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PUBLISHED FROM DELHI & KOLKATA VOL. 3, ISSUE 89 | Monday, 3 April 2017 | Kolkata | Pages 16 | Rs 3.00

RNI NO.: WBENG/2015/65962

Soon, laptops may be banned in hand baggage: CISF DG

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: In a bid to thwart terror attacks, restrictions may be imposed on carrying laptops in hand baggage in flights. This comes along with the plan of installing body scanners in all airports across the country.

The matter has been taken into con-sideration after it came to light that ter-ror outfits including IS and Al-Qaeda are developing a bomb small enough to fit in a laptop that could get past air-port scanners.

Though the final decision in con-nection with imposing a restriction on carrying laptops in hand baggage is yet to be taken, the discussion in this con-nection has already started.

Besides, taking necessary measures to restrict the use of laptops on board, the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) has also decided to introduce scanners to detect explosives in liquid form. Such scanners will be installed in all the airports. A final decision in this regard has already been taken, a source said adding at present 59 out of 98 airports in the country are manned by CISF.

The body scanner is already in use in Delhi Airport on trial basis. The final decision on installing body scanners in

all airports across the country will be taken if the trial run in Delhi Airport goes off well.

OP Singh, Director General of CISF, said on Sunday: “There are grey areas in every airport that do not come under CCTV coverage. There is a challenge to tackle the grey areas.”

Stressing on the need to improve the security in airports both with the help of technology and manpower augmen-tation, Singh said: “Non-stamping of hand baggage will be implemented in all the airports by the end of this year. It was initially started in seven airports after trial runs. It will ensure a hassle free journey to passengers.”

20 PEOPLE KILLED BY ‘MENTALLY ILL’ CUSTODIAN OF DARGAH IN PAKISTAN

BODY SCANNERS IN AIRPORTS TOO

In today’s paper

...CITY

DACOITY AT SONARPUR JEWELLERY SHOP 3

NATION

INDIA STEPS UP BLACK MONEY HUNT 7

EDIT

ASEAN REMINDER FOR INDIA 8

INTERNATIONAL

FORMER NEPAL PM ARRESTED 10

BUSINESS

RBI GUV GETS PAY HIKE 12

SPORT

KONTA WINS MIAMI OPEN 14

LAHORE: At least 20 peo-ple, including six members of a family, were tortured and killed at a shrine allegedly by its “mentally ill” custodian and his associates in Sargodha in Paki-stan’s Punjab province.

Sargodha Deputy Commis-sioner Liaquat Ali Chatta said the incident took place at the dargah (shrine) of Muhammad Ali Gujjar in a village in Sar-godha district, some 200 km from Lahore, at around mid-night on Saturday.

The custodian Abdul Waheed, who was apparently suffering from mental disease, used a dagger and a stick to kill his victims, he said.

Chatha said it appeared that the caretakers of the dar-gah had first drugged the visi-tors, stripped them and then stabbed and clubbed 20 peo-ple, including three women,

to death.Police official Mazhar Shah

said that the motive behind the crime has not been ascertained yet but locals have said that from last two years the suspect used to visit the area for ‘spiri-tual sessions’ with the disciples.

“We have taken five people, including the caretakers of the dargah – Waheed and Yousuf, into custody for interrogation,” Chatha said.

Three persons, including

two women, have been injured.They have been shifted to

hospital where their condition is stated to be critical.

People would come to the dargah for “cleansing” their sins and allow the caretakers to beat them with clubs.

“But in this case the visi-tors were first drugged and then stabbed with daggers and hit with clubs, apparently dur-ing the cleansing process,” Cha-tha said.

He said that the prime sus-pect, a resident of Lahore, is an employee of the Election Com-mission of Pakistan.

According to senior police officer Bilal Iftikhar, one injured witness also said there was a clash between two groups of the caretakers of the dargah over its possession.

Twenty people of both groups, including six members of one family, were killed, the police officer said.

“We have launched an investigation into all aspects of this case to ascertain the facts of this gory incident,” Iftikhar said. A heavy contin-gent of police was deployed at the dargah soon after the incident and a search opera-tion was launched in adjoin-ing areas. An emergency has been declared in hospitals in Sargodha. AGENCIES

Quick News44

‘WHILE SOME PELT STONES, OTHERS CARVE TUNNELS OUT OF STONE’ PG6

COLOMBIA MUDSLIDE, FLOOD KILLS 254 IN MIDNIGHT DELUGE PG10

CM’S 5-DAY TOUR: SPLITTING OF DISTRICTS TO BE ANNOUNCED PG3

MPOST BUREAU

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: As many as 168 jawans attached to the CRPF camp at Palli-puram were taken ill due to suspected food poi-soning, prompting authorities to order a board of inquiry into the matter. The jawans had their dinner around 7.15 PM last night and after a few minutes they complained of uneasiness. The personnel were shifted to hospitals after they showed symptoms of vomiting, headache and stomach cramps, a senior CRPF official said. “We rushed the people to our hospital at the camp and later took them to various hos-pitals,” he said. All the jawans, except about 50, were treated as out patients, he said. According to Trivandrum Medical college hospital, 111 patients were admitted there and their condi-tion was stable. Initial investigations suggested that the jawans fell ill after consuming fish curry, the official said, adding the fish had been sourced from a nearby market. “A board of inquiry was ordered today and the report is expected in 7-8 days,” the official said.

168 CRPF jawans fall ill with suspected food poisoning, probe ordered

BACK IN ACTION

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Trinamool Youth Con-gress president Abhishek Banerjee on Sunday warned people against “ CPIM in disguise and lotus cov-ered BJP” and urged them to unit-edly fight and defeat CPIM, BJP, Congress along with all political parties pitted against Trinamool Congress in the forthcoming Pan-chayat election.

“Be cautious about CPIM and BJP as they have united to stall development projects taken up by Mamata Banerjee,” he said adding “ Do not allow CPIM and BJP to come near your house.”

Banerjee was addressing a mammoth rally at Diamond Har-bour on Sunday afternoon. This was the youth leader’s first public rally since October 2016 when he was injured in a car crash on his way to Kolkata after attending a party meeting in Murshidabad.

Banerjee kicked off the cam-paign for the Panchayat election scheduled to be held in 2018. He thanked senior party leaders of South 24 Parganas and thousands of people who had gathered in the meeting for praying for him and giving him unflinching support when he was ill and out of action for six months.

He said BJP was talking about development on the one hand and drastically reducing money ear-marked for various projects in Ben-gal. “ Money for ICDS programmes,

mid-day meal projects has been stopped and BJP is unleashing the ED and CBI in a bid to cripple the Bengal government.” He main-tained that demonetization had affected the economy very badly and 150 people died all over the country as an effect. But, the Cen-tre did not make even a condo-lence reference in Parliament when requested by Derek O’ Brien.

Partha Chatterjee, secretary general of Trinamool Congress said “ Those who believe that by sending 40 leaders from Delhi they will be able to defeat Mamata Banerjee are actually living in a fool’s paradise. She had to struggle for many years to win the confidence of people.”

He urged panchayat mem-bers to go and build contacts with the people. “ We should carry on the projects taken up by Mamata Banerjee,” he said. Party MP Derek O’ Brien and other leaders from South 24 Parganas also spoke at the meeting.

EC to soon procure tamper-proof EVMs

Political parties alleged that EVMs were tampered in Assembly pollsMPOST BUREAU

NEW DELHI: The Madhya Pradesh gov-ernment on Saturday removed the District Collector and Superintendent of Bhind after a controversial video of a dummy test of an electronic voting in Bhind ahead of the by-election went viral on social media. Interest-ingly, the Election Commission is set to buy next generation EVMs that become “inoper-able” the moment attempts are made to tin-ker with it, a move which comes amid claims by some parties that the machines were tam-pered with during the recent assembly polls.

The ‘M3’-type electronic voting machines (EVMs) are also equipped with a self-diag-nostic system for authentication of the genu-ineness of the machines.

These will come with a public key inter-face-based mutual authentication system.

Only a “genuine” EVM – manufactured either by atomic energy PSU ECIL or defence PSU BEL – “communicates” with other EVMs in the field.

Any EVM manufactured by other com-panies would not be able to communicate with other machines, thus exposing it.

Around Rs 1,940 crore (excluding freight and taxes) will be required to procure the new machines which are likely to be intro-duced by 2018, a year before when the next Lok Sabha elections are due, the Law Minis-try has said, quoting details made available by the Election Commission to be given to Parliament.

The Election Commission has decided to replace 9,30,430 EVMs purchased before 2006 as the older machines are nearing their 15-year life cycle, he said.

On December 7 last, the Union Cabinet had approved a fresh tranche of Rs 1,009 crore for the Election Commission to buy

new EVMs so that it can phase out the age-ing ones before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

The Cabinet had also authorised the Election Commission to vary the quan-tity to be ordered on BEL and ECIL based on their production capacity and past performance.

On July 20 last, a similar Election Com-mission proposal to buy nearly 14 lakh new EVMs – the first tranche – at a cost of Rs 9,200 crore during 2016-17 was approved by the Union Cabinet.

In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha on Friday, the Law Ministry had said that EC has not purchased a single new machine in the last three fiscals.

Minister of State for Law P P Chaudhary

had said that the poll panel has informed the government that it had not procured any electronic voting machine during 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2016-17.

In a related development the Election Commission on Sunday said that the Aam Admi Party is free to file an election peti-tion in the state high court if it wants to verify votes cast in Punjab polls with data of paper trail.

In a strongly-worded letter, the EC also said it is for the AAP “to introspect as to why your party could not perform as per your expectations and it is unfair on your part to attribute unsatisfactory poll perfor-mance of your party to the alleged tamper-ability of EVMS.”

Abhishek Banerjee asks TMC workers to unite against Oppn parties

NEW DELHI: Aviation turbine fuel (ATF) price has been cut by over 5 per cent, reversing a two-month rising trend, while rates of subsidised LPG were hiked by Rs 5.57 per cylinder. Also, the rate of non-subsidised cooking gas (LPG) has been cut by Rs 14.50 per cylinder in line with international trends. Price of jet fuel or ATF was cut by Rs 2,811.38 per kilolitre, or 5.1 per cent, to Rs 51,428 per kl with effect from April 1, oil companies said. The reduction comes on the back of a marginal hike of Rs 214 kl effected on March 1 and a 3 per cent increase on Febru-ary 1. Simultaneously, price of non-subsidised LPG, bought by those who have either given up their subsidies or exhausted the quota of 12 bot-tles of 14.2-kg in a year at below market price, was cut to Rs 723 per 14.2-kg cylinder from Rs 737.50. The reduction comes on back of a steep Rs 86 per cylinder hike in rates from March 1. That was the steepest hike in recent times and came on the back of Rs 66.5 per cylinder increase effected from February 1. AGENCIES

ATF price cut by 5 pc; subsidised LPG hiked by Rs 5.5

MARRIAGE NOT A DISQUALIFICATION’ IN BOLLYWOOD PG15

Hightlights

» These EVMs will become inoperable the moment any attempt is made to tinker with it » The 'M3'-type electronic voting machines (EVMs) are also equipped with a self-diagnostic system for authentication of the genuineness of the machines » Around Rs 1,940 crore (excluding freight and taxes) will be required to procure the new machines which are likely to be introduced by 2018

OP Singh

NO HALF TRU THS

mp town2MILLENNIUM POST | Kolkata | Monday, 3 April, 2017

DAYINDAYOUT What’s on Around Town

A CULINARY JOURNEYThis April, The Leela Ambience Conven-tion Hotel, Delhi takes you to Kolkata, the final pit stop of the Grand Trunk Culinary Journey. The food festival celebrates cuisines from across the NH1, bringing to you mouth-watering dishes from various cities that come along the way. Chef De Cuisine Ashwani Kumar Singh travelled to Kolkata to gather the secrets hidden amongst the busy lanes of a city famous for its indulgent variety of Bengali cuisine. Delight your taste buds and spoil yourself by dwelling in the culinary trea-sures and the ambience of Kolkata.WHEN: March 31 – April 15 WHERE: The Leela Ambience Convention Hotel, Delhi

CULTURAL REVOLUTIONTo mark the 50th anniversary of the Cul-tural Revolution in Tibet, an exhibition of photographs by Tibet Museum, Depart-ment of Information and International Relations, Central Tibet Administration, Tibetan Government-in-Exile, Dharamsa-la will be inaugurated on April 1at 6:30 and will continue for a week.WHEN: April 2 – 8WHERE: Annexe Art Gallery, IICTIMING: 11 am – 7 pm

KHUSHRANG ART EXHIBITIONWith an aim to bring visibility and credibility to the works of deserving talented artists who have largely been overlooked within the mainstream dis-course, Khushrang, a group art exhibi-tion, curated by Erum Khan, will have 25 renowned artists participating and will display a variety of paintings, mass media, installation, photography, sculp-tures and more. This group of young in-cluding international artists promoted by Erum Khan are young upcoming talents who are breaking traditional thoughts with contemporary vision and are all set to be the masters in the times to come.WHEN: March 31 – April 6 WHERE: All India Fine Art and Craft Society TIMING: 11 am – 7 pm

SPRING FESTIVAL Celebrating the spirit of spring, a two-day festival of dance and music, has been organised by IIC where the first day will witness a Sarod recital by Apurba Banerjee from Kolkata, followed by Hin-dustani Vocal Recital by Vivek Bhola from Delhi. The second day of the festival will have a Kathak Group Recital by Man-jari Kiran from Jaipur, and a Kathakali Recital, Cleopatra – The Last Pharaoh of Egypt in Kathakali Stree Vesham – an adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Anthony and Cleopatra by Prabal Gupta from Bangalore.WHEN: April 6-7WHERE: CD Deshmukh Auditorium, IICTIMING: 6 pm

When it comes to “fasting” dur-ing the Navratras, people usu-ally opt for puris, pakodas and sweets, but keeping in mind the

health-conscious generation, restaurants in different Indian cities have experimented with innovative and alternative low-calorie dishes to cater to the tastes of the new age devout.

An executive chef point out that over the past few seasons, there has been a shift from traditional recipes served during Navratra to more innovative dishes.

“In fact, we have tried to incorporate these elements in our menu and present dishes such as Hare mattar adrak ki chaat and Plantain koftas which give patrons the chance to fol-low the nine-day fast and yet at the same time indulge in a range of sumptuous delicacies, all of which are made using saatvik ingredients.

“Also there is gradual shift to healthier, low-calorie alternatives from traditional Navratra food such as puris, pakodas and mithai. People are now increasingly con-suming soups, uttapams and idlis during the Navratra,” said the chef.

Navratra is celebrated twice in a year – once in the month of Chaitra (mostly falling in March end or April) and in the season of Sharad (in October or November). It is an aus-

picious festival in the Hindu calendar where some opt for fasting during the entire period, while some on the first and last days.

Sanjay B Dasari, Executive Chef at Hotel The Ashok, has come up with a special Navra-tra thali this season. He feels the new gen-eration is more open to experimentation with food during this time unlike the old generation.

“The new generation of Indians though are more open to try out new Navratra specials introduced by many fast food outlets, most

of the elder generation still prefer to stick to traditional sama ke chawal, arbi or sitaphal ki sabzi, kuttu ki puri and sabudana tikkis. But as a whole in this era, eating out has become more common, particularly during this festive season,” said Dasari.

It’s not just in Delhi where people are opt-ing for low calorie and innovative fasting dishes. There are eateries in Pune too cater-ing to such tastes.

“Navratra typically calls for a fasting spe-cial menu as more and more people are open-ing up to the idea of eating out during fasts. The market is still quite niche and largely untapped.

“Also, there is an increase in innovation for fasting foods as people are eager to try various different renderings of our traditional fasting food. Our menu has been designed with an aim of making fasting as enjoyable as possible and at the same time ensuring that it fulfils the body’s requirement of nutrients,” told another chef from Pune.

Some of their Navratra foods are Tandoori paneer matar – made of hung curd, cottage cheese, green peas, tomato, seasonings and fresh coriander – and Motiyana kheer, an amalgam of sago, milk, sugar, condensed milk, cardamom powder and dry fruits. IANS

LAHARI BASU

A creative hand has the ability to build some of the finest pieces of beauty, while only a blessed soul has the eye to appreciate beauty

even in the smallest things. Culture and art, as the two words are used together, comple-ment each other to create a story. The Leela Palace, New Delhi is one such destination for art enthusiasts to rejoice.

In an attempt to preserve the Indian culture, the palace has specially curated paintings, sculptures and other artefacts in tune with the interiors. Walking in, you’d be greeted by melodious Indian classical music

accompanied with the fragrance from fresh flowers all around

soothing your senses. To take a close look at the art

works in order to admire them, one would need about an hour to tour around the palace.

In the central courtyard, overlook-ing the main lobby, stands an auspicious panch-dhatu statue

titled ‘Devi’, a combination of different energies of the Goddess in Hindu mythol-ogy. Sculpted by Satish Gupta, it is the major attraction of the art walk in regard to worship and respect Mother Supreme. Two major walls in the central courtyard are adorned by Satish Gupta’s set of murals titled ‘Let a thousand lotuses bloom’ which symbolise purity, knowledge and wisdom.

A couple of sculptures titled ‘Devotees’ by Satish Gujral are placed on the Lobby and the Ballroom Promenades, along with JJ Valaya’s ‘Paisley Cashmere’. The latter’s ‘Jewels of Alika’ is also a piece of art to look forward to in the Club Lounge. Lita Alburquerque’s quest to express the spiri-tual through material can be witnessed in her work titled ‘Solar Magnitude’ which constitute nine panels with the center panel being a monochromatic blue circle.

Climbing up to the first floor, one would be greeted by Subhash Awchat’s ‘Parampara’. A painting titled ‘Memo-ries Revisited’ by Sanjay Bhatt suits the business centre passage’s aura aptly as it portrays two faces conversing behind semi-closed doors. ‘Eternity’ and ‘Face of Life’, by Paresh Maity are worth adoring as they expand a range of possibilities

of the figures painted.Espa, the spa in the hotel, is home to a

series of paintings by Seema Kohli, which have innumerable stories in them, and Shipra Bhattacharya whose paintings cel-ebrate womanhood.

Gujral’s painting ‘Harnessing Artist’ depicts power symbolised by the horse form that is reduced to its essential and is being harnessed by human force. A sculp-ture from the ‘Mood Series’ by Dimpy Menon, portray a comfortable together-ness between the two figures placed at the Club Lounge.

The palace has various genres of art in store, therefore in order to brush up your knowledge about art and culture take some time out from your busy schedule to soak in the beauty of rare and diverse collection of contemporary Indian art.

To experience them in person, visit the palace in the earliest and be guided by the hosts in the art walk thereafter sitting in the lobby over some tea and delicious pas-tries brooding about the exclusive walk. This luxury of experiencing the art walk touring the Leela Palace followed by hi tea, can be availed for Rs 2500.

RESTAURANTS SHIFT to healthier low-calorie dishes

Navratra diet:

HONOUR OF ARTA stroll in the

DO YOU HAVE lazy friends or co-work-ers? Their attitude can rub off on you, according to a new study which shows that people tend to imitate behaviours of laziness, impatience and prudence.

Prudence, impatience and laziness are personality traits that guide people to make decisions that involve taking a risk, delaying an action and making an effort, said Jean Daunizeau, from the Brain and Spine Institute (ICM) in France.

Prudence is a preference for avoid-ing risk, and impatience is a preference for options that involve little delay and a strong desire for a payoff now rather than later. Lazy people are those who determine that the potential rewards are not worth the effort.

In the study, the researchers recruited 56 healthy people. To measure the par-ticipants’ attitudes toward risk, delay and effort, they were given a series of tasks.

Participants were asked to choose between a 90 per cent chance of winning a small payoff in three days or a higher

payoff in three months with lower odds.They were then asked to guess “some-

one else’s” decisions on a similar task, and after making a selection, they were then told which choice this “other” par-ticipant had made.

However, the “someone else” was in fact a computerised model developed by the researchers. During the final phase of the experiment, the participants repeated the first task, in which they were asked to make their own decisions, ‘Live Sci-

ence’ reported.The researchers found that after the

participants observed the prudent, impa-tient or lazy attitudes of “others” on the task, their own choices about putting in effort, waiting during a delay or taking a risk drifted toward that of others.

In other words, the participants started acting more like the computer-generated study participants. The study was published in the journal PLOS Com-putational Biology. PTI

FLAUNT your saris in different ways other than the traditional style. Replace the blouse with a chic crop top or add a belt for a different style, suggest experts.

A stylist has given tips on how you can stylise your six-yard wonder in inno-vative ways:Ditch traditional blouse for a crop top: Pair a funky crop top with your sari. Choose from polka dotted prints or monochrome colours and Aztec prints and

flaunt your midriff in these hot picks. You can also switch to peplums.Top it with jackets or shirts: Sport an embroidered, velvet, denim or collared jacket with sari. Try coverall jackets and sheer printed shirts to look trendy.

Pick a heavily embroidered jacket and team it with a plain sari or a collared jacket like the Victorian ruffled high collar style to dazzle in the traditional attire.Belt your sari: Using the right belt can make you look classy in a sari. Look for a metal waist belt or an embellished one in leather or fabric that can be worn a little above your waistline. Belts can give the sari a perfect structure and hold your pleats in place. The belt can save the pallu from slid-ing off as well.Ditch the sari petticoat: Team your sari with a pair of palazzos, dhoti pants or jeans to sport a modern look. Tradition-ally, a sari is draped over a petticoat, but play it up with these combinations to make a statement.Give away Kancheepuram silk or georgette and go denim: Instead of going for the regular sari fabrics like georgette and kancheepuram silk, try different fab-rics like denim and make a style statement of your own. IANS

Laziness may be CONTAGIOUS

Ditch the petticoat and belt your sari

Left to right: Mood series; Memories revisited; Devotees; The Devi

People are now opting for low calorie and innovative fasting dishes during Navratra throughout the country

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mp city 3MILLENNIUM POST | Kolkata | Monday, 3 April, 2017

PAYING OBEISANCE

Women perform Chhath at Ganga on Sunday PTI

CM’s 5-day tour from today: Splitting of districts to be announced

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is expected to announce the bifurcation of West Midnapore and Burd-wan into the much-awaited two more districts during her five-day long tour to South Bengal starting on Monday.

Jhargram district will be carved out of West Midnapore and it will be announced as the 22nd district of the state on April 4.

Further, Burdwan district will be bifurcated into Burd-wan East and Burdwan West. Burdwan will be the 23rd district that will start func-tioning as a new district on April 7 in the presence of the Chief Minister.

Banerjee’s tour to South Bengal district will start on Monday with the adminis-trative review meeting of West Midnapore district.

The meeting will be held at Kharagpur. In the meeting, the Chief Minister is expected to take stock of different ongoing projects from the dis-trict authorities.

She will also be preparing a roadmap to help adminis-trative officials complete all the projects on time.

After the administra-tive review meeting in West Midnapore, Banerjee will be present in the programme on Tuesday when Jhargram will start functioning as a new district.

The people of Jhargarm had been waiting eagerly for the day when the Chief Minis-ter would be visiting the place to announce the formation of the new district.

Thus, Jhargram wore a festive look with only a day left before the announce-ment of the 22nd district of Bengal.

Policemen and admin-istrative officials are busy in completing the prepara-

tion for the programme. Security has been beefed up at the venue with dog and

bomb squads already frisk-ing the area. A large contin-gent of police have also been

posted to ensure that no untoward incident takes place during the Chief Minister’s visit.

Banerjee will be holding the administrative review meeting of Purulia and Bankura districts respectively on April 5 and 6.

According to some offi-cials, besides all the cru-cial issues, matters like adequate supply of water in these two districts during summer may be discussed in the meeting.

From Bankura, she will be going to Asansol to attend the programme from where another new district will be announced.

It may be mentioned that the Chief Minister will also inaugurate projects including Misti Tirtha during her visit to Burdwan. She will also be laying foundation stones of many other projects.

350 from BJP join TMC in West

Midnapore

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: In a major blow to state BJP, around 350 of its activists including some lead-ers from West Midnapore on Sunday joined Trinamool Con-gress ahead of Chief Minis-ter Mamata Banerjee’s visit to the district.

Trinamool Congress lead-ers in the district said that it is clear to these BJP leaders that the party has no future pros-pect in the state as it would never get mass support. After understanding the pulse of the people, the BJP leaders from the district have decided to join the ruling party that has taken up a wide range of development projects not only in the district but throughout the state.

The joining of senior BJP leaders and its affiliated organ-isations to the ruling party just ahead of Trinamool Congress supremo’s visit to the district is being considered significant by

political pundits. The newly-inducted Trin-

amool Congress members said that they wanted to take part in the development works that have been initiated across the state by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The main purpose of joining the ruling party was to speed up the development works. A senior Trinamool Congress leader from the dis-trict said that people from across party lines were willing to join the Trinamool Con-gress as they have found that it is only the TMC that can work for the development of the state and also for its people. This has also strengthened the party’s organisations in the area.

It may be mentioned here that in September last year, altogether 800 members from various political parties includ-ing BJP, KPP, RSP and CPI(M) joined the ruling party in the state under the Trinamool Congress’ leadership at Dhup-guri block.

After explosion of object they were playing with, 14-yr-old dies and three others injured in DarjeelingAMITAVA BANERJEE

DARJEELING: A 14-year-old boy died and three oth-ers were grievously injured when an object with which they were playing exploded. The condition of the three injured is report-edly critical.

The incident occurred at the Teesta Army Firing Range at Bagrakot in the Malbazar sub-division of the Jalpaig-uri district on Sunday morn-

ing. All four were residents of Junglee Line in the Sonali Tea Estate.

“The incident occurred at around 6 am when they were playing in the firing range. An object they were playing with suddenly exploded. All four were rushed to the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital (NBMCH) near Sil-iguri,” stated Saniya Oraon, father of Ramen Oraon, one of the injured

While 14-year-old Sol-

omon Oraon breathed his last at the NBMCH, 9-year-old Ramen Oraon, 12-year-old Surjit Oraon and 13-year-old Rajib Oraon are undergoing treatment at the hospital.

Incidentally, the Army firing range on the banks of river Teesta is not enclosed with a boundary wall. Though it is cordoned off during firing practice, at other times, local residents have easy access to this range.

With the region steeped in abject poverty, it is a com-mon practice of children and youth who scout the range for used ammunition and shells which they sell as scrap. It is believed that Sunday’s inci-dent could have been a fall-out of this practice. It could have been a mortar shell that had exploded.

Often mortar shells also land in the neighbouring labour lines of the tea garden. “In the past few years, many

have lost their lives while oth-ers have been maimed. We demand the administration to take up the matter with the Army,” stated Babulal Oraon, a panchayat member.

When contacted by Mil-lennium Post, Rachna Bhagat, District Magistrate, Jalpaiguri stated: “We are conducting an inquiry into the incident. If it is ascertained that the Army is connected with the incident, we will definitely take up the matter them.”

State-wide Road Safety

Week to start from today

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: The state-wide Road Safety Week to avert road accidents by creating awareness among more people will start from Monday.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee held a meet-ing in this regard with the Director General of Police Surajit Kar Purakayas-tha and Commissioner of Kolkata Police Rajeev Kumar on Saturday.

According to a senior police officer, 99 percent of accidents take place due to human error while mechan-ical faults lead to only one percent of the total num-ber of accidents. Thus, creat-ing awareness is a way out to check accidents.

