PUBLISHED FROM DELHI & KOLKATA VOL. 12, ISSUE 200 | Friday, 21 July 2017 | New Delhi | Pages 16 | Rs 3.00

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In today’s paper

...CITY

MINOR REJIG IN DELHI MINISTERIAL CABINET 3

NATION

ZELIANG READY TO PROVE MAJORITY 6

EDIT

NATIONAL INTEREST NOT UTMOST 8

INTERNATIONAL

PAKISTAN SC WARNS SHARIF’S KIDS 10

BUSINESS

TAKE 30% PAY CUT: JET TO JR PILOTS 13

SPORT

AFI PROVISIONALLY SUSPENDS MANPREET 15

MPOST BUREAU

NEW DELHI: Ram Nath Kovind, the ruling NDA coalition’ s can-didate, was on Thursday elected as India’s 14th President with an overwhelming majority of votes from the country’s lawmakers.

Kovind defeated the joint opposition candidate Meira Kumar, a former Lok Sabha speaker, garnering 65.65 percent of the votes in the Electoral Col-lege, the Returning Officer for the poll announced Thursday.

Expressing happiness over the “extensive” support Kovind got from the electoral college, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said,”Congratulations to Shri Ram Nath Kovind Ji on being elected the President of India! Best wishes for a fruitful & inspir-ing tenure.”

The 71-year old Kovind, a

former Bihar governor who will be the second Dalit to hold the top constitutional position, received 2930 votes with a value of 7,02044, the returning officer, Anoop Mishra, said.

Kovind is the first BJP mem-ber to be elected president.

He will take oath on July 25, succeeding President Pranab Mukherjee, for a five-year term.

Kumar, also a Dalit, polled 1844 votes with a value of 367314. She got 34.35 percent vote share.

“I never aspired to be the president. My win is a message to those discharging their duties with integrity. My election as the President is an evidence of the greatness of Indian democracy,” Kovind told the media after his victory was announced.

Congratulating her poll rival, Kumar said it had fallen on Kov-ind to uphold the Constitution

in letter and spirit in “these chal-lenging times”.

Hailing as “historic” Kovind’s election, BJP chief Amit Shah said it is a “victory for the poor, down-trodden and marginalised and

their aspirations”.A total of 4,896 voters -- 4,120

MLAs and 776 elected MPs -- were eligible to cast their ballot. MLCs of states with legislative councils are not part of the elec-

toral college.The Electoral College com-

prises of Members of Parlia-ment and members of legislative assemblies of all states.

While 522 MPs voted for Kov-ind, Kumar secured the support of 225 parliamentarians.

Kovind’s election as the next president of India was never in doubt but the large scale cross-voting in seven states throws up a big worry for the opposition, especially ahead of polls in Guja-rat later this year.

Many in the opposition voted for Kovind rather than their own candidate Meira Kumar in Guja-rat, Maharashtra, Goa, West Ben-gal, Punjab, Assam and Tripura.

In Gujarat, at least 11 Con-gress MLAs are believed to have voted for Kovind, who won 11 more votes than the BJP’s 121 lawmakers.

Two of the four MPs of Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party in Punjab are believed to have voted for Kovind.

In West Bengal, Kovind won 11 votes though the BJP and its allies have only six votes in the state.

In Tripura, where the BJP has zero lawmakers, Kovind won seven votes.

In Maharashtra, Meira Kumar won 77 votes but was expecting at least 10 more. It is clear that some members of the Congress, NCP or Left voted with the BJP-led combine for Kovind.

In Goa, the ruling BJP and its allies have 22 lawmakers but Kov-ind got three more; at least two Congress members are believed to have voted with the rival side.

In Uttar Pradesh, at least eight opposition lawmakers are said to have cross-voted.

Ram Nath Kovind is 14th President

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DERBY: India’s middle order batswoman Har-manpreet Kaur on Thursday put India to a com-manding total of 281/4 as she smashed 171 not out off just 115 balls against Australia in the Women’s World Cup semi-final at Derby. Har-manpreet, who hit 20 fours and seven huge sixes in her innings, went on a rampage as she sent Australian bowlers on a leather hunt. The Chan-digarh girl not only slammed her 3rd ODI hun-dred but also became 5th highest run-scorer in women’s cricket. She has also become the second highest run scorer for India after Deepti Sharma.

After winning the toss, India was tottering at 35/2 in 9.2 overs when Harmanpreet along with captain Mithali Raj stitched together a partner-ship of 66 runs for the third-wicket to steady the innings. P14

Harmanpreet Kaur slams 171*, becomes 5th highest

run-scorer in ODIs

CROSS VOTING HELPS NDA CANDIDATE WIN BY BIG MARGIN

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday expressed concern over “vanishing” of wet-lands in the country and asked the Centre to explain about the “huge amount” of money spent on various works related to pres-ervation of the water bodies.

A wetland is a land area that has water, either permanently or seasonally, and it takes on the characteristics of a distinct ecosystem.

The apex court observed that a number of wetlands and lakes have disappeared and according to the reports, it was one of the reasons for the floods in Chen-nai in 2015.

“So many of these wet-

lands have vanished. In 2015, there were floods in Chennai. The reports said that there was flooding as wetlands have van-

ished. In areas like Bhopal and Bengaluru, lakes have disap-peared,” a bench comprising Justices Madan B Lokur and

Deepak Gupta said.The government told the

apex court that it has prepared a fresh affidavit giving details about identification and inven-torizing over two lakh wetlands in the country.

However, advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, appearing for petitioner M K Balakrishnan, said that the Centre has not yet complied with the earlier order passed by the apex court and it has not explained where the money has been spent.

“There are two-three things. Huge amounts have been spent on it. We do not know where the money has been spent,” the bench told the counsel repre-

senting the Centre and asked as to “what steps have you taken on it?”

The top court had earlier expressed its concern over a huge expenditure of Rs 945.95 crore on various works related to wetlands and had said that the activities shown were extremely general in nature.

During Thursday’s hear-ing, the government counsel assured the bench that the Cen-tre would take all steps to ensure that directions given by it were complied with.

The bench referred to a recent report and asked the Cen-tre whether it was planning to denotify wetlands. MPOST

Supreme Court expresses concern over disappearance of wetlands in India

APEX COURT ASKS ABOUT MONEY SPENT TO PRESERVE WATER BODIES

MPOST BUREAU

BHADARWAH/JAMMU: Six persons were killed and 11 injured after flash floods trig-gered by a cloudburst wreaked havoc in Thathri town of Doda district of Jammu and Kash-mir on Thursday, inundating vast areas along the Batote-Kishtwar National Highway and washing away half a dozen houses.

While 11 persons have been rescued from the debris, many others are feared trapped and the toll is likely to rise, police said.

Four of a family were among those killed in the cloudburst that damaged six houses, two shops and a school.

“Flash floods triggered by cloudburst hit Thathri town at 2.20 am resulting in a mas-sive increase in the level of the ‘nullah’ flowing along the Jamai Masjid locality close to the town” a police officer said.

Dy SP (headquarters) Doda, Iftkhar Ahmed, said the water level and silt suddenly rose in the drain after the cloudburst, washing away sev-eral structures along its path leading to the main market.

“As of now, six persons including five women have died and their bodies recov-ered”, a police spokesman said.

Six killed in cloudburst in Doda

GOVT, OPPN SPAR OVER COW LYNCHING

Don’t politicise issue of mob lynching, Jaitley tells Oppn

28 dead after bus falls into gorge in Himachal

MPOST BUREAU

NEW DELHI: The govern-ment on Thursday asserted that killings in the name of cow “sentiments” was unaccept-able and said the state govern-ments should take stern action against those indulging in such violence.

Finance Minister Arun Jait-ley, who was speaking on the issue of lynchings in the Rajya Sabha on behalf of ailing Home Minister Rajnath Singh, made it clear that the central govern-ment could not be blamed for violence by “some people”.

“The government’s stand is clear. Nobody is allowed to do that (lynching in the name of cow protection). There is no rationalisation, no arguments of sentiments being hurt can be an explanation for this. And, the government is absolutely

committed,” he said.Jaitley, who is also the

Leader of the House, was replying to a debate on ‘situa-tion arising out of the reported increase in the incidents of lynching and atrocities on minorities and Dalits across the country’, during which the opposition parties slammed the government and particularly targeted Prime Minister Naren-dra Modi over such incidents.

Noting that the prime min-ister had spoken thrice against cow vigilantism, he said “no

amount of sympathy” will be shown for those who indulge in lynching and “law will certainly take its own course.”

Earlier on Thursday, the Opposition on Thursday tar-geted the government over the lynchings, with the Congress accusing Prime Minister Nar-endra Modi of “creating such an environment” and indulging in “double speak” on the issue.

Congress leader Kapil Sibal, while speaking in the Rajya Sabha on lynchings, alleged that the prime minister was doing nothing to restrain cow vigilantes who, he said, include elements from VHP and Bajrang Dal.

Sibal said the year 2017 has witnessed maximum murders and the cattle ban had nega-tively impacted leather indus-try besides industries like soap and shampoo.

MPOST BUREAU

SHIMLA: Twenty-eight pas-sengers were killed and eight other injured when a bus plunged into a 500-feet deep gorge at Khaneri in Rampur on the Hindustan-Tibet National

Highway, about 140 km from here, on Thursday.

The private bus was carry-ing 36 passengers from Reck-ong Peo in Kinnaur to Nauni in Solan when the accident took place. A magisterial inquiry has been ordered to ascertain the

cause of the accident. However, preliminary investigations said a tyre burst led to the accident.

Bodies of all 28 victims have been recovered and 11 of them have been identified, Deputy Commissioner, Shimla, Rohan Chand Thakur said.

PM Narendra Modi offers a sweet to president elect Ram Nath Kovind PTI

Airlines can’t impose flying ban on anyone: RS Dy Chairman

MPOST BUREAU

NEW DELHI: Airlines have no authority to impose flying ban on anybody, including parliamentarians, and the law of the land should take its course, Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman P J Kurien said on Thursday.

The remarks came after SP member Naresh Agrawal raised the issue of recent flying ban imposed by major domestic airlines, including state-owned Air India.

Agrawal wanted to know if the airlines could impose such restrictions. Accord-ing to him, such an action was a breach of privilege of the Members of Parliament.

To this, Kurien said agreed that Agrawal has raised a “valid point” that if any MP has committed a crime or something against the law, the law of the land should take its course.

Congress MP Anand Sharma suggested to the Deputy Chairman that the word ‘crime’ should be replaced with ‘violation’.

However, Kurien said if a person beats

up someone, it is a crime.Different airlines on Wednesday lifted

the flying ban on TDP MP J C Diwakar Reddy after “urgent” notices from the court to the government and the aviation regula-tor DGCA on the lawmaker’s plea against the action of domestic carriers.

On June 15, Reddy got into a verbal spat with IndiGo ground staff at Visakhapat-nam airport and threw a printer kept at the airline counter after he was informed that boarding for his flight to Hyderabad had closed.

India ready for talks with China to end border stand-off

MPOST BUREAU

NEW DELHI: India said Thursday it is ready for talks with China with both sides first pulling back their armies to end the tense standoff in the Sikkim sector, stressing the need for a “peace-ful resolution” of border issues.

China said that diplomatic chan-nels with India remained “unim-peded” to discuss the military standoff in Sikkim sector but reiterated that the withdrawal of the Indian troops from Doklam area is a “precondition” for any meaningful dialogue.

NSA Ajit Doval will be travelling to Beijing to attend a BRICS meeting on July 27 and 28, the External Affairs Ministry said on Thursday.

Chinese and Indian soldiers have been locked in a face- off in Doka-lam area in the southernmost part of Tibet in an area also claimed by Indian ally Bhutan for over a month after Indian troops stopped the Chi-nese army from building a road in the disputed area. China claimed it was constructing the road within its terri-tory and has been demanding imme-diate pull-out of the Indian troops.

Responding to supplementaries during Question Hour in the Rajya Sabha, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said China intends to unilaterally change the status of the tri- junction with Bhutan, posing a challenge to India’s security.

On the standoff at Dokalam, she referred to the written agreement between India, China and Bhutan in 2012 that the three nations will

together decide on the boundaries at the tri-junction point.

The Minister said China has been constructing roads earlier too, but now they have brought in bulldozers and excavators.

“We are saying that the matter can be resolved through talks, but both sides have to first take back their armies,” she said.

The Minister also said India was not “unreasonable” on the Doklam border issue and that all nations were with it.

Observing that China was demanding the withdrawal of the Indian troops from the tri-junction point, she said India has been say-ing that both countries would have to withdraw their armies before amicably resolving the dispute through talks.

Swaraj said “their (China’s) inten-tion was to reach the tri-junction so that they can unilaterally end the sta-tus of the tri-junction. It was only then that India came into the picture.

“If China unilaterally changes the tri-junction point, then India’s secu-rity is challenged,” she said.

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205 children abandoned in cradles

MANEKA GANDHI

MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Friday, 21 July, 2017mp town2

Published & printed by Durbar Ganguly on behalf of Front Row Media Pvt. Ltd. from Pratap Bhawan, 5 Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi 110 002 & printed at The Indian Express Ltd., A-8, Sector-7, Noida-201 301 (U.P.) RNI REGN. NO.: DELENG/2005/15351, REGD. NO.: DL(S)-01/3420/2015-17 Editor: Durbar Ganguly, Executive Editor: Arya Rudra. Tel. No. 011-47777500, Email: durbarganguly@gmail.com, Lucknow Office: 401, Chintels House 16, Station Road, Lucknow Ph: 0522-4013126

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

Breaking the code‘LIPSTICK UNDER MY

BURKHA’

Director: Alankrita Shrivas-tava Cast: Konkona Sensharma, Ratna Pathak Shah, Aahana Kumra, Plabita Borthakur Rating:

LAHARI BASU

Four women who want to be a little more acknowl-edged and free, and their intertwined lives with that of Rosy – the protagonist of

a Hindi erotic novel – is what makes Lipstick Under My Burkha an absolute delight to watch.

Ratna Pathak Shah plays the quintessential bua ji, whose heart skips a beat or two when a young man refuses to call her bua ji and asks her name (Usha), which until then seems she had quite forgotten. After losing her husband in the Bhopal gas tragedy, the 55-year-old’s only source to entertain her sex-uality are a few erotic novels that she reads secretly. Konkona Sen Sharma (Shireen) plays a submissive burkha clad mother of three, and a talented but submissive wife whose voice and wishes go unheard by her chauvinist husband. Leela, played by Aahana Kumra is a local beautician in love with a struggling photographer. While her mother had planned her marriage elsewhere, Leela gets caught in the act with her lover on her engagement day and has to choose between love and finan-cial security. The youngest of the lot, Rihana (played by Plabita Borthakur) is a college student who admires Miley Cirus, and hates wearing burkha, ironically while her exceptionally con-servative parents sell them. She takes to shop lifting to meet her fancy demands which would otherwise go unsatisfied given her orthodox parents and poor economic status. Each of them eventually leads double lives to balance their situations.

Together these four ladies dodge various forms of repres-sions and try to embrace life in their own situations until things fall apart gradually.

Alankrita Shrivastava and Gazal Dhaliwal have together created an inspiring script with heart-wrenching dialogues like Leela’s console to Shireen, “Pata hai di humari galti kya hai? Hum sapne bohot dekhte hai,” which strike the right chords aptly pointing out the futile efforts women make to achieve happiness. And then comes “Biwi ho, shohar banner ki kosh-ish mat karo,” from Sushant Singh – words crude enough to attack any woman’s self-esteem who is by all means superior to her male counterpart.

The narration of the novel through Shah’s voice metaphori-cally tallies with the lives of the four protagonists, breaking the stereotypical narrative style in Bollywood. Director Alankrita Shrivastava undoubtedly and unquestionably has held up the torch paving a way for her audience to experience the pain of her characters on screen. With hopes of Shrivastava directing more meaningful films like this, Lipstick Under My Burkha is definitely her masterpiece.

When a film’s cast is an ensemble of outstanding actors like Konkona Sen, Ratna Pathak Shah and Sushant Singh, along with Marathi actor Vaibhav Tatwawaadi (who was previously seen in Hunterr) Vikrant Massey, Aahana Kumra, Plabita Borthakur and Shashank Arora the outcome is nothing short of a revolution striking its way through the viewers’ life.

A lonely woman’s voyeuristic pleasures, an unquench-ing thirst for sex, the joy of success and the freedom of living according to one’s will – to sum it up, the film has it all – the spices, and ingredients required to bake the fluffiest and yum-miest cakes of all. With real life situations set in the Tier-2 city of Bhopal, the film does not recreate the magic through expensive mis-en-scene or larger than life characters, but delves deep into the lives of ordinary women who continue to be dominated by everyone else around them. The subtle humorous touch of realism and the heart breaking truths are what makes Lipstick Under My Burkha one of the most antici-pated and intellectual films this year. A worthy watch like this would help open your eyes a little wider to experience and per-ceive your surroundings better with some lipstick waale sapne!

In May 1940, Germany advanced into France, trap-ping Allied troops on the beaches of Dunkirk. Under

air and ground cover from Brit-ish and French forces, troops were slowly and methodically evacuated from the beach using every serviceable naval and civilian vessel that could be found. At the end of this heroic mission, 330,000 French, British, Bel-gian and Dutch soldiers were safely evacuated.

A spectacular war epic‘DUNKIRK’

Director: Christopher No-lan; Cast: Fionn Whitehead, Tom Glynn-Carney, Jack Lowden, Harry Styles

Pregnant women who follow a healthy diet and indulge in regular moderate exer-cises are less likely to have

a Caesarean section, gain weight or develop diabetes in pregnancy, scien-tists, including one of Indian-origin, have found.

Researchers from Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) in the UK found that dieting combined with physical activity significantly reduces the mother’s weight gained during pregnancy by an average of 0.7 kilogrammes.

It also lowers the odds of the mother having a Caesarean section by about 10 per cent, researchers said.

“For every 40 mothers who fol-low a healthy diet and moderate exer-cise, one less woman will end up with a Caesarean section,” said Shakila Thangaratinam, professor at QMUL.

Caesarean section can carry risks such as infections for the mother and breathing difficulties for the baby, researchers have claimed.

“Often with interventions like these, certain groups benefit more than others, but we have shown that diet and physical activity has a ben-eficial effect across all groups, irre-spective of your body mass index, age or ethnicity,” Thangaratinam added.

Changes in lifestyle reduce the risk of diabetes in pregnancy by 24 per cent, which normally affects over 1 in 10 mothers in pregnancy, and increases risks of complications in mother and baby, researchers said. Researchers also found that mild exercise not only helps the mother

in maintaining weight and easing aches and pains, but also produces a healthy baby with a healthier birth weight. Exercises like brisk walking, swimming, low intensity aerobics and stretching help women get ready for labour. Here are some great work-out routines for pregnant women that will help built strength:SPINE ALIGNER

Stand tall with your back against a wall. Touch the wall with your heels, hips, shoulders and head, then pull your belly in and up while taking three slow breaths. Release, taking two breaths. Repeat 3 times.CHEST OPENER

Sit on a chair with your feet flat on the floor. Place your hands lightly on your belly and lengthen your neck. Roll your shoulders backward in a cir-cular motion five times, and squeeze your shoulder blades together as you place your arms behind the chair, elbows pointing backward. Hold for three deep breaths, allowing your chest to expand.CAT

Place your hands on a wall, feet hip-width apart. Take a few steps back and lean forward from your hips, keeping your chest lifted and your knees slightly bent. Breathe. Hold for a few seconds and reverse the motion by inhaling and drawing your chest forward and your shoul-der blades back. Repeat three times.CHILD’S POSE

Get down on all

fours. Lean forward, extend your arms in front of you and rest your forehead on the floor or a pillow. Keep your spine long and your neck relaxed. Hold for as long as you like.

It compared the effects of diet-ing (including restriction of sugar sweetened beverages, promoting low-fat dairy products, increase in fruits and vegetables) and physi-cal activity (moderate inten-sity including aerobic classes and stationary cycling, and resistance training for mus-cle groups).

Researchers found no strong evidence that the interventions affected offspring outcomes such as stillbirth, underweight or overweight births, or admis-sion to a neonatal intensive care unit.

The lack of adverse effects

should reassure mothers who have traditionally been advised not to undertake structured exercise or manage their diet in pregnancy.

“Our findings are important because it is often thought that preg-

nant women shouldn’t exer-cise because it may harm the baby,” Thangaratinam said.

“Babies are not affected by physical activity or dieting, and

there are additional

benefits including a reduction in maternal weight gain, diabetes in pregnancy, and the risk of requiring a Cesarean section,” she added.

The only thing women need to worry about is to know when to stop. While exercise will increase your energy and boost your mood, pregnant women must make sure not to over exert themselves. They must avoid risky sports like basket-ball, hockey, skiing and other contact sports and not exercise over 6000 ft.

The study was published in the British Medical Journal. PTI

Moderate exercise in pregnancy may cut

C-SEC RISK‘Babies are not affected by physical activity or dieting, and there

are additional benefits including a reduction in maternal weight gain, diabetes, and the risk of requiring a Cesarean section’

OUR CORRESPONDENT

“Every artist dips his brush into his own soul, and paints his nature

into his picture, “said Henry Ward Beecher.

Featuring a fabulous col-lection of artworks, one of the most awaited event in the art fraternity in India, the sec-ond National Art Icons Exhi-bition was recently held at the AIFACS Gallery, Rafi Marg. The exhibition was formally inaugurated by Paramjeet Singh, Chairman, All India Fine Arts and Craft Society.

Speaking at the award presentation ceremony at India International Centre, Hriday Nath Singh, Rash-triya Sangathan Mantri, BJP and Dr Udit Raj, Member of Parliament, complimented Hammerartag.com for hold-ing the second National Art

Icons Exhibition and Competition for the promotion of lesser known art-ists. Hriday Nath Singh emphasised on the need to promote regional art globally as India is being recognised as a ‘soft power’, all such efforts are substantial for understanding cul-tural values of the country.

On the other hand, Dr Udit Raj noted the imperativeness of art and culture for the sake of human understanding, for strengthening the national unity and for attaining peace at a global level.

The award presentation cere-mony was attended by the distin-guished guests including, Kamaljeet Sehrawat, Mayor (South Delhi) and Mukesh Kumar Tanwar, Maha-mantri, Delhi, BJP. Others to witness the occasion were Gayatri Vashistha, Managing Director Hammerartag.com, Dr Sangeeta Tyagi, President Nari Shakti Foundation, artists and media persons.

Artists participating from all across the country were felicitated by the eminent jury. Bishwaranjan

Bhunia won the Gold medal for his outstanding work titled, “Hare Rama Hare Krishna”, Bijoy Dutta secured a silver medal for his unique work namely “Durga”, while the bronze medal was presented for “Raag Shan-kar” to Gauranga Bariki. Also, the “Hammerartag.com Special Award for Freedom of Expression” was announced for Sunita Dinda’s “Kite – 2”. The consolation prizes were bagged by Santanu Dinda for “Let her Free”, Neelima Sharma for “Rhythm of Dance”, Apet Pramod for “Festival”, Kashish Batra for “Scheming Saadhu”, Shahed Pasha for “King Using Lap-top” and Harsha mandurkar for “Jai Jagdish Hare”.

As told by Gayatri Vashistha, MD, Hammerartag.com, “The event is an effort to promote peace in this

stressful world thereby encouraging upcoming talent. Making the event truly national, the participant from nearly every state and union territory brought forth the real colours of the place they belong to.”

“Around forty icon artists were selected for display after meaning-ful interaction with over six thou-sand artists through National Art Icons Competition which comprises of competition, awards, souvenir and auction,” she added.

The third edition of the National Art Icons competition will be held with enhanced number of the icon artists. The event will be organised with Hammerartagt.com in asso-ciation with the exhibition show-case from January 12 to 15, 2018 in Mumbai.

“ICONS” MESMERISE ART LOVERS

OUR CORRESPONDENT

AFTER WINNING numer-ous accolades for their debut movie, Mantostaan which was screened at the Cannes International Film Festi-val 2016, father-son duo Dr Bhanu Pratap Singh and Aditya Pratap Singh are back with another creative piece of Cinema – Gandhi Memo-rabilia, an Indo-US project based on father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi.

The first poster of the movie was released by the father-son duo and actress of this movie Daria Koshelev at New Delhi.

Dr Bhanu Pratap Singh, director said it clearly that the movie is not a documen-tary, and different from oth-ers. The movie is based on the thoughts of Gandhi, he said. He even said the movie is not a biography and Gan-

dhi is not only about truth and non-violence. The mak-ers of the movie have tried to showcase the unseen parts of Bapu.

The leading actor Daria Kosheleva, said, it’s her first project in India and she is highly inspired by Gandhi’s thoughts.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

“WIN THE SOUTH KOREA Quiz con-test 2017 and get a chance to visit Korea for free,” stated Jong Sool Kwon, Director, Korea Tourism Organisation (India office). He further added, “In order to bring South Korea closer to the hearts of the youngsters in the tri-city, Korea Tourism Organization India has launched a Quiz Contest for Tri-city school students. The Quiz is open for

school students from class 8th to 12th of Chandigarh, Mohali, Panchkula and sur-rounding areas”, he also affirmed that the winner will get a free trip to South Korea for six days while discounted trip would be given to the runner ups.

The Quiz Contest will be organized by Athena Ventures with the support of Korea Tourism Organization. Participation Certificates have been promised to all par-ticipants. Athena Ventures has organized

many similar programs for Korea, as well as for other countries.

Naveen Sharma, chairman, Athena Ventures also said that a child can par-ticipate in the quiz through his/her school only up till July 24. He stated that more than 4,000 students are expected to take part in the quiz contest. All the material related to the quiz would be provided free of cost on the internet. The quiz will be concluded with its final level on August 13.

Poster of film ‘Gandhi Memorabilia’ launched

in the Capital

A free trip to South Korea

Harpal Singh receives certificate of recognition as an Icon Artist from Dr Udit RajHriday Nath Singh addresses that audience at the Award Ceremony

Gayatri Vashistha felicitates Kamaljeet Sehrawat, Mayor, South Delhi

3MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Friday, 21 July, 2017

mp cityNavigating hostile terrain, cops nabbed captors

Doctor ‘celebrated’ birthday with his abductors

ANAND MOHAN J

NEW DELHI: Dr Shrikanth Goud used to never take pri-vate cabs and always relied on public transport. But on July 6, he missed his Metro and decided to take an Ola cab.

With just four days to go before his birthday, the doc-tor’s family thought that it would be a normal day as always. However, the doc-tor spent his birthday locked inside a room with his abductors.

Pramod Kumar, Amit Kumar, Sohanveer and Nepal – who were eventually arrested – were plotting their next plan of action, while the doctor waited. The abductors then barged into his room and asked him if he wanted to cel-ebrate his birthday with alco-hol and some dance.

The doctor was surprised by their gesture, but politely refused. Yet, the kidnappers gave him a birthday gift any-way: black sunglasses. Even after finally being rescued, Goud did not part with the glasses and even showed them to his relatives.

Dr A Narayan, the abducted doctor’s uncle, was the first to connect Goud to his parents. “He talked

to his father Janardhan, an agriculturist, and mother Bharatamma over the phone and could barely contain his emotions as he wept,” said Narayan.

Speaking to reporters at the office of the DCP, East Delhi, Goud could barely con-tain his feelings.

“I thank Delhi Police for saving me. Mistakes may happen in life, but there is no point thinking about them. Ola did, after all, inform the police about my abduc-tion,” said Shrikanth, who then started sobbing. Visibly distressed, Goud had to be whisked away by cops as he was still under trauma.

The investigators who cracked the case alleged that Goud was made to go through episodes of psychological fear,

as the abductors did not want him to get any ideas of flee-ing. On the first day of cap-tivity, Goud was beaten up by the accused.

They then took him to sev-eral locations having jail like conditions, with no bathroom and running water.

“They assaulted the doc-tor and made videos of him, claiming to be Al Qaeda oper-atives. They also made superfi-cial cuts to his wrist to send a message that he could be killed at any time they wished,” said Joint CP Ravindra Yadav.

