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Dharamshala/New Delhi:Khalistan flags were found tiedon the main gate and slogansscrawled on the walls of theHimachalPradesh LegislativeAssembly complex inDharamshala, police said onSunday.

While State ChiefMinister Jai Ram Thakur con-demned the “cowardly” act, theAam Aadmi Party (AAP),which is making inroads in thepoll-bound State, termed theincident a “complete securityfailure” on the part of the BJP-led Government.

The flags, which wereremoved by the administra-tion, were put up on gatenumber one of the Assemblycomplex, police said.

“It might have happenedin the late night or early morn-ing today. We have removed

the Khalistani flags fromVidhan Sabha gate. We areinvestigating and going to reg-ister a case,” KangraSuperintendent of PoliceKhushal Sharma said.

The Winter Session of theHP Assembly is usually held inDharamshala. Condemningthe incident, Chief MinisterThakur said the culprits will be

caught soon.“I condemn the coward-

ly incident of raising Khalistanf lags at the gate of theDharamshala AssemblyComplex in the dark of night.Only the Winter Session of theAssembly is held there, andhence it requires tighter secu-rity arrangements during thattime only,” he tweeted.

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Dismissing the bail plea ofthe accused of the

Jahangirpuri violent clashes,the District Court at Rohinihas observed that there was“utter failure” on part of thepolice in stopping theHanuman Jayanti processionthat was carried out withoutpermission and led to violenceon April 16. The court direct-ed the Delhi PoliceCommissioner to investigatethe matter and fix account-ability.

Additional Sessions Judge

Gagandeep Singh said person-nel of the Delhi Police hadaccompanied the illegal pro-cession and that their com-plicity if any, should be inves-tigated.

“The liability on the part ofthe concerned officials needs tobe fixed so that in future nosuch incident takes place and

the police are not complacentin preventing the illegal activ-ities,” said the court in theorder.

The court made the obser-vation while dismissing thebail plea of eight accused per-sons - Imteyaz, Noor Alam,Sheikh Hamid, Ahmad Ali,Sheikh Hamid, SK Sahahada,

Sheikh Zahir, and Ahir - whowere arrested in connectionwith the violence.

At a hearing, the courtsaid the fact that the processionhad no prior permission fromthe police was admitted onbehalf of the authorities and isbeing brushed aside by seniorofficers.

Justice Singh said the firstinformation report filed by thepolice showed that the staff ofthe Jahangirpuri police sta-tion, led by inspector RajivRanjan as well as other officials,were accompanying the saidillegal procession on its route“instead of stopping it.

“It appears that local policeinstead of performing theirduty in stopping the said ille-gal procession in the beginningitself and dispersing the crowd,was accompanying them tothe entire route which later onled to unfortunate riotsbetween the two communities,”the court said.

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Jet Airways will be back in thesky soon. The new manage-

ment has got security clearancefrom the Union HomeMinistry and is expected tostart commercial operationsat the earliest.

The Civil AviationMinistry has sent a letter to theairline now promoted by theJalan-Kalrock Consortiumregarding the granting of secu-rity clearance from the HomeMinistry. On May 5, the airlineconducted its test flight atHyderabad airport andobtained the DirectorateGeneral of Civil Aviation’s(DGCA) initial clearance.

“It is directed to refer yourapplication …. To convey secu-rity clearance for change inshareholding pattern of thecompany/firm, for scheduledoperator permit, on the basis ofsecurity clearance received

from the Ministry of HomeAffairs,” the letter to Jet Airwayssaid.

Jet Airways promoted byNaresh Goyal became defunctin 2018 due to bankruptcyand has now been taken overby the Ja lan-KalrockConsortium, which is the“Successful ResolutionApplicant” and new proposedpromoter of Jet Airways.

In October 2020, the air-line’s Committee of Creditors(CoC) approved the resolu-tion plan submitted by theconsortium of the United

Kingdom’s (UK) KalrockCapital and the United ArabEmirates (UAE) based entre-preneur Murari Lal Jalan. InJune 2021, the NationalCompany Law Tribunal(NCLT) approved the Jalan-Kalrock Consortium’s resolu-tion plan.

The airline now has toacquire air operation certifi-cates from the DGCA. JetAirways officials said that byOctober 2022 they can startcommercial operations afterthe DGCA gives clearances ontest flights.

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Ahead of the much-hypedChintan Shivir of the

Congress in Udaipur fromWednesday, not everything iswell within the party. The listof invitees who will attend theshivir has left several leadersunhappy.

Several party leaders havequestioned why only nationaland State office bearers figurein the list and why other seniorleaders, including formerMinisters, ex-MPs, and theyounger lot, have not beengiven space to share their viewsand ideas for the resurrectionof the grand old party.

“They called it nav (new)Chintan Shivir then why not amix of invitees would sharetheir vision to revive the party?In a three-day session manyleaders could get chance tospeak, but the same stereotyp-ical behaviour of the party hasleft many of us disappointed,”a former State President of a

prominent State told ThePioneer.

Another leader said theshivir should have beenplanned as a platform to dis-cuss and debate new ideascoming from a young genera-tion of leaders. “The incumbentoffice bearers are already partof the system, and it is due tothem that the party is beingdecimated each passing day,” hesaid.

AICC sources said about400 leaders have been invitedto attend the shivir. Theyinclude members of Parliamentfrom Lok Sabha and RajyaSabha, besides State CongressCommittee presidents andCongress Legislature Partychiefs.

“If only new people getchance to share their ideas,then only a positive changecan be brought about,” said aformer Rajya Sabha CongressMP.

Another party worker whowas part of the Shimla Sessionin 2003 recalled how about 50

participants were picked fromacross the States on a randombasis, and a large number ofyouth leaders were also part ofthe 2013 Jaipur Plenary.

He also recalled that thenCongress chief Rahul Gandhiin the same meeting had saidthe party should open thedoors to people who don’t holdany position or are not officebearers even at block level.While sections of senior lead-ers are angry because they arenot on the list despite theirexperience and positions theyheld in the past, younger lead-ers believe at least 50 per centof the participants should havebeen new, from outside thesystem. Another senior leader,who is now a party worker forfour decades, rued the fact thathe never got an opportunity toattend any of such party’s con-gregation.

He took a swipe at theparty for forming a set ofcommittees on various issuesexcept for the most crucialleadership crisis.

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The Indian MeteorologicalDepartment on Sunday said

that Cyclone Asani is likely tointensify into a “severe cyclonicstorm” in the next 12 hours.Asani is the first cyclonic stormin the North Indian Oceanregion in 2022. The cyclone isnamed Asani by Sri Lanka andmeans “wrath” in Sinhalese.

The Kolkata MunicipalCorporation (KMC) has puton alert its employees and dis-aster management team. TheKMC has cancelled leaves of allemployees to deal with anyemergency evolving due to thecyclone.