It may be mentioned that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had launched a state-wide awareness cam-paign “Safe Drive, Save Life” in August 2016 and it helped in reducing the number of accidents in the state.

The Road Safety Week will be organised in each and every block. It will also be organised in areas under all the police station. In Kolk-ata, school children will be attending the programmes that will be organised by all the 25 traffic guards.

People from all walks of life including drivers, school children, college-goers and officials from different state government depart-ments, who are posted in districts, will be taking part in the awareness programme.

There will be rallies and road shows to create aware-ness among people. Leaflets will be distributed. Post-ers and banners will also be put up.

Man dies due to alleged delay by nursing home

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: A vegetable seller from Gariahat died of alleged medical negligence at a private nursing of the same area.

Family members of the vic-tim on Sunday staged a demon-stration in front of the nursing home alleging that the patient died due to medical negligence on the part of the hospital authorities. The incident trig-gered tension at the hospital on Sunday after the victim’s fam-ily members and some local businessmen from Gariahat staged a protest inside the hos-pital premises with the body of the victim.

Haripada Das, a vegetable seller from Gariahat market fell ill on Saturday evening. Local businessmen rushed the victim to KF Medical Centre in Garia-hat. The family members of the victim alleged that the patient had been left unattended for nearly half an hour.

They also alleged that after keeping the patient on wait, the nursing home authorities told the family members of the victim that the patient could not be treated in the nursing home due to lack of infrastruc-

ture. It was alleged that the nursing home authorities did not even make arrangements for an ambulance so that the patient could be shifted to another hospital.

The family members of the victim finally arranged an ambulance to take him to another hospital. The hospital authorities have, how-ever, denied any negligence on their part.

They said that the condi-tion of the patient deteriorated rapidly and hence his family members were urged to take the patient to another hospi-tal. The situation was brought under control following the intervention of police.

The victim was declared brought dead after being shifted to the other hospi-tal. The other businessmen of Gariahat market along with his family members took the dead body to the KF Medical Centre and put up a demonstration at the hospital with the body. The family members of the victim also demanded a probe into the incident so that action can be taken against those who will be found guilty in connection with the incident.

Air India flies three seriously ill B’desh citizens free of cost

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Showing its humane face, national carrier Air India on Sunday flew three young Bangladeshi citizens, suf-fering from serious muscular dystrophy, for treatment at a Mumbai hospital along with their relatives — free of charge.

The three patients and three persons accompanying them took Sunday evening’s Air India flight from Kolkata to Mumbai and will also return by an Air India flight after treatment — without having to pay any fare.

AI-773 took off from Kolka-ta’s Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport with the six Bangladesh nationals among other passengers -- bringing a ray of hope to the patients suffering from a rare medical condition called Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, an Air India media release said.

The patients were extended full support by way of wheel-

chairs and individual attendants. They, along with their relatives, were handed over the board-ing cards by senior AI officials. The saga of Abdus, Rahinul and Shorab aged 24, 14 and 8, respectively, goes back to their birth when they were diagnosed with this disease. Their family pleaded with the Bangladesh government for mercy killing of the three for failing to con-tinue with their treatment due to financial reasons. Destiny, how-ever, had another script for them as Meditourz — a Mumbai-

based organisation specialising in treating such diseases — in collaboration with NeuroGen — a Brain and Spine Institute based at Navi Mumbai — flashed a beacon of hope for the patients.

Alok Sharma, who special-ises in treatment for neuro-logical disorders, offered free treatment to these patients at his hospital and research cen-tre NeoroGen. A request was made to Air India, which offered support to fly the patients with their companions free of charge to Mumbai and back.

Top three taxpayers under NDITA selected, names to be put up on websites to encourage them

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Bengal Intelligent Park (Omega Building), Forum Project Holdings and Institute of Engineering and Management are the three topmost property taxpayers in areas under Nab-adiganta Industrial Township Develop-ment Authority (NDITA).

Earlier, the NDITA authorities had decided to reward the three top property taxpayers in Sector-V and accordingly it was found that these three had paid the highest property tax till 3 pm on March 31. Their names will be put up in NDITA website to encour-age them.

NDITA authorities had held a series of talks with the defaulters and asked them to clear the property taxes. It may be mentioned that non-payment of property tax by big firms is a major problem in Kolkata and the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) had to announce a property tax waiver scheme twice in the recent past to realise money from them.

Senior officials of NDITA also sat

with their counterparts in the state I-T department and discussed issues like delay in the payment of property taxes and later, online realtime payment of property taxes was introduced. As revenue collection from property tax accounts for more than half of NDI-TA’s income, the tax collection drive was intensified. The officials felt that the drive yielded good results.

The NDITA board has also cleared

Rs 115 crore Budget for the agency in 2017-18 with Rs 32 lakh surplus. A slew of development projects has been taken up that will be funded from the Budget.

It has been decided that the Salt Lake bypass will be strengthened and the Ring Road will be extended till New Town.

The NDITA has chalked out elabo-rate plans for traffic management in Sec-tor-V. Experts from IIT Kharagpur and

senior officials of NDITA conducted an on-the-spot survey in Sector-V before making the management plan. A multi-storeyed car parking will also be set up in Sector-V. Plans have been taken up to construct an administrative building and a Town Hall.

Apart from these, the supply of fil-tered water will be augmented along with rainwater drainage pumping sta-tions and recycling of waste water. Steps have also been taken to lay underground cable ducts.

MEDICAL NEGLIGENCE?

While Jhargram will be announced district on April 4, Burdwan’s bifurcation to be announced on April 7

Apart from announcing bifurcated districts, the CM will also hold administrative review meetings and will create roadmaps for smoother functioning of the districts

Bengal Intelligent Park (Omega Building), Forum Project Holdings and Institute of Engineering and Management are the three topmost property taxpayers

As revenue collection from property tax accounts for more than half of NDITA’s income, the tax collection drive was intensified. The officials felt that the drive yielded good results

REPRESENTATIVE IMAGE

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: One killed and three, including a woman, were critically injured when dacoits hurled bombs and opened fire after looting a jewellery shop near Sonarpur railway station in South 24 Parganas on Sunday evening.

Deepak Debnath, the owner of the jewellery shop, was declared brought dead when taken to a private hos-pital off EM Bypass while the injured persons — Subrata Mondal and Dipankar Roy Chowdhury — were admit-ted to MR Bangur Hospital with bullet injuries.

It was around 7 pm when the area adjacent to Sonar-pur station was packed with people busy marketing on a Sunday ahead of the Bengali New Year.

All of a sudden, a few miscreants started hurl-ing bombs. Initially, people

couldn’t understand anything and started searching for a safe shelter as the miscreants were firing bullets too.

Some of the traders had saw seven persons, with their faces covered with cloths, carrying firearms and sick-les hurling bombs soon after coming out of the jewellery shop. They ran towards the railway station. Before anyone could show courage to chase them, the accused managed to flee along the railway tracks.

After a few minutes, some of the local shopkeepers found the owner of the shop crying for help with severe injuries on his head, shoulders and hands. Three others includ-ing a woman were also crying for help.

The woman, who seems to be an employee of the shop, received bullet injuries. Sub-rata and Dipankar were pass-ers-by and they received bullet injuries when the miscreants

were firing indiscriminately while fleeing.

Other workers of the jew-ellery shop told the police that the miscreants had entered the shop posing as customers. They pulled down the shutters of the shop after entering and took all jewellery displayed in showcases. They hit on the head of the owner of the shop with a sickle as he refused to give them the keys of the locker. He fell unconscious at the spot.

Apprehending that they may get caught, the miscre-ants hurled bombs and started firing.

Senior police officers went to the spot and started col-lecting footages of CCTVs installed in the shop. A senior police officer said that they are going through the CCTV foot-ages to identify the accused. Portrait parleys of the accused will be made if the CCTV footages are found hazy.

Dacoity at Sonarpur jewellery shop leaves 1 dead, 3 injured

mp city4MILLENNIUM POST | Kolkata | Monday, 3 April, 2017

More artificial eggs recovered from Malda, South 24 Pgns

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: The growing num-bers of plastic or artificial eggs which are being discovered in the state markets has caused utter shock and bewilderment to the people of Bengal.

On Sunday, Aloke Mondal, a resident of Sonarpur in South 24 Parganas found that two out of ten eggs that he had bought from a local market were made of plastic.

He found this out when he was trying fry the eggs. After putting the eggs in the frying pan, he said that he felt a pun-gent smell of burning plastic emanating out of the eggs.

He informed the matter to the local police station and the district police started a probe in this regard. He also told the police that they had cooked eight eggs on Saturday nightbut they were found to be normal.

But when the remaining two eggs was put in the frying pan, a pungent smell emanated out of the frying pan.

The incident triggered tension Sahebpur village of Sonarpur.

In another incident, a fam-ily from Vidyasagarpalli area in Malda have come up with the same complaint saying that they found that some the eggs that they purchased from the market were made of plastic.

Biplab Roy, a resident of Vidyasagarpalli and a local businessman alleged that he found a plastic egg when he was trying to cook.

The incident spread tension in the locality as well. Though

the senior district adminis-trative officials have said that no such incident has been reported so far.

The North Dinajpur admin-istration has, however, started a probe after there was an alle-

gation that the artificial eggs were available in the markets. A resident of station colony area of Islampur alleged that some of the eggs that he had bought from the market were also made of plastic.

The shop owner who had sold the eggs to the victim said that he purchased the eggs from the retail market and he can produce necessary paperworks.

It may be mentioned that on Saturday, a family at Gar-ia’s Panchasayar alleged that they bought eggs from a pop-ular retail outlet, but they were fake eggs.

“I found that the yolk of those eggs spread around the surface of the bowl, which is a sign of identifying fake egg,” the customer alleged.

On March 30, Anita Kumar, a resident of Park Circus area was shocked when she found that the eggs which she had bought from a nearby shop were artificial and made of plastic. She lodged a gen-eral dairy with the Karaya police station alleging that plastic eggs were being sold in the market.

Four arrested in minor girl

gang-rape case

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Police arrested four persons on Sunday in connection with the alleged gang-rape and murder at Ratua in Malda.

On Friday the body of a minor girl, who was missing for the past three days, was found inside a club room, situated in a market complex.

There were injury marks all over her body and there were blood stains all over the floor of the club.

Senior police officers went to the spot on Sunday morn-ing and questioned some of the local people.

Investigation revealed that some of the local youth had helped the prime accused to commit the crime.

Subsequently, police con-ducted raids in their houses and arrested all four of them who had assisted the prime accused to continue the tor-ture of the girl for three days.

Preliminary investigation revealed that the four arrested youth were well aware that some local miscreants had kid-napped the girl and confined her in the club room.

They didn’t disclose it despite knowing that the vic-tim’s parents were searching for the girl. Instead, they attempted to mislead her fam-ily members saying that they had not seen the girl come towards the club.

Police found that eighteen shops were being built on the plot where the club is situated. There were takers only for three shops which remain open till late night.

Every night, some of the miscreants gather in front of the shops and allegedly con-sume alcohol openly and don’t pay heed to the objections of local people.

A police officer said that the four arrested youth seem to be well aware about the where-

abouts of the prime accused who are at large.

The investigating officer of the case was also changed on Sunday and senior police officers have been engaged to arrest the prime accused as early as possible.

A police officer said some of the club members will be ques-tioned considering that they were well aware about the kid-napping of the girl as they were known to be close to the prime accused.

In an earlier incident, a Class VIII girl was allegedly gang-raped by some of her friends at Belda in West Mid-napore on March 8.

Police said that one of the accused came to her house in the evening on Wednes-day and asked her to come along with him to his house as some more friends had assem-bled there.

The victim was told that some girls, who studies in her class, also came there to have food together as one of them had birthday on Wednesday.

But she found no one apart from the three accused youth when she went to the house. She fell unconscious after having spiked cold drinks which the accused had offered to her and the youth allegedly raped her after she was senseless

Robbers try to loot ATM; old gang’s role suspected

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: The attempt of three miscreants to decamp with money from an ATM machine at Sodepur in North 24 Parganas has once again brought to light the activities of the gang that had been com-mitting the crime for the past two years in different parts of the state.

Police said that three mis-creants attempted to break open an ATM machine of a nationalised bank to steal the cash. They even threatened its security guard, Ramprasad Shaw, with dire consequence if he tried to stop them.

Initially Shaw didn’t tell them anything and allowed them to enter the ATM as they were carrying firearms. The situation for the miscreants turned worse when Shaw sud-denly started shouting in order to alert local people.

Realising that they might get caught if they delayed fur-ther, the miscreants left the ATM machine after manag-ing to break it open partly. But before leaving the spot, they beat up Shaw.

The incident led to panic in the area. Police initiated a probe in this connection and are suspecting that the same gang, which was involved in the Sinthi ATM loot case, was also behind this incident. It may be recalled that a series of inci-dents of ATM loot had taken place in Domjur in Howrah, Madhyamgram and Dum Dum in North 24 Parganas, Sinthee in Kolkata and Serampore in Hooghly. Investigating officers have calculated that the total amount that has been stolen from the ATMs is more than Rs 1 crore. The police had arrested Sk Kalam, who is a resident of Pilkhana in Howrah, in con-nection with the different inci-dents of ATM loot. Police came to know that Kalam along with his associates from Hyderabad was involved in 13 incidents of ATM loot that took place within a span of one month in different parts of the state in mid 2016. Police suspect that some members of the same gang is behind the incident at Sodepur.

Separate suicide attempts at two Metro stations

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Two persons attempted suicide at two dif-ferent Metro stations on Sun-day affecting the Metro services for nearly 40 minutes.

Police said that the first incident took place at Esplanade Metro station at around 3.31 pm when a per-son suddenly threw himself before a Dum Dum-bound train when it was entering the Esplanade station.

The driver of the train applied emergency breaks when he saw the man jumping on to the tracks from the plat-form, police said.

The police are yet to trace the identity of the injured person.

Immediately after the inci-dent, Metro railway authorities switched off the power con-nection in the third line of the track and RPF personnel and other staff members rushed to the spot.

They lifted the man and took him to the SSKM Hospital.

A senior Metro official said that Metro services in both the up and down line between Maidan and Esplanade sta-tions were stopped following the incident.

The passengers were seri-ously inconvenienced due to the incident.

The Metro railway autho-rites managed to provide Metro services between Maidan and Kabi Subhas and from Cen-tral to Noapara between 3.30 pm to 4.10 pm. Accord-ing to the Metro official, the services were resumed at around 4.09 pm.

Truncated services were operated during that time, the official added.

Another incident took place at around 6.10 pm on Sunday at Gitanjali Metro station when a 19-year-old Niladri Karma-kar, a resident of Ganguly Bagan area of Netaji Nagar jumped in front of a mov-ing train on down line. The RPF rushed to the spot and rescued the victim.

The victim sustained inju-ries on his body and was rushed to the MR Bangur Hospital for treatment.

3 persons killed in two separate road mishaps

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Three persons were killed in two separate road accidents in the state on Sunday.

The first incident took place at Joyrampur area of Canning in South 24 Par-ganas when a school stu-dent died after being hit by a loaded truck.

The incident had triggered tension in the area after the local residents put up demon-stration on the road protesting against the rash driving of the vehicles.

An altercation broke out between the police and the local residents. The demonstration was lifted after the police assured the local people that the driver of the truck would be arrested soon.

Police said that Mahidul Mollah was returning home after attending private tuition when the speeding truck hit him.

Local people rushed the victim to Canning sub-divi-sional hospital where he was declared brought dead.

The local residents alleged that despite of the repeated pleas, the police do not take action against some vehicles that often flout traf-fic norms.

They also alleged that some trucks carry soil illegally from

one place to another. But the police failed to take

any steps against these illegal trucks. Police have, however, assured the local people that a probe has been initiated in this connection and raids are being conducted to nab the driver.

In another incident, a father and his daughter died in an accident which took place at Pundibari area of Cooch Behar on Sunday morning.

The father identified as Pijush Biswas died on the spot while his daughter Pri-yatama Biswas was declared brought dead by the doctors after being taken to Cooch Behar MJN Hospital.

Police said that the victims were going to a local market on a bicycle when a speeding truck hit them from behind on National Highway 31.

It was learnt that the mis-hap occurred when the truck was trying to overtake another truck.

The driver lost control of the vehicle and mowed down the two victims.

The driver has fled the spot along with the vehicle immedi-ately after the accident.

The incident had triggered tension in the area.

The local people also staged some protest demonstration in the area demanding the arrest of the accused driver.

Police have started and raid to arrest the driver.

Now, direct AC bus service from Kolkata to Jaldapara

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: In a bid to attract more tour-ists, West Bengal Tourism Development Corporation has decided to introduce an air-conditioned direct bus connecting Jaldapara and Kolkata.

There was no means of transport to reach Jaldapara directly from Kolkata.

But with the introduction of the bus people from the city can easily reach to the place without any break journey.

The bus will be operating on all the six days in a week apart from Wednesday. Every day it will leave Esplanade at 10 am and the same bus will leave Jaldapara the next day at 4 pm.

The bus will start operating from April 10. This is the first time when such an effort has been taken by the WBTDC to attract more tourists to the place.

Most importantly, commuters will be getting complementary food and water while travelling in the air-conditioned bus.

One interested to take the bus to reach either Jaldapara or Kolkata, can book a ticket by logging into the website of WBTDC. The online-booking system has been introduced and those taking the

bus to reach Jaldapara will be given 10 per cent discount for their stay in Jaldapara Tourist Lodge.

During winter, tourists from differ-ent parts of the state, country and abroad visit the place. People face difficulty to get a ticket in other means of transport if they suddenly plan to visit the place. Thus, introduction of the direct bus from Kol-kata will iron out the longstanding prob-lem. Moreover, it will boost the tourism sector of the region.

Moreover, care will be taken to ensure that commuters get better food. Both, veg-etarian and non- vegetarian food will be available for commuters.

It may be recalled that the North Bengal State Transport Corporation (NBSTC) has introduced Premium Rocket buses with bio-toilets to ensure better connectivity at much lesser time from different locations in north Bengal to Kolkata.

The buses were flagged off by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee during her recent visit to north Bengal.

The Premium Rocket buses are better than the old rocket busesthose are gradu-ally getting phased out.

Fire breaks out in garment storeroom, none injured

KOLKATA: Fire broke out at the ground floor of a four-sto-reyed building at the crossing of Ramkrishna Das lane and Sukia Street on Sunday morn-ing triggering panic among the local residents as the area was densely populated.

However, no one was injured in the incident.

Six fire tenders were pressed into action to douse the flame. The local residents spotted smoke billowing out of the building and informed the matter to the fire brigade. Three rooms situated on the ground floor of the building were com-pletely gutted in the fire.

Police said that a gar-ment storeroom situated on the ground floor had caught fire. The fire spread rapidly as inflammable materials and garments were stored inside the room. Firefighters had faced difficulties in extinguish-ing the flames as the area was congested.

Disaster management team and the firefighters rescued a woman who was trapped on the fourth floor of the build-ing. The fire personnel initially

faced challenges to enter the store-room as the area was cov-ered in thick smoke.

Fire officials suspect that besides garments, various chemicals and inflammable materials were stored inside the room that had caught fire.

The fire later spread to the adjoining which also caught fire. The incident triggered ten-sion among the people who were on the other floors of the building, many of whom managed to come out of the building.

A woman who was trapped on the top floor of the building was rescued by the fire fighters and disaster management team with the help of a ladder. The fire was brought under control

within an hour.The police and fire brigade

have started a probe in this regard. They are yet to ascer-tain the exact cause of the fire and the extent of the damage.

Police said that the build-ings situated on the ground floor were badly damaged in the incident. The fire brigade officials were able to restrict the fire from spreading to the other floors.

It may be mentioned that a minor fire broke out at the state government-run Nil Ratan Sarkar (NRS) Medi-cal College and Hospital in Kolkata’s Sealdah area on Thursday, triggering panic among the patients and their family members.

Maitri Aradhana Samity’s

blood donation camp held

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: The 20th volun-tary blood donation and aware-ness camp of Matri Aradhana Samity (established in 1927) was held on Sunday at their club premises in Central Howrah.

As part of the awareness campaign, a huge rally with colourful festoons, banners and slogans was organised where people from all walks of life, including school children participated.

The rally included live models of popular children’s comics and stilt walkers with slogans highlighting the neces-sity and social benefits of non-remunerative voluntary Blood Donation.

Many dignitaries from the area visited the camp to encourage the blood donors.

A total of 45 persons donated blood which was col-lected by Howrah General Hospital Blood Bank.

Six fire tenders were pressed into action to douse the flame. The local residents spotted smoke billowing out of the building and informed the matter to the fire brigade. Three rooms situated on the ground floor of the building were completely gutted in the fire

A SMELLY AFFAIR

Bankura sizzles at 43.40CKOLKATA: The western districts of Bengal sizzled under heatwave conditions while the rest of the state experienced normal day tem-peratures.Bankura recorded the day’s highest temperature in the state at 43.4 degrees Celsius, six notches above normal, the MeT de-partment said. AGENCIES

Preliminary investigation revealed that the four arrested youth were well aware that some local miscreants had kidnapped the girl and confined her in the club room

In the first incident an unidentified man tried to jump in front of a Metro train in Esplanade station and in the second incident, a teenager, identified as Niladri Karmakar (19), tried to commit suicide in the same manner at Gitanjali station

2 held for stealing expensive gadgets

from classmateOUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Two students of a well-known English medium school in the city will be produced before the Juvenile Justice Board as investigation revealed that they had stolen expensive electronic gadgets from one of their classmate’s house at Kasba to recharge their mobile phones.

Police said that eight months ago, an expensive laptop was stolen from the house of a senior state government official. Again on March 7, an iPod, Playstation and a mobile phone were stolen from the house.

The government officials went to the police station and lodged a complaint in this connection. The police initially couldn’t solve the mystery behind it.

Later, they came to know that two class-mates of the official’s son often used to visit their house.

It led to their suspicion and police checked mobile phones of both the boys. Their WhatsApp chat revealed that they wanted to buy something expensive.

Later, investigation revealed that they had bought the same, but they didn’t get the money from their parents.

Thus police initiated questioning the boys. They failed to suppress the truth for a long time in front of the police and confessed their guilt. They told the police that they had refilled motorbikes and recharged their mobile phones with the money that they had gotten against the electronics goods which got stolen from the complainant’s house.

It may be mentioned that officers of the Kolkata Police’s detective department had found that youth from well known fami-lies and good background had got involved in crime like snatching just to make fast money as they had aspired to buy expen-sive bikes with it.

REPRESENTATIVE IMAGE

5MILLENNIUM POST | Kolkata | Monday, 3 April, 2017

mp nationGovt committed to complete freedom of judiciary: Prasad

OUR CORRESPONDENT

ALLAHABAD: Government is committed to complete independence of the judiciary, Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said on Sunday.

He urged lawyers to volun-teer to help the poor get access to justice and highlighted the steps being taken by the Cen-tre to reduce pendency, includ-ing minimising litigation by the State and meeting the long-standing demand of filling up vacant posts of judges.

"The Prime Minister has said that government is com-mitted to independence of the judiciary and that it should be complete," Prasad said at the closing ceremony of the Alla-habad High Court's sesquicen-tennial celebrations.

He said the government is committed to reducing pen-dency of cases, an issue high-lighted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as well as Chief Justice of India J S Khehar at the event.

"As a step in this direction we are setting up sahayata ken-

dras (facilitation centres) that will be devoted to speedy dis-posal of such cases as may have been pending for 10 years or more. "A pilot project for legal aid was being launched for Uttar Pradesh and Bihar," the minister said.

Prasad exhorted those involved in the legal profes-sion to help the government in achieving its objectives by devoting their time and energy in cases "that may be pro bono and may not bring public-ity". The Minister said that the

process is on for finalising a national litigation policy.

"Already, I have at the direc-tion of the Prime Minister writ-ten to chief ministers of states and my colleagues in the Union Council of Ministers to ensure that the number of cases filed by the government is reduced as far as possible.

"There has been a long-standing demand for filling up of vacant posts of judges. That too will be taken care of," Prasad said.

The Union Minister was

speaking in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Uttar Pradesh Governor Ram Naik and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, among others.

There are nearly 5,000 vacancies in the subordinate judiciary and the pendency. There are as many as 2.7 crore cases pending in subordinate courts, and 38.7 lakh cases pending in the high courts.

While the appointments in the higher judicary have been delayed over the tussle between the Centre and the Supreme

Court collegium over Mem-orandum of Procedure, the Centre has often faulted the judiciary over the vacancies in lower courts.

However, the Supreme Court collegium last month finalised the MoP for appoint-ment of judges in the higher judiciary, ending a year-long face-off with the executive by agreeing to include the conten-tious clause of national security in selection of judges.

Hailing the contributions of advocates in the freedom struggle, the Minister said luminaries like Mahatma Gan-dhi, Sardar Patel and Rajen-dra Prasad had placed an ideal of "kaabil vakil, tyaagi neta" (competent lawyer, sacrificing leader) which all ought to fol-low. Prasad also recalled land-mark judgements passed by the Allahabad High Court, includ-ing the one whereby the elec-tion of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was declared illegal and another one way back in 1901 which held that a widow was entitled to receive maintenance

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MPOST BUREAU

NEW DELHI: A parliamen-tary panel has asked the health department to take necessary measures to arrest underutili-sation of funds by the country's food safety regulator FSSAI and ensure strengthening of the food testing system in a time-bound manner.

It said the safety and standardisation of food is a "neglected" area in India and the health department, under which the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) falls, needs to focus more on this field.

Emphasising the need for ample provisioning of mobile food testing labs, the com-

mittee has also recommended that the results of all food items being tested should be adver-tised in newspapers and social media to make people aware.

The parliamentary commit-tee on Demands for Grants for 2017-18 for the Department of Health and Family Wel-fare noted that there has been a "consistent trend" of unde-rutilisation of funds in 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2016-17.

The committee, chaired by Rajya Sabha MP Ram Gopal Yadav, "expects the department to take appropriate measures to arrest shortfall in utilisation of budgetary funds and ensure that the strengthening of food testing systems and laborato-ries is done in a time-bound

manner." The FSSAI was estab-lished in 2006 and the status of safety, regulation, manufactur-ing, processing, distribution, sale and import of food items for human consumption shows a "dreary" picture in India, the committee said.

Slow progress of develop-mental activities and initiatives would hamper the quality of work being rendered in the context of safety and standardi-sation of food items, it noted.

Since there are numerous domains under the FSSAI, underutilisation of budgeted funds indicates "negligence" in this area and "poor" finan-cial planning on the part of the authorities concerned, the committee said.

‘Food safety issue neglected in India’

PM Narendra Modi with Chief Justice of India Justice J S Khehar, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, UP Governor Ram Naik and CM Yogi Adityanath during the Sesquicentennial Celebrations of Allahabad High Court on Sunday

MPOST BUREAU

NEW DELHI: Education, healthcare and pil-grimages will continue to be out of service tax net even under the GST regime as the Centre is against giving any shock in the first year of the rollout by bringing in new services.

Besides making a strong case to the GST Council for not touching services that are out of tax net currently, the Centre will also pitch for keeping concessional rate for services like transport at the current level, Revenue Secre-tary Hasmukh Adhia said.

The GST Council, headed by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and comprising represen-tatives of all states, is scheduled to meet in Sri-nagar on May 18-19 to decide on rates various

good and services will be charged in the new indirect tax regime that is being targeted for rollout from July 1. Adhia said the endeavour would be to maintain the current tax incidence on a commodity or service at the same level in the new Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime.

