ER]\d `_ Sfe 4`_X dfcV `W DV_R 8`ge - Daily Pioneer

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I n a clear indication of join- ing hands with the Shiv Sena, leaders of the Congress and the NCP on Wednesday expressed confidence of forming a “sta- ble” Government in Maharashtra soon. After a marathon meeting of senior leaders of the two par- ties at NCP supremo Sharad Pawar’s residence here, former Maharashtra Chief Minister and Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan said the alliance is hopeful of ending the spell of political uncertainty in the State and working to provide a stable Government. However, Chavan’s confi- dence has not ended the sus- pense over the formation of a Government in Maharashtra, currently under President Rule, for two reasons: The ongoing NCP-Cong talks are inconclu- sive, and second, the hour-long meeting between Pawar and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has further raised curiousity about what transpired during the discussion. Pawar, who later took to social media to announce his meeting, claimed his meeting with the Prime Minister was about farmers’ distress in Maharashtra. However, there were few takers for Pawar’s emphatic denial of any politi- cal discussion during his meet- ing with Modi. “Due to President Rule in the State, your urgent inter- vention is highly necessitated. I shall be grateful if you could take immediate steps to initi- ate massive relief measures to ameliorate distressed farmers,” the three-page memorandum given by Pawar to Modi said. Asked by reporters about the Government formation in Maharashtra, the NCP chief declined to comment. The Pawar-Modi meeting, which went on for 50 minutes, took place against the backdrop of hectic parleys between the Congress-NCP and the Shiv Sena to form a Government in Maharashtra. Two days ago, Modi had praised NCP MPs for maintaining the decorum in Parliament by not entering the Well of the House during pro- ceedings. The NCP and the Congress leaders met in the evening at Pawar’s residence in Delhi to discuss how to partner with the Shiv Sena, the long-term BJP ally which recently ended its alliance with the ruling party over a power tussle in Maharashtra. Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut exuded confidence that a Government led by his party will be in place by next month in Maharashtra. “We are inch- ing towards the Government formation. The picture will become clear in the next two days and a popular Government led by the Shiv Sena will be in place by December,” he told reporters. The Shiv Sena has called a meeting of its MLAs and senior leaders on November 22 in Mumbai, a party leader said. O n the lines of Assam, National Register for Citizens (NRC) exercise will be carried out across the country soon, Home Minister Amit Shah said here on Wednesday, assuring that no one should be worried as it is just a process of getting everyone under the NRC, irrespective of their reli- gion. He also underscored the point that there is no need for people from any religion to be worried about it. Speaking in the Rajya Sabha, Shah said the NRC has no such provision that says that certain religions will be exclud- ed from it. “All citizens of India irrespective of religion will figure in the NRC list. The NRC is different from the Citizenship Amendment Bill,” Shah said. “The Assam exercise was carried out under a Supreme Court order. NRC will be car- ried out across the country, will be done in Assam again, no one from any religion should be worried,” he said. Some BJP- ruled States like Uttarakhand, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand — have already announced that they will conduct Assam-like NRC exercise in their States. In the NRC final list published on August 31, over 19 lakh people were left out of the citizenship register in Assam. Most of the people who have not produced adequate documents to prove their claims will not be declared ille- gal immediately, according to officials in the Government. They have the option of appeal- ing to Foreigners’ Tribunals and subsequently approach the court. Shah said people whose names are missing from the draft list have the right to go to tribunals, which will be con- stituted across Assam. He added that those who can’t afford lawyers to go to a tri- bunal will be provided financial help by the Assam Government. The Modi Government plans to amend the Citizenship Act in the ongoing Winter Session of Parliament. The Citizenship Amendment Bill speeds up the process under which non-Muslims from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan can get Indian citizenship. On the controversial Citizenship Amendment Bill, which seeks to provide citi- zenship status to non-Muslims refugees, the Home Minister said that the Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Jain, Christian, Parsi refugees should get Indian cit- izenship. “All refugees coming from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan on account of reli- gious atrocities there will get citizenship (in India) under the Bill,” he said. The Home Minister said the NRC and the Citizenship Amendment Bill 2016, which lapsed on June 3, 2019, are two different issues and both should not be seen through one prism. He said the Lok Sabha had passed the Bill and the select committee had approved it, but the Lok Sabha had lapsed. “Now it will come again. It has no connection with the NRC,” he said. There has been opposi- tion from various political par- ties to the Citizenship Amendment Bill. There have been protests across the Northeastern States over the Government’s plan to table the Bill. In Assam, protesters have argued that the Citizenship Amendment Bill goes against the provisions of the Assam Accord that seek to safeguard the interests of indigenous peo- ple. There were protests and marches on Monday across seven States in the North-East against the proposed legislation. A sserting that normalcy has returned to the Kashmir Valley following the abrogation of Article 370 on August 5, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday said the situation is completely nor- mal and not a single civilian was killed in police firing in the Jammu & Kashmir. However, the detention of politicians and the blockade of the inter- net and social media were con- tinuing because of security concerns. Shah reiterated that schools, colleges, offices, shops and markets are open. Presenting the status report on Kashmir in the Rajya Sabha, the Home Minister said there is no shortage of medicine, food and fuel and the law and order situation is extremely normal. “People in this House were predicting bloodshed but I am happy to inform that no one has died in police firing,” Shah said. Replying to a question from Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad on the restoration of internet services, the Home Minister said that facilities will be restored at an appropriate time by the author- ities there. “As we all know our neighbouring country (Pakistan) is carrying out var- ious covert activities there, and only after taking into consid- eration the law and order, a decision in this regard can be taken,” Shah said. Azad challenged the logic cited by Shah and remarked that Pakistan has been India’s neighbour since 1947, since when India has also fought wars against it. If this were the case, Azad said, then internet would never be restored in the Valley. This led to a war of words between both sides. G autam Buddha Nagar police on Wednesday arrested five home guard offi- cials, including a divisional commandant posted in Aligarh, for their alleged role in the fraudulent withdrawal of salaries of scores of the force’s personnel. The police action has come within 24-hour dead- line set by UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. Their arrest came a day after muster rolls (attendance logs) of all home guard per- sonnel were found burnt in a box inside the Gautam Buddh Nagar district home guard commandant’s office in Greater Noida. The attendance logs of all personnel since 2014 in the dis- trict were found gutted in the fire amid an investigation into the alleged salary fraud, prompting Yogi to intervene. Gautam Buddh Nagar Senior Superintendent of Police Vaibhav Krishna said five offi- cials have been held for their suspected role in the fraudulent withdrawal of salaries. “Home Guards’ present Divisional Commandant, Aligarh, Ram Narayan Chaurasia (42), Assistant District Commandant Satish Chandra (35), and Platoon commanders Montu Kumar (32), Satveer Yadav (38) and Shailendra Kumar (30) have been arrested in the salary scam case,” Krishna said. Chaurasia is the master- mind of the alleged scam which he initiated since his appoint- ment as District Home Guard commandant in Gautam Buddh Nagar in 2017 until he got promoted and transferred in 2019, the SSP said. “While Chaurasia was picked up for questioning from Aligarh, the others deployed locally were called in for ques- tioning over the matter and arrested on Wednesday after- noon,” Krishna told PTI. The police also suspects their role in the fire at the com- mandant office in which per- sonnel’s attendance logs got burnt, but said they are not named as accused in the case as yet as a separate probe is underway. A n attempt by six people to abduct a 30-year-old man went awry when the assailants, fleeing in a car, were first caught in heavy traffic on the Noida- Delhi road and then their vehi- cle broke down, police said on Wednesday. The victim identified as Sachin Pathak, alias Chini, escaped from the clutches of the kidnappers when they got down from their Honda City to stop a random Maruti WagonR to flee the spot, officials said. Six people, including the four who were in the car, were arrested on Tuesday on charges of kidnapping, robbery, among others, said Neeraj Malik, Station House Officer (SHO) of Noida Sector-39 Police Station. The accused have been identified as Mustaqeem (23), Mohit Awana (24), Deepak (22) and Gaurav (22), Balendra (32) and Raheesh (24), all residents of Noida. Mustaqeem, Mohit, Deepak and Gaurav were arrest- ed from Yamuna Pusta Road while they were travelling with illegal firearms and ammunition in a stolen car, said the SHO. Based on information received from them, Balendra and Raheesh were also arrested for their role in the conspiracy, he said. “On Monday, Sachin, a native of Uttrakhand and cur- rently living in Noida, was abducted from Okhla Bird Sanctuary Metro Station by the assailants. They sped towards Kalindi Kunj in Delhi but were met with heavy traffic on the route. The assailants then decid- ed to take a U-turn and drove in the wrong lane for some dis- tance. “Later their car had a flat tyre near Sector 94 ‘gaushala’ and they got down to stop an oncoming WagonR but at this moment, Sachin fled from the Honda City and jumped across into the ‘gaushaala’ to escape the assailants,” the official said. On Tuesday, a complaint was registered at the Sector 39 police station after which an FIR was registered and investigation taken up, the official added. During probe, it emerged that the assailants and Sachin had a dispute over the leader- ship of a tempo union operat- ing from Sector 94 metro station after which the conspiracy was hatched. Sachin was recently elected as Pradhan of tempo union at Sector 94 metro station in Noida. Based on information received from them, two more accused — Balendra (32) and Raheesh (24), were also arrest- ed for their role in the conspir- acy, the police said. New Delhi: Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Wednesday wrote a letter to Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu saying that moving him to the 5th row is an attempt to humil- iate him and the party. B arely 24 hours after launch- ing a broadside against the BJP and the All India Majlis- e-Ittehadul Muslimeen chief Asaduddin Owaisi for con- spiring to dislodge Trinamool Congress from Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee once again asked the people to remain cautious against “nefar- ious designs” being hatched by these parties. Addressing a huge crowd in Murshidabad, Mamata said her party would not allow the implementation of National Register for Citizens in Bengal as long as she was the Chief Minister of the State. On the day Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced a country-wide NRC, Assam Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma too said the State Government has requested the Centre to reject the final updated NRC in the State. “Till I am there no one can take away your citizenship and no one can throw you out of India which is your own country,” Mamata told a large gathering. “Some people are crying hoarse about NRC but let me tell you that there will be no NRC in Bengal,” Mamata said, adding how “not even the Hindus were spared in Assam where they have thrown out 19 lakh people from the citizenship list out, of which 14 lakh are Hindus.” All these people were now being kept in detention camps, she alleged. “They are now in jails in Assam. But I will not let that happen in Bengal. There will be no NRC here,” she added. Targeting the “dirty alliance” between the BJP and AIMIM, Mamata said, “Money, men and ideas are being imported from outside and you will have to remain cautious against efforts to divide the State.” Alleging that the AIMIM was a “paid agent of the BJP” which was pouring money in Bengal to divide the people, Mamata said, “They are the biggest allies. They are coming with bags full of money from Hyderabad as your sympa- thisers but their aim is to divide you,” to help the BJP come to power in the State. Apparently telling the Muslims not to trust leaders visiting from outside and only repose faith on local leaders she said, “No one will fight for the cause of the people of the people of Bengal other than those who are from this State … don’t trust outsiders who are posing as your friends and coming with money bags.” S ri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Wednesday named his elder brother and former strong- man Mahinda Rajapaksa as the new Prime Minister after incumbent Ranil Wickremesinghe announced his resignation from the post following the election debacle. Mahinda, the main oppo- sition leader, will be appointed as Prime Minister after incum- bent Wickremesinghe steps down formally on Thursday, his spokesman Rohan Weliwita was quoted as saying by Times Online. The former President, who will function as Prime Minister of the caretaker cabinet until the general election, is expect- ed to be sworn in at 1 pm before assuming office at around 3 pm, it added. Mahinda was appointed the PM on October 26, 2018 by the then President Maithripala Sirisena, who sacked Wickremesinghe in a contro- versial move that plunged the country into an unprecedent- ed constitutional crisis. Detailed report on P12 RNI Regn. No. MPENG/2004/13703, Regd. No. L-2/BPLON/41/2006-2008

Transcript of ER]\d `_ Sfe 4`_X dfcV `W DV_R 8`ge - Daily Pioneer

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In a clear indication of join-ing hands with the Shiv Sena,

leaders of the Congress and theNCP on Wednesday expressedconfidence of forming a “sta-ble” Government inMaharashtra soon.

After a marathon meetingof senior leaders of the two par-ties at NCP supremo SharadPawar’s residence here, formerMaharashtra Chief Ministerand Congress leader PrithvirajChavan said the alliance ishopeful of ending the spell ofpolitical uncertainty in theState and working to provide astable Government.

However, Chavan’s confi-dence has not ended the sus-pense over the formation of aGovernment in Maharashtra,currently under President Rule,for two reasons: The ongoingNCP-Cong talks are inconclu-sive, and second, the hour-longmeeting between Pawar andPrime Minister Narendra Modihas further raised curiousityabout what transpired duringthe discussion.

Pawar, who later took tosocial media to announce hismeeting, claimed his meetingwith the Prime Minister wasabout farmers’ distress inMaharashtra. However, therewere few takers for Pawar’semphatic denial of any politi-cal discussion during his meet-ing with Modi.

“Due to President Rule inthe State, your urgent inter-vention is highly necessitated.I shall be grateful if you couldtake immediate steps to initi-ate massive relief measures toameliorate distressed farmers,”the three-page memorandumgiven by Pawar to Modi said.

Asked by reporters aboutthe Government formation inMaharashtra, the NCP chiefdeclined to comment. ThePawar-Modi meeting, whichwent on for 50 minutes, tookplace against the backdrop ofhectic parleys between theCongress-NCP and the ShivSena to form a Government inMaharashtra. Two days ago,Modi had praised NCP MPs for

maintaining the decorum inParliament by not entering theWell of the House during pro-ceedings.

The NCP and the Congressleaders met in the evening atPawar’s residence in Delhi todiscuss how to partner with theShiv Sena, the long-term BJPally which recently ended itsalliance with the ruling partyover a power tussle inMaharashtra.

Shiv Sena leader SanjayRaut exuded confidence that aGovernment led by his partywill be in place by next monthin Maharashtra. “We are inch-ing towards the Governmentformation. The picture willbecome clear in the next two

days and a popularGovernment led by the ShivSena will be in place byDecember,” he told reporters.

The Shiv Sena has called ameeting of its MLAs and seniorleaders on November 22 inMumbai, a party leader said.

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On the lines of Assam,National Register for

Citizens (NRC) exercise will becarried out across the countrysoon, Home Minister AmitShah said here on Wednesday,assuring that no one should beworried as it is just a process ofgetting everyone under theNRC, irrespective of their reli-gion. He also underscored thepoint that there is no need forpeople from any religion to beworried about it.

Speaking in the RajyaSabha, Shah said the NRC hasno such provision that says thatcertain religions will be exclud-ed from it. “All citizens ofIndia irrespective of religionwill figure in the NRC list. TheNRC is different from theCitizenship Amendment Bill,”Shah said.

“The Assam exercise wascarried out under a SupremeCourt order. NRC will be car-ried out across the country, willbe done in Assam again, no onefrom any religion should beworried,” he said. Some BJP-ruled States — likeUttarakhand, Haryana, UttarPradesh, Jharkhand — havealready announced that theywill conduct Assam-like NRCexercise in their States. In theNRC final list published onAugust 31, over 19 lakh peoplewere left out of the citizenshipregister in Assam.

Most of the people whohave not produced adequatedocuments to prove theirclaims will not be declared ille-gal immediately, according to

officials in the Government.They have the option of appeal-ing to Foreigners’ Tribunals andsubsequently approach thecourt.

Shah said people whosenames are missing from thedraft list have the right to go totribunals, which will be con-stituted across Assam. Headded that those who can’tafford lawyers to go to a tri-bunal will be provided financialhelp by the AssamGovernment.

The Modi Governmentplans to amend the CitizenshipAct in the ongoing WinterSession of Parliament. TheCitizenship Amendment Billspeeds up the process underwhich non-Muslims fromBangladesh, Pakistan andAfghanistan can get Indiancitizenship.

On the controversialCitizenship Amendment Bill,which seeks to provide citi-zenship status to non-Muslimsrefugees, the Home Ministersaid that the Hindu, Buddhist,Sikh, Jain, Christian, Parsirefugees should get Indian cit-izenship. “All refugees comingfrom Bangladesh, Pakistan andAfghanistan on account of reli-

gious atrocities there will getcitizenship (in India) under theBill,” he said.

The Home Minister saidthe NRC and the CitizenshipAmendment Bill 2016, whichlapsed on June 3, 2019, are twodifferent issues and both shouldnot be seen through one prism.He said the Lok Sabha hadpassed the Bill and the selectcommittee had approved it, butthe Lok Sabha had lapsed.“Now it will come again. It hasno connection with the NRC,”he said.

There has been opposi-tion from various political par-ties to the CitizenshipAmendment Bill. There havebeen protests across theNortheastern States over theGovernment’s plan to table theBill. In Assam, protesters haveargued that the CitizenshipAmendment Bill goes againstthe provisions of the AssamAccord that seek to safeguardthe interests of indigenous peo-ple. There were protests andmarches on Monday acrossseven States in the North-Eastagainst the proposed legislation.

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Asserting that normalcy hasreturned to the Kashmir

Valley following the abrogationof Article 370 on August 5,Union Home Minister AmitShah on Wednesday said thesituation is completely nor-mal and not a single civilianwas killed in police firing in theJammu & Kashmir. However,the detention of politiciansand the blockade of the inter-net and social media were con-tinuing because of securityconcerns. Shah reiterated thatschools, colleges, offices, shopsand markets are open.

Presenting the status reporton Kashmir in the Rajya Sabha,the Home Minister said thereis no shortage of medicine,food and fuel and the law andorder situation is extremelynormal. “People in this Housewere predicting bloodshed butI am happy to inform that no

one has died in police firing,”Shah said.

Replying to a questionfrom Leader of the OppositionGhulam Nabi Azad on therestoration of internet services,the Home Minister said thatfacilities will be restored at anappropriate time by the author-ities there. “As we all know ourneighbouring country(Pakistan) is carrying out var-ious covert activities there, andonly after taking into consid-

eration the law and order, adecision in this regard can betaken,” Shah said.

Azad challenged the logiccited by Shah and remarkedthat Pakistan has been India’sneighbour since 1947, sincewhen India has also foughtwars against it.

If this were the case, Azadsaid, then internet would neverbe restored in the Valley. Thisled to a war of words betweenboth sides.

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Gautam Buddha Nagarpolice on Wednesday

arrested five home guard offi-cials, including a divisionalcommandant posted inAligarh, for their alleged role inthe fraudulent withdrawal ofsalaries of scores of the force’spersonnel. The police actionhas come within 24-hour dead-line set by UP Chief MinisterYogi Adityanath.

Their arrest came a dayafter muster rolls (attendancelogs) of all home guard per-sonnel were found burnt in abox inside the Gautam BuddhNagar district home guardcommandant’s office in GreaterNoida.

The attendance logs of allpersonnel since 2014 in the dis-trict were found gutted in thefire amid an investigation intothe alleged salary fraud,prompting Yogi to intervene.

Gautam Buddh NagarSenior Superintendent of PoliceVaibhav Krishna said five offi-cials have been held for theirsuspected role in the fraudulentwithdrawal of salaries.

“Home Guards’ presentDivisional Commandant,Aligarh, Ram NarayanChaurasia (42), AssistantDistrict Commandant SatishChandra (35), and Platooncommanders Montu Kumar(32), Satveer Yadav (38) andShailendra Kumar (30) havebeen arrested in the salaryscam case,” Krishna said.

Chaurasia is the master-mind of the alleged scam whichhe initiated since his appoint-ment as District Home Guardcommandant in GautamBuddh Nagar in 2017 until hegot promoted and transferredin 2019, the SSP said.

“While Chaurasia waspicked up for questioning fromAligarh, the others deployedlocally were called in for ques-tioning over the matter andarrested on Wednesday after-noon,” Krishna told PTI.

The police also suspectstheir role in the fire at the com-mandant office in which per-sonnel’s attendance logs gotburnt, but said they are notnamed as accused in the caseas yet as a separate probe isunderway.

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An attempt by six people toabduct a 30-year-old man

went awry when the assailants,fleeing in a car, were first caughtin heavy traffic on the Noida-Delhi road and then their vehi-cle broke down, police said onWednesday.

The victim identified asSachin Pathak, alias Chini,escaped from the clutches of thekidnappers when they got downfrom their Honda City to stopa random Maruti WagonR toflee the spot, officials said.

Six people, including thefour who were in the car, werearrested on Tuesday on chargesof kidnapping, robbery, amongothers, said Neeraj Malik,Station House Officer (SHO) ofNoida Sector-39 Police Station.

The accused have beenidentified as Mustaqeem (23),Mohit Awana (24), Deepak (22)

and Gaurav (22), Balendra (32)and Raheesh (24), all residentsof Noida. Mustaqeem, Mohit,Deepak and Gaurav were arrest-ed from Yamuna Pusta Roadwhile they were travelling withillegal firearms and ammunitionin a stolen car, said the SHO.

Based on informationreceived from them, Balendraand Raheesh were also arrestedfor their role in the conspiracy,he said.

“On Monday, Sachin, a

native of Uttrakhand and cur-rently living in Noida, wasabducted from Okhla BirdSanctuary Metro Station by theassailants. They sped towardsKalindi Kunj in Delhi but weremet with heavy traffic on theroute. The assailants then decid-ed to take a U-turn and drovein the wrong lane for some dis-tance.

“Later their car had a flattyre near Sector 94 ‘gaushala’and they got down to stop an

oncoming WagonR but at thismoment, Sachin fled from theHonda City and jumped acrossinto the ‘gaushaala’ to escape theassailants,” the official said.

On Tuesday, a complaintwas registered at the Sector 39police station after which an FIRwas registered and investigationtaken up, the official added.

During probe, it emergedthat the assailants and Sachinhad a dispute over the leader-ship of a tempo union operat-ing from Sector 94 metro stationafter which the conspiracy washatched. Sachin was recentlyelected as Pradhan of tempounion at Sector 94 metro stationin Noida.

Based on informationreceived from them, two moreaccused — Balendra (32) andRaheesh (24), were also arrest-ed for their role in the conspir-acy, the police said.

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New Delhi: Shiv Sena leaderSanjay Raut on Wednesdaywrote a letter to Rajya SabhaChairman M Venkaiah Naidusaying that moving him to the5th row is an attempt to humil-iate him and the party.

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Barely 24 hours after launch-ing a broadside against the

BJP and the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen chiefAsaduddin Owaisi for con-spiring to dislodge TrinamoolCongress from Bengal, ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjeeonce again asked the people toremain cautious against “nefar-ious designs” being hatched bythese parties.

Addressing a huge crowdin Murshidabad, Mamata saidher party would not allow theimplementation of NationalRegister for Citizens in Bengalas long as she was the ChiefMinister of the State.

On the day Union HomeMinister Amit Shahannounced a country-wideNRC, Assam Finance MinisterHimanta Biswa Sarma too saidthe State Government hasrequested the Centre to rejectthe final updated NRC in theState.

“Till I am there no one cantake away your citizenshipand no one can throw you outof India which is your owncountry,” Mamata told a largegathering. “Some people arecrying hoarse about NRC butlet me tell you that there willbe no NRC in Bengal,”Mamata said, adding how “noteven the Hindus were sparedin Assam where they havethrown out 19 lakh peoplefrom the citizenship list out, ofwhich 14 lakh are Hindus.”

All these people were nowbeing kept in detention camps,she alleged. “They are now injails in Assam. But I will not letthat happen in Bengal. There

will be no NRC here,” sheadded.

Targeting the “dirtyalliance” between the BJP andAIMIM, Mamata said,“Money, men and ideas arebeing imported from outsideand you will have to remaincautious against efforts todivide the State.”

Alleging that the AIMIMwas a “paid agent of the BJP”which was pouring money inBengal to divide the people,Mamata said, “They are thebiggest allies. They are comingwith bags full of money fromHyderabad as your sympa-thisers but their aim is todivide you,” to help the BJPcome to power in the State.

Apparently telling theMuslims not to trust leadersvisiting from outside and onlyrepose faith on local leadersshe said, “No one will fight forthe cause of the people of thepeople of Bengal other thanthose who are from this State… don’t trust outsiders whoare posing as your friends andcoming with money bags.”

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Sri Lankan PresidentGotabaya Rajapaksa on

Wednesday named his elderbrother and former strong-man Mahinda Rajapaksa asthe new Prime Minister afterincumbent RanilWickremesinghe announcedhis resignation from the postfollowing the election debacle.

Mahinda, the main oppo-sition leader, will be appointedas Prime Minister after incum-bent Wickremesinghe stepsdown formally on Thursday,his spokesman Rohan Weliwitawas quoted as saying by TimesOnline.

The former President, whowill function as Prime Ministerof the caretaker cabinet untilthe general election, is expect-ed to be sworn in at 1 pmbefore assuming office ataround 3 pm, it added.