Trinamool CongressGeneral Secretary Kunal Ghoshon Sunday said that due to the

prediction of the Asani storm,Chief Minister MamataBanerjee’s three-day programmein West Midnapore andJhargram has been rescheduledto May 17, 18, and 19 from May10, 11 and 12.

The Odisha Governmentsaid that arrangements havebeen made to evacuate 7.5 lakhpeople in 18 districts if any suchemergency situation arises dueto the cyclone.

Taking to Twitter, the IndiaMeteorological Department(IMD) said, “The CS ‘Asani’ overSoutheast Bay of Bengal movednorthwestwards and lay centeredat 1130 hours IST of today, overthe same region about 530 kmwest-northwest of Car Nicobar(Nicobar Islands), 440 km westof Port Blair (Andaman Islands),900 km southeast ofVisakhapatnam (Andhra

Pradesh).”“It is very likely to move

northwestwards and intensifyfurther into a severe cyclonicstorm over East-Central Bay ofBengal during next 24 hours,”the IMD said adding that thesystem is very likely to contin-ue to move northwestwards tillMay 10 evening and reach West-central and adjoining NorthwestBay of Bengal off North AndhraPradesh and Odisha coasts.

According to Skymet, a pri-vate weather forecaster, Asanihas become a severe cyclonicstorm, the equivalent of a Cat-I hurricane, packed with a windspeed in excess of 110 kmph andin gusts touching 140 kmph. Itis centered around 12.5 degreesnorth and 87.5 degrees east at5.30 pm.

Thereafter, it is very likely torecurve north-northeastwards

and move towards NorthwestBay of Bengal off Odisha coast.

IMD officials said thecyclone is unlikely to makelandfall as it would recurve inthe sea north-northeastwards onMay 10. The cyclone will notmake landfall as the system ismore likely to move parallel toOdisha- Andhra coast, saidIMD officials.

“Light to moderate rainfallwill start in coastal districts likeGanjam, Gajapati, Khordha,Jagatsinghpur and Puri afterMay 10 evening. In the coastalareas, the wind speed will be 40-50 kmph and gusting up to 60kmph. The maximum windspeed will be 50-60 kmph andthe windy condition will con-tinue till May 11 and thereafter,it will start reducing,” IMDdirector general (DG)Mrutyunjay Mohapatra said.

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India recorded 3,451 newCovid cases and 40 deaths in

the last 24 hours, a marginaldecline from 3,805 cases regis-tered the previous day. Thedecline in the number of infec-tions is attributed to the lowernumber of testing on week-ends.

However, the cases con-tinued to be on the rise in Delhiand Maharashtra, sparkingconcerns of a fresh resurgence.

While Maharashtrarecorded 253 new Covid-19cases on Saturday - up from205 a day ago, Delhi saw 1,407cases - a minor dip fromFriday’s tally of 1,656.

According to HealthMinistry’s data, the currentCovid caseload in the countrystands at 43,102,194 and atotal of 5,24,064 people havedied due to respiratory infec-tion since 2020. India’s death

rate is 1.22 per cent of the totalcaseload.

The number of active casesin India has risen to 20,635with an increase of 332 cases ina day. The current active case-load is 0.05 per cent, as per theGovernment data.

The 40 new fatalitiesinclude 35 from Kerala and twofrom Delhi and one each from

Gujarat, Maharashtra and UttarPradesh. Delhi’s positivity ratedropped to 4.72 per cent onSaturday.

The city reported 1,407new Covid cases and 4,365recoveries in a day.

There are 5,955 active casesin the capital, down from 6,096the previous day. The numberof containment zones has risen

to 1,630 from 1,597 on Friday,according to the city’s healthbulletin.

On the other hand,Maharashtra reported 253 newCovid cases, the highest sincethe last week of March onSaturday while Gujarat logged27 Coronavirus cases and onedeath. The lone death tookplace in Kheda district.

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A23-year-old woman fromJaipur has alleged that

Rohit Joshi, the son ofRajasthan Minister MaheshJoshi, raped her on multipleoccasions over a year, followingwhich the Delhi Police hasregistered a zero FIR, officialssaid on Sunday.

A senior Delhi Police offi-cer said the Rajasthan Policehas been intimated about theFIR and will further investigatethe matter.

The case was registered onMay 8 at a police station inNorth District under Sections376 (rape), 328 (causing hurtby means of poison, etc. with

intent to commit an offence),312 (causing miscarriage), 366(kidnapping, abducting orinducing woman to compelher for marriage etc), 377(unnatural offences), and 506(criminal intimidation) of theIndian Penal Code, the policesaid.

Mahesh Joshi, the Ministerfor Public Health Engineering,could not be reached over thephone for his reaction.

In her complaint, thewoman alleged that theMinister’s son raped her onseveral occasions betweenJanuary 8 last year and April17 this year, and also promisedto marry her.

The woman said shedeveloped a friendship withRohit Joshi on Facebook lastyear and they have been incontact since then.

The two met in Jaipurfirst and he allegedly invitedher to Sawai Madhopur onJanuary 8, 2021.

During their first meeting,she alleged, he spiked herdrink and took advantage of it.

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CHANDIGARH | MONDAY | MAY 9, 2022 02

Farmers reject Punjab Govt’s schedule for electricity supply for paddy sowingPNS n PATIALA

Rejecting the electricity sup-ply schedule issued by the

Punjab Government for theupcoming paddy sowing sea-son, as many as 16 farmerunions on Sunday assertedthat they will start transplant-

ing the crop from June 10.The farm unions

announced the decision after ameeting with the chairmanand managing director of thestate power utility — PunjabState Power CorporationLimited (PSPCL).

Notably, the State

Government has decided toallow paddy sowing in a stag-gered manner, beginning fromJune 18 with the aim to lessenthe burden on electricity andconserve underground water.From June 18, paddy trans-plantation would start inSangrur, Barnala, Malerkotla,Ludhiana, Patiala andFatehgarh Sahib districts, whilesowing will commence fromJune 22 in Bathinda, Mansa,Moga, Faridkot, Ferozepur andFazilka, as per the governmentnotification.

It added, from June 24,paddy sowing will start inMohali, SBS Nagar, Kapurthala,and Muktsar; and from June26, it will start in Gurdaspur,Pathankot, Hoshiarpur,Amritsar and Tarn Taran dis-tricts. The Government alsoallowed paddy sowing withdirect seeding of rice tech-nique from May 20. The noti-fication added that electricitysupply to farmers for irrigationwill start from the dates fixedfor the commencement ofpaddy sowing.

After the meeting withPSPCL chairman, the farmerssaid that they completely rejectthe new schedule for paddysowing and electricity supplyannounced by the StateGovernment.