GST will subsume central levies like excise duty on manufactured products and service tax on rendering of services as well as state VAT on sale, to make for a national sales tax that will be levied at the time of consumption of a product or service. Adhia said the approach for the GST rollout would be to avoid any shock in the first year and any review for inclusion of a service or change in rate could be done in the second or third year of the implementation based on revenue realisation.

ALLAHABAD: The govern-ment would appoint facilita-tion officers in 200 districts of the country where cases older than 10 years are pending in court, Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said on Sunday. These officers would help the poor people coordi-nate with the government and the courts and work towards getting their cases heard in fast-track courts, he said.

Prasad said there are around 2.5 lakh common service cen-tres (CSCs) in the country which are run by women and youth where PAN cards, Aad-haar cards are made and other digital services are provided.

"We will train people and attach them with CSC. There are poor people who need jus-tice and they should get proper legal advice before the hearing of a case,” he said. The min-ister said in the phase-II of e-computing, the district law service authorities would be computerised. Prasad exhorted those involved in the legal profession to help the govern-ment in achieving its objec-tives by devoting their time and energy in cases “that may be pro bono and may not bring publicity”. MPOST

Education, healthcare to be out of GST

MPOST BUREAU

NEW DELHI: Tax evasion of over Rs 5 crore under the GST regime would be non-bailable offence with the police having authority to make an arrest without a warrant.

The Central GST (CGST) Act provides that if the offences relating to taxable goods and/or services where the amount of tax evaded or the amount of input tax credit wrongly availed or the amount of refund wrongly taken exceeds Rs 5 crore, shall be cognizable and non-bailable.

In a 223-page FAQ on Goods and Services Tax (GST), the CBEC said other offences under the act are non-cogni-zable and bailable.

The government has set a target date of July 1 for roll out of the GST, which will subsume central excise, service tax, VAT and other local levies.

As per the FAQ, cognizable offence means serious category of offences in respect of which a police officer has the author-ity to make an arrest without a warrant and to start an investi-gation with or without the per-mission of a court.

Non-cognizable offence means relatively less serious offences in respect of which a police officer does not have the authority to make an arrest without a warrant and an inves-tigation cannot be initiated without a court order, it said.

Outlining the safeguards to be taken during arrest, the FAQ said if a person is arrested for a cognizable offence, he must be informed in writing of the grounds of arrest and he must be produced before a magis-trate within 24 hours of his arrest. If a person is arrested for a non-cognizable and bailable offence, the Deputy/ Assistant Commissioner of CGST/SGST can release him on bail and he will be subject to the same pro-visions as an officer in-charge of a police station under sec-

tion 436 of the Code of Crimi-nal Procedure, 1973.

The FAQ provides that, if a person does not appear before a CGST/SGST officer who has issued the summon, he is liable to a penalty of up to Rs 25,000.

Also, the tax department have guidelines to ensure that summon provisions are not misused by field officers.

As per the guidelines, summons are to be issued as a "last resort where assessees are not co-operating and this should not be used for the top management.

GST: Tax evasion of over Rs 5 crore

non-bailable offence

KOLKATA: Union Min-ister of State for Finance Arjum Ram Meghwal on Sunday expressed confi-dence that the historic tax reform Goods and Services Tax (GST) will roll out from July 1. "100 per cent GST will be implemented from July 1," Meghwal said here when asked on GST roll out.

"In the last meeting four rules had been approved and the next meeting is in Sri-nagar," he said on the side-lines of ICC organised on investment opportunities in African country Democratic Republic of Congo. MPOST

‘Legal aid officers to be appointed in 200 districts’

GST will be implemented from July 1: Meghwal

mp nation6MILLENNIUM POST | Kolkata | Monday, 3 April, 2017

ANDHRA TOPS LIST AS OVER 2.23 LAKH STUDENTS TO APPEAR FOR VITEEE-2017VELLORE: VIT University has yet again created his-tory with a whopping 2.23 lakh set to appear for VIT Engineering Entrance Examination 2017. This year, the university has registered 2,23,081 students for VITEEE, whereas the number was 2,12,238 last year. In addi-tion, this year the university also received 10,843 more applications, which show the brand’s reputation among students across the nation. Announcing the results, VIT Chancellor G Viswanathan said that the university’s record placement this year and its thrust to create innovation in academics has propelled the increase in patronage among students.

PREZ LAYS FOUNDATION STONE OF ESI HOSPITAL IN JHARKHAND’S DEOGHAR

RANCHI: President Pranab Mukherjee laid the foun-dation stone of 100 bedded ESI Hospital at Karon, Deoghar (Jharkhand) along with inaugurationof projects of Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepre-neurship on Sunday. Imparting skill training to youth is the key for creating huge employment, President Pranab Mukherjee said on Sunday. “Basic problem of India is job creation... it can be solved by imparting skill training to the youth as more than 50 per cent of India’s population is young,” the President said while dedicating 35 skill development centres to the nation online. “Skill development is the only answer to create employment,” he said, lauding Narendra Modi gov-ernment’s Skill India drive.

BRIEFSNATION

TEEMING WITH DEVOTEES

Devotees pay obeisance to the sun god on the occasion of Chaiti Chhath Puja at River of Ganga in Patna on Sunday

ICA-T643(3)2017

RAJA AWASTHI

NEW DELHI: The first round of battle in 2017 goes the BJP way with the Assembly elec-tions in five states are over. The BJP has done overwhelming well forming government in four states. Punjab falls in the Congress kitty; courtesy- Capt Amarinder Singh’s undisputed leadership and mass base.

Now much is on stake for both PM Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah as their home state is next in election radar. The congress-ruled Him-achal Pradesh is also to face elec-tions this year. Both the states are up for grab for the BJP and it seems it will be a cake walk for the saffron party. With its victory over Himachal, the BJP will inch closer to its dream of ‘Congress-mukt Bharat.’

The idyllic hilly state is in shamble with debt liability of more than Rs 40,000 Crore. A

letter by Union Finance Minis-try recently says that Himach-al’s debt liability will increase to Rs 45,213. 30 crore till March 31, 2017 but the government is indulging in extravagant expen-diture. The loan is continuously rising even as Centre is provid-ing Rs. 40,625 crore to the state under Revenue Deficit Grant.

The Congress government has raised a loan of Rs. 17,000 crore during four and a half years of its present tenure. Increase in debt during recent years is because of sharp reduc-

tion in Revenue Deficit Grant coupled with increased salary burden due to pay scale revi-sion by Punjab Government and followed by Himachal Govern-ment in 2012 as Congress came back to power. The state govern-ment has raised all market loans only after obtaining the approval of Government of India.

The opposition has alleged major corruption allegation’s against the CM and his cabinet colleagues. The question raised by Leader of Opposition Prem Kumar Dhumal is directly con-

nected to the state’s economy. The budgetary deficit will keep on piling up if Himachal hopes to march ahead with the increas-ing debt liability.

Is Himachal heading towards a debt trap? The oppo-sition has to rise and speak if state’s economy looks weaker and people’s income has increased, political observers feel. The issue of unemployment allowance gained momentum in the recent past but state’s exche-quer gets depleted whenever any decision is taken on politi-cal considerations.

Besides the financial situa-tion the political heat in both the parties is also flurry. Though local leaders in the BJP are claiming a bumper (landslide) victory and many believe that Congress might stand with a tally of single digit in forthcom-ing assembly elections in the house of 68.

In his 55 years of political

career, Virbhadra Singh never ever believed in second com-mand or second rung of lead-ership that is why the state Congress is facing a big vac-uum after him. At the age of 84, Singh still is projecting himself for the chief ministership. This has not gone down well with the masses.

While on the other hand, Dhumal is keeping all his cards close to chest as Modi was state incharge in 1998 when Dhumal took over the reins as the Chief Minister. Both are mass leaders but Dhumal is considered to be more accessible than Virb-hadra in the state. The political churning has already started with Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh recent sprang a surprise which he is duly known for by offering his Assembly seat to his son Vikramaditya, saying he would himself like to contest from a seat which Congress has never won.

Is poll-bound Himachal a cakewalk for BJP?

While some pelt stones, others carve tunnels out of stone: Modi

OUR CORRESPONDENT

UDHAMPUR (J&K): Send-ing out a message to the mis-guided youth of Kashmir, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said “40 years of bloodshed” has not bene-fitted anyone and that they should choose tourism over terrorism to ensure the state’s development and well-being.

He again invoked former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s slogan of ‘Kash-miriyat, Jamhooriyat, Insani-yat (Kashmirism, democracy and humanity)’ and said this “prime motto” will be used for taking the state to new heights of development and “no obsta-cle can stop us”.

Modi, who was on a brief visit here to inaugurate the country’s longest road tun-nel between Kashmir and Jammu, used the occasion to tell the stone-pelters of the valley that stones can be used for better purposes – building infrastructure.

Addressing a rally here, he told the Kashmiri youth that if they ignore the “invaluable tradition of sufi culture”, they would “lose the present and put your future into darkness”.

In a veield manner, the Prime Minister also hit out at the rulers of Pakistan who

are eyeing Kashmir, saying “they can’t even take care of themselves”.

He said his government was committed to ensure fast-paced development of Jammu and Kashmir, which would also tell the people liv-ing under “occupation” in the other parts of the state how they are being destroyed.

At the event attended by Governor N N Vohra, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and some union and state minis-ters, Modi promised to stand shoulder-to-shoulder in the development of Jammu and Kashmir and sought the coop-eration of the people in this regard.

“I want to tell the mis-guided youth of Kashmir valley, realise the power of a stone. On one hand, there are some misguided youth who pelt stones, on the other hand, there are youth from the same Kashmir who carve stones to build infrastructure,” he said.

The message was clearly for the youth who are indulge in stone-pelting in the Kashmir valley and thus risk their lives.

“I want to tell the Kashmiri youth, there are two paths in front of you which can deter-mine your future – one is tour-ism, the other is terrorism,” he said.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

CHENANI (J&K): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday inaugurated the country's longest road tun-nel that links Kashmir Valley with Jammu by an all-weather route and reduces the dis-tance by 31 kms.

The 9-km long 'Chenani Nashri Tunnel', built at the cost of Rs 2,500 crore, was

dedicated to the nation by the Prime Minister here in presence of Jammu and Kash-mir Governor N N Vohra and Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti.

After the inauguration, Modi, along with Vohra and Mehbooba, travelled in an open jeep through the tunnel for some distance.

The Prime Minister, the Governor and the Chief Min-

ister then posed for a photo-graph with the engineers who were involved in construction of the tunnel.

The tunnel, bypassing snow-bound upper reaches, will reduce the journey time by two hours and provide a safe, all- weather route to commuters travelling from Jammu and Udham-pur to Ramban, Banihal and Srinagar.

PM inaugurates India’s longest road tunnel

UP govt wants ghar wapsi of its honest officers

DHIRENDRA KUMAR

NEW DELHI: In an attempt to keep its promise of provid-ing corruption-free governance, the Yogi-led Uttar Pradesh gov-ernment is mulling to recall its talented and honest officers serving outside the state on deputation.

According to sources, a letter in this regard has been written to the Centre by the UP government requesting the cadre controlling department to prepare a list of officers willing to serve in their parent cadre after consulting with officers. Besides, the officers of UP cadre have also been asked to send their willingness to the state directly.

“As Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath led BJP govern-ment is committed to take firm steps against corruption, the proposal to recall officers with clean record would be a major step in the direction to overhaul the ‘old’ system. The officers serving on deputation in the Centre and other states have been requested to send their consent to the DoPT at earli-est,” the sources said.

According to the sources, the officers, who were forced to leave the state during Akhilesh Yadav regime due to “politi-cal interference” are the first choice of the government. “As there is a new regime in UP, IAS

and IPS officers are also com-ing forward to contribute their role in the state’s development. There are several officers who had sought central deputation during Akhilesh Yadav regime due to some ‘obvious’ reasons,” the source said, adding that the only objective behind the move is make UP a crime free and corruption free state.

At present there are about 88 officers of UP cadre on cen-tral deputation. The Centre has requested to shift officers like OSD to Agriculture Minister Durga Shakti Nagpal, senior IAS Avnish Awasthi, who had also served as Gorakhpur DM, Mines Secretary Balvinder Kumar, etc to their parent cadre.

Recently, Adityanath had said that officials with clean and honest image would get key postings in the state. “All out steps will be taken to curb corruption for which working will be made transparent in all the state government depart-ments and schemes,” the Chief Minister had said.

Yogi’s first cabinet meet on April 4LUCKNOW: Over a fortnight after taking oath, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will hold his first cabinet meet-ing on April 4 where key issues in the BJP’s poll manifesto, especially farm loan waiver, are likely to be taken up.

“The cabinet meet-ing will be held in the evening on April 4,” state Health Minister Siddharth Nath Singh told reporters here.Speaking in Vara-nasi, state Agriculture Minister Surya Pratap Shahi said a proposal has been prepared for loan waiver of farmers and it will be presented before the cabinet at its first meeting. MPOST

SIMONTINI BHATTACHARJEE

NEW DELHI: In a twist in the tale on Sunday, the committee’s chairperson on ‘Enemy Prop-erty’ and BJP’s national secre-tary Bhupendra Singh Yadav said that Mohammad Ali Jin-nah’s house at ‘Malabar Hill’ in Mumbai cannot be ‘taken over’ by Pakistan.

According to the senior poli-tician ‘South Court’ is an Evac-uee property. ‘Evacuee means ‘a person who on account of the setting up of the Domin-ions of India and Pakistan or on account of civil disturbances or the fear of such disturbances, leaves or has, on or after the 1st day of March, 1947, left, any place in a State for any place out-side the territories now form-ing part of India, or who has, after the 18th day of October, 1949, transferred to Pakistan, without the previous approval of the Custodian, his assets or any part, of his assets situated

in any part of the territories to which this Act extends.”

‘Evacuee property’ means “any property of an evacuee, and includes any property which has been obtained by any per-son from an evacuee after the 14th day of August, 1947, by any mode of transfer which is not effective by reason of the provisions contained in Sec. 40.”

Whereas, the “Enemy Prop-erty” Act, 1968 defined an “enemy” as a country (and its citizens) that committed exter-nal aggression against India (i.e., Pakistan and China). However the latest Ordinance expands this definition to include: (i) legal heirs of enemies even if

they are citizens of India or of another country which is not an enemy, (ii) nationals of an enemy country who subse-quently changed their nation-ality to that of another country, etc.

The central government had also designated some properties belonging to nationals of Paki-stan and China as ‘enemy prop-erties’ during the 1962, 1965 and 1971 conflicts. On March 25, BJP MLA Prabhat Mangal Lodha resurrected the Jinnah debate in Maharashtra Assem-bly. He called for demolition of Jinnah House saying it “was the place from where the conspiracy of Partition was hatched.”

Centre grants VIP

security cover to OPS

11 bodies, 4 human skulls recovered

from Bhakra canal

NEW DELHI: Former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister O Pan-neerselvam has been accorded a VIP security cover by the Central government in view of potential threats to him.

Officials said the Union Home Ministry has sanctioned the lowest category of ‘Y’ secu-rity cover of central paramili-tary forces and has asked the CRPF to take charge of the security of the former CM.

They said a recent incident of hurling of stones on the vehi-cle of Panneerselvam, who has revolted against the leadership of ruling AIADMK, in the Theni district of the state and few other similar developments prompted a security audit by central intelligence and secu-rity agencies. MPOST

JIND (HR): Eleven “highly decomposed” bodies, including of a woman, and four human skulls were recovered on Sun-day from Bhakra canal here during its annual maintenance, police said.

The bodies were recov-ered near Narwana and Garhi areas of the canal, which enters Haryana from Punjab.

While eight bodies were recovered from Narwana, three bodies and four skulls were found from Garhi, police said.

“Eight bodies were recov-ered from the canal near Dhakal village in Narwana,” a police official of the Sadar Police Station, Narwana, said.

Police is contemplating going for DNA test for identi-fication of the bodies.

“The canal was shut down for annual maintenance and

the water level was down sub-stantially. We recovered eleven bodies from various locations inside the canal,” Jind’s Super-intendent of Police, Shashank Anand, said.

He said that one body has been identified and the deceased was from Patiala.The Punjab Police has been informed in this regard, he added.

A case has been registered under relevant provisions of the law, a Narwana police offi-cial said, adding possibilities of more bodies being found from the canal cannot be ruled out.

“We have kept the bodies for their identification in gov-ernment hospital at Narwana and are in touch with our coun-terparts in Punjab and Him-achal Pradesh,” the police official said. MPOST

BJP rubbishes Pak claim on Jinnah’s ‘South Court’

50 pc of police posts vacant in UP; national average at 24 pc

Constable killed, 15 security personnel injured in grenade attackSRINAGAR: A police constable was killed and 15 other security personnel were in-jured in a grenade at-tack by the militants in Nowhatta area of the city on Sunday.

Militants hurled the grenade on a police party next to Ganjbaksh Park in Nowhatta area at around 7.00 pm when they were withdraw-ing from there after day long law and order duty, a police official said. He said 16 security personnel were injured in the grenade blast. MPOST

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Vacancy in Uttar Pradesh Police stood at a whopping 50 per cent, more than double the national aver-age of 24 per cent.

The total sanctioned strength of police personnel in all states and Union Terri-tories is 22,80,691, of which 5,49,025 or 24.02 per cent is lying vacant, officials said.

In Uttar Pradesh, there are only 1.81 lakh police person-nel working against the sanc-tioned strength of 3.63 lakhs, to take care of the state’s 21 crore population.

The state, which has the

highest population and is termed as the “worst state” in India in terms of law and order by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), is facing a shortage of 1.81 lakh person-nel, they said.

In 2015, the state had regis-tered 1,239 cases per 1,00,000 population.

Uttar Pradesh was followed by Karnataka, where there is

a shortage 35 per cent of the total strength. The sanctioned strength for Karnataka is 1,10,210 personnel and it is fac-ing a shortage of 39,276 police personnel.

Following Karnataka is West Bengal, where around 33 per cent of the posts in civil and armed police forces is lying vacant. The sanctioned police strength for the state is 1,01,482, out of which 33,630 posts are lying vacant, they said.

Among the states and UTs, only Nagaland and Dadra and Nagar Haveli have more num-ber of policemen than the sanc-tioned strength.

Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections are likely to be held in late 2017

PM Narendra Modi visits Chenani-Nashri Tunnel in Chenani (J&K) on Sunday

UP CM Adityanath Yogi

7MILLENNIUM POST | Kolkata | Monday, 3 April, 2017

mp nation

Watering holes along highways not high but dry

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: Thousands of watering holes, iconic clubs and swanky pubs were left high and dry as authorities went full steam to enforce a Supreme Court order banning liquor sale along highways while states gauged revenue losses.

In Delhi, 100 restaurants, liquor vends and bars, including those in five star hotels, along the six national high-ways passing through the state stopped serving alcohol.

The state's excise department is plan-ning more action but is already flooded with representations from licence hold-ers, who claim their outlets do not fall within the 500 metres range laid down by the apex court.

In neighbouring Noida, the number of vends no longer serving drinks was 42 while out of total 292 bars in Guru-gram, the Supreme Court order would impact 106, officials said.

In Maharashtra, the liquor ban on highways has affected at least 1,000 star hotels, the Indian Hotel And Restaurant Association (AHAR) president Adarsh Shetty said.

These include the VIP Lounge in the city's domestic airport, he claimed.

Maharashtra government expects it would lose an annual Rs 7,000 crore, because of the ban. The state's Excise Minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule has said that alternative ways to increase the revenue would be explored.

The visitors to three Trivandrum Club, Trivandrum Tennis Club and

Sri Mulam Club in Thiruvanthapuram would miss their drinks as the bars in these places have been shut.

Overall in Kerala, one of the high-est liquor consuming states, 1,956 liquor bars and toddy shops have been affected.

These include outlets run by the Beverages Corporation and Consum-erfed, 11 bars in five star hotels, bars in 18 clubs, 586 beer wine parlours and 1,132 toddy shops which have been told to stop serving liquor.

Kerala is looking at revenue losses as well as the tourism industry being affected. State Excise Minister G Sud-hakaran however has made it clear that the apex court directions would be followed.

In Chennai, over 35 star category hotels serving liquor in and around the city and around 250 elsewhere in Tamil Nadu would be affected, it is estimated.

Business has taken a blow in Mahe enclave in Puducherry where liquor is cheaper than Kerala attracting tipplers from neighbouring districts. At least 32 shops come within the 500 meters range in in Mahe.

Puducherry PWD Minister A Namassivayam said that the overall revenue loss to the Union Territory is expected to be around Rs 60 crores.

In Karnataka, the state's Wine Merchants Association is consider-ing meeting Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah with a representation to denotify state highways.

"The Supreme Court order would impact about 60 to 70 per cent liquor licences issued in the state," the Asso-ciation's General Secretary Honnagiri Gowda said.

In Goa, some 30 per cent of liquor outlets have shut down following the Supreme Court order. Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar yesterday met rep-resentatives of liquor traders to look at their issues.

In West Bengal, the police and excise were keeping a vigil on both the national and state highways so that the order was strictly followed.

Not a single liquor outlet was open on Kona Expressway, Bombay Road. Some had even “Bar Closed” notices. Several bars in the districts of Howrah, Hooghly, South and North 24 Parganas, Burdwan were also shut.

In Rajasthan, out of the total 7760 liquor shops in the state, 2800 fell within the 500 meter radius from highways.

“Nearly 2800 shops in Rajasthan were affected due to the Supreme court order. Most of the shops were shifted elsewhere from their highway location and remaining few were closed because of non-availability of suitable location,” O P Yadav, the Excise Commissioner said.

Haryana government officials expect about 200 bars will be closed down in the wake of the order while the Punjab officials say they are work out the exact number. “Out of 478 bars in Haryana, 194 bars will be affected by the Supreme Court order,” a Haryana government official said.

NEW DELHI/BERNE: Step-ping up its hunt for black money stashed abroad, India has approached Switzerland for banking details of at least ten persons and entities sus-pected to have kept untaxed money in Swiss banks.

These include two listed textile companies, while oth-ers are associated with an art curator and his carpet export business.

Switzerland's tax depart-ment issued notices to them last week to reply within 30 days to appeal the decision about providing 'administra-tive assistance' in information requests from India.

Under its local rules, Switzerland provides a final chance to the concerned per-sons and entities before shar-ing the information about suspected cases of tax crimes with any foreign jurisdiction. These notices are made public through gazette notifications if they are not reachable directly by the concerned banks or the tax department.

At least ten such notices concerning individuals and companies with Indian links were issued last week -- which could be the highest for a country within a week.

The notices name two listed textile firms –Neo Corporation International and SEL Manu-facturing Company Ltd.

There are also some compa-nies incorporated in tax havens like Panama and British Virgin Islands. Most of the companies and individuals are associated with a carpet export business and an art curator with opera-tions across several countries.

These are Abdul Rashid Mir, Amir Mir, Sabeha Mir, Mujeeb Mir and Tabassum Mir. The companies named in these notices include Cot-tage Industries Exposition, Modale SA and Progress Ven-tures Group.

Some of these names had figured in the leaked Panama Papers too, but several of them including the two listed firms have denied any wrongdoing.

Earlier, the notices were issued by Switzerland's Federal Tax Administration (FTA) ask-ing some of them to designate a representative to exercise their "right to be heard" before the assistance is extended to India.

India has been seeking

"administrative assistance", including access to bank account details of the persons and the companies suspected to have stashed undisclosed funds in banks in Switzerland, after furnishing some evidence to justify the suspicion.

As per the local law, Swit-zerland gives an opportunity to the entity concerned to challenge the sharing of infor-mation, before providing the assistance to the requesting nation.

The Swiss notices mention the names of individuals, their nationality and dates of birth. In case of companies, their names and the countries of incorporation are mentioned.

India has shot off 'admin-istrative assistance' requests to Switzerland in several cases in recent months seeking details of Indians suspected to have misused Swiss banks' famed high-secrecy walls to evade taxes. AGENCIES

SC BAN ON LIQUOR SALE India steps up black money hunt, seeks

Swiss details of over 10

A liquor shop being shifted following Supreme Court directive in Mumbai on Sunday

OUR CORRESPONDENT

AMARAVATI: Chief Minis-ter N Chandrababu Naidu's son Nara Lokesh, four MLAs of the opposition YSRC who crossed over to the ruling TDP, and six others were on Sun-day inducted into the Andhra Pradesh Cabinet while five ministers were dropped.

The first major reorgan-isation of the state Council of Ministers since the forma-tion of TDP-BJP government on June 8, 2014, however, trig-gered discontent in the TDP.

One of the dropped min-isters, Bojjala Gopala Krishna Reddy, resigned from his Assembly membership. The veteran TDP leader from Chit-toor forwarded his resignation letter to Assembly Speaker Kodela Sivaprasada Rao this morning. A copy of the letter was also sent to the CM.

Chandrababu spoke to Boj-jala over phone and is said to have explained the reason for dropping him.

Governor E S L Narasim-han administered the oath of office and secrecy to the new ministers at a function near the state government's transitional headquarters at Velagapudi.

The AP Cabinet's strength has now increased to 26.

The Cabinet now has four members of the Legislative Council, including Lokesh who was elected to the state Legisla-tive Council under the MLAs' quota last month.

The four YSRC MLAs, who were sworn-in as minis-ters included R V Sujay Krishna Rao, Bhuma Akhila Priya, Ch Adinarayana Reddy, N Amar-natha Reddy.

Veteran TDP leader and party's state unit president K

Kala Venkata Rao was taken into the Cabinet while his sis-ter-in-law Kimidi Mrinalini was dropped.

The others from the TDP to get Cabinet berths included Pithani Satyanarayana, Nakka Ananda Babu, Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy, Kalva Srinivasulu and Kothapalli Samuel Jawahar.

Vijayawada Central MLA Bonda Umamaheswara Rao, who aspired to become a min-ister, announced that he would resign from his post but con-tinue in the party.

MPs Kesineni Srinivas and Konakalla Narayana tried to pacify Bonda but the latter remained firm on his decision.

Government whip Ch Prabhakar was also apparently upset that his rival Pithani Saty-anarayana, who joined the TDP on the eve of 2014 elections, was made a minister.

In Kadapa district, the home turf of YSRC chief Y S Jaganmohan Reddy, there was some resentment among those opposed to Adinara-yana Reddy, who has been made a minister.

Rama Subba Reddy, senior TDP leader from Jammala-madugu in Kadapa, strongly opposed the inclusion of Adi-narayana Reddy in the Cab-inet and threatened to quit the party.

POLICY FOR PROPERTY OWNERS NEW DELHI: Property owners will have to shell out more money in the form of new taxes to be levied by the government in the wake of state-sponsored infra-structure projects pushing up the prices of land and buildings in the vicinity. According to a proposed plan by the Ministry of Urban Development, public invest-ment in infrastructure projects like metro line, elevated road or Railway project push up the property prices in a particular area. On the other hand, the state government and urban local bodies reportedly face shortage of funds, leading to sluggish infrastructure development. To tide over this financial problem, the Ministry has formulated a fund raising scheme –Value Capturing Finance (VCF) to capture a part of the increment in value of property due to public investment in infrastructure projects, it said.