However, according to Goud’s relatives, that did not deter him from keeping a cool head and developing sympa-thy for his abductors. “He is a good natured man. He just told them that he will do what-ever they want and happily ate the food they offered. He kept telling them that he is a poor man who came to Delhi to make a living and did not bear any grudge against them. That is his nature,” said Sudhakaran Goud, one of the relatives.

Before the accused were caught, they had made a last call to his family on the night of July 16. “He is safe, don’t worry. We will let him go,” said one of the abductors during his phone call.

Minor rejig in Delhi ministerial CabinetOUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday assigned an additional port-folio to his trusted aide and Deputy Chief Minister Man-ish Sisodia.

Sisodia will now also look after the Tourism department, which was earlier handled by

Water minister Rajender Pal Gautam.

An official said that tourism will be one of the focus areas of the Aam Aadmi Party gov-ernment, along with education and health.

The government also plans to make rural Delhi intrinsic to its development agenda.

“Manish Sisodia has been

given additional charge of Tourism, Art and Culture Department as the Delhi gov-ernment now has its key focus on tourism,” Nagendra Sharma, Media Adviser to the Chief Minister, said.

Additionally, Sisodia has been relieved of his charge of the Revenue department and Registrar of Cooperative Soci-

eties. Sources said that the Deputy Chief Minister had requested Kejriwal to allow him to shed some portfolios. He will continue to look after Education, Finance and other departments.

Gautam, who also holds the Social Welfare portfolio, has been handed over the addi-tional charge of Registrar of

Cooperative Societies.The Revenue department,

meanwhile, has been handed over to Law and Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot.

Gahlot and Gautam were inducted into the Cabinet in May. Sisodia’s departments of Law, Information Technology and Administrative Reforms were given to Gahlot.

ANAND MOHAN J

NEW DELHI: For over ten days, around 200 policemen virtually abandoned their chil-dren, vacations and sleep, as they scoured the whole of West-ern Uttar Pradesh, Ghaziabad, Uttarakhand and NCR play-ing hide and seek with the kid-nappers who had abducted Dr Shrikanth Goud in an Ola cab.

On Wednesday, however, the cops effort bore fruit and four of the abductors were arrested. The prime accused, Sushil and Anuj, however, are still on the run.

The kidnappers gave the police a run for their money, by hiding in sugarcane fields, forested areas, urban landscapes and even camouflaging them-selves behind a wall of Kanwar-ias; all the while erased their digital footprint.

With the accused constantly changing clothes and mingling with the Kanwaria crowd, cops had to leave their vehicles and walk on foot several kilome-tres. One of the investigators who cracked the case said the cops had no choice but to wear the same sweat-stained clothes for days while camping out in the jungle hunting for the gang.

“The policemen had to carry out this tough rescue operation and could not even change their clothes. They spent their time like those who live in forests, and scoured through the diffi-cult terrain for days without any rest and food,” said Joint Com-missioner of Police (Eastern Range) Ravindra Yadav.

Led by DCP Omvir Singh, over 200 policemen from East

District, Shahdara were part of the operation. Even the Special Cell had been roped in to look for the accused.

“I had just come from my vacations and was lucky that I took them before the case. After kissing my children goodbye, I left home. We did not rest for ten days till we found the doc-tor,” said a policeman who took part in the successful rescue operation.

To mislead cops, the kid-nappers had made calls from Haridwar, Baghpat, Bijnor and Uttarakhand. Moreover, the enormity of the terrain forced the police team to seek help from UP Special Task Force and local police from Meerut range.

But as the accused kept changing their locations and never used their own phones, technical surveillance proved ineffective. This forced the police to activate their informer network spread over Muzaf-farnagar, Daurala, Ghazi-abad, Bijnor, Haridwar and

Bulandshahr.The police also reached out

to Ola cabs and made a list of disgruntled cab drivers who had been dismissed from ser-vice. Later, police found out that the calls were made regu-larly from Ghaziabad’s Vasund-hara district. In the meantime, some vendors associated with Ola gave the names of some drivers, whom the police then approached.

“One of those vendors pointed us towards one of the accused, Sushil. Sushil and his brother Anuj, the masterminds of the kidnapping operation, had used a Wagon-R car which had a CNG sticker and a sticker from Tanya Motors.

This fit the profile of the car provided by Ola, which had last picked up the doctor. We got a huge lead and that helped us track them down to a sugarcane field in UP where they disap-peared to, only to be caught in Meerut in the encounter,” said a police source.

NEW DELHI: With Dr Shrikanth Goud finally safe and sound, the dust is yet to settle in the sensa-tional abduction case, as Ola Cabs officials have taken a stock of the gross lapse in their hiring of drivers and claimed to be look into the case. Representatives of the cab aggregator company claimed that it was a “learning experience” for them. The company was also ready to give out the ransom money as they claimed that cus-tomer safety was paramount to them. Talking to Millennium Post, Joy Bandekar, corporate presi-dent, Ola said: “The whole process of recruiting drivers is currently under review. We are ready to cooperate with the police for the investigation. The hiring process is currently stopped till we look into it,” he said. Ola had been suggested by its local vendors to hire the main accused in the abduction case, Sushil and his brother Anuj, who had forged a series of documents. These includ-ed two Aadhaar cards, PAN cards, one cheque leaf belonging to Bank of Maharashtra, driv-ing licence, registration certificate of Ola Cabs, Certificate of Fitness purportedly issued by the Transport department of the GNCT, Certificate of Permit in respect of Contract Carriage and a Certificate of Insurance Policy purportedly issued by Bharti Axa General Insurance. Police claimed that this was the company's “internal issue” and no case will be made against the company as it was already following “international standards”. However, police have claimed that since they were concentrating on rescuing the doctor, the next phase of investigation will involve tracing the four remaining accused, namely Gaurav, Vivek and the two brothers. MPOST

Ola to freeze recruitment of drivers for now, to review policy

Delhi BJP celebrates Kovind’s elevation

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Many BJP Delhi leaders on Thursday celebrated official announcement of Ram-nath Kovind being elected as 14th elected President of India, hailing it as the dream of ‘Antyodaya’ being realised, as the son of a Dalit reached the highest position of the country.

The BJP SC Morcha work-ers assembled at the Pradesh Office with band and drums.

There was an atmosphere of celebration at the Pradesh Office and the workers danced on the beat of drums. The workers expressed their hap-piness by applying gulaal on each other, while Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari distrib-uted sweets.

Tiwari termed this vic-tory “historic” and said that the background from which Kovind has reached Rashtra-pati Bhavan is a matter of pride for us. “Hence we need to cele-brate.” Tiwari said that Kovind’s victory is the victory of crores of Dalits.

Not many DU aspirants prefer to study Sanskrit

YOGESH KANT

NEW DELHI: The soul of all Indian languages, Sanskrit, has crossed all boundaries and developed charm in the West. However, in Delhi University, BA Sanskrit (Hons) course offered by the varsity has been falling out of favour.

In the University’s fifth cut-off list, the lowest cut-off for the course was set at 45 per cent at Mata Sundri College for Women, with many avail-able seats for admission.

“Nowadays, aspirants are more inclined towards pursu-ing technical courses or job-oriented programmes, rather than courses like Sankrit. So, the cut-offs that we keep for these are not as high as that of other courses,” said an official at DU.

The official added that every honours course has 45 seats for each available course. Moreover, this year, some of the prominent colleges such

as Hindu, Hans Raj, Lady Shri Ram and Ramjas, had already closed admissions in their first list.

“Students wish to study in top-rung colleges, but do not have the marks to pursue a subject of their choice. So they often take up Sanskrit to get the opportunity to study in a North Campus college,” said Nandini sharma, an aspirant.

Professor Sharda Sharma, professor and head of the Uni-versity’s Sanskrit Department, said there is a misconception among students that only low-scorers take up BA Sanskrit

(Hons).“The career prospects of

studying the language are the same as that of any BA course. Graduates in the discipline can become academics, sit for competitive exams and even get government jobs,” said Prof Sharma.

Notwithstanding the mis-conception, several colleges are trying to introduce BA Sanskrit (Hons) to popularise the course. “We are awaiting approval from the University Grants Commission for the same,” said an official at Atma Ram Sanatan Dharma College.

“Lack of awareness about the career prospects of the course is hampering its demand. We have tried to make the course as relevant as possible, so that students find interest in the subject. Students from the poor strata are keen to study in the varsity and opt for the subject,” said Professor Ramesh C Bhardwaj of the San-skrit department.

People want power to be cheaper, says DERC

SAYANTAN GHOSH

NEW DELHI: With the demand for power increasing in the Capital, the Delhi Elec-tricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) on Wednesday wit-nessed people urging cheaper power at a public hearing held to discuss tariff revision and business plan.

“People have asked us to avoid big power production companies who provide elec-tric at higher prices and asked us to maintain fair business with all companies,” said a senior DERC official.

However, the official added, “If we chose cheaper power production companies, we can-not reach the high demand.” He admitted that people urged so because it will help to maintain a low tariff price.

For the last two years, power tariffs were not hiked. However, following petitions filed by different discoms, power tariffs could likely rise this year. The discoms noted that the total revenue gap last financial year was over Rs 34,000 crore.

The estimated revenue requirement submitted by BSES Rajdhani Power is Rs 9,052 crore, Rs 4,892 crore by BSES Yamuna Power and Rs 7,680 crore by Tata Power.

These discoms have demanded an appropriate rev-enue gap recovery and suitable cost-reflective tariffs to address the estimated revenue gap for the current year.

Talking about the business, the official said that DERC had already signed business agreements with many big companies, which cannot be cancelled. “Otherwise, it will become a legal issue,” he added.

The growing population of Delhi has been pushing for more power. The DERC said that it always tries to provide cheaper power, but people should try to understand our responsibilities. “If we have opted only cheaper power production companies, then Delhi would have suffered from repeated power cuts for long time in this summer,” the offi-cial said.

However, according to the DERC, people had praised the power management by them. “We have assured people and the companies that we will go through all the demands and then take necessary steps on tariff hike.

Significantly, this year, the participation of people at Wednesday’s hearing was lesser than in the previous years.

(Clockwise from top) The four accused Pramod, Amit, Nepal and Sohanveer in police custody PIC/MPOST

Dr Shrikanth Goud at the office of the DCP East Delhi, after being rescued PIC/MPOST

On Wednesday, people urged DERC cheaper power at a public hearing, held to discuss tariff revision and business plan

In the University’s fifth cut-off, the lowest cut-off for BA Sanskrit (Hons) was 45 per cent at Mata Sundri College

NEW DELHI: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday directed the education depart-ment to review sanitation sys-tem in the schools run by the Delhi government.

The directive came follow-ing his visit to a recently reno-vated school at Rouse Avenue on Deen Dayal Upadhyay marg here.

"While interacting with students and parents, it was brought to notice that there are many cases of accidents when they cross the DDU marg while coming and going back from the school.

"This is a serious safety issue as it is a high traffic road. The PWD has been directed to get a foot-over bridge constructed next to the school's gate," a senior government official said.

The inspection team headed by Kejriwal observed that the windows and corridors were dirty after their renovation.

"I am sure that similar situ-ations must be there in other schools where renovation has taken place and more sani-tation staff is needed to keep the place clean," an official order by Deputy Chief Min-ister Manish Sisodia said. "The education secretary has been directed to review the entire sanitation system and make the required changes to ensure adequate staff is provided in these schools within 15 days," it said. MPOST

Kejriwal orders sanitation

review of govt schools

mp city4MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Friday, 21 July, 2017

North MCD to renovate historic Town Hall to showcase heritageANUP VERMA

NEW DELHI: With an aim to develop an attractive tour-ist destination of international standards, North Delhi Munic-ipal Corporation has decided to redevelop historic Town Hall situated at Chandni Chowk into a centre of cultural and social heritage.

The Corporation said that the re-development of Town Hall would be done on 'Pub-lic Private Partnership' (PPP)

mode for which in-principle approval has been accorded.

Town Hall, a landmark building in the Walled City area, was the seat of the Munic-ipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) since 1866 during the British till late 2009, when offices shifted to an another location in the Capital city.

The construction of the building started in 1860 and was completed in 1863.

It was initially known as Lawrence Institute and housed

Delhi College of Higher Stud-ies, before it was bought by the Municipality for Rs 1,35,457 in 1866.

Originally, a bronze statue of Queen Victoria stood in front of the hall but soon after independence in 1947, it was replaced with the statue of Arya Samaj leader Swami Shraddhanand.

Mayor of North Delhi Municipal Corporation Pre-ety Aggarwal on Thursday said that the museum at the

re-developed Town Hall would be the main tourist attraction and it would occupy an area of about 1,574 sq mt in the ground floor.

Agarwal added that with the move, the Town Hall would emerge as a centre of culture and social heritage, depicting the history, culture and the life of Delhi.

She further highlighted that the objective of the re-develop-ment is to provide a complete and wholesome family experi-

ence to the visitors."The complex will have a

craft bazar, dancing fountain, the maze, light and sound pro-grammes, street food, chil-dren activity area, boutique hotel, food court, courtyard and sculpture garden, digi-tal library, lecture rooms, a museum, fine dining areas and much more at the premises," she added.

North Delhi Municipal Corporation Commissioner Praveen Gupta said that the

project was initially planned to be funded by ‘Union Tour-ism Ministry’ but could not be materialised and now it would be developed on PPP mode.

He said that that the project would be taken up in the next 9 months and is likely to be com-pleted within two years.

Gupta further said that the project is expected to earn good revenue to the Corpora-tion apart from depicting the history of Delhi and its heritage to the visitors.

Heavy downpour brings traffic to standstill in Delhi, NCR

ZAFAR ABBAS

NEW DELHI: Heavy down-pour in Delhi and in national capital region left roads and resi-dential areas waterlogged, lead-ing to a major traffic congestion, serpentine traffic jams where vehicles were locked bumper to bumper during early hours on Thursday.

The temperature relief seems to be for only those who stayed indoors while who moved out on streets for work were stuck on roads either due to traffic jams or water logging.

The traffic police control room of Delhi Police spent a busy day on Thursday where till evening, close to 150 calls related to traffic congestion were made by commuters. Mostly the calls were from south Delhi areas. Okhla, Malviya Nagar along with Nizamuddin

reported for jams.The Delhi Traffic Police

informed commuters through twitter “Traffic is heavy on RTR due to overflow of sewer water. Kindly avoid the stretch.”

A TV journalist Kamaljit Sandhu said, “Epic jam in

national capital Delhi. Slowing down the pace of Delhi NCR each time it pours down.Can we call this world class ?”

Office and school goers were stuck in massive jams as traffic signals malfunctioned in many areas due to the rains, police

and civic officials said. In many places, commuters complained of autos hiking prices due to shortage of vehicles on the road.

Some people were even seen hiring a manual rickshaw to cross a small water logged stretch.

Some of the worst affected areas were Noida, Mathura Road, Delhi Gate, Ashram and parts of Ring Road in south Delhi.

Gurugram Traffic Police alerted commuters early morn-ing on Thursday saying “Maxi-mum rush of kawariyas today, rainy conditions and office hours. Please plan accordingly.Gurugram Traffic Police is on the job.”

Water logging was seen at IMT manesar in Gurugram that resulted in slow traffic move-ment. The cops along with the civic authorities had to flush the water out of the roads.

In Noida, water logging was reported from various places including Sector 60 underpass and Sector 62 damaged roads which led the traffic to self divert to Sector 58 and 59 resulting in traffic chaos in the area.

PIYUSH OHRIE

GURUGRAM: Eight months after demonetisation of higher currency notes was announced by the Centre, the situation seems to be coming back to square one with criminals now able to replicate the new Rs 500 notes.

On Wednesday evening, the Crime Branch of Gurugram Police captured two people who were involved in not only printing new fake Rs 500 notes, but also successful in using it in place of the original notes.

The two arrested accused have been identified as Som-bir and Suraj and have been taken into judicial remand for three days.

They will be charged under sections of 489 A (counterfeit-ing currency), 489 B (usage of forged bank currency notes), 489 C (possession of counter-feit notes) and 489 D (possess-ing materials for making the

counterfeit notes). Gurugram Police was able to catch hold of the two on the basis of a tip-off.

Cops were told that there were some people possessing illegal notes who would come to the city.

As soon as they entered the city, both Sombir and Suraj were stopped by the team of police personnel and three samples of fake Rs 500 notes were recovered from them.

The police mentioned that Sombir and Suraj had started out as plumbers in Rohtak, but soon shifted to the illegal

business of fake currency notes after watching their uncle do the same in Rohtak three years ago.

Though their uncle was arrested and is presently lodged in Jhajjar jail, it did not prevent them from carrying on with the fake notes business.

To make the fake currency notes, the accused would get the machine from Delhi. The counterfeit notes were initially printed in Ajmer, Rajasthan.

The police now plan to also interrogate people who had helped them at different levels for making the fake currency notes.

“We will be interrogating the two to find out how many other people are involved in this process. We suspect that there is a deeper racket involved in this crime, but the information about that is subject to subsequent investi-gations,” said a senior official from Gurugram Police.

Duo held in Ggn with fake `500 notes

(Second from left) Sombir and Suraj in police custody PIC/MPOST

All was not well in our marriage, admits deceased actress’ husband

PIYUSH OHRIE

GURUGRAM: The city court on Thursday extended the police remand of deceased Assamese actress’s husband Nishith Jha to 14 days and had admitted that all was not well between the couple..

Assamese artist Bidisha Bezbaruah hanged herself from a ceiling fan in a Guru-gram apartment on July 17, following which her husband was arrested on the charges of section 306 (abetment to sui-cide) of IPC after the deceased’s

father formally complained where he alleged that Jha was responsible for his daughter’s death.

According to police in its interrogation, Nishith admit-ted to the allegation that he had a female friend in Mumbai, the relation of which his wife was not happy. He, however, denied having an extra- marital affair with his woman colleague.

The police have seized the laptop and the smartphone so that they can read all his emails, Whatsapp, Facebook and Twit-ter posts that can provide them

with more evidences relating to the case.

Marital discord is attributed as the main reason for the sui-cide of Bidisha Bezbaruah who was an actress, singers, dancer and a radio jockey. She had also done a cameo role in Bol-lywood film Jagga Jasoos.

The couple, who were married on April 28 last year, shifted to Gurugram in July this year.

However, three days after they shifted to Sushant Apart-ment in Sector-43, Nishith rushed to Mumbai citing pro-

fessional requirements. On July 17, Nishith tried calling Bidi-sha several times to which she did not respond after which he got in touch with the property broker who had helped them get the appartment.

The property broker and other people in the neighbour-hood later found out Bidisha hanging from a ceiling fan.

On Wednesday, Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar assured his Assam counterpart Sarbananda Sonowal that all angles of the case will be looked into during the probe.

Trees to mark traffic intersections along NH-8

PIYUSH OHRIE

GURUGRAM: To enhance the green cover at NH-8, the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) is planning to not only have massive planta-tions but also make the partic-ular tree as an identity of that area.

Presently, various traf-fic intersections along NH-8 are undergoing constructions works as NHAI along with Haryana government are con-structing flyovers and under-passes at major traffic points.

According to officials, major work will culminate by May next year following which the plantation drive is going to be initiated. The developmen-tal works that began in 2016 had resulted in more than six thousand trees being cut. Fac-ing flak from the environmen-tal activists of the diminishing green cover, the officials high-lighted that they will ensure that the greenery in the area is again revived.

The process of having a specific type of tree in a par-ticular area is not a new con-cept in the city. A renowned developed that has developed a township at 3,500 acres in Gurugram have named some of their streets on the trees that have been planted in the area.

DDA partners NIUA to prepare 2041 Master PlanOUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) has signed a Memoran-dum of Understanding (MOU) with the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) for the preparation of Master Plan for Delhi, 2041.

The authority in its sched-uled board meeting on Thurs-day discussed the strategies of planning and growth of Delhi till 2041.

The project will be done in four phases. It will help DDA in building a base line under-standing of Delhi at the local and regional level.

This project will use quan-

titative informations gathered from historical data from DDA and other city agencies.

This will also include pri-mary data collection. The authority noted that every quantitative data will be com-plemented by a qualitative understanding of the issues through consultation with gov-ernment agencies, para, aca-demia, sector experts and civil society organisations.

“This would provide a framework for various sec-toral planning principles, rec-ommended interventions and intended impact within the sector,” the DDA has noted in the meeting.

Adding to this. it explained

that both traditional and emerging sectors will be included.

Traditional sectors are housing, transportation, econ-omy, etc., and emerging sectors

include culture, heritage, digital empowerment, etc.

The DDA has informed that the enabling phase of the project will look at the roll-out strategy for neighbour-hood redevelopment through development control regula-tions, land use, land pooling land titling, local area planning and governance.

Following the strategy out-line the implementation phase would detail out the capital investment plan along with the monitoring, learning and evaluation plan with target outcomes for every five year details.

In this project, NIUA will engage national and interna-

tional experts. The authority has also dis-

cussed the plan of relocation of Sanjay Gandhi Transport Nagar. This market was relo-cated to streamline the traffic movement and facilitate pedes-trian movement at Rani Jhani Road. It will also help in wid-enning of Kishan Ganj Under Bridge.

In the said meeting, the officials explained the plans of optimum utilization of vacant DDA lands allotted to various government agencies.

The officials said that an amendment will be done in this regard. It will ensure that the state guest houses should be utilized for staff quarters.

MANVI MITTAL

NEW DELHI: Tamil Nadu farmers escalated their agita-tion at Jantar Mantar here on its fourth day on Thursday by hitting themselves with their footwear as a ‘punishment’ for casting their votes for state legislators, who are said to be ignoring farmers issues.

According to the Tamil farmers, the state legislators are minting money while they are starving.

“We came all the way from Chennai and staging protest for the requirement of our basic demands without food and water but shockingly Tamil government legislator’s remu-neration has been raised to Rs 1.05 lakh,” said R Sellaperumal Musri, a senior citizen farmer.

Due to drought, farmers are suffering to earn their liveli-hood while being buried under the debt from banks.

To ease the hardship,

Tamil farmers are demanding drought relief package, farm loan waiver, pension for old farmers and to constitute the Cauvery Management Board.

"We feel cheated. Both state and central governments did not fulfill the promises they made to us. We want the Centre to ensure remunerative prices for agricultural produce and interlinking of rivers to solve the water problem," said P Ayyakannu, leading the protest.

He also stated that they had no option but to resume the

protest. "Due to water crisis and drought in the state, farmers are under a huge financial bur-den. We are almost destroyed. We don't care if we die pro-testing here," said an agitating farmer.

Earlier this month, the Supreme Court had stayed order by the Madras High Court that had in April extended the loan waiver to all farmers, even though the scheme intended to help only small and marginal farmers with five acres of land. The Centre had moved the top court in May against the order.

All farmers and their asso-ciates have also been plan-ning to conduct a meeting of all farmers from Maharashtra, Haryana, in Western UP under the banner of "All India Kisan Kamagar Mahasabha" by the end of the monsoon season, which will be regarding the rights and demands of farm-ers, and their miseries.

TN farmers' slap selves with slippers on fourth day

Robbers in 'Khaki' rob men on roads, two held

Two civic workers sacked for graft in Ggn

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Delhi Police busted the gang of road rob-bers who wore khaki and impersonated as police offi-cers in order to rob people in broad day light.

The accused, identified as Bharat, Pankaj and Ravi were reportedly in khaki uniform when they abducted three persons on July 15 in Mayur Vihar and later fled with their car and around 40 kg of sil-ver ornaments worth lakhs of rupees.

After the arrest, 12.5 kg sil-ver ornaments along with a country made pistol with two live cartridges were recovered from them.

On July 15, a Honda City car was intercepted by these khaki clad men and forced the victim on a gun point to move to a different car and abducted all three of them. After some distance, they were pushed out of the car and fled with the

ornaments.“They followed the tar-

get in two separate vehicles (Ertiga and Elantra). At first, they would intercept the tar-geted vehicle on the pretext of checking the documents of the vehicle. Once the occu-pants of the car indulged in a conversation, they forcibly entered the vehicle with fire arms and abducted the occu-pants along with their belong-ings and vehicle. After taking them to a remote place, they pushed out the occupants after robbing them off," said DCP, Dr Ram Gopal Naik.

Police received a tip-off on July 19 that the accused would come near a Gurdwara on GTK road to dispose off the booty of the robbed silver ornaments.

After the arrest, the assail-ants confessed to their crime. However, police is looking out to capture the remaining asso-ciates and recover the rest of the silver ornaments.

Ghaziabad increases circle rates GHAZIABAD: In an an-nual review, the Gha-ziabad administration on Thursday marginally increased and revised the circle rates from Rs 1.08 lakh to Rs 1.20 lakh per metre which are to be enforced from August 8 in this Uttar Pradesh district. MPOST

Mayor seeks clarity on SDMC wardsNEW DELHI: Mayor of South Delhi Mu-nicipal Corporation Kamaljeet Sehrawat on Thursday wrote a letter to Lt Governor Anil Baijal and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for their in-tervention in issuance of the notification regarding the identi-fication of Municipal wards falling under its zones. MPOST

OUR CORRESPONDENT

GURUGRAM: The Munici-pal Corporation of Gurugram has removed two outsourced workers after it was found that they were preparing wrong report on the PG’s in the city and falsely projected them as residential as the commercial properties.

The two persons who have been suspended have been identified as Anil and Preet Singh.

The firm action by Munici-pal Corporation of Gurugram comes weeks after 21 work-ers outsourced workers under enforcement wing of MCG were also removed after they were found to be corrupt.

It is estimated that there are over 300 illegal Paying Guest (PG) accomodation’s that are presently operating in the city.

Most of the landowners are however able to operate as they are in cahoots with certain cor-rupt MCG officials.

Most of the PG’s in an area of 150 to 200 square yards built floors that are more than five storeys.

Further, most of the land-owners in lieu of greater profit are taking in more tenants than required.

Even though notices by the Department of Town and Plan-ning (DTP) have been sent to these landowners in the past, there has been no concrete action that has been taken against them.

The death of 21-year-old Deepak Singh Bisht after being pushed from the balcony of the building where he was a paying guest has again raised the issue of illegal PG houses in the city.

High demand has resulted in most of the houses being converted into Paying Guest accodomation or guesthouses.

However, as these buildings are not registered legally, most of the buildings do not get basic facilities like water and power from the public agencies.

PREMIUM MERCHANTS LIMITEDRegd. Office: A-1, Maharani Bagh

N ew Delhi-110 065CIN : L51909DL1985PLC021077,

Tel: 91 11 26860014Email Id: premiummerchants123@gmail.com, website:www.pmltd.com

NOTICENotice is hereby given that the

meeting no. 04/ 2017-18 of the Board of Directors of the Company will be held on 10th August, 2017 (Thursday) at 49, Community Centre, New Friends Colony, New Delhi-110025 at 3.30 P.M to discuss the following agenda items:i. To take on record the Unaudited

Financial Results of the Company for the Quarter ended as on 30th June, 2017 in terms of Regulation 33 of SEBI (Listing Obligation and Disclosure Requirement) Regulation, 2015.

ii. To fix the date of the next Annual General Meeting of the Company.

iii. To consider and decide the period of closure of register of members for record purpose.

iv. To avail services of Electronic Voting Platform from National Securities Depository Limited.

v. To consider appointment of Scrutinizer for the purpose of e-voting at ensuing Annual General Meeting.

vi. To table and approve the draft of the Notice convening the next Annual General Meeting.

vii. To discuss any other business with the permission of Chair.Further, the trading window shall

remain closed for all designated persons including promoters, directors, key managerial personnel, designated employees and other connected persons of the Company from 3rd August, 2017 to 12th August, 2017 in accordance with the SEBI (Prohibition of Insider Trading) Regulations, 2015.

By Order of the Board,For Premium Merchants Limited

Place: New Delhi (Balbir Singh)Dated: 18.07.2017 Director

DIN:00027438

Water logging at various places in Delhi and NCR led traffic to move at snail's pace on Thursday PIC/MPOST

Deceased Assamese actress Bidisha Bezbaruah and her husband Nishith Jha PIC/MPOST

DDA partnered with NIUA to discuss the Master Plan PIC/MPOST

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: National Secu-rity Adviser Ajit Doval will be travelling to Beijing to attend a BRICS meeting on July 27 and 28, the External Affairs Minis-try said on Thursday.

