ED cracks down on 300 shell irms - Current Affairs ONLY

CMYK

A BG-BG

april 2, 2017 Bengaluru

City Edition

50 pages � ₹5.00

Printed at . Chennai . Coimbatore . Bengaluru . Hyderabad . Madurai . Noida . Visakhapatnam . Thiruvananthapuram . Kochi . Vijayawada . Mangaluru . Tiruchirapalli . Kolkata . Hubballi . Mohali . Allahabad . Malappuram . Mumbai

follow us:

thehindu.com

facebook.com/thehindu

twitter.com/the_hindu

In a major crackdown, theEnforcement Directorate onSaturday conductedsearches on 300 shell com-panies across 16 States onsuspicion of large-scalemoney laundering and for-eign exchange violations.

The premises of some pro-fessionals, the “brains” be-hind the operation of suchcompanies, were alsosearched. The searches wereconducted at 110 locations inDelhi, Mumbai, Chennai,Kolkata and Hyderabad,

among other places. Some of the companies

searched were allegedly in-volved in major money-laun-dering cases related to theformer Maharashtra leaderChhagan Bhujbal, the

Andhra Pradesh Oppositionleader Y.S. Jagan MohanReddy and an Uttar Pradesh-based official Yadav Singh.

“In Chennai, we aresearching and investigatingeight shell companies. Pre-liminary investigation showsthat over ₹80 crore has beentransferred to South EastAsia from these shell com-panies,” a senior ED officialtold The Hindu.

(With inputs fromSangeetha Kandavel and

Sanjay Vijayakumar)

ED cracks down on 300 shell irms Companies suspected to be involved in money laundering operations raided across 16 States

Devesh K. Pandey

New Delhi

The ED seized this fake identity card in Mumbai during thesearches on shell companies on Saturday. * PTICONTINUED ON � PAGE 10

SECTION 2 � 14 PAGES

SUNDAY MAGAZINE � 8 PAGES

LITERARY REVIEW � 4 PAGES

CLASSIFIEDS � 4 PAGES

Unitech promoter

Sanjay Chandra held in

real estate fraud case

page 9

Akhilesh insulted me,

which led to SP’s defeat,

says Mulayam Singh

page 10

Will hang those who kill

cows, says Chhattisgarh

CM Raman Singh

page 11

Roger Federer to face

Rafael Nadal in the

inal of Miami Open

page 18

A campaign to save Kolk-ata’s architectural legacy,reflected in the city’sunique and colourfulneighbourhoods or‘paras,’ has gone interna-tional with the launch ofa website dedicated tothe cause.

The plea to retain thedistinctive middle classabodes that are seen ascrucibles of cosmopol-itan modernity beganwith a series of articles in2012, and came centrestage when author AmitChaudhuri wrote to ChiefMinisterMamataBanerjee inmid-2015. The website,cal-legacies.com, was un-veiled earlier this week atJadunath Bhavan Mu-seum & Resource Centre,once the house of histor-ian Jadunath Sarkar.

The website is seen asa window to timeless res-idential neighbourhoodsand an opportunity forrenewal and reuse ofsuch properties, whichwould otherwise bebrought down. There is apicture gallery presentingthe old. Articles on theinitiative along with let-ters written by Amit

Chaudhuri and NobelLaureate Amartya Sen,and the genesis of theCalcutta Architectural

Legacieswith its CALMentor

Group are also featured.

Threat from the newAt the heart of the cam-paign is the phenomenonof heritage houses beingreplaced by apartments.It was witnessed on ElginRoad (Lala Lajpat RaiSarani) and ShakespeareSarani. Hindustan Parkand Sarat Bose Road alsofound their old worldcharm giving way to thenew. Lake Terrace andOld Ballygunge are otherexamples.

Saving charmof old Kolkata Citizens open website to preservecity’s cosmopolitan architecture

SUNDAY SPECIAL

Shiv Sahay Singh

Kolkata

A typical residence fromanother era. * CAL-LEGACIES.

COM/MANISH GOLDER

CONTINUED ON � PAGE 10

Hours after allegations thata voter-verifiable paperaudit trail (VVPAT) ma-chine linked to an EVM inMadhya Pradesh dispensedonly slips with the BJP sym-bol, the Election Commis-sion on Saturday decidedto send a team of officialsto the State. It sought a re-port from the poll authorit-ies in the State, where by-polls are due on April 9.

Andhra Pradesh ChiefElectoral Officer BhanwarLal was appointed to su-pervise the Ater and Band-havgarh Assembly bypolls.

EVM fault:Poll panelteam for M.P. Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI


The Union government willprovide financial assist-ance of around ₹3,000crore from the NationalDisaster Response Fund(NDRF) to Tamil Nadu andKarnataka for drought andcyclone relief, the FinanceMinistry said in astatement.

“Based on approval ofthe High Level Committee(HLC), the Central govern-ment has sanctioned ₹1,793crore to Tamil Nadu and₹1,782 crore to Karnatakafor drought relief fromNDRF,” the statement said.

₹1,782 croredrought aidfor Karnataka

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI


From beachside restaurantsin Kerala and watering holeson the Mumbai-Pune high-way to nightlife hotspots inGurugram’s Cyber Hub, theSupreme Court order ban-ning the sale of liquor alongNational and State Highwaysforced many establishmentsto go dry on Saturday.

The court order hit thetourism and hospitality in-dustry hard and shrunk therevenues of many State gov-ernments, which face hugelosses.

In Thiruvananthapuram,

more than 50 beer and wineparlours shut shop, while atleast one five star hotel lostits bar licence.

De-notify highways?Kerala has one of the highestper capita consumption of li-quor, and the social and eco-nomic impact of the order isyet to be gauged. The Stategovernment is also facedwith an estimated loss ofover ₹7,000 crore in rev-enue, forcing the govern-ment to think of de-notifyingState Highways to sidestepthe court order.

Officials said turning State

Highways into district high-ways would be considered.

In Tamil Nadu, severalTASMAC (Tamil Nadu StateMarketing Corporation) out-lets were shut down and anumber of hotels and bars inclubs, located on State andNational Highways, stoppedserving alcohol on Saturday.

The trend was the same inPuducherry. Customerswere told this would con-tinue until further ordersfrom the State government.

Restaurants, bars go dry ashighway liquor ban kicks inFaced with huge revenue losses, States mull options


New Delhi


BAN MAY HIT 40% OUTLETS,

SAY EXPERTS � PAGE 10

INSIDE

SECTION 1

5Ws — Explainer� page 12CCCCCCCCCCCCCC

ColumnWidth� page 13CCCCCCCCCCCCCC

Science & Technology� page 14CCCCCCCCCCCCCC

Being� page 15CCCCCCCCCCCCCC

Non-Fiction� page 16CCCCCCCCCCCCCC

SECTION 2

Despatches� page 5CCCCCCCCCCCCCC

Framed� page 6 & 7CCCCCCCCCCCCCC

The Big Story� page 8CCCCCCCCCCCCCC

Your Money� page 9CCCCCCCCCCCCCC

Business Abroad� page 12CCCCCCCCCCCCCC

Jafer Sharief backs RSSchief for PresidentIn an embarrassment to the

Congress, veteran Congress

leader C.K. Jafer Sharief has

written to the Prime Minister

backing RSS chief Mohan

Bhagwat for the post of the

President.

KARNATAKA � PAGE 7DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

NEARBY

The cash-strapped WayanadWildlife Sanctuary (WWS),which has been facing anunprecedented drought thisyear, has customised itswildlife ambulance to a firetender to tackle the watercrisis in the sanctuary.

Said to be a first-of-its-kind initiative in Kerala, thedepartment has begunfilling up ponds in theforests, with water suppliedthrough tankers, to quenchthe thirst of the animalsduring summer.

The ambulance has beencustomised by installing twowater tanks, each with astorage capacity of 5,000litres, and two diesel pumpsets, each with 5 horsepower, for collecting andfilling up water at a cost ofnearly ₹1.5 lakh.

Earlier, three campervehicles were customisedfor the purpose by installing500-litre capacity water

tanks and pump sets.“Though there are 435

water holes ins thesanctuary, including 45check dams spreads on 344sq.km., nearly half of themare dried up owing todeficient monsoon last year.Major rivers flowing in thesanctuary such as Nugu,Kalindhi and Bavali havealso dried up,” says wardenP. Dhaneshkumar.

Moreover, the inflow of

migrating wildlife, especiallyhigher mammal such aselephants and gaur, fromthe Tiger Reserves ofKarnataka and Tamil Naduto the sanctuary, alsoincreased considerably thisseason.

“The shortage of water inthe sanctuary would meanthat animals would strayinto human habitations,thereby intensifying theman-animal conflict. Hence,

we are planning to fill atleast five water holes everyday. The districtadministration has grantedpermission to collect waterfrom the Karapuzha andBanasurasagar reservoirs inthe district.

“As many as nine ForestDepartment staff have beendeputed for the purpose,”Mr. Dhaneshkumar said.

The customised camperfire tenders would beutilised to fill water holes inrough terrains as theambulance could not reachsuch areas, he said.

Three ponds atGoolikkadavu andVandikkadavu under theKurichiyad forest rangewere filled on Friday.

Patrolling of ‘kumki’(trained elephants) hadbeen launched by theelephant squad on fringes offorest in Thottamoola areaunder the sanctuary onFriday to mitigate man-animal conflict.

CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC

Wildlife ambulance to ill up waterholes The Wayanad Sanctuary has customised the vehicle at a cost of nearly ₹1.5 lakh

First of its kind: Wildlife ambulance is being used to collectwater and ill at least ive dry waterholes every day.

E.M. Manoj

KALPETTA

Moviegoers, who let out aloud cheer after the StateBudget announced a ceilingon the price of tickets inmultiplexes, will have towait longer. The ticket pricefor weekend shows in sev-eral multiplexes were muchmore than the proposed₹200 cap.

While Chief Minister Sid-daramaiah announced im-plementation of uniform ad-mission fee policy in allcinema theatres, includingmultiplexes in the State, theGovernment Order is yet benotified to implement thebudgetary proposal, sourcessaid. With the budget ap-proved only on March 27, of-

ficials in the Department ofInformation and Public Re-lations said a proposal oncap on ticket prices willnow have to be sent to thegovernment.

“This will then have toget the go-ahead of the Lawand Finance Departmentsafter which the governmentwill have to pass an order,”said the official.

₹200 cap on movietickets yet to be reality

Government Order on budget

promise awaiting notiication

Staff Reporter

BENGALURU

CONTINUED � PAGE 4

The toll collected at theplaza near Devanahalli onBallari Road — which con-nects the city with the Kem-pegowda International Air-port — was increased fromSaturday by ₹5 for cars andlight commercial vehicles,and by ₹15 for buses andlorries.

The increase in toll ratesis an annual exercise car-ried out by the concession-aires who operate the tollroads. Last year, the tollrates were increased for allclasses of vehicles exceptfor cars and light motorvehicles.

“The increase in toll iscalculated based on thewholesale price index,” asenior official with the Na-

tional Highways Authorityof India said. Buses and lor-ries will now have to pay upto ₹15 more for a returnjourney pass and ₹355 morefor a monthly pass.

Toll on airport roadgoes up by ₹5 for cars

Buses and lorries to pay ₹15 moreStaff Reporter

Bengaluru

The increase in toll rates isan annual exercise.

KARNATAKA � PAGE 4

Over 20 shell irmssearched in Bengaluru

More than 20 shell irms in

Bengaluru were covered

by the ED as oicials searched

several premises across the

city since Saturday morning, as

part of nationwide crackdown

on shell companies.

DETAILS � PAGE 4DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

CMYK

A BG-BGMY

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

BENGALURU THE HINDU

SUNDAY, APRIL 2, 20172EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

BENGALURU

BU gets new in-charge V-CBENGALURU

Muniraju M., Dean, Faculty of

Commerce and Professor,

Department of Commerce,

has been appointed as in-

charge Vice-Chancellor of

Bangalore University by

Governor Vajubhai Rudabhai

Vala. Outgoing in-charge V-C

Jagadeesh Prakash handed

over the charge to Mr.

Muniraju, stated a release.

IN BRIEF

Cartoon exhibitionBENGALURU

Indian Institute of Cartoonists

is organising an exhibition of

selected works of cartoonist

Yesudasan from April 8 to 22

at the Cartoon Gallery. The

expo will be inaugurated at

11.30 a.m. on April 8.

‘Know your stars’BENGALURU

Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium

is organising a special

demonstration lecture titled

“Know your stars” on its

premises at 6.30 p.m. on

April 2. For details, visit

www.taralaya.org.

Andrew, 19, is going to rep-resent India in the HomelessWorld Cup Football Tourna-ment in Norway this August.For youngsters who grew upin an orphanage in the city,this is no simple feat.

When Andrew startedplaying football four yearsago, it didn’t take his coachTejas R. long to realise thatthe boy had a special talent.But for Tejas – a professionalfreestyle footballer whospends his time coachingschoolchildren – Andrewwould have never imaginedthat he could enjoy this op-portunity.

Most children don’t haveaccess to training resourcesor get a chance to showcasetheir skills in a particularsport. Fortunately, over thelast few years, Bengaluru hasseen a rise in initiatives by in-dividuals and organisationswho believe that empower-ment and social mobility canbe achieved through sports.

One such group is theRebels Foundation, launchedon World Football Day on

December 10, 2016, foundedby Kavya Ananth – a projectintern at Narayana Hruday-alaya. The 24-year-old andher like-minded friends usedtheir own funds to start thefoundation, which has tiedup with the Sports Authorityof India (SAI). In a short spanof time, the foundation hasbeen able to reach out toeight government schools. Ithas selected 30 students who

have a knack for football.“These children are being

trained by internationalcoaches at the facilityprovided by SAI thrice aweek. We are happy to findfootball talent among girls aswell. Of the 30 selected fortraining, 15 are girls,” saidMs. Ananth.

The foundation plans tostart a three-year residentialprogramme for training such

children in the near future.“Right now, the focus is onfootball. We want to train atleast 2,500 children in thegame and get them into pro-fessional clubs. After this, wewill move on to othersports,” she added.

Tejas started Sparky Foot-ball four years ago. Cur-rently, 200 children fromorphanages and slums trainunder him. An engineering

every child’s right, says ElvisJoseph, one of the pioneersin making a social impactthrough sports with his Ban-galore Schools Sports Found-ation.

Mr. Joseph, a professionalathlete, who started workingwith children in 2009, runsvarious programmes such asMagic Feet, where he offersfootball training to slum chil-dren, and Invisible Talent,where he works with chil-dren and youth in remandhomes.

He is currently training300 girls from slums andconstruction sites in football.Twenty-five are preparing toparticipate in the Children’sOlympics to be held in Israelnext year.

“Social service throughsports should be more thanjust giving jerseys and shoesto children. The impact willonly be visible when childrenfrom underprivileged sec-tions perform in interna-tional events. Many of thesechildren are immensely tal-ented. All they need is theright support and training,”said Mr. Joseph.

stance, a school dropout,Ebenezer, who lives in CoxTown slum, returned toschool after going for footballclasses.

“Today he attends classesin college and educates oth-ers in his slum. Apart fromthis, 10 of my students wereselected to representKarnataka in National Inclu-sion Cup last month. Foot-ball has really made a differ-ence in their lives,” said Mr.Tejas.

The Bengaluru Sports Lov-ers Association (BSLA) de-cided to take a differentroute to support sports.Members started organisingopen football matches andused the money raised fromregistrations to support anNGO and develop talent.BSLA was started by PayelChowdhuri, a former ama-teur football league playerand Mohun Bagan fan, alongwith a few other friends. Inits first year, BSLA has organ-ised four football tourna-ments and one each in bad-minton and table tennis.

However, a lot more needsto be done to make sports

dropout, Mr. Tejas was un-happy with the footballscene in the country and de-cided to tap into slums andchildren’s homes for talent.

Imparting life skills“Football can be used to im-part life skills to students. Iformed my own curriculum,that includes everythingfrom tying a shoe lace toscoring a goal. The sessionsare customised to the stu-dents. If I am training chil-dren from slum, the cur-riculum will include classesfocused on anger manage-ment, the importance ofeducation, the ills of drug ab-use. For those from priv-ileged sections of society, it isall about character buildingand interpersonal skills,” Mr.Tejas said. He works in themornings as a professionalfreestyle footballer andcoaches students in the even-ing. The money that hemakes from training priv-ileged students is used tofund Sparky Football.

Many heart-warming stor-ies that have emerged fromSparky Football. For in-

The earnest talent scouts of the underprivilegedBengaluru has seen a rise in initiatives by individuals and organisations who believe in using sports to achieve social mobility

Sarumathi K.

Bengaluru

It’s a goal: Sparky Football, started by Tejas R., a professional freestyle footballer, four years ago,currently trains 200 children from orphanages and slums.

Who is your life coach? This,asked in the tone one mightuse to ask about the make ofthe cellphone you carry. Theimplication was that every-body has one. Clearly mynew acquaintance owned alife coach (or employed oneor consulted one, whateverthe protocol is), and my nothaving one somehow dimin-ished me.

In fact, I didn’t even knowwhat it was. Was it a bus withan oxygen tank in it?

When in doubt, google, asthe philosopher said. So Idid, and was told in no un-certain terms (or in certain

terms, for those who like itless negative) that a lifecoach is not someone who isa consultant, mentor, ad-viser, therapist or counsel-lor. He doesn’t even want tosee you. One “thirty toninety minute phone call”per week is what one lifecoach offers.

Another says, “We helpyou connect your head andyour heart in a way thattransforms your passion foryour dreams into action foryour life.”

So it is a bridge of sorts, aconnector of the head andall that it holds and the heartwith all that it stands for.This is looking better andbetter. So the life coachhelps you make choices.Should you marry this per-son or that? Should you putall your money in the bankor under your mattress?Should you ask stupid ques-tions or carry on as if you

know the answers? A versionof phone sex, in short, butwithout either the phone orthe sex.

Life coaching, I am told, isfor people in transition, andassumed, naturally, that thetransition was for the lifecoach going from pennilessto millionaire on your faithand money. Apparently, thatis not the case. It is the onebeing coached (“coachee”,to use the legal term) who isin transition and needs allthe advice, mentoring andcounselling necessary — al-though life coaches hatethose three words. You canachieve your life’s dream on-line, I learnt, as many lifecoaches life coach online.

I have given this somethought, and realised I wantto get into the life coachingbusiness — not as one askingthe questions (there’s nomoney in that), but as oneproviding the answers (that’s

where the moolah is). Mak-ing choices is a tough thing —should you have black cof-fee, with or without sugar,with or without cream, withseeds from Brazil orEthiopia. See, tough. The lifecoach ticks your life (or cof-fee) choices.

If you have to see a ther-apist, then you really need atherapist. It is the same withlife coaches. Do life coachesfeel the need for a life coach?Perhaps they do, after aperiod of immersing theirpersonalities in the vastocean of the personalities oftheir clients.

Next time someone asksme about a life coach, I’ll puton the mysterious smilemuch recommended by lifecoaches, and nod my headsagely. I might even mutter aname, just to be seen as aninsider.

(Suresh Menon is Contrib-uting Editor, The Hindu)

Life lesson: How to look like youhave an expensive coach

ABOUT 500 WORDSsuresh menon

Residents of Indiranagar,who have been protestingon Saturdays for the last onemonth seeking actionagainst restaurants “flout-ing” norms, approached theHalasuru police on Saturdaydemanding action againsttwo such restaurants.

The memorandum, sub-mitted to the Assistant Com-missioner of Police, Halas-

uru, alleged that therestaurants — with rooftopbars — were playing loudmusic beyond permittedhours.

Residents of 100-feetRoad, who approached thepolice on Saturday with re-corded decibel levels takenover the past month post 11p.m., said that the levels fre-quently touched numbersclose to 75 decibels (dB) onweekends while the per-

missible level in a mixedarea is 55 dB. “We will con-tinue with our protest untilwe find a solution,” VinooThimmaya, a resident, said.

“Rooftop bars are operat-ing illegally and some ofthem have live DJs who blastmusic or screen sportingevents on giant screensthroughout the night. Thereis constant honking, scream-ing, and shouting along withdrunken brawls which go on

past 2 a.m.,” said anotherresident. ACP of Halasur Mo-hammed Sajjad Khan con-firmed to The Hindu that hehas received the complaintfrom the residents.

“We have taken actionagainst earlier complaints.We will check the restaur-ants that the residents havecomplained against and ifthey are playing loud music,we will get it stopped,” hesaid.

Take the party elsewhere, sayresidents of Indiranagar They complain against two restaurants for ‘louting’ norms

Staff Reporter

Bengaluru

Most of you would havebeen to art shows and metan assortment of artists, buthave you ever been to an artteachers’ gathering — artistswho have an academic bentto their aesthetic vision?

This edition of themonthly Art Park, originallyconceived by artist S.G. Vas-udev, brings together 25 artteachers from across theState at Sculpture Garden(Shilpavana) on J. C. Road onApril 2. This Art Park is aspecial one as it completesthree years of its novelexercise.

The commencement ofthe fourth year is also a spe-cial one as the Art Park Com-mittee, comprising 15 con-temporary artists, hasdecided to have a raredemonstration from the artteachers, to elicit their per-spective on present-day re-quirements.

“They are artists ... butbeing in the field of teach-

ing, we will find it interest-ing to see their outlook andstandpoint, and know howthey respond to people,artists, and the needs of themarket. They are mouldingthe young minds that learnart,” said Mr. Vasudev, whoflagged off the first Art Parkinitiative in March 2014.

Art Park was seen with alarger social interest when itwas visualised. “The initiat-ive gives the public a chanceto see the best works avail-able at rock-bottom prices,”Mr. Vasudev added. A goodpiece, sold for ₹25,000 at agallery, could be availablefor ₹1,000 at Art Park, whileone gets to see the work be-ing done in front of theireyes. The April Sunday gath-ering will have two interest-ing features.

Haravu Spoorthy, poetand writer, who was once in-spired to write a poem afterseeing Mr. Vasudev’s tributedrawings for A.K. Ramanu-jan, will read some of herpoems. Also, the huge con-

glomeration will have artteacher V.G. Andani fromthe Gulbarga College of FineArts. His session will high-light the importance of tak-ing to art.

“Is there anything thatcan survive without imagina-tion and creativity? Learningart is not just for studentswho enter colleges of art ... itis also for engineering andmedicine students who canuse art to express them-selves better,” Professor An-dani said. Sir M. Vis-vesvaraya’s creativity was aphenomenon only becausehe backed his thoughts withcrystal clear drawings, hesaid.

From May 2017, there willbe two Art Parks in a monthwhich will travel to all areasof Bengaluru on the thirdSunday.

Art Park will be held atSculpture Garden(Shilpavana), RavindraKalakshetra complex, J.C.Road from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.on April 2

Art teachers’ gatheringto enthral cityArt Park will be held at the Sculpture Garden today

Ranjani Govind

Bengaluru

In connection with thecommissioning of thenorth-south line, the Ban-galore Metro Rail Corpora-tion Ltd. (BMRCL) is un-dertaking certain testspertaining to the sig-nalling system.

As a result, train ser-vices will not be availablefor commuters in a fewmetro stations betweenApril 4 and April 7, statedan official press release is-sued by BMRCL.

There will be no ser-vices in Mantri SquareSampige Road stationbetween 8 p.m. and 11p.m. on April 4. On April 5and 6, there will be no ser-vices between 5 a.m. and7 a.m. and from 8 p.m. to11 p.m. at Srirampura sta-tion.

On April 7, metro ser-vices will be affected atKuvempu Road stationbetween 5 a.m. and 7 a.m

Regular servicesHowever, during thisperiod, regular serviceswill be available betweenNagasandra Metro stationand Mantri Square Sam-pige Road station from 7a.m. to 8 p.m., added thepress release.

Partialdisruption in metroservices

Staff Reporter

Bengaluru


THE HINDU BENGALURU

SUNDAY, APRIL 2, 2017 3EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

CMYK

A BG-BGMY

BENGALURU

Published by N. Ram at Kasturi Buildings, 859 & 860, Anna Salai, Chennai-600002 and Printed by N. Rajashekar at Plot No. 13-D, Bommasandra-Jigani Link Road, KIADB Industrial Area, Bommasandra, Anekal Taluk, Bengaluru-560099 on behalf of KASTURI & SONS LTD., Chennai-600002. Editor: Mukund Padmanabhan (Responsible for selection of news under the PRB Act).

RNI No. TNENG/1970/49960 ● ISSN 0971 - 751X ● Vol. 48 ● No. 13

0DISCLAIMER: Readers are requested toverify and make appropriate enquiries tosatisfy themselves about the veracity ofan advertisement before responding toany published in this newspaper. Kasturi& Sons Limited, the Publisher & Owner ofthis newspaper, does not vouch for theauthenticity of any advertisement or ad-vertiser or for any of the advertiser’sproducts and/or services. In no event canthe Owner, Publisher, Printer, Editor, Dir-ector/s, Employees of this newspaper/company be held responsible/liable inany manner whatsoever for any claimsand/or damages for advertisements inthis newspaper.

SRI PARTHASARATHYSwamy Sabha. (2334 5665/98454 87748).

Today at 6.30 PM Kalamandirpresents “ Poruthathu Podhum” by Bombay Chanakya at Sevas-adan, 14th Cross, (Opp MLAssn), Malleswaram, B'lore-03.Tickets sold at the hall from 6.00PM

MUSIC ● DANCE ● DRAMA

The city budget’s focalpoints seem to be largely intune with inputs receivedduring the first-ever publicconsultation campaign, butit lacks the detailing and spe-cific demands raised. Verylittle of what citizens deman-ded in solid waste manage-ment, drinking water andpedestrian facilities havebeen incorporated in thebudget, while inputs in roadand infrastructure havemostly found space.

The BBMP had partneredwith Janaagraha Centre forCitizenship and Democracyfor the #MyCityMyBudgetcampaign and had garneredover 67,000 inputs from thepublic.

For instance, the cam-paign saw over 10,000 in-puts for pedestrian facilities.While the city budget setaside ₹200 crore for devel-oping footpath on 200-km-long road network, SapnaKarim from Janaagraha, wholed the campaign, said the al-location for pedestrian facil-

ities did not match the de-mand.

Though the budget alloc-ated almost 10% of its outlayfor solid waste management,it only incorporated 0.4% ofthe public inputs, that essen-tially demanded dry wastecollection centres andgarbage processing centresat wards.

This year’s budget wasmarked by renewed focus ontrees, parks and lakes,largely in tune with public in-puts. Public inputs however,had little focus on lakes. An-other success area has been

public toilets, that has seenan almost matching grant.Drinking water had emergedas a major concern for cit-izens, with 4% of the inputspertaining to water facilities.However, only 1.6% was partof the budget.

Ms. Karim said the chal-lenge ahead was to factor inthe specific inputs providedby people on the ground,while preparing the pro-gramme of works for eachward. “We have preparedward-wise reports and sub-mitted them to the engin-eers. Public consultation for

the budget was a great step,but can be effective only iffollowed through,” she said.

M.K. Gunashekhar, chair-man, standing committee ontaxation and finance, BBMP,said though public consulta-tion was a guiding force, itcould not be the only rule forbudget allocations.

“Public speak only aboutservice utilities and not theback end infrastructure. Forinstance, this year’s budgethas huge focus on educationand social welfare, which donot figure as sub-categoriesin the public inputs,” he saidadding that at the ward leveltoo councillors were bestplaced to take a call on pro-gramme of works. “The pub-lic inputs we have gatheredcan, however, act as a goodfeedback channel for whatpeople want,” he said.

City budget gets focal pointsfrom public right, not detailsDemands in solid waste management, drinking water have found little mention

Staff Reporter

Bengaluru <> The allocation for

pedestrian facilities

did not match

public demand.

Sapna Karim,

Janaagraha

A gang of seven armed menbroke into the house of achartered accountant, beatup the family members andtied their hands and legs be-fore fleeing with valuablesworth ₹2.6 lakh at Seegehalliin K.R. Puram early onSaturday.

Partiban, a mobile com-pany employee, woke upwhen the gang broke openthe front door of his house.

They beat him up andthreatened him at gunpointbefore tying his hands andlegs. They also overpoweredhis wife Padmavathi, motherValliyamma and daughterPavithra, and escaped withvaluables. Mr. Partiban man-aged to free himself andraised an alarm, followingwhich the neighbours aler-ted the police. The accusedwere aged between 20 and30 and spoke English andHindi, the police said.

7-member armed gangbeat up, loot family Special Correspondent

Bengaluru

A 40-year-old KSRTC busconductor was stabbed by afour-member gang inBanashankari early on Sat-urday.

Shivakumar was on dutyin a Kalasipalya-Mysuru busthat had stopped near theBanashankari bus stand topick up passengers. Mean-

while, four persons in a carasked the driver to move thebus since it was blocking theroad.

Heated arguments en-sued and the group stabbedMr. Shivakumar and fled.Mr. Shivakumar is beingtreated at Jayanagar GeneralHospital. The Jayanagar po-lice have taken up a case ofattempt to murder.

KSRTC bus conductor stabbedSpecial Correspondent

Bengaluru

The JJ Nagar police, who areinvestigating the fire acci-dent that claimed two liveson Friday at Vinayakanagarin Haleguddadahalli, arewaiting for reports fromforensic science experts andfrom officials of electrical in-spectorate to ascertain thecause.

According to the officials,three teams from FSL, elec-trical inspectorate and offi-cials of fire and emergencyservices inspected thescene.

Though short circuit wassuspected to be the cause offire, the report would revealthe exact reasons, a seniorpolice officer said. The nar-row bylane where the incid-ent led to the death of 35-year-old Abdul Hafeez, a

moulvi of a Madrasa, and a27-year-old employee of achair manufacturing unit,wore a deserted look onSaturday.

The police have sealedthe building for furtherinvestigation.

Fire accident: Policeawait forensic reportSpecial Correspondent

Bengaluru

Two persons were killedafter a ire broke out in abuilding in Vinayaka Nagar,of Mysuru Road on Friday.

The Kengeri police have ar-rested a gang of six persons,including two women, whowere involved in blackmail-ing people by setting up ahoney trap.

The accused, identified asJayanthi, 28, Rukmini, 30,Manjunath, 32, Mahadeva,27, Mahesh, 24, and Swamy,27, trapped Gangadhar, acivil contractor, on March 17.

The gang took him to anisolated place inChallaghatta on the out-skirts of the city and black-mailed him with a video ofhim in compromising posi-tions. They threatened to in-form his family membersabout his affair and deman-ded ₹10 lakh.

Gangadhar paid theransom through one of hisfriends and later, filed a po-lice complaint.

Gang of six held oncharge of blackmail Special Correspondent

Bengaluru

Bengaluru district adminis-tration on Saturday conduc-ted drives in three taluksand recovered 32.5 acres ofland worth ₹536 crore.

According to officials,over 5 acres of land ear-

marked for a graveyard andbuffer zone adjacent to theroad connecting J.P. Nagarand Bannerghatta in Uttara-halli was recovered andbuildings constructed illeg-ally were demolished. Sim-ilar drives were conductedin Begur and Varthur areas.

32 acres of land recoveredSpecial Correspondents

Bengaluru

The Central Crime Branchofficials on Saturday arres-ted a 36-year-old Nigeriannational and seized 62 gm ofcocaine worth ₹2 lakh.

Bright Ighalo, residing inSultanpalya, was collecting

the consignment from hisclients at R.T. Nagar, 1stBlock, when he was nabbed.

The police also recovered₹12,500, a mobile phoneand motorcycle from him.The police are verifying histravel documents and thesource of the drugs.

Nigerian held, cocaine seizedSpecial Correspondent

Bengaluru


BENGALURU THE HINDU


CMYK

BG-BGMYCMYK

A BG-BGMY

BENGALURU

We began this series byidentifying a key problem forBengaluru’s governance: thatthe Master Plan 2031 processlacks legitimacy and, in itscurrent format, cannot de-liver on the city’s core con-cerns. This problem presentsan opportunity for meaning-ful reform, as for the firsttime, we have reasonablealignment between civil soci-ety demandsand the bur-eaucratic re-commenda-tions forBengaluru’s future.

In the last four weeks,we’ve not attempted to fash-ion a comprehensive solu-tion: instead, we’ve ad-vanced politically feasiblestrategies to create new insti-tutional arrangements andprocesses that have the capa-city for iterative adaptivelearning. A multi-scalar, de-centralised system that en-ables civic participation innegotiated demand-led plan-ning will galvanise the vari-

ous stakeholders in the plan-ning process in everydaydecisions on the city’s future.

Corollary conditions In our view, this reform pro-posal is a necessary but notsufficient condition forresolving the current plan-ning crisis. In this piece, weexplore three corollary con-ditions that need considera-tion to avoid derailing suc-cessful local planning:inter-sectoral institutional ac-countability and coordina-

tion; the disrupt-ive potential ofmega-regionalprojects, and theproblem of en-

forcement. To enhance theprobability of success, we re-commend possible strategiesto control the negative ef-fects of these conditions.