70 MILLION MORE PASSENGERS TRAVELLED IN TRAINS IN 2016-17 NEW DELHI: Railways has achieved positive growth for the 2016-17 fiscal with 70 million more pas-sengers travelling in trains than last year, breaking a five-year jinx of negative growth in the passenger sector. Since 2012, booking of passenger tickets had witnessed a decline due to various reasons. “However, with concerted efforts, we have managed to buck the trend since 2012 and achieved a positive growth for the year 2016-17,” Railway Board Member (Traffic) Mohd Jamshed said. Railways has initiated several initiatives in the 2016-17 fiscal to carry more pas-sengers by pressing 87 new train services including Humsafar Express, and Antodaya trains. Many train services were extended and frequencies of certain trains were also increased to cater to the demand of passengers.

BRIEFSNATION

NEW DELHI: The govern-ment has proposed a new set of rules for processing Right to Information applications, complaints and appeals and has sought suggestions from the public by April 15.

The proposed rules, aimed at replacing RTI rules of 2012, have been placed by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) on its web-site for comments from public.

"The time given is too less. There is no official press release in this regard as well.

How will people know that something like is placed on website for them to give opin-ion," RTI activist Commodore (Retd) Lokesh Batra said.

A major proposal now allows the Central Informa-tion Commission (CIC) to convert a complaint into sec-ond appeal which would mean it can order the disclosure of information to an applicant who has come under com-plaint clause of the RTI Act which was not the case earlier.

"The Commission may in

its discretion allow a prayer for any amendment of a com-plaint during the course of its hearing, including conversion of the complaint into second appeal, if available remedies have been exhausted, on a prayer made by the complain-ant," the draft rules state.

The Supreme Court had held in one of its orders that Section 18 of the RTI Act provides for complaint while Section 19 of the RTI Act provides mechanism of second appeal. MPOST

MPOST BUREAU

NEW DELHI: RTI applica-tions seeking pension details should be replied to within 48 hours as it pertains to the "life and liberty" of the elderly, the Central Information Com-mission has held as it pitched for early redressal of such grievances.

The Commission also directed that if an RTI appli-cation is a genuine grievance of a pensioner, steps should be initiated within 48 hours to redress it.

The directive of Informa-tion Commissioner Sridhar Acharyulu will come to the aid of over 58 lakh central govern-ment pensioners.

Acharyulu in a recent order held that the information per-

taining to pension of a person pertains to his/her life and lib-erty which is mandated to be replied to within 48 hours as per the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

He said the moment an RTI application on pension issue is received, there should be a mechanism at the entry stage to discover and identify if it reflects a pension related grievance.

He said it should be brought to the notice of the responsi-ble officer by the CPIO on the same day and if it is a genuine case, the grievance should be addressed. The result should be communicated within 48 hours, followed by redressal within 30 days.

Acharyulu said consider-ing the "living needs" of elderly

pensioners, it is important that records of their dues should be considered as "life and liberty" related information under the RTI Act.

"The moment RTI appli-cation on pension issue is received, there should be a mechanism at the entry stage to discover and identify if it reflects a pension related grievance/issue and should be acted upon immediately," Acharyulu said in his directives to Employees' Provident Fund Office, Raipur.

He said all the cases relat-ing to delay in fixation and payment of pension and also arrears shall be dealt with urgently, considering them as request for information con-cerning the life or liberty under section 7(1) of RTI Act.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday said the country is united against any kind of violence and Mus-lims have realised that terror-ism is an attempt to defame Islam. "The whole country is united against terrorism. The Muslims have realised that ter-rorism is an attempt to defame Islam," he told reporters here when asked about the violence perpetrated by militants in Jammu and Kashmir.

He said the security forces were giving befitting reply to militants who are creating trou-ble in Kashmir Valley.

The Home Minister had on Friday said that Pakistan was using the social media to incite youths in Kashmir to storm encounter sites and help holed-up militants. The strife-torn region had seen a "new trend" of late in which youths from nearby villages gather at the sites of encounter between security forces and terrorists and pelt stones to help the mili-tants escape, he had said.

The Home Minister and Defence and Finance Minis-ter Arun Jaitley had also held a high-level meeting on Friday to review security situation in

Jammu and Kashmir.Director General of Jammu

and Kashmir Police S P Vaid had said on Thursday that youths who storm the encoun-ter sites in the Valley to hurl stones at security personnel are committing suicide.

Last month, Army Chief General Bipin Rawat had said that local Kashmiri people creating hurdles by throwing stones at the security personnel during anti-terror operations will be dealt as anti-nationals and will face "harsh" actions.

Muslims realising terrorrism is attempt to defame Islam: Rajnath

Andhra Cabinet: Naidu inducts son, 4 YSRC MLAs

who switched sides

RTI pleas on pension issues should be decided in 48 hrs: CIC

NEW DELHI: Banda in Uttar Pradesh was the hottest place in the country on Sunday, record-ing a maximum of 44.8 degrees Celsius, while many other cit-ies too registered 40-plus tem-peratures as the heat wave onslaught continued in several parts of the country.

The minimum tempera-ture in national capital Delhi settled at 23.9 degrees Celsius, making it the hottest morning

of the season. The maximum temperature was recorded at 38 degrees Celsius. However relief seemed to be in the offing for Delhiites as the weatherman has predicted a dip in tempera-tures after April 4.

Chandrapur in Maharash-tra recorded a maximum of 43.8 degrees Celsius and was the second hottest place in India while Bankura in West Bengal was the third hottest

with 43.4 degrees Celsius, according to India Meteorolog-ical Department (IMD) data.

In Rajasthan, blistering heat continued to affect normal life in parts of the state as the mer-cury soared to 42.4 degrees Celsius in Barmer followed by 42.3 degrees in Jaisalmer.

Churu and Bikaner recorded maximum of 41.5 and 41.4 degrees respectively while Kota, Jodhpur, Sriganga-

nagar and Pilani recorded day temperature of 40.9, 40.8, 40.7 and 40.3 degrees respectively, according to the Met depart-ment. Maximum temperature in Jaipur and Ajmer was 39.8 degrees. In Uttar Pradesh, apart from Banda, high temperatures were experienced in cities like Gorakhpur, Faizabad, Varanasi, Allahabad, Lucknow, Mora-dabad, Jhansi, Agra, Meerut, Kanpur and Bareilly. AGENCIES

MPOST BUREAU

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has dismissed a plea seeking to restrict lawmak-ers from practising any other profession, saying though the petitioner has a valid point the issue is beyond the realm of its jurisdiction.

"The prayers made in this petition do not fall within the realm of our jurisdiction under Article 32 of the Constitution of India. The writ petition is accordingly dismissed," a bench of Chief Justice J S Khe-har and Justice D Y Chandra-chud said. The bench observed that the petitioner in the matter has been affiliated to a political party and though he has a valid point, the court cannot frame policies in this regard.

"There are doctors who became IAS officers and engi-neers who are diplomats," the court told the petitioner, add-ing, "You also have a political affiliation."

The petitioner, advocate and BJP spokesperson Ash-wini Kumar Upadhyay, told the bench that the restriction

imposed on judges and public servants against engaging in other professions should also be applied to the lawmakers.

"Today, I saw five MPs in the Supreme Court. They have come here after signing a reg-ister at 11 AM in Parliament," he told the court.

To this, the bench said, "Your arguments make sense, but how can we frame policies?"

The petitioner had sought framing of a uniform policy to restrict the lawmakers from practising any other profession.

He had said in his plea that members of Parliament "must attend Parliament everyday and dedicate themselves full-time for the welfare of people" as they have a very important role in the federal system.

SC rejects plea to stop MPs from practising

other professions

UP’s Banda hottest place at 44.8 deg C

Govt proposes new RTI draft rules, seeks public opinion

NEW DELHI: The Election Commission on Sunday told the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to approach the Punjab and Haryana High Court if it wants verification of votes cast in the Punjab assembly polls with voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT). In a letter to the AAP, the EC wrote: “As regards your demand for verification of votes cast in EVMs in Pun-jab state legislative assembly with paper trail data of VVPAT, your attention is invited to Rule 93 of the Conduct of Elections Rules 1961.”

According to the law, the control units “sealed under the provisions of rule 57C and kept in the custody of the District Election Officer shall not be opened and shall not be inspected by, or produced before, any person or author-ity except under the orders of a competent court”.

“Hence, you are informed that after declaration of result only alternative available to verify the data of votes cast is to file an election petition before the competent court, that is, high court concerned,” the EC said. AGENCIES

EC asks AAP to approach HC for vote verification

Former Supreme Court judge Justice KT Thomas presents a memento to Home Minister Rajnath Singh at the 90th birthday celebrations of iconic Hindutva renaissance ideologue P Parameswaran, in Kochi

Nara Lokesh

mp editorial

When the World Trade Organization (WTO) Director-General Roberto Azevedo came

calling in early February, he was flooded with representations from a host of farmers’ organisations with a list of pressing demands. They wanted a permanent solution to the issue of public stockholding of grains to ensure food security and also sought a focus on special safeguard mechanism (SSM) which protects developing countries from unexpected surges in imports of farm products. But poor farmers from India and the developing world found the dice loaded against them—as usual. Azevedo made it clear that these issues needed to be reformulated before they came up for discussion at the next ministerial meeting of the WTO in December in Buenos Aires.

Even before the WTO boss landed in New Delhi, it was apparent that he would talk about the agenda he had come with—e-commerce, the Trade Facilitation Agreement and not the highly contentious issues on agricul-ture that have split the WTO.

Just days earlier in Geneva, a news report had quoted India’s ambassador to the WTO Anjali Prasad as being highly critical of Azevedo’s assessment of the critical issues before WTO at a closed-door meeting of trade envoys. According to Azevedo, who is also the chair of the trade negotiations com-mittee, a permanent solution for pub-lic stockholding issue and SSM had been discussed in the run-up to the last ministerial meeting in Nairobi in 2015. He claimed there had been wide divergences. Instead, he spoke of the interest of developed countries such as Japan to ensure that developing coun-tries did not place barriers on exports of farm products.

Trade analysts here believe that the highlighting of e-commerce was tak-ing centre stage because rich nations wanted to divert attention from the

long-pending developmental issues of the Doha Round of negotiations. This conflict of interests although not new by any reckoning, is guaranteed to result in yet another fractious meet-ing in Argentina this December with the G33 group of developing countries pitted against the rich club yet again.

What has annoyed India is Azeve-do’s purported statement to the closed-door meeting of trade ambassadors that it would be difficult to find a defin-itive solution to the question unless the G33 proposal is revised altogether. As of now, under a “peace clause” India is permitted to continue its purchases of grains for public distribution without attracting penalties till a permanent solution is found. But India’s propos-als for a permanent solution are not acceptable to developed countries.

In a detailed letter to the WTO chief, major farmers’ representatives reminded Azevedo and Organisa-tion for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) or the club of rich nations that Indian farmers receive nominal support through the administered price—a price that barely covered the cost of production. On the other hand, trade-distorting sub-sidies came from developed nations, especially the US which “gives out 44 per cent of its value of production as applied domestic support”. As for SSM, there has been no movement although import surges could “wipe out the live-lihoods of millions of farmers in India in one go”.

Given the repeated failure of WTO to address such concerns should agri-culture be taken out of the trade body?

That is what farmers are asking. Why has the WTO still not delivered on farm issues under its development mandate? When it has done nothing for farmers in developing and least developing countries why is WTO unleashing new issues like investment which will threaten access to land, water and undermine their existence further? There is also alarm over moves to discipline fisheries subsidies without applying the principle of special and differential treatment.

The farmers’ appeal says they will not support any move to eliminate the subsidies that the fishing and farm sec-tors receive. But will New Delhi remain as resolute? DOWN TO EARTH

(The writer is Senior Editor, Down To Earth. Views

expressed are strictly personal.)

8MILLENNIUM POST | Kolkata | Monday, 3 April, 2017

Over the past two years, Prime Min-ister Narendra Modi has sought

a new and more action-ori-ented policy towards the Asso-ciation of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) in particu-lar, and East Asia in general. Despite his attempts across international forums, results have not been forthcoming. There is a growing feeling in the corridors of diplomacy that in order to emerge as a big player in the Asian region, India must expedite its efforts to increase trade with the rest of Asia, especially with South East Asian countries.

Much of India’s economic health is driven by domestic production and consump-tion, instead of extensive trade. China, on the other hand, trades very heavily with the rest of Asia. Modi’s ‘Look East’ policy, therefore, needs to be implemented through vigorous trade and exchange in newer and strategically important areas. Prime Min-ister Modi has reaffirmed his commitment to this policy from time to time by express-ing India’s intentions to build links with countries in the region. But there are no visi-ble signs that India has created a benign presence in the whole of South East Asia.

Towards building a stron-ger economic and political presence in ASEAN nations, India should seek active sup-port of Singapore which has shown its keenness on facili-tating such a move. Singapore has always been supportive of India’s quest to become an influential player in the inter-national community. It is evi-dent from the fact that India’s candidature for the United Nations Security Council has always found favour from Sin-gaporean leaders in the recent past. Singapore and India can make great partners as each is the answer to other’s vital economic and political needs.

As a result of India’s decade-old active relation-ship with Singapore, espe-cially after the period of ‘India fever’, Indian companies now form the single largest busi-ness community in the island nation. Singaporean compa-nies have also recognised the opportunities in India and are participating very actively in the areas of manufacturing, urban solutions, and consum-erism. India has as much, if not more, to gain from this relationship. Singapore’s com-petence in management know-how, its experience in public housing, urban development, mass rapid transit, and airport management has proved ben-eficial to us.

Modi must leave no stone unturned to exploit Singapore’s strategic position on East-West route in the mutual interest of both the countries. About 80 per cent of the world’s mari-time trade between east and west passes through the Straits of Malacca. This is the main shipping channel between Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean. Major Asian econo-mies are linked to this route. Singapore is on the southern

tip of the South China Sea that sees an annual trade traf-fic of US $5 trillion. The island nation is the regional oil hub that handles more than 600 billion USD tankers traffic. India must realise before it is too late that China’s aggressive investments in ports and rail links in Malaysia will change economic dynamics for Sin-gapore in coming years and therefore, it becomes more compelling for us to take the steps required to strengthen the relations between the two countries.

The belt road projects in Malaysia are part of China’s design to expand the exports of its over-capacity in the name of helping the less devel-oped nations to build their infrastructure. Singapore has excellent connectivity to 600 ports. But it will not be easy for the island republic to maintain its tag of world’s busiest trans-shipment hub if business shifts to Malaysian ports. China, being currently the biggest trading partner of Singapore, knows how to twist arms and global economic slowdown is also waiting in the wings to play its negative role.

If India does not play its constructive role in the region at a time when Singaporeans are living with a growing feel-ing about China’s deliberate move to isolate their country, we will be failing in our pri-mary responsibility in promot-ing an atmosphere that creates a level playing field. How can the tricks to punishing any country for expressing its opinions on the issues related to the South China Sea or ‘one-China’ policy be ignored by the world community as well as the major economies like India?

Let no one miss the fact that in the current scenario, Singapore has the advantage of being a global financial centre, has the vast experience in pro-viding a whole range of mari-time services and has become the choice for world’s big cor-porations. Therefore, it would be underestimating the coun-try if one thinks that replac-ing Singapore would be easy. This is the time when Singa-pore must focus on trading with countries with which it enjoys sound frequencies.

India must reinforce its whole-hearted support to

Singapore in facing the new challenges. Singapore has one of the best financial sys-tems in the world. The coun-try has bought many ports in the world. All this makes Singapore resilient. Singapor-eans expect India to pay more attention to the region. Singa-pore has been an important facilitator in India’s growing engagement in Southeast Asia. Singaporeans see India as a power big enough to help bal-ance China’s influence. Even if there was no presence of 10 per cent of the ethnic Indians in the population of the city-state, India has a historical responsibility to support Sin-gapore. There are territories in Malaysia also that have more than 15 per cent of the Indian population. Ignoring India’s national interests in the region, therefore, can boomerang on Indian interests after a decade.

I recall Prime Minis-ter Modi saying during the ASEAN summit held in November 2015 that most of the ASEAN economies have done their bit for Asia’s resur-gence and now it is India’s turn. Modi had assured, “We know our time has come”. Then he gave assurance in September 2016 that he ded-icates himself for the “shared values and common destiny” of the ASEAN nations. He then said, “We have begun institutional and structured reforms in agriculture, hous-ing, transport, financial inclu-sion and investments….We have launched a ‘Housing for All’ program, which involves 20 million urban houses and 30 million rural houses…. Our aim is not merely to reform, but to transform.” Prime Min-ister Modi should not delay what he had vouched for to ASEAN and take appropriate steps to thicken India’s ties in the region.

(The writer is Editor and CEO of News Views

India. Views expressed are strictly personal.)

ASEAN reminder for IndiaEDITORIAL

No visible signs that India has created a benign presence in South East Asia

Modi must exploit Singapore’s strategic position in the mutual interest of both the countries. About 80 per cent of the world’s maritime trade between east and west passes through the Straits of Malacca. This is the main shipping channel between Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean, linking major Asian economies

Even before the WTO boss landed in New Delhi, it was apparent that he would talk about the agenda he had come with— e-commerce, the Trade Facilitation Agreement and not the highly contentious issues on agriculture that have split the WTO

Governments seem unable to deal with the agrar-ian crisis afflicting vast swathes of the country. On Saturday, the Centre approved nearly Rs 3000 crore from the National Disaster Relief Fund for drought

relief, among other related concerns, in Tamil Nadu and Kar-nataka. This development follows a 20-day protest by farm-ers from Tamil Nadu in the national capital, where among other acts, they held the skulls of farmers who had commit-ted suicide in their region to communicate the desperate state of affairs in their area. The protesters demanded a farm loan waiver, saying they are not in a situation to repay their debts because of severe droughts. Earlier this year, the Tamil Nadu government declared all 32 districts in the state as drought-affected, besides seeking a sum of nearly Rs 40,000 crore from the Centre to alleviate farm distress. Karnataka, meanwhile, is facing a second consecutive drought year. With farm income dwindling, and the debt trap making lives of farmers very dif-ficult, governments are once again coming under pressure to waive loans. Prime Minister Narendra Modi once spoke of wanting to double farm income 2022 by transforming Indian agriculture. Despite some steps taken to this effect, the domi-nant political discourse continues to revolve around farm loan waivers—a favourite tool used by political parties when con-testing elections. It was the promise of a massive farm bailout programme for the agricultural sector in late 2008, which pro-pelled the previous United Progressive Alliance government to a second term the following year. Reports indicate that nearly 3.7 crore farmers had benefited from loan waivers of above Rs 52,000 crore. More recently, both the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh respectively, won elections in 2014 on the promise that the loans of farmers would be waived off. With a significant section of the voter base engaged in farm-related activities, it makes sense for political parties to promise loan waive offs during the election cycle. Before the recently concluded Uttar Pradesh elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party promised that if voted into power, it would write off loans of small and marginal farmers. As per recent figures published by the State Bank of India, the entire exercise is likely to cost Rs 27,400 crore or 8% of UP’s total revenue. Newly minted Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has also sought central assistance for farm loan waivers, while Shiv Sena in Maharashtra is pressurising its ally in government, the BJP, to work towards the same. Several other states had also come forward with similar requests. Will the government accede to their demands too?

Economists and experts on agriculture, however, have spo-ken out against this practice. Fiscal conservatives believe that farm waivers have a deleterious effect on the budgets of both the Union and State governments, and increase inflation. Dur-ing his tenure as Reserve Bank of India Governor, Raghuram Rajan argued that debt waiver schemes are ineffective and limit the flow of credit to farmers after their loans are waived off. Last month State Bank of India Chief, Arundhati Bhattacharya, received a lot of flak for saying, “credit discipline breaks when you waive off farm loans”. At a time when public sector banks have written off massive loans for big businesses, it may have seemed like an insensitive statement. But scratch beneath the surface a little further, and Bhattacharya makes a valid point. A 2014 World Bank study on the UPA government’s 2008 farm loan waiver presented some worrying insights. “We find that the stimulus program had no effect on productivity, wages or consumption, but led to significant changes in credit alloca-tion and an increase in defaults. Post-program loan perfor-mance declines faster in districts with greater exposure to the program, an effect that is not driven by greater risk-taking of banks. Loan defaults become significantly more sensitive to the electoral cycle after the program, suggesting the anticipation of future credit market interventions as an important channel through which moral hazard in loan repayment is intensified,” the study said. Moreover, none of these schemes plays a role in improving the lives of landless farmers, who have little or no access to bank loans, and other small farmers stuck under the thumb of local moneylenders. In fact, according to a 2013 report by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India on the UPA’s 2008 farm loan waiver scheme, small farmers deserving of much-needed assistance were left out, while ineligible big farmers pocketed undue monetary gains. Of course, no story about this scheme is complete without the harmful impact it had on banks regarding their nonperforming assets. More than half of India’s 90 million households engaged in agriculture are in debt, and they need the government’s support. But the evi-dence seems to suggest that when a government spends vast sums on loan waivers, it reduces the scope for necessary pub-lic expenditure in agriculture. The concerns of the agriculture sector in India are structural in nature. What it needs is seri-ous reforms, including making land leasing easier and legal, better access to markets for farmers, and massive investment in areas such as irrigation, superior storage facilities, water saving practices, and in-depth research into better agricultural practices to reduce dependence on the monsoon. Do farm loan waivers address these concerns? Do they resolve any of the above concerns? The answer is no. What is needed from governments is greater political will to implement all these reforms and measures. What farmers need is better remunera-tion for their crops, particularly in a time when land holdings are growing smaller, the quality is soil is deteriorating, and input costs are rising. A one-time loan waiver will not resolve any of these concerns.

Loan waivers in Indian farm sector

Tampering results?

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EDITOR

There is a dire need to check environmental degradation at a time like now and restore it. That the National Green Tribunal has directed the Delhi government to allow registration of eight new diesel vehicles conforming to BS-IV norms to be used for waste disposal, is more that a relief to North Delhi Municipal Corporation. With its check on the Vehicular movement, it also takes a necessary step for the very crucial matter of waste disposal. We can only hope that this leads to some improvement in situation.

LATHA JISHNU

PANKAJ SHARMA

I will be ruthless in cutting out waste, streamlining structures and improving efficiency

Quote martial

THERESA MAY

As India seeks a lasting solution to the public stockholding issue. It is clear the agenda of wealthy nations will prevail

Poor farmers cannot move WTO

Electronic voting machines (EVMs) are once again in the news. On Saturday, the Election Commission of India deputed senior officials to supervise the by-polls to Assembly seats in Madhya Pradesh on April

9 following reports of EVM tampering. The latest controversy stems from a video, which apparently showed that a Voter Veri-fiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machine used during a trial in Madhya Pradesh only issued slips with the Bhartiya Janata Party’s election symbol. One school of thought believes that political parties raising a hue and cry about electoral tamper-ing are behaving like sore losers, considering the BJP’s massive success in recent polls. While it’s perfectly right to be on guard concerning EVMs and their security, it is unfortunate that such allegations were not made when opposition non-BJP parties won elections in other states. If there’s one thing India can be immensely proud of, it’s the conduct of regular elections that are widely free and fair. The ECI had earlier roundly debunked all allegations of tampering. It presented a detailed explanation about the steps taken to prevent such a thing from happening. As one of the most reliable institutions in this country, one is inclined to take the ECI at its word. However, no EVM can be assumed to be invulnerable to a determined attacker. In a bid to quell all doubts, experts have called for an early rollout of VVPAT machines in all polling stations across the coun-try. Many constitutional experts have argued for a paper trail accompanying the electronic voting process, which confirms that the votes have been cast correctly. But the recent contro-versy raises further uncomfortable questions of the poll pro-cess. The ECI has sought a detailed report from its official on the ground. If these allegations are indeed proven to be true, it should work towards fixing them.

Container port in Singapore (Representational Image)

WTO Director-General Roberto Azevedo

PRANJAL UPADHYAY Via email

The recent attacks on African students in Greater Noida in Uttar Pradesh,

a township near New Delhi, has once again highlighted the continued presence of insen-sate prejudice and brutal vio-lence in public life.

With its well-kept and well-lit roads, bustling malls and shopping arcades and rows of high-rise residential com-plexes, Greater Noida -- like Gurugram in Haryana -- is typ-ical of a booming India whose affluent citizenry have been compared by Nobel laureate Amartya Sen with the denizens of California.

But in the midst of the razzmatazz lurk ill-bred and barely-educated louts ready to vent their spleen on anyone who either rouses their antip-athy, like Africans or people from India’s northeast with their Mongoloid features, or looks to the ruffians like an easy prey like a woman walk-ing alone.

There have been far too many incidents of mob vio-lence in recent months to be brushed aside as the occasional rampages of hooligans which can be controlled by stricter policing. Evidently, a profound personal and societal flaw are at work.

The sprawling metropolises where these acts of depreda-tions take place are too large for the victims to feel safe. Hence, the advice to African students by an association of students from the continent to stay indoors for some time.

But such a precautionary measure is hardly feasible in the long run considering that there are an estimated 1,500 African students in India. They need, therefore, to go to their academic institutions apart from partaking in other activities.

However, they do not feel

safe not only while going about their daily business but also where they stay since the land-lords are usually wary and dis-dainful of their presence.

The incident in October 2015, when a Delhi govern-ment minister urged the police in Delhi’s Khirki area to raid a flat without a warrant to check whether the Africans living there were taking drugs was an example of how biases and preconceived notions drive a section of Indians.

In Greater Noida, for instance, the suspicion that a 16-year-old boy died of an overdose of drugs given to him by his Nigerian friends led to the latter being beaten up by a gang of thugs.

Not only that, the rowdies even invaded the flat where the Nigerians stayed to check whether they had kept human flesh in their refrigerator. Sub-sequently, a Nigerian told a TV interviewer about the belief among some Indians that the Africans are cannibals.

If Greater Noida saw the latest incident of violence

against Africans, Bengaluru, the vaunted Silicon Valley of India, was an earlier scene of unchecked mob rule when a 21-year-old Tanzanian woman was assaulted and stripped when she inadvertently came to an accident site where a Sudanese man in a car had run over a local woman.

Although the authorities routinely deny any racist senti-ments behind the attacks, there is little doubt that the known dislike for dark skin among Indians -- which explains the preference for fair brides in matrimonial columns and the marketing of fairness creams -- combined with weird notions about the citizens of the 5-nation continent, viz the use of drugs and promiscuity, are among the reasons for the attacks.

The fact that the whites are very rarely targeted in a similar fashion although the women may be subjected to indecent attention is evidence of the racist factor involving the Africans.

It might have been expected

that at least cities like Delhi and Bengaluru with their greater exposure to foreign travel-lers and their varied lifestyles would not display the kind of primitive insularity which can manifest itself with sudden vio-lence at short notice.

But the recurring singling out of Africans and people from the northeast by anti-social elements has underlined the need for combating this menace at both the adminis-trative and social levels if the country’s reputation is to be saved and incidents such as the exodus of the north-easterners from Bengaluru in 2012 are to be avoided.

Even if racist attacks on Indians are being reported from America and Australia because of the rise of the far-right xenophobic sentiments, they are still mercifully on a relatively smaller scale and at an individual level.

However, the motivation is mostly similar -- animus towards the people of a differ-ent colour and culture.

It also appears possible

that in India, people, in gen-eral, have become a great deal more aggressive than before. The attacks on the doctors in Maharashtra, which led to a strike by them, were an omi-nous sign of the volatility prev-alent in public life.