Bharti Kisan Union(Dakaunda) president ButaSingh Burjgill termed the move“dictatorial” saying that it wasnot acceptable. “The govern-ment did not consult withfarmers before releasing thesowing and electricity supplyschedule,” he said.

Burjgill said that the farm-ers would start paddy sowingfrom June 10. “We would holdan agitation to press the StateGovernment to ensure supply ofelectricity from June 10,” he said.

BRIEFSWorld Red Cross Day observed at HP Raj Bhawan

Shimla: The World Red Cross Day was observed at RajBhawan on Sunday with HP Red Cross Hospital Welfare Sectionchairperson and National Red Cross Managing Committee’smember Dr Sadhana Thakur along with other members and officebearers of State Red Cross Society and HP Red Cross HospitalWelfare Section pinning up Red Cross flags to the stateGovernor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar, who is also the HP StateRed Cross Society president. The Governor made his contribu-tion towards the Red Cross Society.

Delegation from Raipur visits Chandigarh; praisesMCC projects

Chandigarh: A delegation, comprising Raipur Mayor AijazDhebar, Municipal Corporation (Chhattisgarh) ‘sabhapati’(chairman) Parmod Dubey, and the Leader of Opposition MinalChgan Chaube, along with 81 councillors and officers, on Sundayvisited Chandigarh. On two-day study tour regarding “Solid WasteManagement and Best Practices of Municipal CorporationChandigarh”, the delegation was apprised about MCC’s variousprojects on Solid Waste Management system, roads, water sup-ply, garden and green belts, street lights, tertiary treated watersupply, processing of C&D waste, property tax, management ofgaushalas, vendor rehabilitation system and other projects ofMCC.

Haryana to upgrade patwarkhanas, tehsilsChandigarh: Haryana Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant

Chautala on Sunday said that patwarkhanas and tehsils wouldbe upgraded in the State and Patwaris would be digitized andequipped. “In case of crop damage, the Government is going totake a step forward soon, under which the farmers will be ableto send report regarding damage of his crop through his mobilephone and will be able to upload his information, after whichthe concerned Patwari will investigate which will save time,” saidChautala. Besides, he said that the record of land has been dig-itized and on the same lines, the records of Panchayat land andPatwarkhanas will also be digitised.

Haryana Agri Min distributes KCC, PKCC to farmersChandigarh: Haryana Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare

Minister JP Dalal on Sunday said that the State Government isefficiently helping farmers from getting seed to selling their pro-duce in the market. The Government’s main objective is to ensurethat water reaches every field so that farmers become prosper-ous which is why Mukhyamantri Bagwani Bima Yojana and PashuKisan Credit Card (PKCC) have been started, said Dalal on thesidelines of an event to distribute credit cards on behalf of SarvaHaryana Gramin Bank for animal husbandry to the farmers inChandwas village of Charkhi-Dadri.

Moms-to-be walk the ramp at ‘Pregnancy Carnival’Chandigarh: To mark the International Mother’s Day,

Cloudnine, India’s premium birthing center in the tricity orga-nized a “pregnancy carnival” for all the expecting couples. As apart of the celebration, a “Ramp walk” by Moms-to-be and theirspouses along with a quiz competition and dance performancesby new moms was organised. The guests present to mark thecelebrations were Isha Kalia, Joint Managing Director and CEOPunjab Municipal Infrastructure Development Company(PMIDC), Government of Punjab, Chandigarh and senior dig-nitaries, doctors and members of the staff from Cloudnine. Morethan 100 moms-tobe from the tricity along with their familiesattended the event.

City entrepreneur listed among 200 global leadersChandigarh: Adding yet another feather to his cap at the

young age of 28, city entrepreneur Trishneet Arora has beennamed among 200 people around the globe as the “Leaders forTomorrow” by St Gallen Symposium Switzerland. Arora is thefounder-CEO of TAC Security — a Silicon Valley based Cyber-Security company having its India headquarters in Mohali. Arorahas recently been accepted in the prestigious Forbes BusinessCouncil and was listed amongst the Top 200 Great PeopleManagers by Forbes and Great Manager Institute.

HP CM orders probe after Khalistan flag found tied to assembly gatePolice files FIR, CMassures ‘accusedwill be nabbed soon’

PNS n SHIMLA

Khalistan flags were foundtied to the main gate of the

Himachal Pradesh LegislativeAssembly in Dharamshala withslogans written on its walls onSunday morning. Strongly react-

ing, Chief Minister Jai RamThakur ordered a probe intowhat he strongly condemned asa “cowardly incident”.

Declaring to investigatethe matter quickly ensuringstrict action be taken againstthe culprits, he added thatthere was a need for more secu-rity arrangements.

Khalistan flags were foundtied to the main gate of theHimachal Pradesh VidhanSabha in Dharamshala, with

slogans written on its walls. Theflags were put up on the outerside of the main gate numberone of the assembly complex,which have now been removedby the administration.

“FIR has been registeredagainst whoever tied Khalistanflags and wrote Khalistan out-side the Himachal PradeshLegislative Assembly inDharamshala today. The inves-tigation process has been ini-tiated; our efforts are to nabthem as soon as possible,” saidThakur.

He said that “strict actionwill be taken against theaccused. For some days, wehave been observing that somepowers are behind carrying outsuch incidents; they will not besuccessful or spared.”

The police have registeredan FIR under sections 153-A,153-B of the Indian Penal Codeand section 3 of HP Open

Places (Prevention ofDisfigurement) Act, 1985,“relating to hoisting the ban-ners and graffiti of Khalistan onthe outer the boundary ofVidhan Sabha”.

The police said that Section13 of the Unlawful ActivitiesPrevention Act (UAPA) hasbeen added to the FIR, andGurpatwant Singh Pannun,General Counsel to Sikhs forJustice (SFJ), has (been) madethe main accused in the case.

“ADGP-CID, IG/DIGRanges, and District superin-tendents of police (SPs) havebeen directed to seal all inter-state borders or barriers andkeep strict vigil at the places ofprobable hideouts,” added thepolice. Sharing a video messageon Twitter, the Chief Ministersaid that “Himachal is a cordialstate and peace should prevailhere...We have told the policethat strict action should be

taken against the perpetra-tors.”

Kangra SP KhushalSharma said: “We haveremoved the Khalistan flagsfrom the Vidhan Sabha gate. Itcould be an act of some touristsfrom Punjab.”

He added that the incidentmay have happened either latenight on Saturday or earlymorning on Sunday.

Dharamshala Sub-Divisional Magistrate ShilpiBeakta said: “This is like awake-up call for us to workwith more alertness.”

Meanwhile, HimachalPradesh Assembly SpeakerVipin Singh Parmar said: “Icondemn banners and writingsput up outside the assemblybuilding. Some anti-social ele-ments are carrying out suchactivities to disturb the har-mony of the state.”