An essential complementto effective planning is themeans to secure implement-ation. Currently, local gov-ernment has neither the fin-ancial clout nor the legalinstitutional capacity to de-liver services on the ground.Both finance and capacity isvested in various State stat-

utory authorities and corpor-ations who either dominateor have a legal monopoly insectors such as transport,water and sanitation. Eveninstitutions exclusively ded-icated to providingBengaluru with transportservices such as BangaloreMetropolitan Transport Cor-poration and BangaloreMetro Rail Corporation areunwilling to adopt an integ-rated service or a commonpayment platform.

Further, monopoly serviceproviders such as BangaloreWater Supply and Sewerage

Board (BWSSB) have no legalobligation to provide ser-vices projected by the plan-ning process. Incidentally,this legal obligation is cast onthe municipal authority,which has no control overthe BWSSB!

Despite these institutionalrigidities, it is unlikely thatthe State government is likelyto transfer political control tomake these authorities ac-countable to local govern-ment. So it is crucial to doaway with the legal mono-poly that such service pro-viders enjoy and to empower

Ultimately, a new ap-proach to planning forBengaluru must respond tothe political economy of thecity and its governance insti-tutions and culture. The ap-proach proposed in thisseries imagines Bengaluru asa conglomerate of inter-de-pendent units of governmentdelivering nested multi-scalar plans to be implemen-ted and enforced at the locallevel. It makes the politics ofthe planning process visible,galvanises civic engagementand enhances democratic ac-countability. These vectorsof change give us sharedhope for a vibrant, equitableand livable 21st centuryBengaluru.

(Sudhir Krishnaswamy isprofessor of law and directorof the School of Policy andGovernance, Azim Premji Uni-versity, and founder-trustee ofthe Centre for Law and PolicyResearch, Bengaluru; Cham-paka Rajagopal is visiting pro-fessor, Azim Premji Univer-sity; she has worked on theRevised Master Plan 2015 forBengaluru; Mathew Idiculla isresearch associate, Centre forLaw and Policy Research)

standing to enforce the plan.While Bengaluru has wit-nessed some high-profile lit-igation by well-organised cit-izens or neighbourhoodgroups, this is insufficient totackle everydaynon-compliance.

Radical transparencyEarlier in this series, we

proposed a regime of radicaltransparency for parcel-levelbuilding plans through a ne-gotiated planning process. Ifthose affected by plan viola-tions are granted the legalright to vindicate their claimsby social negotiation, arbitra-tion or in civil court, this willignite a citizen-led plan en-forcement movement. Theinefficiency and delay in thecourt system will incentiviseparties to arrive at negotiatedsettlements to mitigate costsand time overruns. So longas the law makes it clear thatthe court must grant injunct-ive relief to bar any plan devi-ation without regard to itsown views on where equitymay lie or what a superiorplan may be, the court pro-cess will reinforce the negoti-ated planning approach.

sites of decision making andempowered government de-partments and statutory au-thorities at the State andUnion levels. Unless constitu-tional local government bod-ies are integrated into the de-cision making and executionof these mega-regional pro-jects, these territories will bewashed away by the impactof these projects.

Third, even the best laidout plans are of limited util-ity if they are not enforce-able. The current institu-tional approach toenforcement of planning lawrelies on local BBMP or BDAofficials to take regulatory orlegal action against devi-ations. Occasionally, theState government has cre-ated and empowered institu-tions such as Bangalore Met-ropolitan Task Force or theLake Development Authoritywith allied powers.

All put together, these in-stitutions have been unableto secure compliance. Cur-rently, those most affectedby the non-complianceeither lack access to the rel-evant plan documents or donot have the legal right or

various levels of local govern-ment to negotiate and con-tract with any service pro-vider to deliver their localplans. To be sure, local gov-ernment units must exerttheir collective bargainingpower to ensure that serviceproviders deliver equitablyand satisfy the mandatoryprovisioning obligations cur-rently imposed on the BBMP.

Second, Bengaluru is nowlocated at the centre of twoproposed industrial corridorregions: the Bengaluru-Mum-bai Economic Corridor Re-gion and the Chennai-Bengaluru-Chitradurga In-dustrial Corridor Regionbeing developed jointly bythe Union and the State gov-ernments. These regions cutacross the south Indian pen-insula piercing through thepolitical boundaries of vil-lages, cities and States. In-dustrial townships and zonesplanned within these regionsare to be governed by SpecialPurpose Vehicles, distinctfrom the constitutionallymandated local governmentauthorities. Territorial re-scaling of urban and regionaldevelopment has multiplied

The politics of enabling demand-led planning for BengaluruCurrently, local government has neither the inancial clout nor the legal institutional capacity to deliver services on the ground

Sudhir Krishnaswamy

Champaka Rajagopal

Mathew Idiculla

A ile photo of the BBMP head oice. An essential complementto efective planning is the means to secure implementation.

Push for genericmedicine stores BENGALURU

The Directorate of Health and

Family Welfare Services,

government of Karnataka,

has issued a notification to

close down all private

medical stores on the

premises of all government

hospitals across the State by

April 30. This is to enable

opening of generic medicine

stores during May.

IN BRIEF

Health officers called backBENGALURU

To meet the shortage of staff,

the Health and Family

Welfare Department has

cancelled all OODs/

deputations of all officials at

district-level made for local

convenience. All the officers

and other staff members have

been asked to report back to

their original place of posting,

said a notice from the

department.

The toll for all categories ofvehicles on Ballari Road hasbeen increased. Cars, taxiesand light motor vehicles hadbeen spared the hike lastyear.

The increase is ₹5 for lightmotor vehicles and lightcommercial vehicles. Whilethe hike is minimal for smal-ler vehicles, buses and lor-ries will see an increase of₹15 for both categories:single journey and returnjourney.

The price of monthlypasses for cars goes up by₹115 while the price ofmonthly passes for lightcommercial vehicles is up by₹175.

However, buses and lor-ries will bear the brunt of thehikes as the toll fees hasbeen increased by ₹15 for asingle journey and returnjourney pass and ₹355 for amonthly pass.

The Bangalore Metropol-itan Transport Corporation

(BMTC), which operates theVayu Vajra premium bus ser-vices to KIA has in the pasthiked fares in line with thehike in toll fees.

This might be the case thistime around as well, sincethe corporation will have to

consider a fare hike to meetthe increased costs ofoperations.

“Travelling to the airportis becoming costlier if youwant to reach there in time.Thankfully, the governmenthas finally realised the im-

portance of having an altern-ative road and is working onit. This will help reduce trav-elling costs,” said RishitoshSingh, who frequentlytravels on this route.

Taxi drivers are also morelikely to shift to the new toll-free route once it is fully op-erational.

“Currently, with work go-ing on, we use the toll road.But with yearly hikes, itmakes more sense to just usethe toll-free road when youdo not have a time crunch toreach the airport,” saidRaghu, a taxi driver.

On other highwaysAccording to the NationalHighways Authority of India,toll charges at the Bagepallitoll both past Chickballapurhave also been increased.However, rates for the elev-ated road connecting Elec-tronics City and Attibele willbe increased only in July.Toll rates on Tumakuru Roadhave also not been in-creased.

Toll hike on Ballari Roadminimal for small vehiclesBuses, lorries to bear the brunt; many may opt for toll-free route to KIA

Staff Reporter

Bengaluru

What a happy film! PowerRangers, about a bunch ofteens who get super powersand save the world, brings tomind summer holidays spentreading about regular boysand girls who defeat thedastardly villains whilelearning important life les-sons. The film, a reboot ofthe ’90s television show, is athrowback on pre-YA timeswhen teenagers were notfighting televised battles todeath or having their brainsbecome mush while turninginto flesh-eating zombies.

In prehistoric times, war-riors called the PowerRangers are protecting theZeo Crystal, which is thesource of life.

One of the Rangers, Rita,betrays them and the leader,Zordon, orders a meteorstrike to send Rita to the bot-tom of ocean. The dinosaursare collateral damage.

Fast forward to thepresent and football starJason Scott is in detention

where he meets misfits Billyand Kimberly. When they ex-plore a gold mine, theystumble upon Zordon’sspaceship and along withtwo other teens, Trini andZack, have to save the worldfrom repulsive Rita who hasbeen woken up from a 65-

million-year-old napsmelling just that wee bitfishy. Apart from the smart-phones, Power Rangers has acheerfully retro feel. Havinga superhero who is autisticand another questioningtheir sexual orientationmakes the characters well-

rounded instead of blandand flat.

The actors are all easy onthe eye from Dacre Mont-gomery as Jason, RJ Cyler asBilly, Naomi Scott as Kim-berly, Becky G as Trini, LudiLin as Zack and ElizabethBanks as Rita. Bryan Cran-ston is the voice of Zordon. Ifit weren’t for the embarrass-ing product placement,Power Rangers would havebeen all round fun.

A reboot of the ’90s television show MINI ANTHIKAD CHHIBBER

RJ Cyler, Dacre Montgomery, Becky G, Ludi Lin, and Naomi Scott in Power Rangers. * AP

Power Rangers(English)

Director: Dean Israelite

Cast: Dacre Montgomery,

Naomi Scott, RJ Cyler,

Becky G, Ludi Lin, Bill

Hader, Bryan Cranston,

Elizabeth Banks

More than 20 shell compan-ies in Bengaluru werecovered by the Enforce-ment Directorate (ED) as of-ficials searched severalpremises across the citysince Saturday morning, aspart of nationwide crack-down on shell companies.Some of the companies aresaid to belong to an AndhraPradesh-based politician.

The ED officials have pre-pared a list of the shell com-panies functioning in thecity.

“We will be examiningtheir bank accounts, trans-action details and otherdocuments to check if theyare shell companies. It is atime consuming process,”sources said.

In Bengaluru, the ED offi-cials are questioning one G.Dhananjay Reddy, who wasearlier accused of moneylaundering, as part of thecountrywide searches.

“He is suspected to havetaken loans from govern-ment banks using the nameof shell firms. We will be ex-amining many others likehim too,” said an EDsource.

Shell companies arethose that are set up underthe Companies Act, but donot carry out any business.

They are used to laundermoney or avoiding tax, orto cover up other activities.Most often they are export-import firms or trading cor-porations and they do notinvolve in any business,sources said.

The searches are beingcarried out under the provi-sions of the Prevention ofMoney Laundering Act(PMLA) and the Foreign Ex-change Management Act(FEMA) to check instancesof money laundering and il-legal foreign exchangetransactions.

The search by ED offi-cials across the nationspanned over 100 locationsin about 16 States.

Over 300 shell firmswere searched in places, in-cluding Bengaluru, Delhi,Kolkata, Chandigarh, Chen-nai and Patna among oth-ers, sources said, addingthat the government will in-voke the Benami Transac-tions (Prohibition) Amend-ment Act for harsh actionagainst those involved.

Some of them are said to belong to an A.P.-based politician


BENGALURU

Over 20 shell companiessearched in Bengaluru

He, however, declined togive an approximate timeframe for the process to becompleted.

But film buffs who tried tobook online movie tickets onSaturday, which alsohappened to be the start ofthe financial year, weremiffed after being greeted byprices that went well above₹200, some even priced at₹400 per ticket.

Social media was abuzzwith annoyed citizens shar-ing the bad news.

“So, today is April 1 and Ibelieve the ticket prices inmultiplexes were to becapped at ₹200..... I seedouble. Why does our gov-ernment make empty prom-ises....” asked one of them,sparking off a long debate.

There were many com-ments such as: “Their ver-sion of April Fools’ Day.”Some others brought in sim-ilar “raw deals” they havehad to deal with.

“I see the same issue withservice charges in restaur-ants.” An online petition wasstarted seeking the govern-

ment to “implement ₹200 inKarnataka multiplex as an-nounced in budget”.

Demand for cap on ticketprices similar to Tamil Naduwhere the ticket price is at₹120 has been a long-pending, with an online peti-tion to the Chief Minister in2016 receiving nearly50,000 signatures.

The budget also made itmandatory for multiplextheatres to screen Kannadaand regional language filmson at least one screen atprime time between 1.30p.m. and 7.30 p.m.

₹200 cap on movie tickets yet to be a realityContinued from Page 1

In a first, thousands of stu-dents in 7,049 governmentschools across the State willget to go to summer campsthis year. The camp, Swalpaodu, Swalpa Moju, would beconducted for students whohave completed classes 5and 6.

The five-week pro-gramme, conducted by theDepartment of Primary andSecondary Education, is tohelp students improve theirlanguage, mathematics andscience competencies. Thefree camp where middaymeals will be served is vol-untary. Most of the schoolschosen are in drought-hittaluks where the studentstrength is more than 150.

P.C. Jaffer, State ProjectDirector, Sarva Shiksha Ab-hiyan, said the programme

aims to ensure grade-appro-priate learning in students,and provide remedial teach-ing. “A student who com-pletes lower primary shouldhas a set of foundationalskills to move on to the nextset of classes. Various stud-ies have shown that childrenare not learning the basiclevel. Our focus is to im-prove this,” he said.

The findings of the An-nual Status of Education Re-port (ASER)-2016, conduc-ted by Pratham, a

non-governmental organisa-tion, showed that over halfthe students in ruralKarnataka, who completeelementary education, areunable to do simple divisionor read easy sentences inEnglish.

Department officials willbe reaching out to parents tosend their children to theprogramme. The depart-ment had conducted an as-sessment test for students inclass 6 along with class 4.“These tests will give us anidea on who needs help andin which subjects,” Mr. Jaffersaid. According to V.Sumangala, Joint Director ofthe midday meal scheme inthe State, as many as 25 lakhstudents in 160 drought-hittaluks have been identifiedas beneficiaries of the mid-day meal scheme during thesummer holidays.

It is for those who have completed classes 5 and 6

Tanu Kulkarni

Bengaluru

Summer camp for govt.school children

<> Various studies

have shown that

children are not

learning the basic

level. Our focus is to

improve this.

P.C. Jaffer,

State Project Director, Sarva ShikshaAbhiyan

There’s a scene in Poornawhere a group of young, un-derprivileged girls is playinga game of who is the poorestof us all. The protagonist,Poorna wins the day by stat-ing that she is so impover-ished that even her namefeatures the word poor. It’s asituation which could haveplayed out utterly sordid butfilmmaker Rahul Bose turnsit around with some readywit and humour, which,ironically, makes things evenmore aching and leaves theaudience feeling implicatedin the girls’ plight.

Inspired from the life ofPoorna Malavath, from a

hard-up tribal family inTelengana, who became theyoungest girl to scale MountEverest, Poorna is not down-beat as most narratives ofpoverty are wont to.

There’s a steady strain ofhope, warmth and goodness.Even in the face of the mostugly problems and injusticesof life, Poorna gets the sup-port of many good soul-s.There is a determinedheroine at the centre, the fa-miliar and obvious “under-dog winning the day withsheer grit and determina-tion” blueprint of sportsfilms (didn’t we see Phionain Queen of Katwe just a fewmonths back), the righteoustagline —“Ladkiyan kuchh

bhi kar sakti hain (girls cando anything)”— and all roundearnestness and contriv-ances aplenty. All of themcould have easily detractedbut the film has a genuine,gentle, heartfelt core thatkeeps the audience emotion-ally invested.

It is elevated by its sheersimplicity, restraint and anoverpowering vibe of em-pathy. Much of it stems fromthe lead roles and perform-

ances. There are no falsenotes here. And it’s not to dowith Aditi Inamdar’s sincereand persuasive turn asPoorna alone. There’s alsothe irresistible S. Mariya asher feisty confidante andcousin Priya. Their ca-maraderie and deep bondingis so real and credible thatyou can’t help not feel forthem. There’s somethingequally compelling in Poor-na’s relationship with theempathetic bureaucrat Dr.R.S. Praveen Kumar (RahulBose), the man who shapesher life. The IPS officer, whoopts to work in social welfaredepartment, shares a deepaffection with Poorna des-pite a cordial, respectful dis-

tance. It’s good to note, Bosecoming a full circle of sortswith his second directorialventure. In Poorna, thatidealistic civil servant getsmore surefooted with the in-escapable chaos of a youngmountaineer’s journey.

Despite the low budgetPoorna does a fair, if not ex-traordinary, job of bringingmountaineering on to the bigscreen.

But then the film isequally, if not more, aboutneglected towns like Pakalaand Bhongir. And scaling im-possible heights is ultimatelya metaphor — about becom-ing the vital road that canlink these forsaken boon-docks with civilisation.

Scaling impossible heights with graceNamrata Joshi Poorna (Hindi)

Director: Rahul Bose

Cast: Aditi Inamdar, S.

Mariya, Rahul Bose,

Dhritiman Chatterjee, Heeba

Shah, Arif Zakaria


THE HINDU BENGALURU


CMYK

BG-BGMYCMYK

A BG-BGMY

KARNATAKA

People with autism often ex-cel in areas that cater to theirstrengths. Organisations areslowly waking up to this fact,offering vocational trainingto autistic individuals in sec-tors that play up theirstrengths and turn them intoassets.

“The general awarenessabout the disorder is morenow. Also, acceptance levelshave increased in educa-tional institutions. However,after school, the question ofvocation arises,” said VijayPatil, Autism Society of In-dia. Computer-based voca-tions, such as software test-ing that is both a repetitiveactivity and an art, are areaswhere persons with autismare being trained and findingemployment, he added.

Many say that the idea totrain and employ autisticpersons gained momentumafter the Rights of Personswith Disabilities Bill, 2016,was passed and includedAutism Spectrum Disorder

(ASD) in its list of disabilities. “A child with autism

grows up into an adult withautism. The education suchchildren are given in schoolwill not help them if they arenot made to follow a struc-

tured day after they finishschool. Their needs changewith age,” explains SarbaniMallick, founder-director,Bubbles Centre for Autism,which is introducing voca-tional training for adults

from this June. The centrewill train people in printing,IT-enabled services and hos-pitality.

In fact, the retail and hos-pitality sectors are beginningto offer more employment

opportunities to people withautism, says JayashreeRamesh, director, Academyfor Severe Handicaps andAutism (ASHA). “There areother fields, such as farmingand cooking, that show greatpromise, but have not beenexplored,” she said.

However, both Ms.Ramesh and Ms. Mallickpoint out that vocationaltraining for adults with aut-ism was a concept that is stillin infancy. “There is no sys-tem in place for this yet,”said Ms. Ramesh.

Welfare schemes Govindraju, State Com-

missioner for Disabilities,said though the commissionhad welfare schemes for per-sons with autism and cereb-ral palsy ‘indirectly’, the in-clusion of ASD in the list ofdisabilities ensured that itenjoyed legal backing. “Wehave already started day-care centres for childrenwith autism and we are alsolooking at starting vocationaltraining for them,” he said.

More employment opportunities forthose sufering from autism todayRetail and hospitality sectors are ofering more avenues to such individuals

Staff Reporter

BENGALURU

DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

Facts about AutismSpectrum Disorder

B Autism Spectrum Disorderis the name given to agroup of developmentaldisorders. ASD covers awide range – a spectrum –of symptoms, skills, andlevels of disability.

B Around 1 in 68 childrenare said to be identiiedwith some form of ASD.

B People with ASD oftenexhibit characteristicssuch as repetitivebehaviour, limitedinterests in activities,inability to functionsocially, at school, work,or in other areas of life.

Source: Autism Society ofIndiaDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

WORLD AUTISM DAY

“The minute my daughterfinishes eating, she puts herplate away,” says the motherof a girl with autism. “She isused to having a fixed num-ber of clothes. The minutewe buy her a new one, oneof her old sets has to go. Hercupboard is always neat be-cause she only keeps whatshe needs in it,” sheexplains.

Persons with mild autismhave certain skills that come

in handy in a work environ-ment.

For instance, they payclose attention to detail;many of them are visualthinkers who see the worldin pictures. With the righttraining, their skills can beput to use in a manner thatmakes them functionalmembers of society, Jay-ashree Ramesh, AcademyFor Severe Handicaps andAutism (ASHA), says.

Once such success story isthat of Shravan (name

changed). Though Shravan,24, was diagnosed with aut-ism as a toddler, early andcontinuous intervention andparental support helpedhim complete his gradu-ation. He now works for anIT firm in Bengaluru, wherehe has been employed sinceOctober 2015.

His father, Jayaram (namechanged), recalls his experi-ence of raising his son, whofalls on the high functioningend of the spectrum of aut-ism. “Till three years of age,

he did not speak. He crossednumerous physical mile-stones but not the mentalones. He was enrolled in anormal school but did notdo well there,” Jayaram said.

Learning about disabilityAfter Shravan was dia-

gnosed with mild autism, Ja-yaram and his wife enrolledin a course on learning dis-abilities at NIMHANS.

They concentrated onteaching their son life skillsso he could function inde-

pendently or without aguardian by his side all thetime.

“We taught him how touse a restroom, to eat inpublic, and to buy groceries.We would put him in a busand follow on a bike. It was afearful experience but weknew it was necessary toteach him these skills,” theyoung man’s father said.Today, their results havepaid off, and Shravan givesback to society to the best ofhis abilities.

‘It was important to teach him life skills’Cinthya Anand

Bengaluru

The city’s Kempegowda In-ternational Airport (KIA)may have bagged theSKYTRAX Award for the BestRegional Airport in India andCentral Asia, but while pas-sengers acknowledge the im-pressive infrastructure, theyhave criticised the curt beha-viour of the staff at KIA.

Bangalore InternationalAirport Ltd. (BIAL) claims tohave initiated a programmeto improve customerexperience.

Over 7,000 staff across dif-ferent agencies working forBIAL — ranging from parkingagents to the ground staff in-

side the airport — are under-going a soft-skill trainingmodule known as Utsaha,that means ‘enthusiasm’ inEnglish.

“We started this trainingalmost a year ago. It is an on-going process to bring a com-mon ethos of service thatruns across all agenciesworking for BIAL,” said HariMarar, president, airport op-erations, BIAL.

As part of the programme,conducted by an externalagency, BIAL staff aretrained in greeting passen-gers in a common manner,handling queries, and anti-cipating their needs. “Thetrainers will support the staff

when they are handling pas-sengers,” said a member ofthe staff. For example, if anelderly person walks into theairport, the staff should beable to guess what he/she isstruggling with and try tohelp. “This is one of the mostessential aspects of customerservice,” said a BIAL staff.

Customer serviceThe training programme

captures core customer ser-vice challenges of the differ-ent agencies and is custom-ised accordingly. “Thechallenges of a parking areaemployee will be differentfrom those of the check-inarea,” added the staff.

“BIAL will reward employ-ees who excel in customerservices at the PinnacleAward Ceremony organisedin May every year,” said Mr.Marar.

Brand strategy expert Har-ish Bijoor, a frequent flier,says he is yet to see a behavi-oural change among staff atthe airport, but is happysomething is being doneabout it. “The other issueBIAL should focus on is redu-cing clogging by cabs of theroad leading out of the air-port. It takes over 25 minutesto reach the highway fromKIA, which is tiring for analready exhausted passen-ger,” he said.

Utsaha to make travelling throughKIA a memorable experience BIAL initiates programme to provide staf with soft-skills training


Bengaluru

Defending Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi,while conceding that theparty must engage in intro-spection, P. Chidambaram,former Home Minister, saidthe fundamental problemthe Congress faced was anorganisational crisis ratherthan one related toleadership.

He suggested that collect-ive leadership was the wayahead for the party, speak-ing at the release of his bookFearless in Opposition: Powerand Accountability in the cityon Saturday.

“Over the last two dec-ades, the party organisationhas weakened. Organisation-ally, BJP and RSS, are todaywhat the Congress was inthe 1950s and 1960s. Whatthe Congress needs is an al-ternate plank or a counternarrative to the Hindutva

narrative and a matching or-ganisation by the next roundof elections,” he said.

Mr. Chidambaram saidthat the next round of Stateelections in Gujarat,Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh,Rajasthan and Chattisgarh,pitted Congress against theBJP with no regional players,except in Karnataka, and itsoutcome would be crucialfor the party on deciding theroad ahead.

Arguing that post-social-ism, Congress was notbound by any ideology,while Communist partiesand BJP had strong ideolo-gical planks, Mr. Chidam-baram said while he was notconvinced that globalisationcan be turned into an ideo-logy, the idea of a modern,democratic State based onpluralistic values had the po-tential to be an alternateplank to counter Hindutva.

Alleging that the Union

government missed an op-portunity to bring in asecond version of the Na-tional Judicial AppointmentsCommittee (NJAC), he sug-gested that the collegium re-main the only authority topropose the names ofjudges, while NJAC shouldbe empowered to vet theproposed names, essentiallyworking as a review author-ity. He accused the Modi-ledgovernment of sweepingaway the real issues facingthe country and insteadbringing to the fore issuesthat stoke fear, creating anenvironment of fear in thecountry.

Rajeev Gowda, MP, RajyaSabha, Aditya Sondhi, addi-tional advocate general ofthe State, and Dr. RichardRego S.J., Director, ResearchCentre, Department of Com-munication, St. Joseph’s Col-lege, were present on theoccasion.

‘Cong. facing organisational,not leadership crisis’Collective leadership is the way ahead, says Chidambaram

Staff Reporter

Bengaluru

Making an impression: Students greeting P. Chidambaram, former Union Minister, at the releaseof his book Fearless in Opposition: Power and Accountability, at St. Joseph’s College, inBengaluru on Saturday. * K. MURALI KUMAR

Long after losing ground tothe transgenic variety, nativecotton is gaining fresh cur-rency and regaining its lostground, but in small meas-ures. While traditional foodlike millets is seeing a re-vival, parts of Karnataka arealso seeing cultivators es-chewing the transgenic cot-ton variety.

Groups like Sahaja Sam-ruddha — an organisationworking for conserving tradi-tional and indigenous vari-ety of crops — have net-worked with farmers in theState, besides establishinglinks with similar like-minded organisations acrossthe country. It has collabor-ated with Tula, a non-profitsocial enterprise, which en-courages farmers to cultivate‘desi’ cotton organically. Itpurchases the materialsfrom the cultivators, weavesand manufactures fabric,and sells them to ensure thatfarmers get the best price.

The three-day Desi Cotton

Mela, held in Mysuru re-cently, is expected to openup the market for the farm-ers while providing an al-ternative and diverse rangeof clothing for the con-sumers.

“There was a steady de-cline of the native variety ofcotton cross India due to thegovernment support fortransgenic Bt cotton. But inthe last few years, nativevarieties like Jayadhar isback in the reckoning and isbeing cultivated in parts ofcentral Karnataka like

Gadag, Hubballi, Koppal andHaveri,” said Krishnaprasadof Sajaha Samruddha. Thereare more than 100 farmers inthe Sahaja Samruddha net-work cultivating Jayadharvariety, he added. There aresimilar network of farmersin the Vidharba region of Ma-harasthra cultivatingDhanavantri variety and Kar-unganni cotton in TamilNadu.

“Historically, the Indiansubcontinent was famous forcotton, but now the ‘desi’cotton cultivation is less than

3% of the total production,”according to Ananthasayanaof Tula. But we are talking tothe urban consumers on theeconomics involved and alsocreating a market for it,adding that millets too werein a similar situation 10 yearsago.

Besides, there is a prefer-ence for native cotton cultiv-ated organically for surgicaland medical use, but thismarket has not been fully ex-ploited, say the promoterswho are confident that nat-ive cotton has a better futurein the years ahead.

Water-saversA majority of native cot-

ton varieties are dry landcrops and do not requiremuch water and hence areresistant to drought. Thecost of cultivation is less andthe yield and returns surpassthe input cost, which willhelp sustain farmers, accord-ing to Krishnaprasad ofSahaja Samruddha. “This istrue of cotton and millets,”he added.

Native cotton takes root once againThere’s a revival in cultivation of ‘desi’ cotton organically

R. Krishna Kumar

MYSURU

Actor Kishor with indigenous cotton cultivators at an exhibitionin Mysuru. * M.A. SRIRAM


BENGALURU THE HINDU


CMYK

BG-BGMYCMYK

A BG-BGMY

KARNATAKA

Multi-axle serviceto BasavakalyanBENGALURU

The KSRTC introduced Scania

multi-axle service from

Bengaluru to Basavakalyan

via Ballari from April 1.

According to a release, the

bus will leave Bengaluru at 8

p.m. and reach Basavakalyan

at 10 a.m., the next day. In

the return direction, it will

leave Basavakalyan at 6 p.m.

and arrive in Benglauru at 8

a.m.. The fare per person is

₹950.

IN BRIEF

Karnataka gets mostsupportive govt. awardBENGALURU

The Government of Karnataka

received the most supportive

government award-2017 at

the International Awards

ceremony held in Washington,

D.C. on March 30. The award

was given by WEConnect

International, an organisation

working to identify, educate,

register and certify women’s

business enterprises based

outside the U.S. Presented in

recognition of Chief Minister

Siddaramaiah’s dedication to

women’s economic

development, the award was

received by K. Ratna Prabha,

Additional Chief Secretary on

behalf of the government.

President to visitBengaluru on April 14BENGALURU

A programme to mark the

foundation stone laying

ceremony for the proposed

Dr. B.R. Ambedkar School of

Economics will be held on

April 14 at Banquet Hall,

Vidhana Soudha. President

Pranab Mukherjee will take

part in the programme. The

autonomous institution will

be established on the Jnana

Bharathi campus, Bangalore

University.

Increased government con-trol over river sand extrac-tion doesn’t seem to havehad any impact on the illegalmarket in the State.

The implementation ofthe sand policy in 2014,which identified sand blocksthat were to be auctionedonly by the Public Works De-partment, tightened the gov-ernment’s control over riversand. In 2013-14, as much as31.89 lakh cubic metres ofsand was extracted in theState; this reduced to 14 lakhcubic metres in 2016-17 — afall of more than 56%.

The emphasis on manu-factured sand (M-sand) nowsees around 80 lakh cubicmetres being produced an-nually — nearly six times asmuch as river sand — butthis, developers say, is notenough.

“Barely a fifth of the es-timated demand of 2,000loads of sand for construc-tion in Bengaluru is beingmet through river sand. M-sand cannot be used in allthe construction processes,including plastering. Eventhis is uncertain as quarries(which provide dust for M-sand) are being closed. Withthe demand still there, manytap the illegal market forriver sand,” said Suresh Hari,secretary of real estate bodyCREDAI.

The shortfall in supply hasseen sand prices rise to over₹4,700 a cubic metre, settingthe stage for illegal sand ex-tractors to profit.

Take for example the al-leged relentless sand extrac-tion in dried lakebeds inChickballapur district. Whilegovernment data shows thatnot one cubic metre of sand

has been lifted from the dis-trict in over two years, activ-ist Gangadhar N. says lakesin Chickballapur and Sid-laghatta taluk are not beingspared.

“We’ve even filed policecomplaints, but to no avail.The locals are involved, butit is groups from the cities

that come at night and takethe sand,” he said. His estim-ate is that up to 15 tractorloads of sand is removeddaily.

Continuous sand extrac-tion has taken its toll on theeco-sensitive Kodagu dis-trict. Data from the Depart-ment of Mines and Geology

shows that from a high of59,000 cubic metres extrac-ted in 2014-15, the legal sandextraction has reduced tozero here. This, however,does not reflect the reality.

“Illegal sand extractionwas rampant till aroundthree months ago, whendrought saw no sand left in

rivers such as LakshmanTeertha and [there was a]clampdown by the districtadministration,” said Col C.P.Muthanna (retd.), presidentof the Coorg Wildlife Society(CWS), which is looking forstronger laws to protect theeco-sensitive landscape ofthe district.

As river sand becomes morecontrolled, illegal market thrivesShortfall in supply sees rise in prices, setting the stage for illegal sand extractors to proit

Open secret: File photo of sand being extracted and stocked. The emphasis on M-sand now sees around 80 lakh cubic metresbeing produced annually — nearly six times as much as river sand.

Mohit M. Rao

Bengaluru

Illegal sand extraction fromriverbeds and their trans-portation for construction tocities go on quietly until anincident — of either a gov-ernment official being tar-geted by the mafia or the of-ficialdom’s connivance withthe mafia — hits theheadlines.

The recent death of asand truck driver atLaxmeshwar in Gadag, fol-lowing alleged harassmentby the police for “hafta”, hasbrought the issue back in fo-cus. While the case is still be-ing investigated, illegal sandtrucks continue to ply in theregion with impunity. Thedriver Shivanand Goni aliasGaniger had allegedly beentargeted for refusing to pay“hafta”. Following his death,a mob attacked the stationalleging that a policemanwas continually harassingtruck drivers, demanding acut in the trade.

Meanwhile, though theGadag district administra-tion has suspended issuingsand permits to transportershere, intensive sand trans-portation continues with thetacit support of police andadministration from river-beds of the Tungabhadraand Malaprabha. Many truckdrivers say the authoritiespromoted illegal sand ex-traction for “additional in-come”. The earlier DeputyCommissioner’s recom-mendation for action againsta tahsildar in Gadag districtproves a point in this regard.

