouring of support”. Citing the risk of “serious prejudice” to their client, the lawyers want the airline and the City of Chi-cago, to preserve surveillance videos, cockpit voice record-ings, passenger and crew lists and other materials related to United Flight 3411. AGENCIES

Defence in Kim murder case fears ‘trial by ambush’

KUALA LUMPUR: Handcuffed and facing the judge, two young women accused of poisoning Kim Jong Nam appeared in court on Thursday as their lawyers said Malaysian police still have not handed over security camera footage and documents crucial to the defence.

Siti Aisyah, from Indonesia, and Doan Thi Huong of Vietnam are the only suspects in custody in the February 13 killing of Kim, the estranged half brother of North Korea’s ruler. Four North Korean suspects fled the country the day of the murder, police say.

South Korean Lawmakers Say North Korean Ruler Kim Jong Un’s Brother Pleaded For His Life 5 Years Ago. “The accused person should not be denied her fundamental right to a fair trial,” said Aisyah’s attor-ney, Gooi Soon Seng. He said he has been waiting for police to provide CCTV footage and statements from three North Korean men who were ques-tioned and released. “Neither side may seek unfair advantage

by concealing weapons behind its back. There should be no trial by ambush,” Gooi said. The judge postponed the hear-ing until May 30. The women are accused of smearing Kim’s face with banned VX nerve agent at a crowded airport ter-minal in Kuala Lumpur. But they say they were duped into thinking they were playing a harmless prank for a hidden-camera show.

The women face the death penalty if convicted. Gooi said he fears the women will

become scapegoats because all the other people believed to have knowledge of the case have left the country.

The four North Koreans who flew out of Malaysia the day of the murder are believed to be back in Pyongyang. And another three who stayed inside their country’s embassy in Kuala Lumpur to avoid ques-tioning by police were allowed to fly home late last month after Malaysia struck a sur-prise deal with Pyongyang to ease tensions. AGENCIES

Putin tells Tillerson why US-Russian ties in bad state

MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin used a meeting with visiting US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Wednesday to give his views on why US-Russian relations had reached such a low point, a Kremlin spokesman said.

The spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told a conference call with reporters on Thursday that the tone of the meeting had been “fairly constructive.” He said the Russian hope was that Putin’s message would be passed on to US President Donald Trump.

He said general agreement was reached at the meeting of the need to keep open lines of communication between Mos-cow and Washington. Peskov also said Putin had given Tiller-son his views on the situation in Syria, and how it was likely to develop. The presidents of the United States and Russia on Wednesday both presented

souring views of the relation-ship between their two coun-tries, exchanging sharp words as Moscow extended an icy welcome to the United States’ top diplomat in a face-off over Syria. In Washington, President

Donald Trump said the United States’ relationship with Mos-cow “may be at an all-time low.”

Trump’s comments came after he made his biggest for-eign policy decision of his new presidency last week, fir-

ing missiles at Syria to punish Moscow’s ally for its suspected use of poison gas. Russia con-demned the US action.

Hours earlier on Wednes-day, Russian President Vlad-imir Putin was equally

pessimistic, saying in an inter-view broadcast on Russian tele-vision, “The level of trust on a working level, especially on the military level, has not improved but has rather deteriorated.”

The rhetorical salvos came as US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson received an unusually hostile reception in Moscow, where any hope that the Trump administration would herald less confrontational relations was dashed in the week after the US missile strike on Syria.

Tillerson met Putin in the Kremlin after talking to his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, for about three hours. The Kremlin had previously declined to confirm Putin would meet Tillerson, reflect-ing the renewed tensions.

Trump had frequently called during the 2016 US presidential election cam-paign for warmer ties with Putin. AGENCIES

Russia vetoes UN resolution to condemn Syrian chemical attackUNITED NATIONS: Russia vetoed a UN resolution on Wednesday that would have condemned the reported use of chemical weapons in a town in northern Syria and demanded a speedy investigation, triggering clashes between Moscow and the measure’s Western backers. The vote on the Security Council resolution drafted by Britain, France and the United States was 10 in favor, Russia and Bolivia against, and China, Kazakhstan and Ethiopia abstaining.

It was the eighth veto by Russia, a close ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad, on a Western-backed Syria reso-lution and reflected the deep division that has left the UN’s most powerful body strug-gling to tackle the use of banned chemical weapons and to help end the six-year Syr-ian conflict. China has vetoed six resolutions.

Russia’s UN Ambassador Vladimir Safronkov told the council before the vote that a resolution was unnecessary, and the draft put forward by the Western powers pre-judged that the Syrian government was responsible for the April 4 attack on Khan Sheikhoun in which nearly 90 people died.

Safronkov said Russia’s For-eign Minister asked US Sec-retary of State Rex Tillerson during talks earlier Wednesday in Moscow to jointly request the Organization for the Pro-hibition of Chemical Weapons “to immediately put together an independent international

mission” to visit Khan Sheik-houn and the air base that the US attacked in retalia-tion. Tillerson is considering the request, he said, “and we expect that Washington will have a constructive reaction.”

Russia has criticized previous investigations carried out by the OPCW and the United Nations which blamed the Syrian government for at least three chemical weapons attacks without visiting the sites. Safronkov reiterated Wednesday that an investigation cannot be conducted remotely and experts must be drawn from a wide geographical basis. The attack on Khan Sheikhoun is expected to be near the top of the agenda when the OPCW’s executive committee meets

Thursday at the organisation’s headquarters in The Hague, Netherlands. Both the Syrian government and opposition have asked for an independent investigation Safronkov said, “whereas the OPCW is doing nothing, for reasons unknown.”

Looking at the resolution’s supporters sitting around the horseshoe-shaped table in the Security Council, he said: “You are afraid of an impartial inves-tigation” that the Syrian gov-ernment was being blamed for chemical weapons attacks car-ried out by extremists. After the vote, US Ambassador Nikki Haley told the council: “We want to work with Rus-sia to advance a political pro-cess in Syria. We want Russia to use its influence over the Assad regime. AGENCIES

Man’s body seen tossed from plane, found on

roof of Mexican hospital

Chhattisgarh Rural Road Development AgencyCivil Lines, Raipur (CG)

No. 185/RC-4 /CGRRDA/201 Raipur dated: 10.04.2017Amendment No. - I

The following amendments are issued on press notice of NIT 185/CE/Tech/CGRRDA/2017 dated 22.03.2017 Balance Work (ADB) in the districts of Raipur and Balodabazar-Bhatapara for 04 number of Roads with Estimate Cost totaling Rs 1009.43 Lacs :-1. The previous date for online submitting Bid of above mentioned

tender was 27.03.2017 Now read as 17/04/2017 instead of 27.03.2017.

2. The Other Conditions of NIT will remain same. Chief Engineer(Tender Cell)

Chhattisgarh Rural Road Development AgencyCivil Lines, Raipur (C.G.)

samvad80675/3 E-mail: cg-itno@nic.in

millenniumpost NO H ALF TR U THS

millenniumpost.in

I, Alam Beg S/o Shahrukh Mirza R/o H.N. 2751, Gali Chandi Wali Churi Walan, Delhi-11006 have change my name from Alam Beg Mirza to Alam Beg for all purposes.

I, Mohd. Jameel S/o Mohd. Yasin R/o H.N. 1476, Basti Chhote Ram, Kalan Mahal, 8, Darya Ganj New Delhi-11002 have change my name from Jamil Ahmed to Mohd. Jameel for all purposes.

I, Shahid Khan S/o Habibur Rehman R/o H.N. 2228, Gali Bhim, Gali Shankar Bazar Sita Ram, Delhi-11006 have change my name from Shahid to Shahid Khan for all purposes.

CHANGE OF NAME

First Muslim female judge in US found deadNEW YORK: Sheila Abdus-Salaam, the first-ever female Muslim judge in US history and the first African-American woman to serve on New York’s highest court, was found dead in the Hudson River. The body of Judge, 65, was discovered floating fully clothed on the Manhattan side of the river by the Henry Hudson Parkway. AGENCIES

ISLAMABAD: The secretary-level talks between India and Pakistan on the Indus Water Treaty relating to two controversial hydropower projects have been postponed until the end of this month, a Pakistani media report on Thurs-day said. The talks were scheduled for April 11-13 but have been delayed until the end of April, The Nation reported quoting sources, but didn’t cite any reason for the postponement.

Pakistan’s Minister for Power and Water Khawaja Asif last month had said the two sides would meet in Washington on April 11-13 to resolve the issues related to Kishanganga (330MWs) and Ratle (850 MWs) projects India

is constructing in Jammu and Kashmir. How-ever, Indus Water Treaty Commissioner Asif Baig told the newspaper that April 11-13 were not the scheduled dates for the meeting as these dates were only a proposal. He said the World Bank with the consensus of both the countries will provide new dates for the meeting. He said he does not know about the new dates.

Pakistan has reservations over the designs of both the hydropower projects and is seeking the International Court of Arbitration (ICA) through the World Bank—the so-called guar-antor of the 1960 treaty — while India insists to resolve the issue through neutral experts. AGENCIES

MEXICO CITY: The body of a man, who witnesses said was tossed from a plane, landed on a hospital roof in Mexi-co’s northern Sinaloa state on Wednesday, according to a public health service official in the region, which is home to notorious drug traffick-ers. The body landed on the roof of an IMSS hospital in the town of Eldorado, around 7:30 am local time, said the official, who was not autho-rized to give his name. Wit-nesses standing outside the health center reported a plane flying low over the hospital and a person thrown out, the health official said.

Later on Wednesday, Sinaloa’s Deputy Attorney

General Jesus Martin Robles said a body, found on the hospital roof, showed injuries that appeared to be related to a strong impact. He did not con-firm that it had been thrown from a plane. The public health service official said two more bodies were reported to have been found in the town, about 60 kilometers (40 miles) south of Culiacan, the state capital.

Local media reported that those two bodies were thrown from the same plane as the body that landed on the hospital.The official did not know if the man was alive when he was thrown from the plane. Officials from the state prosecutor’s office were at the scene. AGENCIES

‘Secretary-level talks between India, Pakistan on IWT delayed’

mp world 11MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Friday, 14 April, 2017

BRIEFSWORLDFOREIGN AGENCIES MAY HAVE ABDUCTED EX-ARMY OFFICER: PAKISLAMABAD: Without blaming India by name, Pakistan on Thursday said “foreign intelligence agen-cies” may have kidnapped a retired Pakistani Army officer who has gone missing in Nepal. Foreign Office spokesman Nafees Zakaria said at a weekly press briefing that retired Lt Col Habib Zahir had been trapped in Nepal “after being lured into a job offer”. He said Pakistani authorities were in touch with the Nepal government to trace Zahir.

MALALA GETS CANADIAN CITIZENSHIPOTTAWA: Nobel Peace laureate Malala Yousafzai has received honorary citizenship in Canada and become the youngest person to address the country’s Parliament. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau presented her with a framed certificate of citizenship on Wednesday. She’s only the sixth person to receive the honor and the youngest ever. The 19-year-old Pakistani activist was 15 when she shot in the head by Talibanmilitants while returning from school. She was targeted for advocating women’s education.

