PUBLISHED FROM DELHI & KOLKATA VOL. 12, ISSUE 140 | Monday, 22 May 2017 | New Delhi | Pages 16 | Rs 3.00

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Rain brings respite from searing heat in Delhi, NCR

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Heavy rainfall lashed Delhi on Sunday eve-ning bringing down the maxi-mum temperature to 27-degree celsius.

The much-needed pre-monsoon showers brought respite to the residents of the

national Capital from the scorching heat.

The precipitation and humidity were recorded 67 per cent and 52 per cent respec-tively on Sunday.

On Saturday, maximum and minimum temperatures were recorded at 38.7 and 28.4 degrees Celsius respectively.

Rain accompanied by strong winds led to the tree falling in some areas.

The weatherman has pre-dicted that the maximum temperature is likely to hover around 37 degrees Celsius.

The reason for these rains and thunderstorms has been attributed to a fresh Western

Disturbance that approached over North Pakistan and adjoining Jammu and Kashmir. Moreover, an induced cyclonic circulation is also seen over Punjab and adjoining areas.

Meteorological Department (MeT) had on Saturday fore-cast rains and thunderstorm for Sunday.

Real life hero who inspired Akshay’s character in Airlift diesAnshu Jamsenpa scales Mt Everest twice within five days MPOST BUREAU

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Prominent Indian businessman in Kuwait, Matthunny Mathews, who was instrumental in the safe evacuation of stranded Indians during the Iraqi invasion in 1990, passed away in Kuwait.

81-year-old Mathews, who hailed from Kumbanad in Path-namthitta district, was ailing for some time and passed away on Saturday, media reports here said.

Expressing his condolence, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said on Sunday that dur-ing the 1990 Gulf war Mathews had helped thousands of Indi-ans to flee the gulf nation and his services would always be remembered.

By not taking efforts to

save his own life and property, Mathews had done yeoman ser-vice to bring his countrymen, who had lost everything in the war, safely back, Vijayan said.

“He provided food and drink-

ing water to the stranded Indians and we remember it with grati-tude,” Vijayan said.

The V P Singh government had in 1990 carried out the big-gest evacuation during the gulf

war when over 1.50 lakh standard Indians had been safely brought back by flight.

At that time Mathews had functioned as the Central Gov-ernment’s “unofficial represen-

tative” in Kuwait to coordinate the evacuation process, the Chief Minister said.

Popularly known as ‘Toy-ota Sunny’, Mathunny Mathews was said to be the inspiration of Akshay Kumar’s character in Bol-lywood film ‘Airlift’.

“Extremely sad news was an honour to portray him on screen. Thoughts and prayers with his family”, Akshay Kumar said in a tweet.

Mathews left for Kuwait 1956 at the age of 20 in search of a job. He joined as a typist in the Toy-ota company and rose to become its Managing Director when he retired in 1989.

He started a car rental com-pany and a general trading com-pany in 1990 and was also the Chairman of Jabriya Indian school.

MPOST BUREAU

ITANAGAR: Arunachal Pradesh moun-taineer Anshu Jamsenpa on Sunday scripted history by scaling Mt Everest twice within five days.

Jamsenpa, a mother of two, had con-quered the world s highest peak for the fourth time on May 16 last.

She began her double ascent on Friday morning, her husband Tsering Wange informed.

Jamsenpa along with Nepali climber Furi Sherpa scaled the peak at 8 am on Sunday.

The mountaineer from Arunachal Pradesh had reached the top of Mt Ever-est at 9.15 am on May 16 last.

Jamsenpa set the world record for becoming the first woman climber to reach the top of Mt Everest twice within five days. She is also the first Indian

woman to reach the top of Mt Everest for the fifth time.

The 32-year-old had achieved the feat of summiting Mt Everest twice within 10 days in 2011.

Anshu had also climbed Mt Everest in 2013 from the Nepal side.

“My only aim now is to unfurl the national flag once again atop Mt Ever-est and pay homage to Lord Buddha. I seek blessings and support from my fel-low countrymen,” Jamsenpa was quoted by her PR manager as having said before starting her second ascent.

Prayers were organised in several monasteries and temples back home in Arunachal Pradesh and elsewhere in the region.

Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama had flagged off the mountaineer’s double ascent expedition from Guwahati on April 2 this year.

Naugam encounter: 4 militants killed, 3 jawans martyredMPOST BUREAU

SRINAGAR: Four militants were killed in a fierce encounter that began along the Line of Control (LoC) in the Nau-gam sector in north Kashmir on Satur-day in which three Army jawans also lost their lives.

The gun battle had ensued when alert Army jawans had foiled an infiltration bid by the militants.

“Two more terrorists were killed on Sunday while another soldier attained

martyrdom,” an Army official said.Overall, the number of militants killed

in the encounter had risen to four, while three soldiers attained martyrdom in the operation, he said.

“The sanitisation operation is on along the Line of Control,” the official said add-ing that four weapons and other war-like stores had been recovered from the encounter site.

Two militants were killed and two sol-diers had lost their lives on Saturday in the encounter.

MPOST BUREAU

NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is yet to take a decision on its candidate for the upcoming Presidential poll, even as the party virtually rejected the proposal for Hindu leader Mohan Bhagwat.

Shiv Sena, a far-right regional party and BJP ally, had proposed the name of Bhagwat, the chief of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) - a Hindu nationalist vol-unteer organisation.

Replying to a question on the BJP-led NDA’s candidate for the Presidential polls in July, as the opposition was already working on putting up a joint candidate, BJP President Amit Shah said in an interview that a decision is yet to be taken.

“Even if I have a name on my mind, it has to be discussed within the party first,” he said.

He also rejected the Shiv Sena’s proposal regarding Bhag-wat, saying that party has itself ruled it out.

To questions on Kashmir, Shah said there was no need for

even an “iota of concern” over the situation in the state which has witnessed months of unrest, and asserted that the Narendra Modi-led government will con-trol it soon.

“There is a big gap between the reality and the projection” of the Kashmir situation and the trouble was confined to “three and a half districts”, he said.

The government was keep-ing a sharp vigil over the situa-tion and the Valley has witnessed many spells of such unrest in the past before the situation has nor-malised, he said.

Shah also attacked the Con-

gress for criticising the govern-ment, claiming that it had no right to do so as the Kashmir problem was an outcome of the policies of its governments since independence.

Terming the lynching of seven persons in Jharkhand by a mob over abduction rumours as an “isolated and stray incident” which happens in a country of 125 crore people, the BJP chief said it would not be appropriate to link such cases of violence to his party.

People should look up the crime data to find out if cases of violence have increased under

the BJP governments, he said.To a question on whether

Tamil superstar Rajinikanth would join the BJP, Shah said the decision has to be taken by the actor himself and his party wel-comed all good people to its fold.

Ahead of the Modi govern-ment’s third anniversary, he said it has won the people’s trust and added that the poor have the belief that it was working for their welfare.

In a democracy the “biggest certificate is the people’s verdict” and the masses have time and again underscored their support for the BJP-led NDA govern-ment, he said in a reference to the BJP’s win in several state polls.

The Modi government has been able to rid the country of the politics of casteism, family rule and appeasement, and turned the focus on the politics of per-formance, he claimed.

While the UPA government was accused of scams running into Rs 12 lakh crore, even rivals of the NDA government have not levelled a single charge of cor-ruption against it, Shah claimed.

BJP yet to decide on Prez candidate: Amit Shah

Pre-monsoon showers bring relief to Delhi on Sunday PICS/NAVEEN SHARMA

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Demonetisation: Reserve Bank guv to brief on June 8

Mischief makers will face strict action: Adityanth

NEW DELHI: Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Urjit Patel’s appearance before a parliamentary panel for a second briefing on demonetisation has been put off from May 25 to June 8, as work on framing the monetary policy would be underway at that time.

The Standing Committee on Finance, which had questioned Patel on January 18 on the move to ban Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 denomination notes, allowed him to appear at the later date after he issued a request expressing his inability.

Patel had been asked to appear on May 25 after former prime minister Manmohan Singh prevailed over the BJP MPs in the panel, who were opposed to summoning the RBI governor again. P12

MORADABAD: Facing criticism over the law and order situation, Uttar Pradesh Chief Min-ister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday said crimi-nal elements, who had a free run over the last 15 years, were trying to create “mischief” and warned of strict action against those taking the law into their hands.

Addressing a function here, he claimed that the crime graph has come down after his government took charge and the situation will improve further in coming days. He said those violating the law will not be spared, regardless of their political affiliation.

“Our main priority is to establish rule of law in the state. I want to assure the people of the state that if someone tries to take the law into their hands, the government and the adminis-tration will deal with them firmly. P6

Govt initiates work on shifting financial year from Jan to Dec

NEW DELHI: The government has initiated the spadework for shifting the financial year to Jan-uary, from April, to align it with the agriculture production cycle. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had backed the idea of January-Decem-ber financial year last month while addressing chief ministers at the Governing Council of NITI Aayog. Preliminary work has started and it will gather momentum as the year progresses, sources said. The GST implementation from July 1 is also an indication in that direc-tion, sources said, adding that it is being implemented beginning sec-ond half of the calendar year.

The government had last year set-up a high-level committee to study the feasibility of shifting financial year to January 1 from the current practice of starting it from April 1. The committee submitted its report in December, reasoning for the change and its effect on the different agricultural crop periods and its impact on businesses, taxa-tion system and procedures, statis-tics and data collection.

Modi had said that in a coun-try where agricultural income is exceedingly important, budgets should be prepared immediately

after the receipt of agricultural incomes for the year.

There have been suggestions to follow January to December as the financial year, he had said, urging states to take the initiative in this regard. Following the Prime Min-ister’s statement, Madhya Pradesh became the first state to change the budget cycle to January- Decem-ber from the existing April-March. Earlier this year, the government advanced the Budget presentation by a month to February 1 with a view to completing the legislative approval for annual spending plans and tax proposals before the begin-ning of the new financial year. As a result, public expenditure started from April 1.

Till last year, the Budget was presented on the last day of Feb-ruary and it used to be passed by Parliament by mid-May.

And with the monsoon arriv-ing in June, most of the schemes and spending by states did not take off until October, leaving just half a year for their implementation.

The government also scrapped nearly century-long practice of having a separate railway budget and instead merged it with the gen-eral budget. MPOST

‘Kashmir is ours,’ says Rajnath, promises

‘permanent’ solutionMPOST BUREAU

PELLING: “Kashmir is ours, Kash-miris are ours and Kashmiriyat is also ours,” Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said on Sunday, asserting that the Modi government will find a “permanent solution” to the Kash-mir problem.

The home minister’s assertion came amid continued unrest in the Kashmir valley.

Addressing a public reception here in this tiny northeastern state, Singh accused Pakistan of trying to “desta-bilise” India by fomenting trouble in Kashmir.

“But I want to tell all of you that our government will find a permanent solution to the Kashmir issue,” he said, without elaborating.

Kashmir is in a vice-like grip of violence since the killing of mili-tant commander Burhan Wani in an encounter with security forces in July last year. Though there was a brief lull, violence erupted again on April 9 this year when the bypoll to Srinagar Lok Sabha seat was held. Normalcy has eluded the state since.

Eight people were killed in firing by security forces on the polling day and a paltry 7.14 per cent of the elec-tors came out to vote, the lowest ever in the valley since the rise of mili-tancy in 1989.

Bypoll for the Anantnag Lok Sabha seat was first deferred and then can-celled by the Election Commission which said the situation in the region was “scary”.

Students have joined the protests like never before with even girls taking to streets, and fighting pitched battles with security forces.

Around 80 people had lost their lives as violence held the valley in a prolonged stranglehold in the after-math of the killing of Burhan Wani, who had emerged as the poster boy of militancy in Kashmir.

Rajnath Singh said heads of gov-ernment of all neighbouring coun-tries, including Pakistan, were invited to the swearing-in ceremony of the Modi government in 2014 in an indi-cation that India wanted friendly rela-tions with them.

However, he deplored, there was no change in the “attitude” of Pakistan which wanted to “destabilise” India.

“We hope that Pakistan will change. If it does not change, we will have to change them. After globali-sation, one country can’t destabilise another country as the international community will not forget it,” he said.

The home minister is on a three-day visit to Sikkim during which he attended a conference of Himalayan states to review the security situation and development activities along the Sino-Indian border.

He also visited the Nathu La bor-der post, besides a few posts of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police and SSB along the Sino-India and Indo-Nepal border respectively.

PAK TRYING TO DESTABILISE INDIA: HM

FASHION CRITICISM DOES NOT BOTHER AISHWARYA PG16

THOUSANDS CONVERGE AT JANTAR MANTAR, RAISE SLOGANS PG3

INDIAN MAN ARRESTED IN PAK FOR NOT CARRYING TRAVEL DOCUMENTS PG10

INDIA’S CHANCES OF MAKING IT TO NSG SLIM AT BERN MEET PG5

There is a big gap between the reality and the projection of the Kashmir situation and the trouble was confined to three and a half districts

CITY

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INTERNATIONAL

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BUSINESS

‘GST TO CUT INFLATION BY 2%’ 12

SPORT

BAYERN LIFT TITLE 15

Matthunny MathewsAkshay Kumar in Airlift

OUR CORRESPONDENT

Most of us dread ‘those days’ of the month. Some have it easy but for many, men-struation causes havoc in

their life – having cramps all day long, feeling uneasy, dizzy and nauseous is just a quarter of its perils. You can hate it as much as you want but it is an essential process for every woman and that’s why menstrual hygiene and management is necessary to ensure that your everyday life is not interrupted by it. It ensures that you can continue with your daily routine such as going to school, going to work or doing household chores. It can also pre-vent potential situations of embarrass-ment and in turn, make you feel confident about yourself and your body.

To raise awareness and break taboos about menstruation, May 28 is looked upon as World Menstrual Hygiene day. Inadequate information and silence over menstruation, especially in developing countries, limits women’s and girls’ access to important information regarding their bodily process which adversely affects their health, education, rights and dignity.

The day raises awareness of the chal-lenges women and girls worldwide face

due to their menstruation and highlights solutions that address these challenges. It brings together non-profits, govern-ment agencies, private sector, the media and individuals to promote Menstrual Hygiene Management. World Menstrual Hygiene Day is a big event on the annual calendar. This year, in collaboration with Aakar Social Ventures and Sachhi Saheli, The Lalit Hotel, New Delhi are celebrating the day by organising an event on May 22 as a build up to MH Day 2017.

The event is in the form of a series of panel discussions with a range of stake-holders at The Lalit Hotel, New Delhi between 2-5 pm. A plenary discussion followed by deliberation with stakeholder groups on Menstrual Health Manage-ment. This is intended to open a dia-logue on menstruation, bringing together a common multi-stakeholder voice for change and finalise key commitments to take forward, on the run up to World Menstrual Hygiene Day.

This engagement aims to highlight MHM barriers and actionable program-ming or strategic shifts in education, media and at the institutional level, look-ing at WASH policies including indicators to capture measurable change. The aim of this platform is to bring together key

stakeholders from the state and national government, academia, representatives from underserved communi-ties as well as partners from the development sector to engage in constructive and long-last-ing policy engagement- bring-ing people out of their work silos, look at aspects that restrict access to safe health and sanitation prac-tices. The deliberations will explore how civil society, target groups, state gov-ernments and passionate individuals can be mobilized to engage in dialogues to ensure access and sustainable solutions for hygiene management and sanitation for all.

Poor menstrual hygiene management (MHM) is connected with several prob-lems that females face and reproductive tract infection (RTI) is one of them. In India, a majority of girls are at risk for RTI which can lead to various disabilities if not treated early on.

With topics such as education - the key to breaking barriers around men-strual health and the role of Media in edu-cating masses around menstrual hygiene, this social dialogue will have participa-tion from over 100 people with an expe-

rienced panel of experts.

The audience will consist of young women, aganwadi workers, NGOs, academia, MHM practitioners, medical fraternity etc.

The opening plenary will have emi-nent people like Manish Sisodia, Dy. CM Delhi and Anshu Gupta, Goonj, Presi-dent IMA, UNICEF express their views and set the tone. The stakeholder pan-els will have representation from media, corporates, academia, government and medical fraternity among others. The panel discussion will touch upon some sensitive issues as to how effectively ‘Swacch Bharat Abhiyan’ is in addressing menstrual hygiene, how the media can responsibly report on the shame/ taboos/ stigma/ insults used around menstrua-tion, what are the key challenges faced when implementing a menstrual health program, the basic rights for women, how

can public luminaries make a difference, what are the key challenges faced when implementing a menstrual health pro-gram, why is there no systematic review of poor MHM and its impact on women’s

health and most of all, how can we create a paradigm shift in MHM conversations by focusing not just on the provisioning of MH products but on the larger MHM structure-awareness, disposal, etc.

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

MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Monday, 22 May, 2017mp town2

DAYINDAYOUT What’s on Around Town

GLOBALISING INDIAN ARTWith the mission and vision to bring back the focus on Indian art and culture, Delhi college of art has come up with its annual Art collage Carnival. Concep-tualized by Ashwani Kumar Prithviwasi, the carnival helps artists and art stu-dents to demonstrate their masterpiece. It also builds their capacities to pre-serve Indian traditions and cultures with old classical unique art forms which are also called the interactive art that may be understood even by a layman. It disseminates art intelligence to spread the beauty of it across different cultures and countries.WHEN: May 19 – 25 WHERE: Lalit Kala Academy TIMING: 11 am – 6:30 pm

MANGO MAGICThere is nothing as refreshing as deli-cious ice cream in a scorching Summer. Beat the heat as you relish different flavours of ice cream with a mango of your choice.WHEN: OngoingWHERE: Blooms, Singh Sahib & Empress of China, Lounge AND Bar, Tea Lounge, Eros Hotel, Nehru PlaceTIMING: 11 am – 11 pm

INHERITANCE OF LOSSCurated by Uma Nair, it is a series of work by Ashish Khushwaha on canvasses as well as a few small watercolours that look at the loss of habit for animals and birds in the face of vanishing forests and large scale development without a thought for species who are facing the reality of no place to exist.WHEN: May 20 – 29 WHERE: Kamaladevi Complex, IICTIMING: 11 am – 7 pm

DISPELLINGthe Menstruation myths

On World Menstrual Hygiene day, let’s talk about how we can effectively reach out to the masses to break taboos surrounding ‘menstruating girls’.

Menstruation is normal for women and it’s high time we talk about it. Period.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

With an aim to host the aus-pices of Cultural Exchange Pro-

gramme between the Republic of India and Republic of Korea, artist Kim Ho Suk presented his masterpieces at the open-ing ceremony of the exhibi-tion ‘Hiding Inside the Light,’ organized by Korean Cul-tural Centre India (KCCI) and National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), New Delhi.

Cho Hyun, Ambassador of the Republic of Korea to India expressed his gratitude to Kim Ho-suk for displaying his masterpieces for the ben-efit of art lovers and general public in India. His artworks bring about in subtle and pro-found way the trials and tribu-lations of Korean people as the country passed through diffi-cult times during the Japanese colonial rule and the Korean War during the struggle for democracy. Spirituality and simple living in harmony with nature is the recurrent theme in

his art works that remain to this day an inspiration for budding Korean artists.’

Artist Kim Ho Suk said that he was honoured to hold an exhibition in India, the coun-try that is the origin of religion, spirituality, the Ganges River, spices, harmony of variance, kindness, greatness, mystery and curry. He also said that the current society where he is living in is the root and foun-tain of his art. He is trying to depict meaning of every liv-ing thing in this world. Kim KumPyoung, Director Korean

Culture Centre India said, “I hope this exhibition becomes a motivation to form a deeper understanding about Korea and Korean art and to invigo-rate mutual exchange between National Galleries of Modern Art of both countries.”

‘Hiding Inside the Light’ is a solo exhibition that show-cases works of art of Kim Ho-suk, a leading artist from South Korea. The exhibition pres-ents key works from his series of portraits, landscapes, ani-mal figures and scenes from daily life which are almost like research that provides an inti-mate understanding of the social, cultural and political aspects of Korean life.

Adwaita Gadanayak, Direc-tor General, National Gallery of Modern Art said, “India and Korea are two old civili-zations that share cultural and historical similarities. Both the countries have a strong tradi-tion of arts and literature that has contributed immensely to create a positive image of the country. Both the countries have taken significant steps to establish cultural centres at both countries that promote

arts, language and facilitate the exchange of experts.” The inau-guration was done by Chief Guest Cho Hyun, Ambassa-dor of the republic of Korea to India. The art show will forge ahead till June 25, from 11 am – 6:30 pm except Mondays and national holidays. Museum entry fee is applicable.

Art facilitates culturalEXCHANGE

LONDON: Attractiveness is not just a matter of good looks, say scientists who found that the right voice and scent are just as important as physi-cal appearance. Whether by an off-putting body odour or a grating voice, it is easy to understand how the nose and ears are as important as the eyes in noticing how attractive someone is.

It is not particularly surpris-ing that attractiveness spans more than just physical appearance, but most research has focused on looks, neglecting vocal and olfactory factors, researchers said. They analysed over 30 years of research to provide a brief overview of the few studies that have looked into the role of voice and scent.

“Recently, most reviews have focused on visual attractiveness – for example, face or body attractiveness,” said Agata Groyecka, from the Uni-versity of Wroclaw in Poland. “How-ever, literature about other senses and their role in social relations has grown rapidly and should not be neglected,” said Groyecka, lead author of the review published in the journal Fron-

tiers in Psychology. “Perceiving oth-ers through all three channels gives a more reliable and broader variety of information about them,” said Groyecka. Some findings are relatively intuitive, such as people guessing gen-der and age based on voice alone.

However, listeners have also proven to be skilled at detecting an unexpected range of characteristics from a voice, including the domi-nance, cooperativeness, emotional state, and even the body size of the speaker. Other studies have shown that people can correctly deduce very similar types of information based on scent alone.

Recent brain imaging studies also suggest that combinations – sight and smell, for example – appear to be syn-ergistic, producing even stronger reac-tions than would be expected from summing the individual responses. Perceived attractiveness impacts day-to-day life in a variety of ways, influencing not only romantic rela-tionships, but also friendships and professional interactions.

Without incorporating such information, psychological studies of everyday decision making and social communication can not cap-ture the whole picture. The research also highlights a variety of proposed evolutionary explanations for these multisensory aspects of attraction, such as the utility of having traits that can be detected both from a distance (voice and looks), as well as up close (scent). PTI

Good looks not enough to seem attractive

3MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Monday, 22 May, 2017

mp city

ANAND MOHAN J

NEW DELHI: A sea of humanity, decked in blue, gathered at Jantar Man-tar on Sunday to protest against the caste-based atrocities in Saharanpur district of Uttar Pradesh.

The protestors, from various Dalit rights organisations and Left wing asso-ciations, gave a clarion call to the Dalit community to rise up against alleged upper caste domination and break the “shackles of Brahminism”.

The protestors were initially denied permission to gather at Jantar Mantar. However, many of them defied the ban and started to gather in thousands. Tak-ing stock of the burgeoning crowd, the police finally allowed the protestors to enter the protest site.

By 11 am, the crowd had swelled up to tens of thousands of protestors, who were all mobilised through social media platform – such as the ‘I Love Bhim Army’ Facebook page and vari-ous WhatsApp groups.

With shouts of “Jai Bheem” rever-berating across the protest site, many protestors vented their ire at the Yogi Adityanath-led BJP Government in Uttar Pradesh for not taking action against the accused in the Saharanpur mob violence.

“When a trader and his customer were shot dead inside a shop in Meerut, the police took prompt action. But a month is about to pass and not one word has been spoken by our politicians condemning the violence. The silence speaks a lot for itself. This is selective treatment by the state,” said Kamal, a protestor from Bhim Sena.

Many of the protestors had claimed

that since 2014, the atrocities against Dalits have shot up. They alleged that this has been done to keep the country simmering with such issues instead of focusing on real issues of water, food and electricity.

The protestors claimed that those who pick up the real issues have been branded as enemies of the state. Speak-ing on the issue, the chief of Bhim Sena,

Chandreshekhar said: “When I picked up the issue of caste-based atrocities I was branded as a Naxalite. Is fighting for our right to self determination akin to terrorism?”

The major demands made by the Bhim Sena, which spearheaded the protest, include a fair probe into the Saharanpur caste violence, immediate arrest of all those involved in torching Dalit homes and the release of Dalit activists who had false cases registered against them.

Many protestors alleged that the Dalit community has been living under fear since 2014 due to a change in the government.

They substantiated their claim by pointing out various incidents of Dalit violence like Una incident, Rohith Vemula and Saharanpur.

“Every action has an equal reac-tion. The saffron brigade has used violence as they want to keep us in our place. They cannot stomach a Dalit authority giving them orders. If this does not stop, then this country will see a civil war. We want a united India,” said Ashwini Sukrat, a social activist at the protest.

Thousands converge at Jantar Mantar, raise slogans

Protestors ‘snip off’ symbols of discrimination

ANAND MOHAN J

NEW DELHI: The caste-based mob violence in Saharanpur has brought to the fore many painful stories of Dalit suffering.

However, exploitation and discrimination is not restricted to a few states and is a pervasive phenomenon. Many Dalit fam-ilies in Delhi have been grap-pling with the discrimination for years.

With Dalit anger boiling over the protest site at Jan-tar Mantar, several protestors snipped their sacred Hindu threads as a sign of protest against “upper caste tyranny”.

“We are all getting rid of all Hindu religious identifying symbols like the red thread and the Punjabi bangle. These items are used to get lower caste con-sent to get discriminated. We are breaking those shackles,” said Umesh, a Dalit protestor.

While talking to Millennium Post, many Dalits who had to work for years to get a degree in higher education, have to face discrimination despite their success. Many have reported not getting a hike in their salaries and are forbidden to eat their food with their higher caste

colleagues.Praveen, who completed

his B Com and M Com from Delhi University, said he used to be liked by his colleagues. But one day, they got to know about his Dalit status and everything changed for the worse.

“I was surrounded by edu-cated people. We used to eat and work together in the same place. But one day, my colleagues got to know about my caste and a fissure was created on that very day. They stopped talking to me. When I asked them about it for several days, they finally told me that I am from a lower class and would create problems in their lives,” Praveen said.

His friend, Ajay Sagar, who completed his diploma in mechanical engineering, had faced discrimination in his office after his caste status was

revealed. “I work in the govern-ment sector. My seniors found that I was from a lower caste and they suddenly started to send me on punishment shifts and would make me work over-time. When I would protest, they would spew abuses at me, stopping short of caste-based slurs,” Sagar said.

With over 40 crore Indi-ans finding themselves in the lower caste background, many from the Dalit community feel that they should not be taken lightly. “There have been inci-dents in the past, but this time around a concerted attack has taken place against the Dalits under this regime. If the Dalits will come together then we will become an unstoppable force,” said Jignesh Mevani, a promi-nent Dalit activist.

Many Dalit families have narrated how their grandfathers would make temples for every-one, but they were the only ones left out of the temple.

“Sixty years ago, we were recognised as humans. They never allowed us to even enter temples and it was a long fight. Now we are still fighting for out right to self determination. They (upper caste people), want to keep us in our place. But we will fight,” said Vimla, a Dalit protestor.

Protestors give clarion call to Dalits to rise against upper caste domination

Tainted bizman funded AAP leaders’ foreign trip: Mishra

PROTESTS OVER SAHARANPUR

Scenes from the protest in Jantar Mantar on Sunday PIC/MPOST

Sacred threads were snipped as a sign of protest against ‘upper caste tyranny’ on Sunday PIC/MPOST

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Firing yet another salvo at Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, sacked Delhi minister Kapil Mishra on Sunday alleged that a businessman being probed for a Rs 400 crore scam funded the foreign tours of two top Aam Aadmi Party leaders.

Delhi government spokesperson Nagender Sharma, however, dismissed the allegations and said that Mishra had been given a “horribly wrong script”.

Mishra posed nine questions to his friend-turned-foe Kejriwal including whether he was aware that a Russia trip of AAP leaders Sanjay Singh and Ashutosh “was sponsored by a man who is being probed for a Rs 400 crore high-security number plates scam”.

Mishra also apologised to ex-AAP leaders Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan,

who were expelled from the party in April 2015 for “anti-party activities” after they questioned Kejriwal’s leadership.

They floated a new political party Swaraj India last year. He said that he was working on the directions of Kejriwal and was responsible for their ouster.

While reiterating that he will stay in the AAP to cleanse it, the rebel leader, who has been suspended from the party’s primary membership,

invited former India Against Corruption volunteers to help him make Delhi “corruption-free” and “Kejriwal-free”.

The former minister alleged that there was a scam of high-security number plates that came to the fore during the AAP government’s first stint and is currently being probed by the Anti-Corruption Branch.

“Some of the companies that are being probed have a direct link with the person who funded their (Sanjay Singh and Ashutosh) trip,” Mishra alleged.

The AAP government had awarded the contract to a firm for high-security number plates but it was later terminated on the basis of a fact-finding committee’s report, that was constituted by the then Transport Minister Sourabh Bhardwaj.

Delhi government spokesperson Nagender

Sharma rubbished Mishra’s allegations in a series of tweets and said that Mishra had no clue of what he was talking about.

“Probe into High Security Number Plates scam was ordered by @Saurabh_MLAgk in 49 days govt in Feb 2014. Then LG Jung reversed the decision.

“In Jan 2016 Delhi government again sent the HSNP file to Delhi ACB despite LG having sent the case for arbitration on company’s request,” he posted on Twitter.

Sharma also said that the BJP had tried to rake up this issue in June last year but went silent when it came to know that file was lying with the Anti-Corruption Branch for months.

“Poor fellow has no clue of what he’s speaking! Who is misguiding him,” he said.

The posts were retweeted by Ashutosh.

Kapil Mishra also invited former colleagues to make Delhi “Kejriwal-free” PIC/NAVEEN SHARMA

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: A mere 46.3 per cent of votes were cast in the by-election to Sarai Pipal Thala ward of North Delhi Municipal Corporation (North MCD) on Sunday, a decline of over 14 per cent votes from the 2012 MCD polls in the same ward.

A total of 24,739 voters – comprising 13,116 males and 11,623 females – cast their votes in the bypoll, said a senior official of the Delhi State Elec-tion Commission.

The ward has over 53,000 registered voters, he said.

