CHINA LAW CRIMINALISES ATTACKS ON REVOLUTIONARY HEROES PG10

VOL. 13, ISSUE 117 | Saturday, 28 April 2018 | New Delhi | Pages 16 | Rs 3.00

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PROPERTY FEUD TURNS BLOODY: 3 DEAD IN MODEL TOWN PG4

MALLYA CASE: CBI GETS BOOST ON EVIDENCE ADMISSIBILITY PG7

Woman takes cab from Noida, alleges rape by driver’s friend

ANUP VERMA

GREATER NOIDA: Amid the uproar over a spate of sexual crimes against minors in the coun-try, a woman was allegedly raped in Greater Noida on Friday.

The woman had booked the cab from Sector 126 in Greater Noida to Surajpur.

According to Nishant Kumar, Circle Officer Bisrakh, there was another man in the cab when the victim boarded the car.

After some time, the woman was offered soft drink by the driver.

Somewhere near Daya Nagar, around 8:30 pm, the driver parked the cab and left.

His friend Pravin and the woman tried con-tacting the driver, but he didn’t return.

Then Pravin took the woman to a nearby for-est and allegedly raped her.

Around midnight, the woman managed to flee the spot. She called at 100, and the police rescued her.

The local police have filed a case after the incident. The cops have also detained around 5 people.

WAS JUST A MATTER OF TIME: TAAPSEE ON THRIVING REGIONAL CINEMA PG16

NEW DELHI: Union Public Service Commission on Friday evening released the final result of UPSC Civil Services Exam 2017 on its official website.

Hyderabad candidate Anudeep Durishetty has topped the UPSC Civil Ser-vices Exam 2017. Candidates who appeared in the written examination last year can check the details and the respec-tive results on the official site of UPSC: upsc.gov.in. Based on the results of the written part of held by the UPSC in October-November, 2017 and the interviews for Personality Test conducted in February-April, 2018, as many as 990 names were recommended for appointment to (i) Indian Administrative Service, Indian Foreign Service, Indian Police Service and Central Services, Group ‘A’ and Group ‘B’.

The UPSC examination was held to recruit 980 posts of Indian nationals in Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Foreign Service (IFS), Indian Police Service (IPS) and Central Services (Group A and Group B) and various other government departments. Out of 980 posts, 54 posts are reserved for reserved cat-egories. The IAS PRE (CSAT) Exam was held on 18 June 2017. MPOST

In today’s paper

...

Curbs on India over Russia S-400 deal to hit US

US DEF SECY JIM MATTIS

CITY

E-POS RATION DELIVERY SUSPENDED 3

NATION

MALHOTRA TAKES OATH AS SC JUDGE 6

EDIT

REKINDLING INDO-CHINA SPARK 8

INTERNATIONAL

ROYAL BABY NAMED LOUIS ARTHUR CHARLES 10

BUSINESS

DVC POSTS ̀ 19 CR NET PROFIT IN Q4 13

SPORT

MEHULI EYEING NO.1 SPOT 15

PM MODI, XI JINPING HOLD INFORMAL SUMMIT TO ‘SOLIDIFY’ INDIA-CHINA RELATIONSHIP

K J M VARMA

WUHAN: Prime Minister Nar-endra Modi on Friday hailed the centuries-old Sino-India ties, telling Chinese President Xi Jinping that the two coun-tries have a “big opportunity” to work together for the benefit of their people and the world.

During his delegation-level talks as part of an unprece-dented informal summit with President Xi in the central Chi-nese city, Modi said such infor-mal summits should become a tradition between the two countries.

“I’ll be happy if, in 2019, we can have such informal summit in India,” Modi told Xi.

Modi said India and China have the responsibility to work for 40 percent of the world pop-ulation and the two sides have a significant opportunity to work together for the benefit of their people and the world.

The summit in Wuhan - the favourite holiday spot of Chi-nese revolutionary leader Mao Zedong - is being seen as an effort by India and China to rebuild trust and improve ties that were hit by the 73-day-long Dokalam standoff last year.

Modi recalled that during the 2000 years of history, India and China together provided momentum and strength to the world economy and dominated it for around 1600 years.

“The two countries together constituted for about 50 per-

cent of the world economy, and rest of the world shared another 50 percent for 1600 years,” the prime minister said.

Modi also said the people of India felt proud that President Xi has twice received him out of the capital.

“I’m perhaps the first Prime Minister of India, for whom, you have come out of the capi-tal (Beijing) twice to receive me,” Modi said, referring to his visit to Xi’an - the hometown of President Xi in 2015.

On his part, President Xi

said the two countries have established a closer partner-ship and made positive prog-ress in recent years.

“In the past five years, we have achieved a lot. We have met each other on many occa-sions,” he said.

“Our two countries have established closer partnership and cooperation. We have made positive progress. India and China have a combined population of 2.6 billion which provides enormous potential for development. The influence of our two countries is steadily rising in the region and the world,” Xi told Modi.

Xi said he believes in future and the two leaders could meet in a format like this from time to time. “I look forward to in-depth communication with your excellency, and ensure we can build common under-standing and help to take the China-India relationship to the next level,” he said, ahead of their one-on-one dinner at a state guest house by the famous East Lake.

They will resume their one-on-one interaction on Satur-day at 10 a.m (local time) with walks by the lakeside, boat ride and wind up their talks over lunch, official sources here said.

This is fourth visit of Modi to China after he came to power in 2014. He is again due to visit China to take part in the SCO summit to be held at Qin-gdao city on June 9-10. See P5

India and China have 'big opportunity' to work together: PM Modi tells Xi

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Two Korean leaders pledge ‘lasting peace’ in peninsula

GOYANG: The leaders of North and South Korea agreed on Friday to pursue a perma-nent peace and the complete denuclearization of the divided peninsula, as they embraced after a historic summit laden with symbolism.

In a day of bonhomie including a highly symbolic handshake over the Military Demarcation Line that divides the two countries, the pair issued a declaration on “the common goal of realising, through complete denucleari-sation, a nuclear-free Korean peninsula”.

Upon signing the docu-ment, the two leaders shared a warm embrace, the culmi-nation of a summit filled with smiles and displays of friend-ship in front of the world’s media. They also agreed that they would this year seek a per-manent end to the Korean War, 65 years after the hostilities ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty.

Moon would visit Pyong-yang in “the fall”, the two lead-ers said, also agreeing to hold “regular meetings and direct telephone conversations”.

The so-called Panmunjom Declaration capped an extraor-dinary day unthinkable only months ago, as the nuclear-armed North carried out a series of missile launches and its sixth atomic blast.

Kim said he was “filled with emotion” after stepping over the concrete blocks into the South, making him the

first North Korean leader to set foot there since the shoot-ing stopped in the Korean War.

At Kim’s impromptu invi-tation the two men briefly crossed hand-in-hand into the North before walking to the Peace House building on the southern side of the truce village of Panmunjom for the summit – only the third of its kind since hostilities ceased in 1953.

“I came here determined to send a starting signal at the threshold of a new his-tory,” said Kim. After the sum-mit, he pledged that the two Koreas will ensure they did not “repeat the unfortunate his-tory in which past inter-Korea agreements... fizzled out after beginning”.

The two previous Korean summits in 2000 and 2007, both of them in Pyongyang, also ended with displays of affection and similar pledges, but the agreements ultimately came to nought. With the North’s atomic arsenal high on the agenda, South Korean Pres-ident Moon Jae-in responded that the North’s announced moratorium on N-testing and long-range missile launches was “very significant.” See P11

DHIRENDRA KUMAR

NEW DELHI: Worried over vacant seats in postgraduate courses in medical colleges, the government on Friday decided to reduce the percentile for admission into various PG courses through the National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET) by 15 percent.

Given that there is an acute shortage of specialist doctors in the country, the move may help in addressing the crunch of medical practitioners. The decision would be effective for PG and Super Speciality (SS) courses.

The decision is likely to benefit about 18,000 students as this will improve the chances of filling up PG seats and mini-mising wastage of seats.

While commenting on the decision, Union Health Minis-ter JP Nadda said, “All efforts are being made to fill up the PG seats. This is a significant step towards strengthening the medical sector and indicates the priority given by the gov-ernment to the health sector.”

“We are making sure that there is adequate manpower for providing quality health ser-vices,” Nadda added.

Explaining the decision, a

senior official in Health Min-istry said, “The reduction in percentile by 15 percent means MBBS graduates of general category would now have to score minimum 35th percen-tile instead of 50th percentile for getting a PG seat, while the minimum percentile for medical graduates of SC/ST/OBC categories would be now 25th percentile instead of 40th percentile.”

The senior official further

said that the decision would also benefit PG students appearing in NEET under Per-sons with Disabilities (PWD) category as now they would a PG seat on 30th percentile score.”

Earlier, the government had lowered the qualifying NEET score for admission to post-graduate medical courses by 7.5 percentile in June 2017. The Centre along with Dental Council of India had on May

17 issued a similar order low-ering qualifying NEET score for admission in PG dental by 7.5 percentile.

“Since a large number of seats have remained vacant in PG and Super Speciality (SS) courses, the Medical Council of India (MCI) supported the government move in lowering the percentile. It would help students in getting admission in PG courses,” a senior MCI official said.

Govt to reduce percentile for admission via NEET by 15%MOVE TO BENEFIT 18,000 MEDICAL STUDENTS

CJI as master of roster: SC reserves order on Shanti Bhushan’s PIL

Supreme Court stays trial in Kathua case till May 7

MPOST BUREAU

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday reserved its order on a PIL filed by former law minister Shanti Bhushan challenging the existing roster practice of allocation of cases by the Chief Justice of India (CJI).

Attorney General K K Venu-gopal opposed Bhushan’s PIL before a bench comprising Justices A K Sikri and Ashok Bhushan and said the exercise of allocation of cases has to be

done by one person and that has to be the CJI.

“This is not an exercise that can be taken by a multiplicity of persons,” Venugopal, who was earlier asked by the top court to

assist in the matter, said.The AG also told the bench

that if many judges are involved in deciding on the roster and allocation of cases, there might be a “chaos” over which cases should be heard by whom.

The bench also heard the submissions of senior advocate Dushyant Dave and advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for Shanti Bhushan, on the issue.

The bench had earlier said it has already held that the CJI is the ‘master of roster’.

MPOST BUREAU

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday stayed the trial in the Kathua gangrape and murder case till May 7, after being seized with petitions seeking shifting of the trial to Chandigarh and handing over the investigation to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

A bench of Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, Justices D Y Chandrachud, and Indu Mal-hotra said it would deal with the plea of the victim’s father for shifting the trial to Chan-digarh and the appeal of the accused seeking handing over the probe to CBI. The bench posted the matter for further hearing on May 7.

During the hearing, senior

advocate Indira Jaising, who appeared for the victim’s fam-ily, said that the case should be transferred to Chandigarh due to proximity to Kathua in Jammu and Kashmir and the incidents of obstruction in the investigation by lawyers of the local court. While, Harvinder Chaudhary, who was repre-senting the accused, said his

clients do not have faith in a police investigation, and the probe should go to CBI. Advo-cate General Jahangir Iqbal Ganai, along with standing counsel Shoeb Alam, appear-ing for Jammu and Kashmir, opposed the prayer for a CBI probe and said the SIT of the crime branch was investigating the case. See also PG6

Telangana’s Durishetty tops

UPSC exam

This is a significant step towards strengthening the medical sector and indicates the priority given by the government to the health sector

JP Nadda, Health Minister

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Chinese President Xi Jinping during their meeting, in Wuhan, China on Friday PTI

DGCA SETS UP 2-MEMBER PROBE PANEL

After flight snag, Rahul got call from PM

MPOST BUREAU

NEW DELHI/BENGALURU: The DGCA has set up a two-member panel to probe the technical snag in a chartered plane carrying Congress chief Rahul Gandhi to Karnataka even as the Civil Aviation Minis-ter said appropriate action would be taken if anyone is found wanting after the opposition party alleged foul play.

As the Congress described the incident as “horrific” and “serious” and demanded a probe to find out if there was any “foul play”, party sources said Prime Minister Naren-dra Modi telephoned Rahul Gan-dhi just before leaving for China on Thursday to inquire about his safety.

A Civil Aviation ministry offi-cial said it would be too premature to conclude any “intentional tam-pering” as alleged by the Congress.

The incident happened during landing of the flight from New Delhi at Hubballi in north Karnataka on Thursday. The Congress president was travelling to Karnataka as part of his poll campaign.

Alleging “intentional tampering” with aircraft, the Congress party yes-terday demanded a probe into the “suspicious and faulty performance” of the 10-seater Falcon 2000.

Police probing the technical snag is awaiting the arrival of technical experts to examine the problem and submit a report while a senior air-

port official maintained there was nothing “unusual” in the manner it landed in Hubbali.

“The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has set up a two-member panel to investigate the incident. While one member is from the Directorate of Air Safety, the other member is from the Direc-torate of Airworthiness,” a senior DGCA official said.

The panel has been asked to sub-mit its report in the next 2-3 weeks, the official added.

As part of the probe, the official said the panel would call cockpit crew and also engineers for ques-tioning about the incident.

If required, the committee might also call the operations staff of the particular aircraft to gather details, the official said.

A senior DGCA official on Thursday confirmed that the air-craft had suffered a “technical snag”.

2 MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Saturday, 28 April, 2018mp around town

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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Sale proceedings of branded vintage items to go towards charity

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KALASH GUPTA, a student of Delhi has secured first rank in the VIT Engineering Entrance Examina-tion (VITEEE)-2018 which was held from April 4 to 16. The exam was con-ducted in 124 selected cities across India besides Dubai, Kuwait, Muscat and Qatar for admission to the vari-ous B.Tech programmes offered by VIT at its Vellore, Chennai, Bhopal and Amaravati(AP) branch.

Releasing the results here recently, VIT also announced the newly set record where 2,12,000 candidates reg-istered for the VITEEE-2018. The other rank holders among the top 10 are Sarikonda Ananda Ramarao,Telangana state (2nd rank), Anirudh Panigrahi,

Odhisha state (3rd rank), Sai Anirudh M, Karnataka state(4th rank), Shub-ham Kar, Jharkhand state (5th rank), Shubham Agarwal, West Bengal state(6th rank), Pranav Goyal, Chandi-garh state (7th rank), Sanchit Agrawal, Delhi state (8th rank), S Vishal, Tamil Nadu state (9th rank) and Anmol Gupta, Uttar Pradesh (10th rank).

Press note released by VIT said that VITEEE results have been declared through www.vit.ac.in and admissions would be only on merit, based on the marks obtained by the candidates in VITEEE.

Counselling for candidates, who obtained ranks upto 8,000 would be held on May 9, whereas for ranks 8001 to 14,000, it will be conducted on May 10. Those who secured ranks from 14001 to 20000, can attend the counselling on May 11. The counsel-ling would be held simultaneously in Vellore, Chennai, Bhopal and Ama-ravati (AP).

Under the G V School Develop-ment Programme, Central and State board toppers would be given 100 per-cent fee waiver for all the four years. Candidates with ranks upto 50 would be given 75% tuition fee waiver, Rank 51 to 100 would be given 50% tuition fee waiver and rank 101 to 1000 would be given 25 % tuition fee waiver.

Delhi boy tops VITEEE for admission to B.Tech

OUR CORRESPONDENT

ORGANISED by The Angels Network – a small Delhi based charity group that actively support causes such as chil-dren homes, old age homes and more – fourth edition of ‘Vintage Affaire’ is all set to take place in the Capital. Vin-tage Affaire is a mega annual charity sale of branded ‘vin-tage’ fashion including clothing, accessories, and household items (new and used), donated by a network of friends and family.

The fund raising event, which is going to be held on April 28 and 29 at Select City-walk, will support three chari-ties including ‘Dukh Bhanjan Trust – a medical overflow facility of Safdarjung Hospital, ‘Bouquet of Sight’ and ‘Saathi’ – a home for elderly.

The kick-off event, which was a ‘Great ‘Gatsby’ themed donor preview, was held at Bikaner House on April 12. As a mark of appreciation, donors and supporters were invited for an evening of cocktails, music, and fashion. Prior to the preview, guests

were treated to a perfor-mance by musician extraor-dinaire, Gaurav Sajjanhar, who captivated the audience with melodies from the ‘rat pack’ era. This was followed by an auction of three hand-picked items. Items donated by designers were exhib-ited at the ‘Designer Show-case’ which included designer pieces donated by the leading labels in the country.

Over the course of four years, Vintage Affaire has garnered immense support. What contributes to the suc-cess of the endeavour is the buzz across social networks as well as media publicity, where not a penny is spent in promo-tional charges. “What makes The Vintage Affaire a truly special event is that it is a win-win for all. Everyone contrib-utes to the cause, by donating, shopping or simply helping out. Given the tremendous response. We believe we cre-ated a market for second-hand goods that hitherto did not exist in Delhi,’ says co-founder, The Angels Network, Monisha Daga.

Kalash Gupta, 1st rank

4th rank

3rd rank

2nd rank

6th rank

SHREYA DAS

Although I have lived in Delhi for 10-12 years now and have numerous Pun-jabi friends who have always recom-mended me to try one or the other

restaurant for their Punjabi food, but never have I ever had that desi pind da swaad in any of them. This was until I went to The Leela Ambi-ence Convention Hotel for their Amritsari food festival.

From the starters to the main course, every dish has its own distinct flavour and when you have Punjabi food around you, lassi is sure to catch up. Topped with some bits of barfi and served in a mitti ka kulhad, the lassi at Dilli 32 is out of this world. But if you wish to have some refreshing summer drinks, then, without going into the details, go for Tar-booze ginger-wale (fresh watermelon juice, ginger juice) and Diwan-e-Khas – with an option to add alcohol. These three drinks are undoubtedly the most refreshing, sweet and juiciest of the lot.

Coming to the food, I might not have had the authentic, home-cooked Punjabi food, but after watching movies and listening to my friends, I know one thing, they love to use desi ghee in every dish and Chef Ashwini Kumar knows this

too well. He has not missed a single opportu-nity to use desi ghee or butter in his tadka – from their naan to baingan bharta (chargrilled auber-gine tossed with garlic and butter), sarson da saag (mustard leaf tempered with garlic and maize flour), langar di daal fry (mixed len-til tempered with onion, garlic and butter), to rice – almost everything has that mild salty essence which simply tastes delicious.

What really caught my attention was their in-house chicken and mutton cur-ries. Couple them with a kulcha or naan and you can keep on eating them till your stomach hurts. With medium-sized pieces, both the curries were perfectly cooked and had that touch of desi-ness in them. Apart from the curries, Chef Ash-wini surprised with his nutri masala taka tin (soya nuggets and spinach with onion gravy) – this particular dish is for those people who would like to taste a non-vegetarian item but can’t. In one bite, you just can’t figure that it is made out of soya.

The Amritsari journey ended the way it had started – delicious and refreshing. The gur (jaggery) ka halwa and phirni were well-cooked, light and sweet but had noth-ing extrordinary to offer.

Witness the true flavours of Amritsar

mp city 3MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Saturday, 28 April, 2018

NEW DELHI: Chief Minis-ter Arvind Kejriwal on Friday withdrew from the Delhi High Court his pleas challenging trial court orders in a criminal defamation case filed against him by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in connection with the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) row.

The lawyers for Kejriwal told the high court that since he has been acquitted in the case after he had apologised for his statements against Jaitley in connection with alleged irreg-ularities in DDCA, the AAP convenor’s appeals against the trial court orders have become infructuous.

Taking note of the submis-sion, Justice A K Pathak dis-missed as withdrawn the two pleas seeking quashing of the summons issued to Kejriwal in the criminal defamation case and expunging of remarks made against him by the trial court.

The trial court had on April 3 acquitted Kejriwal and four other Aam Aadmi Party lead-ers – Raghav Chadha, Sanjay Singh, Ashutosh and Deepak Bajpai - after a joint application was filed by them and Jaitley to settle the matter.

The application was filed on April 2 after the AAP lead-ers apologised to Jaitley for their statements against him and his family in connection with alleged irregularities in the DDCA. Jaitley had accused Kejriwal and other AAP lead-ers – Kumar Viswas, Singh, Chadha, Ashutosh and Bajpai – of making a series of “false, scandalous and defamatory” allegations against him, claim-ing it adversely affected his reputation.

Vishwas has not yet ten-dered an apology and hence, the proceedings against him shall continue. The AAP lead-ers had alleged financial irreg-ularities in the DDCA when Jaitley was its president from 2000 to 2013. AGENCIES

Address grievances in 24 hrs: Gahlot tells licensing officers

SAYANTAN GHOSH

NEW DELHI: After launching auto-mated driving license test scheme, the Transport Department of Delhi govern-ment on Friday took another major step in the licensing department with Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot on Friday directing motor licensing offi-cers (MLOs) to respond to public griev-ances received through e-mails within 24 hours.

He also asked senior officers to keep a tab on the grievances and said he had received a lot of complaints that pub-lic grievances were going unanswered by MLOs.

“I have been receiving complaints of public grievances going unattended at MLOs offices. From now on all emails will have to be responded to within 24 hours. Relevant directions issued,” Gahlot said in a tweet on Friday.

In an order to the Commissioner (Transport), Gahlot pointed out that e-mail has emerged as a major source of communication and all MLOs need to be sensitised that they must respond within 24 hours to the e-mails they received.

The minister has also sought a report

on the number of e-mails received by MLOs each day, replies and reasons for not replying.

He also asked Special Commis-sioner (Transport) for review of com-pliance status in weekly meetings with the MLOs. The Commissioner (Trans-port) has also been directed for a review in meetings with senior officers of the Transport Department.

This year, the Delhi government has taken various steps to streamline driv-ing license issuing policies. According to officials, after the Transport Depart-

ment received observations from Delhi Police that most road accidents take place as drivers do not have sufficient knowledge of driving.

In January, the government launched centres for automated driving license tests, that will be conducted in the absence of any official but through cameras installed all around. The first such centre was established in Sarai Kale Khan on January 26, with Gahlot saying that this step will prevent non-qualified people from getting license and reduce the number of road accidents.

Various reports noted that since the automated driving licence system was launched in south Delhi, there has been over 50 per cent decline in the number of people clearing the test.

A senior official of the Transport Department confirmed this and said that 50 out of around 150 people suc-cessfully clear the test now, as compared over 120 out of 250 people who cleared the manual test. The new automated centres comprise eight tracks with in-built sensors, which send a signal if a vehicle touches the edge of the tracks.

An area has been dedicated to check reverse parking skills of drivers, driving uphill and swerving areas.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Scores of teach-ers and students gathered to protest against the University Grants Commission (UGC) move to push 35 Delhi Uni-versity colleges to accept the autonomous colleges scheme.

Earlier, the UGC had called a meeting with princi-pals of 35 DU colleges to dis-cuss the modalities through which financial autonomy can be granted to these colleges to enable them to start self-financed courses and hike stu-

dent fee to generate their own resources for expansion.

In a statement, Delhi Uni-versity Teacher Association (DUTA) said that this is a dubi-ous model of autonomy and privatisation has nothing to do with academic freedom is borne out by the MHRD’s and UGC’s shameful unwillingness to discuss the proposal with teachers’ bodies. Meanwhile, they also condemn that despite the high court order to fill the all the vacant position in the stipulated time frame. Teachers were vociferously demanding

absorption of all the existing temporary and adhoc teachers.

DUTA president Rajib Ray said autonomy has resulted in a sharp decline in the academic quality in the erstwhile presti-gious colleges like Ravenshaw (Cuttack) and Presidency (Kol-kata) colleges.

There have been drastic rise in the cost of education, infor-malisation in faculty and staff appointments, adverse service conditions and pronounced commercialisation of courses and degree programmes.

He also added that there

is a lack of transparency and accountability in the function-ing of such colleges, leading to a mockery of the reservation pol-icy, equity and access to higher education.

He alleged that the scheme is a sinister strategy, on the part of the Centre, to dismember the varsity and wash its hands off the responsibility to ensure that the 4,500 vacant teaching positions are filled and the sec-ond tranche of OBC expan-sion posts is released so that a healthy student-teacher ratio can be maintained.

Delhi Transport Minister seeks report on number of e-mails received by MLOsSAYANTAN GHOSH

NEW DELHI: After the newly appointed Delhi Food Com-missioner recently again decided to continue the use of e-PoS machine for distribu-tion of ration, overruling an order by both the Delhi gov-ernment and Lieutenant Gov-ernor, the Delhi government on Friday again passed an emer-gency order to suspend the use e-PoS machines.

“Distribution of ration through e-PoS (electronic point of sale) has been suspended temporarily with immediate effect. Hence, distribution will be made manually to the card-holder as earlier,” noted Fri-day’s order.

A week into his appoint-ment, Food Commissioner Mohan Jeet Singh had over-ruled LG Anil Baijal’s orders – wherein the latter had con-curred with the Delhi govern-ment’s proposal of suspending e-PoS devices for ration deliv-ery – and issued an order to restore ration disbursal

through e-PoS system to ben-eficiaries of the public distribu-tion system (PDS).

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia had earlier demanded the LG to stop the existing e-PoS system, under which beneficiaries are given ration through biometric identification.

Earlier, Delhi Food and Civil Supplies Minister Imran Hussain had also written to the LG with the same demands.

Ration dispersal in the Capital is being done through e-PoS since January 1.

However, due to internet connectivity issues at various fair price shops, a new system was introduced on March 1 under which if e-PoS machines were not working, PDS benefi-ciaries would get ration after they received an OTP (one-time password) on their regis-tered mobile number.

Sisodia, however, said the government had found cases where ration for 499 houses was given to one mobile num-ber via OTP.

Delhi govt again suspends ration

delivery via e-PoS

YOGESH KANT

NEW DELHI: Medical ser-vices at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) were partially affected and the RAK OPD counters remainded closed on Friday morning as around 1,500 resident doctors had struck work for the second day on Friday.

However, patients who had been receving treatment at AIIMS were taken in for their follow up consultation at their respective clinics, as 500 doc-tors were still on duty.

The hospital administration has put in place a contingency plan for patient care services. As part the plan, faculty-on-call in all clinical departments will physically man the in-patient wards. “Only consultants and faculites are manning the OPD, ICU and the wards.

According to an official, the hospital also had to cancel all scheduled surgeries because of the flash strike. On any given day, around 350 major or minor surgeries are conducted in the AIIMS. Out of this, 100 surgeries and nearly 200 proce-dures are carried out at the Dr Rajendra Prasad Center for the Ophthalmic Sciences. Mean-while, around 1,500 appoint-ments have been cancelled.

After four months, we have reached the AIIMS from West Bengal. Here, no one is attend-

ing our patient. We have been called on this specific date for the operation. They are nei-ther admitting the patient nor informing us,” said Bipin Das Gupta. He also added that they are forced to stay on the streets.

In another case, an atten-dant to a patient said that they had come to the hospitals on Friday as his father was sup-posed to undergo a neuro-sur-gery. But the doctors said that now the surgery will be con-ducted only after the strike is called off. We got today’s date after waiting for months. Now, I don’t know what wil happen, said Anurag Choubey, who had come from his village near Gorakhpur. However, we took the patient to the emergency department of the hospital but there also there are no doctors take care of our case.

“The emergency depart-ment is also not working prop-erly. They are taking patients in from one door and sending

them out from the other, ask-ing them to go to Safdarjung hospital,” he said.

The hospital, however, maintained that no emergency services, including emergency surgeries, were affected.

A member of the Resident Doctors’ Association (RDA) said that they are here for train-ing and study purposes only. As I find all consultants and fac-ulty members are working at OPD sections, I feel there is no problem, he said.

Moreover, RDA has alleged that this is not the first instance of harassment by the chief of Ophthalmic Sciences Centre at the hospital.

“We demand the imme-diate suspension of Dr Atul Kumar because the 150 resi-dent doctors at RP Centre have refused to work with him. He often humiliates them in front of peers and patients,” said Dr Harjit Singh Bhatti, president of the RDA.

Kejriwal withdraws appeal in

defamation case

SAYANTAN GHOSH

NEW DELHI: With the tem-perature rising, the Delhi gov-ernment has decided to start a plantation drive through-out the Capital. The plantation drive should be completed before the monsoon, asserted environment minister Imran Hussain.