President of the Tun-gabhadra Sand Transport-ers’ Association ShashidharKoravi says: “If permits areissued, it will be legal which

means no additional incomefor the corrupt.”

Cauvery beltThe situation is no differentin the Cauvery belt, and Su-perintendent of Mysuru dis-trict police Ravi Chan-nanavar says personsengaged in illegal sand busi-ness are a “syndicate”. Heregrets that the arrests madeso far have brought to bookonly operators in the lowerrung like the loader orvehicle driver but not thekingpin. “The police person-nel on field can only namethem, but are unable to pro-ceed due to absence of con-crete evidence,” he says.

On the ground, driverKhalid (name changed), whoused to supply the muchsought-after “Narsipursand” to contractors andbuilders in Mysuru, knowshow well-oiled the ma-chinery is. Mini transportvehicles would deliver sandin gunny bags to designatedplace after midnight and theyouths, after unloading,would cleanse the vehicle ofeven the smallest trace ofsand. The 18-20 km stretchof Cauvery between Talakadand T. Narsipur bridge isconsidered to be the sourceof superior quality sand thatis much in demand not onlyin Mysuru but also beyond.

“I barely got a few hun-dred from each delivery. Therest of the money goes to anentire supply chain of load-ers, stocker, passer, driverand the police,” says Khalid.He, however, recentlystopped his involvement inthe business because it is“too risky”. But, there aresome operators, who cansupply river sand from ad-joining Mandya district.

‘Authorities promoting illegal sandextraction for additional income’

Girish Pattanashetti

Laiqh A. Khan

HUBBALLI/MYSURU

No stopping thiswell-oiled maia

Are visitors to Hyderabadbuying fake Bidri souvenirs?This is the fear of Bidri artisansin Hyderabad and Bidar inKarnataka who believe cheapscreen-printed pieces are beingpassed off as hand-craftedBidriware.

Rehaman Patel, a facultymember in the Department ofVisual Arts, GulbargaUniversity, has written to theGeographical Indications (GI)Registry voicing his concernafter he came across aphotograph of Telangana ChiefMinister K. Chandrasekhar Raohanding over a Bidri souvenir toTim Cook, Apple CEO, a fewmonths ago. He also wrote tothe Karnataka governmentdemanding action againstmisuse of the GI tag.

Even The Hindu wrote to theTelangana Chief Minister’soffice on this issue, but therehas been no reply.

Original Bidriware is made ofan alloy of 90% zinc and 10%copper, with inlay work of puresilver. The products are laterblackened by dipping them in abath of chemicals with traces ofsoil from Bidar fort. Instead ofthe long-drawn-out traditionalprocess, unscrupulous tradersare printing the designs ontoblack plastic or zinc plate.These poor imitations are beingpassed off as original.

“When we get bulk orders, orwhen the design is too intricate,or when the client is in a hurry,we print the design. Theprinted design is laid on a basematerial, which can either be a

zinc plate or a black plasticsheet and the print is fixedusing a process of oxidisation,”said a trader in Hyderabadwhere regular Bidriware is alsocreated.

Incidentally, Bidriware isprotected by the GI Registryand any attempt to duplicate itis illegal. “These items arecheaper and weigh far less thanthe authentic product. I boughta few items out of curiosity,”said Bengaluru-based artconnoisseur Kranti Kumar.

Imitation Bidriware is beingsold even in the souvenir shopof the Salar Jung Museum. “Thisis not Bidriware. It’s machineprinted. Nobody’s hand is sosteady,” said MuhammadYaseen, a craftsman in

Hyderabad’s Murgi Chowk area,when shown a ₹1,700 ‘Bidri’item. Incidentally, at a retailoutlet in Hyderabad, a similar-sized item is sold for ₹550,while an original Bidriware ofslightly bigger size is sold for₹2,500. Half of the Bidar oldcity’s economy is dependent onBidriware, and it would bedestroyed as machine-madegoods become popular. Artisanswould lose jobs, said RashidQuadri, national award winningartist and quality consultant forCauvery Handicrafts.Counterfeit items are floodingbigger markets in Hyderabad,Mumbai and Kalaburagi, saidVinayak Vangapalli, who haswritten a research paper on theBidriware market.

CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC

Bidriware imitations everywhereUnscrupulous traders go the easy route to meet bulk orders

Quick ix: An imitation Bidriware piece.

Rishikesh Bahadur Desai

Serish Nanisetti

Bidar/Hyderabad

The JSS University will invest₹2,000 crore in Mysuru forits new campus and establishstate-of-the-art facilities todraw both domestic and in-ternational students.

This is reckoned to be thesingle largest chunk of in-vestment in any field inMysuru in the recent dec-ades.

The last time when the

city received a big chunk offunds was when IT major In-fosys invested around ₹1,500crore to establish its globaleducation centre and theworld’s largest corporatetraining centre to put thecity on the IT map of theworld, besides propping upMysuru’s brand image as aknowledge city.

The ground breaking cere-mony for the new campusproject will be held on April

29 at Varuna on the outskirtsof the city, where it has 102acres of land. The project en-visages not only a digital andsmart campus, but also acricket stadium modernenough to stage internationaltournaments.

University Vice-Chancel-lor B. Suresh said here onSaturday that eminent archi-tects had already submittedblueprint of designs and theJSS Varsity Board was in the

process of finalising it. Hesaid the first phase is expec-ted to be completed byDecember 2018 while thefull-fledged internationalcampus will be operationalby 2025. The university,which already has collabora-tions with institutions in U.S.and Europe to sharpen its ex-pertise, will explore tie-upswith universities in the non-English speaking countriesto enhance its capabilities.

JSS University to invest ₹2,000 crore on new campus This is said to be the single largest chunk of investment in any ield in Mysuru in recent decades


MYSURU

The new full-ledged campus will be operational by 2025. *

Untimely rain on Saturday provided respite from heat inHubballi. However, strong winds uprooted a tree atChennapet causing minor injuries to residents. * KIRAN BAKALE

CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC

Tragedy averted


THE HINDU BENGALURU


CMYK

BG-BGMYCMYK

A BG-BGMY

KARNATAKA

Weather WatchRainfall, temperature & air quality in select metros yesterday

Temperature Data: IMD, Pollution Data: CPCB, Map: Skymet

Forecast for Sunday: Heat wave conditions likely at a few placesover Jharkhand and at isolated places over Madhya Pradesh andChhattisgarh. Heavy to very heavy rain likely at isolated placesover Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripuraand Arunachal Pradesh

city rain max min city rain max min

Agartala................. — .... 34.0.... 26.0 Kozhikode ............... —.... 37.4.... 27.4

Ahmedabad............ — .... 40.1.... 24.0 Kurnool ................... —.... 42.0.... 27.6

Aizwal ................... — .... 28.6.... 11.9 Lucknow.................. —.... 41.8.... 20.9

Allahabad .............. — .... 43.2.... 19.7 Madurai................... —.... 38.4.... 23.5

Bengaluru ............. — .... 36.3.... 22.5 Mangaluru............... —.... 35.7.... 27.0

Bhopal................... — .... 40.3.... 22.5 Mumbai................... —.... 32.2.... 23.0

Bhubaneswar ........ — .... 35.3.... 25.8 Mysuru.................... —.... 36.4.... 21.8

Chandigarh ........... — .... 36.6.... 20.4 New Delhi ............... —.... 39.4.... 23.2

Chennai ................. — .... 33.8.... 26.8 Patna ...................... —.... 37.8.... 22.7

Coimbatore........... — .... 39.0.... 24.6 Port Blair ................ —.... 33.6.... 25.6

Dehradun............... —.... 36.1.... 19.6 Puducherry.............. —.... 34.0.... 24.8

Gangtok.............52.3.... 15.2.... 13.8 Pune ....................... —.... 38.4.... 25.7

Goa ....................... —.... 33.7.... 27.1 Raipur ..................... —.... 42.0.... 26.4

Guwahati ...........22.5.... 24.0.... 20.5 Ranchi..................... —.... 39.0.... 21.6

Hubballi................. — .... 35.0.... 23.0 Shillong...............25.4.... 21.7.... 13.6

Hyderabad ............. —.... 41.0.... 27.2 Shimla..................... —.... 25.3.... 16.1

Imphal...............23.2.... 24.2.... 17.6 Srinagar ................1.8.... 18.5...... 9.7

Jaipur .................... —.... 40.3.... 25.0 Trivandrum ............. —.... 35.6.... 25.3

Kochi...................1.8.... 33.6.... 24.6 Tiruchi .................... —.... 38.7.... 25.2

Kohima................6.2.... 20.4...... 9.0 Vijayawada .............. —.... 37.6.... 25.2

Kolkata.................. —.... 33.1.... 26.1 Visakhapatnam ......... —.... 32.0.... 26.0

Particulate matter in the air you are breathing Yesterday

CITIES SO2 NO2 CO PM2.5 PM10 CODE

In observation made at4.00 p.m., Gurgaon,Haryana, recorded anoverall air quality index(AQI) score of 274indicating an unhealthylevel of pollution. In contrast, Amritsarrecorded a healthy AQIscore of 49

Ahmedabad......... ....— .....— ...—........— .......—.......—

Bengaluru ........... ....5....58..15.... 141 .......— ......*

Chennai .............. ....9....27..12.... 112 .......— ......*

Delhi................... ..40..145..81.... 238 ...371 ......*

Hyderabad .......... ..43....26..23...... 82 ...119 ......*

Kolkata ............... ..10....16..21........— .....48 ......*

Lucknow ............. ....9....38..42.... 289 .......— ......*

Mumbai .............. ..19....38..17...... 77 .....90 ......*

Pune ................... ..31....40....5.... 111 ...111 ......*

Vishakhapatnam.. ..36....22..65...... 61 ...109 ......*

Air Quality Code: * Poor * Moderate * Good

SO2: Sulphur Dioxide. Short-term exposure can harm the respiratory system,

making breathing difficult. It can affect visibility by reacting with other air

particles to form haze and stain culturally important objects such as statues

and monuments.

NO2: Nitrogen Dioxide. Aggravates respiratory illness, causes haze to form by

reacting with other air particles, causes acid rain, pollutes coastal waters.

CO: Carbon monoxide. High concentration in air reduces oxygen supply to

critical organs like the heart and brain. At very high levels, it can cause

dizziness, confusion, unconsciousness and even death.

PM2.5 & PM10: Particulate matter pollution can cause irritation of the eyes,

nose and throat, coughing, chest tightness and shortness of breath, reduced

lung function, irregular heartbeat, asthma attacks, heart attacks and

premature death in people with heart or lung disease

(Individual pollutant data for various cities are averages for the previous day)

In an embarrassment to theCongress in Karnataka, vet-eran Congress leader andformer Railways MinisterC.K. Jaffer Sharief has writ-ten to Prime Minister Naren-dra Modi backing RashtriyaSwayamsevak Sangh (RSS)chief Mohan Bhagwat for thepost of the President.

Mr. Sharief ’s statementgoes against the Congress’sstand that it would block anymove to make Mr. Bhagwatthe President as it “opposesthe saffron ideology”. It wasthe Shiv Sena that had sug-gested Mr. Bhagwat’s namefor the post. Mr. Bhagwat,has himself, dismissed spec-ulation that he would standfor the post.

Speaking to The Hindu,Mr. Sharief said, “On someissues you have to differfrom the party. My state-ment is in the larger interestsof the nation. It is to makesecularism stronger.”

However, denying specu-

lation that his letter to Mr.Modi is an indication of himfollowing in the footsteps ofS.M. Krishna, who quit theCongress recently to join theBJP, the 85-year-old leaderdescribed himself as a “bornCongressman” and therewas no question of leavingthe party. He said his sup-port for Mr. Bhagwat is a“matter of principle and in-dividual opinion”.

In his letter dated March29 to Mr. Modi, copied to Mr.Bhagwat as well, Mr. Shariefwrote: “There are different

schools of thought in Indiaand it is but natural for sucha vast secular country. Hemay belong to one school ofthought, but there shouldnot be any doubt about hispatriotism, love for thepeople of India, loyalty tothe nation, and commitmentto the Constitution of Indiaand democracy.”

He said in the letter that“as a Muslim and a personbelonging to the minoritycommunity” he feels thatthe minorities “should nothave any fear or crisis of con-fidence in Mr. Mohan Bhag-wat’s name being con-sidered.”

President Pranab Mukher-jee’s term ends on July 24

this year.

Miffed with CongressBack in 2014, Mr. Sharief wasmiffed over denial of partyticket to him to contest LokSabha polls and hadthreatened to quit the party.He had again expressed dis-pleasure over Chief MinisterSiddaramaiah’s perceived re-luctance to give ticket to hisgrandson, Abdul RehamanSharief, to Hebbal constitu-ency in the 2016 bypolls.Backed by the high com-mand, Mr. Rehaman gotticket, but lost. Mr. Sharief ’ssupporters had blamed Mr.Siddaramaiah’s closed circleof working against hisgrandson.

Jafer Sharief backs RSSchief Bhagwat for PresidentThe 85-year-old Congress leader pens letter to Modi on the matter

C.K. Jafer Sharief

Afshan Yasmeen

Bengaluru <> On some issues you have to difer from the party... I

am a born Congressman and there is no question

of leaving the party. My support for RSS chief

Mohan Bhagwat is a matter of principle and it is

my individual opinion.

C.K. Jafer Sharief,

Veteran Congress leader

///////////////////////////////////////////////

To ensure transparency inthe polling process, all Elec-tronic Voting Machines(EVMs) that will be in useduring the April 9 bypolls toNanjangud and Gundlupetin the State will be accom-panied by Voter-VerifiablePaper Audit Trail (VVPAT)machines, which will print aballot slip to show in whosefavour the vote has beencast.

The introduction of theVVPAT comes in the wake ofpoliticians doubts had beenraised by politicians over thealleged tampering of theEVMs.

The VVPAT, a machinewith a printing unit, which isconnected to the EVM, willprint a ballot slip soon afterthe voter exercises his fran-chise on the EVM. “The bal-lot slip containing the serialnumber, name and symbolof the chosen candidate willbe visible to the voter forseven seconds,” said DeputyCommissioner of Mysuru D.Randeep, who is also theDistrict Election Officer, dur-ing a demonstration of the

VVPAT machine for the me-dia in Mysuru on Saturday.

The candidate can see theslip through a glass case inthe VVPAT for sevenseconds. Then the ballot slipgets cut and drops into thedrop box in the VVPAT ma-chine and a beep will beheard.

“The voters will not be al-lowed to take the slip withthem, to maintain confiden-tiality of the vote,” clarified

D.M. Satish Kumar, GeneralManager of Chamundesh-wari Electricity Supply Com-pany (CESC), who has beendeputed to New Delhi to un-dergo training for installingand operating the VVPAT.

Though the VVPAT ma-chines were used on a pilotbasis in some booths in thefive States where Assemblypolls were held recently, Mr.Kumar said the ElectionCommission has now de-cided to use them in all theAssembly bypolls scheduledon April 9.

Each VVPAT, which runson battery, can print 1,500ballot slips from the pre-loaded paper roll. “The totalnumber of voters in a boothwill usually not exceed 1,200or 1,300. But, even if the pa-per roll gets exhausted,there is provision reload it,”Mr. Kumar said.

“For the 236 pollingbooths in Nanjangud (re-served) Assembly constitu-ency, we have 355 VVPATmachines,” said MrRandeep.

Voters in bypolls cannow verify their votes After using EVM, you get a 7-second view of the printout


MYSURU

For transparency: Deputy Commissioner D. Randeep and otheroicials giving a demonstration of the EVM and the VVPAT, inMysuru on Saturday. * M.A. SRIRAM *

Kogadu: Not so easy toregulate mediaYADGIR

Kagodu Thimmappa, Revenue

Minister, replying to a query

on regulating the media,

at a press conference in

Yadgir on Saturday, said: “It is

not easy to regulate the

media which discharges its

duty under the right of

freedom of expression.” He,

however, said the media

should follow some kind of

“culture”.

Change in train scheduleBENGALURU

Effective from Sunday, the

Secunderabad-Yeshwantpur

Garibrath Express (12735) will

have services on Sunday,

Wednesday and Friday,

instead of Tuesday and

Thursday. The train will leave

Secunderabad at 8.30 p.m.

and arrive in Yeshwantpur at

8.20 a.m. The Yeshwantpur-

Secunderabad Garibrath

Express (12736) will run on

the revised days from April 3;

there will be no change in

timings. It will have services

on Monday, Thursday and

Saturday.

MYSURU

Six vehicles thataccompanied ChiefMinister Siddaramaiah’sconvoy in Nanjangud onFriday were seized bypoll officials. DeputyCommissioner D.Randeep, who is also theDistrict Election Officer,

told reporters onSaturday that the vehicleswere seized since theydid not have permissionto accompany the CM’sconvoy for campaigningin Nanjangud. The seizedvehicles apparentlybelonged to Congresssupporters.

Six vehicles in CM’sconvoy seized

The Beary dialect, spoken byan ethnic Muslim group inparts of Karnataka and Ker-ala, will have its first diction-ary with meanings in Kan-nada and English in abouttwo months.

The dictionary, with about20,000 words, will have theoriginal Beary word in Kan-nada script and an Englishtransliteration. It would befollowed by the meaning ofthe word in Kannada and inEnglish.

The academy plans tobring out 1,000 copies whichwould be released beforeMay 20. The printing processis on.

According to B.A. Mo-hammad Hanif, president,Karnataka Beary SahityaAcademy and Chief Editor ofthe dictionary, Beary-speak-ing Muslims are mostly inKodagu, Chikkamagaluru,Hassan, Mysuru, Mumbai,Bengaluru, Goa, and abroad.The dictionary would giveadditional leverage to urgethe government to introduce

Beary as the third optionallanguage in schools, likeTulu, and bring back into cir-culation words that are for-gotten, Mr. Hanif said.

The editor is B.M. Ichlan-god, while the co-editors areShamshuddin Madikeri andAbdul Rahaman Kuthethoor.They said Beary words like

‘Eekel’ (broomstick), ‘Yaake’(rope for drying clothes) and‘Mwaza’ (socks) have disap-peared from local conversa-tion now.

In her work ‘Beary Lan-guage’, researcher and thelate Susheela P. Upadhyayamentions that there was a be-lief that Beary had a scriptknown as ‘Batte Baraha’,which is now not in use. NowKannada script is being used.In another research work‘Mopilla Malayalam’ the au-thor says that the origin ofBeary could be traced to theTulu dialect.

It covers 20,000 words with meanings in Kannada, English

Raviprasad Kamila

MANGALURU

Beary dialect to get itsirst dictionary by May

<> …The Beary has

Tulu grammar

which is entirely

diferent from the

Malayalam lexicon.

More than 50% of

the words are from

Tulu dialect, the

remaining from

Arabic and

Malayalam ...

Susheela P. Upadhyaya,

Researcher in her work ‘MopillaMalayalam’ and ‘Beary Language’

Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd.has achieved a turnover of₹17,406 crore for the finan-cial year ended March 31,2017, 4% higher than theyear before.

Profit before tax was₹3,294 crore, barely abovelast year’s PBT.

“The company is doingwell on expected lines. Wecontributed around ₹800

crore to the government ex-chequer by way of interimdividend.

This is in addition to ₹162crore paid as dividend tax,”a release quoted HAL CMDT. Suvarna Raju as saying.

For the previous year, theaudited turnover was₹16,736 crore and pre-taxprofit ₹3,288 crore.

During fiscal 2016-17 thecompany received ordersworth ₹21,000 crore

HAL turnover at ₹17,406 cr. Special Correspondent

BENGALURU

A class 1 student suffered ahand fracture allegedlycaused by a teacher.

Dhanush (7) of Govern-ment Model HigherPrimary School was re-portedly assaulted byteacher Veena on March 15as he was lagging in math-ematics. Ms. Veena twistedhis right hand, Dhanush’sfather V. Srinivas said in acomplaint filed with thejurisdictional Gulpet policestation.

Though it was decidedto settle the issue after ne-gotiations in the presenceof the headmaster, D.N.Mukund, and social activistP.V. Raman, and ₹ 20,000was agreed upon as com-pensation towards medicalexpenses, only ₹ 700 waspaid, Srinivas, a painter byprofession, said. He alsosaid in the complaint thathe could not go to work ashe had to attend to hischild. Police are yet to re-gister an FIR. They are try-ing to settle the issue amic-ably, sources said.

Student’s hand

fractured,

teacher

‘blamed’

Staff Correspondent

Kolar

Governor Vajubhai R. Valahas said Indians have for-gotten their culture andlifestyle as they have beenruled by Mughals and Brit-ish for more than 500years.

He was speaking afterthe inauguration of theGuruvandana programmeto mark the 110th birthdaycelebrations of the seer ofSiddaganga Mutt, Shivaku-mara Swami, on thepremises of the mutt inTumakuru city onSaturday.

Mr. Vala said that theseers are trying to protectand rejuvenate Indian cul-ture which is the best cul-ture in the world.

He called upon thepeople to help in this taskand protect the nation.

Seers tryingto rejuvenateour culture:GovernorStaff Correspondent

Tumakuru

IN BRIEF

8EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

SOUTH

NCP’s Thomas Chandysworn in as MinisterTHIRUVANANTHAPURAM

Nationalist Congress Party

legislator Thomas Chandy

was sworn in as Minister in

the Pinarayi Vijayan Cabinet

at a function in Raj Bhavan

here on Saturday. Governor P.

Sathasivam administered the

oath of office and secrecy to

Mr. Chandy.

IN BRIEF

KPCC seeks actionagainst Jacob ThomasMALAPPURAM

Kerala Pradesh Congress

Committee interim president

M.M. Hassan has demanded

action against former

Vigilance Director Jacob

Thomas for giving a report

with loopholes to save the

culprits in Perambavoor case.

Mr. Hassan said Mr. Thomas

had conducted an inquiry

without the knowledge of the

special investigation team.

The Karnataka governmenton Saturday expressed its in-ability to release 3 tmcft ofCauvery water, sought by anofficial team from TamilNadu, to meet the water re-quirements of people in theCauvery basin area.

A delegation of officialsfrom Tamil Nadu met offi-cials in Karnataka on Sat-urday and requested thegovernment to share 3 tmcftof water on humanitariangrounds because of the pre-vailing drought.

Poor storageHowever, Chief Secretary,Karnataka, SubhashChandra Khuntia, expressedthe State’s inability to sharewater given the poor storagein the four reservoirs of theCauvery basin because of

drought on this side of theborder as well.

The total storage in thethree reservoirs stood at 8.8tmcft, which would meet thedrinking water requirementonly up to June, explainedMr. Khuntia.

Speaking to the media,Mr. Khuntia said the talkswere “cordial” and officials

of Tamil Nadu had soughtwater release on “humanit-arian consideration,” not onthe basis of the tribunal or-der or the Supreme Courtdirection.

“Water crisis is similar inboth the States. But their[T.N.’s] demand can be con-sidered only if it rains,” hesaid.

‘Cannot releasewater from Cauvery’ Karnataka oicials tell T.N. counterparts they are helpless

Dismal scenario: T.N. sought 3 tmcft water on humanitariangrounds but Karnataka said it was also reeling under drought.

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

BENGALURU After being acquitted by theHigh Court in the AyeshaMeera murder case, 30-year-old Pidatala Satyam Babuwas forced to spend onemore day at the CentralPrison here, as the ordercopies, which were mandat-ory for his release, did notreach the prison by Saturdayevening.

He, however, will be freedon Sunday morning.

The High Court pro-nounced its judgment onFriday that Mr. Babu was inno way connected to therape and murder that tookplace in a private hostel atIbrahimpatnam near Vijay-awada on December 27,2007.

His family members, ad-vocates and activists of theHuman Rights Forum, whofought relentlessly for him,

waited anxiously outside theprison.

Meets motherThe jail authorities allowedMariyamma, Mr. Babu’smother, to meet him in thevisitors’ room.

The officials, however, didnot allow the media to takepictures of the meeting withthe man who spent eight

years of his life in jail. “He isvery happy,” said Ms. Mar-iyamma, who added that shewas certain her son was in-nocent from day one.

“But no one listened tome. He was subjected to har-assment and humiliation bythe police and society. Canthe government return theyears he spent in jail,” sheasked.

Satyam Babu will walk free on SundayHC acquitted him of murder after he spent 8 years in jail

K.N. Murali Sankar

RAJAMAHENDRAVARAM

End of ordeal: Satyam Babu’s mother speaking to the media inRajamahendravaram on Saturday. * SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

The online centraliseddonor management system(CDMS), introduced by theTirumala Tirupathi Dev-asthanams, has enabledthousands to avail them-selves of privileges at theclick of a mouse.

Under the new user-friendly system, no physicalpassbooks are issued to thedonors. All the facilities canbe availed online. Donorsneed not produce any ‘live’certificates.

All they need to do is fur-nish their mail address andphone numbers, and gener-ate the passbooks on their

own. They need not ap-proach any office or officialfor darshan of the deity.They can directly gain entryat the Vaikuntam queuecomplex.

VIP darshan Even donors entitled for VIPdarshan can directly reportat the Vaikuntam. The barcodes of the passbooks areverified and scanned aheadof permitting them for thedarshan. The TTD has madethe facility available both on-line and offline.

Of the 4,200 people whohave donated after thelaunch of the new system inSeptember last, more than

4,000 have generated pass-books on their own.

Of over 40,000 peoplewho had donated before thelaunch of the new system,more than 13,000 had gener-ated their passbooks. For thebenefit of the remaining27,000 donors, the TTD hadset April 30 as the deadline.

In an exclusive interviewto The Hindu, TTD ExecutiveOfficer D. Sambasiva Raosaid all old passbooks stooddevalued with the introduc-tion of the new system. De-votees who failed to gener-ate new passbooks ahead ofthe deadline can get newones during their first visit tothe town after April 30.

Facilities can be enjoyed by donors at the click of a mouse

G.P. Shukla

Tirumala

TTD’s online centralised donormanagement system a hit

Malayalam novelist ManojKuroor has succeeded in go-ing where most Tamilwriters have not gone — theTamil Sangam period. Hehas penned a story imagin-ing (in Malayalam) a 2,000-year-old landscape withkings, chieftains, warriors,singers, dancers, communit-ies divided on the basis ofprofession and, in particular,the last seven philanthrop-ists (the ‘Kadaiezhu Val-lalkal’) and the constantwars among them.

The novel Nilam poothumalarnna naal (‘The day theland bloomed and blos-somed’) has now reachedTamil readers in an eleganttranslation by K.V. Jeyasri as

Nilam poothu malaranthanaal, published by VamsiBooks. The 312-page novel ispriced at Rs 250.

The translator's languageis evocative. The imageryflows like a waterfall in thehill region of the Tamil coun-try, carrying along with it thefragrance of all the 99flowers mentioned in Kur-

injipattu. The novel is nar-rated by three charactersfrom the community of dan-cers and musicians — Paanar,Koothar and Virali — who mi-grate from one place to an-other in search of livelihood.

“I started it off as a fictionin verse form but I soon real-ised that this approach wasinadequate to convey theideas,” said Mr. Kuroor, whoteaches Malayalam at theNSS Hindu College in Chan-ganaserry and has read theMalayalam translations ofSangam literary works byNeemara Viswanatha Pillai,K.N. Ezhuthachan and vialearnsangamtamil.com, awebsite on Sangamliterature.

While depicting the land-scape or war, poverty, or

songs and dance renderedwith primal rhythms, the au-thor’s deep knowledge ofSangam literature comes inhandy.

Asked about the reasonbehind penning a novel setin the Sangam period, Mr.Kuroor said while the Tamilswere conscious of their his-tory, Malayalees, although apart of ancient Tamil coun-try, were ignorant of the rel-atively established history ofthe Sangam period.

Busting the myths“Instead they associate theirhistory with Sanskritisationand the ethnologyof the 9thcentury CE. That is why theyemotionally relate their storywith myths like the creationof Kerala by Parasurama and

the return of the king Ma-habali,” says Mr. Kuroor, whoread most of the literaturepertaining to the Sangamperiod in Malayalam or Eng-lish. He said this happenedbecause there was a hugegap between the Sangamperiod and the temple-re-lated culture nurtured byBrahmins, who also pennedtheir own version of Kerala’shistory, long before theemergence of modern his-tory of the land.

Equally appealing in thenovel are the names of char-acters — Perumbanan, Kizhi-olam, Chithirai, Maheeran,Mayilan, Seerai andChanthan. “I borrowed thenames from tribal and Dalitcommunities in Kerala,” saysMr. Kuroor.

Traversing the Sangam Tamil landscape in MalayalamKerala writer Manoj Kuroor’s novel on the era is now available to Tamil readers in elegant translation

B. Kolappan

CHENNAI

Manoj Kuroor

Nexus between rivals is thereigning theme of both theUDF and the BJP as thecampaign for the April 12Malappuram Lok Sabhabyelection gets into topgear.

Leaders of both the UDFand BJP have been tradingcharges and Saturday wasno different with BJP Stategeneral secretary A.N.Radhakrishnan reiteratinghis party’s allegation thatthere is a clandestine un-derstanding between theUDF and the ruling LDFand Congress leader K.Muraleedharan retortingthat one view in the con-stituency was a ‘unique’nexus between the CPI(M)and the BJP.

Mr. Radhakrishnan, whohad spoken to the mediaafter a meeting of the partyState core committee, saidthat both the UDF and LDFwere working in tandem inMalappuram.

Congress, BJP trade‘nexus’ charge

Abdul Latheef Naha

MALAPPURAM

CMYK

A BG-BGMY


THE HINDU BENGALURU


NATION

A family of four persons liv-ing with AIDS has allegedlybeen asked by relatives andfellow villagers to leave itsancestral house in the Sard-hana area of Meerut.

According to a police com-plaint filed by the victims,the relatives mobilisedneighbours to force them toleave the village.

The family members ap-proached the local police,

apprehending danger totheir lives from their relat-ives.

The police are reportedlysuggesting that it is a case ofproperty dispute.

According to the com-plaint, the family got the in-fection from the head of thefamily who works as a truckdriver.

‘No discrimination’Bharat Lal Shah, ActingCircle Officer of the Sard-

hana Kotwali police station,said the police was lookinginto the complaint. But healso said there was no caseof discrimination.

“We are looking into thecomplaint. If required, wewill file an FIR. The familymembers have claimed thatthe relatives were trying toencroach on their propertyby forcing them to leave.There is no mention of AIDSas the primary factor in thecase,” he said.

Family with AIDS toldto leave Meerut village Alleges discrimination; police say it’s a case of property dispute

Staff Reporter

MEERUT

Train runs over tiger inMadhya Pradesh SEHORE

A tiger was killed after it was

hit by a speeding train on

Friday night between Budhni

and Midghat sections here.

Its carcass was spotted near

the track by railway staffers,

who alerted the police and

forest officials, Additional

Superintendent of Police A.P.

Singh said on Saturday. PTI

IN BRIEF

The Hindu in School willbring out a 48-page tabloidon Sundays from April 9 toMay 28.

From Science and Mathto General Knowledge andSport, the tabloid willcover a variety of topics.The features and columnswill be accompanied bypuzzles, quizzes and activ-ities to engage children.

The highlights includeDIY experiments andcrafts, Creative Writing,Math Puzzles, Wild Angle,Little Naturalist, Handwrit-ing, Word Play, TimeTravel, Literati, EarthWatch, Statescan, Science& Beyond, Explaining isms,Join the Conversation andChakravyuh.

Children can learn arange of subjects the funway from this tabloidpriced at Rs. 200 for eightissues. For details and sub-scription, log on towww.thehindu.com/pub-lications or give a missedcall to 044-33031237.

The Hindu in

School special

for summer

All’s well: Forest oicials tend to a 45-year-old elephant stuck in a waterhole near Periyanaickenpalayam in Coimbatore on Saturday. It was administered antibiotics, vitamin and energy boosters, besides being fed fruits. After nearly ive hours, the elephant got up and walked of to the nearby forest. * M. PERIASAMY

CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC

Back on its feet

Yasin Bhatkal sent to12-day police custodyAHMEDABAD

Yasin Bhatkal, the prime

accused behind the 2008

serial terror blasts at

Ahmedabad that killed 56

people, was remanded in

police custody for 12 days on

Saturday, along with co-

accused Assadulla Akhtar. PTI

The restive Bastar region ofChhattisgarh, which hasseen a rise in Maoist insur-gency, on Saturday got a full-time police chief with theappointment of senior IPSofficer Mr. VivekanandaSinha as the Inspector Gen-eral of Police of the Bastarrange.

The post of Bastar IG hasbeen vacant after controver-sial former Bastar IG ShivRam Prasad Kalluri was shif-ted out in February.