The voting percentage of the ward in the 2012 MCD poll was 60.6 per cent. Sunday’s bypoll, however, saw a decline of over 14 per cent votes this time, the official said.

The voting was mainly affected mildly due to power failure at some of the 57 poll-ing booths, which was caused due to a dust storm and rain in the final hour of polling.

“Otherwise, the voting was

peaceful,” said the official.Voting had started on a

slow pace with just 8.59 per cent of the votes cast till 10 am.

Polling in Sarai Pipal Thala and Maujpur wards was post-poned due to death of candi-dates there.

Voting for the rest 270 wards in three municipal cor-porations was held on April 23 and the results were announced on April 26.

In Sarai Pipal Thala ward, Samajwadi Party candidate Dinesh Singh died resulting in the bypoll. His son Himanshu is in the fray from the party.

Sarai Pipal ward is cur-rently held by the BSP (Bahu-jan Samaj Party).

The main contenders in the election include Mohammad Sarif (BSP), former leader of opposition in NDMC Mukesh Goel (Congress), Mangat Ram (BJP) and Rajeev Bansal (AAP).

Counting of votes for both the wards will take place on May 23.

46.3 per cent turnout in Sarai Pipal Thala civic bypoll

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The BJP has put on hold the names of its councillors who were to be appointed as leaders of House in three municipal corpora-tions, owing to the “cold war” between Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari and Union Sports Min-ister Vijay Goel.

The three BJP councillors, who were considered for the posts of leaders of House in South, North and East Delhi Municipal Corporations, have been “punished” for attending a felicitation function hosted by Goel on May 16, a senior party leader said.

“Shikha Rai (SDMC), Jai Prakash (North MCD) and Santosh Pal (EDMC) were considered for the posts of leaders of House but the party has put on hold their names as they attended Goel’s func-tion despite being instructed to avoid it,” he said.

The Delhi BJP, however, denied claims that the three councillors’ names were with-drawn as a punishment for attending Goel’s function.

“The BJP has announced Shikha Rai’s name as the Leader of House in SDMC and we stand by it. No names were announced for the posts of leaders of House in North and East corporations,” said Delhi BJP media in-charge Pravin Shankar Kapoor.

Tiwari was reportedly also invited to the function, but he chose to give it a miss, while around 40-50 councillors took part in it.

With the BJP’s massive victory in the MCD polls last month, the party leaders are now focusing on the next Assembly elections.

This has led to a competi-tion between Goel and Tiwari for the post of Chief Minister, sources said.

“Goel, being an old-timer well-embedded in Delhi pol-itics, is asserting himself as Tiwari has pulled off a stun-ning victory in the MCD polls barely six months after being appointed as the Delhi unit chief,” a source said.

Goel said he is not engaged in a “tussle” with any-one and the function he hosted was part of a “slum movement” to promote sports among the youth.

“I do not know what peo-ple are talking of but the func-tion was held by my Ministry to engage Nehru Yuva Kendra youths in our slum movement. I have no tussle with anyone,” the Youth Affairs and Sports minister said.

Tiwari was not available for comments on the issue.

BJP yet to decide on leaders of

House in MCDsSources say the decision is in limbo due to a “cold war” between Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari and Union Sports Minister Vijay Goel

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: BJP national president Amit Shah on Sun-day unveiled the Large Steel Charkha and Heritage Charkha Museum – consisting 14 vin-tage charkhas – at Palika Bazar Park in Delhi’s Connaught Place, amid much fervour and gaiety.

Hailing the initiative, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a special message to Khadi and Village Industries Commis-sion (KVIC) chairman, said: “As Mahatma Gandhi him-self believed, the Charkha is a symbol of our Swaraj and self-reliance.”

“The museum and the monument for the Charkha in the national Capital will be a proud tribute to the Charkha’s historic importance in our nation. This will eco-nomically empower the lives of several weavers associated with the Khadi industry,” the Prime Minister’s message stated.

Meanwhile, Shah said that

since time immemorial, the Charkha had been a “symbol of economic empowerment of our nation”.

“It is really a commendable job on the part of KVIC and NDMC (New Delhi Munici-pal Council) that both organ-isations have come up with a novel mission with an eco-nomic model to promote tour-ism. I hope that the spinning wheel would symbolise the mission of our Prime Minis-ter Narendra Modi’s ‘Make in

India’.”Mirroring similar views,

Union Minister for Micro, Small and Medium Enter-prised Kalraj Mishra said that the Charkha would script the story of economic indepen-dence of India in coming days.

NDMC Chairperson Naresh Kumar said that the Charkha not only symbolises the vision of the New Delhi area, but also preserves the val-ues and rich heritage of India’s composite culture.

Amit Shah unveils 12-ft tall Charkha, museum at CP

BJP national president Amit Shah at the throws open the Heritage Charkha Museum in Connaught Place on Saturday PIC/MPOST

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal has constituted a high-level committee to look after desilting of drains and open manholes in the city so that Delhiites do not have to face waterlogging problems during this monsoon.

The committee comprises various agencies, including the Public Works Department, the three municipal corporations, Delhi Cantt, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), and the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC), among others. It will be headed by the PWD Secretary.

A top government official said the committee has prepared a plan to desilt by June 15 all 163 major drains in the city, which cause massive waterlogging every monsoon.

The committee will coordinate the desilting work among the different agencies so that they don’t end up passing the buck among each other, he said. “The committee has asked all agencies concerned to come up with their detailed plans on the removal of silt from drains and roads by May 26, and also report how many drains they have been desilted so far,” the official told PTI.

The PWD is in charge of 1,260 kms of roads in the capital while the rest fall under the jurisdiction of the three MCDs.

According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the normal monsoon onset date in the national Capital is June 29.

LG forms committee to deal with

waterlogging

NEW DELHI: In a first, the Delhi Traffic Police plans to transplant 23 trees on Sri Aurobindo Marg in South Delhi so as to decongest a 10 km stretch on the arterial road between IIT Gate and Andhe-ria More, which sees traffic at a crawl during peak hours on most days.

“As chopping trees is not a solution, we have written to the Horticulture Department to get the trees safely uprooted and replanted at other locations,” Special Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Ajay Kashyap said.

Since the technology is not available with the government’s Horticulture Department they could hire private contractors or go in for tree transplanters, he said.

Kashyap said his department had found 106 bottlenecks that choke Delhi traffic.

“One is Sri Aurobindo Marg. We found 23 trees right in the middle of the road – from And-heria More to IIT – that are choking traffic,” he said.

He added if the trees are moved it would provide “con-gestion-free and wide passage to motorists” on the stretch.

“These trees help in main-taining the capital’s green cover. We must go in for re-plantation of trees which is widely used in the west.”

The process to transplant a mature tree involves using coni-cal shaped blades that work on hydraulic pressure. The blades penetrate deep into the soil to carve out a ball of earth around the tree roots.

The ball of earth with the tree is lifted above the ground and placed in a motorized carrier.

The tree is then transplanted to another location into a pit which is treated with anti-ter-mite, antibacterial and antifun-gal medicine.

Kashyap, an environmen-talist, said the national Capital needs to use such technology because the city was transform-ing fast and needs to preserve its green wealth.

“There are several exam-ples about old and giant trees being uprooted and replanted in western countries to pro-tect the green cover. We need to widen our roads. Traffic vol-ume increases daily. But at the same time we cannot afford to lose our green cover.”

As part of plans to de-con-gest traffic on Sri Aurobindo Marg, the department has sug-gested construction of a foot over-bridge and an underpass at AIIMS and the Yusuf Sarai mar-ket – two very crowded spots. Other measures include shift-ing of bus stops at INA Market and Andheria More, removing encroachments near AIIMS, Yusuf Sarai and Adhchini.

“Encroachment by food ven-dors is one of the biggest chal-lenges for traffic police. They create hell during peak hours. We have sent a report on this to the Lt. Governor’s office to direct the Municipal Corpo-ration of Delhi to make capi-tal roads encroachment free,” Kashyap said. AGENCIES

23 trees on Aurobindo Marg to be replanted to de-congest traffic

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The transport department of the Delhi gov-ernment has made mandatory the installation of speed gover-nors in taxis and cabs operating in the national Capital.

The decision comes after a recent notification of the union road transport ministry which made installation of speed gov-ernors in commercial vehicles compulsory.

The move is intended to reduce road accidents by lim-iting the maximum speed of taxis and cabs at 80 kmph.

According to a Delhi Traf-fic Police data, 1,622 and 1,671 people were killed in 2015 and 2014, respectively, in road acci-dents in the city, while over 16,000 people were left injured in the two years.

The government decision to limit the maximum speed cov-ers all cabs, including the ones operated by aggregators like Ola and Uber.

Speed governors to be mandatory

for Delhi cabs

NEW DELHI: The national Capital can turn into a desert if the green cover and forest land fall prey to illegal construction and encroachment, the Delhi High Court has observed.

It said this environmental issue was a matter of concern and needed to be addressed on a war footing in view of the adverse impact due to global warming.

“The city is facing (the threat) of advent of a desert. It is the biggest threat the city is facing as green cover goes away,” a Bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar observed while hearing

a PIL against alleged encroach-ment on forest land near Neb Sarai village in South Delhi.

The petition has sought blocking of a road constructed in the forest to provide access for emergency vehicles to reach Indira Enclave, an unauthorised colony, close to the posh Sainik Farms area which too has been in the news over alleged illegal constructions there.

The court did not approve of the road being built through the forest, which is in the ridge area of the city, saying, “You cannot make an unauthorised construction and then seek all kinds of benefit.”

It said, “The forest land cannot be converted into a thoroughfare which is clearly beyond planned development under the Master Plan.”

It noted that the Supreme Court had in 1980 ordered that no encroachment in the ridge area could be permitted and that the law laid down by it had to be “strictly complied” with.

“This is more so in view of the imperative need for address-ing environmental concerns on a war footing in view of the adverse impact of global warm-ing,” the court said.

The Delhi government, rep-resented by advocate Gautam

Narayan, said the office of the deputy conservator of forest had passed an order for blocking of the road and building of a wall in the demarcated forest area to protect it from encroachment.

However, the residents of Indira Enclave had challenged the order and obtained a stay on its operation, he told the court.

The Bench, thereafter, directed that the area in ques-tion be maintained as a forest land and said “no encroach-ment or construction whatso-ever including laying of a road therein was or is permissible”.

It ordered the Delhi govern-ment to take steps forthwith to

ensure that a boundary wall is constructed all around the forest area and the land is strictly pro-tected from any encroachment as well as illegal and unauthor-ised construction.

The court directed that the wall be built within two months and an action taken report be placed before it before the next date of hearing on July 31.

“The respondents shall take urgent steps for putting up temporary fencing/barricades immediately, to be replaced by the permanent wall at the earliest. After the fence is con-structed, videography of the area will be done,” it said. AGENCIES

Delhi can become a desert if green cover goes: HC

mp city4MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Monday, 22 May, 2017

Protests by Noida homebuyers brings traffic to grinding halt

The protestors demanded action against errant buildersRAHUL SINGH

NOIDA: Noida witnessed two massive protests held by aggrieved home buyers on Sunday afternoon. The buy-ers demanded action against the builders’ group for the pro-longed delay in possession and illegal construction at build-er’s site.

Sitting on roads under the extreme heat of 42 degrees, around hundreds of home buy-ers from Unitech’s project in sector 117, Noida, near Noida sector 71 demanded the district authority to initiate immedi-ate actions against the build-er’s group.

The home buyers also raised slogans and marched to builder’s site in sector 117 which jammed the roads for over three hours.

The buyers of Unitech Uni-homes in Noida staged a protest under the banner of Unitech Unihomes flat buyer’s welfare associations (UUFBWA).

The women, children, and senior citizens also participated in the protest which went on for three hours. Those who managed to get their flats, par-ticipated in the protest raising

their issue on non-availability of basic amenities such as elec-tricity, water supply, security, and lifts.

“I booked a retail shop in Unitech Unihomes with all my savings in 2009. The builder promised to deliver the pos-session within two years but looking at the progress of con-struction work, it is impossi-ble to get the shop even in next three or four years. Till now I have made 95 percent of the total cost,” said one such pro-testor, P N Sharma

Vipin Gupta, Joint-secre-tary, Unitech Unihomes flat buyer’s welfare associations (UUFBWA), said, “The builder

has cheated thousands of home buyers. Without obtaining the completion certificate from the authority, the builder has allowed the home buyers to shift in their new flats. With no facilities and basic amenities present in the society, the buy-ers feel hostile. We demand the newly elected CM of the state to take immediate actions against such builders who have made the home buyers suffer”.

In the second protest of the same day, homebuyers of Antriksh builder in sector 78, Noida demanded immediate actions against the builder for carrying illegal construction activities in the parking area.

NOIDA: A seven-year-old boy, suffering from high fever, reportedly lost his life here Saturday evening as the ambulance that was taking him to AIIMS in New Delhi got stuck in a traffic jam caused by a homebuyers’ protest over non-delivery of their flats. The Noida Police said that they had taken note of the media reports about a child's death but had not received any com-plaint or information in this regard, till now. A FIR has been registered against 250 protesters under sections of the IPC dealing with rioting and unlawful restraint, a police official said. SSP Love Kumar said the "police was trying to con-nect with the victim's family members." Accord-ing to reports, the boy, Luv Kush, a resident of Firozabad, and was being taken to AIIMS in an ambulance as he was suffering from high fever. An Agra doctor had reportedly referred him to AIIMS. Satish Chandra, SHO, Expressway police station, said: "We had received information about homebuyers blocking the expressway. A police team was sent there and the protesters were dispersed. Regarding the death of the boy, we have no information from victim's family. We came to know through media reports." MPOST

Cops look for family of 7-yr-old boy who perished in traffic

DU admission starts, new courses introduced

YOGESH KANT

NEW DELHI: As Delhi Uni-versity will reopen its admis-sion process from Monday, 19 colleges of the varsity are set to initiate new courses in the coming academic year with around 2,000 additional seats. But, they are yet to get permis-sion from University Grant Commission.

Last year, the University had written to the 19 colleges to begin the courses that both academic and executive coun-cil had approved. But, it could not be started.

The courses are new in the particular colleges and may be introduced in other colleges as well.

“As these courses start, there will be an addition of about 2,000 seats,” said an academic council member and teacher at Shri Guru Tegh Bahadur (SGTB) Khalsa College.

However, the univer-sity decided that the science courses will have 32 seats each and humanities will get 40 each. Certain colleges that will not increase the seats, will adjust the current strength.

According to the senior official at DU, “New courses include Political Science (Hons) at St Stephen’s Col-lege. Meanwhile, Indraprastha

College for Women will start Sociology (Hons), while Delhi College of Arts and Commerce will start Mathematics (Hons). Bharti College, Ramanujan College, Daulat Ram College will start some courses. More-over, Bsc in Forensic Science will be started at SGTB Khalsa College.”

An official source at the DU said, “Colleges have to get UGC’ approval before increas-ing seats as it is the fund-ing body.” At present, DU has 54,000 seats in 61 colleges.

Apart from these colleges, SRCC is also gearing up to introduce a two-year Masters of Business Administration (MBA) postgraduate degree programme from this year.

The course, which is cur-rently pending approval by the university, is expected to have a profile similar to MBA pro-grammes offered by IIMs. The college is expected to have 65 seats. However, SRCC will not require approval from Univer-sity Grants Commission for this course as it will be funded by the college itself.

Divided into four semes-ters, the programme will offer 18 additional courses. "The new course will replace the existing two-year postgraduate Global Business Operations (GBO) diploma programme," said an official at SRCC. "We are wait-ing for the MBA programme to be approved by the university," added the official.

Paucity of surgical equipment at G B Pant Hospital spells misery for patients

YOGESH KANT

NEW DELHI: The Govind Ballabh Pant (GB) Hospital does not have several basic amenities and requirements for its patients, as it is reeling under due to shortage of surgi-cal equipments and other basic medical material. The situation has been existing since the past one year.

However, the hospital administration is claiming that this shortage is due to infre-quent supply from Central Pur-chase Authority (CPA).

The hospital's surgical department does not have the basic necessities like cotton and bandages – Flatreel, Glucom-eter, Glucostick , Insulin Pen, Ultrasound Jelly, Urine collec-tor, Transparent Dressing, Sur-gery blade.

In such situations, the

patients are compelled to arrange for all the medicinal utilities. As per the government instructions, operation theaters are supposed to provide all the basic material used in surgery for free.

Only some of the essential equipment needed like stents, retina lenses are chargeable.

“The essential medical material provided is unable to

meet the demand, so the doc-tor asks the patient's attendant to purchase it from outside,” said an OT assistant.

The elementary materials are neither available at surgery departments nor at the hospital pharmacy. Even the Jan Ausi-hdhi Center counters are not able to meet the demand for basic medical stuff.

A pharmacist said, “The

cost of these materials is very low in hospitals as they get them on subsidised rate. But for an ordinary customer, the price multiplies according to the customer wealth.”

A set of gloves costs Rs 5 to 6 in the hospital, while patient attendant buys them for Rs 50 to 80. Same with Cannula, which costs Rs 20 in hospitals but a private chemist sells it as per the upmarket locality. It is available for Rs 100 per strip.

Dr Rajiv Chawla, Director, GB Pant Hospital said, “I am not aware of this scarcity of sur-gical items.” At present, he is on leave.

The matter is under consid-eration with the administration.

“We will look into the mat-ter but as far as my knowledge goes the entire inventory is eas-ily available at our store”, said a senior doctor.

Property dealer shot dead in Burari

Open drinking still a menance in Gurugram

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: A property dealer was shot dead inside his house in North Delhi's Burari area on Saturday. The deceased was shot thrice by unidentified assailants.

According to a senior police official, the deceased, Munavar Hassan is a native of Muzzafarnagar.

He has been involved in the property business for the past 15 years.

His body has been sent for post-mortem after which it will be handed over to his relatives.

He was recently released on parole by a court after which he was reportedly charged with rape and other criminal charges.

The police have so far not established the motive of the crime but sources have hinted that his murder might

be related to some property dispute.

The bullet-ridden body of Hassan was found by the neighbours after which the police was informed.

The cops so far in their investigation have not found any CCTV footage capturing the accused.

They are in dark about the number of assailants.

His neighbours were ques-tioned after which it was found that he was married and had four children.

However, the woman had filed a rape charge against him and the couple was living separately.

The police are still grap-pling with the motive of the crime and will be looking into his previous property deals.

Also, they will get in touch with his family members to get clarity on the case.

PIYUSH OHRIE

GURUGRAM: It has been a week since the incident of abduction and gang rape of a 26-year-old woman from Sikkim around the Sector 17 area was reported, locals alleged that danger still per-sists as major problems have not been addressed yet by the law enforcing authorities.

Residents of Sector 17 and Sukhrali village complain that the problem of open drinking and road rage is a common phenomenon around the area.

On Saturday, the police arrested two people indulging in open drinking around the same area.

Gurugram Police claimed that a massive crackdown has been initiated against the peo-ple who indulge in open drink-ing with more than 80 people remanded in past two months.

This, however, has failed to satisfy the residents who highlight that open drinking still persists around the area resulting in the non-safety of the citizens.

“Even after the Haryana government’s ban on the open

drinking, people still flout the rules. Further, the problem of road rage is also a major prob-lem in the area. Most of the commuters after dark drive rashly. There have been var-ious incidents of the alterca-tion between the commuters reported from the area,” said Sukhdev Sehrawat, a resident of Sukhrali village

“It has been a shame that this area is just 30 kilometres away from the national capital. Further, this area is located on a busy MG road area. Yet, you have no security presence, no proper street lights. The rap-ists of the 26-year-old woman understood the poor condi-tion of security in the area and exploited it to their advantage,” said Nidhi Kapoor, a resident of Sector 17.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

GURUGRAM: Summons will soon be issued to offenders charged under the postal chal-lan, who have not paid the fine till date in the Millenium City.

The postal challan is a digital initiative started by the Guru-gram Police where the image of traffic violators can be clicked and then posted to Gurugram Police through WhatsApp num-ber of 9999981800. Since Febru-ary, there have been 2,412 traffic violators were fined through E-challan but only 138 viola-tors have paid the fine.

“Since the inception of postal challan from February 4, the Gurugram Police has been sending challans to the residents. We have been receiving com-plaints that most of the traf-fic violators have not taken it seriously and have not paid the fines even after a time frame of 60 days were provided to them. We are now taking strict action against the viola-tors and have sent them legal notices. The non-following of legal orders will lead to an arrest,” said Sibash Kabiraj, Joint Commissioner.

Acting tough on the traffic offender, the Gurugram traffic police impounded 221 vehicles for wrong parking, levied fine on 40 underage drivers, 109 drunken drivers and revoked 424 licenses in the past few months.

Four held for robbing truck

filled with mobile phones

ANAND MOHAN J

NEW DELHI: Four persons were arrested for robbing a truck filled with mobile phones in north Delhi's Burari area on Saturday.

The incident took place on 18-19 May when the complain-ant Santosh, the driver of the Eicher canter, left from Okhla Industrial area and was on his way to Zirakpur.

When he reached outer Ring road near Burari flyover, he spotted a Tata Tempo and thought that the vehicle had broken down.

When he got down, the accused men, identified as San-jay, Salman, Sarvan Kumar and Mohammad Salman, overpow-ered the driver and abducted him.

“One of the accused took control of his Can-ter loaded with the mobile phones and drove away. Later on at about 6.30 am, they dumped him and his truck near Mundka police station area,” said a senior police official.

The men robbed 7,600 Kar-bonn mobile phones worth Rs 1 crore after which they fled from the spot.

Thirty-six hours after the crime, the police man-aged to track down the accused on the basis of secret information from various parts of the city.s

Two killed, five injured in car-rickshaw collisionOUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Two persons died and five others were injured when the group’s car collided with a makeshift rick-shaw at outer Delhi’s Baba Haridas Nagar on Saturday night.

The group was travelling in a Nissan Terrano XUV car when it collided with the vehicle. The seven men were on their way to Delhi after attending a marriage function

in Gurugram.According to a senior police

official, the deceased have been identified as Ajay and Raj, both residents of Jind district in Haryana.

Both of them were declared brought dead on arrival and were transferred to Safdarjung hospital. The injured have been shifted to Rao Tula Ram hospital.

The accident took place near Jharoda road. Vive-kanand, the makeshift rickshaw

driver in his statement to the police said that he was return-ing home when the speeding XUV came out of nowhere and rammed into the rickshaw.

The impact of the crash was such that the XUV was com-pletely crushed.

The police were later informed about the accident after which a local team was deputed along with a team from the Delhi Fire Services (DFS). The police initially faced a lot of difficulties res-

cuing the trapped passengers, but the fire officials eventu-ally cut open several parts of the car with a gas cutter and

rescued one of the passengers.The relatives of the deceased

and the injured were informed. The rickshaw driver also

reportedly sustained minor injuries. The police are now trying to ascertain if the driver of the car was driving under the influence of alcohol.

The police have in the meantime registered a case at Baba Haridas Nagar police station.

“An FIR under sections 279, 337 and 304 (A) IPC has been lodged. We will be investigating this case from all angles,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Outer), MN Tiwari.

Private ambulances fleece patients in Ggn

OUR CORRESPONDENT

GURUGRAM: Taking advantage of the lack of effective public ambulance system in the city, the private ambulances are charging exorbitant sum from the patients.

A standard rate being charged by private ambulances in the city is rupees 100 per kilometre.

However, even this rate is subjected to increase based on the critical condition of the patients.

With most of the ambulance commuting a total distance of 10 -20 kilometres, many patients are forced to pay a hefty amount ranging in thousands of rupees.

The state government has reduced the transportation taxes on the ambulances from six percent to four percent, but the ambulances have refused to refuse its rates.

The staff under ambulance union had recently protested against the government’s move of raising the taxation rate to six percent.

“The increase of rates will be passed on to patients,” stated the union.

“Taking into cognisance that the ambulance union are not reducing their rates, a taxation rate will be increased if the conditions remain the same,” said an official from the State Transportation department.

There are over 500 private ambulances plying in the city including the 100 owned by the private hospitals. In comparison to the private ambulances, there are only

16 government owned ambulances in the city.

Out of the 16, only 13 ambulances provide services under basic life support system and three under the advanced life support system. Most of the 13 government public ambulances are poorly maintained.

Recently, a 5-year-old child succumbed to his illness as he was not quickly commuted to Safdarjung Hospital because of an ambulance at Civil Hospital Gurugram which failed to start.

The mangled car at Baba Haridass Nagar PIC/MPOST

However, the hospital administration is claiming that the shortage is due to infrequent supply from Central Purchase Authority

Traffic offenders in

Ggn to be sent summons

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has agreed to examine a plea of the Income Tax department whether the North Okhla Industrial Development Authority (NOIDA) is a corporation established by the Uttar Pradesh government under the state industrial development law or not.

A Bench of Justices R K Aggarwal and A M Sapre has said it will look into the appeal filed by the I-T department against an order of the Allahabad High Court which held that NOIDA is a corporation established under the Act and, therefore, banks are not liable to deduct income tax at source on fixed deposits.

The apex court has also refused to grant any stay on the high court direction to the I-T department and asked the banks to file their counter affidavit in four weeks.

Appearing for Punjab National Bank, counsel Pankaj Garg, assisted by another lawyer Milind Garg, told the Bench that the appeal of the I-T department is not maintainable

as NOIDA is a corporation established by the state law and banks are not under the statutory obligation to deduct and pay the income tax.

The dispute on the issue first arose in 2013, when the I-T department imposed a tax liability on the banks for non- deduction of TDS on the interest income on fixed deposit receipts (FDRs) of NOIDA.

Against the decision to levy tax, the banks preferred an appeal before the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals) (CIT-A), saying the NOIDA is a corporation.

The appeal was decided in favour of the banks and, thereafter, the department preferred a petition before the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT), which again decided in

the favour of the banks.The department then

moved the Allahabad High Court against the order of the ITAT, but once again the appeal was decided against it.

The I-T department appeal before the apex court has said that the issue for consideration is whether NOIDA is a corporation entitled for exemption from deduction of income tax at source under the provisions of a notification issued in 1970 under the Income Tax Act.

It has said that the high court erred in holding that NOIDA is covered under exemption from TDS under the Income Tax Act and the assessee banks are not liable to deduct tax at source on interest paid to the NOIDA on its FDRs.

SC to examine if Noida is a corporation under UP law

Against the decision to levy tax, banks preferred an appeal before the CIT-A, saying the NOIDA is a corporation

There are over 500 private ambulances plying in the city including the 100 owned by the private hospitals PIC/MPOST

On Saturday, the police arrested two people indulging in open drinking in Sector 17 of the Millennium City

Among the collges, Stephen’s College will introduce Political Science (Hons) as their new course

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The next ple-nary session of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) is likely to be held in Swiss capi-tal Bern next month, but the chances of any breakthrough on India’s entry into the elite group still look slim, given China’s persistent opposition to it.

India had officially applied for membership of the group-ing which controls export of nuclear materials, equipment and technology in May last year. The matter came up for discussion at the Seoul plenary session of the NSG in June last year, but yielded little result with Beijing scuttling India’s bid on the ground that it was not a signatory to the non-pro-liferation treaty (NPT).

Ahead of the next NSG ple-nary session, official sources say, India has renewed its efforts to become a member of the 48-nation group by engag-ing with all member countries, but resistance from China still remains despite the pro-India push from other key players such as the US, the UK, France and Russia.

China has been pressing for a two-step process which includes setting up criteria -- a standard for admission -- for the inclusion of countries that are not signatories to the NPT. Beijing also equates India’s case with Pakistan, which,

too, has applied for the NSG membership.

The issue of India’s mem-bership is expected to be dis-cussed at the Bern meet, but the “status quo” still remains, a senior official says.

Indicating that there was

no change in China’s position towards India’s NSG bid, Chi-nese Ambassador here Luo Zhaohui at an event last month had said, “On the Nuclear Sup-pliers Group (NSG) issue, we do not oppose any country’s membership, believing that a

standard for admission should be agreed upon first.”

India has repeatedly said that China is the “one coun-try” which has been blocking its bid.

The two sides conducted two rounds of talks between

China’s nuclear negotiator Wang Qun and India’s then secretary for disarmament Amandeep Singh Gill on Sep-tember 13 and October 31 last year.

The NSG consultative group’s meeting in Novem-ber last year also ended like the Seoul plenary session. It remained inconclusive on India’s application as China continued to oppose the entry of non-NPT nations and called for a two-step “non-discrim-inatory” solution for admis-sion of such countries into the grouping.

Over the last one year, India has tried to get more support for its NSG bid, but not all its efforts have proved to be successful. For instance, Turkey has agreed to support India’s bid to the group, but it also favours Pakistan’s bid.

New Zealand has also not given any concrete assurance on supporting India’s bid.

“Prime Minister (John Phillip) Key stated that New Zealand would continue to contribute constructively to the process currently under-way in the NSG to consider India’s membership. New Zea-land is committed to working with NSG members to reach a decision as soon as possible,” a joint statement by Prime Min-ister Narendra Modi and his Kiwi counterpart John Key said after the latter’s visit to New Delhi in October last year.

5MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Monday, 22 May, 2017

mp nation

China has been pressing for a two-step process which includes setting up criteria -- a standard for admission -- for the inclusion of countries that are not signatories to the NPT. Beijing also equates India’s case with Pakistan, which, too, has applied for the NSG membership

The mobile-based grievance redressal app was launched by Singh early this month against the backdrop of incidents where jawans had taken to social media to voice their complaints

India’s chances of making it to NSG slim at Bern meet

China is the ‘one country’ which has been blocking India’s bid

Oppn to intensify efforts for joint candidate as NDA remains mute

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Amid the Cen-tre’s ruling NDA maintained silence over its nominee for the presidential poll, major opposition parties plan to intensify efforts for finalising a joint candidate for the top post for which they are likely to approach regional players.

Opposition sources said efforts are on to bring politi-cal rivals Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party on the same page, while also trying to rope in Naveen Patnaik’s BJD in Odisha.

Senior opposition leaders at the forefront of the move to field a joint candidate against the NDA nominee are likely to meet SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, BSP supremo Mayawati and Patnaik over the next few days.

