OUR CORRESPONDENT

JASDAN/BHUJ: Pushing the BJP’s cam-paign in Gujarat into high gear, Prime Min-ister Narendra Modi on Monday attacked the Congress and said he is ready to sell tea but will never sell the country, and asked Rahul Gandhi why he had applauded the release of LeT chief Hafiz Saeed.

Modi, who started his high voltage cam-paign with rallies in Bhuj in Kutch district, Jasdan in Rajkot, Chalala in Amreli and Kadodara near Surat, took on the opposi-tion party on issues related to China, Lash-kar-e-Taiba’s Hafiz Saeed, the surgical strike as well as corruption.

He accused the Congress vice presi-dent of applauding the release of a terrorist in Pakistan and asked why he hugged the Chinese ambassador during the Dokalam standoff.

“You are happy to hug the Chinese ambassador; you are clapping at the release of Hafiz Saeed, you cannot respect Indian Army’s surgical strike... But why did you speak about it? You could have just remained silent,” he said in Bhuj, not speci-fying how and where Gandhi had hailed Saeed’s release.

Gandhi had recently tweeted: “Naren-drabhai, baat nahi bani. Terror mastermind is free. President Trump just delinked Pak military funding from LeT. Hugplomacy fails. More hugs urgently needed.”

The tweet had come after the release of LeT founder and 26/11 mastermind Saeed by a Pakistan court.

Hitting out at the Congress over a recent meme targeting his chaiwala past, the prime minister said in Jasdan that the main oppo-sition party is targeting him because of his humble background and for being born to

a “poor mother”.“They are feeling uneasy because a chai-

wala became the PM. We used to read in books how the downtrodden get harassed by those in higher strata. But I never imag-ined they would stoop so low,” Modi said in his speech in Gujarati at Jasdan ahead of the first round of polling on December 9.

He said he gets messages from people threatening him that they would once again turn him into a tea-seller.

“I want to tell them that I am Modi, who is ready to sell tea but will never commit the

sin of selling the entire country,” he said, in an apparent reference to scams during the Congress-led UPA rule.

“Why are you mocking poverty? Why are you insulting a poor mother?” he asked.

In an apparent bid to woo the influential Patidars, who seem to be drifting towards the opposition party, Modi said the Con-gress “harassed” four former chief minis-ters of the community because of a “grudge” against Gujarat.

Babubhai Jashbhai Patel, Chimanbhai Patel, Keshubhai Patel and Anandiben Patel

belonged to the Patidar community.Without directly accusing the Congress

of fanning the protests, Modi said the oppo-sition had done everything to “disturb” the BJP’s Anandiben Patel-led government.

“They fanned violence to disturb her. This Congress party harassed four Pati-dar CMs just because the people of Gujarat never accepted the party.”

At the Bhuj rally, Modi pitched the elec-tion as a fight between trust on the develop-ment and dynastic politics.

He asked the people of Gujarat not to forgive Congress leaders as they had levelled baseless allegations on the “son of Gujarat” who has a stainless public life.

During his campaign in the state in the last few days, Gandhi had trained his guns at the Modi-led government over the Rafale fighter aircraft deal.

Modi referred to the 26/11 terror strike and the attack in Uri and asked what the dif-ference was between one government and another, one leader and another.

“They killed our soldiers in Uri, our sol-diers went inside their territory, conducted a surgical strike and came back. The next day a newspaper said they (in Pakistan) carried bodies in trucks,” he said.

Modi alleged that the Congress raised questions on the surgical strike in Septem-ber 2016.

“They could not respect Indian Army, they asked questions like none of our sol-diers were injured? None of them died? Have you any photo or video evidence? Had they gone to shoot a movie in Paki-stan?” he said.

The second phase of elections to the 182-member Gujarat Assembly will be held on December 14. The votes will be counted on December 18.

I really hope I can go on to double these 300 wickets

RAVICHANDRAN ASHWIN

PUBLISHED FROM DELHI & KOLKATA VOL. 12, ISSUE 328 | Tuesday, 28 November 2017 | New Delhi | Pages 16 | Rs 3.00

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PRINCE HARRY TO MARRY GIRLFRIEND MEGHAN MARKLE PG16

Aadhaar linking deadlines may be extended to Mar 31

MPOST BUREAU

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday said it would hear a batch of petitions challenging mandatory linking of Aadhaar for granting vari-ous services to citizen after its consti-tution bench concludes hearing the Delhi-Centre dispute.

The Centre, meanwhile, informed the bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra that it was willing to extend up to March 31 next year the deadline fixed for mandatory linking of Aadhaar with various schemes.

The bench, also comprising Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, said only the Consti-tution bench would pass an interim order in the matter.

The petitioners challenging the Aadhaar scheme have been press-ing for an interim stay order on the government’s decision to make Aad-haar mandatory for welfare schemes.

The apex court is hearing a batch of pleas filed by the Delhi govern-ment against the Delhi high court verdict which had held that Delhi is not a state and the Lieutenant Gov-ernor (LG) is its administrative head.

On October 30, a bench headed by the CJI had said that a constitu-tion bench would be constituted and Aadhaar-related matters would come up for hearing before it.

The apex court had on November 13 refused to entertain a plea chal-lenging the linking of mobile num-bers with Aadhaar, saying several

similar petitions were already pend-ing before it.

The top court had on February 6 asked the Centre to put in place within a year an efficient mechanism to scrutinize details of the identity of over 100 crore existing and future mobile telephone consumers.

It had on November 3 made it clear that banks and telecom service providers will have to indicate the last date of linking bank accounts and mobile numbers with Aad-haar in their communications with customers.

Currently, the last date to link Aadhaar with bank accounts is December 31 this year while for mobile numbers, it is February 6, 2018.

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PRIME MINISTER LAUNCHES STINGING ATTACK ON RAHUL, CONGRESS

SC allows Hadiya to

resume studiesMPOST BUREAU

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday granted Had-iya, the woman at the centre of the controversial Kerala love jihad case, to come out of her father’s custody to resume her studies at Salem in Tamil Nadu.

A three-judge bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Jus-tices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud passed the interim order after interact-ing with Hadiya in open court for about half an hour. During the interaction, she expressed her desire to finish her stud-ies in Homeopathy medicine (BHMS). She insisted that her husband should be made her guardian and she did not need state fund to complete her edu-cation as her husband would provide the money. The apex court directed the university concerned to re-admit Hadiya and grant her hostel facility. Fur-thermore, it asked Kerala police to provide the young woman with security and ensure she travels to Salem at the earliest.

Hadiya had to wait for nearly two hours to speak as arguments revolved around whether the hearing should be held in camera, or behind closed doors, with the National Inves-tigation Agency building a case about terror links and a pattern of forced conversions.

The judges had called Had-iya to testify if she married Sha-fin Jahan in December last and converted of her own free will. They pointed out that since she is an adult, her consent is ‘prime’. Before taking a flight to Delhi, Hadiya shouted to reporters at the Kochi airport: “I have not been forcefully converted... I have not been forcefully mar-ried to Shafin Jahan. I married him of my own will, and I want to live with my husband.”

Her father KM Asokan says she “does not have an indepen-dent mind”, is brainwashed and heavily influenced, which indi-cates that her testimony cannot be relied upon.

I will sell tea, not country: Modi

I-T dept to launch assessment of defaulters from January

MPOST BUREAU

PATNA/NEW DELHI: The Cen-tre has withdrawn Lalu Prasad Yadav’s ‘Z+’ VIP security cover of NSG com-mandos, evoking an angry reaction from the RJD chief and his sons, who accused the NDA government of hatching a “conspiracy” to frighten him.

The former Bihar chief minister will now be given ‘Z’ category security and be guarded by an armed commando squad of the Central Reserve Police Force, by the protocol of the scaled down cover, official sources said.

Yadav will not have National Security Guard black cat commandos guarding him anymore as they were withdrawn on Sunday. The NSG only provides ‘Z+’ security cover.

The decision was taken after the Union home ministry recently reviewed the threat levels of various VIP protectees, the sources said.

Lalu Prasad accused the Narendra Modi gov-ernment of hatching a “conspiracy” to frighten him so that he gives up his “relentless fight for preserving communal harmony and social justice”.

The RJD chief, addressing a press confer-ence here, said, “Lalu is not someone who can be frightened into submission.

The public of Bihar will protect me. But if anything happens to me then the Nitish Kumar government in the state and the Modi govern-ment at the Centre shall be jointly responsible”.

His two sons -- Tej Pratap Yadav and Tejashwi Yadav -- reacted angrily to the move.

The elder of the two brothers, Tej Pratap Yadav, went on to make derogatory remarks against the prime minister.

“If my father is killed who will take responsi-bility for this?” asked Tej Pratap, a former min-ister and an MLA.

Centre withdraws Lalu’s Z+ NSG cover; he slams

move as ‘conspiracy’

In today’s paper

...CITY

8,896 DENGUE CASES IN DELHI SO FAR 4

NATION

PM TO FLAG-OFF HYDERABAD METRO 6

EDIT

CHECK IPO PRICING 8

INTERNATIONAL

THOUSANDS FLEE AS BALI 10

BUSINESS

GST COLLECTIONS SLIP IN OCTOBER 12

SPORT

INDIA CRUSH SRI LANKA 14

LOVE JIHAD CASE

MPOST BUREAU

NEW DELHI: The Income Tax (IT) department will ini-tiate full-fledged assessment proceedings from January next year against those assess-ees who have deposited “sus-picious” amounts of money in banks post-demonetisation but have not filed their income tax returns (ITRs) till now.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), which frames

policies for the department, has asked the taxman to finish the process of serving notices to such entities by December 31.

“The department will initi-ate full-fledged assessment pro-ceedings against these assessees from the latter part of Janu-ary after the replies to the IT notices are received.

“The cases, where the replies to the notices have been received, are now being anal-ysed,” a senior official said. P5

They are feeling uneasy because a chaiwala became the PM. We used to read in books how the downtrodden get harassed by those in higher strata. But I never imagined they would stoop so low

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NAY PYI TAW: Reporters working inside Myanmar’s Rakhine state to document the Rohingya crisis have gone missing, raising fears that the military has deliberately tar-geted them, a media report said on Monday.

Young Rohingya volunteers had been secretly reporting on the persecution of the Muslim minority in Myanmar since 2012, sending photos, vid-eos and audio clips out of the country using smartphones, the Guardian report said.

Human rights groups have claimed the Myanmar military have killed and abducted many of the reporters to “sabotage” the networks and that there was now minimal reporting on what is happening in the closed state of Rakhine.

Rohingya refugee Moham-mad Rafique, who edits the Rohingya community news portal The Stateless, said that “over 95 percent” of Rakhine’s mobile reporters had gone missing since the crackdown began.

“Security forces and Rakh-

ine militia are still committing rapes, killings and arson in the Rohingya villages. But (as) the Rohingya mobile reporter net-work (is) dysfunctional there now, the detailed informa-tion of the violence, which we need to produce credible media reports, is not reaching us.

“International media reporters and human rights activists too gather persecution and violence-related informa-tion from the Rohingya mobile network. They all, including our community’s media out-lets, are being starved of infor-mation from Rakhine now,” the Guardian quoted Rafique as saying.

When riots broke out between Buddhists and Rohingya in Rakhine in 2012, the authorities deployed the military, with allegations sur-facing that the Army commit-ted human rights abuses in the Rohingya villages.

The Rohingya community leaders then set up the network of undercover citizen report-ers, who began documenting incidents and sending reports

out of the country, mostly for use by Rohingya media outlets.

Ko Ko Linn, a Bangladesh-based Rohingya community spokesperson, said 2,000 had been active in 2016.

Noor Hossain, 25, a former mobile reporter who fled to Bangladesh in early September, said they took extraordinary risks to gather information.

Phil Robertson, of Human Rights Watch, said: “With Rohingya reporters being absent on the ground, much of the eyewitness video and other information they pro-vided has been lost. “It’s clear that the Myanmar military has been systematically com-mitting atrocities against the Rohingya - but the commu-nity’s monitors are not there to report it anymore.” AGENCIES

MILITARY HAS DELIBERATELY TARGETED THEM, A MEDIA REPORT SAID

Is Myanmar wiping out Rohingya reporters?

PERILOUS PERCHDevotees boarding an overcrowded truck in Bhopal on Monday on their return from Ghasipura after the end of three-days 70th Alami Tablighi Ijtima (International Muslim Congregation) PTI

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

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2 mp townMILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Tuesday, 28 November, 2017

DAYINDAYOUT What’s on Around Town

HOLI AND CARNIVALColour, music and dance shape the landscape of two celebrations sepa-rated by more than twelve thousand kilometres: Holi and Carnival. It is the time of tradition and transformation, transfiguration and transcendence, in India and in Brazil. On November 28, ‘The Aesthetic Joy: Holi and Carnival’ – an exhibition by Brazilian photog-rapher Ailton Silva and the Indian photographer Natasha Hemrajani – will be inaugrated by Tovar da Silva Nunes, Ambassador of Brazil.WHEN: November 29 – December 5WHERE: Art Gallery, IIC AnnexeTIMINGS: 11 am – 7 pm

TRANSITION ZONEWith Changhoon Lee, Wonho Lee, Yoonjean Lee, Minchul Song and Eun-sook participating, exhibition ‘Transi-tion zone’ is a manifestation of change, phenomenon and metaphor. At the same time, it is a variety of options and boundaries, a space of buffering, and a process that has the same daily-ness as the density of the overcrowded city. Dimensional, multidimensional of points, lines, spaces, and time, which crosses visibility and non-visibility, but which is neither clear nor an uncommon issue. WHEN: OngoingWHERE: Korean Cultural Centre India, Lajpat nagarTIMING: 9 am – 6 pm

PET FED 2017The 4th edition of India’s big-gest pet festival is back with a bang! The repu-table fun driven two day festival will form its big-gest association with stunning B-Town celebrities to take part in Pet Fed festivi-ties. Anticipat-ing more than 25,000 pet parents and 4000 pets, this pet extravaganza will witness engagements into fashion shows, talent shows, workshops, police dog shows, pupper parades, pet’s got talent, dog art gallery and even a world record attempt.WHEN: December 2 – 3WHERE: NSIC Grounds, OkhlaTIMINGS: 11 am – 9 pm

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OUR CORRESPONDENT

Music aficionados mark your calen-dar for first-ever Jazz India Circuit

Launch Concert to be held in the heart of DLF5. Organised by Teamwork Arts, Jazz India Cir-

cuit (JIC) is all about getting into the groove, the subtleties of rhythm, and the power of percussion with leg-endary jazz drummers headlining a slew of concerts and festivals in the country. Witness the mesmerizing per-formance of internationally acclaimed jazz artists and groove to jazz beats with renowned Scandinavian jazz percussionist Joost Lijbaart accom-panied by Sanne Rambags and gui-tarist Bram Stadhouders to headline the concert. Other renowned per-formers include Kitchensink and Syncopation.

A dazzling and powerful launch concert heralds the beginning of the 2017-18 season of JIC to be held on December 1 as Teamwork Arts comes together with DLF5 and Hines to pres-ent a spectacular line-up of artists and

their music at the Horizon Plaza, Guru-gram. Also in its bouquet of offerings, is the Goa International Jazz Live Fes-tival in December and twin concerts in Delhi in February and March 2018.

Joost Lijbaart is one of the most respected exponents of drumming in the Scandinavian scene – and that is saying a lot, considering that some of the most innovative jazz is being crafted in the region’s jazz conser-vatories. Lijbaart performs at JIC as part of his project Under the Surface, an improvisation trio with vocalist Sanne Rambags and guitarist Bram Stadhouders. Bram is one of the most promising new young musicians in the European improvisation circuit who has received many awards and Sanne is one of the few singers of her gen-eration who is able to improvise with self-written texts and poems, some-times by positioning herself completely between the musicians. This gives her voice an instrumental function which is beautifully in line with the playing of Lijbaart and Stadhouders.

Also performing is Kitchensink, a refreshingly original and sought-after band in the burgeoning independent

music circuit in Delhi. That’s not the end, Syncopation, India’s premier jazz trio conceptualising various facets of jazz ranging from traditional to con-temporary, fusion to funk will also perform at the event.

Aakash Ohri, Senior Executive Director, DLF5 said, “As a genre, Jazz is a mature form of music known to have a distinct coterie which is ever-growing. We are happy to host this debut of an exquisitely curated Jazz India Circuit which will feature inter-nationally acclaimed musicians. This edition is an incredible opportunity for jazz lovers and music aficiona-dos alike to experience spellbinding performances”.

Sanjoy Roy, MD, Teamwork Arts says, “We have found a great part-ner in DLF5 for our season launch, bringing the finest in jazz to Guru-gram and NCR audiences. We are constantly working on creating new avenues for bringing jazz to discern-ing and diverse listeners and a space like Horizon Plaza, with a bustling cosmopolitan audience, is the perfect space for a hypnotic evening of explo-rations in jazz.”

CURTAIN COMES down on IITF 2017India International Trade fair 2018 will be bigger and better as it will focus on and encourage new age entrepreneurs and rural artisans under the theme ‘Enterprises from Rural Areas’

OUR CORRESPONDENT

As the India International Trade Fair 2017 came to an end on Monday, team ITPO received all the appreciation it

deserved by C R Chaudhary, Minister of State for Commerce and Industry, Gov-ernment of India. The minister said that it was a challenging task to hold the mega institutionalized event such as IITF just in half the space of the exhibition com-plex while retaining its original format with a controlled and regulated visitors movement. He expressed his happiness over the success of the theme “Startup India, Standup India” this year as it is imperative for young entrepreneurs and employment generation.

Present on the occasion were L C Goyal, Chairman and Managing Direc-tor, ITPO, Deepak Kumar, Executive Director, ITPO, J Gunasekaran, General Manager, ITPO, participants from India and overseas.

L C Goyal also commended ITPO as well as all supporting agencies for put-ting their best foot forward on logis-tics, cleanliness, business generation, enhanced participation, security, access control measures and visitorship. Refer-ring to the vision of the Prime Minis-ter that India needs ‘job creators rather than job seekers’, he announced that ‘Enterprises from Rural Areas’ would be the theme for the next edition of IITF 2018. “It will encourage new age entrepreneurs and artisans in rural and semi-urban three and four tier cities,” Goyal said.

While expressing his satisfaction over the safety and security manage-ment by the Delhi Police, Traffic and Civil Defense in the fair, he indicated that there was a 70 percent reduction in the crime rate with not a single eve-teas-ing incident in the fair and Delhi Police deserves a standing ovation for the same.

He hoped that IITF 2019 would be the largest ever as it would be organized in the world-class Exhibition–cum-Con-vention Complex at Pragati Maidan.

C R Choudhary presented the awards in different categories. While Assam won the gold medal, the silver medal was pre-sented to Kerala and the bronze medal to Lakshadweep in the States and Union Territories category. Special appreciation certificates were also presented to Pun-jab and Maharashtra.

In the Foreign Pavilions, Tillo Hedi-yelik Esya, Turkey conferred the gold medal and Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) and Ministry of Commerce, Afghanistan won the silver.

Bronze was taken away by Curio Tour

Travel Co. Ltd., Thailand Special Appre-ciation Certificate was presented to Asian Lucky Industrial Limited, Hong Kong.

In the Ministries and Depart-ment category, the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation bagged the gold medal. Ministry of Power and Ministry of Health and Family Welfare received the Silver Medals. While Special appre-ciation certificates were received by the Ministry of Earth Sciences and Minis-try of Steel.

The Department of Post, Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited and the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) received the Gold, Silver and the Bronze Medal respectively in Pub-lic Sector Undertakings, EPCs, Com-

modity Boards, Banks & other Govt. Departments/Organizations Category. Special Appreciation Certificate received the National Mission for Clean Ganga.

In the Private Sector, M/s Shree Shyam Tilpatti Udyog won the Gold Medal, Orkus received the Silver Medal and IFB Industries Limited bagged the Bronze Medal. Calix Herbal received the Special Appreciation Certificate.

The Socialist Republic of Vietnam ‘Partner Country’, Kyrgyz Republic ‘Focus Country’ and Jharkhand ‘Part-ner States’ were also honoured.

In his welcome address, Deepak Kumar, Executive Director, ITPO high-lighted new initiatives taken by ITPO for the convenience of participants and visitors in the fair.

C.R. Chaudhary, Minister of State for Commerce & Industry honours Assam with gold medal in the ‘States and Union Territory Category’ at the valedictory function of IITF 2017 in Hall No.7 of Pragati Maidan. (Extreme left) L.C. Goyal, CMD, ITPO was also present on the occasion PIC/ITPO

Renowned Scandinavian jazz percussionist Joost Lijbaart will be performing with Sanne Rambags and guitarist Bram Stadhouders at the Jazz India Circuit concert on December 1 in the heart of DLF5

This winter will be all about jazz

RECOGNISING LEARDERSHIP

Dr Renu Swarup, Senior Adviser in the Department of Bio-technology, Ministry of Science & Technology & MD BIRAC was awarded the special Jury Recognition National Entrepreneurship Award for Mentor (Government). Minister of Finance and Minister of Corporate Affairs Arun Jaitley and Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas and Minister of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Dharmendra Pradhan, gave the Award on the occasion of 3rd Foundation Day by Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE).

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NATIONAL CADET CORPS (NCC), the largest uniformed youth organisation in the world, celebrated its 69th Raising Day on November 26. The raising day function was marked by paying hom-age at the Amar Jawan Jyoti, India Gate on November 25 to the martyrs who

made the supreme sacrifice of their lives. Defence Secretary, Sanjay Mitra and Offg DG NCC Major General BK Guhalaid wreathed on behalf of the entire NCC fraternity. The NCC raising day was also celebrated all over India with cadets par-ticipating in marches, cultural activities and social development programmes.

NCC is at the forefront of contri-

bution towards social causes and com-munity development activities. Its cadets have done the nation and the organisation proud by their remark-able achievements in the fields of sports and adventure and have won laurels in the National Shooting and Equestrian competitions. During the current year the NCC was awarded a Certificate of

Excellence by the Prime Minister for its contribution towards Swacchta Abhiyan. NCC has always been at the forefront of contribution towards social causes and community development activities. The National Cadet Corpshas played a piv-otal role in spreading awareness during the digitisation campaign and Interna-tional Yoga Day.

NCC celebrates 69th anniversaryPICS/NAVEEN SHARMA

3mp cityMILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Tuesday, 28 November, 2017

I-T slaps Rs 30 crore notice on AAP; party cries ‘political vendetta’

Day after AAP celebrated its fifth anniversary, the I-T department’s crackdown proved a dampnerSAYANTAN GHOSH

NEW DELHI: The Aam Aadmi Party was on Monday served a notice of Rs 30 crore by the Income Tax (I-T) department over the donations received by it, a move Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal dubbed as "height of political vendetta".

A day after the party celebrated its fifth anniversary, the I-T depart-ment's crackdown came as a shocker to the party.

In a tweet, Kejriwal said, “In the history of India, ALL donations to a political party have been declared illegal. All these were accounted for and shown in books of accounts. This is height of political vendetta.”

The notice cited that AAP had not disclosed income worth Rs 13.16 crore, adding that the party’s total taxable income calculated by the department was Rs 68.44 crore for the financial years 2014-15 and 2015-16.

The notice stated the AAP had not recorded full details of at least 461 donors, who had donated Rs 6.26 crore, each donation amount exceed-ing Rs 20,000.

Sources in the Department said that the notice was sent to the party

on November 23.The first notice for an explanation

was sent by on November 17, but the party had reportedly failed to reply.

However, dubbing the notice as “bogus and vindictive action", the AAP said the party's “revolution” was

being targeted, using different gov-ernment agencies, and claimed that it has maintained the record of every donation.

“The I-T department has announced the complete amount of the donations we received as illegal and has put it under the category of taxable income, although we have maintained the records of each paisa that we received from the donors," AAP national treasurer Deepak Bajpai said.

He explained that the party has been keeping and maintaining books of accounts and other documents (of contribution in excess of Rs 20,000) under Section 13 A of the Income Tax act.

"We have been submitting a report to the Election Commission (EC) about the donations received as per the law.

"The whole country knows how other parties finance themselves through black money, yet it is AAP

which is being targeted using dif-ferent agencies. This shows that the I-T notice is nothing but vindictive action," Bajpai said.

Meanwhile, the Opposition latched on to the issue to launch full-frontal attacks on AAP.

Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari said, "Arvind Kejriwal formed Aam Aadmi Party claiming to be a party with transparent in financial matters. But right since its formation, AAP’s financial issues have been under suspicion.

“And today's notice comes after a long personal hearing at I-T Depart-ment, so the party has no reason to claim innocence."

Echoing the same sentiments, Delhi Pradesh Congress Committe chief Ajay Maken said, "It is ironic that the Aam Aadmi Party, which professed to do different in politics when it was formed five years ago by being transparent in its fund collec-tion, is facing this problem."

Air quality in Delhi again

hits‘severe plus’OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: With at least six areas recording ‘severe-plus or emergency’ and 'severe' cate-gory of air quality, overall air quality in the national Capi-tal remained ‘very poor’ on Monday.

The condition of other cities of the National Capital Region was no different, especially Ghaziabad where air quality 'severe' on Monday.

Environmentalists have predicted that the Capital is again bound to inhale tox-ins in the next three days, due to unfavourable changes in weather conditions and stub-ble burning which continues unabated in Delhi-NCR itself.

According to the data from Central Pollution Control Board, the air quality index (AQI) across Delhi-NCR con-tinued to be ‘very poor’, with

high concentration of pollut-ants seen even during the day.

Average PM2.5 level was recorded at 216 units across Delhi-NCR, while it was 219 in Delhi alone at 2 pm.

East Delhi’s Anand Vihar, Delhi Technical University in north Delhi and Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh had ‘severe-plus or emergency’ air quality.

At 2 pm, west Delhi’s Pun-jabi Bagh, south Delhi’s RK Puram and Sector 25 in Noida recorded ‘severe’ air quality.

According to the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research, air quality in the city is set to deteriorate over the next three days, with little hope of improvement.

The monitoring agency has advised residents to refrain from outdoor physical activ-ity and told everyone to wear masks while going out.