Mahinda was appointedthe PM on October 26, 2018 bythe then President MaithripalaSirisena, who sackedWickremesinghe in a contro-versial move that plunged thecountry into an unprecedent-ed constitutional crisis.

Detailed report on P12

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Chief Minister Kamal Nathon Wednesday unveiled

the life-size statue of the coun-try’s first woman PrimeMinister Late Indira Gandhi atChhindwara. This statue hasbeen installed at Indira Tirahaon the occasion of Late Smt.Gandhi’s birthday onNovember 19.

Chief Minister Kamal Nathsaid that the statues of greatpersonalities remind us of theirstruggle besides their ideas,principles and values. He saidthat Late Gandhi was one ofthose figures in Indian historywho glorified India throughoutthe world. Under her leader-ship, India made all-roundprogress. The Chief Minister

said that the schemes that sheinitiated to provide justice andhonour to the poor raised theirstandard of living.

Kamal Nath said that thestate government is committedto continue work on Smt.Gandhi’s SarvadharmaSamabhav and the all-round

developmentof the prole-tariat.

P u b l i cH e a l t hEngineeringM i n i s t e rS u k h d e vP a n s e ,M e d i c a lE du c at i onM i n i s t e rVijaylaxmiS a d h o ,

Home and Jail Minister BalaBachchan, Social Justice andDisabled Welfare MinisterLakhan Ghanghoria, MLASunil Uike and former MinisterDeepak Saxena along with anumber of citizens were pre-sent.

Meanwhile, Jagdish Kumre

of Chhindwara district thankedthe government in Gondidialect on getting the plotholder certificate. As this pend-ing work of Jagdish Kumrecould be completed after sev-eral years, he thanked the gov-ernment in his own dialectwhich meant that ChiefMinister Kamal Nath has donevery good work by givinginstructions to give certificatesof plot in the interest of thepoor. Kumre said, “MukhyaMantri Kamal Nath te kehnatenakun patta put ta ani valesuvidha puttat. Idan layakKamal Nath sarkar tundhanyawad siyatona.” Manyother beneficiaries were alsohappy on obtaining the plotholder certificate at a meetingin Chourai village.

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House of a retired MPSEBofficial was targeted by

miscreants and escaped withvaluables worth �1 lakh fromhis house at Danish Kunj underKolar police station on Tuesday.

Police said that the victimBharat Dubey along with hiswife had gone to attend wed-ding in Hoshangabad while hisson had gone to work andwhen he returned valuableswere found burgled.

A complaint was lodged bythe victim with the Kolar policeand in his complaint, he stat-ed that with his wife had goneto attend wedding inHoshangabad while his son hadgone to work in the morningon Tuesday and during the dayhouse was targeted by miscre-ants who escaped with valu-ables.

After they received the

information, they returnedhouse and found that silvercoins, jewelry were burgled.The total loss in the burglarywas claimed to be around �1 lakh.

Based on the complaintafter the preliminary investi-gation the police have regis-tered a case under sections 454and 380 of the IPC and havestarted further investigation.

Meanwhile, valuables

worth Rs 50,000 were bur-gled from a house inBanjari Colony underKamla Nagar police sta-tion area on Tuesday.

Police said that thevictim Yash Pandya hadgone for some work andwhen he returned the lockof the main door wasfound broken and valu-ables were found burgled.

A complaint waslodged with the Kolar

police stating that he had goneon work and when he returnedlock was found broken and onentering the house valuableswere found missing.

The almirah having thevaluables was targeted whileother valuables were not dis-turbed. The police have regis-tered a case under sections 457and 380 of the IPC and havestarted further investigation.

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On the occasion of ‘WorldHeritage Week’ and the

Centenary Celebrations ofPadmashree Vishnu ShreedharWakankar, (A great archaeolo-gist, renowned artist and theGrandpa of Rock Art studies inIndia). On today, a three-dayNational Painting Workshopwas inaugurated with the col-laboration of Indira GandhiNational Centre for the Arts(IGNCA), New Delhi andIndira Gandhi RashtriyaManav Sangrahalaya (IGRMS),Bhopal at Bhimbetka.

In this workshop, an experton paintings, Vasudev Kamatgave information about to pre-serve the paintings on thedrawing sheet to 16 painingartist from different states ofthe country.

Baba Yogendra, Veteranculturist requested that, theyshould try to aware aboutBhimbetka's paintings as theheritage of the ancestors in thepeople.

On this occasion, BL Malla(Project Director, IGNCA) saidthat, Rock art is one of the rich-est cultural resources in theworld, which depicts the earli-est expressions of humankind.The proximity of this art ant itsaffinity with the art of many liv-ing communities of the worldtoday makes it all the more sig-nificant and valuable. Rock artimages can be treated as asource of cultural communi-cation between the past, pre-sent and the future.

The artists recorded scenes

from the everyday lives of thepeople who lived in the rockshelters; for example, hunting,cooking, eating, and drinking.The paintings represent thewhole spectrum of time, DilipSingh (Joint Director, IGRMS)added. During this workshop,Narayan Vyas (Archaeologist)gave information aboutBhimbaithka Rock Shelter andDraw the Rock painting on thedrawing sheet. Kushwaha(Environmentalist) andAnthropologist were present inthis workshop.

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The TT Nagar police havebooked two miscreants for

duping a woman advocate tothe tune of �1.5 lakh in thename of facilitating loan witha waiver of 30 percent forwomen. Believing the offend-er, the victim transferred thecash to his bank account inJune this year.

Police said that VijayKumar and Harinandan werebooked by police who haveduped the victim DeepaliSahare. She was duped by thetwo in the name of providingloan which would provide loanwaiver of 30 percent.

Police started investiga-tion after receiving the infor-mation and on the completionof the investigation police reg-istered a case of fraud againstthe two accused. The two areyet to be arrested.

In her complaint victim

stated that after she found anadvertisement regarding loanwith a waiver of 30 percent forwomen she contacted on theprovided mobile numberwhere Vijay Kumar providedthe details and later after sheagreed she provided �1,500for form and �1.5 lakh as pro-cessing fees. The paymentswere made online and shenever met the accused.

After she made the pay-ment she was never providedwith the loan or her processingfees which she paid to theaccused. Police suspects thatthe details which victim hasprovided could be fake as theaccused have provided detailsover phone and transactionswere done online.

The nexus has luredwomen victims of returning 70percent loan as the remainingloan would be waived off mak-ing the offer lucrative and vic-tims are trapped.

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Governor Lalji Tandon willinaugurate the newly con-

structed auditorium at RajBhavan at 12 noon onNovember 21, 2019. TheGovernor Tandon has decidedto name the auditorium as‘Sandipani’ after the name ofSandipani Rishi. The auditori-um has a seating capacity of386 people.

Tandon said that in ancientIndia the education systemwas unique and the excellentquality education was availablefor all. There was no discrim-ination between the king andpoor in Gurukul. He furthersaid that the MaharishiSandipani Ashram was theonly Vidya Kendra in Ujjainwhere Lord Krishna andBalram came for study afterkilling Kansa in the DwaparYug. Here Krishna and Sudamabefriended. SR

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Aishbagh police havebooked four persons who

opened fired at a 26-year-oldgym operator at BaghDilkhusha late in the night onTuesday.

Panic prevailed at BaghDilkhusha area when theaccused identified as Salimalias Tajwar, his son Zainul,Yawar and their aide Bilalattacked the victim Asif Khan.

The victim used to run agym at Bagh Dilkhusha inrented place owned by themain accused Salim.

The two had long disputeover the property.

The victim was not willingto leave the place which was thereason behind the dispute andhad also produced fake leasedocuments in the court afterwhich a case of fraud was reg-

istered against victim and hisfamily by MP Nagar police.

The victim has vacated theplace. On Tuesday night whenthe victim was at the gymSalim along with his two sonand one aide reached the placeand started to assault the vic-tim and later fired at himinjuring him in his leg andescaped the spot.

SHO Aishbagh Ajay Nayarsaid that the victim sustainedinjury in his thigh in which thebullet pierced his leg.

His condition is stable. Inthe case no arrest has beenmade and search has beenstarted to nab the accused,case filed, he added. Based onthe complaint after the pre-liminary investigation thepolice have registered a caseunder section 307 of the IPCand started further investiga-tion.

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Over the issue of installationof late Chief Minister

Arjun Singh’s statue in Bhopalby replacing legendary freedomfighter Chandrashekhar Azad’sbust, kin of Azad appeared onWednesday and opposed themove of the CongressGovernment.

However, sensing the con-troversy and the consequenceson this emotional issue, theCongress Government hasdeferred the unveiling of theArjun Singh statue for the timebeing.

Factually, the bust of Azadearlier existed till 2016 at theplace where the statue of LateArjun Singh is proposed. Onreaching Bhopal, Amit Azad,who identified himself as greatgrandson of legendary freedom

fighter Chandrashekhar Azadhas threatened protest on theissue.

Amit claimed that Azadwas such a personality that hismere name make people bowdown their heads in reverenceand his fight against the Britishwas iconic.

Amit accompanied by hisfamily members upon reachingBhopal called on the stateGovenror Lalji Tandon lodgingprotest over the matter. Toadd, the Azad Bust wasremoved from New Markettrisection in 2016 after admin-

istration had removed severalstatues from busy traffic joints.

Recently the Congress gov-ernment got late Arjun Singh’sstatue at the place and the stat-ue is awaiting unveiling.

Azad kin claimed that theywould hold fast in Bhopal onDec 2, if the venue of ArjunSingh’s statue is not changed.The BJP is also on the offensiveon this issue.

Alok Sharma, the Bhopalmayor was also present withthe Azad’s family onWednesday and affirmed thathe would also sit on fast withthe aggrieved persons.

Sharma on the occasionclaimed that officials havetaken a decision on their ownon installation of Arjun Singhstatue and MunicipalCorporation was not consult-ed on the matter.

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A29-year-old Narsinghpurbased woman was cheated

in the name of facilitating rail-ways jobs. Accused posed asIAS officer over facebook.Hanumanganj police have reg-istered a case of fraud and start-ed investigation.

Police said that the victimBharti Katiya was duped byNaveen Gupta after she becameacquainted with the accusedover facebook around a yearago. The accused introducedhimself as an IAS officer post-ed in New Delhi. Later accusedoffered her job in railway as hehas connections which couldbe used to facilitate job for herand when she came to Bhopalaccused escaped with herbelongings.

The victim in her com-plaint stated that she wasoffered job by the accused andassured that accused wouldshe came to Bhopal on October

21. The accused met her andthey went to hotel Regency atGhora Nakkas inHanumanganj area and lateraccused took her to Secretariatwhere he went inside with alldocuments of victim and askedher to wait outside but neverreturned. The victim tried tocontact the accused but failedand returned to hotel where shefound that accused escapedwith bag carrying mobilephone, cash, 5 ATM cards andall of her documents.

The victim approachedHanumanganj police andlodged complaint regardingthe accused.

After the preliminaryinvestigation police have reg-istered a case under sections406 and 420 of the IPC andstarted further investigation.

The accused claimed thathe is resident of Bhopal andasked victim to visit Bhopal.The details provided by theaccused are fake, said police.

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Chief Minister Kamal Nathsaid that the Government

is committed to give ‘Right toHealth’ to every individual ofthe state. He mentioned thatthe biggest challenge before thedevelopment of MadhyaPradesh is lack of funds,because the empty treasurywas handed over to us by theerstwhile government.

The Chief Minister saidthat while facing every chal-lenge, we are ready for the allround development of the statebecause we have a strength oflove and trust of the people ofthe state. Kamal Nath wasaddressing the huge publicgathering today after laying thefoundation stone of hospitalaffiliated to ChhindwaraInstitute of Medical Sciences(CIMS) costing Rs 1500 croreand foundation laying of newjail complex costing Rs 240crore.

The Chief Minister saidthat the people of Chhindwara,

Seoni, Betul, Balaghat includ-ing other districts will nothave to go to Nagpur for treat-ment after the completion ofSuper –Specialty hospital. Thisinstitute of ours will be

equipped with the ultra-mod-ern and better medical facilitiesthat people of Nagpur includ-ing other states will come toChhindwara for medical treat-ment instead of AIIMS. Kamal

Nath mentioned that we aregoing to give right for assuredbetter medical treatment toevery citizen of the state.

Nath said that in the agri-culture sector, we took a deci-

sion to waive the loans of thefarmers immediately after theformation of the government.It is our promise that we willwaive off the crop loans upto Rs2 lakh of all the eligible farm-ers. The first phase is over. Theprocess to waive off the loansof upto �2 lakh of the remain-ing farmers is ongoing in thesecond phase. The ChiefMinister said ‘I believe that thecrop loan waiver is not a justicewith the farmers’. The justicewill be done to them onlywhen we could get them theproper price of their produces.He informed that the govern-ment has started thinking inthis direction and we will starta new revolution in the agri-culture sector in the comingdays, which will bring smile onthe faces of the farmers.

He further stated that deci-sions are being taken to ensureemployment to the youth of thestate. A policy is being preparedto ensure employment to localyouth in industries. Nath saidthat the youth have the respon-

sibility for rebuilding the state.They are the future of thestate. If they remain unem-ployed, we could not be able tomake Madhya Pradesh a devel-oped state. The Chief Ministermentioned that the investmentopportunities are increasingin the state. For this we havegained the faith of the investors.

Referring to the construc-tion of new jail complex inChhindwara, Kamal Nath saidthat in order to prevent crim-inal mindset of criminals andto connect them with the cre-ative activities, such an atmos-phere should be created in thejail, which should prove to bean example in the entire coun-try. Citing his 40 years old rela-tions with Chhindwara, Nathsaid that the main reasonbehind the development here islove and trust of the people. Hefurther stated that as a result ofthe love and trust which he hasreceived from the people of thestate, the development of theentire state will be ensured onthe lines of Chhindwara.

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Abook discussion andrelease is being organised

by Swami Vivekananda Libraryand Club Literari on Friday at4 pm to book the book StrongParents-Successful Children.

Published by IndraPublishing House, the book hasbeen authored by psychologistShikha Rastogi and journalistPreeti Jain. Seema Raizada,President of Club Literary,President of Public RelationsSociety of India BhopalChapter, Dr. Pushpendra PalSingh and other guests will bepresent on the occasion.

Psychologist and the CBSECouncilor for 12 years, ShikahRastogi has 33 years of experi-ence in education field.Through counseling she haswitnessed various cases somesevere and some influentialwhich she has mentioned in thebook. She is regularly associ-ated with children, adoles-

cents, parents and teachersthrough various programs andworkshops.

Journalist Preeti Jain hasinterviewed toppers across thecountry, as a journalist con-tinuously doing ground report-ing on Education Beat for 13years. Through this book, top-ics such as PersonalityDevelopment, Life Skills, Stressand Engagement, Child Safety,Identification of ChildPsychiatrists, DigitalCitizenship, Parenting Style,Exam Stress and Family, SelfManagement, Minimalist

Lifestyle are discussed in detail.This can be incorporated

into your life practically. Thebook talks about how teachersmust teach their students andparents how to properly use theknowledge that their childrenare getting through education.They are also using theirknowledge properly or misus-ing it. There is talk of sustain-able use of available resourcesworldwide.

This discussion should alsobe a part of our daily routine,how can we help our childrendevelop a sense of maximumliving. In this way, not only willthe stress arising in life bereduced, but the feeling ofdepression and despair that issowing the seeds of despair inthe happy days of childhoodwill also be reduced. In the year2018, writers wrote in theupbringing and intertwinedfamily environment of chil-dren's success, which receiveda very good response.

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India's ranking number onetennis player Ankita Raina

outperformed Turkish playerBarfu Sengiz 6-4, 6-3 in straightsets while performing well inthe 25,000-dollar ITF Women'stournament being played atArera Club in the capitalBhopal.

Won by giving. AnkitaRaina performed the best in theattractive and kashmirk com-petition played on Wednesday.Ankita Raina, who came on thenet in the 19th game, volleyedfor the first time to win thematch point. In the secondpoint, Ankita Raina registereda stunning victory by hittingthe backhand cross court.

A large number of specta-tors were present to witness thisthrilling match played at courtnumber one of Arera Club.Similarly, in the singles match

played at court number two,Saujanya Bavisetti of Indiadefeated India's JenniferLucham 7-5, 6-3. India'sMihika Yadav defeated Rasiya'sMaria Timofeva 6 (4) -7, 7-6(3), 6-3. All the Yadavs ofIndia had to face defeat today.He was defeated 6-3, 6–1 byMana Kwamura of Japan.

In other singles matchesplayed on Wednesday, the tour-nament's top seed China's LuJia Jing defeated Israel's BladaKetik 6-4, 6-4 to enter the nextround. Melanie Clafner of

Austria beat Rituja Bhonsle ofIndia 6-3, 6-3, Bulgaria'sGergana Topalova of GreatBritain's Imile Smith Bewale 6-2, 6-3, Japan's ChihiroMuramatsu of Great Britain'sFreya Christie Defeated 4-6, 6-3, 6-3. Thailand's PunninKovapituktudt defeatedNudnida Lungnam of her owncountry 6-4, 0-6, 6-1 and KerinKennel of Switzerland defeat-ed Petia Arshynkova ofBulgaria 6-1, 6-3.

In the doubles matchesplayed under the tournament,the pair of Sweden's KarinKennel and Croatia's Sylviadefeated India's SaujanyaBavisetti and China's DaneNie Wang 6-1, 6-2 andLatavania's Diana Marsikivicaand Ukraine's ValeriaStrakhowa The pair beatJapanese pair of ManaKwamura and Fana Kouzaki 1-6, 6-3, 10-8.

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The new Book Racking Ballof the Diary of a Wimpy

Kid series and the new series byAlex Rider are 1 to 10 volumesof the series included in theJunior Books this Sunday at theSwami Vivekananda Library.

The collection of NewArrival Children's Books will beset up at Swami VivekanandaLibrary on Sunday, November17 at 11 am. Swami Library isgoing to launch keeping inmind the children members inSwami Vivekananda Library. Alot of books are brand new tothis children's collection. Forthis, it has been included in thecollection. The total number of

total books in this collection is30.

To increase interest in chil-dren's books, this collection isbeing brought to the SwamiVivekananda Library.Supported by SwamiVivekananda Library. ManagerYatish Bhatele said that thebooks, comics, Dear Mr. Naidu,So Long, Amur Falcon andother books of the Pepa Pigseries are being included in thiscollection. Similarly, childrenshould be encouraged to readbooks from childhood. Thistime a very attractive series isbeing launched in the library.

The names of theChildren's Books Collectionare as follows.

Bhopal: National Library Weekwas observed at SanchiBuddhist-Indian KnowledgeStudies University. On this occa-sion different quizzes were orga-nized in the university onMonday, speech competition onTuesday and workshop onWednesday.

Students of MA, MSc,M.Phil and Ph.D. participatedextensively in the competitionsorganized by the Central Libraryof the University.

In the quiz competition, thestudents were asked oral objec-tive questions in which PrashantKhare, a student of M.Sc YogaDepartment, won the first prize,while Anish Kumar, a PhDresearcher from the HindiDepartment and from theDepartment of Buddhist Studies,earned the same marks. PhDresearcher Avinash Burman wonthe second prize.

The third prize was jointlywon by Sandeep, a PhDresearcher from the VedicStudies Department and Vinay

Tiwari, a PhD researcher fromthe Indian PhilosophyDepartment.

In a speech competitionheld on Tuesday on the topicHow to use electronic resourcesin research, students explainedhow time can be saved by usinginternet, e-journal, website, e-library. How can our research beupgraded by acquiring new ideasfrom ongoing research and ear-lier research. Each participant inthe speech competition was pro-vided a time of 5-5 minutes.

The winner of the speechcompetition was Prakash Kumar,an M.Phil researcher from theDepartment of Buddhist Studies,while Neha Saini, a Ph.D.researcher from the YogaDepartment and MuskanSolanki, a Ph.D. researcher fromthe Department of English,secured the second place joint-ly. The third place was jointly byPhD research researcher NitinKumar of Vedic Studies andNilesh Vishwakarma, a studentof MA Yoga Department. SR

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Aforum of Jawaharlal NehruUniversity’s (JNU) visually

challenged students onWednesday gethered outsidethe old police headquarters atDelhi's ITO to mark their protestagainst the police lathicharge onuniversity students protestingagainst hostel fee hike.

The members of the JNUVisually Challenged StudentsForum also alleged that whenthey were going to Jai SinghRoad to protest outside the newpolice headquarters, the policestopped them. They said, theirbus was stopped and taken toVasant Kunj police station.

Later, they said their bus wasbrought to the old police head-quarters at ITO where theyprotested.

"We want a written apologyfrom police who had beaten upthe students. A few days back,

police were protesting after theywere beaten up by lawyers. Howcould they forget that studentsalso have a right to protest?" saidstudents while protesting atPHQ.

"The students have submit-ted a memorandum to police.Students have demanded actionagainst those police personnelwho allegedly beat them. Thestudents were given assurancethat an enquiry will conductedand appropriate action willtaken," said Anil Mittal,Additional Public RelationOfficer (APRO), Delhi Police.

The forum had condemnedthe "police lathicharge" on visually challenged students during the protest on Mondayover the hostel fee hike by the JNU administration andhad demanded an apology fromthe police in the matter. Policehad denied baton charging thestudents.

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The Delhi University (DU) student also stepped

out on the roads in solidaritywith Jawaharlal NehruUniversity (JNU) students onWednesday.

The students protestedagainst Delhi Police for‘laathicharge’ on the studentsespecially the visually impairedstudents.

Hundreds of studentsincluding School of Open Learning (SOL) students burned the effigies of JNU Vice Chancellor

(VC) Mamidala JagedeshKumar, Union Minister ofHome Affairs (MHA) AmitShah and Delhi Police

CommissionerAmulya Patnaik.

They alsop r o t e s t e d against the NewEducation Policyand said it is an "attempt" to pri-vatise education.The DU studentsraised "anti-police" and "anti-government" slo-gans in solidarity

with their JNU counterpartswho were allegedly baton-charged on Monday, a chargedenied by police.

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The Delhi Police onWednesday claimed to have

arrested two criminals forallegedly spiriting away moneyby cloning ATM cards inNational Capital.

Police said that the duo hadlooted over �25 lakh frompeople in city by making 500ATM clones in last threemonths.

The accused have beenidentified as Rajesh Sharma(52), a resident of Sector-25 inDelhi's Rohini and Shamsheralias Shera (22), a resident ofDwarka. Police said that theduo is also found involved inmore than dozen cases of theftand cheating registered acrossDelhi.

According to AntoAlphonse, the DeputyCommissioner of Police(DCP), Dwarka district, onNovember 18, specific inputswere received that a shrewd

and cunning cheater, who hadwithdrawn money from ATMby using cloned Debit andCredit cards, would come atDwarka Sector-20.

"Acting on the inputs a trapwas laid and Rajesh was caughtred handed while he was with-drawing money from an ATMusing cloned card. On his per-sonal search, 10 cloned debitand credit cards, four transac-tion slips, and one VeriFoneData Saving Machine wasrecovered. Further, on hisinstance Shamsher was alsoapprehended and 10 moreVerifone Data CloningMachines, 61 cloned Debit andCredit cards along with cloningdevices were also recoveredfrom their possession," said theDCP.

"During interrogation, theduo disclosed that in August2019 they took a Spa Center inDwarka Sector-10 on rent andstationed VeriFone cloningmachine.

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A29-year-old doctor wasfound dead in her flat at

Sector 43 under mysterious cir-cumstances on Wednesday.

It is being suspected thatthe victim died due to drugoverdose. No suicide note wasfound from her possession.The police have registered acase of abetment to suicideagainst the husband and in-laws of the victim on the basisof the complaint filed by herfather.

According to the police, thedeceased has been identified asDr Sonam Motis. She was orig-inally a resident of Kota,Rajasthan and was living sep-arately from her husband in arented flat in sector 43 fromOctober 2019.

The victim was working inGurugram's Fortis hospitaluntil a month ago, while herhusband Dr Shikhar Morworking at the AIIMS traumacentre Delhi. Earlier, she wasalso posted as Senior ResidentDoctor at AIIMS.

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The once highly appreciated pilot cam-paign of Police Headquarters against

child begging has failed in sustaining thepositive results. It is appreciable that theefforts of police department resulted in theenrollment of at least 68 children inDehradun in different schools. However,a new batch of child beggars can now beseen near Kanak Chowk, Astley Hall, nearGandhi Park and Saharanpur Chowk.

With the present predicament of dis-trict police force being deployed for manyother duties including the law and ordermaintenance of the district, observersquestion whether it would be better foranother department with more suitablebackground to take over the campaign.

Member of State Commission for theProtection of Child Rights (SCPCR),Kamal Gupta said that the commission isplanning to start a Child Relief Fund so

that children from financially poor back-ground can be helped. He further said thatthough the presence of police personnelis essential for the campaign, the com-mission might be taking up the campaign.