They could also approach the BJP’s ally Shiv Sena. The two oldest saffron partners have been locked in rancorous disputes despite being coalition partners in governments at the Centre and in Maharashtra.

The talk of a consensus candidate gained momentum after Bihar Chief Minister Nit-ish Kumar spoke in favour of a second term for incumbent Pranab Mukherjee and prod-ded the NDA government to build a consensus around him.

The Congress, to which Mukherjee belonged before becoming the President, has so far been non-committal on a second term for him. “It is up to the government to bring about a consensus among all on a candidate it proposes,” a senior Congress leader said,

and maintained the Modi dis-pensation was unlikely to sup-port Mukherjee for a second term. Despite BJP’s emphatic victories in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, the NDA is still short of 20,000 electoral college votes to have the candidate of its choice occupy the top con-stitutional position.

The KCR Congress and the ruling TRS of Telangana have already promised to back the NDA nominee in the election.

Opposition sources said its candidate for the top post could be a non-Congressman. The names of former West Bengal governor, the euridite Gopal Krishna Gandhi, former Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar and JD(U) veteran Sharad Yadav are doing the rounds in political lobbies as possible opposition nominee.

The name of NCP chief Sharad Pawar has also been dis-cussed by the opposition camp, but the astute Maharashtra pol-itician has said he would not contest the poll.

The opposition, sources said, wanted to put up a candi-date who has impeccable secu-lar credentials, and who could “maintain secular supervision of the Indian Constitution.”

Congress president Sonia Gadhi has already held talks with key players like Sharad Pawar, Nitish Kumar, who is also the JD(U) president, CPI-M general secretary Sita-ram Yechury, CPI leader D Raja, and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

Sonia is likely to hold talks with some other leaders this week and among them could be BSP supremo Mayawati.

Sources in the Congress and some other parties said they wanted the opposition unity over the presidential elec-tion extended to the Lok Sabha election in 2019.

The Congress’ commu-nications department chief Randeep Surjewala said,” All opposition parties including the Congress will work to build a consensus for a candidate with unquestionable record of dedication and commitment to the founding principles of Constitution, bereft of politi-cal colour or pressure from the ruling dispensation.”

“We want that India should have a president who can guide the government when it goes astray on being drunk with the brute majority and remind them of ‘raj dharma’,” he said.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

GEYZING: Home Minister Rajnath Singh today assured the central paramilitary per-sonnel that he will personally check every month that any complaint registered by them on an app launched by his min-istry is speedily addressed.

The minister was speaking as he joined the jawans of the the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), posted in the inhospitable ter-rain of Indo-Nepal border in Sikkim, for a special lunch or ‘bada khana’ organised by the force. Singh, who is on a three-day visit to Sikkim, reached the headquarters of the 36th bat-talion of SSB and took stock of the situation along the interna-tional border.

He interacted with the jawans and sought to know the problems faced by them.

As the border guarding force had organised a ‘bada khana’, the home minister joined them in the vegetarian lunch comprising puri, vege-tables, dal, rice, papad, kheer and gulab jamun.

Singh asked the jawans to register their problems on the recently launched mobile appli-cation of the Home Ministry.

“I will personally check the app every month and see whether action is taken on the problems registered or not,” he said.

The mobile-based griev-

ance redressal app was launched by Singh early this month against the backdrop of incidents where jawans had taken to social media to voice their complaints.

Singh had said he “gets emotional” when he sees the jawans and officers working in difficult areas.

The centralised app is for five Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) of CRPF, BSF, CISF, ITBP, SSB besides the Delhi Police.

Four months ago, BSF jawan Tej Bahadur Yadav had created a stir when he took to social media to complain about alleged bad quality food being served to troops. Quite a few such videos followed in quick succession. The SSB is tasked to guard the 1,751-km long Indo-Nepal border.

Saharanpur: 4 arrested

for damaging Ambedkar statue

OUR CORRESPONDENT

LUCKNOW: Four persons have been arrested for alleg-edly damaging a statue of Dalit icon B R Ambedkar in Mirza-pur village of Saharanpur dis-trict, police said on Sunday.

According to a UP Police spokesperson, a hand of the statue in the village was found damaged on May 19.

Following this, police sprung into action and arrested four persons yesterday for their alleged involvement in the case.

“A case has been regis-tered. Four persons have been arrested, while a hunt for oth-ers who are suspected to be involved is on. A new statue has been installed after replac-ing the old one,” the spokesper-son added.

Neither suitcase nor horse-trading, strategy won us Goa: Gadkari

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Union Minister Nitin Gadkari today revealed how the BJP turned its defeat into victory in Goa by working throughout the night to garner the required numbers for form-ing the government and agree-ing to make the then Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar the chief minister.

He added that while the Congress was sleeping, his party worked all night in order to form the government.

At the same time, he strongly refuted any charges of horse-trading during the hectic overnight parleys.

BJP, which won 13 seats in the recently held Goa elections, managed to form the govern-ment even though the Con-gress had emerged as the single largest party with 17 seats.

“I am not a person who does political deals. I am a ‘mard’ and do everything openly. I did not carry any money to anyone in Goa.

I don’t do such things. I fight and get things done,” the senior BJP leader and Road Transport, Highways and Ship-ping Minister said at the India Today Editors Roundtable here.

He was replying to allega-tions that it was money power that ensured required numbers for BJP in Goa.

Speaking on the devel-opments on the night before BJP staked claim to form the government, Gadkari said he informed BJP President Amit Shah that the party had lost Goa and should concede defeat. However, Shah asked him to devise a strategy as he had already announced that BJP was going to form the gov-ernment in Goa.

Gadkari said he was asked by Shah to go to Goa right away after a meeting with him. “I came back home, took my clothes and left for Goa,” he said. In Goa, Gad-kari said an apparently angry Sudin Dhavalikar of Maha-rashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) came to meet him at the

Taj hotel in Panaji and shared some issues which could not be disclosed on the platform but agreed to form an alliance with the BJP on the condition that he be given a ministerial berth.

Gadkari said with Dhavalikar’s support, BJP s strength went to 16 and then he was approached by Vijay Sardesai of the Goa Forward Party (GFP).

“He has been a Congress man for his entire life. But he was being tortured by the Con-gress for past five years. We had got Dinesh Singh, who is a wrestler from Uttar Pradesh, and is a friend of Sardesai. He convinced Sardesai,” Gadkari said.

The senior minister said Sardesai, along with a minis-terial berth, wanted Manohar Parrikar to be made the chief minister.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

COIMBATORE: Top national level and state level BJP leaders will take part in rallies in Tamil Nadu from May 26 to celebrate completion of three years of the Narendra Modi govern-ment, state president Tamilisai Soundarajan said on Sunday.

“The major achievements of the government will be high-lighted during the rallies, in which top National and State level party leaders and union ministers will participate,” she told reporters here.

Referring to the increasing number of protests by the pub-lic against relocation of state run TASMAC liquor shops to residential areas, she said BJP would take out a procession, mostly comprising women, to Fort St.George, the seat of

power in Chennai, on June 16.Asked about superstar

Rajinikanth throwing hints at his entry to politics, she said it was wrong for anyone to say BJP would gain strength if he does, “as the party is already a

force to reckon with in Tamil Nadu.” She said the factional feud in AIADMK should not delay the civil body polls, which should be conducted at the earliest. She accused DMK MP Kanimozhi of spreading wrong information on NEET (National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test), saying students in Tamil Nadu would gain as Government had increased the reservations from 50 to 80 per cent. Kanimozhi had on May 18 said it was wrong to change the education system to suit NEET and instead the State government should focus on upgrading the present uniform syllabus

She said government had failed to upgrade the syllabus and was unnecessarily trying to change it, keeping NEET in mind.

Top national, state level BJP leaders at rallies from May 26

Enduring legacy: Leila Seth’s family flooded with emotional letters OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The postman knocks at their door and their mail inboxes spill over, as friends, admirers and strang-ers alike recall how their lives were touched by the late Leila Seth, India’s first woman chief justice.

Seth, 86, died earlier this month, but the outpouring of grief, love and affection continues.

“We have received so many beautiful letters, from noted personalities to ordinary peo-ple, who are sharing their feel-ings with us and the bond they enjoyed with her,” her daughter Aradhana told PTI.

From President Pranab Mukherjee to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Nobel lau-reate Amartya Sen, noted per-sonalities have written to the family. Many of the letters, such as Sen’s, were addressed to her elder son, celebrated author Vikram Seth.

Some of the messages were sent through post, while oth-ers were emailed to the family.

“The gesture is touching, but more so, it has also given us a window into the life of our mother, which we didn’t know about,” Aradhana said.

It was when they received a letter from Katha, signed by every member of the publish-

ing house, that the family got to know about the links that Jus-tice Seth shared with the liter-ary group.

“Then there are strangers, who had met mama sometime, and have recalled her persona,” she said.

Seth’s younger son Shan-tum, a peace activist, said let-ters were still coming in and from many parts of the world.

“People from the UK, the US and other places have writ-ten to us. We got beautiful and meaningful messages from (Buddhist nun) Sister Chan Khong and from the Plum Village Sangha of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh,” he told PTI.

There were so many let-ters that some were still to be opened, he said.

“Even the letters sent by Dr (Amartya) Sen or Mrs (Sonia) Gandhi are written in a very personal way, and how mama touched their lives,” he said.

Aradhana, a filmmaker, said the family planned to put old photographs up at the venue of a memorial being held for Justice Seth here on May 30.

“We wish to share the life of our mom with people, who have overwhelmed us with their show of affection and love,” Aradhana said.

“Mama touched so many lives and now those lives are touching us,” she said.

No witch-hunt but all past corruption to be probed, says Uttarakhand CM OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat on Sunday vowed to end corruption in the hill state, say-ing “scams” that took place during the previous Congress government would be probed.

Rawat said there will be no “witch-hunt” but if any politi-cian is found to be involved in corruption, a proper investi-gation will be carried out and action will be taken as per law.

“There is no political motive behind our decision to go against corruption. We want to end corruption in Uttarakhand.

If any politician is found to be involved in corruption in the past, law will take its own course,” he said in an interview.

The chief minister said the BJP government has decided to go after the liquor and min-

ing mafia and illegal slaughter houses operating in the state.

Rawat said if any “scam” under the previous govern-ment comes to light, a proper investigation will be carried out and the guilty will be punished.

“We have zero toler-ance towards corruption. But there will be no witch-hunt. Only proper investigation will be carried out to punish the guilty,” he said.

The Rawat government has

claimed to have unearthed an alleged scam of Rs 240 crore in the acquisition of land for a national highway.

“We have already handed over the probe to the CBI. Six officials allegedly involved in the scam have been suspended while legal action will be taken against the seventh who is retired,” he said.

Alleged irregularities were detected in the acquisition of farmland for the proposed NH-74 in Udham Singh Nagar district between 2011-2016.

Farmland was allegedly shown as non-agricultural land to increase the compensation amount by at least 20 times to benefit chosen stakeholders and beneficiaries, he said.

Rawat was sworn-in as chief minister of Uttarakhand on March 18 after BJP won 57 of the 70 assembly seats, oust-ing the Congress.

Use app for grievance redressal, Rajnath

tells SSB jawans

Virbhadra, wife likely to appear today in court in

DA case NEW DELHI: Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virb-hadra Singh is likely to appear as accused before a special court on Monday in a nearly Rs 10-crore disproportionate assets case.

Special Judge Virender Kumar Goyal had on May 8 issued summons against Singh, his wife Pratibha Singh and others for appearance on May 22. The charge sheet, running into over 500 pages, has claimed that Singh had amassed assets worth around Rs 10 crore which were dispro-portionate to his total income during his tenure as a Union minister. The final report, filed against Singh and eight others for the offences including forg-ery and corruption, arrayed around 225 witnesses and 442 documents.

Govt gives green signal to mega naval projectOUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: In a major move to ramp up naval strength, the Defence Ministry has given an in-principle approval for construction of four amphib-ious assault ships, also called the Landing Platform Docks (LPD), in the private sector at a cost of over Rs 20,000 crore.

It will be the largest ever naval project involving the pri-vate sector and the ships will be

the biggest to be built in India after the under-construction aircraft carrier INS Vikrant.

The long-pending project was given green signal by the Defence Acquisition Council, the top decision-making body of the Ministry, at its meeting on Saturday, informed sources said. The meeting was chaired by Defence Minister Arun Jaitley

Earlier, the Ministry had indicated that two LPDs will

be built by state-run Hindustan Shipyard Limited, Visakhapat-nam, while select private firms will be awarded contract to construct two others.

Three private sector com-panies -- Reliance Defence and Engineering Limited (RDEL), Larsen & Toubro (L&T) and ABG Shipyard -- were in race initially for the mega proj-ect but ABG was disqualified on account of poor financial health.

The sources said RDEL and Larsen and Toubro will be asked next week to submit fresh commercial bids for the four LPDs.

L&T has tied up with Navantia of Spain whereas Reli-ance Defence has tied up with French firm DCNS, considered a global leader in construction of LPDs.

Each of the ships are likely to be in the range of 30,000 and 40,000 tonnes.

Tamilisai Soundarajan

------- PREZ POLL--------

PROTESTS AGAINST WINE SHOPS CONTINUE; 2 OUTLETS RANSACKED COIMBATORE: Incidents of protests against the presence of liquor shops in the State continued with residents ransacking an outlet in the city and one in Kothagiri in nearby Nilgiris district on Sunday. Mem-bers of DYFI gathered at Rathinapuri here and brought down a shed, where a State-run TASMAC shop was functioning illegally, police said. The protestors broke liquor bottles stored there on the road as the shop was ordered to be closed, police said.

NOT AWARE OF ANY POSSIBLE RAJINI-MODI MEETING: NAIDU BENGALURU: Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu on Sunday said he was not aware of any possible meeting between actor Rajnikanth and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “Rajnikanth is a great actor. Modi is a great leader. If he wants to meet the Prime Minis-ter, there is no problem”, Naidu told reporters here. He pitched for the AIADMK ending factionalism to provide a stable government in Tamil Nadu to fulfil the promises of late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa. The Centre wants factionalism in AIADMK to be sorted out to ensure a stable government to fulfil the promises made by Jayalalithaa to the Tamil Nadu people, he said. “We have no preference,” he said.

POLICE SEIZES EXPLOSIVES AND LIQUOR IN BIHAR’S ROHTAS DISTRICT DEHRI-ON-SONE: Police on Sunday seized a consign-ment of explosives and liquor from a pick-up van from Mufassil police station area in Bihar’s Rohtas district, a police officer said. The police intercepted the pick-up van near Karbandia petrol pump during routine check-ing and seized the explosives and liquor, the Super-intendent of Police (SP) M S Dhillon said. Altogether 18,000 detonators and 1950 kg ammonium nitrate, kept in 38 sacks and 300 pouches of country-made alcohol, kept in two sacks were seized, the SP said.

BRIEFSNATION

mp nation6MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Monday, 22 May, 2017

NEW DELHI: Rahul Gandhi should become the Congress President and, under his lead-ership, the party would form government at the Centre after the next general elections, senior party leader Jyotirad-itya Scindia said today.

His remarks at an Aaj Tak event here came amidst a rag-ing debate in the party over Rahul’s elevation as the party chief.

While some Congress lead-ers are advocating his elevation, some other party leaders are of the opinion that Congress pres-ident Sonia Gandhi should not retire now.

“Rahul should become the party president and the Congress will be strength-ened under his leadership. The party will succeed in forming the government in 2019 elec-tions,” Scindia said at the event.

Ahead of the Modi govern-ment’s proposed celebration on completion of three years at the Centre, he also tore into the

ruling BJP-led dispensation, accusing it of fomenting intol-erance and an anti-Dalit atmo-sphere in the country.

Taking a jibe at the BJP’s

campaign for a “Congress-mukt Bharat”, Sindia said the government and the ruling dispensation was fomenting intolerance in the country and wanting the country free of dalits and adivasis.

“If the country has to be kept undivided and peaceful, then it has to be based on the strong foundation of commu-nal harmony. Development and progress can be made on a strong foundation only,” Scin-dia said.

On Pakistan, the Congress leader said the government was indulging in “saree and shawl” diplomacy.

“Many jawans are being killed on the border. There were so many ceasefire violations at the border. Kashmir is burn-ing today,” he said, accusing the government of failing to con-trol the situation.

He also said that China was “encircling India” but the BJP-led government was showing its helplessness.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI/AHMEDABAD: Prime Minister Nar-endra Modi will be on a two-day visit to Gujarat from today, during which he will attend the annual general meeting of African Development Bank in Gandhi-nagar and inaugurate some developmental projects.

The prime minister will also address two public meetings in Kutch district.

Modi’s visit will start with inauguration and laying of foundation stone by him for various projects of the Kandla Port in Kutch district, followed by his address to a public gathering at nearby town Gandhidham.

Later in the evening, he will be in Bhachau to inau-gurate a pumping station built on Narmada branch canal for the Kutch region. The PM will address a public gathering at Bhachau also.

Meanwhile, ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Gujarat, Patel quota agitation leader Hardik Patel and 50 of his supporters today got their heads tonsured, alleging “atrocities” against their community by the BJP government, and launched a ‘march for justice’. Hardik’s move came ahead of Modi’s scheduled two-day visit to his home state from today.

Ahead of his visit, Modi informed his followers about the programmes for the next two days through his official Twitter account on Sunday.

Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat when the massive earthquake hit the state on January 26, 2001. Kutch was worst hit by that quake. “On Tuesday, I will be in Gandhinagar to participate in the opening ceremony of the meetings of the @AfDB_Group,” the prime minister added. “The Annual Meetings of @AfDB_Group have chosen the very relevant theme of Transforming Agriculture for Wealth Creation in Africa ,” he said. On the sidelines, he will meet some of the distinguished delegates of the AfDB Group.

The AGM is expected to see participation of del-egates from around 80 countries, including some Afri-

can heads of states.This is Modi’s third visit to Gujarat in the election

year, as assembly polls are expected to be held later this year. On April 7, he had visited Botad to inaugurate the phase II of the state government’s ambitious Sauni project. Earlier on March 8, he had visited Gandhi-nagar to address women sarpanch from across the country on the International Women’s Day.

Hardik and 50 members of his Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) got their heads shaved as a mark of protest at Lathidad village this morning. Thereafter, they embarked on ‘Nyay Yatra’ from Botad district, about 155 kms from here, to highlight their demands, including inclusion in the OBC category for reservation.

“Along with the 50 PAAS members, I decided to get our heads shaved to highlight the atrocities commit-

ted by this government on our community in the last two years. Now, we are embarking on the Nyay Yatra to seek justice,” Hardik told reporters. The march, which commenced from Botad, would pass through around 50 villages and end in neighbouring Bhavnagar city.

A few days back, Hardik had announced restart-ing of the quota stir in Gujarat and said his main goal was to defeat the ruling BJP in the upcoming Assem-bly polls. The 23-year-old quota leader had accused the state government of dilly-dallying on the issue of reservation to Patel community and warned that the ruling party would face consequences in the assem-bly polls if it did come up with a definitive plan on the issue at the earliest.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KANCHEEPURAM: DMK Working President MK Sta-lin on Sunday wondered how Prime Minister Narendra Modi could meet AIADMK (Purat-chi Thalaivi Amma) leader O Panneerselvam but not the farmers or himself, who wanted to take up their cause with him.

Stalin said he was not find-ing fault with the meeting between Modi and the for-mer Tamil Nadu Chief Minis-ter in Delhi two days back, but sought to know why he had no time for farmers from the state, who had been staging protest in the national capital for long.

Panneerselvam was not holding any position now and was only a Member of Legis-lative Assembly (MLA) but he was given appointment by Modi on “short notice,” Sta-lin said.

“What I am asking is, you

(PM) are aware of the plight of farmers who are facing so many difficulties. They held protest in Delhi for almost 50 days.”

“But the Prime Minister never gave an appointment to them.. They said you (PM) may not heed their demands but atleast give an audience for their satisfaction to hear them out,” he said.

Stalin was speaking after participating in his party’s desilting of a water body in this district where he also operated an earth mover.

The DMK leader recalled that he, as Leader of Opposi-tion (LoP) in the state assembly had recently chaired an “all-party meeting” to discuss farm-ers’ problems in Tamil Nadu.

Among the resolutions passed there was to meet the Prime Minister and convey to him the decisions taken in the meeting, he said.

The Prime Minister could atleast meet him on behalf of all party leaders even if he could not grant an audience to all of them, he said.

“We had sought appoint-ment (with Modi) and are wait-ing.. But there has been no response from the Prime Min-ister’s Office (so far).”

“Prime Minister is meet-ing someone (Panneerselvam) who is holding no post.. But he doesn’t meet the LOP who has so much responsibility to dis-cuss farmers’ problems,” Sta-lin said.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

MUMBAI: The much-awaited ‘Tejas Express’ with ultra-modern amenities on board like LED TV, wi-fi, CCTV et al will be flagged off from the city to Goa by Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu today.

“Tomorrow is going to be a historic day for the Indian Railways when Tejas Express, which boasts of ultra-modern amenities like on board info-tainment, wi-fi, CCTV, fire and smoke detection facilities, tea/coffee vending machine etc will make its maiden run from Mumbai,” D K Sharma, general manager of the Central Rail-way, said today.

Sharma, who inspected the train at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Mumbai (CSTM) likened Tejas Express with an “aeroplane moving on the ground”.

“I would say that traveling by this premium train would provide a better experience than flying in a plane. This train would pass through the lush greenery of the Konkan belt, giving a picturesque view of the seashore, mountains and valleys, which will let you enjoy the journey and not just the destination (Goa),” he said.

When asked about reports that a few miscreants had dam-aged the windows of the Tejas Express, even before its launch, the official said, “We have taken proper note of it and it is no more an issue now.”

Giving the details of the route and schedule of the train, Sharma said it would run between Mumbai and Karmali (Goa) five days a week during non-monsoon period and three days a week during monsoon by halting at Dadar,

Thane, Panvel, Ratnagiri and Kudal stations. “Train No 22119 Superfast Tejas Express will leave CST at 5 AM every Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday from May 24 and arrive at Karmali at 1.30 PM the same day.

PM Modi on two-day visit to Gujarat from today

Congress will form govt at the Centre after 2019 polls: Scindia

OUR CORRESPONDENT

AMETHI: Congress lead-ers here today paid tributes to Bharat Ratna awardee and former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi on his 26th death anni-versary at the party office in Gauriganj.

The programme was attended by Chandra Kant Dubey, the representative of Congress vice president and Amethi MP Rahul Gandhi along with MLC Dipak Singh, the party’s district unit chief Yogendra Mishra among others.

Congress activists high-

lighted Gandhi’s contribution to transform the country as modern India by introducing the use of computers.

Some party leaders also donated blood at the Sanjay Gandhi Hospital at Munshiganj to commemorate the occasion.

Gandhi has also repre-sented the Amethi Lok Sabha constituency in Parliament from 1980 to 1991.

Rajiv Gandhi was assassi-nated on this day in 1991 in a suicide bomb attack by Lib-eration Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) during an election rally at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The BJP does not support cow vigilantes or citizens taking law into their own hands, Union Minister Smriti Irani said on Sunday.

Asked about the so-called ‘anti-Romeo’ squads and cow vigilante groups in Uttar Pradesh after the Yogi Adity-anath- led BJP government came to power, Irani said: “Everyone should work within the ambit of law. If somebody flouts laws unconstitutionally they will not get support from the BJP.”

Speaking at the India Today Editors Roundtable event here, she said the “Prime Minister and all BJP leaders believe that law cannot be taken into the hands by a vigilante or citi-zen. It has to be enforced by the police.”

Asked about her ‘Cotto-nIsCool’ campaign, the tex-tiles minister said her ministry wants sales of cotton to rise so that farmers associated with the crop can benefit.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

MUMBAI: The Maharashtra government on Sunday assured the Legislative Council that it would take steps to stop the construction of a memorial of Nathuram Godse being built by an organisation in Saparde village near Kalyan in neigh-bouring Thane.

The assurance came after Congress MLC Sanjay Dutt raised the issue in the Upper House through a point of pro-priety and demanded that the government should urgently intervene to stop the construc-tion of the memorial.

As per reports, Hindu Mahasabha is constructing the memorial of Godse, the assassin of Mahatma Gan-dhi, at Saparde village, six kms from Kalyan and land has been acquired for the purpose.

“After coming to power by promising ‘sabka sath, sabka vikas’, the real face of the ruling government is coming to light,

which proves that for them it is actually ‘Mann mein Ram, dil mein Nathuram (Lord Ram in mind, Nathuram in heart),” Dutt said.

“The fascist forces, who killed Mahatma Gandhi are now blatantly raising their heads once again to continu-ously throttle Bapu’s ideals and teachings, while the govern-ment is turning a blind eye to it,” he added. Dutt asserted that Congress, along with all secular forces, will not allow it to hap-pen, no matter what.

“Nathuram’s memorial coming up in Kalyan is a blot on progressive Maharashtra and sends a very wrong mes-sage across India and even internationally,” he said.

Hence, the government should immediately intervene to stop it and also take strict action against those initiating it as well as the authorities con-cerned who have failed to take prompt action in the matter, Dutt said.

PAAS convener Hardik Patel getting his head tonsured in protest against Gujarat Govt in Bhavnagar on Sunday PTI

Stalin wonders how PM met OPS but not farmers in Delhi

Cong pays tributes to Rajiv Gandhi on 26th death anniversary

Will stop construction of Godse memorial: Patil

BJP does not support cow

vigilantes groups: Irani

Railway minister to fag off luxurious Tejas Express today

He also tore into the ruling BJP-led dispensation, accusing it of fomenting intolerance and an anti-Dalit atmosphere in the country

OUR CORRESPONDENT

MORADABAD: Facing criti-cism over the law and order situation, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday said criminal elements, who had a free run over the last 15 years, were trying to create “mischief” and warned of strict action against those taking the law into their hands.

Addressing a function here, he claimed that the crime graph has come down after his gov-ernment took charge and the situation will improve fur-ther in coming days. He said those violating the law will not be spared, regardless of their political affiliation.

“Our main priority is to establish rule of law in the state. I want to assure the peo-ple of the state that if someone tries to take the law into their hands, the government and the administration will deal with them firmly.

“Some people have been spoilt over the last fifteen years, and their habits will not change in a day. They are still trying to do mischief in some areas.

“I want to warn them again that they should mend their ways or be ready to face the consequences. We will not let any farmer, labourer, trader or daughter suffer,” he said.

The CM said his govern-ment had cracked down on the anti- social elements, who had their way during the last 15 years, and cited the anti-Romeo squads against eveteas-ing and shutting down of illegal slaughterhouses.

“Every person in the state is feeling safe .... Criminals should leave the state or be ready to go to jail,” said Adityanath.

The CM said he was visiting every division to take stock of the law and order situation and development work there.

He was addressing a gathering after distributing wheelchairs to the physically challenged at village Ratupura.

Mischief makers will face strict

action: Adityanth

UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath arrives for a meeting in Moradabad on Sunday PTI

Prabhu inaugurates Wi-Fi facility at 28 railway stationsMUMBAI: Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu on Sunday inaugurated free Wi-Fi facility at 28 railway stations on Konkan Railway. He also inaugurated improved passenger amenities and facilities at Kudal and Chiplun stations. Konkan Railway has tied up with broadband and internet service pro-vider Joister to provide Wi-Fi facility at its stations. “We are launching free Wi-Fi facility at the railway stations across the country under the Digital India campaign. CEO of Google Sundar Pichai too has shown interest in this project.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

SAMBHAL: The protesting family members of a soldier, who was killed in Pakistani fir-ing last year, on Sunday agreed to end their indefinite fast say-ing Chief Minister Yogi Aditya-nath had promised to visit their village.

The Uttar Pradesh chief minister, who was on an offi-cial tour to Moradabad, met the father, brother and an uncle of deceased sepoy Sudesh Kumar on Sunday.

According to family mem-bers of the deceased soldier, Adityanath promised to visit not only their village but also those of other jawans, who have laid their lives for the country.

“The chief minister assured us that development work will begin in our village....He also said that he will visit the house of every martyr of Uttar Pradesh,” Manoj Kumar, brother of Sudesh Kumar, who was killed along the LoC in J&K, said.

Adityanath also promised that work for starting an inter-college in the village will begin soon, he added.

Manoj Kumar said that Uttar Pradesh’s Minister of State for Social Welfare, Sched-uled Castes and Tribal Welfare Gulabo Devi will now visit the family to facilitate the ending of their fast. The soldier’s fam-ily had been agitating claim-ing non- fulfilment of promises made to them. They had also demanded that the CM should visit them.

Hardik shaves head, tries to kick up a storm ahead of PM’s visit

Family of martyr agree to end fast

after meeting Adityanath

7MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Monday, 22 May, 2017

mp nationCal HC to hold special

sittings during vacationSpl CBI court to resume Ayodhya case trial today

DEHRADUN: The Centre has moved the Supreme Court over the Uttarakhand High Court judgement to accord the status of a “living human entity” to the Ganga river, citing admin-istrative issues relating to the implementation of the order.

Uttarakhand minister and state government spokesper-son Madan Kaushik cited the High Court order of March 20 which stated that the Chief Sec-retary and the Advocate Gen-eral would act as the “legal parents” of the Ganga and Yamuna rivers.

“Since the matter of clean-ing the Ganga is not just restricted to Uttarakhand, as it also flows through West Ben-

gal, how could the Chief Secre-tary and the Advocate General tackle all the issues related to the river,” he asked.

“That is why the Central government has approached the apex court on this matter,” he said. Kaushik said the state government was also a party to the petition moved in the Supreme Court.

However, he welcomed the Uttarakhand High Court’s order according the status of “living human entities” to the Ganga and Yamuna, two of India’s most sacred rivers.

The matter also related to mining and stone crush-ing along the banks of the Ganga. AGENCIES

OUR CORRESPONDENT

LUCKNOW: The trial in the politically-sensitive 1992 Babri Masjid demolition case by a special CBI court will resume here today, following a Supreme Court order to it to hear the case on a daily basis and deliver the verdict in two years.

The Supreme Court had on April 19 directed the spe-cial court to start the pro-ceedings in the matter within a month and deliver its ver-dict within two years. The CBI court during its first hearing in the state capital granted bail to five VHP leaders named as accused, including Ram Vilas Vedanti, who appeared before it yesterday.