He also directed Environ-ment and Forest secretary Anil Kumar Singh to submit the action taken report to him within a week.

The move came two days after Hussain had written to different agencies, urging them to take up vertical gardening in

a big way for reducing air pol-lution in the capital.

Earlier this week, Hussain had written to the Delhi Devel-opment Authority (DDA), Public Works Department and also the municipal corpo-rations urging them to increase the green cover in the city.

“Green cover can also be enhanced by undertaking ver-tical gardening activities on buildings, flyovers, spaces and columns underneath the fly-overs. This will help in neutral-ising air pollution due to dust and vehicular pollution,” Hus-sain had written in his letter.

Last week, LG Anil Baijal, in a meeting, had directed the

municipal corporations and the DDA to come up with ver-tical gardens on flyovers and irrigate them with non-pota-ble water only. He had also stressed on developing green parks on vacant gram sabha lands to achieve the goal of “Green Delhi”.

Meanwhile, the Capital on Thursday experienced the warmest day of the year so far

with the average maximum temperature recorded at 42 degree Celsius, three notches above the season’s average.

According to weather ana-lysts, warm and dry west-erly winds coming from eastern Rajasthan – currently the warmest place in India with 44.5 degree Celsius – is the reason behind the abnormal warming for past three days.

Delhi’s air-quality saw a drastic drop over past four days going from ‘moderate’ on Monday to ‘very-poor’ on Thursday.

The AQI crossing 400 marks labelled ‘severe’ at Rohini and Wazirpur (441) in the north-west, Anand Vihar (407) and Jahangirpuri (404) in the east, according to Cen-tral Pollution Control Board (CPCB).

Meanwhile, Siri Fort (399) and Okhla (396) in the south, Major Dhyan Chand Stadium (396) in central and Ashok Vihar in northwest Delhi were among other most pol-luted regions with near-severe air-quality.

Govt to start plantation drive throughout CapitalOUR CORRESPONDENT

GURUGRAM: In a major crackdown on realtors in the Millennium City, Haryana Real Estate Ragulatory Act (H-RERA) penalised the real-tors by imposing a fine Rs 5 lakh.

H-RERA took a tough stand against promoters of Blackberry Realcon Private Limited and Emaar MGF Land Ltd on Thursday. Blackberry was penalised Rs 10 lakh for violating Section 3(1) of Rera Act, 2016, while Emaar MGF was issued a showcause notice.

The three-member panel under chairman K K Khandel-wal observed that Blackberry had failed to apply for regis-tration of their project, Paras Square, within three months from the date of commence-ment of the Act. The proj-ect was launched in 2017, but Blackberry applied for regis-tration a month after the July 31 deadline. In the other case, Emaar MGF was issued a show-cause notice for not respond-ing to the authority’s March 28 notice, and appearing before H-Rera within stipulated time, thus violating Section 63.

Realtor in Haryana fined Rs 10L for violating norms

DU teachers protest against UGC push in 35 colleges for ‘financial autonomy’

Services at AIIMS hit as RDA strike continues

Resident doctors at AIIMS during Friday’s protest PIC/MPOST

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: With the aim to provide health check-up to morning walkers for their lifestyle disorders, New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) on Friday organised Free Health Check-up and Aware-ness Camps at its five major gardens in its area.

Chairman, NDMC Naresh Kumar informed that NDMC is organizing these Health Check-up and Awareness camps on the occasion of Ayushmaan Bharat Diwas on coming Mon-day (April 30, 2018) under Gram Swaraj Abhiyan of Min-istry of Panchyati Raj, Govern-ment of India.

These Health Check-up and Awareness Camps will be organized at Talkatora Garden, Lodhi Garden, Nehru Park, Sanjay Jheel Park (Laxmibai Nagar) and Children Park at India Gate between 6:30 am and 9:30 am on Monday for the morning walkers, the NDMC Chairman added.

He said that the Health Check-up Camps will con-duct general health check-up, height and weight measure-ment, blood pressure, random blood sugar investigation, ECG, consultation and coun-seling of the patient regarding lifestyle modification.

NDMC organises free health check-

up camps

The minister also asked senior officers to keep a tab on the grievances and said he had received a lot of complaints that public grievances were going unanswered by MLOs

Imran Hussain also directed Environment and Forest secretary Anil Kumar Singh to submit the action taken report to him within a week

mp city4MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Saturday, 28 April, 2018

Property feud turns bloody: 3 dead in Model TownZAFAR ABBAS

NEW DELHI: A trivial parking scuffle on Thursday night became the tipping point of a decade-old feud over property between two sib-lings, leading to death of two broth-ers and the wife of one of them in north west Delhi’s Model Town area.

54-year-old Jaspal and his younger brother 48-year-old Gur-jeet were killed in a bloodbath which involved kirpans and guns, while Jaspal’s wife Prabhjot suc-cumbed to bullet injuries after one of Gurjeet’s bouncers shot her. Moreover, Gurjeet’s 24-year-old son Jagnoor sustained stab wounds and is battling for life in a Delhi hospital.

The incident occurred around 11.30 pm on Thursday, when Gur-jeet objected to his Jaspal’s car being parked outside their nearly 450 square feet house in the plush D block area of Model Town-2.

An angry Gurjeet reportedly punched and vandalised Jaspal’s car. An enraged Jaspal then took out a kirpan and attacked Gurjeet.

Jagnoor tried to rescue his father from Jaspal, but ended up with a stab wound to his neck.

Alarmed by the commotion, Gurjeet’s family residing on the first

floor of the house came to the bal-cony and asked their two security guards to intervene.

Gurjeet’s panic-stricken bounc-ers opened fire with their pistols and shot Jaspal multiple times.

Seeing her husband being shot at Jaspal’s wife Prabhjot tried to save him, but was shot by the bounc-ers too.

The bouncers then fled the spot, leaving the family in a pool of blood, but were arrested on Friday. The wounded were taken to dif-ferent hospitals but Jaspal, Gurjeet

and Prabhjot succumbed to their injuries.

“Though fighting between Jaspal and Gurjeet over property matters was not unusual, we never expected things would take such an ugly turn,” said a relative of the family, who did not wish to be named.

The siblings were both in the real estate and finance business and owned several properties worth crores of rupees in Delhi.

Gurjeet stayed on the first floor along with his wife and two sons, while Jaspal stayed on the ground

floor with his wife, two daughters and a son. Jaspal was the owner of a bar-cum-lounge in Model Town-2.

“Gurjeet had hired bouncers and they remained with him like a shadow wherever he went. Things might not have escalated had the bouncers not opened fire,” said a neighbour.

“We have arrested both the assailants Vicky and Pawan Kumar in the case. A case under sections 302 of the IPC and Arms Act has been registered,” said Aslam Khan, DCP (North West).

After father’s demise, rift between siblings widened

ZAFAR ABBAS

NEW DELHI: Despite having properties worth several crores in their name across Delhi, the tension between brothers Jaspal and Gur-jeet escalated after the demise of their father Harnam Singh ‘Toofan’, seven years back in August 2011.

Sources close to the family say that the family of three brothers were embroiled in a property dis-pute worth several crores and since their father died, Jaspal and Gurjeet had been at loggerheads.

They involved in several court cases and had registered a few FIRs against each other soon after.

“Their father was a well-estab-lished man, who had influential political contacts. However, ever since his demise, relations between the two brothers turned sour and frequent quarrels erupted leading to court cases and FIRs in police

stations,” said a family friend, who wished to remain anonymous.

Sources said that though the recent scuffle that led to the blood-bath seems to have started over parking of cars, the fumes of ani-mosity had been raging for nearly a decade over the business rivalry between the two brothers.

“The family has close to 18 cars, but little parking space in the house.

Both brothers never were on good terms and scuffles were common,” said another family friend.

Even the neighbours said they had heard the family fighting often. However, little did they know that this would end so viciously.

“We feared to intervene as the brothers did not like to be inter-rupted in family matters. So we thought not to speak up and mind our own business,” said a neighbour.

Thursday’s triple murder was a grim reminder of the double murder at Chattarpur farmhouse around six years ago, where liquor baron Ponty Chaddha was mur-dered in a gunfight with his brother Hardeep, who was also killed on the spot.

The two brothers were embroiled in a bitter property dis-pute, which culminated in a fierce gun battle in south Delhi in Novem-ber 2012.

ABHAY SINGH

NEW DELHI: The Special Cell of Delhi Police on Friday said that they have arrested two Kashmiri youths from Punjab, who are believed to be pro-Pakistan hackers and were in touch with several Pakistan-based anti-Indian hackers.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Pramod Singh Kushwah claimed that as per the online activities of the accused and initial investi-gation, the two were part of an anti-national hacking group called “Team Hackers Third Eye”.

The accused were identified as 27-year-old Shahid Malla, a second year BTech student at Aryan Group of College in Raj-pura, Punjab, and 20-year-old Adil Hussain Teli, a St Soldier Managementt and Tech Insti-tute in Jalandhar, Punjab.

Police claimed that group has hacked more than 500 Indian websites.

“The arrest came after we got information about two pro-

Pakistan Kashmiri hackers on the night of April 26 and 27 from Cyber Cell unit of Spe-cial Cell. We raided two loca-tions in Punjab to nab them,” said the DCP.

“They were also involved in educating Kashmiri youth to bypass state-imposed ban on social-media by using VPN between April-May 2017. Apart from that, the two were found to be in touch with several Pakistan-based anti-Indian hackers. Some of them are believed to be backed by Pakistani intelligence agencies,” Kushwah added.

Police continued their

probe further and found that the accused posted anti-India seditious messages.

Laptops, mobile phones, SIM cards, internet dongles and memory devices recov-ered from the accused will be examined by Delhi Police in detail, to ascertain their anti-state activities.

Malla is a permanent resi-dent of Jammu and Kashmir’s Baramulla district and was staying in a rented accommo-dation in Sheetal Colony in Rajpura, Teli is a permanent resident of Anantnag and stay-ing in a rented accommodation at Bawa Khel, Jalandhar.

Two Kashmiri youth suspected to be pro-Pak hackers arrested

The two accused Shahid Malla (left) and Adil Hussain Teli PIC/MPOST

Gurjeet (left); Jaspal and his wife Prabhjot (middle); the residence in Model Town PICS/MPOST

ABHAY SINGH

NEW DELHI: Akash Choud-hary, a 33-year-old commerce graduate from Sector-55 of Gurugram, downloaded thou-sands of photos of differ-ent girls from various social media applications and cre-ated more than nine fake pro-files of women to lure men into befriending him and then extort them.

His plan, however, came undone, after he was arrested from Gurugram.

South East Delhi Police claimed that one such fake account has more than a mil-lion followers and was being used to post advertisements of other brands for promotion.

Choudhary even threat-ened the girls, whose photos he had stolen online.

In 2017, one of those woman filed a complaint alleg-ing that someone had created several fake Instagram accounts using her photographs, which had been downloaded illegally from her genuine Instagram account.

When the victim contacted the accused, he threatened her to upload more pictures, defaming her by posting her pictures on escort services and prostitution sites. A case was lodged in this regard.

After detailed technical surveillance, the police team zeroed in on Choudhary, who was found to be running a meat shop in Gurugram.

On Friday, Deputy Com-missioner of Police (South East) Chinmoy Biswal said that two years ago, the accused came up with the plan to cre-ate fake profiles of young and beautiful women on social

networking sites and increase their followers by sending and accepting requests from men.

For this, he downloaded over thousand photos of differ-ent women. “He downloaded the pictures from social net-working sites Instagram and Facebook and started following young women on these sites. He used to download pictures of these women from the sites and once he had a decent col-lection of 50-60 pictures, he used to create a similar sepa-rate fake profile of the genuine lady,” said the DCP.

Biswal further claimed that Choudhary used to send allur-ing texts to men on Instagram posing as women.

On the pretext of friendship and meeting them, he would ask for money to be trans-ferred to his e-wallet account. Around 10-12 men were duped this way.

“After raising the number of followers, the accused used to contact genuine companies and brands for promotion of their product on the fake pro-file,” said the DCP.

33-yr-old made fake social media accounts of girls to extort men

Accused Akash Choudhary PIC/MPOST

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: A 34-year-old cleric of a madrasa at Ghazi-abad, where a minor girl was allegedly raped last week after being kidnapped from east Delhi’s Ghazipur, was arrested on Friday.

Police said that the accused, whose name has not been revealed, was being questioned for several days regarding the incident and on Friday he was finally arrested.

The cleric was arrested by the Special Task Force team of the Delhi Police Crime Branch under appropriate sections of the POSCO Act.

The Crime Branch team had earlier visited the Ghazi-abad madrasa twice and ques-tioned with several people in the area.

While scanning CCTV footage of the area, cops saw a minor taking the girl with him.

On Friday, Delhi Commis-sion for Women chairperson Swati Maliwal tweeted, “Ghazi-pur rape case of a 10 year old is just so so so disturbing. The trial should be completed in a

fast track manner in the next 6 months and culprits should be given death penalty. Such hor-rifying crimes against children must STOP! Raping a child is raping humanity. Sick.”

The girl was rescued on April 22 from the madrasa by a Delhi Police team, after police were informed on April 21 by the girl’s father that she had gone missing after she went to market. Subsequently, the girl was rescued from the madrasa.

After her rescue, locals in Ghazipur had staged a pro-test a few days ago at NH 24 demanding action in the case. The protest led to severe traffic jam on the stretch.

Rape in Ghaziabad madrasa: Cleric held

WOMAN ASSAULTED IN VASANT KUNJ OVER TELLING OFF RASH DRIVERNEW DELHI: A 27-year-old woman has alleged that she and her sister-in-law were assaulted by a group of men, whom they had warned against driving rashly in south west Delhi’s Vasant Kunj, Delhi police said of Fri-day. On Thursday, the complainant had asked the ac-cused to drive properly, following which he and some of his friends got out of the car, allegedly abused the two women and tried to pull one of them inside their vehicle. Later, another driver who was passing by saw the commotion and assaulted the complainant and fled the spot. A police official said one of the assailants, identified as Pawan, has been arrested. In another case, a woman alleged someone tried to kidnap her in Vasant Kunj on Friday. Police said that they are investi-gating the case and trying to find clues.

51-YEAR-OLD BEATEN TO DEATH BY JUVENILE IN JAGATPURINEW DELHI: A 51-year-old man, reported to be men-tally challenged, was beaten to death by a juvenile in west Delhi’s Jagatpuri area, even as locals who had gathered stood by as mute spectators and made vid-eos of the incident. According to police, the deceased man was identified as Naseem, a resident of the same area. Police said that the incident took place on Tuesday evening. While Naseem was standing outside his house, the accused juvenile playing nearby started teasing him. When Naseem asked him to not bother and leave him alone, the accused and a friend of his went up to Naseem, grabbed him by the collar, picked up a stone lying nearby and hit him several times. The wounds on his forehead proved fatal and he suc-cumbed to his injuries on early on Friday.

BIS RELEASES NEW INDIAN STANDARD ON FLY ASH CEMENT BRICKSNEW DELHI: An Indian Standard, IS 16720:2018, has been formulated to help in quality control of fly ash-cement bricks and encourage their production and use on mass scale, in the country. Fly ash cement bricks are suitable for use in masonry construction, just like common burnt clay bricks, and production of these bricks has already started in the country. The standard lays down essential requirements of finish, dimen-sions, strength, water absorption, etc of with a view to achieving quality and uniformity in the manufacture of such bricks. Fly ash is a by-product from thermal power stations using pulverized coal as fuel and can be uti-lised to manufacture pulverized fuel ash-cement bricks as a supplement to common burnt clay building bricks

CITY BRIEFS

Police said that the cleric was being questioned for several days regarding the incident and on Friday he was finally arrested

OUR CORRESPONDENT

GHAZIABAD: Afzal Chaudhary, a member of the Uttar Pradesh Minority Commission, was sacked on Thursday by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and, on Friday, arrested on charges of forgery and impersonation.

Ghaziabad Senior Superintendent of Police Vaibhav Krishna told media persons on Friday that Chaudhary would at times “pull up” government officials as well as District Magistrate

Ritu Maheshwari on the telephone, pretending to be former Union Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha or Gujarat leader Shankarsinh Vaghela or Ashok Bhan, an MLA and son of former Uttar Pradesh Governor Suraj Bhan.

On one occasion, Chaudhary even impersonated Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma, Krishna said.

Cops eventually became suspicious after the calls were traced to Mumbai.”Once, he spoke to me on telephone

very rudely to get two road rage accused Jan Mohammad and Abid freed from police custody. The two had thrashed an UP State Road Transport Corporation conductor and driver.”

Similarly, Maheshwari was also told to settle a land dispute in Masuri area in favour of a retired officer. “Our investigation showed that the accused used to impersonate different people to get illegal works done,” Krishna added.

On Thursday night, however, Chaudhary was

nabbed from near BSNL office in Raj Nagar District Centre, Ghaziabad.

A Mercedes car, a mobile phone and five SIMs were recovered from him and an accomplice was arrested.

“During sustained interrogation, he revealed his identity as Afzal Chaudhary. A criminal case has been registered against him and his accomplice. A reward of Rs 5,000 has been given to the police team for their good work,” the senior police official said.

UP minority panel member held for fraudOUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested a sub-inspector of Delhi Police posted at Kha-juri Khas police station for demanding and accepting a bribe of Rs one lakh from a complainant.

According to the investiga-tion agency, a case was regis-tered against the sub-inspector under section 7 of the Preven-tion of Corruption Act, 1988

on a the basis complaint.The complainant claimed

that his son had been arrested in a case by the sub-inspector.

“He further alleged that the complainant went to Kha-juri Khas police station, where the accused demanded a bribe of Rs 4,00,000 from the com-plainant to help his son from the case being investigated by him,” said a CBI official.

A trap was laid and the accused was caught while accepting the bribe.

Delhi Police sub-inspector caught red-handed with bribe

ZAFAR ABBAS

NEW DELHI: “We are donat-ing the eyes of our father. At least someone could see the world with his eyes,” wiping her tears, Preeti, the 19-year-old daughter of Rajnikant, the custodian who was shot dead by armed assailants during a cash van robbery in Narela area of Rohini, told Millennium Post on Friday.

In addition to Rajnikant, the security guard of the cash van Prem Kumar was also shot dead, after three unidentified men opened indiscriminate fire on them during an armed robbery at Narela on Thursday afternoon.

“I know nothing can bring my father back. But with this gesture, we might also inspire others to do the same,” said 22-year-old Kumar Prashant, Rajnikant’s elder son. The young man is currently pur-suing a course in social work.

The family members, who were in all tears, said that they decided to donate his eyes almost instantly.

52-year-old Rajnikant had been employed with cash

replenishment agency SIS for some years.

He had recently been awarded the best custodian award from the company.

Rajnikant’s younger brother Suryakant says that he was very fond of his children.

“My brother wanted them to make a mark in their (his family’s) lives. His little income never came in between impart-ing good education to his chil-dren. Now that he is gone, the family has lost its sole bread-winner,” said Suryakant, fight-

ing back his tears.Originally from Muzaf-

farpur in Bihar, Rajnikant stayed in a joint family in Chi-rag Delhi. His brother is also employed with SIS.

“It was very shocking for us when my brother’s office team visited us and broke the news. We ran towards the hospital only to find that he had suc-cumbed to his injuries,” said Suryakant.

In the sensational broad daylight robbery, three bike-borne gunmen had shot dead Rajnikant and Prem Kumar.

The gunmen fired around 20 rounds killing both the men on the spot. They managed to flee with the cash box which had close to Rs 12 lakh.

Considering the gravity of crime Delhi Police Crime Branch and Special Cell have also been associated with the case.

Police is now scanning the CCTV of the area to get some clue of the bikers.

Cops suspect that the same group of criminals might be behind the attack which led a futile attempt to rob a cash van in Shahbad Dairy on Tuesday.v

Family of Narela shootout victim donates his eyes

Rajnikant had recently been awarded the best custodian award from the company PIC/MPOST

FARIDABAD: The body of a 42-year-old woman, who was married to a US-based NRI businessman last year, was found in a bathtub of a plush hotel here, police said on Friday.

A police spokesperson said Ritu died under mysterious cir-cumstances in Room No 631 of the Taj Vivanta Hotel in Sura-jkand and her body was found in the bathtub.

Ritu was married to Arun Kumar, a businessman based in New Jersey, the spokesper-son said.

Ritu’s sisters said she mar-ried Arun on March 3 last year. It was her second mar-riage while Arun’s third, they said. But since July/August last year, she was staying in India – at times at hotels and at times with her brother or sisters. Police said the deceased has three sisters and one brother, who live in South Delhi.

The police said they have secured the Room no 631, where the body was found, as

they await the arrival of the husband of the deceased.

A Forensic Science Labora-tory team led by Dr Manisha inspected the crime scene. Offi-cials from the Crime Branch also visited the site.

Police said Ritu was stay-ing in the hotel since April 22.

On April 26, she instructed the reception that she should not be disturbed at all – no waiter, no call forwarding, nothing.

When her sisters dialled her number that day, she did not reply. Then they called up the hotel’s reception but did not get any “satisfactory” reply from there either, they said.

It is then that one of Ritu’s sisters reached the hotel in the evening and got the room opened where she found her body in the bathtub.

Police said they spoke with Ritu’s husband and inquired if he suspected anybody to be behind the incident. Arun named nobody, according to the police. AGENCIES

Wife of NRI bizman found dead in hotel

bathtub in Faridabad

Neighbours outside the residence of the victims in Model Town PIC/MPOST

NEW DELHI: Councilors of Bharatiya Janata Party were on Friday elected unopposed as mayors of North and East Delhi Municipal Corporations, rid-ing on the dominance of the party’s councilors in the two civic bodies.

Adesh Kumar Gupta was elected as North Delhi mayor while Bipin Bihari Singh as mayor of East Delhi.

Gupta said he will work with the officials to make the corporation self-reliant and dedicate efforts for suc-cess of Prime Minister Naren-dra Modi’s initiative Swachch Bharat Mission’.

Rajesh Kumar of the BJP was elected as deputy mayor of the NDMC. Senior Congress councilor Mukesh Goel man-aged to get elected as a mem-ber of the standing committee of the civic body.

The new East Delhi mayor said that his focus will be to make the corporation’s func-tioning transparent.

Kiran Vaid of the BJP was elected as deputy mayor of the EDMC. AGENCIES

BJP councilors elected mayors

of North and East Delhi

mp nation 5MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Saturday, 28 April, 2018

KJM VARMA 

WUHAN: Prime Minis-ter Narendra Modi and Chi-nese President Xi Jinping on Friday exchanged views on "solidifying" the India-China relationship as they began an unprecedented two-day infor-mal summit in Wuhan city during which they will have a series of one-on-one conver-sations focussing on bilateral, global and regional issues.

Prime Minister Modi who arrived here in the central Chi-nese city early Friday for the informal summit began talks soon after President Xi hosted a grand welcoming ceremony for him. The summit in Wuhan - the favourite holiday spot of revolutionary Chinese leader Mao Zedong - is being seen as an effort by India and China to rebuild trust and improve ties that were hit by the 73-day-long Dokalam standoff last year.

"And the much awaited Informal Summit gets under-way! PM @narendramodi warmly welcomed by Chinese President Xi on his arrival at Hubei Provincial Museum in Wuhan. The two leaders had a one-on-one meeting during which they exchanged views on solidifying our bilateral rela-tionship," .

Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted. Kumar said they will review the developments in the bilateral relations from a strate-gic and long-term perspective during their meetings.

Modi and Xi shook hands and posed for photographs before witnessing a cultural programme at Hubei Provin-cial Museum in Wuhan.

"PM @narendramodi was welcomed at the Hubei Provin-cial Museum with an impres-sive cultural performance. India and China cultural con-nect go back many centuries and is reflected in present times through the popularity of Bol-lywood, Yoga and other aspects of Indian culture," Kumar tweeted.

During their one-on-one coversation, Modi told Xi that when he was the Gujarat chief minister, he had an opportu-nity to visit Hubei Province

on a study tour to learn about the Three Gorges Dam. "The speed with which you con-structed this dam and its scale inspired me. So I came on a study tour and spent a day at dam," Modi said. As the world's largest hydropower project, the Three Gorges project is a multi-functional water control system on the mighty Yangtze river. It comprises a dam stretch-ing 2,309 meters long and 185 meters high, 32 hydropower turbo-generators, a five-tier ship lock and ship lift system.

The two leaders later vis-ited an exhibition of Marquis Yi of Zeng Cultural Relics & Treasure at the Hubei Provin-cial Museum. "Spending time

together! In a special gesture, Chinese President Xi took PM @narendramodi on a tour of the exhibition of Marquis Yi of Zeng Cultural Relics and Treasure displayed at the Hubei Provincial Museum," Kumar tweeted. The museum has a large number of state-level his-toric and cultural relics.

Officials said Modi and Xi would focuss on global, regional and bilateral issues.

The two leaders will later hold delegationb-level talks accompanied by six top offi-cials from each side. The two leaders will have one-on-one dinner at a state guest house by the famous East Lake.

They will resume their one-

on-one interaction tomorrow at 10 a.m (local time) with walks by the lake side, boat ride and wind up their talks over lunch, official sources here said.

The two leaders began their informal meetings way back in 2014 when Xi was hosted by Modi at the Sabarmati Ashram of Mahatma Gandhi in Guja-rat. They have met and inter-acted with each other in about a dozen international meet-ings since then. But this will be their "heart-to-heart" infor-mal summit. There will be no agreement signed or a joint statement issued.

It is a summit, according to the officials, to forge consensus to resolve the issues with fol-low up actions by officials than announcing any agreements. This is something the leaders of the two countries have never tried so far, they said. 

This is fourth visit of Modi to China after he came to power in 2014. He is again due to visit China to take part in the SCO summit to be held at Qin-gdao city on June 9-10. 

China's state media said the informal Xi-Modi meeting heralds new chapter in Sino-Indian relations, an article in the state-run Global Times said. "The Xi-Modi meeting in 2018 following the 2017 Doka-lam standoff will without doubt promote mutual trust and reci-procity between the two coun-tries, and will be a cornerstone of a stable long-term relation-ship between China and India," the article said. PTI

Modi, Xi meet in Wuhan for ‘heart-to-heart’ summit

Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Chinese President Xi Jinping visit an exhibition at Hubei Provincial Museum, in Wuhan, China on Friday PTI

OUR CORRESPONDENT

BANTWAL: Taking a swipe at PM Narendra Modi over his China visit, Congress president Rahul Gandhi said on Friday he would remain silent on the Doklam issue during his talks with President Xi Jinping, and wondered where his '56 inch chest' has gone.

He also slammed Modi over his "silence" on alleged corrup-tion by BJP leaders, including its chief Amit Shah's son.

"I have heard that he (Modi) is visiting China. You just see, take it in writing from me. Chi-na's army is sitting in Doklam and he will not utter a word on Doklam in China, you just watch. "He (Modi) won't utter a word, this is 56 inch chest. Only hollow words, false promises," Gandhi, who is on a two-day election campaign tour of Kar-nataka, told a public rally here.

The Congress president spoke of how Modi had hosted Xi in his home state Gujarat and the Chinese troops made an incursion into Indian territory.

"In Gujarat, on the banks of a river, Narendra Modi ji sits on a swing with the Chinese pres-ident. Chinese president goes back home and puts Chinese army in Doklam. I don't know where his (Modi's) 56-inch chest had gone, Narendra Modi ji did not utter a word," he said.

Chinese soldiers had intruded into Indian territory in Chumar area of Ladakh in September 2014 during Xi's India visit. The Congress chief, who released the party's elec-tion" manifesto for the Assem-bly polls in Mangaluru earlier in the day, said, "Modi ji, wher-ever he goes, speaks his 'mann ki baat, but our manifesto is "not our mann ki baat...it is the mann ki baat of Karnataka's youth, women and poor".

He said the manifesto was not prepared by two or three Congress leaders in a closed room, and that people of every district and region were con-sulted. Verappa Moily, the manifesto committee chief, met

people across classes, farmers, youth and industry, he said, and claimed that 90 per cent of promises made in the mani-festo ahead of the 2013 polls had been fulfilled.

Invoking 12th century social reformer Basavanna who taught people 'Nudi-dante nade' (practise what you preach), Gandhi said, "If there is no weight in what you speak, then there is no meaning."