He also said that among 42 childrenwho were identified in the category of handto mouth financial status, some got admis-sion after the intervention of districtadministration, but some of the studentswere left out.

They will be enrolled after the districtprobation department gets the budget forthe new session.

According to the sources in policedepartment, police force is alreadydeployed for VIP duties, regulating traf-fic and keeping law and order in check. Inaddition to that, being the enforcementbody they also have to do excise duty, min-ing duty, narcotics duty and many others.

Police forces are over stretched andover stressed which makes it difficult for

them to follow up on every campaign.If a department which is more

involved with the children takes up theresponsibility for working against childbegging, then the results will be more fruit-ful. It is pertinent to mention here thatOperation Mukti was conducted as anexperiment in the provisional State Capital,after which the campaign was continuedin Haridwar and now in Haldwani. InDehradun, district police and anti-traf-ficking units identified 292 street children,who were either found begging in thestreets or were selling balloons or otherthings.

Three of the identified children werealso found to be under the influence ofsubstances. The campaign was successfulin enrolling 68 children in schools includ-ing one admitted in the Model School atNational Institute for the Empowermentof Persons with Visual Disabilities(NIEPVD).

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The alertness of a com-plainant and the improve-

ment in barricade checkingacross the district has proved tobe a boon for the victim and abane for the culprit in a case ofvehicle theft. Superintendent ofPolice (city), Shweta Choubey,said that just within an hourafter receiving informationabout a stolen vehicle, thepolice were able to nab the cul-prit with the car at AsharodiChowk.

As per the informationprovided by Choubey, thearrested accused has been iden-tified as Clement Town residentRamesh Sharma. He used todrive a taxi earlier but wasunemployed for a long time,after which he decided to com-mit this crime.

Giving further details

about the case, she said that atabout 10:30 am on Wednesday,they received information atCantt police station. The com-plainant, Neeraj KumarAggarwal, a tours and travel

operator told the police that atabout 9:40 am, he left his carkeys inside the car and wentinside his house for some quickwork.

By the time he came back,

his car was gone. First, theytried to look around but uponrealising that the car had beenstolen, they reached the Canttpolice station and filed thecomplaint.

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Taking cognisance of thehealth of police personnel

in regards with the increasingpollution in Dehradun, officeof Dehradun SeniorSuperintendent of Police (SSP)has ordered 200 masks fortraffic police force. The masksare for the force permanentlydeployed in traffic duty.

Superintendent of Police(traffic), Prakash ChandraArya, said that it becameincreasingly important for thetraffic force to have thesemasks, especially the policepersonnel deployed at thebusiest junctions of the cityarea such as Tehsil Chowk,Clock Tower and DilaramChowk.

It is pertinent to mention

here that the district officialshave been taking steps toencourage the alertness oftraffic duties in the district.The tea and biscuit distribu-tion is also among one of thepractices that have been initi-ated by the SSP office, toensure the force conductsduty with maximum alertnessand in good health.

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Uttarakhand TrafficDirectorate is planning to

start a drive against trafficoffences. As per the orders ofDirector, Traffic, KewalKhurana, from December 1, acampaign will be initiated in theState to check wrong numberplates and without numberplates, people driving withoutdriving licence and minor dri-ving or riding.

According to the traffic offi-cials, campaigns against trafficoffences are a routine for Statepolice.

As it is difficult to keep acheck on all traffic offences atonce, such campaigns are con-ducted to focus on specific traf-fic offences each time. Theupcoming campaign will beagainst vehicles which are onroad without number plate orwith wrong number plate, minordriving and people withoutproper documents especiallylicence.

It is pertinent to mentionhere that according to seniortransport and traffic officials, themajor cause behind maximumnumber of road accidents aretraffic offences.

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Haryana Chief MinisterManohar Lal Khattar on

Wednesday said the concept ofthe land bank is being contin-uously worked on so that thedevelopment graph of the Statecan be raised.

Presiding over a meetingon the progress of the ongoingprojects under the E-Bhoomiprogram and a review of the E-Bhoomi portal held here, theChief Minister said that thepresent State government isstarting various programs toreduce land disputes and hedirected the officers to collectsmall pieces of land and smalllandholders and with theirjoint collaboration (onCooperative basis) and find thepossibility of getting the fram-ing done by the farmers shouldbe explored so that maximumbenefit can be derived throughthis kind of farming by thefarmers.

He directed the officials

that a mechanism or systemshould be put in place at theearliest to deal with land casesand the distribution of theland of the people could be rec-tified. The Chief Minister alsodirected the officials that theland is required for variousdevelopment projects and thePanchayati land is constantlydecreasing, therefore theemphasis should be on creatinga land bank.

Khattar said a program isbeing run to set up vyayamsha-las in the State villages andabout 550 vyayamshalas havebeen set up in this direction. Hedirected the officials that wher-ever vyayamshalas are set up,wellness centers should also beset up at the same place so thatpeople can be provided facili-ties nearby. Apart from this, theChief Minister has directedthe officials that wherever con-solidation in the villages isleft, it should also be madeavailable.

The officials informed that

three projects have been com-pleted under the E-Bhoomiportal program, out of whichtwo projects are from theIrrigation Department and oneproject is from the PublicWorks Department. The ChiefMinister was informed that6631 land is required for 178schemes of E-Bhoomi for 13departments. Similarly, 184demands of 17 departmentshave been received for takingland on the E-Bhoomi portal.

The Chief Minister wastold that proposals have beenreceived for the full landrequirement for 37 demandsfor which the certificate hasbeen issued to the requisition-ing department and a propos-al for 2,766 acres of land againstthe requirement of 994 acres ofland has been received. TheChief Minister was informedthat in case of 50 demands,proposals for 2,533 acres ofland have been received againstthe need of 3396 acres of land.The officials of the concerned

departments informed aboutthe progress of projects relatedto their departments on the E-Bhoomi portal.

Deputy Chief MinisterDushyant Chautala was alsopresent in the meeting. Otherspresent included, PrincipalSecretary to Chief MinisterRajesh Khullar, AdditionalPrincipal Secretary to ChiefMinister V. Umashankar, ChiefSecretary Keshni Anand Arora,Additional Chief SecretaryHome, Navraj Sandhu,Additional Chief SecretaryTourism Department, VijaiVardhan, Additional ChiefSecretary, Public WorksDepartment, Alok Nigam,Additional Chief SecretaryIndustries and CommerceDepartment, Devender Singh,Additional Chief SecretaryFinance T.V.S.N. Prasad,Principal Secretary, Town, andCountry Planning Department,Apoorva Kumar Singh,Principal Secretary, Irrigationand Water Resources

Department Anurag Rastogi,besides others.

KARNAL VILLAGE TOBECOME LAL DORA FREE,DECIDES KHATTAR

On Good Governance Day,the Sirsi village in Karnal dis-trict will become the first vil-lage in Haryana which will bemade to be free from Lal Doraas Chief Minister Manohar LalKhattar took the decision in areview meeting held here.

Khattar said tagging of alltypes of properties includingagricultural land, private land,land under government depart-ments, Shamalat, Panchayati,should be done separately andwith this, the land categoriesshould also be identified sep-arately.

He said Principal Secretary,Development and Panchayats,Sudhir Rajpal has been direct-ed to compile the details of theGram Panchayat propertiesunder Lal Dora and make itavailable to the Survey of India.

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Congress members movedPrivilege Motions against

two Ministers and a BJPspokesperson in the StateAssembly on Wednesday andurged the Speaker to send themotions to the PrivilegesCommittee for action.

While Congress LegislatureParty Leader Narasingha Mishramoved a motion against a BJPspokesperson, party memberMohammad Muquim andSantosh Singh Saluja broughtsuch motions againstAgriculture Minister ArunKumar Sahoo and WaterResources MinisterRaghunandan Das.

“A BJP spokesperson (GolakMohapatra) has misquoted meand alleged that I have disre-

spected the Shankaracharya ofPuri. I had made a statementregarding the Shankaracharya inthe House recently, which hasbeen recorded. The BJPspokesperson’s misquotingshould be checked. His misquoteamounts to breach of privilege.Examine the matter and refer itto the Privilege Committee foraction,” said Mishra.

He told the House that theShankaracharya has praised himin a letter for his statement in theHouse.

Mouquim said theAgriculture and Farmers’Empowerment Minister hasmisled the House by furnishinguntrue data.

“The Minister informed theHouse on November 13 that atotal of 45,965 KALIA benefi-ciaries were found to be ineligi-

ble in the State. But informationavailed through the RTI Actrevealed that there are 1,72,908ineligible KALIA farmers in 10districts of the State. Let the fig-ures be examined. Usually, RTIinformation is found correct.Misleading the House is a breachof privilege. Kindly, inquire intoit and take action,” said Muquim.

Saluja said the WaterResources Mister breached theprivilege of the House by pro-viding untrue data regardingirrigation coverage in Balangirdistrict.

“The Minister submitteddifferent data to my two separatequestions asked by me onNovember 14 regarding irriga-tion coverage in Balangir. In onequestion, he said Balangir hasirrigation facility for 27 per centof agriculture land and, in anoth-er, he said 27.93 per cent of landirrigated in the district. Let thematter be examined and actionbe taken against the Minister,”said Saluja.

Responding to all themotions, Speaker SurjyaNarayan Patro said he wouldexamine the matters and takeactions accordingly.

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Chandigarh: A Chandigarhcourt on Wednesday awardedlife sentence to HarmehtabSingh Rarewala in the 2017murder case of Akansh Sen, thenephew of former HimachalPradesh Chief MinisterVirbhadra Singh's wife Pratibha.

The Additional District andSessions judge Rajeev Goyalpronounced the verdict holdingRarewala, an accused in thecase, guilty on Monday after atwo-year long trial that was con-cluded in October.

"Harmehtab SinghRarewala has been sentenced tolife imprisonment till death bythe court. A fine of `3 lakh hasalso been imposed on the con-vict," said Terminder Singh,the counsel of complainantAdamya Rathaur, who is Sen'scousin. Rarewala was held guiltyunder section 302 (murder) ofthe IPC, Singh said.

The convict is the grandsonof the erstwhile Patiala andEast Punjab States Union(PEPSU) chief minister GianSingh Rarewala. PEPSU was aunion of eight princely statesthat existed between 1948 and1956.

Sen died after being moweddown by a BMW car followingan altercation here in February2017.

The accused Balraj SinghRandhawa, who was declared aproclaimed offender, ran his carover Sen thrice after being insti-gated by Rarewala who was sit-ting on the front passengerseat, according to prosecution.

Sen, who was 28 at thattime, was rushed to a local hos-pital where he succumbed toinjuries.

Randhawa is a son of for-mer Sarpanch of FatehgarhSahib and has been abscondingsince the murder took place.Rarewala was arrested onFebruary 16, 2017.

There was an enmitybetween Rarewala and Sen'sfriend Gagandeep. On February9, 2017, Rarewala and hisfriends had gone to a party at acommon friend's house in sec-tor 9 here where Gagandeep toowas present. There was an alter-cation between Sen andRarewala after the formeraccused him of misbehavingwith Gagandeep, as per prose-cution.

A furious Harmehtab SinghRarewala instigated Randhawato run over Sen. When Sen didnot die after the first hit,Harmehtab Singh Rarewalaasked Randhawa to crush Senagain under the wheels of thecar. PNS

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All India CongressCommittee (AICC) on

Wednesday dissolved its partyunit in Himachal Pradesh, thepresident of the state PradeshCongress Committee (PCC),however, will remainunchanged.

In a statement, party gen-eral secretary KC Venugopalsaid that Congress presidentSonia Gandhi had decided todissolve the executive commit-tees of the PCC, DCC andBCCs in Himachal Pradeshwith immediate effect.

In a state-level move, theHimachal Pradesh YouthCongress also dissolved execu-tive committees of its twoblocks in Bilaspur district.

The executive panels ofNaina Devi and Jukhala blockswere dissolved with immediateeffect, state Youth Congresspresident Manish Thakur saidin a statement. Thakur said theexecutive panels were dissolvedwith the consent of the All-India Youth Congress secretary,Jagdev Gaga, as several of theirmembers were above age.Executive panels of other blockswould be dissolved soon, headded.

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Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut onWednesday attacked the

BJP-led NDA Government andalso wrote to Rajya SabhaChairman M Venkaiah Naidusaying moving him to the fifthrow is an attempt to humiliatehim and the party.

In a letter addressed toNaidu, Rajya Sabha memberSanjay Raut said, “I think thatthis decision was taken bysomeone deliberately to hurtthe sentiments of Shiv SenaParty and to suppress ourvoice.”

“I may remind you thateven when NDA was inOpposition, I was allotted a 3rdrow seat in the House in viewof my seniority in Rajya Sabha,but now, what I feel, it is clear-ly shows that my seat has beenallotted in the fifth row inten-tionally to humiliate me andmy party’s status in the House,”Raut said.

Sanjay Raut has said he failsto understand the reasonbehind “this unwarranted step

of re-allocation ofseats since there is noformal announcementabout the removalfrom NDA”.

The senior partyleader and MP hasfurther said that themove has hurt thedignity of theParliament and hasdemanded that he beallotted a seat in any ofthe first three rowsaccording to the deco-rum of the House.

Raut has also raised ques-tions on Venkaiah Naidu’s con-duct of Rajya Sabha and said,“Chairperson is above partyaffiliations and should takedecisions in a non-partisanmanner”.

In his letter to the RajyaSabha chairman, Raut has alsosaid that there is no reasonbehind this seat change as ShivSena is still officially a part ofNDA.

He has said there has beenno “formal announcementabout the removal from NDA”.

Allies Shiv Sena and BJP

fought the Maharashtra assem-bly elections together and gota clear mandate to form thegovernment. However, soonafter the results wereannounced, the two partiesstruggled over power sharingand later they severed ties.

Both the parties has sincethen made several viciousattacks to blame each other forthe stalemate over Governmentformation in Maharashtra. ShivSena has even removed itslone minister in the NDAGovernment at the Centre inorder to facilitate talks witharch rivals NCP and Congress.

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Congress leader AnandSharma on Wednesday

demanded in the Rajya Sabharestoration of the elite SPG secu-rity cover to the party presidentSonia Gandhi and her family asalso former Prime MinisterManmohan Singh by “risingabove partisan politics.”

Senior BJP leaders, howev-er, maintained the decision towithdraw the SPG cover ofGandhi family and Singh wastaken by the Home Ministrybased on changed threat per-ception.

Earlier this month, theCentre replaced the SpecialProtection Group (SPG) securitycover given to Sonia Gandhi, herson Rahul Gandhi daughterPriyanka Gandhi Vadra byaccording them ‘Z-plus’ securi-ty category of the CentralReserve Police Force (CRPF).Singh’s SPG cover was with-drawn in August.

Raising the issue duringthe Zero Hour in the House, vet-eran Congress MP Sharma saidthere was a clear evaluation ofthreat perceptions to the fourleaders and withdrawal of SPGcover makes them vulnerable.

“It is the responsibility of thestate to protect its leaders,” heasserted, while pointing out thatthe Congress-led UPAGovernment had not disturbedSPG protection of former PrimeMinisters, including that of AtalBihari Vajpayee, and also ofother protectees.

The security cover was nei-ther diluted nor withdrawn dur-ing the 10-years of UPA rule,Sharma further said.Underscoring that after with-drawal of the SPG cover toGandhis and Singh, there areconcerns which are well found-ed, Sharma said, “We wouldurge the Government that theseissues of personal safety, securi-ty and lives of our leaders haveto be beyond partisan politicalconsiderations.”

“Please rise above that.Review and restore (SPG secu-rity cover). That would be innational interest, otherwiseintention will be questionedtoday, tomorrow and in thefuture,” he told the House.

Defending theGovernment’s decision to down-grade the security cover, seniorBJP MP Subramanian Swamysaid the decision has been takenby the Home Ministry, and

moreover the threat perceptionto the Gandhis has disappearedwith the end of the LTTE in SriLanka.”Threat perceptions havealways been the judgement ofthe Home Ministry. It has beenalways been a special commit-tee in the Home Ministry whichdecides.

If there is any questionabout it, one can go to court andchallenge it,” Swamy said.Swamyfurther said the threat original-ly arose out of the assassinationof former Prime Minister RajivGandhi and from the LiberationTigers of Tamil Eelam(LTTE).”That issue has disap-peared because of two reasons,”Swamy said.”First there is noLTTE” and second the “attitude”of protectees who have been ask-ing for reduction of punishmentof those involved in the assassi-nation and even Sonia Gandhihad written to the President ofIndia in this regard.Chairman MVenkaiah Naidu said he too wasnot in favour of reduction inpunishment .Me anw hi le ,Congress youth-wing memberson Wednesday burnt the effigyof Home Minister Amit Shah toprotest the withdrawal of SPGsecurity cover of the Gandhifamily.

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WhatsApp has written tothe Government express-

ing “regret” over the Pegasussnooping row, and has assuredthat it is taking all security mea-sures to address concerns.Senior Government officials onWednesday said that theInformation TechnologyMinistry asked WhatsApp toreinforce its security wall, andthat no more breaches at themessaging platform will betolerated. Earlier in the morn-ing, in response to a questionin the Lok Sabha onWednesday, IT Minister

Ravi Shankar Prasad saidCybersecurity agency CERT-Inhas issued a notice toWhatsApp seeking details ontargeting of mobile phones of

Indian citizens by Israeli spy-ware Pegasus.

Meanwhile, the parliamen-tary standing committee, head-ed by Congress MP ShashiTharoor, met here to examinethe WhatsApp snooping issue.As per the notice issued by theLok Sabha secretariat for themeeting, the panel will bebriefed by representatives of theMinistry of Electronics andInformation Technology,Ministry of Home Affairs andDepartment of Atomic Energy

on the subject - “Citizens’ datasecurity and privacy”.

Tharoor, who heads theParliamentary StandingCommittee on InformationTechnology, had written a let-ter to the other panel members,saying the alleged use of tech-nology for snooping on Indiancitizens was a matter of “graveconcern” and it would be dis-cussed at the next meeting ofthe committee on November20.

Last month, the Facebook-owned company had showedthat Indian journalists andhuman rights activists wereamong those globally spiedupon by unnamed entitiesusing Pegasus spyware.According to WhatsApp, thespyware was developed byIsrael-based NSO Group and

had been used to snoop onabout 1,400 users globally,including 121 users from India.

Following theGovernment’s notice seekingmore information on theattacks, WhatsApp hadresponded saying it had alert-ed the Indian ComputerEmergency Response Team(CERT-In) in September that121 Indian users had been tar-geted by Pegasus.

A WhatsApp spokesper-son, in an e-mailed statement,said the company is deeplycommitted to protecting theprivacy of its users in India “byproviding industry-leadingsecurity for all messages andcalls and by staying ahead ofadvanced threats to user secu-rity”. WhatsApp has over 400million users in India.

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Ahigh-level committeeheaded by National

Security Advisor(NSA)AjitDoval is likely to finalise themodalities for appointing thefirst Chief of Defence Staff(CDS) in the next three to fourweeks. Prime MinisterNarendra Modi hadannounced in his August 15speech the creation of the postof CDS as single point militaryadvisor to political leadership.

The proposal to create theCDS was hanging fire for morethan 20 years after the KSubrahmanyam committee onhigher defence reformsfavoured the creation of such apost for synergy amongst thethree Services.

As regards the Doval ledpanel report, sources said hereon Wednesday the Governmenthas asked the Army, Navy and

IAF to recommend the namesof their senior most comman-ders for the new position. Asof now indications are thatArmy Chief General BipinRawat may become the firstCDS as he is the senior mostamongst the three servingchiefs. He is due to retire as theArmy Chief on Dec 31.

In a major defence reformto keep pace with fast changingwar fighting capabilities worldover, Modi on August 15announced the creation of postof the CDS to promote synergyand integration of three Servicesincluding the army, navy and airforce. The CDS will be single-point military advisor to thepolitical leadership on mattersof modernisation, operationalpreparedness and fight jointly.

The proposal for creationof the CDS was pending for thelast 20 years after a Group ofMinisters(GOM)headed by

then Home Minister LKAdvani recommended it. Areview committee headed by KSubrahmanyam to fine tunehigher defence management inthe wake of Kargil war in 1999had given this proposal to theGOM.

However, successiveGovernments did not go in forthe crucial reform citing lack ofpolitical consensus. Also, thethree Services could not comeon the same platform leading

to delay of creation of theCDS. Many western countriesincluding the UK have theinstitution of CDS.

Prior to the land markreform made public by thePrime Minister on August 15,he had made the political lead-ership’s inclination apparentduring his speech on KargilVijay Diwas in July where hestressed on “jointness” andsaid it was time to connectamong three services in termsof “action and system.”

Making the importantannouncement during hisIndependence Day speech here,Modi said time has come toenhance coordination amongthe three services to deal withsecurity challenges facing India.

“To further sharpen coor-dination between the forces, Iwant to announce a major deci-sion from the Red Fort: Indiawill have a Chief of Defence

Staff- CDS. This is going tomake the forces even moreeffective,” he said. The PrimeMinister said as head of thethree services, the CDS willensure synergy and provideeffective leadership to the armedforces in dealing with securitychallenges. In a tweet then,Defence Minister Rajnath Singhhad said the announcementhas been made keeping in viewthe much needed reform tostreamline and further improvethe coordination among thethree forces and their func-tioning. “CDS will have a longlasting and a positive impact onIndia’s security,” Singh said.

The creation of the CDSwill eventually lead to the for-mation of tri-service theatrecommands intended to createvertical integration of the threeforces. The CDS will be a sin-gle window advisor to theGovernment and also synergise

long term planning, procure-ments, training and logistics ofthe three services. After Modi’sannouncement, the defenceMinistry commenced theprocess to select the CDS, histenure and other related issuesthrough the Doval led panel.

Also, the Defence Ministrywill have to take a call on theseniority of the CDS. At present,the three Chiefs are four-stargenerals and it remains to beseen whether the CDS will be afive-star general therefore seniorto the Chiefs. If the CDS is four-star general, then he will be firstamong equals, it was learnt.

While the G0M proposalwas lying in cold storage since2001, in 2012, the NareshChandra committee recom-mended the appointment of aPermanent Chairman of Chiefsof Staff Committee (COSC) asa midway to allay apprehen-sions over the CDS.

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While supporting most ofthe provisions of the

Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill2019, Rajya Sabha members onWednesday expressed reser-vation in clauses which man-dates that only a close relativecan be a surrogate mother andprovisions of five years of mar-riage for commissioning par-ents.

Cutting across the partyline, they sought modifica-tions in provisions such astime frame for abortion, timelimit of age and prior informedconsent, among others. Someof the members also soughtprovisions for allowances andinsurance along with materni-ty leave for the surrogate moth-er, besides relaxation in num-

bers of surrogacy. The Bill was introduced in

the Upper House on Tuesdayby Union Health MinisterHarsh Vardhan. It has beenpassed by the Lok Sabha in theMonsoon Session.

Participating in the debate,Jairam Ramesh(Congress) saidthat it was a “very complicat-ed bill” and the Governmentshould get an amended billpassed after considering thesuggestions of the members.

“It is very complicated bill.We all agree that surrogacyshould be regulated but inwhat form, it is still debated,”he said, adding that the billshould have come after theAssisted ReproductiveTechnology (ART) bill as theGovernment is “dealing withsurrogacy but not dealing with

the technology of surrogacy,” hesaid.

P Wilson(DMK) said thebill has provisions for permis-sion for abortion within 90days, but sometimes there arecases of medical emergency,and surrogate mother cannotwait for such period.

There should be provisionof post-approval as well, he saidwhile Vijaysai Reddy of theYSRCP, while supporting thebill, sought clarity as in whichclose relatives of the couple opt-ing for surrogacy could beconsidered for the procedureunder the provisions of the bill.

Manoj Kumar Jha (RJD)pointed out that the bill wassilent on same-sex couples andpeople who were in live -inrelationships while Aam AadmiParty’s Sushil Kumar Gupta

said the bill in the current formwould end up surrogate moth-ers exploitation.

Vikas Mahatme of the BJPsaid that with passing of the billin Parliament, the exploita-tion of poor surrogate motherswould end in the country whileCongress’s Amee Yajnik saidthe bill is much needed but inthe current form contains var-ious gaps.

Binoy Viswam (CPI), D PVats (BJP) BandaPrakash(TRS), Chhaya Verma(Congress), C P Thakur (BJP),Vijila Sathyanath (DMK) LalSingh Vadodia, Gopal Singh(BJP), Harshvardhan SinghDungarpur (BJP), GopalNarayan Singh (BJP) and JugalSingh Mathurji (BJP) also par-ticipated in discussion on theissue.

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As Members in the LokSabha on Wednesday ques-

tioned ‘strict rules’ for con-struction or renovation ofhouses around the defenceestablishments or even in thevicinity of residential coloniesof armed forces in the cities,the Government informedthem that it was revising no-objection guidelines for build-ings and ensure that securityis not compromised whileaccommodating developmentneeds.