ROHINGYA WOMAN SHOT DEAD ALONG BANGLADESH BORDER: POLICEDHAKA: Bangladesh border guards opened fire on Thursday at a boat ferrying Rohingya migrants from neighbouring Myanmar, killing one woman and leaving four others injured, police said. The border authorities came under fire just after midnight and shot back at two fishing trawlers along a river divid-ing Bangladesh from Myanmar’s westernmost state of Rakhine, police said.

INDIAN WINS TOP PRIZE AT UNITED NATIONS CHALLENGE UNITED NATIONS: An Indian software engineer has won the top prize at a global challenge for an open-source tool that enables users to interactively view UN General Assembly resolutions and gain a deeper understanding of the voting patterns of member states. Abdulqadir Rashik, also an entrepreneur, won the ‘Unite Ideas #UNGAViz Textual Analysis and Visualisation Challenge’ for his ‘Global Policy’, an open-source tool that enables users to search and interactively view General Assembly resolutions to gain a deeper understanding of the voting patterns and decisions made by United Nations Member States.

22 DEAD IN FIRE AT SENEGAL RELIGIOUS RETREAT: FIREFIGHTERSDAKAR: At least 22 people were killed in a fire at a Muslim religious retreat in southeastern Senegal, firefighters said on Thursday, with 87 injured. The fire broke out on Wednesday as worshippers gathered in the town of Medina Gounass for the event.

Nepal, China to hold 1st joint military drillKATHMANDU: Nepal and China will be holding their first-ever joint military exercise from April 16 to 25, the Nepal Army said on Thursday. While the Chinese military aid to Nepal has significantly boosted in recent years, Kathmandu and Beijing would be holding a joint military exercise in Nepal for the first time.

In his visit to Nepal last month, Chinese Defence Minister and State Councillor Chang Wanquan had announced military aid worth 300 million Yuan to Nepal Army for its UN peace-keepers, mainly logistics. The 10-day-long military exercise would be focused on disaster response and counter-terrorism.

“In a bid to give continuity of such joint military training and exercises with the neighbouring countries and friendly nations and in the context of terrorism that is posing serious threat to the global peace also its possible challenges to the global secu-rity, we are holding first ever joint military exercise with China under the banner of ‘Sagatrmatha Friendship-2017’,” said the army in its statement.

Sagarmatha is the Nepali name of Mt. Everest. The upcom-ing joint military drill has, however, raised eyebrows in New Delhi, with strategic circles in the Indian capital questioning the intent of such an exercise.

“Nepal Army has been conducting joint military exercises, seminars and training with various nations with whom Nepal has diplomatic ties,” the army said.

The statement further read that such kind of multilateral and bilateral training slots and exercises would provide oppor-tunities to exchange professional skills and would boost their capability and further strength the diplomatic and military ties.

Nepal has been holding such joint military exercise with India, the US and recently held a multilateral joint military exercise with various nations involved in UN peace-keeping operations. AGENCIES

Assad: Syria chemical attack is ‘100% fabrication’BEIRUT: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has reiterated that his gov-ernment had nothing to do with the chemical gas incident in a rebel-held village last week that killed more than 80 people.

Allegations that his forces had delib-erately poisoned civilians were “100 per-cent fabrication’’, the president said on Thursday, adding that the Syrian gov-ernment gave up its chemical weapons stocks as part of a 2013 agreement.

“Our impression is that the West, mainly the United States, is hand-in-glove with the terrorists. They fabricated the whole story in order to have a pre-text for the attack,” he said.

Assad made the comments in an interview broadcast by AFP, his first since the US struck a Syr-ian airbase with missiles in retalia-tion for the events in the village of Khan Sheikhoun.

The international community has condemned the deaths in Idlib prov-ince, which most Western intelligence services believe occurred thanks to a deliberate attack carried out by the Syr-ian government.

Damascus and allies in Moscow have denied the regime attacked the village with chemical weapons, main-taining that the casualties were caused by gases released after an al-Qaeda-affiliated ammunitions depot was hit by conventional munitions in a legitimate government air raid.

Neither country has provided any on-the-ground evidence to back up their claims.

The Syrian government agreed to surrender its chemical weapons stocks to an international watchdog after the

deaths of hundreds in a rebel-held sub-urb of Damascus in 2013, although the opposition has long accused the regime of holding back some of its supply.

US President Donald Trump retali-ated last Friday with a “warning shot” barrage of 59 Tomahawk missiles which struck the regime-operated Shayrat air-base near Homs — the first direct action against Assad’s forces taken by the US in more than six years of the civil war. On Wednesday, Russia’s representative to the United Nations vetoed a Secu-rity Council resolution condemning the

attack and recommending an immedi-ate international investigation. The draft text called on the Syrian government to provide flight plans, flight logs and other operational military information from the day of the strike.

However, Global chemical weap-ons investigators have gone to Tur-key to collect samples as part of an inquiry into the alleged chemical weapons attack.

The fact-finding mission was sent by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The

Hague to gather bio-metric samples and interview survivors, sources told Reuters on Thursday.

Samples taken from the poison gas site in Syria’s Idlib governorate tested positive for the nerve agent sarin, the British delegation at the OPCW said on Thursday.

“UK scientists have analysed samples taken from Khan Sheikhoun. These have tested positive for the nerve agent sarin, or a sarin-like substance,” the delegation said a special session on Syria at the OPCW. AGENCIES

Merkel seeks good ties with Trump despite differencesBERLIN: Chancellor Angela Merkel says it’s in Germany’s interest to have good relations with the United States, despite disagreeing with President Donald Trump on important issues. Merkel told Germany’s Funke media group in an interview published Thursday that conversations with Trump during her visit to Washington and in subsequent phone calls had been “good.” She added “this naturally doesn’t rule out that we have different opinions on some points, including on important questions.” Merkel acknowledged that military action against the Islamic State group was necessary, but said only a political solution would bring about lasting peace in Syria and Iraq. AGENCIES

‘US sees India as key nation in

Asia-Pacific region’WASHINGTON: The US sees India as a pivotal nation for its security in the Asia-Pacificre-gion, the Pentagon has said as the Trump administration quietly started the process of implementing the recent des-ignation of India as a “major defence partner”.

“The relationship between India and the United States is on track. Secretary (James) Mattis has made the defence relationship with India a top priority,” Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis said. “He sees India as a pivotal nation in the region going forward for our security,” Davis said, weeks after Mattis had a successful meeting with India’s national security advisor Ajit K Doval at the Pentagon. According to media reports, Doval’s Amer-ican counterpart Lt Gen H R McMaster is slated to visit India soon. The White House refrained from making any comment on the visit. Keeping defence ties on the forefront of the India-US relationship, the Trump administration is believed to have started the process of implementing in letter and spirit the recent US designation of India as a “major defence partner” .

Mattis in his first phone conversation with the then Indian defence minister Mano-har Parrikar is believed to have said that he is ready to take off the India-US defence relation-

ship from where it was left by his predecessor Ashton Carter.

The assurance is being fast implemented by the Penta-gon, sources said. A day before Trump was sworn in as the 45th President of the US, the depart-ment of commerce issued a fed-eral notification that relaxed India-specific defence export control norms.

Under this, the Bureau of Industry and Security amended the Export Administration Regulations by establishing a licensing policy of general approval for exports or re-exports to or transfers within India of items subject to the EAR. In addition, BIS amended the end use and end user pro-visions of the validated end user authorisation to state that items obtained under authori-sation VEU in India may be used for either civil or military end uses other than those that are for use in nuclear, missile, or chemical or biological weap-ons activities. The move on the last day of the previous Obama administration is believed to address some of the major con-cerns of India when it comes to import of state-of-the-art defence technology and mili-tary hardware. “The changes in the export administration regulations, reflective of India’s status as a major defence part-ner, will enhance defence ties and private sector linkages,” an official said. AGENCIES

Germany favours ban on boat

exports to Libya to stop migrants

BERLIN: The German govern-ment says it would support a ban on the export of boats from the European Union to Libya as part of measures to stem the flow of migrants across the Mediterranean. Smugglers use often rickety vessels to ferry thousands of migrants from the north African country to Europe each month.

Mass drownings are com-mon when the overloaded boats capsize or sink.

In a response to questions from Left Party lawmakers, the German government says it considers “imposing restric-tive measures” on EU exports of boats, engines and vehicles to Libya to be an appropriate measure to crack down on peo-ple smuggling.

The response, obtained today by The Associated Press, also confirms that the EU naval mission deployed to stop ille-gal migration uses submarines for “covert reconnaissance” in the region.

Libya is the main departure point for migrants hoping to reach Europe by sea, and more than 150,000 have made the crossing from Libya to Italy in each of the past three years.

Smugglers put most of the migrants in flimsy inflatable dinghies that get picked up by rescue ships and other vessels once they reach international waters. Some are intercepted and turned back by the Libyan coastguard.

About 100 illegal migrants have been reported as missing off the Libyan coast near Trip-oli on Thursday. AGENCIES

Trump says NATO no longer obsoleteWASHINGTON: US Presi-dent Donald Trump said on Wednesday that NATO is not obsolete, as he had decl ared on the campaign trail last year, but said NATO members still need to pay their fair share for the European security umbrella.

At a news conference with NATO Secretary Gen-eral Jens Stoltenberg, Trump thanked NATO members for their support of his decision

last Thursday to launch 59 cruise missiles at a Syrian air-

field in retaliation for a chemi-cal weapons attack on civilians

and said it was time to end Syr-ia’s civil war.

“I said it was obsolete. It’s no longer obsolete,” Trump said, adding that the Trans-atlantic alliance was adapting to the broader mission against Islamic militants that he had urged.

Stoltenberg said he had an excellent and productive meeting in the Oval Office with Trump. AGENCIES

Indian named by UN for urban development panelUNITED NATIONS: An Indian expert on urban pov-erty alleviation and advo-cacy for slum dwellers has been named by UN Secre-tary-General to a high-level independent panel that will assess and enhance effective-ness of the agency for human settlements and sustainable urban development.

Sheela Patel, a Padmashree awardee, is Founder and Director of the Society for Promotion of Area Resource Centres (SPARC) and a global expert on urban poverty alle-viation and advocacy for slum dwellers. Patel founded SPARC in 1984, a Mumbai-based non- governmental organisation focused on hous-ing and infrastructure rights for the urban poor. During this time, Patel has played a

key role in the expansion of Mahila Milan, a federation of collectives of women living in slums across India, the UN said in a statement.

Patel is also the Chair of Slum/Shack Dwellers Interna-tional (SDI), an international network of poor people’s organisations and supporting non-governmental organisa-tions active in Asia and Africa.

Patel received the David Rockefeller Bridging Leader-ship Award from the Syner-gos Institute in recognition of her extensive efforts to ame-liorate urban poverty, and the Padmashree, the fourth-highest civilian award in India for her work on urban pov-erty alleviation. Patel is part of the eight-member panel that will report directly to the Secretary-General. AGENCIES

Bashar al-Assad, Syrian President

WASHINGTON: An 8-year-old boy in the US, craving for a cheeseburger, drove his father’s van to the local McDonald’s outlet with his 4-year-old sister on board.

The boy from East Pal-estine, Ohio, got behind the wheel of his father’s van and drove to McDonald’s with his sister while their parents were asleep at home, police said.