The visit comes amid deterioration in bilateral ties between the two neighbours due to the Dokalam standoff with Beijing ratcheting up its rhetoric against New Delhi on the dispute. “As far as visit of the National Security Adviser to China for the meeting of

BRICS NSAs is concerned, I can confirm that he will be vis-iting. The visit will take place on Jul 27 and 28,” External Affairs Ministry spokesper-

son Gopal Baglay said.Asked whether Doval will

have any bilateral meeting with any Chinese leader or the Special Representative for

boundary talks on the side-lines of the meeting of NSAs from BRICS (Brazil, Rus-sia, India, China and South Africa), Baglay did not give a direct reply

“We will keep you informed as and when there are developments,” he said.

Chinese and Indian sol-diers have been locked in a face- off in Dokalam area of the Sikkim sector for over a month after Indian troops stopped the Chinese army from building a road in the disputed area.

INDIA’S FIRST DALIT PRESIDENT

5MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Friday, 21 July, 2017

mp nation

SIMONTINI BHATTACHARJEE

NEW DELHI: Leaving behind all talks about he being from the lower-rung of Hindu caste, Ram Nath Kovind was on Thursday elected as the first citizen of India.

However, activists who preach for the protection of backward section, perhaps had never heard of his name before the BJP president Amit Shah announced him as the party’s presidential candidate.

His name was searched more than 5,00,000 times on Google within 24 hours of the announcement of his candida-ture. His name wasn’t a famil-iar enough for newspaper readers and television view-ers. The former Bihar gover-nor and BJP veteran is known to keep a quiet and low pro-file. He is unassuming and affa-ble who had an easy win with more than 65 per cent votes to the country’s highest constitu-tional post. He even managed to bag the vote of the regional parties. Bihar Chief Minis-ter Nitish Kumar and Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik extended their support to him, defecting from united opposi-tion brigade. Kovind got the votes of 522 MPs while Oppo-sition candidate Meira Kumar bagged 225 MPs.

The 14th President of India has a non-confrontational

approach to politics and this easy demeanor has stood the Kanpur-born former lawyer in good stead. He is not just a Dalit leader, but is known for his organisational skills and is a loyal member of the BJP, attributes that not many in the larger NDA family can boast of.

One can easily find his speeches on the floor of the house during Atal Behari Vajpayee’s regime.

Kovind is married and has a son and a daughter. However, during the weeks of campaign-ing, his children were not seen

much or written about. Moreover he was drawn more to the politics of social empowerment of Dalits and other weaker sections than the plank of religion or Hindutva.Names of several presidential probables from the NDA stable had done the rounds, but Kov-ind, a former national spokes-person of the party, was not among them. While the choice surprised political watchers, it was seen as an astute move for a party working overtime to expand its social base and win over new constituencies.

And one that has delivered dividends.

Kovind is married and has a son and a daughter. It was a measure of his public per-sona that though his wife Sav-ita was by his side during the weeks of campaigning, his chil-dren were not seen much or written about. BJP chief Amit Shah said the party’s parlia-mentary board went through a long list of potential candi-dates before choosing Kovind, who was its MP in Rajya Sabha for two terms and headed its Dalit Morcha.

India to soon inform Russia of its choice for 2nd N-plant site

OUR CORRESPONDENT

CHENNAI: India is soon expected to inform Russia of its choice for the second nuclear power plant site, a senior offi-cial involved in the project said on Thursday.

This would be the second site after the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant in Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu.

For the new site, there are plans to have new reactors of 1200 MW which is an “evo-lutionary development” from 1000 MW reactor, Sergey P Orlov, Head of ASE Represen-tation in India, said in a press conference.

“We are expecting the new site to be officially presented by the Indian side to the Rus-sian side and we have been informed that it will happen very soon,” he said.

ASE Group is an engi-neering division of Russia’s ROSATOM State Atomic Energy Corporation, which constructed Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant. It is involved in designing, supply of equipment and technical assistance for KKNPP.

“We have started the exchange with the Indian side about the type of plant we are offering but the choosing of the new site is 100 per cent prerog-ative of the Indian government and the Indian side.”

“They are working on that and as soon as they finish they will make an official presenta-tion of that site to us and we shall study the site together

with the Indian specialists,” Orlov said.

The basic parameters that would go into the selection of the new site would include it being in low seismic zone and in an area that is not heavily populated.

It should “preferably be on the coastal side” since the VVER reactor is a water-cooled one, Orlov said.

On KKNPP’s Unit I, which started its commercial opera-tion in December 2014, he said it was going through its second scheduled shutdown and was expected to resume operation by the “first days of August”.

The second unit will undergo a similar process in December this year, he said. It had started its commercial operation in March this year.

Orlov said commissioning of the rest four units -- 3,4,5 and 6 -- was expected to hap-pen in 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026, respectively.

The construction work of units 3 and 4 of KKNPP commenced on June 29 with the ceremonial pouring of concrete.

The General Framework Agreement for units 5 and 6 had been signed on June 1.

To a question on localisa-tion of equipment, he said it would happen more in units 4,5 and 6.

When the rest of the units resume commercial operation, they will give a very substantial contribution to the power bal-ance of India, Orlov said.

Responding to a question on the protests against the KKNPP by locals including anti-nuclear activists, Orlov said such agitations happen everywhere.

“It happens everywhere when it comes to nuclear power.

The general public not fully understanding the nature of nuclear power of course will be cautions of having the plant next to their village, it is under-standable,” he said.

“As soon as the first unit started operating on a regu-lar basis, providing so much power, the local population finally understood the bene-fits of having the plant nearby,” he added.

In rare gesture, PM Modi to host special farewell for Pranab

GAUTAM LAHIRI

NEW DELHI: A series of fare-well functions is lined up for the outgoing President Pranab Mukherjee. In a rare gesture Prime Minister Narendra Modi on July 22 is hosting a farewell dinner in honour of the 13th President of India in presti-gious Hyderabad House of the Lutyen’s Delhi. The President elect Ramnath Kovind along with Council of Ministers would be present on that dinner. Prime Minister is expected to give a farewell speech there. A special menu has been ordered for the out-going President.

President Mukherjee will also hold a banquet on July 24 in honour of the Council of Ministers in the Banquet

Hall of the President house. On the same evening, outgo-ing President will address the nation on the national televi-sion, which would be telecast in both English and Hindi. All the regional channels would tele-cast the address in their respec-tive languages.

On July 23, Speaker of the Lok Sabha Sumitra Mahajan is hosting a farewell function in the central hall of the Parlia-ment. In that function Union minister of State Babul Supriyo has been asked to perform a Tagore Song: Ekla Chalo Re....The Speaker is hosting a tea

party in honour of the outgo-ing President.

In all the functions, Pres-ident elect Ramnath Kov-ind has also been invited. On July 25, new President Kov-ind would be sworn in as the 14th President of the country in Darbar Hall of the Rashtra-pati Bhavan where two sepa-rate chairs will be kept side by side. The moment new Presi-dent is sworn in, the out-going President Mukherjee would leave his chair for the incom-ing President.

After that, new President will come to the Central Hall of the Parliament and give his acceptance speech. When the function is over, the outgoing President would be sent off to his new residence 10 Raj-aji Marg.

NSA Doval to travel to China to attend July 27-28 Brics meet

SIT has decided to close 1984 riots

case: Police to court

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Special Investigation Team (SIT) has decided to close a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case in which two men were killed by a mob in central Delhi as no evidence regarding any accused could be collected during its reinves-tigation, police has informed a Delhi court.

The police told Metropoli-tan Magistrate Abhilash Mal-hotra that it has been decided to close the case, which was re- opened following the decision of the SIT.

After constitution of an SIT in 2015 following an order of the Ministry of Home Affairs, the case was re-opened and further investigated. The court was also informed about it.

The court has issued notice to the family members of the two Sikh men who were killed by a mob near ISBT, Kash-miri Gate in Central Delhi on November 1, 1984 during the riots that broke out following the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

In its latest 16-page report filed before the court, the police

said, “No incriminating direct or circumstantial evidence is available against any person. Hence, further investigation of the case has been closed.

“Accordingly final report under section 173(8) CrPC regarding closure of further investigation is being submit-ted to the court. An intima-tion with regard to closure of further investigation has also been given to the complainant.”

According to the prose-cution, on November 1, 1984 police officials saw people shouting near ISBT taxi stand and 15-20 vehicles were being burnt and around 500 rioters were carrying sticks and stones.

They were allegedly raising slogans, and when the police tried to nab the rioters, they fled in different directions, it said, adding that officials saw two sikhs lying injured.

The two men were taken to hospital where they were declared brought dead by a doctor. The police team made arrangements for other mem-bers of the community who were present at ISBT and sent them to a gurudwara for shelter.

Firing on school not okay for any army: India to Pak DGMO

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Army’s director general of military operations Lt. Gen. A K Bhatt on Thursday strongly took up with his Pakistani counterpart the issue of Pakistani troops “deliberately targeting” civil-ians and firing at school chil-dren along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir.

During a telephonic con-versation, Bhatt asked Pakistani DGMO Maj. Gen. Sahir Sham-shad Mirza to exercise “strict control” over his troops and instruct them to refrain from any “nefarious activities”, an Army spokesperson said.

The Pakistani DGMO was informed about Pakistani troops deliberately targeting civilian villages and also fir-ing at school children in Now-shera sector of Rajouri district when they were being evacu-ated from the area on Tuesday.

“This, he (Mirza) was told, does not behove any army.

The Indian Army as profes-sional force takes due care to avoid targeting of civilians and Pakistan Army was expected to do the same,” Army spokesman Col. Aman Anand said.

Col Anand said the Pak-istani DGMO was informed about the spate of ceasefire violations which also included “calibre escalation coupled with incidents of sniping and attempted infiltration”.

The two DGMOs had spo-ken on Monday as well, dur-ing which Bhatt told Mirza that the Indian Army reserves the right to retaliate appropriately against any incident of cease-fire violation along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir.

Anand said the Indian Army has been taking all necessary steps to ensure the safety of life and property of Indian citizens. The telephonic call over the hotline was initi-ated by Lt. Gen. Bhatt to pro-test Pakistani troops’ firing at school children.

Kovind: From quietude to national limelight

Kanpur Dehat swept by

waves of joyOUR CORRESPONDENT

KANPUR: As soon as Ram Nath Kovind was declared elected as the 14th President of India, a wave of joy and jubila-tion swept Jhinjhak in Kanpur Dehat, where his family mem-bers and relatives reside.

From burning lamps using ghee, distributing sweets to welcoming guests with ‘gulaal’ and flowers, a festive spirit per-meated the atmosphere in Jhin-jhak, 160 km from Lucknow.

Family members of the newly-elected president, who will go to Delhi by train on July 23, have already started buy-ing clothes for the swearing in ceremony.

“The day the name of our uncle was announced, we were confident that he will secure a landslide win in the poll. And now with the results out, we feel proud that he will occupy the highest constitutional post of the country. Our joy know no bounds. We have been cel-ebrating throughout the day. In the evening, we have arranged a fireworks programme,” Hem-lata Kovind, the niece of the newly-elected president said.

A teacher, Hemlata, says that the feeling of victory is yet to completely sink.

“At times, it becomes very hard to imagine that the uncle in whose lap you spent a sig-nificant time during childhood has been elected as the presi-dent. Not only our family, but the entire village is celebrating Holi and Diwali,” she said.

205 children abandoned in cradles: Maneka

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: As many as 205 infants, including 58 in Delhi alone, have been found aban-doned in cradles placed out-side hospitals and other places in different parts of the country, Women and Child Develop-ment minister Maneka Gandhi said on Thursday.

Several states had placed cradles at various places since the scheme was announced after it was found that the babies were abandoned in waste dumps or bushes, she said during Question Hour in the Rajya Sabha.

Gandhi said around 58 babies had been received in Delhi alone, while several chil-dren were found in states like Assam, Haryana and others. A total of 205 babies have been received in these cradles so far.

She expressed confidence that after the required formal-

ities, these babies would get adopted.

The minister said that, according to the scheme, cra-dles are to be placed outside hospitals and various offices, but not police stations as those dumping their children were unlikely to venture there.

The cradle scheme will be publicised properly in the com-ing days, she said.

She also said that the gov-ernment had worked on an online system for adoption which has led to an improve-ment in the functioning of small adoption centres.

No case would go unattended: CBI assures special court

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Director of Prosecution of CBI has assured a special court that no case would go unrepresented on its behalf after it drew the court’s ire over absence of its counsel during the hearing of a case.

The director’s submission came in pursuance to court’s order in which it had taken strong exception to absence of CBI prosecutor in an over two-decade-old graft case involv-ing former Union Minister P K Thungon and others.

The court had directed the Director of Prosecution of CBI to appear before it and explain why a penalty should not be imposed on the probe agency for seeking adjournment due to the absence of the prosecu-tor in a day-to-day trial.

During the next hearing,

Director of Prosecution of CBI, O P Verma, informed the court that the previous prosecutor who was conducting the trial in the case would continue.

“The Director of Prosecu-tion has assured the court that he has personally intervened in the matter and undertakes that in future no difficulty will be caused on account of the absence of the public prose-cutor so that the cases do not go unattended and unrep-resented,” Special CBI Judge

Kamini Lau noted in the order.The court had earlier

observed that it was unable to proceed with the recording of statements of the prosecu-tion witnesses for the reasons beyond its control and due to the probe agency. The court was unhappy over the absence of any prosecutor during the hearing. While the regular prosecutor of the court was on leave, the one deputed in his place did not appear before it when the matter was taken up.

New Delhi: A Delhi court on Thursday granted bail to two persons accused of hijacking an Air India plane from New Delhi to Srinagar and forcing it to land in Pakistan in 1981.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Jyoti Kler granted Satnam Singh and Tejinder Pal Singh the relief on a personal bond of Rs 2 lakh and two sureties of the same amount.

The court also directed the investigating officer of the case to appear before it on July 31, the next date of hearing.

The two accused were deported in 2000 from Pakistan after serving a life term for hijacking an Air India plane to the neigh-bouring country in 1981.

The Delhi High Court had in September 2014 refused to stay a lower court decision ordering fresh trial against the two alleged Sikh militants. The duo had approached the high court, seeking that the order to try them afresh after registering an FIR be set aside. MPOST

Bail to two for 1981 Air India hijacking

President-elect Ram Nath Kovind with his wife Kavita Kovind (Right) and grandson and granddaughter in New Delhi on Thursday PIC/Naveen Sharma

DAVP spent about Rs 1,286 crore

in 2016-17: GovtNEW DELHI: The Directorate of Advertising and Visual Pub-licity (DAVP) has spent about Rs 1,286 crore in 2016-17 on advertisements about govern-ment policies, schemes, proj-ects and events through various mediums, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Thursday.

The DAVP is the nodal agency to undertake multi-media advertising and pub-licity for various ministries and departments of the government.

This is 8.15 per cent higher than the amount of Rs 1,188.85 crore spent in 2015-16. The DAVP had spent Rs 998.34 crore in 2014-15, Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Rajyavardhan Rathore said in a written reply.

The advertisements are carried in various mediums, including print and visual media, he added. MPOST

2 ROBBERS CUT OPEN ATM, STEAL RS 11 LAKH IN 8-MINUTE HEISTKapurthala: Two robbers in an eight- minute heist on Thursday cut open an ATM and decamped with over Rs 11 lakh cash in Sultanpur Lodhi, around 30 km from here, police said. They entered the ATM kiosk at 5:43 AM and left at 5:51 am. It took them just eight minutes to complete their job, Deputy Superintendent of Police Waryam Singh said. The officer said they came to the kiosk a few minutes after the guard left at 5:30 AM and cut the machine’s shell with a gas-cutter, Singh said, adding they stole Rs 11.43 lakh cash. The rob-bers, whose faces were covered, sprayed black paint on the CCTV cameras. However, a camera managed to capture their act, but the footage is not clear, police said. A passerby informed the police after spotting smoke coming out of the ATM. However, the robbers had fled in a car by then, they said.

UTTAR PRADESH SCHOOL GIRLS FORCED TO STRIP: 12 STAFFERS DISMISSEDMUZAFFARNAGAR: The district administration has dismissed 12 staffers of a residential school where 70 girls were allegedly forced to strip by the principal who wanted “to check if they were menstruating”, an official said. The school’s ‘sardana’ (principal-cum-war-den) was dismissed soon after the March 29 incident in Khatoli, Basic Shiksha Adhikari Chander Prakash Yadav said here. “The other 12 staffers, including seven teachers and an accountant, were dismissed yes-terday. They were found responsible in an inquiry into the forced stripping of the girls to check if they were menstruating ,” he said. The inquiry was conducted by a magistrate, the education officer said.

6MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Friday, 21 July, 2017

mp nation

NATION BRIEFS

OUR CORRESPONDENT

THIRUVANANTHA-PURAM: In a first of its kind in Kerala, leading media group Mathrubhumi has introduced ‘period leave’ for women employees in its TV News channel.

“The employees have the option of taking leave either on the first or any other day of their menstrual cycle. This is an additional leave,” Joint Manag-ing Director of Mathrubhumi group M V Shremyams Kumar said.

About 50 women in the channel’s news desk and reporting will be among those benefited, sources said.

The leave facility came into effect in Mathrubhumi News, a 24-hour Malayalam televi-sion news channel of the group from yesterday.

“This is an additional leave besides the normal leave the employees are entitled to,” he said.

Two organisations, includ-ing ‘Culture Machine, a Mum-bai- based media company, are said to have already introduced the ‘First day of Period’ leave policy.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOHIMA: T R Zeliang, who was reappointed Chief Minister of Nagaland amid high drama yesterday, is ready to face the floor test tomorrow to prove his majority in the state Assembly.

Zeliang will move the Vote of Confidence in the Assem-bly as an MLA of the Naga People’s Front, though he has been expelled from the party for six years, a spokesperson of Zeliang’s group Tokheho Yep-tho said.

“As per the Tenth Sched-ule amendment of 2006, an elected member of any party can be declared unattached in the Assembly even though he is expelled by the party,” Yeptho, an MLA, said.

He also expressed confi-dence that with the support of 36 NPF MLAs, seven Inde-pendents, and four BJP MLAs, which takes the number to 47 in the House of 60, Zeliang is sure of commanding a majority.

Zeliang took over the man-tle after incumbent chief min-ister Shurhozelie Liezietsu was dismissed by Governor P B Acharya, capping a rebel-lion in the ruling NPF he had spearheaded.

The Governor directed

Zeliang to prove his majority in the Assembly by July 22 and the chief minister agreed to do so by tomorrow.

Zeliang was appointed chief minister for the second time under the third term of the NPF-led DAN government.

Zeliang was compelled to step down as chief minister in February in the face of massive protest against his government for conducting elections to urban local bodies with 33 per cent reservation for women.

Meanwhile, MLA Yitachu, spokesperson for legislators backing Liezietsu, said that 11 MLAs would be attending tomorrow’s trust vote under an NPF whip.

He affirmed that it was the apex body of the party which would issue the whip and not the legislature party.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: BSP supremo Mayawati's resignation from the Rajya Sabha was accepted on Thursday by chairman Hamid Ansari, a senior official of the Upper House said.

The 61-year-old had sub-mitted a fresh resignation letter as per the prescribed format, tendering a hand-written one- line letter, he said, wishing not to be named as he was not authorised to comment.

Mayawati had on Wednes-day resigned from the House, accusing the BJP and the Chair of not allowing her to raise the issue of anti-Dalit violence in Uttar Pradesh in the House.

However, the three-page

resignation letter was rejected as it not in the requisite format.

The format states that the resignation letter should be brief and should not mention the reasons. The move is seen as an attempt by Mayawati to con-solidate her core Dalit support base and re-establish herself as the community's preemi-nent leader after facing a mas-sive defeat in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections earlier this year. Her party could win only 18 seats while the BJP came to power by winning more than 300 of the 403 seats.

The BJP had termed her resignation as a "drama" and pointed out that her tenure in the House was anyway coming to an end early next year.

Mayawati's resignation from

RS acceptedOUR CORRESPONDENT

MUMBAI: Attacking the Kar-nataka government for explor-ing the possibility of having a state flag, the Shiv Sena on Thursday said Congress presi-dent Sonia Gandhi should sack the chief minister as the move went against the history and ideals of her party.

It also demanded that the Centre dissolve the Karnataka government or immediately stop all assistance to the state. The saffron party termed the Congress government's move in Karnataka as "despicable" and "unconstitutional" which amounts to "treason".

It is an insult to the national flag and the freedom fight-ers and the jawans who have sacrificed their lives for the country, an editorial in Sena mouthpiece 'Saamana' said. "(Congress president) Sonia Gandhi should make CM Sid-daramaiah resign and show her love for the nation," the Sena demanded. "The Congress government in Karnataka has indulged in a despicable act by seeking a separate flag for the state," the editorial said.

"This is a challenge to the integrity of the nation, an insult to the national flag and

to the freedom fighters and the jawans sacrificing their lives on the border," it said.

The Sena said Sardar Val-labhbhai Patel worked to bring all states under a single national flag but Siddaramaiah has gone against his own party's ideology.

The Karnataka govern-ment recently formed a nine-member committee to submit a report on designing a separate flag for the state and providing a legal standing for it, with the Chief Minister defending the

move saying there is no con-stitutional provision against it.

If the flag comes into being, Karnataka will be the second state to have its official flag after Jammu and Kashmir, which enjoys a special status under Article 370 of the Constitution.

The Karnataka state elec-tions are due next year.

The Sena editorial said, had Siddaramaiah wanted a unique identity for Karnataka, he could have done exceptional work and made his state stand out amongst others. But, there

is nothing that he has done and hence making these "out-rageous demands".

"Since the chief minister has indulged in an unconstitutional act, the Centre should dissolve Siddaramaiah's government or immediately stop all kinds of assistance to the state," it said.

"It has to be shown that national integrity is not just about speeches and advertise-ments," the Sena said.

"Tomorrow they (the rulers of Karnataka) may demand a separate Constitution... Even

as the country is grappling with the special status accorded to Kashmir, the Congress has back-stabbed the nation (by its move to on separate state flag)," the Sena alleged.

The issue has kicked up a storm, with the state govern-ment coming under fire from various political parties and organisations.

Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut had earlier called it "anti-constitutional" and demanded the imposition of President's rule in Karnataka.

The Karnataka govern-ment yesterday said the issue of whether a state could have its own flag was a "grey area" as there was no mention of it in any of the Acts in the country.

Sena dares Sonia to sack K'taka CM on flag issue

HYDERABAD: The BJP would chalk out its future strat-egy in Telangana, one of the states identified by the party with the possibility of coming to power, in the state executive meeting to be held at Waran-gal on July 22 and 23. The meeting would be attended by Union Minister Hansraj Ahir and General Secretaries Ram Madhav and Muralidhar Rao, among others, state BJP presi-dent K Laxman told reporters here on Thursday.

The conclave would also deliberate on the three-day visit of BJP Chief Amit Shah to Telangana in September, he said. Shah undertook a visit to Telangana for three-days in May last during which he sought to reach out to various sections. He also participated in a community kitchen pro-gramme with Dalits.

Laxman announced a pro-gramme of action to strengthen the party from grass roots and to take up agitation against the TRS government on people’s issues. BJP would hold its dis-trict executive meetings from July 28 to 30 and mandal level meetings from August five to nine. The meetings at dis-trict and mandal level would review the implementation of

the action plan finalised in state executive meetings.

BJP would take up agita-tions on public issues from August 10 to 20 at the man-dal level. It will be followed up by district level and state level agitations on different issues in October and November, Lax-man said.

“As part of preparations for the 2019 elections, assembly constituency-wise conventions of booth level workers would be held in the 119 assembly segments during October-November”, he said.

Hitting out at the TRS government for not officially celebrating the ‘Telangana lib-eration day’ on September 17 (the day erstwhile Nizam state was merged with Indian Union), the BJP leader said the party would organise a public meeting on September 15 to mount pressure on the government. MPOST

BJP to discuss Telangana strategy at Warangal meet

OUR CORRESPONDENT

HYDERABAD: The Fresh law graduates of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, who are yet to enrol as advocates in state bar councils, can assist the Hyder-abad High Court judges as “law clerks” for one year, a senior court official said.

“A new window of opportu-nity has been thrown open by the governments of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh on the directives of the High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad enabling fresh law graduates, yet to be enrolled as advocates in the Bar Council, to assist the high court as law clerks for a period of one year on a monthly stipend,” said the reg-istrar general of the high court in a press note.

The guidelines framed by the high court on the mat-ter were accepted by the gov-ernments of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, it said.

The government order and the gazette notification and the application form in which the candidates can apply for the appointment as law clerk to the judges are available on the offi-cial website of the high court, the release added.

The Hyderabad High Court is common for both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Opposition in the Rajya Sabha on Thurs-day raised the issue of protests across the country by textile manufacturers and traders against the imposition of the GST, saying the new indirect tax would adversely affect the industry, especially the hand-loom segment.

Several opposition mem-bers raised the matter during the Zero Hour with some of them demanding that the tex-tile sector should be exempted from the Goods and Services Tax (GST) net. Highlighting the recent protests in different parts of the country including Surat, Anand Bhaskar Rapolu (Congress) said GST will dis-burb the handloom sector and demanded that the sector should be removed from the ambit of the tax.

He also demanded that GST on the powerloom sege-ment too should be lowered.

In a similar vein, TMC members Ahamed Hassan and Sukhendu Shekhar Roy also referred to the strike by ready-made garment shopowners in West Bengal.

Joining the issue, senior Congress MP Ahmed Patel said the textile traders were protesting on the streets along

with the workers of the unor-ganised sector. He said small and marginal traders were never subjected to tax before.

According to him, the imposition of GST on the sec-tor will make it uncompetitive.

CPI(M) leader C P Nara-yanan demanded that items relating to the disabled people should removed from the GST net. Another CPI(M) mem-ber Ritabrata Banerjee spoke about the complexities in the new indirect tax regime which came into force from July 1.

Rajeev Shukla of Congress said there was lack of coordi-nation between the Centre and the states on the implementa-tion of GST.

Besides the problems fac-ing the textile sector, members

also raised issues relating to the floods in Assam and Odi-sha and farmers' problems.

Digvijaya Singh of Con-gress said the condition of farmers was worsening and farmers' suicides have increased by 42 per cent dur-ing the NDA rule.

He particularly highlighted the fall in prices of pulses, potato and onion. He has also sought a detailed discussion on the farmers issue.

Raising the issue of floods in Assam, Congress member Sanjay Sinh demanded that the government should start relief measures on a war-foot-ing and announce a package after assessing the damage.

His party colleague Ripun Bora criticised the BJP-led state government saying it has not prepared any contingency plan for tackling the floods.

BJD member Dilip Tir-key demanded special relief package for people affected by floods in certain districts of Odisha, including Kalahandi.

Naresh Agrawal (SP) expressed concern over "vul-gar" and misleading advertis-ments being aired on television channels.

He said there should be regulations to check such advertisements to protect con-sumer interest.

RS MPs concerned over anti-GST protests by textile industry

‘Period leave’ for women staff

of news channel in Kerala

OUR CORRESPONDENT

AGARTALA: The Indige-nous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT) on Thursday withdrew its 11-day old blockade of rail-way lines and NH 8 to press for the creation of a separate tribal state following an ultimatum by the administration.

West Tripura Superinten-dent of Police Abhijit Saptarshi said the district had announced that measures would be taken if the blockade was not with-drawn by 9 am this morning.

“The blockade was with-drawn within the time frame,” he said, adding prohibitory order was promulgated in and around the place where it was being held at 5 am and security was beefed up.

District Magistrate, Milind Ramteke said “the blockade has been withdrawn peacefully at 9 am and agitators are going back home with proper secu-rity as the administration has arranged buses for them”.

Addressing party workers before withdrawing the block-ade, IPFT president N C Deb-barma claimed that the Centre had in- principle accepted the tribal outfit’s demand for cre-ation of separate Twipraland state.