Shiv Sena member RahulShewale said in the Lok Sabhaduring the Question hour thathe was unable to repair hishouse due to restrictions onbuilding construction in thevicinity of defence establish-ments. He also sought that thedefinition of national securityshould be relooked at.

“I am an MP and myfather was a Naval officer. ButI am unable to repair my ownhouse,” said Shewale whoseparty had recently split with the

BJP in Maharashtra over theissue of Government formationin the State. Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharaman, a formerDefence Minister in the lastModi- Government, said thereis “no conflict” between civil-ians and armed services on theissue.

In October 2016, theDefence Ministry had issued acircular regarding guidelinesfor issue of No ObjectionCertificate (NOC) for buildingconstructions. As per theguidelines, Army stationsrequiring NOC from the LocalMilitary Authority (MLA)within distances specified havebeen identified.

It is a “sensitive issue” butthe situation is not that no per-missions have been given forprojects, said Sitharaman whowas responding to certain sup-plementaries as DefenceMinister Rajnath Singh was notpresent in the House. TheHouse was discussing a ques-tion about defence establish-ments and restrictions onbuildings in their vicinity.

There are projects that aregetting clearances. After 2017,as many as 22 proposals relat-ed to Mumbai were receivedand out of them, only one isunder examination. Seven pro-jects were given permission,she added.

“Without hesitation, per-missions were given,” theMinister said even as shestressed that national securitycannot be put in danger. Theminister said during her tenure,she had six meetings on theissue and assured that matter is“almost nearing the stage offinalisation”.

“342 establishments ofIndian Army have been identi-fied under the circular datedOctober 21, 2016. No estab-lishment of Air Force, Navy andother establishments of Armyhave been identified,” Ministerof State for Defence ShripadNaik said in a written reply.

“The matter is being mon-itored to ensure that the secu-rity of defence establishmentsdoes not get jeopardised whileaccommodating development

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The issue of piling up of hugepending cases in the courts

figured in the Lok Sabha onWednesday with Law MinisterRavi Shankar Prasad saying hisMinistry has requested all HighCourts to clear 10-year-oldcases immediately to bringdown pendency of cases asamidst the reports of a cyberattack on the Kudankulamnuclear power plant, UnionMinister Jitendra Singh told theconcerned members that “if atall an error like this happened,it was confined to the admin-istrative block”.

Among other issues raisedduring the Zero Hour in thehouse , Satabdi Roy of theTrinamool Congress said theMinistry of External Affairs hasrefused to give her a no-objec-tion certificate for attending afilm festival in China.

The MP said she had toface a lot of harassment for get-

ting the visa and when it didcome she was not given therequired NoC without beingoffered any reason. She saidPrime Minister Narendra Modiwas getting pictures clickedwith Chinese President XiJinping while she has beendenied a visit to China. At thispoint, the Speaker Om Birlaasked another member to raisehis issue. BJP MP ShankarLalwani asked the Centre towork to waive passport require-ment for pilgrims visitingKartarpur Sahib in Pakistan.

Taking up the issues relat-ing to crores of cases pendingin the courts, the law ministersaid it his for the court to clearthe backlog in the court asGovernment is always there toprovide infrastructure.

Congress MP ManishTewary, however, did not agreewith the minister that theGovernment was not account-able or the piling up of cases inthe courts.

The Minister said hisGovernment has taken variousmeasures to improve the infra-structure of various courts

across the country so that jus-tice delivery is expedited.

The Modi Government hasalready given 50 per centamount for infrastructureimprovement, he said, adding,the National Judicial Databaseis now in place.

Besides, he said, the gov-ernment has made 478appointments in high courtsand number of Supreme CourtJudges has been increased.

On pendency of cases invarious courts, he said, all highcourts have been requested toimmediately clear civil andcriminal cases which are pend-ing for 10 years.”I would takethis opportunity to againrequest Chief Justice of allhigh courts to immediatelydispose of cases which arepending for 10 years,” he said.

More than 43 lakh cases arepending in 25 high courts inthe country and over 8 lakh ofthese are over a decade old.

Prasad also said there is acase for All India JudicialService but there are reserva-tions expressed by some highcourts.

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Athree-day mega event willkick off from Thursday

here with an aim to showcaseIndia’s potential in bio-techsector to the world as well as tochart out an actionableroadmap to catapult the indus-try on the global map.

Union Science andTechnology Minister Dr HarshVardhan and PetroleumMinister Dharmendra Pradhanwill inaugurate the Global Bio-India Summit, 2019 that willwitness academia, innovators,researchers, start-ups, medium& large companies comingtogether on the same platformwhich will facilitate accelera-tion of the innovation ecosys-tem in the country.

Dr Renu Swarup, Secretary,Department of Biotechnology

& Chairperson BIRAC, said,“Global Bio-India Summit isbeing organized for the firsttime in India. Biotechnologyis recognized as the sunrise sec-tor- a key driver for contribut-ing to India’s USD 5 Trillioneconomy target by 2025.”

More than 25 countriesbesides 11 States from India areparticipating in the event whichis being held at Aero City inassociation with Confederationof Indian Industry (CII),Association of BiotechnologyLed Enterprises (ABLE) andInvest India. Various MoUswill be signed while there wouldbe several interesting eventssuch as “NanoBioteck-2019”and Nano for Agri-2019” whichwill cover most recent researchand developments in theirrespective fields, said DrManish Diwan from BIRAC.

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Congress leader RahulGandhi on Wednesday hit

out at the media after 10,000tribals in Jharkhand werereportedly charged under the“draconian” sedition law, sayingit should have raised a “storm”but it did not.

“That any Govt could slamthe draconian ‘’sedition’’ law on10,000 Adivasis, fightingagainst State oppression, shouldhave shocked the conscience ofour nation & raised a mediastorm. But it hasn’t,” Rahultweeted.

He also slammed themedia for not raising it prop-erly. “Our ‘sold out’ media may

have lost its voice; as citizenscan we afford to?” Rahul tweet-ed. According to a report,10,000 adivasis were bookedunder Section 124A of theIndian Penal Code byJharkhand police.

The case relates to thePathalgadi movement inJharkhand’s Khunti districtwhere engraved stones wereinstalled in villages in 2017granting special autonomy totribal areas under the FifthSchedule of the Constitution.

The police filed cases andlevelled sedition charges against10,000 tribals, as per the mediareports.Jharkhand will go topolls from November 30 in fivephases.

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While passing theAmendments to Chit

Fund Bill on Wednesday LokSabha members demandedstrict action against chit fundfirms and its promoters whosiphon money of the poor.Participating in the debate sev-eral BJP members lauded theGovernment’s move, sayingthis will help protect the moneyof the economically weakersection.

Saugata Roy (TMC), how-ever, questioned the delay inbringing the bill. He said thebill was also introduced in thelast Lok Sabha but was thenforwarded to the StandingCommittee on Finance. Thepanel gave its recommenda-tions in August 2018 but it hastaken more than a year for theGovernment to bring the freshbill with amendments, he said.“We have to address the anom-alies in the financial system,” hesaid.

Roy said two BJP members

from West Bengal had wrong-ly referred to State ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjee inthe chit fund scam and hername should be expungedfrom the record. AnuragSharma (BJP) said there areover 30,000 registered chitfunds in the country and theunregularised would be morethan 100 times the number. Hestressed that more peopleshould be brought in the for-mal sector.

Meenakshi Lekhi (BJP)said there was a need for finan-cial literacy in the country toavoid people from falling intothe trap of such financial sys-tem. She said people who investin chit funds are many a timeunaware that when bankingsystem gives an interest rate ofnearly 8-9 per cent, then howcan one provide an interest ofnearly 30 to 40 per cent. P PChowdhary (BJP) said theamendments to the bill mayappear small but will have longterm ramifications in savingpeople’s money.

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Recently, the Indian media wasagog with news about the latestdeployment of the Chinese People’sLiberation Army (PLA) close to theIndian borders. One website, the

Indian Defence News, affirmed: “Chinastrengthening military base nearUttarakhand’s Lipulekh Pass,” which is locat-ed near the tri-junction between Nepal, Tibetand India. It explained: “The new base has 20parking hangars and also maintenancehangars. Medium-lift helicopters for thelocal Army aviation brigade have also beenspotted… There are signs of a militarybuild-up opposite Lipulekh Pass on thenortheastern tip of Uttarakhand.” It cited someintelligence sources saying that the PLA hadbuilt a helipad close to the pass and also“installed two surveillance cameras, a LongRange Reconnaissance and ObservationSystem (LORROS) and a solar panel.”

Some other reports mentioned model vil-lages being built by Beijing near the Indianborder. This is not new, though the scaleshould worry New Delhi. The informationabout Lipulekh Pass is probably linked to thenew airport coming up near Purang(Taklakot); it will serve theKailash/Manasarovar area.

On June 9, 2018, the Civil AviationAdministration of China and the TibetanAutonomous Region’s (TAR) provincial gov-ernment announced that Tibet would soonhave three new airports. An official commu-niqué stated: “Construction of the three air-ports, all above the altitude of 3,900 metres,should begin in 2019.” The new airports areto be located in Lhuntse county in Lhoka(called Shannan by the Chinese) area, northof the Upper Subansiri district of ArunachalPradesh; the second will be between Tingriand Lhatse counties of Shigatse City, north ofZangmu, the border post with Nepal, and thelast in Purang, near Lipulekh.

It was then announced: “The airportsshould be completed in 2021; by then, therewill be eight airports in TAR.” The newsagency added: “At present, the preparatorywork for the three airports is under way. Thepreferred sites have been determined;” theidea is “to consolidate the border and to pro-mote the deep integration of the military andthe people.” While tourism and “cultural”industries remain the pillars of the so-calledstabilisation, defence is also vital for theChinese authorities — one of ChinesePresident Xi Jinping’s pet projects is theMilitary Civilian Integration (or “fusion”).

Another of Xi’s favourite schemes is tomake “patriotic” Tibetans “the protectors oftheir sacred homeland.” The last two yearshave seen the mushrooming of model villagesnear the Indian border; they are known as“Xiaogang” or “moderately well-off villages.”The pretext for building more than 100 suchborder villages is “poverty alleviation.”Tibetans need to be pulled out of poverty(incidentally, is it not strange that 70 years afterthe arrival of the communists on the plateau

and the so-called liberation ofTibet, the populations still livesin such pitiable conditions?).

But “poverty” is not the onlymotivation. Xi once famouslydeclared: “Govern the nation bygoverning the borders; govern theborders by first stabilising Tibet;ensure social harmony and sta-bility in Tibet and strengthen thedevelopment of border regions.”These villages are following the“double-support model city”,which translates into full militaryand civilian integration.

The authorities have startedimplementing the theory of theirboss by providing decent hous-ing to the villagers and enticingthe local recalcitrant Tibetanpopulation to their side. Localsatraps have a new leitmotif, theinhabitants of China’s borders(with India) should be “the pro-tectors of the sacred homelandand the builders of happy homes.”The construction of “model”villages on the Tibetan side of theIndian border, mainly north ofArunachal Pradesh and also inHimachal and Ladakh, is the out-come of this. Several senior com-munist leaders have visited thesenew villages, either north ofKibithu in the Lohit valley; inMetok, north of Upper Siang dis-trict; in Yume (also writtenYumai), north of Takshing inUpper Subansari or in Lepo,Marmang and Tsona, north ofKhenzimane and Tawang.

Take Metok County, forexample. China Tibet Newsreported that there are 46 admin-istrative villages (including one

multi-ethnic inhabitation areaconsisting of Monpa, Lhopa,Tibetan or Han) with a total pop-ulation of 13,725: “In 2018, thecounty’s GDP has reached 606million yuan ($99 million); farm-ers and herdsmen’s per capita dis-posable income and cash incomehave reached 10,380 yuan($1,687) and 8,833 yuan ($1,486)respectively.”

In October, 133 villagersbelonging to 29 householdsmoved into their new houses.Reports said how “all the town-ship’s residents are living in freehouses provided by theGovernment,” in PumaChangthang township, north ofthe Bhutan border. “Sharing a 25-km border with Bhutan, wherethe average altitude tops 5,300metres above sea level, the PumaChangthang township is inNagartse county; it is renownedas the world’s highest township.”

The report explained:“Resettlement in new housingprovided by the Government ispart of its efforts to ensure theentire population lives comfort-ably in border areas… Projectconstruction includes villagers’houses, party’s committee offices,village clinics, water supply androads” and, of course, these“multi-ethnic” villages will wel-come Han Chinese.

Take another example. Itwas reported that Tibetans inBayi village of Nyingchi City,north of Arunachal Pradesh,have come together and jointly“built a beautiful hometown aswell as a better life.” Incidentally,

places called Bayi (or 8-1 forAugust 1, the PLA anniversary)are usually under the Army’smanagement.

The article said that by theend of 2016, 16 impoverished vil-lagers were lifted out of povertythrough pairing assistance (ie,with the support of a mainlandprovince), through participationin the collective economy andself-employment: “Bayi Villageimproved farmers and herds-men’s cultural living standards,supported the construction of a“cultural” square, a village libraryand also organised various cul-tural and sports activities such asTibetan circle dance, tug of war,lifting stones or archery.”

But at the same time, areview committee in Tsona coun-ty warned: “All townships and vil-lages must come together toimprove the village rules and reg-ulations [of the party], stan-dardise the daily behaviour of thevillagers and strengthen the ruralrevitalisation strategy goals.”

“Standardise the daily behav-ior” is ominous. On the Indianside, everything moves slowly asusual. A welcome exception is theSisseri River bridge in the LowerDibang Valley of ArunachalPradesh, recently inauguratedby Defence Minister RajnathSingh. It will cut down travel timefrom Pasighat to Roing by aboutfive hours. But the Governmentremains hesitant to see tourists in“restricted” areas. China does nothave this problem.

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Sir — This refers to the article, “What lies ahead for Sri LankanTamils?” (November 20) byKalyani Shankar. It is an intrigu-ing story as to how the newly-elected Sri Lankan PresidentGotabaya Rajapaska, formerDefence Minister and brother offormer President of Sri LankaMahinda Rajapaska, led a brutalcrackdown on Tamil Tiger sepa-ratists, the Liberation Tigers ofTamil Eelam (LTTE) and cor-nered it during the Eelam War IV.This culminated in the elimina-tion of LTTE leader, VelupillaiPrabhakaran.

This is why Gotabaya came tobe known as the “terminator”despite the fact that he carried theinfamy of alleged staged killingsof Tamil separatists as well asjournalists in the civil war duringhis regime as the DefenceMinister. The Lankan President’sadministrative strategy fructifiedat the end of the day and endedSri Lanka’s nearly 30-year civilwar with the LTTE. His presentelection as the President is againa manifestation of his politicalsagacity.

The writer’s plea about appre-

hensions being harboured by theTamil minorities in Lanka, whodid not cast votes in Gotabaya’sfavour, carries weight.

But now, as President,Gotabaya must think differently,keeping in mind the holistic

development of the country andamelioration of one and all, irre-spective of their political leanings,beliefs, faith, religion, regions, lan-guage or colour.

Azhar A KhanRampur

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Sir — Though digital platformshave increased their presence intoday’s times, television is still themost important and the greatest

tool for entertainment. It was in December 1996

that the United Nations GeneralAssembly proclaimed November21 as World Television Day. Thisday recognises the role andimportance of television in ourday-to-day lives. It has been at thecore of the information revolu-tion, driving reliable visuals, newsand entertainment from acrossthe globe at people’s doorstep.

Falguni AswaniUjjain

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Sir — It is unfortunate that anumber of telecom giants havebeen registering eye-poppinglosses in the last quarter. This,coupled with intense competitionand bitter disputes over policycompliance, has compelled themto raise tariffs. With no clarityover how they will pay theiraccumulated dues, theGovernment, which is examiningthis issue, must waive off penal-ties and interest against telcos.

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At the recently-concluded RegionalComprehensive Economic Partnership(RECP) Summit, Prime Minister

Narendra Modi announced that despite sevenyears of negotiations, his Government haddecided not to join this plurilateral regional tradebloc that was launched by the Association ofSouth-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) leadersand six other countries during the 21st ASEANSummit in Phnom Penh in November 2012.

The objective of launching RCEP negotia-tions was to achieve a modern, comprehensive,high-quality and mutually beneficial economicpartnership agreement among the ASEANmember States and its Free Trade Agreement(FTA) partners.

Announcing the country’s decision to stayout, Modi said, “India stands for greater region-al integration, as well as for freer trade and adher-ence to a rule-based international order. Indiahas been pro-actively, constructively and mean-ingfully engaged in the RCEP negotiationssince inception. India has worked for the cher-ished objective of striking a balance, in the spir-it of give and take. Today, when we look aroundwe see during seven years of RCEP negotiations,many things, including the global economic andtrade scenarios, have changed. We cannot over-look these changes.”

Modi’s decision came in the backdrop ofintense domestic pressure from various stake-holders, including political parties, StateGovernments and various industry lobbies.Indian decision-makers were persuaded to shunthe free trade partnership due to shrill concernsthat India would become a dumping ground forChinese products, adversely impacting Micro,Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) andalso cripple its dairy industry due to the pres-ence of majors such as Australia and NewZealand in this trade grouping.

Interestingly, India’s decision to withdrawfrom the RCEP came despite the Ministry ofCommerce’s High-Level Advisory Group(HLAG) recommending that the country adoptan optimistic outlook towards RCEP. TheHLAG, constituted under the chairmanship ofSurjit Bhalla — Executive Director for India atthe International Monetary Fund (IMF) and for-mer member of the Prime Minister’s EconomicAdvisory Council — comprised other high-rank-ing members such as Foreign MinisterSubrahmanyam Jaishankar and formerCommerce Secretary Rajeev Kher. The HLAGwas tasked with recommending steps to boostthe country’s share in global merchandise andservices trade, and formally came out with its rec-ommendations only days before the PrimeMinister announced India’s withdrawal fromRCEP. Since then, the Commerce Minister hasclarified that India may still join the partnershipif its concerns are addressed, though such aneventuality seems unlikely in the near future.

To an extent, India’s decision to withdraw wasalso influenced by the perceived negative out-comes of earlier trade pacts it had entered intowith Japan, Korea and the ASEAN. A centraltheme which emerges across trade discussions,of which India is a part, is the country’s peren-nial inward focus. This stance is counter-intu-

itive since India has benefitted greatlyfrom globalisation and liberalised mar-ket access, evidenced not only in its ser-vices exports but also through importof primary and intermediate goods fordomestic value-addition and re-export.

Further, the impending stalemateat the World Trade Organisation(WTO), precipitated by the US’s effortsto render the WTO appellate bodycomatose, necessitates an exploration ofother routes for trade enhancement.Bilateral and plurilateral trade arrange-ments such as the RCEP have thusemerged as a preferred alternative.Since the beginning of the Doha Roundof trade negotiations at the WTO in2001, the number of such arrangementsin force globally has grown more thanthree-fold. During the same period,India inked trade agreements with theASEAN, Japan, South Korea andSingapore. However, since 2011, Indiahas not signed any further bilateral orplurilateral trade agreements, primar-ily due to a growing perception thatopening up of trade borders has notserved the country well.

Contrary to this perception, suchagreements have contributed immense-ly towards trade creation. For instance,India currently has a trade surplus of$2.5 billion with Singapore. Similarly,India’s trade deficit with ASEAN vis-à-vis its total trade deficit witnessed a con-tinuous decrease from 9.9 per cent in2007 to 6.6 per cent in 2017; despite thefact that ASEAN’s share in India’s totaltrade has remained more or less con-stant. Meanwhile, India’s deficit withChina, a non-FTA partner country,increased from 18 per cent of the totaltrade deficit in 2007, to 40 per cent in2017. Even within the aegis of theWTO, the concept of flexible multilat-

eralism has found several supporters.Flexible multilateralism allows WTOmembers to advance and concludeplurilateral agreements where full con-sensus is not yet possible. Examples ofsuch plurilateral arrangements includethe Information TechnologyAgreements (ITA-I and II) — whileIndia is a signatory to ITA-I, it hasrefrained from adopting the seconditeration. More recently, taking forwardthe approach of flexible multilateralism,76 countries decided to initiate discus-sions on trade related aspects of elec-tronic commerce. India has so far notjoined the discussion, citing the erosionof policy space and the digital gapbetween member countries amongother reasons, for not doing so.

Looking ahead, if India wants toachieve its target of becoming a $5 tril-lion economy by 2024, then consider-able efforts and resources are requiredto push its exports. More importantly,the country will have to review itsfrozen approach towards bilateral andplurilateral arrangements. Indeed, alongwith other like-minded countries, thecountry should continue to ensurethat the relevance of a multilateral trad-ing system is maintained. However, itis also important that in light of chang-ing global trade dynamics charac-terised by forward and backward link-ages, it cannot afford to ignore prefer-ential agreements, or even limitedtrade deals like the one it is currentlyexploring with the US.

Given India’s political-economycompulsions, it is understandable thatthe country remains wary of enteringinto far-reaching trade agreementsproposed by advanced jurisdictions. ButIndia must nevertheless adopt an alter-native strategy to advance its self-

interest. It is better to sit in the nego-tiating room and disagree than toleave the room altogether.

Going forward, the Indian leader-ship must resist the temptation ofabstaining from decisions due to per-ceived costs in the short-run. To beginwith, there is an urgent need to fix inter-nal decision-making mechanisms. Amore concerted and coordinated effortacross Government departments inevaluating trade partnerships should bethe way forward, instead of conveninginter-ministerial discussions as a reac-tionary measure. Government depart-ments should engage with the industryon a more frequent basis on issues ofmarket access and to determine sub-sectoral competitiveness.

Further, the country’s relativestrengths and domestic industry par-ticipation in specific value chainsshould inform prioritisation of tradepartner negotiations. At present, theCommerce Ministry reaches out to theindustry for inputs only after the coun-try has initiated trade discussions —this mechanism largely remains ineffec-tive as it fails to solicit detailed andusable submissions within predefinedtimelines.

To ensure that there is coherence inthe decision-making process, theGovernment should explore the estab-lishment of a nodal body, on the linesof the erstwhile Trade and EconomicRelations Committee (TERC) of theCabinet. Such a body can enable con-sultative decision-making, efficientinter-ministerial coordination and bet-ter definition of the country’s trade pri-orities and strategies.

(Kalawatia and Priyadarshi work atKoan Advisory Group, New Delhi. Theviews expressed here are personal.)

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At a time when air pollutionlevels are becoming a constantthreat in India and across the

world, we need to deal with two mostdamaging gases, nitrogen oxides(NOx) and nitrogen dioxides (NO2).

NOx and NO2 are producedfrom the reaction of nitrogen andoxygen gases in the air during com-bustion, especially at high tempera-tures. Hence, in areas with highvehicular traffic, especially largecities, the amount of NOx and NO2emitted into the atmosphere as airpollution can be significant.

NOx and NO2 gases react toform smog and acid rain as well asbeing central to the formation of fine

particles (PM) and ground levelozone, both of which are associatedwith adverse health effects. Exposureto PM pollution and deadly ozone,even for a short duration, can wors-en respiratory conditions and asth-ma and lead to emergency hospitaladmission, especially for those withpre-existing heart or lung disease andin the elderly and children.

India, too, is in the crosshairs ofspiralling NOx and NO2 levels. TheAir Pollution Global Cities RankingReport released by Greenpeace foundthat 15 of the 20 most polluted citiesin the world are located in India,highlighting the country’s air pollu-tion crisis.

The organisation analysed thesatellite data generated using themethodology of TroposphericMonitoring Instrument (TROPO-MI), which monitors vertically inte-grated amount of several atmospher-ic trace gases, including NOx andNO2. Based on the analysis of thissatellite data, Greenpeace India putthe culpability of rising NOx andNO2 levels on transport and indus-

trial clusters which are creatingIndia’s worst nitrogen dioxidehotspots such as Delhi, Bengaluru,Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai andHyderabad, given the fact that thesecities have high vehicular populationand petrol/diesel consumption.

According to the satellite datacollected between February 2018 andMay 2019, coal consumption andindustrial clusters like Sonbhadra-Singrauli in Madhya Pradesh, Korba

in Chhattisgarh, Talcher in Odisha,Chandrapur in Maharashtra,Mundra in Gujarat and Durgapur inWest Bengal were also found to beequally polluting when it comes toNOx and NO2 emissions.

In January 2019, Airpocalypse III,another report by Greenpeace India,identified 139 cities where air pollu-tion levels exceed national stan-dards but were not included in theNational Clean Air Programme

(NCAP) that was recently released bythe Ministry of Environment Forestand Climate Change (MoEFCC).

The report states that even if weare optimistic and assume that airpollution across India can be reducedby 30 per cent by 2024, 153 cities willbe left with pollution levels exceed-ing the National Ambient Air QualityStandards (NAAQS) and only 12cities will comply with World HealthOrganisation (WHO) guidelines.