The burning of as many as 40 buses in Bengaluru with Tamil Nadu number plates during the Cauvery river water dispute between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka last year is another example of how cit-ies in India are seemingly sit-ting on a powder keg which can explode at any time.

In most of these cases, the official response has been belated. Although the police cannot be present everywhere, they should be more visible in the areas where the Africans live and study to foster a sense of security.

The media also has to play a greater role in dispelling myths and false notions about Africa. IANS

(Amulya Ganguli is a political analyst. The views

expressed are strictly personal.)

9mp in focusMILLENNIUM POST | Kolkata | Monday, 3 April, 2017

There is no connect between the state of readiness in the country for the government to resort to such steps, including insistence on digitalisation, affecting daily lives of citizens, in a peremptory fashion. The rights of people, even loyal assessees and honest citizens are being trampled upon in different ways

The recurring singling out of Africans and people from the northeast by anti-social elements has underlined the need for combating this menace at both administrative and social levels if the country’s reputation is to be saved

Critical choices before 2019Bharatiya Janata Party expects renewal of national mandate in 2019 to lay

firmer foundations for the “New India” that Prime Minister desires

Tarnishing India’s image

S. SETHURAMAN

AMULYA GANGULI

India has entered a penultimate fiscal year on April 1, 2017, which may largely determine the shape of things to come in 2019, as the triumphant Modi Gov-

ernment steps up its relentless majoritarian drives in every sphere. Meanwhile, the coun-try lacks an effective and credible opposition to assert civil rights and safeguard constitu-tional values, wherever necessary.

A weak and divided opposition in the Rajya Sabha, led by Congress with powerful voices, and though commanding majority, has had little impact on arresting authoritar-ian moves of Government, as was seen with the Finance Bill finally passed in Lok Sabha, ignoring key amendments unrelated to tax policies made in Rajya Sabha. This brings into question Parliamentary supremacy.

This is the year the Modi Government is going all out to flaunt its achievements of three years so far, which besides some com-mendable measures taken, could also misrep-resent facts and perhaps also the moods and urges of the broad mass of the people await-ing the promised “Achhe Din”. Towering all is the personality of Narendra Modi and his skilful presentations - which can make fail-ures look symbols of success, all “pro-poor”, as he made it for the disastrous demoneti-sation – have had a magical effect on broad sections of the electorate.

The UP vote is assumed to be a total endorsement of this well-intentioned but badly managed “historic” step, to the det-riment of millions of ordinary people and trades and services. Emboldened, the way is now clear for this Government to do any-thing, even if disruptive and could cause inconvenience or sufferings to large sec-tions of people.

Take the case of Aadhaar where it is pre-pared to flout the Supreme Court’s directions. And a full bench of the apex court would later in the year pronounce on its implications for the privacy of an individual. The Court has no doubt given certain exceptions such as for income tax filing and bank accounts. The BJP Government has been on an over-reach to make as many services or welfare programmes Aadhaar-compulsory. That it is no guarantee of privacy has also been shown up, to the chagrin of Government in some cases recently.

The Aadhaar, which BJP had earlier scorned when out of power, has now secured a grudging acknowledgement from Finance Minister Arun Jaitley of this UPA measure. He now sees its revolutionary significance to be extended to every service and human activity, in effect being entirely controlled.

For instance, banks have taken the cue and try to disable any customer from withdraw-ing even small amounts from his own depos-its for emergent needs including medical

expenses unless one produces the Aadhaar, ignoring PAN card and other identifications. It may be understandable for opening a new account or for significant transactions. A mindless government is seeking to enforce it for most welfare schemes including PDS, midday meals, itinerant labour, rail travel, and so on. This is flouting the Supreme Court directions. Considerable numbers of people have yet to get enrolled or others awaiting the numbers which take a few weeks to receive.

There is no connect between the state of readiness in the country for the government to resort to such steps, including insistence on digitalisation, affecting daily lives of citizens, in a peremptory fashion. The rights of peo-ple, even loyal assessees and honest citizens are being trampled upon in different ways, as seen in the miscellaneous non-financial pro-visions included for passage of the Finance Bill as “Money Bill” by the Lok Sabha. Tax authorities have been given the widest pow-ers ever because in this Government’s view

no citizen of the country is untainted until he proves himself!

More confidently now, building on the Modi/Yogi miracle in UP, BJP expects a renewal of national mandate in 2019 to lay firmer foundations for the “New India” the Prime Minister desires, in which the Hin-dutva-cum-Development model would be promoted. UP Chief Minister Yogi Aditya-nath has already been assigned to make this experiment successful so as to be replicable for other states. That would bring substance to the “One Nation” theory.

The signs are unmistakable from the way the Modi Government has been permissive, besides its earlier efforts at saffronisation of educational and cultural institutions, of the ruthless ways in which Hindutva groups and outfits have taken to moral policing and seeking to enforce conformity, over parts of the country. Liberal voices are sought to be silenced by being branded “anti-national”.

With the largest state of UP now under

BJP hegemony, coupled with the deliberate choice of the young firebrand Yogi Adity-anath to head the government, the stage looks set for that “New India”. All this fits in with the BJP/RSS ideal of a unified nation, not merely concerning GST, but politically leaning toward the cherished goal of Hindu Rashtra.

Prime Minister Modi is so self-assured that he has broken through the barriers of castes and religions such that even Muslims perhaps would be willing to recognise and support his “Development” model of gover-nance, come 1919. This is a signal BJP seems to have read in UP verdict when the party had not given a ticket to any Muslim candidate. After UP, the Modi juggernaut is ready to roll into other poll-bound states, not merely BJP-ruled Gujarat and Rajasthan but also Karna-taka, the only major state left with Congress as well as into BJD-ruled Odisha.

Still, to overcome fatigue after its 2014 humiliation with 44 seats in Lok Sabha, the

party that led the nation to freedom is yet to bestir itself on a national scale to fight for the India as envisaged in the Constitu-tion. The national party has the last chance to galvanise itself countrywide and build a platform of like-minded parties, especially regional majors, with a common agenda of inclusive social and economic development and growth and job priorities. This it must in the run-up to 2019 Lok Sabha poll, oth-erwise it could well fade into history. A truly democratic India needs an effective opposi-tion besides a robust and stable government.

On the economic front, no matter the gloating over the passage of GST bill, it will not be smooth sailing for the Modi Govern-ment in fiscal 2018 either, mainly because of possible monsoon failure and global head-winds from uneven growth in developed nations, Fed rate hikes, and protectionist threats by the Trump Administration. IPA

(The views expressed are strictly personal.)

The fact that the whites are very rarely targeted in a similar fashion speaks of the racist factor involving the Africans

ECI/SC must have a comprehensive look at the EVM tampering issue. Its not just the hardware, but the software too can b tampered. #MPEVMFarud

DILIP K. PANDEY@dilipkpandey

The Chenani-Nashri tunnel is what #NewInfra4NewIndia looks like. World class in building, technology, safety, ease and indeed even in looks.

JAYANT SINHA@jayantsinha

tweetRETWEET

165 days after his ac-cident, @abhishekaitc makes sizzling come-back speech, huge crowd. Happy to be here. Praise God

DEREK O'BRIEN@quizderek

Story of India: We're always working around dumb shit whether laws, regulations, bu-reaucracy etc and the system is never fixed.

IMPERATRIX MAXIMA@rupasubramanya

Indian police and onlookers surround African nationals at a shopping mall in Greater Noida (Representational Image)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi

mp world10MILLENNIUM POST | Kolkata | Monday, 3 April, 2017

BRIEFSWORLD10 MILITANTS DIE IN AFGHANISTAN ATTACKKABUL: At least 10 militants were killed overnight when Afghan security forces repelled an attack by Taliban in northern Takhar province, police said on Sunday. “Dozens of militants stormed Darqad dis-trict centre at mid-night (on Saturday),” Tolo News quoted a military official as saying. He said three policemen and nine militants were injured in the attack in the district bordering Tajikistan. Several security towers around the district office building were damaged following the clashes in the prov-ince, 245 km from here.

NINE KILLED IN HOUSE EXPLOSION IN CHINABEIJING: At least nine persons were killed and six others injured in an explosion at a house in northern China’s Shanxi Province. The blast occurred on Satur-day at the house on Nanhuan West Road in Fushan County in the city of Linfen. Ten people were buried in the blast. The illegal storage of explosives was believed to be the cause of the blast. Nine bodies have been found and one person has been rescued, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. Six people who were at the site have sustained minor injuries. The cause of the blast is yet to be ascertained, the report said.

OUSTED S KOREAN PRESIDENT TO BE INTERROGATED IN JAILSEOUL: South Korean prosecutors will interrogate ousted President Park Geun-hye who is now in preventive detention over her alleged involvement in a corruption scandal, officials said on Sunday. A spokesperson of the Attorney General’s Office told Yonhap News Agency that Park, 65, will be questioned on Tuesday in the detention facility in southern Seoul. The spokesperson also said that she will be questioned in prison only to avoid her going to the Seoul centre. The Attorney General’s office has set April 19 as the deadline to press charges for her trial, although it aims at doing so by mid-April to prevent a clash with the April 17 start of an official campaign for the presidential elections. On Friday, a Seoul Central District court judge ruled in favour of the preventive detention of Park as sought by the prosecutor’s office.

SWEDISH BUS CRASHES, 25 REPORTED INJURED, INCLUDING CHILDRENSTOCKHOLM: Swedish rescue officials say a bus with some 60 people on board mostly schoolchildren has crashed in central Sweden, resulting in many in-juries. Rescue services spokesman Peter Nystedt says some 25 people were injured some seriously in the accident on a main highway, south of Sveg, a small town 430 kilometers north-west from the capital, Stockholm.The bus reportedly was en route to a ski resort on Sunday morning, local media said.

Indonesia destroys 81

foreign ships for illegal fishing

JAKARTA: Indonesia – Indo-nesian authorities destroyed 81 foreign ships over the week-end after seizing the vessels for fishing illegally in the coun-try’s waters.

The world’s largest archi-pelago nation has taken a tough stance against illegal fishing since President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo took office in 2014. Authorities have sunk 317 for-eign vessels since then, includ-ing the most recent.

The ships were blown up at sea in 12 locations around the archipelago on Saturday. The most destroyed in one area was 26 in Natuna on the edge of South China Sea and 10 in the nearby seaport of Tarempa. Most of the vessels were from Vietnam, the Phil-ippines, Malaysia and Thailand. Indonesia was upholding its sovereignty and combating illegal fishing, said Susi Pud-jiastuti, the minister of Mari-time Affairs and Fisheries who witnessed the sinking of two ships in the port of Ambon in Maluku province.

“We hope Sino (the name of one of the ships) is the symbol of our victory against poach-ing after years of defeat, espe-cially in eastern Indonesia,” Pudjiastuti said. She expressed hope that the action would deter poachers. AGENCIES

Bob Dylan accepts 2016 Nobel prizeSTOCKHOLM: After months of uncertainty and controversy, Bob Dylan finally accepted the 2016 Nobel Prize for Literature at a jovial, champagne-laced ceremony, the Swedish Acad-emy announced.

The academy, which awards the coveted prize, ended prolonged speculation as to whether the 75-year-old troubadour would use a con-cert stopover in Stockholm to accept the gold medal and diploma awarded to him back in October.They were handed to Dylan at a “private cere-mony in Stockholm” attended by 12 academy members, Sara Danius, the academy’s perma-nent secretary yesterday, said in a blog post. “Spirits were high. Champagne was had,” Danius

confided. “Quite a bit of time was spent looking closely at the gold medal, in particular the beautifully crafted back, an image of a young man sit-ting under a laurel tree who listens to the Muse,” she added. “Taken from Virgil’s Aeneid, the inscription reads: ‘Inven-tas vitam iuvat excoluisse per artes,’ loosely translated as ‘And they who bettered life on earth by their newly found mastery’.”

The first songwriter to receive the prestigious award, Dylan joins a celebrated group of laureates including Thomas Mann, Samuel Beckett, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Doris Lessing. The meeting took place at a secret location ahead of Dylan’s first concert in Stock-holm, the first stop on a long-

planned European tour for his latest album of cover songs, “Triplicate”.

Dylan had not been expected to deliver his tra-ditional Nobel lecture at the

meeting - the only requirement to receive the eight million kro-nor (USD 891,000) that comes with the prize.

He has until June 10 to pro-vide his lecture, which could be anything from a short speech to a performance, a video broad-cast or even a song. Failing that, he risks losing the prize money.

“The Academy has reason to believe that a taped version will be sent at a later point,” Danius said on Wednesday.

Several Academy members, including Danius, were present at the concert as Dylan, wear-ing a white hat, western-style black blazer and cowboy boots, performed “Love Sick” and “Full Moon And Empty Arms,” part of a playlist of standards and self-penned hits. AGENCIES

Fire breaks out in Dubai building

near Burj Khalifa

DUBAI: A huge fire broke out early on Sunday morning out at a three 60-storey tower complex near the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, police said. The site is next to the Dubai Mall and near the 63-story The Address Downtown Dubai tower, which was heavily damaged in a fire on New Year’s Eve on 2015.

Flames licked out of the podium level of the building as fire-fighters shot water inside. Every few minutes, small blasts could be heard inside the structure, presumably from exploding pro-pane or welding tanks used by the workers. Ambulances stood nearby but there was no sign of any worker being treated. The fire appeared to be confined to the lower floors of the structure.

Dubai’s government media office said the fire erupted at the Address Residences Fountain Views towers, and that firefighters have brought it under control. “Cooling operations are underway and ambulance units are on site,” the media office posted on its Twitter account. It said there were no injuries reported.

The high-rise Fountain Views complex is being built by large Dubai-based developer Emaar Properties, which raised the mall and the hotel struck in the 2015 blaze.

The developer declined to immediately comment. Large numbers of firefighters were on the scene, and police cordoned off nearby roads.

“It was plumes and plumes of black smoke. It looks like it was quite low down,” said witness Anthea Ayache. AGENCIES

Ecuador decides its future and maybe Assange’s, in run-off

QUITO: Ecuador voted on Sunday in a presidential run-off to turn the page on a decade under radical econo-mist Rafael Correa and decide whether the country will follow Latin America’s recent shift to the right.

The election could also decide the fate of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who has been holed up at the coun-try’s London embassy since 2012. Correa presided over an economic boom that has recently gone bust in the South American oil producer. With voters torn between continuity and change, the race remains too close to call.The runoff pits the socialist president’s des-ignated heir, Lenin Moreno, against conservative ex-banker Guillermo Lasso.

Lasso finished second in the first-round vote last month, with 28 per cent to Moreno’s 39 per cent. But polls give him a slight edge heading into the runoff, with between 52.1 per cent and 57.6 per cent of the vote. The race is also a barom-eter of the political climate in Latin America, where more than a decade of leftist domi-nance has been waning. Argen-tina, Brazil and Peru have all shifted to the right in recent months, as the region has sunk

into recession and leftist lead-ers have been tarnished by a string of corruption scandals.

Boosted by high prices for its oil exports, Ecuador regis-tered solid economic growth of 4.4 per cent per year on average during the first eight years of Correa’s presidency, before tipping into recession in mid-2015.

Correa won loyal fans among the poor with gener-ous social benefits that helped reduce the poverty rate from 36.7 per cent to 23.3 per cent in this country of 16 million people. But he has also faced accusations of corruption and

squandering the windfall of the oil boom. In another of the race’s hot debates, Lasso has threatened to revoke the politi-cal asylum Ecuador has granted its most famous guest, Assange.

Correa, an outspoken critic of the United States, let Assange stay at the embassy to avoid arrest and extradition to Swe-den over a rape allegation.

The 45-year-old Austra-lian, who denies the accusation, says he fears Sweden would send him to the United States to face trial for leaking hun-dreds of thousands of secret US military and diplomatic documents in 2010. AGENCIES

Former Nepal Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai arrestedKATHMANDU: Former Nepal Prime Minister and Chairman of Naya Shakti Nepal party — Baburam Bhattarai was arrested from out-side the Election Commission (EC) Office on Sunday, the media reported. Bhattarai, his wife Hisila Yami, and Communist Party of Ne-pal (CPN) Maoist Revolutionary leader C P Gajurel, among others, were picked up by police while they were staging a sit-in outside the EC office to protest denial of election symbol to the party, The Kathmandu Post reported. According to Bhattarai’s aide Bishwodeep Pandey, police personnel badly treated the leaders by hauling them into a truck after their arrest. Five political parties registered with the EC, including Naya Shakti Nepal, staged a sit-in outside the poll panel’s office in protest against “the election holding body’s refusal to grant election symbol”. Prior to this, the agitating parties had submitted a memorandum to Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Chief Election Commissioner Ayodhee Prasad Yadav. While submitting a memorandum in this regard to Dahal on Thursday, Naya Shaki Nepal had issued a 48-hour ultimatum to him demanding allocation of an election symbol for their party. Naya Shakti, among others parties, staged a two-hour sit-in on Sunday outside the EC offices across the nation to press their demand. AGENCIES

Colombia mudslide, flood kills 254 in midnight deluge

MOCOA: Rescuers in south-ern Colombia scrambled over-night to reach more than 100 victims still missing more than a day after devastating mudslides tore through entire villages.

At least 254 people have been killed and around 400 more injured, the military said, after torrential rains Friday night caused three rivers sur-rounding Mocoa in Putumayo province to overflow, sending a stream of mud through the city.

The Red Cross put the death toll at 234, and said that 158 people were still missing.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos declared a sate of emergency and told report-ers at the scene that the death toll could climb.

“The first thing I want to say is that my heart, our hearts, the hearts of all Colombians are with the victims of this trag-edy,” he said.

“We don’t know yet where they are. Many people are com-ing to us saying, ‘My son is missing, my father is missing, my mother is missing.’”

He said that the city had experienced in one night around a third of the rainfall that it should over the span of a month, blaming the disaster on climate change.

Heavy rains, high levels of deforestation, informal hous-ing and dense human popula-

tions are some factors that can leave communities vulnerable to landslides, scientists say.

Aerial footage of the site showed some rooftops poking above the muddy deluge that flattened other homes, bridges and highways.

Power and water supplies to the city have been cut by the disaster, and the hospital sys-tem has shut down, firefight-ers say.

Images showed cars and buses trapped in several feet of mud.

Gabriel Umaña, a spokes-man for the Colombian Red Cross, told CNN that 300 fam-ilies had been displaced and more than two dozen homes had been flattened. Many were sound asleep when the torrent of mud hit their neighbor-hoods, and witnesses said the the sludge flowed so fast that

they had to run for their lives. “Around 11, 12 o’clock (on Fri-day), there was a huge storm, a lot of water. I got up because it sounded so heavy, the sound of the rocks. Everyone (was shocked),” one man at the site said, Reuters reported.Another wearing yellow rubber boots stood on some rocks as a river of mud streamed by.

“Nobody has given me news. Nobody, nobody. No one

from my house or my family. I am at the will of my God. I have nothing. Nothing to eat, nowhere to sleep. These clothes were given to me,” he said.Resi-dents pored over a list of miss-ing people pinned outside a family welfare center. One listed only children, some as young as 2.

“We have lost a baby, who has gone missing, and the rest is as you can see. A little baby, we can’t find him anywhere,” said one woman, wiping away tears.

More than 1,000 soldiers and national police officers are involved in the rescue, and they are facing enormous challenges.

“The difficulties we are fac-ing are that it is still raining in the region and the (mud-slide) turned up a considerable amount of land.

There are mobility issues on almost 80% of the roads, and where the road ends, it is three hours to the place where the (mudslide) took place,” a police spokesman told report-ers. Photos released by Colom-bia’s military showed rescuers carrying old women and chil-dren over downed, mud-caked trees and homes.

Colombia is no stranger to mudslides. In 2015, torrential rains in northwest Colombia caused a mudslide that killed more than 80 people. AGENCIES

Bangladesh HC upholds death penalty of two Islamists

DHAKA: The Bangladesh High Court on Sunday upheld a trial court order, confirming the death penalty given to two Islamists for the 2013 murder of a secular blogger that had set off a chain of attacks on liberal writers in the Muslim-major-ity country. A two-member bench upheld the death sen-tences for the two members of the banned Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT), said court offi-cials. The court also gave dif-ferent jail terms to six others in the case, 16 months after a fast-track tribunal handed down the death sentences to the two

ABT members for hacking to death secular blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider in February 2013.

“The HC bench confirmed the tribunal verdict after the analogous hearing of (man-datory) death reference and appeal hearing by the convicts who faced the trial,” a spokes-man of attorney general’s office said. Redwanul Azad Rana and Faisal Bin Nayem, who were given the death penalty, were students of the top North South University. The 6 given varied jail terms included ABT’s so-called ‘spiritual guru’ Mufti Jashim Uddin Rahmani, who

was sentenced to five years of imprisonment after he was found guilty of provoking the students through his sermons to kill Haider. Rana, who is also the main suspect in the murder of writer-blogger Avi-jit Roy, is absconding. The ABT, said to be ideologically inclined to al-Qaeda, is one of the two main militant outfits active in Bangladesh. The other is the Islamic State-affiliated Neo-Jamaatul Muhahideen Bangla-desh (neo-JMB), which carried out the July 1, 2016, attack on an upmarket cafe in Dhaka that killed 22 people. PTI

Two teens held on suspicion of plotting

attack in FranceNICE: Two teenage girls were arrested on Sunday in southern France on suspicion of plot-ting a terror attack, a judicial source said.

The pair, aged 14 and 15, were taken in for questioning by the anti-terrorism prosecu-tion service after a search of both girls’ homes turned up evidence suggesting they could have been planning an attack, a judicial source said.

“At this stage we do not know how far advanced the preparations were,” a source close to the inquiry told AFP, adding no weapons had been found.

Several girls have been among a swathe of teenag-ers arrested in recent anti-terror swoops in France on suspicion either of plotting attacks or having contact with Islamic State members or sympathisers.

The country remains in a state of emergency after suf-fering a spate of deadly jihadist attacks over the past two years.

Three teenage girls were arrested in late Febru-ary on suspicion they had chatted on Telegram, an encrypted instant messag-

ing platform used by French jihadi Rachid Kassim to call for attacks on France.

An anti-terrorism judge in Paris charged the trio last month. AGENCIES

Sri Lankan Navy arrests

six Indians for smuggling drugs COLOMBO: The Sri Lankan navy on Sunday said it has arrested six Indians for alleg-edly smuggling 13.5 kg drugs into the country.

The Sri Lankan ship on patrol detected a suspicious movement at IMBL (Inter-national Maritime Boundary Line) from Indian waters to Sri Lankan territorial waters in the wee hours, the Sri Lankan navy said in a statement. “The suspected boat movement was continuously monitored by the patrolling ship,” the navy said. The drug parcels believed to contain heroin were taken to the Kankesanthurai harbour. The six Indians will be handed over to the Kankesanthurai Police for further investiga-tion, it said. Sri Lankan Navy regularly arrests drug traffick-ers approaching to the north-ern waters of Sri Lanka, the statement added. In 2014, Sri Lanka sentenced five Indian fishermen to death for drug smuggling, but they were later released into Indian custody.

The killing of an Indian fisherman last month along the maritime boundary led to widespread protests in Tamil Nadu. AGENCIES

The pair, aged 14 and 15, were taken in for questioning by the anti-terrorism prosecution service

The most destroyed in one area was 26 in Natuna on the edge of South China Sea and 10 in the nearby seaport of Tarempa

mp world 11MILLENNIUM POST | Kolkata |Monday, 3 April, 2017

Spain eases opposition to

an independent Scotland in EU

MADRID: Spain, at log-gerheads with Britain over Gibraltar, appears to be easing its opposition to an indepen-dent Scotland in the Euro-pean Union, saying it would not block such a move at least initially.

The Scottish independence drive — now resuscitated by the prospect of Britain’s depar-ture from the EU — is highly controversial in Spain because of the secessionist movement in Catalonia.

As a result, Madrid has long been seen as an obstacle to an independent Scotland joining the EU after Brexit. But its for-eign minister, Alfonso Dastis, threw that in doubt on Sunday.

“Initially, I don’t think we would block it,” he said. How-ever, he added Scotland would have to leave the EU with Brit-ain, and “the rest we will see”.

He also said Spain did not welcome fragmentation of the Europe. “Having said that, if, in application of its laws, the out-come of that process is a divi-sion of the United Kingdom, any part of the United King-dom that becomes a state and wants to join the EU will have to apply. And follow the steps that are stipulated,” he said. The comments come after a week in which the issue of Gibraltar, a British oversees territory on Spain’s south coast, has stirred tensions between London and Madrid. The EU has said that, following Brexit itself, no future EU-Britain pact that affects Gibraltar can be made without Madrid’s approval.

Britain has reacted sharply, saying its support for the ter-ritory, ceded by Spain in 1713 and which wants to remain British, is “implacable”. Dastis refused talk about veto rights when it comes to Gibraltar but said he viewed the EU’s stance very positively.

“When the United King-dom leaves the EU, the EU partner is Spain, and in the case of Gibraltar the EU is therefore obliged to take the side of Spain,” he said. “I do not think it’s necessary to talk about vetoes”. Dastis said that Spain’s stance to not bloc attempts by Scotland to join the EU had nothing to do with Catalonia. AGENCIES

UK finance minister to lead trade mission to India next week

LONDON: British Finance Minister Philip Hammond will lead a “heavyweight” trade mis-sion to India next week with the message of ‘Make in India, Finance in UK’ in an effort to boost international trade post-Brexit.

Chancellor of the Exche-quer Hammond will visit Delhi and Mumbai alongwith Gov-ernor of the Bank of England Mark Carney and UK gov-ernment ministers, including Commercial Secretary Baron-ess Neville-Rolfe and Inter-national Trade minister Mark Garnier, the UK government said on Sunday.

The delegation is part of the annual UK-India Economic and Financial Dialogue and also includes some of the UK’s most experienced leaders in financial services and leading FinTech entrepreneurs.

“I’m delighted to be leading such a heavyweight delegation to India to bang the drum for British business. I am deter-mined to create a truly Global Britain, reaching out and pro-moting the best of what we have to offer,” Hammond said in a statement.

“The UK is perfectly placed to be India’s financial partner of choice, helping it to raise the finance needed for its con-tinued rapid growth and my message will be ‘Make in India, Finance in the UK’. Our inno-vative markets have helped support the development of whole new product classes such as masala bonds that will sup-port India’s transformation,” he noted.

British Prime Minister The-resa May had set the ball rolling on Britain’s exit from the Euro-pean Union (EU) as she trig-gered Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty last week.

The trip has been described as a significant opportunity for the Chancellor to discuss Brit-ain’s new role in the world, as it prepares to revitalise its links with friends and allies, open-ing up new markets and new opportunities for British busi-nesses. “As we leave the EU and embark on an exciting new phase of our economic history, looking to boost our trade and investment beyond the bor-ders of Europe and strength-ening our relationships with the world’s most vibrant econ-

omies is more important than ever,” the Conservative party minister added. During the visit, Hammond is set to focus on “Prime Minister Modi’s ‘Make in India’ vision, which is devised to transform the coun-try into a global manufactur-

ing hub”. He will set out how the UK is perfectly placed to become India’s leading finance partner to help it deliver on its plans. The UK is already the world’s largest exporter of financial services and the lead-ing centre for FinTech. India’s

ambitious growth aspirations require it to develop its finan-cial infrastructure and tap into global investors, with estimates suggesting that it needs over USD 1.5 trillion of capital in infrastructure investment alone in the coming years, said the

statement from Hammond’s No 11 Downing Street office.