Gandhi said while the Con-gress' Siddaramaiah govern-ment fulfilled what it promised, the Modi dispensation did not honour commitments made by it. "Modi ji folds his hands in

front of Basavanna's statue, gar-lands it, and then he gives eight tickets to Reddy brothers. He says he stands against corrup-tion....but then he stands with Yeddyurappa, who has spent time in jail, on one side, and four"MLAs who have savoured jail food on the other," he added.

Targeting the PM over his "silence" on Amit Shah's son Jay, whom he accused of "con-verting" Rs 50,000 into Rs 80 crore, Gandhi said, Modi claims to be the "chowkidar" of the country, "but does not stop his friend from indulging in theft".

Rahul mocks PM on China visit, asks where his ‘56-inch’ chest has gone

OUR CORRESPONDENT

MANGALURU: The Con-gress manifesto for the Karna-taka Assembly polls on Friday promised to create one crore jobs and spend Rs 1.25 lakh crore on irrigation over the next five years if re-elected to power.

Releasing the "People's Manifesto" at a function here, Congress president Rahul Gan-dhi described it as the "voice of the people of Karnataka" and not a document prepared by "three or four people in a closed room".

He took potshots at Nar-endra Modi, saying while the prime minister likes to tell people his "mann ki baat", this manifesto contained the "mann ki baat" of the people of Karnataka.

Taking a dig at the BJP, Gan-dhi said the manifesto that the saffron party will release will not be for the people of Karna-taka and reflect the views of the RSS. The Congress president claimed that the Siddaramaiah government had fulfilled 95 per cent of the promises made in the manifesto released ahead of the 2013 polls.

The elections in the state are scheduled on May 12. The strength of the Assembly is 225, including one nominated member. The manifesto said the Congress, if voted to power, would create an "agricultural corridor" in the state with its 10 different agro-climatic zones and other natural advantages, offering immense opportuni-ties for high growth in agricul-ture and allied sectors.

The corridor would focus on improving production and productivity, reducing produc-tion cost and wastage, increase value addition, price stabili-sation, organic farming, inte-grated pest management and

high unit value realisation in export markets, among others, it said. Affirming the Congress' commitment to a "malnutri-tion- free Karnataka," the man-ifesto assured the people of a right to health services for all.

It promised 50 per cent increase in"employability and creation of 15-20 lakh jobs per year and"reduction in profes-sional tax. The Congress also said it would endeavour to raise the employment level of women to 50 per cent in the government workforce and supply free sanitary napkins to girl students of government colleges and polytechnics, besides abolishing tax on sani-tary pads.

The women police force would be increased to 33 per cent with three per cent reser-vation for transgenders, it said.

On law and order front, the manifesto promised to ensure effective implementa-

tion of the Protection of Chil-dren from Sexual Offences Act and community policing at all police stations. The manifesto also said the Congress will bring in prison reforms and set up one-stop crisis centres for women.

On corruption, it said steps would be taken to improve delivery of services and estab-lish a civic rights club.

It also promised a single-window project clearance.

The manifesto made a commitment to food secu-rity and to draft a blueprint to utilise for 80 tmcft additional water in the Cauvery basin. It assured to expand the IT sector and build high-tech IT talent, besides increasing the number of start-ups.

It also"promised to give subsidy to start-ups.On educa-tion, the manifesto also spoke of setting up good quality schools and government-aided coaching institute for competi-tive exams, besides promot-ing Kannada language across the state.

NEW DELHI: The Congress party on Friday asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi whether he will remember his innate duty of protecting India's strategic interests by raising the Doklam issue with China that impacts national security.

Indian National Congress communications in-charge Randeep Surjewala took a dig at the prime minister, say-ing Modi may not be able to show "red eyes" as he "loftily promised", but will he show the courage and conviction to do plain-speaking on Doklam

and defend India's interests.Prime Minister Modi and

Chinese President Xi Jin-ping on Friday began talks at an unprecedented two-day informal summit in Wuhan, during which they will have a series of one-on-one conversations focusing on bilateral, global and regional issues.

Modi, who arrived here in the central Chinese city early Friday for the informal sum-mit, began talks soon after President Xi hosted a grand welcoming ceremony for him. MPOST

Congress chief Rahul Gandhi addresses a gathering after releasing the Congress manifesto for Karnataka Assembly Election 2018, in Mangaluru on Friday PTI

Will Modi show courage on Doklam issue, asks Cong

Cong manifesto promises one crore jobs over next 5 years

NEW DELHI: Taking a dig at Rahul Gandhi after the Con-gress president in a tweet on his party's manifesto for Kar-nataka claimed that Informa-tion Technology contribution in the state is USD 300 billion, the BJP on Friday said either he is "mathematically chal-lenged or lying" as the money quoted by him is close to 10 times of the state's budget.

"Dear Rahul, read your tweet on Congress manifesto for Karnataka. You are either mathematically challenged or lying, as usual. Quick tutorial:

IT contribution at $300Bn is approx 9.6x of the Kar-nataka state budget, which is 2,09,181 cr for FY 2018-19 (approx 31Bn)," BJP's IT department in-charge Amit Malviya said in a tweet.

His retort came after Gandhi tweeted a graphic on Congress manifesto for Kar-nataka and said it captures the 'Mann Ki Baat' of the state's people and makes very spe-cific commitments that the party intend to deliver on, including creating one crore new jobs over the next 5 yrs.

Rahul either mathematically-challenged or lying, says BJP

KARNATAKA POLLS

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Senior Con-gress leader P Chidambaram on Friday slammed the Nar-endra Modi government for reportedly approving the diver-sion of 77 hectares of forest land for the Mumbai-Ahmed-abad bullet train project and said 99 per cent of India's pop-ulation would not travel in the "elitist" train.

Referring to 13 children being killed when their van was hit by a train at an unmanned crossing in Uttar Pradesh yes-terday, Chidambaram said in a series of tweets that the decision to divert forest land reflected the priorities of the NDA government.

"On the day when 77 hect-ares of forest land are diverted for Rs 1,08,000 crore bullet train, 13 children are killed at an unmanned crossing. Bullet train scores over supervised level crossings! Shows priorities of Modi government.

"77 hectares of forest land lost. Lives of 13 children lost. What is the gain? An elitist train in which 99 per cent of the population will never travel," he said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has reportedly given in-principle approval for the diver-sion of 77 hectares of forest land for the Rs 1.08 lakh crore bullet train project between Mumbai and Ahmedabad.

The clearances have come with a rider that the remain-ing deficiencies on pending claims under the Forest Rights Act, 2006, in proposals sub-mitted by Gujarat and Maha-rashtra, must be ironed out at the earliest.

The two states have also been told to coordinate closely with the National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL) to speed up the project, the reports said.

99% population won’t travel in bullet train: PC

NEW DELHI: The BJP on Friday asked the Election Commission to reject the nom-ination papers filed by Con-gress candidate Ashok Kheny from Bidar South constituency in Karnataka, saying he sub-mitted an incomplete affida-vit which suffers from "several defects".

In a memorandum sub-mitted to the EC by a party delegation, which included Union ministers Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Gen VK Singh (retd), the party made a mention of his business works

with the state government and alleged that there are many complaints of corrupt prac-tices against him in collusion with the Congress. "The return-ing officer of Bidar South has gravely erred in accepting the nomination of Ashok Kheny. He has accepted an incomplete affidavit that suffers from sev-eral defects and does not con-firm to the orders issued by the ECI from time to time," it said.

The party said the returning officer's decision is "patently illegal" as it urged the commis-sion to set it aside. MPOST

BJP asks EC to reject Congress candidate’s nomination papers

NEW DELHI: Union minis-ter Ram Vilas Paswan on Fri-day pitched for a parity in salaries of sanitation staff and IAS officers, saying the gov-ernment should do it if people engaged in cleaning works have to be given dignity. MPOST

Equal pay for IAS with sanitation staff?

NEW DELHI: The CPI(M) has asked all its units to hold an all-India protest on May 8 against the government’s decision to increase the prices of petrol and diesel, and demand an immedi-ate rollback.

Condemning the “astro-nomical rise” in the retail price of petrol and diesel, the Left party has said it would have a “back-breaking” impact on the ordinary people and also have a cascading effect on the essential commodity prices.

“The CPI(M) demands that the central government

should immediately roll back the duty to provide some relief to the people who are coming under tremendous burden. The politburo has called upon all its units to observe May 8 as an all India protest day demanding the immediate rollback of duty hikes. “This is particularly nec-essary after the central govern-ment willingly allows lakhs of crores of rupees as tax waivers to top corporates of the coun-try. The retail prices of petrol and diesel are both now rul-ing at the highest ever levels,” a statement said. MPOST

CPM calls for all-India protest on May 8 against oil price hike

MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Saturday, 28 April, 2018

DAWOOD'S CLOSE AIDE ARRESTEDTHANE: The Anti-Extortion Cell of Thane Police has arrested Tariq Parveen, a close aide of fugitive underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, in a 1998 double murder case, an officer said on Friday. Parveen (51) was arrested from a shop in Ashoka Shopping Centre at LT Road near Crawford Market in south Mumbai on Thursday, Thane AEC chief Pradeep Sharma said.

LEOPARD KILLED BY LOCALS IN J&KSRINAGAR: A man suffered severe injuries while saving his children from a leopard which entered his home in Kupwara district of J&K on Friday, police said. The leopard has been killed by the locals, a police official said. Ghulam Ahmad Sheikh, a resident of Mir Muqaam in Kupwara district, put his life at risk when he found a leopard inside the room of his children, who were sleeping, around 5.30 am, the official said.

5 DEAD IN JEEP-TRUCK COLLISION IN MPGUNA (MP): Five members of a marriage party, in-cluding a newly-married woman, were killed and three others injured when their jeep collided with a truck near Laharcha village in the district on Friday, police said. The accident took place on the Agra-Mumbai na-tional highway in the morning hours when the marriage party was returning to Talen town in Rajgarh district.

HC REJECTS PLEA OVER JAYA'S PORTRAITCHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Friday rejected a plea seeking removal of late Tamil Nadu chief min-ister J Jayalalithaa's portrait from the state assembly. First bench comprising Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice Abdul Quddhose dismissed the petition filed by DMK MLA J Anbazhagan seeking removal of the portrait, unveiled on February 10 last.

HC DISMISSES DMK PLEACHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Friday dis-missed a petition by DMK seeking disqualification of Tamil Nadu Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam and 10 other AIADMK MLAs for having voted against the Palaniswami government last year.

CISF TAKES OVER SECURITY OF UIDAI OFFICENEW DELHI: An armed squad of CISF commandos on Friday took over the full security duties at the vital UIDAI centre, the repository of the Aadhaar data, in Gurgaon to protect it against a terror strike or any other threat.

NATION BRIEFS

mp nation6

Key Points » Senior advocate was administered oath of office as SC judge by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra

» With Malhotra joining the bench, the strength of the Supreme Court is now 25, against the sanctioned strength of 31, including the CJI

» Malhotra, 61, was administered the oath of office and secrecy in a ceremony held at court number 1 in the apex court

» Malhotra's name was recommended by the collegium for elevation along with that of Uttarakhand High Court Chief Justice KM Joseph

» Malhotra would be the seventh woman judge in the top court since Independence. Other women judges were elevated to the apex court from high courts

» Malhotra joined the legal profession in 1983 and was enrolled with the Bar Council of Delhi

» She qualified as an Advocate-on-Record in the Supreme Court in 1988 and has been dealing with several matters of constitutional importance

Newly recruited CRPF Jawan march during their passing out parade at CRPF Training Academy in Agartala on Friday PTI

CUSTODIAL DEATH

PASSING OUT PARADE

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Senior advo-cate Indu Malhotra was on Fri-day administered the oath of office as a Supreme Court judge by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra, making her the first woman lawyer to enter the top judiciary directly.

With Malhotra joining the bench, the strength of the Supreme Court is now 25, against the sanctioned strength of 31, including the CJI.

Malhotra, 61, was admin-istered the oath of office and secrecy in a ceremony held at court number 1 in the apex court. This would be the third occasion in the 67-year history of the Supreme Court when it has two sitting women judges together -- the first being Jus-tices Gyan Sudha Misra and Ranjana Prakash Desai, then Justices Desai and R Banu-mathi and now Justices Banu-mathi and Malhotra.

Malhotra's name was rec-ommended by the collegium for elevation along with that of Uttarakhand High Court Chief Justice KM Joseph, but the Centre has sought recon-

sideration of the proposal for the latter.

Malhotra would be the seventh woman judge in the top court since Independence. Other women judges were ele-vated to the apex court from

high courts.Malhotra joined the legal

profession in 1983 and was enrolled with the Bar Coun-cil of Delhi. She qualified as an Advocate-on-Record in the Supreme Court in 1988 and

has been dealing with sev-eral matters of constitutional importance.

She was one of the promi-nent senior advocates regularly appearing in educational mat-ters pertaining to medical and engineering colleges.

Malhotra was one of the members of the Vishaka Com-mittee on sexual harassment at workplace and was also part of a 10-member committee constituted by the top court to deal with complaints of sexual harassment within the court.

The Bangalore born Mal-hotra was designated senior advocate by the top court in 2007 and became the second woman to be designated as such by the apex court after a gap of over 30 years.

The first woman judge of the apex court was Jus-tice Fathima Beevi who was appointed in 1989, 39 years after the Supreme Court was set up in 1950. She was ele-vated to the apex court after her retirement as judge of the Kerala High Court.

The second was Jus-tice Sujata V Manohar, who started her career as a judge

from the Bombay High Court and rose to become the chief justice of Kerala High Court. She was elevated to the apex court where she remained from November 8, 1994 till August 27, 1999. Justice Ruma Pal fol-lowed Justice Manohar after a gap of almost five months and became the longest-serving woman judge, from January 28, 2000 to June 2, 2006.

After her retirement, it took four years to appoint the next woman judge. Justice Gyan Sudha Misra was elevated to the Supreme Court from the Jharkhand High Court where she was the chief justice. Her tenure in the apex court was from April 30, 2010 to April 27, 2014.

During her stint, she was joined by Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai, who served the apex court between Septem-ber 13, 2011 to October 29, 2014. These two judges also created a history by holding court together as an all-women bench for a day in 2013.

Justice Banumathi had joined the apex court on August 13, 2014 and will retire on July 19, 2020.

Indu Malhotra takes oath as SC judge amid appointment row

NEW DELHI: If the five-mem-ber Collegium of the Supreme Court, which includes the Chief Justice of India, decides that a certain judge has to be appointed, then its word is final and a contrary decision by the government will be con-sidered malafide, senior jurist Fali Nariman has said.

Nariman admitted that the collegium may or may not be split in its decision to send its recommendation back to the government insisting on appointing chief justice KM Joseph of the Uttarakhand high court to the Supreme Court, which may lead to a “confron-tation with the government…we will cross that bridge when we come to it,” he said.

He indicated that the cur-rent impasse over the appoint-ment of a judge may be linked

to the government “still smart-ing” under the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down the par-liament’s decision to vote in favour of the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC), which sought to con-trol the appointment of judges. “The (government) is still very upset about that,” he said.

He indicated that the joint Opposition’s move challeng-ing Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu’s decision to impeach the chief justice in the Supreme Court could become a long drawn-out affair.

First of all, he said, the SC would have to decide whether Naidu’s dismissal is “justicia-ble or not,” meaning, since the matter concerns Parliament, the Court would have to decide whether it has the power to take up such a motion or not.

“If the Court does take that decision, it will then have to decide whether the Vice-Pres-ident’s decision is untenable or not,” Nariman said.

Moreover, he pointed out, when the Opposition goes to court in appeal against the Vice-President, it would be “up to the Chief Justice to decide which court it should be listed in front of.

“That’s because he is still Master of the Roster, irre-spective of the fact that he is involved or not (in this case, in the move to impeach him), and because the question of fixing benches inheres in him. (That prerogative) can’t be taken away or shared with someone else. It inheres in him, and he should say who should decide the matter,” Nariman said. AGENCIES

SC collegium decision final, anything else malafide: Fali

OUR CORRESPONDENT

RAIPUR: Eight Naxals, including six women, were gunned down in an encounter with security forces in Chhat-tisgarh's Bijapur district on Fri-day, the police said.

It was a joint operation of the Chhattisgarh police, the special anti-Naxal Grey-hounds unit of their Telangana counterparts and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), a senior police official said here.

The security forces did not suffer any casualty in the encounter, he said.

Friday's operation comes in the wake of another joint oper-ation of the Greyhounds force and the Chhattisgarh police in Bijapur district last month, in which 10 Maoists had been killed.

Early on Friday morning, gunfight broke out on a remote hillock under the Ilmidi police station limits of Bijapur district which borders on Telangana, Chhattisgarh Special Director General (Anti-Naxal Opera-tions) DM Awasthi said.

Acting on specific intel-

ligence, teams of the Grey-hounds, the CRPF and, Chhattisgarh Police's Special Task Force and District Reserve Guard (DRG) had launched operations in forests along the inter-state border, around 500 km from Raipur, since the night of April 23, he said.

When the security forces were cordoning off the forested hillock, 13 km from Ilmidi, this morning, the gun-battle broke out, he said.

The exchange of fire lasted for about two hours following which the Naxals fled from the spot, the DG said.

"During the search, bodies

of eight ultras, including six women, were recovered. All of them were in uniforms," Awasthi said.

Besides, an SLR rifle, a .303 bore rifle, four .12 bore guns, a single-barrel muzzle loading gun, a .315 bore gun, three hand grenades, six rocket launchers and Maoist literature were seized, he said.

A few more Naxals were injured in the encounter, but the other ultras managed to drag them away from the spot, Awasthi said, adding, "No harm was reported to any person-nel of the security forces in the gunfight."

Eight Naxals gunned down in encounter in C'garh's BijapurSecurity forces did not suffer any casualty

OUR CORRESPONDENT

MUMBAI: Indrani Mukerjea, the key accused in the Sheena Bora murder case, has sought divorce from her husband Peter Mukerjea.

Indrani Mukerjea (46), lodged in Byculla Women's Jail, has served Peter Muker-jea, a co-accused in the case, a legal notice for divorce on the grounds that their mar-riage had "irretrievably broken down". The notice also seeks an amicable financial settlement from Peter Mukerjea before April 30, so that the procedure to dissolve the marriage can be initiated.

She sent the notice by courier to Peter Mukerjea on April 25 through her lawyer. The 64-year-old former media baron is lodged in Arthur Road Jail.

Both the prisons are located in Central Mumbai.

"My client states that your marriage is now irretrievably broken down and there is no chance of a reconciliation. This fact has been acknowledged by you as well," reads the notice.

Indrani Mukerjea was arrested in August 2015 and Peter Mukerjea a few months later. Both are facing trial in the murder case of Sheena Bora (24), Indrani Muker-jea's daughter from a previous relationship.

Bora was abducted and killed in April 2012, allegedly by Indrani Mukerjea, her for-mer husband Sanjeev Khanna and driver Shyamvar Rai in conspiracy with Peter Muker-jea, police have said.

Indrani Mukerjea sends legal notice to

Peter for divorce

SUMIR KAUL

JAMMU: Police investigat-ing the rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in Kathua say that Sanji Ram, one of the main accused, has told them during interroga-tion that he learnt about the rape four days after her abduc-tion, and decided to have her killed because his son was also involved in the sexual assault.

The investigators say the girl, who was kidnapped on January 10, was first raped the same day by Ram's nephew, a juvenile, and was killed on Jan-uary 14. Her body was found on January 17 in a forest.

Along with the juvenile, Ram and his son Vishal, five others have been charged in the case, which has shaken the nation and led to the gov-ernment promulgating an

ordinance mandating death sentence for the rape of a child aged 12 and below.

The investigators told PTI that the girl, from the Muslim Bakarwal community, was kept in a devisthan', a small temple, where Ram was the custodian. The aim of the kidnapping was to scare and drive away the nomadic Gujjar and Bakarwal communities from the Hindu dominated area, they said.

Ram's lawyer Ankur Sharma refused to comment on the investigators' version of the incidents, saying it would not be appropriate for him to dis-cuss defence strategy. At least the defence lawyer should not be commenting on the mer-its of the case. It is like leaking your strategy as a defence law-yer, he told PTI.

Sanjhi claims he found out about the sexual assault only on

January 13 when the nephew confessed to him, according to the investigators. He told them that he had performed prayers at the 'devisthan', and asked his nephew to take prasad home. But the nephew delayed doing so, and in anger Ram beat him up, investigators said.

However, the juvenile thought his uncle had found out that he had raped the girl, and spilled the beans, they said. They claim the juvenile also implicated his cousin, Vishal, saying they both had raped the girl inside the devisthan'.

It was then that Ram decided that time was ripe to kill the girl so as to achieve the ultimate goal of scaring away the nomads, according to the chargesheet filed in the case.

Investigators say Ram also convinced his nephew to con-

fess to the crime.On the intervening night of

January 13 and 14, the juvenile, Vishal and a friend, Parvesh Kumar alias Mannu, took the victim out of the 'devisthan'. They were later joined by a special police officer Deepak Khajuria who wanted to rape her once more before she was killed, they said.

She was murdered on Jan-uary 14 as Ram did not want to leave any evidence that led to his son, investigators have found.

But things did not go quite as planned, they said.

The body of the child was to be transported and disposed of in the Hiranagar canal nearby. However, a vehicle could not be arranged in time. The juvenile, Vishal, Khajuria and Mannu lifted the body and took it back to the 'devisthan' while

Ram kept watch outside, the chargesheet said.

Further investigations showed that Ram told his nephew and his son the next day that his friend had refused to bring a car so the two had to throw it in the jungle.

Preparations for the abduc-tion had started on January 7 when sedatives and 'manar' (local cannabis or bhang) were purchased, the chargesheet said.

The child was sedated with 'manar' and kept in the 'devis-than' covered with a rug and a mattress weighing nearly 15 kg, investigators said.

A senior police officer of the Crime Branch investigating the case consumed the 'manar' tablet in front of his colleagues and the medical team to under-stand the effect of the drug, it is learnt.

The chargesheets -- a sepa-rate chargesheet was filed for the juvenile -- named Ram, his nephew, his son Vishal, SPOs Khajuria and Surender Verma and friend Mannu.

While Ram has been charged with murder, kid-napping and destruction of evidence, Mannu has been charged with kidnapping. The other three have rape added to the list of charges.

The chargesheet also names head constable Tilak Raj and sub-inspector Anand Dutta - who allegedly took Rs. 4 lakh from Sanji Ram and destroyed crucial evidence.

All of them have been charged under Section 120 B of the IPC for criminal con-spiracy. Investigators have also reconstructed the juve-nile's day after he disposed of the body. PTI

'Sanji Ram planned Kathua girl's murder to save son'

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOCHI: The Kerala High Court on Friday directed the CBI and the state government to inform it of their stand on a plea seeking a probe by the cen-tral investigating agency into the alleged custodial death of a 26-year-old-man near here this month.

Considering the plea filed by Akhila, wife of S R Sreejith, who died after allegedly being tortured in tha police custody on April 9, Justice P Somara-jan orally observed whether it was proper for police to con-duct an investigation in a case in which policemen were the key accused.

The state government claimed that proper investiga-tion was being carried out by the Special Investigation Team.

Four accused -- a Sub-Inspector and three police-

men-- have been arrested in connection with the incident, the government said.

The court directed the CBI and the state government to inform it of their stand by May 4 on the plea seeking CBI investigation and posted the hearing to that date.

Sreejith's wife has sought Rs

1 crore compensation for the 'custodial death' of her husband to her and other dependents of the joint family within a time-frame fixed by the court.

In her petition, Akhila stated that she apprehends that the inquiry conducted by police against the officials of their department would not yield expected results.

"It is fair and proper to handover the investigation to

the CBI," she said in the plea.The role of other influential

officers, including the district police chief (rural) and circle inspector of the area, should also be investigated, she said.

Currently, a Special Inves-tigation Team (SIT) headed by Crime Branch IG S Sreejith is probing the case.

SR Sreejith, who was taken into custody by police at Varap-puzha near here in connection with the death of a person early this month, had died in a private hospital. His rela-tives alleged that he died due to the custodial torture. Others who were arrested along with Sreejith in connection with the death of the person also alleged custodial torture.

Police have rejected the allegation saying Sreejith was suspected to have suffered inju-ries during a clash before he was taken into custody.

HC directs CBI, Ker Govt to inform their stand on plea seeking probe

OUR CORRESPONDENT

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Friday rejected Rajiv Gandhi assassination case con-vict Nalini's plea for premature release.

The court had earlier this week said it will pronounce the judgement on Friday on an appeal filed by Nalini, a life convict in former prime min-ister Rajiv Gandhi assassina-tion case.

A division bench, compris-ing Justices KK Sasidharan and R Subramanian, had reserved the order on April 24 on the plea by Nalini, challenging the order of a single judge reject-ing her prayer for premature release under a 1994 state gov-ernment scheme under Article 161 (powers of Governor to grant pardon).

In a February 22, 2014 rep-resentation to the state gov-ernment, Nalini had sought premature release under the

1994 scheme and had later moved the court.

The state government had opposed the plea citing pen-dency of a similar matter in the Supreme Court then.

Following this, the single judge had asked it to consider the representation subject to the outcome of the apex court proceedings.

The Supreme Court had in its March 2016 order made it clear that for premature release pleas under CrPc Section 435, concurrence of the Centre was required in cases handled by central agencies such as the CBI.

Upholding the single judge's order, the division bench said Nalini will have to wait for the outcome of the matter pending before the Supreme Court, and dismissed her appeal.

"The bench is in full agree-ment with the views expressed by the learned single judge," the bench said.

HC turns down Rajiv case convict's plea for release

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Five out of a total of 42 cases of coal block allocation scam have so far been decided by a special court here, with the conviction of Gondwana Ispat Ltd and its director on Friday.

As many as 13 persons and five companies have been held guilty so far in five cases includ-ing today's decision, in which the special court held Gond-wana Ispat Ltd and its director guilty of cheating and criminal conspiracy to get the Majra coal block in Maharashtra allocated to it. In December last year, for-mer Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda was convicted along with former coal sec-retary H C Gupta in a case pertaining to irregularities in allocating Rajhara North coal block in Jharkhand to the Kol-kata-based Vini Iron and Steel Udyog Ltd (VISUL), which also was held guilty.

Five out of 42 coal scam cases decided

by special court

mp nation 7MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Saturday, 28 April, 2018

LONDON: A UK court on Fri-day admitted the bulk of the evidence submitted by the CBI against Vijay Mallya in connec-tion with his ongoing extra-dition trial, giving a boost to India's efforts to bring back the embattled liquor baron to face charges of fraud and money laundering amounting to around Rs 9,000 crore.

The 62-year-old flam-bouyant businessman, who appeared in the Westminis-ter Magistrate's Court here, had his 650,000 pounds bail extended until the next date of hearing on July 11.

When the court recon-venes, oral submissions will be made on closing arguments to be submitted in writing to Judge Emma Arbuthnot over the next two months.

The judge is then expected to indicate plans for a verdict in the case at the next hearing.

During the hearing, the Central Bureau of Investiga-tion (CBI) got a boost as Judge Arbuthnot confirmed that the

bulk of the evidence submitted by it will be admissible.

Friday's hearing comes days after the Indian government's High Court appeal against a previous Westminster Magis-trates' Court extradition ruling that had been denied.

UK-based Sanjeev Kumar Chawla, wanted in India as a key accused in the cricket match-fixing scandal involv-ing former South African cap-tain Hanse Cronje in 2000, had been discharged in Octo-

ber last year on human rights grounds over severe condi-tions in Delhi's Tihar Jail, where the accused was to be held on being extradited. Dis-trict Judge Rebecca Crane had based her verdict to discharge Chawla largely upon the testi-mony of Dr Alan Mitchell, for-mer head of healthcare at the Scottish Prison Service and an elected member of the Euro-pean Council's Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT). PTI

Mallya case: CBI gets boost on evidence admissibility

LONDON: Embattled liquor tycoon Vijay Mallya was back in a UK court on Friday for a hearing in his ongoing extra-dition trial. The 62-year-old, who is wanted in India to face charges of fraud and money laundering amounting to around Rs 9,000 crore, is cur-rently on a 650,000 pounds bail since his arrest on an extradition warrant by Scot-land Yard in April last year.