“We hope the central gov-ernment will soon convene a tripartite meeting to discuss the matter.” he said

There was, however, no offi-cial confirmation regarding the Centre’s acceptance of the sepa-rate state demand.

Governor Tathagata Roy had in a statement on Satur-day requested the agitators to withdraw the movement and assured that their demands would be sent to the appro-priate authority for necessary actions.

The Left Front government in Tripura had on several occa-sions requested IPFT to with-draw its movement considering the inconvenience caused to the people.

IPFT withdraws agitation Fresh law graduates can

assist Hyderabad HC judges

Zeliang ready to prove majority in trust vote

SP leader Naresh Agarwal speaks in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday PTI

OUR CORRESPONDENT

JAMMU: Jammu and Kashmir government has “violated the state budget manual” as it failed to surrender around Rs 10,520 crore as budgetary savings, the Comptroller and Auditor Gen-eral (CAG) of India said in its report.

“At the close of the year 2015-16, there were 22 grants and five appropriations (state budget) in which savings (Rs 10,520.33 crore) occurred. However, during the anticipa-tion of savings, no surrender was made by the concerned government departments,” CAG report for the year end-ing March 31, 2016, said.

The report was tabled in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly recently during its special ses-sion on GST.

“Saving in these cases was of the order of Rs 10,520.33 crore in 46 cases (involving 27 bud-get grants and three appropria-tions), where savings involved were Rs 1 crore and above.”

“The non-surrender of the funds deprived the government of the opportunity to transfer these funds to other needy sec-tors,” it said. As per the state budget manual, the spending departments are required to

surrender grants, appropria-tions or saving portion to the finance department as and when the savings are antici-pated. The outcome of the appropriation audit shows that in 44 cases, savings exceeded Rs 1 crore in each case or by more than 20 per cent of the total provision, he said.

Of these, excess expendi-ture by more than 10 per cent has been observed consistently for the last five years in respect of one appropriation, it added.

The CAG report said that the finance department has

failed to surrender Rs 2,189 crore, Rs 2,691.80 crore by planning and development department, Rs 1,347 crore by revenue department, Rs 707.60 crore by PDD, Rs 506.59 crore by public works department, Rs 496.95 crore by health and medical education department, Rs 496.69 crore by rural devel-opment department.

According to Jammu and Kashmir Financial Code, rush of expenditure in the closing month of the financial year should be avoided and strictly monitored, it said.

CAG claims J&K govt failed to surrender Rs 10,520 crore budgetary savings

HC stays warrant for Sushmita's

appearance in car import case

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has stayed a warrant issued by a lower court here against Bollywood actress Sushmita Sen in connection with the import of a luxury car.

When the petition by the Miss Universe came up yes-terday, Justice R Suresh Kumar directed the economic offences court in Egmore here not to execute the warrant issued against her till the next date of hearing and posted the mat-ter for hearing on August 2. The case was registered by the Customs Department and Directorate of Revenue Intelli-gence (DRI) after it was found that the luxury vehicle was imported by misusing the pro-visions of Transfer of Residence (TR rules) of the Exim policy.

Investigations revealed that one Haren Choksey had sold a Toyota Landcruiser, imported by another Vasu Pandari Tha-mala, to Sen. Later, it was found that the car was imported by alleged mis-declaration of the chassis number, year of manu-facture and the value. Though the car was a 2004 model, it was declared as manufactured in 1998 to evade customs duties.

On January 24, 2006, the DRI had seized the vehicle under the provisions of the Customs Act, following which Sen voluntarily deposited Rs 20.31 lakh as differential cus-toms duty. MPOST

If the flag comes into being, Karnataka will be the second state to have its official flag after Jammu and Kashmir which enjoys a special status under Article 370

VVIP CHOPPERS CASE

7MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Friday, 21 July, 2017

mp nationRight to privacy: SC asks searching questionsOUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday asked searching questions about con-tours of right to privacy in the digital age when personal infor-mation was randomly shared with all types of government and private entities.

The apex court, which has ventured to examine whether right to privacy can be held as a fundamental right, wanted to know about the tests which could be used to regulate and enforce privacy right when there could be “legitimate or illegiti-mate” use of data.

The top court gave the exam-ples of personal information like thumb impression people vol-untarily gave for using mobile phones and i-Phones which, it said, in a way amounted to sur-render of privacy to both private and government bodies.

“So does it amount to sur-render of the constitutional or personal rights?” it asked

It said a large section of the people gave consent for data for a particular purpose, but wanted

to know about the section which was unconcerned about the col-lection of data.

A specially constitituted nine-judge bench headed by Chief Justice J S Khehar sought to know how and what should be the test if there was unin-formed consent for use of data by majority of internet and mobile users.

“How could the State step in to protect or regulate data.

The moment you open your i-Pad by using your thumb impression, your finger print may get into public domain and you may not know,” it said.

While asking about contours of right to privacy in the modern digital age, the bench, also com-prising Justices J Chelameswar, S A Bobde, R K Agrawal, Rohin-ton Fali Nariman, Abhay Mano-har Sapre, D Y Chandrachud, Sanjay Kishan Kaul and S Abdul Nazeer, said that if it could be invoked against the “world at large”, then the State would have to make a law to safeguard it.

It said contours of this right have expanded in the ageof Internet and data protection

where private players were also privy to personal information of citizens.

“If there is a right to pri-vacy which is horizontal and is actionable against the world at large and not just the State, then the immediate consequence will be an obligation on the State to enact a law to regulate private players also to ensure that this right is protected,” the bench said.

It asked as to what would be remedies available to the aggrieved persons if their right to privacy was violated by “non-state actors”.

“The State is then under an obligation to ensure that per-sonal data does not go to pri-vate (non-State) parties,” it said.

The bench also said, “The government cannot say that your right has been violated by private parties and hence, it cannot do anything”.

The court, which on Wednesday observed that right to privacy could not be abolute and the State might put restric-tions, questioned the extent upto which a person could claim

right to privacy and decide to part or not to part with the per-sonal information.

Giving an illustration, it said an individual could apply for a passport and refuse to give information about his father or a person could decline details about the biological parents of his adopted son.

“In the context of digital age, how far or to which extent, can a person say that he will disclose or he will not disclose...Can you have right to privacy to suppress your identity,” the bench asked.

The second day of the day-

long hearing saw senior advo-cates like Arvind Datar, Anand Grover, Sajan Poovayya and Meenakshi Arora pressing hard that right to privacy was inherently linked to fundamen-tal right which could not be invaded and that the govern-ment had the responsibility to protect it from being violated by both the state and private enti-ties. Datar said in every juris-prudence, contours of right to privacy differed on a case-to-case basis and assailed the views expressed in the M P Sharma and Kharak Singh cases by the

apex court that the right to pri-vacy was not a fundamental right, saying, “Now they do not hold good.”

Grover also supported the arguments in favour of privacy right and assailed the verdict in the M P Sharma case, saying that the right to privacy was not argued. The senior lawyer said the Constitution iwas a living document and its interpreta-tion must be done in accordance with passage of time and devel-opments in the law.

“The interpretation of the Constitution must be done in light of the developing law domestically and internationally and India’s obligations under various international legal

instruments,” he said.“This is very important,” the

bench said, adding that if India was signatory of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, then the subsequent judgement in the M P Sharma case in 1954 was “wrong at its very inception”.

Another senior advocate Sajan Poovayya referred to the fact that India has more mobile and internet users than the US and the apex court should must consider right to privacy issue in a holistic manner and referred to a US judgement on privacy.

“What is your position on consent or informed consent to disseminate data or when there is no consent at all. What should

be the contours of right of pri-vacy then,” the bench asked.

The lawyer then said that in Karnataka a law was brought under which the state govern-ment sought data from taxi aggregators, about the people booking taxis and from which location and to which place.

“There is no justification for the government to seek such data from taxi aggrega-tors. What will the State do with such data about people, but then it can be misused if the State takes the data to find out that you travelled from one place to such specific place on week-ends,” he said.

The bench then said if a person is involved in terrorist activity, then will it not be an obligation of the State to seek and use the data about a per-son travelling from one place to anoother.

Poovayya said in the digi-tal world, the collection and analysis of data were being done simultaneously in such a way through artificial intel-ligence that it was not known to everybody.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

AMARAVATI: A whopping 50,000 unauthorised liquor vends or ‘belt shops’ still exist in Andhra Pradesh, three years after the state government ordered closure of all such out-lets. An Andhra Pradesh min-ister confirmed the existence of 50,000 ‘belt shops’ in the state but asserted the TDP govern-ment is committed to fulfil its promising of closing down all such vends. The number of authorised liquor outlets in the state is 4,380 and bars is 831, according to excise and pro-hibition department officials.

The unauthorised liquor vends, popularly known as belt shops, run as affiliates to the authorised outlets and con-tribute over Rs 300 crore to Rs 400 crore to the exchequer, they said.

Immediately after tak-ing oath as Chief Minister on June 8, 2014, N Chandrababu Naidu signed a file ordering immediate closure of all belt shops in the state. The gov-ernment’s argument is that the number of such shops has come down drastically from the days of the Congress rule.

“From over three lakhs during the previous Con-gress regime, in the last three years we have brought down the number of (belt shops) to 50,000. We are fulfilling the promise in this regard,” Indus-tries Minister N Amarnath Reddy claimed.

Information Technology Minister and Naidu’s son Nara Lokesh’s Twitter account was flooded with complaints in recent days that belt shops have become a menace in sev-eral villages.

Women in several districts came out on streets agitating against the new liquor policy and also demanding that belt shops be shut down.

All this forced the govern-ment to admit that belt shops still existed in the state.

Typically, a local grocery store or a pan shop in a vil-lage acts as a belt shop where certain quantity of liquor is stored and sold. An autho-rised store supplies liquor to several such belt shops in vil-lages nearby.

When a liquor scam broke out in 2012 (in united AP), the TDP, then in opposition, vowed to fight the liquor mafia by eliminating all belt shops.

The issue was discussed at the state Cabinet meeting two days ago and the chief minis-ter ordered a crackdown on all belt shops.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Sameeksha Trust, which publishes the Economic and Political Weekly magazine, said on Thursday that its editor who recently quit under a cloud had “unilater-ally” initiated legal proceed-ings against a business house after being served a legal notice over two articles.

Former editor Paranjoy Guha Thakurta took the step while keeping the office-bear-ers of the trust in the dark, Sameeksha Trust said in a statement.

In response, Guha Thakurta said the trustees were not sharing the “full picture” that led to his resignation.

The EPW articles claimed favours were given to the Adani Group by the Centre and that it evaded taxes. Last month, Adani served a legal notice on Sameeksha, Guha Thakurta and three co-authors

of the articles, threatening legal action against them. The arti-cles have since been taken down from the EPW website.

“Mr Guha Thakurta initi-ated a legal process ostensibly on behalf of the Sameeksha Trust without informing, let alone obtaining approval of, the Trust although such a deci-sion was not in the domain of the Editor to make,” said the statement.

“The legal reply (sent on the instruction of Mr Guha Thakurta) falsely began with

a statement that it was at the instruction of the Sameek-sha Trust. This reply and the legal notice were placed on the EPW website, even before the Chairman and Manag-ing Trustee were informed, so that the Trustees were com-pletely unaware of these devel-opments,” the statement said.

The trust described Guha Thakurta’s step as a “grave impropriety amounting to a breach of trust”. The same was conveyed to the veteran jour-nalist, the statement said.

“Thereupon, Mr Guha Thakurta submitted his resignation.

It was accepted by the Trustees after due delibera-tion,” it said. Guha Thakurta said that the statement issued by the trust about the interac-tion that the trustees had with him on July 18 “does not give the full picture of what trans-pired” that day.

He said that he had acknowledged his “procedural lapse” of unilaterally taking the legal route, and had also apolo-gised to the trust for the same.

“To set the record in con-text, I wish to state the interac-tion between the trustees and me went beyond what I con-sider a procedural lapse on my part in failing to seek the prior consent and approval of the trust before engaging the ser-vices of a lawyer to respond to a notice that were served upon me and my co-authors,” he said.

Illegal liquor vends still exist in AP; govt orders crackdown

EPW publisher says editor erred in initiating legal action

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Installing elevators in housing apart-ments without minimum power backup amounts to negligence, the apex con-sumer commission has said while holding a builder guilty of deficiency in service along with a lift maintenance firm.

The National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commis-sion (NCDRC), while award-ing a compensation of Rs 50 lakh to the kin of a man who died after falling into a lift pit, also said that it was neces-sary for the builder to provide minimum power backup for the lifts in case of emergency before delivering possession of flats.

“Providing lifts in a multi-storied residential building, without even minimum power backup, in my opin-ion, is certainly a negligent act and a defect or deficiency in the services rendered by the builder to the flat buyers,” the NCDRC said while asking Parsvnath Developers, a real estate firm, to pay the com-pensation of Rs 20 lakh to the family of the victim Sajan, a native of Kerala.

“Considering all the facts and circumstances of the case, I am of the view that the com-plainants should be awarded a total compensation of Rs 50,00,000, out of which Rs 30,00,000 shall be paid by Marksmen Facilities Pvt Ltd (lift maintenance firm) and Rs 20,00,000 shall be paid by Parasvnath Developers Ltd,” presiding member V K Jain said.

It has not been proved that he died solely on account of the negligence or defi-ciency in rendering services by opposite party No.3 (Lift maintenance firm), the com-mission said.

‘Installing lifts without minimum power backup is

negligence’

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: A total of 455 cases of unruly behaviour by air travellers have been reported since 2016, the Lok Sabha was informed on Thursday.

“A total of 294 and 161 inci-dents took place in 2016 and 2017 respectively,” Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha said in a written reply.

Two Members of Parlia-ment (MPs) were recently barred from by the domestic carriers from flying after they allegedly assaulted and abused airline staff in two separate incidents.

The ban on them was subse-quently revoked by the airlines.

Following once such inci-dent, where Shiv Sena MP Ravindra Gaikwad allegedly hit an Air India ground staff “25 times” with slippers earlier this year, the government was forced to prepare draft rules for a no-fly list comprising unruly passengers.

As per the draft rules, a pas-senger could be barred from flying for three months to an indefinite period for an act of misdemeanour.

The government is in the last stages of finalising the rules on the no-fly list.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Indira Gan-dhi National Open University (IGNOU) has begun the pro-cess of relocating its regional centres to ease connectivity issues faced by students and learning centres.

“IGNOU is ravamping and relocating its regional centres logically and logistically across the country to reduce connec-tivity issues,” the varsity’s Vice Chancellor C Ravindra Kumar said. The varsity will be mov-ing on from its traditional approach of having a regional centre in each state to strategi-cally relocating its existing 56 regional centres.

“Nine regional centres in northeast region would be untouched. However, centres in southern and northern parts of the country will be relocated to a strategic place,” V V Reddy, IGNOU’s regional services

division director, said.As part of the overhaul,

setting up of a new regional centre in Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh is also in the pipeline with the state government giv-ing its nod.

The varsity gets around 9 percent of its total applicants every year from the northeast-ern states, whereas enrolments from the entire south India including Port Blair in Anda-man and Nicobar Islands is the same at 9-10 percent.

“We thought rationalisation of regional centres would help more aspirants opt IGNOU,” Reddy said. The varsity receives 40 percent of its enrolments from northern India and 10 to 11 percent from western region. A committee, headed by professor Kapil Kumar, has been overseeing the process and the VC will be setting up another committee to analyse its feasibility.

Pilot project started for reducing weight of school bags: Govt

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The govern-ment on Thursday said that it was in favour of reducing the weight of school bags and had initiated a pilot project in 25 Kendriya Vidyalayas to pro-vide digital learning to chil-dren through tablets.

HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar said while the National Council of Educa-tional Research and Training (NCERT) has recommended only two books (language and mathematics) for classes I and II and three books for classes III to V, it has also made avail-able all their textbooks for free access through the web and mobile devices.

The Central Board for Sec-ondary Education (CBSE) has directed schools affiliated to it to ensure that students do not

carry school bags till Class II and has advised all its affili-ated schools to take all possilbe measures to keep the weight of school bag under control, he added while responding to questions in the Rajya Sabha.

“Kendriya Vidyalaya San-gathan has taken a number of steps to promote digital learn-ing in its Vidyalayas. To begin with, all students of Class VIII in 25 Kendriya Vidyalayas (One KV in each region) shall

be provided with good quality tablets on pilot basis.

“The students will use these tablets as also their teachers for Mathematics and Science for enhancing their core skills in these subjects,” he said.

Javadekar said many state governments have also taken steps in this direction and Maharashtra has started digital schools and more than 50000 schools are being upgraded on digital education.

IGNOU relocating regional centres to help students: VC

455 cases of unruly air travellers since 2016: Govt

Supreme court, which had observed that right to privacy could not be absolute and the State might put restrictions, questioned the extent up to which a person could claim right to privacy and decide to part or not to part with personal information

ICA/T 2794/2017

ICA/T 2792/2017

ICA/T 2793/2017

mp editorial

A recent Morgan Stanley report has downgraded the Indian utility industry. It highlighted that renewable

energy is becoming so cheap that ther-mal power, mostly coal, is becoming uncompetitive. This is a highly signifi-cant market signal which will likely be accompanied by growth in the already impressive list of high calibre international investors moving into India's renewables sector- from Japan, the Netherlands, Italy, China, France, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong and Canada.

The Institute for Energy Econom-ics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) has long predicted India's growing global leadership role in the transformation to a low carbon economy. But it is hap-pening at a speed faster than we dared to imagine. India's draft National Elec-tricity Plan forecasts that 57 per cent of the country's energy capacity will be from renewables and other zero emis-sions technologies by 2027. This is well

ahead of the Paris target of 40 per cent by 2030. But this is not fundamentally a matter of environmental concern. It is common sense economics since solar power is now cheaper than existing coal-fired generations.

Indian state-owned utility National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) is a case in point. IEEFA's recent report on NTPC details how, despite its deep his-torical connection to coal-fired electric-ity generation technology, it stands to be one of the country's key clean energy enablers. The company provides 25 per cent of India's electricity supply and as such, it plays a critical role in the coun-try's economic activity. With economic growth at 7-8 per cent annually, India is the world's fastest-growing major econ-omy. Last week, a news report stated that NTPC was planning to invest $10 billion in three new coal-fired power stations over the next five years.

Citing senior officials, the article stated that the expected 5 GW of coal would nearly double the capacity of

those currently being phased out. It went on to say that, if built it would "raise questions about Prime Minis-ter Narendra Modi's vow to stand by commitments under the Paris climate accord". This is a misrepresentation of the actualities. NTPC's current devel-opment pipeline represents its past more than its future.

The latest National Electricity Plan has made it clear that no new coal-fired generation will be needed beyond what is already planned. The Power Ministry has stated that 11GW of NTPC's older coal-fired plants will be shut down over the next five years, to be replaced by new, super-critical plants in an effort to increase efficiency and reduce India's carbon footprint. In an electricity mar-ket where demand is growing plus-six per cent per annum, a one per cent per annum expansion of coal capac-ity is still likely to be needed. If cur-rent trends persist, new demand will increasingly be covered by lower cost renewables. NTPC will be a key enabler

of this transformation. NTPC Chair-man and Managing Director Gurdeep Singh, in his discussion with IEEFA, noted that it expects to progressively close end-of-life inefficient coal capac-ity. This will mean its net thermal addi-tion is more like 1GW per annum.

Indian thermal power plants are now operating at a utilisation rate of 50-60 per cent. This is mainly because demand has not kept up with the roll-out of new fossil fuel generation infra-structure. One innovative solution being proposed to maximise such exist-ing assets is to build solar PVs around them. This will leverage current land and grid connectivity and allow NTPC to continue to supply 24X7 power as needed -- solar in the day and coal as the balance.

NTPC is also playing an important role in the private solar developments by purchasing electricity. Its strong bal-ance sheet de-risks such private invest-ment, helping to drive down the cost of solar in a country that has seen a suc-cession of low-cost records set and then broken in 2017. There has also been a move into hydropower and electric vehicle charging infrastructure, fur-ther diversifying NTPC away from coal.

All of this is a major strategic shift for NTPC. Utilities in many countries, including the US, Germany, France, Italy and Australia, are at various stages of business-model transformation in response to a rapidly changing tech-nology and an investor-driven envi-ronment. As innovation continues, acceleration towards a cleaner econ-omy will take an exponential trajectory.

NTPC stands as a cornerstone in India's national electricity transfor-mation, which has now reached criti-cal mass. As per the recent Blackrock (the largest investor in the world) announcement -- coal is dead. It will take decades to fully transition, but the process is now unstoppable. IANS

(The author is Director of Energy Finance Studies at IEEFA. The views

expressed are those of the IEEFA.)

8MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Friday, 21 July, 2017

When Naresh Agarwal of the Samajwadi Party hurled abuses at Hindu deities during a discus-

sion in the Rajya Sabha, those who came to his vehement defence were the usual suspects, members of the Con-gress and the Communist cabal. They continued to defend Agarwal and tried to deflect and dilute the gravity of the issue by bringing up some other argu-ments. These two parties have always played around with the sentiments of the majority community in this coun-try, have held hostage the minorities and their aspirations and have taken for granted the Hindus, while standing by anti-India elements.

Their earlier support to elements who called for India’s dismemberment, when the most despicable posters were circulated denigrating Hindu deities in the JNU campus, needs continuous reiteration since these reveal the actual face of these parties, faces which sway with separatists and with those who, from within India, work to destabilise the country.

CPI-M general secretary Sitaram Yechury who has completely ingrati-ated himself with the Congress ‘High Command’ in order to survive polit-ically within his own party to thus renew his term in the Upper House, has been trying to define ‘Bharat Mata’ and quoting out of context Hindu scrip-tures and sages conveniently obfuscat-ing the fact that he and his party have throughout, ever since its founding, always sided with and spoken for those who have actually worked against the very vision of Bharat Mata. Comrade Yechury, while speaking in the Rajya Sabha last Wednesday, took pains to try and prove that India has become a violent place, ironically citing from the New York Times, a symbol of capitalism and of American imperialism! Yechury spoke of Nazism, of Hitler’s atrocities, of Mussolini but invariably failed to refer to Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot and of how inspired by these ‘stalwarts’, his party had turned West Bengal into an avant-garde gulag from an advanced industrial state – all in three decades of proletarian rule.

There has always been something seriously wrong with these two par-ties, now increasingly coming into an embrace with the hope that the summer of 2019 will announce a new order in

which they will once again become the centre of all wisdom and action. How-ever, that is not to be - as these par-ties and their leaders clearly know but loathe accepting.

Of late it is these two parties, Con-gress and the Communists, which continue to behave in a manner that compromises our national interest, and plays into the hands of the external powers that are trying to create inter-nal unrest. The CPI-M, for example,

clearly asks India to stay off and back off on the Dolam issue and promotes an editorial that reads more like a CPC handout rather than a well-articulated case in India’s support. Throughout the country it promotes a group of motley media hogging paid intellectuals who keep whining on how India has deteri-orated since the summer of 2014, slyly side tracking the fact that lynchings and mob violence had a hey day when the Congress was in power for a decade,

when every year a quantum jump in incidents was witnessed. These intel-lectuals and their comrades keep mum on the fact that in the state of West Ben-gal where communists ruled for over three decades they practised the most violent kind of politics, victimising, bludgeoning, and eliminating politi-cal opponents by the hundreds, if not thousands. In essence what is it that the communists want, they want India to retreat and cede on the international front, they want to barter away her sov-ereignty and self-respect, they want to create and promote internal instability, to exacerbate fault lines and to try and prove to the world and to the global intelligentsia that India is a degenerate society in ferment.

Congress, on the other hand, con-tinues with its agenda of subterfuge. Its leaders, Rahul Gandhi with family in tow, meet the Chinese envoy, pur-portedly discusses national security but refuses to come clean on what actually transpired in the meeting. His sister, dishes out the ludicrous explanation that the tête-a-tête was a purely gastro-nomical exploration of China, courtesy the Chinese ambassador in India!

The Congress continues to take a dubious stand on the Dolam standoff and like the communists, it is behaving as an extension of the CPC. It sullies the name of the Mahatma by nominating his grandson for the post of the Vice-President of the country, overlooking or deliberately ignoring the fact that the person’s heart had cried out in support and compassion for the terrorist Yakub Memon that had made him champion the terrorist’s cause, by appending his signature to a mercy petition calling for his pardon.

Today, thus, the Congress and the communists have emerged as the poles for instability creators, like magnets they attract the most degenerate ele-ments; consciously and deliberately they are weaving an insidious eco-sys-tem. When the summer of 2019 thus finally comes, such a subversive track record needs to be unfailingly recalled- the ordinary Indian is extremely recep-tive and patriotic, they know whom to take on and whom to reject.

(The author is Director of Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee

Research Foundation, New Delhi. The views expressed

are strictly personal.)

National interest not utmostEDITORIAL

Congress & Communists are responsible for creating instability in our country

Of late it is them: Congress and the Communists, who continue to behave in a manner that compromises our national interest, and plays into the hands of external powers that are trying to create internal unrest

The Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis has predicted India's growing global leadership role in the transformation to a low carbon economy. But it is happening at a speed faster than we imagined

With the Centre giving its ‘in-principle’ nod to divest stakes in the much-publicised wholly owned government airline Air India on June 28, the government appears willing to shed a

substantial portion of its stake and hand over the management of the ailing airline to the private sector. The Cabinet had also endorsed a tactical disinvestment in five of Air India’s subsid-iaries. It may be noted that the government think-tank NITI Aayog’s recommendation on strategic disinvestment of Central public sector units, including Air India, was the immediate rea-son for its stake sale. In its report earlier this year, NITI Aayog had recommended an outright sale of Air India. The proposal was then sent for consideration of a core group of secretaries on disinvestment, chaired by the Cabinet Secretary. The rec-ommendations given by the Cabinet Secretary-led group were forwarded to the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which gave its ‘in-principle’ nod for the national carrier’s strategic sale. Air India’s privatisation was first proposed in 2000, when the previous National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government decided to sell 51 per cent of the equity of the erstwhile domestic airline Indian Airlines, with 26 per cent stake to a strategic partner. It also decided to allow disinvestment of 60 per cent of Air India, which was running international operations, with 26 per cent foreign entity stake. However, the proposal was dumped after the then Civil Aviation Minister Sharad Yadav out rightly dis-missed it. In recent times, news about disinvestment of Air India has been occupying major space in the national media. Notwithstanding improving the performance of the airline, disinvestment is perhaps inevitable in view of the huge debt the airline is saddled with. The operating profit in 2015-16 is evidence of the fact that the airline is able to stand on its feet, even after discounting the extremely heavy debt servic-ing charges; debt that accumulated for a variety of reasons, including the flawed decision of merger with Indian Airlines which also left many scars in its wake. The government’s efforts to turn around the finances of Air India seem to have failed with the national carrier’s eroding market share, continuous losses and a mountain of debts. Surprisingly, right from the first day of merging the erstwhile Indian Airlines (domestic operations) with Air India (international operations) in 2007, this Maharaja brand has not registered any profit until date. However, the primary reason for Air India’s disinvestment was the government’s inability to cope with its debt of Rs 52,000 crore. Around Rs 22,000 crore of the total debt accounts for aircraft acquisition loan and the rest is related to debt for meet-ing its daily and operational expenses. The whopping debt that the present Maharaja management holds at this moment is like tackling an ‘insuperable’ demon. The government, early this year, had made clear that around Rs 50,000 crore could be invested in social welfare sectors instead of financing Air India’s debt. The government has already invested Rs 23,993 crore out of Rs 30,231 crore slated to be pumped as equity into Air India till 2020-21, as part of the airline’s turnaround plan approved by the previous government. Air India’s market share has also eroded rapidly over the years due to competition from private players — from 19.4 per cent in 2013 to around 13.3 per cent in May 2017 — in the domestic sector, which made it nasty to continue running its operations. The good news is that within hours of the government announcing its plan to divest its stake in Air India, India’s largest low-cost airline IndiGo expressed formal interest to the Civil Aviation Min-istry in taking over the international operations of Air India. However, it would take some time for Air India’s disinvest-ment to take off. It has formed a Group of Ministers, headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, to decide the modalities of disinvestment and come back with a detailed proposal. The group has to take a call on the substantiality of stake sale, its ‘incorrigible’ debt, whether to allow foreign investors to bid for the national carrier or not, if Air India’s operations would be split into domestic and international before sell-off and whether Air India’s subsidiaries would be divested simultaneously or separately. In any case, Air India should hopefully remain the ‘Brand Maharaja’ with all its inherent strengths even with a change in the shades of its ownership. With many constraints removed, perhaps the organisation would emerge stronger and realise the true potential of its men and machines. After all, it still represents the ‘spirit’ of India.