The incident happened on Sunday when the child’s father had worked all day and went to bed early while their mother was on the couch with the kids, when she fell asleep,

East Palestine police officer Jacob Koehler told FOX 8 News.

After the parents fell asleep, the children decided to leave.

Koehler said the child drove about 1.5 km from his home with his little sister in the back of the van.

The journey took the boy through four intersections, over railroad tracks and also required him to make a few right hand turns and a left hand turn.

Witnesses told police he did obey all traffic laws and

drove the speed limit.Once at the McDonald’s,

a family friend who hap-pened to be eating at the res-taurant, notified the children’s grandparents.

The children, however, did get to eat their cheeseburgers before police arrived.

Koehler arrived at McDonald’s and talked to the little boy, who told him he had learned to drive by watching YouTube videos.

He told police he just wanted to buy a cheeseburger.

The case was under inves-tigation, the report said. PTI

mp business12MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Friday, 14 April, 2017

EPFO plans loyalty-cum-life benefit of as much as ̀ 50,000 for members

NEW DELHI: Retirement fund body EPFO’s subscribers will get loyalty-cum-life benefit of up to Rs 50,000 at the time of retirement for contributing to the scheme for 20 years or more.

The benefit will also be provided in case of permanent disability even if the members have contributed for less than 20 years, the EPFO board has decided.

The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation’s (EPFO) apex decision making body, the Central Board of Trustees (CBT), has recommended a minimum sum assured of Rs 2.5 lakh in the event of death of a subscriber.

“The CBT has recommended amending the Employees’ Deposit Linked Insurance Scheme (EDLI) to provide for minimum benefit of Rs 2.5 lakh and loyalty-cum-life benefit of up to Rs 50,000 at a meeting held yester-day,” a senior official said.

“The suggested benefits will be available to members after government approval. Initially, these will be provided for two years on a pilot basis and will be reviewed thereafter.”

According to the proposal, loyalty-cum-life benefit will be provided to all those members on retirement at 58 or 60 years who have contributed to the scheme for 20 years or more.

The benefit will also be provided in case of permanent disability. In these cases, the members who have contrib-uted to the EDLI scheme for less than 20 years will be eligible.

Those members whose average basic wages are up to Rs 5,000 will get loyalty-

cum-life benefit of Rs 30,000.Similarly, the members with wages

of Rs 5,001-10,000 Will be eligible for Rs 40,000 benefit.

All those members getting more than Rs 10,000 monthly wage will be eligible for Rs 50,000 loyalty-cum-life benefit under the proposed scheme.

The board has recommended such benefits in view of a huge EDLI corpus of Rs 18,119 crore following addition of interest that accrued on investment of this fund. At present, the dependants of the deceased get a sum assured of up to Rs 6 lakh. There is no provision of minimum insurance and any benefit for surviving members or in cases of permanent disability under the scheme.

Labour Minister Bandaru Datta-treya launched Aadhaar Seeding Appli-cation after the meeting. The EPFO has developed this application with support of Common Service Centres (CSCs) and C-DAC. The CSCs are ICT-enabled front-end service delivery points at the village level for delivery of government and private services.

With implementation of the seeding application, a PF member or pensioner can now walk into any of the field offices of EPFO or CSC outlets with UAN and Aadhaar and seed them.

The EPFO enrolled 49,39,929 work-ers during January-March 2017. It had launched a special enrolment scheme to cover leftout formal sector workers from January 2017. PTI

NEW DELHI: Taxpayers want-ing to send their paper ITR acknowledgement forms or documents related to refunds and others to the I-T depart-ment’s CPC in Bengaluru can now send it to a “unique” pin code.

The Department of Post has allotted the pin code to the Central Processing Cen-tre (CPC) to ensure that letters and mails sent by taxpayers and assessees are not lost and reach the centre without delay.

The CPC is the central data-base centre of the department which receives all Income Tax Returns (ITRs), both e-filed and sent through post, and processes them for issuance of refunds and also deals with other tax related documents of a taxpayer.

The new pin code is--560500-- while the CPC ear-lier used to sport the old pin code of--560100.

The older pin code was marked for the entire Elec-tronic City area in Bengaluru, where the CPC facility is based.

“There used to be griev-ances where taxpayers com-plained that they have sent their ITR-V (acknowledge-

ment for ITR filing) through post to the CPC but it did not reach the centre. Certain other documents sought by the cen-tre from an assessee to ensure timely refunds also used to get lost or never reach. “The new pin code is meant exclusively to cater to CPC of the Income Tax department and it will now help to curb the complaints and issues of non-reaching of postal mails,” a senior officer said.

The I-T officials at CPC were in talks with the postal department for allotment of a dedicated pin code for quite sometime as in “almost 60 per cent cases the documents received by it in paper form.” PTI

Loyalty-cum-life benefit will be provided to all those members on retirement at 58 or 60 years who have contributed to the scheme for 20 years or more. The benefit will also be provided in case of permanent disability. In these cases, those members too who have contributed to the EDLI scheme for less than 20 years will be eligible

8.65% interest on employees’ provident fund for FY17: Dattatreya NEW DELHI: About 4 crore subscribers of EPFO will get 8.65 per cent interest on provident fund deposits for 2016-17, as decided by the organisation’s trustees in December, Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya said on Thursday. The comments follow reports suggesting that the Finance Ministry is nudging the Labour Ministry to lower the EPF interest rate by up to 50 basis points. “It is not like that. The CBT (EPFO trustees) had decided to give 8.65 per cent. Our min-istry keeps on discussing with Finance Ministry. We would have surplus of Rs 158 crore on providing 8.65 per cent,” Dattatreya said on being asked whether the Finance Ministry is making a case for lowering the interest rate. “If need be, I will talk to them (Finance Ministry). I have requested them to approve 8.65 per cent. In any case this amount (interest income) will be given to workers. But how and when it will be provided, this is the question,” he added. The EPFP apex deci-sion making body the Central Board of Trustees (CBT) had decided to provide 8.65 per cent rate of interest on EPF deposits last December. As per the practice, the board’s decision is concurred by the Finance Ministry after evaluating whether the EPFO would be able to provide the rate approved by trustees through its own income or not. PTI

Infy to return ̀ 13k cr to shareholders; Q4 nos disappointBENGALURU: Infosys, India’s second-biggest soft-ware exporter, on Thursday announced plans to return Rs 13,000 crore from its cash pile to shareholders after it reported an almost flat net profit in the March quarter and sales out-look that fell short of estimates.

Yielding to pressure from a group of founders and for-mer executives, the company announced a share buyback programme and a pledge to raise dividends.

It also appointed Ravi Ven-katesan, an independent direc-tor, co-Chairman in a bid to address the founders’ corporate governance concerns.

It will begin to pay 70 per cent of annual free cash flow as dividend compared to a pre-vious policy of sharing up to half its post-tax profit. For the January-March quarter, Info-sys reported a 0.2 per cent rise in consolidated net profit at Rs 3,603 crore while revenue grew 3.4 per cent to Rs 17,120 crore.

In 2017-18 (April 2017 to March 2018), the company expects revenue to grow 6.5 per cent to 8.5 per cent in constant currency terms.

The stock fell over 3 per cent to Rs 935.05 in afternoon trade.

On a sequential basis, Info-sys’ net profit fell 2.8 per cent while revenue declined 0.9 per cent. “Unanticipated execution challenges and distractions in a seasonally soft quarter affected our overall performance,” said CEO Vishal Sikka.

Sikka is grappling with twin problems of high-profile

founders led by N R Narayana Murthy publicly criticising governance style, including sal-ary hikes to top executives, and a visa crackdown by Ameri-can President Donald Trump that will make it harder for companies like Infosys to send employees to work in the US.

He added: “Looking ahead,

it is imperative that we increase our resilience to the dynam-ics of our environment and we remain resolute in executing our strategy, path to transform Infosys and drive long-term value for all stakeholders.”

Infosys, which has about $6 billion on its books, follows industry peers Cognizant and

Tata Consultancy Services in announcing share buyback.

Cognizant had announced a $3.4 billion buyback while TCS is returning Rs 16,000 crore to its shareholders.

Two of Infosys’ former CFOs -- T V Mohandas Pai and V Balakrishnan -- had recently exhorted institutional inves-

tors to raise questions about the huge cash pile on the com-pany’s books, saying investors have an obligation to protect their investment.

Infosys CFO M D Ran-ganath said the company is focussed on efficiency and margins.

“Capital allocation policy clearly says (it will be) up to Rs 13,000 crore. This takes into account our cash needs for the next couple of years,” he said, adding that this will leave the company with about USD 4 bil-lion on its balancesheet.

Infosys earnings set the tone for other technology companies, with TCS slated to report its results on April 18 and Wipro on April 25.

Market watchers said Info-sys’ outlook for 6.5-8.5 per cent revenue increase for 2017-18 is disappointing as peers like Cognizant have guided for higher growth.

Cognizant, which follows January-December fiscal, expects its revenue to grow 8-10 per cent in constant cur-rency terms during 2017.

In US dollars terms, Infosys net profit was up 1.8 per cent at $543 million for the March quarter while revenue grew 5 per cent to $2.5 billion. PTI

Infosys Chief Executive Officer Vishal Sikka announcing the company’s annual financial results at a Press conference at its headquarter in Bengaluru on Thursday PTI

Infosys shares crash nearly 3% in wake of Q4 earnings NEW DELHI: Shares of IT services firm Info-sys on Thursday fell nearly 3 per cent after it reported lower-than -expected earnings for the quarter ended March 2017. Even after a posi-tive opening, shares of the company lost the momentum and fell 2.82 per cent to Rs 941.40 on BSE. At NSE, shares of the company lost 2.87 per cent to Rs 941. The country’s second-largest IT services firm Infosys on Thursday reported a marginal growth in consolidated net profit at Rs 3,603 crore for the quarter ended March 2017. Net profit came in 0.2 per cent higher than Rs 3,597 crore in the same period previous year, according to a BSE filing by Info-sys. Revenue of the Bengaluru-based company grew 3.4 per cent to Rs 17,120 crore in the March quarter compared to Rs 16,550 crore in the same period of 2015-16, it added. PTI

I-T CPC in Bengaluru gets new pin code

for tax payers benefit

NEW DELHI: State-owned carrier Air India will be phas-ing out its remaining aged Airbus Classic A320 planes by this fiscal.

The airline has already retired nine A320s from its fleet and the remaining six planes are likely to go out of service by March next year, Air India Chairman and Managing Director Ashwani Lohani said.

The over two-decade-old classic A320, unlike modern aircraft, has a set of bogey wheels. Bogey wheels are a set of four tyres making up one wheel.

“We have already retired 9 out of 15 Classics and plan to retire two more in the next two-three months. The

remaining four Classics will be phased out by March, 2018,” Lohani said.

The Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA) -- one of Air India’s pilots’ body -- while terming the planes as “lethal and snag-prone” had two years back urged the aviation regulator DGCA to ground these planes and ensure passenger safety.

In order to facilitate replacement of its old fleet, the national carrier has already commenced induc-tion of A320 Neo (new engine option) planes, 14 of which are being procured on lease this year.

The airline plans to induct a total of 29 A320 Neos into its fleet by March, 2019. PTI

Air India to phase out remaining old Airbus

A320s this fiscal

US Boy, 8, drives to McDonald’s with sister, 4, for cheeseburger!