ROUSHAN ALI

NEW DELHI: Keeping in mind the current pollution situation, the Health depart-ment of Delhi government on Monday came out with a health advisory for citizens and sought public action to pre-serve the environment.

The advisory asks citizens to “not burn dry leaves, crop residue, wood, coal, gobar upla etc,” and “plant more trees to make your city green”, as trees like “neem, sheesham, keekar, gulmohar etc make the air clean and healthy”.

It further urged residents

to use carpooling and public transport, as much as possi-ble. “Walk or use non-polluting mode of transport for short dis-tances,” it added.

“Avoid going outdoors during early morning and late evening for walk or outdoor physical activity, as pollution levels are maximum during this time. Avoid going to high pol-lution areas during peak hours. Stay indoors as much as pos-sible,” it noted.

It asked schools to avoid outdoor assembly, sports activ-ities and other physical activi-ties early in the morning.

“Take extra precautions for

high risk group like small chil-dren, elderly, pregnant women, patients with asthma or COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmo-nary Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases), patients of heart dis-ease and stroke, diabetics, per-sons with low immunity. N95 mask may be used while going outdoors during peak pollu-tion hours,” the advisory reads.

The advisory also discussed common sources for air pollu-tion in Delhi, including burn-ing of agricultural residue in neighbouring states, motor vehicles emissions, industrial pollution, construction activi-ties and road side dust.

Delhi govt releases health advisory for residents

SAYANTAN GHOSH

NEW DELHI: The Delhi gov-ernment will launch its ‘Loan app’ for students of the SC/ST community in Delhi on December 9, in addition to the free coaching scheme, Delhi Welfare minister Rajendra Pal Gautam said on Monday.

“We are launching a mobile app where students can enrol for the loans and the gov-ernment will take care of the whole official procedure," said Gautam.

Talking to Millennium Post, Gautam said, "I want all bene-

ficiaries of this project and SC, ST, and other backward com-munity people to be present at the program."

The loan app will be moni-tored by the Delhi Social Wel-fare department and the Delhi SC/ST/OBC/Minorities and Handicapped Finance and Development Corporation (DSFDC).

Gautam assured that he will coordinate with DSFDC and personally monitor the opera-tion of the app.

The loan money for SC/ST students will be provided by DSFDC.

"This app will make the life of SC/ST students eas-ier. We are all set to go ahead with the scheme," an official of the Social Welfare depart-ment said.

The app will be launched at a programme, which will be presided over by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

At the programme, Gautam will also launch the scheme of free coaching for IAS, medical and engineering aspirants from the SC/ST background.

The minister asserted that Kejriwal has lauded the initia-tive as a first of its kind in the

country."The government plans to

give free coaching classes for SC/ST students in Delhi for professional courses, such as civil services, engineering and others," said Gautam.

He added that the govern-ment will not arrange separate classes for these students, but will train them along side gen-eral category students.

"I believe that separate tutorials for SC/ST children in these professional courses are not helpful. They have all the potential to sit in the same class with others," Gautam said.

Loan app for SC/ST students to be launched on December 9

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Com-mission for Women (DCW) has rescued a 15-year-old girl from the clutches of child mar-riage in north west Delhi.

DCW Chairperson Swati Maliwal said a tip about the girl’s forced marriage in Bhalswa Dairy area reached the Commission, after which mobile helpline team was sent to the spot.

On reaching the spot, the team saw that marriage prepa-rations were in full swing.

A DCW counsellor met with the girl’s mother and asked for her age proof.

On checking her school leaving certificate, the girl was found to be 15 years old.

Police were called to the spot and the girl was rescued.

The next day, she was pro-duced before the Child Welfare Committee.

Sources said that the girl’s family even tried to assault the DCW team outside the police station.

Maliwal said, “Such parents should be strictly punished and the society needs to fight this problem collectively.”

15-year-old child bride

rescued from Bhalswa Dairy

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The National Green Tribunal has restrained the Delhi government from carrying out any construction activity on a pond in a south-west Delhi colony after a plea alleged that the authorities were damaging the water body and destroying the green cover there.

A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Swatan-ter Kumar issued notices to the AAP government, Delhi Development Authority (DDA),

South Delhi Municipal Corpo-ration, Public Works Depart-ment (PWD) and others while seeking their reply within two weeks.

The green panel's order came on a plea filed by local residents Rajinder Singh and Hari Prakash seeking restora-tion of a pond in village Asalat-pur Khadar in Janakpuri here.

"... Respondent no 5 (PWD) particularly respondent nos 1 (Delhi govt) and 2 (DDA) are directed not to carry on any con-struction activity in violation to

the directions contained in our order dated September 22," the bench said. The plea has sought execution of its September 22 order directing the Delhi gov-ernment and other authorities

to ensure protection of the pond and pass relevant directions.

"Till date, no order has been passed by any of the respon-dents. It is submitted that the applicant had sent a letter to respondents informing them about the directions of this tribunal and also about non-compliance with the same since more than four weeks had passed since order was passed.

Despite this, the respon-dents have not taken any steps in compliance of order," the plea alleged. The petition,

filed through advocates Rahul Chaudhary and Meera Gopal, claimed that rather than tak-ing any steps for the revival of the pond, the authorities have started construction work at the site and destroyed the exist-ing green cover by using JCBs (mechanical excavators).

"Pass an order imposing penalty under Section 28 of the National Green Tribunal Act, 2010 on the respondents for the failing to comply with the directions contained in order," the plea said.

NGT bars construction on a pond in Janakpuri

Violation of prisoners’ rights in Tihar under High Court scanner

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear the appeal of the father of seven-year-old Pradhuman, who was found dead in a Guru-gram school, seeking cancella-tion of anticipatory bail granted to Ryan School management officials.

A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandra-chud agreed to hear the plea of Barun Chandra Thakur, father of the Class-II boy, who had challenged the Punjab and Haryana High Court's order granting anticipatory bail to the Ryan International Group trustees.

The apex court considered the matter after advocate Sushil Tekriwal, the counsel for Prad-human's family, sought urgent hearing in the case.

The Punjab and Haryana

High Court had on Novem-ber 21 granted anticipatory bail to Ryan International Group's three trustees in connection with the killing of Pradhuman in its Gurugram school.

Pradhuman Thakur was found with his throat slit in the school washroom in Guru-gram on September 8. School bus conductor Ashok Kumar was arrested by Haryana Police in connection with the crime.

However, a Gurugram civil court had granted bail to Kumar on a bond of Rs 50,000.

The CBI, which took over the investigation on Septem-ber 22, apprehended a Class 11 student in connection with the killing.

Anticipatory bail to Ryan trustees: SC to hear plea

NEW DELHI: Violation of fundamental, human and legal rights of prisoners, who have alleged they were subjected to severe physical torture at the Tihar Jail here, on Monday came under the Delhi High Court’s scanner as it ordered an enquiry into the incident.

The high court termed as “very disturbing” the alleged attack on inmates lodged in a high-risk ward in jail number 1 of the central jail on the night of November 21.

“We need to take a call. It (the incident) is completely

unjustifiable. If this is the situa-tion in Delhi, what about other places,” a bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar remarked.

It said the issue was “extremely serious” and required a “serious probe”, before an intervention by this court.

It appointed a three-mem-ber fact-finding committee, headed by a District Judge of a trial court, to enquire into the incident, in which 18 inmates were allegedly beaten up by the jail staff, and submit their

report before it.“It is our duty to ensure

their (inmates) life is safe and secure even though they are

accused of serious offences,” the bench said.

The high court was hearing a PIL by an advocate Chinmay

Kanojia, who has alleged that his client Shahid Husuf, cur-rently being investigated by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and undergoing trial, was beaten up without any rea-son by the Tihar Jail staff.

The plea by advocate Jawa-har Raja said a particular com-munity, including Husuf, were being targeted by the jail staff causing serious injuries to him and others. Moved by the plight of the inmates in various jails and the poor living conditions there, the bench asked the AAP government and Tihar

Jail authorities “which law says that the prisoners should sleep on the floor”.

When the incident was brought to the attention of the high court on November 22, the court had set up a commit-tee of senior high court judicial officers to look into the matter.

The committee, in its report, opined that the inmates were beaten up without any jus-tifiable reason.

It said that despite unequiv-ocal statutory guidelines, an incident has been perpetrated where prisoners were beaten

up with such severity that it had resulted in them harbouring a constant fear of being killed by the prison authorities on one pretext or another.

Taking note of report, the bench directed the fact finding committee that the 18 prison-ers, who have received injuries, be produced before the medical superintendent of the All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

It said that medical superin-tendent should set up a board to conduct medical tests of the inmates and give their report

to the fact finding committee.The high court also asked

the authorities and committee to preserve the CCTV footage of incident at the Tihar Jail.

It fixed the matter for fur-ther hearing on December 19 and directed the authorities to ensure safety and security of the persons, who have been beaten up.

During the hearing, the bench also expressed concern over fewer jails in Delhi and said the authorities should con-sider increasing the number of prisons. AGENCIES

The green panel's order came on a plea filed by local residents Rajinder Singh and Hari Prakash

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Encroachment on public property in the name of doing charity is not permis-sible, the Delhi High Court observed on Monday while expressing its displeasure over "unauthorised" construction in a graveyard here.

The court rejected the claim of a person, accused of carry-ing out unauthorised construc-tion on a waqf property, that an orphanage was being run in the premises, housing over 70 children, and that no commer-cial activity was going on there.

"You cannot encroach even to house other people. Charity begins at home. So, do char-ity at your home. You cannot encroach upon property of others and say we are doing charity.

It is not permissible," a bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar said.

The bench said mere occu-pation and trespass make no legal right.

"Nowhere in the world you can file a suit and say I am an encroacher and I want my right over property. What education are you providing to students with your admitted trespass? The land belongs to this coun-try and you expect sympathy from us.

It is like stealing some-body's money and saying I am distributing it among poor people," the court said.

The judiciary also pulled

up the civic authorities for allowing unauthorised con-struction, stating "You permit people to encroach and then seek adjournment to file reply".

The bench was hearing a PIL by a residents welfare asso-ciation of Hazrat Nizamud-din Basti, seeking direction to the Delhi Waqf Board, Centre, Delhi Government and Delhi Police to take action against an individual and Jamia Ara-bia Nizamia Welfare Educa-tion Society.

The Society is accused of carrying out unauthorised construction on public land, housing a graveyard, mosque and a dome-type structure, sit-uated on the main Mathura road in the national capital.

The court directed the authorities to file its response to the plea and a report on the inspection of the site.

It listed the matter for Janu-ary 12 next year.

The petition in the case had claimed that any construction in the graveyard hurts religious sentiments and was a cogni-sable offence under the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

It also said that illegal con-struction could not be allowed in the garb of managing affairs of a mosque or graveyard, or convert a public land into a pri-vate property for self-interest.

The petition had also sought a direction to the authorities to remove the unauthorised construction and to the Delhi Waqf Board to manage the premises.

Cannot encroach upon property in charity's

name: Delhi High Court

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Pointing out to a strong connection between the environment and a person’s health, a study released here on Monday held lifestyle diseases like obesity, mental health, can-cer and heart diseases as the major killers in India.

Revealing the links of air pollution with mental diseases, a report by Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) stated that air pollution is responsible for 30 per cent of premature deaths in India, while every third child in Delhi suffers from lungs impairment.

"Over 61 per cent of total deaths in India were attributed to lifestyle or non-communi-cable diseases (NCDs). More than 1.73 million new cancer cases are likely to be recorded each year by 2020. Air pollu-

tion, tobacco, alcohol and diet change are primary triggers," said the report ‘Body Burden’, released by CSE.

"Air pollution causes 30 per cent of all premature deaths in the country and is linked with mental diseases," the report added.

It further pointed out that every 12th Indian is a diabetic.

"India ranks second in the list of countries with highest diabetes patients," the report stated. It also establishes that unless environmental risk fac-tors are acknowledged and dealt with, India will not be able to curb NCDs.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there are four major risk factors for NCDs - alcohol, tobacco, poor diet intake and lack of physical activities.

These, the WHO claims,

could be dramatically reduced by investing just USD 1-3 per year per person.

The CSE report, however, confronts the WHO estima-tion, asserting that much more investment would be required for India.

"We believe the cost is going to be much higher, consider-ing that risk factors in India are many more than the four identified by the global body,"

said Sunita Narain, director general, CSE and member of the Supreme Court-appointed Environment Pollution Pre-vention and Control Authority.

Explaining the reasons, Narain said that the identified risk factors – alcohol, tobacco, poor diet, and lack of physi-cal activity – have multiple targets and can cause diseases, which are not generally linked to them.

30% premature deaths in India due to air pollution, claims CSE report

mp city4MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Tuesday, 28 November, 2017

8,896 dengue cases reported in Delhi, malaria up to 1,128Of the 8,896 patients, 4,556 belong to Delhi and 4,340 patients came to Delhi for treatment from other states, the South Delhi Municipal Corporation report read

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: With 347 cases of dengue reported in the pre-vious week, the total number of dengue cases in Delhi has reached to 8,896 in the Capi-tal this year.

The number of people affected by malaria, meanwhile, has climbed to 1,128, while the figure for chikungunya stood at 901, with 23 new cases reported last week, according to the data released by the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) on Monday.

Of the 8,896 dengue patients, 4,556 belonged to Delhi and 4,340 patients came to Delhi for treatment from other states, the report read.

The number of dengue cases recorded in the city in

October stood at 2,022, while 727 cases have been reported this month till November 25, it said.

Till November 25, the North Delhi Municipal Cor-poration reported 700 cases of dengue, the highest among the three civic bodies, while SDMC registered 698 cases in the same

period.In areas of East Delhi

Municipal Corporation, over 398 cases were reported.

Many residents have blamed the apathy of civic bod-ies for the rise in cases of vec-tor-borne diseases.

However, a senior MCD official said that all mea-

sures have been taken to pre-vent breeding of mosquitoes and awareness is being spread among the public through dif-ferent means, such as pam-phlets, poster, and radio.

“The measures to check breeding including spraying of insecticide and cleaning drains and nullah,” he said.

According to a SDMC offi-cial, till November 25, breed-ing has been reported from 2,08,048 households in Delhi this year.

1,69,667 legal notices have been issued to various people by civic bodies in their respec-tive areas.

Four people, as per the SDMC report, have lost their lives to disease this year, with the first casualty being a 12-year-old boy who suc-

cumbed to dengue shock syndrome on August 1 at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital (SGRH).

The other three dengue victims were women. These include a 26-year-old Mani-puri woman who died at Holy Family Hospital in August, a 49-year-old woman who died of dengue shock syndrome at SGRH on September 2 and another 26-year-old woman who died at Max Super Spe-cialty Hospital.

At least 21 deaths due to dengue were reported last year at various hospitals, including the nine at AIIMS, though the official tallies of the civic bod-ies stood at 10.

17 deaths suspected to be due to malaria in 2016 were also reported by the civic bodies.

19-year-old help found dead in Gr Noida home

RAHUL SINGH

GREATER NOIDA: A 19-year-old domestic help was found dead at the residence of a doc-tor couple, where she had been employed, in AWHO society in Chi-5 sector of Greater Noida, said police on Monday.

Police sources said that the doctor couple, who are cur-rently missing, told them that the girl had hanged herself from the ceiling fan last night.

However, family members of the teenager, identified as Shivani, alleged that she was strangulated to death by her employer, who later hanged her body from the fan to make it look like a suicide. Sources said the doctor couple had called police, telling them they found the girl’s body hanging from the ceiling fan on Sunday night.

After they reportedly informed her family, the cou-ple then took Shivani’s to Yatharth Hospital, where doc-tors declared her brought dead.

Amit Kishor Shrivastava, Circle Officer, Greater Noida

said, “The marks found on the neck and head suggests it to be a case of suicide. However, the actual reason behind the death can only be ascertained after the autopsy report is out.”

Alleging that the couple murdered Shivani’s, her fam-ily members along with other domestic helps staged a protest at the hospital. The protest later intensified and moved to the main gate of the society where the couple reside.

Heavy police force was deployed at the spot and senior officers later pacified the angry mob, assuring them of a fair and quick probe into the matter.

“On the basis of a com-

plaint filed by the woman’s parents, an FIR has been regis-tered against the doctor couple under sections of murder. The doctor couple is missing since the incident and our search is on. We are not ruling out any possibility and will probe the matter from all angles,” added Shrivastava.

The incident was a grim reminder of a similar incident a couple of months in Maha-gun Moderne society in Sec-tor-78 Noida, where a violent mob of domestic workers pro-tested and pelted stones on a residential society after a maid working in one of the flats of the society was found missing from a house.

Rural policing to be the prime concern of Dwarka distt Police

Man gets 14 years in jail for raping eight-year-old neighbour

ABHAY SINGH

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Police’s newly-formed Dwarka district will mainly focus on ‘rural policing’, in order to curb the menace of gang wars in their area, in addition to keep-ing a track on the movement of gangsters.

According to police, the first Deputy Commissioner of Police of the district will be Shibesh Singh, who, along with his police team, will be responsible for maintaining peace and security in the new police district.

Dwarka district will cover region such as Najafgadh, Jaf-farpur Kalan, Baba Haridas Nagar area – which are pri-marily rural areas – and have been prone to gang wars. Thus, police officers have chose to focused on rural policing.

DCP Shibesh Singh stated that they will take all necessary steps to curb crime in the area.

“For better policing, we will take several steps which includes focussing on rural policing,” said the DCP.

Police sources claimed that South West Delhi’s Anti Auto Theft Squad (AATS) has been keeping a tab on the move-ment of gangsters.

As a result, they have found that many gangsters been using different types of cars,

including SUVs and sedans, for various types of crimes, including murder.

“Sometimes, they would steal several vehicles in a day and go on a crime spree,” said a police source.

A criminal compendium prepared by AATS has names of over 10 wanted gangsters, who are in jailed or out on bail.

Sources further told Mil-lenium Post that police have found a change in the trend of gangsters.

Earlier, it was a fight for the supremacy in their respective areas, but now gangsters are seen to be going for more con-tract killings.

“Few gangs are indulging in the fight for supremacy, but new gangsters have been focusing on making money through contract killing,” said a police official.

NEW DELHI: A Delhi court has sent a 40-year old man to jail for 14 years for raping an 8-year old girl, saying such peo-ple had perverted minds, car-ried “animal streak” who would ravish anyone.

Asserting that they should be dealt with firmly, Addi-tional Sessions Judge Seema Maini, while awarding rigor-ous imprisonment to north Delhi resident Rajvinder Singh, said the victim was of tender years and “her suffering at the hands of the convict cannot be expressed in words.”

The victim “has been left to lead a life devoid of life,” the judge said in her verdict, adding that such victims “lose interest in life” and develop

misandry, hating men all their lives and losing faith and trust in all relationships.

The court also imposed a fine of Rs 20,000 on the con-vict to be given to the victim child, who would also be given Rs three lakh as compensation as per the provisions under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.

“It needs to be kept in mind that penetrative sexual assault/rape are offences, which are the outcome of perverted and evil minds of people who not just lack sensitivity and emo-tions but are carriers of animal streak in them, who ravish any-one who comes in their sight ... irrespective of the victim’s age and circumstance. Such sexual

offences have far reaching ram-ifications,” the court said.

According to the complaint, Singh, a neighbour of the vic-tim had on August 18, 2014, taken the girl to his house and raped her.

Singh claimed that being a neighbour, the victim’s parents often quarrelled with him due to which he has been falsely implicated in the case.

He also sought leniency saying his wife had expired and has to take care of his four minor children.

Dismissing his contention as flimsy, the court said “such an offence having been com-mitted with the child makes it imperative that the offender is dealt with a firm hand.” MPOST

Woman found dead under mysterious

circumstancesOUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Mystery shrouds the death of a woman whose body was found in the terrace of her residence in north west Delhi on late Sun-day night.

Sources in Delhi Police stated that they are questioning the family members of the vic-tim to know the circumstances that brought her to the roof and led to her death.

According to police sources, the incident was reported late Sunday night, when the deceased, identified as Vinita, had gone to the ter-race of her house to collect the clothes which she had hanged for drying.

As per her family’s com-plaint, a few minutes later, they heard a loud cry.

Alarmed, the family mem-bers ran to the terrace, only to find Vinita lying in a pool of blood on the ground.

A PCR call was immedi-ately made and the victim was taken to a hospital, where she was declared brought dead.

The deceased had been liv-ing with her family in Jahan-girpuri area.

Police said that they in the process of questioning the vic-tim’s family members.

Several angles are being probed into.

Whether or not the victim was pushed from the terrace is yet to be determined.

Contract killer involved in the murder of Samajwadi leader held

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: A contract killer, wanted for the murder of a Samajwadi Party leader, has been arrested by South East Delhi Police.

Police said that Mannan (33), a criminal with a reward of Rs 12,000 from UP police, was arrested on a basis of a tip-off that he would be coming near ‘Moolchand Paranthawala’ in Lajpat Nagar on Sunday.

Sources added that dur-ing his incarceration, Manan had come into contact with Salim, a notorious gangster, who gave Manan the contract to kill Samajwadi Party leader and property dealer Moham-

mad Zaid Shakeel.However, it was the case of

one Mohammad Zaki, who was shot in the leg by Manan, that led to his apprehension.

During investigation of this shooting case, it came to light that Zaki was having the mat-rimonial dispute with his wife.

DCP (South East) Romil Baaniya on Monday said that Zaki and Manan had become acquainted with each other during their stay at Tihar jail.

“After their release, Manan started visiting Zaki’s home fre-quently and came in contact with Zaki’s wife. She report-

edly told she wanted to leave her husband, as she had already married another person and wanted to settle in Dubai,” Baaniya said.

In order to instigate Manan to kill her husband, the woman reportedly told him that Zaki wanted to have him arrested in a murder case, but Manan refused. Eventually, she and her brother Sarfaraz offered Manan Rs 5 lakh to have Zaki killed, and gave him an advance of Rs 50,000.

To win her confidence, Manan said he would first shoot Zaki on the thigh to prove that he can easily kill him, but only after receiving full payment.

INSTALLATION OF MOBILE TOWER IRKS RESIDENTS OF RAILWAY COLONYNEW DELHI: Residents of Railway Colony here on Monday raised their concern against installation of a cell phone tower in Saint Martin Marg. The residents said that the radiation from the tower will affect many people, and the flora and fauna in the area.

55-YEAR-OLD MAN ATTEMPTS SUICIDE AT ITO METRO STATIONNEW DELHI: A 55-year-old man allegedly attempted suicide by jumping in front of a train at ITO Metro Station on Monday. Vimal Kumar Anand, however, fell diagonally on the tracks and was saved as the train operator applied brakes immediately. Metro staff rushed him to nearby LNJP Hospital, where he is undergoing treatment.

CISF RESTORES BAG CONTAINING CASH OVER RS 1 LAKH TO OWNERNEW DELHI: A Central Industrial Security Force of-ficial returned a bag containing Rs 1,04,795, to a Delhi Metro commuter, who had forgotten the bag at Dwarka Mor Metro station. The incident happened on Monday morning SK Paliat notices an unattended bag at the X-BIS output roller. The commuter, identified as Tekchand, later came to the station and after verifica-tion, he was handed over the bag.

NOIDA AUTHORITIES TO HASTEN PROCESS OF LAND AUDITNOIDA: The three development authorities of Gau-tam Budh Nagar-Noida, Greater Noida and Yamuna Expressway have expedited the land audit process in their respective areas, following directions from Uttar Pradesh Industries Minister Satish Mahana. The deadline to finish the audit has been set as December 31. “We have expedited the audit and are carrying it out in a phased manner, considering the area that falls under Noida Authority is very large,” said an official.

CITY BRIEFS

Sanjay Dutt wannabe, who took to crime, heldOUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Inspired by a Bollywood actor and his mov-ies on gangsters, a 29-year-old youth entered the crime but he was arrested by South West Delhi Police.

City Police claimed that he went to Mumbai in 2013 to start his dream career in films but ended up spending all his money without success.

According to police, the accused was identified as Deepak, a resident of Najaf-garh. Previously, the accused was involved in 8 cases in attempt to murder, auto-thefts and chain snatchings.

The team of police offi-cials of Special Staff (South West District) has arrested the accused led by SI Naveen Kumar under the close super-vision of ACP Aditya Gautam.

DCP (South West), Shibesh Singh stated that in a drive to verify known snatchers, Special Staff was tasked to identify and verify such known criminals.

Dossiers of several crimi-nals having similar modus ope-randi were analyzed and during which the accused was arrested from Ganda Nala road near Kakrola Mod on 25 November.

“Since his adolescence, he wanted to become a Bollywood star and was inspired by San-

jay Dutt and his role of a gang-ster in films like Khalnayak and Vastav. He started copying the actor and soon became famous as Sanju Baba in his friend cir-cle,” said the DCP.

Police further claimed that the accused started commit-ting chain snatchings and auto- theft with his younger brother Nitin. He and Nitin were first arrested in 2008 in an attempt to murder case.

“He went to Mumbai in 2013 to live his dream in films but ended up spending all his money. He returned to Delhi and became addicted to drugs which further pushed him into the crime-world,” police said. Accused Deepak in police custody PIC/MPOST

Accused Manan in police custody PIC/MPOST

Relatives of the victim protest in Sector-78, Noida, on Monday PIC/MPOST

Shibesh Singh will be the first Deputy Commissioner of Police of the newly-formed police district

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: A person was reportedly beaten to death by acquaintances in Anand Vihar area over a trivial issue of own-ership of a jacket.

Police claimed that the deceased was beaten with a stick and the accused was immediately arrested.

According to police, a quar-rel was reported near ISBT Anand Vihar police post at 1.40 am on Monday.

The police team reached the spot and found that the vic-tim Balbir, a resident of IIT

campus in Hauz Khas, had received severe head injury. He was brought to LBS hospi-tal, but declared brought dead on arrival.

Police claimed that during investigation, it came to light that the culprit Shankar was involved in the case.

On the day of the inci-dent, the accused along with deceased were coming from Lado Sarai to Anand Vihar.