“The UK and the City of London are therefore perfectly placed to be India’s partner of choice to raise the finance it needs to deliver on its plans,” the Chancellor will say in his message during the visit. Ham-mond will also recognise the major opportunities for col-laboration for British FinTech firms, specifically as India con-tinues its drive towards a soci-ety “less dependent on cash, using technology to increase access to banking and finance for everyone”. This ongoing push across India means that its “finance sector is undergo-ing a significant transforma-tion, with new payment firms, small finance banks and insur-ance players entering the field,” the Treasury statement said.

“This shift presents enor-mous opportunities for the UK to work much more closely with India’s own exciting Fin-tech sector.”

Almost 80 per cent of all masala bonds issued in Lon-don was highlighted as a sign of the strong bond between the two countries. AGENCIES

Renowned Russian poet Yevtushenko

dies at 84

MOSCOW: Russian Soviet-era poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko died of a cardiac arrest on Sat-urday in Oklahoma, US , at the age of 84.

Yevtushenko’s wife was quoted by Xinhua news agency as saying that the poet had been hospitalised in serious condi-tion and the doctors were con-ducting medical examinations.

Russian President Vladi-mir Putin expressed condo-lences to Yevtushenko’s family, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, adding: “His leg-acy is an integral part of the Russian culture.”

The poet, who was also a novelist, movie director and essayist, was nominated for the Nobel Prize for Litera-ture in 1963. Yevtushenko and his family moved to the US in 1991. AGENCIES

Judge to Trump: No protection for speech inciting violence

LOUISVILLE: A federal judge has rejected President Donald Trump’s free speech defence against a lawsuit accusing him of inciting violence against pro-testers at a campaign rally.

Trump’s lawyers sought to dismiss the lawsuit by three protesters who say they were roughed up by his supporters at a March 1, 2016 rally in Lou-isville, Kentucky. They argued that Trump didn’t intend for his supporters to use force.

Two women and a man say they were shoved and punched by audience members at Trump’s command. Much of it was captured on video and widely broadcast during the campaign, showing Trump pointing at the protesters and repeating “get them out.” Judge David J Hale in Louisville ruled on Friday that the suit against

Trump, his campaign and three of his supporters can proceed. Hale found ample facts sup-porting allegations that the protesters’ injuries were a “direct and proximate result” of Trump’s actions, and noted that the Supreme Court has ruled out constitutional protections for speech that incites violence.

“It is plausible that Trump’s direction to ‘get ‘em out of here’ advocated the use of force,” the judge wrote. “It was an order, an instruction, a command.” Plaintiffs Kashiya Nwang-uma, Molly Shah and Henry Brousseau allege that they were physically attacked by several members of the audience, including Matthew Heim-bach, Alvin Bamberger and an unnamed defendant they have yet to be able to identify. Bam-berger later apologiSed to the

Korean War Veterans Associa-tion, whose uniform he wore at the rally. He wrote that he “physically pushed a young woman down the aisle toward the exit” after “Trump kept say-ing ‘get them out, get them out,” according to the lawsuit.

Heimbach, for his part, sought to dismiss the law-suit’s discussion of his associ-ation with a white nationalist group and of statements he made about how Trump could advance the group’s interests. The judge declined, saying such information could be impor-tant context when determining punitive damages.

The judge also declined to remove allegations that Nwanguma, an African-Amer-ican, was the victim of racial, ethnic and sexist slurs from the crowd at the rally. AGENCIES

Plans for World War I Memorial in Washington

WASHINGTON: How should the United States honor the wishes of the last American World War I soldier, who asked for a national monument to the country’s role in the conflict?

The answer is more compli-cated than it seems.

Frank Buckles, who was a teenage ambulance driver in the Great War, was dismayed to discover on a 2008 visit to Washington’s sprawling National Mall that there was nothing to commemorate the pivotal role Americans played in the final two years of the 1914-1918 conflict.

The wheelchair-bound 107-year-old found memorials to wars in Vietnam and Korea, and a grand monument to the US victory in World War II. But for World War I, the best he and his entourage could find was an abandoned mar-ble bandstand honoring Wash-ington residents who died in the conflict.

“’Can you do something so that my generation is remem-bered?’” photographer and filmmaker David DeJonge, who was in the group, recalls Buckles saying.

“What do you say to the last World War I veteran when he

asks that?”Americans have long

debated how to best remember influential people and events. Grand memorials in cemeteries were once popular, as were stat-ues of war heroes on horseback. Others argued that memorial libraries and schools were more practical.

Memorials have also long been local affairs: there are some 10,000 WWI memorials across the country, including three in the US capital, accord-ing to the World War I Inven-tory Project.

They usually honor local military units or hometown troops who fell in the war, and include statues, plaques and bridges.

Most prominent among them is the 217-foot (67-meter) Liberty Tower, on a hill soar-ing over Kansas City, Missouri.

The city was a wealthy rail hub during the war years, and close to the birthplace of the top US WWI military commander, General John J. Pershing.

Swept up in patriotic enthu-siasm at the war’s end, Kansas City residents raised $2.5 mil-lion — the equivalent of $35 million on Sunday — in just 10 days to build the tower. AGENCIES

Britain attempts to burst fake news bubbleLONDON: The rise of fake news has been a hot topic in Britain this year, with the lawmaker leading a probe into the phenomenon warning it was “a threat to democracy”. As-well as the inquiry, British journalism schools have begun to adapt their teaching while national broadcaster the BBC has issued preven-tion guidelines for children in an attempt to reverse the trend. Damian Collins, head of the parliamentary probe, said that fake news undermined trust in the media in general, with the explosion of social media making political issues particularly sensitive. Fake news represents “a threat to democracy...if people are deliberately using it on social media platforms to spread misinformation around an election”, he said. The panel is considering whether fake news spreaders could be blocked or closed down, or genuine news outlets given a special verification mark. Collins urged tech companies to help tackle the problem on social media platforms as they had done in combating piracy, il-legal content sharing, cyber-bullying and hate speech. But the tech giants had only moved “in response to pressure, and reluctantly”, the MP warned. The impact on those too young to vote is also causing concern. BBC television’s “Newsround”, a news bulletin for children, explained fake news to youngsters in February. The programme created “think before you click” clips informing youngsters how to spot false stories, using invented tales of yellow pandas, robot headteachers and UFOs. Fake news is not a 21st-century phenomenon, but what is new is its scale, said James Rodgers, a senior lecturer in journal-ism at the City University of London. “Before, being published relied on getting into an established medium. It no longer does,” said Rodgers, whose univer-sity runs some of Britain’s most prestigious journalism courses. AGENCIES

Soon, ‘Grassoline’ to power future aircraftLONDON: In the quest of more sustainable energy sources, scientists have devel-oped ‘grassoline’ - a biofuel derived from grass that c ould one day power aircraft.

Researchers investigated methods that can disintegrate and treat grass until it can be used as a fuel.

“Until now, grass has mainly served as feed for ani-mals. But apart from that, grass can also be used as biofuel. Due to its vast abundance, grass is the perfect source of energy,” said Way Cern Khor from Ghent University in Belgium.

To improve its biodegrad-ability, the grass is pretreated

at first. Then bacteria are added which convert the sugars in the grass into lactic acid and

its derivatives, researchers said. This lactic acid can serve

as an intermediate chemical

to produce other compounds such as biodegradable plastics (PLA) or fuels.

The lactic acid was then converted into caproic acid, which was further converted into decane. Decane can be used in aviation fuel, research-ers said. “Right now the amount of biofuel that can be made from grass is still limited to a few drops.

The current process is very expensive, and engines should be adapted to this new kind of fuel,” they said.

“If we can keep working on optimising this process in cooperation with the business world, we can come down on the price. And maybe in a few years we can all fly on grass!” Khor said. AGENCIES

Police detain dozens at Moscow

Oppn protest MOSCOW: Police said they detained 29 Opposition pro-testers in central Moscow on Sunday, a week after hundreds of others were arrested during a rally organised by leading Putin critic Alexei Navalny.

“Twenty-nine people were detained by police for breaches of public order,” the city police’s press service said.

An AFP journalist at the scene said he witnessed around 30 people being detained as they attempted to carry out a peaceful march. Among them was a 16-year-old boy called Pavel Dyatlov who became a symbol of youth protest in last week’s rally when he was pho-tographed climbing up a lamp-post. He was detained in that protest, too. OVD Info, a web-site that monitors detentions of activists, wrote that at least 32 people had been detained including at least 4 minors.

Navalny, who is currently serving a 15-day sentence behind bars for disobeying police at last Sunday’s event, has distanced himself from the latest protest. “He knows abso-lutely nothing about this,” his spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh wrote on Twitter.

Navalny last Sunday organ-ised protests in cities across Russia, most of which were not authorised by municipal officials. The largest in Mos-cow saw about 500 people detained according to police, while OVD-Info put the total at almost 1,000. Posts on Face-book linked the latest protest to a little-known nationalist group. Opposition supporters had begun to walk peacefully along the city’s main Tverskaya Street from a central metro sta-tion at around 1030 GMT in an event coordinated via social media.

Police in helmets and body armour swiftly moved to arrest demonstrators. The authorities earlier had laid on a massive police presence in anticipation of an unauthor-ised protest at 0900 GMT after calls were posted online to rally on Red Square. Journal-ists saw only a handful of activ-ists, however, some of whom voiced support for President Vladimir Putin. AGENCIES

Suu Kyi’s party wins half of the seats in Myanmar

by-elections

Flynn fails to disclose payments from

Russia-linked entitiesWASHINGTON: Michael Flynn, President Donald Trump’s for-mer national security adviser, failed to disclose payments from a Russian television network and a second firm linked to Russia in a February financial disclosure form, according to documents released by the White House on Saturday.

In a financial disclosure form signed by Flynn on March 31, the former White House official listed speaking engagements to Russian entities, including the Kremlin-funded RT TV and Volga-Dnepr Airlines. The form does not say how much Flynn was paid but the speeches are in a section titled “sources of compensation exceeding $5,000 in a year.”The speeches were not included in a form that Flynn signed electronically on February 11, which the White House also released on Saturday. The discrepancy on reporting income linked to Russia could add to Flynn’s legal woes. The retired general, who was forced to resign after only 24 days, is under scrutiny for his contacts with Russian officials in a wider investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presiden-tial election. He has requested immunity if he testifies before the intelligence committees of the U.S. Senate and the House of Rep-resentatives, his lawyer, Robert Kelner, said on Thursday. Flynn was forced out on Feb. 13 for failing to disclose talks with Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak about U.S. sanctions on Moscow and misleading Vice President Mike Pence about the conversations, which occurred before Trump took office. Trump, a Republi-can, said in a tweet that Democrats were pursuing investigations because they were upset about his Nov. 8 victory over their par-ty’s candidate, Hillary Clinton. Congressional committees and the FBI are looking into allegations by U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia meddled in the election campaign.

The Russian government has denied the allegations and denied that it hacked emails of Democratic groups and released informa-tion to tip the election toward Trump, who has called for better U.S. relations with Moscow. AGENCIES

YANGON: Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s party won nearly half of the seats con-tested in by-elections on Sun-day, the first vote since it swept to power a year ago and an early indication of support for her administration amid increased fighting with ethnic armed groups and slower eco-nomic growth.

Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) won nine out of 19 seats in the national and regional parlia-ments, according to the Union Election Commission, follow-ing a period in which she has struggled to match sky-high expectations.

In a televised address earlier this week, Suu Kyi acknowl-edged the public’s frustration with the slow pace of reforms and development. But she also reiterated her top priority of ending the ethnic conflicts that have kept Myanmar in a state of near-perpetual civil war.

While the outcome of the by-elections will not affect the balance of power within the parliament, where the NLD enjoys a large majority, it offers

a chance to gauge the popu-larity of the administration in a country where nationwide public poll s are not available.

Win Htein, one of the NLD’s top leaders, said the party faced language barri-ers and problems with armed groups in the Shan state dis-tricts being contested. Fight-ing in some of those areas has intensified in recent months.

“We are still improving in Shan state. The local people don’t understand Burmese, so we have to translate our policies into the Shan language,” he said. Major rebel armies engaged in clashes with the military in areas including the Shan state have refused to actively partici-pate in Suu Kyi’s peace process. Several conflicts have reignited since Suu Kyi took office, dis-placing an estimated 160,000 more people, according to the United Nations.

Over two million voters, less than five percent of the country’s population, could vote in the by-elections where seats in eight states and regions across the country were up for grabs. AGENCIES

UK Police appeal for info in hate crime attack

on youthLONDON: UK detectives appealed on Sunday for infor-mation and witnesses who might have seen a group of youths attack a teenage asylum-seeker in the London borough of Croydon.

The attack left the 17-year-old Iranian Kurd in serious but stable condition in a London hospital. Authorities are treat-ing the matter as a suspected hate crime.

Detective Sergeant Kris Blamires said the teenager was at a bus stop with two friends when approached by about eight youths.

“The suspects asked the victim where he was from and when they established that he was an asylum seeker they chased him and launched a brutal attack,” Blamires said in a statement.

“He has sustained seri-ous head and facial injuries as a result of this attack, which included repeated blows to the head by a large group of attackers.”

The teen’s friends managed to get away.

British police say hate crimes remain under-reported in Britain. The country has seen a surge in xenophobia expressed in threats, taunts and physical attacks after Brit-ain’s vote to leave the European Union last year. Much of the Brexit debate focused on an influx of migrants into Brit-ain from other EU countries and whether their presence was making it harder for Britons to find work, housing and medi-cal care. Police recorded 1,546 racially or religiously aggra-vated offenses in England and Wales in the two weeks before the June 23 referendum, and 2,241 in the two weeks after it, the Home Office said. The total for July was up 41 per-cent from the same month a year earlier. AGENCIES

mp business12MILLENNIUM POST | Kolkata | Monday, 3 April, 2017

PK Bondriya takes over as new GGM of NTPC Singrauli UnitSHAKTINAGAR: PK Bondriya has taken over as the Group Gen-eral Manager of NTPC’s Singrauli Unit, in Uttar Pradesh. The incum-bent Group General Manager Dinesh Kumar has been transferred to Vindhyachal Super Thermal Power Sta-tion. Before coming to Singrauli, Bondriya was posted at NTPC’s Simhadri Super Thermal Power Plant in Andhra Pradesh.

Only five large banks can survive in the long-term: Uday Kotak

MUMBAI: Banker Uday Kotak feels there will be strong con-solidation in the financial ser-vices sector and eventually only five players will dominate the space just like in the global space.

“Globally, in most coun-tries, there are only three to five large banks which dominate. This is how the future will be in our country as well,” Kotak, vice-chairman of Kotak Mahin-dra Bank, said in an interview over the weekend here.

India will be no exception to this global trend of hav-ing a few dominating players, he added. When asked about the names of banks which will dominate the domestic bank-ing space, Kotak declined to specify the names but said State Bank of India will be one among them.

“The rest who knows? Can’t say anything about ourselves but each of us will have to do our bit to get ourselves onto the high table. You just can’t take it for granted,” he said.

Kotak, whose bank is widely speculated to be interested in buyouts, acknowledged that consolidation is something his bank is interested in.

“We are open to change

that is bold and that can be game-changing in the finan-cial services industry,” he said, but quickly added that there is nothing to announce now.

The board of the bank last week decided to raise over Rs 5,300 crore by diluting 3.3 per cent of the promoters holding, for pursuing a host of opportu-nities, including consolidation.

When asked if his bank which completed an integra-tion with ING Vysya Bank, is

ready for another such exercise, Kotak replied in the positive.

“Do you think we are fatigued? We are alive and kick-ing, and have learnt a lot from the merger. That does not mean we are rushing into a merger but we are always open and keep our eyes and ears open for consolidation,” he said.

He said the share of private sector lenders should eventu-ally grow beyond the present 25 per cent or thereabout.

“Competition may be from government banks, new play-ers. You have to be alert, agile and paranoid,” he said.

Kotak also made a strong pitch for having norms on “bank mortality”, underlin-ing that not all the players who enter due to liberal rules can’t make it commercially, and should thus be given exit options. “That is a big issue. Who is thinking about mortal-ity in banking? We have to see in the long-term how it hap-pens. As you make entry eas-ier, mortality always have to be thought about,” Kotak said.

When asked about if e-wal-lets will succeed, Kotak said, “to some of those models, you need to ask the question- how

will you get stickiness and ulti-mately monetise?”

Advocating a faster push on growth, Kotak said he is getting the vibes of an uptick in growth. “Macroeconomic stability, now combined with political stability, is a very big plus for the country to embark faster on the growth side. This is our opportunity,” he said.

When pointed to the con-tinuing reluctance of private sector to invest since the past three years now, Kotak said, “we need to be bold and get the animal spirits back. We will get it back, people should feel excited to invest.”

He said a newer breed of entrepreneurs will emerge and the “historical Lalas” will change.

On whether government can meet divestment targets and if the markets will continue to rally, he said the present bull-ishness in the capital markets will help government achieve the aggressive divestment plans in fiscal 2018.

On his expectations from the forthcoming monetary policy review, Kotak said he expects the apex bank to go in for a status quo at the next week’s review. PTI

Globally, in most countries, there are only three to five large banks which dominate. This is how the future will be in our country as well

Uday Kotak, Vice-Chairman of Kotak Mahindra Bank

RBI Guv gets pay hike; monthly basic jumps to Rs 2.5 lakh

NEW DELHI: RBI Governor Urjit Patel and his deputies have got a big pay hike with the gov-ernment more than doubling their basic sal-ary to Rs 2.5 lakh and Rs 2.25 lakh per month, respectively.

The “basic pay of the Governor and Deputy Governors” have been revised retrospectively with effect from January 1, 2016 and marks a huge jump from Rs 90,000 basic pay so far drawn by the Governor and Rs 80,000 for his deputies.

Still, their salaries are much lower than the top executives of various banks regulated by the RBI. The monthly emoluments of these top RBI officials include ‘basic pay’, dearness allow-ance and ‘other payments’, which totalled Rs 2,09,500 in case of Patel as on November 30, 2016, as per the latest information disclosed on the RBI website.

In response to a query under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, the central bank has now disclosed that as per a Finance Ministry com-munication, dated February 21, the basic pay of the Governor and Deputy Governors have been revised.

Following the revision, the basic pay of the Governor stands increased to Rs 2,50,000 per month while the same for a Deputy Governor would be Rs 2,25,000, RBI said.

The pay hike is “with effect from January 1, 2016”.

Dearness Allowance would be notified by the central government from time to time while “all other allowances (are) to be paid at existing rates as if the pay has not been received with effect from January 1, 2016,” the RTI reply said.

The RBI, however, did not disclose the new gross pay for Patel and his deputies following the revision in basic pay.

With the earlier basic pay of Rs 90,000, Patel got a DA of Rs 1,12,500 and ‘other payments’ of Rs 7,000 -- totalling to a gross pay of Rs 2,09,500.

The increase in the basic itself would take his gross pay to nearly Rs 3.70 lakh.

Patel, who took over the reins of the cen-tral bank in September 2016, had received a salary of Rs 2.09 lakh in October -- the first full month in office. This amount was same as drawn by his predecessor Raghuram Rajan in August that year.

Rajan assumed RBI governorship from Sep-tember 5, 2013 at a monthly salary of Rs 1.69 lakh. His salary was revised to Rs 1.78 lakh and Rs 1.87 lakh respectively during 2014 and March 2015. His salary was raised to Rs 2.09 lakh from Rs 2.04 lakh in January 2016.

It was not clear whether Rajan, who left RBI on September 4, 2016, would be eligible for arrears as the basic pay for Governor has been revised retrospectively while covering little more than nine months of his tenure.

Currently, RBI has four deputy governors -- R Gandhi, S S Mundra, N S Vishwanathan and Viral V Acharya. PTI

RBI Governor Urjit Patel

India adds 5,400 MW wind power

capacity in 2016-17OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Ministry of Power and Renewable Energy has claimed to have added over 5,400 MW of wind energy gen-eration capacity during 2016-17, bettering its target of 4,000 MW, on Sunday.

A ministry statement claimed that, “The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has set a record in wind power generation capac-ity by adding over 5,400 MW in 2016-17 against a target of 4,000 MW.”

This surpassed the previ-ous higher capacity addition of 3,423 MW in 2015-16, it added.

The leading states in wind power generation capacity addition during 2016-17 are Andhra Pradesh (2,190 MW), Gujarat (1,275 MW) and Kar-nataka (882 MW).

According to the minis-try, tentative returns showed that Madhya Pradesh, Rajast-han, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Telangana and Kerala reported 357 MW, 288 MW, 262 MW, 118 MW, 23 MW and 8 MW wind power capacity addition

respectively during 2016-17.During the last finan-

cial year ended March 31, the MNRE took various policy ini-tiatives in the wind energy sec-tor, including introduction of bidding, re-powering policy, draft wind-solar hybrid policy and new guidelines for devel-opment of wind power proj-ects, the statement added.

Meanwhile, India has become a net exporter of elec-tricity for the first time during the 11 months (April-Febru-ary) period, the government said earlier this week.

“As per the Central Electric-ity Authority (CEA), the desig-nated authority of government of India for cross-border trade of electricity, it is the first time India has turned around from a net importer of electricity to net exporter,” a Power Ministry statement mentioned.

“During the 2016-17 (April 2016 to February 2017), India has exported around 5,798 mil-lion units (MU) to Nepal, Ban-gladesh and Myanmar, which is 213 MU more than the import of around 5,585 MU from Bhu-tan,” it added further.

Compensation hike to Infosys COO not proper: Narayana MurthyBENGALURU: Infosys’ N R Narayana Murthy said on Sunday that the compen-sation hike to Chief Operating Officer (COO) U B Pravin Rao approved by the board in February was not “proper” and “will likely erode the trust and faith of the employees in the management and the board”. “The impact of such a deci-sion (compensation hike) will likely erode the trust and faith of the employees in the management and the board,” he said in an email to PTI here.

Murthy also said that given the current poor governance standards at Infosys, the targets for variable pay may not be adhered to if the board wants to favor a top man-agement person. “Finally, given the cur-rent poor governance standards at Infosys, let us also remember that these targets for variable pay may not be adhered to if the board wants to favor a top management person,” he said.

Murthy said giving nearly 60 per cent

to 70 per cent increase in compensation for a top level person (even including per-formance-based variable pay) when the compensation for most of the employees in the company was increased by just 6-8 per cent is improper.

“Giving nearly 60 to 70 per cent increase in compensation for a top level person (even including performance-based variable pay) when the compen-sation for most of the employees in the company was increased by just 6 to 8 per cent is, in my opinion, not proper,” he said.

This is grossly unfair to the majority of the Infosys employees including project managers, delivery managers, analysts, programmers, sales people in the field, entry level engineers, clerks and office boys who are toiling hard to make the com-pany better, Murthy said. “With what con-science can a decent person like Pravin ( a man schooled in Infosys values for over 30 years) tell his juniors that they should work

hard and make sacrifice to reduce cost and protect margin? I have got so many mails from these people asking whether this res-olution is fair. No previous resolution in the history of the company has received such a low approval,” he added.

Murthy, however, said he has lots of affection for Pravin. “I recruited Pravin in 1985 and had nurtured him throughout

my stay at Infosys since then. He had been sidelined. He was not even a member of the Executive Council at Infosys in 2013 when I came back. Kris, Shibu and I encouraged him, elevated him to the board, and made him the COO when we recruited Vishal as the CEO. So, this abstention has nothing to do with Pravin,” he said.

“Those of us who have always stood for fairness in compensation and practised it, right from the day Infosys was founded, will have to demonstrate it when needed. This is a time when it is needed. Nothing more and nothing less,” he wrote.

“You may not know that my Infosys sal-ary at the time of the founding of Infosys was just 10 per cent of my salary in my pre-vious job. I ensured that my younger, co-founder colleagues got 20 per cent higher salary over their salaries in their previous job even though I was 7 levels above them in my previous job and was 11 years’ older than them. PTI

N R Narayana Murthy

Infy shareholders approve new AoA, pay hike of COO Pravin RaoNEW DELHI: Infosys on Sunday said its shareholders have ap-proved the proposal to adopt a new Articles of Association (AoA), bringing in provisions for buyback of shares and appointment of independent directors. “The resolutions...have been passed by the members of the company with requisite majority. The approval is deemed to have been received on the last date of receipt of postal ballot forms March 31,” Infosys said in a BSE filing. Shareholders also approved revision in compensation of Chief Operating Officer & Whole-time Director U B Pravin Rao, and also appointment of D N Prahlad as an Independent Director. In February, Infosys Board had approved pay hike of its Chief Operating Officer U B Pravin Rao. According to the new Articles of Association (AoA), Infosys “may purchase its own equity shares or other securities by way of a buy-back arrangement.” PTI

Eyeing regional connectivity, Alliance Air plans to triple its fleet

NEW DELHI: Alliance Air, the regional arm of Air India, plans to triple its fleet this fiscal by inducting 20 more ATR air-craft amid an increased focus on enhancing connectivity to underserved and unserved airports.

Over the next two years, Alliance Air aims to expand its fleet to 50 ATR aeroplanes, Air India CMD Ashwani Lohani said. “We will induct 10 ATR 72-600 planes in September. We plan to lease another 10 ATR aircraft within this finan-cial year. In the following year, we hope to procure another 10 to 20 ATRs,” he said.

The 10 new ATRs are being procured on lease for 12 years.

At present, the Air India subsidiary has a fleet of eight ATR 72-600 (70 seater) and two ATR 42-320 (48 seater) air-craft. Alliance Air has recently been awarded 15 of the 128 routes under the Centre’s

regional connectivity scheme, Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik (UDAN), wherein fares are capped at Rs 2,500 for one-hour flights and airlines are extended viability gap funding by the government.

However, the Air India sub-sidiary will not be restricted to

merely the routes awarded to it and will be flying additional ones to improve connectivity to smaller cities.

“We will be operating flights to enhance regional con-nectivity, and (only) some of them will be part of UDAN. We are very aggressive about this,”

Lohani said while interacting with mediapersons.

Air India is also procuring a new ATR 72-600 simulator, which will be operational in October, in order to train pilots for flying the new aircraft. This will replace the Airbus A320 simulator at AI’s Cen-tral Training Establishment in Hyderabad.

“So far, Alliance Air has been sending its pilots for training to Toulouse, Singa-pore and Bangkok. This is a costly and time consuming exercise. These pilots can now train at our facility in Hyder-abad,” Captain Amitabh Singh, Executive Director (Training), Air India said.

Alliance Air, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Air India, currently provides flight ser-vices to 34 tier-two and tier-three cities via Delhi, Kol-kata, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad. PTI

Exim Bank to raise $3 bn from overseas markets this fiscal

NEW DELHI: Exim Bank plans to raise up to $3 billion from overseas markets this fis-cal. “We would be looking to raise between $2.5-3 billion in the current fiscal year,” Export Import Bank of India (Exim Bank) Managing Director David Rasquinha said.

In 2016-17, the bank raised more than $2 billion from mar-kets abroad, he said.

Depending upon market conditions, Exim Bank bor-rows money tapping overseas resources.

“Even if we don’t use money right away, I can deploy it as liquidity because as a financial institution we have to think long term. Our assets go right up to 20 years,” Rasquinha said.

Exim Bank funds long-term projects in Africa, SAARC countries and those in far east.