"It's another day in court", Mallya told reporters outside the Westminster Magistrates' Court here.

Chief Magistrate Emma Arbuthnot is set to consider some additional material sought from the Crown Pros-ecution Service (CPS), arguing on behalf of the Indian gov-

ernment, hear closing argu-ments, and set a timeline for a verdict in the case which is expected by next month.

At the last hearing in the case on March 16, the judge had noted that it was "blin-dingly obvious" that rules were being broken by Indian banks which sanctioned some of the loans to the erstwhile Kingfisher Airlines owned by Mallya.

"There are clear signs that the banks seem to have gone against their own guidelines (in sanctioning some of the loans)," she said, "inviting" the Indian authorities to explain the case against some of the bank officials involved because that relates to the "conspiracy" allegations against Mallya. PTI

It's another day in court for flambouyant bizman

LONDON: Liquor tycoon Vijay Mallya, who had repre-sented Karnataka twice in the Rajya Sabha, on Friday said it was his democratic right to vote in the state assembly polls, but lamanted that he can-not travel to India, where he is wanted to face charges of fraud and money laundering. The 62-year-old former business-man parliamentarian had first represented Karnataka as the member of the Upper House of Parliament between April 10, 2002 and April 9, 2008.

"It is my democratic right to vote in Karnataka, but as you know I am here and can-not travel," he told reporters outside the Westminister Mag-istrate's Court in connection with a hearing in his ongoing extradition trial, to rule if he can be extradited to India to face charges for financial irreg-ularities involving an amount of around Rs 9,000 crores, as well as money laundering cases.

He was re-elected for the Rajya Sabha from the south-ern state on July 1, 2010 and resigned on May 5, 2016 before his the expiry of his term on June 30, 2016. PTI

Mallya: It's my democratic right to vote but can't travel to India

NEW DELHI: The CBI has registered four fresh cases against Principal Commis-sioner Income Tax Tapas Kumar Dutta, who is now under suspension, in con-nection with alleged favours granted by him to business-men, officials said on Friday.

Dutta was arrested by the CBI last year in a case of alleged bribery for giving tax relief to several businessmen who were slapped with severe tax liabili-ties by the Income Tax depart-ment. The CBI had said Dutta, who was Ranchi's Principal Commissioner Income Tax, allegedly entered in to a crimi-nal conspiracy with the officials of his department, business-men, a chartered accountant and several entry operators.

The alleged conspiracy was to get income tax assessment files of different assessee com-panies transferred from Kolk-ata and Hazaribagh to Ranchi, where Dutta was posted, for providing undue favour to the

assesses, charged with heavy tax liability, in return for a huge bribe, the officials said.

In pursuance of the con-spiracy with unknown con-trollers and operators of these assessee companies, business-men Biswanath Agarwal and Santosh Chowdhary arranged addresses so that the business operation and place of keep-ing their account books can be shown to have been shifted to Ranchi. After arranging the addresses, the accused persons got the PANs and assessment files transferred from their respective ITO wards of Kol-kata to Ranchi by filing appli-cations through respective directors of assessee compa-nies. When PANs were trans-ferred, the businessmen filed petitions before Dutta, who allegedly abused his official position and set aside assess-ment orders passed by ITOs of Kolkata, in lieu of illegal grati-fication through Agarwal and Chowdhary. MPOST

CBI registers fresh cases against Principal I-T Commissioner

SRINAGAR: How would you react if you saw a donkey appearing for an exam along with you? No, it’s not a joke. One such incident is actu-ally going viral in the online space. Two years after a cow was issued an admit card to write an examination in Jammu and Kashmir, a hall ticket has apparently been issued to a donkey to appear for a recruit-ment test for naib tehsildars.

A prankster seems to have got an “admit card” issued by Jammu and Kashmir Services Selection Board in the name of ‘Kachur Khar’ (brown donkey) to write the paper scheduled for Sunday. A photograph of the “admit card” is being widely circulated on Twitter and Face-book. The admit card has the animal’s photograph on it.

Social media users were having a field day over the apparent lapse by the authori-ties. One Twitter user lamented the waste of resources the prankster had to indulge in to get the admit card. “It is ridicu-lous to get a system generated card in the name of donkey and then make it a news...,” the user wrote. MPOST

Donkey issued admit card to

write exam in J&K

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Enforce-ment Directorate (ED) on Friday said it has arrested a Mumbai-based Chartered Accountant on money launder-ing charges for illegally routing an estimated Rs 834 crore.

Dinesh Jajodia (51) was arrested by the central probe agency's office in Mumbai under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The agency said Jajodia was a director and authorised signatory to various overseas companies "located in the UAE, Hong Kong and British Vir-gin Islands and is being inves-tigated for his role in aiding laundering of tainted FCCB (foreign currency convertible bonds) amounting to USD 125 million (about Rs 834.37 crore).

"He was a practicing Char-tered Accountant and tax Con-sultant for Geodesic Ltd," the ED said in a statement. It said Geodesic Ltd had raised USD 125 million under FCCB for

which the Citibank, London, acted as a trustee.

"The utilisation of the funds was proposed as investment in foreign subsidiaries or new overseas acquisitions. The amount of USD 125 million was first credited in the over-seas account (Citibank Lon-don) of GL and thereafter was transferred directly into the account of its overseas subsid-iaries like Geodesic Holdings Limited, Mauritius and Geode-sic Technology Solutions Lim-ited, Hong Kong.

"On maturity, Geodesic Ltd had failed to adhere to the commitment given to Citibank, London for the repayment of the amount totalling to USD 157.06 million," it said.

The agency said its probe revealed that Jajodia "hatched a criminal conspiracy to defraud the shareholders as well as FCCB holders (overseas inves-tors) by creating a web of shell companies in various coun-tries through fictitious dealings in order to receive wrongful gains."

ED arrests Mumbai CA in ̀ 834-cr money

laundering case OUR CORRESPONDENT

BENGALURU: Three video advertisements of BJP against the ruling Congress in poll-bound Karnataka were on Friday banned by the Media Certification and Monitoring Committee (MCMC) from being aired on a complaint from KPCC.

The committee restrained the media from airing or shar-ing the advertisements on the ground that they were violative of Election Commission guide-lines. Karnataka is going for assembly elections on May 12.

It was acting on a complaint filed by MLC VS Ugrappa, on behalf the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee, who had contended that the adver-tisements violated the election code of conduct.

The Commissioner of department of information and public relations Harsha PS, in his order, banned airing of 'Jana Virodhi Sarkara' (anti-people government), Viphala Sarkara (failed government), both of 35 seconds duration, and 'Mooru Bhagya' (three fortunes) of 50 seconds.

The order said the video

advertisements violated the Election Commission guidelines.

The permission for these three visual advertisements was given to Ganesh Yaji, state office secretary of the BJP on April 22.

Ugrappa in his complaint said the advertisements were also contrary to the provisions of Indian Penal Code as well as the Representation of Peo-ple's Act.

The complaint said, "Series of television advertisements" have also been published and broadcast across various TV" channels in Karnataka, which are absolutely false and" unveri-fied claims amounting to fur-ther attacks on the" integrity and personal image of the chief minister."

3 BJP ads banned from being aired in poll-bound K'taka

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to next week hear the Centre's plea seeking two more weeks to finalise the draft Cauvery management scheme, saying discussions were being held at various levels, including the political executives.

A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices DY Chandrachud and Indu Mal-hotra said it will hear the mat-ter on May 3, on a plea being mentioned by a counsel for Centre.

The Centre in its plea said "the applicant states and sub-mits that after the aforesaid order dated April 9, passed by the court, steps are being taken in right earnest in finalising the draft scheme to be placed before this court and for the said purpose detailed discus-sions are held at various levels with law officers, technical offi-cers and administrative officers of the Government of India".

It said "discussions are also on way between the political

executives".The Centre said that the for-

malisation of a draft scheme was at an advanced stage and is likely to take approximately two more weeks to enable the government place the draft scheme before the court.

It said that keeping the time schedule fixed by the court in mind, actions were being taken expeditiously.

"However, any action taken in haste may frustrate the very object, intent and purpose of the judgement passed by the court and therefore it is not only desirable but in larger interest of justice that this court may be pleased to grant extension by two weeks, by per-mitting to place draft scheme before this court on or after May 16," the Centre said.

The elections to the Kar-nataka assembly are slated on May 12 and counting of votes on May 15.

On April 9, the apex court had asked the Centre to frame a draft scheme and file it by May 3 for implementation of its judgement on distribution of

water among Tamil Nadu, Kar-nataka and other states.

It had asked the Tamil Nadu and Karnataka governments to ensure that peace prevails till it finalises the Cauvery manage-ment scheme for implementa-tion of its judgment on water distribution. The top court was however critical of the fact that despite a specific direction on the setting up of the scheme within six weeks, the Centre has been unable to do so.

It had said the court had considered the award of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tri-bunal (CWDT) while deciding the water share of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Puduch-erry in its judgement.

Concurring with the griev-ances of Tamil Nadu, it had said the entire judgment has to be complied with by all the stakeholders.

It had said once the Centre places the draft scheme, which would also include Cauvery Water Management Board and Monitoring Authority, it would consider the grievances of all the stakeholder states.

Cauvery: SC to hear Centre's plea seeking 2 weeks to finalise scheme

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The CBI on Fri-day searched the residences of six former and current officials of IDBI Bank in connection with an alleged Rs 600 crore loan fraud case in which Bom-bay Stock Exchange Chairman S Ravi and the heads of two public sector banks have also been booked, officials said here.

The officials whose resi-dences were searched on Fri-day included Amita Narayan, the then CGM of the credit committee of the bank; RK Bansal, then member of the credit committee; SK Sriniva-san, the then executive direc-tor; RS Vidyasagar, regional head ICG of IDBI; Bharat Pal Singh, then deputy managing director, and Medha Joshi, the head of the Risk unit.

In an FIR registered based on a complaint from the Cen-tral Vigilance Commission, the CBI has named 15 IDBI Bank officials who worked at senior levels between 2010 and 2014 when loans were sanctioned

to the companies controlled by former Aircel promoter C Siva-sankaran, they said.

Managing Director and CEO of Indian Bank Kishor Kharat, who was then the MD and CEO of IDBI Bank, his counterpart in Syndicate Bank Melwyn Rego (then deputy managing director in IDBI Bank), and then chair-man-cum-managing director of IDBI Bank M S Raghavan have been named in the FIR.

Also named in the FIR is S Ravi, the Chairman of the Bombay Stock Exchange, who is also an independent direc-tor on the board of IDBI bank.

The sources said his resi-dence was also searched dur-ing the agency's operation that started on Wednesday night.

"He is also the Chairman of IDBI Bank's Audit Commit-tee," according to his bio data on the website of the BSE.

The officials said the agency would soon question all the accused named in the FIR including Ravi, Rego, Kharat, and Raghavan.

BSE chairman among those named in CBI FIR in ̀ 600-cr loan fraudAgency carries out searches

BHOPAL: A court here has issued summons to Facebook and its CEO Mark Zuckerberg on a petition filed by a city-based start-up which accused the social networking giant of hampering and interfering in its business.

Civil Judge Parth Shankar Mishra on April 23 asked US-based Zuckerberg to appear in his court on June 20.

The judge directed that the summons be sent by email.

The judge was hearing a civil suit filed by Swapnil

Rai, who runs a web portal, thetradebook.org, which he claimed is a business network-ing platform.

In the suit, Rai said Face-book had stopped midway his paid advertisement campaign aimed at promoting his portal.

The campaign was sched-uled to be run between April 14 and April 21, 2018, but it was "abruptly and wrongfully" stopped on April 16, the peti-tioner's counsel Ravi Kant Pati-dar said.

The campaign aimed at pro-

motion of the webpage www.thetradebook.org containing registered trademark "trade-feed", he added.

Patidar said Facebook stopped the paid campaign without citing any reason and in the process "hampered" his client's business which was benefiting from the campaign.

The suit demanded that Facebook be restrained from infringing the trademark and interfering in the business of "thetradbook.org", Patidar said. MPOST

MP court summons Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg over a complaint

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Congress on Friday said it is time the judiciary stood firm as it urged the Supreme Court collegium to categorically reiterate its rec-ommendation in favour of Jus-tice K M Joseph and demand reasons from the government for rejecting his name after much delay.

Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said the col-legium should also demand answers from the government for the segregation in appoint-ments of judges by clearing one name and rejecting the other despite its recommendations.

He also hit out at the gov-ernment and condemned the reasons cited by Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, which he dubbed as "fake, spurious and deplorable", for rejecting the recommendations of the Supreme Court collegium.

He said this is the "worst day" for the the first-ever "con-tent-based" assault on the judi-ciary, where the government

only appoints those at key posi-tions who say "Tusi great ho" (you are great) and does not appoint others who do not say so.

"I am exhorting, asking and demanding from the collegium and the country to forthwith reiterate that recommenda-tion leaving the government to reject it second time. So, this is call on the judiciary to face an onslaught by the government and the accusation against the government," he told reporters.

"The collegium, which has taken to its self the power to appoint judges must forthwith immediately and categorically, reiterate its recommendation in favour of (Uttarakhand High Court) Chief Justice Joseph as this is within their jurisdiction.

"The collegium must forth-with seek reasons from the Government for a five or 4-1/2 months delay in even reject-ing Mr Joseph recommenda-tion. Recommendation made in January rejected now," Sing-hvi said.

The Congress leader said

the Collegium must ask on what principle and under what power without the permission the chief justice's segregation was affected between the two judges.

"I say with a heavy heart, I do not say because we want it. But I think it is time the judi-ciary stood firm," he said.

Singh recalled that for-mer CEC TN Seshan refused to hold elections anywhere in the country unless proper officers were appointed in dif-ferent parts of the country as per the choice of the Election Commission.

"The collegium, the time has come, should say no fur-ther appointment will be made unless and until its rec-ommendee, who is reiter-ated for recommendation is again appointed. It is a mat-ter of principle, this is a matter of Siddhant', this is a matter of its institutional integrity of one organ of State speak-ing from position of strength to another co equal organ of State," he said.

It's time judiciary stood firm: Cong

The permission for these three visual advertisements was given to Ganesh Yaji, state office secretary of BJP on April 22

mp editorial8MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Saturday, 28 April, 2018

SUBRATA MAJUMDER A perpetual border settlement between India and China is untenable. Then, why not use economic engage-

ment to soothe the existing relations. Against the backdrop of the US trade war against China, Prime Minister Modi’s reciprocation to Beijing’s urge for an amelioration of ties is a timely step for his Act East Policy, which has been shadowed by China’s BRI (Belt and Road Initiative). India has declined to be party to BRI.

The informal Wuhan Summit has helped morph the Doklam tension into a softer face of China, multiplied by its yearning for India’s support to accentu-ate its role in the Asia Pacific region. A progressive economic engagement must be the outcome of the summit. Given the fact that both countries are the twin propellers for global growth, the inter-dependence between India and China is imperative. China needs India for a bigger market and India needs China for enlarging its foreign investment.

China fears a massive loss of its export market after USA’s double whammy to its exports – by raising tar-iffs on imports from China and culling China’s exports to the world by re-join-ing the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). China is sceptical about the success of its BRI, whose main aim is to step-up exports by utilising the idle capacity if the trade war intensifies.

China is an export-based economy. Trade accounts for 37 per cent of its GDP. India is emerging as an important global market, driven by a high GDP growth and a massive middle-class and non-ageing population pool. India can be a potential offset for China’s loss of exports in the longer run.

Although the Doklam stand-off dumped India-China relations in a damp squib, the relation witnessed chances for resurrection after the Ninth BRICS Summit in China during September 2017. There was a series of diplomatic exchanges between India and China. On December 11, Chinese Foreign Minis-ter Wang Yi visited India. This was fol-lowed by the visits of Yang Jiechi, the State Councilor and Special Represen-tative of China on Boundary Questions. Reciprocating to the Chinese desire for better relations, new Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhle – who was the mastermind behind putting the lid on the Doklam issue as Ambassador to China – vis-ited Beijing for talks with Yang Jiechi.

On April 13, India’s National Security Adviser Ajit Dovel visited Shanghai. On April 21, Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj visited China to take part in a ministerial meeting of the Shang-hai Cooperation Organisation (SCO). Around that time, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also attended the SCO defence ministers’ meeting.

These frequent diplomatic exchanges culminated in the ultimate Modi-Xi Jinping informal summit, according to Global Times, a leading national daily in China. Such intense series of high-level diplomatic exchanges have rarely unfolded earlier, signalling the aspira-tions of both countries in improving the existing relations, the daily said. “Fric-tion can be handled with deft diplomacy. With the return of frequent and attentive diplomatic exchanges, the two sides can quickly work out their issues,” it added.

What has driven China to make a somersault on its anti-India protest? Is it a fear from its own people, who are doing conducive business in India or, is it to find a major alternative market after the trade war was intensified by the US – China’s biggest export destination?

Modi was not averse to economic engagement with China. He established

his relation with China well before he became Prime Minister. As Chief Min-ister of Gujarat, he had visited China on four occasions.

Unlike his predecessor, Modi tried to woo Chinese investment, despite the prevailing security concerns. Instead of resorting to a trade war to cut the trade deficit, the Modi administration took viable economic steps by enlarging Chi-nese investment

Chinese companies too benefitted from this improved economic engage-ment. Starting 2015, Chinese investment in India surged eight times and China became the eighth-biggest foreign inves-tor in India from the 26th position. Six top brand Chinese smartphone makers, viz, Xiaomi, Oppo, OnePlus, Gionee, Vivo, Huawei, have set up their manu-facturing operations in India. During 2016, Chinese companies had proposed USD 2.3 billion worth of investment in the country.

As a result, India emerged as the engine for the global presence of Chi-nese mobile manufacturing companies. India accounts for 60 to 70 per cent of the global sales of these Chinese com-panies. For Xiaomi’s smartphones, India accounts for 67 per cent of its global

sales. For Vivo, it is 73 per cent and Oppo 48 per cent; for Gionee it is one-fourth.

India’s potency sparked after China lost its vigour as a low-cost global work-shop. According to FDI Intelligence, an outfit of Financial Times, UK, India replaced China as a recipient of FDI in greenfield projects in 2015. FDI in greenfield in India increased by 37 per cent in 2015 and surged further by 18 per cent in 2016, bringing in a cumula-tive growth of over 50 per cent.

The interest for economic engage-ment between the two countries accel-erated further after the successful launching of AIIB (Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank) in 2014. It was Chi-na’s initiative, which led to the setting up of an alternative Asian mega financial institution on the lines of ADB. China is the biggest stakeholder in AIIB and India is the second biggest. It entrusts more power to India in the disburse-ment of loans than ADB.

Summing up, Modi’s strategy for economic partnership with China, despite the political differences, is a timely attempt to benefit from the rag-ing Chinese economic power. IPA

(The views expressed are strictly personal)

Rekindling Indo-China sparkEDITORIAL

The Wuhan Summit creates a new template for economic engagement – India can benefit from Chinese economic muscle

China is an export-based economy. Trade accounts for 37 per cent of its GDP. India is emerging as an important global market, driven by a high GDP growth and a massive middle-class and non-ageing population pool. India can be a potential offset for China’s loss of exports in the longer run

With about three weeks to go before the Kar-nataka Assembly election is held on May 12, political parties have finalised their list of can-didates and nominations have been duly filed.

The electioneering is at its peak, with a range of top leaders from the BJP and the ruling Congress holding extensive ral-lies across the state. Nervousness in running through all the parties and there are deep resentments over the distribution of party tickets. While 11 Congress candidates are said to be contesting from more than one seat, the BJP camp is angry over the denial of party tickets to some probable candidates. The Karnataka Assembly, with 225 seats, is a crucial elec-tion for both the BJP and the Congress. The BJP must put up a good show to maintain its winning streak till the 2019 general elections in the country. The Congress has to retain its power in the state to reflect that the party is resilient and capable of fighting back. The Karnataka election results are important in how they will impact the national politics in a more definite term. Whoever wins the election will have a psychological advantage in the elections that follow. And, there are important assembly elections due in the coming months of 2018. They include assembly elections in Mad-hya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan. In all these states, the BJP is in power and an anti-incumbency factor affecting the prospects of the ruling party, cannot be denied. If BJP wins the Karnataka election, psychologically it will be bet-ter slated to contest the elections in the other states. But, if the Congress is able to retain power in the state, it will gain confidence when approaching the assembly elections that are scheduled to be held before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. In the political rallies conducted by the top leaders so far, national issues rather than local issues have dominated the discourse. The Congress has been trying to corner the BJP on the issue of Dalit politics. The party has blamed the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi for being anti-Dalit. The BJP in its reply says that the party has accorded the highest respect to Dr BR Ambedkar and is following his ideals while the Congress had jettisoned Ambedkar for good. The Con-gress has also raised questions over the safety and security of Dalits, minorities, women and children, stating that no one is safe under the NDA government. On its part, the party has accorded the status of a separate religion to the Lingayat community. This move helps the Congress consolidate its grip on the Dalit and minority votes. Meanwhile, the last date for filing the nominations for the Karnataka Assembly election has passed and some of the most probable candidates have not found a mention in the party ticket list declared by the BJP. State BJP chief BS Yeddyurappa announced that his son BY Vijayendra will not contest from the Varuna Assembly seat. Another close confidante of the state BJP chief, Shobha Karandlaje too has been denied a ticket to contest from Yesh-wanthpur in Bengaluru. Many leaders feared that she could be a potential chief ministerial candidate at some point. Shobha is currently an MP from Udupi-Chickmagalur. The announcement of the denial of ticket to Yeddyurappa’s son led to angry reactions from several party workers. They threw chairs and created a ruckus at the party event. However, BY Vijayendra has been appointed as State General Secretary, Yuva Morcha. “His addition will greatly boost the party cadre and strengthen our organisation in the Old Mysuru region,” the party announced. He is likely to campaign extensively in the Old Mysuru periphery.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s son Dr Yathindra is the Congress candidate in Varuna. Siddaramaiah is contesting from neighbouring Chamundeshwari and Badami in north Karnataka. He has previously represented Varuna after it became a constituency in 2008. Yeddyurappa’s elder son BY Raghavendra is the sitting member of the assembly from Shikaripura in Shivamogga district. Now, state BJP chief Yeddyurappa is contesting from Shikaripura. The denial of ticket to Vijayendra hints at an act of lobbying by the detrac-tors of Yeddyurappa. For long, parliamentary affairs minister Ananth Kumar has been considered a rival of Yeddyurappa. The BJP central leadership appears to be propping up Yed-dyurappa as the chief ministerial candidate. At the same time, it is also giving ample space to his opponents. Reddy brothers and their associate B Sriramulu are being favoured. Sriramulu will contest from Badami against CM Siddara-maiah. This will be Sriramulu’s second seat of contestation.

Suddenly, matters are getting a trifle too serious for Prime Minister Theresa May. And, the Brexit chaos has been getting worse. Lawmakers are set to hold a nonbinding vote on the future of Britain’s trade after

Brexit. It is a vote that could set in motion a series of events that could give the proverbial jitters to the government and add to its apprehensions. Amidst all the dissatisfaction, sound and fury within the ruling Conservatives in Britain, one sound, in particular, has been unmistakable: that of ris-ing Tory angst about the party’s future. It might be strange to witness such self-doubt at the moment. Britain’s depar-ture from the EU looked set to realise so many Conservative dreams. But, Brexit is perhaps one of those classic pyrrhic victories that cheers the “troops” while sowing the seeds of a seismic defeat that may lie just around the corner. Indeed, it is quite something that the Tories are still neck-to-neck with Labour in the polls, and they could still win the next election. But, their position nonetheless suggests encroach-ing twilight, for reasons that run much deeper than Theresa May’s shortcomings. The evidence is plain. At the last general election, Labour was way ahead in all age categories under 40. The fact that the polarities were completely reversed among the over-50s heralded a new politics deeply divided along generational lines, with the Tories seemingly on the wrong side of history. While Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour party can justifiably claim to be a mass movement, the Conservatives have not released any membership figures since 2013 and are reckoned to have as few as 70,000 members. According to recent polling, 71 per cent of Conservative members are men and 44 per cent are aged 65 or over. Even as the Tories have virtually ossified, the long, fitful process of moderni-sation that began in the wake of the John Major years has had some successes. Brexit has turned out to be this strand of Conservatism’s nemesis. Britain’s housing crisis and the impossibility of home ownership for countless people under 40 surely demands something different. From time to time, there have been attempts to come up with a Conservatism more relevant to people’s 21st-century problems. If a Tory reformation is what is needed, there is a Conservative polit-ical tradition that screams out for a revival: pragmatic and moderate. It is one of the grimmer aspects of Theresa May’s fate that in her brief burst of confidence, before the last elec-tion smashed her dreams to bits, this seemed to be where she was headed. Huge changes to technology, work and the age balance of the population are demanding new thinking from all sides. Meanwhile, Toryism seems to be all but limp-ing. Such, indeed, is the fate of a sharply divided ruling party.

The Karnataka game plan

Boomerangs of Brexit

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Niti Aayog vice-chairman Rajiv Kumar has an ominous warning for Delhiites – the capital could face the fate of Cape Town, where taps will completely dry up, predictably in the next 15 years. Kumar proposes setting up the Yamuna River Authority to take necessary steps to avoid the water crisis in the capital. He said immediate measures needed to be taken to prevent the crisis. Cape Town, a coastal city in South Africa, has been facing a severe water shortage since 2015. Will the authorities now wake up? PRITISHA NAIK Via email

Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter

Quote martial

JOHN KEATS

SHUTAPA PAUL Heard about the latest bank loan fraud? The Central Bureau of Investi-

gation (CBI) has booked 15 senior bankers at IDBI Bank for disbursing Rs 600 crore as loans to the former promoter of Air-cel, C Sivasankaran’s two firms. According to reports, IDBI Bank boasts of the worst non-performing assets (NPAs) at 24.72 per cent among all Indian banks. This is not the first time that IDBI Bank has been in the news for the wrong reasons. In 2017, officials of the bank were charged with granting loans to Vijay Mallya’s Kingfisher Air-lines. Mallya, in true ‘King of Good Times’ spirit, continues to live his life unflummoxed by the defaulter tag and is, in fact, preparing to tie the knot for the third time.

IDBI Bank joins a long list of unravelling banking scams ranging from Punjab National Bank (PNB) and ICICI Bank to State Bank of India and Canara Bank. The sorry state of the Indian banking system is alarming as customers lose trust in financial institutions. Even more perturbing is the systemic breakdown of all our institutions. Pundits will find enough fodder to critique the stark mismanagement of our institutions; but, what does it mean to the ‘aam aadmi’? To the common man, the country is a welfare state. The government

and its institutions are meant to protect and safeguard the inter-ests of all its citizens. But, when a select group of privileged peo-ple get away with scams, load frauds, corruption, and some-times even murder, you know that the system is not work-ing for the ordinary citizen. The proposed Financial Reso-lution and Deposit Insurance Bill, 2017 has a ‘bail-in’ clause whereby depositor money can be utilised by financial institu-

tions to stay in business. Also, the Resolution Corporation can take our money in case a bank crashes and then decide on the amount that will be insured to every depositor. If the loans given to crooks will eventually be paid from the coffers of hon-est customers, then perhaps it is best to stash our hard-earned savings in pillows and under mattresses like the days of yore.

The common man is taught to believe in the system. If you

vote, then you choose your own democratically-elected repre-sentative. But, when allegations of rigging through tampered Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) come out against the Election Commission (EC), they lose faith in exercising their franchise. When the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) suddenly strips Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes of their legal tender status and then follows it up with confusing and oft-chang-

ing statements, the common man loses faith in the central bank. And, when police officials actively collude and conspire to gangrape an eight-year-old girl in Kathua, the ‘aam aadmi’ believes that the police cannot protect us. With the collapse of each institution, the common man has no reason to believe in good governance.