Besides Vedanti (59), those who appeared before the CBI court here on Saturday were VHP leaders Champat Rai (71), Baikunth Lal Sharma (88), Mahant Nritya Gopal Das (79) and Dharmdas Maharaj (68). The sixth accused, Satish Prad-han, did not appear.

CBI special court judge S K Yadav allowed their bail pleas asking each of them to furnish two sureties of Rs 20,000 and a personal bond of the same amount. The Supreme Court had last month directed that BJP stalwarts, including L K Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and Uma Bharti, will face trial

on conspiracy charges in the demolition case.

It had dubbed the demoli-tion of the medieval era monu-ment as a “crime” which shook the “secular fabric of the Con-stitution” and allowed CBI’s plea on restoration of criminal conspiracy charges against the VVIP accused.

The matter is likely to have political implications, particularly against 89-year-old Advani, reported to be a front-runner for the post of the President.

The top court, however, had said Kalyan Singh, who is currently the Governor of Raj-asthan and during whose ten-ure as Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh the disputed structure

was razed, is entitled to immu-nity under the Constitution as long as he held a gubernatorial position. “The Court of Ses-sions will frame charges and move against him as soon as he ceases to be Governor,” it said.

The apex court had come down heavily on the CBI for a delay of 25 years in the trial and said, “The accused persons have not been brought to book largely because of the conduct of the CBI in not pursuing the prosecution of the afore-said alleged offenders in a joint trial, and because of technical defects which were easily cur-able, but which were not cured by the State Government.”

Issuing a slew of directions, a bench comprising Justices P

C Ghose and R F Nariman had said, “The proceedings viz.

Crime No. 198/92 (against Advani and five others) in the court of the Special Judi-cial Magistrate at Rae Bareilly will stand transferred to the Court of Additional Sessions Judge (Ayodhya Matters) at Lucknow.”

Besides Advani, Joshi and Bharti, the accused against whom the conspiracy charge would now be invoked, are Vinay Katiar, Sadhvi Ritamb-hara, Vishnu Hari Dalmia, who were being tried at Rae Bareilly.

“The court of sessions will frame additional charges under Section 120-B (conspir-acy) and the other provisions of the Penal Code mentioned

in the joint charge sheet filed by the CBI against Champat Rai Bansal, Satish Pradhan, Dharam Das, Mahant Nritya Gopal Das, Mahamadlesh-war Jagdish Muni, Ram Bilas Vadanti, Vaikunth Lal Sharma and Satish Chandra Nagar,” Justice Nariman, writing the judgement for the bench, said.

“The court of sessions will, after transfer of the pro-ceedings from Rae Bareilly to Lucknow and framing of addi-tional charges, within four weeks, take up all the matters on a day-to-day basis from the stage at which the trial proceed-ings, both at Rae Bareilly and at Lucknow, are continuing, until conclusion of the trial.

“There shall be no de novo (fresh) trial. There shall be no transfer of the Judge conduct-ing the trial until the entire trial concludes. The case shall not be adjourned on any ground except when the sessions court finds it impossible to carry on the trial for that particular date,” the apex court had said.

The court also said if the trial is adjourned, then it should be fixed on the the next day or a closely proximate date and the reasons for it shall be recorded in writing. “The sessions court will complete the trial and deliver the judgement within a period of 2 years from the date of receipt of this judgement,” it said.

NEW DELHI: A fresh rep-resentation has been made to the President on behalf of Calcutta High Court judge C S Karnan seeking suspension of the Supreme Court order sentencing him to six-month imprisonment for contempt of court, a lawyer representing him has said.

Advocate Mathews J Nedumpara said that he, along with other counsel represent-ing the high court judge and his son CS Sugan, met Ashok Mehta, the Secretary to the President, and handed over an application for suspension of the sentence under Article 72 of the Constitution.

He said they have sought personal audience for Justice Karnan with the President. The lawyers took the ground in the application that Justice Kar-nan will be unable to exercise

any remedy if he is arrested. The controversial judge has not been arrested yet.

“Therefore, an application seeking the President’s inter-vention under Article 72 has been made,” Nedumpara said.

Article 72 states that the President shall have the power to grant pardons, reprieves, respites or remissions of pun-ishment or to suspend, remit or commute the sentence of

any person convicted of any offence. In the application it has been contended that the Supreme Court had acted without jurisdiction, the law-yer said. On May 9, a seven-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice J S Khehar, had sen-tenced Justice Karnan to six months jail for contempt of court and ordered the West Bengal police to take him into custody forthwith.

Nedumpara had earlier claimed that the defence team made an identical representa-tion to the President through an e- mail. However, the Presi-dent’s Office had said, “It was not aware of any such repre-sentation.” The latest applica-tion has been filed after the apex court’s registry refused to accept Justice Karnan’s petition seeking recall of the May 9 judgement. AGENCIES

UNNAO (UP): Eleven coaches of the Mumbai-Lucknow Lok-manya Tilak Express derailed here on Sunday but fortunately a tragedy was averted as the train was moving at a slow pace, the police said.

No casualties were reported though some passengers received minor injuries, an official said.

“At around 2.00 pm today, 11 coaches of the Mumbai- Luc-know Lokmanya Tilak Express derailed when it arrived at the platform number 3 of Unnao station. Since the train’s speed was slow, a bigger tragedy has been averted. All the passen-gers are safe,” Superintendent of Police, Unnao, Neha Pan-dey said.

She said the passengers had been provided food and water

and alternate arrangements were being made to send them to their destinations.

The police official added that a team of the Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) was expected to arrive to exam-ine the spot.

“Photography and videog-raphy of the spot is being done. A team of UP ATS is likely to arrive at the spot from Luc-know,” Pandey said.

Some passengers however sustained minor injuries, as they tried to come out of the train. The incident came as a shock to them, a police offi-cial said. The railway track has also been damaged due to the derailment.

Senior officials of the Rail-way and district administration also reached the spot. AGENCIES

NEW DELHI: The Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) which offer skill education will soon be developed into formal schools like those affiliated to CBSE and ICSE to enable the ITI gradu-ates to pursue regular courses in other schools and colleges.

A proposal which was mooted by the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepre-neurship, has been accepted by the HRD Ministry and is likely to benefit over 2 million students graduating from over 13,000 ITIs every year. “A sepa-rate board on the lines of CBSE and ICSE will be set up which will award certificates at par with those given to students clearing class 10 and 12 from regular boards. This will help ITI graduates to pursue regu-lar courses in other schools and colleges,” a senior HRD Minis-try official said. Once the pro-posal is formalised, the National Council for Vocational Training (NCVT) will be authorised to conduct academic examination and certification for class 10 and 12 for the ITI students. “Follow-ing consultations with education boards, bodies like UGC and AICTE will be informed that they should instruct all colleges and universities to recognise ITI graduates as class 12 pass outs,” the official added. AGENCIES

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: In a bid to reduce the number of cases pending before it, the Calcutta High Court will hold special sittings during the summer vacation to hear cases that were instituted prior to 2000.

The move has, however, been opposed by the Bar Association which has passed a resolution against it on the grounds that of the two-week vacation, the court will hold sittings on nine days.

While supporting moves to reduce pendency of cases, the association has sought filling up of vacancies of judges. The Calcutta High Court has at present 35 judges, while it has a sanctioned strength of 72 judges, according to the website of the high court. The High Court’s registrar general,

Sugata Majumdar, said in an order published in the cause list (schedule of cases to be heard by the court) that “it is the solemn desire of the Acting Chief Justice (Justice Nishita Mhatre) to organise special sittings of the benches of this High Court during summer vacation, in order to hear pending cases which were instituted prior to January one, 2000.”

The high court, which will be on vacation from May 22 to June three, will hear such matters on five days during this period. In addition to these special sittings, vacation bench which hears urgent matters will also sit on four days during this period. These special sittings will be held on May 22, 24, 26, 29 and June 2, while the vacation bench will sit on May 23, 25, 30 and June 1, according

to the cause list published by the high court administration.

The move has been opposed by the Calcutta High Court Bar Association, which said its members will not attend the special sittings. “We want reduction in the number of pending cases, but the lawyers also need some respite during the gruelling summer,” said Calcutta High Court Bar Association general secretary Suranjan Dasgupta.

“Out of two weeks of summer vacation, the court will have special sittings on five days, while there will be another four days of vacation bench,” Dasgupta said. “What will be left of the vacation then,” he asked, adding that the association has passed a resolution that its member lawyers would not attend the special sittings.

“We want the issue of filling up vacancies in the judiciary to be taken up urgently in order to address the problem of pendency of a huge number of cases before the high court,” he said earlier this week. “Nearly three lakh cases are pending before the high court at present,” executive member of West Bengal Bar Council Ashok Bakshi said.

“While pendency of cases has to be reduced, five days of special sitting will not vastly change the scenario,” Bakshi, a senior advocate, said.

Centre approaches SC over Uttarakhand HC order on Ganga

Fresh representation made to Prez: Justice Karnan’s lawyer

Mumbai-Lucknow express derailed at Unnao

Repair works underway after the train derailed on Sunday PIC/PTI

ITIs to be remodelled into formal

schools

NEW DELHI: The Central Information Commission has asked the Indian Navy to disclose the reasons for India agreeing to cost escalation by Russia for purchase of refurbished aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov.

The commission also directed the defence ministry to disclosure reasons why the country chose a refurbished warship in place of purchasing a new one.

The deal for purchasing the ship, rechristened as INS Vikramaditya, was signed in 2004 by the then NDA govern-ment at $ 974 million which was increased to final price of $ 2.35 billion in 2010. The com-mission has also directed the

Indian Navy to disclose “net final cost” including the expen-diture on the modifications, renovations and remodelling done on the now 30-year-old ship and also dates of payments made by India.

The Navy was trying to mis-lead the Commission claiming that the information was to be provided by the defence min-istry but the ministry made it clear that all the files are held by the Naval Headquarters and they have been asked to dis-close the details.

Information Commissioner Amitava Bhattacharyya noted that the Navy was trying to put the onus of disclosure on the defence ministry whereas the ministry made clear that the

reply is to be furnished by the force. Bhattacharyya directed the Navy to disclose file not-ings, correspondence, docu-ments related to the acceptance of cost- revisions demanded by the Russians. The commission has directed the disclosure as it found that there was a “larger public interest” in the informa-tion which was withheld by the ministry and the Navy on the grounds of national security.

Bhattacharyya also directed the ministry to disclose reasons why India chose to opt for a refurbished warship in place of a new one. The case relates to RTI application filed by activ-ist Subhash Agrawal who had demanded a range of informa-tion on the acquisition of the

44,500 tonne aircraft carrier.The ship was originally

commissioned by the erstwhile USSR on December 20, 1987 and was decommissioned in 1996. After being inducted in the Navy as Vikramaditya, the ship is now a floating airfield with the length of 284 meters.

It is a 20-storeyed steel megastructure floating in sea from keel to the highest point. The ship can carry over 30 air-craft including state-of- the-art MiG 29K or Sea Harriers, Kamov 31, Kamov 28, Sea King, ALH-Dhruv and Chetak helicopters. With 22 decks and a capacity of 1,600 personal, the ship can sustain itself in sea for 45 days up to a range of over 13,000 kms. AGENCIES

Disclose why India accepted cost escalations for Gorshkov: CIC

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court has refused to entertain a plea seek-ing to restrain those defeated in Lok Sabha elections from contesting the Rajya Sabha polls.

The petitioner submitted that his repeated requests made to the Minis-try of Law and Justice and the Election Commission under the Right to Infor-mation (RTI) Act seeking to know what actions have been taken in this regard did not elicit any response.

He also sought the courts direction to restrain candidates defeated in the Lok Sabha elections from contesting the Rajya Sabha polls. A bench of Act-

ing Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar said that the petitioner had an alternative, equally effective rem-edy available to him, which he had not availed and therefore, the petition could not be entertained.

“This writ petition is dismissed with liberty to the petitioner to invoke an appropriate remedy of appeal available to him under the Right to Informa-tion (RTI) Act,” it added. The bench further said that in case, the petitioner was aggrieved by the decision taken by the appellate tribunal under the RTI, it would be open for him to assail it by way of appropriate legal proceedings before this court. The petitioner, Satya Narayan Prasad, who claimed to be a

social activist, had moved the court say-ing that India being a democratic coun-try and the people being supreme in electing its leaders, “it is a misfortune that politicians who are defeated in the general elections are nominated to the Upper House”.

Seeking a direction to the Minis-try of Law and Justice and the Elec-tion Commission of India (ECI), the petitioner had said, “Any candidate who contested Lok Sabha election and has been defeated, he be declared dis-qualified for being a Member of Parlia-ment (MP).” “Such candidates cannot be nominated or allowed to contest in Rajya Sabha election,” the plea had said, adding that this was “against the

fundamental principle of democracy, wherein mandate/votes on Indian citi-zen is supreme”.

Pleading for special rules and pro-visions to ban the leaders who have lost in Lok Sabha polls from contesting in Rajya Sabha election, the 51-year-old petitioner said that action be taken against the authorities concerned who have “wrongly nominated such dis-qualified candidates for membership in Parliament”. He said that no reply had been given by the ministry and the poll panel even after repeated attempts were made by him to know why an ordi-nance would not be passed to prevent such candidates from being nominated to the Upper House.

HC dismisses plea to stop Lok Sabha poll losers from getting into Rajya Sabha

NEW DELHI: Over 1,800 IAS officers have failed to submit details of their immovable assets to the government within the stipulated time frame this year.

All officers of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) are mandated to submit Immovable Property Returns (IPRs) of a year by January-end of the following year, failing which their promotion and empanelment can be denied.

As per Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) data, as many as 1,856 IAS officers have not submitted their returns for 2016.

Of them, the highest of 255 such officers are from Uttar Pradesh cadre, 153 from Rajasthan, 118 from Madhya Pradesh, 109 from West Bengal

and 104 from Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram-Union Territories (AGMUT) cadre.

As per norms, civil services officers are also supposed to give details of their assets and liabilities to the government.

Besides, the officers need to take prior permission from the central government before accepting gifts worth more than Rs 5,000.

There are 82 IAS officers from Karnataka cadre, 81 from Andhra Pradesh, 74 from Bihar, 72 each from Odisha and Assam- Meghalaya, 70 from Punjab, 67 from Maharashtra, 64 from Manipur-Tripura and 60 officers from the Himachal Pradesh cadre who have not submitted the IPR for 2016, according to the DoPT data. AGENCIES

Over 1,800 IAS officers fail to

disclose asset details

The Supreme Court had last month directed that BJP stalwarts, including L K Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and Uma Bharti, will face trial on conspiracy charges in the demolition case

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s monthly address – ‘Mann Ki Baat’ – being aired to about 150 countries – has evoked a “huge response” from people of Indian-origin living abroad, an All India Radio (AIR) director has said.The address, telecast live in Hindi, is also broadcast in a translated version in English. Ex-cerpts of the speech are aired in various other languages, including Russian, French, Urdu and Chinese. AIR External Services Division Director Amlanjyoti Mazumdar said, the “huge Indian diaspora across the globe” have the “right to connect to the prime minister of their parent country”. The official said that they had received a number of messages, mostly from African countries. AGENCIES

Huge response to PM Modi’s monthly address: AIR

mp editorial

Considering that the scoreline in the last round of Assem-bly elections before

Narendra Modi’s third anni-versary of the assumption of power was 3-2 in the Con-gress’s favour, one can only say that his approval rating has been average.

True, the final line-up of winners became 4-1 because the Prime Minister’s factotums were able to dislodge the Con-gress from its No 1 position in Goa and Manipur with some nimble politicking.

But the fact remains that the supposedly moribund Congress won a handsome vic-tory in Punjab over the Akali Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) combine and was ini-tially the largest party in the Goa and Manipur legislatures.

It was the BJP’s overwhelm-ing success in Uttar Pradesh which reinforced Modi’s larger-than-life image. But the reality is more mundane even if the country has been able to emerge from the policy paral-ysis of the twilight years of the Manmohan Singh government by achieving a more than seven per cent growth rate, up from 5.6 per cent in 2012-13 and 6.6 per cent in 2013-14.

However, the availability of jobs fell to its lowest level in 2015 and 2016 with figures of 155,000 and 231,000 new jobs compared to one million in 2009, which was Manmohan Singh’s best year before Sonia Gandhi’s populism undercut the economic reforms.

The reason for the slow job growth is known. It is the

increasing resort to automa-tion by the industries. But with 12 million to 15 million new job seekers entering the mar-ket every year, India’s demo-graphic dividend of having a young workforce may become something of a nightmare.

If a recent study neverthe-less showed that 60 per cent of the respondents thought well of Modi, it meant that a large section of the people have retained their faith in his abil-ity to take the country in the right economic direction.

There may be misgivings about the activities of the saf-fron militants. But these are probably seen as being iso-lated incidents which are high-lighted by the media and do not affect the average people who are more concerned about the continuing unemployment rate, which has been noted by 63 per cent of those surveyed, and inflation (66 per cent).

But what has apparently impressed the people the most is the absence of corruption in the higher levels, which was the single most important fac-tor in the Manmohan Singh government’s downfall.

However, as the disquiet about unemployment and high prices show, Modi is still basi-cally on a shaky ground which has been camouflaged by his rhetoric and the TINA (There Is No Alternative) factor at the national level although he has faced stiff resistance in several states. The results in Punjab, in the Karnataka by-elections and West Bengal local body polls, have shown that it will take a long time, if ever, for the BJP’s dream of a Congress-mukt (free) Bharat to be fulfilled.

At the all-India level, how-ever, Modi holds almost com-plete sway, for none of the other parties has measured up to popular expectations.

The Congress has had to depend on Sonia Gandhi again despite her indifferent health because of Rahul Gandhi’s palpable inadequacies; Nit-ish Kumar has become even more deeply entangled in Bihar’s scam-tainted politics; Mulayam Singh Yadav’s pri-mary battle is still with his son, Akhilesh; Mamata Banerjee has remained a state-level poli-tician essentially in ideas, and personal appeal and Naveen Patnaik appears uninterested in the world outside Odisha.

The forthcoming Presiden-tial election will be yet another test of the respective strengths of the BJP and its opponents. As of now, the former appears to have its nose ahead in the race, especially because of the expected support from the Telangana Rashtra Samithi and the YSR Congress.

But much will depend on who the BJP chooses as its can-

didate, for it will show whether the party has risen to its stature after three years in power at the Centre to be a genuine national party or is still beholden to its friend, philosopher and guide -- the Rashtriya Swayamse-vak Sangh (RSS) -- for seeing a multicultural nation through saffron-tinted glasses.

In all the appointments to the supposedly autono-mous institutions that have been made so far, the BJP has allowed the RSS to plant its standard-bearers, even if the latter are not known for a wide recognition of their talents.

These devoted saffroni-tes include the heads of such well-regarded institutions as the Indian Council of Histori-cal Research and the Indian Council for Social Science Research. It is an open ques-tion whether these institutions will retain their high status once their terms end and not be deemed a “circus”, as the Nobel Prize winner Venkatra-man Ramakrishnan called the recent science congress.

But irrespective of who becomes the President -- whether a deeply-hued saf-fronite or someone perceived as neutral -- the possibility of a second innings for Modi looms large at the end of his three years in office.

His success is based on the image of being a man of devel-opment which has remained untainted by the depredations of the gau rakshaks and other Hindu fundamentalists. IANS

(Amulya Ganguli is a political analyst. The views

expressed are personal.)

8MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Monday, 22 May, 2017

India seems to be rationalising its West Asia policy with a tilt towards Israel although it con-tinues to extend its support to

the Palestinian cause apparently not to annoy the Arab World.

Considering that the question of Palestine is at the core of the Arab-Israel conflict, the Modi government is trying to balance its ties. As part of the new narrative, India is not only de-hyphenating its relationship with Israel vis-à-vis Arab world but also trying to balance and strengthen its relationship with both Palestine and Israel.

While hosting Palestinian Presi-dent Mahmoud Abbas in New Delhi recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is scheduled to visit Israel on July 5-6, assured the visiting leader of India’s “unwavering support” to the Palestine cause.

Modi categorically told Abbas that India wanted to “see the realisation of a sovereign, independent, united and viable Palestine, coexisting peacefully with Israel,” thus giving full support to the two-nation solution to the Pal-estinian problem.

With widespread domestic sup-port for robust Indo-Israel ties, New Delhi seems to be changing and ratio-nalising its template of West Asia pol-icy by strengthening its partnership with the Jewish state, said Omair Anas, Research Fellow at the Indian Council of World Affairs in New Delhi.

This perhaps was the reason, he said, the Palestinian President wanted India to play a role in the Arab-Israel conflict.

The first indication of India’s tilt towards Israel, observers say, came in July 2015 when it abstained from vot-ing at United Nations Human Rights Council on alleged war crimes being committed by Israel as well as Hamas during the 2014 war which Israel termed as Operation Protective Edge. In 2016, India again abstained from voting on a similar resolution.

India also appeared to be wavering in its support to Palestine on the issue of East Jerusalem, which is under Isra-el’s control. Palestine considers East Jerusalem as its capital.

The joint statement issued after talks between Modi and Abbas did not mention about East Jerusalem, unlike in the past when India has always spo-ken in favour of Palestine on the East Jerusalem issue.

Perhaps aware of India’s tilt towards Israel, Abbas, when asked by reporters about the Prime Minister visiting Pal-estine, just said: “Prime Minister Modi is always welcome to visit Palestine, a country loved by hundreds of millions of Indians.”

Some observers are of the view that while strengthening its ties with Israel, India should keep in mind that the Jewish state was an occupy-ing power, as acknowledged by the United Nations because of its control over Gaza, the West Bank, East Jerusa-lem and Syrian Golan Heights.

Modi’s visit to Israel will be stand-alone. Most political visits from India to Israel also included Palestine. This indicates that the Prime Minister wants to make India’s ties with Israel more transparent. Previous Indian governments were hesitant about deepening its relations with Israel fear-ing an adverse reaction from Muslims in India and the Arab world.

Prominent among those who vis-ited both Israel and Palestine included L K Advani as Union Home Minister in 2000, Jaswant Singh, External Affairs Minister also in 2000, S M Krishna in 2012 and the current External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj in 2016.

President Pranab Mukherjee paid state visits to Palestine and Israel in October 2015. This was the first ever visit by the President of India to both the countries, highlighting the impor-

tance India attaches to its relations with them.

Possibly not to upset the Arab world by going to Israel and to dis-pel the notion of a shift in India’s pol-icy vis-à-vis Palestine, Modi has paid very successful visits to Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Qatar.

Since the NDA government came to power, cooperation between India and Israel has increased in defence and other sectors. Last month, Israel signed a 1.6 billion dollar deal with India to supply advanced missile defence sys-tems bolstering bilateral military ties under a contract said to be the larg-est in Israel’s defence industry history.

India’s support to the Palestinian cause and its friendship with the peo-ple of Palestine have been an integral part of its time-tested foreign pol-icy. In 1947, India voted against the partition of Palestine at the United Nations General Assembly. In 1974 India was the first non-Arab coun-try to recognise PLO as the sole and legitimate representative of the Pales-tinian people. India was one of the first countries to recognise the State of Pal-estine in 1988. In 1996, India opened its Representative Office to the Pales-tine Authority in Gaza, which was later shifted to Ramallah in 2003.

While India has taken an inter-est in the West Asia peace process, it is unlikely that it will get involved directly in brokering a settlement

between Israel and Palestine, which has been urging India to do so.

There have been regular bilateral visits between India and Palestine. Late Palestinian President Yasser Ara-fat visited India several times. Presi-dent Abbas also came to India several times.

India has been providing material and technical assistance to the Pales-tine people. With the Indian govern-ment aid, two projects in the field of higher education namely Jawaharlal Nehru Library at the Al-Azhar Uni-versity in Gaza City and the Mahatma Gandhi Library-cum-Student Activ-ity Centre at the Palestine Technical College at Deir Al Balah in the Gaza Strip were completed. Under India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) Forum’s assistance, an indoor multi-purpose sports complex has been constructed in Ramallah.

During the visit of Presi-dent Mukherjee to Palestine, India announced five more projects (worth $17.79 million). The projects include a Techno Park in Ramallah ($12 mil-lion), Palestine Institute of Diplomacy ($4.5 million), and India-Palestine Centre of Excellence in ICT in Gaza ($1 million).

India and Palestine signed five agreements after talks between Modi and Abbas. These included in the fields of agriculture, healthcare, youth affairs and sports, technology and electronics.

Since trade between India and Pal-estine is channelised through Israel, comprehensive trade statistics are not available. Limited data suggests that India-Palestine bilateral trade stands at around US$ 30 million. In terms of sectors, automotive spare parts, med-ical tourism, agro-products, textiles, fabrics, yarns, readymade garments, household appliances, stationery products, leather and leather products, agrochemicals, plastic products, sani-tary wares, marble and granites, phar-maceuticals and engineering goods have vast scope in Palestine.

Apart from the trade of goods, there is broad scope for trade in ser-vices. India’s prowess in IT and IT-enabled services; consultancy etc. is widely acknowledged in Palestine.

(M Shakeel Ahmed is former Edi-tor, PTI. He has also served as West

Asia Correspondent for PTI, based in Bahrain from 1988 to 1995. The views

expressed are strictly personal.)

A careful balancing actEDITORIAL

India wants to see the realisation of a sovereign, independent, united, and viable Palestine, coexisting peacefully with Israel

Since the NDA government came to power, cooperation between India and Israel has increased in defence and other sectors. Last month, Israel signed a 1.6 billion dollar deal with India to supply advanced missile defence systems bolstering bilateral military ties under a contract said to be the largest in Israel’s defence industry history

It was BJP’s overwhelming success in Uttar Pradesh which reinforced Modi’s larger-than-life image. But the reality is more mundane even if the country has been able to emerge from the policy paralysis of the twilight years of the Manmohan Singh government

On May 14, the Chinese government hosted repre-sentatives from 130 countries to promote its One Belt One, One Road initiative. The ostensible aim of this initiative is to create a major global platform

for economic cooperation built on a network of infrastructure projects and, over-land and sea links connecting China with the rest of Asia, Europe and West Africa. Experts have com-pared it to the Marshall Plan—a similar business stimulus ini-tiative launched by the United States of America to aid Western European economies following the devastation of World War II. They believe that the initiative is a “game changer” and an indicator of China’s growing domination in the global eco-nomic order. The National Democratic Alliance government’s decision to not send an Indian representative to the Belt and Road Forum (BARF) has split public opinion down the mid-dle. There are some who believe that New Delhi’s decision not to attend this historic meeting of nations reflects an inability to acknowledge the tremendous commercial benefits of this initiative and the changing geopolitical landscape of the Asian continent, where China has become a leading player. In other words, New Delhi’s decision could potentially isolate India, as it is the only large economy not to have a representative at BARF. Although one could make a case for these criticisms, New Delhi’s position of dissent is valid on many grounds. In fact, one could praise the Narendra Modi government for tak-ing such a stand, and its recent statement on the subject pos-sesses a real clarity of thought.

“Connectivity initiatives must follow principles of financial responsibility to avoid projects that would create unsustainable debt burden for communities; balanced ecological and envi-ronmental protection and preservation standards; transparent assessment of project costs; and skill and technology transfer to help long term running and maintenance of the assets cre-ated by local communities,” said a statement by the Ministry of External Affairs. Following these concerns, New Delhi has also articulated its legitimate objections to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which is part of the OBOR initia-tive. The $54 billion CPEC, which stretches between Chinese province of Xinjiang and Pakistan’s Gwadar Port, remains a vital subject of concern for the Indian government. Strategic experts believe that this “economic corridor” will give China quicker access to markets in both Europe and the Middle East. But it runs through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan regions, and India has raised security concerns in the neigh-bourhood. Despite China’s assertion that it would not like to interfere in India-administered Kashmir, and the OBOR initia-tive is “based on principles of mutual benefit and that it is not

interested in interfering in the participating countries’ internal affairs,” New Delhi remains rightly wary since there were no extensive consultations. Moreover, with connectivity stepped up between Pakistan and China as a result of the mas-sive infrastructure push, it becomes easier for their armed forces to indulge in cooperative action. Some believe that India’s objec-tion to the CPEC falls below concerns on issues of both sustainability and transpar-ency. Vindication came in the form of the EU’s deci-sion not to endorse this ini-tiative because “it did not include commitments to social and environmental sustainability and trans-parency,” as reported in The Guardian. Even in the CPEC, many in Pakistan

have begun to raise uncomfortable questions on issues of trans-parency. The reputed ‘Dawn’ daily recently leaked major details of the project to the discomfort of the Pakistani establishment.

In a recent column for an Indian news website, Mohan Guruswamy, chairman of the Centre for Policy Alternatives, presents a compelling argument for what China seeks to achieve through the OBOR initiative. “China has accumulated foreign exchange reserves of $3.5 trillion. The capital it claims it is pre-pared to subscribe for the New Development Bank (previously BRICS Development Bank), the Asian Infrastructure Invest-ment Bank and the Silk Road Fund would amount to only around 7% of its total foreign exchange reserves invested in western banks. Since these China-promoted institutions will be providing infrastructure lending rather than grants (for the OBOR initiative), the return on capital from these investments could be significantly higher than the returns China is getting from its foreign exchange reserves currently invested in low-yielding US government bonds. It is very simple. China needs to get value for its money and also help its demand-starved industries. And they have found a typically Chinese solution to it and are making a virtue of a necessity,” Guruswamy writes. One can already witness how participating government have found themselves with unviable infrastructure projects laden with debt from Chinese banks. The Sri Lankans are now being asked to begin repayment for the Chinese-funded Hambantota port project. One prominent European commentator calls the One Belt One Road project “One Belt, One Road and One Trap”.