Of its total funding every year, half of the credit goes to Afri-can nations.

Talking about geographical mix in terms of lending, Ras-quinha said that Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Myanmar are strong areas in the Indian neighbourhood.

In East Asia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos are important countries, he added.

The African continent poses tremendous opportuni-ties for Indian businesses and there are a lot of commonali-ties between India and Africa when it comes to development, he said.

“At Exim Bank, we are try-ing to promote Indian inves-tors to do business in Africa in power, renewable energy, rail-ways, roads and agriculture,” Rasquinha said.

MFs add 67 lakh folios on higher retail

participationNEW DELHI: Mutual fund houses have registered a surge of over 67 lakh inves-tor accounts during the first 11 months of the just ended fiscal, taking the total tally to a record 5.4 crore on growing interest of retail investors.

This has already topped 59 lakh folios additions made in 2015-16. In the last two years, investor accounts have increased following robust con-tribution from smaller towns.

Folios are numbers desig-nated to individual investor accounts, though an investor can have multiple ones.

According to the data from Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi) on total investor accounts with 43 active fund houses, the number of folios rose to a record 5,43,87,930

at the end of February, from 4,76,63,024 in the end of March 2016, a gain of 67.25 lakh.

Growing participation from retail investors, espe-cially from smaller towns, and huge inflows in equity schemes have contributed to the upside, experts said.

The equity category saw an addition of more than 40 lakh investor folios to 4 crore in April-February period of 2016-17. Mutual funds have reported a net inflow of Rs 62,151 crore in equity schemes during the period under review.

Mutual funds are invest-ment vehicles made up of a pool of funds collected from a large number of investors. The funds are invested in stocks, bonds and money market instruments, among others. PTI

Centre’s green nod to Rs 9,747-cr Khurja Power Project in UP

NEW DELHI: The Centre has given green nod for setting up 1,320 MW coal-based super critical Khurja Thermal Power Proj-ect at a cost of Rs 9,747.5 crore in Buland-shahar district, Uttar Pradesh.

The proposed project to be imple-mented by state-run THDC India Ltd (THDCIL) along with the UP govern-ment will address the electricity shortage being faced in northern India.

The proposal is for setting up two units of 660 MW and the power generated from the project will be evacuated through 400 KV transmission systems by Power Grid Corporation Limited.

“The environment ministry has given the final green clearance to the Khurja Power Project with some conditions,” a senior government official said.

Among conditions specified, the company has been asked to take sepa-rate environment clearance for township construction.

It has also been told to take necessary permission from Water Resource Depart-

ment for diverting the Aligarh natural drain from the project site.

Estimated cost of the project is Rs 9,747.5 crore.

About 1,400 acres of land is required for the project, of which 1,200 acres has

already been acquired. The coal require-ment would be 5.4 million tonnes per annum which will be sourced from the Madhya Pradesh State Mining Corporation.

A total population of 4,171 will be affected from five villages due to the proj-ect activities. Employment generation dur-ing construction phase will be 2,000 and operation phase will be 900, the company said in its proposal.

It may be noted that THDCIL is establishing generating stations in vari-ous regions of the country for supply of power to states in the concerned and other regions.

Khurja Super Thermal Power Station in Bulandshahr district is one such sta-tion being set up for supply of power to the beneficiaries of northern region and Uttar Pradesh.

THDCIL presently has 16 projects totalling to an installed capacity of 8,796 MW under various stages of implementa-tion/development. PTI

About 1,400 acres of land is required for the project, of which 1,200 acres has already been acquired

CORPORATE KALEIDOSCOPE

Uttarakhand government in association with the State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation of Uttarakhand Limited welcomed a delegation from the Royal Thai Embassy, New Delhi, on a visit to the state. The visit of the delegates was scheduled for 31 March to 2 April, 2017. During his courtesy call, Apirat Sugondhabhirom, Minister and Deputy Chief of Mission, Royal Thai Embassy, greeted the Chief Minister and said that the Kingdom of Thailand has had strong diplomatic ties of over almost seven decades with India

NLCIL registered a record performance in overburden excavation, lignite excavation and power generation. Dr SK Acharya, CMD, NLCIL, addressed the media about the physical performance of the company for 2016-17 at Neyveli. Also seen in the picture are Functional Directors of the company

mp business 13MILLENNIUM POST | Kolkata | Monday, 3 April, 2017

SHIMLA/BARMANA: NTPC’s 800-MW Koldam Hydro Power Station has achieved a record power gen-eration of 3,225 million units against the design capacity of 3054 million units during the financial year 2016-17, which is more than 5 per cent above the design energy, said San-jeev Kishore, Group General Manager of the power station. The Group General Manager informed that 2016-17 was the first full year of operations of the power plant.

Sanjeev Kishore said that the power plant had thus sur-passed all the targets of genera-tion. The plant, he added, had also surpassed the normative declared capacity of 90 per cent by achieving 106.42 per cent with annual PLF of 46 per cent which was nearly 2 per cent more than the design PLF.

The financial year 2016-17, Sanjeev Kishore informed, was a year of laudable achievements on many fronts like achieving the highest monthly genera-tion of 641.02 million units during the month of August 2016, and highest daily gener-ation of 20.86 million units on 17 June, 2016.

The surpassing of Declared Capacity by 110.10 per cent during May 2016, Kishore said, was highest in the coun-try’s hydro power sector. Simi-larly, the achievement of 107.27 per cent of Plant Load Factor (PLF), achieved in July 2016, he added, was also the high-est among the central and state sector power stations in the country.

Sanjeev Kishore attributes the achievements in front of power generation to the effi-cient machine and water man-agement affected by engineers of the power station. Talk-ing about the annual main-tenance of the machines, he informed that inspection of all the machines had already been completed successfully between 4 to 5 days for each machine against the target of 10 days.

With a head of 138 meter, the machines, the Group Gen-eral Manager told required a flow of 750 cumecs of water while presently the flow in river Satluj was about 118 cumecs (Cubic Meter per Second) on an average which is on an increasing trend with the onset of summer. As per requirement of the grid and schedules given by the Northern Region Load

Dispatch Centre (NRLDC), the power plant, he informed was presently being operated between 6.15 hrs to 7.45 hrs and 18.15 hrs to 20.30 hrs.

The 800-MW Koldam Hydro Power Station, San-jeev Kishore informed, was the first hydro power venture of the country’s largest power producer NTPC Limited. He added that the Maharatna NTPC had crossed the mark of 50,000 MW and the installed capacity was 50,498 MW. The company, he told, was operat-ing as many as 19 coal-based power stations 7 gas-based power stations and one hydro power station in the country. It has also launched as many as 10 renewable energy projects to harness solar energy with an aggregated capacity of 620 MW. The company is also operating 9 power plants under joint ven-

ture and subsidiaries, he said. NTPC has also ventured in the field of Wind Power generation as well as Solar Power gener-ation in view of the govern-ment of India’s ambitious plan of promoting New & Renew-able Sources of energy in the country.

The Koldam Hydro Power Plant, Sanjeev Kishore, informed, was meeting the energy needs of the northern region states viz, Himachal, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, UP and Uttarakhand, where power is being distributed as per the Power Purchase Agree-ments (PPAs) with these states. The state of Himachal Pradesh, Sanjeev Kishore added was also getting 13 per cent of power generated which includes 12 percent power as royalty and 1 percent for Local Area Devel-opment Fund.

MPOST BUREAU

NEW DELHI: Honda Cars India Ltd. (HCIL), leading manufacturer of passenger cars in India, registered monthly domestic sales of 18,950 units in March 2017 against 17,430 units in the corresponding month last year, registering a growth of 8.7%.

New models in the HCIL line-up, including New City 2017 and Sporty Lifestyle Vehi-cle Honda WR-V, contrib-uted significantly to this sales growth.

Mr. Yoichiro Ueno, Pres-ident and CEO, Honda Cars India Ltd. said, “Strong sales momentum for our latest offer-ings in the market, New Honda

City 2017 and Honda WR-V, helped us achieve good sales result during March 2017. We are thankful to our customers for their support to Honda.” “As we enter into the new fis-cal year, we are confident of a strong show in 2017-18 with a robust product-portfolio and good demand from the market.”

HCIL also exported a total of 145 units in March 2017.

NTPC’s 800-MW Koldam Hydro Power Station exceeds all generation targets

Honda Cars India registers 8.7% growth in domestic

sales in March 2017

BSE awaiting Sebi nod for commodity trading: CEO

NEW DELHI: Top stock exchange BSE is ready to launch trading in commodity derivatives and is wait-ing for the final approval of markets regulator Sebi to commence operations, its chief Ashish Chauhan has said.

BSE will offer trading in these products on a sepa-rate platform as against an earlier proposal to launch an entirely new exchange because the merger of erst-while commodities regulator FMC with Sebi led to a unified marketplace for both equity and commodities.

It plans to offer derivatives trading in select com-modities to begin with, while it will look at new prod-ucts as and when they are allowed by the regulator, Chauhan said in an interview.

“We had applied to Sebi when FMC was there (as an independent regulator) and we were in process of applying to FMC also and had written to them that we want to set up a commodities derivative exchange. That was more than two years ago,” he said.

“Then, FMC was merged with Sebi and then we were told that even stock exchanges can now also do commodities as a segment. So, we applied accordingly soon after and we are awaiting the approvals. As soon as the approvals come, we will start,” he added.

Asserting that all necessary ground-work has been done by BSE, he said: “We have already got the soft-ware made, we have got the team which can do sales, clearing, a lot of other preparations are in place. Mock trading has also happened.”

On the products, Chauhan said, “Whatever prod-ucts are currently allowed, we should be comfortable trading in those and as and when new products are allowed, we can always look at them.”

There are two major exchanges for commodity derivatives, MCX and NCDEX, while Anil Ambani-led Reliance Group is also betting big on this segment and is in process of relaunching the Indian Commod-ity Exchange (ICEX).

BSE, which recently got listed after a bumper IPO, has expanded successfully in a number of areas in recent years and has seen business soar significantly in several segments including in mutual fund distri-bution, debt placement, currency derivatives and SME segment, besides equity markets. PTI

FPI inflows at record Rs 57,000 cr in MarchNEW DELHI: Foreign investors pumped in a record Rs 57,000 crore in Indian capital markets in March, buoyed by expectations that BJP’s victory in assembly polls is a precursor to more “bold, reformist policies”.With the latest funds mobilisation, net investment by FPIs in the capital markets -- equity and debt -- reached a little over Rs 49,000 crore in 2016-17. In the just-concluded fiscal, FPIs invested a net sum of over Rs 56,000 crore in equities while they pulled out Rs 7,000 crore from the debt market. According to depository data, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) infused a net sum of Rs 31,327 crore in equities in March and another Rs 25,617 crore in the debt segment, translating into a combined inflow of Rs 56,944 crore (USD 8.7 billion).This was the highest net inflow by FPIs in a single month since 2002 when segre-gated data for equities and debt were available with Sebi. The latest inflows follow a net investment of Rs 15,862 crore in equity and debt in February. PTI

NEW DELHI: Leading stock exchange BSE will start charging transaction fee on per trade basis from tomorrow, a move that is expected to attract a larger number of big deals. Under the new system, it will charge Re 1 per trade for up to 5 lakh transactions in a month; 70 paise for 5-10 lakh; 60 paise for 10-20 lakh and 30 paise for over 40 lakh.

Earlier, the exchange charged a flat Rs 275 per crore on a gross turnover of Rs 1 crore. Market experts said the move is part of BSE’s effort to increase its trad-ing volumes and attracts more block and bulk deals.

Besides, BSE would levy a flat transaction charge of Rs 10 per crore of turnover on both active and pas-sive trades done on its currency derivative segment.

Earlier, Rs 10 per crore transaction fee was levied on only active side of the trade transaction on cur-rency future contracts. Similarly, for currency options contract the transaction fee was also Rs 10 per crore active side of the transaction on premium value. PTI

BSE to charge for each equity trade from today

CIL gets ready to tap into coal bed methane, gasification

NEW DELHI: The state-owned Coal India is ready-ing an action plan to tap coal bed methane and gasification to keep a lid on emission and cut down India’s dependence of imported petro products, a top official said.

“Coal India (CIL) is making an action plan. Under the plan, the PSU will have to come out with projects on coal bed meth-ane, gasification (underground and surface), coal to liquid and polychemical,” Coal Secretary Susheel Kumar said.

Underground coal gasifi-cation (UCG) is extraction of energy from coal and lignite resources that are otherwise deemed uneconomical through conventional mining methods.

The plan of action, Kumar said, will be monitored by the coal ministry.

“We want that at least the pilot should come... Let’s hope that it happens sooner than later because... a new vista will open for us,” the secretary said.

He is optimistic that the

move will help the country reduce its emission intensity and dependence on petroleum and gas imports.

CIL consultancy arm CMPDI recently sought appli-cations from global firms on providing consultancy on for-mulating bid documents with regard to development of UCG projects. The secretary had earlier said the domestic coal

gas can be used as a feedstock for producing urea and other chemicals that can help limit the country’s import bill by $10 billion in five years and cut car-bon emission.

Kumar hoped that India’s dependence on petroleum and natural gas can be reduced or done away with if the country manages to extract gas from coal. PTI

Will change security marks of banknotes every 3-4 yrs: Govt

NEW DELHI: To check coun-terfeiting, the government plans to change security fea-tures of higher denomination banknotes of Rs 2,000 and Rs 500 every 3-4 years in accor-dance with global standards.

The move comes in the wake of recovery of a large amount of fake Indian cur-rency notes in last four months after demonetisation.

The issue was discussed threadbare at a high-level meeting on Thursday attended by senior officials of the min-istries of Finance and Home, including Union Home Secre-tary Rajiv Mehrishi. Advocat-ing the move, Home Ministry officials said most of the devel-oped countries change security features of their currency notes every 3-4 years and therefore, it is absolutely necessary for India to follow this policy.

The change in design of Indian currency notes of higher denominations was long due. Till its demonetisation, there had been no major change in the Rs 1,000 note since its introduction in 2000. Changes in the old Rs 500 note, which was launched in 1987, were car-ried out more than a decade ago. The newly introduced notes had no additional secu-rity features and were similar to those in the old Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 notes, officials said.

A close look by the investi-gators on some of the recently seized fake notes found that at least 11 of the 17 security fea-tures in the new Rs 2,000 notes had been replicated.

These included the trans-parent area, watermark,

Ashoka Pillar emblem, the letters ‘Rs 2000’ on the left, the guarantee clause with the Reserve Bank of India Gover-nor’s signature and the denom-ination number in Devanagari on the front, officials said.

Besides, the motif of ‘Chan-drayaan’, the ‘Swachh Bharat’ logo and the year of printing

had been copied on the reverse side. Although the print and paper quality of the seized counterfeits was poor, they resembled genuine notes.

The officials said the change of security features of currency notes in every 3-4 years will lead to curbing of counterfeit-ing to a great extent. PTI

RBI should focus on NPA resolution: Assocham NEW DELHI: The banking system in India is facing the challenge of bad loans and the RBI should focus on resolving it for the time being, an industry body has said. Even though interest rates are benign, credit offtake has remained at historic lows, clearly pointing out that the big-gest problem the economy is facing is stressed assets, Assocham said. The estimated bad and stressed assets are at around Rs 7 lakh crore, it said adding that the focus of the upcoming meeting of RBI’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) next week has to be on working closely with the government and banks to resolve the mounting non-performing assets (NPAs). PTI

Coal Secretary Susheel Kumar

Jaitley, Kamath discuss NDB’s

India ops, project pipeline

NEW DELHI: Finance Minis-ter Arun Jaitley discussed vari-ous issues, including issuance of masala bonds and future plans of the New Development Bank (NDB) during his meet-ing with the head of the mul-tilateral funding agency K V Kamath.

The bilateral meeting, which took place yesterday, focused on the steps required in expanding the bank’s opera-tions in India, including proj-ect pipeline.

They also discussed the bank’s operational plans for 2017, the Finance Ministry said in a statement issued on Sunday.

The forthcoming masala bond issuance by the NDB was also discussed, it said.

The NDB, which is hold-ing a three-day Board of Gov-ernors and Directors meeting here, was created by the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries with an objective of financing infrastructure and sustainable development projects in its member countries.

NDB complements the efforts of other existing finan-cial institutions to realise the common goal of global growth. The founding members of the NDB have put in capital of $ 1.5 billion thus far as capital contribution.

The NDB is also planning to raise up to $500 million through ‘masala bonds’ and increase its exposure to infra-structure projects in India to around $600-700 million dur-ing the year. PTI

Tata Motors arm to export Made-in-India robot to EuropeNEW DELHI: Tata Motors on Sunday said its subsidiary TAL Manufacturing has received ‘CE’ certification for Made-in-India robot ‘BRABO’ for its commercial sale in Europe.

“The TAL BRABO now complies with essen-tial requirements relevant to European health, safety and environmental legislation, permitting export of the TAL BRABO Robot to custom-ers in Europe,” Tata Motors said in a statement.

It said the BRABO can be used for varied

applications like pick and placement of materi-als, assembly of parts, machine and press tend-ing, as a sealing application, camera and vision based jobs, among others.

The BRABO can also complement human workforce by taking over dull, dangerous and monotonous jobs. With the BRABO, TAL Man-ufacturing will focus on automotive, electronics, logistics, food, packaging, pharmaceutical and other industries. PTI

mp sport14MILLENNIUM POST | Kolkata | Monday, 3 April, 2017

I would like to thank the crowd, the spectators, they were really very nice and being the home ground, it was an extremely good experience for me

India eves beat Uruguay in HWL Round 2 opener

WEST VANCOUVER: The Indian women’s team beat Uruguay 4-2 in the penalty shootout to begin their cam-paign in the Women’s Hockey World League Round 2 on a winning note here.

Skipper Rani, Monika, Deepika and Navjot Kaur held their nerves to score in the tense penalty shootout that saw them through after the two sides were locked 2-2 at the end of the regulation time.

India got off to a good start and took the lead with skipper Rani scoring as early as in the sixth minute.

India held on to the lead till the third quarter but Uruguay struck their first goal in the 45th minute to equalise through Maria Teresa Viana Ache.

After a quick two-minute

break before the final quarter began, a few key variations brought in by India chief coach Sjoerd Marijne saw Vandana Katariya convert a fine field goal in the 49th min-ute to take 2-1 lead.

But a defensive error in the striking circle in the 54th minute saw the Indian team concede a penalty stroke which was successfully con-verted by Uruguay’s Manu-ela Vilar.

In the last six minutes, the Indian forwards made forays into the opposition striking circle but could not fetch a goal eventually leading the match to a penalty shootout.

With the experienced goalkeeper Savita producing a good show, India held their nerves to win 4-2 in the excit-ing penalty shootout. AGENCIES

Indian and Uruguay women's hockey players in action during Women's Hockey World League Round 2 match in Canada PTI

LYON(FRANCE): Angel Di Maria scored one goal and set up two more as Paris Saint-Germain thrashed Monaco 4-1 to lift the French League Cup for the fourth successive season.

Julian Draxler fired PSG ahead with just four minutes played in the final in Lyon, but Thomas Lemar levelled for Monaco before the half hour.

Argentine international Di Maria restored the lead for Unai Emery's side a minute before half-time and Edinson Cavani sealed a record sev-enth title for PSG with a clini-cal second-half brace.

After the shock of their Champions League last 16 collapse against Barcelona in the second leg, a third meeting with Ligue 1 leaders Monaco this season presented an opportunity for redemption for PSG.

Monaco's Radamel Falcao failed to shake off a nagging hip injury that has sidelined the Colombian since March 11, but Thiago Motta returned to the PSG line-up for his first start in six weeks.

PSG have dominated the competition in recent seasons – Monaco's last major trophy came when they won the 2003 final – and the holders stormed into an early lead albeit in con-troversial circumstances.

Verratti slipped Di Maria in behind the defence, with the Argentine electing to unself-

ishly slide the ball across for Draxler to tap home. Monaco shrugged off that setback as Lemar replied with a fine equaliser on 27 minutes.

Bernardo Silva's chipped pass found Djibril Sidibe inside the area and the France full-back laid the ball back for Lemar to expertly sweep home

from the edge of the box.Cavani thought he had put

PSG back in front as he reacted quickest to Thiago Silva's tow-ering back-post header, but the Uruguayan's goal-bound flick was superbly kept out by Danijel Subasic before the Croat smothered the rebound.

However there was noth-

ing the Monaco keeper could do as Di Maria stabbed low into the corner with half-time approaching after Draxler dis-played remarkable balance to feed the unmarked Argentine.

Joao Moutinho fizzed a shot just over the crossbar fol-lowing the interval, but PSG landed the fatal blow on 54 minutes as Cavani hammered past Subasic after a sublime floated cross from Verratti.

Benjamin Mendy went close to halving the deficit with a stinging effort, but Cavani should have netted his sec-ond and sealed the outcome when he steered wide from Di Maria's delivery from the left.

Substitute Irvin Cardona flashed a header just wide of Kevin Trapp's left-hand post, while Subasic dived at full-stretch to palm away a Di Maria effort with the outside of the boot.

But the Argentine com-bined with Cavani in the final minute to add a fourth for PSG as the Uruguayan pow-ered home Di Maria's cross from close range to cap a con-vincing triumph. AGENCIES

Di Maria sparkles as PSG retain French League Cup

MIAMI: Johanna Konta defeated Caroline Wozniacki 6-4, 6-3 to win the Miami Open - the biggest title won by a Brit-ish woman in 40 years.

Konta, who had never won an elite WTA premier manda-tory event, will move to num-ber seven in the world rankings with the victory.

The Sydney-born 25-year-old, who beat Venus Williams in the semi-final, began superbly, breaking to love in the opening game before Wozniacki swiftly broke back to level at 2-2.

After another break each, the Briton took advantage of two double-faults from the Dane to break to 5-4 and serve out for the set.

There was a similar pattern to the start of the second set, with the pair exchanging breaks in the first two game.

The key moment came when Konta broke to go 4-3 up, with a little help from the net cord.

Clearly full of confidence, Konta then broke again, with a lob on match-point, to secure the biggest win of her career and the best by a British woman since Virginia Wade won Wim-bledon in 1977.

No British woman had ever won a premier mandatory event since the elite tier was intro-duced in 2009 and this was only the second time that Konta had even qualified for the Miami tournament. The Briton said her quick start had really helped her in what was just her second premier mandatory final, fol-lowing her loss to Agnieszka Radwanska in Beijing in 2016.

"Going into any match but especially against someone like Caroline who is such an athlete and can really stay out there

as long as she needs, I think it was important for me to assert myself right away in the man-ner that I wanted to play ... to give myself the best chance of executing what I wanted tacti-cally," Konta said.

Konta conceded that there was little to choose between her-self and her Danish opponent, who she also beat in the Aus-tralian Open in January.

"Until the end there wasn't too much in it. I tried to not wish time away and to really stay out there as long as pos-sible and really enjoy compet-ing. I think even when it was finished I was expecting more points to come," she said.

It was Wozniacki's third final of the year and third defeat fol-lowing her loses in Dubai and Doha. "I was hoping it was going to be third time lucky in my third final but we will go for the fourth one," said Wozniacki, who nonetheless said she was pleased with the consistency she has shown in the first quarter of the season.

"I think I can take a lot out of this first part of year in general. I think I can take a lot of positives from that and just build on it.” AGENCIES

Konta overpowers Wozniacki to win Miami WTA title

Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark (left) and Johanna Konta of Britain pose with their trophies after the woman's singles final at the Miami Open tennis tournament PTI

Johanna Konta secured the biggest win of her career and the best by a British woman since Virginia Wade won Wimbledon in 1977

LEON (MEXICO): Leander Paes on Sunday won his first title of the season, combining with Canadian Adil Shamas-din to lift the Leon Challenger Tour tennis tournament's men's doubles trophy after a straight-set triumph here.

Paes, who was named a reserve in India's Davis Cup team for the Uzbekistan tie, and Shamasdin defeated Luca Margaroli (Switzerland) and Caro Zampieri (Brazil) 6-1 6-4 in the title clash at the $75,000 hard court event.

With this win, Paes clinched his 20th ATP Challenger title. Paes has now won at least one title every year for the past 26 years. This was Paes' first final this season.

The last title Paes won on the ATP World Tour was in 2015 when he triumphed at Auckland with South African Raven Klaasen. AGENCIES

NEW DELHI: The All India Football Federation (AIFF) on Sunday announced the launch of a new invitational multi-con-tinental Champions Cup com-petition in August.

The Champions Cup may possibly see participation of four countries from an Asia, Africa and North America including hosts India.

“We are quite excited at the prospect of introducing the new Champions Cup from 2017. AIFF and its partner FSDL have worked together over the last couple of months in study-ing the past and current year’s National Team engagements and how other countries are performing in Asia,” AIFF Gen-eral Secretary Kushal Das said.

“We are in talks with vari-ous Football Associations from AFC, CAF and CONCACAF. We envision to consistently climb through the FIFA Rank-ing charts by playing matches against good opponents,” he added. AGENCIES

AIFF to launch new 4-nation

Champions Cup football tourney

Paes wins first title of season in Challenger tournament

Rio revenge: Sindhu conquers Marin to win maiden India Open

NEW DELHI: Indian Cricket Board's move to stall the pro-posed constitutional and financial reforms in the ICC may suffer a roadblock if BCCI tries to send N Srinivasan as its representative at the world body's Board Meeting.

It was also learnt that Com-mittee Of Administrators (COA) may just spring into action if Srinivasan, who is 72 years old, becomes BCCI's representative at the global body's forum.

There are rumours that Srinivasan will have back-ing of majority of state units at the BCCI Special General Meeting, tentatively sched-uled for April 9 but this move can mean that Bangladesh and Sri Lanka will no longer sup-port India.

"The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) is very wary of Srinivasan. They have not for-gotten the kind of insult the then ICC President Mustafa Kamal faced at the 2015 World Cup in Australia. Bangladesh for certain will not be with India if Srinivasan is BCCI's choice at ICC Board Meet," a senior BCCI source privy to development said.

Even Sri Lanka might have other thoughts, ditto for Zim-babwe as India require three votes to stop the reforms.

"If the reform proposals come up for voting and Srini-vasan is BCCI representative,

don't be surprised if BCCI lose 1-9 or 2-8 may be," the source said. In the last two ICC meet-ings, the BCCI has been rep-resented by Vikram Limaye. The ICC AGM will be held in Dubai on April 27-28

While COA head Vinod Rai has made it clear that the office bearers don't need their approval to convene an SGM but any deviation from Supreme Court order will make them step in.

A lot of BCCI officials are still N Srinivasan confi-dants including joint secre-tary Amitabh Chaudhary and treasurer Aniruddh Chaudhry.

"The COA is keeping a tab of things. Srinivasan in any case is ineligible to attend the so-called SGM as he is above 70 years and is on the wrong side of all the Lodha Committee reforms. Also one shouldn't assume that Srini-vasan's nomination as BCCI representative for ICC meet-ing will be a cakewalk," the source said.