Maharashtra, a state with a rich legacy of social reforms, has once again held the baton to reject social evils and stated that any social boycott would now be dealt with an iron hand. After

receiving assent from Rashtrapati Bhavan, the Maharashtra Prohibition of People from Social Boycott (Prevention, Pro-hibition and Redressal) Act, 2016, would no more allow social evils in the garb of caste panchayat diktats or rituals. The first law of its kind disallows social boycott in the name of caste, community, religion, rituals or customs. As per the provisions made under this new law, if any individual or group tries to prevent or obstruct another member or group from observ-ing any social or religious custom or usage or ceremony, or from taking part in a social, religious or community func-tion, assembly, congregation, meeting or procession- the act amounts to social boycott. Under this Law, no individual or group can challenge the freedom of individuals in the name of ‘caste’ panchayats, religion, customs, or deny them the right to practice a profession of their choice. Freedom, in this case, includes the freedom to marry outside one’s caste, visit places of worship, wear clothes of one’s choice and use any specific language. Discrimination on the basis of morality, political inclination or sexuality also qualifies as a social boycott. It also includes stopping children from playing in a particular space or disallowing access to crematoria, burial grounds, commu-nity halls or educational institutions with mala fide intentions. A Collector or District Magistrate, on receiving information of the likelihood of unlawful assembly for an imposition of social boycott can, by order, prohibit the assembly. Convic-tion of the offence of social boycott will attract a prison term of up to three years or a fine up to Rs 1 lakh, or both. Abet-ment by an individual or group will invite the same punish-ment. The offence of social boycott is cognizable and bailable and would be tried by a Metropolitan or a First Class Judicial Magistrate. To ensure speedy justice, the trial would have to be completed within a period of six months from the date of filing the charge-sheet. The decision, however, was a reaction to pressures from growing incidents of atrocities on individu-als by jati panchayats or gavkis wielding extra-judicial pow-ers. The new Act also facilitates the framing of charges under Indian Penal Code Sections 34, 120-A, 120-B, 149, 153-A, 383 to 389, and 511 if there is concrete evidence to substantiate an accusation of social boycott. Nevertheless, taking serious notes of prevailing atrocities inflicted on people in the name of tra-dition, caste, and community, the Maharashtra government had done a commendable job with enacting the new Law. The atrocities inflicted by a handful of people in the name of jaati panchayats or groups citing caste and community traditions should never be tolerated especially if it questions the dignity of a human being.

Other kings to rule Maharaja

Tackling social boycott legally

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Healthcare of women and children is dismal and has a long way to go. The grave mat-ter about malnourished children and stunted growth that bears a permanent effect on their lives is one that needs immediate attention. No amount of government policies will reverse the condition of thousands of children affected by malnutrition. Beginning in prenatal stage, care for children begins with care for their mothers. Women and child welfare is an area that lies trapped in the cobwebs of oppressive socio-economic condi-tions. Improvement in the social sector is the beginning of addressing these issues.

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Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi

9mp in focusMILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Friday, 21 July, 2017

The last four days of the current monsoon session of the Par-liament has witnessed unity of the opposition parties in

taking on the Government in the two houses on both issues: farmers distress throughout the country and cow vigi-lantism resulting in selective lynching. The situation in the country is boil-ing both, on the social and the eco-nomic fronts, but the opposition parties, especially the Congress have been fail-ing to take political advantage of the severe discontentment arising amidst the masses.

On the other hand, the BJP lead-ership has been hyperactive in imple-menting its agenda one by one. The guaranteed control of the top four posts in the Government is being completed. With Ram Nath Kovind succeeding Pranab Mukherjee as the next Presi-dent of India, the Rashtrapati Bhavan will be having a new resident emerging from the ranks of the Lotus party. Kov-ind claims now that he will abide by the norms of the Indian Constitution but there is some doubt on whether he will be the rubber stamp of the government. BJP leader and a seasoned worker-Ven-kaiah Naidu is set to take over as the Vice-President of India on August 5. Already Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Speaker Sumitra Mahajan are veteran workers of the Lotus brigade.

The installation of Ram Nath Kov-ind as the President of India signals a process of political transformation in India which is fundamentally different from the Presidential change that took place earlier. During BJP leader Atal Behari Vajpayee’s time, Dr Abdul Kalam was selected as the Presidential nominee by him and that was a normal process, nobody thought of any substantial shift in the working of the Rashtrapati Bha-van. But in 2017, the situation is com-pletely different. BJP, on its own, has a majority in the Lok Sabha and taking into account the weakness and leader-ship failure of the Congress and some of the regional parties, the BJP is win-ning state after state in the Assembly polls and their juggernaut is proceeding with speed to capture the other states in the coming Assembly polls - with the ultimate objective of winning the Lok Sabha for the second consecutive time in the 2019 polls.

What is the main opposition party

– Congress - doing to counter BJP’s mission? It is really sad that when there are so many issues hurting the people, the opposition parties are not in the fields to lead the disgruntled masses. The farmers’ distress covers almost all states. The farmers on their own are in the battle against the policies of the Centre and the respective state gov-ernments. In Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Madhya Pradesh, the movement is spreading. These are the states which are now strongholds of BJP and in two of these states, the Assembly elections are due in the coming months. Congress has to organise massive mobilisation in these states to take on BJP. In Madhya Pradesh, the Congress has participated to some extent but that is not adequate, there is a need for total mobilisation of cadres in favour of the demands of the farmers. The supporting base of BJP has also to be approached to delink them from the ruling camp. It is not a two week or one month job. This has to be continued throughout the year.

In Gujarat, apart from farmers, the traders in traditional trades like tex-tiles and gold jewellery, are up in arms against the Government. Congress and the other opposition parties have to lis-ten to them and navigate them towards

an anti-BJP camp. Gujarat is not as solid for BJP as it was before. The factional fights in BJP are continuing and this is the time Congress meet this challenge unitedly by taking part in all the move-ments that are currently occurring in the state to protect the interests and live-lihood of the people. Assembly elections in Gujarat are due by the end of this year and it is now time for Congress to put its own house in order and jump into the anti-BJP movement in the next three or four months, in cooperation with other anti-BJP forces.

The monsoon session is continu-ing until August 11, as per the present schedule. While the opposition led by the Congress has to focus the campaign issues jointly in both houses, there is an urgent need that the mass organisations of the opposition parties start their agi-tations in different states as also in the national capital to coincide with the battle by the opposition leaders in the Parliament. The July 11 meeting of the opposition leaders decided on a cam-paign programme but till now no direc-tive has been issued by the opposition leadership to their state units for under-taking such massive campaigns. Pres-ently, the opposition has capable leaders like Derek O’Brien, Sitaram Yechury

and D Raja who can help in fine tuning the campaign programme to suit the demands of the time. The moot point is that the battle of the opposition has to be fought both inside and outside Par-liament and all the mass organisations of the opposition parties have to involve themselves.

Congress President Sonia Gandhi has to lead this opposition from the front. Sonia is respected by the opposi-tion leaders and her seniority and matu-rity should be of help to the opposition in sorting out differences as and when they crop up. Right now, she has to intervene to see that the grand alliance continues in Bihar and there is no break between Nitish Kumar and Lalu Yadav. If Nitish is sincere in fighting BJP, he should find out a way to deal with the Tejaswi issue without creating any hur-dles for anti-BJP front. Nitish has to be a part of that front nationally, along with Mayawati and Akhilesh. Just as Mamata and CPI(M) can fight in West Bengal, but, at a national level for fighting BJP, they have to work together. Sonia has to act as the unifier of the opposition forces who are determined to take on BJP in 2019 polls. IPA

(The author is Editor-in-Chief of IPA. The views are strictly personal.)

“Trumpcare” – many activists’ name for McConnell’s measure – “has never been about health care. It’s a naked attempt to steal health care from millions…to pay for massive tax cuts for the richest people in history,” said Working Families Party National Director Dan Cantor

There is an urgent need for the opposition led by Congress to focus on the mass organisations of the opposition parties to start their agitations and concur with the battle by the opposition leaders in Parliament

Battling evils of Trumpcare Trumpcare dies, but fight is still on as Bernie Sanders leads movement

for total health bill, writes Mark Gruenberg

Total Unity: Opposition pre-requisite

The death of Trump-care in the Senate on July 18, while not the final victory for the

health care of all Americans, was indeed a huge victory for the resistance that has swept the country since the elec-tion of Donald Trump. Activ-ists and advocates for better US health care vowed to keep the pressure on the Congress after two more Senate Repub-licans’ defections killed the latest GOP plan to repeal and allegedly replace the Affordable Care Act, the nation’s 7-year-old comprehensive health care law. That’s because the defeat of the Republicans’ measure led its sponsor, Senate Major-ity Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kent, to reveal many if not most Republicans’ real goal: To repeal the ACA without replac-ing it.

And that would be “an unmitigated disaster of epic proportions” for millions, says Ethan Rome of Health Care Action Now, a DC-based coalition of unions and pro-gressives. McConnell pulled his measure, officially called the Better Care Reconciliation Act, on July 17 after Senators Jerry Moran, R-Kansas, and Mike Lee, R-Utah, joined its two prior declared foes, Sena-tors Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Rand Paul, R-Kent.

Collins opposed the GOP’s health care rewrite because it would throw 22 million peo-ple – and tens of thousands of Maine residents – off of health insurance, particularly Med-icaid. But Paul and Lee want to kill the ACA and replace it with nothing at all, turning people back on the mercy, or the lack of it, of the insurance companies. Moran says he opposes the now-dead Senate GOP health care bill, drafted in secret because it allegedly doesn’t repeal the ACA and doesn’t cut insurance costs. McConnell may try to bring up his health care bill by July 21, but the four defections mean he won’t have the 50 votes he needs in the 100-member Sen-ate to even start a debate on

it. All 46 Democrats and both independents plan to oppose McConnell’s measure further opening deliberation.

The repeal-and-don’t-replace option alarms the health care activists, who say ACA supporters and other Americans will keep taking to the streets, the phone lines, the Internet and more to ensure they keep receiving health care coverage attempting to force the Republicans not to yank it. “We’ll do everything we can to keep the pressure on so that health care repeal doesn’t come to a vote,” says Ethan Rome, HCAN’s co-director. His wide-ranging coalition of unions – including the AFL-CIO, the Service Employees, the National Education Associ-ation and the Auto Workers —

and other progressive groups first came together to help pass the ACA, have disbanded and has now re-formed to protect it and to stop GOP health care schemes.

Dumping the ACA without replacing it “would take health care away from 32 million Americans” and health insur-ance “premiums would double” for millions more, Rome said in a telephone interview. “The insurance industry would be in charge again, people would be sicker and people would die because they wouldn’t have insurance.” The Republi-cans “have been so cavalier and irresponsible” in dealing with health care that the whole issue “is a mess,” adds Rachel Rosen DeGolia, executive director of Cleveland-based Universal

Health Care Action Now.Like Rome, AFL-CIO Presi-

dent Richard Trumka vowed further activism against GOP health care schemes, because of McConnell’s goal to use the dollars yanked from health care to finance a tax cut for the rich and the corporations. “No payoff to any senator already opposed to this bill can justify giving tax cuts to large corpora-tions and stripping health care from millions. We are deter-mined to stop this danger-ous bill and hold accountable everyone responsible for it,” he said. McConnell touted the Better Care Reconciliation Act as the GOP “replacement” for the ACA, but its key provisions would throw 22 million peo-ple off of health care – 15 mil-lion of them next year – while

providing a $900 billion-plus decade-long tax cut, with $700 billion of it for the rich and the corporations.

Before Lee and Moran jumped over the side, McCo-nnell stalled the health care vote because one statesman he counted on, Senator John McCain, R-Ariz., is recovering from surgery and can’t travel. But even McCain was dubi-ous about McConnell’s mea-sure: Hundreds of thousands of Arizonians benefit from ACA’s expansion of Medicaid eligi-bility – a point Arizona’s GOP governor made to Vice Presi-dent Mike Pence at a governors’ meeting last weekend. McCon-nell’s bill also would force huge increases in insurance premi-ums, as Rome points out.

These two prospects pushed

millions of people into the streets, into phone calls and e-mails to senators’ offices and into occasional town halls with wavering Republicans. They also pushed Senator Bernie Sanders — one of the sena-tors previously committed to opposing McConnell’s bill — out onto the hustings to cam-paign strenuously against it.

His latest targets, speak-ing to a huge crowd at “Rev-olution Iowa” in Des Moines on July 14, were Senators Jodi Ernst and Chuck Grassley, both R-Iowa, and both – until now – counted in McConnell’s camp. Sanders previously spoke to big crowds in Ohio and West Virginia, among other states, urging thousands to pressure Senators Shelley Moore Cap-ito, R-W, and Bob Portman,

R-Ohio, to oppose McConnell’s health care bill. Before McCon-nell pulled the plug, Capito and Portman were undecided and upset over the Medicaid cuts.

“We need one more Repub-lican vote, and I say to Sena-tor Grassley and Senator Ernst, please take a hard look at what this disastrous legislation will do to the people of Iowa and the people of America,” Sand-ers told the Iowa crowd. “I say to them – I beg of them – please vote no on this legislation…This legislation is so bad, that the Republicans have refused to hold one public hearing and all of their deliberations are behind closed doors,” he said. “That’s how bad this legisla-tion is.”

Our Revolution, the descendant group from Sand-ers’ 2016 Presidential bid, led 36 sit-ins at home-state offices of 21 GOP senators on July 7 to demand they vote against the bill. The protests drew at least 1,000 people, includ-ing members of the Working Families Party, the Progressive Democrats of America, Resis-tHere.org and the Democratic Socialists.

“We’ve seen the bill and we know who stands to lose the most: America’s poor and working families,” said Our Revolution leader Nina Turner. “We will continue to sit, stand and fight on until quality healthcare is available to all.”

“Trumpcare” – many activ-ists’ name for McConnell’s mea-sure – “has never been about health care. It’s a naked attempt to steal health care from mil-lions…to pay for massive tax cuts for the richest people in history,” said Working Fam-ilies Party National Director Dan Cantor. “Even Republican senators must know in their hearts that this is wrong.” He predicted the activists would continue their fight, not just to defeat similar legislation, but “for a single payer system to kick profit to the kerb and pro-vide health care for all.” IPA (The author is the Wash-ington Bureau Chief of People’s World. The views are personal.)

Sonia Gandhi must lead opposition campaign from the front during monsoon session

tweetRETWEET

Congratulations to Ram Nath Kovind Ji, who will be our next President

MAMATA BANERJEE @MamataOfficial

CaseFact:each of 50 state in US has own flag signifying uniqueness. If national flag is above state flag I see no issue in #Karnataka flag

SRIJAN PAL SINGH @srijanpalsingh

Apart from money laundering/corruption, another emerging major crime of Sharifs is producing fraudulent docs before SC to obstruct justice

IMRAN KHAN@ImranKhanPTI

It is voluntary to submit personal information on social media sites, quite another to surrender same rights to the State. #RightToPrivacy

SANJAY JHA @JhaSanjay

Suddenly, Democrats have a moment of leverage over health-care policy (Representational Image)

Congress President Sonia Gandhi with leaders from various political parties

NITYA CHAKRABORTY

mp world10MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi |Friday, 21 July, 2017

Key US panel votes for tougher benchmarks for aid to Pak

WASHINGTON: In another blow to Pakistan, a key congressional panel has voted to adopt tougher benchmarks for it to receive US aid and authorised the secretary of state to suspend it if Islam-abad fails to act against terror groups carrying out cross-border attacks into neighbouring countries.

The House Appropriations Com-mittee yesterday approved by voice vote the 2018 State and Foreign Operations Appropriations Bill, which seeks cer-tification from Secretary of State Rex Tillerson for disbursement of US aid to Pakistan, making it conditional for Islamabad to take action against ter-rorist groups.

The bill now heads to the House of Representatives for consideration.

It provides $47 billion in regular discretionary and Overseas Contin-gency Operations (OCO) funding. This is USD 10 billion fewer than the amount earmarked for fiscal year 2017, when counting additional funds pro-vided last year in the Security Assis-tance Appropriations Act. Within this amount, OCO funding totals $12 bil-lion, which supports operations and assistance in areas of conflict, such as Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. The bill says that none of the funds appro-priated by this Act under the ‘Economic Support Fund’, the ‘International Nar-cotics Control and Law Enforcement’, and the ‘Foreign Military Financing

Programme’ for Pakistan may be made available unless the secretary of state certifies to the committees that Islam-abad is taking action against terrorist groups. Under the bill, the secretary of state is asked to certify that Pakistan is cooperating with the US in counter- terrorism efforts against the Haqqani network, the Quetta Shura Taliban, Lashkar-e-Tayba, Jaish-e-Mohammed, al-Qaeda, and others, including taking effective steps to prevent such terrorist groups from basing and operating in Pakistan and carrying out cross-border attacks into neighbouring countries.

The secretary of state is also required to certify that Pakistan is not support-ing terrorist activities against the US or coalition forces in Afghanistan, and Pakistan’s military and intelligence agencies are not intervening extra-judi-cially into political and judicial pro-cesses in Pakistan.

The certification needs to include that Pakistan is “not financing or sup-porting schools” linked to the Taliban or any designated terrorist group and that Islamabad is preventing the prolif-eration of nuclear-related material and expertise. The bill says the secretary

of state should “suspend assistance” to Pakistan if it fails to make measurable progress in meeting its benchmarks.

While the secretary of state can waive these conditions in the name of national interest, the draft bill says that funds appropriated by this Act under the ‘Foreign Military Financing Pro-gramme’ for Pakistan may be made available only to support counterter-rorism and counterinsurgency capabili-ties in that country.

On Wednesday, the US had listed Pakistan among the nations providing “safe havens” to terrorists, saying terror groups like the LeT and JeM continued to operate, train, organise and fund-raise inside the country. In its annual ‘Country Report on Terrorism’, the State Department said the Mumbai attack mastermind and UN-designated ter-rorist Hafiz Saeed continued to address large rallies, although in February 2017 Pakistan proscribed him under relevant provisions of Anti-Terrorism Act.

Meanwhile, in an accompanying report, the House Appropriations Com-mittee noted the continued importance of US assistance to secure and stabilise Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Understanding that the staffing and programming requirements in these countries will remain under continuous review and, for that reason, the com-mittee said it has not designated spe-cific funding recommendations. AGENCIES

‘Churchill tried to suppress Nazi plot to restore Edward VIII to British throne’

Winston Churchill wanted “to destroy all traces” of

telegrams revealing a Nazi plot to reinstate the former King Edward VIII to the British throne in return for his sup-port during the second world war, newly released cabinet papers have revealed.

The telegrams document Nazi plans to kidnap the Duke of Windsor — the title granted to Edward following his abdi-cation in 1936 — and his wife, Wallis Simpson, when they reached Portugal after fleeing their Paris home when France fell to German forces in 1940.

The Cabinet Office file

published on Thursday by the National Archives reveals how Churchill appealed to the US president, Dwight Eisenhower, and the French government to prevent publication of the intercepted German telegrams for “at least 10 or 20 years”.

Churchill, the UK prime minister, said the captured German telegrams offering Edward the British throne in the event of a Nazi invasion of Britain were “tendentious and unreliable” and likely to leave the misleading impression that the duke “was in close touch with German agents and was listening to suggestions that were disloyal”.

Churchill made his appeal to Eisenhower after learning that a microfilm copy of the telegrams, which were found in German archives at the end of the war, had been sent to the US State Department. AGENCIES

Fighting to bring back jobs, cracking down on countries that cheat: Donald Trump

WASHINGTON: US Presi-dent Donald Trump has said his administration has been fighting to bring back manu-facturing jobs and crackdown on “countries that cheat”.

“From day one, my admin-istration has been fighting to bring back our manufactur-ing jobs and crackdown on for-eign countries that cheat. Got a lot of them. We will end the theft of American prosperity, and we will stand up for our companies, our factories, and our workers,” Trump said at a “Made in America”, round-table event at the White House.

“Made in America” is more than a label or a product, he said, adding that it is a stamp of excellence.

“It’s a badge of honour and a tribute to the tremen-dous skill of the working men and women who design and build these incredible master-pieces and different products of all types,” he said promoting “Made in America” products.

Trump rued that there was a lack of level playing field for the American workers and asserted that they “cannot be beaten” when provided with it. “But you see what’s happening. It’s step by step.

We’ve gotten rid of regula-tions and a lot more are com-ing. We have some statutory requirements where we’re not allowed to do it until certain dates,” he said. “They’re com-ing as fast as those dates come.

We’ve opened it up, and it’s made a big difference for the farmer, for the homebuilder, and for the manufacturers. That’s why we want to ensure the integrity of the Made in America label,” he said.

Trump said his adminis-tration is committed to work-ing with the private sector to ensure the protection of “Made in America” and the label through efforts like certi-fication, greater transparency, and stricter enforcement efforts by agencies like the Federal Trade Commission.

“We will have zero toler-ance for illegal counterfeiting, piracy, theft, or intellectual property. And they, really – they take our intellectual property like we’re a bunch of babies. But no longer. False claims that a product is made in America,” he added. AGENCIES

Trump ends covert aid to Syrian

rebels trying to topple Assad

WASHINGTON: President Trump has ended the clan-destine American program to provide arms and supplies to Syrian rebel groups, American officials said, a recognition that the effort was failing and that the administration has given up hope of helping to topple the government of President Bashar al-Assad.

The decision came more than a month ago, the officials said, by which time the effort to deliver the arms had slowed to a trickle.

It was never publicly announced, just as the begin-nings of the program four years ago were officially a secret, authorized by President Barack Obama through a “finding” that permitted the CIA to con-duct a deniable program. News of the troublesome program soon leaked out.

It joins similar failed efforts to deliver arms and money to groups seeking to overthrow governments that Washington found noxious, most famously the Kennedy administration’s disastrous effort to do away with the government of Fidel Castro in Cuba. The White House had no comment. But the decision is bound to be wel-comed by the Russians. AGENCIES

Pakistan’s Supreme Court warns Sharif’s kids of 7-year jail if papers are found fake

ISLAMABAD: The children of Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif could face up to seven years in jail if it was proved that they had submit-ted fake documents to the Pan-ama panel probing the money laundering allegations against the family, the Supreme Court warned on Thursday.

The apex court heard the Panamagate scandal case for the fourth consecutive day since the hearing began on Monday, following submission of a report by the Joint Investi-gation Team (JIT) on July 10, which was tasked by the court to probe allegation of corrup-tion against Sharif and his family. “The punishment for submitting forged documents in the court is seven years in jail,” warned the three-mem-

ber panel of judges.The JIT among other

things has observed that some of the documents submitted by the children of Sharif, 67, were tampered with.

A trust deed provided by the prime minister’s daughter Maryam Nawaz and executed in 2006 was written in Cali-bri font which was not com-mercially available till 2007. It was also notarised from an

office in London on Satur-day which is officially an off day, raising concern about the authenticity of the docu-ment. Similarly, Government of Dubai has revealed that the documents of Gulf Steel Mills provided by the prime minis-ter’s son Hussian Nawaz were forged as there was no record of those documents.

Justice Ejaz Afzal is head-ing the probe panel com-prising Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed and Justice Ijazul Ahsan.

They also warned Salman Akram Raja, the lawyer of Sharif ’s children, against a media trial in the case after some of the docu-ments presented by him were leaked to media and were discussed in talk shows on Wednesday. AGENCIES

Grandparents, grandkids exempted from Trump travel

ban: US Supreme CourtWASHINGTON: The Supreme Court has dealt Pres-ident Donald Trump’s govern-ment a fresh setback, saying its controversial travel ban cannot be applied to grandparents and other close relatives of people living in the United States — for now.

The court on Wednes-day accepted a Hawaii federal judge’s ruling last week that the Trump administration had too narrowly defined what con-stitutes “close family relation-ships” to determine exceptions to the ban on travelers from six mainly Muslim countries - Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

That left in place Judge Der-rick Watson’s wider definition, which includes grandparents, grandchildren, nieces, neph-ews, and cousins of people liv-ing in the United States.

But in its brief order, the court backed the Trump administration by staying the part of Watson’s ruling that would have expanded exemp-tions to its 120-day ban on all refugees. The order said the Supreme Court’s ruling is temporary, pending a fed-eral appeals court’s review of the issues. The Supreme Court itself was partially the source of the dispute, having ruled in late June that the 90-day travel ban, aimed at better screening

out potential security risks, can be broadly enforced for travel-ers from the six countries “who lack any bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States.”

Days later, the govern-ment interpreted that to mean that only “close family” was exempted -- which it defined as the parents, spouses, chil-dren, sons- and daughters-in-law, siblings and step- and half-siblings of people in the United States.

Hawaii, one of several states fighting the travel ban since Trump first announced it in January, filed a court motion arguing that grandparents and grandchildren were by all mea-sures also “close family.”

After Watson accepted that argument, the Justice Depart-ment appealed the issue to the Supreme Court, asking the court to make its own defini-tion of “bona fide relationship” and “close family.” AGENCIES

Kuwait expels Iranian diplomats over ‘terror’ cell: OfficialKUWAIT CITY: Kuwait on thursday ordered the expul-sion of about 15 Iranian dip-lomats after the emirate’s top court convicted a “terror” cell of links to the Islamic repub-lic, a government source said.

Kuwait also ordered the clo-sure of the Iranian “military, cultural and trade” missions, the government official, who asked not to be named, told AFP. The Gulf state’s supreme court last month sentenced the mastermind of the cell to life in jail and condemned 20 oth-ers to various prison terms for

alleged links with Iran and Leb-anese Hezbollah and plotting terror attacks in Kuwait.

State Minister for Cabinet Affairs Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah Al-Sabah, who is also acting information minis-ter, confirmed that Kuwait had

taken diplomatic action against Iran but declined to specify the measures.

“Following the supreme court ruling on the case ... the government of Kuwait has decided to take measures, in accordance with diplomatic norms and the Vienna Conven-tion, towards its relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Sheikh Mohammad told AFP.

He provided no further details.The row comes at a time when Kuwait is trying to medi-ate an end to the Gulf ’s worst diplomatic crisis in years, after

Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia and its allies cut ties with Qatar over accusations it is too close to Shiite Iran and funds extrem-ists.The Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Seyassah reported on Monday that 14 of the cell’s 26 members had fled to Iran by sea.

They were convicted by a lower court early last year but acquitted on appeals several months later and set free.

The supreme court, whose rulings are final, overturned their acquittal on June 18 and sentenced them to between five and 15 years in prison. AGENCIES

MOSUL: Islamic State mil-itants began reinventing themselves months before US-backed Iraqi forces ended their three-year reign of terror in Mosul, putting aside the dream of a modern-day caliphate and preparing the ground for a dif-ferent fight.

Intelligence and local offi-cials said that, a few months ago, they noticed a growing stream of commanders and fighters flowing out of the city to the Hamrin mountains in northeast Iraq which offer hideouts and access to four

Iraqi provinces.Some were intercepted but

many evaded security forces and began setting up bases for their new operations. What comes next may be a more complex and daunting chal-

lenge for Iraqi security forces once they finish celebrating a hard-won victory in Mosul, the militants’ biggest stronghold.

Intelligence and security officials are bracing for the kind of devastating insurgency

al Qaeda waged following the 2003 US-led invasion, pushing Iraq into a sectarian civil war which peaked in 2006-2007. “They are digging in. They have easy access to the capital,” Lahur Talabany, a top Kurdish counter-terrorism official said. As part of the US-led coalition, he is at the forefront of efforts to eliminate IS.