It is evident that India’s objections to OBOR do not merely stem out of a sense of distrust of the Chinese. On the question of infrastructure finance, India has stepped up to the plate and signed on to the BRICS Bank and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, among other such initiatives. Unlike OBOR, India believes that these forums do not necessarily raise the same concerns. Despite the government’s stand, it also does not necessarily mean that private Indian companies cannot take advantage of sea and over-land links established as a result of OBOR. Unlike the previous United Progressive Alliance, the current ruling dispensation has not shown the same level of deference to the Chinese, especially when Indian interests are on the line. Admittedly, New Delhi does not possess the kind of geopolitical and economic leverage that Beijing possesses on the global map, but at least there is some pretence of pro-tecting sovereign Indian interests. New Delhi’s decision not to send a representative for the OBOR summit in Beijing is also a clear sign of its unhappiness with Beijing’s concessions to Pakistan and attempts to undermine Indian security interests. China has provided no assurances of dropping its resistance to UN sanctions against Pakistan-based terror mastermind Mau-lana Masood Azhar, who India holds responsible for the terror attacks in Pathankot and Uri. China also continued to stall on India’s application for membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG). Unlike past governments, which were cowed down by the scars of the 1962 war, the current ruling dispensa-tion has shown some appetite in taking on Beijing’s imposing tactics. All this talk, however, must be followed up by action. India must step up its regional connectivity initiatives, espe-cially among neighbouring countries, South East Asia and West Asia. Besides, New Delhi must embark on greater economic cooperation with Japan and other East Asian economies, in light of America’s receding role in the region.

On the question of OBOR

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EDITOR

Aiming for a Congress-mukt Bharat would have made more sense had it been a little more than a shallow political tactic. This country does not need any Congress, or BJP, or just any party for that matter. The most imperative thing this country needs is welfare and development. If only the energy was directed towards making India better in more substantial ways instead of engaging in avoidable elimination practices, things would have been favour-ably different.

AMULYA GANGULI

M SHAKEEL AHMED

Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success

Quote martial

HENRY FORD

Possibility of 2nd innings looms large for the current ruling dispensation

Dissecting three years of BJP govt SAAKSHI Via email

One can already witness how participating government have found themselves with unviable infrastructure projects laden with debt from Chinese banks. The Sri Lankans are now being asked to begin repayment for the Chinese-funded Hambantota port project

Representational Image

Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas

It appears that the Reserve Bank of India is quietly launching a major restoration work. The Cen-tral bank has released a discus-

sion paper on wholesale and long-term banks which proposes to set up the eponymous new financial institutions.

This is in effect bringing back to life the defunct structure of develop-ment finance institutions (DFI) which we had before. The Industrial Finance Corporation of India (IFCI), Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India (ICICI) and the Industrial Devel-opment Bank of India (IDBI) were the three principal DFIs which had served the country in the early years of industrialisation.

As the financial system evolved and still later with the emergence of uni-versal banking, two of the more active DFIs converted themselves into retail banks, and they are now familiar names in India’s banking. IFCI, which was the oldest but weakest of them all, remained in existence but that’s about all. It is still surviving and carrying on, God knows, with what business.

Historically, what had sounded the death knell for the three DFIs was the introduction of the so-called “convert-ibility clause”. At the height of their importance when most Indian indus-tries had borrowed from these insti-tutions and these institutions would provide long-term loans as opposed to working capital funding from commer-cial banks. It was then that the govern-ment had proposed the introduction of the convertibility clause. This allowed the lenders to convert their outstanding loans into equity shares in the compa-nies which received the funds. This was in the late 1970s and early 1980.

The convertibility clause had scared the Indian industrialists class to no end. As loan defaults mounted, the pro-moters of the assisted companies were worrying about losing control as large chunks of their outstanding stood the risk of getting converted. None of that had in effect happened, though. But the industry had thought better of going to these institutions than going to the market.

By then, the interest rate scenario was also changing, and the higher costs of funds for the DFIs had altogether spooked their balance sheets. Without

some government support, it became impossible for the DFIs to access low-cost funding and on-lend to industrial clients. Because their securities came to be treated as not qualified as SLR (stat-utory liquidity ratio) bonds, it was the last straw. Starved of cheap funds and demand for their resources dwindling for fear of convertibility, they became irrelevant.

However, the disappearance of the three DFIs came to be increasingly missed by Indian industry. After all, the industry needed long-term debt funds. It was not always practical to raise additional equity capital only and thus meet the requirements for capex. Equity capital is a permanent cost, and these cannot be easily erased. Addi-tional equity often came at a cost: these diluted the market value of the shares.

Missing long-term debt funds, the industry has often been asking for res-titution of term funding institutions.

What the RBI is now proposing is to revive these establishments in another name. The wholesale and long-term finance (WLTF) banks are suggested to be set up as an integral part of RBI’s approach to building a structure of dif-ferentiated banking and financial insti-tutions to meet the diversified funding requirements of an expanding economy.

Commercial banks overwhelm-ingly dominate the Indian financial

system. As of June 2016, commercial banks account for about 67 per cent of the total financial sector assets in the country. Combined with cooper-ative banks, they account for almost three-fourths of the financial sector assets, according to the RBI discussion paper on WLTF banks. The univer-sal banks, which are the commercial banks, operate in retail as well as cor-porate segments and offer varieties of financial products and services. These range from the basic deposit accounts, personal loans, and investments on the retail side to the more sophisticated ser-vices on the wholesale side such as term loans, project finance, debt syndication, investment banking, and trade finance, among others.

The justification for having a spe-cialised wholesale long-term funding bank is given by the RBI as follows: “..with the deepening of financial sec-tor, it may be necessary for the system to evolve towards a structure where apart from the universal banks, multi-ple differentiated banks also operate in their specialised domain and provide services in their areas of competitive advantage. As the niche banks develop core competency, expertise will be fos-tered in the banking system that could lead to enhanced efficiency in terms of reduced intermediation cost, better price and improved allocation of capi-

tal. Therefore, specialised banks could cater to the wholesale and long-term financing needs of the growing econ-omy and possibly fill the gap in long-term financing.”

Following this logic, the RBI has issued licences for a few specialised banks, including new payments banks, small business financing banks or pri-vate banks. The Raghuram Rajan Com-mittee on Financial Sector in 2008 first presented this argument. This line of argument was further followed up by the Nachiket Mor Committee.

While there is surely the need for such specialised banks and above all a long-term wholesale funding bank, the new structure will still face the old problem. Even if everything is in favour of such institutions, the funding of these new banks would still be a problem. These banks will be highly risky ven-tures for one. They are being visual-ised as long-term financing agencies, including for the infrastructure projects and core industries. As we have seen only recently, commercial banks loans to infrastructure companies and core industries had contributed the maxi-mum amount of bad debts to commer-cial banks.

Two basic requirements would be, firstly, cheap finance for onward lend-ing and, secondly, highly qualified staff for evaluation of risks. The first prob-lem will be resolved if the Union gov-ernment decides to stand behind these banks, at least to begin with. Their secu-rities, if given SLR status, could once again help.

What could be more intractable is these banks will require specialised offi-cers to evaluate the risks of long-term finance for infrastructure finance. They will need engineers who should qualify as finance specialists as well. They will need technical people to assess risks of specialised projects. How do they get hold of such personnel? Where to dip their hands into such resources pool? Not a problem in a long run when their functioning will systemically gener-ate these people. But surely would be a handicap, to begin with.

Nevertheless, more the merrier. We need such specialised agencies for funding. IPA

(The views expressed are strictly personal.)

9mp in focusMILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Monday, 22 May, 2017

We are committed to the all round development of poor, marginal and small farmers. We are aiming to achieve this target by increasing per hectare productivity, rationalising the factors of production like fertilisers, pesticides, labour, water, etc. and reducing the cost of cultivation

Commercial banks overwhelmingly dominate the Indian financial system. As of June 2016, commercial banks account for about 67 per cent of the total financial sector assets in the country. Combined with cooperative banks, they account for almost three-fourths of the financial sector assets, according to the RBI discussion paper on WLTF banks

Addressing the agricultural crisisIn an exclusive interview, Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh tells Dhirendra Kumar that the Modi government does not necessarily believe in farm loan waivers

RBI proposal on specialised banks

ANJAN ROY

You have been heading the Ministry of Agriculture since Prime Minis-ter Narendra Modi-led NDA gov-ernment assumed office on May

26, 2014. What are the achievements of the ministry under your leadership?

The sole objective of the Modi govern-ment is to achieve robust growth and devel-opment with the support of farmers. We have brought about a radical shift in the approach adopted so far. It’s a hard fact that agriculture policy so far has been focused on the produc-tion of foodgrains to ensure food security. Although we have achieved this aim, it has also given birth to particular problems such as degradation of resources like soil and water in many parts of the country.

The other sad aspect of agriculture growth is that after 70 years of Independence the sector has left 22.5 per cent of the farm-ing community below the poverty line. When we came into power, the situation was very adverse as our predecessor had not done any-thing to improve the economic conditions of farmers. Rather they made the situation worse by swindling the funds meant for the development of marginal and small farmers.

The Modi government set its target to double the farmers’ income by 2022 – the year when the country will celebrate its 75 years of Independence.

What are the other key initiatives?

Among the several other key initiatives, the rollout of universal soil health card for every farmer once in a cycle of two years is a significant achievement as the move will enable farmers to adopt the balanced use of fertilisers, thereby realising higher productiv-ity and also sustaining soil health. In the first cycle, the ministry has collected 100% soil samples numbering 2.80 crores and tested 86% of these and will be issuing cards to 14 crore farmers by June 2017. The second cycle has begun this month.

Other schemes such as Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY) and Mission Organic Value Chain Development Pro-gramme for North Eastern Region have been playing an important role in doubling farm-ers’ income. In a bid to address end-to-end dimensions of irrigation, the Prime Minis-ter Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY) was launched, which is delivering tremendous results.

Your rival in Bihar, Lalu Prasad Yadav has asked his party workers to tie old, non-milking cows outside the houses of BJP leaders to see if they cared for the animal. What are your plans to address the issue?

I’m sorry to say that Lalu Prasad Yadav, who claims himself as a cow-worshiper, doesn’t even know the importance of cows in farmers’ life. Old and non-milking cows

are not a burden; they are also as useful as a milking animal. Under the Rashtriya Gokul Mission, we train farmers to make use of cow dung and urine by turning animal waste into compost. As farmers have started adopting organic farming at a larger scale, the demand of compost is also increasing, which has allowed farmers greater scope to earn fur-ther income. We have several case studies of farmers adding to their earnings by selling compost made up of the animal waste of old and non-milking cows.

What is your response to farm loan waiver bonanza of Uttar Pradesh government?

Waiver of farm loans by the UP govern-ment is their decision. We don’t believe in loan waiver schemes. Also, we don’t have such pro-posal at the national level. Our approach is to make farm loans available at a concessional rate, adequate quantity and on time; so that the farmers would be able to invest the same in agriculture and achieve high productivity. We are now looking at warehouse-based pledge loans to farmers. This approach of increasing returns on farming is the only healthy and sus-tainable way. It will make agriculture a viable and profit generating enterprise.

What is the solution to India’s agricul-tural crisis?

The long-term solutions lay in making farming viable. One can achieve this goal by creating a production system wherein the net returns from agriculture are positive. It is possible to do so by producing higher yields per unit of land or asset like a milch animal and converting that into higher val-ues through an efficient marketing system. Also, the infrastructure storage (dry and cold), transportation (dry and cold) and agro-processing will have to improve. This will help in transporting the produce from production centres to consumption cen-tres efficiently and with minimal losses. The share of the producer in the consumer’s rupee will increase and impart greater viability to farming.

What steps have been taken by the govern-ment to improve the availability of institu-tional credit to farmers?

The credit available for crops and invest-ment loans has been gradually increased in the last three years from Rs 8.5 lakh crore in 2014-15 to Rs 10 lakh crore for the year 2017-18. This will enable farmers to avail crop

loans at a concessional 4% interest rate per annum under Interest Subvention Scheme (ISS). The scheme includes 2% of basic inter-est subvention plus 3% of interest subvention on prompt repayment. Given that about 86% of farmers are small and marginal, and they approach the Primary Agriculture Credit Societies (PACS) for their crop loans, the government has initiated to computerise all 63,000 PACS, which would help in making the loan process transparent.

Your government is saying that income of farmers would be doubled by 2022. Don’t you think it’s a sweeping statement? And if not, how will you make it possible?

We are committed to the all round devel-opment of poor, marginal and small farm-ers. We don’t make hollow promises as my ministry is working round the clock to double the farmers’ income by 2022 in real terms. We are aiming to achieve this tar-get by increasing per hectare productivity, rationalising the factors of production like fertilisers, pesticides, labour, water, etc. and reducing the cost of cultivation. Achieving this target will also mean increasing the share of a farmer in the consumers’ rupee

through various post-production activities including storage, transportation, process-ing and marketing. Our government has already designed a large number of schemes that would help the farmers in achieving high productivity across field crops, hor-ticulture, dairying, livestock, poultry, etc.

What was the impact of drought on agri-cultural production during 2014-17 and explain about the measures taken by you to combat the challenges?

There was no significant impact on agricultural production due to droughts during the years of 2014-15 and 2015-16. Despite severe droughts in many states which severely affected agriculture in both years, the government managed to contain its impact on the production. We achieved the foodgrains output of 252 MT in the year 2014-15 and similarly in the year 2015-16. But in the year 2016-17, which had a nor-mal monsoon, a robust foodgrain growth rate of 8.66% over the previous year as per 3rd Advanced Estimates was recorded. The output of foodgrains at 273 MT and that of fruits and vegetables of 287 MT as per 3rd estimates surpassed the previous record production of 2013-14. Likewise, the high output of pulses (22.4 MT) and cotton (325.76 lakh bales) was also recorded.

Besides, the market reforms that we initiated, whereby, markets are integrated through e-NAM platform will help the farmers to get better prices. This also will contribute to the growth rate. It is thus clear that our government has a very focused and comprehensive approach to remove the uncertainties at both production and post-production stages and help in realis-ing higher incomes.

Constant price fluctuations of onion, potato, tomato and pulses, among other food crops, are making farming nonvi-able. What are your thoughts?

Agricultural production is seasonal in nature, and it becomes difficult to strike a balance between supply and demand. It is, therefore, common to see prices dip-ping immediately after the harvest. One can address this problem by putting in place effi-cient supply chain management, consisting of proper storage and transportation infra-structure. Also, if value addition through processing is undertaken, then shelf life will increase, and integration of markets will happen. We are, therefore, now focusing on building supply chain and value chain for all commodities, including foodgrains and perishable goods. All the districts will be advised to design supply chain and value chain, for major commodities of the district.

(Dhirendra Kumar is Special Correspon-dent with Millennium Post.)

Highly skilled professionals required for the task

Mumbai's 'Dirtiest' Beach Is Finally Clean. 5 Million Kg Filth Removed -kudos to Afroz Shah unleashing people power

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No democratic pretense: Pakistan said to pick up 200 social media activists to question them about anti-army posts.

KENNETH ROTH@KenRoth

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As the months roll by, despite the widespread support enjoyed by the PM, the clamour for jobs will get louder. Where are the jobs?

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Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh

(RBI): Representational Image

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Indian man arrested in Pak for not carrying travel documents

ISLAMABAD: An Indian national was today arrested here for not carrying travel documents, according to a media report.

Sheikh Nabi Ahmed, who hailed from Jogeshwari East in Mumbai, was taken into cus-tody on May 19 after he failed to produce any travel or visa documents.

Police said the Indian national was walking along Nazimuddin Road in Sector F-8 when he was stopped at a police check post.

Police demanded to check his visa documents after he told them that he was an Indian.

However, Ahmed could not produce any docu-ment and was taken into police custody.

Margalla police booked him for illegal entry and stay in the country under Foreigners Act 1946 and a judicial magis-trate sent him to jail on judicial custody remand.

An official of the Indian High Commission, however, said that the mission does not

have any information about the arrest so far.

A FIR has been filed against

him under Article 14 of the Foreign Act. He was found to be travelling without his pass-

port or a visa, and has been remanded to 14 days of judi-cial custody.

Indian authorities have mentioned that they heard about the arrest of the Indian national via reports, and that the Pakistani government has neglected to inform them of the same

The arrest came days after the International Court of Jus-tice stayed the execution of Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav, who was sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court on charges of “involve-ment in espionage and sab-otage activities” against the country.

Pakistan claims its secu-rity forces arrested him from its restive Balochistan province on March 3 last year after he reportedly entered from Iran.

However, India maintains that he was kidnapped from Iran where he had business interests after retiring from the Navy.

Jadhav’s case is the lat-est flash-point in the ten-sions between Pakistan and India. AGENCIES

N Korea tests another missile; Seoul says

hopes for peace dashed

SEOUL: North Korea fired a ballistic missile into waters off its east coast on Sunday, its second missile test in a week, which South Korea said dashed the hopes of the South’s new liberal government for peace between the neighbors.

A South Korean mili-tary official said the missile appeared to be an upgraded, extended-range version of the North’s solid-fuel submarine-launched missile. The missile fired a week ago flew was liq-uid-fueled, and flew further.

North Korea has defied all calls to rein in its nuclear and missile programs, even from China, its lone major ally, say-ing the weapons are needed for legitimate self-defense.

The reclusive state has been working to develop a nuclear-tipped missile capable of strik-ing the US mainland. On Saturday, it said it had devel-oped the capability to strike the US mainland, although West-ern missile experts say the claim is exaggerated.

An official traveling with US President Donald Trump in Saudi Arabia said the White House was aware of the latest launch and noted that the mis-sile had a shorter range than the three previous missiles that North Korea had tested.

The two missile tests in a week complicate plans by South Korea’s new President Moon Jae-in to seek ways to reduce tension on the penin-sula. Moon took office eleven days ago after winning an elec-tion on a platform of a more

moderate approach to the North, with which the South is still technically at war since no peace treaty was signed at the end of their 1950-1953 conflict.

South Korea’s foreign min-istry said the tests were “reck-less and irresponsible actions throwing cold water over the hopes and desires of this new government and the interna-tional community for denu-clearization and peace on the Korean peninsula”.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the latest mis-sile test by the reclusive North was “a snub and a challenge to international efforts for a peaceful resolution”.

Abe told reporters after a meeting of Japan’s National Security Council that he wanted to raise the issue of North Korean missile launches at the Group of Seven leaders’ summit in Italy this month.

China had no immediate comment. Kim Dong-yub, a military expert at Kyungnam University’s Institute for Far Eastern Studies in Seoul, said the North appeared to be test-ing and perfecting both solid and liquid-fueled missiles, which might help explain why the pace of its tests had increased.

On Saturday, North Korea’s KCNA state news agency said in a commentary: “The US mainland and the Pacific oper-ational theater are within the strike range of the DPRK and the DPRK has all kinds of pow-erful means for annihilating retaliatory strike.” AGENCIES

Man jailed for rape in UK after

eight yearsLONDON: A man, who raped a teenage girl and fled to Paki-stan, has been jailed for nearly 10 years after he was caught while trying to slip back into the UK eight years after com-mitting the crime. Amar Meh-raj, 29, was one of four men who gang raped a 17 -year-old girl while she was unconscious in July 2009 in Oldbury, West Midlands, the BBC reported.

He then fled to Pakistan. He was arrested at Birming-ham Airport last November while trying to return back to the UK.

Mehraj was sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court on Friday, having admitted his role in the attack at an earlier hearing, it said. Police said he had been jailed for nine years and nine months. Three other men were jailed in 2010. AGENCIES

Poland’s Kaczynski blames Merkel for EU’s migration issuesWARSAW: Poland’s ruling party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski again criticised the European Union’s relocation scheme for refugees on Saturday, blaming Germany’s Angela Merkel for causing the bloc’s migration problems. Kaczynski, leader of the conservative eurosceptic Law and Justice (PiS) party that heads the government, has been quoted as saying previously that migrants could bring diseases and parasites to Poland. “We have not opened Europe for refugees — Ms Merkel has. And it is Ms Merkel and Germany that have to bear the consequences, not Poland,” Kaczynski said in an interview. Under a plan agreed in 2015, the European Commission wants EU member states to each admit a quota of the 160,000 asy-lum seekers stuck in Italy and Greece. Most have fled conflicts and poverty in the Middle East and Africa. The European Commission will decide next month on any legal cases against countries failing to host asylum seekers as agreed in the bloc, tak-ing a small step towards potential punishment for Poland and Hungary. AGENCIES

Gay Indian-origin leads race to become new Irish PM

DUBLIN: Welfare Minister Leo Varadkar is leading the race to succeed Enda Kenny as Ireland’s first Indian-origin and also openly gay Prime Minis-ter or the Taoiseach, the media reported.

The 38-year-old will face Housing Minister Simon Coveney after nominations closed for the leadership of the governing centre-right Fine Gael party, reported Sky News on Saturday. Varadkar is favoured to take over from 66-year-old Kenny, who is stepping down after six years as Taoiseach and 15 years at the helm of Fine Gael. Kenny’s successor is due to be elected in the June 2 general elections and Ireland’s Parliament will vote for Prime Minister a few days later. Varadkar has won early support for his leadership

bid from several senior cabinet members and a majority of his parliamentary colleagues have publicly backed him.

The Dublin-born son of an Indian immigrant father and Irish mother, Leo Varad-kar became the first openly gay cabinet minister in Ireland after coming out in 2015, reports Sky

News. He has campaigned on same-sex marriage and liber-alising abortion laws and is an advocate of tight fiscal restraint.

He was a doctor before winning a seat in Parliament in 2007 and has rapidly risen through the ranks, holding sev-eral ministerial portfolios.

Ahead of the dead-line for leadership nomina-tions, Varadkar had secured 45 of 71 available votes from members of Fine Gael’s parliamentary party.

They account for 65 per cent of the electoral college, with 22,000 ordinary party members sharing 25 per cent. County councillors account for the remaining 10 per cent.

Cork-born Mr Coveney, 44, would need to win a significant majority of non-parliamentary votes to win. AGENCIES

Erdogan prepares to regain leadership of party he foundedANKARA: President Tayyip Erdogan pledged his commit-ment to leading Turkey’s ruling AK Party (AKP) as he prepared to be elected on Sunday as the first Turk in nearly 70 years to serve simultaneously as head of state and of a political party.

“We were separated, but today we are together again,” he told a crowd of applauding sup-porters outside the sports hall in the capital Ankara, where the party congress was being held amid tight security.

“We will work hard,” he added before entering the arena, where thousands of party faithful cheered and waved AKP flags.

Erdogan, who founded the Islamist-rooted AKP in 2001 and led it to victory in an elec-tion a year later, was forced to surrender leadership nearly three years ago when he was elected president, a position traditionally above party pol-itics. That changed with last month’s referendum, in which Turks narrowly backed a con-stitutional change to create an executive presidential sys-tem that would give Erdogan sweeping new powers and allow the head of state to be a party member or leader.

He is the first president to

lead a party since Ismet Inonu, who succeeded modern Tur-key’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, and was head of state until 1950. He replaces Binali Yildirim, who is set to remain as prime minister until elec-tions in 2019.

Such sweeping political changes, Erdogan says, are vital to ensure stability in Tur-key as it battles Kurdish and Islamist militants and after an attempted coup last year that Ankara attributed to support-ers of US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen. On the eve of Sunday’s AKP congress Turkish police killed two suspected Islamic State militants in a clash dur-ing a raid on an apartment in Ankara, state-run Anadolu news agency reported. The two

men killed were believed to be planning an attack, the agency said. Opposition parties, which want the referendum annulled because of alleged irregulari-ties, say the reforms push Tur-key towards one-man rule. Some of Turkey’s NATO allies and the European Union, which it aspires to join, have also expressed concern.

Erdogan’s return to the party coincides with growing foreign policy challenges and tensions with NATO allies.

Last week he held talks with US President Donald Trump in Washington, where he sought to reconcile deep disagreement over US sup-port for a Syrian Kurdish mili-tia, which Ankara regards as a terrorist group. AGENCIES

Teen spits on Muslim classmate; tries to pull off her hijab in school

NEW YORK: A 16-year-old Muslim girl was spat upon and abused by her classmate who even tried to pull her hijab off in a city school in the US.

The 15-year-old boy was on an elevator with the vic-tim inside the High School for Law Enforcement and Public Safety in Jamaica in the New York City when he called her a “Muslim b---h!” and spit on her, police said. He then tugged on her hijab in an attempt to rip it off her head, they said. The girl then told school offi-cials, who reported the incident to police. Police questioned

the teen and charged him with aggravated harassment and disorderly conduct, New York Daily reported. He will be charged as a juvenile and so his name was not released. The victim was rattled but not physically harmed, police said.

“This incident is troubling, and this type of behaviour has no place in our schools,” Department of Education spokeswoman Toya Holness said. “We are providing the school with additional sup-port to ensure appropriate follow-up action is taken,” Holness added. AGENCIES

In tribute to Kalam, NASA names new species after him LOS ANGELES: In great news for India, scientists at NASA have named a new organ-ism discovered by them after the much-loved A P J Abdul Kalam.

Till date, the new organism — a form of a bacteria — has been found only on the Inter-national Space Station (ISS) and has not been found on earth! Researchers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), the foremost lab of NASA for work on inter-planetary travel, discovered the new bacteria on the filters of the International Space Station (ISS) and named

it Solibacillus kalamii to hon-our the late president, who was a renowned aerospace scientist.

Kalam had his early train-ing at NASA in 1963 before he set up India’s first rocket-launching facility in the fishing village of Thumba in Kerala.

“The name of the bacterium is Solibacillus kalamii, the spe-cies name is after Dr Abdul Kalam and genus name is Soli-bacillus which is a spore form-ing bacteria,” said Dr Kasthuri Venkateswaran, senior research scientist, Biotechnology and Planetary Protection Group at JPL. The filter on which the

new bug was found remained on board the ISS for 40 months. Called a high-efficiency partic-ulate arrestance filter or HEPA

filter, this part is the routine housekeeping and cleaning sys-tem on board the international space station.

This filter was later anal-ysed at JPL and only this year did Venkateswaran publish his discovery in the International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology. According to Venkateswaran, even as it orbits the earth some 400 kilometres above, the ISS is home to many types of bacteria and fungi which co-inhabit the station with the astronauts who live and work on the station.

Venkateswaran said even though Solibacillus kalamii has never been found on earth till date, it is really not an extra-terrestrial life form or ET.

“I am reasonably sure it has hitch hiked to the space station on board some cargo and then survived the hostile condi-tions of space,” explained Ven-kateswaran. Naming the new microbe after Kalam was nat-ural to Venkateswaran and his team. “Being a fellow Tamilian, I am aware of the huge contri-butions by Dr. Kalam,” he said.

New bacteria are usually named after famous scientists.

Venkateswaran’s main job is to monitor the envi-ronment of the space sta-tion so that harmful bugs do not proliferate. AGENCIES

A FIR has been filed against him under Article 14 of the Foreign Act. He was found to be travelling without his passport or a visa, and has been remanded to 14 days of judicial custody

Leo Varadkar

Two Indian peacekeepers to be honoured posthumously with UN medal on May 24

UNITED NATIONS: Two Indian peacekeepers will be among 117 military, police and civilian personnel to be hon-oured with a prestigious UN medal awarded posthumously for their courage and sacrifice in the line of duty.

Rifleman Brijesh Thapa who served with the UN Organisa-tion Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Private Ravi Kumar who was deployed with the UN Interim Force in Lebanon will be honoured with the Dag Hammarskj ld Medal on the International Day of UN Peace-keepers to be observed on May 24. India is the largest cumu-lative troop contributor, hav-ing provided almost 200,000 troops in nearly 50 of the 71 peacekeeping missions man-dated over the past six decades, including 13 of the current 16 missions.

So far, about 168 Indian troops have made the supreme sacrifice in the line of duty under the UN Flag. India cur-rently deploys more than 7,600 military and police personnel to UN peace operations in Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti,

Lebanon, Liberia, the Middle East, South Sudan, Sudan and the Western Sahara.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres will lay a wreath at the Peacekeepers Memorial at the world body’s headquarters to honour all fallen peacekeepers. Later, he will preside over a cere-mony during which the Dag Hammarskj ld Medals will be awarded to 117 peacekeepers who lost their lives while serv-ing in peacekeeping operations last year. Permanent Repre-sentatives to the UN will col-lect the medals on behalf of the fallen peacekeepers from their countries. The Interna-tional Day of UN Peacekeepers was established by the General Assembly in 2002 in a tribute to all men and women serving in peacekeeping operations for their high level of profession-alism, dedication and courage and to honour the memory of those who have lost their lives.

The General Assembly had designated May 29 as the commemoration day because it was the date in 1948 when the UN Truce Supervision Organizatio began operations in Palestine. AGENCIES

UK varsity removes Muslim prayer space ahead of Ramadan

LONDON: Ahead of Rama-dan, a top UK university has decided to remove prayer space available on campus for Mus-lims, citing a “lack of space” during exam season as the rea-son behind its move.

The only daily prayer space available on campus of the Uni-versity of East Anglia (UEA) is to be permanently removed and replaced with a corridor to the university Library, Inde-pendent reported. Muslim stu-dents at the university were told that their Friday prayer space was to be taken away due to a “lack of space” during exam season, the paper said.

Students on Saturday took part in a public prayer session in the main university square in peaceful protest against the move. A spokesperson from the UEA Islamic Society said: “We are shocked and appalled that the University, who re-located us...on the condition that they would investigate a permanent solution which they have failed to produce, would take away our only prayer spaces during exam period and before Ramadan”.

Over the past few years, Muslim students at the univer-sity have used a lecture theatre for prayer and worship.

The larger Friday worship

sessions take place at a sepa-rate location by the Blackdale student residences.

Both arrangements were set up as a temporary solution while the university discussed plans for a permanent prayer space. From Sunday, however, the Muslim student commu-nity are to be left with no des-ignated prayer space, a move students say they had not been invited to discuss.

UEA’s Student Union has accused the university of dis-crimination, failing its duties under the Equality Act.

Union spokesperson for welfare, community and diversity, Jo Swo, was quoted as saying by the report that the situation had caused “a tre-mendous amount of anxiety and inconvenience for Mus-

lim students as it has made them feel observed and treated like an inconvenience to the University”.

UEA has begun dramatic plans for expansion over the next few years, pledging to recruit up to 3,000 new stu-dents by 2030 a rise of 20 per cent. A UEA spokesperson said the Vice Chancellor would be meeting with students immi-nently to discuss the matter.