GJEPC setting up gem & jewellery institutes in Varanasi, Udupi

MUMBAI: Gem & Jewellery Export Promo-tion Council of India (GJEPC) is setting up the Indian Institute of Gem & Jewellery (IIGJ) at Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh and Udupi in Kar-nataka to enhance artisans skills for the gem & jewellery sector.

“We are setting up two more IIGJ institutes in Varansi and Udupi and expand our Mumbai facility. We are investing around Rs 35 crore of which Rs 20 crore are spent on Varansi facility spread over 8,000 square feet area,” IIGJ Head- Sanjoy Ghosh told reporters here.

“We are also investing Rs 7 crore in Udupi facility, which is expected to start shortly. The expansion of Mumbai center will cost Rs 5 crore for adding two more floors,” added Ghosh.

The government’s Assistance to States for Infrastructure Development of Exports (ASIDE) scheme will provide assistance of 50 per cent in the proposed funding, said Ghosh. “With Maha-

rashtra government supporting initiatives such as the jewellery park and gems & jewellery uni-versity, successful graduates from IIGJ can access several career opportunities,” GJEPC chairman Praveenshankar Pandya said. PTI

Centre plans to auction six coking coal minesNEW DELHI: The Centre plans to auction six coking coal blocks, a move that may help in augmenting the supply of the fuel used for steel-making, to cater to grow-ing demand.

“The Coal Ministry will put on offer six coking coal blocks for captive purposes,” an official privy to the development said.

The entire demand of metallurgical coal, he said, is not met indigenously as the supply of high quality coking coal in the country is limited.

Thus, no option is left other than importing of such fuel.

Coal India Ltd (CIL) which produced 55.22 million tonnes (MT) of coking coal last fiscal is eyeing 59.77 MT of metallur-gical coal in the ongoing financial year, the official added.

CIL, which accounts for over 80 per cent of the domestic coal production, eyes 63.55 MT coking coal in the next fiscal and

72.30 MT in 2019-20.As per the current import policy, coal

is kept under the Open General License (OGL) and consumers are free to import coal from the source of their choice as per their contractual prices on payment of applicable duty.

In the April-January period of FY’17, the country imported 34.84 MT metallur-gical coal. In FY’16, India imported 43.51 MT of coking coal and 43.71 MT of fuel used in steel-making in FY’15. The gov-ernment had earlier said that efforts were being made to increase the availability of indigenous coking coal in the country in order to reduce the import of the fossil fuel which is mainly used in production of steel.

Industry body Assocham had also ear-lier stated that India needs to emphasise on indigenous production of coking coal in order to reduce the dry fuel import which has resulted in loss of forex reserves.

Meanwhile, CIL is also planning to acquire coking coal mines in Australia as it looks to supplement the requirement of country’s metallurgical coal.

Australia has put on offer some cok-ing coal blocks and CIL has initiated dia-logues with the Australian government with regard to acquiring some mines there, a source privy to the development had recently said.

However, the discussions are in a very preliminary stage, the source had said.

India’s dependence on imports is par-ticularly heavy on coking coal which is a vital ingredient in the steel making process.

Recognising limited availability of metallurgical coal as an ‘disadvantage’ for Indian steel sector, the draft steel policy aims at increasing supply of domestic cok-ing coal to cut dependence on imports by half and a production of 300 million tonnes of the alloy by 2030-31. PTI

1000 businessmen from India hold ‘India Day’ in China expo

BEIJING: A 1000-member-strong delegation of Indian businessmen from printing and packing sectors has par-ticipated in ‘India Day’ celebra-tions on the sidelines of China’s largest industries’ exposition in Shanghai.

India urged Chinese com-panies to take advantage of the ‘Make in India’ campaign and scale up investment in advanced printing technologies during the celebrations organ-ised on the sidelines of China’s largest printing and packing industries exposition ‘Sino Corrugated 2017’ in Shanghai.

Indian Consul General in Shanghai Prakash Gupta said it is one the largest delega-tions from India to take part in any exposition in Shanghai so far this year. Prakash Gupta urged Chinese companies to take advantage of the ‘Make in India’ campaign and scale up investment in advanced print-ing technologies in India.

Arun Gupta, Vice President of AIFMP and Thomas Huang, Senior Vice President, Reed Exhibitions also took part in the celebrations held yesterday.

Arun Gupta highlighted the growing collaboration between Indian and Chinese industries in printing technologies, hop-ing that the expo would pro-vide a platform for Indian participants to understand the Chinese Printing Industry and establish meaningful contact with potential partners, the Indian mission said. PTI

World oil market ‘close to balance’ despite OPEC cuts: IEAPARIS: Supply and demand in the oil market are close to matching up, the IEA said today, as landmark OPEC-led production cuts are miti-gated by rising US supply and slipping worldwide demand growth.

The compliance rate with the agreement among OPEC members and some non-mem-bers, including Russia, “has been impressive”, the Interna-tional Energy Agency (IEA) said in its monthly oil market report, giving a lift to oil prices.

But oil at above USD 50 a barrel has, in turn, attracted higher-cost producers in the United States back to the mar-ket, and frantic American drilling will push non-OPEC supply to surprisingly high lev-

els throughout the year, the IEA predicted.

“It can be argued confi-dently that the market is already very close to balance, and as more data becomes available this will become clearer,” it said in the report.

“Although the oil market will likely tighten throughout the year, overall non-OPEC production, not just in the US, will soon be on the rise again,” it said.

At the end of November, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) agreed to cut output by 1.2 million barrels per day (mb/d) from January 1, initially for a period of six months.

Then in December, non-OPEC producers led by Russia

agreed to cut their own output to 558,000 barrels per day.

The aim was to reduce a glut in global oil supply that had depressed prices.

Reports this week said that OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia is pushing the cartel’s produc-ers to extend the agreement by another six months at their meeting in May. The IEA made no prediction about such a likelihood, but said that a con-sequence of OPEC “hypotheti-cally” renewing the deal would be to support prices more and give further encouragement to US shale oil producers.

This means that non-OPEC oil production will soon be on the rise again.

“Even after taking into account production cut pledges

from the eleven non-OPEC countries, unplanned outages in Canada as well as in the North Sea, we expect (non-OPEC) production will grow again on a year-on-year basis by May,” the report said.

Oil inventories fell in March but probably showed a rise in the first quarter of this year overall because oil consum-ers stockpiled crude before the OPEC-led cuts took effect properly, the IEA said.

“The net result is that global stocks might have marginally increased in 1Q17,” it said.

On the demand side, the IEA revised down its estimates for the worldwide thirst for oil, meaning there will be more oil available than previously thought. PTI

CORPORATE KALEIDOSCOPE

mp business 13MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Friday, 14 April, 2017

P K Singh, Chairman, SAIL, dedicated ‘Shilpangan’ – a skill development centre at Durgapur Steel Plant (DSP) Township to society. The centre has been developed under DSP’s CSR scheme for imparting skill based training to the underprivileged section of society

President Pranab Mukherjee gave away SCOPE Leadership Excellence Award (Individual Leadership Category - Maharatna & Navranta) 2014-15 to Dr Anoop Kumar Mittal, Chairman-cum-Managing Director, NBCC (India) Ltd

NTPC-Ramagundam CSR Section in association with CRECHE-NGO-EVoice distributed training kits to Police and Armed Forces trainees. Chief Guest D K Dubey, ED-Ramagundam, distributed shoes, track-suits, study materials to the project-affected 75 local youths. GM (Project), M N Prasad; Head of HR, M S Ramesh; AGM (HR-CSR), Rafiqul Islam and other officials were present on the occasion

SAIL Chairman P K Singh visited Durgapur Steel Plant on April 12-13. He visited Wheel & Axle Plant and Medium Structural Mill and reviewed the plant performance and its plans for the year with the senior officials. A K Rath, CEO, DSP accompanied him during the plant visit

An MoU between Airports Authority of India and French Civil Aviation Authority was signed in the presence of P Ashok Gajapathi Raju, Minister of Civil Aviation of India, and Alain Vidalies, French Minister of State for Transport, Marine Affairs and Fisheries, to further strengthen the technical cooperation between the two countries

Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) signed its Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Govt. of India for the year 2017-18 in New Delhi. The MoU was signed by Atul Sobti, Chairman and Managing Director, BHEL and Girish Shankar, Secretary, Department of Heavy Industry (DHI), Ministry of Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises

NEW DELHI: Chartered accountants’ apex body ICAI on Thursday said disciplinary “proceedings” have been initiated against members allegedly involved in money laundering through dubious companies.

Asserting that the matter of such members would be dealt with seriously, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) said, “necessary action will be taken in accordance with the laws of the land”.

ICAI’s statement comes on a day when the Enforcement Directorate conducted raids at the offices of chartered accoun-tants in the national capital who were allegedly involved in money laundering through shell companies.

ICAI said its Disciplinary Directorate is already seized of the matter and has initiated the proceedings against such chartered accountants who were alleged to be involved in the money laundering through dubious and suspicious companies.

Proceedings have been started as per the Chartered Accountants (Procedure of Investigations of Professional and Other Misconduct and Conduct of Cases) Rules, 2007.

The matter would be dealt with seriously to look into all the violations in these cases as per the Code of Conduct of the institute, the statement said.

The ED conducted multiple searches against tax profes-sionals and chartered accountants (CAs) in Delhi in con-nection with an operation to unearth black money being generated using shell companies. PTI

MPOST BUREAU

NEW DELHI: B Venugopal has been elevated to the rank of Managing Director of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC). Venugopal, born in 1959, joined LIC in November, 1983 as an Assistant Admin-istrative Officer of the 12th Batch of Direct Recruits. He hails from Haripad in Allapu-zha District of Kerala State, and is an alumnus of the University of Kerala. Prior to his appoint-ment as Managing Director of LIC, he held the positions of Zonal Manager-In-Charge of Western Zone, from April 2015 to April 2017, Executive Direc-tor (IT/BPR) from April 2012 to April 2015, and Executive Director(IT/Software Devel-opment) from April 2008 to April 2012.

Sunita Sharma has been ele-vated to the rank of Managing

Director of Life Insurance Cor-poration of India (LIC). She was the Managing Director & CEO of LIC Housing Finance before this appointment.

With a Masters Degree in Science from Delhi University, she joined the LIC as Direct Recruit Officer of 11th batch in 1981. As MD & CEO of LIC Housing Finance Ltd, she holds the prestige of becoming the first woman to head LIC HFL, India’s second largest mort-gage lender in its 25th year. Her vision was to transform the organisation from a “Good Company” to a “Great Com-pany”. The first major milestone was when the Company’s hous-ing loan portfolio crossed INR 1 lac crore mark in Novem-ber 2014. During her tenure, LIC HFL has reached newer heights in the last three finan-cial years both quantitatively and qualitatively.

Venugopal, Sharma elevated as LIC

managing directors

B Venugopal Sunita Sharma

MPOST BUREAU

NEW DELHI: In a first-of-its-kind association, Nestlé India has collaborated with Google and Paytm Mall to roll out an exciting new promotion for the launch of the new variants of MAGGI Noodles. Inspired by the regional cuisines, MAGGI Masalas of India will cater to distinctive local tastes with sig-nature herbs and spices.