A quarrel took place on the way between the two friends on the issue of the jacket, which led to the scuffle and the was accused beaten to death.

Man beats friend to death over trivial issue

Traffic comes to standstill in Central DelhiOUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Central Delhi and other nearby areas were thrown into disarray, after traf-fic snarls were caused in the area due to a procession taken out by a religious community on Monday, said police.

Snarls were seen in roads connecting to New Del-hi’s Connaught Place area,

among other areas, stranding motorists in traffic for some kilometres.

“We made sure that the procession passed peacefully without any incident,” said a senior police official from Cen-tral District.

Delhi Police tweeted that traffic will remain heavy from Pahari Bhojla to Karbala, due to the procession, in afore-

mentioned areas: Pahari Bho-jla, Chitli Qabar, Matia Mahal Chowk, Jama Masjid, Cha-wari Bazar, Chowk Hauz Qazi, Ajmeri Gate, Paharganj Bridge, Chelmsford Road, Connaught Place, Parliment Street, Raisina Road, Vijay Chowk, Krishna Menon Marg, Tughlaq Road, Aurobindo Marg and Jor Bagh. The procession will end at Karbala.

Some construction work has also caused traffic jam, according to police, leading heavy to snarls from Mehrauli-Badarpur Road to IGNOU Road.

There was also obstruction of traffic in the carriageway from Pratap Nagar towards Azad Market, due to the break-down of a truck on Kishanganj Chowk.

Six nabbed in Gr Noida after gun battle with cops

RAHUL SINGH

GREATER NOIDA: Gautam Buddh Nagar police on Mon-day foiled a robbery attempt and arrested six persons from Kasna area in Greater Noida, after a brief gun battle.

“We received a tip-off that the criminals were planning a heist in Greater Noida. Police teams were stationed near Chu-hadpur underpass to carry out the operation. The six crimi-nals were travelling in a Wag-onR car and two motor cycles,” said Suniti Singh, Superinten-dent of police (Rural), Gautam Buddh Nagar.

The arrested criminals were identified as Kuldeep, Naren-dra, Ravindra, Surjeet, Sunil and Jitendra.

Police have recovered three pistols, three knifes, several live cases of ammunitions, two motorcycles and one car from their possession.

“When we stopped their car, they opened fire on the police team. After a brief crossfire, we managed to nab the crimi-nals. Three criminals received bullet injuries and are getting treatment at the hospital. A cop from Kasna police station also received injuries. His condi-tion is stable now” said Jitendra Singh, SHO, Kasna.

“Around nine cases of loot, Arms act and attempt to murder have been registered against the accused in vari-ous police stations of Gautam Buddh Nagar,” Singh added.

The vehicles recovered from the five accused PIC/MPOST

REPRESENTATIVE IMAGE

PMLA CASE

5mp nationMILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Tuesday, 28 November, 2017

Demonetisation: IT dept to assess defaulters from Jan

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Income Tax (IT) department will launch full-fledged assessment pro-ceedings from January next year against those assessees who have deposited “suspi-cious” amounts of money in banks post-demonetisation, but have not filed their income tax returns (ITRs) till now.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), which frames policies for the department, has asked the taxman to finish the process of serving notices to such entities by December 31.

“The department will initi-ate full-fledged assessment pro-ceedings against these assessees from the later part of Janu-ary, after the replies to the IT notices are received.

“The cases, where the replies to the notices have been received, are now being anal-ysed,” a senior official said.

Those who attempted to show their black income as white and evaded tax would be prosecuted, he added.

The action is a part of the Operation Clean Money (OCM), initiated by the depart-ment early this year to spe-cifically check black money instances in the wake of

demonetisation.The department, on the

basis of data analytics and information gathered during the first phase of online veri-fication under the OCM, has prepared a list of about 18 lakh assessees, who had deposited substantial amounts of cash in their bank accounts dur-ing the demonetisation period (November 8-December 30, 2016), but are yet to filed the ITRs for assessment year

2017-18.The CBDT, as part of the

standard operating proce-dures (SOPs) framed to run this operation, has asked the taxman to issue fresh notices to the entities via e-mail or post.

The notices will be issued under section 142(1) of the IT Act (inquiry before assessment).

“In case the notice could not be served electronically or through the postal authori-

ties, a personal service through the department inspectors or notice-servers should be made,” the SOP said.

CBDT Chairman Sushil Chandra had recently told reporters that the government had already taken all measures under OCM and the taxman had given enough time to peo-ple to file their returns and come out clean.

“But, we have found out that even after the last date of

filing returns, a large number of people have not filed the same,” Chandra had said.

The assessees, who replied to these notices, would be examined against the amounts they had deposited during the period of demonetisation, so that the taxman could see whether they had correctly dis-closed their income or not, the CBDT chief had said.

As a part of its action against black money post demonetisation, the depart-ment had also selected 20,000 cases of returns filed post the note ban for a detailed scrutiny by the assessing officer (AO).

The IT department had conducted as many as 900 searches between November 9, 2016 and March this year, lead-ing to seizure of assets worth Rs 900 crore, including Rs 636 crore in cash. The searches had also led to the disclosure of Rs 7,961 crore undisclosed income, according to official data.

During the same period, the department had conducted 8,239 survey operations, lead-ing to the detection of Rs 6,745 crore of black money, it said.

The central government had announced demonetisa-tion on November 8, 2016.

ED gets 3 days to reply to Aslam Wani’s bail plea OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: A Delhi court on Monday granted three days to the Enforcement Director-ate (ED) to file its response to a bail application filed by alleged hawala dealer Moham-mad Aslam Wani, arrested in a money laundering case involv-ing Kashmiri separatist Shabir Shah. The accused, who was earlier refused the relief, has moved a fresh bail plea, citing a recent Supreme Court judge-ment striking down a stringent condition for securing bail in money laundering cases.

Additional Sessions Judge Sidharth Sharma posted the matter for December 1 after the advocate appearing for the central probe agency said he needed time to go through the apex court judgement.

The application said the court had denied the bail while applying the rigour of Section 45(1) of the Preven-tion of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), which was struck down by the Supreme Court last week on the grounds that it was “manifestly arbitrary” and “unconstitutional” as it drasti-cally intruded into the funda-mental rights of the accused.

“Since the section has been declared unconstitutional, the

present application is being filed in view of this changed circumstance,” the application, filed on Monday by advocate M S Khan, said. The trial court had denied bail to the accused, terming the alleged offence as “grave and serious”.

The fresh application filed on Monday submitted that a 2010 trial court judgement clearing Wani of terror funding charges in 2005 case, based on which the current money laun-dering case was lodged in 2007, was confirmed by the Delhi High Court on October 31.

“The effect of confirma-tion of acquittal of the appli-cant (Wani) is that there is no material left to connect him with the co-accused (Shah) as it was not proved that money was recovered or was meant to be used for any illegal purpose

(hawala),” the plea said.The ED had in Septem-

ber filed a charge sheet against Wani and Shah, whose bail application in the case was also dismissed on August 22.

Wani was arrested by the ED from Srinagar on August 6 and is currently in judicial cus-tody. Shabir Shah was arrested by the agency from Srinagar on July 26. The ED action against the two was in pursuance of an August 2005 case in which the Delhi Police’s Special Cell had arrested Wani, who is alleged to have claimed he had passed on Rs 2.25 crore to Shah. In 2010, a Delhi court had cleared Wani of terror funding charges but convicted him under the Arms Act. The ED had regis-tered a criminal case under the Prevention of Money Launder-ing Act against Shah and Wani.

Chandigarh rape case: Prime accused attempts suicide in jail

OUR CORRESPONDENT

CHANDIGARH: An auto-rickshaw driver, the prime accused in a rape case, alleg-edly attempted suicide inside a jail on Monday by stabbing himself with a “piece of broken glass”, police said.

Mohd Irfan (29) was arrested on Friday, almost a week after allegedly raping a 22-year-old woman along with two accomplices.

“He was taken to the Gov-ernment Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) here, where his condition was stated to be out of danger,” Station House Officer (SHO) Inspector Ran-jodh Singh said.

Irfan, who was lodged in the Burail jail here, allegedly broke a mirror outside the bar-rack, and “stabbed himself mul-tiple times in the stomach with a piece of broken glass”, he said.

After other inmates raised an alarm, Irfan was taken to a dispensary in the jail premises and later to the GMCH in Sec-tor 32 here, he said.

He will be booked for attempt to commit suicide, Singh said. Irfan, a migrant from Uttar Pradesh, resided in Zirakpur, near here.

The Chandigarh Police on Saturday arrested two accom-plices Kismat Ali and Moham-mad Garib, both 21 years old, from Uttar Pradesh’s Ame-

thi and Faizabad districts, respectively.

The police had said yester-day that all three accused had planned the rape of the woman, who hails from Dehradun, on November 17.

She had taken the auto rick-shaw, after attending a stenog-raphy class, from Sector 37 here.

Ali and Garib were already sitting in the auto, according to a complaint filed by the woman, the police had said.

Irfan allegedly drove her to an isolated place in Sector 53 here, instead of taking her to Mohali where she had been staying as a paying guest, they said.

Alphons takes oath as Rajya Sabha memberOUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Union minister K J Alphons on Monday took oath as the Rajya Sabha member before Upper House chairman Venkaiah Naidu. Alphons, who is Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Tourism, was elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan in a bypoll earlier this month.

He took oath before Naidu, the Rajya Sabha chairman in the Chairman’s chamber in Parliament House, according to an offi-cial statement.

Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman P J Kurien and Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Vijay Goel were also present on the occasion.

Alphons, a 1979 batch IAS officer, began his political journey by becoming an independent MLA backed by the CPI(M) in Kerala in 2006 but joined the BJP in 2011.

Gautam Lahiri elected as Press

Club of India president

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Gautam Lahiri was on Monday elected as the president of the Press Club of India while Manoran-jan Bharati became its new vice-president. The election of the Press Club of India (PCI) office-bearers was held on Saturday and results were announced in the early hours of Monday.

Lahiri, a consulting editor with the Millennium Post daily, has been elected president for a second time in a row. Bharti works with the NDTV. The post of secretary general went to Vinay Kumar, who is con-sulting editor with UNI, while Sanjay Singh was elected as the joint secretary, the Press Club release said.

Mohua Chatterjee was elected PCI’s treasurer. Besides, 16 managing committee mem-bers were also elected, it said. Senior journalist Kamal Kishore Shankar, who is with Press Trust of India, has been elected as managing committee member of the Club. The PCI is one of the largest representative body of scribes in the country.

Govt doubles deputation allowance for employees

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The deputation allowance given to central gov-ernment employees has been increased by over two- fold to Rs 4,500 from the existing Rs 2,000 per month, according to an order issued by the person-nel ministry.

The move is based on the recommendation of the sev-enth central pay commission.

“In case of deputation within the same station, the deputation (duty) allowance will be payable at the rate of five per cent of basic pay sub-ject to a maximum of Rs 4,500 per month,” it said.

This allowance will be pay-

able at the rate of ten per cent of basic pay, subject to a maxi-mum of Rs 9,000 per month, in case of deputation involving change of station, the Depart-ment of Personnel and Train-ing order issued on Friday said.

“The ceilings will further rise by 25 per cent each time dearness allowance is increased by 50 per cent,” it said.

The deputation allowance at present are granted at the rate of 5 per cent of basic pay, sub-ject to a ceiling of Rs 2,000 per month for deputation within the same station or 10 per cent of basic pay, subject to a ceil-ing of Rs 4,000 per month for deputation not within the same station.

Govt calls for promoting organ donation in the country

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Urging all to come forward and donate their organs, Minister of State for Health and Family Wel-fare (HFW) Anupriya Patel on Monday stressed the need to improve infrastructure and capacity of government hospi-tals for undertaking transplan-tation to benefit even those who cannot afford transplantation.

In India, it was mainly liv-ing donors who were donat-ing organs and only about 23 per cent of the organ transplant was being done with organs obtained from the cadavers, the minister said.

“There is a need to promote cadaver or deceased organ donation rather than relying on living donors in order to avoid the risk of commercial trading of organs and also to avoid the inherent risk to the health of the living donor,” Patel said while addressing a gather-ing organised to observe the

Indian Organ Donation Day.Present on the occasion,

Tamil Nadu Health Minister C Vijaya Baskar highlighted the exemplary work that Tamil Nadu had done by retriev-ing 5,933 organs from 1,056 donors. Baskar expressed his happiness at his state being adjudged the best state in organ donation for the third time in a row. Notably, out of 85,000 patients in waitlist for getting liver, less than 3 per cent get an organ, while out of over 2 lakh kidneys organ seekers, only 8,000 manage a transplant.

The waitlist for heart or lungs is even longer as hardly 1 per cent manage to get an organ.

Experts present on the occasion, stressed on includ-ing ayurvedic drugs in their drug list to cure renal disor-ders. “There is an acute short-age of organs in the country and also it’s not affordable for everyone. The renal societies should encourage allopathic doctors to prescribe ayurvedic formulation. There are drugs such as Neeri KFT which has potential to control kidney ail-ments,” an expert said.

Sharad Yadav faction to form

a new partyOUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Sharad Yadav-led JD(U) faction, whose claim over the party’s poll sym-bol was rejected by the Elec-tion Commission, on Monday announced that it will form a new party after the Gujarat polls which it is fighting in alli-ance with the Congress. The faction’s general secretary Arun Shrivastava said its lone MLA, Chhotu Vasava from Gujarat, will fight the state polls under the banner of the new party, Bhartiya Tribal Party, whose symbol will be auto rickshaw.

Vasava was the Yadav-led group’s acting president but floated a new party after the EC recognised Bihar Chief Minis-ter Nitish Kumar-led faction as the real JD(U) and accepted its claim over the poll symbol of arrow.

“We will hold a convention after the Gujarat polls and form a new party. Our candidates will contest seven seats under the banner of Bhartiya Tribal Party in alliance with the Con-gress,” Shrivastava said after his faction’s national executive meeting here where Yadav was present. The announcement marks the formal separation between Yadav and Kumar, who had joined hands to oust Lalu Prasad-led RJD govern-ment in Bihar.

The JD(U) was in alliance with the BJP till Kumar decided to snap ties in 2013 and was supported by Yadav. The JD(U) formed the grand alliance with Lalu Prasad’s RJD and the Con-gress in 2015 and won the Bihar Assembly polls.

However, it was Kumar’s decision to tie up with the BJP in July this year that caused a split between the two as Yadav opposed the move and announced his support to the Congress and the RJD.

An overwhelming number of elected party members and most office bearers remained with Kumar.

6MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Tuesday, 28 November, 2017

mp nationCongress declares final list, supports Mevani in Vadgam

OUR CORRESPONDENT

AHMEDABAD: The Congress on Monday released its final list of 14 candidates on the last day of filing of nominations for the second phase of Gujarat polls, leaving two seats for allies and supporting dalit leader Jignesh Mevani who is contesting as an Independent from Vadgam.

While the party has dropped four of its sitting MLAs, it has fielded OBC leader Alpesh Zala (Thakor), popularly known as Alpesh Thakor, in Radhanpur constituency.

Radhanpur is a bastion of the Thakor community and currently held by the BJP. Tha-kor recently joined the Con-gress in the presence of party vice president Rahul Gandhi.

The Congress left two seats for ally Bharatiya Tribal Party headed by former JD (U) MLA Chhotubhai Vasava.

Vasava’s party will contest from five seats of Jhagadia, Dediapada, Mangrol, Morva Hadaf and Vaghodia in the two-phase election.

The Congress did not field its candidate in Vadgam (SC) seat of Banaskantha in support of Mevani, who led the dalit stir against the BJP government.

The Congress has been wooing community leaders like Hardik Patel of the Patidar quota agitation, Mevani and Thakur to dislodge the BJP, which has been in power in the state for over two decades.

The names of 76 candi-dates for the second phase were declared by the Congress last

night. In the fourth and final list on Monday , 14 others were declared while it changed its candidate for Manjalpur con-stituency where Chirag Zaveri has been fielded in place of Purvesh Borela.

The sitting MLAs who have not been given tick-ets are Dharshi Khanpura (from Kankrej), Hira Patel (Lunawada), Joitabhai Patel (Dhanera) and Natvarsinh Thakor (Mahudha).

For Mahudha seat, held by Natvarsinh Thakor since long, the party has chosen his son Indrajitsinh Thakor.

Former Gujarat Congress president Siddharth Patel has been nominated for Dabhoi seat of Vadodara district while senior high court lawyer and party leader Babu Mangukia, who had fought Hadik Patel’s sedition case initially, has been chosen for the Thakkar Nagar seat in Ahmedabad city.

The polling for the two-phase election to the 182-mem-ber Assembly will take place on December 9 and 14 and

the votes will be counted on December 18.

The 89 seats of Saurashtra and South Gujarat region are going to polls in the first phase while the remaining 93 seats in central and northern region would go for polls in the sec-ond phase.

Under the seat-sharing agreement with Bharatiya Tribal Party, recently floated by Vasava after the rift in the JD(U), the Congress has not fielded any of its candidate on five seats, including four reserved for Scheduled Tribes (STs). For the first phase, the Congress has fielded its candi-dates on 86 out of the 89 seats, as three seats were given to Bharatiya Tribal Party. These tribal seats are - Jhaghadia, Dediapada and Mangrol, all reserved for STs.

For the second phase, the Congress gave away two seats - Morvahadaf (ST) of Pan-chmahal and Waghodia seat of Vadodara - to Vasava’s party. Both are currently held by the ruling BJP.

PM to flag-off Hyderabad Metro Rail today

OUR CORRESPONDENT

HYDERABAD: The much-awaited Hyderabad Metro Rail will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday and start commercial operations from November 29.

The 30-km-long first phase of the metro rail project between Miyapur and Nagole, having 24 stations, would be launched by the prime minis-ter at 2.15 pm on Tuesday at Miyapur station.

Modi along with Telan-gana Chief Minister K Chan-drasekhar Rao will travel by the metro from Miyapur to Kukatpally, and back.

The trains would run from 6 am to 10 pm initially and the timings would be rescheduled to 5.30 am to 11 pm, depend-ing on the traffic and demand, Telangana’s Information Tech-nology Minister K T Rama Rao said on Saturday.

He claimed that the Hyder-abad metro rail is the most innovative and largest such project in the world in pub-lic private partnership (PPP) mode. The concessionaire, L&T Metro Rail (Hyderabad) Ltd, has fixed a minimum fare of Rs 10 for a distance of up to two kilometres and the maxi-mum fare is Rs 60 for a distance of more than 26 kms.

Each train would initially have three coaches and 330 people can travel in each coach. The number of coaches can be increased to six depending on the traffic, Rao said.

The Telangana State Road Transport Corpora-tion (TSRTC) would also start feeder services for the metro, he said.

Gujarat polls: BJP releases 6th and final list of 34 candidates OUR CORRESPONDENT

AHMEDABAD: The BJP on Monday released its final list of 34 candidates on the last day of filing of nominations for the second phase of the Gujarat polls, dropping five MLAs, including a minister and for-mer chief minister Anandiben Patel.

Anandiben Patel, the leg-islator from Ghatlodia seat of Ahmedabad city, had earlier announced that she would not contest the polls.

The BJP has dropped min-ister Rohit Patel from Anand seat.

The other MLAs not given tickets are Nagarji Thakor from Radhanpur, R M Patel from Asarwa (SC) and Vinch-hia Bhuria from Limkheda (ST).

Former minister and spokesperson Jaynarayan Vyas will be contesting from Siddh-pur, from where he had lost in the 2012 polls.

The ruling party has also given tickets to Tejashariben Patel, the former Congress MLA who joined the saf-fron party earlier, and Kanu Makvana, the son of former Congress MLA Karamshi

Makvana, who had crossed over to the BJP during the Rajya Sabha polls.

In its sixth and final list, the party has given tickets to 12 sit-ting MLAs.

The BJP has fielded Bhu-pendra Patel from Ghatlodia, represented by Anandiben Patel, while senior leader Kaushik Patel has been given the ticket from Naranpura, which was earlier represented by party president Amit Shah.

Shah had resigned as MLA after his election to the Rajya Sabha.

The 182-member Gujarat Assembly will go to the polls in two phases on December 9 and 14. The counting of votes will be taken up on December 18.

The 182-member Gujarat Assembly will go to the polls in two phases on December 9 and 14. The counting of votes will be taken up on December 18

Judicial custody of journalist Vinod Verma extended till Dec

OUR CORRESPONDENT

RAIPUR: A court in Chhat-tisgarh’s Raipur district on Tuesday extended till Decem-ber 11 the judicial custody of senior journalist Vinod Verma, arrested in connection with a case of alleged blackmailing and extortion.

The court of Judicial Mag-istrate First Class Bhavesh Kumar Watti extended the judicial remand of Verma till December 11. This is for the second time that his judicial

remand has been extended, the journalist’s lawyer Faisal Rizvi told reporters.

Verma was produced in the court after his judicial remand ended on Monday , he said.

Following the journalist’s arrest on October 27 from his Ghaziabad residence by the Chhattisgarh Police, he was sent to judicial custody on October 31 for 14 days. Later, his judicial remand was extended up to November 27.

After his arrest, Verma had said that he had a sex tape of a

Chhattisgarh minister.According to the Raipur

police, a case of blackmail and extortion was registered at the Pandri police station based on a complaint by a BJP leader

Prakash Bajaj who said he “was being harassed over the phone by an unidentified caller who told him that he had a CD of his ‘aka’ (master)”.

After investigation, a search team was sent to Delhi and Verma was held from Gha-ziabad in this connection, the police had said and also claimed to have recovered 500 “porn” CDs, a pen drive and a laptop from him.

The Chhattisgarh govern-ment had recommended a CBI probe.

Congress claims credit for Hyderabad Metro; TRS hits back

OUR CORRESPONDENT

HYDERABAD: The Con-gress has claimed credit for the Hyderabad metro rail project, to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi tomorrow, but the rul-ing TRS hit back at the opposi-tion for allegedly not planning it properly.

Claiming that Hyderabad metro rail is an “achieve-ment of Congress”, Telangana Congress president N Uttam Kumar Reddy alleged yester-day that the present TRS gov-ernment was wrongly trying to take credit for the project.

Congress held a power-point presentation on the Hyderabad metro project its office here yesterday.

Reddy also alleged that nei-ther the TRS government in Telangana nor the BJP govern-

ment at the Centre made any contribution to the project.

The present launch is a case of ‘hard work for cater-pillar, publicity for butterfly’, he claimed.

Reddy said the then Chief Minister (of undivided Andhra Pradesh) Y S Rajasekhara Reddy secured approval for metro rail from the Centre in 2007.

Countering the Congress comments, state Animal Hus-bandry Minister T Srinivas Yadav said the previous Con-gress governments could not plan the project properly.

“Could not understand what is your claim. Yesterday, you made some noise. What for? (You say) it is a project done by us. Ok. Because, you had governments then. You could not do even proper plan-ning,” he said.

Work on Kedarpuri redevelopment plan underway in biting cold

OUR CORRESPONDENT

DEHRADUN: Around the Hindu pilgrim centre in Kedar-nath, nearly 200 labourers have been working relentlessly in biting sub-zero temperatures to ensure timely redevelopment of the place ruined by flash floods and landslides in 2013.

Rudraprayag District Mag-istrate Mangesh Ghildiyal said the Uttarakhand government was leaving no stone unturned to ensure the first phase of the township rebuilding projects around the revered Himalayan shrine is completed on time.

The shrine is located nearly 12,000 feet above sea level.

According to official esti-mates, around 5,000 pilgrims a day trek to the Kedarnath Tem-ple, one of the four sacred sites on the Char Dham pilgrimage, between May and October.

The area around the shrine was devastated in massive flash floods and landslides trig-gered by monsoon rains four years ago. A large number of concrete structures around the shrine were razed to the

ground and more than 5,000 people died in the disaster.

The redevelopment of the shrine is high on the agenda of BJP governments in the state and at the Centre. Prime Min-ister Narendra Modi offered prayers at the shrine on Octo-ber 20, a day before its closure for the winter season.

During the visit, he laid the foundation stone of five proj-ects - worth nearly Rs 700 crore - under the Kedarpuri redevel-opment plan. The plan is to be

implemented in several phases.Modi also reviewed the

work being carried out at the temple recently, indicating he was monitoring the progress of the projects. “The high-altitude shrine has become the centre of a flurry of construction activi-ties. Around 200 labourers with heavy-building equipment are working till late in the night to meet deadlines set for different projects in the first phase of the redevelopment plan,” District Magistrate Ghildiyal said.

DMK’s Stalin praises Telangana

CM for quota initiative

OUR CORRESPONDENT

HYDERABAD: Telan-gana Chief Minister K Chan-drasekhar Rao on Tuesday thanked Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) working president MK Stalin for appre-ciating the Telangana govern-ment’s decision to increase reservations for certain back-ward sections of society.

Rao spoke to Stalin this morning over phone, a release from the Chief Minister’s office said.

“Chief Minister K Chan-drasekhar Rao thanked DMK Working President and (Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly) TNLA Opposition Leader MK Stalin who welcomed the efforts to uphold social justice by Telangana CM and for fight-ing for more powers to states,” the release stated.

Stalin had on Sunday praised CM Rao for the latter’s decision to increase the reser-vation for oppressed sections of society.

Odisha launches Rs 96-cr scheme to increase fish

production BHUBANESWAR: Odi-sha government on Tuesday launched a scheme to boost fish production in the state with a budgetary provision of Rs 96 crore.

The ‘Fish Pond Yojana’ scheme was launched by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, while inaugurating a workshop on ‘Doubling of Farmer Income through Dairy and Allied Farming Practices’ here.

“The scheme aims to cre-ate additional 2,200 hectare of fresh water aquaculture farm-ing with 50 per cent financial assistance to farmers,” Patnaik said. Stating that various ser-vices in the fisheries sector are also being made online on Monday , he sought active par-ticipation of women self-help groups (WSHGs) and fisheries cooperatives in taking advan-tage of different schemes launched by the government.