To highlight the severity of thecrisis, even after a 30 per cent reduc-tion, PM10 levels in Delhi will stillbe about 168 μg/m3, almost threetimes the national standard of60μg/m3.

India is already paying a price forthe current nitrogen dioxide levelswith increasing cases of asthma,lung damage, heart attacks and lungcancer. NO2 also contributes to theformation of PM2.5, a dangerous airpollutant.

It is estimated that air pollution,ambient PM2.5, household andozone air pollution collectivelycaused 3.4 million deaths worldwide

in 2017 and over 1.2 million in India.PM2.5 alone resulted in more than6.7 lakh deaths in India in 2017.

The proliferation of NO2 levelsand the consequent increase inPM2.5 levels require urgent interven-tion and action from theGovernment. All sources of NO2, beit transport, industries and powergeneration, should be tackled keep-ing in view the health emergencyIndia faces today.

Additionally, the emission stan-dard deadlines for coal-based powerplants and industries must be strict-ly adhered to, even as the industrialand electricity sectors’ transition tocleaner alternatives for power gener-ation must be speeded up.

In fact, according to a 2015report by IIT-Kanpur, a 90 per centreduction in NO2 from power plantsin a radius of 300 km from Delhi canreduce nitrates by 45 per cent, whichwill effectively reduce PM10 andPM2.5 concentrations in Delhi andhelp us breathe better.

(The writer is an environmentaljournalist)

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The Pakistan Army violatedthe ceasefire on Wednesday

by resorting to small arms fireand shelling with mortars onforward posts and villagesalong the Line of Control (LoC)in Jammu & Kashmir’s Poonch,a Defence spokesman said.

The firing from across theborder in Krishna Ghati sectorstarted around 1645 hours andwas retaliated by the IndianArmy “befittingly”, the official said, adding thePakistan army initiated thecross-border firing.

There was no report of anycasualty in the Pakistanishelling, the spokesman said.

Meanwhile, GeneralOfficer Commanding, StarCorps, Lt Gen JS Nain visitedforward areas of Jammu-based‘Tiger division’ and reviewedthe operational preparedness ofthe forces, he said.

The Corps Commanderexalted the troops to be ever-vigilant towards the externalthreats facing the country and complimentedthem for their stellar perfor-mance against all odds, the offi-cial added.

The GOC was briefed byGOC, ‘Tiger Division’, MajGen Sharad Kapur on the oper-ational readiness of the divisionas also the current security sce-nario in Jammu, thespokesman said.

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Indian Navy is inducting alarge number of highly capa-

ble and state-of-the-art assetsand equipment, President RamNath Kovind said onWednesday as he highlightedthe strategic importance of theseas in the well- being of peo-ple of the country.

Addressing the Navalcadets after awarding thePresident’s Colour to the IndianNaval Academy, the Presidentsaid that India is a maritimenation and highlighted thestrategic values of its longcoastline and several islandswhich are acting as the coun-try’s “national outposts”.

“A significant proportion ofIndia’s trade and energy needs

are met through the medium ofthe oceans.

Safety of the seas and mar-itime commons, therefore,

remains a critical requirementto ensure the economic andinfrastructure development onland, as also to ensure well-

being of its people,” he said ata function organised at theEzhimala Naval Academy inthe district.

Underscoring the securitychallenges — both in the con-ventional and asymmetricdomains — facing the countrytoday, Kovind said, “The coun-try looks upon you to deliver,each and everytime, whether itis a full fledged conflict, naturalcalamity, law and order challengeor our diplomatic mission.”

Hailing the Indian Navy asthe country’s prime instru-ment to ensure maritime secu-rity, Kovind said, “You will bepleased to know that our Navy is inducting a large num-ber of highly capable and state-of the-art assets andequipment”.

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Asoldier was killed andanother injured in an acci-

dent during movement of tanksas part of an Army exercise inJaisalmer district of Rajasthanon Wednesday, officials said.

According to police, thedeceased soldier was identifiedas Parmeshwar Yadav.

The incident took place onWednesday morning duringthe movement of tanks, leavingone soldier dead and anotherinjured, Defence spokesper-son Col Sombit Ghosh said.

The injured soldier, RDDixit, is undergoing treatmentat a hospital in Jodhpur, thepolice said.

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An FIR was registeredagainst self-styled godman

Swami Nithyananda on thecharges of alleged kidnappingand wrongful confinement ofchildren to make them collectdonations from followers torun his ashram in Ahmedabadin Gujarat, police said onWednesday.

Police also arrested SadhviPranpriyananda and PriyatatvaRiddhi Kiran, both womendisciples of the controversialgodman, on charges of alleged-ly kidnapping at least fourchildren, keeping them in ille-gal confinement in a flat andusing them as child labourersto promote activities of theashram to collect donations.

Nithyananda was bookedon the similar charges afterpolice recorded statements of thefour children who were rescuedfrom a flat and the ashram,“Yogini Sarvagyapeetham”, apolice officer said.

Sadhvi Pran Priyanandaand Priyatatva Riddhi Kiran areresponsible for managing theashram, he said. “We havearrested two disciples of SwamiNithyananda after two childrenin the age group of 9 and 10years enrolled at the ashramtold us that they were torturedand made to work as child

labour and kept in an illegalconfinement at a flat in the cityfor over ten days.

“Similar allegations weremade by two other children res-cued from the ashram on thebasis of a complaint filed by theirparents,” Dy Superintendent ofPolice (Ahmedabad rural), KTKamariya said.

The accused persons havebeen booked under Sections365 (kidnapping or abductingwith intent to secretly andwrongfully confine a person),344 (wrongful confinement forten or more days), 323 (volun-tarily causing hurt), 504 (inten-tional insult with intent toprovoke breach of peace), and502 (sale of printed or engraved

substance containing defama-tory matter) of the IndianPenal Code (IPC).

They have also beenbooked under Section 14 of theChild Labour (Prohibition andRegulation) Act, 1986, thepolice officer said. “The twochildren (rescued from theflat) have been handed over tothe child welfare committeewhich is questioning them andtrying to locate their parents,”Kamariya said.

The rescued children toldpolice that they were forced totake part in a religious ritualand were harassed, he said.

“They were being made towork for the ashram by force tocollect donation from followersby sharing and uploading various ritual materials,” theDYSP said.

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The ASI has begun doing itsbit to replenish groundwa-

ter around Taj Mahal, divertingwaste water discharged duringthe RO treatment to a stepwellbuilt during the Mughal peri-od. Of the 40,000 litres ofwaste water generated withinthe Taj Mahal complex, somewould also be channelised intoa well and four borewells that have been constructed forthis purpose.

This exercise has beenundertaken to spread a mes-sage that Taj Mahal, a placewhich sees maximum touristfootfall in the country, canalso contribute to water con-servation, Vasant KumarSwarnkar, superintendingarchaeologist of ArchaeologicalSurvey of India (ASI), AgraCircle, told PTI on Wednesday.

A total of 30,000 litres ofdrinking water is provideddaily through the RO (ReverseOsmosis) process for con-sumption, he said. In theprocess, 30,000 litres of wastewater is generated and anoth-er 10,000 litres is wasted dur-ing consumption. So overall,40,000 litres of water is beingwasted everyday, he said.

While 30,000 litres of wastewater will be diverted intostepwell and well, remaining10,000 litres will go intoborewells, Swarnkar said. Hesaid water will be channelisedthrough PVC pipes to replen-ish the water table at 120 feet.

The Taj Mahal complex hassix RO systems which provide750 to 2,000 litres of waterevery hour, he said, adding thatthe Mughal era mausoleum isopen to tourists for 10 hoursevery day.

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As MNM founder KamalHaasan on Wednesday

reiterated his intention to joinhands with his contemporary‘Superstar’ Rajinikanth politi-cally, the ruling AIADMK con-tinued to target the duo, call-ing it a ‘mirage’ and insisted theactors can’t harm the party’sprospects.

Though Haasan expressedhis willingness to partner withhis four-decade old cinemacolleague, he made it clear hewould do so “only if required”and for the sake of Tamil Nadu.

While AIADMKCoordinator and Deputy ChiefMinister O Panneerselvam saidthe duo’s possible partnershipwould not affect his party, hisCabinet colleauge D Jayakumarsaid the duo was like ‘mirage’that would “disappoint” theperson believing it to be water.

He also likened them to an‘illusion.’ Haasan’s commentson joining forces withRajinikanth came a day afterboth actors hinted at coming

together keeping in mind TamilNadu’s welfare.

“My friend Mr Rajinikanthand I are of the same opinionthat if need be all hands shouldjoin for the sake of Tamil Naduand we are no exception,” hetold reporters here,

“That is our attitude, we

mean it.. We have come herenot just to do politics but tomake a better Tamil Nadu,” theactor-politician added. He,however, said their statementson Tuesday should be “care-fully” looked into.

“Carefully look at what wehad said.. (they had said they

would join hands) if requiredonly.. We will, if required, andthat too for Tamil Nadu’s sake,”he said. Beyond their friend-ship, Tamil Nadu’s welfare wasimportant, he added.

Haasan also ruled out anytimeframe for the two actorspossibly working together polit-ically. “The positive thing (fromthe developments) is that thereis an assurance we will work forTamil Nadu,” he said. When ascribe asked if Rajinikanthwould join his MNM, Haasanshot back saying it was “not fair”to pose such questions.Responding to Haasan’s state-ment, Panneerselvam said nonecan affect the ruling party.

“The AIADMK’s base isvery strong. We are not worriedwho joins hands. This movementis cadre-based,” he told reporters.While many political partiescould come into existence theycan, however, do no damage tothe AIADMK, he added.

However, his party andcabinet colleague Jayakumarseemed to be more harshtowards Haasan and

Rajinikanth, calling them amirage and ‘illusion.’ “A mirage,illusion is being created — it islike those who went believeingit was water and getting disap-pointed,” he said. “Rajini orKamal or Vijay (another topactor who is rumoured to beharboring political ambitions)are all illusions.. They cannotsurvive in Tamil Nadu politics,”the Minister said.

To another question, hedescribed top actor Ajithkumaras “dignified and dedicated tohis profession”. Ajithkumar isconsidered Vijay’s rival, andknown to keep away from con-troversies, although he hadonce publicly told then ChiefMinister and late MKarunanidhi, that actors wereforced to attend certain eventswhich became a debating point.

Exuding confidence thatthe possible Rajini-Kamal duocannot do harm to theAIADMK-led alliance in thestate electorally, Jayakumarsaid “none will stand before”the coalition, comprising ofBJP, DMDK and PMK.

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The Archaeological Surveyof India (ASI) has asked

major internet serviceproviders to boost signalstrength near monuments andhotels in Agra, so that touristscan easily book tickets onlinevia “QR code standees” placedthere to visit the TajMahal.

Agra CircleSuperintendingA r c h a e o l o g i s tVasant KumarSwarnkar told PTIthat ASI has con-tacted BSNL, Airtel,Vodafone-Idea, Jioto increase their sig-nal strength nearthe sites the standeeshave been put.

“BSNL has assured it willdo the needful within 15 days,”Swarnkar said. QR codestandees offer tourists anoption to book tickets by mak-ing online payment throughmobile phones by scanningthe codes.

After tourists scan thecode, they are connected to the

ticketing portal. Theycan book 30 tickets— 20 for adult vis-itors and 10 forchildren — at atime. Tourists canalso directly visit

the ticketing portalto book tickets online.

The ASI official said thedistrict administration ismonitoring the progress

with the internet ser-vice providers.

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New Delhi: The SupremeCourt Wednesday agreed tohear on Friday a plea seekingto remove some dried up treesnear the mental hospital atAgra which falls under the TajTrapezium Zone housing pro-tected monument Taj Mahal.

A Bench headed by ChiefJustice SA Bobde took note ofsubmissions of a lawyer, rep-resenting the Government hos-pital, that certain dead trees beallowed to be removed as they“scaring mental patients”. Ithas been alleged that the Forestdepartment of Agra Zone hasdenied the permission toremove even dried trees inview of the apex court’s ear-lier orders in this regard.Apex court, which

has been hearing the PIL filedby environmentalist MCMehta, has restrained cuttingor removing trees in the TajTrapezium area.

The PIL has sought pro-tection of the Taj from the illeffects of polluting gases anddeforestation. Earlier, apexcourt, in 2014, had allowedAgra civic corporation to cutdown 38 trees in protected areaof Taj Mahal under TajTrapezium Zone but haddirected it to plant thrice num-ber of trees in the compoundor nearby areas. The corpora-tion had submitted the treesneed to be cut down to reno-

vate the tehsil building. PTI

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The Gujarat High Court onWednesday issued notices

to self-styled godman SwamiNithyananda and the StateGovernment on a plea filed bya man seeking custody of histwo daughters “detained” at anashram run here by the con-troversial guru.

A division bench of justicesSR Brahmbhatt and VP Patelissued notices to the respon-dents, including the StateGovernment, DGP, police offi-cers concerned, child welfarecommittee chairman as well asNithyananda and MaaPranpriya, the co-ordinator ofAhmedabad-based ashram.

The petitioner, JanardhanaSharma, alleged that officials ofthe ashram — YoginiSarvagyapeetham — were notallowing him and his wife tomeet their two daughters stay-ing there. Sharma said the policerecently managed to rescue theirtwo other daughters, both

minors, lodged in the sameashram. While police rescued hisminor daughters, his two elderdaughters — Lopamudra (21)and Nandhitha Sharma (18) —were still under “detention” atthe ashram and not beingallowed to meet their parents,Sharma has said in his “habeascorpus” petition.

A habeas corpus plea is apetition which is filed to ensurea person under arrest is broughtbefore a court which will deter-mine whether the detention islegal. The petitioner has request-ed the high court to directpolice and other authorities toproduce their elder daughters,who he alleged are being keptunder “illegal confinement”,before the court and hand themover to their parents. Apartfrom seeking their custody, thepetitioner has also sought theHC’s direction for an inquiryregarding all other minors keptat the ashram and appropriateaction against the swami and hisdisciples, if required.

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Pune: A group of Hindutvaorganisations on Wednesdaywarned of launching a campaignagainst Shiv Sena and BJP if anyof the two parties join hands withCongress and NCP to form aGovernment in Maharashtra.

Samasta Hindu Aghadipresident Milind Ekbote said theBJP and Sena, which havetogether won 161 seats in the288-member House, shouldform a Government in the Stateas soon as possible as fightingbetween themselves was an“insult” of the people’s mandate.He said the Hindutva outfits

were coming together as a “unit-ed front” to oppose Sena or BJP’sattempts to tie up with the ide-ologically different parties. “Wehave been working for Hindutvafor decades. We were expectingthat some of our demands wouldbe fulfilled since the BJP and ShivSena came to power...We are alsoconcerned about farmers.

“But these two parties arefighting with each other. It is aninsult of people’s mandate.Therefore, we are appealing toboth of them to form aGovernment in Maharashtra assoon as possible,” he said.PTI

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The group of Banaras HinduUniversity (BHU) students

protesting against the appoint-ment of a Muslim at theirSanskrit department might justchange their minds if they vis-ited the professor’s father.

At a temple in premises ofShree Ramdev GaushalaChetanya Dham in Bagru, 35kms from the Rajasthan capi-tal, Ramzan Khan participatesin the aarti, sitting at a har-monium and singing a bhajan.

The atmosphere there is insharp contrast to the protest bysome students at the BHU. Theysay only a Hindu can teachSanskrit. But a visit to Bagru,where the family lives in a mod-est three-room house, revealsthat the professor grew up in anatmosphere immersed inSanskrit and “Hindu traditions”.

His father Ramzan Khanhimself holds the Shastri quali-fication in Sanskrit, composesreligious songs and performs‘gau sewa’ at the nearby cattleshed. At the same time, he vis-its the mosque and offers namaz.

The local Hindu communi-ty as well as his own relatives areokay with this. “I was very happywhen my son was appointed atthe prestigious BHU. The protest

by students is unfortunate and Iwould like to urge the agitatingstudents to recognise my son andsee what kind of background hehas,” he said.

“My son wanted to learnSanskrit like me so I got himadmission at the school. He hadthe blessings of the teachers,acquired a high qualificationand got selected at BHU,” Khantold PTI on Wednesday.

“I am confident that if thestudents listen to him withpatience and see his familybackground, they would beconvinced and satisfied,” headded. Ramzan Khan has hada better deal than his son.

“I never faced discrimina-tion on the basis of religion. Weall live in brotherhood. I go tothe mosque and often offernamaz, I go to the temple anddo Krishna Bhakti and gausewa,” he said. He said Sanskritruns through his veins.

“My father also used tosing songs at temples. I learntthis from him. He made melearn Sanskrit and I also start-ed dedicating time for gausewa, and also composedsongs. My time goes in Krishnaand Bhagwad bhakti,” he said.

At temples, he sings songsdedicated to Rama, Krishna,Shiva and other Hindu deities.

Singing bhajans at temples andevents like “jagrans” is also hissource of livelihood.

Hindu seers in the areahave come out in support of thefamily after the BHU row.

“This is very condemnablethat a person who is highly qual-ified in Sanskrit and gotappointed on merit is beingopposed only because he isMuslim. This intolerance shouldbe stopped,” said SaurabhRaghvendracharya, a ‘sadhu’from the Raghunathdham tem-ple near Bagru.

“All our religious functionsand the temple aarti are incom-plete without Ramzan Khan.People in large numbers turnup to listen to him. He does itall in dedication to Krishnabhakti and never expects any-thing in return,” said MohanLal Sharma, a priest fromanother temple.

“He too is a Sanskrit schol-ar, serves cows and loves them,”the priest added. While RamzanKhan meets people who call onhim following the BHUprotests, other family membersappear reluctant to do so.

“I only want to conveythat people should see thequalifications of my son insteadof judging him on the basis ofreligion,” he said.

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The olive branch extendedby Pragatisheel Samajwadi

Party Lohia (PSPL) presidentShivpal Yadav to his estrangednephew and Samajwadi Partypresident Akhilesh Yadav has,apparently found no takers.

More than 24 hours afterShivpal Yadav put forward aproposal for unity on MulayamSingh Yadav’s birthday onNovember 22, Akhilesh Yadavhas chosen to completelyignore the overture.

Shivpal had suggested thatthe birthday celebrations ofMulayam Singh should be heldin their native village Sefai inEtawah and the entire familyshould come together for theevent. Akhilesh, however, hasdirected all district units of hisparty to celebrate the occasionin Lucknow, sources said.

It is not yet known ifMulayam Singh would opt forLucknow or Etawah on hisbirthday. According to a formerSP minister, known for hisproximity to Akhilesh Yadav,“Too much water has flowed

under the bridge. Shivpal Yadavhas damaged the SamajwadiParty in the Lok Sabha elec-tions by cutting into our votesand paving the way for BJP’svictory. It will not be easy toforget all the bad blood thatprevails between the two fam-ily members and their parties.”

The mood is upbeat in theSamajwadi Party following itsvictory in three assembly seatsin the recent assembly by-elec-tions. “We have proved that weare the main opposition partyin UP and our victory has givenclear indications that SP isfirmly on the comeback path.Akhilesh is now workingtowards strengthening theparty organisations and noth-ing will divert his attentionfrom the job right now,” theformer Minister added.

Rampur: The Rampur districtcourt has issued non-bailablewarrants against SamajwadiParty MP Mohd Azam Khanand his family.

The matter is related to thedispute in birth documents ofAzam Khan’s son AbdullahAzam , who is an SP MLA.

Azam Khan, his wife andson Abdullah Azam were toappear in court on Tuesday butneither of them appeared afterwhich the court issued thenon-bailable warrants againstthem. The next date of hearinghas been fixed for December 2.

BJP leader Akash Saxenahad filed a case against AzamKhan and his family underSections 420, 467, 468, 471 ofIPC. Abdullah Azam hadreportedly given different birthcertificate in his passport andthen the election affidavit andthe case was filed against thefamily on this issue.

There are over 84 criminalcases pending against AzamKhan and his family inRampur. These cases are relat-ed to land grabbing, encroach-ment, book theft, statue theft,power theft, buffalo theft, goattheft and forgery.

Azam Khan has failed toget anticipatory bail in thecases. IANS

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The officials of Income-Tax(I-T) Department on

Wednesday conducted simul-taneous raids on RamanaiduStudios in Hyderabad and otherpremises owned by popularTollywood producer DaggubatiSuresh Babu. The searches areunderway against another big-gie S Radha Krishna, who ownsproduction houses, Haarikaand Hassine Creations andSitara Entertainments.

“The raid began early inthe morning on Wednesdayand media reports suggest thatofficials are going through I-Treturns filed by the productionhouse over the last few years, toexamine alleged tax evasion,”said the sources.

The raids are expected tocontinue until Wednesdayevening. Some documents werealso examined and seized bythe officials, media reportsadded. An official statement isyet to be issued and furtherdetails are awaited.

According to information,the searches are on in 25 loca-tions across Mumbai,Hyderabad, Chennai andVisakhapatnam. A majority ofthe locations are propertiesowned by Telangana-based

film production house owners.Ironically, both produc-

tion houses are readying torelease their new films. Haarikaand Hassine is all set to releaseits next movie ‘Ala vaikuntha-purramuloo’ starring AlluArjun, while SitaraEntertainment’s last productionwas Premam, remake of 2015Malayalam film . The roman-tic drama featured NagaChaitanya and Shruti Hasan.

According to sources, thesleuths are suspecting massivetax evasions in production,distribution and exhibitionearnings. Ramanaidu Studio isset for a December release of‘Venky Mama’ that stars theuncle-nephew duo Venkateshand Naga Chaitanya.

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At a time when QuickResponse (QR) codes have

become common for digitalpayments across India, a col-lege in Andhra Pradesh isshowing how the technologycan benefit students and helpin the conservation of plants.

The initiative of PBSiddhartha College of Arts andSciences here is not only help-ing the students get informationabout plants at their fingertipsbut is also expected to con-tribute in plant conservation.

Students or anyone canuse their smart phones to scanthe QR code hung in the treeson the campus to access all theinformation about the plantranging from its botanicalname to its medicinal value.

Any app generating QRcode and available for free onthe online stores can be used toscan the QR code and accessthe information. The user will

see what has been incorporat-ed and for detailed informationcan refer to books or do theGoogle search.

Those scanning QR codewill not only know the scien-tific name of the plant, but alsoits status by InternationalUnion for Conservation ofNature (IUCN), which releas-es the status of all speciesevery year.

“These days people haveawareness about conservationof plants, but they don’’t knowwhich plant has to be con-served and what is its name.The IUCN status shows whichare the endangered species.We hope that educated people

will help conserve such speciesby growing them in their gar-dens,” Srinivas Reddy, head ofBotany Department at the col-lege told IANS.

The department has devel-oped herbal garden on thecollege campus with 60 vari-eties of medicinal plants likeTulsi, mustard, aloe vera andspearmint.

It has also grown 20 othervarieties. These include‘’Gyrocarpus Americanus’’,whose wood is used to makethe world-famous Kondapallitoys. The scarcity of the wood,locally known as ‘’Tella Poniki’’has affected the toy manufac-turing in Kondapalli nearVijayawada.

The Botany Departmentworked for a month to collectall database about trees in thecollege campus and assignedQR codes to them. They cata-logued the trees according totheir species and incorporatedvital information.

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The students’ protest againstthe appointment of a

Muslim professor in theSanskrit Vidya Dharma Vigyanin the Banaras HinduUniversity (BHU) entered its14th day on Wednesday withthe students refusing to give upon their demand.

The BHU administrationcontinues to maintain that theappointment of professor FerozKhan is in accordance with theprescribed norms and there isno question of his removal.

The BHU administrationhas issued a statement, saying,“The idea behind the estab-lishment of the university wasto contribute in nation-buildingby providing equal opportuni-

ty of study and teaching to alldeserving people without anydiscrimination on the basis ofcaste, religion, gender and sect.”

The statement also saidthat Khan’s appointment was aunanimous decision made by aselection committee under atransparent process.

The Muslim professorFeroz Kahn, meanwhile, saidthat he felt ‘insulted’ by theincident and added that hewould have never applied forthe job if the university hadmentioned in the advertise-ment that they did not want aMuslim.

Students sitting on dharna,on the other hand, have start-ed reciting Hanuman Chalisato underline their opposition toa Muslim faculty member.

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The cease work by teachers of Jadavpur University demand-ing full implementation of the revised UGC pay scale dis-

rupted classes for the second day on Wednesday.A spokesman of Jadavpur University Teachers’ Association

(JUTA), the main representative body of university teachers, saidan estimated 450 teachers assembled before the main adminis-trative building in the afternoon hours holding placards as partof the two-day cease work on November 19 and 20.