Also condemning hang-

ing Khalistan flags at HPAssembly gate, Punjab’s formerChief Minister Capt AmarinderSinghs sought strict actionagainst those involved in it. Heclaimed that “fringe elements”were trying to disturb peaceand brotherhood in the coun-try by such acts.

At the same time, he urgedHP Chief Minister to takestrict action against the perpe-trators.

Deputy Chief Minister ofDelhi and Aam Aadmi Partyleader Manish Sisodia has alsoreacted to the incident, tweet-ing about it in Hindi. “The gov-ernment which cannot save theLegislative Assembly, how willit save the people,” he wrote.

The incident has occurredjust a few days after Sikhs forJustice (SFJ) leader GurpatwantSingh Pannu had issued a callto hoist the Khalistani flag inShimla.

HP Govt recruited 4052posts in HPSEB in lastfour years: ThakurAnnounces toreduce serviceperiod for pro-motion of non ITIemployees work-ing on post ofSSA in StateElectricity Boardfrom ten to sevenyearsPNS n SOLAN

Himachal Pradesh ChiefMinister Jai Ram Thakur

on Sunday announced toreduce the service period forpromotion of non-ITI employ-ees working on post of SubStation Attendant (SSA) in theState Electricity Board from tento seven years.

Thakur, addressing theninth triennial general con-vention of Himachal PradeshState Electricity BoardTechnical Employees’ Union atBaddi in Nalagarh sub-divisionof Solan district, said that var-ious legitimate demands of theBoard’s technical staff would beresolved.

Making the announcementto reduce the service period forpromotion , Thakur said thatthe decision would be takenafter deliberation on the issueof removing the word Juniorfrom the post of T-mate.

Stating that the stateemployees play vital role in dis-semination and execution ofvarious welfare schemes andprogrammes, Thakur said thatat present, there were more

than two lakh employees andan equal number of pensionersin the State; besides more than40,000 outsourced employees.

Thakur said that due toconstant efforts of former andpresent employees, the statewas moving forward on thepath of development. The legit-imate demands of the employ-ees were being met and tosecure the present and future ofthe employees, many decisionshave been taken, he said.

Chief Minister said that thepresent State Government, dur-ing its tenure of four and a halfyears, has ensured the devel-opment of every section of thesociety. “The decisions taken inthe interest of the employeesduring the tenure are unprece-dented. The State Governmentensured that the employeeswere given all their dues, salary,pension and other benefitsdespite the COVID-19 crisis,”he said adding that the StateGovernment would always tryto solve the employees’ prob-lems.

Thakur said that recruit-ment was being done on vari-ous posts in the State ElectricityBoard. “In the last four years,4052 posts have been filled outof these, 2721 were technicalposts and also 3069 employeeshave been promoted in thetechnical section of theElectricity Board,” he added.

He said that the StateGovernment was keen to solvethe problems of every sectionof the employees. He said thatfor the first time a committeehas been constituted to securethe interest of outsourcedemployees of the state. He saidthat on pension matters also, acommittee has been constitut-ed under the chairmanship ofthe Chief Secretary.

Classifieds

We, Sukhbir Singh S/o Late

Musadi Lal and Sureshna W/o Sh.

Sukhbir Singh # 2017/25, Sector

32-C, Chandigarh declare that our

daughters Anita w/o Ajay, Samrita

Sisodia w/o Kumar Gaurav are out

of our control. We disown them

from our all movable immovable

properties. Anybody dealing with

them at their own risk.

I, Deepu S/o Madu R/o

Village Sirta, Tehsil & Distt. Kaithal

(Haryana) declares that my son

Monu Kumar is out of control. I

disowned him from my all

moveable / immoveable

properties. He is fully responsible

for his all work / dealing. Deal with

him at your own risk. All concerned

please note.

I, Sukhbir Singh S/o Ishwar

Singh R/o Village Guhan, Sub-

Tehsil Babain, Distt. Kurukshetra

inform that my son Ravinder

Budhwar is out of control. That's

why I disown him from my

moveable & immovable properties.

My family will not be responsible

for his actions and transactions in

future.

I, Veerpal Kaur W/o Late:

Kanwaljeet Singh R/o # 24374

St.No. 5A Guru Ki Nagri (Bathinda)

declare that my husband Tittu

Singh @ Kanwaljeet Singh was

known by both names. He was the

same person with two names.

I, Vishisht Singh S/o Ishwar

Singh R/o 1191/23, DLF Colony,

Rohtak, Haryana,124001 declares

that in my Aadhar and Pan Card

my name written as Vishisht Singh,

in my Passport my name is written

as Kanwar Vishishtha

Singh.Vishisht Singh and Kanwar

Vishishtha Singh both are my

name, one and the same person.

I Harjinder Singh R/o 1

ADSR C/o 56 APO inform that my

Son Name wrongly entered as

Harmanjyot in my Service

Document. His Real / correct

Name is Harmanjyot Singh. Vide

affidavit No. 1183, Dt. 22.04.2022.

Hence forth, he will be called as

Harmanjyot Singh.

I, Service No-13893413P

Rank Hav Balbir S/o Harnam

Singh R/o Village Chak Madho

Singh Tehsil & Distt. Pathankot, in

My Army Service Record My Wife

Name is Wrongly Written as

Balwinder Kaur instead of

Mandeep Kaur, So Kindly Correct

it.

I, Kimkar Singh S/o Joginder

Singh, Vill Burj Tehsil and Distt

Malerkotla, have changed my

name to Kamikar Singh.

I, Muskan Sidhour W/o Amit

Khurana R/o H.No. 51 Mohindra

Avenue Amritsar Road Tarn Taran

(Tarn Taran) changed my name to

Muskan Khurana.

I, Kamaljit Kaur W/o Jasbir

Singh Vpo Khanpur Teh-Baba

Bakala Amritsar 143203 changed

my name from Kamljit Kaur to

Kamaljit Kaur.

I, Dalvinder Kaur W/o

Jaswinder Singh R/o Vill: Lodhipur

Po. Musapur Teh-Nawanshahr

(SBS Nagar) changed my name

from Dalvinder Kaur to Dalwinder

Kaur.

I Ramandeep Kaur W/o

Kulvir Singh Vill Tarantaran Kothe

Sukhpura Maur Tehsil Tapa,Distt.

Barnala have changed my name

Ramandeep Kaur Mann.

I, Paramjeet Kaur W/o Singh

Satnam R/o Vpo. Baba Bakala

Havaliwala Teh-Baba Bakala

(Amritsar Rural) changed my name

to Kaur Paramjeet.

I, Satnam Singh S/o

Dasandha Singh R/o Vpo. Baba

Bakala Havaliwala Teh-Baba

Bakala (Amritsar Rural) changed

my name to Singh Satnam.