The Deputy InspectorGeneral of Police (DIG),Dantewada range P. SundarRaj was given an additionalcharge of Bastar range. How-

ever, the killing of 12 CRPFmen in Sukma district lastmonth fuelled the demandfor a full-time IG in theregion.

An IPS officer of 1996batch, Mr. Sinha is currentlyposted as IG Bilaspur range.

New team in placeWith the transfer of Mr.Sinha to Bastar, the conflict-hit region will have almost anew team of IPS officers. Fol-lowing the transfer of Mr.Kalluri, his subordinate of-ficers including Bastar Su-perintendent of Police R.N.Dash, Sukma SP Kalyaan Ele-sela were also removed fromBastar.

Mr. Sinha was in-charge of

Bastar range for a fewmonths last year when Mr.Kalluri went on medicalleave.

Speculation scotchedThe transfer of Mr. Sinha hasalso quelled speculationsabout the possible return ofMr. Kalluri. The former IG’ssupporters have been run-ning a campaign allegingthat the Maoists were gettingan upper hand in southernChhattisgarh following hisdeparture.

The controversial officervisited Bastar last week to at-tend closed-door meetingswith anti-Maoist groups atthe Jagdalpur districtheadquarters.

Vivekananda Sinha posted to Maoist-hit region

Pavan Dahat

NAGPUR

Bastar gets full-time IG

The report by the Comptroller andAuditor General that was tabled in theHimachal Pradesh Vidhan Sabha hasobserved that the small hill State isheading towards a major debt trapwithfiscal liabilities reaching ₹ 41,197crore by the end of 2015-16. The Statewould have to pay 62% of the debtwithin the next seven years and theper capita debt reached ₹ 57,642 in2015-16, up from ₹ 40,904 in 2011-12.There is a big leap of 42% in the pastfive years.

The State had achieved the targetof reduction of revenue deficit to zeroand achieved revenue surplus in 2011-12, but it experienced significant defi-cits during 2012-13 and 2014-15 in allthree indicators of revenue deficit,fiscal deficit and primary deficit.

The Opposition condemned the“wasteful expenditure carried out bythe incumbent government for un-productive purposes”.

‘Unproductive loans’The Leader of the Opposition, PremKumar Dhumal, on Saturday said thehill State was reeling under a debt of ₹45,213.30 crore, which is about 38.3%of the State’s GDP. The VirbhadraSingh government raised loans to thetune of ₹ 13,555 crore in last fouryears, from 2013 to 2017, for non-pro-ductive works. Most of the State’s ex-penses are going towards upholdingthe offices of chairmen and vice-chairmen of various boards and cor-porations, many of which are runningto losses of crores of rupees.

The CAG has made a negative ob-servation on the working of the ma-jority of government enterprises.

Mr. Dhumal maintained that not-withstanding the huge revenue deficitgrant of ₹ 40,625 crore by the Uniongovernment under the 14th FinanceCommission, the weak leadership andgovernance in the State had failed tocatch up with the developmentalparameters at the national level.

Himachal Pradeshmoving towards adebt trap: CAGStaff Correspondent

SHIMLA

A 402-member delegationof pilgrims from Pakistanarrived in Ajmer early onSaturday morning to at-tend the 805th Urs of Sufimystic Khwaja MoinuddinChishti at his dargah. Thedevotees will offer a'chaadar' at the shrine andstay in Ajmer till April 8.

The Ajmer railway sta-tion was sealed from allsides when the specialtrain carrying the Pakistanipilgrims from Delhireached the main platform.After crossing the Wagahborder on Friday, the pil-grims travelled from Attarito Delhi by another train.

Pakistani delegation’s li-aison officer Ali Khan toldreporters that the pilgrimshad brought “good wishes”from the government andpeople of Pakistan.

Meanwhile, Union Min-ister of State for MinorityAffairs Mukhtar AbbasNaqvi offered a chaadar onbehalf of Prime MinisterNarendra Modi at the dar-gah on Saturday. He readout a message from Mr.Modi, who described thedargah as a symbol of In-dia’s great spiritual tradi-tion.

Pak. pilgrimsreach Ajmerfor UrsSpecial Correspondent

JAIPUR

The Delhi Police’s EconomicOffences Wing arrestedmanaging directors of realestate company Unitech —Sanjay Chandra and AjayChandra — on Friday nightfrom their office in Guru-gram over alleged cheatingand breach of trust. The duowas produced in a PatialaHouse court on Saturdayand sent to two-day policecustody.

Police sources told TheHindu that the two accusedhad 91 complaints againstthem for allegedly duping557 people of over Rs.200crore by taking their moneyon the promise that theywould be allotted houses inGurugram, Greater Noidaand Noida.

Tracing the money trailOn Friday, the police arres-ted the Chandras statingthey wanted to trace themoney trail and procuredocumentary evidence ofthe alleged siphoning of thefunds, Rinku Garg, counselfor the accused, told The

Hindu. The action has been

taken in a case that was re-gistered in 2015 on court dir-ections.

The police said the ac-cused had not obtainedprior permission from thecompetent authorities, andthe building plans were alsonot sanctioned.

The entire amount, whichwas to be kept in escrow ac-counts, had been siphonedoff, except for ₹10 lakh, thepolice submitted in thecourt.

The accused failed toprovide the details of actualexpenditures and the build-ing project papers.

The defence counsel,

however, said these groundswere vague in nature be-cause the FIR was registeredin 2015. “About the moneytrail, whatever they had toinvestigate, they could do itthrough bank accounts be-cause every penny given byhome buyers was madethrough cheques. So theycould find out from the bankaccounts,” said Mr. Garg.

Second caseThis is not the only case re-gistered against the accusedpersons. In 2014, the EOWhad registered a cheatingcase in connection with theGurgaon South Park.

In that case, the PunjabNational Bank Housing Fin-ance Ltd. had also beenmade an accused. Under theagreement, the bank had topay the amount to thebuilder and the complain-ants had to pay instalmentsto the bank.

The bank, which shouldhave released funds to thebuilder in instalments, al-legedly made the entire pay-ment without keeping acheck on the progress ofconstruction works.

‘They collected ₹200 crore from people, promising houses’

Hemani Bhandari

NEW DELHI

Sanjay Chandra

Unitech MDs arrested forcheating, breach of trustOver 10.2 lakh students

to sit for JEE todayNEW DELHI

Over 10.2 lakh students will

appear for the Joint Entrance

Examination-Main (JEE-M) at

1,781 centres across the

country on Sunday, conduct-

ed by the Central Board of

Secondary Education. PTI

CMYK

A BG-BGMY


BENGALURU THE HINDU


NEWS

Just a day ahead of PrimeMinister Narendra Modi’svisit to Kashmir, militants onSaturday attacked an Armyconvoy here, injuring threesoldiers.

The attack took placearound 1 p.m. on the busySrinagar-Baramulla NationalHighway as the convoy washeading to the capital.

“The militants opened fireon the convoy at Bemina.Three soldiers were injured.They were shifted to theArmy’s base hospital and areundergoing treatment,” theSrinagar-based Army spokes-man, Colonel Rajesh Kalia,told The Hindu.

Army retaliatesThe Army fired in retali-ation, but failed to nab themilitants. The area wherethe attack took place housesthe busy Sher-i-Kashmir In-stitute of Medical SciencesHospital.

The militants escaped asthe people started runningfor cover. A high alert hasbeen issued.

During his visit, Mr. Modiwill inaugurate the 9.2-kmNashri-Chenani tunnel,which connects Udhampurand Ramban districts.

Separatists have called fora shutdown in the Valley.

Earlier in the day, panicgripped Srinagar’s LalChowk after rumours abouta militant attack.

Scores of tear smokeshells were fired on a 2- km

stretch to control thesituation.

Panic spread after gun-shots were heard near TajHotel in Lal Chowk.

Police sources said a

masked man was spotted inthe area and was mistakenfor a fidayeen attacker.

However, no militant wasarrested as the police raidedthe area.

The crackdown was fol-lowed by stone throwing bythe local people. A shutdownsoon ensued. No one wasgrievously injured in theclashes.

Militants strike ahead of Modi visitThree jawans injured in attack on Army convoy on Srinagar-Baramulla National Highway

On edge: Security personnel take position outside at Lal Chowk in Srinagar, following rumours that a militant had entered ahotel un the area on Saturday. No one was, however, arrested. * NISSAR AHMAD

Peerzada Ashiq

Srinagar

The State Congress on Sat-urday complained before avisiting Election Commis-sion of India (ECI) teamthat its workers were being“harassed” by the police insouth Kashmir ahead of thebyelections.

Senior Congress leadersTaj Mohi-u-Din and MLCGulam Nabi Monga, whoattended the meeting con-vened by Deputy ElectionCommissioner of IndiaSandeep Saxena in Srin-agar, expressed apprehen-sions over security-relatedissues.

The leader alleged thatCongress and the NationalConference (NC) leadersand workers’ security “wasbeing undermined under awell-planned strategy”.They urged the ECI thatJ&K’s ruling dispensationshould not be allowed touse official machinery forelectoral gains.

“Harassment of Con-gress workers in Dooru As-sembly segment by theState Police is indicative ofthe ill intentions on thepart of ruling dispensation.The police must not be al-lowed to interfere in theelection process in order tomaintain transparency,”they demanded.

Cong. accuses

PDP govt. of

harassmentSpecial Correspondent

Srinagar

The report of a government-appointed committee is ex-pected to put an end to thecontentious issue of paritybetween military officersand their civilian counter-parts in the serviceheadquarters.

The three-member com-mittee was appointed to lookinto an order issued last Oc-tober by the Defence Min-istry “reiterating” the rankequation between civilian of-ficers and serving military of-ficers based on duties andfunctional responsibilities.

By the order, a PrincipalDirector is equivalent to aMajor-General, a Director isequivalent to a Brigadier anda Joint Director to a colonel.This led to severe displeas-

ure in the services, whichsee the order as effectivelylowering the status of theirofficers.

“The government has setup a three-member Commit-tee of Officers to look intoequivalence between serviceofficers and Armed ForcesHeadquarters Civil Service(AFHQ CS) officers,” UnionMinister of State for DefenceSubhash Bhamre told the Ra-jya Sabha last week.

Order questionedServing and retired militaryofficers have questioned theorder, citing past orders,court orders and otherreports.

One of the communica-tions sent to the panel said,“No equivalence can be es-tablished between commis-

sioned officers (Group Aequivalence service) andAFHD CS Officers (Group BService) as no such preced-ence exists.”

Functional equivalenceThe letter pointed out thatcertain benchmarks can beused to arrive at “functionalequivalence”.

The letter suggested an“unambiguous” functionalequivalence between Lieu-tenant-Colonels and Direct-ors in the Central govern-ment based on variousobservations, gazette notific-ations, court judgments andrecommendations of Groupsof Ministers.

By this, a Lieutenant-Col-onel or one of equivalentrank in the Army is equal toa Director, while a Colonel

has no civilian equivalent. ABrigadier is equivalent to aPrincipal Director.

The communication froma retired officer noted thatthe junior commissioned of-ficers in the armed forceshave been accorded status ofGroup B-equivalent gazettedofficers by Section 3 (xii) ofArmy Act 1950 and Para 151of Defence Services Regula-tions 1987 (revised).

“In view of foregoing, it issubmitted that anything con-trary to benchmarked equi-valence would not only be inviolation of Warrant of Pre-cedence ... but also amountto unacceptable downgradeof the established status ofarmed forces officers. It islikely to result in serious re-sentment and court cases infuture,” the letter says.

Civil-military parity row to endGovernment committee to submit report to resolve issue of rank equation


NEW DELHI

In a public outburst againstAkhilesh Yadav, SamajwadiParty patron Mulayam SinghYadav on Saturday said hisson had insulted him andthe voters understood that“one who is not loyal to hisfather, cannot be loyal toanyone” which led to theparty’s poll debacle.

He also said that a finalview on floating a new partyis yet to be taken.

Mr. Mulayam laid bare hisanger for the first time afterthe SP’s defeat in the U.P.Assembly poll fought underthe leadership of Akhileshwho had replaced his fatheras the party supremo follow-ing a battle of turf with his

uncle Shivpal Yadav. “Noleader of any party in Indiahad made his son a chiefminister during his lifetime,but I made Akhilesh theChief Minister of U.P.,” hesaid in his first address in hispocket burough after theU.P. Assembly results inwhich the SP got only 47seats out of 403.

Akhilesh insulted me,says upset Mulayam

Breaks silence, blames son for debacle

Press Trust of India

Mainpuri

Mulayam Singh Yadav

India and Malaysia on Sat-urday agreed to cooperateto defeat Islamic State milit-ants and the growing threatof radicalisation and ex-tremism. Visiting MalaysianPrime Minister Najib Razakheld talks here with PrimeMinister Narendra Modi andsealed six agreements, whileextending support to Indiafor a greater role in themaritime security of theAsia-Pacific region.

“Malaysia and India willcooperate to fight the IS [Is-lamic State] and deal withradicalisation. We will alsoshare our experience of de-radicalisation with India. Weplan to hold a major confer-ence on de-radicalisationjointly,” Prime MinisterRazak said during his state-ment to the media at Hy-derabad House, explainingthat India and Malaysia tiesare at a “historic high”.

Greater synergyMr. Razak, who spent a dayin Chennai upon his arrivalin the country on Thursday,expressed support forgreater synergy with Indiaon the security front, espe-cially in the maritime do-main, and said, “We appre-ciate the greater role ofIndia in the maritime secur-ity of the Asia-Pacific re-gion.” The visiting delega-tion’s comments on themaritime issue is significantas both the countries havebeen demanding freedom ofnavigation in the South EastAsian region, where Chinahas been flexing musclesand has claimed most of theSouth China Sea.

The visiting dignitary’scomments about greater co-operation to fight the ex-tremism of the IS followedthe exchange of six bilateralagreements.

Both sides signed agree-ments on air services,sports, human resources,palm oil production and re-search, and technologicaldevelopment. An agreementthat will allow India to builda fertilizer plant in Malaysiawas also signed.

In his statement, Mr.Modi described the fertilizerplant as an important devel-opment. He urged Malaysiato participate in India’s in-frastructure sector and saidthat bilateral defence hascome to cover training andmaintenance in the militaryfield. Mr. Modi also high-lighted educational coopera-tion and said, “Mutual re-cognition in educational

degrees is a landmarkdevelopment”.

A bilateral joint statementissued by the India-MalaysiaCEOs Forum emphasisedthe need for visa-free travelfor Indians and Malaysiansas travel and tourism in bothcountries contribute to theireconomic growth. “Addi-tionally, Malaysia shouldsupport and champion theintroduction of the ASEANcommon visa for travellersfrom outside the region, in-cluding India,” the state-ment said.

Both sides also high-lighted that Malaysia wouldallow Indian Ayurveda andSiddha practitioners toserve in that country. Aspart of the move to popular-ise courses in Ayurveda, thegovernment of Malaysia andthe Universiti Tunku AbdulRahman would providecourses in Ayurveda.

India and Malaysia to ightIS together: Najib RazakPM Modi hails mutual recognition of academic degrees

Kallol Bhattacherjee

NEW DELHI

Strengthening ties: PM Narendra Modi welcomes MalaysianPrime Minister Mohd Najib bin Tun Abdul Razak at theRashtrapati Bhawan on Saturday. * V. SUDERSHAN

CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC

On the draw Keshav

The Supreme Court ban onsale of liquor on highwaysspells bad news for the alco-hol industry, as 35% to 40%of outlets are located alonghighways, according toanalysts.

“Our industry checks sug-gest that the ban has af-fected 30% to 40% of theoutlets. Given the confusionon how this ban would beimplemented (whethershops would close/ relo-cate), retailers have under-taken channel de-stocking,which would weigh onfourth quarter ( January-March FY17) sales,” a re-search report by brokingfirm IIFL Institutional Equit-ies said. The firm also ex-pects the impact to continuein the first quarter of FY18,as the uncertainty over the

issue would continue. According to a report by

HDFC Securities, the Indianalcohol market is valued at₹40,500-41,500 crore, withvolumes at 560-570 millioncases. Of this, the Indian-made foreign liquor (IMFL)segment accounts for 70% ofthe revenues (₹28,500-29,500 crore) and 45-50% ofthe volumes (270 millioncases).

Rohit Chordia and Anand

Shah of Kotak InstitutionalEquities said that the movewould drive de-stocking inthe near term and will im-pact volumes in the firstquarter of FY18.

However, given this is achannel-level issue and not ademand issue, Kotak ex-pects the impact to be trans-itory till the shops are relo-cated and restocked whichmight take time till thirdquarter of FY18.

Highway liquor ban to hit40% outlets, say analystsWill lead to de-stocking drive, impact till early next year

Sanjay Vijayakumar

CHENNAI

Going dry: The ban on liquor outlets near highways will have ahuge impact on the hospitality industry. * M. KARUNAKARAN

FROM PAGE ONE

Galaxy Impex, Snowcity&Co, B K Electro Toolsproducts, Green Interna-tional, Metal Tradus and Ho-rizon Trading are the sixfirms searched, said the offi-cial. The names of othercompanies were not knownimmediately. “A Mumbai-based operator, JagdishPrasad Purohit, admitted tohave formed around 700shell companies using 20dummy directors. Of these,130 are still in existence. Hehad allegedly provided ac-commodation entry of ₹46.7crore to Mr. Bhujbal,” said asenior ED official.

Among the shell firmswere those linked to thecases against Mumbai-basedRajeshwar Experts, whoseowner allegedly laundered₹1,478 crore using over 500accounts, on the pretext ofexporting diamond andgold.

Certain shell firms were

found to have remitted hugeamounts to other countriesfor imports that never ma-terialised. They had eitherproduced forged bills ofentry or had simply skippedthe procedure. “A sum of₹20 crore was found in thebank account of one suchentity, which may be at-tached,” said the official.

In a Kolkata-based case,over 50 companies were re-gistered at the same ad-dress, which, on verifica-tion, was found to be of avacant residential premiseswhich had been rented out.

“Premises of a CharteredAccountant on BarakhambaRoad in Delhi’s ConnaughtPlace were also searched.He had formed over 200shell companies and hadgiven accommodationentries to a large number ofpeople, including [membersof ] sand mafias, from UttarPradesh,” the official said.

ED cracks down on300 shell irms

The Centre has released asum of ₹1,448 crore to T.N.from the NDRF after adjust-ing ₹345 crore as the bal-ance available in the StateDisaster Response Fund(SDRF), the statement said.It has additionally released₹264 crore from the NDRFto Tamil Nadu as central as-sistance for cyclonic storm‘Vardha’ that hit the State inDecember last year. Simil-arly, for Karnataka, ₹1,235crore has been releasedfrom the NDRF after adjust-ing balance in SDRF and the

previous sanctions by theCentre, it added.

After receiving detaileddemands from these States,the Centre had deputed itsInter-Ministerial CentralTeams (IMCT) to visit thedrought affected areas forassessment of the calamity,the Finance Ministry said.“The High Level Committee(HLC) had approved thequantum of assistance tothe States based on the ex-tant norms of assistance andthe report of the IMCT,” itadded.

₹1,782 crore droughtaid for Karnataka

The team for the imple-mentation of administrativeand security protocols willinclude a Senior PrincipalSecretary and a PrincipalSecretary. Technical expertshave also been deployed toensure the correct function-ing of the machines.

“The integrity of EVMsand VVPATs to be used inthe poll will be demon-strated to the complete sat-isfaction of all stakeholder-s….these teams will remainin the Assembly constitu-ency till the counting isover,” said the EC, on com-plaints from the Congress

party and the Aam AadmiParty (AAP), which raiseddoubts about the fairness ofthe machines in view of theincident.

The said incident tookplace in Madhya Pradesh’sBhind on Friday, ahead ofthe Ater Assembly by-polls,during a mock test in thepresence of local journal-ists. Irrespective of whichbutton was being pressed, aVVPAT was dispensing onlyslips of the BJP symbol.

Expressing serious con-cern, the Congress and theAAP petitioned the Commis-sion on Saturday.

EVM fault: Poll panelteam for M.P.

A State-wide initiative waslaunched to cease the opera-tions of TASMAC outletssince Saturday morning. Ac-cording to official sources,the hunt is on for suitablelocations, beyond 500metres from a highway, torelocate them. Anywherebetween 30 % and 50 % ofTASMAC’s operations arelikely to be affected, accord-ing to industry watchers.However, this is not an op-tion for the hotels and bars,and permit rooms in variousclubs that are located on theNational and State high-ways. In Chennai alone,Anna Salai, GST Road, RajivGandhi Salai, and the East

Coast Road are all arterialHighways that are alsohome to a number of starhotels, all of whom will beaffected.

The Tamil Nadu Bar andClub Owners Associationhas urged the SupremeCourt to reconsider the de-cision so that FL2, FL3 li-censees continue to be gran-ted and patrons cancontinue using their ser-vices. “Already we havedrivers and cab services totake customers home. Weare ready to put in place anyother condition that the gov-ernment stipulates,”founder Benze Saravanansaid.

Bars go dry as highwayliquor ban kicks in

“I can’t think of any suchwebsite for any other city,anywhere in the world,leave alone India. This is afirst website of its kind,” Mr.Chaudhuri told The Hindu.

The author said the aim isto create the right condi-tions for conservation andfor introduction of legisla-tion to protect old houses.

Tapati Guha Thakurta,Director, Centre for Studiesin Social Sciences, whojoined others backing theinitiative, describes Kolkataas the “epitome of colonialand nationalist modernityof the 19th and 20th centur-ies.”

Explaining how housesare inseparable from thecity’s history, Mr. Chaudhuri

says Kolkata is a “city bornin the era of the modernand it is in these houses thatmodernity lived.”

“When we look at Calcut-ta’s history we are not look-ing at kings, queens or reli-gious symbols, forts orpalaces: everything thatmarks the pre-modern. Weare looking at modernhouses that often go beyondlandmarks to ordinary resid-ences,” he said.

Modernity is seen as theperiod in which ordinaryand middle class houseswere marked by a particularidea of space, and they in-troduced a mix of Europeanand Bengali architecturalcharacteristics and artdécor.

Saving the charmof old Kolkata

CMYK

A BG-BGMY


THE HINDU BENGALURU


NEWS

Keep of India’s afairs,Rijiju tells China ITANAGAR

China should refrain from

meddling in the internal

affairs of India, Union

Minister Kiren Rijiju said here

on Saturday after Beijing

objected to the Dalai Lama’s

visit to Arunachal Pradesh

next week. The Dalai Lama

will visit the State between

April 4 and 13. “We are not

interfering in the internal

matters of China and that

country should not interfere

into ours’,” the Union Minister

told presspersons. PTI

IN BRIEF

No service charge ontrain e-ticket till June 30 NEW DELHI

Service tax will be exempted

on train tickets booked online

for a further period till June

30. To help passengers during

the demonetisation months

and encourage digital

payments, the service charge

was withdrawn for tickets

booked from November 23,

2016 to March 31, 2017. The

exemption has now been

extended, a senior Railway

Ministry official said. The

Information and Technology

Ministry advised the Railways

to extend the exemption. The

service charge ranges from

₹20 to ₹40 a ticket. PTI

Court rejects bail petitionof Pappu YadavPATNA

A district court on Saturday

denied bail to Madhepura MP

Rajesh Ranjan, alias Pappu

Yadav, arrested five days ago

for allegedly disturbing law

and order in the city two

months ago. First Class

Judicial Magistrate Sangita

Kumari dismissed the bail

plea of Mr. Yadav, who was

arrested in a case registered

at the Gandhi Maidan police

station on January 24, 2017

allegedly for creating

nuisance at the Kargil Chowk

in the city. The Jan Adhikar

Party chief was arrested in

Patna on the night of March

27. PTI

Nowhere is the BJP’s recentpolitical expansion and itsambitions for future growthreflected as clearly as thenewly constituted team forits youth wing, the BharatiyaJanata Yuva Morcha (BJYM).It sees in its ranks, for thefirst time, Srinagar residentEijaz Engineer as vice presid-ent, Saikat DuttaChoudhurie from the BarakValley in Assam as nationalsecretary and for the firsttime in a quarter of a cen-tury, Anoop Antony Josephfrom Alappuzha district ofKerala also as nationalsecretary.

A special northeast con-nect cell has also been con-stituted under Andy Lingmafrom Meghalaya and ArvindDamani from Nagaland tofurther the party’s agenda inthe region.

“The idea was to includeas much diversity as pos-sible. The party has wonelections in different Stateswhere people didn’t give usmuch of a chance and theyoung leadership being en-couraged has to reflect that,”said BJYM president PoonamMahajan.

Mr. Engineer (31) is an un-likely recruit for the BJP. Hisassociation with the partygoes back more than a dec-ade, when as a student atBharath University in Chen-nai, he first came into con-tact with the Akhil BharatiyaVidyarthi Parishad (ABVP).

“I have no political back-ground, but friends who Itrusted drew me to the BJP.When I returned to Srinagar,I took part in the electioncampaign in 2004 and wasinvolved with various pro-grammes, including hoistingthe national flag this year inSrinagar, when no Ministermade it to the official func-tion,” he said.

As a BJP member, he has

been physically attackedtwice, but says it does notshake him.

He said he was askedquestions by his extendedfriends circle about joiningthe party, especially afternot a single Muslim wasgiven the ticket in the re-cently concluded Uttar Pra-desh elections.

“I reply that ticket wasgiven out on the basis of win-nability, and wasn’t it clearfrom the result that this wasso,” he asked. “In Kashmir,many Muslims have beengiven party ticket,” he said.

Apolitical but committedAnoop Antony Joseph (32)also has an apolitical family

background, but has nodoubt that these questionswill not be asked of him,simply because, as he puts it,“In Kerala, the BJP will fol-low the Goa model.”

In Goa, the BJP had co-op-ted the Christian communityin the State by identifyingcommon areas of concernsamong all communities andkeeping down polarisingrhetoric.

“The BJP and the Chris-tian community in Keralahave similar concerns withradicalisation of youth. Re-cently, young people frommy own Syrian Christiancommunity were radicalisedby the Islamic State, and thisis something that the BJP has

a stronger stand against thanthe Congress,” he said.

Mr. Joseph has been asso-ciated with the BJP for 10years and had been active inthe party’s training pro-gramme for workers.

If 10 years of work withinthe organisation gave Mr.Joseph a chance, SaikatDutta Choudhurie (38) fromthe Barak Valley in Assam isalso a new find.

An ABVP member, hedoes not hail from a politicalbackground.

From the margins“I joined the ABVP while incollege, here in Barak Valley,and have been active in theparty,” he said.

He got the party ticket forthe Hailakandi seat in the As-sembly polls held last year.He lost by 2,000 votes, butadds that the party sweptthe region.

“Barak Valley is remote,and I’m possibly the first na-tional office-bearer from thisregion in the BJYM,”Choudhurie says.

If youth wings of politicalparties are their nurseries offuture leadership, then theBJP has planted a diverse setof seeds.

It’s ‘Amar, Akbar, Anthony’ in BJYMNew team of oice-bearers at BJP’s youth wing relects communal diversity

Nistula Hebbar

New Delhi

Saikat Dutta Choudhurie Anoop Antony Joseph Eijaz Engineer

China on Saturday asked In-dia to exercise “restraint”on its plan to link the stra-tegic border district ofTawang in Arunachal Pra-desh with a railway net-work, saying any “unilateralaction” might “complicate”the unresolved border issue.

“We hope that the Indianside can exercise caution,show restraint and refrainfrom unilateral actions thatmight further complicatethe question so as to createa sound condition for en-hancing mutual trustbetween China and Indiaand promoting proper resol-ution of the boundary ques-tion,” the Chinese ForeignMinistry said.

“China’s position on theeastern section of China —India boundary is consistentand clear. At present, thetwo sides are working to re-solve the territorial disputethrough negotiation andconsultation,” the Ministrysaid in a written reply to aquery about reports that In-dia was exploring possibilit-

ies to link Tawang with arailway network.

The Centre has askedMinister of State for Rail-ways Manoj Sinha and Min-ister of State for Home Af-fairs Kiren Rijiju, whorepresents the ArunachalWest Lok Sabha constitu-ency, to explore the feasibil-ity of a rail network.

Viability studyThe two Ministers will tourthe State to study the viabil-ity of connecting Tawangwith Bhalukpong, the laststation of the Railways onAssam, and to start the finallocation survey of a newbroad gauge line.

Tawang, where the sixthDalai Lama was born in1683, is at the centre ofTibetan Buddhism and afriction point between Indiaand China. China has in re-cent days upped its rhetoricon claims to Arunachal Pra-desh, which it says is South-ern Tibet, and even warnedIndia of “serious damage” toties if New Delhi allows theDalai Lama to visit the Statenext week. — PTI

Now, China lagsTawang rail linkSays it will complicate border issue


Beijing

M.K. Stalin, working presid-ent of the Dravida MunnetraKazhagam (DMK), said hereon Saturday that he woulddemand a loan waiver forfarmers in Tamil Nadu sim-ilar to the one promised byPrime Minister NarendraModi for those in Uttar Pra-desh during the recent As-sembly polls in the northernState.

Mr. Stalin, who is theLeader of Opposition inTamil Nadu Assembly, vis-ited the farmers from theState who have been staging

a protest at Jantar Mantar forthe past 19 days demanding adrought-relief package of Rs.40,000 crore from theCentre and waiver of farmloans.

Leaders from across thepolitical spectrum in TamilNadu have offered supportto the farmers.

Taking a dig at Tamil NaduChief Minister Edappadi Pa-laniswami, Mr. Stalin said:“The ruling party is neitherable to help nor get anythingfrom the Centre. The Unionand the State governmentsare playing a blame game.Instead of debating the issue,

they should act immediatelyconsidering the hardshipfaced by farmers.”

Mr. Stalin said an all-partymeeting would soon be heldon the issue.

“I asked Ayyakkannu[who is leading the protest]to call off the strike, but thefarmers are not ready to giveup. An all-party meetingwould be held in the State todecide the next course of ac-tion on the issue,” he said.

Communist Party of Indianational secretary D. Raja,and DMK MPs Tiruchi Sivaand T.K.S. Elangovan werepresent.

Stalin makes common cause with farmersDuring his visit to Jantar Mantar, DMK working president says an all-party meeting will be convened

Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI

In solidarity: DMK leader M.K. Stalin visiting Tamil Nadufarmers staging a protest at the Jantar Mantar in New Delhi onSaturday. * V. SUDERSHAN

The buzz is of: A lone bovine seems to have the run of Saunders Market in Lucknow on Saturday. The mutton market, opened in1910, has been shut following a strike in protest against the sealing of illegal slaughterhouses and meat shops in Uttar Pradesh. *

RAJEEV BHATT

CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC

Quiet rumination

“We will hang those who killcows,” Chhattisgarh ChiefMinister Raman Singh de-clared on Saturday, a dayafter BJP-ruled Gujaratpassed a more stringent law,making cow slaughter pun-ishable with a life term.

“Does such a thing hap-pen in Chhattisgarh? I don’tthink it has happened in thelast 15 years (of BJP rule). If ithappens, we will hang thosewho dare do it (Marega tolatka denge),” Mr. Singh toldreporters in Jagdalpur.

The Chief Minister was re-sponding to queries fromjournalists on whether hisgovernment would, like that

of Yogi Adityanath in U.P.,take a tough stand on cowslaughter. Slaughter of cows,buffaloes, bulls, bullocks,and calves and possession oftheir meat is banned in Ch-hattisgarh. Transport, ex-port of cattle to other Statesfor slaughter is also banned.These offences attract thesame punishment of sevenyears’ imprisonment and afine up of to ₹50,000.

‘Double standards’ AIMIM leader AsaduddinOwaisi, meanwhile, has ac-cused the BJP of “hypo-crisy”. “In U.P., cow ismummy, and in the north-eastern states, it’s yummy.This shows BJP’s hypocrisy.While they are talking about

a beef ban in U.P., they havesaid there would be no suchthing in the northeast.”

“Assembly elections aregoing to be held in threestates in the northeast. Beefis easily available in (BJP-ruled) Goa. You tell me whatis this,” he told a TV newschannel. BJP Rajya Sabhamember SubramanianSwamy said, “Article 48 sayscow slaughter will be prohib-ited. Let him say he has nofaith in some articles of theConstitution, then we willsee,” he said. Meanwhile,Manipur CM N. Biren Singhalso slammed Mr. Owaisi.“We worship cows, we pre-serve them. He cannot makeobservations about entirenortheast,” he said.

Will hang slaughterers ofcow, says Raman SinghOwaisi sees hypocrisy as BJP exempts northeast from ban


Jagdalpur/Hyderabad/NewDelhi

Iran has said it is willing tomediate between Pakistanand India over the Kashmirissue if requested as anyconflict between the twonations will impact theeconomies of neighbour-ing countries in the region.

Iranian Ambassador toPakistan Mehdi Honar-doost said his country wasready to use its special in-fluence and relations withPakistan and India to medi-ate on the Kashmir issueand help bring sustainablepeace in the region, thestate-run Associated Pressof Pakistan (APP) reported.“Iranian government hasannounced its readinessfor any support, for anyhope of peace in the re-gion,” Mr. Honardoost said.