The CM said annual fish production in Odisha has increased from 2.60 lakh tonne to more than 6 lakh tonne in the last 17 years. “Odisha is the only state in the country to have doubled farmers income in real terms over a decade,” Patnaik said.

ABRIDGED -e-NIT e-NIT ref. no.

Name of work Estimated Amount

Last date of Bid submission

37(2nd Call)(EL/SE)2017-18

Renovation of Alipurduar Municipal-ity Hall at Alipurduar Municipality in the District of Alipurduar. Electrifi-cation and all allied Work including Stage Lighting, Sound System.

` 50,17,737.00 12/12/2017 up to 12:00 Hours

Sd/- Superintending Engineer

North Bengal Development Department

Details can be seen in the Official Website www.wbnorthbengaldev.gov.in For all details and online tender submission visit https://wbtenders.gov.in

Government of West Bengal North Bengal Development Department

Branch Secretariat Uttarkanya, Fulbari, Jalpaiguri

Siliguri Jalpaiguri Development Authority

7mp nationMILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Tuesday, 28 November, 2017

Can’t direct govt to bring a law on torture: SC

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday said it can-not direct the government to make a law to prevent torture and inhuman treatment in cus-tody when the government was looking into the issue in “all seriousness” and had decided to adopt the United Nations’ convention on torture.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra referred to the submissions of Attor-ney General K K Venugopal who said the prayer in a plea with regard to framing of a law to prevent torture and inhu-man treatment of individuals in custody was also a subject matter of discussion in the Law Commission. “The executive is looking at the issue with all seriousness,” Venugopal told the bench, which also com-prised Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud.

The bench was hearing a PIL filed by senior advocate and former law minister Ash-wani Kumar, who has sought directions to frame an effective law on the issue and empower agencies like the NHRC with necessary enforcement capabil-ities and mechanisms to imple-ment its orders and directions.

After hearing the submis-

sions of the Attorney Gen-eral, the bench asked Kumar, “can we direct the legislature to make a law by issuing a writ of mandamus?”

“They are saying that they are looking at it with all seri-ousness,” the apex court said,

adding, “can we direct the gov-ernment to adopt a particu-lar UN convention and make a law?”

Kumar asked the bench to keep the matter in abeyance for a month or two to see how things move on legislation

front. But the bench did not agree

to the submission and disposed of his plea in wake of the argu-ments advanced by Venugopal.

The petitioner had ear-lier told the court that despite being a signatory to the United Nations’ Convention Against Torture, 1997, India has not ratified the convention so far since ratification required an enabling legislation to reflect the definition and punishment for ‘torture’. Kumar, a senior Congress leader, had contended that the Centre should have a comprehensive and stand-alone legislation against torture.

The plea had sought a direc-tion to the Centre to ensure an effective law and its enforce-ment to fulfil constitutional promise of human dignity and prevention of custodial torture.

It had sought the issuance of guidelines for timely and effec-tive investigation of complaints of torture and custodial vio-lence and directions be given to the government for rehabil-itation and compensation for the victims.

The government had earlier said a writ petitioner cannot seek a legislation through the court as the issue fell under the domain of the executive and the legislature.

AAP supports Jignesh Mevani; will not field candidate against him

SAYANTAN GHOSH

NEW DELHI: On the first day of PM Narendra Modi’s Gujarat campaign, the Aam Admi Party announced its support for the independent, Congress backed Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani. The party has decided to not file any candi-date against Mevani, who is contesting election from the Vadgam Assembly constitu-ency in Gujarat. The Vadgam seat in Banaskantha district is reserved for scheduled castes.

“The AAP has decided not to field any candidate from Vadgam from where Dalit pro-test leader Jignesh Mevani is contesting as an Independent candidate,” the party observed.

The Congress has sup-ported Mevani’s candidature and asked its sitting MLA Manibhai Vaghela not to con-test from the seat as part of an agreement reached with the Dalit leader.

Delhi Chief Minister and AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal extended best wishes

to the 34-year-old Dalit activ-ist. “Best wishes, Jignesh,” Kejriwal wrote on micro-blogging site Twitter. Accord-ing to part sources, the AAP supremo wants Mevani to get all the votes from the Dalits.

Mevani had also taken to Twitter to announce his can-didature. He wrote, “Friends, I’m contesting from the Vad-gam-11 seat of Banaskantha district of Gujarat as an inde-pendent candidate. We shall fight, we shall win.”

“All political parties opposed to the BJP are say-ing that Jignesh Mevani is a symbol of struggle against the ruling BJP, and they believe the contest should be between these two people only. We have appealed to all political parties to support me,” Mevani said. In response to the AAP’s support, Mevani welcomed the move and thanked CM Kejriwal for his wishes. However, the party also asserted that this pre-elec-tion decision is a strategic step and there would be no alliance with the Congress.

The petitioner had earlier told the court that despite being a signatory to the United Nations’ Convention Against Torture, 1997, India has not ratified the convention so far

Guj ATS takes terror suspect to Ahmedabad for interrogation

GAYA: A team of anti-ter-rorist squad (ATS) of Guja-rat police on Monday took away, for interrogation, ter-ror suspect Tauseef Khan, an accused in the Ahmedabad serial blasts of 2008. Tauseef,

who was arrested here by the Bihar ATS a few months ago, had been lodged in the Gaya Central Jail. He was taken to Ahmedabad by a chartered plane amid tight security.

The ATS team was led by

inspector S L Chaudhary.“Tauseef is named in a

total of 39 cases, all relating to terrorist activities, in vari-ous police stations of Ahmed-abad and Surat”, Chaudhary told reporters. MPOST

CBI arrests former dean of Chirayu Medical College

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: In a major development, in the ongoing probe in the Vyapam scam, the Central Bureau of Investiga-tion (CBI) has arrested former dean of Chirayu Medical Col-lege, Bhopal. The CBI arrested Virendra Mohan, the then Dean of the medical college, from Ludhiana on Monday in pursuance of non-billable warrant issued by Special Judge CBI of Vyapam cases, Bhopal.

On November 23, the agency had filed a chargesheet in a special CBI court in Bho-pal against 592 accused, includ-ing the chairmen of the four private medical colleges, for their alleged involvement in the admission scam.

The promoters were, JN Choksey, chairman of the LN Medical College; SN Vijay-wargiya of the People’s Medi-cal College; Ajay Goenka of the Chirayu Medical College (all in Bhopal) and Suresh Singh Bhadoriya of the Index Medi-cal College, Indore, the CNI officials had said.

In the CBI chargesheet, 245 people have been named as accused for the first time. The others were named in different chargesheets filed earlier by the central probe agency.

The CBI is looking into sev-eral cases of alleged massive irregularities in various exami-nations conducted by the Vya-pam to select candidates for medical colleges and also for state government jobs.

Govt pleader in Hadiya case alleges he received threats

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOCHI: A government pleader, who represented the state government in the Kerala High Court in the Hadiya case, has alleged he was threatened and abused on social media sites. Lawyer Narayanan has lodged a complaint with the police, which on Monday said it had launched a probe to identify the people behind the alleged threats and abusive messages.

Narayanan claimed he had received these messages from people who were connected with the issue of the controver-sial conversion and marriage of Kerala woman Hadiya.

Hadiya converted to Islam from Hinduism and married a Muslim man, Shafin Jahan. The marriage was annulled by the Kerala High Court in May.

Hadiya on Monday appeared before the Supreme Court, which asked the Ker-

ala police to provide her with security and ensure that she travelled to Salem, Tamil Nadu, for her studies at the earliest.

A Supreme Court bench, comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khan-wilkar and D Y Chandrachud, had earlier asked senior advo-cate Shyam Divan, represent-ing her father, to ensure that she was produced before them to ascertain if she had married of her own volition.

The direction came amid an assertion by the National Investigation Agency that the woman may have been indoc-trinated and incapable of giv-ing her consent to marriage.

Before leaving for Delhi on November 25, Hadiya had said in Kochi that she wanted to be with her husband.

“I am a Muslim. I was not forced. I want to be with my husband,” she shouted to reporters before she was whisked away by the police.

GUJARAT TALKS

Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh addresses farmers in Bhavnagar, Gujarat on Monday

ABRIDGED -e-NIT e-NIT ref. no.

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The Executive Engineer(A-I) Midnapore(A-I) Division, Narampur, Paschim Medinipur, invites online Tenders on behalf of the Governor of West Bengal for different works as per Tender ref. No. WBWRDD/EE(AI)/MD/eNIT-12/2017-18 (2nd call) Id No. 2017_WRDD_139594_1.Details will be available from website: http://wbtenders.gov.in. Sd/-

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mp editorial

The words of Noble Laureate and father of the Green Revo-lution Norman Borlaug, “You cannot create a peaceful world

on empty stomachs,” ring true in the present times, when we are facing the mammoth task of feeding a growing population, expected to reach 9.7 bil-lion by 2050.

Food insecurity is one of the world’s most pressing problems today, creat-ing directly or indirectly, several other challenges for man—migration being one of them, as highlighted by Elwyn Grainger-Jones, executive director, CGIAR System Organisation. The United Nations too has realised the importance of migration. This year’s World Food Day theme (October 16, 2017) was on Changing the future of migration–investing in food security and rural development.

The challenge of nutritiously feed-ing the skyrocketing population will be even more severe for developing nations. For instance, in the case of India, the recently released National Nutrition Atlas from the National Insti-tute of Nutrition and the Indian Coun-cil of Medical Research, highlights that majority (two-thirds) of the states have a high percentage of malnourished chil-dren and a subsequent high level of wastage. This is mainly because of the non-availability or non-accessibility of enough amounts of proteins and micro-nutrients for pregnant women and chil-dren, under the age of five. The recently released 2017 Global Hunger Index also highlights that the prevailing situation is serious for India.

Securing food with biotechnologyThere is a range of biotechnological

approaches, including both traditional ones like selective breeding, fermen-tation techniques and modern ones such as genomics, molecular breeding and genetic engineering that can col-

lectively contribute towards achieving food and nutrition security.

In the current era, advances in genomics sciences have equipped sci-entists to decode genomes for any crop species (the recent example being that of pearl millet), where we can also get information on genes responsible for important agronomic traits. Gene information can be used to acceler-ate breeding programmes and develop high-yielding and better varieties faster.

At the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), we together with our part-ners from the Indian Council of Agri-cultural Research and state agricultural universities, have developed improved lines of chickpea (tolerant to drought), groundnut (resistant to foliar disease and having high Oleic acid content), pearl millet (resistant to downy mildew and having high iron and zinc contents) and sorghum (tolerant to drought). Some of our recent works on molec-ular breeding at ICRISAT have led to

the development of chickpea lines with enhanced drought tolerance that can provide 10-20 per cent higher yields than the existing drought-tolerant vari-eties under rain-fed conditions.

However, in some cases, the avail-able options for improving crops are only the genetically modified (GM) crops. For instance, in the case of insect resistance in chickpea, pigeon pea, brin-jal and cotton, we need to embrace GM technologies, as a sufficient amount of natural variation is not present for resis-tance. We have already seen the success of BT cotton in our country, as India from being an importer a few years ago has now become a major exporter. The other potential GM crop to help the farming community is GM mustard. Biotech crops can play a significant role in this, which is substantiated by the report of the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Appli-cations that suggests that historically, biotech crops are the fastest adopted crop technology, providing farmers

with satisfaction about their benefits and high adoption rates.

There have been significant increases in the global planting of biotech crops in 2016 which reached 185.1 million hectares as compared to 179.7 million hectares the previ-ous year. In India, 7.2 million farmers planted more than 10.8 million hect-ares of BT cotton in 2016. Globally, from 1996 to 2015, biotech crops gen-erated economic gains at the farm level worth US$ 167.8 billion. Biotech crops have reduced the amount of pesticides used by 620 million kilograms. In 2016 alone, fewer insecticides spray reduced the carbon dioxide emissions by 26.7 billion kilograms, this is equivalent to taking 11.9 million cars off the road for a year. Biotech crops assisted in alleviat-ing poverty by helping 18 million small farmers and their families, totalling 65 million people.

I participated in FAO’s regional meeting on agricultural biotechnolo-gies held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from September 11-13, 2017, as a mem-ber of the advisory panel of an inter-nationally recognised expert group to provide advice and guidance to the task force on biotechnologies. As a speaker, I presented my views that emphasised the need to enhance the adoption of agricultural biotechnologies to feed a growing population of 1.3 billion. We have to bear in mind that any technol-ogy has seen the reluctance in accep-tance when initially introduced, but the entire world today has already seen the impact of technology on day-to-day life. Similar is the case with biotechnol-ogy crops. Given the current situation of feeding the world, we need to pro-duce more with limited available natu-ral resources. DOWN TO EARTH

(The author is global research pro-gramme director, genetic gains,

ICRISAT. The views expressed are strictly personal.)

8MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Tuesday, 28 November, 2017

Does anyone remember Anil Ambani’s Reliance Power IPO in 2008? The highly hyped public issue was

launched in February that year dur-ing the stock market boom.The IPO was oversubscribed 73 times, recording five-million applications. The issue price was Rs 450 ($9.15) per share. At the grey market, the price was around Rs 900 ($18.30). Reliance Power’s maiden IPO garnered an astronomical $190 billion from subscriptions. It was the world’s biggest IPO of its time. Investors simply went crazy as Reliance Power’s pre-issue ad campaign’s punch line — Power On, India On — created a massive euphoria around the company’s grand future in the energy deficient country.

However, on listing with the BSE and NSE, the share price crashed within minutes of its very opening. Except for the promoter’s name, almost every-thing about the company’s stated proj-ects appeared to be bogus. There was little feasibility on ground—no land, no plant. The company underwent sig-nificant changes over the last nine years. Despite that its share price now hovers around Rs 36 each. Investors lost bil-lions. In an unrelated development, only a few weeks ago, Anil Ambani’s another publicly-held mega company, Reliance Communications (RCom), collapsed to the utter dismay of millions of stake-holders, including domestic and foreign creditors, subscribers and customers. However, such stray cases rarely rattle the bullish market sentiment and the investors’ gambling instinct. Only hon-est investors seem to fall an easy prey to stock market boom or bust cycles.

Few serious market researchers will disagree that the current trend of share price boom in India beats all logic and fundamentals. The ballooning share prices of most of the listed companies with BSE and NSE have little to do with their top lines and bottom lines, as also their earnings per share (EPS) and immediate future prospects. The BSE’s record-setting Sensex and NSE’s Nifty indices hardly reflect financial per-formances of the representative picks in their respective areas of industry. Few listed brick-and-mortar companies are making project investments. India’s information technology (IT) firms and pharma companies are under pressure due to stricter US regulations. Recently, two of India’s large drug firms, Cipla and Lupin, have been dropped from the benchmark BSE Sensex. Many large

listed metal makers, telecom compa-nies, infrastructure firms and real estate developers are neck deep in debt. Listed public sector banks are running non-performing assets (NPAs) worth over Rs 5,00,000 crore and are anxiously waiting for the government’s bail-out package. The government is concerned. It is mak-ing serious attempts to push the eco-nomic reforms process, which has been recently lauded by reputed international agencies such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Lately, even the global sovereign rating agency, Moody’s too appreciated these measures and upped India’s rat-ing from ‘Baa3’ to ‘Baa2’ on November 17, its first upgrade in almost 14 years. However, Moody’s rating has little to do with the corporate equity rating. Yet, bulls in the market took its full advan-tage to push the Sensex up another 236 points on the day and, to the country’s exporters’ dismay, the Indian Rupee appreciated 30 paise to Rs 65.02 for a US$. Surprisingly, Standard & Poor’s, the biggest sovereign rating agency, differed. It did not see any immediate reason to upgrade its India rating above the ‘Stable’ level. Moody’s higher rating may attract more FDI and make India’s global borrowing a shade cheaper and easier, but it does not mean to improve physical and financial performances of listed companies too soon. Take, for

instance, Larsen & Toubro, one of India’s top engineering and technology compa-nies. The company’s chief executive SN Subrahmanyan strongly feels that India’s business environment will remain sub-dued and challenging until March 2019, with good growth likely only after the next general elections.

A big FDI inflow may be good for the economy, but not necessarily for the stock market. Most large foreign direct investors in India operate as unlisted private companies. Many listed for-eign firms have brought back shares from the market to become unlisted. The stock market is concerned with the performance of only listed compa-nies and not privately held or closely held firms. Incidentally, India’s stock market has long been under the con-trol and influence of foreign portfolio investors (FPOs). And, most of them are big-time gamblers across financial, stock and commodity markets in the world. They shine in a depressed debt market as it is in India, at this moment. Investors prefer high-yielding stocks to low-earning fixed deposits in banks or in government and corporate bonds. Medium and small investors go for IPOs and mutual fund (MF) offers.

Mutual Fund operators usually take full advantage of the stock boom. Small investors become an easy prey as invest-ments rarely give returns before four or

five years’ time. MF operators earn their commissions from unitholders, irrespec-tive of whether their market transac-tions make or lose money. In 2017, MF investments in equities have already crossed Rs 1,00,000 crore. Fund opera-tors are continuing to pour money into equity markets. The SEBI records show that till November 10, MFs pumped in a net Rs 102,810 crore in equities — a three-fold increase over the previous year. FPIs invested Rs 48,190 crore in the equity segment so far in CY17, shows NSDL data. Given the abundant liquidity, S&P BSE Sensex and the Nifty 50 have rallied 23.7 per cent and 24.4 per cent, respectively, thus far in CY17 and breached 33,866 and 10,490 levels in the first week of November.

Fundraising through the equity route, including IPOs, may come close to Rs 1.5 lakh crore, during this year. This is frightening. Notwithstanding India’s sovereign upgrade, not many of India’s joint stock companies seem to be ready to produce financial results to match the investors’ dream. Sooner or later, the market will collapse, bringing back the memory of 2008. However, bulls never learn. Only small individ-ual investors in stocks and unsecured debentures become the biggest victim of market busts. IPA

(The views expressed are strictly personal.)

Check IPO pricingEDITORIAL

If not tackled effectively, market boom may soon lead to investors’ doom

There have been significant increases in the global planting of biotech crops in 2016 which reached 185.1 million hectares as compared to 179.7 million hectares the previous year. In India, 7.2 million farmers planted more than 10.8 million hectares of BT cotton in 2016

Notwithstanding India’s sovereign upgrade, not many of India’s joint stock companies seem to be ready to produce financial results to match the investors’ dream. Sooner or later, the market will collapse, bringing back the memory of 2008. However, bulls never learn

After the horrific Nirbhaya gang-rape case that shook the capital and the rest of the country in December 2012, many believed that the public outrage and subsequent condemnation of the act would change

the fate of women living in India. However, not much seems to have altered. The National Crime Records Bureau Data shows, that in 2015 the total number of registered rape cases across the country amounted to 34,651. A glaring reminder that despite modernity and progress in economic growth, the fate of women living in the country continues to be eroded by the animalistic tendencies of men. Rape is the worst kind of attack on human integrity and privacy. Its brutality which irre-vocably scars the victim both physically and mentally has far-reaching consequences that make rape a far more threatening crime than even murder, in many cases. Yet, the slow pace of the judicial hearing process and the corruption that pervades through our system has given a clean chit to many perpetra-tors who now walk around freely in the streets of our coun-try—without apology or remorse. Turning tables, the Madhya Pradesh cabinet passed a convincing bill that will be heard as the assembly comes into session during this week. The state has proposed death penalty for perpetrators who rape chil-dren below the age of 12 and for culprits of gang-rape cases. Rape in its entirety is horrific, and it is agonizing to distinguish its brutality with age or circumstance. Yet, we must. Raping children and organising gang rapes impinge upon ethics even more strongly than rape already does. It is unfortunate that in our society, today, we are witnessing growing numbers of cases of sexual abuse against children which has compelled the judiciary and legislation to understand that this offence is more offensive than adult rape—which is harrowing enough already. Madhya Pradesh, in the last decade has witnessed an upsurge in the cases of rape and sexual abuse. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had earlier too come out and spoken aggressively, proposing the use of capital punishment for this heinous crime. Now, his ministry is set to turn this thought into reality. Capital punishment in India is reserved for select crimes—murder, gang robbery with murder, abetting cases of suicide for children and the mentally ill, abetting mutiny by a member of the armed forces, waging war against the govern-ment and circumstantial punishment in certain anti-terror laws. The courts in India generally spell out life imprisonment even for murders, unless they are classified as brutal and ‘rar-est of the rare’. Rape is a ‘rarest of the rare’ impingement upon human dignity. Despite its rampancy in our country today, its essence as a rare and condemnable offence cannot be over-looked. Madhya Pradesh’s proposal to take cognizance of the offence and met out adequate capital punishment is being applauded as a step in the right direction. However, given the stubbornness of the average Indian male and their refusal to learn from mistakes, this death penalty could have negative consequences too. As pointed out by certain ministers in the Chouhan cabinet, the prevalence of a death sentence for rape of a minor or gang rape may compel the perpetrator to take the life of the victim, altogether. This is a valid hesitance and again spells out the shameful condition of our country today. To cover up a crime, criminals are willing to commit further offences rather than realising and repenting the consequences of the first. Capital punishment by itself has also been brought under public scanner. It is understood by many as a primi-tive method of justice, not suitable for the modern world. However, neither is committing rape a tendency suitable for the modern senses. It is far more primitive, animalistic, and inhuman than capital punishment. To treat perpetrators of this heinous crime, for an average citizen, the most heinous way is probably the right way. Despite repeated debate, public discourse and condemnation of the act it continues to flourish only because despite living in the modern world, we Indians haven’t learnt to control our primate desires of lust and hunger. Sometimes to tackle the enemy, you must speak in the enemy’s language. While these thoughts emerge out of a deep-rooted anger towards offensive patriarchy ruling the contemporary world, a more suitable approach matching modern sensibili-ties is always rehabilitation. It is an undisputed challenge to track lost cases whose minds have been chewed upon by evil incarnation. This is possibly the biggest challenge of modern civil society, to strike a balance between the primitive and the modern. To not discard the primitive—even in its harsh exte-rior, the task is to be able to embrace it and uplift it from its pitiful condition. While philosophically sound, practically it is daunting, because the other aspect of modern life is a paucity of time. Though capital punishment, if meted out on time and holistically without favours, is a step that could instill fear, it still does little to tackle the problem of lust. Rather than rap-ing children below 12, the filthy perpetrator will find solace in harassing someone above 13. The mind of the average Indian has to developed—not just by punishment but by pervasive policymaking. By increasing tolerance, improving acceptance and controlling desires.

Virat’s boys seem unstoppable at this juncture. They have swatted away the opposition like flies. The Kiwis were the only ones in recent times to put up at least a semblance of a fight. However, a formi-

dable challenge awaits the ‘invincibles’ in the encounter with South Africa, during the first week of January. Cricket pundits point out that any sub-continent team needs adequate prepa-ration to make the transition from docile, batsmen- friendly wickets to the green top wickets that will greet any team vis-iting South Africa. Understandably, India skipper Virat Kohli is miffed over the fact that his team does not have much time to acclimatise themselves with the conditions down South, before the Test series. Kohli admits that the team management asked for fast pitches and not rank turners, for which India has gained repute. Kohli said that he wants Team India to get used to fast and bouncy tracks ahead of playing in venues like Johannesburg and Cape Town. “As usual cramped for time, which I think we need to assess in future as well because we very easily assess the team when we go abroad but we don’t look at how many days we have got to prepare before we go to a particular place to play,” Kohli said. “Had we got a month off ideally, we would have done a proper preparation in a camp sort of scenario, but we have to sort of make do with what we have,” Kohli had said last week. The former skipper, Sourav Ganguly, who knows a thing or two about leading India over-seas has backed Virat Kohli on the latter’s demand for more time to get ready for the tough tour to South Africa. Echo-ing Kohli’s concerns, Ganguly said, “He (Kohli) was talking about scheduling of cricket which is so correct. You have got to give teams time to prepare when they go to South Africa.” The Indian team will finish their limited overs engagement against Sri Lanka on December 24 (final T20) before they fly off to South Africa on December 27. Acting BCCI presi-dent CK Khanna said the board needs to assess Kohli’s view seriously. To preserve and propel a team to further heights it is essential that the comfort of the players’ is not compro-mised upon. Cricket is India’s undiluted passion and crick-eters undergo difficult circumstances to continue delivering up to their audiences’ expectations. Better scheduling ought to be practised to keep players at ease and the tricolour fly-ing with pride.

Our animalistic modern India

Cramped schedule

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millenniumpost.inTHE DELHI NIGHTMAREdear

EDITOR

After a few days of reduced pollutants in the air, on Sunday again the Air Quality Index in Delhi fell to ‘poor’. This is disconcerting for residents living in the city who cannot find a way out of this trouble. The governments are busy logging horns with one another without providing a suitable solution. If India wants to escalate on the global scale to become a developed nation then better facilities must be provided to citizens. Right now, we are living in a suffocating hell.

RAJEEV VARSHNEY

A range of biotechnological approaches, including both traditional techniques and modern interventions, can contribute towards achieving food and nutrition security

Assuring food securitySUPRITI KAUSHIK Via email

Propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state

Quote martial

NOAM CHOMSKY

India turned its fate with the production of BT cotton; similar modified methods must now be exercised to battle food shortages REPRESENTATIONAL IMAGE

The raging markets must exercise caution to prevent a flashback of the 2008 crisis REPRESENTATIONAL IMAGE

NANTOO BANERJEE

9mp in focusMILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Tuesday, 28 November, 2017

FRANK F. ISLAM

BHOPINDER SINGH

On November 28-30 in Hyderabad, India and the US will jointly host the Global Entrepreneurship

Summit. This is the eighth annual sum-mit which began as the brainchild of former US President Barack Obama. It has previously been held in other locations such as Istanbul, Dubai and Silicon Valley. The theme for this year's Summit is "Women First, Prosperity for All".

The Summit provides India and Hyderabad with an excellent oppor-tunity to showcase the exceptional progress and achievements that have been made by Indian entrepreneurs in a number of areas, such as informa-tion technology, media and entertain-ment, health-care and the life sciences. It also provides the chance to focus attention on the fact that there is a need to increase initiatives in India to first place emphasis on Indian women entrepreneurs.