The atmosphere around us is bleak, the people are either hopeless or cynical. Make no mistake…this rot in the system is old, it has been festering for years. So deep runs this mal-aise, that sometimes treating it seems futile. Governments, past and present, have helped shat-ter the ethics and ideals of each institution. They have bent and used every entity for their own selfish purpose. While the com-mon man looked up to these institutions as their guardians – unbeknownst to them, the decay has been spreading its tentacles into every aspect of governance. The end result: the common man will lose com-plete confidence in the govern-ment and its governance. This loss of faith can cause anarchy, chaos, and maybe even a peo-ple’s revolution. Perhaps that is what we need to take back control of in our own country. Can you hear the stirrings of a rebellion?(The writer is a journalist and

media entrepreneur. Views expressed are strictly personal)

The atmosphere around us is bleak, the people are either hopeless or cynical. Make no mistake…this rot in the system is old, it has been festering for years. So deep runs this malaise, that sometimes treating it seems futile

Absence of accountability and the vanishing pedals of justice are deepening the rot in our institutions

Breakdown of institutions

As entitled crooks walk free, the ordinary citizen’s faith in institutions is being decomposed

Prime Minister Modi must attempt to capitalise on China’s economic might

DR. ARUN MITRA

DIPANKAR DEY

At the recently held campaigners meet of the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize Laure-

ate organisation, at Geneva – ICAN (International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons), has appealed voraciously to world leaders to attend to the wake-up call of the impending threat that nuclear weapons pose today. Their very presence is of grave danger to the existence of life on earth. Extensive studies done in this regard have shown that even a limited nuclear exchange between India and Pakistan using 100 Hiroshima-sized nuclear bombs would put two billion people at risk. But, a larger nuclear exchange between the US and Russia could lead to the extinction of all forms of life from earth.

The contention that nuclear weapons serve as deterrence is totally unfounded. Peace can-not be sustained on the basis of fear; peace is long-lasting only when it is based on a com-mon ground of mutual respect and trust. Despite the pres-ence of nuclear weapons and the threat of their use, peace is a far cry and conflicts are rag-ing abundantly in several parts of the world. These low-level skirmishes could, at any time, escalate into larger conflicts, which could, in turn, develop into a nuclear exchange.

Even if nuclear weapons are not used, their manufacture, possession, putting them on alert and maintenance cost huge amounts, which could have oth-erwise been used for people’s well-being. The nuclear-armed states spend close to USD 300 million (Rs 2000 crores) every day on the upkeep of nuclear forces. The global annual expen-diture on nuclear arms is around USD 105 billion or USD 12 mil-lion an hour. As per the World Bank estimates, only half of the annual global expenditure

would be sufficient to meet the requirements of the poverty alleviation programme. As the fifth largest spender on arms, with an annual outlay of nearly USD 60 billion, India is pres-ently the biggest buyer of arms with 12 per cent share in the total global arms imports. The situation in Pakistan is dan-gerously similar. Whereas the central government’s spending on its arms budget is 1.62 per cent of the GDP, the amount spent on health is only a mea-gre 0.29 per cent. Former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has said clearly, “The world is over-armed and peace is under-

funded. The end of the Cold War had led the world to expect a massive peace dividend. Yet, there are 20,000 nuclear weap-ons around the world. Many of them are on a hair trigger alert, threatening our own survival.”

According to the govern-ment’s own data, 30 per cent of our population continues to reside below the poverty line; which means that about 42 crore people of the country are devoid of basic food requirements. As a result, as per the report of the Food and Agriculture Organisa-tion of the UNO, there are 194.6 million people in India who are undernourished. India accounts

for 22 per cent of the 6.3 mil-lion deaths every year globally, in the under-five-years of age category. Similarly, about 45,000 mothers die every year due to causes related to childbirth. This accounts for 17 per cent of such deaths globally.

With the government’s def-inition of below poverty line (BPL) being an income of Rs 32 per day in rural and Rs 47 per day in urban areas, it can be eas-ily deciphered how it is impos-sible for the average population of the country to get access to a balanced meal with sufficient nutrients at the present rate of inflation.

Our people need money, which should be equitably dis-tributed for them to live a decent respectable life. But, we too are trapped in the unnecessary arms race. This wasteful expenditure, if utilised for welfare, can easily fulfil the basic needs for food, shelter, education and health-care of our people.

It is, therefore, high-time that these concerns are high-lighted and actively integrated into public discourse. IPA

(The author is senior vice President Indian Doctors for

Peace and Development. The views expressed are

strictly personal)

Virtual/embedded water is the amount of water used in the production of food, energy and other products. If a country decides to rely more on imported food, it can save an enormous amount of its own water which would have otherwise been used for cultivation

The contention that nuclear weapons serve as deterrence is totally unfounded. Peace cannot be sustained on the basis of fear; peace is long-lasting only when it is based on a common ground of mutual respect and trust

Challenges of embedded waterBy exporting tons of agricultural produce, India is sacrificing its fresh water reserve

End nuclear muscle-flexing

The requirement of water to produce few selected food items like rice (husked), beef, wheat and tea in India

is 3702, 16482,1654 and 7002 cubic metres per ton respectively. However, it varies depending on the country and the varieties cultivated. India is the largest exporter of rice and the third largest exporter of beef in the world. In 2016-17, India exported 10.3 million MT of rice (China was the largest importer with five mil-lion MT of rice). Thus, along with rice, India also exported 381.30 bil-lion cubic metres of embedded water. In 2016, India exported 1.56 million tons of beef. In turn, exporting 25.71 billion cubic meters of embedded water along with the beef!

Water economyThe energy and water intensive

agriculture practices, followed since the 1950s, have already caused severe damage to the ecology through an indiscriminate use of fossil fuel based chemical fertilisers and underground water. Thus, both air and water have been contaminated. Eventually, these two common properties, available for free since the advent of human civilisation, have been turned into economic goods.

Water scarcity has emerged as one of the prime economic and envi-ronmental issues of this century. The Stockholm International Water Insti-tute has calculated that more than 1.4 billion people live in closed basins where existing water cannot meet the society’s agricultural, industrial, municipal and environmental needs. The World Bank and the Govern-ment of China have estimated, for instance, that more than 54 per cent of water in the seven prime rivers of China has become unusable because of pollution.

A team of hydrologists of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Centre in Greenbelt has found that northern India’s underground water supply was being pumped and consumed by human activities, such as irrigat-ing cropland. According to them, between 2002 and 2008, more than 108 cubic km of groundwater has dis-appeared from aquifers in Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan and Delhi. Rapid urbanisation, especially after the green revolution, has also increased domestic and industrial demand for water.

In 2008, the global water market was estimated at $316 billion and

transactions in the Asian market, the fastest growing water market in the world, were around $120 billion in a year. In 2016, the global water and wastewater treatment market size was valued at USD 478.15 billion and, it is expected to reach USD 674.72 bil-lion by 2025.

Expecting a high return from this fast-growing market, huge pri-vate investments are being made by large corporations across the world in various water projects. The indus-try was propelled by the enactment of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) in 1995, which seeks to enhance the power of trans-national corporations over govern-ments (national, state and local) and reduce their scope in providing basic human services such as health, edu-cation and water.

In as early as 2002, the European Union had first opened the discussion on foreign participation for water dis-tribution in developing countries. Then, in 2005, during negotiations on GATS under the WTO Doha Devel-opment Round, they proposed that,

in exchange for access to the water markets, developing and least devel-oped countries (LDCs) would receive access to the desired western markets. Simply, it means that the developing countries would get market access of their agricultural products in the EU on the condition that they (develop-ing countries) open their water sec-tor to the water TNCs.

In 1999, the privatisation of municipal water and sanitation com-pany SEMAPA, in Cochabamba—Bolivia’s third-largest city, was a glaring example of corporate dom-inance over the governments on the supply of vital necessitates like water. Considering the huge growth potential of the water market, several energy utilities have diversified into water utilities.

Few major transnational water utilities dominating the market are GE Water & Process Technologies, 3M Purification, Calgon Carbon, Aqua Tech International, Dana-her, GDF SUEZ, Degremont, Veo-lia Water Solutions & Technologies, and Siemens.

The virtual water tradeIn addition to the ‘real’ water mar-

ket, there exists, though somewhat dormant at present, a large market of ‘virtual water’. Virtual/embedded water is the amount of water used in the production of food, energy and other products. If a country decides to rely more on imported food, it can save an enormous amount of its own water which would have otherwise been used for cultivation. For exam-ple, to produce one ton of wheat, say, 1654 cubic meters of water is required. Thus, if India exports one ton of wheat then there is a virtual flow of 1654 cubic meters of water from India to the importing coun-try and the importer saves nearly the same quantity of water.

Large parts of North and South America, Australia, South Asia, and Central Africa are net exporters of virtual water. Most of Europe, Japan, North and South Africa, the Mid-dle East, Mexico, and Indonesia, in contrast, are net importers of virtual water. It has been claimed that one solution to water scarcity involves

the accounting of virtual water while designing the global trade policy. Suggestions have been made to set-up a ‘virtual water-trading council’, under the World Trade Organisation (WTO), to help ‘manage both real and virtual water resources for the world’s booming population’.

The EU has taken a conscious decision to save their scarce water resources by shifting the burden of cultivation to developing coun-tries. The water import dependence (WID) data of few major economies of Europe will corroborate this obser-vation. WID is the ratio between the water footprint of a country’s import and its total water footprints (water footprint is the volume of water used to produce goods and services, including imports that people con-sume). The higher the ratio, the more a country depends on outside water sources.

During 1997-2001, the WID of the Netherlands, UK, Germany, Italy France and Spain were (in per cent) 82, 70, 53, 51, 37 and 36 respectively. The corresponding figures for India,

Bangladesh, China, and Brazil are (in per cent) 2, 3, 7 and 8. Thus, during 1997-2001, the Netherlands could reduce, through imports, the coun-try’s total water footprints by 82 per cent compared to India’s 2 per cent! In simple language, this means that the Netherlands had mostly imported water-intensive products and India imported products which were gen-erally not water intensive.

ConcernsExport of agricultural products

not only deprives India’s malnour-ished population of food, it also transfers huge quantities of embed-ded water from rural India to the importing countries. India is already facing a serious burden of under-nutrition. The Global Nutrition Report 2017 shows that more than half the women of reproductive age in the country suffer from anaemia. The Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2017 ranked India 97th out of 118 coun-tries with a serious hunger situation.

In the future, importing northern nations might ask for water labels to guarantee that only pure (and prefer-ably from renewable sources) water is used in the production of exported food items. By discouraging the use of arsenic and lead contaminated underground water in cultivation and animal husbandry, water labels will ensure the safety of their imported food.

In such a scenario, which is very likely, the organic food exporters of India, targeting the developed coun-try markets, will increasingly rely on renewable natural water sources for cultivation. Funds will be diverted to develop water bodies to serve that purpose. And, the food processing plants will collaborate with the major water utilities of those importing developed countries to guarantee that the water purification level, as specified in the water standard, is maintained.

While the citizens of the import-ing countries of the north would consume green products, a large number of Indians would lose their basic rights on water. The state of the already polluted water sources, which cater to the needs of the unprivileged sections of the local population, will be further deteriorated. The exist-ing dualism in the production and consumption of food and water will widen further.

(The views expressed are strictly personal)

Voices must be raised to end the nuclear arms race as vital resources are being diverted from preliminary development

tweetRETWEET

NARENDRA MODI @narendramodi

President Xi and I will exchange views on a range of issues of bilateral and global importance. We will discuss our respective visions and priorities for national development, particularly in the context of current and future international situation.

KAPIL SIBAL @KapilSibal

CJI refuses to soon hear challenge to CJ K M Joseph's elevation to Supreme Court. "It's no demolition matter says Chief Justice." It is a demolition matter Chief; demolition of the Judiciary. Judiciary must stand up and speak in one voice.

RAMESH SRIVATS @rameshsrivats 

#ModiInChina Modi: Please go away from Doklam, stay out of PoK, and stop opposing our entry into NSG.Xi: And what you give us in return?Modi: We wil ban Paneer Manchurian.Xi: Wow! Done. Shake hands.

EMMA WATSON @EmmaWatson

Remembering the 1,134 people killed at #RanaPlaza five years ago, and all the garment workers & trade unionists still fighting for safer workplaces today

Exporting rice is leading to massive losses in India’s virtual water reserve

9mp in focusMILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Saturday, 28 April, 2018

Nuclear weapons do not only threaten existence of life; their maintenance and upkeep also drain the exchequer

mp world10MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Saturday, 28 April, 2018

Curbs on India over Russia S-400 deal to hit US: Mattis

WASHINGTON DC: Defence Secretary Jim Mattis on Fri-day appealed to the Congress to urgently provide India the national security waiver, saying imposing sanctions on it under a newly-enacted law for buy-ing the S-400 air defence mis-sile system from Russia would only hit the US.

During a Congressional hearing held by the Senate Armed Services Committee, Mattis told American lawmak-ers that the national security waiver should be urgently pro-vided to India and other coun-tries which are trying to turn away from formerly Russian-sourced weapons to avoid sanctions under Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA).

CAATSA, which was signed into law in August 2017 and went into effect in January this year, mandates the Trump administration to punish enti-ties engaging in significant transaction with the defence or intelligence sectors of Russia.

India is currently in an advance stage of negotiations with Russia for five S-400 sys-tem worth an estimated USD 4.5 billion.

The S-400 Triumf long-range air defence missile sys-tem has the capability to destroy incoming hostile aircraft, mis-siles and even drones at ranges of up to 400 km. The S-400 mis-sile system can fire three types of missiles and simultaneously

engage 36 targets, thereby cre-ating a layered defence.

Unlike other legislations, there is no national security interest waiver under CAATSA. And imposing sanctions on countries like India would only hit the United States, Mattis said.

"There is no national secu-rity waiver to what is referred to as the CAATSA Act, the spe-cific act that says that, if another nation buys military equipment from Russia, then we will not sell them ours," Mattis told lawmakers

"There are nations in the world which are trying to turn away from formerly Russian-sourced weapons and systems like this. We only need to look at India, Vietnam and some others to recognise that, even-tually, we're going to paralyse ourselves, he said. "So what we ask for is that the Senate and the House pass a national security waiver in the hand of the secre-tary of state -- I'm not asking for

myself. Foreign policy is driven from Foggy Bottom. So, if he has the waiver authority and I can go to him and show it's in our best interest, then we get an inter-nal management of this pro-cess, but it keeps us from being boxed in by the Russians, Mattis said. The Defence Secretary was responding to a question from Senator Jack Reed on Russia sanctions. "In the wake of the annexation of Crimea and the activity in Ukraine, Congress, in the 2015 NDAA, prohibited bilateral military-military coop-eration with Russia, which, at the time, seemed to make per-fectly good sense, he said.

"At this moment, when we're in a very challenging situation in many areas of the world, would it make sense to review those provisions and give you more flexibility in ways in which you could conduct military-to-military dialogue with Rus-sia in certain situations? Reed asked. AGENCIES

China law criminalises attacks on revolutionary heroes

BEIJING: China passed a law on Friday making it a crime to attack revolutionary heroes and martyrs as the ruling Com-munist Party steps up efforts to police historical discussions and enforce ideology.

The new law bans criticism or questioning of the folklore surrounding the 1949 forma-tion of the People's Republic by Communist revolutionar-ies, and also prohibits acts that glorify historical episodes con-sidered unpatriotic, such as Japan's 20th century invasion of China.

The notice on the law's pas-sage did not specify penalties but said violators would be pur-sued by the authorities.

Since taking power in 2012, President Xi Jinping has called for tighter ideolog-ical discipline across society and enhanced patriotic edu-cation. Academics who criti-cized Mao Zedong have been silenced or sacked, while pro-paganda authorities have rolled out a series of polished media

campaigns reminding citi-zens of the party's historical accomplishments.

Dissident intellectuals say the measures further constrict the space for open discussion about China's history, leaving the party line irreproachable by default.

Stories detailing Commu-nist sacrifices against the Japa-nese make up significant parts of the party's founding narra-tive, although outside histori-ans question the party's overall contribution to victory in 1945.

The "Heroes and Martyrs Protection Law" was foreshad-owed in 2016, when a Beijing court ordered a historian to apologize for two essays that questioned whether the story of the "Five Heroes of Langya Mountain" Communist sol-diers who leapt to their death from a mountain peak instead of surrendering to Japanese troops really took place. The liberal journal that published the article, Yanhuang Chun-qiu, was effectively shuttered by authorities that year. AGENCIES

CIA chief Mike Pompeo sworn in as new

US Secretary of StateWASHINGTON DC: Mike Pompeo was on Friday sworn in as the Secretary of State, shortly after the Senate con-firmed the former CIA Direc-tor's nomination as America's top diplomat at a crucial time when the US is involved in sev-eral high stakes negotiations around the world.

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito administered the oath to Pompeo in the West Conference Room of the Supreme Court, State Depart-ment Spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement.

Immediately after the swearing in ceremony, the US State Department announced that Pompeo, America's 70th Secretary of State, will be trav-elling to Brussels, Riyadh, Jeru-salem, and Amman from April 26 to April 30.

Earlier in the day, Pompeo, 54, was confirmed by the Sen-ate by 57-42 votes.

He replaced Rex Tillerson, who was fired by President Donald Trump last month.

Pompeo's nomination met

with stiff resistance from Dem-ocrats, including the ranking member of the Senate For-eign Relations Committee, Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, who voiced "lingering concerns" about Pompeo in remarks ahead of the vote and hit back against Republicans who have characterised Demo-cratic opposition as a partisan political tactic.

Trump, while congratulat-ing Pompeo, said, "Having a patriot of Mike's immense tal-ent, energy, and intellect lead-ing the Department of State will be an incredible asset for our country at this critical time in history."

"He will always put the interests of America first. He has my trust.

He has my support. On Fri-day, he has my congratulations on becoming America's 70th Secretary of State, he said.

"The Secretary looks for-ward to meeting key Allies and partners on his first official trip as Secretary of State," Nauert said. AGENCIES

To get UK passport, Meghan needs time, money, memoryLONDON: How tall is the London Eye? Who opened Britain's first Indian restau-rant? Who was the fifth wife of Henry VIII? If Meghan Mar-kle doesn't already know the answers, she needs to start studying.

All three are potential ques-tions on a test given to those who like Prince Harry's fian-cee want to become British citizens.

Kensington Palace says the California-born Markle intends to take UK citizenship after she marries Harry on May 19 at Windsor Castle.

But Markle will soon dis-cover that it takes more than marrying a prince to become British. It also requires time, money, a good memory for obscure British trivia and the ability to untangle red tape.

Immigration lawyer Colin Yeo says the road to British cit-izenship is "insanely complex." "It's very easy to make mistakes because the requirements are so very precise," he said.

Britain's royal family has become a lot more welcoming

to American divorcees since the last time one tried to join the clan.

When King Edward VIII wanted to marry twice-divorced Wallis Simpson, it sparked a constitutional cri-sis. The king abdicated in 1936, saying he could not reign "with-out the help and support of the woman I love." But while Brit-ain is rolling out the welcome mat for Markle, it has placed ever-bigger hurdles in the way of less well-connected or well-funded immigrants.

Britain's Conservative gov-ernment tightened immigra-tion rules in 2012 to help it meet a self-imposed target of reducing net immigration to less than 100,000 people a year. (It's currently over 200,000). The target was set at a time when public attitudes to immigration were hardening. A desire to cut immigration was a major factor for many in the UK who voted in 2016 for Britain to leave the Euro-pean Union.

But critics say the immigra-tion rules are rigid and unfair,

giving the affluent an advantage over the less well-off.

Non-EU citizens who marry Britons typically must obtain a spousal visa, then live in the U.K. for five years before they can apply for permanent-resident status or citizenship.

To get her visa, the 36-year-old Markle will have to provide evidence that her relationship with Harry is genuine and she really is divorced from her first husband, Trevor Engelson.

She also must show that Harry earns at least 18,600

pounds ( 26,000) a year or has 62,500 pounds ( 87,100) in sav-ings, and can provide accom-modation "without recourse to public funds." That shouldn't be a problem for this particu-lar couple who can also afford the fees, which can amount to almost 7,000 pounds ( 9,760) during the process.

But many less-affluent couples struggle to meet the cost. Between 2012 and 2014, 30,000 applications to bring a non-British spouse to the U.K. were refused. Yeo says the min-

imum-income rule has created thousands of "Skype families" in which parents are forced to live in different countries.

"(The rule) discriminates against women, young people and ethnic minorities, who are less likely to be earning more and people outside London," who on average learn lower wages, Yeo said.

Other prospective immi-grants have been rejected because of increasingly strin-gent demands for documenta-tion. The British government is currently facing intense criticism and charges of rac-ism over its treatment of thou-sands of people who came to Britain from the Caribbean as children in the decades after World War II.'

They had the right to live in Britain, but many have recently been denied jobs or medical treatment, or even threatened with deportation, because they cannot produce paper-work to prove their right to live here. The government has also admitted that in a clear-out a few years ago, it destroyed the

landing records of many people from the Caribbean.

Caitlin Milazzo, a U.S.-born academic who got British citi-zenship in January after living in the country for 6 1/2 years, advises Markle to pay attention to the details when she is pre-paring her application.

"The rules are quite com-plicated, but generally if you are up on the process it makes it a little bit easier to prepare," Milazzo said.

Markle will doubtless have the best legal and adminis-trative advice available and may also get special treat-ment. In exceptional circum-stances, immigration officials are allowed to bend some of the rules.

But Milazzo hopes Mar-kle won't get an easy ride just because she is marrying a royal.

"They should just say there is one rule for everyone, rich or poor these are the require-ments that apply to everyone, no matter if you're royalty or someone coming in as a nurse," she said. "But I know that's not how the world works." AGENCIES

William and Kate name son Louis Arthur Charles

LONDON: Britain's Prince William and his wife Kate have named their baby son Louis Arthur Charles, Kensington Palace announced on Friday.

"The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are delighted to announce that they have named their son Louis Arthur Charles," said a palace statement.

"The baby will be known as His Royal Highness Prince Louis of Cambridge." The name pays tribute to William's great-great uncle Louis Mountbatten, who was killed by the IRA in 1979, while Charles is the name of William's father. Arthur had been the bookmakers' favourite for the couple's third child.

Louis is currently the 71st most popular name for a baby

boy in England and Wales.Louis weighed eight pounds

and seven ounces (3.8 kilo-grammes) when he was born at 11:01 am on Monday with Wil-liam, the Duke of Cambridge, present for the birth.

The couple stepped out of St. Mary's Hospital in central London to cheers from a crowd of supporters and global media outlets gathered outside.

Their two other children -- Prince George, aged four, and two-year-old Princess Char-lotte -- had met the latest addi-tion to the family earlier in the afternoon, before returning home to Kensington Palace.

Louis is a sixth great-grand-child for Queen Elizabeth, who turned 92 on Saturday, and her husband Prince Philip.

He will hold the title of prince after the Queen changed the rules in 2012 to ensure that all of William's children would be entitled to the style, not just his eldest son.

Prince Louis is also the first male royal who will not over-take his sister in the line of suc-cession after a reform that ends male primogeniture. AGENCIES

New smartphone app to boost efficacy

of TB therapy

Trump ends protections for 9,000 Nepalese

immigrants

WASHINGTON DC: The Trump administration has decided to terminate the tem-porary protection status for nearly 9,000 Nepalese immi-grants with authorities asking them to leave or find another way to stay in the US to allow for an orderly transition.

Temporary Protected Status (TPS) is a designation afforded to nationals of countries expe-riencing humanitarian crisis such as violent conflict, envi-ronmental disasters, earth-quake or epidemics that would prevent nationals from return-ing safely.

This decision affects 8,950 people, 85 per cent of whom live in New York.

All of these people from Nepal would have to go back to Nepal or face deportation.

However, to allow for an orderly transition, Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen M Nielsen has determined to delay the termination for 12 months.

The designation will now terminate on June 24, 2019, the Department of Homeland Security said.

The decision to terminate (Temporary Protected Sta-tus) TPS for Nepal was made after a review of the environ-mental disaster-related condi-tions upon which the country's original designation was based and an assessment of whether those originating conditions continue to exist as required by statute. AGENCIES

Hubble gets 1st image of supernova surviving partnerWASHINGTON DC: NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has cap-tured the first image of a surviv-ing companion to a supernova, the most compelling evidence that some supernovas originate in double-star systems.

A supernova is an astronom-ical event that occurs during the last evolutionary stages of a massive star's life.

Seventeen years ago, astronomers had witnessed a supernova go off 40 million light-years away in the galaxy called NGC 7424, located in the southern constellation Grus, the Crane, NASA said.

The image of the compan-ion star was seen in the fading afterglow of that supernova, called SN 2001ig.

"We know that the majority of massive stars are in binary pairs, said Stuart Ryder from the Australian Astronomical Observatory (AAO).

Many of these binary pairs will interact and transfer gas from one star to the other when their orbits bring them close together, said Ryder, lead author of the study published in the Astrophysical Journal.

The companion to the super-nova's progenitor star was no innocent bystander to the explo-sion, researchers said.

It siphoned off almost all of the hydrogen from the doomed star's stellar envelope, the region that transports energy from the star's core to its atmosphere, they said.

Millions of years before the primary star went supernova, the companion's thievery cre-ated an instability in the primary star, causing it to episodically blow off a cocoon and shells of hydrogen gas before the catas-

trophe. SN 2001ig is categorised as a Type IIb stripped-envelope supernova. This type of super-nova is unusual because most, but not all, of the hydrogen is gone prior to the explosion.

This type of exploding star

was first identified in 1987 by Alex Filippenko of the Univer-sity of California, Berkeley.

Looking for a binary com-panion after a supernova explo-sion is no easy task. First, it has to be at a relatively close distance to Earth for Hubble to see such a faint star. SN 2001ig and its com-panion are about at that limit. Within that distance range, not many supernovas go off. Even more importantly, astronomers have to know the exact position through very precise measure-ments. In 2002, shortly after SN 2001ig exploded, scientists pinpointed the precise location of the supernova with the Euro-pean Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile. AGENCIES

Romania president calls on prime minister to resign

BUCHAREST: Romania's president on Friday called on the prime minister to resign, saying she is unfit for the job.

President Klaus Iohannis said that Viorica Dancila "is not up for the job of Romanian prime minister," three months after she became Roma-nia's first female premier this January.

Iohannis said that she "pre-fers to execute party orders" and represented "a vulner-ability" for Romania. He was referring to her political depen-dence on the leader of the rul-

ing Social Democrats, Liviu Dragnea, who effectively runs the government.

Iohannis also accused her of failing to inform him over a unilateral government pro-posal to relocate Romania's

embassy to Jerusalem. Iohan-nis is in charge of foreign policy and would make a final deci-sion on the embassy. He doesn't have the authority to fire Dan-cila, but his request will put pressure on the government.

Calin Popescu Tariceanu, who heads the Alliance of Lib-erals and Democrats which is a junior partner in the gov-ernment, said only Parliament could decide whether to sup-port or fire Dancila.

Iohannis summoned Dan-cila for a meeting, but she said she wouldn't go. AGENCIES

WASHINGTON DC: Scien-tists have developed a smart-phone video-based app that could be a more effective sub-stitute for a daily in-person visit by a health care worker required for tuberculosis (TB) treatment.

In the journal Open Forum Infectious Diseases, research-ers from the Johns Hopkins University in the US described the app which provides video Directly Observed Therapy (video DOT).

"We believe video DOT offers an alternative that appears to be as effective as an in-person daily visits by health care workers to assure com-pliance with drug treatment, but also empowers patients to manage their TB without added stress," says Samuel Hol-zman, a research fellow at the Johns Hopkins University.

Tuberculosis requires mea-sures to ensure that patients adhere to treatment.

These recommendations include provisions for home or hospital based isolation or occasionally forced isolation for infectious individuals.

The reason for these man-dates, said Holzman, is the dis-ease's virulence.

Unlike the flu or the com-mon cold, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacteria that causes infectious tuberculosis, can hang in the air for extended periods when expelled by the

coughs or saliva of patients, spreading to others across a room or through a building's ventilation.

Many people with active TB also have relatively few symp-toms, allowing the bacteria to spread before a diagnosis is made.

To test the effectiveness of video DOT, the researchers conducted a pilot study utiliz-ing the widely-available smart-phone application developed by emocha Mobile Health in conjunction with Maunank Shah, and other clinician-sci-entists at the Johns Hopkins University School of

Medicine.As many as 28 adult TB

patients being treated at three health departments in Mary-land participated in the pilot study.