I Williamjot Singh S/o

Daljeet Singh R/o VPO Sukhna

Ablu, Distt. Sri Muktsar Sahib Have

changed my name to Williamjot

Singh Brar.

I, Sandeep Singh S/o

Jagdish Lal R/o Kotkapura

(Faridkot) changed my name to

Sandeep Singh Atwal.

I, Jatinder Kumar S/o Gopal

Krishan R/o Kotkapura (Faridkot)

changed my name to Jatinder

Kumar Chhabra.

I, Kulwinder Kaur W/o

Ashavdeep Singh Brar R/o

Kotkapura (Faridkot) changed my

name to Kulwinder Kaur Brar.

I Sukhwinder Kaur @

Balwinder Kaur W/o Sadha singh

R/o Toot Tehsil Patti District

TarnTaran have Changed my

name to Sukhwinder Kaur.

I Gurpreet S/o Nirmaldass

Jogi R/o Wadala, Jalandhar,

Punjab-144003, have changed my

name to Gurpreet Chouhan.

I Jagjiwan Singh S/o

Joginder Singh Sandhu R/o Rulia

Singh Nagar Village Bargari

(Faridkot) Have Changed my

Name to Jagjiwan Singh Sandhu.

I, Parlad Kumar alias Parlhad

Kumar S/o Dharam Chand R/o

St.No. 10 W.No. 21 Patel Nagar

Malout Teh-Malout (Sri Muktsar

Sahib) changed my name to

Parladh Kumar.

I, Kanwalpreet Kaur W/o

Pritpal Singh R/o Vill: Burj Sidhwan

Teh-Malout (Sri Muktsar Sahib)

changed my name to Kanwaljeet

Kaur.

I, Gurdial S/o Tara Singh R/o

VPO. Raipur, Distt. Jalandhar have

correction in my given name from

Gurdial to Gurdial Singh, All Please

Note.

I, Chano Chand W/o Sibu

Ram R/o Vill. Ucha Pind, Po.Sarai

Jattan, Teh. Phagwara, Distt.

Kapurthala have changed my

surname from Chano Chand to

Channo Merdha.

I, Mandeep Singh Nijjar S/o

Balbir Singh Nijjar R/o H.No. 937,

Urban Estate, Phase-1, Jalandhar

Have Changed My Daughter’s

Name From Eknoor Kaur To

Eknoor Kaur Nijjar.

I, Jangir Kaur W/o Joginder

Singh R/o Tehsil Garhshankar,

Moranwali, Hoshiarpur, Punjab-

144531 have changed my name to

Jagir Kaur.

I, Gurvinder Singh S/o Roop

Singh R/o Sikhanwala, Aulakh,

Faridkot, Punjab- 151207 have

changed my name to Gurvinder

Singh Sandhu.

I Sanjeev Kumar Bajaj son of

Shri Hari Chand Bajaj r/o House

1171/1 Bajaj Street Ward no. 9

Jalalabad west tehsil Jalalabad

west district Fazilka have changed

my name to Sanjeev kumar s/o

Hari chand.

I Saavi Bajaj w/o Sanjeev

Kumar r/o House no 1171/1 Bajaj

Street Ward no.9 Jalalabad west

district Fazilka have changed my

name to Seema Rani w/o Sanjeev

Kumar

I, Kulwinder Singh son of

Jagjit Singh village Assa Buttar

District Sri Muktsar Sahib changed

to Kulwinder Singh Buttar.

I, Khushpreet Kaur wife of

Kulwinder Singh Buttar village

Assa Buttar District Sri Muktsar

Sahib changed to khushpreet Kaur

Buttar.

I, Sudhir S/o Salamat Rai R/o

House Number-158 Dhuria Street

Ward Number-10 Jalalabad West

Distt Fazilka have changed my

Name Sudhir to Sudhir Kumar

Dhuria.

I, Preeti Devi Wife of Ranjeet

Singh Resident of Village Rasulpur

Rithori Tehsil Sikandrabad District

Bulandshahr (UP) have changed

my name from Preeti to Preeti

Devi.

I, No.15622020X NK (DVR)

Ranjeet Singh S/O Rajendra Singh

of 11 Guards have changed my

Father name from Rajendra to

Rajendra Singh.

I, No.15622020X NK (DVR)

Ranjeet Singh S/O Rajendra Singh

of 11 Guards have changed my

Mother name from Satypali to

Satpali Devi.

I, Simarpal Singh Chatha

S/O Satpal Singh R/O Village

Nakte Teshil Bhiwanigarh Distt

Sangrur Have Changed My Name

From Simarpal Singh Chatha To

Simarpal Singh.

I, Naib Singh S/o Balak Ram

R/o Vill. Saidpur, Po. Landran,

Distt. SAS Nagar (Mohali), I have

Changd my name Naib Singh

Sohal to Naib Singh.

PUBLIC NOTICE

CHANGE OF NAME

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Lost Notice

I, Santosh W/o Sh. Sitaram in respect of Plot, Part of bearing Khewat no. 14, Khatoni no. 19, as per Fard Jamabandi for the year 2019-20, Khasra no. 569(2-0), measuring 0K-13M, situated at Village Dhansu, Tehsil & District Hisar as per sale deed no.2193 dated 24.05.2007. I Have Lost Sale Deed No. 10857 Dated 12.01.2006. Any where in Hisar. A Ddr No. 132290512201489.Also registered at Hisar. I also declare That I have not taken Any type of loan, Cc limit or od Limit on said property. If anybody found and Any concern in this property, Please contact Advocate Bhupander Kumar, #1591, Sector 16-17, Hisar Within 7 Day Of This Publication

PUBLIC NOTICE

I Mrs Rajeshwari w/o Late

Ram Singh R/O VPO Malikpur

Bangar , Tehsil Bilaspur Distt.

Yamuna Nagar (Haryana)

hereby disown my Daughter

Mrs Meenakshi , her husband

Mr Anil, their Children Muskan

(Daughter) and Devansh (Son)

residing at # 1038 Sector 6

Karnal (Haryana) , from my all

moveable / immovable

properties . They are out of my

control . If anybody deal with

them will do so at own risk . I

shall not be responsible for

their any deeds.