In a statement, the univer-sity said: “As part of a 2 mil-lion pound investment in new library study spaces and the complete refurbishment of the University’s main lecture the-atres the use of a prayer facil-ity near Lecture Theatre 2 will be temporarily unavailable for safety reasons during the build-ing works”. AGENCIES

Indian-born woman

elected to City of London

CorporationLONDON: A 43-year-old UK entrepreneur has become the first India-born woman to be elected as a councillor to a ward in the UK. Rehana Ameer, who was born and raised in Chennai, contested from Vin-try ward in the City of Lon-don county as an independent candidate. She was elected as a councillor to the Court of Common Council, becoming the first India-born woman to be elected to the City of Lon-don Corporation.“As an elected councillor, my key focus areas are road safety, improved air quality, mental health and bet-ter representation of all types of businesses as part of the Brexit negotiations,” Rehana told PTI.

She aims to promote the city’s businesses in interna-tional markets and develop the city’s presence overseas. The City corporation is the richest local authority in the country which controls the 1.3 billion pounds city cash fund. The City of London is divided into 25 wards and elected councillors represent each ward. AGENCIES

MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Monday, 22 May, 2017

mp world 11MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Monday, 22 May, 2017

Alleged bomb scare briefly delays Cannes film festival screening

A bomb scare has caused the Cannes Film Fes-

tival to briefly evacuate the Debussy theater before the first screening of director Michel Hazanavicius’ movie “Redoubt-able,” a film in competition for the Palme d’Or prize.

Those attending the screen-ing Saturday night were ush-ered away from the theater in the French Riviera city. Jour-nalists were later told that the suspicious item was found to be not dangerous. After a delay of about 30 minutes, the theater was opened.

The scare prompted several “bomb scare” jokes from critics who didn’t care for Hazanavi-cius’ last Cannes entry, the badly reviewed “The Search.”

A 7:30 pm press screening was held up and festival-goers were prevented from going into the theater or were asked to leave the Palais, Cannes’ main movie-going hub. French guards weren’t initially forth-coming about the reasons for the evacuation, but there are reports that it took place because a bag was left in the Debussy theater.

The French drama is directed by Oscar-winner Michel Hazanavicius and examines Jean-Luc Godard’s marriage.

Cannes security person-nel ordered festival attendees

to evacuate the Palais minutes before the press screening was scheduled to begin. Guards turned away press and indus-try who were mounting the steps to the Debussy theater. Indoors, badge-holders were

ushered down to the basement level, where they waited in per-plexed confusion for several minutes, before guards ordered everyone to exit the building.

Squads of police were seen going inside the building with dogs. After about 15 minutes, security asked people to come up to the gate, and began letting people back inside.

A spokeswoman for Cannes did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Secu-rity has been tight at this year’s festival due to terrorist con-cerns. There have been attacks in Paris and nearby Nice that have heightened alarms. The beefed-up security plan includes installing an anti-drone system and upgrading firearms for police.

Hollywood journalists including Vanity Fair’s Rebecca Keegan and Toronto Star critic Peter Howell both tweeted about the scare and shared pictures.

France has been under a state of emergency since 2015, when extremist attacks in Paris left 130 people dead in one night in November. AGENCIES

Panama Papers raise political risks in Pakistan: World Bank

ISLAMABAD: The World Bank has warned that the Pan-ama Papers issue has “enhanced political risks in Pakis tan” and created “some policy uncer-tainty”, the media reported on Sunday. In its report titled ‘Pak-istan Development Update’, launched on Saturday, the World Bank cautioned that the country was “exposed to natu-ral disasters, political events and terrorism” on the domes-tic front, while the upcoming national elections may affect “reform momentum and macro-economic policy orien-tation”, Dawn online reported.

Released twice a year, the World Bank report sets out “recent developments across the economy and identifies risks and opportunities in the near-term future before focus-ing on a handful of key devel-

opment challenges”. The bank is not the first international finan-cial institution to warn that Panama Papers issue may have consequences for Pakistan’s growth. Last year, Interna-tional Monetary Fund Presi-dent Christine Lagarde noted that the perception of corrup-tion in Pakistan would hurt pri-vate investment and impede efforts to promote sustainable and inclusive growth. Since the Supreme Court’s decision to

form a joint investigation team to probe the assets of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his family, experts are divided over whether this would yield con-crete results or whether it was a mere “eyewash”.

Despite this, the bank notes that Pakistan’s economic growth is expected to climb to 5.2 per cent during the fis-cal year ending in June, which is the highest in nine years, reports Dawn online. AGENCIES

German woman and Afghan guard killed by gunmen

in KabulKABUL: Unknown gunmen killed two people, a German woman and an Afghan guard, and abducted a Finnish woman in Kabul on Saturday evening, according to officials.

On Saturday evening, the attackers entered a compound housing employees working for Operation Mercy, a Swed-ish charity, in a residential area off Darulaman Road in west-ern Kabul.

An interior ministry spokesman, Najib Danish, said an investigation was under way. No group immediately claimed responsibility, and the motive for the attack was unclear. According to the Afghan inte-rior ministry, at least two other foreigners escaped the attack.

The Finnish foreign min-istry confirmed the kidnap-ping on Sunday to Finnish media, saying in a statement it demanded “the immedi-ate release of the kidnapped person”.

The German foreign min-istry had yet to release a state-ment, but western sources in Kabul confirmed the nation-ality of thewoman who was killed. Upon entering the com-pound, the attackers killed an Afghan security guard by slit-ting or stabbing his throat, according to sources, then made their way into the house where they shot the German woman and took the Finn-ish woman with them. It was unclear why the woman was shot, and whether the killing was premeditated or the result of a struggle. There were other people present in the com-pound, the Guardian under-stands, but perhaps in separate buildings. Residents told Tolo TV that the NGO workers were friendly neighbours who had lived in the house for two or three years and all spoke Dari. “They had rented the house, they would leave the house in the morning and return at around 4:30 in the afternoon. They would wear our tradi-tional clothes and headscarves, they were not armed and had two guards,” Abdul Jalil, a resi-dent, told Tolo. Kidnappings have long been a threat in Afghanistan to both foreign-ers and Afghans. AGENCIES

Eight injured in Los Angeles airport collision

LOS ANGELES: Eight people were injured Saturday after an Aeromexico flight clipped an airport utility truck, flipping it over, shortly after landing at Los Angeles International Air-port, authorities said.

The Los Angeles fire department said the commer-cial passenger jet collided with the truck around 2.30pm, caus-ing the truck to overturn.

The Boeing 737 was taxi-ing to an arrival gate when it collided with a utility truck carrying eight people, fire and airport officials said.

“It clipped a service truck,” said Rob Pedregon, a Los Ange-les airport police spokesman. “They had already landed and were taxiing.” Two people in the truck were seriously hurt, and six people in the truck suf-fered minor injuries, the Los Angeles fire department said.

No one was hurt on the flight from Mexico City, which was carrying about 146 passen-gers and crew. The right wing of the plane was damaged but there was no fuel spill or fire.

Airport operations were not affected, Pedregon said.

Messages were left for Aero-mexico seeking comment. Messages to the Federal Avi-ation Authority and airport representatives were not imme-diately returned. AGENCIES

UK Conservatives lose ground after

manifesto launches

Former Trump adviser asked to testify to House committee on Russia

LONDON: British Prime Min-ister Theresa May’s Conserva-tives have lost some of their substantial lead over the oppo-sition Labour party, opinion polls showed today after both sides published their manifes-tos for the June 8 election.

The governing centre-right party is still on course for a comfortable victory, but no longer enjoys the 20-point lead that provoked talk of a landslide at the start of the campaign.

Newspaper commentators warned of a backlash against May’s proposed plan to address the rising cost of social care for the elderly, which could see higher bills for many people.

“Tory wobble as cuts for elderly slash May’s lead,” head-lined the Sunday Times, as a YouGov poll found the party’s lead halved in a week.

The online survey put the Tories down five points at 44 per cent and Labour up four points at 35 points, the clos-est gap since last year. YouGov found 40 percent of voters opposed the social care plan, and 35 percent supported it.

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said it was “necessary” to meet the challenges of an ageing population.

“I think it is a mark of The-resa May’s bravery and candour with electorate that she is doing this,” he told ITV television.

May called the snap elec-tion in April, saying she wanted a mandate to go into the nego-tiations on taking Britain out of the European Union.

Labour had always insisted the opinion polls would narrow as the election nears. Its leader Jeremy Corbyn claims his plans to nationalise the railways, raise taxes and invest in public ser-vices are widely popular.

An ORB/Sunday Telegraph survey put the Conservatives on 46 per cent, unchanged from last week, and Labour up two points on 34 per cent.

An Opinium/Observer poll, taken after Labour’s man-ifesto launch but before the Tories’, put May’s party down one point in a week at 46 per cent, and Labour up one point at 33 percent.

A Survation/Mail on Sun-day poll put the Conservatives at 46 per cent and Labour at 34 per cent. It is based on new methodology, so cannot be compared to previous results.

Labour has also benefited from the decline of smaller parties during the campaign, experts say. AGENCIES

WASHINGTON: A former Trump campaign adviser has been asked to testify before the House intelligence committee over accusations of Rus-sian meddling in the 2016 election.

The Guardian has confirmed that Michael Caputo, a campaign aide to Trump for much of the presidential primary, has been asked to submit to a voluntary interview with the com-mittee and provide any documents requested. The committee’s request was first reported by Maggie Haber-man of the New York Times.

It comes as Trump is facing increased scrutiny over allegations about his campaign’s ties to Russia. Former FBI director Robert Mueller

was appointed as a special counsel this week to investigate Trump’s campaign and the Washington Post has reported that a current White House official is a “person of interest” in the ongoing investigation.

The parade of accusations, which also include claims that Trump fired former FBI director James Comey after pressuring him to drop an inves-tigation into Russia, come as the Presi-dent makes his first overseas trip since taking office. Trump landed in Saudi Arabia on Saturday where he sealed a trade pact to sell up to $110bn in mili-tary equipment to the Saudis.

Although the trip – which has so far included a colorful sword dance

ceremony as well as Trump taking pains not to use the potentially offen-sive phrase “radical Islamic terror-

ism” – has gone smoothly for its first day, there are still eight more days of potential pitfalls. Trump is scheduled

to go to Israel, the Vatican, Brussels and Sicily where he will meet with an array of world leaders including Nato allies as well as the Pope.

During his insurgent presidential campaign, Trump repeatedly derided Nato and called Pope Francis “dis-graceful” at a campaign stop in South Carolina.

Caputo, who has close links with Roger Stone, Trump’s long-time and highly controversial political adviser, worked in Russia in the 1990s.

Democratic congresswoman Jackie Speier had previously men-tioned Caputo’s name in a March hearing before the House intelligence committee. AGENCIES

Egypt refers 48 to military trial over IS church attacks

CAIRO: Egypt referred 48 people to the country’s military judiciary on Sun-day for suspected involvement in three deadly church bombings and accused them of joining the militant group Islamic State.

Egypt’s Christian minority has come under attack in recent months. Two deadly church bombings in Alexandria and Tanta killed more than 45 people in April, months after a bombing near Cai-ro’s Coptic Cathedral killed at least 25.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for all three attacks.

Public prosecutor Nabil Sadek said in a statement on Sunday that some of the suspects held leadership positions in Islamic State and formed cells in Cairo and the southern province of Qena to carry out the church attacks.

Egypt is facing a more than three-year-old insurgency led by Islamic State that intensified after general-turned-President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi led the military in ousting Islamist President Mohamed Mursi in 2013 after mass protests against his rule.

Attacks were largely against secu-rity forces in the sparsely populated Sinai Peninsula in the past, but the mil-itant group has spread its violence to

the mainland and increasingly targeted Christian civilians in recent months.

The referral to the military judiciary paves the way for the suspects to face military trial.

Sadek also accused the suspects of carrying out an attack on a checkpoint

in Egypt’s Western Desert that killed at least eight policemen and receiving military training from Islamic State in Syria and Libya. The Palm Sunday bombings, which were claimed by the Islamic State militant group, were the deadliest attacks on Copts in the coun-

try’s recent history.One day following April attacks, the

interior ministry said that police had killed seven members of a terrorist cell connected to the bombings in a shoot-out in Upper Egypt’s Assiut governorate.

A three-month state of emergency was declared by President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi on the day of the church attacks.

Copts make up about 10 percent of Egypt’s population of 92 million. Coptic churches have been targeted by Islamist radicals in recent years. AGENCIES

American climber dies on Mount EverestKATHMANDU: Roland Yearwood, an American physician trying to climb Mount Everest after surviving the 2015 earthquake there, died not far from the peak on Sunday morning, authorities in Nepal said. Authori-ties said that they are still trying to determine how Yearwood died, and there were conflicting reports about whether the mountaineer was trying to reach the summit or was on the way down when he died. He was well into the “death zone” above 26,247 feet, where most of the climbers perish. “We are trying to confirm the reason,” said Dinesh Bhattarai, di-rector general of Nepal’s department of tourism. Yearwood, 50, a doctor at Georgiana Medical Center in Ala-bama, was part a team led by Ameri-can climber Daniel Mazur for the expedition firm SummitClimb, ac-cording to its Nepal-based partner, Murari K Sharma. He was trained as a doctor in London and New York and eventually settled in Alabama, where he has been a primary care physi-cian for the last 20 years, according to his biography on the rural health center’s website. AGENCIES

‘Angry’ Netanyahu orders ministers to

attend Trump receptionJERUSALEM: Israel’s prime minister, Benja-min Netanyahu, has reportedly been forced to order his ministers to attend the airport reception for Donald Trump on Monday, after discovering that a number had planned not to attend.

According to reports in the Israeli media, an angry Netanyahu was informed on Sunday that party heads and a number of ministers planned to skip the reception after the White House had asked for the meet and greet to be shortened to the two countries’ anthems and handshakes only between Netanyahu and Trump. Haaretz, the Times of Israel and the Jerusalem Post all carried stories, some quoting an identified Israeli government official on the instruction from Netanyahu, amid claims that ministers had been upset at not being included in the receiving line on the airport tarmac.

The row is the latest in a series of controver-sies to hit the planned visit of the US president, which officials in Israel have privately character-ised as often haphazard. Trump will arrive for the whirlwind visit to Israel and to the occupied Palestinian territories on Monday, amid mount-ing questions over what – if any – practical steps he will take to advance his “ultimate peace deal” between the two sides. Overshadowed by the escalating scandals surrounding him, the US president will meet Netanyahu and the Pal-estinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, during 26 hours of events. Trump will arrive from Riyadh on Air Force One just before noon at Ben Gurion airport, accompanied by his wife, daughter and son-in-law Jared. AGENCIES

The Boeing 737 was taxiing to an arrival gate when it collided with a utility truck carrying eight people

Two deadly church bombings in Alexandria and Tanta had killed more than 45 people in April, months after a bombing near Cairo’s Coptic Cathedral killed at least 25

Attacks were largely against security forces in the sparsely populated Sinai Peninsula in the past, but the militant group has spread its violence to the mainland and increasingly targeted Christian civilians in recent months

Middle East should fight

against Islamist extremism: TrumpRIYADH: US President Don-ald Trump called on Arab lead-ers to do their share to fight “Islamist extremism” on Sun-day in a speech that put the burden on the region to com-bat militant groups while urg-ing unity among religions.

Trump, who generated con-troversy with his push to ban many Muslims from entering the United States, described the fight against terrorism as a battle between good and evil rather than a clash of civiliza-tions. “This is a battle between barbaric criminals who seek to obliterate human life, and decent people of all religions who seek to protect it,” Trump will say in the speech, accord-ing to excerpts of the speech released by the White House.

“That means honestly con-fronting the crisis of Islamist extremism and the Islamist terror groups it inspires. And it means standing together against the murder of inno-cent Muslims, the oppression of women, the persecution of Jews, and the slaughter of Christians.” Trump’s “Amer-ica first” philosophy helped him win the 2016 election and has rattled allies who depend on US support for their defense. AGENCIES

MICHAEL CAPUTO

Ecuador ‘did its duty’ by giving Assange

asylum, says Correa

QUITO: Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa said on Sunday that his country had “done its duty” by granting asylum in 2012 to Julian Assange, and said he was glad Sweden had closed its rape case against the WikiLeaks founder. “Ecuador fulfilled its duty, we gave him sovereign asylum, and finally the Swedish judicial system has closed the file and will not press charges against Assange,” Cor-rea said in a weekly report on his presidential activities.

On Saturday, Swedish authorities closed the seven-year-old rape case against Assange and withdrew the European arrest warrant issued against him. British police, however, have said they still intend to arrest Assange if he leaves the Ecuadoran Embassy in London where he has been holed up. He violated the terms of his probation in Britain in 2012 when he took refuge in the diplomatic mission.

Sweden has made clear that its decision to drop its inquiry did not imply that Assange was

innocent, but simply that it saw no realistic way to pursue the matter. Correa said Ecuador had granted asylum to the Aus-tralian “because there were no guarantees of due process (in the US), because there were sectors of the United States that even threatened Julian Assange with the death penalty”.

The WikiLeaks founder has always proclaimed his innocence of the charges and claimed that his extradition to Sweden would have led to his transfer to the United States, where he could be tried for publishing a huge store of confidential military and dip-lomatic documents. “We never wanted to obstruct” Swedish justice, said Correa, noting that Ecuador had allowed a Swed-ish prosecutor to question the 45-year-old Australian at the embassy, where he remains for now. Upon learning of the Swedish decision to close the rape case, Ecuadoran For-eign Minister Guillaume Long urged Britain to grant Assange a safe-conduct pass. AGENCIES

mp business12MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Monday, 22 May, 2017

NEW YORK/NEW DELHI: A number of large foreign funds, managing trillions of dollars of investor assets globally, have flagged 'per-sisting religious conflicts' and 'Kashmir dispute' as potential risks to their investments in India, saying such "tensions" could destabilise the Indian economy.

JPMorgan, one of the larg-est wealth managers in the world with asset under man-agement of over $1.7 trillion, alone has flagged these "reli-gious and border disputes" regarding investments in India in at least eight regulatory fil-ings made by its various funds so far this month.

Besides, a number of other funds, including the India Fund managed by Aber-deen Asset Management which has over $380 billion of assets under management, have listed similar "risks" in their regulatory filings made with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other such funds include Eaton Vance Greater India Fund, Mathews International Funds, Alps Funds (Finan-cial Investors Trust), Frank-lin Templeton International Trust, Global X Funds and

iShares Trust (managed by BlackRock Fund Advisors).

Besides, Wasatch Funds Trust, Arthur J Gallagher & Co and Causeway Capital Management Trust have also flagged similar concerns.

Similar concerns have been flagged by a few funds regard-ing Pakistan also.

When contacted, senior officials at some of these funds and other experts said such 'risk factors' follow a generic pattern in regulatory filings by various companies and inves-tors and not much should be read into them, but they admitted that religious con-flicts and Kashmir dispute remain an overhang.

They refused to be named

citing regulatory issues and due to "sensitivities" involved in such matters.

While cross-border ten-sion continues in Kashmir region, the Indian government has been trying to send across a positive message to the world and some saw hosting of the GST Council meeting in Sri-nagar last week as a step in that direction.

In a filing made by JPM-organ Trust II on May 18, the fund said, "Political and eco-nomic structures in India are undergoing significant evolu-tion and rapid development, and may lack the social, polit-ical and economic stability characteristic of the US."

It further said, "Religious

and border disputes persist in India. Moreover, India has from time to time experienced civil unrest and hostilities with neighbouring countries such as Pakistan. The Indian gov-ernment has confronted sep-aratist movements in several Indian states.

"The longstanding dispute with Pakistan over the border-ing Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, a majority of whose population is Muslim, remains unresolved. If the Indian gov-ernment is unable to control the violence and disruption associated with these tensions, the results could destabilise the economy and conse-quently, adversely affect the Fund's investments."

Similar filings have been made this month by funds like JPMorgan Trust I, JP Mor-gan Exchange Traded Fund Trust, JP Morgan Mutual Fund Investment Trust and JP Mor-gan Insurance Trust.

A few US-listed Indian and India-focussed compa-nies have also made similar observations in their filings during 2017.

These include HDFC Bank, Cognizant, Cancer Genetics, WNS Holdings, Genpact and MoneyOnMobile Inc. PTI

NEW DELHI: Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Urjit Patel's appearance before a par-liamentary panel for a second briefing on demonetisation has been put off from May 25 to June 8, as work on framing the monetary policy would be underway at that time.

The Standing Committee on Finance, which had ques-tioned Patel on January 18 on the move to ban Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 denomination notes, allowed him to appear at the later date after he issued a request expressing his inability.

Patel had been asked to appear on May 25 after former prime minister Manmohan Singh prevailed over the BJP MPs in the panel, who were opposed to summoning the RBI governor again.

Incidentally, it was Singh who had rescued Patel from a tough grilling during the Jan-uary meeting when he inter-vened to say that the central bank and the governor's posi-tion as an institution should be respected. He should not be put to odd questions, Singh, who himself was RBI governor once, is believed to have told the Committee.

"Patel was supposed to come on May 25 but it was postponed following his request express-ing his unavailability on the day due to the monetary pol-icy which is scheduled for June 6-7," a member said.

Instead of Patel, all secretar-ies from Finance Ministry will be present on May 25 to update the panel, which is chaired by Congress leader M Veerappa Moily, about digital economy, he said.

BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, who is a member of the panel, has suggested to the chairman that it should now deliberate on digital economy, as "demon-etisation was not an issue any more".

In January, the panel had summoned top finance minis-try and RBI officials to discuss the demonetisation process and its impact.

As the members could not complete their questions, the committee had decided to call the RBI governor and min-istry officials again on a later date, after the Budget session. Sources privy to developments said the members in the panel are now likely to question Patel on how much money has come back into the system. PTI

NEW DELHI: India's econ-omy is set to witness improve-ment in the overall conditions, owing to growth of external financial linkages, ample funds and pickup in the domestic economic activity, according to a survey.

However, 31 leading banks and financial institutions par-ticipating in the survey for the April-June quarter also anticipate the cost of funds to rise due to tightening of liquidity in the near future, thereby dampening corporate lending which is already grappling with issues like high NPAs.

The survey was car-ried out to map the expecta-tions of banks and financial institutions.

The government recently gave wide-ranging legislative powers to the Reserve Bank to issue directions to lenders to initiate insolvency proceed-ings for recovering bad loans, as non-performing assets (NPAs) of public sector banks zoomed to unacceptably high levels of over Rs 6 lakh crore.

High NPAs limit the capac-ity of the banking sector to lend to corporates. PTI

NEW DELHI: Former RBI Governor Bimal Jalan on Sun-day favoured taxing rich farm-ers earning above a certain threshold, without hurting the interests of those with small farms. He also pitched for a rat-ing upgrade for India due to a number of steps taken by the government.

Talking about the contro-versial issue of taxing farm income, Jalan noted the impor-tance of agriculture and small farms in the Indian situation.

"The... question is that sup-posing you have large farms and you have an income from those farms which say exceeds certain high levels of income, then you can think about tax-ing that high level of income," he said. Jalan, however, added that a very large proportion of the population has small farms and we should not do anything which can hurt them.

Jalan, under whose watch India weathered the Asian cur-rency crisis, said low inflation and high growth are the main achievements of the NDA gov-ernment but it would need to do more to reduce corrup-tion and reform the complex administrative system. PTI

NEW DELHI: Three Indian companies –Gitanjali Gems, Titan and PC Jeweller –have been named in the list of top 50 luxury goods firms globally that was topped by Louis Vuit-ton. Gitanjali Gems Ltd was placed in the 30th rank, fol-lowed by Titan Company (31st) and PC Jeweller (44th) in the fourth annual Global Powers of Luxury Goods report.

Among the top 10 compa-nies globally, three are luxury conglomerates participating in multiple sectors of the luxury good market.

The top three companies are LVMH Moet Hennessy-Louis Vuitton SA (Louis Vuit-ton, Bulgari, Emilio Pucci, DonnaKaran, TAGHeuer), Compaigne Financiere Richemont SA (Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Montblanc, Chloe), and The Estee Lauder Companies Inc (Estee Lauder, M.A.C., Aramis, Clinique, Aveda, Jo Malone).

On the economic outlook of luxury market in India and

the potential impact it may have on brands, a Deloitte India spokesperson said: "A rapidly rising urban middle class with increasing disposable income is expected to drive sales of lux-ury goods. The demand for lux-ury goods is expected to remain strong, and India remains the bright spot among Asian and BRIC countries, despite the tax on luxury goods."

Emerging consumer mar-kets continue to drive luxury market growth. In China, Rus-sia and the United Arab Emir-ates, that are categorised as emerging luxury markets, 70 per cent of consumers claimed to have increased their spend-ing in the last five years as compared to 53 per cent in the more mature markets (EU, US and Japan).

The report noted that the world's 100 largest luxury goods companies generated sales of $212 billion in 2014-15. The average luxury goods annual sales for a top 100 com-pany stood at $2.1 billion. PTI

JOYEETA DEY

GULMARG: Inflation will fall by 2 per cent on implementa-tion of the goods and services tax (GST) and create buoy-ancy in the economy, Reve-nue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia has said.

With the stage set for the biggest overhaul of India's tax system since Independence, the government will launch a massive awareness campaign to educate consumers about GST so that they are not fleeced by traders in the name of new tax. In an interview, he said the all-powerful GST Council will meet next week to decide on tax rates of contentious items like gold, bidi and biscuits, just in time for its rollout from July 1.

The Council over the two days last week assigned tax rates to more than 500 ser-vices and 1,200 goods by set-ting them in five broad rates of 5, 12, 18 and 28 per cent.

Adhia and his team visited this picturesque hill station near Srinagar for a short break before heading back to Delhi.

The rates, he said, have been so fixed that incidence of taxation has come down in many and remained at the same level as now in most of the remaining goods and services.

"I don't think inflation will at all go up because of GST. We have taken special care to

ensure inflation does not go up. Our internal estimate is that after the rates are decided, inflation should come down by 2 per cent," he said.

While the current indirect tax regime suffers from signif-icant cascading, which leads to higher cost of goods and services, a free flow of cred-its across transactions under the GST framework will bring down the tax cost for busi-nesses. Also, taxpayers or con-sumers currently have to pay both the Centre and state taxes on a single sale, which adds to increased costs for busi-nesses and consumers. Such an increase in costs adds to the inflationary pressure.

GST will be a single nation-wide sales tax replacing a string of central and state levies.

"That is how we have man-aged to keep our inflation bas-ket under control," Adhia said, promising to fix any compli-ance issues that crop up dur-

ing implementation.The revenue secretary said

GST will create buoyancy in the economy through better compliance and ease of doing business. "I wouldn't say any-thing is pending, but I would say the government has to reach out to the trade and industry and also the machin-ery of explaining the GST pro-cedures in townhall meetings. We need to accelerate this," he said on the task ahead.

Most importantly, con-sumer education campaign has to be taken up, he added.

"Because we have taken care to ensure the average tax incidence on commodities does not go up... There may be some traders who will try to tell consumers that under the changed GST rates, they will have to pay more. We have to educate them," he said.

Consumers, he stressed, need not be charged more in all cases even though the head-

line rate may go up as input tax credit or setting off the tax paid on raw material is available.

"We need a lot of consumer education for that," he said.

To safeguard consumer interest, the GST law provides for an anti-profiteering mech-anism that will ensure indus-tries that have got relief by way of lower taxes actually pass on the benefit to consumers.

"We will try to set it (anti-profiteering machinery) up as early as possible or we will try

to identify an agency which will do it. We are working on it," Adhia said.

Even if setting up the agency takes three months, the agency can do a postmortem to see if anybody has unduly prof-ited from GST.

"Even if it is set up after 3 months, it doesn't matter because if anybody has done profiteering, the books (of accounts) will speak for them-selves and so, we can do a post mortem of those cases and we

can take care of that," he said.But the effort for now is to

hold consultations with the trade and industry. "We will urge the big corporates that in the interest of smooth imple-mentation of GST, they should not increase any rates now," he said.

The secretary said rates for all items but for six like gold, bidi, biscuits, textiles, footwear and natural or cultured pears and semi-precious stones have been decided. PTI

NEW DELHI: Consumer durables makers expect sales of TVs, refrigerators and ACs to be impacted in July-August as prices would go up 4-5 per cent under the GST regime, but hope to make good from big volumes during festive sales. Implementation of GST may impact their trade partners due to increase in input tax. How-ever, it could be recovered by increase in their selling prices.

According to Consumer Electronics and Appliances Manufacturers Association (CEAMA), such decline would be offset with the festive sales that would start from August this year with Onam.

"July-August sales will get

impacted and the effect will get neutralised by the festive sea-son and demand will be back," said CEAMA President Man-ish Sharma. Godrej Appliances Business Head and Executive VP Kamal Nandi said that the industry would find some dif-ficulty in the initial months but later it would recover. "In the short run, there would be some resistance or postponement, but in the long run given that it is a very structured tax sys-tem, it would propel growth," he said.

Sharma, who is also Pres-ident and CEO Panasonic India & South Asia said that the impact would be recovered through increase in prices.

"The trade partners could have a slight impact due to input tax. However, they could recover it by increase in their selling prices. We shall not be giving any incentive for inventory adjustments to trade partners," he added. The GST Council has final-ised tax rates for services under the new regime set to kick in from July 1, earmarking a 28 per cent rate for TV, refrig-erators and air-conditioners. Videocon Director Anirudh Dhoot said there would be some dilemma at the distrib-utor level once GST is imple-mented, and the companies would have to address their concerns. PTI

WASHINGTON/NEW DELHI: Facing rough weather amid large-scale layoffs and visa curbs in the US, the Indian IT industry body Nasscom has stepped up its lobbying with the American lawmakers sig-nificantly with an over one-third increase in money spent on such activities.

According to the latest lobbying disclosure reports filed with the US Senate, the National Association of Soft-ware and Services Companies (Nasscom) paid a total amount of $1,50,000 (nearly Rs 1 crore) to its two registered lobbyists in the first quarter of 2017.

This marks a significant rise from $1,10,000 paid to the two lobbyists in the previous quar-ter ended December 2016.

The amount was same for each of the four quarter of 2016.

Among the two lobbyists, The Lande Group was paid $50,000 in January-March quarter of 2017 –the same as the money paid in each of the four quarters of 2016.

However, the other lobby-ist, Wexler & Walker, a unit of Hill+Knowlton Strategies, LLC, was paid $100,000 in the first quarter of 2017, as against $60,000 in the previous three-

month period and in many of the previous quarters.