The Modi administration has been successful in placing some impetus on women entrepreneurs. For example, in April, the administration launched a Stand-up India scheme which provides loans valuing between Rs 10 lakh and Rs one crore to women entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs from the sched-uled castes and scheduled tribes (SC/ST). The Stand-up India programme is projected to reach up to 250,000 borrowers.

The looming concern is: What per-centage of those borrowers will be women entrepreneurs? This is a central question as there is a dearth of women entrepreneurs in India and various studies have shown that women entre-preneurs in the country are among the most disadvantaged in the world. In spite of an increase of women busi-ness owners and operators over the past several years, entrepreneurship still remains a male bastion in India. A recent study by the National Sam-ple Survey Organisation found that only 14 per cent of Indian business establishments are run by females. The same study disclosed that most of the women-run businesses – 79 per cent – were self-financed. These are both-ersome findings. Even more irksome is the stark disparity of status between

Indian women entrepreneurs when compared to woman entrepreneurs, around the world.

In 2015, The Global Entrepre-neurship and Development Institute (GEDI) issued a report containing its Female Entrepreneurship Index, rank-ing countries "with respect to the pre-vailing conditions that will fuel high potential female entrepreneurship development". India was near the bot-tom of that Index, ranking 70th out of 77 countries. In 2017, MasterCard issued its Index of Women Entrepre-neurs, ranking countries based on an assessment of: Women's Advance-ment Outcomes; Knowledge Assets and Financial Access; and Support-ing Entrepreneurial Conditions. India ranked 49th out of 54 countries. The MasterCard report noted, "there is

significant potential to harness the untapped potential of women's entre-preneurship in India."I would propose that the public and private sectors in India collaborate to develop a comprehensive and inte-grated three-pronged approach to "harness the untapped potential" and address the critical need to put Indian women entrepreneurs first. Those prongs should be:4�Educate and empower women to

become entrepreneurs4�Ensure adequate financial resources

to support their entrepreneurial ventures4�Provide mentoring to promote suc-

cess in entrepreneurshipThe education for women to

become entrepreneurs should be mul-tifaceted, stressing not only "book

learning" but also on providing the hands-on skills and abilities required to run a business. It should also be directed towards preparing women to enter fields in which there are very few female business owners today, such as information technology, manufactur-ing, and engineering. Numerous stud-ies have found that women in emerging markets have much more difficulty in securing loans than men and have to rely on their own financing. That is why the World Bank launched a Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi) this year, to provide venture capital support to assist and encourage women to start and grow their own businesses. India should tie into and develop a pro-gramme to replicate We-Fi.

Unless they come from a family that has a business or have worked in a business, women entrepreneurs have seen no role models and have had no coaching on how to start, run and build a business. A mentoring programme can fill that gap. In the US, there is a non-profit organisation called Service Core of Retired Executives (SCORE) that provides free mentoring services to business owners. India could estab-lish a programme similar to SCORE, dedicated to women entrepreneurs. It could recruit both retired and active professionals from all sectors – busi-ness, government, academia, nonprofit – to be mentors in the programme. A programme of this type could be coor-dinated through the financial insti-tutions providing loans to women entrepreneurs.

In conclusion, the Global Entre-preneurial Summit will place the spot-light on the achievements of India's entrepreneurs and the significant con-tributions they have made to build the country's economy. The Summit can also be used as a magnifying glass to increase the focus placed on women entrepreneurs. If this is done and Indian women entrepreneurs are placed first, they will dramatically accelerate the country's economic development in a manner that will benefit all and propel India’s holistic growth. IANS

(Frank Islam is an entrepreneur, civic leader and thought Leader based in the Washington DC area. The views

expressed are strictly personal.)

Let us impress upon the censor board, the courts, the politicians, the community leaders and shame Bollywood with our dignified opposition– we cannot become fatalists and assume that the voice of dignity does not work, as that would be reductive to the framework of the ‘Rajput’

A recent study by the National Sample Survey Organisation found that only 14 per cent of Indian business establishments are run by females. The same study disclosed that most of the women-run businesses – 79 per cent – were self-financed. These are bothersome findings

Lament of a proud RajputJust as a Rajput is committed to protect his faith and valour, he is equally

indebted to his dignified conduct in the face of adversity

‘Women First, Prosperity for All’

As the proverbial Midnight’s children, we were born to Nehru’s forewarning, “The past clings on to us still in

some measure and we have to do much before we redeem the pledges,” the wounded soul of the new sover-eign called India, had found guid-ing utterance. The new order sought to disband perceived inequities and regressive societal instincts, yet, there was no dichotomy in my grandfa-ther, a fiercely proud and progressive Rajput, who always insisted on the dignity of ‘living up to being a Rajput’! As the sun finally set on the British crown, the princely states had started vesting their future in the composi-tion of India – most willfully, and some not. The existential Kshatriya codes of ‘rule and authority’ were suddenly posited in the face of the aspired equality of rights, opportuni-ties and responsibilities. Wisely, the grandfather who had seen different privileges in his life was no suprema-cist, he reassured us of our own tryst with destiny, as long as we invested in education and enlightenment.

Years later, the familiar echo of ‘living up to being a Rajput’ came back explicitly, when a nineteen-year-old officer got baptised into the famed Rajput Regiment. I fol-lowed the footsteps of innumerable ancestors to answer my own call to honour. Like at home, the essentiali-ties and contours of being a ‘Rajput’ were more in spirit, than the nar-row confines of castes, religion, race or region. My battalion 17th Rajput was raised by an illustrious ‘Rajput’ called Field Marshal KM Cariappa (a Coorgi), and my immediate hero as a wide-eyed subaltern was the Com-manding Officer, a garrulous and bar-rel-chested Sikh, affectionately called ‘Baba Gill’. Before Yadunath Singh had won the Rajput Regiment its Param Vir Chakra, another bravehe-art, Sepoy Kamal Ram (a Gurjar) had honoured us with a Victoria Cross – the pride of the ‘Rajputs’, a Coorgi, a Sikh and a Gurjar, all who swore by the regimental motto, “Victory or death in battle has been the religion of the Rajputs from time immemo-rial. It is his character that he knows no fear”. The bigotry of puritanical interpretations was frowned upon, and the celebration of the ‘Rajput’ spirit, encouraged.

As kids, we were impressed upon

the ‘Rajput’ heroes and villains of history, in equal measures – a delib-erate attempt was made to nuance and instil a certain narrative that reflected our preferred sensibilities. The treachery of Jai Chand wasn’t hidden from us, yet, the indefati-gable Ranas of Mewar and General Zorawar Singh (the unsung, ‘Napo-leon of India’) were the definitive leit-motifs of ‘living up to being a Rajput’. Even then, more than victory itself, the large-hearted nobility of Prithviraj Chauhan in forgiving the enemy, the intrinsic ‘inclusivity’ of Rana Pratap’s Bhil Army and the ‘death over dishon-our’ of Rani Padmini were our emo-tional payoffs. There was something expansive in that interpretation of the ‘Rajput’ chivalry that cut across reli-

gions and other divides. During the Raj Days, the Muslim Kaim Khani squadron of the Poona Horse or the Muslim Ranghar squadron of the Skinner’s Horse were amongst the fin-est ‘Rajput’ soldiers (both rightfully claim common ancestry) known to the Armed Forces. Clearly, time and tide allowed us to sift the chaff from the wheat in the harlotry of history to propound a less suffocating and a more liberal celebration of being a ‘Rajput’, where spirit and beliefs mat-tered, and not some arbitrary certifi-cation or exclusivism.

Seventy years post-independence, the ‘Rajput’ still struggles to come to terms with the new normal. The new normal is brutally transactional and unemotional – an anathema to

the community codes that still remi-nisce noble antiquities like ‘death to dishonour’ in this century! While still punching above its weight in the Armed Forces, politics and sports, statistically the new-age realms and opportunities still warrant more pres-ence. A silent disgust at the continu-ous vilification of the community by Bollywood, wherein the term ‘Thakur’ has acquired default-villainy, a com-munity that fondly invests in ‘history’ is at pains with the convenient logic of ‘creative license’. Bollywood is slick, organised and has Zen logics that can naïvely shame its detractors with por-tents of ‘regressive’. The twain never meets between the two because the lingua franca of guiding emotions dif-fer, and it not just about the accuracy

of ‘history’. Yes, Padmavati is only a poem, but it is also a matter of faith, and faith needs no archaeological sub-stance, for that could delegitimise all faiths and beliefs. Bollywood’s intrin-sic chicanery in the selective defence of poem-versus-history is contra-dicted with the parallel posturing of the movie as the story of ‘Queen Pad-mavati’, whilst, retaining all nomen-clatures from the book of faith. Is asking for sacrosanctity of the sym-bols of faith, unreasonable? Do enter-tain, push the envelope of creativity but don’t demolish the denominations of faith, especially where ‘death to dishonour’ rules the soul. Like for a soldier who dies for the flag, it is not a matter of a cloth – it is everything.

Yet again, besides gallantry and

chivalry, it is ‘civility’ that necessitates the construct of an ideal ‘Rajput’ – the emphasis on ideal, as matters of defending the faith, cannot be con-ducted in a sub-ideal basis of conve-nience, like Bollywood. Where does that ‘civility’ reflect in the justifiable angst of the ‘Rajput’ – are we about mobocracy? Should we take the law into our hands? Would the commu-nity that still muses of the societal ‘inclusivity’ in the times of ‘States’, ‘Taluqdars’ or ‘Thikanas’ feel comfort-able in attacks on schedule caste com-munities in UP? Should we mourn the killing of a declared outlaw in Rajas-than, just because he was a ‘Rajput’? True, there are no straight answers and there are wheels-within-wheels of certain events which are often politi-cal designs to deliberately humiliate the community and we must react, and react forcefully – but act boor-ishly and lawlessly? I understand the right to offend and equally maintain my own right to feel offended and react – except, the means deployed to express our reaction is the moot ques-tion to ponder for the ‘Rajput’. The fundamental edifice of the ‘Rajput’ is in the behavioural conduct – a conduct that drove a Major Shaitan Singh to surreal gallantry in 1962, or indeed in today’s day and age, a Major Varadarajan from Chennai, who fur-ther embellished the uniform of the Rajput Regiment, in the finest tradi-tions of the ‘Rajput’.

I wholeheartedly disagree with the freedom to distort our founda-tional values, just because you want to recover some 200 crores – a pittance in value to my faith, but my faith is also about dignity, civility and hon-ourable conduct. Let us impress upon the censor board, the courts, the pol-iticians, the community leaders and shame Bollywood with our digni-fied opposition– we cannot become fatalists and assume that the voice of dignity does not work, as that would be reductive to the framework of the ‘Rajput’. It does not behove a ‘Rajput’ to either allow degeneration of faith or, equally importantly, the degenera-tion of behavioural conduct – 16,000 women walked into the fire to protect the honour and dignity of the ‘Rajput’, don’t let it wither away, either way.

(The author is Former Lt Gov-ernor of Andaman & Nicobar

Islands and Puducherry. The views expressed are strictly personal.)

With the Global Entrepreneurship Summit, India should attempt to emphasise the role of women entrepreneurs that would ensure pervasive growth of the economy

Women entrepreneurs in India are still numbered, especially in the fields of IT, engineering and manufacturing

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On the 9th anniversary of #MumbaiTerrorAttack, a humble prayer for security personnel who gave their lives protecting us. As we share the grief of the families who lost their loved ones, let us all resolve to eliminate terrorism in all forms & make India a safer, better nation.

Constitution is the Holy Book in a democracy. Let us pledge to protect the spirit of our Indian Constitution #ConstitutionDay

Vaccines are supremely important for public health. During my tenure as the health minister in Delhi, I saw the menace of Dengue in Delhi where thousands were affected-should have clinical trials for dengue in 3 months

In the history of India, ALL donations to a political party have been declared illegal. All these were accounted for and shown in books of accounts. This is height of political vendetta

Committed to ancestry: Rajputs cannot allow the colouring of their history; yet, neither can they afford to lose their dignity

mp world10MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Tuesday, 28 November, 2017

KARANGASEM (Indone-sia): A rumbling volcano on the resort island of Bali could erupt at any moment, authori-ties warned on Monday as they raised alert levels to maximum, accelerated a mass evacuation and closed the main airport, leaving tourists stranded.

Massive columns of thick grey smoke that have been belching from Mount Agung since last week hae now begun shooting more than three kilo-metres (two miles) into the sky, forcing flights to be grounded.

Some 40,000 frightened people have fled their homes around the volcano but as many as 100,000 will likely be forced to leave, disaster agency officials said after raising the alert to its highest level.

The exclusion zone around Agung, which is 75 kilometres from the beachside tourist hub of Kuta, has also been widened to 10 kilometres.

“Continuous ash puffs are sometimes accompanied by explosive eruptions and a weak booming sound,” the National Board for Disaster Manage-ment said.

“The rays of fire are increas-ingly observed at night.This indicates the potential for a

larger eruption is imminent.” Agung rumbled back to

life in September, forcing the evacuation of 140,000 peo-ple living nearby. Its activity decreased in late October and many returned to their homes.

However, on Saturday the mountain sent smoke up into the air for the second time in a week in what volcanolo-gists call a phreatic eruption – caused by the heating and expansion of groundwater.

Then on Monday so-called cold lava flows appeared – sim-ilar to mud flows and often a prelude to the blazing orange lava seen in many volcanic eruptions.

“I’m very concerned because I left my house behind and I’m also worried about family,” said 36-year-old farmer Putu Suyasa, who fled with some of his relatives from a village eight kilometres away from the volcano. “The moun-tain is spewing thicker smoke than before.”

Mt Agung last erupted in 1963, killing about 1,600 peo-ple in one of the deadliest eruptions in a country that has nearly 130 active volcanoes.

The airport in Bali’s capital Denpasar, a top holiday desti-

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s law minister Zahid Hamid on Monday resigned to quell vio-lent protests by Islamists across the country as the embattled government “surrendered” to hardline groups, who were bay-ing for his sacking for alleged blasphemy.

Hamid’s resignation comes in the aftermath of deadly clashes between security forces and protesters during the week-end, that killed six people and injured hundreds. The sit-in had paralysed the national cap-ital for three weeks.

An official of the Prime Minister House confirmed that the law minister last night sent his resignation to Prime Minis-ter Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, who accepted it on Monday.

Hamid was accused by the protesters of blasphemy after

a reference to the Prophet Muhammad was left out of a revised version of the elec-toral oath. He called it a cleri-cal error. Hamid’s resignation cleared the main hurdle in the lifting of siege of the capital by protesters. Activists of Teh-reek-i-Khatm-i-Nabuwwat, Tehreek-i-Labaik Ya Rasool Allah (TLY) and Sunni Teh-reek Pakistan (ST) religious groups started protests three weeks ago.

Official sources said an understanding was reached with protesters with the help of the powerful Army to call off the protest as their key demand had been accepted and the changes made in the law had already been taken back when parliament restored the original oath. Following the agreement and the subsequent

resignation of Hamid, TLY chief Khadim Hussain Rizvi ordered his followers all over the country to end the sit-ins and go home.

“We have decided to end the protest after assurance by the army chief and an agree-ment with government,” he said at Faizabad interchange, where he was camping with over 2,000 supporters for last three weeks.

The civilian government is being criticised for back-ing down in the crisis, which raises new questions about the military’s role in politics in this country. The right wing cleric, who parlayed life in Islamabad and neighbouring Rawalpindi, said his party was not in favour of violence. He said all of his supporters arrested during crackdown would be released by the government.

Meanwhile, Justice Shau-kat Aziz Siddiqui of Islamabad High Court lashed out at the government and the powerful military for the role assigned to the Army as the “mediator” in striking the deal with the pro-testers to end their sit-in.

“The court had asked the government to clear the roads and not for an agreement with protestors. What you have done is surrender,” the judge told Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal. “Who is the Army to play the role of mediator?...Where does the law assign this role to a Major General?” he asked.

In more scathing words, the judge said the protesters could not sit at Faizabad if it were located closer to the Army’s headquarters.

Justice Siddiqui told Iqbal that the government had con-stitutional right to call in Army to help civil administration in any emergency situation. He also said the “Army chief is an officer in an institution that comes under the state” and rhetorically asked “Is he above the law?” Radio Pakistan said that Hamid, the minister for law and parliamentary affairs, “voluntarily” presented his res-ignation to Abbasi to bring the country “out of a state of crisis”.

The protesters were demanding Hamid’s ouster over his alleged role for changes in the oath about finality of prophethood in the recently passed elections laws. AGENCIES

BEIJING: With China increas-ingly becoming an attractive market for foreign film produc-ers, including those from India, the country aims to have over 60,000 cinema screens by 2020 to make it the world largest film market, a top official said.

Some foreign films, includ-ing Amir Khan-starrer Indian blockbuster Dangal, this year raked in higher box office col-lections in China.

By 2020, China is likely to produce around 800 films each year and the annual box office collection is expected to be around 70 billion yuan ($10.6 billion), Zhang Hong-sen, deputy director of the State Administration of Press, Publi-cation, Radio, Film and Televi-sion (SAPPRFT) was qouted as saying by the state-run Xinhua news agency.

According to SAPPRFT, last week, the box office collection in China exceeded 50 billion yuan ($7 billion) this year, it is the first time that the coun-try has broken the 50-billion mark in box office taking. The box office collection for domes-tic movies reached 26.2 billion yuan, accounting for 52.4 per cent of the total earning. AGENCIES

BEIJING: Scientists have developed a swarm of robots measuring about the size of a blood cell that can be remotely operated to diagnose and treat illness in hard-to-reach areas of the human body.

The robots, manufactured by coating tiny algae with mag-netic particles, can be tracked in tissue close to the skin’s surface by imaging the algae’s natural fluorescence, and in hard-to-reach deeper tissue by magnetic resonance imag-ing (MRI). In tests, a swarm of robots a few millionths of a metre in length were guided magnetically to sites in the stomach of rats.

Researchers, led by those from Chinese University of Hong Kong, developed micro-robots by coating a microscopic algae with non-harmful, bio-compatible magnetic particles.

The devices were tested in the stomach of rats and can smoothly swim in biological fluids, such as dilute blood and gastric fluid, according to the study published in the journal Science Robotics.

Scientists suggest that the advance may lead to a way to deliver drugs to parts of the body that are otherwise diffi-cult to treat.

The robots could also sense chemical changes linked to the onset of illness within parts of the body, which makes them potentially useful as probes for remote diagnosis.

The time taken for the robots to function and biode-grade within the body could be tailored by adjusting the thickness of their manufac-tured coating. AGENCIES

TOKYO: The badly decom-posed remains of ten people have been found on Japan’s coast across the sea from North Korea, along with the wreck-age of two boats, officials said on Monday.

The discovery comes just days after a group of eight fish-ermen, who said they were from North Korea, washed up on the same shore.

Police said two cadavers were found in separate places on the edge of the surf on Sado island, which lies around 750 kilometres (450 miles) from North Korea across the Sea of Japan (East Sea).

The bodies had begun to putrefy, and had nothing to identify them, senior local police official Hideaki Sakyo told AFP. However, he added, there were boxes of North Korean tobacco as well as boat parts and life jackets with Korean script nearby.

A wrecked wooden boat with squid-fishing equipment was also found on the coast-

line. Separately, coastguard officials spotted eight bodies inside a battered wooden boat off northern Akita prefecture.

High waves had prevented officials from investigating since the boat was first spotted on Friday, they said.

Television footage showed a wrecked vessel with an eight-digit number on it, which washed up on Oga peninsula on Sunday.

“Nothing else was found on the beach nearby, and so far we haven’t found anything” that suggests a definite link with North Korea, a coastguard spokeswoman told AFP.

Dozens of North Korean fishing vessels wash up on Japan’s coast every year. Some-times the boats’ occupants have already died at sea, a phe-nomenon local media refer to as “ghost ships”. Japan and North Korea have a tense rela-tionship, with Pyongyang rou-tinely issuing verbal threats as well as firing missiles near or above Japan. AGENCIES

DHAKA: The Bangladesh High Court today upheld the death sentence of 139 and the life imprisonment of 146 con-victed soldiers over the massa-cre of 74 people, including 57 Army officers, in a 2009 mutiny, in the country’s biggest-ever criminal case.

The judgement comes after the court started delivering the verdict yesterday in the death sentence of the total 152 con-victed soldiers of the then Ban-gladesh Rifles (BDR) for the brutal killing at the border guards’ headquarters here.

“One thirty nine will have to walk to gallows and 146 will be imprisoned for life,” Attor-ney General Mahbubey Alam told a media briefing, quoting the long verdict delivered by a three-judge High Court bench.

The judgement comes four years after a lower court in Dhaka handed down capital punishment to 152 and life term to 158 soldiers of the BDR. The bench on Sunday started read-ing out the entire judgement on the death sentence and appeal hearing of the trial of what is said to Bangladesh’s biggest ever

criminal case.A Dhaka court had awarded

death penalty to 152 jawans and non-commissioned officers of the BDR, which was renamed as the Border Guard Bangla-desh (BGB), in November 2013.

“It appears from discussions and reviews before and after the BDR mutiny that it was a conspiracy by a quarter with vested interest to hamper the stability of the state and socio-economic safety,” said the bench in its observation part of the judgement.

The bench observed that it was “an attempt to destroy a trained and skilled professional force through conspiracy”.

The BDR jawans had been accused of masterminding the mutiny plots, torturing and kill-ing their officers, looting their belongings or keeping their fam-ily members captive during the rebellion.

The mutiny was a challenge for the newly elected government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. AGENCIES

Pak law minister quits in victory for zealots

‘Tiny magnetic robots may treat hard-to-reach

body parts’

Thousands flee as Bali raises volcano alert to highest level

I n d o n e s i a

China

DetailTaiwan

Philippines

MalaysiaPNG

EastJava

KBK

West NusaTenggaraB a l i

MataramDenpasar

International Airport

About 1,00,000

people near Bali's

volcano

told to evacuate amid

fears of a major eruption

Mount Agung

Jakarta

nation that attracts millions of foreign tourists every year, has been closed, a move expected to affect tens of thousands of passengers.

“I have to make sure that the runway has no ash,” said Bali airport’s general manager Yanus Suorayogi.

While there was dismay from some tourists who were unable to return to their homes and jobs, others took events in their stride.

Many were told that even in the best scenario it would be several days before they could leave. The airport on nearby Lombok island – also a popu-lar tourist destination east of Bali – closed on Sunday as ash from Mount Agung headed in that direction, but reopened on Monday. Officials have said the activity could be a mag-matic eruption – one which involves the decompres-sion of gas and results in the spewing of ash – and advised people near the mountain to wear masks. AGENCIES

China aims to become world’s

largest film market by 2020

Ten bodies found on Japan coast

Bangladesh court upholds death sentence of 139 BDR soldiers

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka on Monday began preparing for long-delayed local elections seen as a key popularity test of embattled President Maithri-pala Sirisena, whose coalition government is embroiled in bitter infighting.

Sirisena’s allies say the president has deliberately stalled local council polls to buy time as he tries to heal rifts within his own party, an accu-sation he denies.

The local vote, likely to be in early February, is seen as a crucial mid-term test for Sirisena, who has struggled to hold the raucous ruling alli-ance together since his elec-tion in 2015.

Rajith Keerthi Ten-nakoon from the non-profit Campaign for Free and Fair Elections said voters were no longer con-sidering this a small local election.

“People felt they were being deprived of their vote for a long time,” Tenna-koon told AFP.

“This could be a test of the president’s popularity.”

Sirisena has said the elec-tion was delayed by nearly two years because authorities had to redraw complex electoral boundaries.

The clash over the local polls is the latest in a series of disputes within the ruling coalition, formed after Sirisena split his own Sri Lanka Free-dom Party (SLFP) and secured support from the rival United National Party.

The allies have since clashed over economic pol-icy and on stalled investiga-tions into corruption under the regime of former president Mahinda Rajapakse, who is also from the SLFP.

Parliament last week announced an investigation into the alleged tapping of law-makers’ private phones by a Sirisena- appointed commis-sion, deepening the acrimony within the coalition.

The president’s own party is split between him and pre-decessor Rajapakse, who ruled Sri Lanka for a decade and presided over the end of the decades-long civil war.

Rajapakse remains a threat to Sirisena’s leader-ship of the SLFP, wielding considerable influence in Sri Lankan politics. AGENCIES

Lanka to hold polls in key test for President Sirisena

Religious fundamentalist protesters had accused Zahid Hamid of blasphemy... resignation clears main hurdle to lifting of siege

Supporters of Tehreek-i-Labaik Ya Rasool Allah, during a sit-in protest at an entrance of Islamabad; Pakistan’s law minister Zahid Hamid (right)

GOVERNMENT OF MAHARASHTRA OFFICE OF THE EXECUTIVE ENGINEER

PUBLIC WORKS DIVISION, NAGBHID DISTRICT CHANDRAPUR

E-Mail - nagbhid.ee@mahapwd.com Phone No - 07179-240066 E-Tender Notice No. 27/SBD year 2017-2018

Online E-Tenders in “B-2” (Item Rate) SBD Form are invited by Executive Engineer, Public Works Division Nagbhid for the following works from bidders who satisfy the qualifying criteria. The tender documents should be downloded from the Website https://pwd.maharashtra.etenders.in. The competent authority reserves the right to accept or reject any or all the tenders. Conditional Tenders will not be accepted.

Sr. No. Name of Work Estimated cost in Lakh

1 Repair, Renovation and Altruation to Asola Mendha Fish seed centre at Pathari Taluka Saoli District Chandrapur

180.00

Download Period of Online Tender As per Online Schedule

Pre-tender Conference As per Online Schedule

Opening of Tender As per Online Schedule

All Details are Display on1 http:/www.mahapwd.com 2 https://pwd.maharashtra.etenders.in (If any change in tender notice then all changes are shown in above website & Online time table will be

applicable and final.) 3 Tender Notice board at P. W. Dn. Nagbhid

Rules I. All eligible / interested bidders are required to be enrolled on https://pwd.maharashtra.etenders.in.in before

downloading tender document and participating in e-tendering process. 2. Bidders are requested to contact on following telephone numbers for any doubts / information / difficulty

regarding online enrollment or obtaining Digital Signiture Certificate. Help Desk Number - Sify Tech-nologies Ltd. Nextender (India) Pvt. Ltd. No. 020-25315555/ 2531556 (Pune) or 022-26611117/26611287 (Exm.) 25/26 (Mumbai)

3. Tender Document Fee and EMD will be paid via online (RTGS/NEFT) mode only. It should be ensured that the bid security is paid online through the bidders account only.