Iran ofersmediationon Kashmir Press Trust of India

Islamabad

Four students of Delhi Uni-versity on Friday followedthe car of Union MinisterSmriti Irani in LutyensDelhi, after which they weredetained, police said.

The Minister called policeat around 5.15 P.M. sayingthat some youths in a carwere following her vehicle,a senior police officer said.

Acting on the complaint, po-lice intercepted the car, inwhich the four youths weretravelling. The four stu-dents, in the age group of 18-19 years, have beendetained.

“Medical examinationhas confirmed the presenceof alcohol in their blood,” hesaid. Legal action is beingtaken against them.

DU students followIrani’s car, arrested Press Trust of India

New Delhi


BENGALURU THE HINDU


CMYK

A BG-BGMY

WHO ● WHAT ● WHY ● WHEN ● WHERE

CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC




only against illegal slaughterhouses butalso mechanised slaughterhouses andmeat-processing and packaging units.All meat sellers across Western UttarPradesh downed shutters in protest,putting the thriving meat industry — ex-ports from the State in 2015-16 stood at₹11,350 crore — in a crisis.

The BJP claimedthat due to the meat

trade, cattle stock had come down inthe State. Meat exporters rejected thisallegation, referring to the livestockcensus 2012, which concluded thatthere was a 28% growth in the popula-tion of buffaloes and 10% growth incows since 2007. After the governmentwas sworn in, even private meat-pro-cessing units, which had No-ObjectionCertificates but had minor technicalfaults were asked to shut down, accord-ing to the National Meat Exporters’Union. For instance, Al Aqsa and AlYasir meat-processing plants in Meerut,two major players in the meat exporttrade, were closed for not having an ap-

A BJP promise in UttarPradesh that if it came to power itwould ban illegal slaughterhouses andput a stop to licensed mechanicalslaughter of buffaloes has put the YogiAdityanath government in a spot. Im-mediately after taking the oath, theChief Minister warned the police thatlocal police officers would be made ac-countable if illegal meat shops andslaughterhouses were found function-ing. The authorities, in turn, acted not

proved map by the Meerut Develop-ment Authority. Slaughter of cow andoxen is banned in the State, butslaughter of buffalo is not. Actionagainst illegal slaughterhouses is notnew. In May 2015, the National GreenTribunal asked the State government tobar illegal slaughterhouses as they were

polluting theenvironment.

India is the largestbuffalo meat exporter in the world. Thetotal worth of the buffalo meat industryis valued at $5 billion. About 43% of thetotal buffalo meat export, the highest inthe country in 2015-16, came from UttarPradesh, according to the Agricultureand Processed Food Export Develop-ment Authority. Indian buffalo meat isin demand globally because of lowprices. According to the Meat and Live-stock Report-2014, prepared by the Aus-tralian Bureau of Agricultural and Re-source Economics and Sciences, while akg of buffalo meat from India costsaround $2.88, Brazil and Australia sell it

at $4.52 and the U.S. at $4.73. U.P. is also India’s largest meat-pro-

cessing State because 38 of the 72 gov-ernment-approved abattoirs-cum-meatprocessing plants/standalone abattoirsare in the State. The crackdown is alsobad news for the leather industry andleather-based exports. The All-IndiaMeat and Livestock Exporters’ Associ-ation has noted that such widespreadclosures would affect the livelihood of25 lakh people directly or indirectly.

The leather industry, one of thebiggest exporters from India, is depend-ent on the beef industry. With morethan 12,000 small and big leather unitsin Agra and Kanpur, U.P. employs over25 lakh people, mostly belonging to themarginalised and underprivileged sec-tions like the Scheduled Castes. Ablanket ban on the meat industry couldadversely affect milk production. India’smeat export market faces strong com-petition from North America and Brazil.Unfavourable conditions for legal buf-falo meat-exporting units in the Statewill jeopardise India’s strong position.

The State governmenthas assured meat operators that legalslaughterhouses need not worry, butmeat exporters allege that it had alreadyshut down more than 10 major meat-processing units. According to govern-ment data, U.P. has more than 375 il-legal slaughterhouses. The Uttar Pra-desh Municipal Corporation Act, 1959,which governs slaughterhouses, statesthat civic bodies shall ensure that freshand hygienic meat is provided to peopleand supervise the operation ofslaughterhouses within city limits. Butmost cities do not have a corporation-run slaughterhouse, thus creating hun-dreds of illegal ones. Even if a slaughter-house is legal, cattle traders are scaredof the vigilantism by Hindutva groups.These vigilante groups, who often stopvehicles to check whether they are car-rying any buffalo, treat everything re-lated to meat as illegal. Cattle tradersare afraid of taking their stock even tolegal slaughterhouses.

MOHAMMAD ALI

P Qp qWHAT

The lowdown on theslaughter ban in U.P. WHAT IS IT

HOW DID IT

COME ABOUT

WHY DOES IT

MATTER

WHAT NEXT

derivatives segment for one year.

Were the trades unfair?* Though RIL disagrees with the find-ings, the regulator is of the view that themanner in which the company executedthe trades in the cash and derivativessegments showed that there was unfairmotive. The regulator based its case onthe fact that there was one single per-son, an employee of a wholly-ownedsubsidiary of RIL, who was overseeingthe trades to be executed in the cashand derivatives segments. He was thusprivy to information on when the com-pany would be selling shares in the cashsegment and also the positions that thecompany would be taking in the futuressegment. Further, the trades in the cashsegment were executed in the last halfhour of the trading session on Novem-ber 29, 2007, the last Thursday of themonth when the settlement price of thederivative contracts are determined.

Incidentally, the settlement price ofthe futures contract is the volumeweighted average price of the shares

The Securities and Exchange Board ofIndia (SEBI) initiated a probe into cer-tain trades done by Reliance IndustriesLtd. (RIL) in the shares of Reliance Pet-roleum Ltd. (RPL) in November 2007.The investigation led to the capital mar-ket regulator issuing a show-cause no-tice to RIL, among other entities, inDecember 2010.

According to the investigation — thatlasted for 10 years — RIL made unlawfulgains amounting to ₹513 crore. The 54-page order states that the gains “couldnot have been made but for the fraudu-lent and manipulative strategy/patternadopted by them.”

After the completion of the probe,during which RIL was given an oppor-tunity to present its case, the regulatorsaid the company would have to pay₹447.27 crore, along with the interestcalculated at the rate of 12% a year fromNovember 29, 2007 till the date ofpayment.

Simply put, RIL will have to paynearly ₹1,000 crore. SEBI has alsobarred RIL from dealing in the equity

during the last half-hour of the tradingsession. The regulator also said that RILtook positions in the futures segmentthrough 12 entities to circumvent theregulations related to permissible posi-tion limits for each individual client.The regulator found it unusual thatsome of the entities that were used totrade in the futures contracts of RPLhad never traded in the derivatives seg-

ment before. As per the findings, thecombination of trades in the cash andderivatives segments was done with thetwin objective of “bringing down theprice in the cash segment and con-sequently the derivatives segment of theRPL scrip” and “making further undueextraordinary profits on the open shortpositions in the derivatives segment.”

Surprisingly, the regulator has notpassed any order against the individual— Sandeep Agarwal — who placed theorders in the cash and futures segment.Also, no stricture has been passedagainst the directors/promoters of RIL,a common feature among the orderspassed under Sections 11 and 11B of theSEBI Act.

How has Reliance responded?* Reliance Industries did not agree withthe findings. It said the trades that SEBIhas termed unfair and fraudulent were“genuine and bona fide.” These werecarried out keeping the best interests ofthe company and its shareholders inmind, it claimed.

It believes that the regulator has“misconstrued the true nature of thetransactions and imposed unjustifiablesanctions.” The company plans to chal-lenge the order at the Securities Appel-late Tribunal (SAT), the forum where or-ders of the capital market regulator canbe challenged. “We have full confidencein the judicial process and we proposeto vigorously exercise all options avail-able to us to challenge the untenablefindings in the order,” RIL said in a state-ment. If SAT finds merit in RIL’s argu-ments, it can set aside the order and dir-ect SEBI to take a fresh look at thematter. Alternatively, if SEBI wins thecase, RIL has the option of filing an ap-peal at the Supreme Court. Given thehigh-profile nature of the case, it is mostlikely that the matter will be decided inthe Supreme Court unless RIL gets a fa-vourable ruling at SAT and con-sequently SEBI comes out with an orderthat is acceptable to one of the largestprivate sector entities of the country.

ASHISH RUKHAIYAR

P Qp qWHY

has SEBI askedReliance to paya hefty ine

Mubarak declared his intention to re-main President for life.

At the end of the 2011 mass protests,in the so-called 18-day uprising againsthis rule, Mr. Mubarak eventuallyhanded over power to the military. Thedeaths of scores of protesters led to hisdetention and the beginning of protrac-ted legal battles and swift politicalchanges.

Why is he out of prison?This March, Egypt’s top appeals courtcleared Mr. Mubarak of any responsibil-ity for the killings of hundreds of pro-testers in the uprising. The original con-viction and sentence of lifeimprisonment the following year statedthat Mr. Mubarak was merely an access-ory to the murder, insofar as he failed tostop the massacre.

The judge hearing the case furtherruled that the prosecution did not pro-duce evidence to prove that the accusedhad directly ordered the killings. A re-trial by an appeal court led to Mr.Mubarak’s acquittal in 2014. His releasethis March follows the confirmation of

Former Egyptian President MohamedHosni Mubarak, arrested for trying toquell the 2011 uprising, was released lastweek. Vice-President under prede-cessor Anwar el-Sadat, the 88-year-oldMubarak was President for three dec-ades since 1981. A General in the Egyp-tian Air Force until the mid-1970s, Mr.Mubarak exercised phenomenal controlover the military, a critical factor in hisconsolidation of authority.

What led to his arrest?In February 2005, Mr. Mubarak askedParliament to amend the Constitution,with a view to introducing a directlyelected multi-party presidential systemthrough a secret ballot. The changeoverto competitive polls was approved bythe people in a referendum in May. InSeptember of the same year, Mr.Mubarak won a fifth six-year term asPresident in the nation’s historic firstmulti-cornered contest for the highestconstitutional office.

His ruling National Democratic Partycontinued to enjoy a huge majority.Within months of his re-election, Mr.

that acquittal. The former President hasa single conviction for embezzlement.

There have been many twists andturns in the trial of Mr. Mubarak, cul-minating in his recent release. Thecourse of the entire proceedings raisedserious questions about the independ-ence of the judiciary, which was a long-standing demand to ensure accountabil-ity in the administrative apparatus.

While Mr. Mubarak and oth-ers in his close circle have allbeen acquitted, the law-yers, journalists and activ-ists who challenged the re-gime are still in jail. Themilitary has returned toits pre-eminent position,and there has been asurge in sym-pathy forEgypt’s patri-arch.

Questionslinger aboutthe pro-spects ofthe object-

ives behind the 2011 movement in thecurrent political discourse, at least fornow.

What is the future of Egypt?Incumbent President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi seized power in 2013, when he wasstill a General, toppling Egypt’s firstdemocratically elected Muslim Brother-hood government of Mohamed Morsi.The then U.S. President, Barack Obama,

had briefly halted defence coopera-tion with Cairo following the ousterof Mr. Morsi. The influence of the

Islamic State on local militants, ofcourse, prompted a rethink. Butthe Donald Trump administration

has recently assured its long-stand-ing regional ally of revival of

military ties. Thegeneral scenariopoints to furtherconsolidation ofMr. Sisi’s position.However, the2018 presiden-tial electionscould prove a

crucial test of his authority.

Is the Arab Spring dead?Indeed, many nations, besides Egypt,that witnessed massive popular upris-ings earlier this decade have beenplunged into political instability andbloody chaos. It would nevertheless bepremature to write off the region’s his-toric democratic upsurge as a failure.The pre-eminence of the established or-der in Egypt, epitomised by the releaseof Mr. Mubarak, may lend plausibility topredictions of doom. But then, it isequally arguable that the 2011 mobilisa-tion on Tahrir Square was itself a sequelto the earlier efforts at a concerted res-istance to authoritarian rule. For in-stance, the 2005 demand for a multi-party contest to pick the President maynot have achieved its objective at thetime. But it probably sowed the seeds ofthe uprising six years on. Egyptians mayyet have the chance to look back at Janu-ary 2011 with a similar sense ofaccomplishment.

GARIMELLA SUBRAMANIAM

P Qp qWHO

HosniMubarakA dictatorwalks free

P Qp qWHEN

26March 2017

Gandhian scholars and activists havepointed out that the state of farmers inand around Champaran and other partsof Bihar now is no better than the condi-tion of Indigo farmers in 1917, which hadbrought Gandhi to the State in the firstplace.

Why now? Mahatma Gandhi was approached byseveral leaders from Bihar at the firstmeeting of the Congress in Lucknow in1916 with a request to start a movementagainst the atrocities on farmers inChamparan. He assured them that hewould visit the place. He arrived inPatna for the first time on April 10, 1917,and five days later, he reached Motihari,the district headquarters of Cham-paran, from Muzaffarpur. On April 17,he started his Champaran satyagraha tobetter the lot of Indigo farmers.

However, many Gandhians are upsetwith the state of the sites and placeswhere the Mahatma visited and stayed acentury ago. Even a marble plaque, withdetails of Gandhi’s Champaran visit and

On April 10, the Bihar government willlaunch year-long celebrations to markthe centenary of Mahatma Gandhi’sChamparan satyagraha with a series ofevents. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar,who has announced stringent prohibi-tion laws, sees the celebrations as a nat-ural follow-up to the liquor ban in theState as Gandhi was a strong advocate ofprohibition.

Mr. Kumar feels that if the govern-ment can reach every doorstep withGandhi’s message, there can be no bet-ter prescription for bridging India’sgrowing social divide.

his stay there, installed on the mainMotihari-Raxaul road in the 1970s, dis-appeared a few years ago. Except theBhitiharwa Gandhi Ashram in the Goun-aha block of West Champaran, whereGandhiji had stayed with Kasturba formonths, there is no signage to under-score the significance of any Gandhi sitein Champaran.

What are the plans?Mr. Nitish Kumar will set off on a GandhiSmriti Yatra from Motihari on April 15 tomark Gandhi’s first visit to Champaranhundred years ago. The yatra will be fol-

lowed up with a series of social, culturaland political functions organised by dif-ferent government departmentsthrough the year. However, the mainState-level function will start with a two-day conclave at Gyan Bhavan in thenewly constructed International Con-vention Centre in Patna on April 10.Members of Gandhiji’s family will be in-vited. A ‘Gandhian circuit’ will be de-veloped for tourists visiting the State.The Tourism Department has listed 12sites on the Gandhi trail, according to agovernment official.

Prominent places and sites which areto be developed include BhitiharwaAshram, Brindaba, Shri Rampur,Koeldih, Amolwa, Murli Bharhawa, Sar-iswa and Hardiya Kothi, which used tobe the house of G.P. Edward, a BritishIndigo planter.

The government will request the Rail-way Ministry to launch a train fromPorbandar, Gandhi’s birthplace in Gu-jarat, to Motihari in Champaran duringthe centenary celebrations. It also plansto run promotional buses with books

and videos on Gandhi’s life. Plays, work-shops and walks will also be organisedacross the State. The Gandhi PeaceFoundation will be a partner in the year-long celebrations.

How much will it cost?An official of the Tourism Departmentsaid ₹50 crore had been earmarked forinfrastructure development on the‘Gandhi circuit’ under Prime MinisterNarendra Modi’s special package for Bi-har announced before the 2015 As-sembly elections. But the funds areawaited.

The State government has been mak-ing preparations on a large scale withthe Chief Secretary monitoring them atregular review meetings. Bihar recentlyorganised celebrations to mark the350th Prakash Parv for Sikh devotees inPatna, Kal Chhakra puja for Buddhistpilgrims at Bodh Gaya and an Interna-tional Buddhist Conclave at Rajgir inNalanda.

AMARNATH TEWARY

Gandhi’ssatyagrahacentenary inChamparan

P Qp qWHERE

Setting the pace: Four-time worldchampion Sebastian Vettel won theAustralian Grand Prix for Ferrari on March26, in a stunning win over Mercedes’Lewis Hamilton, in the season's irstFormula One race. This was Vettel’s irstwin since the Singapore Grand Prix inSeptember 2015. The German opened a9.9 second gap to runner-up Hamilton,with Valteri Bottas, who joined the teamafter reigning champion Nico Rosbergannounced his retirement, inishing thirdin his irst race with Mercedes. “For all ofus, it is a positive surprise,” Vettel saidafter the race, which has new rules andregulations this year. During pre-seasontesting in Barcelona, the new Ferrari carhad seemed very fast, and the race-day“reward” has put Ferrari at the top of thechampionship standings after years. Itwas a dramatic race, with pole-sitterHamilton pitting early, and unable to passDutch teenager Max Verstappen when herejoined the track, thus allowing Vettel torace away to the top. GETTY IMAGES, AP


THE HINDU BENGALURU


CMYK

A BG-BGMY

COLUMNWIDTH

I don’t like people who criticise thegovernment all the time. Imaginelistening to their whining all day. If youare a sensitive soul like me, it couldleave you depressed. Which is why I’ma strong believer in praising the gov-ernment when it does somethinggood.

Like, for instance, it just passed themost pro-farmer, pro-poor, pro-labour,pro-housewife, pro-student law ever,when it decriminalised suicide. Foryour information, farmers, poor dailywagers, students, and housewives arethe most high-performing groups in In-dia when it comes to suicide. There-fore, I want to thank this governmenton behalf of all the citizens of India formanaging to do what the useless UPAcould not do in its 3,650 days in power.In fact, the Mental Healthcare Bill maywell be the biggest of the big bang re-forms promised by every politician butdelivered by only one.

Suicides and GDPFirst of all, India, which has 17.5% ofthe world’s population, accounts foronly 17% of the world’s suicides. Thismeans that less number of peoplecommit suicide in India per capitathan they do in the rest of the world.As per government data, 1,31,666 Indi-ans committed suicide in 2014. Thisgrew to 1,33,623 suicides in 2015. Anincrease of 1,957. I’m not very good atarithmetic, but a friend of mine who istells me this works out to an annualgrowth rate of a measly 1.4%. This is farbelow our projected GDP growth rateof 7.1%.

When we consider that, objectivelyspeaking, suicide has tremendousscope in India, this ginormous gapbetween suicide growth rate and eco-nomic growth rate is utterly shameful.Most experts put the blame on the hos-

tile regulatory environment for suicidein India, which had made it a punish-able offence — an absurdity thatwould’ve made Camus kill himself inhis grave.

Nobody can dispute that the right tolife is the most fundamental humanright, applicable even to those whodon’t have an Aadhaar card. I think itwas Kierkegaard, or maybe Karan Jo-har, who observed that since there isno life without death, we can’t have aright to life without a right to death aswell. It took nearly 70 years, but Indiahas finally restored dignity to this par-ticular genre of death. But that’s justone of this law’s many outstandingmerits.

By decriminalising suicide, not onlyhas the government sent the right sig-nal to foreign investors, it has also cre-ated a more enabling environment foran efficient India. Our country, as weall know, has too much flab when itcomes to population. Much of it has noplace in the future of our economy.Let’s face it: we don’t have either thetime or the resources to provide edu-cation, health care, food, and jobs toevery one of the 125 crore Indians.

Sometimes even the most benevol-ent of companies may be unable tocontinue paying salaries to all theiremployees. What do they do in suchcircumstances? No, they don’t firesome of their employees. They encour-age them to resign of their own freewill. That’s why the private sector ismore efficient than the government.

They get rid of excess flab.If we want India to become a super-

power, we have to become more effi-cient. To become more efficient, weneed to get rid of the deadwood hold-ing our economy back. With suicide nolonger a crime, the stigma attached toit will disappear. And those who haveneither the skills nor the qualificationsnor the flexible mindset required to fitinto the new economy can also disap-pear. For instance, farmers stuck onagriculture, workers stuck on labourrights, students stuck on obsoleteideas of freedom, activists stuck on theConstitution, etc. are now legally en-titled to resign themselves from theirrespective lives, thereby freeing upscarce fiscal resources for productivedeployment elsewhere — say, in the de-fence budget.

Severely stressing outThis is a path-breaking law also for ac-knowledging, for the first time, that“severe stress” is reason enough foranyone to kill themselves. Now,chances are, if you are a resident of In-dia, and your residence is not Antilia,you are a victim of severe stress. Isurely am. Of course, I’m personallynot a big fan of suicide. But it is heart-warming to know that in a hypothet-ical future, if my country were going tohell in a handbasket, and if peoplestressed out by it opted to terminatethemselves, they wouldn’t be brandedas criminals for doing so. How couldanyone not be grateful for that?

On being thankful for the biggest big bang reform of this government

Decriminalising suicide is a wonderful thing

ALLEGEDLY

G. Sampath

is Social Afairs Editor, The Hindu,and the author of two books

*G

ET

TY

IM

AG

ES/

IST

OC

K P

HO

TO

For a people who have traditionallyviewed the state as a spectacle and fre-quently turned their backs to it, Indianshave rather swiftly become state-cent-ric. We constantly talk and read aboutit, capture it in images and films, arelured by the magic of elections and itsarithmetic, and many, including thepoor, feel they have a claim on it; we ex-pect the state to find a solution to mostof our problems. This is foolhardy, be-cause the state fails us persistently. Butsuch is the power of the democraticimaginary that ordinary people con-tinue to repose faith in the very idea ofthe state.

To be sure, the Indian state periodic-

ally suffers from an acute crisis of legit-imacy (legitimation crisis). All democra-cies depend for their survival on publicapproval and consent. Legitimacy ob-tains when people justifiably feel thatenough is being done by the state to de-liver what they need and want. It is ab-sent when the gap widens betweenpeople’s own expectations and the ac-tual benefits received by them. Legitim-ation crisis then manifests itself in thesteady accumulation of public com-plaints and grievances, in growing dis-content, widespread disillusionmentand popular protest; when large num-bers of people begin to feel that they arevictimised by their political system.

Three moments of crisisSeveral such crises of legitimacy areseen in post-Independence India. Idon’t want to go into specifics; instead, Idraw attention to three distinct mo-ments of the legitimation crisis of rep-resentative democracy in India. Thefirst I call the crisis of procedural legit-imacy. For long, our representativeswere elected by a process that wasneither free nor fair. Strategic violence

often generated fear amongst ordinarypeople; booths were captured; women,Dalits, minorities, and the poor gener-ally were prevented from voting or com-pelled to vote for a candidate not oftheir choice. The strengthening of theElection Commission and the deploy-ment of Central paramilitary forceshave, to a large degree, overcome thislegitimation crisis.

However, a second crisis of legitima-

accountability — all power-wieldersmust be permanently subjected to in-spection, investigation and monitoring.Existing institutions of checks and bal-ances seem insufficient to limit thepower of democratically elected lead-ers. Citizens must take matters intotheir own hands, be persistently vigil-ant, diligently oversee government, actas watchdogs. Representative demo-cracy can survive only with more parti-cipatory democracy. This was the prom-ise of the UPA’s Right to Information Actand the movement that led to the form-ation of the Aam Aadmi Party.

However, with the apparent seduc-tion of large sections of the people bythe first response and the AAP leader-ship increasingly uncertain about whichof the two responses it exemplifies, sev-eral worrying questions have sproutedof which two are paramount: Whatdemons might be unleashed if andwhen the first response flounders? And,which new leadership will bring thepeople back to the properly democraticpath, one that strengthens our best in-stitutions and helps invent new citizen’sinitiatives?

crust. All political parties seem tainted:the Congress, the Bharatiya JanataParty, regional parties such as the Bahu-jan Samaj Party, the Samajwadi Party,and even the Communist Party of India(Marxist). Ever since, the electorate hasdesperately looked for some politicalagency outside the established order tofix the system.

Individual or institutions To meet this crisis, two distinct re-sponses have appeared before us. Onemessianic, that depends on a heroic in-dividual rather than citizen-based insti-tutions; the other dependent on the col-lective capacity of citizens to innovatenew institutions. The first is embodiedby Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whohas projected himself as a larger-than-life figure: strong, decisive, ruthlessly ef-ficient, an outsider to the establishmentwho, untarnished by the ‘corrupt’ capil-laries of Lutyens’ Delhi, can unblock thearteries through which goods and ser-vices could flow freely from the state tothe people.

A second response emerged from amovement for greater transparency and

tion was brewing simultaneously. Theelectorate hopes that those chosen byfree and fair elections would accuratelyrepresent their interests and deliver ontheir demands. When this doesn’t hap-pen, democracies plunge into what Icall a crisis of representational legitim-acy. In India, people attempted to re-solve this crisis by a politics of com-munity-based identities. Differentgroups, particularly the Dalits and theOBCs, decided to vote for people fromtheir own respective castes, who theyintuitively trusted, those who mirroredthem.

But at least since 2011, the failure of“mirror representation” has pushed In-dia to a deeper questioning of thedemocratic system itself. Call it thecrisis of democracy’s moral legitimacy.A feeling of betrayal by members ofone’s own community is accompaniedby severe dissatisfaction with the entiredemocratically elected establishment.People increasingly feel that while theIndian economy is growing rapidly withmore money circulating in the system,most of it is diverted and landing mys-teriously in the lap of a very tiny upper

Will a disgruntled populace rely on one individual to work wonders or innovate new institutions when the democratic system itself is questioned?

The legitimation crisis of Indian democracy

THE PUBLIC EYE

Rajeev Bhargava

is a political theorist with the Centre for theStudy of Developing Societies, New Delhi

*P

TI

Rabindranath Tagore called the TajMahal “a teardrop on the cheek oftime”. But spare a thought for the neg-lected land where the initial tears of agrieving husband and children firstfell. It was this trail of tears that led meto the small town of Burhanpur inMadhya Pradesh.

When Khan Jahan Lodi rebelledagainst the Mughal empire, little did heknow of its impact on the life of theemperor and eventually India. Shah Ja-han moved to Burhanpur to quell therevolt, and as was her norm, MumtazMahal, though pregnant with her four-teenth child, went with him.

She stayed in the Badshahi Qila,which had been built by the Faruqirulers of Khandesh, who had ruledBurhanpur from the 14th to 16th cen-tury. Akbar’s army occupied Burhan-pur in 1599 and it became the Mughalcapital of Khandesh. Akbar’s son Dan-iyal was made the Subedar of the newprovince. The shikaar-loving, pleas-ure-seeking prince built anAahukhana, or deer park, opposite theBadshahi Qila in the village of Zain-abad on the banks of the river Tapti.

When Shah Jahan was the governorof the Deccan, he added various build-ings within the Badshahi Qila, includ-ing a once-gorgeous and now deterior-ating hammam, for his wife’srelaxation. The hammam is beautifullypainted and one of the fading frescoeshas a building which looks remarkablylike the Taj Mahal. It was in this palacethat Mumtaz Mahal died on the nightof June 16-17, 1631, after giving birth toGauhar Ara Begum.

In the middle of nowhere Shah Jahan had least expected thiscomplication and was inconsolablewhen his beloved wife left for the nextworld. Mumtaz Mahal was laid to rest

in the Aahukhana. A week later, ShahJahan came to the Aahukhana and re-cited the fateha for his wife’s soul andwept over her grave. As long as hestayed in Burhanpur, he came everyFriday to recite the fateha.

Locals tell me that Shah Jahan hadinitially decided to build a grandmausoleum for Mumtaz Mahal on thebanks of Tapti, but due to difficultiesin transporting marble from Markana,and the composition of the soil whichhad termites, he selected Agra. Onelocal heritage enthusiast even told methat the image of the mausoleumwould not fall on the Tapti, so the ideawas abandoned. Unfortunately, logist-ics stole Burhanpur’s place in historyand bestowed it on Agra.

Whatever the reasons for buildingthe Rauza-e-Munawwara (the originalname of the Taj Mahal) in Agra, theAahukhana beckoned me. It seemedlike I was in the minority, though, withonly a few heritage-lovers, who arefighting to preserve their city’s herit-age, for company.

The Aahukhana, where Mumtaz Ma-hal’s body lay for six months beforebeing transported to Agra, lies in themiddle of nowhere with a dirt trackleading to it.

The baradari, which by consensus isthe original resting place, is within anenclosed compound. Its boundarywall and iron gates are worse for wear,with the walls breaking up in quite anumber of places. There is wild over-grown grass and a dirty dry tank,

which was once a source of delight tovisitors to the garden. The pleasurepalace built in front of it is now a placewhich brings displeasure: it is dirty,dank, smelly and covered with graffiti.

The baradari has long since lost itsroof. Its beautiful columns sag underthe burden of sorrow. They have beenroughly propped up by bricks to pre-vent further destruction. It is a pictureof desolation.

Bemoaning the state of heritage I was taken by my guides to anotherruinous building a little further awayfrom the baradari complex that wasalso part of the original Aahukhana. Ithas a small tank and mosque. Theguides told me that this was the sitewhere Mumtaz Mahal was given herritual funeral bath.

Burhanpur heritage enthusiastsclaim this is the actual grave. I couldnot meet Shahzada Asif, a residentwho is said to have identified this placeand who observes Mumtaz Mahal’surs, or death anniversary, every yearon June 7 in this place, but HoshangHavaldar, a local hotel owner and her-itage enthusiast, told me about it. Istayed in his hotel and we spent theevenings bemoaning the state ofBurhanpur’s deteriorating heritage.

This building has no boundary walland cotton farming is being done on itsgrounds. A rusted, decrepit board withbarely distinguishable letters outside itproclaims in Hindi that this is BegumMumtaz Mahal ki Qabr.

On December 1, 1631, Mumtaz Ma-hal’s body was taken out of thebaradari and sent in ceremony to Agraaccompanied by her son Shah Shuja,her lady-in-waiting Satti-un-Nisa, andHakim Alimuddin Wazir Khan. Theyarrived in Agra 20 days later.

There are many theories of how herbody was embalmed. Some say it waskept in a sealed lead-and-copper coffinfilled with natural embalming herbs asper Unani techniques. Since the coffinwas never opened, one doesn’t knowthe state of decomposition or preser-vation of the queen’s body.

But whatever state she may besleeping in her grave in Taj Mahal, I amsure her soul cries at the wildernessand neglect of her original restingplace in Burhanpur.

The site where her body lay for six months before being taken to Agra is in ruins

In neglected Burhanpur, whereMumtaz Mahal once rested

WHERE STONES SPEAK

Rana Safvi

is a historian, author and bloggerdocumenting India’s syncretic culture

*R

AN

A S

AF

VI

One feels for Rahul Gandhi. He has tocope with not one but two ‘strong lead-ers’: Narendra Modi and his own grand-mother, Indira Gandhi.

Rahul Gandhi is haunted by the ghostof a once worker-cadre-based party, theCongress, which ‘strong leader’ Mrs.Gandhi transformed into a family-run,one-boss organisation. Rahul Gandhi’sfailure in Uttar Pradesh, Assam, etc. haslittle to do with his own abilities or inab-ilities; it has to do with a common feel-ing among Indians that the Congressneeds to be led by a charismatic leaderwhose surname is not and has neverbeen ‘Gandhi’ or ‘Nehru’.

Indians are not unique in this: giventhe nexus of politicians and finance cap-

ital and the transformation of politicsinto a kind of initiated profession,where connections matter far toomuch, the ordinary voter is suspiciousof leaders whose prominence seems tobe a family- or peer group-inheritance.So suspicious that the voter can evenprefer a person with no solution over abetter and more deserving candidate, aswe witnessed in the U.S. last year,simply because the former is seen as notbeing an insider.

When Congress lost coherence Even the ill-gotten millions of an ‘out-sider’ candidate no longer disqualifyhim, as long as his opponent is seen aspart of the political establishment.Riches, the voter (mistakenly) believes,can come to him too, but political inher-itance — of the sort associated with Hil-lary Clinton and Rahul Gandhi — can-not. And in this latter supposition thevoter is not mistaken. This gets worse,as is the case with the Congress now,thanks to a process initiated by Mrs.Gandhi, when the party seems hardly toexist apart from its top leadership.

No doubt, Mahatma Gandhi andJawaharlal Nehru did fight to shape the

Congress, but they encouraged muchdifference too. This showed in the widevariety of pan-national leaders the Con-gress threw up in that period: SarojiniNaidu, Vallabhbhai Patel, Abul KalamAzad, Rajendra Prasad, Lal BahadurShastri, etc.

It is with the ‘strong leader’ personal-ity cult that Mrs. Gandhi encouraged in

which includes, and is dominated (forbetter or for worse), by cadres of theRashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. The BJPallows more upward mobility for itsworkers than the Congress today.

This, then, is the BJP as it has beenuntil now. While lacking the azadi-in-spired breadth of the Gandhi-NehruvianCongress, it has nevertheless thrown upmajor leaders of national visibility suchas Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L.K. Advani,many of whom, like Narendra Modihimself, rose from the ranks.