As per the lobbying disclo-sure report, the "specific lobby-ing issues" undertaken by this lobbyist included those related to immigration. The "general issues" included tax and trade matters.

The houses of Congress and federal agencies with whom it lobbied on behalf of Nasscom, which itself acts as a lobby group for the $150 billion Indian IT industry, included the US Senate and the US House of Representatives.

On the other hand, Lande Group covered a larger num-ber of "specific lobbying issues", including with several federal agencies, as per its first-quarter disclosure report.

These included "high skill immigration, green cards, visa processing, US-India relations, US-India matters, tax reform, (and) border adjustment tax".

In addition to the Senate and the House of Representa-tives, The Lande Group also did lobbying with the White House Office, the US Trade Representative, the US Citi-zenship and Immigration Ser-vices and the departments of state, commerce and home-land security.

Nasscom took a delega-tion of the Indian IT indus-try earlier this year to the US to engage with members of the Trump administration on issues like clampdown on work visas and flow of skilled manpower between the two nations.

During the visit, Nasscom president R Chandrashekhar had said the debate in the US over H-1B visas has become a political and emotive issue as there is a "yawning gap" between the facts and percep-tion and the Indian IT firms contribute immensely to the US economy and jobs creation.

He met several influential

American lawmakers, opin-ion builders, members of the think-tank community and government officials to dis-cuss H-1B visa issues, among other matters.

The visit of the Nasscom delegation came in the wake of the ongoing debate in the US and moves to curtail the use of H-1B visas, widely used by Indian IT majors.

The US recently also accused top Indian IT firms TCS and Infosys of "unfairly" cornering the lion's share of the H-1B work visas by put-ting extra tickets in the lottery system, a charge vehemently countered by Nasscom.

Close on the heels of this accusation, Infosys went on to announce plans to hire 10,000 Americans, though this move was described by some as an act to appease US President Donald Trump's administra-tion which has tightened the rules of H-1B visa programme to stop its 'abuse'.

Nasscom's lobbying expenses rising An analysis of the lobbying dis-closure reports filed for Nass-com shows that the Indian software industry body paid $440,000 to the two registered lobbying firms in 2016.

The Lande Group has been lobbying on behalf of Nass-com since third quarter of 2010, while Wexler & Walker registered itself as a lobbyist for the industry body in Octo-ber 2015.

Previously, Hill and Knowl-ton had registered itself as a lobbyist for Nasscom way back in February 2003 but that asso-ciation got terminated in first quarter of 2008.

Since the beginning, the lobbying issues for Nasscom have included "immigra-tion and technology issues of interest to the Indian software industry".

The total lobbying expenses for Nasscom in the year 2015 was $270,000, while it was even lower at $140,000 in 2014 and $150,000 in 2013.

The amounts were $115,000 in 2012, $75,000 in 2011 and just $40,000 in 2010. The lobbying expenses for Nasscom stood at $60,000 in 2006, $100,000 in 2005, $180,000 in 2004 and at $200,000 in 2003. PTI

NEW DELHI: Saddled with a huge staff crunch, fair trade regulator CCI is looking to beef up its headcount by hiring peo-ple for different positions and also engage professionals on short-term basis in various departments.

The Competition Commis-sion of India (CCI) has invited applications from candidates for engagement of 23 research associates/professionals in the field of law, economics and financial analysis to assist the regulator in discharging its functions. Besides, the Com-mission has sought applica-tions for 28 posts including directors, joint directors and deputy directors, office man-ager and private secretary.

In recent times, the watch-dog has been making efforts to strengthen its manpower amid a rising number of complaints related to alleged unfair busi-ness practices received by it.

In addition, CCI gets notices seeking approval for mergers and acquisitions.

A parliamentary panel, in its report in March, said that Commission is "extremely under-staffed". "Considering its huge workload... The Com-mission is extremely under-staffed with only 114 officers in position as against the sanc-tioned strength of 197 posts,"

the panel had said. The issue of staff crunch at the regulator has been flagged by the Stand-ing Committee on Finance in its report on the Demands for Grants (2017-18) of the Corpo-rate Affairs Ministry.

Spelling out the eligibility criteria for research associates/professionals, CCI said that applicants should be dynamic and self-motivated profes-sionals with effective analyti-cal, communication (including technical writing) and inter-personal skills. Initially, they will be required for a period of one year which can be further extended as per requirements.

"The level of the research associates will be determined not only on the basis of expe-rience and educational qualifi-cations but also on the basis of the overall performance of the candidate during his/her inter-view," the regulator said.

CCI, which keeps a tab on unfair business practices across sectors, has sought application for 23 positions in the profes-sional staff category –4 direc-tors, 8 joint directors and 11 deputy directors.

Besides, in the support staff category, two posts for joint director, one each for princi-ple private secretary, private secretary and office manger are to be filled. PTI

GST to cut inflation by 2%, create buoyancy in economy: Adhia

Consumer durables firms anticipate dip in July-August sales on GST

Demonetisation: Reserve Bank guv to brief on June 8

Nasscom steps up US lobbying on immigration, visa issues According to the latest lobbying disclosure reports filed with the US Senate, the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) paid a total amount of $1,50,000 (nearly `1 crore) to its two registered lobbyists in the first quarter of 2017

Three Indian brands among world's top 50 luxury goods cos

Foreign funds flag Kashmir dispute, religious conflicts as ‘risks’ to India investments

Govt should think about taxing rich

farmers: Jalan

CCI to beef up headcount, engage professionals

‘India's economy to

improve, cost of funds may rise’

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Urjit Patel

Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia

mp business 13MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Monday, 22 May, 2017

BHUBANESWAR: Coal India Limited (CIL) chair-man Sutirtha Bhattacharya said time has come to explore viable diversification plans to enter into the renewable energy sector to become more competitive in the market.

"We have to be more com-petitive in the energy market while opportunities of diver-sification have to be explored," Bhattacharya said during a visit to the headquarters of Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL), a subsidiary of CIL, at Burla, Sambalpur on Saturday.

The CIL chairman said MCL has a capacity and the potential to achieve big tar-gets by optimum capacity util-isation and taking advance actions for environment, forest and other statutory clearances.

The chairman, who inspected mining activities at the Ib Valley Coalfields in Odisha, also chaired a review meeting with the top manage-ment officials and area gen-eral managers, a release from MCL said.

He also held a special meet-ing with young Coal India offi-

cers at the MCL headquarters and held a discussion on the outlook of energy sector in the country, it said.

MCL has been given a tar-get to produce 160 million tonne coal during the 2017-

18 fiscal, as against 139 million tonne produced during the year ended March 31, 2017.

Complimenting MCL workers for their contributions in providing energy security to the nation, Bhattacharya said the company has a potential to achieve higher targets, for which optimum capacity util-isation is need of the hour, according to the release.

The chairman emphasised on taking advance actions on environment and forest clear-ances for mining, it said add-ing the young officers also shared their ideas on business operations. PTI

MUMBAI: Insurance behe-moth Life Insurance Corpo-ration (LIC) of India earned a total investment income of Rs 1,80,117 crore during the financial year 2016-17.

For LIC, which is also the largest domestic institutional investor in the country, the income was earned through investment in government bonds and state development loans, interest, corporate bond interest, dividend income and profits on sale of equity.

The market value of LIC's total investment grew 17.08 per cent at the end of FY17 at Rs 24,69,589 crore (provisional) from Rs 21,09,253 crore a year ago.

"During the year (2016-17), LIC invested Rs 2.6 trillion in Central and State govern-ment securities with an aver-age annualised yield of 7.65

per cent during the year," LIC sources said.

While an investment of Rs 41,751 crore was made by LIC in equities, it realised a profit of Rs 19,302 crore by sale of equity during the past year. An investment of Rs 27,350 crore was made in corporate bonds.

The government has announced its borrowing pro-gramme of Rs 5.8 trillion and it is estimated that state gov-ernments together will borrow another Rs 4 trillion during the current fiscal.

LIC believes, going ahead, the interest rates may not fall but go up.

"With RBI marking a shift in the monetary stance to neu-tral, and US Fed hinting at more hikes in the interest rate during the year, the chances of a repo rate cut in the country are less," the source said. PTI

NEW DELHI: India should produce more automotive high-end steel as the country is likely to manufacture 27 per cent of total cars in the world in days to come, Steel Minis-ter Chaudhary Birender Singh has said.

"In times to come, it is expected that India would be the hub for manufactur-ing of motor cars... and there is an estimate that India alone would be manufacturing 27 per cent of the total cars in the world," the minister said.

"We want that this kind of steel, that is automotive high end, should be produced in our country so that we can save our foreign currency to a great extent," he said.

He also pitched for export of high-end steel to the world market, saying factors like competitive efficiency play a key role in its manufacturing.

Noting that the efficiency level in both private and public sectors in India is below inter-national standards, the minis-

ter underscored the need for higher efficiency.

The higher efficiency can be achieved by changing the old machinery at steel plants "which we have already done with regard to PSUs, especially state-owned SAIL". The last phase of modernisation and expansion of SAIL is expected to be completed by December this year. "We have spent about Rs 62,000 crore in the last 8-10 years on expansion and mod-ernisation," he said.

Steel Authority of India Ltd

(SAIL) has embarked on mod-ernisation and expansion of its integrated steel plants in Bhilai, Bokaro, Rourkela, Dur-gapur and Burnpur and the special steel plant in Salem.

In the ongoing drive, the crude steel capacity is being enhanced to 21.4 mtpa, from 12.8 mtpa. The country's largest steel maker had ear-lier said it reached the last leg of its modernisation pro-gramme, but expressed con-cern over weak demand for domestic steel. PTI

NEW DELHI: Over 7,000 steps, big and small, have been taken by the government so far to improve the ease of doing business in the country, Com-merce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said.

She also said that the min-istry is working with all states to improve the business cli-mate further. "Roughly about 7,000 big, small, medium and nano measures have been taken on ease of doing business. As a result of which, we feel that states have realised that ease of doing business is a major agenda and they also see the benefit on going on that route," she said.

Steps taken to improve ease of doing business include fixing timeline for clearance of appli-cations, de-licensing the man-ufacturing of many defence products, introduction of e-biz project for single window clear-ance, reduction in number of documents required for export and import, and mandatory filing of all returns on-line through a unified form.

In the World Bank's lat-est 'Doing Business' 2017 report, India's place remained

unchanged from last year s original ranking of 130 among the 190 economies that were assessed on various param-eters. Last year's ranking was revised however to 131 from which the country has improved its place by one spot. India has expressed disappoint-ment at its rank remaining low, stating that efforts and reforms undertaken by the Centre and states have not been adequately captured in the ranking.

These ranks are based on ten parameters such as starting a business, construction per-mits and getting credit.

The government has been

making efforts to further improve the ease of doing business and aims to bring the country in the top 50.

Improving business climate helps attract both domestic and foreign investments.

The commerce and indus-try minister said that the gov-ernment had initiated a lot of big ticket and systemic reforms in the last three years and would continue efforts to con-solidate the gains as also take up more economic measures in the remaining two years.

She said the government pursued reforms in a host of sectors, including banking, real

estate, taxation, aviation and commercial dispute resolution.

"In the three years, both big ticket and systemic reforms have been taken in a calibrated fashion," she said on the occa-sion of the NDA government completing three years in power. The reforms have been undertaken at every level of governance, she said, adding the government has the man-date for five years and there are two more years to go dur-ing which consolidation would happen. "We need to consoli-date" on reforms and take up new things in the months to come with a view to boost eco-nomic development, Sithara-man said. She further said that because of the various initia-tives taken by the government, the confidence of overseas and domestic investors have improved.

FDI into India increased by 9 per cent to a record level of $43.48 billion in 2016-17.

After coming to power in May 2014, the government started a range of reforms in various sectors like taxation, FDI policy, power, aviation and infrastructure. PTI

NEW DELHI: Oil Ministry may block any attempt by state-owned GAIL, IOC, ONGC and BPCL to buy 10 per cent stake of France's GDF International in Petronet LNG Ltd as it is keen to keep the liquefied nat-ural gas importer a private lim-ited company.

GDF, a unit of French energy giant Engie SA, has written to sell its entire stake in Petronet to the company's principal promoters –gas util-ity GAIL India Ltd, explorer Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) and refiners Indian Oil Corp (IOC) and Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL). At present, the four companies hold 49.99 per cent stake of Petronet.

If any of the promoters were to buy GDF's stake, the com-bined shareholding of state-owned firms will rise above 50 per cent and will lead to con-version of Petronet into a pub-lic sector company, something that oil ministry does not want, sources privy to the develop-ment said. Though Petronet is registered as a private com-pany, Government of India's Secretary in the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas

is its Chairman. By its private nature, the company is cur-rently out of purview of CAG audit as well as any Parliamen-tary scrutiny. "We can exercise our right of first refusal to buy GDF stake but what is the use. We will never get permission from the ministry," a top offi-cial at one of the promoters said. The Ministry's desire to keep the company private had led to none of the four promot-ers exercising their right of first buy when in August 2011 Asian Development Bank (ADB) offered to sell its entire 5.2 per cent stake in Petronet.

All the four promoter firms IOC, ONGC, GAIL and BPCL were originally interested in buying ADB's 5.2 per cent stake but management of Petronet was opposed to it as it would have led to PSU holding cross-ing 50 per cent.

The board of all the four promoter companies approved

exercising the first right of refusal over ADB stake but the Ministry vetoed the proposal at a meeting on March 26, 2012.

Eventually, ADB in Septem-ber 2014 sold 3.9 crore shares via a block deal to CitiGroup and HDFC Mutual Fund for Rs 714.5 crore. EDF holds 7.5 crore shares in Petronet, which at Friday's closing price on BSE of Rs 448.15, is valued at Rs 3,361 crore. Petronet is India's biggest importer of liquefied natural gas.

GDF International had in March sent a communication to each of the promoters offer-ing "a first right of purchase/refusal in relation to the pro-posed sale of 10 per cent equity shares in the company in the same proportion in which the promoters are holding equity shares in the company."

The four promoter firms hold 12.5 per cent stake each in Petronet. Going by this propor-tion, they are each entitled to buy 2.5 per cent of GDF's stake.

But now, it is unlikely that anyone of them will exercise that option given that Petronet has been structured as a private company, sources added. PTI

NEW DELHI: Steel exports saw a 142 per cent jump in April to 0.747 million tonnes (MT) over the correspond-ing month a year-ago, amid steps to safeguard domestic industry. The government has provided extensive sup-port to domestic steel indus-try by way of various trade remedial measures including anti-dumping.

"Export of total finished steel was up by 142 per cent in April 2017 (0.747 MT) over April 2016 and declined by 54 per cent over March 2017," Joint Plant Committee, a body under the Ministry of Steel said in its latest data.

Import of total finished steel saw a dip of 23 per cent in April to 0.504 MT over the corresponding month a

year-ago.Imports during the month

also declined by 16 per cent over March 2017.

"India was a net exporter of total finished steel in April 2017," the report said.

Production for sale of total finished steel at 8.43 MT reg-istered a growth of 8.7 per cent during April 2017 over April 2016 but was down by 8.6 per cent over March 2017.

SAIL, RINL, TSL, Essar, JSWL and JSPL together pro-duced 4.786 MT during April 2017 which was a growth of 11 per cent over April 2016.

The rest of the 4.478 MT steel produced during the month came from the other producers, which was a growth of 6 per cent over April 2016. PTI

NEW DELHI: Overseas investors have pumped in more than $2 billion so far in the country's capital market this month, helped by stable outlook for the rupee.

Interestingly, most of the funds have been invested in the debt markets.

According to latest depos-itory data, Foreign Portfo-lio Investors (FPIs) invested a net Rs 4,157 crore in equi-ties during May 2-19, while they poured Rs 12,941 crore in the debt markets dur-ing the period under review, translating into a net inflow of Rs 17,099 crore ($2.66 billion).

This comes following a net inflow of close to Rs 94,900 crore in the last three months (February-April) on several factors, including expecta-tions that BJP's victory in recently held assembly polls will accelerate the pace of reforms.

Prior to that, such inves-tors had pulled out over Rs 3,496 crore from debt markets in January. PTI

Need to be more competitive in energy market: CIL chairman

Coal India Limited chairman Sutirtha Bhattacharya

The chairman emphasised on taking advance actions on environment and forest clearances for mining

Minister sees India as auto hub, bats for high-end steel

Steel exports up 142% to 0.747 million tonnes in April

Oil Min may block oil PSUs buying GDF stake in Petronet

Have taken 7k steps to improve ease of doing business: Nirmala

NEW DELHI: The Minis-try of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship has begun grading the industrial training institutes across the country by giving them star ratings based on their facilities, performance and placement record.

More than 3,500 ITIs out of over 13,000 have already been graded, with the best performers qualifying for the five-star rating, a senior gov-ernment official said. The gov-ernment's vocational training programmes are administered by industrial training institutes (ITIs), which cater to about 36 per cent of the 7 million people presently enrolled in various training programmes in India.

The grading of ITIs will help the students to opt from the best institutes, and employ-ers by providing them the for-mal governmental recognition for the level of quality of train-ing and facilities provided at the institutes. The evaluation is done in two phases, a self appraisal followed by an in-depth assessment by the Direc-torate General of Training, the umbrella body overseeing the functioning of ITIs and other training institutes.

Significantly, the National Council on Vocational Train-ing (NCVT) recognition will be withdrawn from ITIs opting out of the grading procedure and their certificates would bear "ungraded ITI", thereby lowering the employment pros-pects of students studying in these institutes.

On the other hand, ITIs

who opt for grading and secure a rating of 3-star and above can avail a host of benefits. Such ITIs will be eligible to receive financial support under the government's schemes, includ-ing those funded through the World Bank assistance, and their principals and instruc-tors will be trained in central institutes in India and abroad.

The star performers will qualify for the best ITI award, to be conferred upon them by the government. They will have flexibility in charging higher course fee from students and no re-affiliation will be required if an ITI continuously scores three-star and above rating. The star rating will be displayed on the NCVT certif-icates of trainees, brightening their employment prospects.

"The grading outcome will act as a crucial input to deter-mine the relative strengths and weaknesses across institutes and the trades offered therein. It will help the Directorate General of Training to iden-tify specific problem areas and design effective policy inter-ventions," another government official said.

The grading process is based on 43 parameters, including infrastructure around a particular institute, level of engagement with the industry, availability and speci-fication of machines, tools and equipment, qualified instruc-tors, availability of a full-time principal, drop-out rate, record of placement, pass-out ratio, among others. PTI

Govt begins star rating of industrial training institutes NEW DELHI: Retirement

fund manager EPFO's advi-sory body Finance, Investment and Audit Committee (FAIC) will examine the proposal to increase investments in exchange traded funds (ETFs) to 15 per cent from 10 per cent on May 25. The Employees' Provident Fund Organisation's (EPFO) apex decision-making body Central Board of Trust-ees will take a final decision on raising investment in ETFs for the current fiscal on the basis of the FAIC recommendations on May 26.

After the CBT approval, the EPFO will be able to park over Rs 15,000 crore in the ETFs in 2017-18 as its investible depos-its are around Rs 1 lakh crore every year.

According to a source, the FAIC is scheduled to meet on

May 25 where a status report on the EPFO's investment in the ETFs will be presented and views of the members will be sought on raising the same.

As per the status report, the EPFO has invested Rs 21,050 crore in the ETFs till April 2017. Of this, Rs 18,182 crore have been invested through SBI Mutual Fund and Rs 2,868 crore via UTI Mutual Fund.

SBI MF has given an overall

return of 110.03 per cent while the UTI MF has earned 7.39 per cent.

The EPFO had invested Rs 15,376.12 crore till March 22, 2017, for which it received a dividend of Rs 234.86 crore.

This apart, the FAIC will deliberate on the proposal of giving one-year extension to SBI MF and UTI MF for the ETF investments for one year beyond June 30, 2017.

The proposal to raise investments in the ETFs was deferred at the CBT meeting on April 12, 2017. Some trust-ees led by Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh member P J Banasure demanded an exit policy for liquidating various investments in securities, state loans and ETFs. Banasure had said there should be an exit policy for maximising returns on invest-ments made by the EPFO.

In 2015, the finance minis-try had allowed private provi-dent funds to invest 5-15 per cent of its investible depos-its in equity or equity-linked schemes.

In view of the volatile nature of stock markets, the EPFO had then decided to start with investing just 5 per cent of its over Rs 1 lakh crore invest-ible amount in ETFs. PTI

EPFO advisory body to vet stock exposure hike proposal

LIC investment income at `1,80,117 crore in 2016-17

The Employees' Provident Fund Organisation's (EPFO) apex decision-making body Central Board of Trustees will take a final decision on raising investment in ETFs for the current fiscal on the basis of the FAIC recommendations on May 26.

MUMBAI: The country's stock market wealth has grown by nearly Rs 50 lakh crore in three years since the Modi govern-ment was voted to power, with huge gains of over Rs 1 lakh crore each for big corporates like Tata, Birla, Ambani and Bajaj groups.

Financial sector and indus-trial conglomerates like HDFC, ICICI, L&T, Vedanta, Godrej, Mahindras, Hinduja and ITC have also gained big with a sharp jump in their market valuations during this period, which is being termed by some market experts as the 'Modi Rally'.

At the same time, the gains

have been relatively 'uneven' for the public sector compa-nies with some of them actually seeing a dip in their investor wealth while others have reg-istered a huge jump.

The overall gain for state-run companies forming part of the BSE PSU index is estimated at about 22 per cent or Rs 3.65 lakh crore -- which is less than 8 per cent of the total three-year gain of about Rs 50 lakh crore for the across-the- board stock market wealth since the NDA alliance was voted to power in May 2014.

The PSUs as such account for over 16 per cent of the overall stock market wealth in

India.An analysis of the stock

market movements in this

period shows that the stock market benchmark Sensex has gained over 6,000 points or

nearly 26 per cent, while the overall stock market has grown from little over Rs 75 lakh crore to more than Rs 125 lakh crore now.

The experts, however, flagged that a big chunk of these huge gains are actually in the accounts of the promot-ers themselves, while foreign portfolio investors and domes-tic institutional investors have got the next biggest share.

The average shareholding of retail investors in Indian com-panies is relatively less at less than 10 per cent and therefore their share in the overall gains would be relatively smaller.

As per a survey commis-

sioned by the capital markets regulator Sebi, just about 8 per cent households in urban India invest in stocks while those investing in mutual funds are also less than 10 per cent.

The rural households have less than 1 per cent investors.

The situation is so bad in rural areas that just 1.4 per cent are aware about stocks and mutual funds.

In these three years, Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries has gained nearly Rs 1 lakh crore in market capi-talisation –the total value of all listed shares –to about Rs 4.5 lakh crore with a gain of about 30 per cent. PTI

Stock rally adds ̀ 50-lakh crore to investor wealth in 3 years

FPIs stay bullish on

India, pump in $2 bn in May

Petronet is India's biggest importer of liquefied natural gas

Steel Minister Chaudhary Birender Singh

mp sport14MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi |Monday, 22 May, 2017

HARIKRISHNA BEATS NEPOMNIACHTCHI IN MOSCOW CHESS MEETMOSCOW: Indian Grand Master Pentala Harikrishna defeated Russian GM Ian Nepomniachtchi in his eighth-round tie in the Moscow FIDE Grand Prix here. The World No. 16 Indian, playing with black pieces on Saturday, was pushed on to his backfoot in the initial stages of the game but capitalised on his opponent’s mistake to restore balance into the game.

NEGOTIATIONS ON INDIA-PAKISTAN SERIES EXPECTED DURING CT: PCBKARACHI: Amidst bleak chances of an India-Pakistan bilateral cricket series in the near future, a top Pakistani official on Sunday said the two countries are likely to hold talks during a Champions Trophy match. PCB Chair-man Shahryar Khan said he would discuss the matter once again with the Indian cricket board officials

ENGLAND’S JAMES ANDERSON SUFFERS GROIN INJURYLONDON: England spearhead James Anderson missed the whole of Saturday’s play in Lancashire’s Roses clash with York-shire because of a groin injury and may take no further part in the match. Anderson, England’s all-time leading wicket-taker in Tests, has not been in action at Old Trafford since limping off clutching his groin on Friday’s first day.

Super Giant Uprising: MI trudge to 129HYDERABAD: Braces by bowlers Jaydev Unadkat, Adam Zampa and Daniel Christian enabled Rising Pune Super-giant (RPS) restrict Mumbai Indians to 129 for eight in 20 overs in the final of the Indian Premier League (IPL) here on Sunday.

Mumbai’s top and middle order batsmen put up a hor-rific show against the disci-plined bowling from Pune and the former were left reeling at 79/7 in the 15th over. All-rounder Krunal Pandya then came good and his 47 off 38 deliveries pulled Mumbai out of the hole.

Opting to bat, Mumbai had a disastrous start as left-arm medium pacer Unadkat (2/19) removed Parthiv Patel (4) and Lendl Simmons (3) in the third over. Parthiv pulled straight into the hands of Shar-dul Thakur at mid-on, while Simmons gave a return catch to Unadkat who dived low to the left -- and Mumbai were reduced to 8/2.

Mumbai skipper Rohit Sharma (24) and Ambati Rayudu (12) then weathered the storm briefly but the Pune bowlers continued to keep it tight, not allowing the Mumbai pair to free their arms.

Young off-spinner Wash-ington Sundar continued to be impressive with his miserly bowling, giving away only 13 runs in his four overs.

The partnership lasted for

33 runs as Rayudu was caught short of the crease while taking a single after playing a delivery from Lockie Ferguson to Ste-ven Smith, who made a direct throw from mid-off in the

eighth over.Mumbai’s batting ran into

further trouble when Rohit and Kieran Pollard (7) fell to Australian leg-spinner Adam Zampa (2/32) in the 11th

over which left them reel-ing at 65/5. Rohit pulled a half-pitched ball to Thakur at deep mid-wicket, while Pol-lard offered an easy catch to pouch for Manoj Tiwary at

long-on.After Zampa, another Aus-

tralian Daniel Christian (2/34) removed all-rounder Hardik Pandya (10) in the second ball of the 14th over.

In the following over, Karn Sharma, a handy low-order batsman, was run out for a 1, to leave Mumbai at 79/7.Brief Scores:

Rising Pune Supergiant vs Mumbai Indians:MI: 129/8 (Krunal Pandya 47, Rohit Sharma 24)RSP: Jaydev Unadkat (2/19)Incomplete. AGENCIES

CK Vineeth’s double takes Bengaluru to Federation Cup gloryCUTTACK: CK Vineeth’s dual strikes (107’and 119’) sealed the title victory for Albert Roca and co. in a 2-0 result at Cut-tack against Mohun Bagan on Sunday evening. The game, which was progressed into extra time, was an action filled fixture which saw the Blues dominating the Mariners and eventually laying their hands on the winning trophy.

Albert Roca introduced a squad which lined up in a 4-4-2 formation comprising Udanta Singh and Semilen Doungel up-top. With Cameron Watson being suspended on account of having picked up two yel-low cards, Salam Ranjan Singh was introduced in the defensive line of the Blues with Spaniard defender Juanan guarding on the left.

As for the Mariners, Sanjoy Sen too featured the team in the usual 4-4-2 shape with Katsumi Yusa leading the side from Kolkata. British striker Dar-ryl Duffy and Balwant Singh took charge of the proceedings up-front whereas Indian inter-national Jeje Lalpekhlua was placed on the bench.

The first half witnessed the Blues dominating the Kolk-ata heavyweights as Sandesh Jhingan was the man in lime-

light. Bengaluru kick started on a positive note as Eugeneson Lyngdoh guided Udanta Singh from the left which saw the lat-ter trying to lob in a cross into the box defender Pritam Kotal did well to clear away the young winger’s danger.

Few minutes later, the Mari-

ners attacked on the counter as Katsumi Yusa, Darryl Duffy and Balwant Singh tried to cre-ate some action from the right flank but Sandesh Jhingan, who was operating on the left on Sunday evening, blocked the effort.

The first chance of the tie

came in the 20th minute when the Southern Eagles nearly reg-istered the opening goal. It was Eugeneson Lyngdoh who had stepped up for a corner as he sent the ball inside the box for Udanta Singh. The 20-year-old put an acrobatic effort which saw him jump high to slot in

a half volley but the ball hit Seminlen Doungel on the way in. Therefore, the attempt was flagged offside by the linesman.

Just two minutes later, the side from Bengaluru troubled the Maroon and Green Bri-gade again. Lenny Rodrigues squared it for Udanta Singh to flick the ball in but Debjit Majumder got a vital touch on the ball which rolled away the delivery for a corner as Mohun Bagan survived yet again.

Around the half-hour mark, Sandesh Jhingan deliv-ered a breathtaking clearance. As Sony Norde took the cor-ner for Mohun Bagan, the Hai-tian sent the ball inside the box which Eduardo Ferreira tried to head it in but the delivery banged at the bar. Later, the ball reached Katsumi Yusa who sent the ball, from the left into the box yet again, but this time an alert Sandesh Jhingan pulled off a goal-line clearance, hereby relieving Amrinder Singh who had missed it. Despite Sanjoy Sen’s men owning more ball possession in the initial half of the clash it was the JSW owned outfit which looked the stron-ger contingent as the two teams entered the tunnel at the half-time whistle on a 0-0 score-line.

The second half was an

action packed series of play. Just four minutes past the half-time mark, Bengaluru FC found the net but yet again it was disal-lowed. It was John Johnson who came from behind to rush in to head the ball from Eugeneson Lyngdoh’s free-kick. The ball lofted high by Johson was netted inside by Juanan but the delivery was flagged offside. It was a controversial decision from the official as the attempt looked legal. Minutes follow-ing this incident, Mohun Bagan bounced back with an answer. Balwant Singh sent in a phe-nomenal shot at the goal but Amrinder Singh dived to his right and got his touch on the ball to push it away from the aim. It was a commendable effort from the forward as it was a powerful strike.

Three minutes away from the one hour mark, a moment of madness was witnessed. Udanta Singh made a run and stormed into the opposition box which saw Debjit Majum-der coming off his line. Udanta chipped the ball over the goal-keeper as Eduardo Ferreira and Sehnaj Singh run forward to guard the delivery but the youngster was unlucky to see his excellent effort go wide from the target. AGENCIES

Goals galore in EPL as Chelsea,

Man City score 5, Spurs slot in 7

Tottenham rounded off an excellent Premier League

campaign with a 7-1 demo-lition of Hull City thanks to Harry Kane’s hat-trick.