4. Work Sr. No. 1 & 2 is include the Post Qualification Criteria. 5. Public Works Department Registration is not required for these works, any competent contractyor and

any international contractor whose sub company is Indian and who fulfill all the terms and condition of tender can participate in e-tendering process.

Out-word No./ 353 /Tender/2017-2018 Dated.20/11/17Office of the Executive Engineer, Public Works Division, Nagbhid District Chandrapur DGIPR/2017/2018/4491

(P. D. Neware) Executive Engineer Public Works Division Nagbhid

PRESS NOTICE Government of Maharashtra

Water Conservation Department Chif Engineer, Small Scale Irrigation (W. C.) Pune-6

Suprentending Engineer, Small Scale irrigation (W. C.) Circle Aurangabad. Executive Engineer, Small Scale Irrigation (W. C.) Division Jalna.

E-Tender Notice No. B-1/02 For Year 2017-18

Online B-1 E-Tender for the following works are invited by the Executive Engi-neer, Small Scale Irrigation (W. C.) Division Jalna from Class IV and above registered with the Maharashtra Public Works Department in appropriate class. Details of tender documentsis available on website “http://mahatender.gov.in & http://www.cemilspn.in”. Tender documents shall be downloaded online. Other terms and conditions dis-played in online e-tender forms. Right to reject any or all online bid of work without assigning any reasons thereof is reserved by competent authority. Conditional Tenders will not be accepted. S. NO Name of Works Estimated Cost1 Construction of Museum Building No I and Premises Development (Gut No

363) at Village Jambsarmarth Tq. Ghansawangi Dist. Jalna 13530192/-

2 Construction of Museum Building No 2 and Premises Development (Gut No 363) at Village Jambsamarth Tq. Ghansawangi Dist. Jalna

14273727/-

3 Construction of Museum Building No 3 and Premises Development (Gut No 363) at Village Jambsamarth Tq. Ghansawangi Dist. Jalna

12895567/-

Period of E-Tender Available - 28/11/2017 to 22/12/2017. Opening Date of E-Tender - 27/12/2017. GST Rates after 01 July 2017 should be considered by the Bidder while submitting the tender. (Changes in the E-tender and tender notice will be notified on the above website)

(S. D. Dongaonkar) Executive Engineer

Small Scale Irrigation (W. C.) Division DGIPR/2017/2018/4494 Jalna

PRESS NOTICE HARYANA PWD (B&R)

Notice for Re-Inviting Tenders The Governor of Haryana re-invites the bids from eligible bidders through online bids in the website: https://haryanaeprocurement.gov.in for the work detailed in the table.

For further details and e-tendering schedule visit website http://haryanapwd-bandr.org/ http://hary-anaeprocurement.gov.in

For & on behalf of Governor of Haryana PRDH-Advt. No:-1081/11/4355/1718/58193 Superintending Engineer Dated: 27.11.2017 Rewari Circle, PWD B&R, Rewari.

mp world 11MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Tuesday, 28 November, 2017

WASHINGTON: NASA is set to launch a sensor that will measure space debris around the International Space Station (ISS), which could help reduce the risk to human life.

The one square meter Space Debris Sensor (SDS) will travel on a SpaceX cargo mission on December 4 and will be mounted on the exterior of the station.

The sensor uses dual-layer thin films, an acoustic sensor system, a resistive grid sensor system and a sensored back-stop to provide near-real-time impact detection and record-ing, the US space agency said.

Research from this investi-gation could help lower the risk to human life and critical hard-ware by orbital debris.

US-based aerospace com-pany SpaceX will launch its Dragon spacecraft into orbit for its 13th commercial resup-ply mission.

The spacecraft will lift into orbit atop the Falcon 9 rocket

from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in the US carrying crew supplies, equipment and sci-entific research to crew mem-bers living and working aboard the station. Another investiga-tion will attempt to pull fibre optic wire from ZBLAN, a heavy metal fluoride glass com-monly used to make fibre optic glass. When ZBLAN is solidi-fied on Earth, its atomic struc-ture tends to form into crystals.

Research indicates that ZBLAN fibre pulled in micro-gravity may not crystalise as much, giving it better optical

qualities than the silica used in most fibre optic wire.

Results from this investi-gation could lead to the pro-duction of higher-quality fibre optic products both in space and on Earth. According to NASA, one more research to be sent to the ISS is the Rodent Research-6 (RR-6) investiga-tion. It will examine a drug compound and drug delivery system designed to combat muscular breakdown in space or other times of disuse.

The implanted drug deliv-ery chip will administer a compound meant to main-tain muscle in a variety of disuse conditions, including microgravity.

The results from the RR-6 investigations will help researchers to understand how to maintain a healthy body structure in the absence of gravity. It will also increase our understanding of mus-cle-related diseases, disorders and injuries. AGENCIES

Albert Einstein’s legendary letter on relativity may fetch as much as $30,000 at auction LONDON: A signed letter written by German scientist Albert Einstein to his closest friend Michele Besso, expressing joy at the success of his theory of relativity, may fetch up to $ 30,000 at an auction.The letter is postmarked Berlin and dates December 10, 1915.“The boldest dreams have now been fulfilled,” Einstein wrote in the let-ter, rejoicing in his theory’s success.Einstein had set out the key ele-ments of the general theory of relativity in four magisterial papers submitted to the Prussian Academy of Sciences between November 4 and 25, according to the British auction house Christie’s. Einstein’s general theory of relativity is one of most important developments of 20th-century physics.Published in 1916, it explains that

gravity is in fact curvature of space and time. Recent observation of gravitational waves - ripples in the fabric of space and time - success-fully confirmed this theory, 100 years after it was put forward by the renowned scientist. The postcard, written in German, opens with news of an intended journey to Switzerland, after Ein-stein was assured that his eldest son, Hans Albert, wished to spend time with him. Einstein signed off the letter with ‘greetings from your happy but rath-er worn out Albert’. The postcard is a part of a collection of letters written by Einstein to his college friend Besso currently up for online auction at Christie’s. The bidding for the items in this collection closes on December 6. AGENCIES

BOSTON: A team of engineers and architects at MIT has won the Mars City Design compe-tition focused on building sus-tainable cities on the red planet in the future.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)’s winning urban design, titled Redwood Forest, creates domes or tree habitats that can each house up to 50 people.

The domes provide open, public spaces containing plants and abundant water, which would be harvested from the northern plains of Mars.

The tree habitats sit atop a network of underground tun-nels, or roots, providing access to private spaces and easy, shirt-sleeve transportation to the other tree habitants in the community of 10,000.

In addition to connectivity, the roots offer residents pro-tection from cosmic radiation, micrometeorite impacts, and extreme thermal variations.

MIT postdoc Valentina Sumini and Assistant Professor Caitlin Mueller led the inter-disciplinary team effort, which included nine MIT students from different departments and research groups.

“On Mars, our city will physically and functionally mimic a forest, using local mar-tian resources such as ice and water, regolith (or soil), and sun to support life,” said Sumini.

“Each tree habitat incor-porates a branching structural system and an inflated mem-brane enclosure, anchored by tunneling roots.

The design of a habitat can

be generated using a computa-tional form-finding and struc-tural optimisation workflow developed by the team,” said Sumini.

The team aims to build a comfortable environment for inhabitants using location and system architecture focused on sustainability.

George Lordos, who was responsible for the system architecture of Redwood For-est, pointed out the central role of water in building vibrant communities on Mars.

“Every tree habitat in Redwood Forest will collect energy from the Sun and use it to process and transport the water throughout the tree, and every tree is designed as a water- rich environment,” said Lordos. AGENCIES

LONDON: Britain will decide on the Irish border issue only once talks about its post-Brexit arrangements with the Euro-pean Union are under way, trade minister Liam Fox reit-erated on Monday.

The British government’s insistence on the stance is increasingly at odds with Irish demands for guarantees, ahead of a mid-December summit when EU leaders will decide if Brexit talks can move on to trade.

The impasse threatens to scupper hopes in London that “sufficient progress” has been made on the border, as well as citizens’ rights and its divorce bill to leave the bloc, to move the negotiations into the next phase.

“We don’t want there to be a hard border but the UK is

going to be leaving the customs union and the single market,” Fox, a leading Brexiteer in the Cabinet, said on television.

“But we can’t get a final answer to the Irish question until we get an idea of the end state – and until we get into discussions with the EU on the end state that will be very difficult.”

He added: “So the quicker we can do that the better.” Fox’s comments came as Phil Hogan, the Irish Republic’s EU agricul-ture commissioner, restated his country’s threat to block Brexit talks progress unless it receives firm assurances of no hard bor-der on the island.

Ireland has urged Britain – or just Northern Ireland – to remain within the single mar-ket or customs union, which Prime Minister Theresa May

has repeatedly ruled out.Hogan told a British Sunday

newspaper that May’s minis-ters had “blind faith” in reach-ing a comprehensive free trade deal, and warned Dublin would “continue to play tough to the end” over the border.

Arlene Foster, the leader of Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party – which props up May’s minority Conserva-tive government in Westmin-ster – also weighed in, saying her party opposed any internal trade barrier within the UK. She also accused the Irish gov-ernment of intransigence.

Meanwhile John McDon-nell, Britain’s shadow chancel-lor, said he was “worried” by Fox’s comments and remain-ing in the customs union or single market should remain an option. AGENCIES

UK, Irish split on border as key Brexit deadline nears

CAIRO: An Egyptian court On Monday sentenced 14 men convicted of being homosexu-als to three years in jail each for “abnormal” sexual rela-tions, a defence lawyer said. Ishaq Wadie said the men were released on bail of 5,000 Egyp-tian pounds ($283, 230 euros) each until an appeals trial.

The trial of three other sus-pects was delayed over proce-dural reasons, the lawyer said. Homosexuality is not expressly outlawed in Egypt, but gays have previously been charged with debauchery in the deeply conservative Muslim society. In recent months, authorities have cracked down on people who practice so-called “abnor-mal” sexual relations, which in Egypt means homosexuality, or for inciting debauchery. The stepped-up measures follow an outdoor concert in Cairo on September 22 by Lebanese band Mashrou’ Leila, when the flag representing the les-bian, gay, bisexual, and trans-gender community was raised. “This deeply discriminatory bill would be a huge setback for human rights and another nail in the coffin for sexual rights in Egypt,” said Najia Bounaim, North Africa campaigns direc-tor at Amnesty. AGENCIES

Egypt jails 14 ‘same sex’ men

India and Russia ink anti-terror agreement

WASHINGTON: More than 180 women have reported being sexually assaulted when they were customers of Mas-sage Envy, the largest chain of massage spas in the United States, according to a BuzzFeed News investigation.

The report published comes amid a wave of sexual assault complaints against high-pro-file American men, which has compelled some companies to revisit their policies against workplace sexual misconduct. More than 180 spa custom-

ers had filed lawsuits, police reports or state board com-plaints of alleged sexual assault against spa franchises, employ-ees or the national company.

Dozens of women have alleged digital and oral pen-etration during massages, according to the report, with over 100 saying massage ther-apists had “groped their geni-tals, groped their breasts, or committed other explicit viola-tions.” According to BuzzFeed most sexual misconduct allega-tions have been ignored. AGENCIES

MOSCOW: India and Russia on Monday agreed to help each other in combating terrorism as the two strategic partners signed a key agreement, assert-ing that there are no good or bad terrorists and the menace should be fought jointly.

The agreement between the two countries for cooper-ation in tackling all forms of terrorism was signed by Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Russia’s Interior Minister Vlad-imir Kolokoltsev here after they held wide-ranging talks.

The ministers underlined that cooperation in the field of security is an important aspect of this bilateral relation-ship further strengthen coop-eration to combat terrorism, extremism and radicalism, a statement issued by the Indian embassy said.

They agreed that terrorism must be fought unitedly and there were no good or bad ter-rorists, it said.

“The new agreement between India’s MHA and Russia’s interior ministry will replace the October 1993

agreement between both the countries. This agreement will help in expanding and deep-ening cooperation on issues related to internal security,” Singh tweeted after signing the pact.

The Indian embassy state-ment said the two leaders agreed to cooperate in com-bating new challenges, enhance exchange of information, coop-erate in building a data base

and in training of police and investigative agencies.

Indian and Russian repre-sentatives also signed the joint action plan for countering the threat posed by narcotics and the agreement will provide legal framework for bilateral cooperation in this field.

The pact was signed by Indian ambassador to Rus-sia Pankaj Saran and deputy minister for internal affairs of

the Russian Federation Igor Zubov in presence of Singh and Kolokoltsev.

The agreement on inter-nal security is an updated and more comprehensive agree-ment on cooperation on secu-rity between the MHA and the Russian ministry of interior.

This pact provides a com-prehensive approach for help in security related issues, including information tech-nology crimes, counterfeiting currency, illicit trafficking in narcotic drugs and psycho-tropic substances, trafficking in human beings, economic crimes, crimes related to intellectual property, cultural property amongst others, the statement said.

During the meeting, the ministers emphasised the strength of the relationship between India and Russia that has been consolidated in the past 70 years in all areas.

Before leaving for Rus-sia, Singh said India and Rus-sia share a special relationship which has withstood the test of time over the decades. AGENCIES

‘No such thing as good terrorist or bad terrorist,’ agree Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Russia’s Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev

Rajnath Singh and Vladimir Kolokoltsev in Moscow on Monday

NASA all set to measure space debris around ISS

ON TOP OF THE UNIVERSE

Miss South Africa Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters was crowned the new Miss Universe at Las Vegas, the USA, on Monday PTI

MIT team wins design contest for Mars colony

More than 180 women claim sex assault

at US massage chain

STAVANGER (Norway): A Norwegian reindeer herder says that freight trains have killed more than 100 of the animals on the tracks in three days.

Torstein Appfjell, a dis-traught reindeer herder in Hel-geland county, said on Sunday that the worst incident hap-pened Saturday when 65 ani-mals were mown down.

Appfjell told The AP by tele-phone it was "totally tragic" and "unprecedented" for so many reindeer to lose their lives in this way. A total of 106 reindeer were killed since Thursday.

Appfjell represents four families in the area with a total of around 2,000 reindeer. He said that in the worst previous 12-month period, 250 animals were killed in train accidents.

VG newspaper reports that Bane NOR, which operates the trains, has now reduced speeds in the area. AGENCIES

106 Norwegian reindeer killed in 3 days by trains

WASHINGTON: Britain on Monday appointed Karen Pierce as its new Ambassador to the UN, replacing incum-bent Matthew Rycroft under whom it suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of India in the recent election to the Inter-national Court of Justice.

Pierce is the first woman appointed to this role, and is uniquely suited for the position having previously served as Deputy Permanent Represen-tative to the UN in New York, and more recently as the Per-manent Representative to the UN in Geneva, the UK Mission to the UN said in a statement.

Britain’s Permanent Mis-sion to the United Nations did

not give any reason for appoint-ing Pierce as new ambassa-dor to the world body, which comes days after it failed to get its judge Christopher Green-wood elected to the Interna-tional Court of Justice (ICJ) after India’s Judge Dalveer Bhandari consistently received nearly two-third of the votes in the UN General Assembly.

Bhandari was on Tuesday re-elected to the ICJ as the UN General Assembly overwhelm-ingly threw its weight behind him, forcing Britain to with-draw its candidate from the hard- fought race to the world court.

This is for the first time in 70 years that Britain would

have no judge in the 15-mem-ber panel of the ICJ. Political analysts and editorials in Brit-ish media have described it as a diplomatic failure of the Therasa May government.

“Britain has a proud history of working for positive change

through the United Nations, not least in addressing the problems in Libya and Syria,” British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said in a statement without addressing the rea-son for sudden replacement of Rycroft. Rycroft has been in the post since 2015 and will hando-ver in January 2018 when he returns to London to take up his new role as Permanent Sec-retary at the Department for International Development.

“I know Karen has the diplomatic skills, energy and patience to continue this vital work, and I congratulate her on her appointment,” Johnson said. In a statement, Pierce said the UK had long been a strong

supporter of the UN and its role at the heart of the global rules-based international system at a time when it is coming under challenge. “Through our role as a permanent member of the Security Council and position as the UN’s third largest donor, the UK will continue to work with others to tackle the press-ing security, stability, develop-ment and prosperity challenges of today,” she said.

“Our security and eco-nomic interests depend to a large extent on a strong and effective United Nations...I undertake to ensure we are an active force in New York for progress and partnership,” Pierce said. AGENCIES

Licking ICJ loss wounds, Britain replaces UN envoy

UK’s new ambassador Karen Pierce

mp business12MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Tuesday, 28 November, 2017

Meredith to buy Time Inc for $1.8 bn... Koch brothers to contribute $650 mn

Centre mulls distributing millets through PDS

GDP growth may improve to 6.2% in Q2: Ficci survey

Online retail has a threat from us... and not vice versa: Biyani

NEW DELHI: India's GDP growth rate is expected to rise to 6.2 per cent in the second quarter of the current fiscal as the adverse impact of demon-etisation and GST appears to be bottoming out, Ficci's latest Economic Outlook Survey said on Monday.

The growth rate had dipped to a 3-year low of 5.7 per cent in the April-June quarter of 2017-18. The Central Statistics Office (CSO) is scheduled to release the economic growth data for the July-September quarter on November 30.

The economists partic-ipating in the survey also mentioned that the govern-ment should continue with its emphasis on productive capital investments in the social and physical infrastructure space even if this requires some cali-bration of the fiscal deficit tar-get, the industry body said.

The projected fiscal deficit number for the current finan-cial year is likely to be slightly higher at 3.3 per cent of the GDP in the current fiscal as against the government's tar-

get of 3.2 per cent, it said.GDP growth is expected to

improve to 6.2 per cent in July -September period of 2017-18 and further improve to to 6.7 per cent in the third quarter.

"The slowdown in the econ-omy due to demonetisation and the adjustment impact of GST implementation seems to be bottoming out and as the new indirect tax regime stabi-lises, the economy would see an improvement in its perfor-mance," it said.

Even as these steps are taken by the government, the economists participating in the survey emphasised that reviv-ing consumption, particularly in the rural and semi-urban areas, will be important to give a boost to overall demand in the economy.

The survey also indicated that the wholesale price based inflation for 2017-18 is likely to be around 2.8 per cent, although retail inflation would be a bit higher at 3.4 per cent.

"Given this outlook and the fact that supply side issues are largely responsible for the infla-

tion movement in case of India, some of the economists men-tioned that inflation targeting by the central bank may not be the correct approach," the survey said.

Ficci further said that it was also suggested that RBI can undertake a reassessment of various loan rates and other ratios based on their historical trends and corresponding eco-nomic impact to identify a pos-sible way of promoting credit take-off across various sectors.

As per the survey, most of the economists felt that linking the pricing of loans to an exter-nal benchmark will make the monetary transmission mecha-nism more effective.

In the current MCLR regime, loan pricing deci-sions by banks are based on internal factors such as cost of funds which are not sensitive to changes in the policy rates.

"It was felt that the shift to an external benchmark will improve the response time and will bring greater flexibility in the lending rates of banks," the survey said. PTI

KOLKATA: Diversified con-glomerate ITC Ltd on Mon-day said its "biggest headroom" for growth is in the fast mov-ing consumer goods business, where it can leverage internal capabilities. The soap-to-cig-arette maker would explore newer areas progressively, simi-lar to what it did with the recent foray in fruits, fruit juices, veg-etables and dairy products.

"It is a continuous expan-sion of our portfolio, which we will strive to do," CEO San-jiv Puri told reporters on the sidelines of the Horasis Asia meet here.

"We believe the biggest headroom to grow is in the fast moving consumer goods busi-ness. That's where opportuni-ties are the biggest and that's where our internal capabilities can be leveraged," he said.

He said ITC had recently announced an investment of Rs 10,000 crore in food pro-cessing, and another Rs 25,000 crore was under progress in various areas. Regarding the impact of GST, Puri said by and large, trade has normalised. There may, however, be some minor issues in the wholesale channel, he added. PTI

Biggest headroom for growth lies in

FMCG business: ITC

MELBOURNE: Indian energy giant Adani's controversy-hit Carmichael coal mine proj-ect in Australia may not receive a 900 million dollar loan after the Labour party- led Queensland government said it will exercise its veto to not support the financial assistance.

The 16.5 billion dollar Car-michael coal mine project, one of the world's largest, will start construction after being given the green light by the federal and Queensland state governments.

The Adani group had applied for Northern Austra-lia Infrastructure facility loan (NAIF) worth 900 million dol-lars for building a train line to connect its mine to the coast.

Earlier this month before the election day, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszc-zuk announced that her Labor party would veto the NAIF loan if it retains the power in the state. However, after reports of conflict of interest emerged, Palaszczuk said her

government will exercise its 'veto' to not support the NAIF loan to remove doubt about any perception of conflict.

"This afternoon I announce that my government has had no role to date in the Federal Government's assessment process for Adani now we will have no role in the future," she said and denied any conflict of interest. "To action my deci-sion, I propose to write to the Prime Minister to notify him that my government will exer-cise its 'veto' to not support the NAIF loan and to remove doubt about any perception of conflict," she was quoted by 'The Australian' as saying.

On Sunday, media reports said that Labour could form a majority government with Palaszczuk on track to win the necessary 48 seats.

A spokesman for the pre-mier was quoted by a media report as saying that it was now up to Adani to ensure the project was financed.

"We expect them to get on with it," he said.

Palaszczuk's team has won 43 seats in the 93 seat parlia-ment and is leading in four of the undecided electorates, which would be enough to form the government.

More than 800,000 peo-ple voting before election day, according to the Queensland Electoral Commission.

Meanwhile, in a state-ment released today, Adani said job creation for regional Queensland was well under-way across Adani's mine, rail and port projects.

It also announced the next step in its regional employ-ment strategy which would involve Downer Group, the major mine contractors, who will be touring parts of regional Queensland to meet directly with jobseekers at employment fairs over the next several weeks.

Adani said it hoped that this regional employment roadshow will help to cre-ate a positive outlook for the regions moving forward into 2018. PTI

Adani may not get $900 mn Queensland govt loan

NAGPUR: Future Group CEO Kishore Biyani on Mon-day said the much-believed burgeoning online retail sec-tor in India has a threat from physical retail models like Big Bazaar and Easyday, owing to low business share and high cost of business of the former.

The retail champion said although the next trend is digi-tisation, but physical and digi-tal are not different as layering of technology over physical is the need of the hour.

"Online retail has a threat from us and it's time people realised that they are not a threat to us, as they don't even have 1 per cent business share and the cost of doing business is also too high," Biyani fur-ther said.

Over the years, part of the retail consumers have moved to online platform such as

Flipkart and Amazon for pur-chase of the daily use items.

"If you look world over, Alibaba is only buying phys-ical retail, so is Amazon and therefore times have changed," Biyani said adding that the fever of online shopping of consumer items by Indians have gone away.

The leading retail chain is on an aggressive expan-sion mode witnessing huge demand and had recently announced opening 10,000 member-only Easyday stores to make it a Rs 1.5-trillion business opportunity by 2022.

The group unveiled a 30-year vision, Retail 3.0, by when it plans to become Asia's largest integrated consumer retailer by 2047 with revenue of in excess of USD 1 trillion.

Biyani said the fashion and food categories are seeing con-

tinuous demand with the fash-ion segment growing rapidly and chains such as FBB, Cen-tral and Brand Factory are in good shape.

When asked about his views on online retail taking over physical retail, Biyani said both are converging and ten years from now everything will converge completely and

the company has always been at the forefront, not missing any trend.

"China which people think is the most digital driven country has 82 per cent phys-ical, America has 89 per cent physical model and similarly India too has huge potential for physical retail as online share is very less," Biyani said.

"We are called Future group because we look at the future and plan much before," he added.

As per a joint report by Ficci and Deloitte, increasing use of smartphones, apps, web and social media will lead to growth of omni-channel retail by amalgamation of offline and online services with Indian retail industry which is grow-ing at 10 per cent, may almost double to Rs 85 trillion (lakh crore) by 2021. PTI

NEW DELHI: The Centre is planning to distribute millets via ration shops and schemes like the Midday Meal, Agricul-ture Secretary S K Pattanayak said on Monday.

It is also thinking of brand-ing millets as "nutri- cereals" and promoting them across the country, he said. "We are trying to ensure millets are brought under the PDS and schemes like Midday Meal. Niti Aayog has suggested this should be part of the PDS (Public Dis-tribution System)," Pattanayak said at an event here.

Millets are highly nutritious when compared to other cere-als, he said, adding that ragi has a very high calcium content. Therefore, the government is thinking of promoting them as "nutri-cereals', he said.

Stating that low yields and storage issues have to be addressed, Pattanayak said,

"The yield of millets at present are low. We need to have high-yield varieties in order to scale up the production."

The Indian Council of Agri-cultural Research is working on this and hopes to release some varieties soon, he said, adding that there is a need to pursue research and development seri-ously in millets.

Storing millets for long is an issue at present There is a need to increase the shelf life of mil-lets, he said. Pattanayak further said that there may be require-ment of mechanical harvester for millets. The central govern-ment is already working in this direction.

He also suggested that the states should promote the set-ting up of farmer producers organisations (FPOs) for bet-ter production and market-ing of millets, ensuring higher income to farmers. PTI

NEW DELHI: Global rating agency Fitch has said India’s dependency on imported coal may continue to decline as the government moves ahead on the path of self-sufficiency.

“We expect India s thermal coal imports to continue to fall as the government maintains its push for self-sufficiency and as renewable energy out-put increases,” the global rat-ing agency said. “This is amid lower-than-expected demand because of reduced offtake from financially stressed power distribution companies and subdued industrial per-formance,” Fitch Ratings said.