The objective of this engagement is to build antici-pation and excitement around the new variants, where con-sumers have to guess the four flavours from the eight options provided.

Suresh Narayanan, Chair-man and Managing Director, Nestlé India, said, “ We are con-fident that our consumers, who have always demonstrated an unconditional love for their favourite MAGGI Noodles, will be excited with this association.

MPOST BUREAU

NEW DELHI: Mahabalesh-wara M S, presently the Chief General Manager of Karnataka Bank, has been appointed as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (MD & CEO) of the bank.

The Board of Directors of the bank, who met on Thurs-day at the bank’s head office at Mangaluru, Karnataka, have appointed Mahabaleshwara M S as MD & CEO of the bank for a period of three years from the date of assuming charge, as per the approval received from Reserve Bank of India, which is in accordance with board’s earlier recommendation. He is succeeding P Jayarama Bhat, who has since assumed charge as Part-time, Non-executive Chairman of the bank.

Mahabaleshwara M S, has been ‘Karnataka Bank man’ for the last 32 years and has rich banking experience both at operational and administrative levels. He has done his Mas-

ters in Agricultural Sciences (MSc Agri), with specialisation in Agronomy, from the Univer-sity of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore and he is also a Cer-tified Associate of the Indian Institute of Bankers (CAIIB) and has also done Post Gradu-ate Diploma in Business Man-agement (PGDBM) from St. Aloysius College, Mangalore.

He started his career as Researcher & Teacher at Uni-versity of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore and later on joined Karnataka Bank as probation-ary Agricultural Field Officer in 1984.

IndianOil gets okay to acquire 75 acres to up Vadodara ops

VADODARA: Indian Oil has received a green signal from the Gujarat government to acquire 75 acres of land in three villages in the state to begin the expan-sion of its refinery near here which will increase its over-all capacity to 18 MTPA, a top official said here on Thursday.

“We have received a go-ahead from the state govern-ment to acquire 73 acres from three nearby villages a few days back.

This will enable us to begin the Rs 10,000 crore expansion plan of the Gujarat refinery,” IOC Executive Director Sudhir Kumar said.

The expansion will involve the company setting up new units which will increase the overall capacity to 18 MTPA (metric tonnes per annum) from 13.7 MTPA now, he added.

Kumar did not divulge as to how much money it will cost for the company to acquire the land. He also did not say when the process will begin.

In fact, the refinery was looking to 130 acres for the project and the proposal has been pending with the govern-ment for the past many years now. The state first allowed IOC to acquire of 55 acres in the first phase several years ago.

Kumar said the capacity expansion will include new units like mother unit, IndMax, AVU (atmospheric & vacuum distillation unit) of 9 MTPA along with few a upgrade of secondary units.

He also said Gujarat Refin-

ery, set up in 1966, making it one of the oldest facilities in the country, will soon be investing Rs 2,770 crore to upgrade its diesel treating and hydro-treat-ing units to meet BS-VI norms.

The refinery, which has 40 units producing 30 products, has already invested Rs 1,315 crore in two phases to upgrade its three diesel treating and hydro-treating units to make it compatible to make 100 per cent BS-IV diesel and petrol from this month, Kumar said.

The refinery will have to invest an additional Rs 2,770 crore to upgrade its equipment and machinery to produce

BS-VI fuel from April 2020, he added.

It can be noted that earlier Gujarat government was plan-ning to acquire the land for the project and had last July began a social impact assess-ment for the same in three vil-lages -- Koyali, Karachiya and Bajva-- under the state’s new Land Acquisition, Rehabilita-tion and Resettlement Act of 2013 for public purpose.

The Gujarat Refinery is located at Koyali village on the city outskirts, and is spread across 1,950 acres, which includes Asoj and Dumad ter-minals. PTI

Refinery, which has 40 units accounting for 30 products, has already invested `1,315 crore in two phases to upgrade its three diesel and hydro-treating units to make it compatible to make 100 per cent BS-IV diesel and petrol from this month

Mahabaleshwara M S is new MD & CEO of Karnataka Bank

Nestle India join hands

with Google & Paytm Mall

India to build 131-km diesel & gas pipeline to Bangladesh

DHIRENDRA KUMAR

NEW DELHI: In a move aimed at strengthening the ties with Bangladesh, the government has decided to build pipelines to carry diesel and natural gas to the neighbouring country. According to the Centre’s plan, the government would build a 131-km pipeline from Siliguri in West Bengal to Parbatipur in northern Bangladesh to transport diesel and cost of the pipeline laying would be borne by India.

Similarly, the both the countries have agreed for the construction of another line from Dattapulia in West Bengal to transport natural gas to Khulna, which is the third-largest city in Bangladesh.

Talking to reporters on Thursday, Oil and Natural Gas Secretary KD Tripathi said that the pipelines are part of a non-binding framework of under-standing (FoU) which India will enter into with Bangladesh for cooperation in the hydrocarbon sector.

Adding further, Tripathi said, “The Cabinet had on Wednesday approved the signing of the agreement to establish an institutional framework mechanism for facilitating and enhancing India-Bangladesh bilateral cooperation in the hydrocarbon sector.”

“It’s a part of the cooperation that India is planning to set up a liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal in Bangladesh and supply diesel from Numaligarh Refineries and selling of LPG,” he said.

Present on the occasion, Joint Secre-tary (International Cooperation) Sunjay Sudhir said that Prime Minister Nar-endra Modi and his Bangladesh coun-terpart Sheikh Hasina have signed a 15-year agreement to supply diesel to Bangladesh during his visit to the neigh-

bouring country.Giving details of the agreement, the

official said, “Diesel will be supplied through trains. Initially, one rake con-taining about 2,200 tonne fuel would be transported from Numaligarh Refin-ery’s Siliguri terminal to Parbitipur depot of Bangladesh Petroleum Corp (BPC).”

According to the official, the Centre would start the movement of fuel from July onwards. “Till July, one rake per month will be moved and thereafter two rakes of diesel would be transported to Bangladesh every month by travelling some 516 km — 253 km in India and 263 km in Bangladesh.”

The cost of laying the Indo-Ban-gla friendship pipeline from Siliguri to Parbatipur would the responsibility of India. The pipeline would have a carry-ing capacity of 1 million tonne of fuel in a year. According to the proposal, LNG would be imported at the under- con-struction Dharma terminal in Odisha

and gas transported through pipeline up to Dattapulia in West Bengal and a 70-km pipeline will be laid to Khulna for moving the gas.

Commenting on the agreement, the Oil Secretary said, “A MoU to set up a Rs 5,000 crore LNG import terminal at Kutubdia islands in Bangladesh was signed during the PM visit.”

The Oil Secretary further said that the government has decided to incentiv-ise the growth in local content in goods and services while implementing oil and gas projects in India through a policy for providing purchase preference to the manufacturers/services providers who meet the local targets in oil and gas business activities. “The service provid-ers who meet the local content targets and whose quoted price is within 10 per cent of lowest valid price bid, would be eligible for 10 per cent purchase prefer-ence for a stipulated portion of the pur-chase order, on matching such price,” Triphati said. PTI

Exports jump 27.6% in March; trade deficit grows to $10.4 bnNEW DELHI: India’s exports grew by 27.6 per cent to $29.23 billion in March on account of robust performance by sectors like petroleum, textiles, engineering goods and gems and jewellery. Imports too jumped 45.25 per cent to $39.66 billion last month from $27.3 bil-lion in March 2016. A huge spike in gold imports pushed the trade deficit to $10.43 billion during the month under review from $4.4 billion a year ago. The imports of the pre-cious metal rose to $4.17 billion in March this year compared to $973.45 mil-lion in the same month last year. For the full fiscal 2016-17, exports saw a growth of 4.71 per cent at $274.64 billion against $262.3 bil-lion in 2015-16. PTI

ICAI responds to ED raids, says ‘action will be taken against erring members’

Major ports may raise ̀ 50K cr loans in $, announces Govt

NEW DELHI: India’s 12 major ports as well as some ship-ping entities may raise loans amounting to Rs 50,000 crore in US dollars at nominal inter-est rates to provide fillip to infrastructure, Union Minis-ter Nitin Gadkari has said.

After Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust’s (JNPT’s) $400 million foreign denominated loan, another major Port Kamrajar (earlier Ennore) is in the pro-cess of raising $100 million, the Shipping, Road Transport and Highways Minister said.

This is for the first time that the Centre-owned major ports are raising foreign denomi-nated loans; so far the practice has been followed only by pri-vate players.

“To boost ports and ship-ping infrastructure, there is no dearth of funds... Our 12 major ports and entities like Ship-ping Corporation and Dredg-ing Corporation may take Rs 50,000 crore loan in US dollar at a very low interest rate of 2

per cent,” Gadkari said.He added: “This mode of

financing at low interest rates and natural hedging has been followed in the major ports for their infrastructure develop-ment for the first time,” he said.

An official said meanwhile that another major port - Kan-dla Port Trust is also planning to soon raise $150 million through external commercial borrowing (ECB).

JNPT had last year signed the pact with SBI and Singa-pore’s DBS for $400 million loan, which prompted other players, besides Shipping Cor-poration, Dredging Corpora-tion and Cochin Shipyard, to take the same route.

India has 12 major ports -- Kandla, Mumbai, JNPT, Marmugao, New Mangalore, Cochin, Chennai, Ennore, V O Chidambaranar, Visakhapat-nam, Paradip and Kolkata (including Haldia) which han-dle approximately 61 per cent of the country’s total cargo traffic.

Boosted by a slew of steps the major ports surpassed private players by handling a record 673.43 million tonnes of cargo in 2016-17.

Major ports under the Cen-tre handled a record 647.43 million tonnes (MT) of cargo in 2016-17 registering an annual growth rate of 6.79 per cent against 4.32 per cent in 2015-16.

mp sport14MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Friday, 14 April, 2017

WARNER DETAILS RASHID’S PREPAREDNESS TO TACKLE WANKHEDE DEWHYDERABAD: Sunrisers Hyderabad captain David Warner praised Afghanistan’s teenage spin sensation Rashid Khan for delivering another impressive performance at a venue known for sporting thick dew at night. With Sunrisers defending a modest total of 158, Rashid conceded just 19 runs from his four overs and took the key wicket of Mumbai captain Rohit Sharma.

IPL-10 REACHES A RECORD BREAKING 185.7 MILLION VIEWERSHIPNEW DELHI: The ongoing Indian Premier League season 10 has reached new heights with a cumulative reach of 185.7 mil-lion viewers in just three matches. With an average time-spent (TS) of 72 minutes per viewer, it reaches an all-time high. This landmark year of IPL has made an incredible impact in its first week making its mark yet again.

I’M A PRIVATE PERSON: TENDULKARMUMBAI: Sachin Tendulkar says that though a private person, he has now learnt how to share certain things of his life as his fans want to know more about him. The forthcoming film “Sachin: A Billion Dreams” unveils a “different” side of his personality. He said: “I am a private person but learnt to share insight of my life for my fans. In this film I tried to share information about me with my fans by finding a middle path where I am comfortable.”