All this might be changing in the BJPtoday, as it slowly becomes a personal-ity-based ‘strong leader’ party. It is not acoincidence that the only Congressleader that supporters of Mr. Modisometimes praise is Mrs. Gandhi:‘Modi’s India’ may not be that far apartfrom ‘Indira is India.’

There is a pattern — reminiscent ofthe Congress in the 1970s — of concen-trating party power in the top echelonsand appointing ministers and Chief Min-isters (most recently in Uttar Pradesh)who seem incapable of gaining a na-tional stature. Strong leaders may befine, but only if they do not end up turn-ing their parties into ghosts.

a Gandhi cap. Today, the Congress is farless a worker-cadre-based party thanthe BJP. This ghostly Congress party —reduced to a family name that mostvoters are tired of hearing — is RahulGandhi’s bane. Despite this, it is not theCongress today but the BJP that seemsto be following Mrs. Gandhi’s doubtfullegacy: the curse of the ‘strong leader’which reduces a political party to aghostly affair in later years.

Conservatives united I have never dismissed the BJP as agenuine party within a democratic In-dia, as I have considered it a party withvarious tendencies — not that dissimilarfrom the Congress of yore — united by afew core commonalities. What passesfor the BJP is a collocation of conservat-ives of various kinds, pro-market ideolo-gists, nationalists, cultural revivalists,religious chauvinists, and reactionaries.All of them are united by a general beliefin an India structured along ‘Hindu’rather than secular lines, even thoughtheir understanding of ‘Hindu’ is notidentical. Again, as the Congress was be-fore the 1970s, the BJP is essentially agrass-roots party united by a cadre

the 1970s that the Congress began tolose both its internal coherence and arepertoire of equivalent national-levelleaders. At the level of party structure,this led to the gradual evaporation ofcommitted Congress workers at districtand village levels and their replacementwith careerists and strategists rushingoff to party headquarters at the drop of

A strong leadership may be ine, but only if the leaders do not end up turning their political parties into ghosts

The curse of the ‘strong leader’

THE CONTROVERSIAL INDIAN

tabish khair

is an Indian novelist and academicwho teaches in Denmark

*R

. V

. M

OO

RT

HY

CMYK

A BG-BGMY

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

BENGALURU THE HINDU


Electric sands of Titan

Saturn has numerousmoons ranging form reallysmall, one-kilometreacross, to the huge Titanwhich is larger thanMercury. Titan is also thesecond largest moon in thesolar system, next only toJupiter’s Juno. Titan, apart from being thishuge, also has sands thatare electrically charged! As the winds on Saturn’slargest moon, Titan, blowfrom east to west, sandydunes nearly 300 feet tallseem to form in theopposite direction. Theprevailing winds are notstrong enough to shape thedunes as the sand grainsmaking the dunes are stickyand cohesive. That isbecause the sand grains onTitan are electricallycharged and when windblows them up they start tohop and collide with othergrains. As they collide theybecome frictionally chargedand stick together. They canmaintain the charge for aslong as months at a time.

ODD & END

Indian Institute of Science(IISc) researchers have founda novel way to recycle themounting pile of electronicwaste more efficiently and inan environmentally friendlymanner. According to theUnited National Environ-mental Programme, about 50million tonnes of e-waste isgenerated annually across theworld.

The new approach is basedon the idea of crushing e-waste into nanosize particlesusing a ball mill at very lowtemperature ranging from -50to -150 degree C.

Reduction intoconstituentsWhen crushed to nanosizeparticles for about 30minutes, different classes ofmaterials — metals, oxidesand polymer — that go intothe making of electronicitems get physically reducedinto their constituent phases,which can then be separatedwithout using any chemicals.The use of low-temperaturegrinding eliminates noxiousemission. The results of thestudy were published in thejournal Materials Today.

“The behaviour of indi-vidual materials is differentwhen they are pulverised at

room temperature. Whilemetal and oxides get mixed,the local temperature ofpolymer increases duringgrinding and so the polymermelts instead of breaking,”says Dr. Chandra SekharTiwary from Materials Engin-eering Department at IIScand the first author of thepaper. “The polymer startsreacting with the rest of thecomponents and forms achunk. So we can’t separatethe individual components.”

“The deformation beha-viour at low temperature isvery different from roomtemperature. There are twoprocesses that happen whenmilling. The polymer mater-ial breaks but metals get wel-ded, some sort of solid-statewelding resulting in mixing;the welded metals again getbroken during milling. Atlow temperature mixingdoes not happen,” says Prof.K. Chattopadhyay from theMaterials Engineering De-partment at IISc and the cor-responding author of the pa-per. There is also a lowerlimit to which materials canbe broken into when e-wasteis milled at room temperat-ure. The maximum size re-duction that can be achievedis about of 200 nanometre.But in the case of low tem-perature ball milling the size

can be reduced to 20-150nanometres.

Novel designThe low-temperature ballmill was designed by Dr.Tiwary. The cryo-mill grind-ing chamber is cooled usingliquid nitrogen and a smallhardened steel ball is usedfor grinding the material ina controlled inert atmo-sphere using argon gas.“The interface remainsclean when broken in an in-ert atmosphere,” says Prof.Chattopadhyay.

“One of the main pur-poses of ball milling [atroom temperature] is tomix materials. But in thecase of ball milling at lowtemperature we did not ob-serve any mixing; the indi-vidual components separ-ate out really well. Wewanted to use this propertymore constructively. So wetook two printed circuitboards from optical mouseand milled them for 30minutes,” recalls Dr.Tiwary.

The polymer becomesbrittle when cooled to -120degree C and ball millingeasily breaks it into a finepower. Metals and oxidestoo get broken but are a bitbigger in size.

The crushed powder was

then mixed with water to sep-arate the components into in-dividual classes of materialsusing gravity. The powderseparated into two layers —the polymer floats at the topdue to lower density, whilemetals and oxides of similarsize and different densitysettle at the bottom. The bot-tom layer when diluted fur-ther separated into oxides atthe top and metals at the bot-

tom. The oxides and metalswere present as individualelements.

“Our low-temperaturemilling separates the com-ponents into single phasecomponents without usingany chemicals, which is notpossible using other tech-niques,” says Prof. Chattopad-hyay. “Our process is scalableand is environment friendlythough it uses higher energy.”

IISc researchers’ ecofriendlyway of recycling e-wasteThe low-temperature crushing reduced e-waste into metals, oxides, polymer without using chemicals

Scalable process: (Left) Prof. Mahapatra and Prof.Chattopadhyay used the fact low temperature crushing does notmix the e-waste components. *

R. Prasad

A team of scientists from Raman Re-search Institute, Bengaluru, and Uni-versity of Delhi have seen for the firsttime indications of a massive planetorbiting a low mass X-ray binary starsystem. The technique that has beenused, namely, X-ray observations, is anew way of detecting exoplanets. Theresults have been published inMonthly Notices of the Royal Astro-nomical Society. The system is nearly30,000 light years away and theplanet is expected to be nearly 8,000times as massive as the earth.

Paired with neutron starThe star system in question, MXB1658-298 is an X-ray binary and a partof the constellation Ophiuchus (ser-pent bearer). X-ray binaries consist ofa pair of stars orbiting each other ofwhich one is compact one such as ablack hole or a neutron star (in thiscase, a neutron star). The neutronstar draws matter from its less-massive companion. The mass whendrawn generates X-rays which are de-tected by detectors placed in satel-lites in space.

Discovered in 1976, this binary starsystem is so far and so faint that it

may be observed only when it shows“outbursts” of X-rays. That is, an in-crease in X-ray intensity by a factor of100 or more. Recently this systemshowed an outburst. “This providedus with an excellent opportunity totry to trace the orbital evolution ofthis system,” Chetana Jain, AssistantProfessor, Hansraj College, Delhi,who is the first author of the paper,says in an email.

As the two stars revolve aroundeach other, the less-massive compan-

ion star hides the compact stareverytime it crosses the line of sight,in between the detector and theneutron star, giving rise to eclipses.In X-ray binaries, the time in-betweeneclipses of the source can increase,decrease and also shows abruptchanges. This system, MXB 1658-298,is special in that the time betweenthe eclipses increases and decreasesperiodically. “The eclipse first [time]arrived about ten seconds earlier andafter about a year, arrived about ten

seconds later that what would be ex-pected [if these was no other bodydisturbing the system]” says BiswajitPaul, Raman Research Institute, wholed the research, in an email. Theteam was surprised by this unusualbehaviour.

The massive thirdThis periodic variation implied

that there was a third body orbitingthe system. “The long-term evolutionof the mid-eclipse times indicatedthat this orbit is shrinking. Over andabove this, we found periodic vari-ation on shorter timescale,” says DrJain, summarising the results.

“Till now, there are various indir-ect methods [of detecting exoplan-ets] such as transit photometry andmicrolensing,” says Dr Jain. This dis-covery is made with a new technique,by measuring periodic delays in X-rayeclipses.

X-ray observations are done fromspace observatories such as NASA’sChandra X-ray Observatory. “In thisparticular work, we have used datafrom XMM-Newton and archival datafrom RXTE (NASA) and some earlierpublished values of mid-eclipsetimes,” says Dr Paul, who has beenstudying this system for eight years.

Eclipses of binary star shed light on orbiting exoplanetIn a irst, a massive exoplanet was discovered using X-ray observations

Tiny attractor: An X-ray binary system comprises a compact star, either a blackhole or a neutron star, and a less massive companion from which the formeraccretes mass. * K.B. JAWAHARR

Shubashree Desikan

The coastal States of Indiamay not suffer from themassive algal bloom that hasbeen reported from the Ara-bian Sea. Ocean-watchershad earlier reported that abloom of the size of Mexico,which originated in the Gulfof Oman, had reached theArabian Sea and feared thatit could reach Indian shores.

Those at the Indian Na-tional Centre for Ocean In-formation Services, (IN-COIS), Hyderabad,confirmed that the algal spe-cies green Noctiluca scintil-lans had bloomed. The pres-ence of the green algae givesdeep green colour to theocean in the areas of spread.

Researchers at INCOISsay that the current bloomwas unlikely to impact thecoastal States of the coun-try. The researchers use re-mote sensing technique forthe identification of thebloom species. In-situ stud-ies were also carried outearlier by deploying re-search vessels to under-stand the various phases ofthe algal bloom.

Analysis of the satelliteimageries of the bloomareas indicated that it exten-ded from Oman to Gujarat.“Satellite time series imagesalso reveal that this offshorebloom initiates in the Omanwaters by January and sub-sequently intensifies andspreads over almost half ofthe Arabian Sea till Marchend. Subsequently, it be-comes weak and disappearsas the waters start warmingby April,” the marine re-searchers noted.

Though the extension ofthe bloom towards Gujaratcoast varies annually, typic-ally it remains about 15 kmaway from the shore.

According to RashminDwivedi, a consultant of theINCOIS and an expert inalgal bloom, “whenNoctiluca cells degrade, as-sociated detritus in the formof particulate organic car-bon sinks to deeper waters.During this process, decom-position occurs by the mi-crobes and oxygen that isdissolved in water is con-sumed for their oxidation.”

The decomposition re-duces dissolved oxygenfrom the water column andcauses adverse effect onfish. Secondly, degradingNoctiluca cells release am-monia in the water increas-ing toxic level and it causesfish mortality, he explained.

Earlier studies in thebloom area had indicatedthat there was no significantincrease in ammonia or de-crease in dissolved oxygenduring degrading stage ofthe bloom in the off shorewaters of Gujarat.

INCOIS has plans for gen-erating harmful algal bloomadvisories, which wouldkeep the Indian fishermenaware of the process, said acommunication from S.S.C.Shenoi, Director, INCOIS.

According to researchers,the bloom develops in theArabian Sea “as a result of acontinuous process ofwinter cooling and convect-ive mixing.

Cool dry continental airfrom the northeast causesan increase in surface dens-ity of the sea water due toevaporative cooling and in-creased salinity.” The “ver-tical mixing of the watermasses causes recharge ofwater column with nutrientsfrom the deep. The resultingnutrient enrichment in-creases the biological pro-duction” of the water, theynoted.

Algal bloom mayspare Indian watersDegrading algae can cause ish mortality

K.S. Sudhi

Not just the brain’s GPSThe identification of the

brain’s ‘GPS’ got the Nobel

prize in 2014. New research on

mice shows that the same

region, the hippocampus, is

active when the subject is

responding to sounds. This

could solve a longstanding

mystery on how new

memories are formed there.

CAPSULE

Tail end visionBlind tadpoles with eyes

grafted on to their tails were

able to see when treated with

a small molecule

neurotransmitter drug that

enhanced innervation (supply

of nerves to a body part),

integration and function of

transplanted organs. This

treatment has potential for

regenerative medicine.

Brain’s favourite parentThough we inherit a set of

DNA from each parent, it is not

uncommon for brain cells to

preferentially activate one set

over the other, a study on mice

finds. This suggests something

radically different from

classical views of genetics and

suggests new ways in which

genetic mutations may affect

brain disorders.

Wiser at fourResearchers have found that

when children are four years

old, they suddenly develop

the ability to relate to other

people. This is attributed to

the growth at four years of the

arcuate fascicle, a structure

connecting two critical regions

of the brain, one a part of the

temporal lobe and the other,

the frontal lobe.

Gobi dust in CaliforniaDust from the Asian Gobi

desert is providing nutrients

for plants as far away as

California. It was a

longstanding mystery how the

Giant Sequoias and other large

plants survived in a landscape

where the bedrock had little

phosphorus. Research shows

that dust from Asia and

climate change may be

shaping this ecosystem.

Seeing 3D movies

Why do we need to wearspecial glasses to view 3Dmovies?

■ T. S. Karthik, Chennai

In 3D movies, two imagesare projected simultaneously on the screen. Oneimage is horizontallypolarised and the other isvertically polarised. That iswhy, without 3D glasses, theimage is blurred. The 3Dspectacles that we useessentially have two types ofpolaroid glasses,horizontally polarised for,say, the right eye andvertically polarised for theleft eye. When the reflectedimage from the screen fallson the spectacles, the rightside glass allows only thehorizontally polarisedcomponent to pass andblocks the other componentwhile the left glass only

allows vertically polarisedlight. So, each eye gets anindependent view. However,the brain combines theseimages and interprets thecombination as a realistic3D image. Of late, thelinearly polarised glassesare replaced by a set ofcircularly polarised glassesthat can provide a 3D effectfor the viewers even if theytilt their head. ■ Dr. P. Ramesh Babu,

VIT University, Vellore

This week’s question

Why do celestial bodiesexperience an equatorialbulge?

■ C.R. Ramanuja Desikan

CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC

CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCQuestion Corner

Unlike normal cells in our body, cancercells keep on dividing and proliferatingwithout control, forming lumps called tu-mours. If we find methods to stop suchunrestricted growth, we can treat andcure cancer. Anti-cancer drugs are stillnot specific enough and often damagenormal, healthy cells as well, leading tounpleasant side-effects. They also are notable to penetrate the tumour. ‘SurgicalStrike’ or cutting off the tumour is notspecific enough and tends to damage nor-mal tissues as well. Physical tools such asnanoparticles, coated with ‘magic bul-lets’, which seek and destroy specificcomponents of cancer cells, are limited bypenetrability, clearance from the bodyafter delivery and so forth. What isneeded is a killer device that can open upthe target cell mass and finish it off, anddo so only on cancer cells and not harmhealthy ones in the body.

Way back in 1893, Dr William Covey ofNew York thought up the unusual idea ofusing whole bacteria (or their extracts) fortreating cancer. The argument is this:after all, these microbes enter our cellsand wreak damage. He made extracts ofmicrobes such as Mycobacterium bovis

(one that causes TB in cattle) and foundthat tumours actually shrank in size upontreating with such ‘Covey toxins’.

Taming the shrewThis approach is, in effect, the use of onetype of killer cells (microbes which causedisease to normal healthy cells, evendeath, if left untreated) to kill anothertype of killer cells (cancer). The troublehere is while they kill cancer cells, theymay also damage healthy cells of thebody; treating the body against such infec-tion allows the cancer to come back. Ifonly we find ways to ‘tame’ such microbesthat they do not cause harm to normalcells, but specifically target cancer cells,we may have a winning strategy. WhileCovey could not do this, we now haveways to do so, thanks to the advances ingenetic engineering, molecular and cellbiology. The field of using bacterial cells,loaded with anti-cancer molecules, tofight cancer has grown fast in the last 20years. The killer bacterium chosen bymany researchers in the field is Salmon-ella typhimurium (the one that causestyphoid-like disease in rats, and leads togastric problems and diarrhea in hu-mans). The molecular biology of thispathogen (let us abbreviate its name asST) is now well known, and geneticallymanipulating it is not difficult. A group ofresearchers at Yale University, Connecti-cut, USA, found that if we delete the genecalled msbB from its genome, its toxicitytowards normal cells is vastly reduced.However, although safe, the injection ofthis gene-deleted strain did not show sub-stantial anti-tumour activity.

The group soon realised that comparedto normal cells, tumour cells are far richerin ATP, the energy currency molecule incells. Given this, if one were to delete thegene called purL (which codes for makingthe ‘A’ part in ‘ATP’) from ST, the modifiedstrain would need external addition ofATP in order to multiply and grow. Andthe abundant levels of ATP are the teaser.Thus the purl- deleted ST strain wouldmake a beeline towards the tumour cells,ignoring normal healthy ones. We thushave a second way of herding ST towardscancers.

What if we make a double mutant, that

is, generate ST with both the msbB andpurL genes deleted, grow and unleash itinto the organ afflicted with cancer? Thiswas indeed done about 15 years ago by agroup of scientists from the pharmaceut-ical company called VION, near Yale Uni-versity. This double mutant strain, termedV20009, was tried against mice withmelanomas, and also on mice carryinghuman tumours grafted on to them. Intra-venous injection of VNP20009 inhibitedtumour growth anywhere between 57-95%. Plus, only live bacteria showed theanti-tumour effect, meaning that continu-ous infection by live bacteria is needed to

eliminate tumours, and extracts or drugswith limited doses will not do. About thesame time, a group from the National Can-cer Institute, near Washington, DC, usedVNP20009 to treat 24 human patientswith secondary skin cancers and found itsufficiently safe for human use.

Making a package dealDr. Ravi Bellamkonda of Duke University,Durham, NC, USA went one step further,and decided to use VNP20009 as a carrieror vehicle, and loaded it with the proteincalled p53 which suppresses tumourgrowth, and another molecule calledazurin which kills cancer cells, and alsoprotects p53 from degradation. That sucha twinning of p53 and azurin is useful wasearlier shown by Dr. Ananda Chakrabartyof the University of Illinois College ofmedicine at Chicago.

Dr. Bellamkonda injected this cargo-laden ST on to rats which carried grafts ofcancerous brain tumours obtained fromhumans. This therapy allowed the cancer-bearing rats survive for more than 100days, compared with barely 26 days foruntreated rats.

The beauty in using such cargo-ladendouble mutant pathogens is that (1) nor-mal and healthy body cells are not af-fected, (2) they penetrate the body of thecancer cells, (3) this allows delivery of thedrugs into the interior of the cancer cell(where conventional drugs find hard toenter), and (4) we can add more cargo,and allow additional cancer-killer drugswhile keeping normal cells safe enough.

[email protected]

Designing a killer to kill a killerWhat is needed for cancer treatment is a device that can open up the target cell mass and inish it of, without harming other cells

Proliferating rapidly: A scanning electron micrograph of cancer cells growing in pores of a3D scafold (made of synthetic plastic). * SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

SPEAKING OF SCIENCED. Balasubramanian

Readers can send their questions/ answers [email protected]

CMYK

A BG-BGMYCMYK

A BG-BGMY


THE HINDU BENGALURU


BEING

DR HUMERUS KESHAV

What is the April Fool’s Day comet?Better known as the Comet 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini- Kresák, thiscomet — discovered in 1858 — came closest to earth on April 1.The comet’s perihelion point, which is that part of its orbittaking it closest to the sun, lies just outside earth’s orbit. Thisyear, the perihelion passage occurs on April 12, when the cometwill be 97.1 million miles (156.3 million kilometres) from thesun. But because the orbit of the comet nearly parallels theorbit of earth at this point, there will be a six-day period — fromMarch 29 through April 3 — when it will be very near to itsclosest point to earth, according to Space.Com. On April Fools’Day (April 1), the comet was about 13.2 million miles (21.2million km) away, and therefore visible from earth with small,home telescopes. The comet will be visible with binocularsfrom March to June and could even be visible with an unaidedeye around perihelion on April 12-13, 2017. Comet 41P was irstdiscovered by Horance Tuttle in 1858, then was rediscovered in1907 by Michel Giacobini, and again in 1951 by Lubor Kresák.This comet is famous for major outbursts that make it highlyvariable in brightness.

DEMYSTIFYING SCIENCE

In May 2010, Ahmedabad, Gujar-at’s largest city with a popula-tion of 5.5 million, witnessed

heatwaves with record-breakingtemperatures that exacted a toll of4,462 lives. This was 1,344 deathsmore than the toll in May 2009.The high mortality shocked theAmdavad Municipal Corporation(AMC), public health experts andinstitutes, civil society groups andother stakeholders, who joinedhands to prepare a comprehensiveHeat Action Plan (HAP) in 2013.

A first in South Asia, the HAP’sprimary goal was to create publicawareness about extreme climatesand necessary steps to tackle it andsave lives.

A collaborative projectThe civic body tied up with theGeorgia Institute of Technology,Rollins School of Public Health ofEmory University, Indian Instituteof Public Health, U.S.-based non-profit advocacy group Natural Re-sources Defense Council, and theU.K.-based Climate & DevelopmentKnowledge Network (CDKN) forthe innovative project.

The plan involves communityoutreach initiatives, putting anearly warning system in place thatprovides a seven-day advance fore-cast about high temperatures andimpending heatwaves, and capa-city-building of health-care profes-sionals to treat people with heat-related complications.

A nodal officer coordinates withother agencies and groups to im-plement the plan in summer whentemperatures go up to 48°C. Oncethe HAP is activated, the AMC is-sues colour-coded alerts or heatwarnings based on weather fore-casts.

For example, a yellow alert is is-sued when the temperature is ex-pected to range from 41.1°C to 43°Cwhile an orange alert indicates arange of 43.1°C-44.9°C. The red

alert signifies extreme heat up-wards of 45°C.

Other actions envisaged in theplan include stocking hospitalsand health centres with ice packs,extra water supplies in the slumsand vulnerable areas, openingdrinking water centres in the city,running fountains and watersprinklers at crossroads and in gar-dens, and altering school and col-lege timings to ensure that chil-dren don’t venture out during

peak heat.

Success and emulationDileep Mavalankar, director of theGandhinagar-based Indian Insti-tute of Public Heath, says mortalityhas come down 20-25% with theimplementation of the HAP. “OnMay 21, 2010, with the temperatureat 47°C, there were 310 deaths inthe city, which is 210 additionaldeaths compared to monthly aver-age deaths. In May 2016, when the

temperature crossed 48°C in thecity, the death toll was around250,” he says.

AMC Commissioner Mukesh Ku-mar says this year the HAP will beactivated on April 7.

Impressed with the Ahmedabadmodel, civic bodies in Nagpur andBhubaneswar have also launched asimilar initiative. “Now even Kara-chi in Pakistan is thinking of replic-ating it,” says Mihir Bhatt of the AllIndia Disaster Mitigation Institute,which is involved in the imple-mentation of the HAP in the threeIndian cities, adding that the mostpositive impact has been on streetvendors, casual labourers, con-struction workers, traffic policeand AMC staff and schoolchildren.

[email protected]

How Ahmedabad beat the heatThe city’s Heat Action Plan, unveiled in 2013, has brought down heatwave-linked deaths by up to 25%

Mahesh Langa

GE

TT

Y IM

AG

ES/I

ST

OC

KP

HO

TO

The Mental Health-care Bill — approved

in the Lok Sabha lastweek following RajyaSabha approval in Au-gust 2016 — marks aparadigm shift in thecare and treatment ofpersons with mental ill-

ness in India. Instead of viewing persons with mentalillness as objects of fear, pity and charity, the new Billrecognises them as citizens with health rights, includ-ing the right to quality mental health care.

There are important lessons from the process of itsdrafting as well as its contents. The Bill underwentwide public consultations from 2010. These includeregional consultations and a national consultation at-tended by nearly 300 stakeholders. Introduced in Par-liament by the UPA government in August 2013, theBill received detailed scrutiny of the ParliamentaryStanding Committee for Health (Union Health MinisterJ.P. Nadda was a member) which recorded evidence ofall stakeholders, including groups opposed to the verynotion of reform in mental health law. The standingcommittee’s amendments were accepted by the thenUPA government. The NDA government had a relookat the Bill and it was once again approved by the Cab-inet. This emphasis on an inclusive law-making pro-cess ultimately reflected in the near universal supportof MPs cutting across party lines. In a first, Parliamentdevoted six hours debating and discussing mentalhealth issues. A record number of 29 MPs participatedin the debate, without acrimony or disruptions and allexpressing support.

Contents of the Bill such as decriminalisation of sui-cide have received wide coverage. The facts: 150 mil-lion Indians need treatment for mental illness butnearly 80-90% receive NO treatment (so-called treat-ment gap). We spend less than 1% of the public healthbudget on mental health although mental health prob-lems constitute nearly 13% of the health burden. Re-cognising this historic neglect, the Bill makes provi-sion for universal access to a range of mentalhealth-care services in the community, at the districtlevel, through the public health system. The Bill alsomakes it compulsory for insurance companies to in-clude mental illness cover in medical insurancepolicies. These steps will ensure more people get treat-ment and reduce the treatment gap.

Empowering optionsSome concerns have been expressed about the provi-sion of Advance Directive (AD) and Nominated Repres-entative (NR) in the Bill. AD allows all citizens, not justpersons with mental illness, to state (when they arewell) their treatment choices in the event a futuremental illness takes away their ability to make treat-ment-related decisions. This is not a compulsory re-quirement but it is a hugely empowering option. Noone will be left untreated because they did not writean AD but many will recognise its importance, espe-cially those who are wary of unscrupulous medicalpractice or who have indeed suffered from such prac-tice in the past. Similarly, the Bill has provisions for in-dividuals to appoint a nominated representative tomake decisions on their behalf when they are unwelland cannot make decisions for themselves. This too isan option and if no such appointment is made, familymembers are the default NR. Both provisions give ameasure of control back to individuals with mental ill-ness, particularly women, allowing them to activelyparticipate in decision-making about their care andtreatment.

Given the historical context of denial of rights andpoor quality treatment to persons with mental illness,this Bill takes an aspirational stance. For some, it maynot go far enough; we know there are others for whomit goes too far. The challenge lies in its implementa-tion, not easy, but eminently possible. Mr. Nadda hasalready promised in the Lok Sabha and on Twitter that“Budget will never be an issue”. All those who havehailed the government for its farsightedness and its ac-knowledgment of citizens’ rights will now need towork together to ensure that the Mental HealthcareAct, 2017 is implemented with integrity.

Dr. Soumitra Pathare is a consultant psychiatrist & Director,Centre for Mental Health Law and Policy, Indian Law Society,Pune, India. He was closely involved in the drafting of the MentalHealthcare Bill

soumitra pathare

A new narrative

around mental health

Situation update: The World Health Organization, the Federal Ministry of Health, Iraq and the Ninewa Department ofHealth have opened a trauma ield hospital in Athba, 15 km from the war frontlines of west Mosul, Iraq. It has 2 operatingtheatres and 56 beds and services include advanced life support, deinitive wound management, and a range of general andspecialised lifesaving surgical capabilities. Days after its opening, 36 patients, including 30 civilians, were treated in thehospital. Picture shows a wounded civilian being treated. * AFP

CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC

Lifesaving front-line response

One in three breast can-cer patients under 45

removed the healthy breastalong with the breast af-fected by cancer in 2012, asharp increase from the onein 10 younger women withbreast cancer who haddouble mastectomies eightyears earlier, a new studyreports.

The rate is especiallyhigh in some parts of theUnited States, the study inJAMA Surgery found. Wo-men often remove thehealthy breast so they don’thave to worry about devel-oping another cancer, eventhough there is no evidencethat removing the healthybreast extends lives.

What doctors sayBoth the American Board ofInternal Medicine and theAmerican Society of BreastSurgeons recommendagainst the practice, calledcontralateral prophylacticmastectomy, unless a wo-man is at unusually highrisk for a new cancer be-cause of a condition like in-creased genetic risk, suchas a mutation in the BRCA1or BRCA2 genes.

“This study again under-scores the fact that womenare making this decisionout of anxiety rather thanmedical necessity,” says Dr.E. Shelley Hwang, the chiefof breast surgery at DukeCancer Institute, Durham,North Carolina, who wasnot involved in the studybut has studied patients’quality of life after doublemastectomies.

There was a large geo-graphic variation in rates ofdouble mastectomiesacross the country, whichsuggests that doctors aren’tproperly explaining therisks and the lack of sur-vival benefit to patients, shesays. “There are importantregional differences in howcommunication occursbetween patient and sur-geons,” she said, noting “itis clearly not plausible thatthere are biologically basedregional differences.”

The dataThe new study looked backat 1.2 million women age 20and older from 45 statesand the District ofColumbia who had beengiven an early stage breastcancer diagnosis in onebreast between January 1,2004, and the end of 2012.Most of the cancers were inwomen over 45. The datawas compiled by the NorthAmerican Association ofCentral Cancer Registries,and the investigators werefrom the American CancerSociety, Emory University,Dana-Farber Cancer Insti-tute and Brigham and Wo-men’s Hospital.

Among women of allages who had been given adiagnosis of breast cancerduring this period, most —58.4% — had lumpectomiesto remove tumours fromthe affected breast, but leftthe healthy breast alone.Another 32.9% had a singlemastectomy, and 8.7% hadboth breasts removed, thestudy found. But the per-centage of women of all

ages who chose to haveboth breasts removed in-creased to 13% of all thosewho had surgery in 2012,up from 4.5% in 2004.

The rate of doublemastectomies was highestamong women under 45.But the rate increasedamong women 45 and olderas well. The percentage ofolder women having doublemastectomies rose to 10.4%in 2012, up from 3.6% in2004.

The increasing rates andthe regional variationsacross the country sur-prised the authors of thestudy, says Dr. AhmedinJemal, the senior author ofthe paper, who is vice pres-ident of surveillance andhealth services research atthe American Cancer Soci-ety. “There might be differ-ences in culture, theremight be differences in pro-vider recommendations,”he says, adding that studiessuggest that women are lesslikely to opt for a doublemastectomy when they areinformed and the decisionis driven by the physician.But he notes that the healthcare system reimbursesphysicians based on thenumber of procedures theydo, and surgeons are paidmore for a double mastec-tomy than a single mastec-

tomy. Researchers initiallythought that women wouldbe more likely to choose adouble mastectomy in re-gions where reconstructivesurgery is more commonlydone because they wantedsymmetrical reconstructedbreasts, but many stateswith high rates of doublemastectomies do not havehigh rates of reconstructivesurgery, and vice versa.

AppealDr. Lisa A. Newman, the dir-ector of the breast oncologyprogramme for the Detroit-based multi-hospital HenryFord Cancer Institute,writes in a commentary ac-companying the study thatsurgeons have “an ethicaland moral imperative” toensure that patients haveaccurate information andthat treatments “prioritiseoptimal oncologic out-comes.” Though theyshould respect patientchoice and “avoid being pa-ternalistic,” she says, theyshould also make sure pa-tients don’t panic and makeimpulsive decisions afterfinding out they havecancer.

The breast cancer that ismost likely to kill a patientis the first breast cancer be-cause it is most likely to bediscovered at a later stageand thus more likely to havespread, she says. The risk ofa second unrelated canceroccurring in the healthybreast is small, and since apatient with a cancer his-tory will be monitoredclosely “it will usually bedetected early,” she says. NYT

Anxiety driving a rise in double mastectomies Medical experts in the U.S. recommend against the practice

Roni Caryn Rabin

GE

TT

Y /

IST

OC

KP

HO

TO

Hepatitis linked toParkinson’s riskPeople with the viruses hepatitis B and

C may both be associated with an

increased risk of Parkinson’s disease,

according to a study in the latest issue

of Neurology. The hepatitis virus

afects the liver. Hepatitis B is spread

through contact with blood and body luids of an infected

person, such as having unprotected sex, getting a tattoo, being

pierced with unsterilised tools or sharing razors, needles or

toothbrushes with an infected person. Hepatitis C is spread

through blood-to-blood contact such as sharing needles, razors

and toothbrushes. It is also passed on at birth by infected

mothers. For the study, researchers examined hospital records

from a large British database and found nearly 22,000 people

with hepatitis B, 48,000 with hepatitis C, 6,000 with

autoimmune hepatitis, 4,000 with chronic active hepatitis, and

nearly 20,000 with HIV. They were compared to more than six

million people with minor conditions. — Eurekalert

AROUND THE WORLD

Getty Images/iStockphoto

E-cigarette lavours hook youthFlavoured e-cigarettes and e-cigarette

marketing could be increasing e-

cigarette use among youth and young

adults. These indings are part of a series

of papers published in the journal

Tobacco Regulatory Science. The

indings are based on data from 2,483 youth from ages 12 to 17

and 4,326 young adults from ages 18 to 29 in four

metropolitans across Texas: Houston, Dallas/Fort Worth, San

Antonio and Austin. Among those who reported currently using

e-cigarettes, 98.6% of youth and 95.2% of young adults in

Texas said that their irst e-cigarette was lavoured. If lavours

were not available, 77.8% of adolescents and 73.5% of young

adults who used e-cigarettes said they would not use them.