In September, the import went up temporarily as gener-ators stocked up the fossil fuel ahead of winter, it said.

Coal import for October came in flat at 16.65 million tonnes, underpinned by cau-tious buying by consumers due to high prices in the over-seas market, according to the data from mjunction services, a leading name in the e-auction space. PTI

Coal import may see further dip on self-sufficiency push, says Fitch

NEW DELHI: GST collections in October slipped to Rs 83,346 crore, from over Rs 92,000 crore last month, as taxes on most commodities have come down.

The total collection of GST till November 27 is Rs 83,346 crore for October and 50.1 lakh returns have been filed for the month, a finance ministry statement said.

The Centre has released a compensation of Rs 10,806 crore to states for July and August. A compensation of Rs 13,695 crore for September and October is being released, it added.

"The states' revenues have been fully protected taking base year revenue as 2015-16 and providing a projected reve-nue growth rate of 14 per cent," the ministry said.

As per data available, GST collections in the maiden month of July was over Rs 95,000 crore while in August, the figure was over Rs 91,000 crore. In September, it was over

Rs 92,150 crore.October is the fourth

month of GST rollout.Explaining the downward

trend in tax revenue under GST, the ministry said initially Integrated GST was paid on transfer of goods from one state to another.

"As and when the final transaction of these goods takes place, the credit for IGST is being utilised for payment of SGST and CGST and there-fore, the inflow of new taxes is low," it said.

Also, since the overall inci-dence of taxes on most of the commodities has come down under GST, it would naturally have some implication on the revenues of the government, the ministry said. PTI

GST collections slip in October

to `83,346 crore

Fund raising via debt placement dips 37% to ̀ 44k crore in Oct

NEW DELHI: Indian com-panies raised over Rs 44,000 crore in October through pri-vate placement of corporate bonds, down 37 per cent from the year-ago level, for business expansion and propping up working capital needs.

With the latest mobili-sation, the total fundraising through private placement of debt securities reached Rs 3.68 lakh crore in April-October period of 2017-18 fiscal, latest data with markets regulator Sebi showed.

In the entire 2016-17 fiscal, the capital raked in through the route stood at Rs 6.4 lakh crore.

In private placement of bonds, firms issue securities or bonds to institutional inves-tors to raise capital.

According to the data with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), compa-nies garnered Rs 44,146 crore

from debt on a private place-ment basis last month, much lower than Rs 70,395 crore raised in October 2016.

In terms of numbers, 213 issues were made last month compared with 275 in the year-ago period.

The funds have been raised mainly for business expansion, to support working capital requirements and retire their existing debt.

Market experts attributed the lower capital raising in the fiscal to companies opt-ing for equity routes includ-ing initial public offer (IPO), qualified institutional place-ments (QIPs) and offer-for-sale (OFS) to raise funds.

The fund-raising through the equity has been helped by a booming stock market.

In the current fiscal so far, as many as 28 companies have raked in over Rs 60,000 crore through IPO route. PTI

WASHINGTON, DC: U.S. media company Meredith Corp said on Sunday it will buy Time Inc, the publisher of People, Sports Illustrated and Fortune magazines, in a $1.84 billion all-cash deal backed by conservative billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch.

The deal is a coup for Mer-edith, which held unsuccessful talks to buy Time earlier this year and in 2013.

It will give news, business and sports brands to the Des Moines, Iowa-based publisher and broad-caster, which owns lifestyle mag-azines such as Better Homes & Gardens and Family Circle. Ana-lysts have said that bulking up on

publishing assets could give Mer-edith the scale required to spin off its broadcasting arm into a stand-alone company.

When combined, the Mere-dith and Time brands will have a readership of 135 million people and paid circulation of nearly 60 million.

The deal also will expand Meredith’s reach with internet-savvy millenials, creating a digital media business with 170 million monthly unique visitors in the United States and more than 10 billion annual video views.

The Koch brothers are two of the world’s richest men through their ownership of Koch Indus-tries, a sprawling industrial

empire that manufactures such products as Brawny paper towels, Dixie Cups and Lycra.

Koch Equity Development, the private equity arm of the Koch brothers, agreed to offer Meredith $650 million in pre-ferred equity to fund the Time acquisition. The companies said the Koch unit will not have a seat

on Meredith’s board and will have no influence on Meredith’s edi-torial or managerial operations.

The Kochs, known for their advocacy of conservative poli-cies and influence on some quar-ters of the Republican Party, had previously expressed interest in buying media properties such as the Los Angeles Times and the

Chicago Tribune in 2013.Their involvement in the Time

deal “underscores a strong belief in Meredith’s strength as a busi-ness operator, its strategies, and its ability to unlock significant value from the Time acquisi-tion,” according to the compa-nies’ statement announcing the deal.

Meredith said it expected the deal to close in the first three months of 2018. Reuters reported earlier on Sunday that the compa-nies were nearing an agreement.

Including debt, the deal val-ues Time at $2.8 billion. Meredith said it anticipated cost savings achieved by eliminating overlap in the two companies of $400

million to $500 million in the first full two years of operation.

Meredith added it would launch a tender to acquire Time shares for $18.50 in cash.

“We are adding the rich con-tent-creation capabilities of some of the media industry’s strongest national brands to a powerful local television business that is generating record earnings, offer-ing advertisers and marketers unparalleled reach to American adults,” Meredith Chief Exec-utive Stephen Lacy said in the statement. Meredith said it would continue to pay its current annual dividend of $2.08 per share, and expects ongoing annual dividend increases. AGENCIES

NEW DELHI: Former eco-nomic affairs secretary Shak-tikanta Das was on Monday appointed India's G20 Sherpa till December 31, 2018, for the Development Track of the grouping. "Former DEA secre-tary Sh Shaktikanta Das @Das-Shaktikanta appointed India's G20 Sherpa till December 31, 2018, for the Development Track of the G20," the Minis-try of Finance said in a series of tweets.

There are two tracks in G20 –the Finance Track and the Development Track.

"Finance Track is managed by the Secretary (Economic Affairs), Ministry of Finance, as India's Deputy to G-20 and the Development Track is coordinated by the Sherpa. The Department of Economic Affairs will provide neces-sary support to the Sherpa," it added.

Former Niti Aayog vice-chairman Arvind Panagariya had suggested to Prime Min-

ister Narendra Modi to find a full-time Sherpa for G20 talks as India's role is expanding in the global arena.

Panagariya was appointed India's Sherpa for the G20 talks in September 2015, replac-ing the then railway minister Suresh Prabhu.

Sherpas, who are represen-tatives of leaders of G20 mem-ber countries, coordinate on the agenda of the summit.

As per practice, the deputy chairman of the erstwhile Plan-ning Commission used to be the Sherpa for G20 talks.

During the UPA regime, former deputy chairman of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia was Sherpa for G20 talks.

The G20, a central forum for international cooperation on financial and economic issues, accounts for more than four- fifths of gross world product and is home to almost two-thirds of the world's population.

Meanwhile, former Plan-ning Commission Member N K Singh was on Monday appointed chairman of 15th Finance Commission, which among other things has been asked to look into the impact of GST on finances of both the Centre and states, said a gov-ernment notification.

The other members of the commission, which is required to submit its report by Octo-ber 2019, are former Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta

Das and former Chief Eco-nomic Advisor Ashok Lahiri, Niti Aayog Member Ramesh Chand and Georgetown Uni-versity professor Anoop Singh.

The commission will review the current status of the finance, deficit, debt levels, cash balances and fiscal disci-pline efforts of the Union and the states.

It will also recommend a fiscal consolidation road map for sound fiscal management.

As per Article 280 of the

Constitution, the commission is required to make recom-mendations on the distribu-tion of the net proceeds of taxes between the Centre and the states. The commission also suggests the principles which should govern the grants in aid of the revenues of the states out of the Consolidated Fund of India.

As per the terms of refer-ence, the panel will also “the impact of the GST, includ-ing payment of compensation for possible loss of revenues for 5 years, and abolition of a number of cesses, earmark-ing thereof for compensation and other structural reforms programme, on the finances of Centre and states”, said the notification.

Further, the commission will examine progress made in promoting ease of doing business by effecting related policy and regulatory changes and promoting labour inten-sive growth. PTI

Govt appoints Shaktikanta Das as India’s G20 Sherpa

Future Group CEO Kishore Biyani

NEW DELHI: State-owned LIC has cautioned policyhold-ers against sharing their Aad-haar number through SMS, saying it has not operation-alised any such facility to link the unique identity number with policies.

"Our attention is drawn to some messages circulated in social media with our emblem and logo asking policyholders to link their Aadhaar number by sending SMS to designated number," Life Insurance Cor-poration of India (LIC) said in a public notice.

The country's largest insur-ance company further said that "no such message" has been sent by LIC.

"Also no facility to link Aadhaar number to policies is available through SMS in LIC," it said.

The notice further added that as and when LIC will enable linking of Aadhaar number with policies through SMS, its website will be duly updated of this option. PTI

LIC cautions policy holders

against sharing Aadhaar via SMS

The Koch brothers are two of the world’s richest men through their ownership of Koch Industries, a sprawling industrial empire that manufactures such products as Brawny paper towels, Dixie Cups and Lycra

mp business 13MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Tuesday, 28 November, 2017

ONGC staff to PM: Please stop sale of ‘active oil & gas fields’

HYDERABAD: The city is all set to host the eighth edition of the Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES), which will be inaugurated by Prime Minster Narendra Modi on Tuesday.

Union ministers Sushma Swaraj, Nirmala Sitharaman and Suresh Prabhu will be attending the summit, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant on Monday told reporters here at a joint press conference with US Ambassador to India Kenneth Juster.

After the inauguration, US Presi-dent Donald Trump's daughter and advisor Ivanka Trump and Indian Defence Minister Sitharaman will be participating in a panel discussion on opening up of opportunities for women entrepreneurs, Kant said.

The discussion will be moderated by John Chambers, Chairman Emeri-tus CISCO, he said.

Ivanka will lead a delegation from the US at the three-day event.

The closing session of the GES will bring together key influencers who sup-port, promote and fund women entre-preneurs, Kant said.

The closing session will be mod-erated by Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu, he said.

External Affairs Minister Sushma

Swaraj will also participate in the GES, he said.

More than 10 countries, including Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and Israel, will be represented by their all-women delegation at the summit, Kant said.

With the theme of 'Women First, Prosperity for All', this will be the first GES in which women are expected to be majority (52.5 per cent) of the par-ticipants, he said.

The theme of this year's summit demonstrates the commitment of the US and the Indian governments to the principle that when women are eco-

nomically empowered, their communi-ties and countries thrive, he said.

"Women entrepreneurs help drive innovation and job creation as well as address the world's greatest and most critical challenges," Kant said.

Replying to a query, Juster lauded Modi for the recent World Bank's rank-ing of India on the ease of doing busi-ness index.

"The important point is that the eco-nomic reform process will obviously increase US investments (in India)," he said.

He however said the investment

decisions are made by the private sector and are driven by market forces.

On the GES, Juster said both India and the US focus on innovation and events like this will boost the process further in this regard.

Refusing to speak on the recent H1B visa issue in the US, Juster said his country is doing a comprehensive review of the visa policy, which is yet to be announced.

He however said the visa policy is not specific to any country and is aimed at attracting talent and innovation to the US.

The three-day GES will be held at the Hyderabad International Conven-tion Centre. PTI

World biz meet today... Modi & Ivanka star guests

CORPORATE KALEIDOSCOPE

To commemorate the Constitution Day on November 26, reading of the Preamble of Constitution and Debate Competition was organised at NTPC-Ramagundam on Monday. At a programme held at Administrative Building Portico, Chief Guest ED-Ramagundam D K Dubey read out the Preamble of the Constitution in Hindi followed by reading in English by GM (O&M) Ravindra

Renuka Kumar, Director (Planning & Coordination), Ministry of Power and C J Jose, Consultant, Ministry of Power receiving the award at India International Trade Fair 2017 from C R Chaudhary, Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry

The Ministry of Steel’s (MoS) pavilion at the India International Trade Fair (IITF) 2017 was awarded the Special Appreciation Certificate. Joint Secretary, Ministry of Steel Ruchika Govil and Executive Director, SAIL, R K Singhal received the award from the Minister of State for Commerce & Industry C R Chaudhary at the ceremony

ICT Health Technology Services India Pvt Ltd, a multi-national company providing IT support and solutions to the healthcare sector in UAE, Oman, USA, Singapore and India have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Eastern India’s premiere Educational body - Techno India Group with an objective to harness talents from various colleges of TIG. The MOU was signed by Gautam Dey, Managing Director & CEO of ICT Health and Satyam Roy Chowdhury, Managing Director of Techno India Group

MPOST BUREAU

HARIDWAR: To encourage the use of sustainable energy through non-conventional resources, BHEL Haridwar is setting up a 5 MW grid inter-active Solar PV power plant near its 132 KV sub-station. General Manager (Incharge) HEEP Sanjay Gulati & Gen-eral Manager (Incharge) CFFP Rajiv Mehra performed the “Bhoomi Pujan” of this ambi-tious project here at Haridwar on Monday.

Addressing the gather-ing, Sanjay Gulati said that sustainable energy pro-duced from non-conven-tional resources is the future of power in India. He said that preservation of our environ-ment is the need of the hour and enhanced focus on pro-duction of green energy is the best way out. Government of India is also promoting renew-able energy infrastructure in the country in a big way, he added. Rajiv Mehra said that current scenario in the coun-try is favourable to addition of clean energy projects like solar power plants.

It is notable that once com-missioned, this plant shall gen-erate about 92 lakh units of electricity in a year which will meet about 20 percent of elec-tricity demand of HEEP unit of BHEL Hardwar, resulting in

a reduction in its annual elec-tricity bill by approximately Rs. 4.75 crores. All the major plant equipment like Solar Panels, Power Conditioning Units, Sun trackers and Vac-uum Circuit Breakers shall be manufactured by various units of BHEL. In order to maximize power generation, solar panels corresponding to 1.25 MW capacity shall be mounted on trackers which will follow the Sun throughout the day while another 1.25 MW capacity will have simple East-West track-ers and the rest 2.5 MW will

have fixed Module Mounting Structures.

The company is presently executing over 180 MW of ground-mounted and roof-top Solar PV projects across the country. The company has enhanced its state-of-the-art manufacturing lines of solar cells to 105 MW and solar modules to 226 MW per annum.

Various General Managers, senior officials, union repre-sentatives and a large number of employees were present on this occasion.

Bhel to set up 5-mw solar power plant in Haridwar

MUMBAI: The embattled Essar Group on Monday announced the closure of its BPO arm Aegis sale for Rs 2,000 crore and said it has been able to pare debt by Rs 75,000 crore, thanks to the proceeds from the recent sale of its refin-ery business.

The company announced the conclusion of the Rs 2,000- crore sale of Aegis to Capital Square Partners (CSP), mark-ing its exit from the business process outsourcing (BPO) business.

Earlier, it had concluded a $13 billion deal to sell its oil business to Russia's syRosneft.

A July media report had pegged the total debt of the group at Rs 1.38 trillion. Some reports had said the Rosneft deal alone would have helped it pare debt by Rs 70,000 crore.

However, it was not imme-diately clear about the levels to which the debt of the group has come down to.

The diversified conglomer-

ate has been selling off assets to pare its high debt, which has seen it exiting the oil business and also sell realty holdings, apart from Aegis, the BPO arm.

"Net proceeds from this sale (of Aegis)...will be used to retire our debt at the group level," Essar said in statement.

"The closure of this trans-action is in line with Essar's intent to reduce leverage that is complemented by an asset monetisation programme. The proceeds from the sale of Aegis and Essar Oil have enabled Essar to retire almost Rs 75,000 crore of debt," it added.

The Aegis sale was announced on this April 3 and involved AGC Holdings Mau-ritius, a wholly-owned portfo-lio company of Essar Global, selling 100 per cent stake in ESM Holdings Mauritius, the holding company of Aegis, to CSP, a Singapore-based private equity fund.

The statement said Essar had acquired Aegis Commu-

nication in 2003 and it has now grown over tenfold to become a significant player in the out-sourcing industry.

Aegis is present in nine countries, including India, South Africa, Australia, Saudi Arabia, England, Argentina, Sri Lanka, Peru and Malaysia.

Under Essar, it carried out 19 acquisitions and all of them were successful, the statement said.

"The closure of this transac-tion is yet another validation of Essar Global Fund's commit-ment to reduce its leverage by monetising the non-core busi-nesses," Uday Gujadhur, direc-tor of AGC Holding, said in the statement. "We are keenly looking forward to working with the Aegis management team to grow its global foot-print and enhance its capabili-ties and excellence in service to its customers," CSP managing partners Sanjay Chakrabarty and Mukesh Sharda said in a joint statement. PTI

Essar closes ̀ 2,000 cr Aegis sale, retires ̀ 75,000 cr debt

NEW DELHI: ONGC officers association has sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi's intervention to stall Oil Minis-try's plan to sell the company's producing oil and gas fields, saying the move has highly damaging implications for the country.

The Association of Sci-entific & Technical Officers (ASTO) cited examples of fall-ing production at the western offshore Panna/Mukta fields that were privatised in the 1990s, and Reliance Industries' flagging KG-D6 fields to state that ONGC has done well with its ageing fields.

Most oil and gas fields of ONGC have been in produc-tion for 30 years and output has naturally shown a dip from the peak level but still accounts for the bulk of domestic output, ASTO president Sanjay Goel wrote to Modi on November

23. Oil Ministry has identified 15 producing oil and gas fields of ONGC and Oil India Ltd for handing over to private firms on the premise of raising out-put. The fields have in-place reserve of 791.2 million tonnes of crude oil, and 333.46 billion cubic metres of gas have been identified.

Production trajectory at Panna-Mukta field, which was taken away from ONGC and privatised, has been on con-tinuous decline, Goel wrote. "In fact, from 2009-10, production from the asset has dropped by close to 60 per cent," he wrote.

Also, Ratna-R Series fields which were given to Essar Oil could not be brought to pro-duction in two decades and have now been reverted to ONGC.

"This clearly shows privati-sation alone is not a sufficient condition for augmenting out-

put from any hydrocarbon property," he wrote.

He said if stagnant or flag-ging production is a criterion for identifying underperform-ing fields of ONGC, the same yardstick must be extended to all domestic fields.

"The production today at RIL operated KG-D6 is under 10 per cent of its targeted pro-duction. For a field that is less than 10 years into its lifecycle,

this is a staggering drop on any count," he said.

The production drop at KG-D6 to 5-6 million stan-dard cubic meters per day has also had a collateral damage to stranded gas-based plants and other struggling industries.

"Compare that with the consistent gas supplies from our Bassein and Satellite Assets in western offshore - where production has averaged 30 mmscmd for the past 20 years at a stretch," he wrote.

Even when prices have tipped, Goel said it is a mis-nomer that ONGC got every-thing on a platter by getting the blocks on the nomination. "ONGC, along with Oil India, was allotted those blocks at a time when there was hardly any private participation" and it invested heavily to discover the fields and produce from them.

"No private player ever has

undertaken ventures of this kind since they are generally guided by a motive of profit in business," he wrote.

He sought Modi's "per-sonal intervention to stall the move to hand over existing legacy fields of ONGC to pri-vate players which will not only have a highly damaging impli-cation for the nation but also adversely affect the motivation of employees who are com-mitted to serving the national interests."

Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) is investing heavily in new technology and processes to improve recovery from the ageing fields, he said.

The company, he said, has never shied away from capital investment. Its capital outlay was not cut even when explor-ers worldwide froze fresh investment in view of the drop in prices. PTI

Ivanka Trump PM Narendra Modi

US President Donald Trump’s daughter and advisor Ivanka Trump will lead a high-profile delegation at the three-day Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Hyderabad

BENGALURU: An FIR has been lodged against e-com-merce giant Flipkart's found-ers and a few other company officials for allegedly "cheating" a businessman to the tune of Rs 9.96 crore, police said.

The case pertains to non-payment of dues by Flipkart to C-Store Company for laptops it supplied, officials at the Indi-ranagar police station here said.

They said an FIR has been registered against Flipkart's

Sachin Bansal, Binny Bansal and a couple of company offi-cials, based on the complaint by C-Store Company s Naveen

Kumar.According to the complaint,

C-Store had entered into a con-tract with Flipkart for supply of

laptops along with other elec-tronic goods for its sale, and had supplied about 14,000 lap-tops, police said.

Flipkart, which returned about 1,480 units,did not pay for the remaining, the com-plainant said, adding that the other charges, including ship-ping had also not been paid.

The complaint alleges that there has been cheating to the tune of Rs 9.96 crore, police said. PTI

Flipkart founders booked for 'cheating' MUMBAI: Plastic industy body All India Plastics Man-ufacturers Association (AIPMA), on Monday urged the government to work jointly with all stakeholders to evolve a workable solution on waste management as Maharashtra government is mulling the idea of banning of carry bags and PET bottles from March 2018.

The state government, in a bid to become a plastic-free state from March 2018, had

reportedly banned packaged water bottles in government offices and issued a three-month deadline to bottled water companies to set up a reverse supply mechanism and recycling plants, failing which a complete ban on plastics will be enforced. Earlier in 2005, the government had imposed a ban on plastic bags less than 50 microns thick after the del-uge that claimed several lives in Mumbai and its suburbs that

year. However, the implemen-tation of the ban has not been up to the mark, AIPMA said.

"We have urged the state government to drop the idea of banning plastic products and work jointly with all stakehold-ers. AIPMA is ready to provide all technical support in plastic waste management. Currently, about 90 per cent of PET bot-tles are recycled in the coun-try," AIPMA president Hiten Bheda told reporters here. "It

would be a challenge in enforc-ing the ban as consumers will source goods from neighbour-ing states," Bheda explained.

Haren Sanghavi, the asso-ciation's chairman said the plastics industry is a sun-rise industry having 55,000 pro-cessing companies, 20,000 recycling units, 55 lakh direct employees and over 70 lakh indirect employees includ-ing rag-pickers and waste collectors. PTI

Plastics ban to cause mass job loss: Industry body

mp sport14MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Tuesday, 28 November, 2017

NAGPUR: India bowled out Sri Lanka for 166 runs in their sec-ond innings to register a victory by an innings and 239 runs in the second Test and take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series here on Monday.

Beginning the day 384 behind with nine wickets in hand and needing to bat about five sessions to save the Test, Sri Lanka failed to step up to the pressure and folded up inside the tea session on the fourth day at the Vidarbha Cricket Asso-ciation Stadium.

Captain Dinesh Chandi-mal (61) waged a lone battle as shared a 58-run stand for the eight wicket with Suranga Lak-mal (31) to delay the inevitable.

Indian bowlers hunted in packs, with all of them get-ting into wickets column. Off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin (4/63), left-arm spinner Ravin-dra Jadeja (2/28), pacers Umesh Yadav (2/30) and Ishant Sharma (2/43) were all over the Sri Lankan batsmen.

Ashwin, following his four wickets, became the fastest bowler to take 300 wickets in Test history. The 31-year-old, who bagged eight wickets in the Test, achieved this feat in 54 matches, surpassing the record of Australia’s Denis Lillee, who achieved the milestone in 56 Tests. Ashwin also became the fifth Indian to claim 300 wickets.

After India declared their first innings on a mammoth 610/6 on Sunday, taking a 405-run lead, it was always going to be tough for the visitors, who have an inexperienced batting line-up in the five-day format. They had lost opening Sadeera Samarawickrama (0) before

stumps on Sunday.On Monday, resuming the

play at 21/1, Sri Lanka kept los-ing wickets at regular intervals. Two overnight batsmen Dimuth Karunaratne (18) and Lahiru Thirimanne (23) lacked patience in the morning.

While Karunaratne was caught by Murali Vijay at short

leg off left-arm spinner Ravin-dra Jadeja in the seventh over of the session, Thirimanne sliced a wide delivery from paceman Umesh Yadav to Jadeja at back-ward point, to leave the tour-ists at 48/3.

Sri Lankan hopes were fur-ther dashed when former cap-tain Angelo Mathews played

Jadeja straight into the hands of Rohit Sharma at mid-off.

Wicketkeeper-batsman Niroshan Dickwella could only manage an outside edge to a ris-ing delivery from Ishant as he guided the ball to Virat Kohli, who took on the second attempt at slip to leave Sri Lanka reeling at 75/5. AGENCIES

India crush Sri Lanka by innings and 239 runs

NAGPUR: India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin became the fastest bowler to reach the milestone of 300 Test wickets on Monday in his 54th match, breaking Dennis Lillee s record during India’s win over Sri Lanka in the second Test.

Australian fast bowling legend Lillee had reached the milestone in 56 Test matches way back in 1981 and it took 36 years for another bowler to eclipse the record. Ashwin is also ahead of some of the illus-trious names, who had com-pleted the milestone in quick time.

Among them are Muttiah Muralitharan (58 Tests), Rich-ard Hadlee, Malcolm Marshall and Dale Steyn (61 Tests each).

Ashwin is only the fifth Indian bowler to complete a career 300 wickets in Test cricket behind Anil Kumble (619), Kapil Dev (434), Harb-hajan Singh (417) and Zaheer Khan (311).

The illustrious trio of Bis-han Singh Bedi (266), Bhagwat Chandrasekhar (242) and Era-palli Prasanna (189) are way behind Ashwin.

“I really hope I can go on to double these 300 wickets, I have only played 50 Tests. It’s not easy bowling spin, it looks like you’re just ambling up. But there’s a lot behind it. We’ve bowled a lot of overs, me and Jaddu (Ravindra Jadeja) . And

the break has helped, I’m a lot more fresher now compara-tively,” Ashwin said.

“The carom ball was a good ball, I haven’t bowled many of those in the last 24 months,” he said referring to the ball with which he got his milestone.

“I have worked on differ-ent releases for it and now that we are travelling, I think I needed that extra bit. It has been a longer break than I’ve been used to over the last few years. But I did have a good stint in Worcester and I learnt

a lot of things. As you can see, I’ve worked on different load-ings, different actions. It’s also helped my patience, wickets haven’t come quickly.”