“I believe we have tougher days coming.” Some Iraqi Islamic State fighters have roots dating back to al Qae-da’s campaign of car and sui-cide bombs that exploded by

the dozens each day and suc-ceeded in fueling a sectarian bloodbath in Iraq, a major oil producer and key US ally.

When a US-funded tribal initiative crushed al-Qaeda, the hardcore regrouped in the desert between Iraq and Syria. They reappeared with a new jihadist brand that took the world by surprise: Islamic State. Shortly after its lighting sweep through Mosul, the group out-did al Qaeda’s brutality, carry-ing out mass beheadings and executions as it imposed its ultra-hardline ideology. AGENCIES

After Mosul, IS digs in for guerrilla warfare

The Duke and Duchess of Windsor met Adolf Hitler in October 1937

The Trump admin has withdrawn or delayed 860 proposed regulations in its first five months, the beginnings of a regulatory overhaul meant to bolster economic growth

PTI

N. K. Textile Industries LimitedRegd. Office: A-1, Maharani Bagh,

New Delhi – 110 065, CIN: L17299DL1983PLC163230,

Tel: +91 11 26860014 Email Id: n.ktexiles123@gmail.com.

Website:www.nktil.com

NOTICENotice is hereby given that the

meeting no. 03/ 2017-18 of the Board of Directors of the Company will be held on 10th August, 2017 (Thursday) at 49, Community Centre, New Friends Colony, New Delhi-110025 at 4.30 P.M to discuss the following agenda items:i. To take on record the Unaudited

Financial Results of the Company for the Quarter ended on 30th June, 2017 in terms of Regulation 33 of SEBI (Listing Obligation and Disclosure Requirement) Regulation, 2015.

ii. To fix the date of the next Annual General Meeting of the Company.

iii. To consider and decide the period of closure of register of members for record purpose.

iv. To avail services of Electronic Voting Platform from National Securities Depository Limited.

v. To consider appointment of Scrutinizer for the purpose of e-voting at ensuing Annual General Meeting.

vi. To table and approve the draft of the Notice convening the next Annual General Meeting.

vii. To consider appointment of Statutory Auditor of the Company in place of existing Statutory Auditor.

viii. To discuss any other business with the permission of ChairFurther, the trading window shall

remain closed for all designated persons including promoters, directors, key managerial personnel, designated employees and other connected persons of the Company from 3rd August, 2017 to 12th August, 2017 in accordance with the SEBI (Prohibition of Insider Trading) Regulations, 2015.

By Order of the Board, For N.K Textile Industries Limited

Place: New Delhi (Balbir Singh)Dated: 18.07.2017 Director

DIN:00027438

mp world 11MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi |Friday, 21 July, 2017

Mueller expands probe to Trump’s business transactionsWASHINGTON: The US special coun-sel investigating possible ties between the Donald Trump campaign and Rus-sia in last year’s election is examining a broad range of transactions involv-ing Trump’s businesses as well as those of his associates, according to a person familiar with the probe.

The president told the New York Times on Wednesday that any digging into matters beyond Russia would be out of bounds. Trump’s businesses have involved Russians for years, making the boundaries fuzzy so Special Counsel Robert Mueller appears to be taking a wide-angle approach to his two-month-old probe.

FBI investigators and others are looking at Russian purchases of apart-ments in Trump buildings, Trump’s involvement in a controversial SoHo development with Russian associates, the 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow and Trump’s sale of a Flor-ida mansion to a Russian oligarch in 2008, the person said.Agents are also interested in dealings with the Bank of Cyprus, where Wilbur Ross served as vice chairman before he became com-merce secretary, as well as the efforts of Jared Kushner, the President’s son-in-law and White House aide, to secure financing for some of his family’s real estate properties. The information was provided by someone familiar with the developing inquiry but not authorized to speak publicly.

The roots of Mueller’s follow-the-money investigation lie in a wide-rang-ing money laundering probe launched by then-Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara last year, according to the per-son. FBI agents had already been gath-ering information about Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort. Prosecutors hadn’t yet begun present-ing evidence to a grand jury. Trump fired Bharara in March. The Bharara probe was consolidated into Mueller’s inquiry, showing that the special coun-sel is taking an overarching approach to his mandated investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Altogether, the various finan-

cial examinations constitute one thread of Mueller’s inquiry, which encompasses computer hacking and the dissemina-tion of stolen campaign and voter infor-mation as well as the actions of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.

Joshua Stueve, Mueller’s spokesman, declined to comment, as did Abbe Low-ell, a lawyer for Kushner and a Manafort spokesman. Spokesmen for the White House, Trump Organization and Ross didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. Mueller’s team is looking at the Trump SoHo hotel condominium development, which was a licensing deal with Bayrock Capital LLC. In 2010,

the former finance director of Bayrock filed a lawsuit claiming the firm struc-tured transactions in fraudulent ways to evade taxes.

The 2013 Miss Universe pageant is of interest because a prominent Mos-cow developer, Aras Agalarov, paid $20 million to bring the beauty spec-tacle there. About a third of that sum went to Trump in the form of a licens-ing fee, according to Forbes maga-zine. At the event, Trump met Herman Gref, chief executive of Russia’s biggest bank, Sberbank PJSC. Agalarov’s son Emin helped broker a meeting last year between Trump’s son and a Russian lawyer who was said to have damaging information about Hillary Clinton and her campaign.

Meanwhile, Trump said on Wednes-day that he never would have appointed Attorney General Jeff Sessions had he known Sessions would recuse himself from overseeing the Russia investiga-tion that has dogged his presidency, calling the decision “very unfair to the president.”In a remarkable public break with one of his earliest political sup-porters, Trump complained that Mr. Sessions’s decision ultimately led to the appointment of a special counsel that should not have happened. “Sessions should have never recused himself, and if he was going to recuse himself, he should have told me before he took the job and I would have picked somebody else,” Trump said. AGENCIES

US senator McCain diagnosed with aggressive brain

cancer

WASHINGTON: US sena-tor John McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee and the current chairman of the power-ful Senate Armed Services Committee, has been diag-nosed with an aggressive brain cancer, his office said.

The tumour was diag-nosed after the 80-year-old veteran politician and pris-oner of the Vietnam War underwent a surgery on July 14 to remove a blood clot from his left eye, said the Mayo Clinic, where the pro-cedure was performed.

Tests revealed that a pri-mary brain tumour—glio-blastoma—was associated with the blood clot, it said in a statement. Glioblastoma is an aggressive brain cancer and its prognosis is gener-ally poor. Senator Edward M Kennedy survived less than 15 months after he was found to have the tumour in 2008. “The senator and his family are reviewing further treatment options with his Mayo Clinic care team.

The senator’s doctors say he is recovering from his surgery ‘amazingly well’ and his underlying health is excellent,” the hospital said in a statement. McCain, a votary of strong India-US relations, wrote an Opinion piece on CNN when Prime Minister Narendra Modi vis-ited the US last year, seek-ing warmer bilateral ties. The Senate Armed Services Committee chairman wrote that the India-US defence ties was a “significant achievement”. AGENCIES

WASHINGTON: A top Ameri-can Senator on Thursday alleged that potential H-1B applicants are being advised to apply for an O visa instead of the numerically capped H-1B visas intended for highly-skilled workers to bypass legal restrictions on employ-ment visas. While H-1B visa is for foreign guest workers with high skilled capabilities, O visa programme, is intended for use by those who have extraordi-nary abilities or a demonstrated record of extraordinary achieve-ment. Unlike most other visa categories, the O visa program has no numeric cap.

Citing the Indian media reports, Senator Chuck Grass-ley, Chairman of the Senate Judi-ciary Committee, said claimed the number of O visas issued has tripled in the last decade.

The rise in numbers along-side these reports raise concerns about the future integrity of both visa programs, he said in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly. “Visas intended for exceptional individuals are not

a substitute for H-1B visas. Any attempt to flout the extraordi-nary requirements of the O visa program because an applicant can t acquire an H-1B poten-tially constitutes visa fraud and ultimately damages both visa programs,” Grassley said.

“I am raising my concerns to Secretary Kelly so that he can prevent potential abuse and ensure that the integrity of both the O visa and the H-1B remain intact,” he said in a statement.

In his letter to Kelly, Grass-ley said that the recent news articles suggest that certain aliens should consider apply-ing for O visas to “get around [the President’s] H-1B order”, because the O category has no numeric cap and is “largely free of restrictions”.

“The tenor of these articles raises concerns that individuals might abuse the O visa petition process by fraudulently asserting qualifications they do not pos-sess to bypass legal restrictions on other employment visas,” it said. AGENCIES

‘H1-B visa applicants being diverted to O visa’

Trump Jr, Manafort to testify before Congress about Russia WASHINGTON: Donald Trump Jr, along with the for-mer Trump campaign chair-man Paul Manafort, are scheduled to testify publicly before Congress on 26 July.

In a hearing entitled Over-sight of the Foreign Agents Registration Act and Attempts to Influence US Elections: Les-sons Learned from Current and Prior Administrations, the president’s eldest son and his former top campaign aide will appear before the Senate judiciary committee as fur-ther scrutiny mounts of the Trump campaign’s connec-

tions to Russia. A spokesman for Manafort told the Guard-ian: “We just received the let-ter and we’re reviewing it. We have nothing else to add.” A

spokesman for Trump Jr did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Their testimony comes less than two weeks after it was revealed that the two, along with Jared Kushner, a top White House aide and Trump’s son-in-law, met with a Kremlin-linked lawyer in 2016 who offered Trump Jr negative informa-tion about Hillary Clinton. Manafort has long been under scrutiny for his ties to Russia. A veteran Republican politi-cal operative, he has exten-sive experience working in the former Soviet Union. AGENCIES

John McCain

Kushner to speak to Senate panel in closed-door sessionWASHINGTON: President Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, will speak to the Senate Intelligence Committee in a closed-door session Monday as part of the panel’s widening probe into alleged ties between the Trump cam-paign and the Russian government. The meeting was confirmed by Kushner’s attorney, Abbe Low-ell said that his client “is prepared to voluntarily cooperate and provide whatever information he has on the investigations to Congress”. AGENCIES

(Left) Jared Kushner with Donald Trump Jr

Saudi prince arrested over leaked abuse videosRIYADH: A Saudi prince was arrested on Thursday on King Salman’s order, a state-run broadcaster reported, as outrage grew on social media over videos appearing to show him abusing members of the public.

Salman issued a warrant for ‘the immediate arrest ... and imprisonment’ of Prince Saudi, a descendent of Saudi Arabia’s founder, along with a group of

men who appeared in the vid-eos uploaded to YouTube, Al-Ikhbariya television reported.

A video circulating on social media showed police escort-ing the young prince one of the thousands of members of the royal family out of a house in handcuffs.

The arrest came after the prince, whose face can clearly be seen in some of the videos shared via Twitter Wednesday, unleashed a wave of verbal and physical abuse on Saudis and foreigners.

“You park by my house, you ... eunuch, I’ll screw your mother in her grave,” he says to a dazed driver bleeding from the mouth, his clothes splat-tered with blood.

“Do you understand?” he asks the man, who nods and turns away. In another video, a man moaning and clutching his head is led out of a house with an automatic rifle pointed at his back. AGENCIES

Indian-origin jailed for 18 years

for culpable homicide

SINGAPORE: An Indian-origin Singaporean was today jailed for 18 years for killing the mother of his former employer when she tried to stop him from robbing her, a media report said.

P Mageswaran visited a family friend on December 9, 2013, hoping she would lend him money.

When she refused, Mageswaran ransacked her apartment and found a box of jewellery worth about SGD 10,000 in the closet.

Before he could make off with the loot, 62-year-old Kanne Lactmy caught him and threatened to call her son.

Mageswaran pushed Lac-tmy, snatched a pillow off the bed and smothered her. He also strangled her. Ten min-utes later, she died, Channel News Asia reported.

Mageswaran was con-victed of culpable homicide in May, and sentenced to 18 years’ jail on Thursday.

Prosecutors called for a life sentence, pointing to the unemployed man’s criminal past.

Mageswaran had com-mitted a series of rob-beries in 2007, for which he was sentenced to six years’ jail and given 24 strokes of the cane.

“I agree with the pros-ecution that (his criminal record) is of concern,” Judi-cial Commissioner Hoo Sheau Peng said. AGENCIES

King Salman

Special Counsel Robert Mueller

GOVERNMENT OF MAHARASHTRA PUBLIC WORKS DIVISION, AMRAVATI

NOTICE FOR Hybrid Annuity (Online) Tender E-TENDER NOTICE NO 21 FOR 2017-18

Notice Inviting Bid Package No.AM 24 Dated :13/07/2017 Subject:- RFP for Improvement of Roads in the Amravati District in Maharashtra State for

Two laning road / Two Laning road with paved shoulders under MRIP Pakage AM- 24 on Hybrid Annuity Mode

The Government of Maharashtra had entrusted to the Authority the development, main-tenance and management of state highways and Major District Roads of State of Maharashtra. The Authority had resolved to augment the existing road for Improvement to Amravati Ring Road Section Badnera to Power House and Rahatgaon to Camp Short road to M.S.H. 14 to Join SH-280 (SH 299 & 302) , Improvement to Amravati Kathora Pusada Shirala Chandur Bazar Road in Amravati dist to joining Riddhapur Religious place to Amravati (MDR - 27 ) Improvement to Paratwada Chikhaldara Ghatang Road Joining Chikhaldara Touriest Place (SH 305 & MDR 8), Warud Gavankund Bahada Jarud Mangruli Kachurna Haturna Road, Km. 0/00 to 31/700 including diversion and Morshi Pala Salbardi Dongaryawli Dapori Road Km 0/00 to 15/600 ( Road connecting to citrus Processing Project and Pilgrimage Centre) in the state of Maharashtra by [Two Lanning / Two Lanning with paved shoulders thereof I (the “Project”) on design, build, operate and transfer (the “DBOT Annuity” or “Hybrid Annuity”) basis, and has decided to carry out the bidding process for selection of [a private entity] as the Bidder to whom the Project may be awarded.

Brief particulars of the Project are as follows: Name of the State Highway / Major District Road Length

(in Km) Estimated Project Cost (InRs. Cr.)

Improvement to roads A) Amravati Byepass from Badnera to Power House & Rahatgaon to Camp

Short Road MSH-14 to SH-280 (Sh-292 & SH-302) B) Amravati Kathora Pusda Chandur Bazar (Taluka Head Quarter ) to

join Riddhapur Piligrimage place MDR-27 C) Paratwada Chikhaldara Ghatang SH-305 & MDR-8 joining Chikhal-

dara Touriest Place. D) Warud Gavankund Bahada Mangruli Kachurna Haturna MDR-45 &

Morshi Pala Salbardi Dongaryawali Dapori MDR-66 Roads joining Orange Processing Plant and Piligrimage Place.

148.645 349.66

The complete BID document can be viewed / downloaded from e-procurement portal of [https://maharashtra.etenders.in] from Dt. 20.07.2017 to Dt.18.09.2017 (up to 23.00 Hrs. IST) Bid must be submitted online only at [https://maharashtra.etenders.in] during the validity of registration with the [Maharashtra Government e-Tendering Portal] being managed by portal / website, i.e. [https://maharashtra.etenders.in] on or before 18.09.2017 (upto 23.00 hours IST). Technical submissions of the Bids received online shall be opened on 25.09.2017 to 29.09.2017(at 18.00 hours IST). Bid submitted through any other mode shall not be entertained. However, Bid Security, proof of online payment of cost of bid document, Power of Attorney and joint bidding agreement etc. as specified in Clause 2.11.2 of the RFP shall be submitted physically by the Bidder on or before 25.09.2017 (at 11.00 hours IST). Please note that the Authority reserves the right to accept or reject all or any of the BIDs without assigning any reason whatsoever.

Sd/-(S.R.Jadhav)

Executive Engineer Public Works Division

D.G.I.P.R. 2017/2018/1729 Amravati

mp business12MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Friday, 21 July, 2017

MUMBAI: Large share of non-institutional channels in rural credit is likely to limit the effec-tiveness of farm loan waivers announced by five states, warns a report.

Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh have announced farm loan waivers amounting to Rs 99,600 crore in recent months, following public outcry over rising number of suicide by indebted farmers. But the move has met with scepticism by key policymakers.

"The share of non-institu-tional sources is significantly higher for lower decile classes of asset holding, which are typi-cally the intended beneficiaries of loan waiver schemes," ICICI Securities said in a report on Thursday.

The average share of non-institutional credit for the low-est five decile classes of asset holding is over 70 per cent of the outstanding credit for those decile classes, according to the 70th Round of the NSS House-hold Indebtedness Survey, the report notes.

"Since institutional credit is skewed in favour of house-holds with higher decile classes of asset holding, the latter's over-

lap with loan waiver beneficia-ries is likely to be large," the report adds.

The NSS survey shows that non-institutional channels of credit--professional moneylend-ers, landlords, friends and rela-tives and input suppliers among others--constituted nearly 44 per cent of outstanding rural credit in 2012.

Mapping agriculture GVA growth with agriculture credit growth in FY13 and FY17 shows that the share of institu-tional channels is likely to have improved moderately, shows the NSS survey.

Share of commercial and cooperative banks in total insti-tutional credit is nearly 25 per cent each which add up to 50 per cent of total rural credit.

Noting that the classes of banks covered under the waivers are different for different states, the report says while Karna-taka has waived off loans from only cooperative banks, other states do not have any such differentiation.

The report further says the effectiveness of loan waivers is likely to vary significantly across the states depending on their level of development.

"States with higher share of outstanding institutional rural credit, such as Maharashtra and Punjab, are likely to get the most out of loan waivers. On the other hand, Karnataka, UP and MP are likely to derive limited ben-efit as they have relatively lower share of outstanding rural insti-tutional credit." it said. PTI

NEW DELHI: Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh on Thursday launched National Dairy Development Board's quality mark logo which dairy cooperatives can use after com-plying with quality norms.

The 'Quality Mark' logo will be valid for three years and surveillance audit for checking compliance with quality norms will be held once every year by National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), an apex dairy sector body.

"NDDB's Quality Mark will provide dairy cooperatives and producer institutions the much-needed brand identity and a competitive edge," Singh said in a statement.

This will bring process improvement in the entire value chain from producer to con-sumers to ensure availability of quality milk and milk prod-ucts, he said.

An 11-member manage-ment committee will oversee the activities of Quality Mark. The panel comprises mem-

bers from agriculture minis-try and managing directors of four dairy federations as also representative of food safety regulator FSSAI and two dairy experts.

Singh also presented qual-ity mark logo certificates to 14 dairy manufacturing units for adopting food safety and quality management systems and adhering to Quality Mark parameters.

Minister of State for Agri-culture Sudarshan Bhagat, Animal Husbandry Secre-

tary Devendra Chaudhry and NDDB Chairman Dilip Rath were present at the launch.

NDDB said the initiative does not propose any new/addi-tional system for food safety and quality management but lays down the process required for ensuring quality and safety.

Since the rollout of the ini-tiative in January 2016, the NDDB has received 55 applica-tions from cooperatives across the country. Of these, 14 units have successfully cleared the two stage assessment process.

The remaining dairies were informed about the areas of improvement. They have been provided 6-9 months for implementing the corrective measures.

The agriculture minister said this initiative of NDDB will facilitate and strengthen the efforts of FSSAI. It will also cre-ate requisite awareness among various dairy units across the country for adopting quality measures detailed in the guide-line document. PTI

MUMBAI: Largest private sec-tor lender ICICI Bank will be selling personal loans of up to Rs 15 lakh through its ATMs that can be availed of by select salaried customers even if they haven't previously applied for one.

Using data from credit information companies, the lender will pre-qualify select customers for personal loans.

Such customers will get a message on the ATM screen after completing a transaction, informing about their eligibil-ity for personal loans.

If a customer chooses to go

in for one, she can avail of a five-year personal loan of up to Rs 15 lakh and the amount will be credited instantly into her account, the bank said in

a statement on Thursday. The service is already available.

A customer is given mul-tiple amounts to choose from and will be informed about other crucial details like the interest rate, processing fee and monthly instalments, before the transaction is completed by crediting the loan amount into her account.

ICICI Bank executive direc-tor Anup Bagchi said this will help customers receive money conveniently once they opt for a personal loan.

"We believe this is a com-pelling proposition as it is a

completely paperless procedure and instant disbursal of funds through the ATM," he added.

It can be noted that the resilient retail loan segment has been one of the major forces driving the anaemic loan growth in the bad loans-sad-dled banking system in the last few years. As a prudent mea-sure, most lenders prefer giv-ing unsecured personal loans to existing customers than tap-ping corporate borrowers.

For FY17, the credit growth stood at an anaemic 5.1 per cent, the lowest since fiscal 1952. PTI

NEW DELHI: The warring parties over interconnect usage charges are digging in their heels.

Established operators such as Bharti Airtel and Vodafone on Thursday contended that telecom infrastructure in rural areas largely depends on rev-enue from incoming calls, and lowering or removal of such charges will hamper services.

The new entrant, Reliance Jio, brushed aside the logic, claiming that it will provide 99 per cent coverage by the end of this year even if mobile interconnection charges are dropped.

"Poor people in the coun-try are subsidising inefficient network of telecom operators. There is very less cost of car-

rying calls on 4G network, but still incumbent operators are making people in rural areas use 2G network. We will install network in the village very next day if any operator wants to leave a village," a Jio represen-tative said on IUC at Trai's open house discussion on Thursday.

Trai in an affidavit filed before the Supreme Court in 2011 had said telecom opera-tors should be given time till 2014 to move to the bill and keep regime. Under this, opera-tors only keep record of incom-ing calls on their network, but do not raise any demand from other operators.

The official held that contin-uation of IUC beyond 2014 has resulted in incumbent opera-tors benefiting to the tune of Rs

1 lakh crore. Telecom operators levy interconnect usage charge (IUC) on incoming calls from the network of the other oper-ator. These charges are passed on to subscribers by service providers.

"IUC in rural area is not for

subsidy, but to recover charges because terminating operators (on which a call is made) can-not charge for incoming calls," a Bharti Airtel representative said. He made the point that IUC is not meant for availing gains, but a way of recovering

cost."Going by the growth rate,

if the subscriber base of a new operator goes up to 400 million, it will push the cost burden of Rs 2 lakh crore on the industry," the Airtel representative said. "Airtel's 4G rollout is at par with that of Jio and the new entrant should not give the impression that they are the only saviour of data services in the country."

The reasoning the official gave was that when a customer makes a call to a different net-work, he authorises his service provider to pay IUC to the operator on whose network the call has been made.

Vodafone said the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) in its report has men-tioned that there are a num-

ber of incoming calls made in rural areas compared to out-going calls and IUC provides revenue to support telecom infrastructure at such locations.

"We have our 54 per cent of sites (mobile towers) in rural areas. One can say it is very easy to put a site next day, but we know how much hard work we have done," the Vodafone offi-cial added.

Another representative from Vodafone felt that main-tenance of rural network should not be jeopardised by removal of IUC.

Idea Cellular, which is bat-ting for a higher IUC, on its part, argued that the industry is under financial stress and needs reason to support future investment. PTI

ZHUKOVSKY (RUSSIA): The delivery of Kamov military helicopters to India will begin within two years of the signing of a contract, according to a top Russian official, who indicated that the number of choppers to be supplied could be increased to more than 200 in the future.

Sergei Chemezov, the CEO of Rostec State Corporation, said that after the establishment of the joint venture (JV) in May for the production of Kamov military helicopters, Russia expects an official request from the Indian defence ministry.

A contract will then be signed for the delivery of the choppers.

"After the contract is signed, within two years, the first deliveries of helicopters will be made. The agreement for that is signed and is being exercised," he told reporters on the sidelines of Russia's premier airshow MAKS 2017.

Talking about the 2015 $1 billion deal for the supply of the KA-226T helicopters, Che-mezov said: "We have to supply a certain amount, most will be localised, in total, in the amount of 200 helicopters. But in the future this can be increased."

Chemezov said that under the deal the minimum project volume was for "the procure-ment of 40 helicopters from

Russia and production of 160 helicopters in India with differ-ent localisation degrees."

Earlier reports said that 60 Kamov-226T helicopters will be supplied to India in fly-away condition, while 140 will be manufactured in India.

Chemezov said Russia expects the target location to implement the project will be in Bengaluru on the produc-tion capacities of Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) that are currently used in the assembly project of Su-30 MKI.

The necessary conditions are available there including human resources for success-ful implementation of the proj-ect, he said.

The Rostec chief also said that within the joint project, "it is possible to engage other com-panies, including private ones, depending on the Indian party".

"They have to evaluate and affirm the readiness and reliability of private com-panies for most of which it is a new business domain," Chemezov said. PTI

NEW DELHI: A landmark civil nuclear cooperation deal between India and Japan that provides for collaboration between their industries in the field came into force on Thurs-day, eight months after it was sealed.

Foreign Secretary S Jaishan-kar and Japanese Ambassador Kenji Hiramatsu exchanged diplomatic notes, marking oper-ationalisation of the pact, the External Affairs Ministry said.

The civil nuclear cooper-ation agreement was signed last November during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Tokyo after years of negotiations.

"This agreement is a reflec-tion of the strategic partnership between India and Japan and will pave the way for enhanced cooperation in energy security and clean energy.

"The agreement seeks to pro-mote full cooperation between the two countries in the devel-opment and uses of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes on a stable, reliable and pre-dictable basis," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Gopal Baglay told reporters.

The deal allows Japan to export nuclear technology to India, making it the first non-NPT signatory to have such a

deal with Tokyo.There was political resis-

tance in Japan - the only coun-try to suffer atomic bombings during World War II - against a nuclear deal with India, par-ticularly after the disaster at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant in 2011.

Japan is a major player in the nuclear energy market and an atomic deal with it will make it easier for US-based nuclear plant makers Westinghouse Electric Corporation and GE Energy Inc to set up atomic plants in India as both these conglomerates have Japanese investments.

Other nations who have signed civil nuclear deal with India include the US, Russia, South Korea, Mangolia, France, Namibia, Argentina, Canada, Kazakhstan and Australia. PTI

NEW DELHI: After Facebook and Twitter, it is now Linke-dIn that has unveiled a 'Lite' version of its app as the pro-fessional networking platform attempts to bring in more users on board.

The new 'LinkedIn Lite' Android app is designed to reduce data usage by 80 per cent and is less than 1MB in size. In September last year, LinkedIn had launched a light-weight version of its mobile website.

"LinkedIn Lite app is first being rolled out to members in India... LinkedIn plans to roll out the mobile web version and the Android app in over 60 countries shortly," LinkedIn said in a statement.

The move will help Linke-dIn find a place in more smart-phones in developing countries like India that often faces net-work issues. Also, with a signif-icant chunk of the population using devices with low on-board memory, the small size of the app will help LinkedIn find more takers.

India is the second larg-est market for LinkedIn with more than 42 million members. Interestingly, the 'Lite' app has been developed by LinkedIn's R&D team in Bengaluru. PTI

Indo-Japan civil N-cooperation

deal now in forceLow formal credit reach keeps most farmers off loan waivers

Agriculture Minister launches NDDB dairy quality mark logo

Operators say rural telecom to suffer at nil IUC; Jio differs

LinkedIn unveils Made-in-India Lite application

ICICI Bank offers ̀ 15 lakh instant loan via ATMs

Kamov delivery to start in 2 years after contract signing

NEW DELHI: Commerce Min-ister Nirmala Sitharaman has urged the WTO chief to "vigor-ously" follow the efforts of the member countries for finding solution to the issue of food stockpiling.

The issue was raised by the minister during her meeting with WTO Director General Roberto Azevedo at Geneva.

She also mentioned the kind of outcomes India would like to see at the upcoming eleventh ministerial conference (MC11), the highest decision making body of the WTO, in Argentina in December.

"She particularly stressed that the MC11 outcomes must include a permanent solution on public stockholding (PSH) for food security purposes on which there is a ministerial mandate," the ministry said in a statement on Thursday. Sitharaman also urged Azevedo "to follow up vigorously to support the efforts to reach finality on PSH and the agricultural Special Safeguard Mechanism (SSM)".