Knight’s tale: Kings restricted to 170/9 as Umesh bags 4

KOLKATA: Fit-again Kolk-ata Knight Riders (KKR) pacer Umesh Yadav started his Indian Premier League (IPL) cam-paign on a high by taking four crucial wickets to restrict Kings XI Punjab to 170/9 at the Eden Gardens here on Thursday.

Yadav returned figures of 4/33 with a stellar 18th over where he took three wick-ets in the space of four balls to send set David Miller (28; 19b 2x4 2x6), Wriddhiman Saha (25 (17b 2x4 2x6) and Axar Patel (0) back in the hut.

Earlier, he took the wicket of visiting captain Glenn Max-well 25 (14b 3x4 1x6) also.

There were two 50-run partnerships for the visitors -- between Manan Vohra (28; 19b 4x4 1x6) and Hashim Amla (25; 27b, 4x4, 0x6) and Saha and Miller -- but none of the batsmen could convert their

starts.Smarting from a defeat at

the hands of Mumbai Indi-ans in their last game, KKR were bolstered by the return of Umesh while New Zealand all-rounder Colin de Grand-homme was pencilled in place injured Australian opener Chris Lynn. Umesh replaced Ankit Rajpoot.

Kuldeep Yadav was also dropped with leg-spinner Piyush Chawla replacing the young chinaman bowler.

Kings XI, coming into the tie after a resounding eight-wicket against Royal Chal-lengers Bangalore, made one change with India pacer Ishant Sharma coming in place of T. Natarajan.

The away side were off to a flying start with openers Manan Vohra (28) and Hashim Amla (25) milking the likes of

Trent Boult and Umesh for seven fours and a six.

Vohra spoilt Umesh’s return to the side, tonking the in-form India pacer for a six in front of square with a pull.

The Punjab batsman was dropped in the third over by West Indian mystery spinner Sunil Narine who grassed an easy take off Boult’s bowling at third man. Amla played second fiddle, dispatching poor deliveries from Boult and Chris Woakes to the fence. Just when the pair looked good for a decent opening wicket stand, Chawla — in his very first ball — broke their 53-run association with a googly that went through Vohra’s defence.

After the Powerplay, Kings XI were 57/1.

Marcus Stoinis (9;12b 1x4 0x6) did not last long, Narine making amends for his

dropped catch with a back of a length delivery which the Aus-tralian dragged onto his stumps trying to cut.

Grandhomme was intro-duced in the 12th over and after bowling three straight dot balls in his first game since being replaced by suspended Andre Russell in the KKR squad, the Kiwi sent the set Amla back in the hut.

Trying to whip a delivery outside off stump down the leg side, Amla top-edged to Gau-tam Gambhir at extra cover for an easy catch. Umesh then shaved off the visitors’ formi-dable middle order, taking the wickets of Maxwell, Miller, Saha and Axar Patel in his third and fourth spell. Earlier, Bollywood actress Shraddha Kapoor sent the crowd into raptures with her sizzling dance numbers while singer Monali

Thakur performed her peppy hits to set the stage on fire at the Indian Premier League (IPL) extravaganza ahead of Kolkata Knight Riders’ (KKR) first home game at the Eden Gardens here on Thursday. In front of a half-full stadium with the match one-and-half hours away from the start, Shrad-dha, turned on the heat in the final segment of the 21-min-ute programme, dancing to her hit numbers. Monali, who hails from the city, crooned a number of hits including “Moh Moh ke Dhaage”, “Tune Mari Entriyaan” and the title track of Badrinath Ki Dulhaniya which drew the loudest cheers.Brief Scores: Kings XI Punjab vs Kolkata Knight Riders Kings XI: 170/9 (Miller 28, Vohra 28).KKR: Umesh 4/33. AGENCIES

Artistes perform in the opening ceremony at Eden Gardens (top left). Kings XI’s W Saha in action against Kolkata Knight Riders’ (top right). KKR’s Colin de Grandhomme celebrates after taking a wicket PICS/PTI

IPL Preview: Gujarat gets Jadeja boost in their quest for 1st win in IPL 10

RAJKOT: Struggling Gujarat Lions is set to receive a much-needed boost with the immi-nent return of ace all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja during their clash against Rising Pune Supergiant in the Indian Pre-mier League here on Friday.

Gujarat Lions, who fin-ished an impressive third in their maiden IPL appearance last year, did not have the best of starts in the ongoing edition of the tournament.

The Suresh Raina-led side suffered consecutive defeats against two-time champions Kolkata Knight Riders and title holder Sunrisers Hyderabad in their opening two matches.

And on Friday, Gujarat Lions would be desperate to turn their fortunes around in front of home fans at the Saura-shtra Cricket Association Sta-dium here.

Gujarat Lions got a much-needed boost in the form of

Jadeja, who is likely to play his first IPL match tomorrow.

Jadeja missed Gujarat Lions first two games after he was advised rest for two weeks by the BCCI medical team soon after the India’s four match Test series against Australia.

Jadeja has had a terrific home season with both ball and bat for India and his return will definitely boost Gujarat Lions morale.

Another key member, West Indian all-rounder Dwayne Bravo, who is recovering from injury, however is doubtful even though he took part in the team’s practice session on Wednesday.

Gujarat Lions’ strong point is the team’s batting department.

With the likes of Brendon McCullum, Aaron Finch, Jason Roy, Raina and Dinesh Karthik up its rank, Gujarat Lions heav-ily depends on its batting unit.

But the likes of McCul-lum and Finch have failed to live upto their reputations so far, garnering just 40 and 18 runs respectively in the first

two games. Opener Jason Roy started the innings well on both occasion against KKR and SRH but failed to convert the good starts into big knocks. AGENCIES

IPL Preview: Kohli returns for RCB ahead of MI clash

BENGALURU: India captain Virat Kohli will return to bol-ster Royal Challenger Banga-lore’s campaign when they take on arch-rivals Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League here on Friday

Kohli had to undergo reha-bilitation after sustaining an injury to his right shoulder while fielding during the third Test against Australia in Ran-chi and he has been missing in action ever since. However, the Delhi batsman has been declared fit on Thursday by BCCI Medical Team and will look to boost the confidence of RCB, who lost two out of the three matches that they have played so far in his absence. Kohli, who had dropped hints of making a return after post-ing a video on his Instagram account of his gym session on April 11, did some fielding drills during the team’s net ses-sion, on Wednesday.

Last year, Kohli had scored

a staggering 973 runs in 16 matches with four centuries to guide RCB to the finals against Sunrisers Hyderabad and he would look to improve Banga-lore’s current sixth place stand-ing on the points-table.

In Kohli’s absence, AB de Villiers made his presence felt as he smashed his way to an unbeaten 89 off just 46 balls to help RCB post a respectable 148-4 on his comeback match after recovering from an injury.

The single-handed show by the South African, however, couldn’t save the blushes of his team as RCB went down by eight wickets to Kings XI Punjab in their last match. The poor form of Chris Gayle is also a concern for RCB. The West Indian power-hitter has been struggling to carve out big scores, which is reflected in his failure to score even one half century in his last 10 innings. Gayle will be hoping to make a comeback in the team, espe-

cially after being dropped in the game against Punjab.

RCB also lost India bats-man Lokesh Rahul for the entire tournament owing to an injury and the talented Sarfaraz Khan too hurt himself on the field during a practice match ahead of the tournament.

Kedar Jadhav, meanwhile, has showcased his utility by slamming a 37-ball 69 to help his side score 157 runs dur-ing a 15-run win over Delhi Daredevils. He also hit 31 in the opening match against Sunrisers Hyderabad. Among bowlers, seamer Billy Stan-lake and spinners Yuzvendra Chahal and Pawan Negi have been among wickets. Mum-bai, on the other hand, so far have two wins and a loss in the tournament to be placed at the third position on points-table. Mumbai Indians dominated with both bat and ball to defeat Sunrisers Hyderabad by four wickets on Wednesday. AGENCIES

Detained ‘Islamist’

cleared over Dortmund blasts DORTMUND: German fed-eral prosecutors said on day they had cleared the sole sus-pect in custody for a bomb attack against the Borussia Dortmund football team bus of involvement.

The announcement marked a setback for investigators, who described the three blasts late Tuesday as a “terrorist” act and said they are focusing on suspects in the “Islamist spec-trum”. “The investigation has not found evidence that the suspect took part,” the pros-ecutors office said in a brief statement. It said it was never-theless seeking an arrest war-rant for a 26-year-old Iraqi national, identified only as Abdul Beset A. for alleged ties to the Islamic State group. Investigators had zeroed in on two suspects believed to belong to a large jihadist scene in the Ruhr region, after three iden-tical letters were found at the scene. Only Abdul Beset A. was detained. The letter demanded that Germany stop its Tornado reconnaissance missions in the international anti-IS coalition and close the US air base at Ramstein in western Germany.

The daily Bild newspaper said police had placed Abdul Beset A. under surveillance for several months and believed, based on tapped telephone conversations, that he might be hiding explosives in his flat. However a raid on his home drew a blank, the report said. Even as the probe appeared to be in its preliminary stages, Dortmund officials criticised the decision to play its post-poned Champions League match just 24 hours after the attack. AGENCIES

With my comeback, focus will be on chasing targets, says KohliBENGALURU: With their big-hitting batsmen back in the mix, Royal Challengers Bangalore would prefer chas-ing targets says skipper Virat Kohli, who himself is set to play his first IPL game of the season against Mumbai Indians.

A shoulder injury sustained during the Australia Test series ruled Kohli out of the first two games while AB de Villiers and Chris Gayle played a game each as RCB opted to set target in the first two games.

“Now with me coming back and all specialist batsmen play-ing, the thinking might change back again. Bangalore has gen-

erally been a ground where you can chase down high totals and tomorrow being a day game obviously that really matters a lot because under the lights the wicket is better during the day time,” Kohli said ahead of clash against Mumbai Indians.

The captain emphasised on winning the away games to go deep in the tournament.

“We know we play good cricket at home but last year we won really some good matches away from home and that is why we reached the final, so in order to do it , that is the most important thing factor in IPL, we need to win away games.

That is something that we will stay in focus for us through the season if we want to make it to play-offs.” Kohli hinted that he may play both De Villiers and Gayle on Friday and have Kedar Jadhav keep wickets. “Chris has always been a pri-ority for us in the past so many seasons. Last game was a sce-nario where AB came in, Watto came in and other two guys were bowling well. I think that is why Chris was left out in the last game, but yes what works for us in Bangalore we would definitely go with the strongest combination possible. Chris is the top contender for us to be

playing the home games for us,” Kohli made it clear.

Asked if it was conscious decision to not travel with the

team in the first two games, Kohli replied in an affirmative.