The JUTA spokesman claimed that no classes took place inany of the four faculties — Arts, Engineering and Technology,Science and Interdisciplinary Studies — as the teachers did nottake classes. The cease work was supported by the All BengalUniversity Teachers’ Association (ABUTA-JU chapter), and WestBengal College and University Teachers’ Association (WBCUTA). ABUTA (JU) general secretary Goutam Maity saidteachers from Vidyasagar University, Rabindra Bharati Universityand Calcutta University were present at the agitation to expresssolidarity.

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Sebi Chairman Ajay Tyagi onWednesday said the regulator

has always adopted a prudentand discussion-based approachon all issues but it “perhapsneeds to be more muscular” tobuild trust among whistleblow-ers to reach out to it.

The remarks come in thewake of a whistleblowerapproaching US watchdog SECwith a complaint against ITmajor Infosys instead of Sebi.Infosys is also listed in the US.

“Our approach has to beprudent, to have discussionswith the market participants oneach issue. I don’t want toboast, but we will go throughwith consultative process onintermediaries, on market par-ticipants and we will follow theprocess as to what needs to bedone,” he said.

Speaking to reporters afterSebi’s board meeting here, Tyagialso said that last year, there

have been events where any reg-ulator would have looked intoissues very seriously and laps-es that needed to be corrected.“We don’t have to be muscu-lar....Or anything,” he remarkedto a query about perception thatSebi is muscular.

To a question about arecent instance of a whistle-blower approaching the regu-lator of another country with acomplaint, Tyagi said there isno answer but that might be

contradicting the view thatSebi is very muscular.

“Why would anyoneapproach other regulator? Ihave no answer to that, but per-haps that is contradicting yourview that Sebi is very muscu-lar. Perhaps, Sebi needs to bemore muscular to have thetrust built in those people thatthey should in fact make a ref-erence to Sebi,” he noted.

Sebi is looking into thewhistleblower complaint ofalleged lapses at Infosys.

According to Tyagi, theregulator has taken a lot ofsteps to expedite cases.

“We have four members,12 sanctioned posts of CGMs(Chief General Managers) asadjudicating officers and wetake this quasi judicial workreally seriously. There havebeen delays in the past, but ifyou see the disposals in the lastone-and-half to two years, thathas definitely improved fromearlier years,” he said.

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Tightening its disclosurenorms for listed companies,

markets regulator Sebi onWednesday asked them toreport full facts of any loandefault within 24 hours for anyfailure of repayment of princi-ple and interest amount beyond30 days.

The move will ensure betterdisclosure and transparency, Sebichief Ajay Tyagi told reportersafter the board meeting.

“The board has decidedthat in case of any default inrepayment of principle andinterest on loans from banks orfinancial institutions whichcontinues beyond 30 days from

the pre-agreed payment date,listed entities shall promptly,but not later than 24 hoursfrom the 30th day, disclose thefact of such default,” Sebi said.

The decision has beentaken to address the gaps in theavailability of information withrespect to defaults, the regula-tor said.

This would be applicablefrom January 1, 2020.

There have been severalinstances of huge loan defaultsby corporates, including incases like InfrastructureLeasing & Financial ServicesLtd (IL&FS). In many cases, thedisclosure about loan defaulthas been very late and shareprices have fallen sharply.

“The objective of newdefault disclosure is to getmore openness to helpinvestors,” Tyagi said.

Asked whether RBI agreedto the new norms, Tyagi saidthat a deputy governor of thecentral bank is on the board ofSebi and therefore they are alsoin agreement.

“One day default disclosurewas not agreed to by the board.This scheme of 30 days isimplementable,” he said refer-ring to an earlier proposal ofmaking a loan default disclo-sure within a day of default.

Tyagi also said that theboard had discussions on proxyadvisory firms as well and willdiscuss more in the next meet.

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WhatsApp has written tothe Government express-

ing “regret” over the Pegasussnooping row, and has assuredthat it is taking all security mea-sures to address concerns, topgovernment sources said.

The sources, who request-ed not to be named, said thegovernment has askedWhatsApp to reinforce its secu-rity wall, and that no morebreaches at the messaging plat-form will be tolerated.

Last month, the Facebook-owned company had showedthat Indian journalists andhuman rights activists wereamong those globally spiedupon by unnamed entitiesusing Pegasus spyware.

According to WhatsApp,the spyware was developed byIsrael-based NSO Group andhad been used to snoop onabout 1,400 users globally,including 121 users from India.

Following the govern-ment’s notice seeking moreinformation on the attacks,WhatsApp had responded say-ing it had alerted the IndianComputer EmergencyResponse Team (CERT-In) inSeptember that 121 Indianusers had been targeted byPegasus.

A WhatsApp spokesper-son, in an e-mailed statement,said the company is deeplycommitted to protecting theprivacy of its users in India “byproviding industry-leading secu-rity for all messages and calls andby staying ahead of advancedthreats to user security”.

WhatsApp has over 400million users in India.

“The government alsoplays a critical role here and weare committed to continuing toengage them in a timely man-ner on sensitive issues relatedto user privacy and security. Weregret that we have not met thegovernment’s expectations forproactive engagement on theseissues and will strive to do bet-ter,” the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson alsonoted that the company willwork with the government to“address their appropriate con-cerns”.

In response to a question inthe Lok Sabha on Wednesday,IT Minister Ravi ShankarPrasad said Cybersecurityagency CERT-In has issued anotice to WhatsApp seekingdetails on targeting of mobilephones of Indian citizens byIsraeli spyware Pegasus.

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Indian cyber security agencyhas warned WhatsApp users

against a “vulnerability” thatcan compromise their indi-vidual account without seekingpermissions even as the popu-lar social messaging app saidusers have not been impacted.

The Computer EmergencyResponse Team-India (CERT-In) has issued an advisory inthis context calling the severi-ty of the threat, being spread byan MP4 file, as “high.”

The advisory comes in thebackdrop of recent develop-ments where WhatsApp hadinformed the Indian govern-ment in September that overhundred Indian users weretargeted by the Israeli spyware-- Pegasus.

“A vulnerability has beenreported in WhatsApp whichcould be exploited by a remoteattacker to execute arbitrarycode on the target system,” thelatest advisory said.

The CERT-In is the nodalagency to combat hacking,phishing and to fortify securi-ty-related defences of theIndian internet domain.

A WhatsApp spokespersonsaid the company is constant-ly working to improve thesecurity of their service.

“We make public, reportson potential issues we havefixed consistent with industrybest practices. In this instancethere is no reason to believeusers were impacted,” thespokesperson said.

The Indian cyber securityagency’s advisory suggested“upgrading” to the latest ver-sion of WhatsApp to combat ortide over the problem.

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The Reserve Bank onWednesday superseded the

board of the troubled DewanHousing Finance Corporation(DHFL) due to governanceconcerns and defaults on var-ious debt instruments.

The central bank has alsoappointed RSubramaniakumar, the ex-managing director of IndianOverseas Bank as the admin-istrator of the third largestpureplay mortgage lender.

The announcement comesafter the government last weekempowered the RBI to referstressed NBFCs and HFCs hav-ing assets worth of at least Rs500 crore to insolvency court.

“The Reserve Bank hastoday superseded the board ofDHFL owing to governanceconcerns and defaults by DHFLin meeting various paymentobligations,” RBI said in a state-

ment. It further said shortly ini-

tiate the process of resolutionof the company under thebankruptcy code, 2019 andwould also apply to the NCLTfor appointing the administra-tor as the resolution profes-sional.

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Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Ideaand other telecom compa-

nies owe the government asmuch as �1.47 lakh crore inpast statutory dues, TelecomMinister Ravi Shankar Prasadtold Parliament on Wednesdayadding that there is no proposalat present to waive interest andpenalties on such dues.

In replies to separate ques-tions in the Lok Sabha, Prasadsaid telecom companies owethe government �92,642 crorein unpaid licence fee, andanother �55,054 crore in out-standing spectrum usagecharges.

These liabilities arose afterthe Supreme Court last monthheld that non-telecom rev-enues have to be considered forcalculating statutory dues.

To a question on penaltyimposed on telecom compa-nies, Prasad said the outstand-ing SUC (spectrum usage

charges) dues of various tele-com service providers as onOctober 31, 2019, added to�55,054 crore.

“This amount is subject tobe revised once the AGR(adjusted gross revenue) figuresare finalised and assessmentsare done accordingly,” the min-ister said.

The government hasdirected the licensees to makethe payments in accordancewith the order of the SupremeCourt dated October 24, 2019,and submit requisite docu-ments within the stipulatedtimeframe.

In another written reply,the minister said the provi-sional outstanding of the tele-com service providers onaccount of licence fee stood ata cumulative �92,642 crore ason July 2019, and added thatthe amounts are provisionaland subject to revision in lightof the Supreme Court ruling onAGR matter on October 24,2019. A Committee ofSecretaries chaired by CabinetSecretary Rajiv Gauba has heldmeetings regarding the issuesrelated to telecom sector, theminister said.

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Owing to the financial crisisand the slowdown in the

real estate sector, residentialprojects worth around $66 bil-lion are facing bankruptcy pro-ceedings, a recent survey said.

According to property con-sultant JLL, nearly 4.54 lakhunits running behind theircompletion dates due to vari-ous reasons.

“In the current scenario, itis the residential real estate seg-ment that presents the maxi-mum amount of stressed assets.India’s residential sector hasbeen reeling under the pressureof delayed/stalled projects with4.54 lakh units running behindtheir completion dates,” theagency said.

Some of them are alreadyunder bankruptcy proceedingsand the value of these projectsis estimated to be $66 billion,JLL said.

As per the Insolvency andBankruptcy Board of India, atotal of 115 insolvency caseshave been filed as of September2019 under real estate catego-ry. Of these 87 cases are underprocess while 28 are closed.

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Microsoft’s India-bornChief Executive Officer

Satya Nadella has occupiedthe top spot in Fortune’sBusinessperson of the Year2019 list, an annual compila-tion that also includesMastercard CEO Ajay Bangaand Arista head Jayshree Ullal.

Fortune’s annualBusinessperson of the Year listfeatures 20 business leaders“who tackled audacious goals,overcame impossible odds,found creative solutions”.

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Union Minister NitinGadkari on Wednesday

directed NHAI to ensuredeployment of best technologyfor success of FASTag project.

The directions were issuedin course of review of the pro-ject by Road Transport,Highways and MSME MinisterGadkari. From December 1,toll payments will be made onlyvia FASTag under the NationalElectronic Toll Collection(NETC) programme, the flag-ship initiative of the Ministryof Road Transport andHighways.

FASTag is a radio-fre-quency identification tag,affixed on vehicle’s wind-screen, which enables auto-matic deduction of toll chargesfrom prepaid account linked toit without stopping for cashtransaction. The programme isbeing implemented pan-Indiato remove bottlenecks andensure seamless movement oftraffic.

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Karachi: The Jamshoro policelodged a sedition case againstsome students of SindhUniversity, Jamshoro forallegedly chanting anti-Pakistan slogans and for beinginvolved in wall chalkingagainst the State, Pakistanmedia reported onWednesday.

Two days ago there werereports that similar chargeswere laid against several otherleaders, including the chair-man of Sindhi nationalistorganisation Jeay SindhKoumi Mahaj (Bashir Group),who have been booked forrebelling against the countryand chanting anti-Pakistanslogans.

The case, registeredagainst at least 17 students ofthe university, was lodgedunder Section 120-A (defini-tion of criminal conspiracy),

120-B (punishment for crim-inal conspiracy), 123-A (con-demnation of the creation ofthe state, and advocacy ofabolition of its sovereignty),124 (assaulting president, gov-ernor, etc. with intention tocompel or restrain the exerciseof any lawful power) and 153(wantonly giving provocationwith intent to cause riot) of thePakistan Penal Code on thecomplaint of InspectorGhulam Qadir Panhwar, thesecurity head of the campus,The Dawn reported.

In his complaint, Panhwarsaid that on October 31 thehostel in-charge informed himthat around 17 to 18 studentsof the Jeay Sindh group hadraised slogans against Pakistanand the government of thecountry and had been involvedin wall chalking outside theboys' hostel's main gate. IANS

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Sri Lankan PresidentGotabhaya Rajapaksa on

Wednesday named his elderbrother and former strongmanMahinda Rajapaksa as the newprime minister after incumbentRanil Wickremesingheannounced his resignation fromthe post following the electiondebacle.

Mahinda, the current mainopposition leader, will assumeduties soon after incumbentWickremesinghe steps downformally on Thursday, AFPreported.

Mahinda was appointedthe Prime Minister on October26, 2018 by the then PresidentMaithripala Sirisena, whosacked Wickremesinghe in acontroversial move that plungedthe country into an unprece-dented constitutional crisis.

He resigned in December astwo crucial Supreme Courtdecisions made the formerstrongman's efforts to cling to

premiership untenable.The apex court later unan-

imously declared that the dis-solution of Parliament bySirisena was "illegal".

Mahinda won power in2005 and went on to becomeSouth Asia's longest-servingleader. He became the country'syoungest ever parliamentarian

in 1970 at the age of 24.The two brothers led a

decisive campaign that helpedend the island nation's threedecade long civil war against theLiberation Tigers of TamilEelam (LTTE).

Earlier in the day, PrimeMinister Wickremesingheannounced his resignation, days

after the ruling party's candidatelost the presidential election toRajapaksa.

Rajapaksa defeatedWickremesinghe's deputy SajithPremadasa.

In a special statement inSinhala language, the PrimeMinister said that he had metPresident Rajapaksa onTuesday and discussed thefuture of Sri Lanka'sParliament, Colombo Gazettenewspaper reported.

He said that while hisGovernment still has the major-ity in Parliament it was decid-ed to respect the mandate givento Rajapaksa at the Presidentialelection and step down.

"I will step down to allowthe new president to establish anew government. I will officiallyinform him of my decisiontomorrow," Wickremesinghesaid.

He has been the leader ofthe United National Party(UNP) since 1994 and served asSri Lanka's prime minister for

a total of three terms.He was under pressure to

quit and handover the govern-ment to the opposite campafter Rajapaksa won the presi-dential election on Saturday.

The UNP leader faced arevolt since Premadasa's defeat,a regular occurrence duringthe last 25 years whenever theUNP lost a major election.

Harin Fernando, a ministerfrom the party's youngerbrigade, told reporters that theywant Wickremesinghe to quitthe party leadership and namePremadasa his successor forboth the party leadership andthe post of the main oppositionleader.

"We will form our ownparty if he did not make the nec-essary changes this time,"Fernando told reporters.

There will be a caretakercabinet of 15 members to runthe government until Rajapaksawill be constitutionally able todissolve parliament afterFebruary 2020.

The Hague: A ferry crewfound 25 migrants in a refrig-erated container on a boatsailing from the Netherlands toBritain on Tuesday, emergencyservices said.

The cargo vessel boundfor Felixstowe returned to theDutch port of Vlaardingen,near Rotterdam, as soon as thestowaways were found, theysaid in a statement.

The people found in thecontainer received medicalattention at the port and twowere taken to hospital for fur-ther treatment for possiblehypothermia.

The discovery comes themonth after 39 Vietnamesepeople were found dead in arefrigerated truck in Britain,again laying bare the risks ofillegal migrant routes toEurope.

"On board a ship it turnedout that several people werefound in a cooling container.The ship returned to the har-bour," said the Rotterdamregion emergency services onTwitter.

"The 25 people were takenoff the ship and given themedical care they need. Earlierthe message came from theship that no people died. Twopeople were transported tohospital for extra medical care.

Twenty-three people weretransferred to a police locationafter a medical check-up," itsaid.

AFP

La Paz: Three protesters werekilled and 30 wounded in clash-es on Tuesday with Boliviansecurity forces lifting an oppo-sition blockade of fuel suppliesto La Paz, the public ombuds-man's office reported.

Troops and police hadmoved to lift the siege on a fuelplant in El Alto by supportersof ex-president Evo Moralesthat has caused acute shortagesin nearby La Paz.

A spokesman for theombudsman's office said two ofthe dead had been hit by gun-fire, including a 31-year-oldman.

"We are asking the author-ities for an investigation," thespokesman told AFP, addingthat 30 people had beenwounded, all of them support-ers of Morales.

The army said in a state-ment that "agitators and van-dals" had attacked and partial-ly destroyed the Senkata fuelplant in El Alto, "using high-powered explosives."

The deaths bring to 27 thenumber of people killed sinceunrest began in the wake ofOctober 20 elections, accordingto a tally by the Inter-AmericanCommission on Human Rights.

A convoy of around 50 fueltankers was able to leave theSenkata plant for the first timein more than a week afterpolice and military forces usingarmoured vehicles secured theroute to neighbouring La Paz.

AFP

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The US Senate unanimous-ly adopted legislation on

Tuesday supporting "humanrights and democracy" in HongKong and threatening to revokeits special status granted byWashington, signalling angerwith Beijing about a crackdownon protests in the Chinese ter-ritory.

The lawmakers alsoapproved a measure that wouldban the sale of tear gas, rubberbullets and other equipmentthat has been used by securityforces to suppress the proteststhat have rocked Hong Kongfor months.

China had expressed its"strong indignation" last monthwhen the US House ofRepresentatives passed a sim-ilar measure.

The chambers will nowseek to reconcile the two billsinto a single measure to passCongress and go to PresidentDonald Trump's desk for hissignature.

"Today, the United StatesSenate sent a clear message toHong Kongers fighting fortheir long-cherished freedoms:we hear you, we continue tostand with you, and we will notstand idly by as Beijing under-mines your autonomy,"Republican Senator MarcoRubio said on the Senate floor.

The Senate ForeignRelations Committee's top

Democrat, Robert Menendez,added that the legislation"makes it clear that the US willstand firmly and unambigu-ously with the legitimate aspi-rations of the people of HongKong."

Washington: US PresidentDonald Trump has claimedvictory as the Democratic Party-controlled House ofRepresentatives concluded itsthird public hearing on theimpeachment proceedingsagainst him for allegedly abus-ing his office for political gainin the run up to the 2020 pres-idential election.

The impeachment hearingsare an effort by Democrats toestablish whether Trump with-held US military aid to Ukraineto pressure the country'sPresident Volodymyr Zelenskyinto announcing a corruptioninquiry into Joe Biden, Trump'sleading Democratic rival in thepoll.

The Democrats are allegingthat Trump's call with hisUkrainian counterpart wasirregular and inappropriate and

abuse of his office for politicalgain. "A great day forRepublicans, a great day for ourCountry! In the end we will winand save our Country from cer-tain destruction,” Trump tweet-ed soon after the House SelectCommittee on Intelligence con-cluded its third public impeach-ment hearings on Tuesday.

In the morning,Democratic lawmakers grilledLt Col Alexander Vindman, aUkraine specialist on theNational Security Council(NSC), and Jennifer Williams,a top national security aide toVice President Pence onTrump's July 25 phone call withUkrainian President Zelensky.

Later in the day, KurtVolker, former special envoy toKyiv, and Tim Morrison, anoth-er top NSC aide, testified beforethe powerful House Committee.

The White House called theimpeachment process a sham.

"Today's second hearing isover, and the Democrats' centralallegation in this impeachmentsham has again been complete-ly debunked," White HousePress Secretary StephanieGrisham said at the conclusionof the testimonies.

“Specifically, AmbassadorVolker confirmed under oaththat he had no indication what-soever of anything that resem-bled a quid-pro-quo, corrobo-rating his previous depositiontestimony that ‘there was nolinkage like that," she said.

Grisham urged theAmerican public not to toleratethe pretence of the Democrats.

“With the Democrats' poll-tested ‘quid-pro-quo' and‘bribery' narratives in shambles,the American public shouldnot be forced to endure this cha-rade for one more second,”Grisham said. PTI

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Alife-size statue of formerPresident George HW

Bush's beloved service dogwill go on display next monthat the presidential library inCollege Station, Texas.

Sully, 3-year-old labradorassisted Bush during the lastsix months of his life beforethe 41st US President passed

in November 2018 at age 94. The dog became famous

after he was photographednext to Bush's casket lastDecember.

The bronze statue of Sullywas created by artist SusanBahary and it will go on dis-play on December 6 inGeorge Bush PresidentialLibrary and Museum inCollege Station, Texas as part

of the memorial exhibit. "On December 6, a

bronze, life-size statue of Sullywill be on display in theFidelity corridor as a part ofthe memorial exhibit. Stop byand see the amazing work ofSusan Bahary, provided byAmerica 's VetDogs.@AmericasVetDogs BaharyStudios," the museum tweeted.

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Two American service mem-bers have been killed in a

helicopter crash inAfghanistan, US forces theresaid on Wednesday, addingthat the crash appeared to be anaccident, though the Talibanclaimed they had shot it down.

A statement from USForces Afghanistan said thecrash on Wednesday was beinginvestigated, "however prelim-inary reports do not indicate itwas caused by enemy fire". Itdid not reveal the crash loca-tion and said it was withhold-ing the names of those killeduntil next of kin could be told.

Tokyo: Shinzo Abe entered thehistory books as Japan's longest-serving premier on Wednesday,but many of his ambitious goals,including a constitutional revi-sion to strengthen the military,appear far from reach.

Wednesday marks Abe's2,887th day in office, topping therecord previously set by TaroKatsura, a revered politicianwho served three times between

1901 and 1913.The 65-year-old is also the

second-longest-serving leaderof the Group of Seven majoreconomies behind only GermanChancellor Angela Merkel, whohas been in office since 2005.

Abe's grip on power remainsfirm as he passes the landmark,with his tenure likely to last untilat least September 2021 and noclear successor yet on the hori-

zon. But the premier has plentyof unfinished business, sayingearlier this year after a cabinetreshuffle that he hoped to "takeon the challenge to create a newcountry".

He has reiterated his long-cherished ambition of revisingJapan's post-war constitution tochange the status of the country'sSelf Defense Forces.

AFP

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Beijing: China's foreign min-istry on Wednesday sum-moned a top US diplomat overthe Senate's passing of a HongKong rights Bill, warning of"strong" countermeasuresagainst the United Statesshould the legislation besigned into law.

Vice foreign minister MaZhaoxu called in acting charged'affaires William Klein tolodge a "strong protest", theministry said in a statement.

"We strongly urge the USside to immediately take effec-tive measures to prevent thisbill from becoming law" andstop meddling in China'sinternal affairs, the statementsaid.

"Otherwise, the Chineseside will take strong measuresto resolutely counter it, and theUS side must bear all theconsequences," it said. AFP

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AUS Army officer and keyimpeachment witness saw

his loyalty called into questionby Republicans on Tuesday, ashe testified that PresidentDonald Trump made inappro-priate demands on hisUkrainian counterpart for dirton rival Democrats.

Straining to fight back onabuse-of-power allegationsagainst Trump, Republicans inCongress took aim atLieutenant Colonel Alexander

Vindman, a respected memberof the White House NationalSecurity Council, suggestingthe Kiev-born immigrant's alle-giance is not to the UnitedStates and so his testimony isdubious.

Testifying in the secondweek of televised impeach-ment hearings, Vindman stead-fastly defended his patriotism,saying he had reported alarm-ing pressure by Trump forUkraine to investigate potential2020 rival Joe Biden "out of asense of duty".

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Jerusalem: The Israeli Armycarried out a "wide-scale" attackagainst Iranian forces and SyrianArmy targets in Syria onWednesday, killing at least 11fighters, the Israeli Army and amonitoring group said.

In a rare confirmation oftheir operations in Syria, theIsraeli Army said they carried outstrikes against the Iranian eliteQuds Force and the Syrian mil-itary, in response to four rocketsfired at Israel a day before. Atleast eleven "fighters" were killedin the strikes, said Britain-basedmonitoring group the SyrianObservatory for Human Rights.

Seven were foreigners, itshead Rami Abdel Rahman said,

though he could not confirmwhether they were all Iranian.Four civilians were also wound-ed, he added.

Iran has fought alongsideSyrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces in the country'seight-year civil war, heighteningIsraeli concern over the presenceof its arch foe along its border.

"Whoever hurts us, we willhurt him," Israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu said in astatement.

"This is what we didovernight vis-a-vis military tar-gets of the Iranian Quds Forceand Syrian military targets inSyria after a barrage of rocketswas launched at Israel." AFP

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Aaron Ramsey sent Wales toEuro 2020 with a brace togive them a 2-0 win over

Hungary and a spot in next sum-mer’s finals, while Belgium com-pleted their perfect qualifyingcampaign with a mauling ofCyprus.

Juventus midfielder Ramseyhit his decisive double either sideof half-time at the Cardiff CityStadium to ensure that RyanGiggs’s side leapfrogged Tuesday’sopponents into second place inGroup E to snatch a spot at themulti-host tournament.

“I missed a lot of this campaignbut it was all worthwhile to chip inwith a couple of goals tonight,”Ramsey told Sky Sports.

“We had the time of our livesin France (at Euro 2016). Weinspired a nation last time out sowe wanted to do it again.”

PERFECT BELGIUMThe win gave Wales the final

automatic place, with 20 teams

ready to contest the finals andanother four spots set to be decid-ed via the playoffs in March nextyear.