Ashwin had started bowl-ing in the Sri Lankan second innings with 296 wickets to his name and quickly ran through the lower middle-order to reach the milestone. His 300th victim was Lahiru Gamage who was bowled by a doosra. Ashwin has so far maintained a healthy average of 25.15 runs per wicket. AGENCIES

Ashwin breaks Lillee’s record of fastest 300 Test wickets

Kohli rested from ODIs, to play third TestNAGPUR: Indian captain Virat Kohli was on Monday rested from the upcoming ODI series against Sri Lanka but will play the third and final Test in Delhi. Rohit Sharma will be assuming the leadership charge for India in the one-day leg of the ongo-ing home series next month.

"Current India captain Mr. Virat Kohli has been rested for the ODI series," the BCCI said.

India and Sri Lanka are currently engaged in a three- match Test series, which will be followed by three one-day-ers starting December 10 in Dharamsala. The third and final Test of the series will be played from December 2 in the national capital.

The Squads: India squad for the third

Test: Virat Kohli (Captain), M Vijay, KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane (Vice-Cap-tain), Rohit Sharma, Wriddhi-man Saha, R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Moham-med Shami, Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Vijay Shankar

India squad for the ODI series: Rohit Sharma (Cap-tain), Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik, MS Dhoni (WK), Har-dik Pandya, Axar Patel, Kul-deep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Siddarth Kaul. AGENCIES

Virat Kohli and Murli Vijay walk off the field with a stump after winning the 2nd cricket test match against Sri Lanka in Nagpur on Monday PIC/PTI

BRISBANE: Australia cruised to a crushing 10-wicket win over England to go one-up in the Ashes series in the opening Test at the Gabba on Monday, with captain Steve Smith prais-ing his team's character.

Openers David Warner and Cameron Bancroft added to England's agony by peeling off the required runs without the loss of a wicket before lunch on the final day.

Warner finished unbeaten on 87 off 119 balls with new-comer Bancroft hitting the winning runs to remain 82 not out off 182 balls in Australia's 173 without loss. In the process, they broke an 87-year-old Test record for the all-time highest unbeaten opening partnership in a successful Test chase.

"We had to show some really good character throughout.

Obviously losing the toss, and the wicket was a lot slower than we anticipated it would be. We had to work really hard,"

said Australian captain Steve Smith.

"I'm pleased with the way we have played. Bowling first at The Gabba, it's hard. The bowlers had to be on. The way we pulled it back to win from the position we were in it's extremely pleasing. I'm proud of the way the boys fought."

The Australians only needed 56 runs on the final morning go one up after Eng-

land imploded on Sunday's fourth day.

England captain Joe Root said the result did not tell the full story. "For three days we were excellent. Bar Steve's knock we were right in it," he said, referring to Smith's bat-tling first innings century.

"It's frustrating. We have to move on quickly and make sure we don't make the same mis-takes in Adelaide." AGENCIES

Oz draw first blood, register 10-wicket victory over England in Ashes opener

NAGPUR: Aggression has been the hallmark of his batting and India captain Virat Kohli feels his teammates will need to adopt a similar approach to produce results in their gruelling tour of South Africa up ahead.

Kohli was at his aggressive best in the just-concluded sec-ond Test against Sri Lanka as he smashed a strokeful 213 off 267 balls to help India amass a huge first innings total.

"I just wanted to bat the way I bat. Get into good posi-tions and rotate strike and score quickly so our bowlers have time to bowl the opposition out," Kohli said.

"We will need that (approach) overseas so I was looking at doing that.

"I always wanted to better myself in scoring big hundreds for the simple reason that the team benefits. When you lose concentration after a hundred, maybe two wickets can fall quickly. A set batsman can play shots easier than a new batsman so I started thinking in that way and my fitness helps me bat for longer periods," he added.

Pujara has been a consis-tent performer for India in Test matches, but it was heartening to see the return of Vijay and Rohit, both of whom smashed tons to give Kohli a happy selec-tion headache for the upcoming matches. "Pujara we know, he's been very consistent. Vijay was playing after a while, he takes

pride in playing Test cricket. I know it hurt him to be out and he came back really well.

"Rohit as well, making a strong case for himself in the future. He will always be there when we speak about combina-tions. We have a lot f Test cricket coming up," said Kohli, who was effusive in his praise for the trio.

The Indian skipper also had words of appreciation for his bowling unit, especially the pacers. "Bhuvi (Bhuvnesh-war Kumar) has played a lot of cricket for India in the last few months. Ishant (Sharma), (Mohammad) Shami and Umesh (Yadav) did not play so much. But they bowled a lot of overs in first-class cricket and they always say that's important for rhythm," Kohli said.

"Even on this pitch, they were excellent. Although the spinners did a good job for us, Ishant was the standout bowler."

Kohli, who was adjudged man-of-the-match for his record breaking double ton, reiterated that with no time in hand, the team is taking the ongoing series against Sri Lanka as a prepara-tion for the tour of South Africa.

"We would like to think we want to prepare for South Africa. That's why we asked for pitches with help for the fast bowl-ers. This one (Nagpur) dete-riorated by the second day. But Kolkata was the ideal wicket," he said referring to the trip starting December 27. AGENCIES

Captain Kohli bats for aggressive approach in South Africa tour KOLKATA: Pace spearhead

Ashok Dinda on Monday claimed his 25th five-wicket haul in first-class cricket to hand Bengal a first innings lead over Goa, which virtually sealed their passage into the Ranji Trophy quarter-finals from Group D.

In reply to Bengal’s 379, Goa were dismissed for 310 after resuming the third day on 191 for five, as Dinda added two more to his overnight tally en route to figures of 5/79.

Left-arm seamer Kan-ishk Seth supported well with a careerbest 3/77, includ-ing two wickets in successive deliveries, while B Amit (2/69) cleaned up Felix Alemao to bundle out Goa in 105 overs in the second session.

Amogh Desai waged a lone battle with his unbeaten 103 off 264 balls – his sixth first-class century, while Keenan Vaz made 60.

The duo added 110 runs for the sixth wicket to frustrate Bengal in the first session, but it was not enough.

At close on the penultimate day, Bengal were 108 for three in 25 overs with opener Abhi-manyu Easwaran (20) and first innings centurion Shreevats Goswami (15) at the crease, extending the lead to 177 runs.

Unless Goa produce some sort of a miracle, Bengal would be through with 23 points. Playing Services in Amrit-sar, Punjab currently have 15 points in the group. AGENCIES

Bengal put one foot in Ranji

quarter-finals

Chris Woakes walks back after losing the 1st Ashes Test against Australia at Brisbane

Corrigendum No.1 E-Tender Notice No.32 for 2017-2018

1) This Office Letter No.O.No./AD/Tender/9480, Date 27/10/2017 2) ROC 2017-18/No.5/C4101, Date 09/11/2017

0.No./AD/Tender/10196/2017 Sd/-Office of the Executive Engineer, Executive Engineer,P.W.Division, Alibag, P.W.Division, AlibagDist.Raigad Dist.Raigad. Date 20/11/2017 DGIPR/2017/2018/4488

mp sport 15MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Tuesday, 28 November, 2017

MADRID: FC Barcelona retain a four-point lead over Valencia at the top of the Liga Santander, although their advantage over Real and Atletico Madrid was reduced to eight points after they drew 1-1 away to Valen-cia in a controversial game in the Mestalla Stadium.

The game between second place in the league and the league leaders always prom-ised to be tense and there was controversy in the first half on Sunday. Valencia keeper Neto failed to deal with a shot from Leo Messi, which clearly crossed the goal line, only for the referee to wave play on, reports Xinhua news agency.

Valencia took the lead on the hour when Rodrigo Moreno finished Juan Gaya's low cross, but former Valencia defender Jordi Alba assured the points were shared eight minutes from the end with a spectacular fin-ish following a pass from Messi.

The result means Barca remain unbeaten this season, but the Messi 'goal' will no doubt give plenty for pundits to talk about.

Real and Atletico Madrid both won their matches on Sat-urday with Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema both back among the goals as Real Madrid struggled to win 3-2 at home to Malaga.

Malaga, who had not scored a goal away from home before arriving in Madrid, were unlucky not to take a point after they had a goal harshly ruled out for pushing on the stroke of halftime.

Benzema and Casemiro both put Madrid ahead only for Malaga to peg them back with goals from Diego Rolan and Chori Castro, before Ron-aldo sealed the win scoring a rebound after Roberto had saved his original penalty kick.

Atletico Madrid also got back among the goals with a 5-0 win away to Levante, where they hadn't won in the past seven visits.

Levante made life easy for Atletico with an own goal from Rober, before a defensive error left Kevin Gameiro for a tap in for the first of his two goals on the night and Gameiro then turned provider to help tee up Antoine Griezmann for the fourth and fifth goals of the match.

Sevilla came back from 2-0 down away to Villarreal to claim a 3-2 win, just four days after coach Eduardo Berizzo con-firmed he is suffering from pros-tate cancer.

Villarreal went 2-0 up through Carlos Bacca and Cedric Bakambu, who netted their second goal in the 53rd minute, but five minutes later Sevilla were level through Clem-ent Lenglet and Fran Vazquez, before Ever Banega's 78th min-ute penalty sealed an unlikely win.

Real Sociedad and Las Pal-mas drew 2-2 with Jonathan Viera's 40-yard goal ending Las Palmas' eight game losing streak. Deportivo La Coruna

came back from behind twice against Athletic Club Bilbao with goals from Adrian Lopez and Schar cancelling out strikes from Markel Susaeta and Inaki Williams in an entertain game on Sunday lunchtime.

There was an incredible fin-ish to Betis' 2-2 draw at home to Girona with goals in the 94th and 95th minutes.

The game looked to be head-ing for a 1-1 draw after Andres Guardado's 85th free kick can-celled out Portu's 46th minute opener, but Portu put Girona back in front in the 4th minute of injury time only for Cristian Tello to make it 2-2 with the last kick of the match.

The day kicked off with Eibar claiming a vital and deserved 2-1 win away to Alaves in a Basque derby. Joan Jordan opened the scoring for Eibar in the 33rd minute, before Charles doubled their lead with just over 20 minutes remaining before Burghi's late consolation for Alaves, who are starting to look doomed. AGENCIES

DOHA: Ace Indian cueist Pankaj Advani dished out another superb performance to outclass Iran's Amir Sark-hosh in the finals and claim yet another title at the IBSF World Snooker Championship here on Monday.

His deadly attacking game coupled with phenomenally tight safety play helped Advani to secure his 18th World Championship title with a 8-2 win over Amir at the Al-Arabi Sports Club.

The best-of-15 frame final witnessed Amir pocketing the first frame rather comfortably.

The Iranian looked strong and focused in the second frame too, progressing well and nearing a 2-0 scoreline, but a missed green pot gave a life-line to Pankaj as he seized the opportunity with both hands and drew parity.

Pankaj never looked back from there as he raced to a 5-2 lead. He, however, survived a scare in a close battle in the 4th

frame.A massive break of 134 by

Amir in the 6th did not faze the Indian as he immediately widened the lead to 5-2 before going into the 1st session break.

A long red pot against the nap with a perfect position for blue saw him draw first blood

after the interval with a break of 45. Couple of safety exchanges later, Pankaj once again trapped Amir with a perfect snooker to extract an opening.

Another long red pot spec-tacularly executed saw him make another useful break of 17 points to increase the mar-

gin leaving the cue ball in an unplayable position.

A hapless Amir couldn't do much as his wild shot in frus-tration saw Pankaj come back to table once again to seal the frame with another break of 41 points and take a command-ing lead of 6-2. Though Amir

got the first opening in the 9th, a missed red pot saw Pankaj unfold his vast repertoire of strokes to compile a magnifi-cent frame-winning break of 77 points with only 4 reds remain-ing on the table.

Placing himself just one frame away from winning another world title Pankaj once again established his strong-hold in the 10th frame by scor-ing the first 22 points.

However, an unexpected miss saw Amir open his account in the frame and score 30 points to take a slen-der lead of 8 points. However, a calm and composed Pankaj patiently waited for his oppor-tunity and soon brought the score to 47-47, before clear-ing the remaining colours, the frame and the match to lift his 18th world title.

Result: Pankaj Advani (India) beat Amir Sarkhosh (Iran) 8-2: 19-71; 79-53; 98-23; 69-62; 60-05; 0-134; 75-07; 103-4; 77-13; 67-47. AGENCIES

Advani secures IBSF World Snooker Championship title

Pankaj Advani defeated Amir Sarkhosh of Iran 8-2 to pocket his eighteenth global title

Barcelona survive Mestalla; Real, Atletico Madrid win

ANANYA DAS

MILAN/NEW DELHI: After a rather poor start to the season that saw the Italian club slip down to the seventh position in Seria A, AC Milan decided to part ways with manager Vin-cenzo Montella, who signed for the Italian giant in 2016. The position is to be filled by club legend Gennaro Gattuso. Gat-tuso has considerable experi-ence with the club having made over 400 appearances for them and also having served as the head coach of their youth team.

Montella’s time with Milan started off quite smoothly as they won 10 of their 12 games in all competitions initially but that charm faded quickly. If Sun-day’s game against Torino FC is to be counted, it means that they went without scoring in four consecutive home league games and out of nine games, they have only won two. AC Milan has already progressed to the knockout stage of the Europa League but has failed

to perform in their home league and continued to put up disap-pointing performances. Montel-la’s career as a player was quite elaborate as he played for the likes of Genoa, Roma and UC Sampdoria. As a manager, he has managed clubs like Roma, Fiorentina and UC Sampdoria.

In a club statement released by AC Milan via Twitter read, “AC Milan announced to have parted ways with V Montella. Management of the first team is entrusted to Gennaro Gattuso, who leaves his position as Pri-mavera coach and to whom we wish the best of luck.”

Their new manager, Genn-aro Guttaso has been a club leg-end who played for AC Milan between 1999 and 2013, having won two Serie A titles and two Champions League trophies with the Rossoneri. Widely regarded as one of the best Italian defensive midfielders of recent years, Guttaso’s part-nership with the likes of Andrea Pirlo had made him a talismanic addition to AC Milan.

NEW DELHI: International Hockey Federation president Narinder Batra has filed his nominations for the post of the president of the Indian Olym-pic Association weeks ahead of its General Body Meeting on December 14 here.

The upcoming AGM will elect a new set of office bearers for the country's apex sports body.

Batra has filed four sets of nomination papers with a proposer and seconder each. IOA secretary general Rajeev Mehta was one of the proposers

of Batra while treasurer Anil Khanna was one of the second-ers. Khanna was earlier con-sidered as one of the possible candidates for the top job.

Interestingly, Batra has also filed another three sets of nom-ination papers for the post of senior vice-president.

Incumbent Secretary Gen-eral Rajeev Mehta also filed nomination papers, seeking re-election to the same post he is currently holding. He also filed four sets of nomination papers with Batra proposing him for the post in one of them. AGENCIES

Batra files nomination papers for IOA prez postMONTE CARLO: The Inter-

national Association of Athlet-ics Federations (IAAF) Council has decided to maintain its sus-pension of Russia from inter-national competition before all verification criteria are fully met.

“Since the IAAF Congress in August, the IAAF Taskforce has been in constant commu-nication with RusAF (Russian Athletics Federation) and its President Dmitri Shlyakhtin. Shlyakhtin has impressed us with his professionalism, and his pursuing to change the old doping culture in Russian track and field,” Rune Ander-

sen, independent Chair of the IAAF Russian Taskforce, said at a press conference on Sun-day as the Council’s two-day 212th meeting concluded here, reports Xinhua news agency.

In April 2017, the IAAF Council approved a roadmap proposed by the taskforce that identified six specific condi-tions to be met in order for the Taskforce to be able to recom-mend RusAF’s reinstatement.

“Some of the milestones on the Roadmap to RusAF’s reinstatement have been met, at least in part. However, sev-eral key milestones remain out-standing,” said Andersen.

The IAAF Council sus-pended RusAF from member-ship in November 2015, after a World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Independent Com-mission concluded there was a culture of systematic doping in Russian athletics, ruling out Russian athletes’ chances of competing at the Rio Olympic Games in 2016 and the World Championships in London this year.

According to the taskforce, of the five remaining condi-tions in the roadmap, acknowl-edgement of McLaren findings and reinstatement of RUSADA have not been met. AGENCIES

Russia doping suspension to stay

Barcelona's Lionel Messi shoots the ball during the Spanish La Liga soccer match between Valencia and FC Barcelona at the Mestalla stadium in Valencia, Spain PIC/PTI

Gennaro Gattuso

AC Milan sack coach Montella, promote Gennaro Gattuso

millenniumpost NO H ALF TR U THS

millenniumpost.in

I Sanjeev Ranjan S/o Bineshwari Kumar owner of property plot no. NK-III/624, Indirapuram Ghaziabad UP, have lost original following property papers: 1. Information Letter No. 0094/558 750/CC/93 dated 12th Nov 1993 recd. from GDA. 2. Reservation Letter No. 0078/558 7 5 0 / 0 4 2 5 / 5 0 5 3 1 /THA/CC/90 dated 15th Sep 1990 recd from GDA, for which complaint already lodged to the Police. Nobody can claim ownership on that basis. Finder may contact M. NO.7755921618.

LOST & FOUND

16MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Tuesday, 28 November, 2017

mp Entertainment

PANAJI: With huge box office success in the past and some big projects in his kitty, Sushant Singh Rajput is having a dream run in Bolly-wood, but the actor says even if his success ratio dips, his passion for acting will remain unaffected.

The 31-year-old actor, who dropped out from an engineering college to fulfil his act-ing dreams, says becoming a star was never on his agenda.

In an interview with, Sushant says, “If somebody takes all (the) films from me I will be disappointed for a day. If I don’t get work in television, I will be upset for another day, but then I will be fine.”

“I will make my short films or probably act in theatre or make my own films. I will be excited. Nothing can take the excitement to act away from me.”

Sushant says he feels happy when people acknowledge his work and when he receives “good pay” for his movies, but the high he gets from being a public figure is momentary.

“When I started performing as a dancer and in a theatre, I knew acting was some-

thing I wanted to do and I still like to do it. One thing I know for sure, I wanted to

be here... And nothing has changed.“I never had a thing in mind

that I want to reach somewhere. My passion, excitement and

how I feel about it has not changed in these 11 years,” he adds.

From playing a lover boy in Shuddh Desi Romance to essaying the role of former Indian cricket skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni in MS Dhoni: The Untold Story, Sushant has tried to be versatile in his choices.

The actor, however, believes he needs to fully invest in a role to successfully engage his audience.

“My relationship with my audience is like a circle. I know for the fact that my audience will like something in which I am hundred percent invested. I need to be engaged in my role com-pletely to engage my audience.”

“I will not deliberately put myself in a role in which I don’t want to be. I believe if I am hundred percent engaged in a film, I will be able to engage the audience,” he says.

Sushant is looking forward to his upcoming film Kedarnath, which marks the debut of Saif Ali Khan and Amrita Singh’s daughter Sara.

“I am very excited about the project. I found the script to be gripping and we are through with the 50 per cent of the shoot. I am giving whatever I can to the film,” he says.

The actor has also started prepping for Abhishek Chaubey’s Chambal, which also fea-tures Bhumi Pednekar.

Sushant was speaking on the sidelines of IFFI, which closes November 28. PTI

‘My passion for ACTING

will remain unaffected’ACTING

Sushant believes, only if he is completely engaged in a movie, he will be able to engage the audience

MUMBAI: Actor-filmmaker Nan-dita Das said demanding a ban on Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s magnum opus Padmavati only reinforces the fact that art is powerful.

The 48-year-old director said sup-pressing an artiste’s expression reflects that somewhere the work of art is chal-lenging a certain thought process.

“Art doesn’t create revolutions, it subliminally goes into our subcon-scious – the good and the bad. And because people want to ban (Padma-vati) that you realise the power of art...”

“It must threaten a certain way of seeing. (And) till we see multiple points of view on anything, how are we going to make an informed choice?” Nan-dita said.

Padmavati has been in the line of fire with various Rajput groups and political leaders accusing the direc-tor of “distorting historical facts”, with protests across the country calling for a ban. The director, whose film Manto is eyeing a release next year, was speak-ing at a session ‘Remembering Manto’ at the Times LitFest here.

When asked if the artistic freedom

was under threat with Padmavati in the eye of the storm, she recalled the time her films had faced troubles with the people and the CBFC.

“I remember with Fire, I faced it when it came out...

With Water, I had to shave my head... Before even the film was made, they said it was going to be against Hindu culture...” Nandita said.

“I think it is time we do speak up... Otherwise people are going to tell us what to wear, what to eat or whom to talk to. It is going to be very, very dan-gerous trend. What can a two-hour film do?” she added.

The director, however, said if certain sections of the society have to regis-ter their opposition towards any art-form, there is a manner in which one can protest.

“I think there is enough room for dissent. There are enough ways. I think all of us are not Shah Rukh Khan and we don’t have such a large area of influ-ence... But we have our own areas of influence and can tell 10 people if a book or a film is bad and don’t go and watch it.” PTI

Call for ban on ‘Padmavati’ hints at power of art: Nandita

MUMBAI: A large num-ber of members of the film and entertainment

industry gathered here to express their support to Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s upcoming Padmavati, and

question the status of free-dom of speech and expres-

sion in India’s democracy when a caste group like the Karni Sena

could constantly threatening the filmmakers and travel nationwide

to stop its release.The protest started with the

National Anthem in the memory of the victims of 26/11 terrorist attack it was its 9th anniversary.

Addressing the protesters and media, Ashoke Pandit of the Indian Films and TV Directors’ Association (IFTDA) said: “We, all the members of the film industry, are sensible enough to portray our history and culture in a sensible way; and it is the basic right to all the citizen of a democratic coun-try to express thoughts freely. How could some non-constitutional bod-ies threaten to behead a filmmaker and cut the nose of an actor? Is this even democracy?”

“Even we want to see how they could show such audacity! Such

threats create questions on the live-lihood of those junior artistes,

carpenters, lightmen among many oth-ers who work on the set of big films like Padmavati. Therefore I would like to urge the government to step in to control the situation and protect our right to freedom.”

Various union groups like the Movie Stunt Artistes’ Association, the Mahila Kalakar Sangh, the Junior Aristes’ Association among many others were present there at the main entrance of Film City where all the union members put off the lights on sets and stopped shooting as a symbol of solidarity with Padmavati.

Himanshu Bhatt, Secretary of Association of Voice Artistes, said: “I

know Sanjay for years now, because we started working together as profession-als from his debut film Khamoshi and continued working till Devdas. Surely I know his artistic sensibilities better than people who are protesting against Padmavati... who did not even watch a single frame of the film.”

“I don’t believe he would project any character or culture in such an insensitive manner to hurt anyone. We have the CBFC to decide what film is suitable for public view. Those groups (like Karni Sena) cannot just attack our

basic right to freedom of expression. Let the film release and the criticize or appreciate in a civilized manner,” he said.

Veteran actor Pawan Malhotra, who was also present, said the situ-ation was alarming for the nation, going beyond the film’s release. “The way a series of incidents regarding the release of Padmavati is happening is worrisome because we are living in a country where our free-dom of expression is controlled by a group of people.”

“They decide all the norms – what to wear, what to eat, how to celebrate a festival, what are the subject a film-maker can film on ! I ask them, Why? How come they overpower the right of the CBFC to decide on a film? How come they overpower the Constitution of India to decide on our basic right to freedom?” IANS

Controversy over ‘Padmavati’ alarming for democracy

LONDON: A royal announce-ment confirmed that Britain’s Prince Harry will marry his American actor girlfriend Meghan Markle next year.

The announce-ment by Clarence House said that the prince, fifth in line to the throne, will marry Markle next spring and will live at Nottingham Cottage at Kens-ington Palace in London, reports the BBC. The cou-ple, who have been dating since July 2016, got engaged in November.

In a statement, Prince Harry said he was “delighted to announce” the engage-ment and had received the blessing of Markle’s parents.Prince Harry and Mar-kle made their first public appearance as a couple in September.

The queen, who had to give her assent for the union, and her husband Prince Philip are delighted, a Bucking-ham Palace spokesman said. IANS

LOS ANGELES: Blade Runner 2049 director Denis Villeneuve defended his film against criticism of sexism and said the world is not kind to women.

Villeneuve said the Ryan Gosling and Har-rison Ford-starrer is simply a reflection of the modern world, reports dailymail.co.uk.

“Cinema is a mirror of society. Blade Run-ner is not about tomorrow; it’s about today. And I’m sorry, but the world is not kind on women,” Villeneuve told Vanity Fair magazine.

Blade Runner 2049 explores the complex relationships between humans and machines, but some critics are saying it doesn’t do enough to give its female characters a rich inner life.

“I am very sensitive to how I portray women in movies. This is my ninth feature film and six of them have women in the lead role,” Villeneuve said. IANS

PRINCE HARRY TO MARRY GIRLFRIEND MEGHAN MARKLE

LOS ANGELES: Star Wars star Daisy Ridley said she has never doubted the importance of being a “heroic woman” in movies.

The 25-year-old actor, who is all set to reprise her role as Rey in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, said it felt natural for her to embrace the part as she had inspirational female figures around her right from the childhood.

“I like that I never questioned being a heroic woman in a film, and that’s thanks to my upbringing. My mom has always worked; the women I grew up around always worked and were inspirational...” Ridley said in a statement.

The actor performed her own stunts in the latest movie from the sci-fi franchise and said for her, Rey is a one-of- a-kind role.

“... It’s weird because the way people reacted made me question more than I did. It’s a great role but not just because she’s a woman. That’s

how simple it was to me.”“But others were like this is a big deal,

clearly. But it’s exciting to be a part of that. And I’m like, let’s continue. This is how it should be.”

Penned and directed by Rian Johnson, the eighth chapter of Star Wars also features Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, John Boyega, Lupita Nyong’o, Gwendoline Christie, amomg others.

The Last Jedi is scheduled to be released on Decmeber 15. PTI

Grew up around

inspirational women:

Daisy Ridley

World not kind to women: Denis VILLENEUVE