çÆ ÕîÅÔÆ ç¶òÆ ìÔ±î§åòÆ ÃÇÔÕÅðÆ ÃíÅ Çñî ÕîÅÔÆ ç¶òÆ çÆ ÕîÅÔÆ ç¶òÆ ìÔ±î§åòÆ ÃÇÔÕÅðÆ ÃíÅ ÇñîÇàâ ÕîÅÔÆ ç¶òÆ Çò¾Ú ÃËñÜîËé çÆ ÖÅñÆ ÁÃÅîÆ ù âÆ.ÃÆ. ð¶à» å¶ íðé Ãì§èÆ À¹îÆçòÅð êÅÃ¯º ÁðÜÆÁ» çÆ î§× ÕÆåÆ Ü»çÆ þÍ À¹îÆçòÅð çÆ À¹îð AH å¯º CG ÃÅñ å¾Õ Ô¯äÆ ÚÅÔçÆ þÍ À¹îÆçòÅð êÅÃ ÇÕÃÆ îÅéåÅ êzÅêå ï±éÆòðÇÃàÆ êÅÃ¯º ×ðËÜ±ÇÂôé çÆ âÆ×ðÆ Ô¯äÆ ÚÅÔÆçÆ þÍ À¹îÆçòÅð êÅÃ íÅðå ÃðÕÅð ç¶ ÇÂñËÕàz¯ÇéÕ ÇòíÅ× çÅ ú ñËìñ ÃðàÆÇëÕ¶à Ü» ÃðÕÅð å¯º îÅéåÅ êzÅêå ÇÕÃ¶ Ã§ÃæÅ êÅÃ¯º ÁÅÂÆ.ÁËÃ.ú.-I@@A Áé±ÃÅð åÃçÆÕ Ã±çÅ Ô¯ò¶ Áå¶ Øà¯ Ø¾à AB@ Ø¿à¶ çÅ Õ§ÇêÀ±àð Õ¯ðÃ çÅ ÃðàÆÇëÕ¶à Ô¯äÅ ÚÅÔÆçÅ þÍ À¹îÆçòÅð êÅÃ ç¾ÃòÆº ê¾èð å¶ ê¿ÜÅìÆ çÆ ÇòÇçÁÕ ï¯×åÅ Ô¯äÆ ÚÅÔÆçÆ þÍ À¹îÆçòÅð ê¶ºâ± ÇêÛ¯Õó çÅ Ô¯ä ÚÅÔÆçÅ þÍ ÇÂÃ å¯º ÇÂñÅòÅ òè¶ð¶ ÜÅäÕÅðÆ Áå¶ Ô¯ð ôðå» Ãì§èÆ ÃíÅ ç¶ çëåð ÇòÖ¶ ÕÅî ÕÅÜ òÅñ¶ Ççé Ã§êðÕ ÕÆåÅ ÜÅ ÃÕçÅ þÍ é¯à: ÚÅÔòÅé À¹îÆçòÅð ÇîåÆ BG-@E-BB ôÅî @D òÜ¶ å¾Õ ÁðÜÆÁ» ÃíÅ ç¶ êzèÅé Ã¹íÅÃ Ú§çð Õ¯ñ ÇéÜÆ å½ð å¶ Üî» ÕðòÅ ÃÕç¶ ÔéÍ À¹êð¯Õå ÇòÇçÁÕ ï¯×åÅò» Áå¶ Ô¯ð Ãì§èå ï¯×åÅòÅ ç¶ ÃðàÆÇëÕ¶à ÇçÁÅ åÃçÆÕ Ã±çÅ ÕÅêÆÁÅ éÅñ é¾æÆ ÕÆåÆ ÜÅò¶Í ÇÂÃ ÇîåÆ å¯º ìÅç ÁÅÇÂÁÅ ÁðÜÆÁ» å¶ ÇòÚÅð éÔÆº ÕÆåÅ ÜÅò¶×Å Ãì Õî¶àÆ çÅ ëËÃñÅ ÁÇå§î Ô¯ò¶×ÅÍ ÁÃÅîÆ îËÇðà ç¶ ÁèÅð å¶ Ô¯ò¶×Æ Ãì Õî¶àÆ òñ¯º C@-@E-BB ù À¹îÆçòÅð ù Ãì§èå ÁÃÅîÆ ñÂÆ ÃÅðà ÇñÃà ÕÆåÅ ÜÅò¶×Å Áå¶ ÃËñÜîËé çÆ Çéï¹ÕåÆ ÁÅðÜÆ å½ð å¶ ÕÆåÆ ÜÅò¶×ÆÍ ÜÅðÆÕðåÅ

êzèÅé Ã¹íÅÃ Ú§çð çÆ ÕîÅÔÆ ç¶òÆ ìÔ±î§åòÆ ÃÇÔÕÅðÆ ÃíÅ Çñî:

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PUBLIC NOTICE

We Pawan Kumar & Pardeep Kumar S/O

Dalip Kumar, Soma Rani W/O Pardeep Kumar

Give Notice To The Public That The Chain Title

I.E. Vasika No. 13319 Dated 21/11/2005,

House Situated At H.No. 82 & 83,Vill Nasirpur

Prof. Enclave Lane 2 Opp. Pbi. University.

Patiala Has Been Lost by Rajni Aggarwal w/o

Vinod Aggarwal r/o Patiala For Which A DDR

NO.231412/2022 Dated 05/05/2022. Has

Been Lodged At Punjab Police Community

Policing Wing Punjab On 05/05/2022. We

Want To Mortgage This Property With State

Bank Of India RACPC Patiala (Code 61078),

Mall Road, Patiala For Availing House Loan. If

Anybody Has Any Objection On The Said

Property He/She May Contact 0175-

2395624/2392128, [email protected]

Within 15 Days Of This Notice And No Dispute

Will Be Accepted After This Period.

PUBLIC NOTICE

It is notified that the original Re-allotment

letter vide no. 2181 dated 29.05.2001

has been lost in yamunanagar

10/02/2022. If anyone found get inform

this address. I Ankit Kamboj S/o Mohan

Lal R/o H.no.349 sector 15 Jagadhri

District Yamunanagar lost property report

application Number 132400502201378.

LOST & FOUND

(U/o 5 Rule 20 CPC)

IN THE COURT OF Sh.

Supinder Singh

Judicial Magistrate - Ist Class,

Amritsar-I

PARMINDER SINGH S/O

GURBAX SINGH, PROPRIETOR

OF PARAMINDER MACHINE

TOOLS, GALI NO.4, MAHINDRA

COLONY, VILLAGE

SULTANWIND, AMRITSAR

Vs.

AASHA ENTERPRISES

CNR No. PHAS03-006706-2018

Next Date: 09-06-2022

PUBLICATION ISSUED TO:

AASHA ENTERPRISES:-

PLOT NO.11, SAI NAGAR,

ERANDOL, MAHARASHTRA,

JALGAON, THROUGH ITS

PROPRIETOR SH. PARSHANT

MARATHE S/O TUKKA RAM

MARATHE

ln above titled case, the

defendant(s)/respondent(s) could

not be served. It is ordered that

defendant(s)/respondent(s) should

appear in person or through

counsel 09 06-2022 at 10:00 a.m.