One of the favourites forthe tournament which kicksoff in Rome on June 12,Belgium, made it a perfect10 wins from 10 with a 6-1thrashing of Cyprus that sawChristian Benteke scoretwice.

The Crystal Palace for-ward is yet to score in the PremierLeague but opened Belgium’saccount in the 16th minute with atap-in two minutes after NicholasIoannou stunned the Group I win-ners with a superb run and shot.

He rounded off the scoring in

the 68th minute when he collect-ed a neat through ball from Kevin

De Bruyne — who also scoredtwice — and slotted past

Neofytos Michael.Tuesday’s stroll means

Roberto Martinez’s sidefinish the qualifying phaseas top scorers with awhopping 40 goals, with

an average of four goalsa game.

Russia, who finishedtwo points behind Belgium,thumped San Marino 5-0 in one ofa host of dead rubbers.

Germany and the Netherlandsthumped Northern Ireland andBelarus to close their campaigns instyle.

GNABRY ‘CONFIDENT’Serge Gnabry said

Germany were headingto the Euros in a posi-tive mood after hittinga hat-trick that sankthe Northern Irish 6-1 and gave them topspot in Group C.

“We are play-ing some very,very good foot-ball,” saidGnabry, whocame off to astanding ova-tion on 80 min-utes.

“We are going to thefinals confident and with a

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Pakistan has been forced topick two rookie 17-year-olds

for their Davis Cup encounteragainst a full-strength Indiansquad, after senior playersAisam-ul-Haq Qureshi and AqeelKhan pulled out protestingagainst the tie being shifted to aneutral venue.

The Pakistan TennisFederation named teenagersHuzaifa Abdul Rehman andShoaib Khan, both of whom are

ranked as lowly as 446 and1004 respectively in the

junior ITF ranking list forthe November 29-30 tie

that is shifted fromIslamabad to

Kazakhstan capitalNur-Sultan.

Yousuf Khanand Ahmad Kamil,

also teenagers, alongwith Amjad complete the squad.

With Pakistan’s top players

Aisam and Aqeel pulling out ofthe tie in protest against shiftingout of matches to a neutral venue,the PTF was left with no optionbut to pick junior players.

“It could have been a good tiebut for India.

We are sending junior play-ers. Our senior Davis Cup teamis not coming. We are sendingour junior Davis Cup team. Theyare all 16-17 years old and willgain some experience,” PTFPresident Salim Saifullah Khansaid.

“India wanted to win this tie,so now they can win this tie eas-ily. Everyday hundreds of Indiansare coming to Pakistan. Ourhotels in Islamabad are full ofIndians but the six Indian play-ers can’t come. It’s a shame,” Khanadded.

The winner of the tie willmake it to the 2020 Davis CupQualifiers, from where the win-ning team will strive to make itto the World Group.

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NUMBER GAME

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Blue Tigers head coach IgorStimac, after the narrow 0-

1 defeat to Oman in Muscat,pronounced that he wants histeam to “play without fear”against any opponent they face.

“I want my India (team) toplay without fear against anyone.Irrespective of whoever you areplaying against, you always havea chance to win the game. Weneed to grab that,” Stimac stat-ed in the post-match press con-ference in Muscat on Tuesday.

He added, “If you are tryingto change (your gameplan)according to your opponents, itshows your team’s weakness —which is the last thing I wouldwant for my team. We stick toour system and we are workingon the players’ strengths andconditioning.”

The coach stated that Indiawas the better team in the sec-ond half and while they havebeen doing good work in openplay and creating opportunitiesto score, the lack of accuracy inthe finishing is a problem theyare facing.

“We were the better side inthe second half but couldn’t findthe way to score a goal. This isour main problem which hasbeen haunting us always. We aremoving well, we are fighting, weare doing what’s necessary but

when we come inside the box,the decision making is not at parand the accuracy is not there aswell. We need to get used to this,cut the numbers of mistakesdown and try to get betterresults in the future,” he said.

India’s hope of getting a pos-itive result from Muscat gotheavily affected when PronayHalder and Adil Khan had to besubstituted inside the first 40minutes owing to injuries.Pronay, who suffered a shoulderinjury, was replaced by Vinit Raiin the 27th minute whereas thecoach introduced AnasEdathodika after withdrawingAdil Khan in the 36th minute.

Stimac stated: “Today, ouronly player who is a tough tack-ler (Pronay) suffered a shoulderinjury. He was the main playerwho could fight for the secondball and his absence killed us inthe second half.”

He continued, “When youare forced to make two substi-tutions due to injuries in the firsthalf, it upsets the team. You needto compromise with the workwhich you have done before thegame and it reduces yourchances to tweak with yourplan in the second half. Even Iwas hesitant to make the thirdchange thinking of anotherinjury which could have hap-pened anytime. It was a big riskand we are facing this for long.”

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The format for UEFA’s con-tinent-wide Euro 2020 has

been labelled “a scandal” byBelgium star Kevin De Bruyneas European football’s govern-ing body faces a headache toensure all host nations whoqualify get to play at home.

For the first time, nextyear’s European Championshipwill be played in 12 differenthost cities in 12 differentnations, with Wembley stagingthe semi-finals and final.

The draw for what will bethe second 24-team Euro willbe held in Bucharest onSaturday, November 30.

Wales became the 20thnation to secure their spotwhen they beat Hungary onTuesday, with the remainingfour places going to the win-ners of play-offs to be held next

March.However, with UEFA hav-

ing to ensure that host nationsplay group games on home turfwhile also keeping certain

teams apart for geopoliticalreasons, much of the suspensehas already been removed fromthe draw.

For example, Ukraine and

Russia cannot face one anoth-er due to the conflict in easternUkraine. That means Belgiumalready know they will faceRussia and Denmark — both ofwhom will host games — inGroup B, leaving little sus-pense come the draw for thefinals.

“It is a scandal, honestly,”Manchester City star DeBruyne told Belgian televisionafter his side’s 6-1 win overCyprus.

“Football is not really foot-ball anymore, it’s becoming abusiness.

Belgium, Italy, England,Germany, Spain and Ukraineare the top seeds for the draw,while World Cup holdersFrance find themselves in pottwo along with theNetherlands. ReigningEuropean champions Portugalare in the third pot.

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Zinedine Zidane faces anothercrossroads in his handling of

Gareth Bale, who appeared to mockReal Madrid after Wales’ 2-0 victo-ry over Hungary on Tuesday.

After sealing qualification forEuro 2020 with a wild win inCardiff, an ecstatic Bale celebratednext to his team-mates behind a flagthat read “Wales. Golf. Madrid. Inthat order”.

The flag was taken from thecrowd after Welsh fans made a slo-gan out of comments made by for-mer Real Madrid player Predrag

Mijatovic during an interview withthe Spanish radio station CadenaSer last month.

“Bale thinks first about theWales national team, then about golfand then about Madrid,” saidMijatovic. “I have not talked to himbut that is the impression I get.”

Zidane must now decidewhether to punish Bale and whatform that punishment should take.

Bale is due to return to Madridon Wednesday before joining upwith the team again on Thursday atValdebebas, ahead of Real Madrid’sLa Liga game at home to RealSociedad on Saturday.

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India made a promising start at the Korea Openwith shuttlers Kidambi Srikanth and Sameer

Verma advancing to the second round of the men’ssingles competition here on Wednesday.

The sixth seed Srikanth defeated Hong Kong’sWong Wing Ki Vincent 21-18, 21-17 in match thatlasted 37 minutes.

The former world No 1 Srikanthnow enjoys a dominant 11-3 head-to-head record over the Hong Kongshuttler. He will face KantaTsuneyama of Japan in the sec-ond round.

Sameer Verma alsoreached the second roundafter his opponent Japan’sKazumasa Sakai retired mid-way with the score reading11-8 in favour of the Indian.

However, it was end ofthe road for Sourabh Verma,who went down after win-ning the first game to localfavourite Kim Donghun 21-13, 12-21, 13-21.

Sameer will take on Donghunin the second round.

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Jose Mourinho on Wednesdaywas appointed to replace the

sacked Mauricio Pochettino atTottenham, with a brief to revivethe flagging fortunes of a clublanguishing in the lower reach-es of the Premier League.

The former Chelsea, RealMadrid and Manchester Unitedmanager has signed a contractuntil the end of the 2022/23 sea-son.

“I am excited to be joininga club with such a great heritageand such passionate supporters,”said Mourinho, who has wondomestic league titles inPortugal, England, Italy andSpain.

“The quality in both thesquad and the academy excitesme. Working with these playersis what has attracted me.”

Mourinho’s glittering CVincludes Champions Leaguetitles with Porto and Inter Milan.

The 56-year-old also wonthree Premier League titles overtwo spells in charge of Chelsea,and returned to England tomanage Manchester United in2016.

“In Jose we have one of themost successful managers infootball,” said Spurs chairmanDaniel Levy. “He has a wealth ofexperience, can inspire teamsand is a great tactician.

“He has won honours atevery club he has coached. Webelieve he will bring energy andbelief to the dressing room.”

The club tweeted a pictureof their new Portuguese bossholding a Spurs shirt ahead ofhis first match in charge — aLondon derby at West HamUnited on Saturday.

Mourinho was sacked byManchester United lastDecember following a poor runand has been without a clubsince, most recently working asa TV pundit.

He remains a big name butthere will be questions overwhether his pragmatic style canmesh with Tottenham’s traditionof attacking football, a problemhe also faced at Old Trafford.

SPURS SLIDEArgentine Pochettino was

dismissed on Tuesday, withSpurs struggling in the leagueafter picking up just three winsfrom 12 games.

The 47-year-old had trans-formed the club’s fortunes sincearriving in 2014, and althoughhe failed to win a trophy, he tookSpurs to the Champions Leaguefinal for the first time in theirhistory just six months ago.

But that masked indifferentdomestic form in the second halfof last season, and Pochettinowas unable to reverse the slidein this campaign.

As well as tumbling downthe league, they were knockedout of the League Cup by fourth-tier Colchester United and suf-fered an embarrassing 7-2 defeatat home to Bayern Munich inthe Champions League.

Mourinho arrives with theclub 11 points outside thePremier League top four, thoughthey are well placed to reach thelast 16 of the ChampionsLeague.

TRIBUTESThe job done by Pochettino

was all the more remarkablegiven the tight budget for trans-fers and wages in comparisonwith Tottenham’s PremierLeague rivals, as the club builta new stadium at a cost of morethan £1 billion ($1.3 billion).

Much of Pochettino’s suc-cess came from nurturing asquad of young players intohousehold names such as HarryKane, Dele Alli and ChristianEriksen.

A series of Spurs playerspaid warm tribute to theirdeparting manager.

Tottenham and Englandforward Kane tweeted: “Gaffer.I’ll be forever thankful to you forhelping me achieve my dreams.”

South Korean forward SonHeung-min said in anInstagram post that “words are

powerless toexpress mygratitude”.

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good run behind us. The team is young, butwe’re all having a lot of fun.”

Georginio Wijnaldum meanwhilemade another stand against racism as he

also scored three times in the Netherlands’5-0 crushing of Belarus.

And after opening the scoring in thesixth minute he and Frenkie de Jong

joined on the sidelines to bring theirarms together to draw attention totheir different skin colour.

Myron Boadu made it a nightto remember by scoring on hisinternational debut to make it fivethree minutes from the end, col-lecting Kevin Strootman’s passbefore colly slotting home.

“This is obviously a dreamcome true, to play for thenational team and score onyour debut,” said the 18-year-old.

“I can’t claim that Ishould be in the squad forthe Euro finals, I just have

to show what I can do.”

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Many of us make judge-ments about other peo-ple, often for no reasonother than to make our-selves feel better which is

apparantly wrong. We can, however,learn how to not judge other people, andhow to deal with our own bitterness andinsecurity.

Your opinion of right or wrong,good or bad is from your conditionedmind. This conditioned mind is what weare looking as judgment.

Judgements create separationbetween you and what you are judging- the ego needs this idea of separationto survive. If a situation arises and youjudge it as bad, you and the situationthen seem to become separate and suf-fering begins. Through non judgement,you realise that you and the situation areone. Then any action required natural-ly happens, from a place of transcen-dence within you.

To judge occurrences as good or badis to believe that there is no greater intel-ligence running the universe that every-thing is just a random event. Even if youwere to believe that occurrences are ran-dom, it is still clear that believing yourmind's judgements about what happenskeeps you trapped in your thinking

mind, and often trapped in suffering.In many circumstances, we call

something bad because we have beentold that it is bad. We call it good becausewe have been told it is good.

The ego loves to judge things. A lotof our culture is based on judgement.Notice that it is your mind that judgesthings, not you. You are that which isaware of this mind activity. See this andyou will be able to dwell in a relaxed stateof non-judgement, as you are not the onewho judges.

It is observed that if you judge a per-son, they instantly become a concept toyou - you lose who they are. If you donot judge them, but allow them to be,you are more likely to see their inneressence as who they actually are, whichone with you is. In another scenario ifyou judge a situation as bad, youinstantly feel bad. If you do not judge themoment, allow it to be, a sense of spa-ciousness, aliveness and peace arise, andyou become free of the situation, orspontaneously the situation becomesmore pleasant through your own orsomeone else's action.

The human mind cannot under-stand the nature of the entire universe,how everything is connected, howeveryone experiences a direct reflection

of their inner state, how every momentcan be used to transcend the world andevolve.

Instead of realising this and realis-ing its judgements are insane and causesuffering, it continues to call things goodor bad, right or wrong. Believing thesejudgements keep you trapped in the con-tent of your mind. Choosing not to judgeputs you in alignment with life itself.

You may want to judge situations as"good". However this implies that therecan easily be something "bad". Watch outfor this trick. Good cannot exist with-out bad in your judgement, they areactually part of the same thing, and keepyou from what you really are.

When we are insecure and unhap-py with who we are, we try to put otherpeople down. Though it doesn't usual-ly build us up when we put others down,we do it anyway. We want to feel goodby making others feel bad.

When we want our own lives to bedifferent; we are quick to judge the livesof others.

Make you feel worse about youwhen you judge others you feel badafterward. You do not feel good aboutyourself. You might get a tiny rush fromthe judgments, but, ultimately, you feelguilty. You think you are a bad person

for casting such harsh judgments on oth-ers. You bring yourself down when youbring others down.

First, we must make it clear that wedo not believe judgement is an entirelynegative and useless function. We some-times say that someone is a “goodjudge of character,” meaning that theyare fairly intuitive when it comes toworking out when someone shifty is onthe scene. We can also judge peopleaccording to our moral standards, andas long as this is not taken to a dogmat-ic extreme, it can be useful for disasso-ciating ourselves from thieves and vio-lent people.

A common form of judgement,which is completely useless, is when wejudge other people for the clothes theywear, their hairstyle, the way they walk,talk, their height, and their looks alone.We can judge people for their job, theirsocial status, house, shoes, gender, age,car, sexuality, diet, for being too stupid,or too intelligent, for having too manyhobbies or not enough, for being misbe-haved or being a goody-goody, for beingtough or being soft.

Encourage you to judge yourself. Ifyou're judging others, you're probablyjudging yourself pretty harshly as well.

Monitor your thoughts and think

about what you thinking about. Weoften go along thinking things aboutother people, judging them.

There is almost always somethingpositive you can find in someone orsomething. While my mind might imme-diately focus on the negative, we can pushmy thoughts in a more positive directionand look for something nice to say. And,of course, if you can't find something niceto say, don't say anything at all.

Stop judging yourself as it is not allthat easy to do, but the more we judgeourselves, the more we will judge others.Focus on your own life. When all else failsand judgments are hard to push away,focus on yourself. Do not worry aboutwhat other people are doing. Think aboutyour own life. Focus on what you wantand go after it. When you're trying toavoid your own problems, it is easy tocriticize others. Don't. Think about youand focus on the good things.

Remember how it feels. Rememberhow it feels to be judged and rememberhow it felt the last time you judged some-one else. It doesn't feel good to judge orto be judged so put an end to it right now.We are going to work on remember thesefeelings the next time we feel like a neg-ative thought about someone else is crop-ping up.

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When Idina Menzel first startedperforming Let It Go live in con-certs, she thought the lyrics and

soaring vocals would empower all thoseyoung girls in the audience dressed up asElsa.

Instead, Menzel said she often walkedaway from those performances feeling justas inspired.

“I feel an extreme sense of pride aboutit,” said Menzel, the Tony Award-winningperformer who voices Elsa, a fiercely inde-pendent queen with the magical ability tomanipulate ice and snow. The song espe-cially resonated with her because at thetime she was juggling several shows onBroadway and going through a divorcewhile “trying to put one foot in front ofthe other.”

“But you see a little girl in a blue dressin the second row,” she said and contin-ued, “That’s when you realise the song andfilm represents them. It’s giving them per-mission to take ownership of who they are,and everything that makes them uniqueand different. But it’s a reciprocity. It’s com-ing back to me exponentially because Ineed to hear it too.”

Menzel believes Frozen 2 has thecapacity to empower young girls, boys andothers of all ages in the same way. The newfilm comes six years after the originalbroke box office records for an animatedfilm, amassing $1.2 billion in worldwideticket sales. It was bolstered by Let It Go,which won a Grammy and two Oscars.

Jennifer Lee, co-director and writer ofboth films, said she didn’t anticipate thesuccess of Frozen. Lee said a conversationwith a stranger demonstrated the film’simpact.

“I met a woman wearing a handmade‘Let It Go’ necklace, but she didn’t have anyidea who I was,” Lee said. “She was talk-ing, and I observed. She embraced themovie for herself. She felt the musicspoke to her. It seemed to empower her.That’s our goal.”

Menzel is unsure if the sequel can gen-erate the same astronomical numbers asthe original. But she is hopeful the storyand music can resonate with viewers andfurther the themes of the original, includ-ing showing that female characters don’tnecessarily need their male counterpart torescue them from distress.

“I think it’ll move people,” she said. “Ithink the film is powerful. I don’t knowwhat the success of the music will be out-side the film. But I know how I felt when

I heard (the songs). I know how much Iloved recording them and getting insideof them. I think people will learn from Elsawho is always overcoming her fear to takethe next step and risk.”

In Frozen 2, Elsa finally embraces herpowers, but she finds herself haunted byan unsettling voice from afar that no oneelse can hear. She ends up going on a dan-gerous journey to seek answers with hersister Anna, played by Kristen Bell. Alsojoining them are Anna’s boyfriend Kristoff(Jonathan Groff), his reindeer friendSven and the bubbly snowman Olaf,voiced by Josh Gad.

Co-director Chris Buck said the sequelhas moments of being “fun and humor-ous,” but the story also delves deep intoElsa and Anna’s emotions. He said themain characters are trying to find theirmeaning in life. The film expands on chal-lenges facing Elsa’s kingdom of Arendelle,with Sterling K Brown joining the cast asa military officer and Evan Rachel Woodvoicing the sisters’ mother.

“The first film is more like Act 1 of amusical where you’re setting up the char-acters’ wants and who they are,” Buck said.“In this one, we can do Act 2. Usually,those songs go deeper and they’re moreemotional. You find out more. The strug-gles are harder. We had that sort of tem-plate. That helped us shape it.”

Several deadlines were “blown past”while creating the story line that had atleast 50 versions of rewrites, the directorssaid.

Bell applauded the creative team fortaking their time. “They didn’t just try to

come up with the follow up for whatevermonetary or marketing sake,” the actresssaid. “You can see a follow up from any-thing and you know in your soul, in yourgut whether or not you connect to it. Like‘Oh those are the same characters I lovedbut didn’t connect to them.’ They waitedto find something that people wouldconnect to.”

Lee said the biggest breakthroughcame when husband-and-wife songwrit-ing team Kristen Anderson-Lopez andBobby Lopez delivered the song Into theUnknown.

“That changed everything,” Lee said.“It was the most active song. It’s a song thatsays to Elsa ‘You’ve got to act. You’ve gotto have the guts to follow what your lifecould be.’ You see the change in her fromthe beginning to the end of the song. Itstarted the whole engine for the wholemovie.”

Anderson-Lopez agrees. She said themusic and film should compel women totrust their instincts in times of conflict.

“We’re continuing to say that womenneed to listen to their gut and follow theirgut,” said Anderson-Lopez, who won twoOscars with her husband for Let It Go andRemember Me from the film Coco.

“You are powerful in your own uniqueway by speaking truth and rising up fromthe floor,” she continued. “When theworst thing happens to you really doeshappen, you learn to do the next rightthing. You take one step then another step,then another and stumble blindly towardthe light. One breath. One step at a time.”

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Are men from Mars andwomen from Venus?

Contemporary literature wouldhave us believe this. But if youtravel back in time, Hindumythology is replete with exam-ples of the sacred feminine, aforce that is to be reckoned withwhile inhabiting a sphere whichis exclusive and sacred.

Urdu literature too is pep-pered with women being celebrat-ed in ways that had nothing to dowith their beauty. Kaifi Azmi’sAurat written more than 75 yearsemphasised, “Uth meri jaan, meresaath hi chalna hai tujhe, qalb-e-mahoul mein larzaan sharar-e-jang hain aaj,” (Arise, my love, fornow you must march with me,flames of war are ablaze in ourworld today). It, of course, hasbecome a part of folklore that thethen-unmarried Shaukat decidedthat she would only be the wifeof the poet.

At the Inkpot IndiaConclave’s session on GenderInequality: Men Are From Marsand Women From... Subjugation?author Neelima Adhar, recitedKaifi’s lines, raising the questionthat why is there a need to fightfor equality when there are suchmen who are sensitive towardswomen, and want them to walkbeside them?

Neelima didn’t agree to theidea of a conversation on thistopic. She said, “I don’t sub-scribe to this title that men arefrom Mars and women are either

from Venus or subjugated. I amnot a feminist. I am a happy andproud woman.” Neelima arguedthat there is nothing like beingequal or subjugated. “Every gen-der has a different space. Andeveryone wants that space to berespected,” added she.

Other panelists disagreed andpointed out that Indian womenare subjugated and confined totheir homes and child rearing.They are exploited sexually andmen (even a lot of other women)often are misogynistic in theirtreatment. Though Neelimaagreed to this but she questionedthe point of the conflict? “Youhave a space, occupy that, we havea space we’ll occupy that,” saidshe.

Talking about the Hindumythology, she said, “In ancienttimes, women were the powercentres because they could pro-create. They were powerful. Theycould have as many husbands asthey liked and change partners.”But she agrees to the fact that

somewhere down the line theHindu ethos has changed.

Neelima pointed out thatattempts are being made toempower women and make themaware of their rights. Even in thegovernment departments thereare think tanks and ministrieswhose job is to empower women.There’s rapid change in the mind-set of the people. Social changetoo is taking place. Exposureand communication have becomeso vast and intense that womenrefuse to be subjected to atroci-ties. The momentum of changewill keep on gaining strength andintensity.

“I am a privileged citizen. SoI can say that I don’t care aboutgender inequality. But the averageIndian still feels that they sufferbecause of it,” she said.

Pointing towards films thatare being made she said that theawareness about women’s rightshas become profound. There is ashift in the attitude that ‘we don’twant a girl child.’ Though we may

not agree, as the male gaze incommerical films is intense andsexualises women.

Another panelist, NandiniBhalla, editor of a magazinebelieves that even though womenare now doing so much more andbreaking the glass ceiling, they arenot taught the word “ambition” aswhenever a women mentionsthe word, it carries a negative con-notation. We think that she isshrewd or a difficult person butwe don’t see it the same way whenit comes to men. She said, “If aman says he is ambitious, he isseen as a go-getter. So womenshould be taught that it is good to

be ambitious. There are so manyof them who don’t want to be seenas too career-oriented. But itcannot be emphasised enoughthat there is nothing wrong in it.We have to sensitise womenabout being comfortable withambition. Only when we feedthese thoughts in their mind, wecan achieve equality.”

Female mentorship is alsocritical. Various studies havefound that most of the women donot want to work with femalebosses. But Bhalla feels that thisis a huge flaw as women can bethe best mentors for other womenas they have fought for their

rights. When women supporttheir own kinds and teach themskills, it can help us bring abouta change.

Even today there is a seriouspay gap which signals that thereis a need to talk about equality.Bhalla said that if there wasequality we wouldn’t have beenhaving this conversation. But it isgood to have conversations asthey lead to change.

She talked about how femi-nism is often being misunder-stood as dominating men. Butinstead it means being equal tothem. “There is no equality, so weneed feminism.”

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MUSICPOWER OF

Frozen 2 co-directors Chris Buck andJennifer Lee say creating a sequel of

the 2013 blockbuster hit Frozen wasvery tough, as they wanted to explorenew places and introduce new charac-ters without losing the essence of thestory.

Set in fantastical land of Arendelle,Frozen is a story of two sisters Elsa andAnna who are on a path of findingacceptance and love, while trying tosave their kingdom infused with heart-touching music and emotions. Elsa isstruggling to accept her magical icypowers and effervescent Anna is try-ing to find a bond with her sister.