It is being speculated that Srinivasan is eying the inde-pendent chairman's posi-tion as current incumbent Shashank Manohar has told the Board that he will com-plete his current responsibili-ties and then leave. Manohar had resigned last month only to reconsider his decision with important reform work still pending. AGENCIES

B’desh, Sri Lanka may not be with BCCI if Srinivasan comes to ICC

COA to meet BCCI officials on April 5 in HyderabadNEW DELHI: The Committee of Administrators has summoned the BCCI office-bearers for a meeting in Hyderabad on April 5. The meeting will be held with se-nior vice-president CK Khanna, joint secretary Amitabh Chaudhary and treasurer Aniruddh Chaudhry, who are all expected to be in the cyber city, for the opening ceremony of the 10th edition of the Indian Premier League. It is learnt that both Vinod Rai and Vikram Limaye will be meeting the three office-bearers to ensure smooth conduct of the IPL. AGENCIES

Aditi makes cut at ANA Inspiration golf

CALIFORNIA (US): Aditi Ashok made her first cut in a Major with a second round three-under 69 and then pro-ceeded to compile a no-frills 72 in the third to get to three-under 213 and a highly cred-itable Tied-23 position in the ANA Inspiration, the year’s first Major women. The sec-ond round was completed on Saturday, which also saw third round action.

Aditi, who turned 19 a day before the event, has now carded 72-69-72 and is 10 shots behind the 2014 champion, Lexi Thompson who sits atop a packed leaderboard at 13-under par after 54 holes. Lexi leads Suzann Pettersen by two-strokes and has a large group of pursu-ers within five shots of the lead.

Aditi, who is playing the LPGA Tour this year on a lim-

ited status, was once again accu-rate of the tees as she has found over 75% of the fairways in three rounds. She needed 28 putts in the third round, as against 25 in second, but as on the second day, she found only 10 of the 18 greens regulation.

Yet, as Tied-23rd, she has a great chance to make a bid for her first Top-15 in the Majors, as she sits just two shots away from the eight-player bunch at five-under.

Aditi’s only appearance on the LPGA this season saw her finish T-52nd at the Women’s Australian Open. It is only the fifth career start on LPGA for Aditi, which include a missed cut at her Major debut in Wom-en’s British Open in 2016.

Meanwhile, Thompson is looking to take another leap into Poppie’s Pond and pick up her second major championship and first win of the 2017 season. She carded six birdies on the day to finish at 5-under, hitting 18 of 18 greens in regulation.

Pettersen, the 15-time LPGA winner has finished in the top-10 at Mission Hills seven times, including three times a runner-up. Pettersen, whose last victory came at the 2015 Manulife LPGA Classic, had two bogeys and six birdies to card a 4-under 68 in her third round. Mi Jung Hur, Minjee Lee, Inbee Park and So Yeon Ryu sit three back of Thompson at 10-under par. AGENCIES

ABRESHMINA S QUADRI

NEW DELHI: Revenge tastes sweet and more so on home turf. In a pulsating final, Rio Olympics silver medallist and world no. 5 Pusarla Ventaka Sindhu downed the Rio Olym-pics gold medal winner Caro-lina Marin of Spain in straight sets to win her maiden India Open title at the Siri Fort Sports Complex, here on Sunday.

In Olympics 2016, Sindhu had gone down fighting but on Sunday, she turned that

fight into victory and beat Marin 21-19, 21-16

in the women’s sin-gles final of Yonex Sunrise India Open Super Series.

Unlike the Rio final, Sindhu didn’t enter the court with a flashing smile and it seemed like this time around, she was ready

to

reserve her happiness and smile only for the ultimate glory.

Sindhu lost the first

point of the game but imme-diately after, she restored parity and the packed stadium echoed with thunderous applause.

Sindhu then won five points in a row to take a big 6-1 lead but Marin soon crawled back to take the next three points to make it 6-4.

The two women engaged each other in rallies trying to squeeze out points as they played cross court and made each other run for every point. With a perfect drop shot, Sindhu went into the break with an 11-9 lead.

Marin stayed neck-and-neck with the Indian and finally managed to draw level. At 17-17, Sindhu did the mis-take of constantly just blocking Marin’s aggressive shots and thus Marin took the lead for the first time in the game.

As she berated herself for giving away the lead, Sindhu came back with some fiery set of shots even as Marin found it difficult to keep her strikes in. Despite going down late in the set, Sindhu went on to win the crucial first set 21-19.

Sindhu said after the match, “I think the first game was cru-cial for the both of us and I’m happy I could pocket that and carry the momentum with me.”

The Hyderabadi girl started the second set just where she left the previous opening a 4-0 lead.

Sindhu seemed to be apply-ing the same strategy that she did against Marin in Rio Olym-pics as she kept most of her

serves high and put herself into an attacking position.

Even as Marin’s scream rung the stadium every time she won a point, much like Rio, this time it was Sindhu who was seen breaking her oppo-nent’s momentum but delaying Marin’s serves.

Marin persisted for long but broke down after a point as many a times it were her way-ward shots and her nervousness that gave Sindhu an upper hand.

Sindhu never let the opportunity slip and finished off the set 21-16 to become only the second Indian after Saina Nehwal to win the pres-tigious title.

This is also her second title of the season at home afterwin-ning the Syed Modi Grand Prix in Lucknow early this year and

her second Super Series title post winning the China Open Super Series in November 2016.

Though disheartened, Marin congratulated Sindhu and said, “I have been getting better now after battling with injuries and I’m happy with my performance.”

“On-court we might be rivals but off-court we are very good friends and I am happy for her that she won as she was the better player on the day,” the Spaniard added about Sindhu.

Earlier in the day, Viktor Axelsen lived up to his top billing in the tournament as he fended off Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei 21-13, 21-10 to lift his maiden title in India.

Throughout the game, it was Victor who held the charges and Chou seemed far too fragile for the mightiness of the world no. 4.

In the men’s doubles clash, top seeded Marcus Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya of Indonesia beat their compatriots Ricky Karan-dasuwardi and Angga Pratama 21-11, 21-15 without breaking much sweat to win the title.

In the women’s doubles, it was an all-Japan affair with Shiho Tanaka and Koharu Yonemoto, seeded seventh, get-ting better of third seeds Naoko Fukuman and Kurumi Yonao 16-21, 21-19, 21-10.

The mixed doubles title went to Lu Kai and Huang Yaqiong of China after the beat their com-patriots Zheng Siwei and Chen Qingchen 22-24, 21-14, 21-17.PTI

MPOST

mp Entertainment 15MILLENNIUM POST | Kolkata | Monday, 3 April, 2017

age limit from ‘America’s Next

Top Model’

MUMBAI: Filmmaker Karan Johar says April will witness the biggest movie event ever as the two parts in the Baahubali fran-chise will release within a span of two weeks. He also said “Baa-hubali: The conclusion” is going to be “bigger” and “grander”.

Ahead of the release of Baahubali: The Conclusion on April 28, the first part is being re-released in select theatres on April 7.

“When a movie continues to be topical for two years, you know people love every bit of it! Both, exhibitors and film

lovers, have approached us to make ‘Baahubali’ a binge-watching experience,” Karan, who will be distribut-ing the Hindi version of the film, said in a statement.

“Hence, we are re-releasing the first part on April 7 with a special offer that takes care of tickets for both parts. We’re excited. April will witness the biggest movie event ever,” he said.

The franchise has a huge fan following owing to its larger-than-life content and fans are eagerly looking forward to watch Prabhas and the entire cast go a notch higher than its predecessor in giv-ing the audience a splendid cinematic experience.

Produced by Arka Entertainment, directed by S.S. Rajamouli, the film stars Prabhas in the title role in addition to Rana Daggubati, Tamannaah Bhatia, Anushka Shetty, Sathyaraj and Ramya Krishnan in pivotal roles. IANS

NEW DELHI: She has been married for over three decades to veteran lyricist Javed Akhtar and has essayed powerful roles in Bollywood in her 44-year journey. Acclaimed performer and social activist Shabana Azmi doesn’t see mar-riage as a “disqualification” for female actors in the Hindi film industry. “I think it is a very old way of thinking that marriage is detrimental to the careers of female actors. This is no longer the case... To say that marriage is a disqualification for parts, I do not agree with it,” Shabana said.  The 66-year-old star says actors get married at an appropriate age now.

“What happens is girls get married at an age when they are ready for it, by which time they have played their parts as leading ladies that are sort of in the heroine mode. By the time they get married, they look for more substan-tial parts and so the parts that come their way are appropriate to their age,” added the actor, who was feted with Padma Shri in 1988. Sha-bana, who through her work strongly supports the empowerment of women, says the role of women in Indian cinema has changed greatly.

“If you look at the 1960s, you see Meena Kumari was the heroine for the film that was titled ‘Main Chup Rahungi’ – remaining silent was considered a virtue for women,” she said, adding how it was left to the parallel cinema to portray women differently. “This fortunately is changing... Because of the weight that many of our female actors have brought to the films and their parts, more and more such films are being written, and importantly they are being commercially successful.”

“We can’t say that we want films about empowered women, change and justice unless these are films that are going to be embraced by the audience,” added the actor, who has worked in films like Ankur, Arth, Fire, Makdee and Neerja. All said and done, Shabana says produc-ers who pump in a lot money into films are here for business. “Some feel strongly about being committed to a social cause, others feel strongly committed to entertainment – both are equally valid because finally it’s a choice each artiste has to make,” she added. Shabana feels the film industry is age-centric, but this is also changing.

“If you look in my own career graph in the last 10 years, probably I have had the most chal-lenging roles of my life... I was just recounting to somebody that I have five films lined up for release. Two of them are American productions – one is called Signature Move and the other is The Black Prince.” IANS

Marriage not a disqualification

in Bollywood

‘Girls get married at an age when they are ready for it, after playing their parts as leading ladies and by then, they look for more substantial parts in the movies and so the parts that come their way are appropriate to their age’

MUMBAI: Actor Jackie Shroff says it is not easy being a star kid as they are under constant scrutiny and pres-sure to outdo the work of their par-ents. Jackie, whose son Tiger is also in films, believes the biggest challenge for star kids is to come out of their fam-ily’s shadow and make an identity for themselves.

“They have a burden in their heads, of their father, mother, family. They have the pressure to succeed. Star kids have to come out of the shadow of their fathers, be it me, Bachchan sir (Amitabh Bachchan), Dharmendra, Vinod sir (Vinod Khanna). There are

so many people watching you, have expectations from you,” Jackie said. “It isn’t easy being a star kid that way when you have to tackle all the pressure and still make your mark. It’s (acting) in the genes, if they have it they will use it and make wonders for themselves. Nobody can take away your talent,” he adds.

The actor says though he is a celeb-rity, his son Tiger never grew up like a “star kid” and was always grounded and humble.

“As a kid, he was lovely. He was on his own, never bothered about any-thing else but his sports and friends. When I first saw him in the incubator,

he had a smile on his face. Usually kids cry but he was smiling. I still remember that moment. He is still the same and I like it,” Jackie says.

The 60-year-old actor has recently featured in a short film titled Khujli which also stars Neena Gupta. The 15-minute film, produced by Terribly Tiny Talkies, narrates the story of a middle aged couple who try to rekindle their sex life.

“I was laughing when the script came to me. The way director, Sonam Nair, narrated it to me I had a hearty laugh. I just couldn’t say no. The script took me inside. It isn’t really a sex com-

edy, by the general standard. There is a message in their too conveyed with grace.” Jackie says over the years, the emotion of love has remained the same but the process of expressing it has undergone a huge change.

“Definition of love may not have changed but this generation definitely has no time. All the emotions stay the same but timing is a problem. Every-thing has been squeezed into the digital medium. “There is no time for looking into the eyes. The love in the old days had a certain grace, quintessential feel to it. Now everybody is busy in their phones,” he adds. PTI

‘Baahubali 2’ release biggest

movie event ever: KJo

Star kids have a burden to succeed: Jackie

LOS ANGELES: Prince Jackson has hon-ored his father Michael Jackson with a tribute tattoo that captures the King of Pop in one of his signature dance moves. The 20-year-old got inked on his calf and revealed the tattoo on Instagram.

“Thanks @dermagraphink for sitting 9hrs with me for such an incredible and beautiful tat-too,” Prince wrote on Instagram, alongside a video of his new ink which features the late singer in black suspenders, a match-ing jacket, a red shirt, a black and red fedora and his signa-ture white sparkling glove, as

well as wings.Both Prince,

who was 11 when Michael died in 2009, and his sister Paris Jackson have many tattoos. In 2016, she got two

honoring their dad. One reads “Queen of

My Heart” in his hand-writing and other one is

the cover art for his 1991 album Dangerous. They recently got matching Yin and Yang sym-bols inked on their ankles. PTI

LOS ANGELES: Tyra Banks has reclaimed her position as the head of ‘America’s Next Top Model’ (ANTM) judging panel and the supermodel has removed the contestant age limit from the show.

The television producer has announced she is remov-ing the age limit from the ‘ANTM’ contestant applica-tion, opening the modeling competition up to contend-ers of all ages.

“There have been 23 cycles of America’s Next Top

Model, and every single cycle we say you have to be 27 years old

or younger.“You know what I hear all the

time? ‘Tyra, come on! Why have an age limit?’ So, you know what? I’m taking that age limit off. You want to audition for America’s Next Top Model? I don t care how old you are, honey,” Banks said in a video message she tweeted.

Banks, however, asks poten-tial contestants to come pre-pared to do two things: “You just need to know how to ‘smize’ and be open to learning how to work the runway like a super-model,” she says. Banks recently confirmed she would return to the show she launched back in 2003. PTI

Tyra Banks removes LONDON: Actor Joe Man-

ganiello is very excited about his role as Deathstroke in The Batman opposite Ben Affleck.

The 40-year-old actor will play Slade Wilson aka Death-stroke opposite Affleck in the title role in the upcoming DC blockbuster, and he couldn’t be happier about it as he’s always rooted for the villain when watching similar films, reported Contactmusic.

“I’m very excited. I just started kung fu, qigong and cutting with a live katana

blade. That’s been a lot of fun. I grew up rooting for the vil-lain,” he says.

“These characters mean so much to so many people and there’s a real opportunity

to polarise an audience or have them walk away maybe not agreeing with my char-acter but understanding why he does what he does. That’s a really fun challenge.” PTI

Joe Manganiello excited for The Batman role

Prince Jackson honours father with new tattoo

LOS ANGELES: Music legend Elton John says he urged Ed Sheeran to take a career break after becoming sick of seeing the pop star’s face follow-ing the huge suc-cess of his 2014 album ‘X.’ 

The rock icon has served as a mentor to Sheeran ever since he signed his fellow Brit to his management firm Rocket Music earlier on in his career.

While he’s proud of the 26-year-old singer’s achievements so far, Elton feared Ed had started to become too overexposed – so he advised him to enjoy a lengthy getaway, reported

Rolling Stone magazine.“He was so omnipresent I

said, ‘Ed, even I’m sick of you. Go away.’ And he did. He went to the Far East with his girl-friend, had a great time, put on a lot of weight, ate food and

came back,” John said. PTI

I was ‘sick’ of Ed Sheeran after his success: Elton

16 MILLENNIUM POST | Kolkata | Monday, 3 April, 2017

Mamata BandyopadhyayMamata BandyopadhyayHon’ble Chief Minister of West Bengal

Paschim Medinipur radiant in the light of Development

Inauguration of a cluster of projects, laying of foundation stones and providing services

3 April, 2017 Venue: Kharagpur College Ground • Time: 4p.m

INAUGURATION

LAYING OF FOUNDATION STONES

PROVIDING SERVICES

DIGNITARIES TO BE PRESENT

Krishak Bazar in Chandrakona-I Block • Market Complex at Udaypur in Medinipur Sadar Block and near Shalboni Bazar Haat in Shalboni Block • Water Supply Projects: Bachhrakundu, Gobindapur, Sahapur, Chandpur and Durgapur in Daspur-I Block and Anandapur-Sundarpur in Ghatal Block • Multi-Purpose Flood and Cyclone Shelter at Samsara Mouza in Pingla Block • Newly constructed two-storied office of the Block Animal Development Officer and of Block Animal Health Centre in Garbeta-II Block • Roads: 3 in Debra Block, 8 in Garbeta-1 Block,1 in Garbeta-III Block, 1 in Chandrakona-I Block, 1 in Chandrakona-II Block, 9 in Kharagpur-II Block, 2 in Medinipur Sadar Block, 2 in Shalboni Block, 3 in Keshiary Block, 1 in Ghatal Block, 2 in Daspur-I Block, 1 in Dantan-II Block and 3 in Naryangarh Block • Widening and strengthening of roads: Amlagorah Road, MRBS connecting road, from National Highway to Kharagpur Bypass four- point crossing and Radhanagar-Birsingha-Kharar road • Upgradation of Sonakoniya Bypass Road • Road by the side of the Vidyasagar Industrial Hub of Kharagpur from Odisha Main Road and Culvert • Anganwadi Centres: 9 in Medinipur Sadar Block, 6 in Daspur-I Block, 1 in Debra Block, and 1 in Naryangarh Block • Passengers’ Waiting-Room at Kamala and Turapara in Shalboni Block • Sub-Health Centres: at Godabazar in Debra Block, Metala, Kiyamacha Chhotonakdona and Jirapara in Garbeta-II Block, Bhasra and Borar in Keshyeary Block and at Agar in Naryangarh Block • Mini Indoor-Games Complex: At Moupal Deshapran Vidyapith in Shalboni Block, Barunighat Ramkrishna High School in Chandrakona-II Block, Ghatal Alui High School, Sharharang Madhusudan Vidyapith in Dantan-I Block and at Chakmakrampur High School in Kharagpur-II Block • Mini Indoor Games-cum Recreation Bhawan at Nachhipur Adivasi High School in Keshiary Block, at Ujan Haripada High School and at Barisha Vidyasagar Vidyapith in Pingla Block • Newly constructed office and Godown of Ghanarampur Vivekanda Co-operative Agriculture Development Society in Chandrakona-II Block • Nepura Junior High School in Medinipur Sadar Block • BoundaryWall of Nayagram Primary School and Dherua Anchal Shatabala High School in Medinipur Sadar Block • Computer Training Centre at Dakshin Bengai in Medinipur Sadar Block • Staff Quarters of Block Primary Health Centre and Boundary wall of Hospital Building at Chandra De Para in Medinipur Sadar Block • Building of Training Centre for Self-Help Group and Self-Employment at Panchkhuri in Medinipur Sadar Block • Building for Residential Training Centre at the ground of Medinipur Sadar Panchayat Samity in Medinipur Sadar Block • Boundary Wall of the Mohanpur Mukta Mancha ground in Medinipur Sadar Block • Solid Waste Management Project at Manik Kundu Gram Panchayat in Chandrakona-I Block • A cluster of Development Projects of the Jangal Mahal Development Project under the Medinipur, Rupnarayan and Kharagpur Forest Division • Protective Wall of Kadra Canal in Garbeta-III Block • Class-room of Kadra High School under Karsha Gram Panchyat in Garbeta-III Block • Fencing of Shalboni Stadium Park in Shalboni Block • Small Deep Tube-Well at Debagram and Garhmal in Shalboni Block • Project foranti-erosion repair work of ex-Zamindari Canal at Ramdebpur Hazra Hana of Rajnagar Gram Panchyat in Daspur-I Block and of Bhasra Canal in Nandanpur-II Gram Panchayat • Dispensary of Makrampur Primary Health Centre at Sarberia-II Gram Panchyat in Daspur-I Block • Project for renovation of SecondaryPrimary Health Centre at Nandanpur-I Gram Panchayat in Daspur-I Block • New Building for Renjura Ashram Hostel in Dantan-II Block • Boundary wall of PHC at Sandhipur in Garbeta-I Block • Office of the Block Land & Land Reforms Officer, Sabang • 50-bedded Boys’ Hostel at Balaramgarh High Madrasah in Ghatal Block • Family Welfare and District Vaccination Store exclusively for the District in Paschim Medinipur Sadar • Third floor of the Administrative Building housing the office of the District Land and Land Reforms Officer • Godown with the storage capacity of 2500 MT in the premises of WBSWC in Garbeta Block • Police camp at Kalaimuri in Kharagpur • Culvert Bridges on the gravelled road at Nayabasan and at Tutranga Gram Panchayat in Narayangarh Block • Pathra Bridges at Kunjgeria in Narayangarh Block, on the Medinipur Main Canal, at Palasi Mauza in Debra Block and on Kalaichandi Canal in Medinipur Sadar Block • Primary Schools at Ugroshanda in Narayangarh Block and at Baishnab Chawk in Medinipur Sadar Block • Preservation of the coast- line adjacent to Krishnanagar Temple in Garbeta II Block • Installation of CCTV at Kharagpur Municipality area.

Super Speciality Hospital at Belda • 33/11 KV sub-station at Nija Narajole in Daspur I Block, Anandapur at Keshpur Block and at Hoomgarh in Garbeta II Block • New Government College building in Narayangarh Block • Karmatirtha in Danton II and Mohanpur Blocks • Marketing hub cum Training Centre in Keshpur Block • One road each in Pingla, Sabang, Salboni, Medinipur Sadar, Garbeta III & Narayangarh Blocks • Strengthening and widening of Belda-Keshiari stretch of road on the State Highway-5, of the road from Narajole to Daspur and Medinipur-Keshpur stretch of road on the State Highway-7 • Strengthening of Balighai-Mohanpur-Solpatta road • Expansion of the new shop establishment in the fourth phase at Netaji Subhash Market in Salboni Block • Submersible pumps along with tubewells for drinking water at Muchiberia Mouza of Debgram Gram Panchayat in Salboni Block • New small and deep tubewells for irrigation at Gangashol, Bishnupur, Morulu, Dhengashole, Godamouli and Daha in Salboni Block • Office of the Assistant Agriculture Officer in Salboni Block • 1 quarter for the Medical Officer and 2 quarters for the Nursing Staff at Keshpur Rural Hospital • Boundary Wall for Jalchawk Primary Health Centre in Pingla Block • Sub-Health Centres at Kantorh, Aamjorh and Suniakone in Garbeta II Block and at Kuldiha in Kharagpur II Block • Common Collection Site in Sabang Block • Guest House and its wall at Manidaha Ecopark in Medinipur Sadar Block • Up gradation of Kankabati Community Hall in Medinipur sadar Block • Causeway over Kalaichandi canal on the stretch of road from Malida to Pathra in Medinipur Sadar Block • Anganwadi centres : 1 in Medinipur Sadar, 19 in Garbeta III, 30 in Danton I, 5 in Danton II, 2 in Ghatal, 3 in Sabang, 2 in Daspur II, 6 in Pingla, 2 in Chandrakona II Blocks and 2 in Chandrakona Municipality • Walls of the Chandra Primary School in Medinipur Sadar Block • Gopalpur Park in Medinipur Sadar Block • Footbridge at Kadamdiha in Garbeta II  Block • Pipelined drinking water projects at Chhotopatashole and Dhamcha Churkapara in Garbeta II Block and also in Medinipur Municipality Area •Rest House for patients’ relatives in the Block Primary Health Centre at Kewakol in Garbeta-II Block •Night Shelter for patients’ kith and kin at Ghatal Subdivisional Hospital • RCC pipe-culvert from Makli to Konarpur and RCC box-culvert from Hamargorh to Keyamacha and Chuta over the Kubai Canal in Garbeta II Block • New culvert from Gokulpur Rural Hospital over Sangar road at Benapur in Kharagpur II Block • Road and culvert beside Vidyasagar Industrial Complex of Kharagpur from National Highway-6 • Balarampur II Irrigation Water Project in Garbeta III Block • Mini Indoor Games cum Recreation Buildings at Basudebpur Vidyasagar Vidyapith and Haat Sorberia Dr Bidhan Chandra Roy SS Siksha Sadan in Daspur I Block, At Mahmudpur Mouza in Keshpur Block, at Satyapur Mouza in Debra Block and at Kshirai Shahid Smriti High School in Pingla Block • First floor at Belda Market Complex • Community Hall in Keshpur Block • Fisheries Building in Daspur II Block • Food Godowns with storage capacity of 5000 MT in Garbeta-I and III as well as Keshpur Blocks • Strengthening and widening of TE 2H2 Dam at Debra Police Station •A cluster of growth oriented projects included in the developmental plan of Jangalmahal under Medinipur, Rupnarayanpur and Kharagpur Forest Division.

• Kanyasree • Sikshasree • Yubasree • Cycles under Sabuj Sathi Scheme • Cycles for the ‘Pranimitra’ • Geetanjali Aabas Yojana • Saplings under ‘Sabujsree’ Scheme • Grants under ‘Samarthan’ Scheme • Nets ,Containers, fingerlings, thermo insulated boxes for keeping fishes, vehicles for carrying fishes and cycles fitted with thermo insulated box for the fishermen •Artisan Credit card • Machine for making ropes out of Babui Grass • Anadadhara • Sport Equipments • Vegetable Seeds • Area Expansion Tissue Culture for banana, mango, guava lemon pineapple and flower • Swami Vivekanda Swanirvar Karmasangsthan Prakalpo • Tractor • Setting up of Banks for agricultural implements • Kisan Credit Card • Power Tiller • Pump Set • Sprayer • Thresher • Power Thresher • Kono Weeder • Drum Seeder • SRI Marker • Bon Adhikar Patta • Computers and Books for Library for the students of Ashram Hostel • Retainer fees and Identity Cards for the folk Artistes • Musical instruments for the tribal Artistes • Nijo Ghiro Nijo Bhumi • Grants for conventional paddy barn and community granary • Grants for Van Rickshaw for carrying vegetables • Patta • Provident Fund for the workers of unorganised sectors • Social Security Scheme for the Building and other construction workrs and transport-workers • Cheques for the vegetables – farmers • Grant for preserving Onions • Grants for space for drying up of paddy, implements and construction of granary • Cheques to the Bon Suraksha Committee • Sewing Machine • Dice for making plates out of Sal-leaves • Saplings • Search light • Relief items • Mini Pulse-mill to the Self-Help Groups • Spice-Grinding machine • Portable Vermi-pit • Farmers old age pension • Soil Health Card • Term Loan and Direct Loan • Vending Cart • Implements for the silk farmers and Silk-egg producers.

Sri Churamoni Mahato, Hon’ble Minister, Government of West BengalSri Soumen Kumar Mahapatra, Hon’ble Minister,Government of West BengalSri Indranil Sen, Hon’ble Minister, Government of West Bengal

Dr. Sukumar Hansda, Hon’ble MLASri Dinen Roy, Hon’ble MLASri Mrigendra Nath Maity , Hon’ble MLASri Dulal Murmu, Hon’ble MLASri Srikanta Mahato, Hon’ble MLASri Sankar Dolui, Hon’ble MLASrimati Mamata Bhuiyan, Hon’ble MLASri Prodyout Kumar Ghosh, Hon’ble MLA

Sri Bikram Chandra Pradhan, Hon’ble MLASri Paresh Murmu, Hon’ble MLAMohtarma Selimi Khatoon (Bibi), Hon’ble MLASrimati Chhaya Dolui, Hon’ble MLASri Asis Chakraborty, Hon’ble MLASrimati Seuli Saha, Hon’ble MLASri Khagendranath Hembram, Hon’ble MLADr. Manas Ranjan Bhuian, Hon’ble MLA

Sri Subrata Bakshi, Hon’ble MPSrimati Uma Soren, Hon’ble MPSrimati Sandhya Roy, Hon’ble MPSri Dipak Adhikary (Deb), Hon’ble MPSrimati Uttara Singha (Hazra), Hon’ble Sabhadhipati

Sri Basudeb Bandyopadhyay,Chief Secretary, Government of West Bengal

Department of Information & Cultural Affairs, Government of West Bengal

ICA

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In the presence of