For details logon to

https://highcourtchd.gov.in/?trs

=district_notice&district=Amrits

ar

Dated, this day of 27-04-2022

Judicial Magistrate 1st Class

Amritsar -1

COURT NOTICE

(U/o 5 Rule 20 CPC)

IN THE COURT OF Heena

Aggarwal

Civil Judge (Junior Division)-

15, Jalandhar

THE HIND SAMACHAR LIMITED

Vs.

RIGHT MEDIA

CNR No. PBJL02-004779-2018

Next Date: 07-07-2022

PUBLICATION ISSUED TO:

RIGHT MEDIA:-

SCO 52-53 CH NO 206 2ND

FLOOR MADHYA MARG

CHANDIGARH

ln above titled case, the

defendant(s)/respondent(s) could

not be served. It is ordered that

defendant(s)/respondent(s) should

appear in person or through

counsel 07.07-2022 at 10:00 a.m.

For details logon to

https://highcourtchd.gov.in/?trs

=district_notice&district=Jaland

har

Dated, this day of 04-05-2022

Civil Judge (Junior Division)-

15, Jalandhar

COURT NOTICE

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CHANDIGARH | FRIDAY | MAY 9, 2022 north 03

Terror attack foiled in Punjab, twoarrested with IED packed with RDXPNS n CHANDIGARH/TARNTARAN

Punjab Police on Sundayclaimed to have thwarted

possible terror attack in theborder state with the arrest oftwo terrorists recovering 2.5 kgImprovised Explosive Device(IED), equipped with RDXalong with timer, detonator,battery, and shrapnels.

The police recovered theIED was packed in metallicblack colour box (12 inches x6 inches x 2.5 inches) having agross weight of over 2.5 kgfrom Naushehra Pannuan vil-lage in Tarn Taran district.

The police have also recov-ered a Bajaj Platina motorcycleand two mobile phones fromtheir possession.

Those arrested have beenidentified as Baljinder Singhalias Bindu (22), a resident ofGujjarpura village in Ajnala,Amritsar; and Jagtar Singhalias Jagga (40) of Khanowalvillage of Ajnala, Amritsar.Bindu was working as a nurs-ing assistant in a private hos-pital in Ajnala; while Jagga is alabourer and both were carry-ing out this activity for moneyand drugs.

The development camethree days after four personswere arrested with recovery ofthree IEDs packed in a metal-lic case (2.5 kg each) and onepistol, from Karnal by HaryanaPolice following the inputsfrom the Punjab Police.

Divulging details, ADGP

Internal Security RN Dhokesaid that the Tarn Taran Policehad received a secret informa-tion that Bindu and Jagga car-rying explosives are roaming inNaushehra Pannuan area andare planning to carry out a blastto spread terror among peoplein the area. Acting promptly,Tarn Taran SeniorSuperintendent of Police (SSP)Ranjit Singh sent police teamsto conduct raids in the area andboth the accused persons werearrested with an IED in metal-lic box when they were goingon a motorcycle after retriev-ing it from the adandonedplace, he said.

SSP Ranjit Singh said thatinitial investigation reveals thatthe accused persons had goneto retrieve the IED on theinstructions of their accompliceidentified as Jobanjit Singhalias Joban, a resident of AwanVasau in Ajnala. Jobanjit isalready facing criminal casesunder the NDPS act and has

been declared a ProclaimedOffender (PO), he said.

The SSP said that BombDisposal team of Punjab Policelater diffused the IED, whichhad nearly 1.5kg of RDX.

Meanwhile, an FIR, datedMay 8, 2022, has been regis-tered under section 25 of theArms Act, sections 3, 4 and 5of the Explosive Substance(Amendment) Act and sec-tion 120-B of the Indian PenalCode (IPC) at Police StationSarhali in Tarn Taran and fur-ther investigation are on.

Haryana Govt to provide internet facility to students given free tabletsPNS n CHANDIGARH

After distributing free tablesto the government school

students, Haryana Governmentwill soon provide them withinternet facility.

“To promote e-learningamong students, HaryanaGovernment has distributedtablets to students under the e-Adhigam scheme. Internet

facility has also been given tothe students in these tablets,”said a government spokesper-son.

Spokesperson said thatSIM cards have been providedto the students but few SIMcards have not been activateddue to the non-availability ofID cards. “Other formalities forSIM cards have been complet-ed, only ID verification is inprocess,” said the spokesperson

adding that arrangements havebeen made by the governmentto organize camps by Jio andAirtel in the school premisesfrom Monday so that SIMcards can be given to all. Alongwith this, Mobile DeviceManagement (MDM) has beenarranged in all the tablets sothat the student cannot seeunwanted content, for this acti-vation is mandatory. However,all tablets are WiFi-enabled

and students can operate themby connecting to WiFi, said thespokesperson while making itclear that the tablets are notbeing taken back from chil-dren, students are using them.Spokesperson said that alongwith this, training has beenprovided to the teachers for thesame. “The mapping of stu-dents, teachers and coaches isstarting from next week andvarious dashboards have also

been made appropriate forreporting,” said the spokesper-son.

It is noteworthy that onMay 5, tablet distribution pro-grammes were organized at 119centres in which district-levelprogrammes were held in 21districts and the state levelprogramme in Rohtak. In this,tablets — with free internetdata — were given to the stu-dents of Class X and Class XII.

Will meet CM to discussmatters regarding revival ofPunjab’s economy: SidhuSidhu says Punjab’sresurrection is onlypossible with honestcollective effort

PNS n CHANDIGARH

Making frantic efforts tostay politically relevant,

the cricketer-turned-politicianNavjot Singh Sidhu on Sundaysaid that he would meet PunjabChief Minister BhagwantMann on Monday to discussthe revival of the state’s econ-omy.

Sidhu, who had beenattacking the Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) – led State Governmentover various issues includingthe law and order situation,took to Twitter to say thatPunjab’s resurrection was pos-sible “only with an honest andcollective effort”.

“Will meet CM@BhagwantMann tomorrowat 5:15 PM in Chandigarh todiscuss matters regarding therevival of Punjab’s econo-my...Punjab’s Resurrection isonly possible with an honestcollective effort...,” said Sidhu,Punjab Congress’ former pres-ident, in a tweet on Sunday.

Sidhu’s tweet came daysafter he had called ChiefMinister Mann a “youngerbrother” and an “honest man”.It also assumes significance asSidhu is expected to face dis-ciplinary proceedings after thestate party affairs’ in-chargeHarish Chaudhary had com-plained to the Congress chiefSonia Gandhi against him.However, the meeting was

postponed due to the non-availability of the committeemembers. Chaudhary had writ-ten to Sonia Gandhi for actionagainst Sidhu for speakingagainst the party line. “I am for-warding Raja Warring’s detailednote regarding Sidhu’s “currentactivities” along with this letter,”he said in the letter whileadding that Sidhu’s actions areinexcusable and he should beasked for an explanation anddisciplinary action should beinitiated.