Frozen 2 brings back their story asthey continue on the journey of find-ing their own self, by tracing their pastand piecing it together with their pre-sent.

“Making the sequel was extreme-ly challenging. We wanted to have ourcharacters go to a different place andgo outside of Arendelle. And we knewwe wanted to have new characters toexpand this world a bit,” Buck said.

“The challenge is how to stay trueto the characters and let them grow. Wehave a map going on in our head of allthese things,” he explained further.

Frozen won an Oscar for BestAnimated Feature. It became the high-est-grossing animated film beforeremake of The Lion King took thatposition in 2019. And with great suc-cess comes great responsibility.

“When Frozen came out, it wasn’tjust our movie but the movie of theworld. That was exciting to us and butthat comes with a lot of expectationsfor the sequel. But truthfully, weagreed that we would keep that pres-sure outside the room and build

Frozen 2 the same way we built Frozen,which is really talking about characterfirst and then plot and then having thesongwriters get involved and let thesongs come from the story,” Bucknoted.

To this, Lee added: “It was theexact same team who built ‘Frozen’ andwe made a pact that we’re going tobuild it exactly as we did the first one.The challenges were much greater interms of where do you go from here.But you have the foundation of thesecharacters. The characters were a lit-tle bit of us and we all knew them sowell.”

The second part of the Disneyfranchise promises to be more intenseas it traces the past of Princesses Annaand Elsa, voiced by Kristen Bell andIdina Menzel in Hollywood version,respectively, and piece together theirpresent. Frozen 2 will release in Indiain English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu onNovember 22.

What’s the message for children inthe second part? “The thing I loveabout my characters is that they nevergive up, no matter how many chal-lenges we throw at them. They’reincredibly strong. I think that’s a real-ly powerful message for everyone, notjust young people,” Buck said.

Lee feels Frozen doesn’t tacklegood versus, but looks at fear and love.

“The first one looks at that throughbeing different and I think the secondone looks at that with change. Changeis one of the hardest things in life tocope with. The fear of change can makeyou not act on the thing that’s mostimportant to you. So, that’s the rustleof love and fear,” she said.

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Collector Dr SanjayAlung along with com-

missioner PrabhakarPandey and other officers ofBilaspur MunicipalCorporation (BMC)reviewed cleanliness at dif-ferent places on Monday.Alung instructed the clean-ing contract company,Lions Private Services, topick the garbage.

The collector briefedthe cleaning staff to pick upall the scrap and garbagewhile they inspected thebus stand area. Large quan-tities of plastic, waterpouches and other wastethings were found. The

collector expressed hisanger on the zone commis-sioner and the officers ofthe Lions Services andrequested them to startissuing notice.

During the inspection,people complained of thedirty water coming fromthe sulabh complex. Thecollector directed the nonecommissioner to immedi-ately change the toilet pipeand present the report.

The collector thendirected all the zone com-missioners to carry out acontinuous inspection intheir respective areas. Hesaid that he will conduct

surprise inspections fromtime to time and will takestrict actions against theconcerned zone commis-sioner, cleaning officer andemployees on receipt ofcomplaints from citizens.

During the inspection,the SuperintendentEngineer of the MunicipalCorporation, GS Tamarkar,Deputy CommissionerKhajanchi Kumhar, ZoneCommissioner DK Sharma,Health Officer Dr OmkarSharma, Executive EngineerMr PK Panchayati,Manager of Lion ServicesSK Singh and other officialswere present.

Delhi Tourism, Government ofDelhi in association with

Government of Moscow celebrated‘Days of Moscow in Delhi’ featur-ing a variety of activities includingart, culture, heritage, sports andother areas of mutual co-operationon November 18 and 19. This wasa part of the twin city agreement fortourism and education between the

Government of NCT of Delhi andGovernment of City of Moscow,

‘Days of Moscow in Delhi’received an enthusiastic response, beit young students from Delhi GovtSchools who put up a commendableshow while playing withGrandmaster Ivan Popov, or stu-dents from IIIT and other techni-cal institutes, who made the best out

of the opportunity to interact withnone other than Russian cosmo-naut, Sergey Revin.

The cultural extravaganza wasorchestrated with the stellar perfor-mances of ‘Berezka’ and ‘Kvatro’ atSiri Fort, regardless of any languagebarrier.

Giving business communitiesfrom both countries the impetus

and direction to expand, theConference presented an apt plat-form under the ever-expandinggamut of ‘Days of Moscow in Delhi’.The extensive cultural programmeundertaken further bolstered thebilateral ties between the two citygovernments and explore theimmense potential for future part-nerships across multiple spheres.

While weddings are one of thebiggest occasions of our lives,

planning them can be quite stressful,especially when it comes to figuring outhow you’ll pay for the best venue, cater-ing services, photographer, your outfits,food, jewellery and much more. Andgiven the number of things you need tospend on, you may want to look beyondyour savings to cover the costs.

That’s where a personal loan for wed-ding comes in. For instance, BajajFinserv, a financing solution, lets youborrow up to �25 lakh without furnish-ing any collateral and repay it over flex-ible tenors that suit your repayment strat-egy.

You can use this loan to manage allyour planned and unplanned expenses.Here are some features of a Bajaj Finserv,Personal Loan:

����������5����With such a big sanction, you can

plan everything from the catering, venueto decorations and even an exotic hon-eymoon.

#� H�� � �����#����-0/�����Convenient tenor options are avail-

able. You can repay your wedding loanaccordingly. In fact, you can even use thehandy EMI calculator to measure howmuch installment would you be comfort-able with and adjust loan parameters asper your affordability.

�� �� #� H�����#�������Under this, you also get to pay inter-

est only on the amount that you haveutilised. Moreover, you have the optionto pay interest-only installments for theinitial part of the tenor. This helps youreduce your EMIs by up to 45 per cent.

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gibility criteria. To avail a personal loan,you need to be:

- Between 23 and 55 years of age - Citizen of India- A salaried employee working in a

reputable MNC, public or private com-pany

- Meet the monthly salary criteriabased on the city you live

Once you meet the eligibility crite-ria, you only need to fill up an onlineapplication form and submit your basicdocuments to avail the money.

Abusiness conducive infrastructuresuch as the world classInternational Exhibition-cum-

Convention Centre (IECC) at PragatiMaidan is crucial for the growth andexport promotion of MSME sector inIndia and we need at least 30 to 40 ofthem in the country,” said Nitin Gadkari,the Minister of MSME, Road Transportand Highways, while inaugurating the39th edition of the India InternationalTrade Fair at Pragati Maidan.

Complimenting ITPO for holdingthe IITF with its theme Ease of DoingBusiness for the 39th edition of the fair,Gadkari informed that theMinistry was taking initiativesto create an online dedicatedmarketing portal for thesale of MSME products.He pointed out that inorder to compete global-ly, there is a need to focuson quality through skilledand trained manpower. Hei n f o r m e dthat theP r i m eM i n i s t e rhad identi-fied 150 eco-nomically back-ward districtswhich neededmaximum involve-ment to maximisethe production foralleviation of pover-ty.

Speaking on theoccasion, SomParkash, theMinister of State forCommerce andIndustry said thatthe IITF has carveda niche for itself in

the global calendarbesides occupyingan eminent positionin the Asian conti-nent. He elaboratedthat reforms andpolicy initiatives

have ensured that the country hasimproved in “Ease of Doing Business”global rating. The Minister said thatevents such as IITF are crucial to dou-bling farmers income by 2022 and trans-forming India into a US$ 5 trillioneconomy by the year 2024.

In his key note address, L C Goyal,CMD, ITPO indicated that the next edi-tion of the fair would accommodatearound five times more participantsnext year by increasing the area from25,000 sqm space to 1.25 sqm lakhspace.

Senior representatives from the‘Partner State’ Bihar, Narmadeshwar Laland the ‘Focus State’ Jharkhand,Aboobackar Siddique presented details ofthe achievements of their States, the pol-icy initiatives towards “Ease of DoingBusiness”, reforms and export potential.

In his welcome address, RajeshAgrawal, ED, ITPO highlighted thesalient features of the fair.

Also present on the occasion wasTahir Qadir y, Charge d’ Affaires, Embassy of Afghanistan inIndia.

The Union Minister ofState (independent

charge) for Culture andTourism, Prahlad SinghPatel said that centre is pre-serving the dying form of artand culture.

As the chief guest at the32nd foundation Day cele-bration at Indira GandhiNational Center for the Arts,(IGNCA) he talked aboutcultural heritage and riverNarmada. He also released20 new books and six DVDson the occasion. The pro-gramme was attended byNirupama Kotru, jointsecretory (culture), Adwait

Gadnayak, DG NationalGallery of Modern Art, DrSachchidanad Joshi, mem-ber secretory IGNCASudhamahalingam, AjayDeshpande and many oth-ers.

On the occasion, twoimportant exhibitions werealso organised. One exhibi-tion was based on MahatmaGandhi showcasing oilpaintings of Elizabeth SassBrunner and her daughterElizabeth Brunner and a

photo exhibition of DRDWadia and Shambhu Shahwho photographed manylife aspects of Mahatma.

The second exhibitionwas focussed on the Tiji

festival. It is an importantfestival of the Mustangregion of Nepal and Tibetand is based on the victoryof good over evil. CelebratedIndian piano artist Enoch

Denials showcased his per-formance.

During the Tiji exhibi-tion, there was also a per-formance of Kabir Gayan byBheru Singh Chauhan. Therewas a discussion on the 13thcentury dance genre,Nritiyawali and the recital ofthe rare instrument Sundari.

Carnatic musicians andsingers performed withinstruments like violin, tabla,pakhawaj, mridanga, ghatam,sitar and flute.

Amenstrual hygiene aware-ness camp was held on

November 18 at GGSSSSchool, C Block, DilshadGarden. This camp was con-ducted after the nationwidecampaign #YesIbleed bySheWings. More than 1,000girls were actively involved inthis MHM camp where theywere asked questions and weregiven important tips to behygienic and safe during peri-ods.

The event started with anopening speech by IASAbhishek Singh who hasadopted the school since 2016when he was posted here asDM Shahdara. It was followedby an interactive session byIAS Durga Shakti Nagpal,Madan Mohit Bhardwaj,founder SheWings and RJ

Raunac (Baua). The schoolchildren opened up and talkedabout the issues they face andthe stereotypes they have lis-tened to all their lives.

After these interactive ses-sions, actor and MP fromGurdaspur Sunny Deol inter-acted with them. He appreci-ated the IAS couple Singh andNagpal for the initiative.

He then spoke about howSheWings is a great initiativeand more people should beinvolved in it. There was a ses-sion conducted by SheWingson period yoga. Anca Verma,former Miss Romania, donat-ed sanitary products and inter-acted with the girls.

This camp made GGSSSthe first school where an eventof this scale and nature wasorganised.

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Vice-captain Rohit Sharma’sworkload management and

opener Shikhar Dhawan’s poorform are expected to dominate thedeliberations when the nationalselection committee meets heretoday to decide on India’s limited-overs squads for the home seriesagainst the West Indies.

If all goes well, Rohit may getsome well-deserved rest during thethree-match ODI series against theCaribbean team so that he is freshand rejuvenated for the tough tourof New Zealand next year whereIndia will play five T20Internationals, three ODIs and twoTest matches.

Rohit’s workload will be theprominent point of discussion ashe has played close to 60 compet-itive matches (including IPL) thisyear.

While the onus will also be onRohit to give his viewpoint, thepossibility of him being given abreak in at least one of the two for-mats looks strong.

The other person, who mightfeel the heat is senior openerShikhar Dhawan. Dhawan hasn’tbeen in the best of forms since hereturned to cricket after sustainingan injury during the World Cup.

Mayank Agarwal’s stupen-dous form in Test cricket and avery good List A career average of

50-plus and an above 100 strike-rate makes him a good choice topartner KL Rahul in case the selec-tors think of looking at the thirdopener’s option.

The soon-to-be 34 Dhawan isalso not expected to be around fora long time.

Ditto for Rishabh Pant, whowill don the big gloves with SanjuSamson close on his heels.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni hasalready started training and ifPant can’t seal it during the upcom-ing series, he might face stiff com-petition from the 38-year-old leg-end once IPL comes calling.

With Hardik Pandya (stressfracture), Jasprit Bumrah (backsurgery), Navdeep Saini andBhuvneshwar Kumar (side strain)still recovering from their respec-tive injuries, Shivam Dube andShardul Thakur are expected tocontinue in the squad.

Spin bowling all-roundersWashington Sundar and KrunalPandya — are also under thescanner due to their underwhelm-ing performances.

With Yuzvendra Chahal doingwell and if Ravindra Jadeja is notgiven another break, one amongthe two could get the axe.

India’s new T20 sensationDeepak Chahar is expected leadthe pace attack but KhaleelAhmed’s economy rate has been aproblem.

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The spotlight wouldfirmly be on the likes

of Shikhar Dhawan andyoung Prithvi Shaw whenthe Super League stage ofthe Syed Mushtaq AliTrophy T20 tournamentbegins here today.

The focus will be onDhawan, who has nothad a great run in recenttimes as well as Shaw,who recently returned tocompetitive cricket afterserving an eight monthretrospective ban.

Dhawan is currentlygoing through a roughpatch. The Delhi bats-man had scores of 0(9)against Jammu &Kashmir,9(6) against Jharkhand,19(18) against Sikkimand 35(33) against Odishain the league stage of thenational T20 champi-onship and he would bemore than keen to turnthings around.

Another promisingopener who would wantto make most of theopportunity is Shaw, whoreturned with a bang froma doping ban, slamming ahalf-century againstAssam in the last game ofthe league stage forMumbai.

Twenty-year oldShaw will have to makeoptimum use of the SuperLeague stage if he has toimpress the national selec-tors and make a come-back to the national team.

In all probability,Shaw will open forMumbai, replacing an in-form Jay Bista, with seniorpro Aditya Tare.

His teammates andthree India players —Shreyas Iyer, ShivamDube and Shardul Thakur— also have an opportu-nity to cement their placesin the Indian T20 squadwith good outings.

����� � Teenage bowl-ing sensation NaseemShah will become one ofthe youngest cricketers toplay a Test after Pakistancaptain Azhar Ali con-firmed on Wednesday the16-year-old will make hisdebut at the Gabba.

Shah, who opted toremain on tour after hismother died, made thegrade for today’s first Testafter impressing with aneight-over spell againstAustralia A in Perth.

“We are definitelylooking to play him— he is bowlingreally well,”Azhar said.

O n l yh a n d f u lof play-e r sh a v e

made their debut aged16, including SachinTendulkar who went on tobecome an Indian battinglegend.

The youngest Testplayer is listed by Cricinfoas Pakistan’s Hasan Raza,who was 14 on his 1996debut, though his date ofbirth was later disputed

Azhar said he hadfaith in Shah’s abilitiesthrough a high-pressurefive-day game.

“He’s very fit, I havecaptained him infirst-class matchesand he has oversunder his belt,” he

said.“I’m sure that

he can do thatin Tests as well,I have nodoubts in hisfitness andhis bowlingskills.

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Sri Lanka cap-tain and veter-

an pacer LasithMalinga has hada rethink on hisdecision to retireafter next year’sTwenty20 WorldCup, saying hecan carry on foranother twoyears.

Malinga, in March, had stated thathe wanted to retire after the Twenty20World Cup scheduled in October-November in Australia next year. Butthe 36-year-old, who captains SriLanka in the shortest format, now sayshe can play on beyond that.

“T20 is four overs and I feel withmy skill, I can manage T20 as abowler. As a captain, because I’veplayed so many T20s around theworld that I feel I can manage thatperiod for maybe another two years,”Malinga told ‘ESPNCricinfo’.

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India wicketkeeper WriddhimanSaha on Wednesday brushed asideconcerns about pink ball being a

challenge for bowlers like MohammedShami who, according to him, can betrusted to come good irrespective of theball’s colour or the nature of the sur-face.

Shami had a match-haul of sevenwickets among the Indian pace attack’scollective haul of 14 scalps in the hometeam’s innings and 130-run victory overBangladesh in the first Test in Indore.

“With the form they (Shami,Ishant Sharma and Umesh Yadav) arein, the pink ball is not a factor.Especially (Mohammed) Shami, he canbe deadly on any wicket. He has paceand is able to extract reverse swing,”Saha said when asked whether colourof the ball will make more difference.

Saha said that they haven’t yetchecked how much movement is onoffer as far as pink ball is concerned.

“We are yet to see the movementof the pink ball. But the colour of theball won’t matter with the current formof our pacers,” Saha added.

A handful of Indian players,

including Bengal’s Shami and Saha,have pink ball experience in domesticcricket but the wicketkeeper pointedout that it was a Kookaburra.

“The only change is the colour ofthe ball. It’s made differently. There’salso a change in the timing and pick-ing the ball a bit difficult in twilight.It may help the pacers but will be chal-lenging for the batsmen,” Saha said.

NEW BEGINNINGSenior Indian off-spinner

Ravichandran Ashwin feels Day/Night

Tests will mark a new beginning for thetraditional format in the country as thespectator count will improve drastical-ly owing to the match timings.

The daily proceedings in thematch will start at 1pm and wind upby 8pm.

“I just hope this marks the begin-ning of where we get huge crowds com-ing into the stadium and Test cricketgets its credit and obviously with thechange in timings people can afford tofinish their work and come into thegame, watch it and enjoy it,” Ashwin

said on Star Sports. His teammateMohammed Shami is focussed on thechallenges that await him in the game.

“The middle session should be themain focus for batsman while using thepink ball unlike the morning sessionthat is usually considered the mostimportant in a test match as it will havemore of a swing in Eden Gardens,” hesaid.

Shami said the bowlers will haveto work very hard to extract any assis-tance from the pink ball.

“...The pink ball is only useful whenthere a hard and grassy wicket becausethe ball goes straight.

“Pink ball is a very different balland doesn’t work like the white or redball at all so there is a very low possi-bility that in the last session we get aswing or reverse so we will have towork very hard,” he said.

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Bangladesh’s spinbowling consultant

Daniel Vettori is donedwelling on the “neg-atives” and wants histeam to feel excitedabout competing in itsmaiden Day/NightTest even though ithappens to be againsta incomparably for-m i d abl e - at - h om eIndia.

“We are excited toplay rather than thinkabout the negatives,”Vettori told reportersahead of the Test.

“Visibility is fine,but the only anecdotalconversation I haveheard is around beinga little bit hard to pickup from point andsquare-leg. It will beinteresting to find outif slips, gully andumpire is picking it upwell. They say there’s asmall halo effect,” hepointed out.

While a handful ofplayers from Indiahave played a pink-ballgame in domesticcricket, Bangladesh’sonly experience withthat was a one-offDay/Night four-daymatch in 2013 butnone of the currentteam players were apart of that fixture.

Vettori concededthat early sunset inKolkata could pose amassive challenge for his team’s batsmen during thetwilight hours.

“Pink ball plays normal at this time of the day, andin this light. I think the challenge will be when the Testis under lights. Sunset is quite early here — I think4:30 pm. I think that’ll be the time when we see thepink ball come into play,” the former New Zealand cap-tain said.

Vettori has not been a part of any Day/Night Testbut he feels batting during the twilight period will bechallenging.

“The twilight hour, dusk is when it seems to doa little bit more. My experience is only from watch-ing on TV. It will be the period of the Test match whentactically things might do a few different things,” hesaid.

“The wicket will be pretty good and that last ses-sion will be very interesting with the pink ball.”

With the pink ball expected to help seamers more,Vettori said Bangladesh pacers are equally excited.

“The four fast bowlers are very excited. It is a nicething. Bangladeshi fast bowlers don’t get to be excit-ed a lot. I think they are coming to grips with a slight-ly different ball. It is the SG pink ball.

“I think most guys have limited experience withthe Kookaburra one. But I think there’s real optimism,”he said.

The former New Zealand spinner is also hopefulthat tweakers would come into play, especially in thefirst two sessions each day.

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Spin great Harbhajan Singhfeels Ravichandran Ashwin

deserves a comeback in India’slimited overs set-up as a rewardfor his recent exploits with thered ball.

With the management andselectors exploring optionsahead of the T20 World Cupnext year, opportunities havebeen given to the likes ofWashington Sundar and RahulChahar.

As the selectors meet topick the ODI and T20 squadsfor the West Indies series nextmonth, Harbhajan said Ashwinshould get another chance in theshorter versions of the game.

“This is what I feel, if youare looking to bowl a spinnerupfront (which Sundar hasbeen doing in T20s), you ratherhave a wicket-taker whichAshwin is. Why not (give hima chance)? He has also done agood job with the red ball

recently,” Harbhajan said onTuesday.

“Ashwin spins the ball, hehas got more variations.Someone like a Sundar needs tolearn. I want him to do well. Iam all for blooding in young-sters but they must learn elsethey will be replaced, consider-ing the stiff competition,” saidthe 39-year-old.

Ashwin last played a limit-ed overs game for India in July2017, following which he andRavindra Jadeja were over-looked for the shorter formatswith wrist-spinners YuzvendraChahal and Kuldeep Chahalreplacing the finger-spinners.Jadeja was able to make a come-back but Ashwin hasn’t.

Harbhajan, though, alsobelieved that both Chahal andKuldeep remain India’s best betfor providing breakthroughs.

“They are your wicket-tak-ers. People who are wicket-tak-ers will always be in the game,be it Kuldeep or Chahal or who-ever.

“You need to ask the man-agement (if they should beplaying every game). They(management) probably want tosee what combination workswell for them but good to seeChahal back and hopefullyKuldeep will be back too. In myopinion, they are your two bestoptions,” he said.

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�������� India’s finest cricketers includingSachin Tendulkar, Sunil Gavaskar and Kapil Devwill assemble during the country’s first-ever day-night Test against Bangladesh, starting in EdenGardens tomorrow.

The iconic Eden Gardens is all set to witnessa musical extravaganza in the presence of formercricketers, celebrities and politicians duringIndia and Bangladesh’s first-ever pink ball Test.

According to BCCI President SouravGanguly, the second Test of the two-match serieswill be one to remember.

“Sachin (Tendulkar), (Sunil) Gavaskar, Kapil(Dev), Rahul (Dravid), Anil (Kumble) everyonewill be there. In tea time, there will be carts goingaround the stadium with former captains inthem,” Ganguly said on Wednesday.

“There is a musical performance at tea timeand at the end of the day there is a felicitation.Both the teams, former captains, Prime MinisterSheikh Hasina, Chief Minister will be there.

“Runa Laila will be performing, Jeet Gangulywill be performing. I am very excited. Just seethe excitement, four days are already sold out ina Test match,” he added.

The Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) andBCCI have put in place several plans to markIndia’s maiden pink ball Test.

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasinais expected to ring the ‘Eden Bell’ along withWest Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjeeon the first day of the match.

Besides, a host of sporting starts, includingstar shuttler P V Sindhu, chess ace ViswanathanAnand and tennis sensation Sania Mirza areexpected to grace the occasion.

As per plans, paratroopers are expected tofly into Eden to hand a pink ball each to cap-tains Virat Kohli and Mominul Haque just beforethe toss.

The CAB has also organised a talk show fea-turing the ‘Fabulous Five’ of Indian cricket —Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, RahulDravid, Anil Kumble and V V S Laxman dur-ing the 40-minute dinner break. They will talkabout the historic 2001 Test win against Australiaat the Eden.

The CAB also plans to felicitate sportingstars, including Olympic champion AbhinavBindra, Sania Mirza, Sindhu and six-time box-ing world champion MC Mary Kom. PTI

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The excitement in the City of Joyis clearly visible and while the first

four days of pink ball Test is alreadysold out, fans have also been comingto the Eden Gardens to watch theIndian and Bangladeshi players trainfor the Test which starts tomorrow.And for those who cannot make it towatch Virat Kohli and boys train onthe eve of the game today can witness

the practice live.A Star official confirmed that this

will be the first time that the train-ing session on the eve of the game willbe telecast by the host broadcasters.

“Yes, we will be telecasting Kohliand boys’ training on Thursday(today) as we wish to give the fans afeel of what goes on hours before thetwo teams actually walk out to playtheir maiden Day-Night Test,” theofficial said.

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Bangladesh’s reserveopener Saif Hassan

was on Wednesday ruledout of the Day/NightTest against India owingto a finger injury.

The 21-year-oldHassan split the web-bing of his finger whilecoming in as a substitutefielder during the firstTest in Indore.

“The injury has notyet healed and the med-ical team is of the opin-ion that he will benefitfrom being rested to fullrecovery. Taking the stateof injury into considera-tion, Saif has been ruledout of the second Test,”the Bangladesh CricketBoard (BCB) said in arelease.

The batsman was inline to make his debut inthe historic pink-ballTest at the EdenGardens, with regularopeners Shadman Islamand Imrul Kayes faling toimpress in the opener.

Hassan’s injurymeans the embattled vis-itors will have to contin-ue with the duo of Islamand Kayes, who man-aged all of 24 runs acrosstwo innings at Indore.

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