These patients had their therapy monitored using the emocha video DOT application in lieu of in-person visits by a health care worker.

The researchers found that patient adherence to treatment was about the same between the video DOT and in-person DOT, 94 per cent and 98 per cent respectively.

The researchers found that the overall proportion of pre-scribed doses that were veri-fied through observation was six per cent higher with video DOT compared to in-person DOT. AGENCIES

Jim Mattis

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

Name of work Estimated Amount

Last date of Bid submission

NIT-175 (2ndCall) OF2017-1

Construction of G+2 storied (Two Nos BlockA& Block-B) School building of FoundationG+3, demolishing the existing dilapidatedbuilding of Malbazar ADARSHA BOYS’SCHOOL, Malbazar, Dist- Jalpaiguri

Rs. 5,60,65,124.00

25/05/2018 upto 15:00Hours

NIT-207 (2ndCall) OF2017-18

Construction of composite bridge over river Karalanear Sunitibala Girls’ School at Jalpaig-uri, DistrictJalpaiguri (35mtr. approach road with 1 Nos.Composite Bridge length : 54.83m)

Rs. 8,33,76,478.00

25/05/2018 upto 15:00Hours

Sd/- Executive Engineer North Bengal Development Department

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

Government of West Bengal North Bengal Development Department

Branch Secretariat Uttarkanya, Fulbari, Jalpaiguri

mp world 11MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Saturday, 28 April, 2018

I will visit Seoul ‘any time if you invite me’: Kim to Moon

SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un told the South’s President Moon Jae-in on Fri-day he was willing to visit him in Seoul “any time if you invite me”, Moon’s spokesman said. Kim made the remarks as the pair chatted ahead of their summit in the Demilitarized Zone that divides the Koreas, the official said.

According to the offi-cial, Moon told the visitor he could “show you scenes far better than this if you come to the Blue House”, with Kim responding: “Really? I will go to the Blue House any time if you invite me.” Earlier, on the Military Demarcation Line that delineates the border, Moon asked him: “While you come to the South, when can I possibly go over there?”

After stepping over the line and becoming the first North Korean leader to set foot in the South since the end of the Korean War in 1953, Kim responded: “Why don’t we just cross over now?” - prompting Moon’s unscripted entry into

Northern territory.Later on, Kim said: “The

border is not even that high. Wouldn’t it disappear if many people keep walking across it?” Moon expressed hopes that after their summit at Panmun-jom, “our meetings will con-tinue at Pyongyang, Seoul, Jeju island and Paektu mountain” -- the island and mountain at the southern and northern ends of the Korean peninsula.

Last year the North carried out a series of missile launches, many of them in the early hours, and its sixth nuclear test,

but Kim promised Moon there would be no more. “I heard that you had early morning sleep disturbed many times because you had to attend the National Security Council meetings because of us,” he said.

Meanwhile, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un promised to ensure that the agreement reached with the South’s Moon Jae-in at a summit on Friday would be implemented, unlike previous pledges.

The two Koreas will closely co-ordinate to ensure they do not “repeat the unfortunate his-

tory in which past inter-Korea agreements...fizzled out after beginning,” Kim said after a summit with the South’s Presi-dent Moon Jae-in. “There may be backlash, hardship and frustration on our way,” he added, “but a victory cannot be achieved without pain”.

The nuclear-armed North’s pursuit of weapons of mass destruction has seen it become increasingly isolated, subject to a series of UN Security Coun-cil sanctions. Panmunjom, where the summit was held in the Demilitarized Zone that divides the two Koreas, was a “symbol of heart-wrenching division”, Kim said.

China on Friday heaped praised on the leaders of the two Koreas for holding their landmark summit, calling their handshake over the Mil-itary Demarcation Line that divides the peninsula a “his-toric moment”. “We applaud the Korean leaders’ historic step and appreciate their politi-cal decisions and courage,” said the foreign ministry. AGENCIES

N Korean leader pledges not to repeat ‘unfortunate history’Kim's wife Ri Sol Ju crosses border to dine GOYANG (South Korea): Seoul says North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's wife will cross the border into South Korea to attend a dinner banquet after the Koreas' summit talks at a border village.Kim crossed the bor-der into South Korea this morning for talks with South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the southern side of Panmunjom. Kim was accompa-nied by a group of top officials but his wife, Ri Sol Ju, was not present. AGENCIES

US PIO jailed for conspiring to defraud firm of $2.5 million

NEW YORK: An Indian-ori-gin man in the US has been sentenced to over four years in prison and fined for conspiring to defraud a company of USD 2.5 million.

Debashis Ghosh, 54, of Chi-cago and Keith Eric Jergensen, 58, of Salt Lake City, Utah, were convicted in October 2017 of wire fraud conspiracy following a seven-day trial presided over by US District Judge Brenda K Sannes.

Judge Sannes also ordered Ghosh to pay USD 2.5 million in restitution to his victims.

Ghosh was sentenced to 57 months in prison and Jergensen to 59 months, to be followed by three years of supervised release.

Jergensen and Ghosh were co-Chief Executive Officers of Chicago-based Verdant Capital Group. New York-based firm Laurentian Aerospace Corpo-ration had retained Verdant to raise funds for the construc-tion of an airplane maintenance, repair and overhaul facility to be built at the former US Air Force base in Plattsburgh, according to evidences at trial.

Jergensen and Ghosh asked Laurentian to invest USD 2.5 million as seed money for the project.

They and Laurentian agreed

that this money would remain in a Wells Fargo account and could not be moved without the authorisation of Laurentian.

The evidence at trial also demonstrated that Jergensen and Ghosh misappropriated an additional USD 2.4 million in funds that other businesses had entrusted to them.

Laurentian, drawing on funds contributed by its board members and one outside inves-tor, wired USD 2.5 million into the Wells Fargo account in December 2010.

Five days later, Jergensen and Ghosh began transferring the money out of the account without Laurentian's authori-sation, and by March 2011 they had transferred all of the USD 2.5 million out of the account.

Jergensen and Ghosh used

Laurentian's USD 2.5 million to pay Verdant's expenses includ-ing employees and contractors, and to pay others, including payments totaling USD 1.75 million to a now-defunct wind turbine company that Ghosh was a minority owner of and payments totaling USD 14,500 to an Arizona man who was promising them access to union pension funds.

Having spent the money, and as part of their conspir-acy, Jergensen and Ghosh then spent several years falsely assur-ing Laurentian and its investors that their money was safe and secure, with Jergensen going so far as to forge a memorandum of understanding that purported to show that Laurentian's money was in a secured bank account at Wells Fargo. AGENCIES

Indian doctors being denied visas despite British crisis

Bill Cosby, once beloved ‘America’s dad,’ convicted of sexual assault

NORRISTOWN: Comedian Bill Cosby was convicted on Thursday of drugging and sexu-ally assaulting a onetime friend in 2004, marking the first such conviction of a celebrity since the #MeToo movement that has brought down rich and power-ful men for their treatment of women.

Cosby, 80, best known as the lovable father from the 1980s TV hit “The Cosby Show,” faces up to 10 years in prison for each of three counts of aggravated indecent assault against Andrea Constand, 45, following a three-week trial at the Montgomery County courthouse in Norris-town, Pennsylvania.

After maintaining decorum throughout the trial, Cosby exploded following the verdict when prosecutors asked the judge to take him into custody, saying he was a flight risk in part because he owned a plane.

“He doesn’t have a plane, you asshole!” Cosby responded in a booming voice as he leapt to feet.

District Attorney Kevin Steele later remarked that with the outburst, “You got to see who he really was.”

As the verdict was read, Cosby looked down with a sad expression. Lili Bernard, one of his many accusers, began sob-bing. Constand sat stone-faced.

Judge Steven O’Neill ruled Cosby could remain out of jail on $1 million bail pending sen-tencing at a later date, as long as he surrendered his passport and remained at home.

Cosby then left the court-house with his lawyers and publicist.

“The fight will go on,” defense lawyer Thomas Mesereau told reporters, adding

he would appeal the conviction.Sentencing was expected

within 60 to 90 days, after Cosby submits to a “sexually violent predator assessment.”

Although he could get up to 10 years for each count, state sentencing guidelines suggest a term of less than 10 years.

The conviction marks the downfall of a man once cele-brated as “America’s Dad” but whose reputation was ruined after some 50 women accused him of similar offenses going back decades.

Cosby had been a transcen-dent figure in show business, coming up as a black comedian during the civil rights move-ment of the 1960s and winning over white audiences with a clean routine.

He went on to several suc-cessful television series when African-Americans were largely absent from TV. In “The Cosby Show” from 1984 to 1992, he played the wise and witty Dr. Heathcliff Huxtable, the father of an affluent black family.

All the while, his accusers say, he had been drugging and molesting women.

Only one of those cases was recent enough to be eligible for prosecution, that of Constand,

a former administrator for the women’s basketball team at Temple University, Cosby’s alma mater. She had no com-ment after the verdict.

“The most important per-son in our team was Andrea Constand,” Steele, the district attorney, told reporters. “She was the first courageous per-son who stood up in public and went to authorities and said, ‘Bill Cosby drugged and raped me.’”

Attorney Gloria Allred, who represents 33 of the Cosby accusers, rejoiced that Cosby was found “guilty, guilty, guilty.”

“We are so happy that finally we can say, women are believed, and not only on #MeToo, but in a court of law,” Allred told reporters.

Other Cosby accusers cel-ebrated the verdict with hugs, cries, and applause.

“I feel like my faith in humanity is restored,” Bernard said.

The seven-man, five-woman jury reached a unani-mous verdict after deliberating for 14 hours over two days.

Less than year ago, a differ-ent jury was deadlocked after six days of deliberations on the same charges, prompting the

judge to declare a mistrial.Soon after the first trial, a

series of women leveled sexual assault and harassment accu-sations against men in media, entertainment and politics, giving rise to the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements that encouraged women go public with personal stories of abuse, in some cases after years of silence.

Like many of Cosby’s other accusers, Constand said she was drugged and violated while unable to defend herself.

Cosby has said any sexual encounters were consensual, and his lawyers portrayed the accusers as fabricating stories in search of wealth and fame.

“Mob rule is not due pro-cess,” defense lawyer Kath-leen Bliss said, referring to the #MeToo movement.

U.S. President Donald Trump has been accused by several women of sexual mis-conduct, including after the release during the 2016 presi-dential campaign of a video in which he had spoken in vulgar terms about trying to have sex with women. He later called it “locker room banter” and his campaign issued an apology to anyone who was offended.

Trump, whose inauguration and first anniversary as presi-dent were met with nationwide women’s protests, denies accu-sations of sexual misconduct and accuses rival Democrats and the media of a smear cam-paign. He faces a defamation lawsuit from Summer Zervos, a contestant on his former real-ity show who accuses him of sexually harassing her. Trump’s lawyer has said her accusa-tions are false and politically motivated. AGENCIES

New Pakistan FM hikes defence budget by 10%

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan government on Friday hiked the country's defence spend-ing by nearly 10 per cent as it presented an over Rs 5.6 trillion federal budget in parliament for the next financial year.

Finance Minister Miftah Ismail presented the budget for the financial year 2018-19, which is the sixth consecutive budget of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N). Ismail said that total outlay of the budget is Rs 5,661 billion (5.6 trillion), 13 per cent higher than the previous. He said 6.2 per cent was the GDP target for 2018-19 against six per cent for the outgoing year, which could not be achieved as the govern-ment registered 5.8 per cent.

The minister said the bud-get deficit for the upcoming year will be 4.9 per cent of GDP and the target net public debt to GDP ratio will be 63.2 per cent.

He said the "defence budget has been increased from Rs 999 billion to Rs 1,100 billion for fis-cal year 2018-19". The overall size of national development outlay for the next financial year is Rs 2,043 billion, with a foreign assistance component of Rs 339 billion. AGENCIES

LONDON: Hundreds of Indian doctors are being denied visas to come and work in the UK's state-funded National Health Service (NHS) despite an ongo-ing medical staffing crisis in Britain, health sector experts have said.

The UK Home Office has a cap on the number of visas issued to skilled workers, including doctors, applying to come and work in Britain from outside the European Union (EU). Employers warned on Friday that the process has pre-vented them from filling crucial medical staff shortages in the NHS. "We are aware of a few hundred doctors being denied visas over the past few months, a majority of whom are doctors from India," said Dr Ramesh Mehta, president of the British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (BAPIO).

"We as an organisation have supported the Health Educa-tion England (HEE) initiative to bring doctors in from India on a learn and return basis, which addresses the acute short-age faced by the NHS. But the Home Office has been abso-lutely bureaucratic and are stop-ping these doctors from coming in," he said.

The row came to the fore as it emerged that Indian doctors recruited recently for a scheme in the northwest of England to supply junior doctors to 30 NHS trusts had been denied visas. "NHS organisations have been unable to obtain the required permits for months for essen-tial medical colleagues," said Danny Mortimer, chief execu-tive of NHS Employers. AGENCIES

Seven killed in Cape Town train crash

CAPE TOWN: Seven people were killed in South Africa on Friday when a train ploughed into a pickup truck at a crossing where 10 children were killed in a similar accident in 2010, officials said.

The seven victims, all men in their 30s, were reportedly travelling to work when their truck was struck by the train

shortly before dawn in Black-heath on the outskirts of Cape Town.

"It was human error," Metro-rail spokeswoman Zino Mihi said. "The booms were down, so it was not their turn to go. People on the scene told us a taxi initially passed through and the bakkie (truck) also tried its luck." AGENCIES

India hands over helicopter, tanks to Bangladesh as 1971 memorabilia

DHAKA: India has handed over to Bangladesh a Mi-4 heli-copter and two PT-76 tanks as part of the 1971 Liberation War memorabilia.

"The gifts are to be show-cased at the Bangladesh army and air force museums," a defence ministry spokesman said on Thursday.

He said the helicopter and the tanks were part of gifts given by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj during her Ban-gladesh visit last year.

The memorabilia included 25 weapons like pistol, rifles, machine guns and mortars alongside a large number of artefact, historical photographs, archival audio and video clip-ping, maps and battle records related to the 1971 Liberation War.

"While most items of mem-orabilia have been handed over to the Bangladesh National Museum; the larger items ie PT-76 Tanks and Mi 4 Helicop-ter are now being handed over to the Bangladesh Army and

Air Force," Indian High Com-missioner to Bangladesh Harsh Vardhan Shringla said.

The light amphibious PT-76 tanks were used by the Indian Army's armoured regiments in 1971 which played a crucial role in crossing rivers and water bodies during the war.

Analysts said these tanks often outclassed a much larger force and technically superior M34 Chafee tanks, used by the Pakistani Army in the war.

The Mi-4 transport heli-copter was extensively utilised for heliborne operations by the India-Bangladesh joint forces in

the eastern sector confirming early defeat of Pakistani troops in 1971. Indian air force earlier gifted Bangladesh one Hunter jet fighter, one Dakota transport air craft ahead of this helicopter while India's navy previously gifted memorabilia of its INS Vikrant, models of ships that took part in the war and archival photographs and its army gifts included six 3.7 Howitzer Guns.

India backed Bangladesh's Liberation War, which began after the sudden crackdown at midnight past on March 25, 1971 in the erstwhile East Paki-stan by Pakistani troops. AGENCIES

mp business12MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Saturday, 28 April, 2018

NEW DELHI: India collected Rs 7.41 lakh crore in taxes in the first year of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) with rev-enues for a good part of four months not being accounted for because of the mid-year rollout and an accounting lag.

The government had last reported a GST collection of Rs 7.17 lakh crore for the first eight months since the new tax regime that subsumed 17 cen-tral and state taxes on sale of goods and rendering of services was rolled out in July.

For the period ending March 31, 2018, the GST col-lection has been put at Rs 7.41 lakh crore, a finance ministry statement said.

The mere Rs 24,000 crore addition shown for March as against an average monthly collection of Rs 89,000 crore in the previous eight months indicated government desire to move to more current account-ing methodology. At present, GST collections are accounted for only when returns after filed by the third week of the follow-ing month.

From 2018-19 fiscal year that began this month, the gov-ernment is shifting to a cash basis of accounting where reve-nues accrued at the completion of a month would be taken on record. Accordingly collection for April is likely to be released on May 1.

"During 2017-18, total reve-nue collected under GST in the period between August 2017 and March 2018 has been Rs 7.19 lakh crore.

"This includes Rs 1.19 lakh crore of CGST, Rs 1.72 lakh crore of SGST, Rs 3.66 lakh crore of IGST (including Rs 1.73 lakh crore on imports) and Rs 62,021 crore of cess (includ-

ing Rs 5702 crore on imports)," the statement said.

At the end of March, the Centre has Rs 20,000 crore in its cess pool, which will be uti-lised to compensate the states for revenue loss, an official said.

Under GST, the tax lev-ied on consumption of goods or rendering of service is split 50:50 between the Centre and the states. Such tax is known as Central-GST or CGST and State-GST or SGST.

On inter-state movement of goods as well as imports, an Integrated-GST or IGST is levied, which accrues to the Centre. A cess is levied on top of these taxes on sin and lux-ury goods which make up for the compensation kitty used to make good of any revenue shortfall faced by states on implementation of GST.

"While the tax on domes-tic supplies in a month is col-lected through the process of returns and gets collected in the next month, IGST and cess on imports gets collected in the same month.

"Therefore, during the cur-rent year, GST on domestic supplies has been collected only in eight months from August 2017 to March 2018, IGST and cess on imports has been collected for nine months, from July 2017 to March 2018. Including the collection of July 2017, the total GST collection during the financial year 2017-18 stands provisionally at Rs 7.41 lakh crore," the statement said.

The SGST collection during the year, including the settle-ment of IGST has been Rs 2.91 lakh crore. PTI

Govt got ̀ 7.41 lakh cr GST in FY18

NEW DELHI: The Centre has a surplus of Rs 20,000 crore in the GST cess fund as of March 31 which will be used to compen-sate the states for revenue short-fall suffered due to the roll out of the Goods and Services Tax.

In the last fiscal, the gov-ernment collected Rs 62,021 crore as cess on sin and luxury goods. This amount will make up for the compensation kitty used to make good for any rev-enue shortfall faced by states on implementation of GST.

However, the compensation released to the states for July till February was Rs 41,147 crore to ensure that the revenue of the states is protected at the level of 14 per cent over the base year

tax collection in 2015-16."There is over Rs 20,000

crore surplus in the cess fund. It will be utilised for compen-sating the states. So far com-pensation has been released till February. Compensation for March and April will be released in May," an official said.

Under the GST, states were compensated once in every two months for any revenue loss suffered on account of GST.

The revenue gap of each state is coming down over last eight months. The average rev-enue gap of all states for last year is around 17 per cent, the finance ministry said in a statement. PTI

`20,000 cr surplus in GST cess fund as of end-March

UNITED NATIONS: India has informed the UN that the Goods and Services Tax reform implemented by it, cou-pled with the demonetisation of high-value currency notes, has brought 1.8 million more people into the income-tax net.

Additional Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs A Gitesh Sarma, addressing the ECOSOC Forum on Financing for Development Follow Up, said India is currently imple-menting a wave of reforms.

Apart from encouraging digital over cash transactions, India introduced the Goods

and Service Tax regime which provides for uniform taxes. He said this has led to a 50 per cent increase in the number of indi-rect taxpayers.

"Coupled with demoneti-sation of high-value currency notes, the GST brought 1.8 million more people into the income-tax net, he said at the forum here on Thursday.

He added that India stands firm on its stand on the funda-mental principles of the World Trade , including multilater-alism, rule-based consensual decision-making, an inde-pendent and credible dispute

resolution and appellate pro-cess, the centrality of devel-opment, which underlies the Doha Development Agenda, and special and differential treatment for all developing countries.

He said the global eco-nomic recovery is progressing gradually, with improved resil-ience and emergence of new sources of growth. "However, there are concerns that a dura-ble recovery may remain con-strained by factors such as the persistence of low productivity and debt overhang problems,” he said. PTI

GST, DeMo drew 1.8 mn more people into I-T net: India to UN

NEW DELHI: Content remains the king in online labour market as this field pro-vides continuous job activity, while blockchain, AI and user data protection appear as the upcoming trends for this year, says a report.

According to Freelancer.com’s latest Fast 50 Report, which charts the top 50 fast-est growing and declining job types in the online labour mar-ket, the number of freelancers is on an uptrend.

The report noted that jobs linked to .NET and Web Con-tent jumped 58.4 per cent in just one quarter. While 4,314 freelancing jobs were posted in the last quarter of 2017, this figure has risen to 8,633 in the first quarter of 2018.

“Content is very much still king in an year-over-year com-parison, in response to Google algorithm updates. Blockchain,

AI and User Data Protection after Facebook’s/Cambridge Analytica scandal appear as the upcoming trends for 2018,” the report noted.

Meanwhile, the number of Data Mining jobs posted in the first quarter of 2018 grew 51.5 per cent as compared to the last quarter of 2017, while Data Processing jobs increased 16.9

per cent in the same period. Data Entry jobs also jumped from 24,903 in the last quarter of 2017 to 25,539 in the Janu-ary-March period of this year.

The report further noted that the demand for visual aes-thetics and style has escalated immensely and freelancing jobs related to designing and web development has seen a sig-

nificant rise. Moreover, compa-nies are investing in a number of services to increase online marketing. As a result, search engine marketing got a rapid rise in the first quarter of 2018 with a 78.6 per cent surge.

“Freelancing is a breeding ground for new and creative ideas which the modern cor-porate world is in search of. Big companies have realised how easy, powerful and produc-tive it is to find skillful experts through freelancing , said Free-lancer.com Chief Executive Matt Barrie.

Meanwhile, some jobs have lost their demand. Label Design and App Design jobs witnessed a 71.8 per cent downfall in the first quarter of 2018. While, Package Design and Indus-trial Design jobs went down 66.5 per cent and 67.2 per cent respectively in the same time span, the report noted. PTI

Freelancing jobs rising in online market... content remains king

NEW DELHI: In a mega deal, Amazon Publishing on Friday announced that it would bring out the next six books by popu-lar author Chetan Bhagat.

Rupa has published all of Bhagat's nine books since his debut in 2004.

The first book of the new deal will be published in Octo-ber. Westland, an Amazon com-pany, will distribute these six books - three fiction and as many nonfiction titles - in India.

The books will be published globally in print, eBook and audio formats and also be avail-able in multiple Indian language versions. "Amazon Publishing is excited to work with Chetan and publish his books to a wider audience including readers both in India and abroad," says Jeff Belle, vice president of Amazon Publishing.

"I am delighted to partner with Amazon Publishing as my publisher for my upcom-ing books," says Bhagat.

"My new fiction novel will be my first book in both eBook and print formats with Amazon Publishing and it will be some-thing different from what I have done before," he adds. Amazon acquired Westland Publications Pvt Ltd, a leading trade books publisher, in January 2017.

"Chetan's work resonates across India - we're delighted to now be able to bring his work to cities and towns of all sizes throughout the country,"

says Westland CEO Gautam Padmanabhan.

Bhagat's has written seven novels "Five Point Someone" (2004), "One Night @ the Call Center" (2005), "The 3 Mistakes of My Life" (2008), "2 States" (2009), "Revolution 2020" (2011), "Half Girlfriend" (2014) and "One Indian Girl" (2016) and two non-fiction titles "What Young India Wants" (2012) and "Making India Awesome" (2015). PTI

In coup on Rupa, Amazon to publish Chetan Bhagat’s next six books

BENGALURU: Amazon on Friday said it will continue to invest in India as it sees "great progress" with both sellers and customers here even as the US e-tailing giant registered a loss of $622 million from interna-tional operations in the first quarter of 2018.

The operating loss from the international operations, which also includes Indian market, was at $481 million in the year-ago period. The net sales in the international business however grew to $14.8 billion as compared to $11.06 billion. Last year, Amazon introduced 'Alexa' in the Indian market. PTI

Amazon ‘seeing great progress in India, will

go on investing’

NEW DELHI: The National Company Law Appellate Tribu-nal (NCLAT) on Friday agreed to hear on May 17 cross peti-tions filed by Essar Steel bidders, NuMetal Ltd and ArcelorMittal India Ltd, challenging eligibil-ity criteria.

The NCLAT issued notices to a committee of Essar Steel creditors, the resolution profes-sional running an auction of the company and the two bidders on the cross petitions.

Russia's VTB Capital-backed NuMetal Ltd has chal-lenged a lower company court order allowing rival ArcelorMit-tal to clear bank dues of asso-ciate companies so that it can become eligible for acquisition of Essar Steel. ArcelorMittal on the other hand has challenged its disqualification from bidding.

The cross petitions were mentioned before a bench of NCLAT which issued notices, replies and rejoinders of which are to be filed within one week. The matter has been fixed for hearing on May 17.

The NCLAT took up the petitions on a day when a panel of lenders to Essar Steel is slated to meet to decide if fresh bids are to be called. In the petition, NuMetal said the Ahmedabad-bench of National Company Law Tribunal had disqualified Arcelor Mittal India Ltd from

bidding to acquire Essar Steel on grounds that it was a pro-moter company of firms that had defaulted on payment of bank loans. The NCLT had, however, "erred" in permitting ArcelorMittal India Ltd "to cure the ineligibility by making pay-ment of the overdue amounts of Uttam Galva and KSS Petron" within 30 days, it said.

Allowing ArcelorMittal to clear dues after the government frame legislation, barring pro-moters who had defaulted on bank loans from bidding for companies that were being auc-tioned to recover unpaid loans, was not in accordance with the law, it contends. Essar Steel had a debt of Rs 49,000 crore and was referred to NCLT in June last year. ArcelorMittal in a separate petition challenged its disquali-fication on the grounds that it had exited Uttam Galva before submitting a bid for Essar Steel on February 12. PTI

NCLAT agrees to hear NuMetal, ArcelorMittal petition in Essar case

NEW DELHI: Telecom oper-ator Reliance Jio on Friday posted a 1.2 per cent sequen-tial rise in its standalone net profit at Rs 510 crore for the last quarter of 2017-18.

The company had regis-tered a net profit of Rs 504 crore in the October-December 2017 period. It had posted a loss of Rs 17.34 crore in the March quarter of 2016-17.

"The strong financial results of Jio in a competitive market environment demonstrates the robustness of the Jio business model and ability to offer the most value to our customers and partners.

"Jio has demonstrated that it can scale and sustain its strong financial performance," Mukesh Ambani, chairman

and managing director, Reli-ance Industries Limited said in a statement.

The standalone revenue from operation came in 3.6 per cent higher quarter-on-quarter to Rs 7,128 crore as against Rs 6,879 crore in the third quarter.

The company posted its annual maiden profit of Rs 723 crore for the fiscal year 2017-18 while its revenue from opera-tions stood at Rs 20,154 crore.

Jio had posted a loss of Rs 31.37 crore for the 2016-17 fis-cal. The subscriber base of Jio — the aggressive newcomer which has waged a tariff war in the Indian telecom market — stood at 186.6 million at the end of March 2018. Jio's entry has led to a free fall in tariffs, triggering a price war. PTI

NEW DELHI: UK-based Lib-erty House has offered over Rs 26,000 crore for acquiring the stressed assets of Bhushan Power & Steel Ltd (BPSL), lead-ing Tata Steel and JSW in the race.

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has asked BPSL lenders, led by PNB, to consider the bid submitted by Liberty House for the debt-rid-den company. It owes about Rs 45,000 crore to the lenders.

"In the meeting of Com-mittee of Creditors (CoC) held today, the bid of Liberty House was opened. The con-solidated bid amount offered by the UK-based firm for the stressed assets of BPSL was over Rs 26,000 crore," said a source privy to the development.

Tata Steel had earlier offered Rs 17,000 crore to the lenders as upfront amount and Rs 7,200 crore for operations of Bhushan.

JSW Steel made an offer of Rs 11,000 crore to the lend-ers and Rs 2,000 crore for the operations of the beleaguered power firm.

The CoC will meet again next week and take a call on the rebidding.

Allowing the plea of Lib-erty House, NCLT had earlier directed the CoC to complete its resolution proceedings by June 23. PTI

Liberty House offers over ̀ 26K cr for Bhushan Power & Steel

Reliance Jio makes net profit for second straight quarter

NEW DELHI: Oil-to-telecom conglomerate Reliance Indus-tries on Friday reported its high-est quarterly net profit of Rs 9,435 crore on record earnings from petrochemical, retail busi-ness and telecom unit, Jio.