Though e-cigarettes are typically marketed as a harmless

alternative to traditional cigarettes, previous research has

shown they are not free from harmful chemicals. — Eurekalert


A very bad cold? You are lonelySufering through a cold is annoying

enough, but if you’re lonely, you’re

likely to feel even worse, says a study

published in the journal Health

Psychology. The researchers drew a

distinction between feeling lonely and

actual social isolation. Carrying out this task meant inding

lonely people, isolating them — and giving them a cold. A total

of 159 people from ages 18-55, nearly 60% of them men, were

assessed for their psychological and physical health, given

cold-inducing nasal drops and quarantined for ive days in hotel

rooms. After a survey, the results showed that those who felt

lonely were no more likely to get a cold than those who

weren’t. But those who were screened in advance for their level

of loneliness and became infected — not all of the participants

did — reported a greater severity of symptoms than those

recorded in previous studies used as controls. The size of the

participants’ social networks appeared to have no bearing on

how sick they felt. — Science Daily


Laziness spreadsPeople tend to unconsciously imitate

others’ prudent, impatient or lazy

attitudes, according to a study

published in PLOS Computational

Biology. “Prudence,” “impatience” or

“laziness” are typically thought of as

entrenched personality traits that guide

how people weigh the cost of risk, delay and efort

(respectively). However, new research shows that people’s

attitudes towards efort, delay, or risk drift towards those of

others. The researchers combined mathematical modelling and

cognitive psychology to explore the laws that govern such

attitude alignment. The study results show that participants are

bound to a “false-consensus” bias, i.e. they believe without

evidence that the attitudes of others resemble their own. It also

shows that people exhibit a “social inluence” bias, i.e. their

attitude tends to become more similar to those of people

around them. — Science Daily

Getty Images

Play music, reduce pain Music therapy has been found to

decrease pain in patients recovering

from spine surgery, compared to a

control group of patients who received

standard post-operative care alone,

according to indings published in The

American Journal of Orthopaedics. For

this study, researchers provided 30 spine surgery patients with

a 30-minute music therapy session within 72 hours after

surgery in addition to standard care. Another 30 spine surgery

patients received standard post-operative care without music

therapy. The 60 patients ranged in age from 40 to 55 years and

underwent anterior, posterior, or anterior-posterior spinal

fusion.


CMYK

A BG-BGMYCMYK

A BG-BGMY


BENGALURU THE HINDU


NON-FICTION

‘Iwill tell you who made

Pakistan. Myself, my secretaryand his typewriter,’ Jinnah is

believed to have said. The boastwas true. No other Muslim leaderin India was strong enough to takethe British policy of divide andrule to its logical conclusion: thebreak-up of India.

Yet this man was once a staunchnationalist, a leading member ofthe Indian National Congress, and‘Ambassador of Hindu-Muslimunity’. Why did he change sodrastically?

Answers, anyone?No book on Jinnah has given anentirely satisfactory answer to thisquestion. One reason for this is thegreat shortage of credible informa-tion on his personal life. An in-tensely private person, he neverwrote any memoir, never kept adiary, and when he wrote a letter—he was a most reluctant letter-writer—kept it dry and impersonal.Worse, much of the little that wedo know of the inner man is basedon uncorroborated reminiscenceswritten years after his death bypeople who clearly adored him.No serious biographer of Jinnah(including the author of Mr andMrs Jinnah) can therefore avoid us-ing qualifiers (‘perhaps’, ‘un-doubtedly’, ‘quite possibly’,‘would most likely have’, ‘wouldhave surely’...) before saying any-thing significant about Jinnah’spersonal life.

That’s why Mr and Mrs Jinnah issuch a welcome addition to thesmall storehouse of our know-

ledge of the man. For the book isbuilt around a bundle of privateletters preserved by Padmaja andLeilamani Naidu, daughters of thatmost remarkable woman and in-defatigable letter-writer, SarojiniNaidu, and stumbled upon by theauthor in the Nehru Memorial Mu-seum and Library.

The bundle contains not onlyletters on the Jinnah couple writ-ten by the members of the Naidufamily to each other, but also sev-eral letters written by Jinnah’sbeautiful, precocious, highly ro-mantic but finally doomed Parsiwife, Ruttie herself. She was closeto the Naidu family. Sarojini Naidualso knew and greatly admired Jin-nah.

The letters are absorbingenough to have been published asa booklet. Happily, the author,Sheela Reddy, journalist and

writer, has made a whole book outof them by blending them withtwo excellent ingredients: one,vignettes of those times, politicalas well as social, which, thoughknown to history buffs, shouldnevertheless be of interest to thegeneral reader; and two, the au-thor’s interpretations of what theletters say—as well as some generalobservations and conclusions. Thefinal product, even if some of it isold wine, is a heady cocktail that isdifficult to put down till after thelast drop of it is drunk.

Of course in essence, as the titleof the book suggests, Mr and MrsJinnah is a tragic love story. It hasthe right ingredients for one: ahigh-spirited, wealthy, young girlfalling in love with a public hero(old enough to be her father); herbreak with everyone andeverything from her past to marrythe man; her hopes; her crushingdisappointments; her increasinglydesperate efforts to make a go ofthe marriage; her descent intodarkness; her walking out of themarriage, leaving behind a deeplymoving farewell letter; her lonelydeath at a young age (on her 29thbirthday) perhaps from a deliber-ate overdose of morphine... And itis a deftly told story.

Incomplete taleHowever, it is an incomplete story;for the Naidu bundles contain noletters from Jinnah himself. Theauthor has tried bravely, usingevery straw in the wind, her ownremarkable ability to put herself inher characters’ shoes, and, ofcourse, her skill as a writer, to re-

construct Jinnah’s feelings at vari-ous stages of the disintegration ofthe marriage, but the fact remains:we have only Ruttie’s (mostly, onlySarojini Naidu’s) version of whatwent wrong in the marriage. Thatand the author’s interpretations.

Do these solve the great riddleof why Jinnah, once ambassadorof Hindu-Muslim unity, rippedapart that unity and created acountry which—step by inevitablestep—has become ‘the hub of (Is-

lamic) terrorism’ and ‘the mostdangerous place on earth?’ Per-haps they do, provided you linkthe revelations in the Naidu letterswith the conclusion of KanjiDwarkadas, as the author hasdone on the last page of the book:‘It was Jinnah’s bitterness, bornout of his personal loss and disap-pointment, which travelled intohis political life.’ Interestingly, theauthor also mentions (albeit,without quite endorsing it) M.C.Chagla’s view that Jinnah’s unmar-ried sister Fatima (who re-enteredJinnah’s life the day Ruttie died,never to leave his side again) wasalso at least partly responsible forJinnah’s transformation.

This should do, at least till theday someone finds a bundle ofpersonal letters written by Jinnahhimself. They must existsomewhere.

The break-up of India, and a homeBuilt around a bundle of letters, this is a welcome addition to the small storehouse of our knowledge of Jinnah's private life

■ Mr and Mrs JinnahSheela ReddyPenguin/Viking₹699

Kiran Doshi

Secret lives: Jinnah never wrote any memoir, never kept a diary, and wasan intensely private person. * AFP

<> I will tell you who made

Pakistan. Myself, my

secretary and his

typewriter.

Jinnah

Every time a batsmanwalks out to bat, or abowler comes on for

his first spell, the televisionscreen flashes their careerstatistics. We’re so used tothis convention of cricket-watching that we don’t give asecond thought to the num-bers on display. For Tests,the most important stat for abatsman is his career aver-age, followed by aggregateruns scored. The higherthese numbers, the better,supposedly, the batsman.Similarly, for a bowler, themost important numbers arethe strike rate (balls con-sumed per wicket) and theaverage (runs conceded perwicket), followed by careertally of wickets taken.

All these measures haveone flaw in common: theydo not capture the context ofthe performances that gener-ated those numbers. Theyonly offer a context-free cu-mulative statistic. For in-stance, a century scored in adead rubber on a flat trackagainst a minnow in a drawnTest match at home holdsthe same value as one scoredin a winning cause in thefourth innings of a decider inan away series on a difficultwicket against a top team.It’s a matter of commonsense that the latter is a farsuperior innings. Yet thecricket statistics we routinelyuse do not take cognizanceof such distinctions. But whynot?

Mismatch of numbersSurely the fans deserve bet-ter? Given the ready availab-ility of every kind of matchdata, access to computingpower, and the massive com-mercial stakes involved, it isastonishing that conversa-tions around cricketing statshave not evolved to the levelof sophistication we find inother sports. This mismatchmanifests itself in a singularanomaly that has doggedcricket for far too long: ateam sport held to ransomby individualistic statistics.The most toxic fallout of thisanomaly is the phenomenonof players prioritising per-sonal records over team in-terests—a chronic disease inthe Indian context.

This tendency reached itsfarcical peak in the infamousnational spectacle of SachinTendulkar’s hundredth hun-dred. Accomplished in aminor league match againstBangladesh, the ageingmaestro’s deceleration in an-ticipation of his century costIndia the match. Yet, his

stooping to conquer a pettymilestone was less shamefulthan the reaction of thecricketing commentariat,which went to town hailingthe dubious record but keptsilent on how it ruined thematch for India.

It is this anomalous obses-sion with meaningless num-bers that is sought to beremedied by the makers ofImpact Index, a new statist-ical paradigm whose defin-ing principle is to relateevery number to match con-text through a measurecalled ‘impact’. It is nolonger the number alonethat is being measured (be itruns or wickets or averages),but the impact of that num-ber on the team’s fortunes,at the level of the match/series/tournament.

Founded by filmmakerand writer Jaideep Varma in2009, the Impact Indexteam has been putting outanalyses, stories, and predic-tions on its website. NumbersDon’t Lie: 61 Hidden CricketStories collects new cricket-ing stories unearthed by thisstatistical system. These areinterspersed with conversa-tions between Varma andformer Indian cricketerAakash Chopra, who spicesup the narratives with anec-dotes and observationsabout cricketers he hadplayed, interacted, or shareda dressing room with.

While a full explanation ofthis statistical methodologyis beyond the scope of thisessay, two elements areworth mentioning: it meas-ures every performanceagainst a base figure specificto the match; and it caps theimpact of any single per-

formance at a certain level,so that one great perform-ance cannot cover for re-peated failures thereafterand skew the career num-bers—a permanent hazard ofaverage-centric statistics.

Fresh insightsWith the introduction ofcontext, the numbers un-cover stories hitherto buriedunder the dead weight ofstatistics—original storiesabout players you’ve neverheard of, as well as fresh in-sights about the legends ofthe game.

Did you know for in-stance, that Peter May, whothis writer only knew of as aone-time chairman of theEnglish selectors, was thesecond highest impact bats-man in Test history, afterDon Bradman? Or that In-dia’s highest impact Testbatsman is Rahul Dravid,while Tendulkar was only ef-fective in a supporting role?Or that Asia’s two highest im-pact Test batsmen are both

Beyond the boundariesA new statistical paradigm is not measuring runs or averages alone, but theimpact of that number on the team’s fortunes

High impact: Statistical methodology measures every performance against a base igure speciicto the match. * GETTY IMAGES/ ISTOCKPHOTO

■ Numbers Don’t Lie: 61Hidden Cricket StoriesImpact Index & AakashChopraHarperSport₹350

G. Sampath

from Pakistan? A statistical approach

that, by design, factors in im-pact from the team’s per-spective when toting up indi-vidual numbers holdstremendous value for anyteam sport. It could be ahandy tool for optimal teamselection, live commentary,and generating interestingeditorial content.

There is, however, one as-pect which doesn’t figure inthis book: the negative im-pact of a player’s perform-ance. Under the Impact In-dex framework, the worst aplayer can do is to fail, inwhich case his match ‘im-pact’ is assigned a value of 1or less, as against a max-imum of 5 and a minimum of0. But when a batsman playsselfishly, it is not merely acase of failure. He is activelyharming the team. His im-pact ought to be negative, orless than 0. Given how sus-ceptible cricket is to selfishplay, one hopes that ImpactIndex would be equipped totell those kinds of stories aswell.

If the stories in NumbersDon’t Lie are anything to goby, Impact Index has the po-tential to change the veryvocabulary of cricketing de-bates. If it gains currency inthe cricketing establishment,we may even witness thedawn of a new era in Indiancricket where declarationswould no longer be delayed,batsmen no longer slowdown their scoring rate, andplayers past their prime nolonger prolong their careersendlessly, just because an-other personal statisticalmilestone is round thecorner.

Advocate Kaleeswaram Rajholds up a mirror to the

judiciary, his fellow lawyersand the media, and the re-flection is not all thatflattering.

In his latest work, Re-thinking Judicial Reforms Re-flections on Indian Legal Sys-tem, he drives home certaintruths about the role of mod-ern judges as political actors,five-star lawyer politicians,stenography journalism andhow a corporate media hascreated a capitalist profilefor what ‘success’ means inthe legal profession.

His razor-sharp analysis ofwhat ails the judiciary andlegal profession is insightfuland contemporary. The ali-enation of the court, theopacity of the justice deliv-ery mechanism and the pro-cess of appointment ofjudges should be a cause forconcern to those who stillbelieve in democracy.

The book discusses thegradual accumulation ofpower by the judiciary andits deliberate self-insulation.“A non-introspective andnon-interactive judiciary byway of its unilateral self-as-

sertions created a statewithin the state,” Raj argues.

As a practising lawyer inboth the Kerala High Courtand the Supreme Court, Rajterms Supreme Court litiga-tion as a ‘multi-crore affair’very few can afford. This, hepoints out, is an irony in anation with a socialist pre-amble in its Constitution.“Legal aid for the poor doesnot enable the poor tochoose the lawyer, nor thelawyer to choose the poor.”

The media has failed toraise an alarm about the elit-

ism in the ‘litigation in-dustry.’ The solution, hesays, is to demystify the legalprofession.

The book says steno-graphy journalism indulgedby court reporters will nothelp the cause of engaging inmeaningful discussions onthe judiciary. Though prob-lems of delay, uncertainty,judge-case ratio and docketmanagement are not insigni-ficant problems, the critiquein the media about the judi-ciary should be cultural, un-conventional and political.The media should treatjudges as political actors in ascenario where almost alllegal issues are essentiallypolitical—reservation policy,liquor policy, height of thedams on the Narmada orMullaperiyar. The inner dy-namism of the courts needsto be at the centre of publicdiscourse.

Raj points out that judicialreform is a cause entangledin reports of various com-missions, from the LawCommission to the Commis-sions for the Review of theConstitution—and has notmoved an inch over theyears.

The quality of justiceSeeking urgent changes in the justice delivery mechanism,an insider says the judiciary needs to be more interactive

■ Rethinking JudicialReforms: Relections onIndian Legal SystemKaleeswaram RajUniversal Law Publishing₹395

Krishnadas Rajagopal

When the English transla-tion of Artur Do-

moslawski’s biography offamous Polish journalistRyszard Kapuscinski (A Life)was released in 2012, it cameas a shock to his readers thathe had ‘confabulated’ manyfacts, including the claimthat he had met CheGuevera. With this new per-spective at hand, onewondered whether he hadexaggerated his observa-tions on Russia in Imperiumor of the civil war in Angola(Another Day of Life). The ex-cesses notwithstanding, areading of Kapuscinski—orBruce Chatwin (In Patago-nia, Songlines) for that mat-ter—‘captured atmospheres’,and that seemed to beenough. So, what is the stateof travel writing now?Granta magazine, which hashad a long association with‘creative non-fiction,’ tries toanswer this question in itslatest edition, Journeys (138).As publisher and editorSigrid Rausing, explains inthe introduction, “Travelwriting is about place, but itis also usually, one way or

another, about people, theinhabitants of those placesto which the author travels.”Thus, can any writing be “in-nocent of objectification ormisrepresentation? Everypiece of text is a story, andevery story has a point ofview, with its own precon-ceived notions, potentiallyharmful (or beneficial) toothers.”

Asked ‘Is travel writingdead?’, a host of writers in-cluding Mohsin Hamid(whose Exit West, a surrealtale of love in the time ofwar, is just out), ColinThubron, Pico Iyer, Geoff

Dyer say, “Yes and no. Sortof.” As Dyer points out, withinformation seemingly soreadily available, “travelwriting, a form of writingabout departures, aboutleaving the known in orderto venture into the un-known, could become astay-at-home genre. Any suc-cessful travel book shouldinvolve some kind of depar-ture, from previously visitedideas of the travel book.”

Hamid finds all his writing‘travel writing,’ having spenttime all over, from Californiato London to New York toLahore.

“Travel writing... can nomore die than curiosity orhumanity or the strangenessof the world can,” quips PicoIyer.

Amid all this is XiaoluGuo's fantastic journey as awriter (Well done, No. 3777,an account of her trip toBeijing from a village in thesouth to study at the BeijingFilm Academy) and formerGranta editor and veteranjournalist Ian Jack's assertionthat while travel writing isn’tdead, “it isn't what it used tobe.”

Of crossings and departuresNew travel writing must involve journeys diferent from old ideas of the travel book, say writers

■ Journeys (138)Granta₹799

Sudipta Datta

A professor of history whohas correctly forecasted 30years of Americanpresidential elections, makesthe case for impeachingDonald Trump, the 45thPresident of the U.S. Heargues that Congress couldimpeach Trump on the basisof the following reasons: histies to Russia, conlict ofinancial interests, and abuseof executive powers.

BOOK SHELF

■ The Case forImpeachmentAllan J. LichtmanHarperCollins₹399

A poet and columnist gives anaccount of Pakistan’s changingcultural, religious and politicalatmosphere. In a series ofessays, he responds to thefringe elements who cannottolerate other points of view.He has personal experience ofthis rigid stand, as some of hispoems were censored in the1980s and ’90s.

■ Crimson PapersHarris KhaliqueOUP₹995

Drawing on a lifetime ofwriting about dictatorshipsand dissidents, the writerargues that in this connectedworld he calls cosmopolis,the way to combine freedomand diversity is to have morebut also better free speech.Across all cultural divides, heargues, we must strive toagree on how we disagree.

■ Free Speech: Tenprinciples for aconnected worldTimothy Garton AshYale University Press₹899

An analysis of demographicand political realities ofpresent-day Europe, ajournalist gives us an eye-witness account of acontinent in self-destructmode. Based on travelsacross the entire continent,he writes an account ofmigrants from where theyland and where they end up.He also talks about otherproblems like declining birthrates and the people'scultivated self-distrust.

■ The Strange Death ofEurope: Immigration,Identity, IslamDouglas MurrayBloomsbury ₹699

A comprehensive account ofthe seven-decade journey ofthe Film Society movement inIndia, and how it created anecosystem of world cinema.It pays tribute to the pioneersof the movement like SatyajitRay, Chidananda Das Guptaand Ammu Swaminadhan,founder president of the(then) Madras Film Society.In the foreword AdoorGopalakrishnan says ituncovers a ‘saga of passionand commitment.’

■ India’s Film SocietyMovement: The Journeyand Its ImpactV.K. CherianSage ₹895

CMYK

A BG-BGMY


THE HINDU BENGALURU


SPORT

Anderson disappointed at being overlooked LONDON

England pace spearhead

James Anderson, who is one

of the senior members of the

National team, has admitted

he was a bit disappointed

after he was overlooked for

the role of Test captain

following Alastair Cook’s

decision to step down from

the post. “I don’t know if I’d

have taken the captaincy but

it would have been nice to

have been considered for it,”

ESPNcricinfo quoted

Anderson as saying. ANI

IN BRIEF

Grant Elliott retires frominternational cricketWELLINGTON

New Zealand all-rounder

Grant Elliott has confirmed

his retirement from

international cricket after

signing a deal to play in

England’s T20 competition.

The 38-year-old confirmed

his full retirement from

international cricket while

receiving a special

presentation alongside

Nathan McCullum at an

award night on Thursday. ANI

The start of every IPL sea-son is uncannily similar forDelhi Daredevils. The teamboasts of being one of themost balanced sides on pa-per, does reasonably wellthrough the league stage tostay in contention for aspot in the playoffs beforefaltering towards the busi-ness end of the competi-tion. Not surprising, then,that it is labelled the mostinconsistent and under-performing side in the In-dian Premier League.

For all the firepower andbig-name calling cards thathave adorned its line-up inthe past nine seasons, Delhihas had little to show in termsof real achievements on thefield. The team would behoping to change that when itkicks off its campaign in the

10th edition against RoyalChallengers Bangalore aweek from now. Last yearsaw the team overhaul its en-tire structure and personnel,managing some impressive

wins but the end result re-mained the same — it finishedsixth. This season, with Za-heer Khan continuing hiscaptaincy and Rahul Dravidremaining the coach, the

team has pinned its hopes onthe bowling unit, as it were,to take it past the post.

The bowling riches it haswould almost be embarrass-ing. Besides Zaheer, the teamhas the fiery Pat Cumminsand Kagiso Rabada, a fully-fitMohammed Shami, CoreyAnderson and Chris Morris.The spin department is ledby the experienced AmitMishra, for whom the Feroze-shah Kotla pitch would belike home turf, and suppor-

ted by the understated but ef-fective Shahbaaz Nadeemand Jayant Yadav.

The batting is largely an In-dian unit with the team man-agement reaffirming its faithin the Indian youngsters.Shreyas Iyer, Karun Nair,Rishabh Pant, Sanju Samsonand Aditya Tare are theshoulders the team is count-ing on to get the big scores,supported by the muscle ofall-rounders Carlos Brath-waite and Angelo Mathews.

The team has seeminglylearnt its lesson from last sea-son, when it spent ₹8.5crores for the services ofPawan Negi, on the back of asingle brilliant domestic sea-son, that never materialised.The names this time aroundall have a proven trackrecord.

But the biggest trump cardfor the team would be Za-heer, the captain. It was hisuncanny ability to get thefield placements right and his

guidance of the youngerbowlers in the side that keptDD in the race till the end,and his absence for a coupleof games to stay injury freederailed the team. Playingonly from IPL to IPL, at 38years, Zaheer isn’t gettingany younger and more thanhis skills, it will be leadershipthat would be tested. And forall the talent on the field he,along with Dravid, thementor, will be the key toDD’s dreams.

Daredevils: the most balanced side — on paperBut the team will have to demonstrate that it has addressed its tendency of faltering towards the business end of the competition

Speed demon: The Delhi side will be hoping to make the most of Pat Cummins’ iery pace during IPL-10. * RYAN PIERSE/GETTY IMAGES

Uthra Ganesan

New Delhi

It is unusual for a team tosplurge on fast bowlersfor a competition in Indiawhere pitch and condi-tions traditionally haven’tbeen too helpful. ButDelhi Daredevils can eas-ily claim to have the mostpotent and extensive line-up of fast-medium andfast bowlers in the IPL.

The list includes Mo-hammed Shami, ChrisMorris, Carlos Brath-waite, Kagiso Rabada, Pat

Cummins, Corey Ander-son, Angelo Mathews —the last four being thehighest-paid for by theteam in the auctions —led by captain ZaheerKhan. But with the team’shome venue of Feroze-shah Kotla having a his-tory of staying slow andlow and the other venuesnot exactly being a fastbowler’s delight, it needsto be seen how the teamuses its riches effectively.

X-FACTOR: THE PACE ATTACK

The rigours of internationalcricket are taking their tollon the Indian PremierLeague.

The stars from some ofthe other teams are falling bythe wayside.

But that hasn’t affectedMumbai Indians as the two-time champion’s playershave started to descend onthe Wankhede Stadium.

With all 27 members of itssquad fit and available — orso it seems for now — Mum-bai Indians is well-placed toprove that last season was anaberration. After making thecut for the Play-Offs for sixyears in succession, the Ro-hit Sharma-led team falteredlast year.

No wonder then that thesquad has seen a minor re-shuffle of the 2016 group.The season will mark the re-turn of Mitchell Johnson, thefiery Australian pacer, andSaurabh Tiwary, theJharkhand player, who wascatapulted into India’s ODIsquad thanks to his heroicsduring Mumbai Indians’

Veterans hope to sparkle for MIThe outit is well-placed to prove that last season was an aberration

Amol Karhadkar

MUMBAI

Ready to roll: Jos Buttler, right, with Mumbai Indians coachMahela Jayawardene during a practice session. * VIVEK BENDRE

Late-bloomer. That tag, thanks to Mumbai Indians’ability to bounce back at the end of the tournament,has been instrumental in the team making it to thePlay-Offs in the recent years.

In 2014 and 2015, the team hardly dropped anypoints at the business end to make up for a mediocrestart and surge into the last four.

X-FACTOR: ABILITY TO BOUNCE BACK

dream run. The biggestchange, however, has beenoff the field. Ricky Pontingmay have parted ways withthe Mumbai Indians set-up.

But the management hascontinued its tradition ofappointing legends of thegame as coaching staff byroping in Sri Lanka’s Ma-

hela Jayawardene as thehead coach.

Fitness and form

Despite the availability of allthe players, there remain afew doubts in the MI camp,at least in the initial stages ofthe tournament.

Not only because of theteam’s struggles early on inthe IPL but also due to thequestion marks over fitnessand form of some of its bignames.

Captain Rohit Sharma iscoming off an extended in-jury lay-off following a sur-gery. As if that wasn’t con-cern enough, Rohit had topull out of last week’s Deod-har Trophy owing to atroublesome knee.

The only other consistentscorer of last year, AmbatiRayudu, too is getting backto his best after a knee injuryhad sidelined him for wellover six months.

Kieron Pollard has had aforgettable outing in theWest Indies’ first twoTwenty20 Internationalsagainst Pakistan, while La-sith Malinga and HarbhajanSingh are approaching thefag end of their careers.

No surprises then that MIhas created a strong back-upfor the trio with Johnson —who will likely have to waitfor his chance with MitchellMcClenaghan and TimSouthee having fared ex-ceedingly well in Malinga’sabsence last year — Lankanallrounder Asela Gunaratneand leggie Karn Sharma.

If the bench sizzles andthe Rohit-Rayudu pair getssome support from the otherIndian batsmen, MI couldwell hope to live up to its tagof favourite and make his-tory by becoming the firstteam to win three IPL titlescome May 21.

Mumbai Indians’ hopes ofstarting IPL’s season 10 wellgot a boost with informationreceived that West IndiesT20 specialists, Kieron Pol-lard and Lendl Simmons,would reach in time for theirlung-opener against RisingPune Supergiant on April 6.

“Pollard and Simmonswill reach Mumbai on April 4and join the team in Pune onApril 5 for pre-match train-ing,” MI’s official spokesper-

son said on Saturday.The two Trinidadians are

important members of theMI squad and played majorroles in the team clinchingthe IPL crown for the secondtime in 2015.

The powerfully built Pol-lard, among the batsmenmost feared in this format byall teams with his ability toclear the rope at will, scored419 runs in 16 games.

Simmons shone brightlyby notching up 540 runs at45 per innings to guide

Mumbai Indians to itssecond IPL title in 2015.

Simmons could play justone game last season afterpicking up a back injuryprior to the World T20Championship held in thiscountry.

The 32-year-old was in-cluded as a late replacementfor Andre Fletcher andgrabbed the chance withboth hands to play a crucialknock in the World T20semifinals at the WankhedeStadium here that put hosts

India out of the tournament.Pollard, who missed being

part of the victorious WestIndies T20 squad last year,had a modest outing by hisstandards in the IPL that fol-lowed.

He notched up just 207runs in 13 games at a 25-plusaverage.

Both 29-year-old Pollardand Simmons are currentlyengaged in the four-gameT20 series against Pakistanat home which is set to endon Sunday.

Pollard, Simmons to reach in time The two Trinidadians will join the MI squad before its season opener


Mumbai

CMYK

A BG-BGMY


BENGALURU THE HINDU


SPORT

SUDOKU

Solution to yesterday’s Sudoku

DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

Cavaliers register win over 76ersLOS ANGELES

Cleveland Cavaliers defeated

Philadelphia 76ers 122-105 in

the NBA on Friday. Otherresults: Warriors 107 btRockets 98; Jazz 95 btWizards 88; Spurs 100 btThunder 95; Bucks 108 btPistons 105; Grizzlies 99 btMavericks 90; Pelicans 117 btKings 89; Knicks 98 bt Heat94; Celtics 117 bt Magic 116;Raptors 111 bt Pacers 100;Hornets 122 bt Nuggets 114.REUTERS

IN BRIEF

Tiger Woods not ready for Masters WASHINGTON

Tiger Woods announced he

had lost his battle to be fit for

the Masters, saying he was

“not tournament ready” for

the first major of the year and

did not have a timetable for

his return. Woods, whose 14

major titles include four

Masters green jackets, has

not played since withdrawing

from the Dubai Desert Classic

with back spasms. AFP

Federer to meet NadalMIAMI

Roger Federer beat Australia’s

Nick Kyrgios 7-6(9), 6-7(9),

7-6(5) to set up a mouth-

watering ATP Miami Open

final against Rafael Nadal.

Federer and Kyrgios produced

an extraordinary range of

shots in an enthralling,

fiercely intense semifinal that

kept a capacity crowd at Key

Biscayne on the edge of their

seats.

When Federer won the third

tie-break a furious Kyrgios

hammered his racket into the

ground three times as the

frustration of a remarkable

near-miss came flooding out.

There was little drama in

Nadal’s 6-1, 7-5 win over

Italian Fabio Fognini.The results: Men: Semifinals:Roger Federer bt Nick Kyrgios7-6(9), 6-7(9), 7-6(5); RafaelNadal bt Fabio Fognini 6-1,7-5.

Atul Kumar reiteratesallegations KOLKATA

Reiterating his allegation that

cricket matches are

“institutionally fixed,” author

Atul Kumar on Saturday

requested the authorities

concerned to investigate the

matter. Addressing a press

conference here, Atul Kumar

said, “I have said this before

as well and have proved this

mathematically and

scientifically in my books. No

one has contested this so far.

I have written to the

President of India, the Prime

Minister, the judiciary and the

BCCI Committee of

Administrators but nothing

has happened. If this is

investigated, then a lot will

come out of it.”

The Royal Challengers Ban-galore website describesShane Watson as an ‘IPL in-stitution.’ It perhaps ex-plains why the franchisepaid ₹9.5 crore to secure theservices of the premium all-rounder ahead of the 2016season.

But the sternest test of the‘institution’ in RCB coloursmight well be this year,when the side will take tothe field without its talis-manic skipper Virat Kohli —at least for the first fewweeks — and K.L. Rahul, forthe entire tournament.

“Of course it is not idealto have Rahul and Kohliout,” Watson said here onSaturday.

“They are two great play-ers and it is going to be chal-lenging for us. But one thingwe have at RCB is a lot of bat-ting depth.

“We have Sarfaraz[Khan], Mandeep [Singh],Kedar [ Jadhav] and SachinBaby. We will definitely missthose guys, but with thedepth we have we should beokay.”

Even though the Aussieexcelled with the ball in thelast edition — taking 20 wick-ets, his highest in a singleseason — runs were hard tocome by (179 runs at 13.76).The absence of Kohli andRahul may well give him theopportunity to correct this.

“I think my role will prob-ably change a little bit,which is great,” he said.

“I have more chances ofbatting up the order which iswhat I have done during themajority of my career. I am

ready to bat anywhere, but ifI get a role to bat up the or-der, I will certainly enjoy do-ing that.”

Good bowling unitOn the other hand, Watsonfelt that RCB’s bowling unitwill keep the side more thancompetitive. To stress thepoint, he recalled how afterbeing down and out in thefirst half of last season, RCB,riding on the exploits of itsbowlers, stormed into theplayoffs by winning six of itslast seven matches and ulti-mately finishing runner-up.

“There is no reason why

we can’t follow [up] onthat,” Watson said.

“Bowling was somethingwhich really turned thingsaround in the second half.We have got similar bowlersand have added Tymal Mills.So I am excited about whatwe are going to do.

“To be honest it can’t getmuch worse than what wedid last year [in the firsthalf ]. We were so far be-hind. But we learnt a lot as agroup from what reallyhappened. So I am very con-fident that we will hit theground running better thisyear.”