Further, the minister stressed that any attempts at seeking outcomes on new issues such as e-commerce and invest-ment facilitation should "not" be at the cost of other long pending issues on the agenda of the Doha Round. The new issues which are being pushed by developed

world include investments, competition, labour, govern-ment procurement, environ-ment and global value chains.

A permanent solution to the issue of food stockpiling is important for smooth imple-mentation of India's food secu-rity programme.

As per the global trade norms, a WTO member coun-try's food subsidy cap should not breach the limit of 10 per cent, which is based on the ref-erence price of 1986-88.

There are apprehensions that full implementation of food security programme may breach this cap. So India wants amendments in the formula to calculate the food subsidy cap.

There is a peace clause cur-rently according to which no country can ask WTO to take

action against a country that breaches the 10 per cent cap. This clause is there till a perma-nent solution is found for the food stockpiling issue.

This has enabled India to continue procurement and stocking of foodgrain for dis-tribution to poor under its food security programme without attracting any kind of action from WTO members even if it breaches the 10 per cent subsidy cap as prescribed by the multi-lateral trade body.

SSM is a toll demanded by developing countries, including India, to support poor farmers from sudden surge in imports.

Several developed countries give massive subsidies to their farmers and in such a case SSM would help India in protecting the farmers. PTI

Find early solution to food stocks issue: Nirmala to WTO

NEW DELHI: The civil avia-tion ministry has set up a com-mittee, which includes officers from security agencies, to final-ise the regulations for use of drones, Union Minister Jayant Sinha said on Thursday.

In a written reply to the Lok Sabha, he also said that no firm timelines have been fixed for regulations on the use of Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS).

"Pursuant to the discus-sions held in the Ministry of Home Affairs, a committee has been formed by the Ministry of Civil Aviation on May 11, 2017, comprising officers from reg-ulators and security agencies to finalise the regulations on UAS," said the minister of state for civil aviation.

As on date, the Interna-tional Civil Aviation Organ-isation (ICAO) has not issued standards and recommended practices for certification and operation of civil UAS, he said.

"The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has prepared an air transport cir-cular regarding 'Guidelines for obtaining Unique Identi-fication Number (UIN) and operation of Civil Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS)' in con-sultation with various stake-holders," he said. PTI

Panel to finalise regulations for

drones: GovtNEW DELHI: Bajaj Auto on Thursday reported 19.51 per cent decline in consolidated net profit to Rs 836.79 crore for the June quarter of current fiscal, on account of lower sales.

It had posted net profit of Rs 1,039.70 crore in the April-June quarter of last fiscal.

Bajaj Auto said in a BSE fil-ing that its total income from operations during the quar-ter under review stood at Rs 6,177.66 crore as against Rs 6,355.84 crore in the April-June quarter of 2016-17.

The domestic industry, it said, was impacted during the June quarter of 2017-18 due to changeover from BS-III to BS-IV vehicles and transition to the new Goods and Services Tax. Total vehicles sales dur-ing the quarter declined 10.68 per cent to 8,88,434 units as against 9,94,733 units in the cor-responding period of last fiscal.

The company said its total exports, however, went up by 10.48 per cent to 4,09,525 units as against 3,70,649 units in the same quarter last fiscal.

With regard to GST, Bajaj Auto said: "For dealers holding stocks as on June 30, estimated loss per motorcycle was around Rs 1,400 so the company pro-vided for Rs 32 crore towards compensation to the dealers. PTI

Bajaj Auto Q1 profit crashes 19% to ̀ 837 cr

MUMBAI: Indian FinTech is one of top five markets by value of capital funding and invest-ments in the sector with nearly $270 million of funding in 2016, according to a recent report.

The report also noted that in medium-term fintech play-ers will consolidate their posi-tion in urban and metro centres and will extend to rural and semi-urban areas over the next three-five years. India remains one of the l rgest markets where the structural enablers to setup and incubate fintech have come

together strongly and at an apt time, the joint report by Inter-net and Mobile Association of India, and Deloitte said.

"Combination of steady eco-nomic growth with low pene-tration of financial services and availability of supporting infra-structure such as internet data access, smartphones along with utility infrastructure including Aadhaar based authentication and India Stack capabilities are likely to provide the required impetus to India's fintech sec-tor," the report noted. PTI

Fintech among top 5 sectors for funding in 2016: Deloitte

BENGALURU: India's third largest IT firm Wipro on Thurs-day posted a 1.2 per cent rise in its consolidated net profit at Rs 2,076.7 crore for the April-June quarter.

Besides, the company's board has announced a share buyback proposal of Rs 11,000 crore entailing 34.3 crore equity shares at Rs 320 apiece.

The Bengaluru-based firm had registered a net profit of Rs 2,052 crore in the year-ago period. Its total income grew marginally to Rs 14,281.4 crore during the first quarter.

Wipro, which gets bulk of its topline from IT services, said it expects revenues from that busi-ness to be in the range of $1,962-2,001 million in the September quarter. For the June quarter, IT services revenue was at $1,971.7 million, up 2.1 per cent from the year-ago period.

"We delivered revenues above the upper-end of the guidance range. Our focus on digital, combined with our investments in client mining, has resulted in strong growth in top accounts," Wipro CEO Abidali Z Neemuchwala said.

Wipro CFO Jatin Dalal said the impact on operating mar-gins on account of rupee appre-ciation and salary increases was partially offset by strong busi-ness efficiencies.

"We continue to sustain robust cash generation," he added. During the June quar-

ter, Wipro added 1,309 (gross) employees, taking its total head-count to 1,66,790 people.

On the buyback offer, Dalal said the announcement to buy-back equity shares is part of Wipro's philosophy to "deliver efficient returns to sharehold-ers". Wipro, during the quarter ended June 30, 2017, allotted bonus equity shares – one bonus share for every one share held – to its shareholders.

The company's revenue from IT products during the quarter was Rs 630 crore ($98 million), an increase of 7 per cent year-on-year. PTI

Wipro ups Q1 net by 1.2%, to buy back ̀ 11K cr shares

For the April-June quarter, IT services revenues were at $1,971.7 million, up 2.1% from the year-ago period

mp business 13MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Friday, 21 July, 2017

POWERING THE INDIA STORY

Ajay Kumar Bhalla, Secretary (Power) and Rajeev Sharma, CMD, PFC signed a performance-related MoU on behalf of Government of India and PFC, respectively. Also present on the occasion were Shalini Prasad, Additional Secretary, MOP, Arun Kumar Verma, Joint Secretary, MOP and other senior officials of MOP and PFC

NEW DELHI: The Institute of Cost Accountants of India, the 2nd largest Cost & Management Accounting body in the world and the largest in Asia organ-ised “14th National Awards for Excellence in Cost Manage-ment-2016” on July, 18 at Le Méridien in New Delhi.

CMA Manas Kumar Thakur, President of the Insti-tute welcomed the delegates, awardees and the dignitaries - Arjun Ram Meghwal, Union Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs; Piyush Goyal, Union Minister of State (I/C) for Power, Coal, New and Renewable Energy and Mines; Jayadev Galla, Member of Par-liament, Lok Sabha, Andhra Pradesh, Uday Pratap Singh, Member of Parliament, Mad-hya Pradesh.

The President of the Institute elucidated the contribution of the Institute and CMA profes-sionals’ contribution in the eco-nomic growth of the country.

He, further, explained the significance of these awards and wished the awardees that this recognition would go a long way in further growth of the

economy. Jayadev Galla was proud to

mention that he is also one of the receipient of the award and mentioned the importance of Cost Management in man-ufacturing process and how CMA professionals can facilitate SMEs. Uday Pratap Singh men-tioned the need of Cost Man-

agement in all walks of life and in day to day activities & con-gratulated the awardees.

Arjun Ram Meghwal in his address, explained methodol-ogy of Cost Management in the olden days, the importance of GST and the benefits of simple & single tax mechanism for the country.

Piyush Goyal, Hon’ble Union Minister of State (I/C) for Power, Coal, New and Renewable Energy and Mines emphasized and addressed the gathering, particularly CMA professionals to spread the mechanism of GST to consumers, vendors, shop-keepers, micro, small and medium industries. He con-gratulated Finance Ministry for rolling out GST system in the country. MPOST

NEW DELHI: Set with a steep target to cut India's oil imports by 10 per cent by 2022, the Oil Ministry has formed an inter-ministry monitoring and advi-sory body to achieve the mark through a combination of rais-ing domestic output and rely-ing on alternate fuel sources.

The first meeting of the newly formed Integrated Monitoring and Advisory Council (IMAC) has been held wherein the progress on import reduction of oil and gas was reviewed, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Thursday.

"Increased domestic pro-duction, promotion of biofu-els, renewable energy, better roads, urban planning, fuel conservation, development of mini-grids, promotion of elec-trical vehicles put together will contribute in the process" of achieving the import reduction target, he said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had in March 2015 set a target to cut India's reliance on imports for meeting its oil needs by 10 per cent to 67 per cent by 2022.

"Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas prepared an elaborate roadmap to achieve

the goal of 10 per cent reduc-tion in import dependency set by the Prime Minister during Urja Sangam," an official state-ment said.

IMAC was envisaged to facilitate better coordination and comprehensive strategy for all energy resources by focus-ing on supply and demand side management. It consists of Sec-retary, Petroleum and Natural Gas and officers from min-istries of new and renewable energy, urban development,

road and transport, agriculture, power, rural development and finance.

During the meeting chaired by Pradhan, "the Ministry highlighted major policy ini-tiatives taken in recent past to enhance domestic production of oil and gas," the statement said.

These included measures like resource re-assessment, National Data Repository (NDR), Open Acreage Licens-ing Policy (OALP), Hydro-

carbon Exploration Licensing Policy (HELP), Discovered Small Field Policy, tapping unconventional sources such as Coal Bed Methane (CBM) and Shale Gas besides enhancing production of bio-diesel and increased use of PNG and LPG.

Officials of other minis-tries also explained policies, schemes and projects taken towards augmenting the supply of energy, energy saving and demand substitution/reduc-tion through alternate modes.

While the Ministry of Road, Transport and Highway high-lighted measures such as e-toll-ing to cut waiting time at toll plazas and notification of fuel efficiency norms for LCV, Min-istry of Rural Development stressed upon their bio-fuel scheme for rural sector.

Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) pointed out measures for industrial and transport sectors. MNRE elaborated on energy generation through renewable sources such as solar and wind power and their future strategy in this regard.

Pradhan stressed on the importance of concerted and coordinated efforts by all min-istries to create an enabling environment for accelerated exploration and production activities. Highlighting other measures like promoting con-servation and energy efficiency, exploring opportunities for oil demand substitution and tap-ping the potential of bio-fuels, he said that these are required to be perused in more aggres-sive and synchronised manner.

Energy consuming minis-tries and the ones involved in technology need to be brought under the ambit of IMAC, he added. PTI

Pradhan gives many ideas as ‘oil import cut panel’ meets

NEW DELHI: Coal bearing states have received Rs 3,653 crore till June 2017 from mine allocation, Coal Minister Piyush Goyal said on Thursday.

"The coal bearing state governments have received an amount of Rs 3,653 crore till June 2017 from the allocation of coal blocks/mines under the provisions of Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Act, 2015," Goyal said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

"Under the aforesaid Act, provisions of the entire reve-nue from allocation (auction and allotment) of coal blocks / mines ... accrues to the coal bearing State Government con-cerned," the minister said.

The utilisation of the rev-enue generated from the allo-cation of coal mines under the provisions of the Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Act, 2015 is the prerogative of the coal bearing state government, the minister added.

Meanwhile, the government on Thursday said that coal cess will contribute to the GST com-pensation fund, a corpus meant for compensating states for reve-nue losses in the wake of shifting to the new indirect tax regime.

The cess on coal has been continued at Rs 400 per tonne

under the GST regime.“The Goods and Services

Tax (Compensation to States) Act, 2017...notified on April 12, 2017 provides that coal cess, along with some other cess on pan masala, tobacco, aerated water would constitute GST Compensation Fund and the same would be utilised to com-pensate states for five years for potential losses on account of GST implementation,” Power and Coal Minister Piyush Goyal said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha. After five years, any amount left would be shared on 50 per cent basis between Cen-tre and States, the minister said.

The long-awaited GST, India’s biggest tax reform, was rolled out on July 1. Replying to a separate question, the min-ister said that a total of 14,305 gas-based power generation plants are stranded in the coun-try due to non-availability of domestic gas. PTI

Coal-bearing states got ̀ 3,653 cr from mines allocation, says Goyal

Coal cess part of GST Compensation Fund: Govt

NEW DELHI: India, the third largest coal producer in the world, imported 190 million tonnes of the fuel worth over Rs one lakh crore in 2016-17 fiscal, Parliament was informed on Thursday.

Minister of State for Coal Piyush Goyal in a written reply to Lok Sabha said 190.95 mil-lion tonnes (provisional) of coal valued at Rs 1,00,231.3 crore was imported in the last fiscal.

The minister further said in 2015-16, 203.9 million tonnes (MT) of coal valued at Rs 86,033.8 crore was imported, while in 2014-15, the import stood at 217.7 MT worth Rs 1,04,506.6 crore.

In 2013-14, the country imported 166.8 MT of coal worth Rs 92,329 crore, the minister said. The gap between demand and supply, Goyal said, cannot be bridged completely as there is insufficient domes-tic availability of coal and power plants designed on imported fuel will continue to import for their production. PTI

‘India imported coal worth over

`1 lakh cr in FY17’

NEW DELHI: The Rs 5,000-crore autograde steel plant in joint venture between SAIL and ArcelorMittal would be set up close to an automobile hub and final decision on the site is likely in three months, a top official on Thursday said.

"It (SAIL, ArcelorMittal JV) is in the final stage now.

Absolutely in the final stage," Steel Secretary Aruna Sharma told PTI in an interview.

Steel Authority of India (SAIL) and ArcelorMittal had in May, 2015 entered into a memorandum of understand-ing (MoU) to explore the possi-bility of setting up an autograde steel manufacturing facility under a joint venture in India.

"There are two things that they (both the companies) have to do. One is commercial agree-ment between the two and sec-ond thing is that they have to zero in on the place where they will be putting up the plant. So that work is going on.

So we are expecting it to be completed in may be in another two or three months," the sec-retary said.

A task force team compris-ing representatives from both SAIL and ArcelorMittal has

been working on detailed due diligence and preliminary feasi-bility study and all other issues for setting up a joint venture company.

When asked about the location of the proposed plant Sharma said, "that decision is happening. The two of them are looking at it. They have zeroed in on three sites. So (it would be at) one of the three sites. It will be closer to an auto hub. We have three auto hubs."

The secretary further said both the companies were inspecting and comparing the pros and cons of each site.

"They have to see all pros and cons. They will prepare a

matrix out of it and put a value to it and then decide which place suits them," Sharma said.

Elaborating further, the sec-retary said SAIL took the tech-nical advice on the proposed joint venture from Niti Aayog.

"We took the technical advice from Niti Aayog...for administrative things we can understand but on technical issues it's better that one takes an expert's advice," she asserted.

The much-awaited JV between steel giant Arcelor-Mittal and state-run SAIL will also focus on produc-ing specialised grade steel products for defence, space and automobiles. PTI

SAIL, ArcelorMittal steel JV's site to be fixed in 3 months

NEW DELHI: The government has started consultations with various stakeholders to furnish a digital identification number to be given to air passengers at the time of booking tickets, Lok Sabha was informed on Thursday.

Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju said the upgradation of technology for passenger facilitation was a con-tinuous process.

"Various stakeholders' con-sultations have been conducted and suggestions have been received for air passengers to furnish a digital identification number at the time of purchas-ing an air ticket to enable seam-less air travel," he said during Question Hour.

Raju said discussions are held regularly with diverse stakeholders on the usage of technology for the benefit of passengers and adopting com-mon protocols for data-sharing across airlines, airports, travel agents and others.

The Minister's reply came in response to a question whether the government was planning to make it mandatory for air passengers to furnish a unique identity number at the time of

flight booking.Raju said the civil aviation

ministry has constituted three committees, including a tech-nical committee, to implement technology-enabled seamless passenger facilities across air-ports in India.

"No specific timeline has been fixed because input will be received from the committee periodically regarding appropri-ate technology standards and inter-operability protocols," he said.

The government on Thurs-day said it would take into consideration suggestions and views received from time to time before deciding on the con-tours of Air India disinvestment.

Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha told the Lok Sabha that IndiGo has sub-mitted an expression of interest with respect to disinvestment of Air India.

“Suggestions and views are received from time to time, including the articles published in media, regarding disinvest-ment of Air India. These would be kept in mind while arriving at the final decision regarding contours of the disinvestment,” Sinha said in a written reply.

While replying to questions from various members on Air India disinvestment, Sinha said the airline has been facing losses for the past many years not only on account of merger with Indian Airlines but also due to multitude of other factors.

These include high fuel prices, interest burden, debt- equity ratio, airport user charges and increasing competition, especially from low cost carri-ers, he added.

At the end of March this year, the airline’s total debt stood at Rs 48,876.81 crore as per pro-visional figures, he noted. PTI

NEW DELHI: The Jet Airways has asked its junior or trainee pilots to take a cut of 30 per cent in their salaries, accord-ing to sources.

"In a letter, the management has asked first officers (junior pilots) to take a pay cut of 30 per cent. We will take up this matter in our next meeting with the management," one of the sources said.

The airline in a statement attributed the decision to slash salaries to developments in the market, including the Gulf region.

"Certain developments in the market, including that of the Gulf region, as well as our con-tinued efforts to enhance inter-nal efficiencies, has resulted in the review of our network, fleet and crew utilisation. According to sources, a Jet Airways junior pilot or co-pilot with an experi-ence of one year earns over Rs 2 lakh per month. PTI

NEW DELHI: Shares of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation rose by nearly 3 per cent on Thursday after the Cabinet approved sale of the government's stake in oil refiner HPCL to India's largest oil producer ONGC.

Defying its sluggish open-ing, the ONGC stock gained 2.91 per cent to Rs 167.80 on the BSE. On the NSE, the scrip went up by 2.97 per cent to Rs 167.85. The stock was the big-gest gainer on the benchmark Sensex and the Nifty.

The Cabinet on Wednes-day approved sale of the gov-ernment's 51.11 per cent stake in oil refiner HPCL to India's largest oil producer ONGC for a potential Rs 26,000-30,000 crore, a top source said.

The source said the Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Nar-endra Modi gave in-principle approval to Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) to buy Hindustan Petroleum Corpo-ration Ltd (HPCL).

ONGC, the source added, will not have to make an open offer to minority shareholders of HPCL as the government's holding is being transferred to another state-run firm and the ownership is not changing. PTI

NEW DELHI: Vedanta Group firm Hindustan Zinc Ltd (HZL) on Thursday posted 81 per cent jump in net profit to Rs 1,876 crore for quarter ended June 30, 2017 helped by better pric-ing and higher volume.

The company had posted a net profit of Rs 1,037 crore in the corresponding quarter of previous fiscal, HZL said in a filing to BSE. The total income during April-June quarter stood at Rs 5,543 crore, registering an increase of 61 per cent over the year-ago period. "Revenues dur-ing the quarter were Rs 4,961 crore, up 79 per cent Y-o-Y on account of strong zinc and lead

prices and higher volume," Hin-dustan Zinc said. During the quarter, net profit increased by 81 per cent Y-o-Y to Rs 1,876 crore, it said, adding that the impact of higher EBITDA was partly offset by lower investment income on a smaller investment corpus post dividend pay-out and interest cost on temporary Commercial Paper. PTI

NEW DELHI: Oil-to-telecom conglomerate Reliance Indus-tries Ltd on Thursday reported its highest quarterly consoli-dated net profit of Rs 9,108 crore in three-months to June 30 on the back of higher petrochemi-cal margins and one- time gain from sale of African asset.

Net profit in the April-June quarter of current fiscal at Rs 9,108 crore (Rs 30.8 per share) was 28 per cent higher than Rs 7,113 crore (Rs 24.1 a share) in the same period of the last finan-cial year, RIL said in a statement.

"Strong refining and petro-chemicals margin environment contributed to higher operating profits for the quarter," it said.

RIL, which owns and oper-

ates the world's largest refining complex at Jamnagar in Gujarat, earned a nine-year high margin of $11.9 on turning every barrel of crude oil into fuel during the quarter under review.

The company had reported a gross refining margin of $11.5 per barrel in the same period of the previous fiscal.

Petrochemicals EBIT mar-gin were at all-time high of 15.8 per cent.

"Exceptional item during the quarter was Rs 1,087 crore rep-resenting profit from divestment of stake in Gulf Africa Petro-leum Corporation (GAPCO)," the statement said.

Revenue grew 26.7 per cent to Rs 90,537 crore primarily on

account of increase in prices and volumes of refining and petro-chemical products, partially off-set by lower prices and volumes from oil and gas exploration and production business.

Revenue was also boosted by robust growth in retail busi-ness which recorded a 73.6 per cent increase to Rs 11,571 crore.

Debt grew to Rs 200,674 crore as on June 30, as com-pared to Rs 196,601 crore as on

March 31, while cash in hand fell to Rs 72,107 crore from Rs 77,226 crore.

RIL however did not pro-vide much details on its telecom venture Jio, which commenced operations in September last year and has been the cause of most of RIL's debt and drop in cashpile.

Jio, it said, has become the fastest growing technology com-pany in the world with more than 100 million subscribers in just 170 days, followed by the largest free-to-paid services migration.

"Jio's innovative market approach backed by superior HD quality VoLTE voice and data strong network has unlocked latent demand for data and

growth ahead of all industry estimates," it said.

More announcements on Jio are expected at the compa-ny's annual general meeting in Mumbai on Friday.

Employee cost increased by 16.3 per cent at Rs 2,455 crore while other expenditure rose 20.2 per cent to Rs 10,332 crore due to increase in power and fuel expenses.

Pre-tax profit from refining business was up 13.4 per cent at Rs 7,476 crore while petrochemi-cal saw a massive 43.7 per cent jump to Rs 4,031 crore. Loss in oil and gas exploration and pro-duction business widened to Rs 373 crore from Rs 312 crore in Q1 of FY17. PTI

NEW DELHI: Kotak Mahin-dra Bank on Thursday reported 23.10 per cent increase in stand-alone net profit at Rs 912.73 crore for the first quarter ended June 30. Net profit of the bank was at Rs 741.97 crore in the corresponding period last fiscal. Its total income increased to Rs 5,562.66 crore for the quarter under review from Rs 5,120.03 crore a year ago, Kotak Mahin-dra Bank said in a regulatory filing. Gross NPAs rose to 2.58 per cent of gross advances as of June quarter this fiscal from 2.50 per cent in the same quarter of 2016-17. PTI

ONGC scrip up 3% on Cabinet nod to its HPCL stake buy

Govt starts talks with stakeholders on digital number for air travellers

The Govt also said that it would take into consideration suggestions and views received from time to time before deciding on the contours of Air India’s disinvestment

Jet Airways asks junior pilots to

take 30% pay cut

Reliance Industries Q1 profit up 28% to ̀ 9,108 crore Kotak Mahindra Bank Q1 net up 23% to ̀ 913 cr

Hindustan Zinc Q1 net profit zooms 81% to `1,876 crore

Jewels of corporate India shine at ICAI awardsNEW DELHI: Volvo Cars has reported strong growth in oper-ating profit of SEK6.8bn in the first half of 2017, compared to SEK5.6 bn for the same period last year, after taking market share across Europe and expe-riencing a robust sales increase in China. Revenues rose to SEK99.1bn from SEK84.2bn in the first six months of 2016, while the operating profit mar-gin improved to 6.8 per cent from 6.6 per cent a year earlier.

Sales for the first 6 months of the year increased 8.2 per cent compared to the same period last year to 277,641 cars. The increase in sales means Volvo Cars remains firmly on course for a fourth consecutive record year. MPOST

Volvo Cars H1 profit up 21% on China sales

mp sport14MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi |Friday, 21 July, 2017

MATTIA DE SCIGLIO INKS FIVE-YEAR CONTRACT WITH JUVENTUS

ROME: Italian defender Mattia De Sciglio inked a five-year contract with Juventus, the Serie A football champions an-nounced on Thursday. De Sciglio joins Juventus for 12 million euros ($22.97 million) apart from 500,000 euros ($574,260) as variables, after six years at their fellow Serie A club Milan, reports Efe.

SACHIN TENDULKAR EXHORTS YOUTH TO TAKE UP SPORTS

CHENNAI: Sachin Tendulkar on Thursday expressed concern over the high prevalence of obesity among the population in the country and exhorted the youth to take to sporting activity to stay healthy. “It is important for people to stay healthy and there is no better way than taking up some sporting activity,” he said.

CEBALLOS WILL BE PILLAR OF REAL MADRID, SAYS CLUB PRESIDENT

MADRID: New arrival Dani Ceballos will be a pillar of Real Madrid for the future, Florentino Perez, President of the Spanish football champions, said on Thursday. The 20-year-old Ceballos was presented as a new player at Real Madrid on Thursday, after he penned a six-season contract with the 12-time UEFA Champions League winners, reports Efe.

THREE WIMBLEDON TIES FACE MATCH-FIXING PROBELONDON: Wimbledon came under the microscope on Thursday with three matches at this year’s tournament set to be investigated for possible match-fixing, according to the Tennis Integrity Unit. Two qualifying matches at Roehampton and one from the main Wimbledon draw triggered some bizarre betting patterns and are to be examined further, said the anti-corruption body that polices professional tennis. “These will be assessed and reviewed in keeping with the TIU match alert policy below,” the TIU said on its website. The TIU’s match alert policy means that the unit checks on irregularities such as strange betting tendencies, but it insisted the alerts are not evidence of match-fixing. One match from June’s French Open will also be looked at -- just four of 53 alerts received by the TIU since April, although the majority came from matches at the lower level Challenger, Futures and ITF Women’s tours. There has been a decline in the number of alerts received by the TIU this year with 83 triggered thus far. AGENCIES

Focus on Rohit, Rahul in warm-up game

against President’s XI

Shikhar or Abhinav should not feel burden of pressure, says Virat

COLOMBO: Whether it’s Shikhar Dhawan or Abhi-nav Mukund, whoever opens alongside KL Rahul in the first Test against Sri Lanka in Galle should treat this as an oppor-tunity rather than feel the pres-sure to perform.

The skipper termed regular Test opener Murali Vijay’s wrist injury as “unfortunate” but also praised his players being hon-est about their fitness status.

“Every player comes to the team wanting to perform.

Injuries are unfortu-

nate part of sport. Vijay was back from rehab and played a game and told selectors he was not match fit. That is the kind of culture being created. People are honest,” Kohli said during his arrival media conference.

“Abhinav (Mukund) is there, he has played lot of domestic cricket. Shikhar got a hundred here last time and then he had to miss couple of games.

“(Cheteshwar) Pujara opened in the last Test (in

Dharamsala). So guys are look-ing these scenarios as oppor-tunities rather than getting under pressure. I am sure they are going to be up for it,” said Kohli admitting that the team will have to make a mental change from white ball to red ball cricket.

Sri Lanka performed shod-dily against Zimbabwe in the recently concluded series where they even lost the ODI rubber. But Kohli insisted that they are not taking Sri Lanka lightly. AGENCIES

COLOMBO: Back in the scheme of things, Rohit Sharma and fit-again KL Rahul will be aiming to get as much batting time as possible in the two-day warm-up game against Presi-dent’s XI starting here on Fri-day, ahead of the three-Test series against Sri Lanka.

Rohit, who last played a Test match against New Zealand in October last year, did not fea-ture in the Test series against England, Bangladesh and Aus-tralia during the home season.

The Mumbai batsman underwent a surgery after injuring his thigh during the ODI series against New Zea-land. Although he has not played a first-class game since his recovery, he featured in the Indian Premier League and made a comeback into the national side for the Champi-ons Trophy, where he amassed more than 300 runs.

But the national selectors specifically rested Rohit for the West Indies tour in order to keep him fresh for the upcom-ing long season.

Rahul, who had a run of six fifties in seven innings in the Australia series, is also back in the squad after recuperat-ing from the shoulder surgery that ruled him out of the Indian Premier League, the Cham-pions Trophy and the West Indies series.