Consolidated net profit of Rs 9,435 crore, or Rs 15.9 per share, in January-March was 17.3 per cent higher than Rs 8,046 crore, or Rs 13.6 a share, in the same quarter of the last fiscal, the company said. While its core petrochemical business posted record quarterly pre-tax profits, earnings from the oil refining business. PTI

RIL posts record Q4, FY18 profits

NEW DELHI: The coun-try's largest car maker Maruti Suzuki India on Friday reported a 10 per cent rise in net profit to Rs 1,882.1 crore for the last quarter of fiscal ended on March 31, 2018.

The company had posted a net profit of Rs 1,710.5 crore in the January-March period of 2016-17, MSI said in a statement.

"Increase in effective tax rate impacted net profit," MSI said.

Net sales during the fourth quarter of 2017-18 rose to Rs 20,594.3 crore, up 14.4 per cent against the year-ago period.

Total car sales were up 11.4 per cent to 4,61,773 units, the company said. For entire 2017-18, MSI posted net profit of Rs

7,721.8 crore, up 5.1 per cent, from Rs 7,350.2crore in the previous fiscal.

Net sales last fiscal stood at Rs 78,104.8 crore, up 16.7 per cent from 2016-17.

Volume sales during 2017-18 were up 13.4 per cent at 17,79,574 units. Of this, exports were at 1,26,074 units, the com-pany said.

The company said its board has recommended a dividend of Rs 80 per share of face value Rs 5 for 2017-18. PTI

Maruti Suzuki Q4 net profit zooms 10% to ̀ 1,882 crore

NEW DELHI: India will have at least one industrial training institute (ITI) in every block by the end of this year , Skills Development Minister Dhar-mendra Pradhan said on Friday.

Our aim is to ensure one ITI in every block of the coun-try by the end of 2018 and up-grade our skill institutions with new age skills which are market relevant, he said at the National Conference of State Ministers on Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.

Emphasising on the need for strengthening institutional mechanisms for skill develop-ment at the state level and bring-ing in a more robust framework, Pradhan, who is also the oil minister, launched an array of initiatives.

The workshop saw partici-pation from more than 90 per cent of the states discussing the skills agenda.

New courses for ITIs were launched for the youth to pro-mote skills in emerging areas such Artificial Intelligence, Vir-tual Reality, Robotic Process Automation, Internet of Things, Robotics, Big Data Analytics and 3D Printing.

A pact was signed between DGT (Directorate General Traning) and IT services indus-try body Nasscom for enabling Skill Development & Continu-ous learning for ITI trainees & trainers.

The conference marked the launch of new Affiliation Norms 2018 restoring the primacy of State Govt in the Affiliation process.

The norms aim at establish-ing high quality institutions for skill training in all parts of the country, especially the un-served blocks.

To ensure transparency in the affiliation process, a Portal was launched at the event.

The Ministry of Skill Devel-opment and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) commenced its part-nership with Ministry of Home Affairs for "Surrender-cum-Rehabilitation Scheme for Left Wing Extremists".

Under this, Left-Wing Extremists, who have surren-dered, can take admission in an institute and given a stipend of Rs 6000 per month for a up to three years. PTI

One ITI in every block by year-end, promises Pradhan

NEW DELHI: In a sur-prise development, IndiGo announced on Friday that Aditya Ghosh will step down as President and is likely to be replaced by one of its former executives Gregory Taylor.

It said Rahul Bhatia, a pro-moter of the company, has been appointed as the interim CEO.

The development comes amid the airline embarking on ambitious expansion plans and its aircraft facing technical issues with engines.

Ghosh has stepped down as Whole Time Director of Inter-Globe Aviation, the parent of IndiGo, effective from April 26 while his resignation as Presi-dent would come into effect from July 31. The resignation was accepted during the board meeting on Friday.

InterGlobe Aviation said Taylor, a former executive at the airline, has been appointed as a Senior Advisor and would report directly to Bhatia.

"In the coming months, the

Board will consider the appoint-ment of Greg as President and CEO of the company, subject to receiving the necessary regula-tory approvals and paperwork," InterGlobe said in a statement.

Ghosh, who has been with the airline for ten years, said it has been a most satisfying task building IndiGo.

"It is now time for me to step off the treadmill and sometime in the near future embark on my next adventure. I wish all my colleagues at IndiGo the very best as they move on to the next phase of growth," he said.

During 2016 and 2017, Taylor was the Executive Vice President of Revenue Manage-ment and Network Planning

at IndiGo. Prior to that, he had served in various senior man-agement roles at United Airlines and US Airways in the areas of corporate planning, strategy, network planning, fleet plan-ning, finance, cost management and airline express operations, the statement said.

Welcoming Taylor, Bhatia said his enormous and varied experience and understanding of the complexities of the airline industry would be invaluable to the airline's future plans. PTI

IndiGo Prez Aditya Ghosh to step down; Gregory Taylor may replace him

Under a new scheme, Leftwing extremists who have surrendered can take admission to an institute and get a stipend of `6,000 per month for up to 3 years

mp business 13MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Saturday, 28 April, 2018

A five-day training programme on handling airport emergencies is being conducted from April 23- 27, 2018 at Lok Nayak Jaiprakash Airport, Patna. The objective of the training programme is to enhance the preparedness of Airport Emergency Handlers to respond to CBRN (Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear) emergencies at the airports

DRDO Director General (BrahMos) Sudhir Mishra has been conferred with the Distinguished Alumnus Award by Indian Institute of Technology Madras at Chennai on April 26 during the celebration of the 59th Institution Day – Founding of IIT Madras. The awards were given away by IIT-Madras Director Bhaskar Ramamurthi

AAI signed its Annual Performance Contract i.e. Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the year 2018-19 with Ministry of Civil Aviation. The MoU was signed on Friday between Civil Aviation Secretary R N Choubey, and AAI Chairman Guruprasad Mohapatra

CORPORATE KALEIDOSCOPE

NEW DELHI: State-owned Indian Oil Corp (IOC) on Fri-day said its board has approved a Rs 4,221 crore project to set up a petrochem project at Paradip in Odisha.

The board, at its meet-ing on Thursday, "accorded approval for implementation of 357 kilo tons per annum

Ethylene Glycol Project along-with associated facilities at Paradip based on off-gas of the Fluid Catalytic Cracking Unit at an estimated cost of Rs 4,221 crore," the company said in a regulatory filing.

Indian Oil Corp would use by-products generated from refining crude oil at its 15 mil-

lion tonnes a year refinery at Paradip to manufacture Eth-ylene Glycol.

In the plastics industry, ethylene glycol is important precursor to polyester fibres and resins. Polyethylene tere-phthalate, used to make plas-tic bottles for soft drinks, is prepared from ethylene glycol.

Indian Oil Corp said the major application of Ethylene Glycol is in manufacture of polyester fibre, bottle grade chips and polyester grade chips.

"The project would help in meeting the growing domestic demand of Ethylene Glycol in the country," it said. PTI

MUMBAI: Microlender-turned commercial bank Band-han Bank on Friday posted a 20.3 per cent growth in March quarter net at Rs 388 crore, but reported a fourfold spike in bad loans in its core micro-lending portfolio.

For the entire fiscal year 2018, the Kolkata-based bank, which went public last month, reported a 21 per cent growth in bottomline at Rs 1,346 crore.

The bank said the overhang of the triple blows of note-ban, GST introduction and farm loan waiver is still visible in the micro-lending segmentm which constitutes as mnuch as 72 per cent of its assets.

As against a historical aver-age of about 0.4 per cent, its gross non-performing assets ratio more than trebled to 1.25 per cent during the quarter.

Managing director and chief executive Chandra Shek-har Ghosh said stress continues in the microlending segment, but pointed out that there has been a declining trend in the same, which is visible from

gross bad loan ratio of 1.67 per cent in the December quarter.

The bank had to write off Rs 51 crore of advances in FY18 because of the stress, he added.

Provisions shot up nearly threefold to Rs 109.08 crore from Rs 36.44 crore in the

year-ago period. The core net interest income grew 25.2 per cent to Rs 863 crore in the reporting quarter, while non-interest income, earned pri-marily through distribution of financial products like mutual funds, soared 57.4 per cent to

Rs 203 crore. The bank regis-tered a 37.4 per cent growth in advances and 45.8 per cent spike in deposits.

Net interest margin improved to 9.3 per cent from 10.7 per cent, as non-MFI book grew to 28 per cent.

Chief financial officer Sunil Samdani said 95 per cent of overall advances classify as priority sector lending and the manner in which they were monetised also had a bearing on the margins.

He said 90 per cent of such "downselling" in FY18 was through the priority sector lending certificate route which bloats the fees but trims the margin.

Ghosh, however, didn't offer a NIM target. He said in FY19, it is targeting to "mini-mise" the bad loans ratio and relying more on tracking the daily on-time payment data to achieve the goal and deploying more field force.

It plans to increase the over-all presence to 4,000 from 3,700 now, which will see addition of nearly 60 branches to take the number to 1,000 and nearly 300 doorstep service centres to 3,000.

The bank scrip closed 2.04 per cent higher at Rs 504.90 on the BSE as against 0.74 per cent rally on the benchmark. PTI

Bandhan Bank quarterly net profit gallops by 20.3%

SOUMITRA NANDI

KOLKATA: Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) has set an ambitious target of Rs 552 crore net profit for the 2018-19 financial year. DVC’s optimism comes in the wake of the public sector undertaking clocking a profit of Rs 19 crore in the fourth quarter of FY 18.

"We have posted Rs 19 crores net profit in the fourth quarter that ended March 2018 after a gap of 15 consecutive quarters. We are targeting Rs 552 crore profit in the current fiscal (FY19')," DVC member-secretary and acting chairman P. K . Mukhopadhyay said.

Responding to a poser on

how DVC had scripted such a remarkable turnaround Muk-hopadhyay said that stream-lining of machine operations, planned cost cutting mea-sures, aggressive sale in power exchange and exports and most important running Raghunath-pur thermal power station in full capacity have been the key drivers for the growth of DVC. He expressed his optimism of achieving around Rs 2739 crore additional revenue compared to Rs 15,729 crore revenue in 2017-18 fiscal. DVC has set a target of generating 46500 MU of electricity.

Mukhopadhyay officially announced DVC’s termina-tion of MoU with NLC India

(Neyveli Lignite) to hive-off 1200MW Raghunathpur ther-mal power plant into a JV despite Bengal government’s approval for the same.

It may be mentioned that

Raghunathpur was a drag on the DVC's finances due to high-interest burden of Rs 840 crore annually. "Raghunath-pur thermal power plant will be the cheapest power plant in

which fixed cost will come to Rs 1.65 per unit based on Rs 9300 crore cost. The cost is yet to be finalised by the Central Electricity Regulatory Commis-sion," he said. He maintained that Bengal which is one of the major stakeholders for DVC will have an income on coal cess account combined with GST to the tune of Rs 400 crore per annum with DVC’s decision of retaining Raghunathpur in its own hands.

“Raghunathpur which is presently operating at about 400 MW will start generating 800MW from May-June and from early next year full-load generation of 1200 MW will take place. Rail line connectivity

will be over by December and with dual connectivity in road and rail generation will get a much needed boost,” Mukho-padhyay said.

DVC from June will start supplying 300 MW to Bangla-desh in its first ever foray for cross border supply on the basis of 13 years 6 months contract.

The company has started retiring several old capacities. In 2017-18, DVC had retired 820MW and by 2020 another 550MW worth of capacity will be put-off to move out from high-cost power generation.

DVC is now left with 7090MW of thermal and 147.2MW hydel generation capacity.

TOKYO: Sony on Friday reported profits worth $4.5 bil-lion, extending a roaring recov-ery supported by better sales almost across the board, includ-ing with box office blockbusters like its Jumanji reboot.

The results confirm the electronics and entertainment giant's return to health after huge losses in recent years, but analysts said there are questions about whether the pace could be maintained.

Sony reported net yearly profits hit 490.8 billion yen ($4.5 billion) for the year to March, a record high, up from 73.3 billion yen a year earlier.

Annual operating profit more than doubled to 734.86 billion yen, while sales surged 12.4 per cent to 8.54 trillion yen, the company said.

Sales were up across the board, with the exception of the mobile operation, with asset sales adding to its operating profit, Sony said.

The game division saw an 18-per cent rise in sales largely, driven by the popularity of PlayStation 4 software, as well as foreign exchange rates and more subscribers to Sony's paid membership service.

After the commercial successes of "Spider-Man: Homecoming" and "Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle", Sony's pictures division saw sales rise 12 per cent.

Jumanji managed the rare feat of regaining the top spot in North American box offices on its seventh week in cinemas, and has earned more than $404 million in the North Ameri-can market since its December 2017 release.

Sony also saw robust

demand for image sensors for mobile phones drive sales in its semiconductor business up 10 percent.

"Brisk sales of image sen-sors, recovery in the movie business and a steady expan-sion in its game sector have contributed to its profit," Yasuo Imanaka, an analyst at Rakuten Securities in Tokyo, said ahead of the release.

The strong figures served as a grand send-off for Kazuo Hirai, who recently stepped down as the firm's chief exec-utive after spending the past six years pulling the electronics-entertainment titan from deep financial troubles.

Hirai led aggressive restruc-turing at Sony, terminating thousands of jobs while selling business units and assets.

Meanwhile, Sony's quality sensors for smartphone cam-eras saw explosive demand and became a major pillar of the firm's revenue, along with the PlayStation series of game con-soles, movies, and its financial businesses.

After Hirai's retirement, former chief financial officer Kenichiro Yoshida became the new top executive.

"New CEO Yoshida is

expected to take on Hirai's business style. As Sony showed progress across the sectors, the company has achieved a full-fledged comeback," Imanaka said.

But falling sales of smart-phones continued and will likely drop further during the ongoing year.

PlayStation 4 sales are also thought to be peaking after its gradual global launch in late 2013 through early 2014.

For the year to March 2019, the firm expects a moderate slowdown, with net profit seen falling 2.2 per cent to 480 billion yen and operating profit down 8.8 percent to 670 billion yen.

Annual sales are expected to drop 2.9 per cent to 8.3 tril-lion yen.

The firm said its sales could slow due to the impact of for-eign exchange rates and weak sales of mobile devices. Profits from the semiconductors seg-ment were also expected to fall, Sony said.

"Sony recovered sharply but is unlikely to grow at the same pace for the current fiscal year," Hideki Yasuda, an analyst at the Ace Research Institute in Tokyo, said before the results announcement. PTI

Japanese Sony’s profit soars 7-fold to $4.5 bn

DVC posts `19 cr Q4 net profit, charts out turnaround plan

NEW DELHI: The market share of iPhone maker Apple plunged while Samsung dominated the premium smartphone segment in India in the first quarter of 2018, as per two market research reports released on Friday.

"Apple's share in the pre-mium segment dipped as the volumes dipped by a massive 55 per cent due to decline in shipments for its iPhone 8 and X series.

"Additionally, the increase in import duty on CBUs (com-pletely built units) to 20 per cent during the quarter, led to increase in prices of already expensive iPhones," Counter-point Research said in its report.

The premium segment accounts for 4 per cent of the overall smartphone market in India and three brands -- Samsung, OnePlus and Apple -- contributed to 95 per cent of the overall share in the seg-ment, the report said. Apple has been in discussions with the

government to resolve some issues it has raised pertaining to manufacturing norms before it expands local production. In the meantime, three-times increase in import tariff during

last five months is visible on sale of iPhones, it said. According to CyberMedia Research, Apple was on top in the last quarter of 2017 with the launch of iPhone X and iPhone 8/8Plus, but the

shipments of devices from the company to India declined by 74 per cent which was also reflected in market share.

"In the super premium (handsets priced above Rs 50,000 a unit) flagships segment, Apple saw its share decline from 82 to 25 per cent," the report said

"Samsung captured half of the premium segment with 16 per cent YoY growth, driven by strong initial demand of its new flagships S9, S9 Plus and online exclusive Galaxy A8 plus," the report said.

Cashback, exchange, upgrade and bundled data schemes helped sales of Sam-sung S9 during the quarter.

"OnePlus was the fastest growing brand (with 192 per cent growth) in the segment capturing 25 per cent of the share," the report said.

OnePlus has been holding the second spot in the premium segment since July-September 2017 period. PTI

NEW DELHI: Tata Power Delhi Distribution on Friday announced the appointment of Sanjay Banga as the com-pany’s new Chief Executive Officer. Banga will take over from Praveer Sinha as he has been elevated to the position of CEO&MD effective May 1, 2018.

Banga has been with the Tata Power-DDL since July 2003 and was part of the founding team which transformed the ailing distribution company into a benchmark utility. He has been serving as the Vice President - Power Management, Contracts and Business Development. He brings with him over 3 decades of experience in the power sector. MPOST

Two executives Jella Masch-endar and Narayan Reddy

G from NTPC-Ramagundam have secured All India 3rd and 7th Rank respectively in 18th National Certification Examina-tion for Energy Managers and Energy Auditors conducted by Bureau of Energy Efficiency.

KOLKATA:Tata Metaliks Lim-ited (TML) has reported a 35.3 per cent rise in its Profit After Tax (PAT) at Rs 54.65 crore for the quarter ended March 31,2018 compared with Rs 40.38 crore in the correspond-ing quarter of the previous year.

The Company’s turnover for the quarter stood at Rs 546 crore, up by 31.5 per cent com-pared with Rs 415 crore in Q4 FY17.

The company recorded sales deliveries of 291 KT of Pig Iron and over 209 KT of DI Pipes for the financial year.

Deliveries for the quarter were 71 KT of Pig Iron and 65 KT of DI Pipes.

For the fiscal ended March 31,2018, the Company recorded a turnover of Rs 1,894 crore, up 34.3 per cent com-pared with Rs 1,410 crores in FY 17. PAT for FY18 was Rs 159.18 crore, up by 37 per cent from Rs 116.06 crore in last financial year.

Tata Metaliks Limited’s Board of directors has recom-mended a dividend of 30 per cent on equity shares for the year gone by. MPOST

NEW DELHI: In terms of Notification S.O. 1709(E) issued by the Central Gov-ernment under section 25 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 (26 of 1881), second and fourth Saturdays of every month have been declared as Public Holidays for Life Insur-ance Corporation of India starting with Saturday, April 28, 2018. LIC hereby brings to the notice of the general pub-lic and LIC’s customers that all Saturdays except the Second and Fourth Saturdays will be full working days. MPOST

IOC board approves ̀ 4,221-cr Paradip project

NEW DELHI: Steel magnate Sajjan Jindal on Friday said India needs to safeguard the industries of strategic impor-tance from external threats, as is being done by other nations.

The comment comes against the backdrop of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's China visit for a two-day infor-mal summit with President Xi Jinping.

"PM Modi's #China visit is bound to be a historical one. All nations globally are pro-tecting the industries that are of strategic importance to their nation & we must ensure that

all such industries within India are safeguarded & protected from external threats," Jindal said in a tweet.

Modi and the Chinese Pres-ident on Friday began talks at an unprecedented two-day informal summit at Wuhan, China during which they will have a series of one-on-one

conversations focussing on bilateral, global and regional issues.

JSW Steel is a part of the diversified $11 billion JSW Group which also has presence in sectors such as energy, infra-structure, cement and sports.

JSW Steel is the leading integrated steel company in India with an installed steel-making capacity of 18 million tonnes per annum (MTPA).

JSW Steel's plant at Vijay-anagar in Karnataka is the largest single location steel pro-ducing facility in the country with a capacity of 12 MTPA. PTI

Need to safeguard industries from external threats: Sajjan Jindal

LIC declares 2nd and 4th Saturdays ‘public holidays’

Sanjay Banga new CEO of Tata Power Delhi Distribution

TOKYO: Honda Motor on Fri-day said its annual net profit grew more than 70 per cent thanks to strong growth in sales of its cars and motorcycles, as well as US corporate tax cuts.

Japan's third largest auto-maker logged net profits of 1.06 trillion yen ($9.7 billion), up 71.8 per cent from the previous year, with sales of 15.36 trillion yen, up 9.7 per cent.

Motorcycle sales were par-ticularly strong, growing 15.3 per cent from the previous year, it said.

Honda reported its US corporate tax bill was down 346 billion yen ($3 billion) thanks to tax cuts introduced by President Donald Trump's administration.

Operating profit edged down 0.9 per cent due to factors including currency exchange rates, revisions in the firm's pension system and settlement costs for class-action lawsuits.

But the company said it was "a de facto rise" in operating profit of 11 per cent.

For the current year to March 2019, Honda expects net profit to drop by 46.2 per cent to 570 billion yen, chiefly due to a higher yen.

It forecasts sales will edge up 1.6 per cent to 15.6 trillion yen.

A higher yen makes Japa-nese carmakers less competitive in foreign markets and deflates profits when repatriated.

"The Japanese auto indus-try benefited from US tax cuts for the fiscal year," said Satoru Takada, an analyst at TIW, a Tokyo-based research and con-sulting firm. PTI

Apple India mkt share dips in Jan-March; Samsung gains in premium segment

Honda drives up net by 70% on US tax cuts, brisk sales

Tata Metaliks Ltd Q4 PAT rises 35% to ̀ 54.65 cr

The premium segment accounts for 4% of the overall smartphone market in India and three brands — Samsung, OnePlus and Apple — account for 95% of the overall share

NTPC congratulates energy auditors

for brilliant show

G Narayan Reddy Jella Maschendar

mp sport14MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Saturday, 28 April, 2018

JUNIOR DALA REPLACES INJURED CHRIS MORRIS IN DD SQUAD NEW DELHI: There seems to be no end to Delhi Daredevils’ miseries after star all-rounder Chris Morris pulled out of the remainder of the Indian Premier League owing to a back in-jury. South Africa’s right-arm fast medium Junior Dala has been called in as replacement for Morris, who played four games aggregating 46 runs and three wickets to show for his efforts.

JUGGLING DIFFERENT ROLES CAN BE DIFFICULT, SAYS YUVRAJ SINGH LONDON: Paul Pogba says he is “judged differently” from other Premier League midfielders after a frustrating season that has seen him dropped by Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho on several occasions. The Frenchman was widely criticised for a lacklustre display in this month’s 1-0 home loss to West Bromwich Albion.

KEEPER SREEJESH RETURNS AS CAPTAIN OF INDIAN HOCKEY TEAMNEW DELHI: Veteran goalkeeper P R Sreejesh has replaced midfielder Manpreet Singh as the former regains the captaincy of the Indian men’s hockey team till the end of the year, it was announced on Friday. “Sreejesh returns to the leadership role after coming back from an injury break,” Hockey India (HI) said in a statement.

KOLKATA: The Indian cricket board had egg on its face when the Interna-tional Cricket Council (ICC) decided during its quarterly meet here to convert the Champions Trophy — con-ceived by the country’s late administrator of the game, Jagmohan Dalmiya in 1998 when he helmed the global body — into a WorldT20.

The loss of face is more as India is slated to host the 2021 event — the cut off date for the change in format ordained by the ICC — and the country’s cricket mandarins had been crying from rooftops that they would resist any alternation of the 50-over variant.

At the end of the five-day conclave on Thursday, ICC Chief Executive Dave Rich-ardson said the global body has “unanimously agreed” that the 2021 meet would now be a 16-team event in the shortest format, effec-tively scrapping the eight-team Champions Trophy.

Richardson virtually rubbed more salt into the wound when he disclosed during the customary post meeting media conference that, a “BCCI representa-tive” who attended the meet-ing where the decision was taken, voted in favour of the motion and it was passed unanimously.

“So I don’t think that’s an issue,” Richardson said.

Days earlier, a top offi-cial of the Board of Control for Cricket (BCCI) had told IANS on the sidelines of the ICC meet that the Champi-ons Trophy is “synonymous” with 50-over cricket, like Test cricket is always played over five days.

“The sun rises in the east. Similarly, Test cricket is played over five days and the Cham-pions Trophy is a 50-over for-mat tournament,” the official had said in an informal chat.

There are also reports that the BCCI fears a loss of about $30 million if Champions Trophy 2021 is replaced by a WorldT20.

BCCI acting secretary Amitabh Chaudhury was quoted as saying after Rich-ardson’s press conference that “India will never support the decision”.

In the press conference on Thursday, Richardson made it clear in as many words that the ICC is now look-ing to broad-base the game with the help of T20 cricket’s popularity.

The ICC chief executive even asserted there will be no five-day format in wom-en’s cricket, as “barring Aus-tralia and England, no other country’s eves wanted to play in white flannels”. Instead, there would be a clutch of T20 International matches, which most teams want to be engaged in. AGENCIES

CHANGWON (KOREA): Seasoned Indian shooter Tejaswini Sawant missed out on qualifying for the women’s 50m rifle 3 positions final by a point as China and Russia continued their dominance in the ISSF World Cup here on Friday.

Tejaswini, a gold medal-list at the recently concluded Commonwealth Games, fin-ished 12th after shooting 1167 in qualification.

Anna Ilana of Ukraine, who grabbed the eighth and final qualifying spot with a score of 1168, had 57 inner 10s against her name to

Tejaswini’s 61. China won the gold in the

event to go top of the medals tally with a total of four yel-low metals.

China and Russia contin-ued to dominate the competi-tion, accounting for seven of the 13 gold medals won so far with the remaining six being distributed equally among hosts Korea, Australia, Italy, Slovakia, Finland and Belarus.

Of the 39 total medals, Russia and China have won a total of 12 among them and will look to increase that tally with two finals left to play over the two remaining days of competition. India remains in 10th place with Shahzar Rizvi winning a silver in the men’s 10m air pistol earlier in the competition. AGENCIES

HYDERABAD: After defending a meagre score of 132 against Kings XI Punjab, Sunrisers Hyder-abad skipper Kane Williamson praised his bowl-ers, saying the team is lucky to have local talent.

Spin twins Rashid Khan and Shakib Al Hasan shared five wickets to help Hyderabad beat Punjab by 13 runs in a nail-biting Indian Premier League (IPL) match.

“The bowlers have been operating very well, they know their roles very well. We are fortunate with our bowling depth. Very lucky to have the local talent,” Williamson said after the match.

“Some good tough decisions to make going into the next few matches. You always want more, but the boys have been fantastic in the way they fought with the ball especially on this kind of a pitch. We want to maintain the same trend for the rest of the tournament,” he added.

Williamson also advised his batsmen to be a little more smarter.

“It’s nice to be able to defend these totals. We didn’t bowl well in the powerplay, but we did well

to squeeze it towards the end. We want to be a little bit smarter with the bat. It’s about getting 145s and 155s on these kind of surfaces. Com-petitive totals on these kind of surfaces,” he said.

Demoted to No. 3, Kings XI Punjab squan-dered a watchful 55-run opening start from Chris Gayle and Lokesh Rahul before falling apart, as Rashid (3/19) and Shakib (2/18) trig-gered a batting collapse to help their team win the match at the Rajiv Gandhi International Sta-dium here on Thursday. AGENCIES

PUNE: An embattled Mum-bai Indians’ fight for survival in the ongoing Indian Pre-mier League begins at Chen-nai Super Kings’ adopted home ground here on Saturday, an uphill task given their oppo-nents’ form and formidable line-up.

The heartbreaking one-wicket defeat in the lung-opener is fresh in their minds but Mumbai Indians will have to play out of their skins to exact revenge at the Maha-rashtra Cricket Association Stadium.

At the Wankhede in Mum-bai earlier this month, CSK had defeated the defending cham-pions by one wicket, and with a ball to spare.

MI are too keen to get back to winning ways after two straight reverses.

It has been a journey of contrasts for the two teams so far. While Mumbai have man-aged only one win in their six matches, the Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led outfit has won five of their six games.

The shifting of games from their original home did not affect Chennai as they won their first match in Pune.

For Mumbai, to survive in the tournament, this is a must-win encounter.

Mumbai batters have strug-gled in the tournament, barring Suryakumar Yadav.

Skipper Rohit Sharma has failed to fire in five of the six games and so is Kieron Pollard.