“Once you travel with the team, there is a lot happening and to focus on one guy is not fair. So you rather stay away and then do your work. I just wanted to let the guys focus on their game and then do their work on the sidelines,” adding that he actually liked staying away from limelight. “Actually, I enjoyed staying away from it a little bit, not having a camera sitting in the dugout, so I think it was quite refreshing. It was a good break for me.” In his absence, Shane Watson led the side but the captain refused to

comment on his captaincy style but said he learnt a a few things and that the Australian did a good job. “I am in no position to judge anyone. I have said this about myself as well. I am not a senior in terms of captain- ship. Yes, I have learnt a lot along the way and I continue to do so. Shane I think did a very good job. He has been very patient with them. He had his plan spot on.” When quizzed on De Villiers’ absence from the net, Kohli said, the South Afri-can given an exemption con-sidering that he is in good form and had to spend time with his family. AGENCIES

Saurashtra Cricket AssociationStadium, Rajkot

Indian Premier League 2017

Rising PuneSupergiant

GujaratLions

vs

April 14, 8:00 pmMatch: 13

Overall in IPL

Played

Won

Lost

Highest total

17

6

11

195/3

2

0

2

195/3

18

9

9

196/7

2

2

0

196/7

Head-to-Head

Played

Won

Lost

Highest total

mp sport 15MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Friday, 14 April, 2017

MUNICH: Cristiano Ron-aldo netted his 100th Euro-pean goal to give holders Real Madrid a 2-1 comeback win at 10-man Bayern Munich in the Champions League quar-ter-final, first-leg. “I wanted to reach this record. To be able to

reach this mark is an honour and against a team like Bayern it is even better,” Ronaldo, who scored both goals, said. Arturo Vidal headed Bayern into a first-half lead yesterday, but then skied a penalty attempt on the stroke of half-time before Ronaldo volleyed the defending champions’ level. Bayern played the last half an

hour a man down after centre-back Javi Martinez was sent off for two fouls on Ronaldo within three minutes of each other. Four-time world player of the year Ronaldo then slot-ted in the winner between goalkeeper Manuel Neuer’s legs for the winner 13 min-utes from time. Bayern were

outplayed in the second-half and most of Real’s 23 shots on goal came after the break. “We had everything under control in the first half, but didn’t use the room consistently,” said captain Philipp Lahm. “The tipping point was the red card.” Security was tight at the Alli-anz Arena in the wake of Tues-

day’s attacks on the Borussia Dortmund team bus and both teams arrived with a heavy police escort. Bayern suffered a blow before kick-off when top-scorer Robert Lewan-dowski, dropped out with a bruised shoulder and Thomas Muller deputised as striker.

Bayern were also missing

injured Ger-many defender Mats Hum-

mels against Real’s formidable

BBC attack - Gareth Bale, Karim Benzema and Ronaldo. Bayern went ahead on 25 min-utes when playmaker Thiago Alcantara swung in a corner from the right which Vidal powered through Real goal-keeper Keylor Navas’s hands. Real made a poor start, rarely threatening Germany’s goal-

keeper Neuer, back after minor foot surgery a

fortnight ago. Vidal could have finished with a first-half hat-trick when he stepped up to take

a penalty after Dani Carvajal’s handball

from a Ribery shot. However, he smashed

the spot-kick high over the crossbar. Real were level two minutes after the break when Carvajal found space on the right and fired in a cross which Ronaldo volleyed past Neuer. Having already picked up a yellow card for pulling Ron-aldo back on 58 minutes, Martinez was shown a red for again fouling the Portu-gal captain. Ronaldothen hit the winner as Marco Asen-sio put in a low pass for him to tap the ball home between Neuer’s legs. AGENCIES

Griezmann gives Atletico slender Leicester lead

MADRID: Antoine Griezmann’s penalty handed Atletico Madrid a slender 1-0 advantage over Leicester City in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final.

In a game of very few chances, Griezmann proved decisive as it was he who also won the penalty with a lung-busting run from well inside his own half before being brought down by Marc Albrighton midway through the first half.

The French international put his previous penalty

demons behind him to convert from the spot and put Atletico in the driving seat for a third semi-final in four seasons.

However, Leicester still have reason to believe their dream run on their first appearance in the Champions League can continue when the sides meet again on April 18. And manager Craig Shakespeare claimed his side were undone by referee Jonas Eriksson as he believed Griezmann was fouled outside the area. “I think we were hard done by,”

said Shakespeare.“I think it is one of the

major decisions in the game. It is a definite foul but it is out-side the box.” Atletico coach Diego Simeone lamented his side’s inability to kill the tie, but lauded Leicester’s defen-sive effort. The behaviour of Leicester’s travelling fans was in the spotlight after 10 were arrested in violent clashes with police on Tuesday night and on Wednesday before kick-off. However, the 3,000 travelling supporters high in the rafters of the Calderon were largely silenced by Atletico’s domi-nance of the match. Unusually for Simeone’s men they were in almost complete control of pos-session, but largely limited to shots from long range. Leices-ter had been enjoying their best spell of the half when suddenly they were caught short-handed at the back on 27 minutes. Griezmann collected the ball outside his own area and ran to just inside the Leicester box before being crudely barged over by Albrighton. Griezmann sent the Dane the wrong way from the spot to register his 24th goal of the season. AGENCIES

UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

Treated as if ‘beer can’ thrown at bus, says irate Dortmund coach Thomas Tuchel

DORTMUND: Borussia Dort-mund coach Thomas Tuchel accused UEFA of treating the bomb attack on their team bus as if only a “beer can” had been thrown and claimed they were only informed by text message that they would have to play their Champions League game against Monaco.

The German side were defeated 3-2 by the French club in the first leg of the quarter-final on Wednesday, 24 hours after the scheduled game had been postponed.

The fixture was postponed from Tuesday after three explo-sions rocked the Dortmund team coach and left Spain inter-national Marc Bartra needing surgery on a broken wrist.

Teenager Kylian Mbappe struck twice as Monaco claimed victory at Signal Iduna Park, with Tuchel furious at UEFA’s handling of the situation.

“We felt completely passed over, it came down to ‘tomor-row, you’re playing’,” said Tuchel. “We were told by text message. They treated it as if a beer can had been thrown

at the bus. Ultimately, it was decided in Nyon in Switzerland whether or not to play next day. It was a somewhat powerless feeling.

“Each player had the right to start with a somewhat queasy feeling. We would have liked to have had more time to work through it,” added Tuchel.

“There are players who eas-ily brushed it off, but there are also players who really took it to heart. They are more thoughtful.”

Dortmund defender Sokra-tis Papastathopoulos also felt the feelings of the players were ignored. “We aren’t animals, we’re humans, who have fam-ily and children at home,” said the Greece international. “I feel (treated) like an animal, not a human. Unless you experi-enced it, you can’t under-stand how bad it was for us. “I am just happy to be alive, it was the worst day of my life,” he added, referring to the night of the attack. UEFA,

however, insisted that both clubs had agreed to play on Wednesday.

“We were in touch with all parties and never received any information which sug-gested that any of the teams did not want to play,” said a UEFA spokesman.

Germany’s Interior Minis-ter Thomas de Maiziere had said it was important for the match to go ahead: “we can not make the mistake of being intimidated. Then the terrorists have already won.” The Dort-mund players clearly struggled on the pitch with Monaco now favourites to reach the last four.

After the final whistle, sev-eral Dortmund stars were still shell-shocked by the attack 24 hours before. “I’m doing better now, it (the game) was good as a distraction,” said 23-year-old Germany international Matth-ias Ginter in barely more than a whisper.

“Apparently there was no other possibility, but from our side, no one wanted to play. Of course, no one was thinking about football before the game

and I believe that was obvious from the way it began. We were lucky, when you hear how bad it could have been.”

Captain Marcel Schmelzer said the “players had to func-tion like puppets” and mid-fielder Nuri Sahin said it was wrong to use football as a sign against terrorism. “To use foot-ball as a sign is a long way from my comprehension,” said the Turkey international.

“The faces from the bus, at that moment (of the attack), will stay with me for the rest of my life. “It was terrible. It was only when I came home and my wife and my son were standing at the door that I realised how lucky we were.”

Many of the Dortmund team looked physically drained after the match and several confessed they had barely slept. “We did not want to play this game, not less than 24 hours after an attack,” said Swiss goal-keeper Roman Burki.

“I did not have an hour of sleep at night, which is not the optimal preparation for such a game,” he added. AGENCIES

Sindhu, Praneeth advance in Singapore Super Series

SINGAPORE: Top Indian shuttlers PV Sindhu and B Sai Praneeth on Thursday advanced to the quarterfinals of the USD 350,000 Singapore Super Series after posting hard-fought victories in the women’s and men’s singles respectively here.

Rio Olympic silver medal-list, Sindhu, who clinched the India Open earlier this month, had to toil hard before pre-vailing 19-21 21-17 21-8 over Indonesian World No. 27 Fitri-ani Fitriani in a match that lasted an hour at Singapore Indoor Stadium.

Sindhu will take on the win-ner of the match between Chia Hsin Lee and Carolina Marin.

Praneeth, who reached the finals at Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold in January, produced a gritty performance to see off China’s Qiao Bin 21-15 21-23 21-16 in an hour and 12 minutes. The World No. 30 Indian Praneeth will clash with eighth seeded Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk of Thailand next. B Sumeeth Reddy and Ashwini Ponnappa, who reached the finals at Lucknow in January, eked out a thrilling 17-21 21-17 21-16 win over Korean pair of Jae Hwan Kim and Lee So Hee to also reach the quarterfinals. The Indian pair will take on third seeded Chinese combo of Lu Kai and Huang Yaqiong. AGENCIES

Removing me from TOPS funding right decision, says Sushil Kumar

NEW DELHI: Omitted from the Target Olympic Podium Scheme, India’s lone dou-ble Olympic medallist Sushil Kumar on Thursday gracefully accepted it, saying there was no point taking funds from the government when he is out of action. Besides Sushil, Lon-don Games bronze medallist Yogeshwar Dutt has also been excluded from the list, and the famous Phogat sisters -- Geeta and Babita -- faced the axe too.

“I think it is a right deci-sion. My name should have been removed from the list since I am not in action. If I am not contributing on the mat, why should I be a part of any funding,” Sushil said. “I don’t want to take any-thing from anyone when I am not playing. I am a very sat-isfied person and I am abso-lutely fine with the move,” he added. The Wrestling Federa-tion of India (WFI) have sent a revised list of grapplers to

the Sports Ministry for fund-ing under by the TOPS, with an eye on the Tokyo Olym-pics in 2020. Apart from the stalwarts of Indian wrestling, the list also does not have the likes of Rahul Aware, Amit Kumar Dahiya and Praveen Rana, all of whom figured in the original list, made in 2015-16, ahead of the Rio Olympics. Keeping the future

in mind, WFI has included names such as Sandeep Tomar (men’s 57kg), Bajrang Punia (men’s 65kg), Jitendra (men’s 74kg), Ritu Phogat (wom-en’s 45kg), Vinesh Phogat (women’s 48kg), Rio Olympic bronze medallist Sakshi Malik (women’s 58kg) for the TOPS funding.