And both the batsmen will looking at the practice game to spend as much time as possible at the crease to stake their claim for a place in the playing XI in the first Test against Sri Lanka, starting July 26 at Galle.

The practice game at the BRC Grounds here will also be Ravi Shastri’s first assignment with the Indian team following his much-publicised appoint-ment as head coach for a two-year tenure earlier this month.

Since it is a two-day game, a team can test all the play-ers of its squad and India are expected to check all the weap-ons in their armoury.

All the Indian batsmen and bowlers will get a look in and skipper Virat Kohli is expected to decide his best possible com-bination for the playing XI for the first Test depending on their performances in the coming two days.

The match will also pro-vide Kohli a chance to check his bowling unit, which features the pace duo of Ishant Sharma and Mohammed Shami who are making a comeback.

All-rounder Hardik Pan-dya, who was left out for the final two Tests against Austra-lia due to a shoulder injury, is also back in the squad while pacer Umesh Yadav looks a certainty after a splendid domestic season. AGENCIES

Ravi Shastri, Kohli stress on keeping No.1 Test spot

COLOMBO: After joining forces amid various contro-versies, Indian cricket team skipper Virat Kohli and newly-appointed head coach Ravi Shastri on Thursday stressed on the importance of main-taining consistency and work-ing towards holding on to the No.1 Test rank. Shastri, who returned to the national team as the head coach, a year after being snubbed as the team director, on Thursday said that his and the team’s main focus will be on maintaining India’s status as the top Test playing nation. “I came to Sri Lanka as an 18-year-old kid as part of the U-19 team, my first stint as a broadcaster was here in 1992. My first stint as coach also hap-pens to be in Sri Lanka,” Shas-tri recalled.

“They have a great track record playing at home, it is one of the best teams at home if not the best,” Shastri told reporters ahead of the two-day practice match, starting on Friday at Moratuwa.

“We will not take them for granted and try to maintain consistency and remain No.1 in Tests. Above all, we need to look to improve and learn new things,” he added. Asked about his role in the dressing room, the former India all-rounder said: “My role will be to get the players in a frame of mind that they go out there and play at their optimum level. It sounds like a simple task but lot goes on behind the scenes.” Kohli, who was at the centre of the

controversy surrounding Anil Kumble’s exit as the head coach, said it was the last tour in 2015 when the team gelled together as a unit to clinch the series 2-1 and thereafter carried on the momentum to reach the top spot in the five-day format. “The last tour taught us how to get together as a unit. After losing that first Test at Galle, we came together and this is where it all began for us as we went on to become the No.1 side in the world,” he said. AGENCIES

India U-23 lose to Syria U-23 in AFC Qualifying opener

DOHA: India lost 0-2 to Syria in their opening match of the AFC U-23 Championship Qualifiers at the Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium, here.

Both the teams played cau-tiously as the opening half failed to produce any goals late last night.

India pressed hard in their effort to unsettle the physi-cally superior Syrians. The first chance of the day fell to striker Daniel Lalhlimpuia but the ex-AIFF Academy cadet could not make the most of the opportunity.

Striker Manvir Singh came close to scoring the opener but

his header landed safely into the Syrian goalkeeper’s gloves.

Syria went ahead in the 64th minute through striker Rabie Srour who lobbed the ball over Indian goal-keeper Vishal Kaith who was caught out of position. Cen-tral defender Salam Ranjan Singh made a valiant attempt to keep the ball out of the net but to no avail.

Syria sealed the fate of the match in the 88th minute when Fares Arnaout doubled their lead.

India U-23 boys will next play hosts and group favourites Qatar on Friday. AGENCIES

Rohit Sharma

(From left) Sri Lanka’s interim head coach Nic Pothas, Sri Lanka captain Upul Tharanga, India captain Virat Kohli and India head coach Ravi Shastri after a press conference PIC/PTI

The 281 run innings was India’s highest ever total against the Southern Stars and could very well be a match-winning total

‘KAUR’NAGEDERBY: Harmanpreet Kaur played inar-guably one of the finest ODI innings ever to lead India to an imposing 281 for four against Australia in the semi-final of the ICC Women’s World Cup, here on Thursday.

The Indian vice-captain smashed her way to a career-best magical 171 off 115 balls, leaving the Australian bowlers in a daze in a match that has been curtailed to 42 overs a side due to inclement weather.

This was India’s highest ever total against the Southern Stars and could well be a match-winning total.

The innings could well be termed as the best ever played by an Indian woman in the limited overs cricket. Harmanpreet’s third ODI century was embellished with 20 fours and as many as seven sixes. This is also the second highest individual score in ODIs for India behind Deepti Sharma’s 188 not out against South Africa earlier this year.

It was out of the world power-hitting by the girl from Moga district in Punjab —something that has made her a stand-out player for India. The milestone from 51 to 100 was reached in 26 balls while she raced to 150 from 101 in mere 17 balls. The sixes flew from her bat with monotonic regular-ity as the Aussie bowlers had no clue as to what hit them.

After a useful 60 against New Zealand in the virtual quarter-final, Harmanpreet

upped the ante like never before.She batted like as if there was no tomor-

row as she repeatedly hit the troika of left-arm spinner Jess Jonasen (0/63 in 7 overs), off-break bowler Ashleigh Gardner (1/43 in 8 overs) and leg-spinner Kirsten Beans (1/49 in 8 overs) with utter disdain.

Her footwork against the spinners was exemplary as she would repeatedly come

down the track to loft them in the arc between long-on and deep mid-wicket.

She seemed in some dis-comfort with side strain but that did not deter her from targetting the on-side as a whopping 137 runs was added in 13.4 overs along with Deepti Sharma (25) for fourth wicket. Such was her focus that once she scam-pered home for a double to complete her hundred, she was seen shouting at Deepti after she flung her helmet in disgust. She regained her com-posure, said sorry to a teary-eyed junior and like a woman on mission completely annihi-lated the opposi-tion bowlers.Brief Scores:India: 281-4 in 42 overs (Harmanpreet Kaur 171 not out, Mithali Raj 36).Australia: A Gard-ner (1/43).Incomplete. AGENCIES

Highlights »Harmanpreet Kaur Slams 171* scoring her 3rd ODI

hundred »She became the 5th highest

run-scorer in ODIs »She became the second-

highest run scorer for India after Deepti Sharma

»She slammed hundred in just 90 balls

Mithali Raj plays a shot past Australia’s Alyssa Healy. Harmanpreet Kaur (pic right) in action

PIC/AP/PTI

PIC/AP/PTI

Government of NCT of DelhiDepartment of Urban Development 10th Level C- Wing, Delhi Sachivalaya

I.P.Estate, New Delhi Ph : 011-23392343 NIT.No.14 Item No.01 EE (North)-II (2017-18)

S. No.

Name of work Estimated Cost (Rs.)

Earnest Money

Date of release of tender in e-procurement solution

Ten-der fee (Non refund-able)

Last date/time of receipt of tender through e-pro-curement solution

1 Removing contamination by replac-ing the old 100 mm dia water line by P/L 100 mm dia D.I. water line at A-block Rana Pratap Bagh (from A-20/6 to B-block) in AC-18 in under EE (North)-II

12,84,307/- 24,700/- 13-07-2017 04:00 P.M. onward

500/- Technical bid to be received on 03-08-2017, 3:00 PM & opening of Financial bid after comple-tion of technical bid confir-mation of EMD from Bank

Further details in this regard can be seen at https://govtprocurement.delhi.gov.in ISSUED BY P.R.O. (WATER) Sd/- Advt. No. J.S.V. 125(2017-18) DIP/Shabdarth/1170/17-18 EXECUTIVE ENGINEER (North)-II

DEVELOPMENT AND PANCHAYATS DEPARTMENT PANCHAYATI RAJ, PUBLIC WORKS, DIVISION GURGAON

Notice Inviting Tenders The bids from eligible bidders are hereby invited on behalf of the Governor of Haryana through online

bids in the website https://haryanaeprocurement.gov.in for the works detailed in the table below:

The Technical Bid of tenders will be opened on 03/08/2017 at 9:00 AM for only L&C Society at par HSR Rate Other Terme&Conditions :

i. Eligible bidders are Bidders registered with Haryana Government, [Cl. 3.1] Other State Governments, Government of India and other Central and State Government Undertakings who satisfy the Qualifica-tion criteria. -

ii. In case, the day of opening of tenders, happens to be holiday, the tenders will be opened on the next working day.

iii. The time and place of receipt of tenders and other conditions will remain unchanged. iv. The undersigned reserve the right to reject a tender or all the tenders without assigning any reason. v. The societies shall produce an attested copy of resolution of the cooperative society duly attested from

the competent authority of cooperative department for issuance/participation in the tenders. vi. The tender without earnest money will not be opened. vii. In case of any dispute, the jurisdiction of court will be at Gurgaon. viii. All material will be arranged by the contractor/society itself. ix. For other term & conditions, see the tender form.

1. Start date of tender submission only for L&C society :-18/07/2017 from 9:00 AM2. End date for online submission of tenders only for L &C society :- 02/08/2017 up to 5:00 PM 3. Opening of tenders only for L&C society :- 03/08/2017from 1:00 AM If tenders not received within approved rates from the L&C Society

1. Start date of tender submission for contractor & L&C society :- 04/08/2017from 9:00 AM 2. End date for online submission of tenders for contractor & L&C society :- 10/08/2017up to 5:00 PM 3. Opening of tenders :- 11/08/2017from 10:00 AM

Or further details and e-tendering schedule visit website https://haryanaeprocurement.gov.in on behalf of Governor of Haryana.

(Dharmbir Yadav) PRDH-Advt. No:-1028/11/835/1718/52839 Executive Engineer, Dated: 20.07.2017 Panchayati Raj, Gurgaon.

mp sport 15MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi |Friday, 21 July, 2017

We will show we can compete against the best: U-17 Cup coachNEW DELHI: India Under-17 football head coach Luis Nor-ton de Matos on Thursday said that he has not lost hope of the country advancing beyond the group stages in the upcoming World Cup but termed his team’s chances in the prestigious FIFA event as “small”.

Addressing a press confer-ence here, de Matos said even in case his boys fail to go beyond the group stages, they will show the world that they can compete at the highest level and do the country proud.

“I will be realistic, I would say we have a small chance, con-sidering the draw. But it can still happen. In football you never know,” de Matos said, when asked about India’s chances of going beyond the group stages.

“Even if we could not go a long way in the tournament, I am sure the players will be competitive. They will show that India can compete at the same level, against the best in the world,” said the 63-year-old Portuguese.

“This World Cup is the beginning of the football proj-ect in India, not the end. The performance of these boys will give a perfect start to this proj-ect,” he added.

India are clubbed along with strong teams Ghana (two-time

champions and two-time run-ners-up), Colombia and United States. All of India’s matches will be played in New Delhi.

India will kick off their cam-paign against the USA on Octo-ber 6 before taking on Colombia on October 9. The hosts will

conclude the first phase with a match against Ghana. “I always play for a win. I know it will be difficult to win against these sides. Ghana, US and Colom-bia are very strong teams and they have prepared very well. But it (a win) can happen, you

never know. “We have prepared very well in the last 4-5 months since March. We had been to Europe for an exposure tour, have played 25 friendly matches and we are confident. Even if we have 5 per cent chance for a win, we will go for it,” he said.

Asked what could be the difference between India and the other teams, the Portuguese was quick to point out the num-ber of competitive matches the European, Latin American and African teams have played.

“When we talked about these teams like Ghana, US and Colombia, their players have been playing football for the last 10 years. They have the experi-ence of playing a lot of competi-tive matches, in tournaments. That is the difference,” said de Matos. De Matos replaced Ger-man Nicolai Adam who was sacked after complaints by the players of physical and verbal abuse. “But we have improved a lot since I joined in March. The next two and a half months are crucial. We are trying out a lot of formations, combinations and working out on how to react to different situations.”

He said before he took over, the team played more direct football which he has changed a bit as he wanted more posses-sion football. AGENCIES

AFI provisionally suspends Manpreet for 2nd dope offence

NEW DELHI: Top Indian shot-putter Manpreet Kaur was on Thursday suspended provision-ally for her second dope offence after she tested positive for a banned steroid, just a couple of days after her first dope flunk.

Manpreet has tested posi-tive for a banned steroid and stimulant dimethylbutylamine in a test conducted on her urine sample taken on April 24 during the first leg of the Asian Grand Prix Meet at Jinhua in China.

The 27-year-old Punjab ath-lete had hurled the shot put to a distance of 18.86m at the Chi-nese city (which was then the world leading performance) to win the gold and book a berth for World Championships to be held in London from August 4-13. Manpreet had also won a gold medal in the recently- con-cluded Asian Athletics Cham-pionships in Bhubaneswar. She will now miss the World Championships as the Athlet-ics Federation of India (AFI) has suspended her provisionally for her dope offence.

“We have been informed that she (Manpreet) has tested positive for a steroid and stim-ulant (dimethylbutylamine).

She has been handed provi-sional suspension by the AFI. She will now be dropped from World Championships team,” AFI president Adille Sumari-walla said. The Asian Grand Prix comes under the aegis of the continental governing body, the Asian Athletics Association. If her ‘B’ sample also returns positive, Manpreet could face a ban of upto four years for a first time dope offence. Manpreet’s second dope offence came a day after she tested positive for the banned stimulant dimethylbu-tylamine from her urine sample collected by National Anti-Dop-ing Agency Officials during the Federation Cup National Championships held in Patiala from June 1-4. It is a massive embarrassment for the country which might lose the gold medal clinched by Manpreet earlier this month in Bhubaneswar. She was not put under provi-sional suspension after her first offence as dimethylbutylamine is a specified substance under the WADA Code but India will lose the gold medal she won in Bhubaneswar if her confirma-tory urine sample ‘B’ test also returns positive. AGENCIES

India Under-17 football head coach Luis Norton de Matos

Chennai Open renamed Maharashtra Open, to be held in Pune

MUMBAI: India’s lone ATP tournament, the Chennai Open, will now be held in Pune next year and would be henceforth called “Maharash-tra Open”.

IMG-Reliance, the right holders of the tournament along with Government of Maharashtra and Maharash-tra State Lawn Tennis Asso-ciation (MSLTA), announced this here.

“We welcome the world class ATP tournament to our state,” said Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.

“We are happy to host the Maharashtra Open and sure that we will take it to newer heights by bringing in an elite field every year,” he added.

The Chennai Open became an important fixture on India s international sporting cal-endar, drawing top players from across the world for 21 long years.

Many of them, including 14-time Grand Slam men’s sin-gles champion Rafael Nadal of Spain who has often spo-ken about its importance in his journey to World No. 1, had made it their first stop every year.

India’s Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi forged their formidable partnership at the

Chennai Open, before they went on to conquer the world.

Stan Wawrinka and Maric Cilic, among the more notable players, also took baby steps in this event before going on to break into ATP’s elite Top 5 list.

Meanwhile, Indian ten-nis players, who already are struggling to get home tour-nament, heaved a sigh of relief that country’s only ATP World Tour event has not moved out of the country.

Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan, who won the 21st and last edi-tion of Chennai Open with compatriot Rohan Bopanna, said he’s happy that India still has a tournament. “It’s sad that it’s not in Chennai anymore. It is what it is. But I am excited to play in Pune as always. India has one tournament a year which I consider a home event so I’m happy that it’s still in our country,” the Chennai lad said.

“It would be nice to see more such level events in India through the year to help us all go higher in the rank-ings because playing at home is a big advantage. Of course this would only be possible if the AITA has any intent of creating a better system of tournament for the players,” the southpaw added with a tinge of sarcasm. AGENCIES

Former India keeper Vijay Yadav named India A fielding coachNEW DELHI: The BCCI on Thursday appointed Vijay Yadav as the fielding coach of the India A team for the upcoming tour of South Africa. The former Hary-ana stumper confirmed that BCCI has officially told him about his appointment. “Yes, it’s just couple of hours back that I was told about my appointment as the fielding coach of the India A team. AGENCIES

Real, Chelsea reach agreement on MorataMADRID: Spanish football giants Real Madrid and Chelsea announced they have reached an agreement on transfer-ring Spain’s Alvaro Morata to the English Premier League (EPL) club.

Both clubs on Wednesday said that the deal is subject to Morata passing the medi-cal examination and personal terms, reports Efe news agency.

La Liga champions Real Madrid thanked 24-year-old Morata for his dedication during two spells with them, from 2010-2014 and the

last campaign.With Real Madrid, the

20-time capped Morata won

two UEFA Champions League titles and two Spanish league crowns.

Both clubs said that the deal is subject to passing the medi-cal examination and personal terms with the player.

“Real Madrid C.F. and Chel-sea FC have reached an agree-ment regarding the transfer of Álvaro Morata, subject to the player completing his medical,” the clubs said in a statement on Thursday. The Spanish striker who has been reportedly val-ued at £67 million ($86 mil-lion) for the move was thanked by the Champions League title holders for his service for the club. AGENCIES

Golfers Lahiri, Kapur fire matching 73s at The Open

SOUTHPORT: Star Indian golfer Anirban Lahiri and Shiv Kapur fired identical cards of three-over 73s in the opening round of The Open here on Thursday.

Lahiri, the 2015 Asian Tour Order of Merit champion, struggled with a cold putter while Kapur was disappointed to drop two shots in his closing three holes at Royal Birkdale.

Making his fifth appear-ance at The Open, Lahiri bird-ied the fifth hole but dropped six shots in eight holes in the middle of his round. He recov-ered with a birdie on 14 and holed a 25-footer eagle on the 17th hole before dropping another shot on the last.

“I got out of rhythm. I wasn’t hitting fairways and

greens and when you don’t do that, you will struggle to put up a score. I should have only dropped at least two shots instead of six but I didn’t have the touch I needed on and off the greens,” said Lahiri.

“My putting really let me down. I left myself in good positions to get up-and-down but I wasn’t sharp. I think I

had six misses from inside six feet. Happy I fought back a little bit but disappointed to bogey the last from a good position. I have to eliminate those bogeys.

“When you have a bad stretch like that, you have to put your head down and focus on the next hole. It is easier said than done but that is something knew com-ing into today. I’m happy I fought back into this posi-tion. I’ll come back tomor-row (Friday) and fight,” said the Indian. Kapur, who won his second Asian Tour title earlier this year, got off to a steady start before hit-ting a disappointing tri-ple bogey on the par-three seventh hole. AGENCIES

Anirban Lahiri

mp Entertainment16 MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Friday, 21 July, 2017

MUMBAI: Filmmaker Karan Johar has admitted the nepotism joke targeting Kan-gana Ranaut at the IIFA Awards stage was his idea and it is something that he regrets now. Johar, Saif Ali Khan and Varun Dhawan raked up the nepotism debate during the award ceremony on July 15, where the trio chanted “nepotism rocks”, mocking Kan-gana for calling the Ae Dil Hai Mushkil director the “flag-bearer of nepotism” on his chat show earlier this year.

Varun apologised on Tuesday, while Johar in an interview on Wednesday said it was a case of a joke gone wrong and his intention was never to hurt anyone. “What we said was meant to be a joke, which I

think has been misplaced, misunderstood and I think it went wrong. I regret it. The idea of that joke was entirely mine, so I take onus of the idea of what we said. And I think we went a bit far by the Kangana mention.

“No matter what I say or feel about my issues with what Kangana said on my talk show... I think I was raised to be dignified, chivalrous and a decent person. That’s the upbringing that I was given and I feel that I failed on those accounts,” he said, add-ing that he is closing the chapter once and for all.

Kangana’s comment on Johar’s show had kicked up the nepotism storm in Bol-lywood, where family connections often

lead to better career opportunities. Johar had taken umbrage to the actor’ remark, which led to a verbal duel between him and Kangana after the show aired.

The topic cropped once again at the recently-concluded awards ceremony. When Varun went up to the stage to receive the best comic actor award, Saif joked, “You are here because of your papa.” To which Varun replied, “You are here because of your mummy (referring to Sharmila Tagore).”

Soon, Johar joined them and said he too was in the industry because of his father, filmmaker Yash Johar. The trio then shouted, “Nepotism rocks”. Saif and Varun then sang “Bole chudiyaan” from Johar’s

film Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham... But the director twisted the second part of the song to take a potshot at Kangana, saying, ‘Kan-gana na hi bole toh achha hai’ (It would be better if Kangana did not speak).

The actor, known for her outspoken nature, is yet to respond but the joke has backfired for the trio with netizens crit-icising them for their sense of entitle-ment. Comedian Tanmay Bhat posted, “I just realised they legit yelled ‘Nepotism rocks’ at the end of it and I cannot stop facepalming.”

“I don’t know what kind of entitlement you need to actually find ‘nepotism rocks’ funny. Like yeah, it did for you and that makes you a loser,” a Twitter user said. PTI

I REGRET IT:

joke at IIFAKARAN JOHAR ON KANGANA

MUMBAI: Actor Ayushmann Khurrana jokes that SS Rajamou-li’s epic saga Baahubali: The Con-clusion, which released two weeks before Meri Pyaari Bindu, was responsible for his film’s poor box office collection.

Starring Ayushmann and Parineeti Chopra, Meri Pyaari Bindu released on May 12 amid huge expectations as the songs of the film were popular. The movie failed at the box-office but the Vicky Donor actor says he person-ally received a mixed response for his role.

“I think ‘Baahubali’ ate us up (laughs). I had fun working on ‘Meri Pyaari Bindu’. I got a mix response for the film including from my family – some liked it and some did not. But if ‘Baahubali...’ had not released, maybe it (‘Meri Pyaari Bindu’) would have done better,” says Ayushmann in a media interaction here.

Featuring Prabhas, Rana Dag-gubati, Anushka Shetty, Taman-naah, Ramya Krishnan and Sathyaraj, the second part of Baa-hubali released on April 28 and has

reportedly done a business of over Rs 1,500 crore globally.

Meri Pyaari Bindu produced by Aditya Chorpa and Maneesh Sharma reportedly earned Rs 35 crore. Meanwhile Ayushmann’s name had cropped up for the sequel of Happy Bhaag Jayegi but he turned down the offer due date issues.

“I was shooting for Sriram Raghavan’s film so (couldn’t do it). I think you can’t be doing every-

thing together. We have to adjust the dates and then make your own choices.” For the first time, the actor-singer has teamed up with Raghavan for a film and he says it was a great experience.

Currently, Ayushmann is excited about his next release Bareilly Ki Barfi, also featuring Rajkummar Rao and Kriti Sanon. The romantic comedy, directed by Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari, is scheduled to release on August 18. PTI

‘Baahubali’ ate us up: Ayushmann on ‘Meri Pyaari Bindu’ BO result

Means a lot: Priyanka on being nominated for Teen

Choice AwardsMUMBAI: Actor Priyanka Chopra is more than happy on being nominated in the Villain category at the Teen Choice 2017 awards and she says it means a lot to her,

Priyanka, who has been nominated for her maiden Hollywood film Baywatch, took to Twitter and wrote: “This truly means a lot, thank you Teen Choice Awards for nominating me as Choice Movie Villain, and a huge thank you to all who have voted!”

Baywatch is an action comedy film directed by Seth Gordon and based on the television series of the same name. The film also stars Dwayne Johnson, Zac Efron, Alexandra Daddario, Kelly Rohrbach, Jon Bass and Ilfenesh Hadera.

Priyanka is seen essaying a negative role – of a woman named Victoria Leeds – in the movie, which revolves around lifeguard Mitch Buchannon and his team who, in an effort to save their beach, have to take down a drug lord. Currently, Pri-yanka has two films in her kitty – A Kid Like Jake and Isn’t It Romantic.

The Teen Choice Awards is an annual awards show that airs on the Fox televi-sion network.

The awards honour the year’s biggest achieve-ments in music, film, sports, television, fashion, and more, voted by viewers aged 13 to 19.

The event will be held on August 13. IANS

RIA PRUTHI

An entrepreneur by pro-fession and a musician by talent, Ananya Birla

took to social media on her 23rd birthday to announce and promulgate her second single. Titled ‘Meant To Be’, the song will be out on July 28 and is predicted to break the records of her international debut sin-gle ‘Livin the Life’.

The song is an electro-pop single with distinctive sound effects and will prove evi-dent of her artistic maturity

since her debut single in 2016. “I have progressed and have become more mature as an artist and I hope people could see that,” confesses Ananya, who enjoys playing guitar and santoor.

‘Meant To Be’ is very close to the young musician’s heart. “It is about two people who sink together. Whether they come together, go on their own ways or reunite is what we really don’t know as of now,” added the young Birla who at the age of 17 found and established Svatantra Micro-

finance, a company that pro-vides microfinance to the women in rural India. Ananya had earlier surprised her fol-lowers by lending her vocal finesse to the song ‘Livin the life’, which was later remixed by renowned DJ  Afrojack. The remix by Afrojack made Ananya the first Indian artiste to get a worldwide release through PM:AM Record-ings and crossed 14 million views as of now.

Talking about her journey, Ananya shared, “In life, all of us have different experiences.

Everything doesn’t have a rea-son. We can’t always say why something happens in our life. Perhaps certain things are just meant to be.” The heart touch-ing song has been produced by Mood Melodies, the same people who produced ‘Faded by Alan Walker’ and adorned with the lyrics by the musi-cian herself.

While her debut single ‘Livin The Life’ has already become a rage since its launch last year, Ananya is hoping that ‘Meant To Be’ will do wonders.

‘Meant to be’ is very close to my heart: Ananya

LOS ANGELES: Popular comic book writer Stan Lee was honoured with a ceremony to imprint his hands and feet in front of the TLC Chinese The-atre. The event was attended by Mar-vel head Kevin Feige, Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn, film-maker Kevin Smith, Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman, Star Trek’s Nichelle Nichols and comic book art-ist Todd McFarlane, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

“I thank you from the bottom from my heart, and I’ve always won-dered about that expression,” Lee said. “Why is the bottom of your heart more important than the top of your heart? I

thank you from my whole heart.” For over seven decades, the 94-year-old legend has created some of the most iconic rosters of heroes and villains of the comic book page.

Among Lee’s most memorable creations are Iron Man, Thor, Black Panther, the X-Men, Fantastic Four and Spider-Man. These heroes have become the backbone of both the Mar-vel Cinematic Universe, as well as, the Fox Marvel Universe, further proving that Lee’s works are timeless classics. Lee was also honoured as a Disney Legend on July 14 and is set to be feted on Friday at a panel during Comic-Con in San Diego. PTI

LONDON: Singer Ed Sheeran insists he didn’t quit Twitter because of the negative reac-tion to his “Game of Thrones” cameo and says it was just a coincidence. The 26-year-old “Galway Girl” hitmaker says he isn’t worried about what other people think of his role.

“Last I’ll say on this. I came off Twitter Coz I was always intending to come off Twit-

ter, had noth-ing to do with what people said about my game of thrones cameo, because I am in game of thrones, why the hell would I worry what

people thought about that. It’s clearly awesome. Timing was just a coincidence, but believe what you want (sic),” reads a post on his Instagram. This comes after the episode’s direc-tor Jeremy Podeswa defended Sheeran’s appearance.

“I think Ed did a lovely job – he’s a lovely actor and a lovely person. He was appropriate for the part because he needed to sing. If people didn’t know who Ed was, they wouldn’t have thought about it twice.” PTI

LOS ANGELES: Actor Charlize Theron didnt break a sweat while filming sex scenes with another woman on the set of her latest film Atomic Blonde. The 41-year-old actor told Extra that working on those scenes with Sofia Boutella was “really easy”, reports people.com.

“With Sofia, it was easy just because we’re both dancers and you have to choreograph those scenes quite a bit,” she said. “Otherwise, they just become silly. There is a techni-cal aspect to it, so with her, it was really easy because she thinks like me because we’re dancers,” added Theron. Theron said the scene was shot in 45 minutes and that filming racy scenes with men was a bit dif-ferent than working with women.

“With the guys, they’re not danc-ers, so, it takes a bit more work,” she said. Despite the extra work, the Oscar-win-ning actor admit-ted that she enjoys filming sex scenes with both men and women. IANS

Theron found it ‘really easy’ to do sex scenes with a woman

Stan Lee honoured with handprint ceremony

Ed Sheeran didn’t quit Twitter over ‘Game of Thrones’