But if Rohit, Pollard, Surya, Evin Lewis and Hardik Pan-dya fire in unison, Mumbai

can set up or chase big totals. And coach Mahela Jayaward-ane would expect all to score heavily on Saturday.

Save his match-winning 94 against Royal Challengers Ban-glore, Rohit has failed to get past 20 runs in five games. He would he hoping to turn the tables and get some runs under his belt.

Rohit’s batting position will also be crucial and MI can ask him to open and bring Surya at number 4.

Even in terms of bowling, MI have failed to perform as a unit. When one performed exceedingly well, he lacked support from the other end.

The 20-year-old leggie Mayank Markande has been the find for MI and he has grabbed 10 wickets from six games.

But others like ‘death overs’ specialist Jasprit Bumrah and Bangladesh pacer Muztifizur Rahman have not lived up to the expectations. If the star-studded CSK batting line-up has to be restricted, the two will have to play their part to perfection.

Mumbai can also look at bringing in New Zealand pacer Adam Milne for his compa-triot Mitchell McClehaghan, who is leaking runs, especially in the end.

On the other hand, Chen-nai would take confidence from their last win when a vintage Dhoni helped the team chase a stiff target of 206 against RCB.

Chennai would be pleased that most of their batters Aus-tralian Shane Watson, Ambati Rayadu, Dwayne Bravo, Dhoni are in form. AGENCIES

ICC conclave leaves BCCI red-faced

Tejaswini misses final by a point in ISSF World Cup

Lucky to have local talent, says Hyderabad skipper Williamson

MI eye revenge against table-toppers CSK

ADITYA K HALDER

NEW DELHI: Leading from the front on his captaincy debut, Shreyas Iyer (unbeaten 93 runs off 40 deliveries) sprang new life into Delhi Daredevils as the hosts put up a mammoth 219/4 against Kolkata Knight Riders at the Feroz Shah Kotla here on Friday.

The skipper forged a strong partnership with Prithvi Shaw (of 68 runs) first and then a 72-run stand with Glenn Maxwell for the fourth wicket to destroy KKR’s bowl-ing line-up.

Iyer saved his best for the last as he scored 29 runs in the final over off Mavi (four sixes and a boundary).

Getting Maxwell (27 from 18) run out was the only moment of happiness for the young pacer in the 20th over.

Earlier, after winning the toss, Dinesh Karthik decided to bowl first as veteran pace bowler Mitchell Johnson walked in the line-up for Tom Curran.

Iyer made the tough choice on his first day by dropping old guard Gautam Gambhir and accommodated Colin Munro in the opening slot.

Also, all-rounder Vijay Shankar was brought back in the line-up for Dan Christian.

The Kiwi southpaw justified his selection by giving a bright start to the troubled Delhi side.

Along with Indian Under-

19 hero Prithvi Shaw, Munro (33 runs from 18 balls) ripped apart the KKR bowling attack in the powerplay by amassing 57 runs. While Munro used his bottom hand to dominate the bowlers, the flamboyant Prithvi emanated his class with immaculate stroke-making.

The breakthrough finally arrived for KKR when young speedster Shivam Mavi dis-lodged the stumps of Munro off the last ball of the seventh over.

After losing his opening partner, Prithvi (62 from 44) kept the scoreboard ticking for the home side.

The 18-year-old patiently scored off the weak deliveries and dealt in singles from the remaining to reach his maiden half-century in the IPL.

First down, Shreyas Iyer soon joined in as he hit Kul-deep Yadav for a six in the 12th over. The partnership was finally broken by Chawla who clean bowled the 18-year-old opener when the score read 127 at the end of 14th over.

Newly-in Rishab Pant soon followed Prithvi as he fell prey to Andre Russell for null.

Unfazed by the fall of two successive wickets, Iyer kept the scoreboard moving at a good pace. The skipper took Delhi above 200 with an able partner in Maxwell. BRIEF SCORES: DD 219/4 (Shreyas Iyer 93 not out, Prithvi Shaw 62, Colin Munro 33; Andre Russell 1/28) vs KKR.

On debut captaincy, Iyer shines; DD score 219/4

42 sets and counting: Nadal in semi-finals

India have sufficient practice time for Tests in

England: Zak

BARCELONA: Rafael Nadal kept his campaign for an 11th Barcelona title on track on Fri-day with a 6-0, 7-5 win over Slo-vakian qualifier Martin Klizan.

World number one Nadal has now won 42 consecutive sets on clay but he was made to work by Klizan, the world num-ber 140.

Klizan, who knocked out Novak Djokovic in the second round, had three set points to take the match to a decider.

But Nadal, who had been 3-5 down in the second set, bat-tled back to take victory on a third match point and will face either Belgium’s David Goffin or Spanish compatriot Roberto Bautista Agut for a place in the final. AGENCIES

MUMBAI: Former pace spear-head Zaheer Khan feels the month-long preparatory time for the Indian players ahead of the tough five-Test series against hosts England this sum-mer will be sufficient to get used to the weather conditions there.

India are to visit England, after hopping over from Ireland where they will play two T20 Internationals, in June, to play three T20s and as many ODIs between July 3 and 17.

The tourists then have the remainder of July to practise and get more acclimatized to the weather and wickets before the start of the opening Test at Edgbaston on August 1.

“There will be more than enough time to get used to the conditions. It certainly will give you enough time to get yourself acclimatized. Most players are playing in more than one for-mat and the key players will get used to wickets and conditions,” said the 39-year-old Zak.

“One thing with England is the weather is not consistent. In overcast conditions the ball is going to swing.

“At the end of day you need the right frame of mind and right technique to deal with it as a bowler or batsman,” he said after unveiling the trophy of the Pro Star (U-16) League (West Zone) here on Friday. Zaheer, who took 31 wickets in 8 Tests in England and also played county cricket for Sur-rey and Worcestershire, is the adviser in Mumbai for the U-16 league, a grassroots talent hunt to be played in 10 cities. AGENCIES

OFFICE OF THE SUPERINTENDING ENGINEERPUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT, CIRCLE NO-1 RAIPUR (C.G.)

Tender NoticeContractors, Registered appropriate class in Unified Registration System (e- Registration] invited Online tenders for the following works :-

• Note :- All eligible/interested contractors are mandated to get enrolled on the e Procurement portal (https://eproc.cgstate.gov.in) in order to download the tender documents and participate in the subsequent bidding process. Superintending EngineerG-50976/4 P.W.D. Raipur Circle No-1 Raipur (C.G.)

DD captain Shreyas Iyer celebrates his 50 against KKR in New Delhi, on Friday PTI

LONDON: Down to 10 men and without their coach less than 15 minutes into their Europa League semi-final first leg here against Arsenal, Atlet-ico Madrid came from behind to secure a 1-1 draw and stay alive in the battle to reach the final.

Not even the most optimis-tic Arsenal supporter in the stands at London’s Emirates Sta-dium could have expected the kind of start the Gunners got during Thursday night’s game, reports Efe news agency.

A pair of unnecessary and clumsy challenges by Atleti defender Sime Vrsaljko saw him sent off in the 11th min-ute and his coach, Diego Sime-one, was tossed minutes later for continuing to loudly protest the ejection.

The hosts and their fans, already breathing a sigh of relief

over Simeone’s decision to not start Diego Costa — a neme-sis for Arsenal during his time with Chelsea — seemed to have everything going for them.

Atleti goalkeeper Jan Oblak kept his side in the match, impressing with good stops against Alexander Lacazette and Danny Welbeck.

At the other end, Gunners keeper David Ospina had a quiet first half and was troubled only once, an effort in the 33rd minute by Antoine Griezmann.

The pattern continued after the break, with Atletico bend-ing but not breaking and even getting the occasional chance with deep balls behind the high-pressing Arsenal defenders.

When the hosts finally scored, it was due to a mistake by the Colchoneros, a botched clearance by Griezmann that gave the ball to Arsenal’s Jack

Wilshere, whose cross led to Lacazette’s goal in the 61st minute.

The Gunners got plenty more chances after that, but failed to convert on any of them.

Atletico never lost heart and their discipline and tenac-ity were rewarded in the 81st minute when Arsenal defender Laurent Koscielny misjudged a long ball from Jose Maria Gimenez. The ball ended up on the foot of Griezmann, who scored with Ospina out of position and Shkodran Mus-tafi toppling to the ground on the goal-line.

Arsenal’s last chance to win, a Lacazette strike from point-blank range, was snuffed out by Oblak, leaving the tie up for grabs as the teams prepare for next week’s second leg at the Wanda Metropolitano in Madrid. AGENCIES

10-man Atletico hold Arsenal

mp sport 15MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Saturday, 28 April, 2018

CWG champion recommended for Khel Ratna, Arjuna Award

Saina, Sindhu, Srikanth,

Prannoy qualify for World C’ship

NEW DELHI: Recently crowned Commonwealth Games cham-pion Neeraj Chopra has been recommended by the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) for the country’s highest sporting honour — the Khel Ratna Award.

In addition to the Khel Ratna, the 20-year-old javelin thrower from the Indian Army has also been recommended for the Arjuna Award by the AFI.

Chopra is one of three athletes who has been recommended for the Arjuna Award, with women’s javelin thrower Annu Rani and four-time Commonwealth Games medallist Seema Antil Punia being the other two.

The federation has also nom-inated legendary athlete turned coach PT Usha and India youth team coach Sanjay Garnaik for the Dronacharya Award.

Boby Aloysis, Kuldeep Singh Bhullar and Jata Shankar have been recommended for the Dhyanchand Award while TP Ouseph has been recommended for the Life Time Achievement Award. AGENCIES

NEW DELHI: Top Indian shuttlers, including P V Sindhu and Saina Nehwal, qualified for the prestigious badminton World Champi-onships to be held in Nan-jing, China from July 30 to August 5.

Sindhu and Saina who won the silver and bronze medal respectively at the Glasgow edition last year will be joined by World No. 5 K Srikanth and World No. 10 H S Prannoy and B Sai Praneeth, ranked 19th in the BWF ranking list that was released on Thursday.

Commonwealth Games silver medallists Satwik-sairaj Rankireddy and Chi-rag Shetty and national champions B Sumeeth Reddy and Manu Attri also booked their tickets for Nanjing in the men’s dou-bles category.

Ashwini Ponnappa, who emerged as the star by guiding India to a historic mixed team gold dur-ing the Commonwealth Games, also qualified for the World Championship along with her wom-en’s doubles partner Sikki Reddy and mixed doubles partner Satwiksairaj.

Upcoming women’s dou-bles pair of Poorvisha S Ram and J Meghana also qualified as the second-best ranked Indian pair, while Sikki and Pranaav Jerry Chopra made it to the list as the best-ranked mixed doubles pair from India.

A member association (MA) is allowed to field four players in a category if all four are ranked within the top eight, or three players if they are ranked in the top 24, or two play-ers if they are ranked in the top 150.

The BWF World rank-ing list of April 26 deter-mines the eligibility of players under Phase 1 of the qualifying system, while member associations will be informed by May 17 of the players/pairs who are eligible to qualify under phase two.

AGENCIES

Wenger invited me to train with Arsenal, says Lewis Hamilton

BAKU: Arsenal fan Lewis Hamilton has spoken of his admiration for outgoing man-ager Arsene Wenger and revealed that the Frenchman invited the four-times Formula One world champion to train with the Premier League team.

“I’ve had the privilege of meeting him a couple of times,” the Briton told Sky Sports tele-vision at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. “He asked me to go and train with the team, which I have not managed to do yet, but he was always really wel-

coming and it was cool to meet ‘our team’s’ boss.”

Hamilton, who said he had supported Arsenal since he was five, admired Wenger’s com-mitment to the North Lon-don club over more than two decades. “The loyalty which he has shown through all the ups and downs, through outside individuals saying positives and negatives, but to stay true to your values and continue to strive for what you believe in I think has really been awesome,” he said. AGENCIES

FUTURE PERFECT

KOLKATA: Teenage shooting sensation Mehuli Ghosh, who is back home after winning a silver in the 10m air rifle event at the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, said she’s work-ing hard to become the world number one.

The world number six Indian may be just 17-year-old but said she has never felt under pressure.

“I don’t see any pressure on me going by age. My world rank is 6 now, to make it 1 I have to work harder, Mehuli who is the only one from Ben-gal to have won an individual medal at the Games,” said after her arrival.

Mehuli returned home for the first time after winning the silver as an overjoyed family, friends and coach-cum-mentor Joydeep Karmakar gave her a warm reception.

The India team won’t be sent to USA for the World Cup from May 7-15 and Mehuli said they would focus on the Munich World Cup from May 22-29.

The World Championship and Asian Games are also in the offing so we are focused and want to work hard, she said.

Post-CWG, Mehuli had a disappointing outing at the recently-concluded Korea World Cup with a 17th place finish.

Competition was tough. But the focus is now on the Germany World Cup, she said.

“I am going to Delhi on April 30. Then to Germany, she said adding the shooting team would meet the President and Prime Minister.”

Having narrowly missed the gold in the play-off at the CWG, Mehuli said she has learnt to become patient.

“Patience is the one thing I learnt from CWG. I have to keep cool and increase focus. These are the lessons I learnt from CWG.”

Mehuli had shot a perfect 10.9 and thought she had clinched it and even pumped her fist, only to be told that there was one more shot to go. AGENCIES

BARCELONA: Andrés Ini-esta has announced he will leave Barcelona at the end of the season.

The Spain international, 33, came through the youth system with the club and turned professional in 2001.

He has enjoyed a glitter-ing career for club and coun-try, and said on Friday: “This is my last season here.”

Iniesta’s emotional press conference was witnessed by a number of members of the Barça first team. He has won eight La Liga titles with the club and four Champi-ons Leagues, and scored the

only goal as Spain beat Hol-land to win the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. “I want to thank my team-mates,” he said. “My only aim was to be a success at this club and I have done that.” Iniesta has been linked with a move to the Chinese Super League when his time at Barcelona ends, although he refused to confirm he will be joining Chongqing Dangdai Lifan as has been reported.

“There are still things to be sorted,” he said. “I have said I will never play against Barça, so I won’t play in Europe.”

Mehuli eyeing to be world No. 1

Iniesta in tears as he confirms Barca exit

at end of season

NEW DELHI: India main-tained their dubious record of being among top 10 nations with regards to doping viola-tions being joint sixth as World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) published its report as per sam-ples collected in 2016.

But in the latest report pub-lished yesterday, India have 69 Anti-Doping Rule Viola-tions (ADRV), the same as that of Russia, a country which has been under intense international scrutiny for years now.

However, India can take solace from the fact that they have significantly improved

their position to sixth after being joint third for three years in a row.

For three years in a row from 2013-15, India were ranked third in doping violations.

The last report of 2015 had 117 sportspersons from the country being punished after testing positive for banned substances.

Italy topped the rankings of drug cases in 2016, account-ing for 147 ADRVs, followed by France (86), United States (76), Australia (75), Belgium (73). Brazil and Iran are at joint eighth with 55 ADRVs while

South Africa is at 10th with 50.The number of dope vio-

lations for India has reduced but the trend of sports which are mostly under the scanner remain same.

Athletics has 21 offenders, expectedly followed by weight-lifting and powerlifting with 14 each. Kabaddi has nine dope offenders while wrestling con-tributed five.

Aquatics, bodybuilding, handball (university), para-athletics, taekwondo and vol-leyball contributed one each to make it a total count of 69.

“I am happy that the num-ber of doping violations has

decreased and our position has improved though we need to do even more,” NADA DG Navin Agarwal said.

“Our concerted effort has started showing results. We have been focussing at school and college levels and we are doing a lot of awareness and educative programmes. We have a zero tolerance on dop-ing and athletes at a young age should know that he or she cannot escape with doping. He or she will be caught at some stage,” Agarwal added.

The report shows that NADA tested 2831 samples during that year. AGENCIES

India are joint 6th in list of doping violations

“It is to inform to the public at large that (1) Shri Neeraj Sharma S/o Late Subhash Sharma, (2) Shri Sunil S/o Parma Lal and (3) Shri Sunil S/o Ishwar Dayal, are pres-ent owner of the Property No. 133-A/B, area measuring 50 Square Yards, Kilo-kari, New Delhi-1 10014 and going to Sell the said property to my Client Ms. Gagandeep D/o Baldev Singh, R/o 94, kilokari, Delhi-1 10014. As per chain of property, initially GPA holder namely Shri Jagdish was the owner of Property, after the death of GPA Holder his legal heirs executed a Relinquishment deed to Smt. Usha Verma, thereafter Usha executed a Sale Deed in faovur of present owner of the property. The same is financed by Capital First Home Finance Limited, Branch Gurgaon. If any Person having any type of claim/right/title/interest over the said property, Smt. Gagandeep will be responsible or may inform in writing, at the address mentioned below, about his objections, within 7 days from today, fail-ing which it shall presumed that the said property is free from all type of Encum-brances, lien etc.

Sd/- NAVEEN KUMAR VERMA Advocate

F-211, Sector-3, Vaishali Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh-201010

(Contact at 09958871432)

PUBLIC NOTICE

“It is to inform to the public at large that ShriSurender Singh S/o ShriDheeraj Singh R/o Haldauni, Tugalpur, Greater Noida, PariChowk, Noida,is present owner of the Plot No. 25, area measuring 90 Square Yards, Khasra No. 502, Krishna Vatika, Dewal, Dadri, Uttar Pradesh. As per chain of property, initially Sunil Kumar and Jitender Singh Mavi were owner of the land 0.2000 Hectare and further only Sunil Kumar sold from his share of land i.e. Plot No. 25 to the present owner of the property.Surender Singh alongwithShriS-harvan Kumar Maviare going to take LOAN AGAIST PROPERTY and same is financed byMuthootHomefin (India) Ltd., Branch Ghaziabad.If any Person having any type of claim/right/title/interest over the said property, Sharvan Kumar Mavi and Surender will be responsible or may inform in writing, at the address mentioned below, about his objections, within 7 days from today, failing which it shall be pre-sumed that the said property is free from all type of Encumbrances, lien etc.

Sd/- NAVEEN KUMAR VERMA Advocate

F-211, Sector-3, Vaishali Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh-201010

(Contact at 09958871432)

PUBLIC NOTICE

CORRIGENDUM The date of receipt of the tender invited vide this office letter No.1474-99/NIT dated 10.04.2018 for the works at Sr. No. 1 to 5 is extended upto 14.05.2018. Now, the tender will be opened on 17.05.2018. All other terms and conditions shall remain the same. For details visit to the website http://etenders.hry,nic.in and www.hid.clov.in

Executive Engineer, PRDH-Advt. No:-1069/11/3788/1819/64672 Mewat Water Service

Division,Nuh

DAKSHIN HARYANA BIJLIJ ViTRAN NIGAM CORRIGENDUM -1

It is notified that closing of submission of bids against NIT no. 08/SE/OP PWL-18-19 hasugain extended up to 01.05.2018 (13.00 Hours) and opening date of bids has been scheduled on 01.05.2018 (15.00 hours). All other terms and conditions shall remain unchanged.

SE ( ) Circle, PRDH-Advt. No:-1136/11/1890/1819/64660 DHBVN, Palwal

PRESS NOTICEPublic Health Engineering Department, HaryanaPublic Health Engineering Division No. 1,Narnaul

Short Term Notice Inviting Tender For Tenders from Enlisted Contractor with PHEDOnline bids are hereby invited on behalf of Governor of Haryana for the works mentioned below : Name of work — (i) A/Mtc. Water Supply Scheme Narnaul Town, District Mohindergarh. “Supplying of drinking water through water tanker in Narnaul Town and all other works contingent thereto.” App. Cost. Rs. 2.22 Lacs E/Money Rs. 4440/- Time Limit 4 Months (ii) A/Mtc. Water Supply Scheme 118 Nos. Census Villages (179 Nos. Habitations), District Mohindergarh. “Supplying of drinking water through water tanker in M.C. area Nangal Choudhary and all other works contingent thereto.”

• App. Cost. Rs. 4.44 Lacs E/Money Rs. 8880/- Time Limit 4 Months • (iii) A/Mtc. Water Supply Scheme 118 Nos. Census Villages (179 Nos. Habitations), District Mohindergarh. “Supplying of drinking water through water tanker in Various villages and all other works contingent thereto.” App. Cost. Rs. 4.81 Lacs E/Money Rs. 9620/- Time Limit 4 Months

1. Possession of Digital Signature Certificate (DSC) and registration of the contractors on the portal i.e. http://haryanacprocurement.gov.in is a prerequisite for e-tendering. 2. Last Dates of various activities by bidder:- (i) Start Date & Time of Bid Preparation & Submission 24-04-2018 at 17:00 hrs (ii) Expiry Date & Time of Bid Preparation & Submission 01-05-2018 upto 17:00 hrs For further details and e-tendering schedule, visit website http://haryanacprocurcmcnt.gov.in For & on behalf of Governor of Haryana

Sd/ Executive Engineer

PRDH-Advt. No:-1082/11/2650/1819/64649 PHE Division No.1 Narnaul

MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Saturday, 28 April, 2018mp Entertainment16

She’s dabbled in both Hindi and southern cinema since her debut with the Telugu film Jhummandi Naadam in 2010 –

and her Tamil debut Aadukalam won six National Film Awards at the 58th National Film Awards.

This year, her film The Ghazi Attack won the Best Telugu film at the 65th National Film Awards, with the chair-person of jury Shekhar Kapur hailing regional cinema over Hindi. And actor Taapsee Pannu says it was just a mat-ter of time before people realised the capability of regional cinema.

“I think it’s only now that people (in north India) are waking up to the fact that regional cinema is quite capa-ble of giving Hindi cinema a run for its money. But, honestly, having worked there for some years now... I will say that it (regional cinema) was always

there,” Taapsee, who has also been a part of thought-provoking films like Baby and Pink, said.

“It was just a matter of time before people realised, recognised and opened their eyes to it. I remember when I debuted in regional cinema, my first Tamil film release won six national awards. I don’t know how many films have that kind of a record. That happened in 2011,” she added.

Taapsee believes one of the reasons that regional cinema is now receiving attention is its availability on differ-ent platforms, giving it more visibility.

“People in north India can now use different platforms to see southern cinema... subtitles being easily avail-able. They can now see them, which was not the case before; otherwise it was always there and it was just a mat-ter of time,” the 32-year-old actor said.

With upcoming films “Mulk”, “Soorma” and “Manmarziyan”, all belonging to different genres, in her kitty, Taapsee says that while “Soorma” gave her the opportunity to portray a sportsperson, something she always wanted to do, “Manmarziyan” has ful-filled her dream of being a part of a

“hardcore romantic film”.“I have been waiting to do a love

story since the beginning of my career. Because the amount of emotion and because of the drama that is involved in the film... I think I have made up for so many years of not being part of a hardcore love story,” she said. IANS

Was just a matter of time: Taapsee on thriving regional cinema

‘The Ghazi Attack’ actor believes one of the reasons that regional cinema is now receiving

attention is its availability on different platforms

I think it’s only now that people (in north India) are waking up to the fact that regional cinema is quite capable of giving Hindi cinema a run for its money

MUMBAI: Filmmaker Vishal Bhardwaj is taking forward the “Talvar” franchise with a sequel that will revolve around the recent murder of a seven-year-old Gur-gaon school student. The director, who is also writing and producing the film, has joined hands with Junglee Pictures for the second time after “Talvar”.

“‘Talvar’ was about much more than the heinous crime itself, the film held up a mirror to society and exposed several loopholes in the system. “Such crimes shake the very moral fabric of society and need to be analysed in a much deeper sense. The world is not just black and white, there’s more to a crime than just victim and perpetrator. That’s why we have decided to continue making true crime procedurals like Talvar,” Bhardwaj said in a statement.

The first film was a fictional account of true-life events revolving around Aarushi Talwar-Hemraj murder case investi-gation while the sequel will explore the story behind the murder of the class 2 stu-dent, whose body was found in the school bathroom last September.

“Our journey on Talvar was more than just a film for us. It is a telling example of how big screen sto-ries, when handled hon-estly and sensitively, have the power to alter the lives of people.” PTI

‘Talvar 2’ to explore the Gurgaon school murder case

LOS ANGELES: Chris Hemsworth says he pretends to understand when his wife Elsa Pataky scolds their children in her mother tongue, Spanish as he speaks just “one sentence” in the language. The 34-year-old actor, who has three kids – India (six) and twins Tristan and Sasha (four) with Pataky, said he knows he is in trouble when his wife starts firing in Span-ish at him.

“They’re (the children) fluent in Spanish. I speak one sentence. I pretend to (understand). My wife will tell them off and it sounds like ‘dgh-dghdgh’ to my ear and I’m like, ‘That’s right... What did you tell them?’

“You’d think (it would be easy to learn). When I hear the Spanish directed at me it’s usually in pretty unfortunate, controversial, aggressive sit-uations so I’m just thinking, ‘What is she saying right now and what’s my comeback?’ When we’re fighting basically. Which is never...” Hemsworth told Ellen DeGeneres on her show.

The Avengers: Infinity War actor says he might not be good with languages but he is trying to teach surfing to his children.

After DeGeneres shared a video clip of him riding the waves with his daughter on his back, Hemsworth said, “I occasionally get back prob-lems and since I’ve started doing that it’s got worse, 20 pounds of extra weight and you’re get-ting choked out. I didn’t think it would stick but they’re like, ‘More, more, more.’ “They surf, tiny little waves. Big surfboards make it easy. They love it and where we live is perfect to do that, they’re water babies.” Hemsworth and Pataky, 41, have

been married for eight years. PTI

Chris Hemsworth doesn’t understand Spanish

The 34-year-old actor said he knows that he is in trouble when his wife starts firing in

Spanish at him as he doesn’t

understand the language and have no idea

about what to say to her

LOS ANGELES: Gwyneth Paltrow says suffering from postpartum depression after her second child, son Moses’ birth had come as a shock to her. The 45-year-old actor said that she was over the moon when her first kid, daughter Apple was born and she did not expect her to go into a “dark place” during her sec-ond pregnancy, People maga-zine reported.

“I think (it) was really shocking to me because I never thought that I would be a per-son who got post-natal depres-

sion. “I was so euphoric when Apple was born, and I assumed it would happen with Mosey and it just... it took a while. I really went into a dark place,” Paltrow.

She was in conversation with her mother, actor Blythe Danner for the Goop podcast in an episode titled, ‘Gwyn-eth x Blythe: On Mothers and Daughters’. Paltrow has Apple, 14, and Moses, 12, with former husband, Coldplay frontman Chris Martin. They sepa-rated in 2016 after 13 years of marriage. PTI

‘Suffering from postpartum depression was a shock’

Actor and stand-up comic Amy Schumer has revealed that she was raped by a former boyfriend, someone she “really trusted”, when she was young.

The 36-year-old actor opened up about the experience to media mogul Oprah Winfrey and said her comic skits often reflected her life story where she would say if a woman is asleep, one cannot asssume to have the consent to engage in a sexual act with her.

“When we hear about rape when we’re children, and we’re being warned about it, it’s about a guy popping out from a bush... and some villain. They don’t say it’s proba-bly gonna be a guy you know really well. It could be your husband. It could be your friend. And so you think, when that happens you, you say, ‘OK, this isn’t someone I want to see rotting in a jail cell, but what he did to me was wrong, and I didn’t consent.’

“And for me, I lost my virginity while I was asleep. And that’s not OK. So, in my stand-up I would say, ‘If she’s asleep, that’s a no.’ Just hoping that a couple guys would see that and it would be met in that moment, like, ‘This is a no. I heard that somewhere’,” Schumer said, according to Jezebel.

The I Feel Pretty actor said when she confronted her then boyfriend about her sexual assault, “The first thing

he said was, ‘I thought you knew.’” To this Winfrey said, “What’s interesting about that is that you then were feel-

ing bad for how he would feel the next day.”The actor said she loved him and it was her

training as a woman that she did not want to “get angry” as it pushed people away.

“There’s sort of no place for that anger. But I felt I wanted to comfort him because he felt so bad and he was so worried. And I just tried to push my anger down,” she

added. Schumer said she and her boy-friend eventually started having

consensual sex, but pointed out that it does not

negate the initial assault. PTI

I LOST MY VIRGINITY through rape: Amy Schumer

I didn’t consent.

We hadn’t discussed it. We weren’t there in

our relationship. We weren’t at that

moment

In a still from The Ghazi Attack