Sakshi, Vinesh and Bajrang figured in the original list of

2015-16 also. Although Sakshi has been included, some doubts have emerged over her continuation in the sport after her marriage. While Sushil was not a part of the Indian squad at the Rio Games last year fol-lowing a snub by the WFI, Yogeshwar, who bowed out in the first round, had already made it clear that Rio was his last Olympics. So, Sushil and Yogeshwar’s exclusion from the list hardly came as a sur-prise. Sushil, who has become a national observer, said he has accepted the role of observer since he is currently not active on the mat. “Since I am not playing at the moment, I have accepted the job of the national observer and I feel I can con-tribute in the young wrestlers’ growth by performing this role. But that does not mean I would not play again. Till the time, I decide to take the mat again, I would play this role,” said Sushil. AGENCIES

Sindhu loses three places to be World No.5NEW DELHI: Just a week after achiev-ing career-best rank of world number two, Rio Olympics silver medallist PV Sindhu on Thursday lost three spots to be placed fifth in the latest Badmin-ton World Federa-tion (BWF) list. The 21-year-old shuttler from Hyderabad suf-fered a shock first-round exit from the Malaysia Open Super Series in Kuching last week which pushed her down the ladder. AGENCIES

Ronaldo scored his 100th European goal, helping Real beat Bayern 2-1 100 & counting

Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates after scoring Real’s 2nd goal against Bayern Munich PIC/PTI

UEFA CHAMPIONS

LEAGUE

From state bodies to players, BCCI releases funds for everyone

NEW DELHI: The BCCI has released pending payments to various stakehold-ers which include Test match centres, state bodies, match fee of India players besides salary of coaches and commentators.

Also the IPL franchises were paid one installment of their share from the “Net Central Rights”.

The board’s website has uploaded all the payments and specific heads under which the invoices have been created from January to March. According to pay-ments made in March, the cash-strapped Delhi and Districts Cricket Association (DDCA) have been paid approx Rs 1.69 crore under the head: “Advance against

amount due to association”.The amount has been released on

March 22 and will go a long way to help the staff, who have not been paid salaries for months. The BCCI has also paid Rs 1.45 crore and Rs 5.54 crore (approx) on two separate counts -- property tax and service tax -- on behalf of DDCA. The payments to various Test centres have also been made. Accordingly, Himachal Pradesh and Hyderabad have received approximately Rs 2.82 crore each while Maharashtra and Andhra were paid Rs 4.52 crore respectively. Among the IPL franchises -- promoters of KKR and Sun-risers received Rs 21 crore each, while

Kings XI Punjab received Rs 22.5 crore.The promoters of Mumbai Indians --

Indiawin Sports Private Limited and Delhi Daredevils owner GMR Sports received Rs 23 crore each.

All the top Indian players received their match fees plus retainership fees for various tours during the last international season. Chief coach Anil Kumble has received “professional fees” of approx Rs 48.75 lakh each for December and Janu-ary while Rahul Dravid, currently coach Delhi Daredevils, has received two sepa-rate amounts of Rs 41.44 lakh and Rs 1.89 crore (approx) during the 2016 season for coaching India U-19 and A sides. AGENCIES

mp Entertainment16 MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Friday, 14 April, 2017

NEW DELHI: Actor Nimrat Kaur, for whom being in the army was once a “dream profession”, said she feels privileged that as an actor, she will get to live a bit of that desire courtesy an upcoming web-series ‘The Test Case’. Directed by Nagesh Kukunoor, the web series on ALT-Balaji will feature Nimrat as the Indian Army uniform-clad Shikha Sharma. A poster of the show features her in a rugged look with a rifle in her hand. The tagline reads: “When terrorists are at your door, will you trust a woman to shoot them down?” For Nimrat, it’s deeply nostalgic.

“It is very close to my heart. I have grown up watch-ing my father put on the uniform and when he gets ready everyday for work, it’s a great privilege and an honour to play an army officer as an actor,” the actor said.

“Life has come a full circle for me in that sense and it’s a dream part which was actually my first dream pro-fession. As a kid growing up, I always wanted to join the army until I realised how difficult it is to be an army offi-cer. Then, I said okay, it’s time to have other plans because this is not as easy as it seems,” she added.

Nimrat’s father was posted in Kashmir. In past inter-views to the media, she had said that he was in Kashmir when terrorists kidnapped him and terminated him for not conceding to their demands. No wonder then that the role as an army officer would assumes greater signifi-cance for The Lunchbox fame actor.

“It’s a very important subject where the show is about the first woman officer role in a combat in Indian Army. It’s a fictional account based on the ruling that was passed last year that women now can be in combat roles in the Indian armed forces. “I am very excited about it and very hopeful that it will be loved,” she said. Nimrat has experienced working in the west through TV shows like ‘Homeland’ and ‘Wayward Pines. Now exploring the web series medium in India is interesting to her. IANS

IT’S A PRIVILEGE TO

PLAY ARMYofficer: Nimrat Kaur

Directed by Nagesh Kukunoor, the web series on ALTBalaji will feature Nimrat as the Indian Army uniform-clad Shikha Sharma. For Nimrat, it’s deeply nostalgic

MUMBAI: During an upheaval in the colonial India, a Dalit bowler became known for his heroic struggle. Film-maker Tigmanshu Dhulia is now all set to make a biopic on the cricketer. Titled Baloo, the film will chronicle the story of the left-arm spinner Baloo Palwankar, who played for the Hindu Gymkhana Club in the early 1900s. He is hailed as the first member of the Dalit caste to make a significant impact on the sport.

“I prefer telling stories about unsung heroes. Like Paan Singh, Baloo Palwankar too is unknown outside crick-eting circle. His story is the story of India and what better backdrop to have than cricket,” Tigmanshu said. Produced by Vinay Sinha and Priti Sinha, the film is expected to roll out next year as currently the mak-ers are finishing the research work of the movie, being car-ried out by historian Ramach-andra Guha.

“Tigmanshu had read a book by Ramachandra Guha which had a chapter about Baloo. He asked me to read it too because the story was abso-lutely fascinating. He not only played cricket but also entered politics later. His life is worth putting on the big screen,” Priti said. Despite being one of the finest cricketers of his time, Baloo was apparently never allowed to lead the team as a captain because of his so-called lower caste status. The pro-ducer says they have obtained a no objection certificate from the cricketer’s family and will be looking to cast an A-list

Bollywood star once the writ-ing for the project is complete. Apart from this film, they will also roll out their other produc-tion Super 30, directed by Vikas Bahl. Baloo is written by Dhu-lia and Darab Farooqui and co- produced by Namrata Sinha.

It will be made under the banner of Reel Life Entertain-ment (I) Pvt Ltd in associa-tion with Tigmanshu Dhulia. This will be another biopic on a cricketer after series of films like MS Dhoni: The Untold Story, Azhar and the upcom-ing documentary on Sachin Tendulkar. PTI

Tigmanshu Dhulia to direct biopic on

cricketer Baloo

LOS ANGELES: Actor Pri-yanka Chopra has been appointed jury member of the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival.

Amy Berg, Zachary Quinto, Sheila Nevins, Willem Dafoe, Jesse Plemons and Melanie Lynskey among others, will also be on the jury panel of the festival, according to The Hol-lywood Reporter. The 34-year-old star, who became popular in the west with her role of Alex Parrish in ‘Quantico’, will judge

the documentary and student visionary competitions along-side Olivia Thirlby, Ryan Egg-old, Brendan Fraser and Ileen Gallagher

The winners of each cat-egory will be announced at the festival awards ceremony, which is set for April 27 at BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center. The 2017 Tribeca Film Festival, which will be hosted by Michael Rapaport, is set to run April 19-30. PTI

Priyanka to be on

Tribeca Film Festival jury

LOS ANGELES: Actor Gal Gadot revealed that Beyonce’s music helped her get in the right mind-set when she was auditioning for the role of Wonder Woman.

In W Magazine’s May cover story, the 31-year-old star, who will portray the war-rior in an upcoming stand-alone film, said she listened to Queen B’s tracks to slay the audition, reported Entertain-

ment Weekly.“When I auditioned for Bat-

man v Superman, I didn’t know it was for ‘Wonder Woman’. The

director, Zack Snyder, asked me to do a camera test. That was torture. They were looking at six or seven girls, and we were all in separate trailers and were told to stay inside until they called us.

“Waiting is my enemy Number One, and I was losing my mind. So, I decided to put on Beyonce. Who runs the world? Girls! I just started to dance, and I let my anxiety go.

Thank you, Beyonce,” Gadot said. PTI

When Beyonce helpedGadot bag Wonder Woman’s role

Gal Gadot listened to Queen B’s tracks to slay the audition

LOS ANGELES: Jude Law has been roped in to play young Dumbledore in the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them sequel. The 44-year-old actor will portray Dumbledore long before the wizard became the headmaster at Hogwarts and Harry Potter’s mentor, reported Variety.

David Yates is returning to direct the follow-up to the 2016

film. Eddie Redmayne will be back to star alongside Johnny Depp, who will play the villain Grindelwald.

Albus Dumbledore is one of the most iconic characters in J K Rowling’s wizarding world. Richard Harris made the role popular in the first two Harry Potter movies, while Michael Gambon later took over the part after Harris’ death in 2002.

“Jude Law is a phenom-enally talented actor whose work I have long admired, and I’m looking forward to finally having the opportunity to work with him,” Yates said.

The sequel also reunites producers Rowling, David Heyman, Steve Kloves and Lionel Wigram. It will hit the US theatres on November 16 next year. PTI

Jude Law to play the young wizard ‘Albus Dumbledore’

LONDON: Actor Zoe Sal-dana reveals she was bullied at school for being an Eng-

lish speaker.The 38-year-old star,

who moved to the Domini-can Republic at the age of nine after her father’s demise, calls it a “traumatising” experience, reported Femalefirst.

“It was a very traumatising time for me because I didn’t know how to stand up for myself. I was never equipped, trained or taught to defend myself. My mother never raised me believing that I was differ-ent, so the moment me and my sisters started getting attacked, shock was the first reaction.

“Bullies can reach a depth within you that may cause irrep-arable damage. There were years that I felt ashamed of myself, thinking, ‘I should have known better, I should have always stood up for myself,” Saldana told Balance magazine. PTI

Zoe Saldana bullied at school

for speaking English

LOS ANGELES: Actor Josh Brolin has been tapped to play the role of Cable opposite Ryan Reynolds in Deadpool 2.

Michael Shannon had been the front runner for the role, but the studio and Marvel have opted for the Sicario star, who has appeared in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as the vil-lain Thanos, reported Variety.

Taking to Twitter, Reynolds also confirmed the casting of

Brolin in a humorous post.“Fox! You can’t play 2 char-

acters in the same universe!! Josh Brolin was in Sicario and I was in Sabrina The Teenage Witch,” he wrote.

Reynolds is reprising his role as the wisecracking mer-cenary, Deadpool with the story expanding to include other characters from Dead-pool’s corner of Marvel’s X-Men universe. PTI

Brolin to play Cable in Deadpool 2

LONDON: Actor Anne Hathaway said she was averse to obliging her admir-ers with photographs but has changed her mindset over time.

The 34-year-old Oscar-winning actor said she has grown up as an artiste and hopes she did not hurt any-one in the past due to her behaviour, reported The Independent.

“I hope I wasn’t a jerk to

anybody, but in my head I was a jerk to people – a lot, for a period of time. And I just woke up one day and I just became so deeply flat-tered by it and saw it for what it is: it’s just somebody giving you some of their energy in a nice way.

“I don’t know if it’s moth-erhood or just growing up a little bit but people’s time matters, you can do what-ever you want with it and if

you choose to give it to me, either by watching my mov-ies or in this moment by tell-ing me I make you feel good – holy shit, that’s amazing!,” Hathaway tells Marc Maron’s WTF podcast.

In a casual but candid chat, Maron and Hathaway also discussed relationships, being low down the list of choices for The Devil Wears Prada and her new film, Colossal. PTI

Hathaway changed mindset about mingling with fans