Stern test awaits Watson‘Will miss Kohli and Rahul, but RCB has batting depth’

N. Sudarshan

Bengaluru

All set: RCB’s Shane Watson, who didn’t have a good runwith the bat last year, will hope to make amends this season. * SUDHAKARA JAIN

Virat Kohli and A.B. de Vil-liers are set to join theRoyal Challengers Ban-galore team on Sunday.

Kohli, who sustained ashoulder injury during thethird Test against Australiaand subsequently missedthe final match in Dharam-shala, was advised to un-dergo a rehabilitation pro-gramme by the BCCImedical team and his re-covery will be assessed inthe second week of April.

de Villiers had an injuryscare of his own when hesat out of Friday’s final ofthe Momentum One DayCup — South Africa’s do-mestic 50-over tournament— with a back injury. How-ever, RCB confirmed thatthe injury wasn’t serious.

de Villiers,Kohli to joinRCB todayPrincipal Correspondent

BENGALURU

Seamer Nuwan Kulasekarapicked up four wickets tohelp Sri Lanka register acomfortable 70-run win inthe third and final One-DayInternational againstBangladesh on Saturday andlevel the series 1-1.

Half-centuries from KusalMendis and Thisara Pereratook the host, which lost thefirst ODI in Dambulla, to 280for nine in its 50 overs afterBangladesh won the toss atthe Sinhalese Sports Clubground.

Kulasekara’s double strikeat the start hamperedBangladesh’s chase as it wasreduced to 11 for three andnever recovered before be-ing bundled out for 210 inthe 45th over.

Kulasekara struck twice inhis first two overs to sendback Tamim Iqbal and Sab-bir Rahman while Test cap-tain Mushfiqur Rahim wasout leg before off his first ballto paceman Suranga Lakmal.

All-rounder Shakib AlHasan and opener SoumyaSarkar added a quick-fire 77for the fourth wicket beforethe latter fell to off-spinner

Dilruwan Perera.Shakib made 54 but his

dismissal to Dilruwan effect-ively ended Bangladesh’shopes of a series victory.

Earlier, captain UpulTharanga and DanushkaGunathilaka gave the hometeam a brisk start with anopening partnership of 76before both were dismissedin quick succession.

Mendis, who scored 102 inthe rain-disrupted secondODI, made 54.

Sri Lanka levels series Kulasekara takes four; Mendis, Thisara Perera come good with the bat

Reuters

COLOMBO

Got him: Dinesh Chandimal stumps Soumya Sarkar in the thirdODI on Saturday. * AP

Sri Lanka: D. Gunathilaka cMahmudullah b Mehedi 34, U.Tharanga b Taskin 35, K. Mendisc Mushfiqur b Mustafizur 54, D.Chandimal run out 21, M. Siri-wardana run out 12, A. Gunar-atne c Mahmudullah b Mortaza34, Thisara Perera c Taskin bMortaza 52, S. Prasanna c Mah-mudullah b Mustafizur 1, Dil-ruwan Perera c Tamim bMortaza 15, N. Kulasekara (notout) 1, S. Lakmal (not out) 2, Ex-tras (lb-2, w-17) 19; Total (fornine wkts. in 50 overs): 280.

Fall of wickets: 1-76, 2-87, 3-136, 4-161, 5-194, 6-216, 7-230,8-275, 9-277.

Bangladesh bowling: Mortaza

10-0-65-3, Mustafizur 10-0-55-2, Mehedi 10-1-49-1, Taskin8-1-50-1, Mahmudullah 1-0-5-0, Shakib 8-0-41-0, Mosad-dek 3-0-13-0.

Bangladesh: Tamim Iqbal c & bKulasekara 4, Soumya Sarkar st.Chandimal b D. Perera 38, Sab-bir Rahman c Chandimal b Ku-lasekara 0, Mushfiqur Rahimlbw b Lakmal 0, Shakib AlHasan c Gunathilaka b D. Perera54, Mosaddek Hossain bPrasanna 9, Mahmudullah cChandimal b Lakmal 7, MehediHasan c Tharanga b Kulasekara51, Mashrafe Mortaza c & bPrasanna 16, Taskin Ahmed cGunaratne b Kulasekara 14,

Mustafizur Rahman (not out) 1,Extras (lb-2, w-14): 16; Total (in44.3 overs): 210.

Fall of wicket: 1-4, 2-10, 3-11, 4-88, 5-111, 6-118, 7-127, 8-155,9-209.

Sri Lanka bowling: Kulasekara7.3-0-37-4, Lakmal 8-0-38-2,Dilruwan Perera 10-1-47-2,Thisara Perera 2-0-14-0, Gunar-atne 2-0-16-0, Prasanna 10-1-33-2, Siriwardana 5-1-23-0.

Result: Sri Lanka won by 71runs.

Man-of-the-match: ThisaraPerera.

Man of the series: KusalMendis.

SCOREBOARD SRI LANKA VS BANGLADESH, THIRD AND FINAL ODI

MUMBAI: Mathaiyus, who is ingreat heart, should win the Hy-derabad Race Club Trophy, themain event of Sunday’s (April 2)evening races.Rails will be placed 2 metres widefrom 1400m to 1200m and there-after 4 metres wide upto the win-ning post.

1 R.R. KOMANDUR PLATE

(2,000m), Cl. III, rated 40 to 66– 5.00 p.m.: 1. Flying Dragon (1)C.S. Jodha 59, 2. Glorious Opinion(2) S. Amit 57, 3. Star Of Harmony(3) Trevor 55.5 and 4. Jager Bomb(4) Sandesh 53.STAR OF HARMONY

2 HYDERABAD RACE CLUB

TROPHY (2,000m), Cl. I, rated80 and upward – 5.30: 1. Math-aiyus (2) Trevor 59, 2. Al Sham-sheer (4) Kuldeep 58.5, 3. MekongDelta (1) Sandesh 54.5 and 4.Mountbatten (3) Joseph 52.5.MATHAIYUS

3 BAHRAIN TROPHY (1,000m),3-y-o only – 6.00: 1. Juggernaut

(1) Dashrath 57, 2. Oracle (4) C.S.Jodha 57, 3. Pokerface (7) Neeraj57, 4. Wise Child (2) Sandesh 57,5. God’s Own (8) Bhawani 55.5, 6.Goldie’s Pet (6) Trevor 55.5, 7.Miss Moneypenny (5) J. Chinoy55.5 and 8. Touch Me Not (3) S.Amit 51.5.1. GOLDIE’S PET,

2. WISE CHILD,

3. ORACLE

4 SATINELLO TROPHY

(1,200m), Maiden, 3-y-o only –6.30: 1. Cosa Nostra (9) Roushan55, 2. Fair Warning (6) Neeraj 55,3. Samarjeet (12) Ajinkya 55, 4.Southpaw (5) S. Sunil 55, 5. Aloha(4) Akshay Kumar 53.5, 6. AngelCoin (7) Merchant 53.5, 7. GoldenDestiny (13) Bhawani 53.5, 8.Huzzah’s Grace (14) Pereira 53.5,9. Ie Dancer (2) Trevor 53.5, 10.Lady Sergeant (3) C.S. Jodha 53.5,11. Lilibeth (10) J.Chinoy 53.5, 12.Manzanita (11) Dashrath 53.5, 13.Nexstar (1) Sandesh 53.5 and 14.Walk On By (8) K. Kadam 53.5.1. LADY SERGEANT,

2. ICE DANCER,

3. MANZANITA

5 K.M. MUNSHI TROPHY

(1,000m), Cl. II, rated 60 to 86– 7.00: 1. Nascar (3) Raghuveer 62,2. Gangnam Style (7) Vishal 60.5,3. Valentino (6) Daman 60, 4. In-centio (2) Dashrath 55, 5. HiddenSoul (5) Zeeshan 54.5, 6. Undis-puted (9) Trevor 53, 7. FreeSpeech (1) S. Amit 51.5, 8. MinstrelHeights (8) Sandesh 49 and 9. TheCivilian (4) K.Kadam 49.1. UNDISPUTED,

2. NASCAR,

3. MINSTREL HEIGHTS

6 SWITCH MEDIA TROPHY

(1,400m), Cl. IV, rated 20 to46 – 7.30: 1. Dancing Prince (5)Trevor 60.5, 2. Zoom Zoom (10)Sandesh 59.5, 3. Aeolus Maximus

(7) Dashrath 57.5, 4. GrandeVitesse (4) J. Chinoy 57, 5. Marvel(9) Ajinkya 55, 6. Simona (8) S.J.Sunil 55, 7. Komandant (11) To-grallu 54.5, 8. Rare Silver (14) San-tosh 54, 9. Centaurus (2) Ayyar53.5, 10. Angel Of Love (12) N.Rawal 52.5, 11. Sudarshan Chakra(3) Bhawani 52.5, 12. Bay Of Love(6) Nadeem 51, 13. Master Of Trin-ity (1) Neeraj 51 and 14. RainDance (13) S. Amit 51.1. GRANDE VITESSE, 2. DANCING

PRINCE, 3. MASTER OF TRINITY

7 ROYAL DEEDS PLATE

(1,000m), Cl. V, rated 1 to 26 –8.00: 1. Ainra (8) Sandesh 61.5, 2.Pricelessgirl (13) D.A.Naik 61.5, 3.Prominence (6) Shubham 60.5, 4.Apple Betty (4) Bhawani 59.5, 5.Beyond Forces (12) Merchant59.5, 6. Silver River (1) Nazil 58.5,7. Winds Of Change (7) V. Jodha58, 8. Eternal Dancer (11) S.J. Sunil57, 9. Knight At Arms (10) J.Chinoy 57, 10. Reality (2)Dashrath 55.5, 11. Rising Concert(9) Agarwal 55.5, 12. Horse Power(5) Sandeep 55 and 13. AmazonCat (3) S. Kamble 50.1. WINDS OF CHANGE, 2. AINRA,

3. KNIGHT AT ARMS

Day’s best: MATHAIYUS

Double: LADY SERGEANT – GRAND

VITESSE

Jackpot: 3, 4, 5, 6 & 7.Treble: 5, 6 & 7.Tanala: All races.Super Jackpot: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 & 7.

Mathaiyus favourite

MUMBAI: St. Andrews, ridden byC.S. Jodha, won the MathradasGoculdas Trophy, the featureevent of Saturday’s (April 1) even-ing races. The winner is owned by Mr. &Mrs. Shapoor P. Mistry rep.Manjri Horse Breeders’ Farm PvtLtd & Mr. Dilip Thomas rep. Raja-giri Rubber & Produce Co Ltd.and trained by Bezan Chenoy.

1 P.B. AVASIA PLATE (1,600m),Cl. II, rated 60 to 86: PUGNA-

CIOUS (Neeraj) 1, Jeannine (C.S.Jodha) 2 and Multiglory(Dashrath) 3. 1-1/2, 3/4. 1m40.90s. Rs. 17 (w), SHP: Rs. 18,FP: Rs. 25. Favourite: Pugna-cious. Owners: Mr. Jaydev M.Mody rep. J.M. Livestock Pvt Ltd.,Ms. Vandana Berjis Desai, M/s.Rakesh R. Jhunjhunwala & AshishKiran Kapadia. Trainer: C.D. Kat-rak.

2 MATHRADAS GOCULDAS

TROPHY (1,400m) Cl. I, rated80 and upward: ST. ANDREWS

(C.S. Jodha) 1, Brynhill (Santosh)2, Remember Me (S. Amit) 3 andSuper Sunshine (N. Rawal) 4. 1-3/4, 6-1/2, 5. 1m 25.61s. Rs. 12 (w),10 and 28 (p). SHP: Rs. 20, FP: Rs.19, Q: Rs. 23, Tanala: Rs. 26 andRs. 15. Favourite: St. Andrews.Owners: Mr. & Mrs. Shapoor P.Mistry rep. Manjri Horse Breed-ers’ Farms Pvt Ltd & Mr. DilipThomas rep. Rajagiri Rubber &Produce Co Ltd. Trainer: BezanChenoy.

3 V.R. MENON PLATE (2,000m),Cl. V, rated 1 to 26: FOREST

FIRE (C.S. Jodha) 1, Star Scholar(Trevor) 2. Windhoek (S. Amit) 3and Gold Streak (Nadeem) 4. 1/2,8-1/4, 18. 2m 6.01s. Rs. 21 (w), 15and 15 (p). SHP: Rs. 37, FP: Rs. 38,Q: Rs. 12, Tanala: Rs. 67 and Rs.27. Favourite: Forest Fire. Own-ers: M.A.M. Ramaswamy Chettiarof Chettinad Charitable Trust.Trainer: Karthik G.

4 CAPTAIN G. HALL TROPHY

(1,600m), Cl. IV, rated 20 to46: DROGO ( J. Chinoy) 1, Ventura(S. Kamble) 2, Kiss From A Rose

(A. Gaikwad) 3 and Carnival (Tre-vor) 4. Lnk, 1-1/2, 1/2. 1m 40.36s.Rs. 33 (w), 13, 38 and 26 (p). SHP:Rs. 132, FP: Rs. 628, Q: Rs. 298,Tanala: Rs. 3,372 and Rs. 1,204.Owners: Mr. Jaydev M. Mody rep.J.M. Livestock Pvt Ltd. Trainer:Imtiaz Sait.

5 NANOLI STUD JUVENILE

STAKES (1,400m), 3-y-o only:DAFFODIL (Neeraj) 1, Forest Fairy(C.S. Jodha) 2, Texas Gold ( J.Chinoy) 3 and Daughterofthesun(Trevor) 4. Nk, 1/2, 5-1/4. 1m25.08s. Rs. 27 (w), 14 and 14 (p).SHP: Rs. 27, FP: Rs. 34, Q: Rs. 14,Tanala: Rs. 108 and Rs. 54. Fa-vourite: Forest Fairy. Owners:Mr. Mehernosh H. Deboo, Mr.K.N. Dhunjibhoy rep. Five StarsShipping Co Pvt Ltd., M/s.Rakesh R. Jhunjunwala & BerjisMinoo Desai. Trainer: P. Shroff.

6 RAJCOOMAR GUJADHUR ME-

MORIAL TROPHY (1,400m),Cl. III, rated 40 to 66: SENSEX

(Santosh) 1, Batman (C.S. Jodha)2, Vision Of Romance (N. Rawal)3 and Classicus (Trevor) 4. 1, 1/2,1/2. 1m 24.96s. Rs. 46 (w), 23 and16 (p). SHP: Rs. 40, FP: Rs. 191, Q:Rs. 244, Tanala: Rs. 1,007 and Rs.949. Favourite: Classicus. Own-ers: M/s. Rakesh R. Jhunjunwala& Berjis Minoo Desai. Trainer:Imtiaz Sait.

7 A. GEDDIS PLATE (1,200m),Cl. IV, rated 20 to 46: GREY

FLANNEL (Trevor) 1, Logano (S.Amit) 2, Fabio (S.J. Sunil) 3 andBe Bold (C.S. Jodha) 4. 3/4, 3/4,Snk. 1m 12.19s. Rs. 26 (w), 14, 33and 14 (p). SHP: Rs. 104, FP: Rs.470, Q: Rs. 94, Tanala: Rs. 973and Rs. 483. Favourite: GreyFlannel. Owners: Mr. Jaydev M.Mody rep. J.M. Livestock Pvt Ltd.,M/s. K. Dadachanji & Dallas Tody-walla. Trainer: Dallas Todywalla. Jackpot: 70 per cent: Rs. 4,733(107 tkts.) and 30 per cent: Rs.654 (332 tkts.). Treble: Rs. 525 (41 tkts.). Super Jackpot: 70 per cent: Rs.1,631 (40 tkts.) and 30 per cent:Rs. 254 (110 tkts.).

St. Andrews winsfeature event

The Indian girls lost 2-1 toChinese Taipei in thematch for the ninth placein the Asia-Oceania WorldJunior under-14 tennis tour-nament here on Saturday. The results (9/10 place):Chinese Taipei bt India 2-1(Chia-Yi Tsao bt Gargi Pawar6-4, 6-1; Ya-Yi Yang lost toSarah Dev 4-6, 4-6; Tsao &Yang bt Sarah & SandeeptiSingh Rao 6-3, 6-2). Final pla-cings (top 10): 1. Australia, 2.Korea, 3. China, 4. Thailand, 5.Indonesia, 6. Japan, 7. Philip-pines, 8. Hong Kong, 9.Chinese Taipei, 10. India.

India 10thSports Bureau

Bangkok

The Board of Control forCricket in India (BCCI) hasstated that India skipperVirat Kohli’s availability forthe Indian Premier League(IPL) may be determinednext week.

“The Indian captain willundergo rehabilitation aftersustaining an injury to hisright shoulder. His recoverywill be assessed in thesecond week of April to de-termine an exact return datefor IPL 2017,” said the BCCIstatement, released onSunday.

Kohli hurt his shoulderwhile fielding during India’sthird Test against Australiain Ranchi last month andhad to pull out of the decid-ing rubber in Dharamshala.After the fourth Test’s con-clusion, Kohli had said he isstill “a few weeks” awayfrom recovering fully.

Royal Challengers Ban-galore (RCB) has been hop-ing for Kohli’s return at theearliest. However, accordingto a team insider, the fran-chise is not expecting Kohlito take the field for the firstfortnight of the tournament.

While making it officialthat R. Ashwin will miss theIPL, the BCCI release con-firmed openers K.L. Rahuland M. Vijay will have to gothrough surgeries for theirshoulder and wrist injuriesrespectively.

“Vijay will require surgeryto his right wrist and also

undergo rehabilitation forhis left shoulder and hence

may not be able to parti-cipate in this edition.”

Kohli’s availability tobe known next weekVijay to undergo wrist surgery, may miss IPL

Amol Karhadkar

MUMBAI

P. Iniyan, a 14-year oldchess player from Erode,has claimed the Interna-tional Master title after hewon against five Grand-masters and one IM, anddrew with six GMs andthree IMs across three tour-naments — The BarberaOpen and the Lorca Openin Spain in 2016, and theMontebelluna Interna-tional GMs tournament inItaly in January this year.

Iniyan is a ninth gradestudent at Indian PS,Erode. K. Visweswaran ishis coach and OlirumErodu Foundation is hisprincipal sponsor.

Iniyan winsIM titleSports Reporter

Chennai

Leander Paes and AdilShamasdin of Canadamade the doubles finalwith a 6-7(1), 6-4, [10-5] vic-tory over Luke Saville andJohn-Patrick Smith of Aus-tralia in the $75,000 Chal-lenger tennis tournamenthere on Friday.

In the final, the third-seeded pair will play LucaMargaroli of Switzerland &Joao Souza of Brazil.

In the ITF men’s Futuresdoubles final in Jakarta,Karunuday Singh andPirmin Haenle of Germanylost to Justin Barki andChristopher Rungkat of In-donesia 6-3, 7-6(1).

Paes-Adilduo in inalSports Bureau

Leon (Mexico)

JSC beats KSPBENGALURU: JSC defeatedKSP 65-43 in the State Adivision basketballchampionship for menhere.The results: JSC 65 (Varun 14,Minhal 13) bt KSP 43 (Raksha16, Ganesh 14); ASC 50 (IssacThomas 16) bt Young Orions25 (Vaishak 9).Summer camps

Roots Football School willconduct a summer footballcamp at variouscentres in the city, fromMonday onwards. The

locations are Hennur,Jayamahal, Jayanagar,Koramangala andWhitefield. For registrationdetails, call 080-39658080.Basavanagudi Cricket

Academy will conduct asummer camp atChennammanakere ground(Kattrigupe), from Sundayonwards. Forregistration details, call94496 38501 or 9620266185.A cricket summer camp(boys and girls) will be heldat Deens Academy

(Whitefield), from Mondayto 19 May. Call91480 22200 or 9148033300.Kanara Blues Cricket

Academy will conduct asummer cricket camp atCorporation Ground (BTM2nd stage), from Sundayonwards. Call P.V. Shashikanth (9845002366).Imtiaz Ahmed Cricket

Academy will hold asummer cricket camp at St.John’s ground. call9886971111.

CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC

\ KARNATAKA ROUND-UP \

The Goa government, withthe upcoming FIFA under-17World Cup in mind, formeda high-level steering com-mittee on Saturday to hastendecision-making in settingup infrastructure for theevent.

Dharmendra Sharma,chief secretary, will chair thesteering committee. Theother key members of the

committee are Secretary(Sports), Director, Director-ate of Sports and Youth Af-fairs, Executive Director,Sports Authority of Goa,Secretary (Protocol), amongothers.

The committee has beenformed “to provide the re-quired executive decision-making from the State Gov-ernment to meet all the re-quirements and obligations

of being a host city forthe FIFA u-17 WorldCup,” a governmentspokesperson said hereon Saturday.

Goa is expected tohost nine matches, in-cluding a quarterfinalwhich will be hosted atthe Jawaharlal Nehrustadium in Fatorda. Thetournament is sched-uled to begin on Oct. 6.

Prakash Kamat

PANAJI

U-17 WC: steering committee formed

CMYK

A BG-BGMY


THE HINDU BENGALURU


SPORT

P.V. Sindhu is clearly riding ahigh. Within 24 hours of tam-ing Saina Nehwal, theOlympic silver-medallistbattled for 76 minutes to up-set second seed Sung Ji Hyunand set up a title clash withSpaniard Carolina Marin inthe Yonex Indian Open bad-minton — a repeat of the RioOlympic Games final.

A noisy Saturday crowd atthe Siri Fort Complex playedits part and backed the thirdseeded Indian all the way toa 21-18, 14-21, 21-14 triumphover Sung, considered themost consistent top-10 playerin the world.

Sindhu needed a secondwind even after leading 11-4at the mid-game interval ofthe decider. Sung, returningto the court from where shewon the second game,quickly made it 10-12 andSindhu, for once, was clearlyworried.

Sindhu, however, got heract together during this mostcrucial phase of the match.She returned to attackingways, showed that she wasready to rally, and moved herrival around. By winning thepoints in a variety of ways,she soon enlarged her leadand completed an emphaticvictory.

In terms of statistics, thiswas Sindhu’s seventh victoryover Sung in 11 meetings andfourth in the last six clashessince January 2016. The lasttime the two met, Sung pre-vailed in the 2016 DubaiWorld Super Series Finals.

“With Sung, it is alwaysclose and I came preparedfor it. She is a rally-playerand that’s why there were

hardly any easy points dur-ing the contest,” said Sindhu,reflecting on the victory.

“Even though I was aheadin the decider, I was not sureabout winning easily. Sungcan bounce back from anystage. Last time (in Dubai), Ihad a lead in the decider andlost at 21-19. So I never took iteasy at any point.”

Looking ahead to the finalagainst Carolina, Sindhusaid, “we are very goodfriends. She is a very niceperson. But on the court, it

was will be tough battle. Ihope the crowd supports me[on Sunday] though I heardmany supporting Carolinaduring her semifinals.”

When asked who waslikely to win their ‘screamingbattle’ in the final, Sindhulaughed and said, “I think, Iam the one who is going toscream more.”

Earlier, the men’s singlesfinal line-up was ready with

third seeded Dane VictorAxelsen and Chinese Taipei’sChou Tien Chen, seededseven, making the grade.

The results (semifinals): Men: 3-

Victor Axelsen (Den) bt Ng Ka Long

Angus (Hkg) 21-12, 21-13; 7-Chou

Tien Chen (Tpe) bt Anders Antonsen

(Den) 21-17, 21-14. Doubles: 6-

Ricky Karandasuwardi and Angga

Pratama (Ina) bt Li Junhui and Liu

Yuchen (Chn) 21-16, 13-21, 21-

16; 4-Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and

Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo (Ina) bt 7-

Mads Conrad-Petersen and Mads

Pieler Kolding (Den) 21-14, 18-21,

21-9. Women: 1-Carolina Marin

(Esp) bt 4-Akane Yamaguchi (Jpn)

21-16, 21-14; 3-P.V. Sindhu bt 2-

Sung Ji Hyun (Kor) 21-18, 14-21,

21-14. Doubles: 7-Shijo Tanaka and

Koharu Yonemoto (Jpn) bt Jung Ky-

ung Eun and Shin Seung Chan (Kor)

21-16, 19-21, 24-22; 3-Naoko

Fukuman and Kurumi Yonao (Jpn)

bt Yuku Fukushima and Sayaka

Hirota (Jpn) 21-16, 21-13.

Mixed doubles: 1-Zheng Siwei

and Chen Qingchen (Chn) w/o Peng

Soon Chan and Liu Ying Goh (Mal);

2-Lu Kai and Huang Yaqiong (Chn)

bt Chris Adcock and Gabrielle Adcock(Eng) 21-13, 21-13.

Sindhu lines up mouth-watering inaleUpsets Sung Ji Hyun to set up a clash with Carolina Marin

RAKESH RAO

NEW DELHI

Stretched: P.V. Sindhu had to dig deep and needed a second wind to get past Sung Ji Hyun. * SANDEEP SAXENA

INDIA OPEN

Pique grabs headlines againBARCELONA

Gerard Pique grabbed the

headlines again as he

launched a fresh dig at rival

Real Madrid, saying he didn’t

like Madrid’s “values.” The

centre-back evoked tax fraud

cases against Barcelona

teammates Neymar and

Lionel Messi and claimed that

Real had “pulled strings” to

avoid punishment for their

players in similar

circumstances. Pique will be

rested for Granada’s game on

Sunday as a booking would

rule him out of Sevilla’s visit

to the Camp Nou on

Wednesday.AFP

IN BRIEF

Jepkosgei smashes half-marathon recordPRAGUE

Kenya’s Joyciline Jepkosgei

broke the World record for

the women’s half marathon

on Saturday here, becoming

the first woman to beat the

1hr 5min mark. Jepkosgei’s

scorching time of 1hr 4min

52sec smashed the previous

record set by compatriot

Peres Jepchirchir in Dubai in

February by 14 seconds.

Jepkosgei beat compatriots

Violah Jepchumba by 30

seconds and Fancy Chemutai

by more than two minutes.AFP

Sony Norde, showed nosigns of jet lag, as heemerged the chief architectof Mohun Bagan’s com-manding 3-0 win over de-fending championBengaluru FC in its home en-gagement of the Hero I-League here on Saturday.

While Norde assisted inall three goals, Bagan cap-tain Katsumi Yusa exhibitedhis great rapport with hisHaitian companion to scorea brace and ensure his side’sseventh win in 13 matchesand remain on course forthe title .

Norde showcased his ma-gic by beating two defenders

in the fifth minut, but hisshot from a narrow anglewas blocked by BFC’s goal-keeper Amrinder Singh.

Norde helped Bagan takethe lead in the 14th minute.Yusa used Norde’s pass toshoot a grounder from theedge of the box to beatBengaluru custodian Am-rinder Singh.

BFC remained busy de-fending.

Playing without Sunil Ch-hetri, it initiated a fewmoves which were foiled bythe Bagan back-line, com-prising Raju Gaekwad, AnasEdathodika and BrazillianEduardo Fereira.

Bagan’s persistencehelped it double the lead in

the 25th minute.

Norde curled a free-kickfrom about 35 yards andDuffy, who was camouflagedbetween two white-and-blueshirts, headed it in as thecrowd celebrated.

On resumption, Baganscored its third goal thanksto the Japanese-Haitian duo.

Norde ran solo for about50 yards, crossed the fieldand relayed it to Yusa on theright and the latter un-leashed another angledgrounder to beat Nishu Ku-mar and Amrinder in the53rd minute.

The result: Mohun Bagan 3(Katsumi Yusa 14, 53, DarylDuffy 25) bt Bengaluru FC 0.

Bagan rides on Yusa’s brace

Y.B. Sarangi

Kolkata

Blanks BFC 3-0 to remain on course for the I-League title

Badminton: India Open, StarSports 2 & HD 2, 2 p.m.

TV PICKS

Aditi Ashok played bril-liantly in the 10 holes shegot to play in the secondround before darkness des-cended at the ANA Inspira-tion, the year’s first Majorfor women.

Aditi, who was par for thefirst round, was four-underthrough 10 holes andzoomed from tied 51st at theend of the first round to pro-visional tied 13th when playended.

Suzann Pettersen heldthe early lead on day two,returning to the course incalmer conditions and post-ing a four-under 68 in themorning. In the afternoon,she had a three-under 69 to

lead by a stroke atseven-under.

Aditi, playing in only hersecond Major after missingthe cut on her debut at theBritish Open last year, bird-ied the second, fourth,eighth and ninth holes. Shehad was on par at the 10thwhen play was stopped.

Aditi was on song, findingsix of the eight fairways.Even on a windy openingday, she had found 10 of the14 fairways.

Pettersen has seventop-10 finishes at MissionHills, including three run-ner-up finishes.

Minjee Lee, Nelly Korda,Inbee Park, Cristie Kerr,Karine Icher and MichelleWie were a stroke behindPettersen at six-under.

Suzann Pettersen in the van

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Rancho Mirage (California)

Favourite course: Suzann Pettersen, who has had seventop-10 inishes at Mission Hills, emerged the early leader. * AP

Aditi shinesbefore bad lightends play

Chelsea’s march towards thePremier League title wasstalled as goals from WilfriedZaha and Christian Bentekeearned Crystal Palace ashock 2-1 victory at StamfordBridge on Saturday.

Defeat ended Chelsea’srun of 13 successive homewins and enabled second-place Tottenham Hotspur tocut its lead to seven pointswith nine games remaining.

Antonio Conte’s side hadtaken the lead through CescFabregas’s fifth-minute ef-fort, but the visitors hit backfirst through the outstandingZaha, four minutes later, andthen Benteke.

At Anfield, PhilippeCoutinho starred as Liver-pool responded to Everton’sthreat to its ChampionsLeague aspirations with acommanding 3-1 victory inthe 228th Merseyside derby.

Spectacular first-halfstrikes from Sadio Mane andCoutinho kept JurgenKlopp’s men on course for atop-four finish, either side ofEverton defender MatthewPennington’s first PremierLeague goal.

Divock Origi added a thirdmid-way through the secondhalf just three minutes afterreplacing the injured Mane.

For Everton, it was a grimextension of its miserable re-cord at Anfield, where it lastwon in 1999, while Liverpoolcompleted a first double ofderby wins since 2010-11.

Everton came into thematch in good form, withjust one defeat in 12 league

matches since Mane’s 97th-minute goal secured Liver-pool a 1-0 win in December’sreverse fixture at GoodisonPark.

Victory for Everton at An-field would have reducedthe gap between the side tojust three points — downfrom 14 at Christmas — butthat never looked likely.Mane opened the scoringjust eight minutes in with aspecial goal.

He spun neatly around hisSenegal teammate IdrissaGueye’s slide challenge onthe halfway line, played aneat one-two with RobertoFirmino and then carriedthe ball across the Evertonpenalty area on a diagonalrun.

The results: Premier League:Liverpool 3 (Mane 8, Coutinho31, Origi 60) bt Everton 1 (Pen-nington 28); Burnley 0 lost toTottenham 2 (Dier 66, Son 77);Chelsea 1 (Fabregas 5) lost toCrystal Palace 2 (Zaha 9, Ben-teke 11); Hull 2 (Robertson 53,Ranocchia 85) bt West Ham 1

Carroll 18); Leicester 2 (Ndidi25, Vardy 47) bt Stoke 0;Manchester United 0 drew withWest Brom 0; Watford 1 (Britos59) bt Sunderland 0.

La Liga: Villarreal 2 (Soriano 18,89) lost to Eibar 3 (Pedro Leon48-pen, Kike 54, Inui 77); Os-asuna 1 (Sergio Leon 79) lost toAthletic Club 2 (Aduriz 11, Willi-ams 44).

Bundesliga: Bayern Munich 6(Lewandowski 17, 55, 79, Muller36, 80, Thiago 62) bt Augsburg0; Schalke 1 (Kehrer 77) drewwith Borussia Dortmund 1 (Au-bameyang 53); Hamburg 2(Muller 13, Holtby 90+2) bt Co-logne 1 (Jojic 25); Freiburg 2(Petersen 65, Grifo 77) lost toWerder Bremen 5 (Kruse 21,Delaney 45+2, 47, 86, Bartels71); RB Leipzig 4 (Keita 12, 80,Forsberg 67, Orban 79) btDarmstadt 0.

On Friday: Bundesliga: HerthaBerlin 1 (Pekarik 32) lost to Hof-fenheim 3 (Kramaric 39-pen,87, Suele 76).

La Liga: Espanyol 2 (Fuego 88,Reyes 90) bt Real Betis 1(Ruben Castro 78-pen).

Crystal Palace stuns ChelseaCoutinho stars in Merseyside derby winAgence France-Presse

London

On cloud nine: Liverpool’s Philippe Coutinho celebrates thegoal against Everton. * AP

CMYK

A BG-BGMYCMYK

A BG-BGMY

BENGALURU THE HINDU


ED cracks down on 300 shell irms - Current Affairs ONLY

Documents

Transcript of ED cracks down on 300 shell irms - Current Affairs ONLY