Kane won the Premier League Golden Boot for the second time, having netted 29 goals for Tottenham this season.

Meanwhile, John Terry bid an emotional farewell to Stam-ford Bridge on Sunday. The Chelsea captain substituted on 26 minutes in his final appear-ance at the stadium as they capped off a title-winning Pre-mier League campaign with a 5-1 win over relegated Sun-derland with Willian, Eden Hazard, Pedro and Michy Batshuayi all finding the target.

In another match, Sergio Aguero struck twice, while Vincent Kompany, Fernand-inho and Gabriel Jesus were also on target as Man City thumped Watford 5-0. Their arch-rivals Manchester United ended their Premier League season on a high with Josh Harrop and Paul Pogba seal-ing victory over Crystal Pal-ace. Liverpool secured a Champions League return with a 3-0 final-day win over already relegated Middles-brough to claim fourth place while Arsenal beat Everton 3-1. AGENCIES

Sachin holds special screening of his film for armed forcesNEW DELHI: Sachin Tendulkar conducted a spe-cial screening of the much-awaited film on his life, ‘Sachin A Billion Dreams’ for the Indian Armed Forces personnel at the Indian Air Force Audi-torium, here. At the special screening Honorary Group Captain Sachin was joined by Air Chief Mar-shal B S Dhanoa along with personnel and their families from Indian Air Force, Indian Army and In-dian Navy. The movie was received with a standing ovation followed by chants “Sachin Sachin” from the personnel present. Tendulkar was presented a memento by Air Chief Marshal Dhanoa. Tendulkar also met and greeted the families of the Armed Forces present for the screening. Appreciating the film on Tendulkar’s life, Air Chief Marshal Dhanoa said, “It was a wonderful film. Having joined the Air Force before Sachin started playing cricket, I have seen his whole career and it is really very in-spiring.” The Air Chief Marshal also told Tendulkar that the movie was releasing on a very significant day, as May 26 was also the day on which Air Operations commenced during the Kargil Conflict. He recalled he was stationed in Srinagar during the conflict when India beat Pakistan in the World Cup match in England, and how upbeat they had all felt. The 1999 match in the Super Sixes was probably the first time that the two countries played against each other when the two nations were engaged in a war like situation at the same time. AGENCIES

Kumble proposes 150 % hike for Grade A playersNEW DELHI: Chief coach Anil Kumble and skipper Virat Kohli today demanded a mas-sive hike to the tune of 150 per-cent for Grade A players in the Central Contracts and substan-tial raise for the support staff.

In Hyderabad, Kumble on Sunday gave a detailed pre-sentation to the Commit-tee of Administrators (COA) along with BCCI office-bear-ers — CEO Rahul Johri, joint secretary Amitabh Chaud-hary and treasurer Aniruddh Chaudhary.

Skipper Kohli was not in Hyderabad and interacted with the panel separately via Skype.

As of now, Grade A players get Rs 2 crore, Grade B Rs 1 crore and Grade C Rs 50 lakh.

As per reliable sources, both Kumble and Kohli feels that players in Grade A, who are certainties in all for-mats should be getting in the range of Rs 5 crore for one season.

Vinod Rai and Vikram Limaye heard everything that Kumble and Kohli had to say and they have instructed the BCCI office-bearers to take note of Kumble’s presentation.

It will be Johri, Amitabh

and Aniruddh, who will now decide on rationale of demands. They will prepare a report and then COA will take a final call in this regard.

“Although Anil and Virat spoke separately, both stressed on the fact that performers in Test cricket should be kept in the highest bracket. Also there is someone like Cheteshwar

Pujara, who is not getting IPL contracts whereas someone like Pawan Negi, who doesn’t even play Ranji Trophy gets Rs 8.5 crore for 45 days. That’s some-thing that needs to be worked out,” a senior BCCI source in the know of things told said on Sunday.

It was learnt that Kumble also gave a detailed presenta-

tion, demanding a favourable raise for all the support staff of the Indian team. It includes Kumble himself, batting coach Sanjay Bangar, fielding coach R Sridhar, physio, trainer, video analyst, throwdown specialist (Raghavendra).

“I won’t quote the figure but it’s a substantial raise that Kum-ble has demanded for himself

also. Now while raising the issue of players, whether it was prudent on Kumble’s part to demand hike for support staff of which he is a direct benefi-ciary is a question,” an official questioned.

Kumble’s contract expires at the end of India’s Champi-ons Trophy campaign but he is likely to continue till end of West Indies tour. AGENCIES

Indian eves win Quadrangular Series in South Africa

POTCHEFSTROOM: Poo-nam Raut and Mithali Raj shared an unbeaten 127-run stand as India women steam-rolled South Africa by eight wickets in the final of the Quadrangular Series, here on Sunday.

Veteran Jhulan Goswami starred with the ball with three wickets, helping India dismiss South Africa for a paltry 156 in 40.2 overs.

Raut (70 off 92 ) and Raj (62 off 79) then delivered with the bat, taking their team to a comfortable win in 33 overs after a rather jittery start to the chase.

The win got sweeter con-sidering India had lost to South Africa in the league stage once en route the final.

The other teams in the tour-nament were Zimbabwe and Ireland.

Captain Raj not only guided the team to a resounding win but also became the first Indian captain to lead the side in 100 ODIs.

The tournament also turned out to be good preparation for India ahead of the World Cup, which begins in the UK next month.

Both Raut and Raj dis-played top form through-out the tournament. Raut had scored an unbeaten 109 against Ireland while Raj came to the final after scoring two half-centuries.

Chasing a modest tar-get, India lost opener Deepti Sharma and Mona Meshram cheaply before Raut and Raj completed the job in a clini-cal fashion.

Brief scores: South Africa 156 all out in 40.2 overs (Luus 55; Goswami 3/22). India 160/2 in 33 overs (Poo-nam Raut 70 not out, Mithali Raj 62 not out). AGENCIES

Kumble on Sunday gave a detailed presentation to the Committee of Administrators (COA) along with BCCI office-bearers — CEO Rahul Johri, joint secretary Amitabh Chaudhary and treasurer Aniruddh Chaudhary Veteran Jhulan Goswami starred with the ball with three wickets,

helping India dismiss South Africa for a paltry 156 in 40.2 overs

DIFFERENT FRAMES OF MIND: Rising Pune Supergiant’s Jayadev Unadkat with teammates celebrate the wicket of Mumbai’s Lendl Simmons. MI skipper Rohit Sharma (right) returns to the pavilion after his dismissal PTI

mp sport 15MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi |Monday, 22 May, 2017

Bayern lift title, Dortmund defend third place in German Bundesliga

BERLIN: Bayern Munich crushed Freiburg 4-1 in Philipp Lahm’s and Xabi Alonso’s fare-well game while Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang helped Dortmund to beat Werder Bremen 4-3 in the last round of the Bundes-liga season.

The “Bavarians”, who have already sealed their 27th Bundesliga title on April 29, rounded off the end of the sea-son with a 4-1 victory over Freiburg as Philipp Lahm and Xabi Alonso cap off their careers here on Saturday, reports Efe.

Freiburg were still in the race for a berth in the Europa League but Bayern destroyed the hopes with an early goal as retiring Alonso passed into the path of Arjen Robben, who overcame goalkeeper Alexander Schwolow into the far post cor-ner with four minutes played.

Bayern controlled the pro-ceedings on the pitch but lacked in penetration to extend the lead before the break.

Freiburg almost punished the hosts before the break but Janik Haberer failed to slot home from promising position.

The German record cham-pions continued powerful play after the restart. They yet had to wait until the 73rd minute before Arturo Vidal capitalised on Robben’s square pass to tap home the 2-0 lead.

Freiburg responded and reduced the arrears through Nils Petersen, who made the most of Vincenzo Grifo’s build-up work three minutes later.

Carlo Ancelotti’s men remained unimpressed and piled on the pressure to score two more goals in the closing period to leave no doubt.

Robben initiated a coun-ter-attack and passed to Franck Ribery, whose effort from sharp angle made it 3-1. Bay-ern weren’t done with the scor-

ing as Joshua Kimmich headed home the 4-1 final score in the dying minutes of the game.

With the result, Bayern reaped their fourth straight win and fifth consecutive Bundes-liga title while Freiburg missed the chance to play in Europe next season.

Borussia Dortmund over-

powered Werder Bremen in a seven-goal thriller to book their direct UEFA Champions League ticket as Aubameyang provided a brace to smooth the way for the win.

Bremen ensured a fairy tale start on the road as Zlatko Junu-zovic poked home Ulisses Gar-cia’s rebound from close rang

with seven minutes into the game. Dortmund increased the pressure and levelled the scores at the half-hour mark when Marco Reus benefited on Shinji Kagawa’s through ball to beat goalie Felix Wiedwald.

The “BVB” gained momen-tum and grabbed the lead before the break as Aubameyang vol-

leyed home Ousmane Dem-bele’s lob into the box to shock the “Green-Whites” .

Bremen stood firm and restored parity only seconds after the restart when Max Kruse teed up for Fin Bartels, who hammered home from inside the box.

Kruse remained in the thick of things as he turned the tides after a solo run to make it 3-2 on the scoreboards in the 68th minute. It was a short-lived joy for Bremen as Dortmund responded seven minutes later

through Reus, who converted a foul-play penalty to make it a three-all draw. Thomas Tuchel’s men remained in control and put the result beyond doubt when Aubameyang provided his 31st goal of the season to snatch the Bundesliga top scorer trophy.

With the 18th win of the campaign Dortmund wrap up their automatic Cham-pions League qualification. Meanwhile, Bremen will have to burry their Europa League hopes. AGENCIES

Nancy, Bastia relegated as

curtain comes down on Ligue 1PARIS: Nancy and Bastia were unlucky to suffer rel-egation into French sec-ond-tier league in different manners as the curtain was down on Ligue 1 football championships.

A 3-1 home win against Saint-Etienne on Saturday was not sufficient for Nancy to remain in the top-flight league, as 18th-ranked Lorient bagged one point from a 1-1 draw with Bordeaux. Lorient were set to put up two-leg Ligue 1 playoffs with third-placed side Troyes of Ligue 2 later this month, reports Xinhua news agency.

Bastia were reduced to the bottom after losing 0-1 to Mar-seille, who got an automatic spot in next season’s Europa League after finishing fifth on the table. Strasbourg and Amiens got promotion after finishing top two in Ligue 2 on Friday.

In his finale at Parc des Princes, 35-year-old Brazil-ian defender Maxwell wore the captain’s armband for Paris Saint-Germain, who failed to defend the title after Monaco won midweek’s rescheduled match against Saint Etienne.

Facing relegation-threat-ened Caen, PSG went ahead on 13 minutes on mid-fielder Adrien Rabiot, whose shot outside the penalty area beat goalkeeper Remy Vercoutre.

Edinson Cavani, Ligue 1 top scorer with 35 goals, failed to find the target as his header was cleared before the goalline early in the second half.

Ronny Rodelin missed a penalty in the 74th minute while making amends for that with a close-range shot in stop-page time.

After the game, an emo-tional Maxwell received home crowds’ ovation for his contribution to the cap-ital club during his five- year spell.

Monaco could not see a better way to celebrate their first league title since 2000 than a 3-2 road victory over Rennes, setting up a new record of 12 consecutive vic-tories in a single season, over-shadowing Bordeaux’s 11 in 2008-2009.

Their tally of 107 league goals was also a single- season record.

Top scorer Alexandre Lacazette finished a brace in Lyon’s 3-3 draw with third-ranked Nice at home, which was his last match for the club after revealing his departure at the end of the season.

Elsewhere, Angers beat Montpellier 2-0, Guin-gamp edged past Metz 1-0, Lille crushed over Nantes 3-0, and Toulouse tied 0-0 with Dijon. AGENCIES

Djokovic crushes Thiem to secure Zverev Rome finalROME: Novak Djokovic over-came having to play twice in a day before cruising into the final of the Rome Masters with a ruthless 6-1 6-0 win over Dominic Thiem.

Djokovic, the former four-time champion, was forced to finish his quarter-final over Juan Martin del Potro earlier in the day after their match was rained off late on Friday.

But the setback seemed only to inspire the 30-year-old Serbian second seed, as he set up what is expected to be a mouthwatering final, and first meeting, with Germany’s Alex-ander Zverev.

“It was my best perfor-mance of the year,” said Djokovic on Saturday after his 59-minute win over Thiem who had knocked out Rafael Nadal in the quarter-finals.

Zverev, 20, became the youngest player in a decade to reach a Masters final when he clinched a gutsy 6-4 6-7 (5/7) 6-1 win over big-serving Amer-ican John Isner.

Djokovic was the previous youngest Masters finalist, going all the way to the title in Miami

as a 19-year-old in 2007.Zverev will climb to a new

career high in the rankings at number 14 by reaching the final and would break into the

top 10 with the title.“I don’t look at these kind

of stats, who is the youngest player to have a Masters 1000 title or things like this. I try to

play match by match and try to improve,” said Zverev, who fired 12 aces and 41 winners past the 32-year-old Isner.

Thiem, beaten to the Madrid Masters title by Nadal last week, avenged his loss by dumping Spain’s former seven-time Rome champion out in the quarters on Friday.

But the Austrian’s dream run was quickly brought to an end by a clinical Djokovic on Saturday as the Serbian took his record to 5-0 against the 23-year-old.

In the WTA event, French Open champion Garbine Muguruza was forced to retire due to a neck injury from her semi-final against Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina.

The Spanish third seed was 1-4 down after just 22 minutes in the first set when she quit,

handing the eighth-seeded Svi-tolina a place in today’s final against Romania’s Simona Halep.

Svitolina will chase a fourth title of the year after trophy tri-umphs in Taiwan, Dubai and Istanbul.

Muguruza had needed three sets to beat Venus Wil-liams in the quarter-finals on Friday night.

“I didn’t want to leave Rome without trying to play,” said Muguruza.

Sixth-seeded Halep, the champion in Madrid last week-end, reached her first final in Rome after sweeping aside Dutchwoman Kiki Bertens 7-5 6-1 in her semi-final.

“Sometimes a win over a top player gives you confi-dence,” Halep said after her semi-final. AGENCIES

India win all 10 gold in South Asian Junior TTNEW DELHI: India added six more gold on the concluding day to win all 10 gold medals on offer in the South Asian Junior Table Tennis Champi-onships at Mount Lavinia. In addition, they also claimed four silver medals for a total of 14 medals from the regional championships. After winning four gold medals in team events on the first two days of the three-day championships, the In-dian paddlers continued their domination in two doubles events and followed them up with gold in all singles this evening. Earlier, the Indian and Sri Lankan juniors had booked their berths in the Asian Juniors, to be held in Ansan, Korea from June 29 to July 4. In junior boys final, top-seed Manav Thakkar defeated Parth Virmani 11-6, 6-11, 11-7, 11-9 for the gold. The Delhi boy, who was seeded second, had to satisfy with the silver while the bronze medals went to Sri Lanka’s PD Umesh Tennakon and KDV Madhushan, who lost their semi-final matches to Manav and Parth, respec-tively. In junior girls final, top seed Archana Girish Kamath accounted for second seed Priyanka Pareek 11-9, 11-5, 11-7 to share the gold and sil-ver medals. There was no difference in the script as hosts SHS Imasha De Siilva and K.Hansani Puimila ended with singles bronze. AGENCIES

Coaches depose before BFI panel on Vikas’ Asian forfeitureNEW DELHI: The disciplin-ary hearing into boxer Vikas Krishan’s forfeiture of his Asian Championship semifinal bout continued on Sunday with the national coaches deposing before the inquiry committee.

A day after Vikas gave his version, chief coaches Shiv Singh and S R Singh, along with assistant coach Narender Rana, gave their account of the cir-cumstances leading to the for-feiture in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

The disciplinary panel,

which is headed by veteran administrator Asit Baner-jee, will now meet on May 30 and 31 for depositions from

officials.“The coaches presented

their versions and perspective on the incident. Now the panel

will meet on May 30 and 31 and record statements of the offi-cials who were with the team,” Banerjee said.

Even Vikas could be called again if the panel finds conflict-ing versions of what happened.

The middleweight boxer, who was the top seed in the Asian meet, had given a walk-over in the semifinal against Korean Lee Dongyun earlier this month. The reasons for his decision have not yet been offi-cially revealed.

It is learnt that the boxer, who had a World Series of Box-ing (WSB) bout on May 11 in Paris, got caught up in a con-fusion over his travel plans, which led to his decision to forfeit the Asian Champion-ship bout. Subsequently, he was not allowed to compete in the WSB bout either.

The team officials, who will appear before the committee include Boxing Federation of India Secretary General Jay Kowli and team doctor Nir-

molak Singh among others.A BFI source said that the

entire incident seems to be a result of “communication gap” and “lack of technical knowledge”.

“The boxer and the officials should have handled it better, there was def-initely a communication gap,” he said.

When asked about the incident, Banerjee, on his part, said, “This has never happened and should not happen again. I

cannot say as of now who is to be blamed.”

Vikas is among the most decorated boxers in India. A two-time Olympian, he became the first Indian to be adjudged the best boxer by the Inter-national Boxing Association (AIBA) at its annual gala last year.

The 24-year-old is also a former World Champi-onships bronze-medal-list and an Asian Games gold-winner. AGENCIES

Bomb-blast victim Marc

Bartra back in Dortmund teamBERLIN: Defender Marc Bar-tra played his first game on Saturday since fracturing his wrist in a bomb attack on the Borussia Dortmund team bus on April 11.

The 26-year-old Span-iard started Dortmund’s final Bundesliga game of the season at home to Werder Bremen.

It was his first appearance since surgery after fractur-ing his right wrist when three bombs hit Dortmund’s bus on the way to their Champions League quarter-final at home to Monaco last month.

With Bartra in hospital, Dortmund played the first-leg less than 24 hours after the attack, losing 3-2 to Monaco eventually losing 6-3 on aggre-gate to the French league side.

Bartra was released from hospital four days after the bomb blast.

The same day, his team-mates held his number five shirt aloft as they celebrated in front of their home fans after their 3-1 win against Eintracht Frankfurt on April 15.

A German-Russian, iden-tified only as 28-year-old Sergej W, has been charged with the attack and prose-cutors have said the motive was financial and not terror- related. AGENCIES

Sakshi & I benefit by practicing with each other: VineshNEW DELHI: One went on to make history while the other missed out on much deserved success but there is no hint of jealousy in the equation between Sakshi Malik and Vinesh Pho-gat and they continue to bene-fit from each other by training together.

Sakshi scripted history by becoming the first Indian woman wrestler to win an Olympic medal when she bagged a bronze at the Rio Games last year, but Vinesh was unfortunate to bow out of the mega-event with a freak knee injury.

However, Vinesh feels the success at the Olympics has not gone to Sakshi’s head at all and she still prefers to practice with her.

“Sakshi has not changed at all after the Olympic

medal.She remains the same and so

is our equation. We have known each other from our cadet days.

“Our bond is very strong.

She still looks forward to practising with me. Post Olympics, when I was recov-ering from my injury, Sakshi would keep asking me when

I would return to full fitness and start practicing with her,” said Vinesh.

Sakshi fights in the 58kg cat-egory, while Vinesh’s weight cat-egory is 48kg.

Elaborating on how the two wrestlers, with a differ-ence of 10kg between them, benefit by training with one another, Vinesh said, “We have been practice partners for a long time now. Our difference in weight helps us.

“As Sakshi has higher weight, I try to match her strength and that helps me in increasing my power and stamina. On the other hand, my agility helps her improve her speed. Both of us motivate each other all the time,” explained the 22-year- old.

After a nine-month injury

lay-off, Vinesh, one of the Phogat sisters, made a come-back to the mat with a bang and clinched a silver medal at the recently-concluded Asian Championship.

Vinesh fought in the 55kg category at the Champion-ship, the heaviest weight divi-sion she has ever competed in at any tournament, because her doctors and coach Kuldeep Malik had advised her not to lose too much weight post her recovery as that could have weakened her muscles.

“I have been asked to lose weight slowly. I don’t want to fight in 55kg. At the World Championship in August, I want to be back in my original weight category of 48kg,” said the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games gold- medallist. AGENCIES

Kante named English Premier League’s Player of the Year

LONDON: Close on the heels of winning the English Premier League (EPL) title with Chel-sea, French midfielder N’Golo Kante was named Player of the Year by the football League on Sunday.

The diminutive player, who made a name for him-self after winning the EPL with Leicester City last year, collected a third indi-vidual prize to a list of achievements this sea-son that includes bagging a second consecutive league title.

Kante saw off competi-tion from teammates Eden Hazard and Cesar Azpilicu-eta, Tottenham Hotspur trio Harry Kane, Dele Alli and Jan Vertonghen, Everton’s Rom-elu Lukaku, and Arsenal’s

Alexis Sanchez to rack up the award.

“It’s a huge honour to be named player of the year... and I want to thank every-one who voted for me,’ Kante said in a statement.

“I work hard in train-ing, I try to give my best and I work with so many very good players; that’s why we won the league two times,” Kante said.

“We played many good games but we won 5-0 against Everton, which was a very beautiful game, and also my goal against Manchester United (in a 4-0 win).

“It is always good to score and I am happy for these two games,” the 26-year-old added. AGENCIES

Bayern Munich crushed Freiburg 4-1 in Philipp Lahm’s and Xabi Alonso’s farewell game while Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang helped Dortmund to beat Werder Bremen 4-3 in the last round of the Bundesliga season

Novak Djokovic celebrates after winning his semifinal match against Austria’s Dominic Thiem PIC/PTI

Djokovic, the former four-time champion, was forced to finish his quarter-final over Juan Martin del Potro earlier in the day after their match was rained off late on Friday

A day after Vikas gave his version, chief coaches Shiv Singh and S R Singh, along with assistant coach Narender Rana, gave their account of the circumstances leading to the forfeiture in Tashkent, Uzbekistan

mp Entertainment16 MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Monday, 22 May, 2017

MUMBAI: Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is a Cannes red car-pet regular and while she has mostly received praise for her fashion choices, there have been times when the actor has faced flak for her looks, but the criticism does not bother her. Last year, Aishwarya’s purple lipstick look at the Cannes red carpet made headlines and she received mixed reactions for it.

“I’ve never made it the ful-crum of my existence. We are a public personality and I know with social media, everybody has an opinion. I am realistic, I recognise them, I am on the public platform so there will be opinions galore.”

“But there is so much love out there, I’ve been blessed that way that even if there are some fangs, there is far more love, hugs, kisses, excitement and

admiration. I am so hum-bled by it,” Aishwarya

said in a FaceTime interview from

Cannes. This year marks

her 16th appear-

ance at

the French Riviera and from her sheer green tiered ensem-ble by Yanina Couture to blue Cinderella-esuqe ball gown and the red Ralph & Russo num-ber Aishwarya has impressed everyone. The actor said she always believes in experi-menting, be it her fashion choices or films.

“I’ve always joked that I go with the flow and you all can enjoy the show. I know they (her stylists) will never

do something which will make me physically uncomfortable. If I am, I won’t go like that in front of the world. “I’ve always been open creatively and have reflected that even in my choice of cinema. Once you see and recognise that about me, you know my dos and dont’s and know my openness to creative flair,” she said.

The 43-year-old actor pre-sented her 2002 film Devdas on the big screen for selected

audience as part of the festi-val and said she was thrilled to showcase the movie again as it brought her to Cannes Film Festival for the first time.

“I was very touched when I got to know about this... It’s personally always a pleasure for me to have ‘Devdas’ viewed because I enjoy watching it till date. It’s fun to recount that first experience and its nice to share it with audience again,” she said. PTI

‘I’ve never made it the fulcrum

of my existence. We are a public personality and

I know with social media,

everybody has an opinion. I am realistic, I

recognise them, I am on the

public platform so there will be

opinions galore,’ says the actor

FASHION CRITICISM does not bother Aishwarya

LOS ANGELES: Hollywood action icon Sylvester Stallone is confident that Tiger Shroff will do a good job in a Hindi remake of his popular film Rambo. The 70-year-old actor, who earlier expressed his concern over the remake news, saying “hope they don’t wreck it”, today shared the first look of Tiger from the film and gave his best wishes to him.

“I actually get excited in my heart whenever young artists get an rare opportunity to reach for the stars! Eye of the Tiger! I am sure he will put his heart and soul into it...,” Stal-lone wrote alongside the poster. In another post he wrote, “Some peo-ple like to read into words and twist them... Good luck Tiger , go fight the good fight, keep punching ,oh , for the Record , I love it when young artists get an opportunity to go for their dreams!”

Tiger, who is currently attending Cannes where the news of the Indian remake of Rambo broke, replied,

“There will always and only be ONE “eye of the tiger” for us cubs. You rule the jungle! Thank you so much sir! @TheSlyStallone.” The actor also shared a photo from the film carnival on his Twitter and simply captioned it- “#Cannes2017 #RAMBO”. PTI

‘I’m sure Tiger will put his heart and soul into

‘Rambo’ remake’

KOLKATA: It was only last year when Bollywood actor Prateik Babbar first con-fessed of having an alco-hol and drug problem and actor says it was a “dark phase” of his life, which he has finally overcome, thanks to his never give up attitude on his acting dreams.

Prateik was raised by his maternal grandpar-ents when his mother and actor Smita Patil

died a month after his birth. In 2011, during Ekk Dee-wana Tha shooting,

he began dating Amy Jackson but the two broke up the following year. Prateik then lost his grandmother

Vidyatai Patil in 2015 and that was when the actor lost track of reality, he admits. “I was battling drug addiction, sub-stance abuse, battling heart break, lost my grand mother at one point of time. It was a very dark phase for me. Then everything fell into place.”

“If you ask me what is your inspiration being an actor, I will say movies are my inspira-tion,” Prateik said at the trailer launch of his debut Bengali film. The 30-year-old star, who began his career with Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane Na in 2008 and went on to appear in films like Dhobi Ghat and Umrika, says more than anything, he is inspired by cinema.

“Now it is all about work-ing and doing good projects.

Many people are interested to work with me. Very soon I will make an important announce-ment for you.”

Prateik is venturing into Bengali cinema with his film Aroni Takhon which also fea-tures Hate Story actor Paoli Dam.

“My father (Raj Babbar) had acted in Bengali films and I had always wanted to do one. Now I think I can do a sec-ond one (in Bengali). I love the language and would cer-tainly like to learn Bengali.” He says his one of the main reasons to say yes to this proj-ect is it’s subject – “student-teacher relationship”. Directed by Sourav Chakraborty, Aroni Takhon will hit the theatres on June 9. PTI

How Prateik overcame his ‘dark phase’ with cinema

MUMBAI: Two-time Academy Award nominee Jessica Chastain has been cast to play screen icon Ingrid Berg-man in a movie to be produced by Yash Raj Films Enter-tainment. YRF has joined hands with Hollywood actor and her company – Freckle Films to back the movie,

titled Seducing Ingrid Bergman. It is based on the 2012 novel by Chris Greenhalgh which tells the

story of the torrid romance between Berg-man and celebrated war photographer Rob-ert Capa. Their relationship began in Paris immediately following WWII, and moved to Hollywood at the time of the McCarthy Communist witch hunts.

Bergman, a Swedish, won three Acad-emy Awards, two Emmy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, a BAFTA Award, and the Tony Award for the best actor. She was best known for her roles as Ilsa Lund in Casablanca and as Alicia Huber-man in Notorious.

“Jessica Chastain is the perfect actor to star in ‘Seducing Ingrid Bergman’. Jes-sica is no stranger to portraying strong, intelligent women and this role deserves

an actor of her immeasurable talent. We also feel that she will bring a unique perspec-

tive as a producer,” said Uday Chopra, CEO, YRF Entertainment in a statement. While,

Freckle Films’ founder/president Chastain and Carmichael, said, “We are thrilled to be

working with YRF and Arash Amel on Seducing Ingrid Bergman. This is a captivating story about a deeply moving romance between two remarkable people.” PTI

DETROIT: Singer Chris Cornell seemed to be really fighting to get through his show here before suicide, says a friend. Nearly 48 hours after Cor-nell died following a performance at Detroit’s Fox Theatre on May 17, loved ones of the late rocker returned to the Michigan concert venue to pay their respects.

Among the roughly 50 mourners was Detroit artiste and musician Kevin Morris – a friend of Cornell’s and onetime roadie for the singer’s bands Soundgarden and Audioslave. Morris, who talked to Cornell six to seven times a year, includ-ing at the beginning of what now has become the 52-year-old frontman’s final tour, happened to be at Cornell’s show on that day. He told people.com that while he was in “utter shock” at Cornell’s death, the signs that something was wrong with

his friend were there at the show.“The whole performance, you could tell

something wasn’t right. Into the second song he started getting disoriented or something. I just figured he wasn’t feeling well.” “Everybody felt there was something going on. Like he wasn’t with us. Like he was on a cloud. It was like he was really fighting to get through the show,” Morris said.

Medical examiners have ruled that Cornell died of suicide by hanging, but his family have since spoken out saying they believe that the side effects of the prescription drug Ativan may have led him to thoughts of self-harm. “He’s been clean for years,” Morris said. “He talked to his wife right before and after the show... What was troubling him I don’t think we’ll ever know.” IANS

LOS ANGELES: Singer Lady Gaga has written an emotional tribute to her longtime friend and former assistant Sonja Durham after learn-ing that she has passed away after battling cancer for a long time.

Gaga shared a heartfelt mes-sage on Instagram alongside a photograph of her with Dur-

ham, reports mirror.co.uk. “Watching one of my best

friends in the world show unfathom-able courage, strength, and positiv-

ity while battling cancer has really changed my life,” Gaga wrote. “Thank you Sonja for inspiring me and all of us everyday. I love you so much it brings tears to my eyes just to think of all the years we’ve spent together backstage running the show, tak-ing care of each other. You are one of a kind. I’m so proud of you,” she added. Durham was battling cancer since last five years. IANS

Jessica Chastain to play Ingrid Bergman for YRF films

Gaga’s emotional tribute to friend who died of cancer

Cornell’s friend recounts his final show