Punjab Congress presidentWarring, in his note, had high-lighted Sidhu’s “parallel activ-ities” and his recent meetingswith expelled leaders, includingformer MLA Surjit SinghDhiman. Heading the Congressparty that faced resoundingdefeat in the recently-conclud-ed elections, Sidhu had recent-ly said that the party lostFebruary 20 elections becauseof the “mafia raj” that prevailedin the State and it now neededto reinvent itself.

Sidhu had also stated thathe would rise above party linesand support Punjab ChiefMinister if he fights against themafia. Notably, AAP trouncedthe Congress in the recentassembly polls securing three-fourth majority with record 92seats. Following the party’sdrubbing in the five states thatwent to polls earlier this year,Congress chief Sonia Gandhihad asked the respective partypresidents, including Sidhu, toresign. The Congress appoint-ed Warring in place of Sidhuafter its drubbing in the stateassembly polls.

Haryana taking several initiatives toprovide better health facilities for all: CM

PNS n CHANDIGARH

Stating that several initia-tives have been taken for

providing better health facili-ties for all in Haryana, ChiefMinister Manohar Lal Khattaron Sunday said that in therecent past, the Governmenthas set a lot of emphasis onstrengthening the state’s health-care system.

With several patient-friendly and people-friendlyinitiatives to fortify healthcaresector, the Government hasensured that no one in the stateis left out from getting the state-of-the-art facilities withinHaryana and that too at afford-able prices, said the ChiefMinister.

The spokesperson said thatthe Haryana Government hasopened the doors for people totackle deadly diseases like can-

cer in the State by providingthem with advanced cancercare facilities. To create com-prehensive cancer care facilitiesunder one roof for providingaffordable treatment to needypatients, Haryana Governmenthas set up Atal Cancer TertiaryCare Centre (ACTCC) at CivilHospital Ambala Cantt — theone-of-its-kind centre to beinaugurated on May 9 by ChiefMinister and Rajya Sabha MPand BJP national president JPNadda, along with HaryanaHealth Minister Anil Vij andMP Rattan Lal Kataria.

“Establishment of TertiaryCare Centre at Civil Hospital,Ambala Cantt, will strengthenCancer treatment facilities andaccessible, affordable, andcomprehensive treatment willbe provided to the cancerpatients from Haryana and theneighbouring States. It could beseen as a cornerstone in the

State’s approach to beat cancer,”said the Chief Minister.

Khattar said that variousspecialized posts (Surgical,Medical and RadiationOncologist, RadiationPhysicist-cum-RSO, RadiationTherapy Technologist) andother HR have been created forAtal Cancer Tertiary CareCentre, Ambala Cantt, toenhance the facilities. Latesthigh-end equipment likeLinear Accelerator,Brachytherapy Unit, CTSimulator, etc have beeninstalled to provide advancedtreatment for patients.

Spokesperson said that theState Government has takennumerous steps to ensure thatthe needy patients get as muchfacilities as they need inHaryana for the prevention ortreatment of not only cancerbut for every health condition.

Spreading awareness about

this deadly disease among peo-ple is an integral part of thegovernment’s approach to tack-le cancer in the State. “It isimportant to know that one-third of cancers are preventable.Another one-third can be treat-ed effectively if detected well intime and one-third of cancersare seen in advanced stageswhere treatment outcome iscompromised,” said thespokesperson.

The Health DepartmentHaryana, as directed by theChief Minister, is already doingvarious awareness activities —that is Observation of NationalCancer Awareness Day, WorldCancer Day and early detectionby issuing advertisements innewspapers, displaying bannersand performing various activ-ities, for example health talks,delivering lectures, organizingscreening camps at varioushealth institutes.

P o p u l a t i o n - B a s e dScreening (PBS) of 30 years andabove population is being car-ried out for common cancersunder National Programme forPrevention and Control ofCancer, Diabetes,Cardiovascular Diseases andStroke (NPCDCS) in all the dis-tricts of the state for earlydetection. In Haryana, labshave been strengthened fordiagnosis of cancer and FineNeedle Aspiration Cytology(FNAC), Pap Smear, FluidCytology, Biopsy etc are beingperformed at District CivilHospitals. Apart from this, FreeTravel Facility (FTF) is beingprovided to cancer patientsalong with one attendant inHaryana Roadways ordinarybuses for visiting the institutesfor treatment and follow-up.With this push, several patientsare being benefitted every yearin Haryana, he added.

Haryana sets target of collecting Rs9,200 cr revenue from excise depttPNS n CHANDIGARH

Haryana Deputy ChiefMinister Dushyant

Chautala on Sunday said thatthe State Government hasapproved the Excise Policy forthe year 2022-23 and the StateGovernment has set a target ofcollecting revenue of Rs 9,200crore.

“The revenue of about Rs6,400 crore was collected lastyear, which has increased to Rs7,938 crore this year,” he saidwhile interacting with themedia persons in Chandigarh.

Chautala said that transitslips have been introduced forbetter control of inter-statemovement of liquor and highsecurity holograms have alsobeen implemented under trackand trace system, under whichthe companies which producespurious and illicit liquor will beblacklisted in the State.

“Flow meters and CCTVcameras have been installed atall distilleries and bottlingplants in Haryana. There willalso be a facility of QR code sys-tem under which transparencyin the process will be ensured,”

he said. He said that the officers of

the Excise and TaxationDepartment will be given spe-cial training by organizingcamps by the UK Governmentofficials. They will providetraining as well as share infor-mation on GST monitoringwith Excise and Taxation offi-cials. Similarly, artificial intel-ligence tools will be adopted inGST collection, he said.

Chautala said that Haryana,which is smaller than manystates in terms of area andpopulation, has been rankedfifth in the entire country inGST collection. “This year,GST collection has increased by16 percent, under which thetotal GST collection hasreached Rs 35,390 crore ascompared to Rs 30,507 crorewhich was collected last year.Haryana is moving towardsself-reliance, so we have set atarget of Rs 40,000 crore forGST collection,” he said.

Similarly, while givinginformation about SGST, hesaid that this year, the total col-lection of SGST has been Rs15,115 crore which was earlier

Rs 11, 959 crore. “To achievethis feat, a team of 12 to 15 offi-cers was constituted by theDepartment which was alsosuccessful to a great extent incracking down on GST eva-sion,” he said.

CONG’s LLEADERSHIP-CCHANGE

FORMULA FFLOPPED IIN PPUNJAB,

RESULT WWILL BBE SSAME IIN

HARYANA

Stating that BJP-JJP coali-tion government in Haryana isrunning successfully and willwork with more strength in itsremaining term of two and halfyears, Chautala said that bothBJP and JJP will fight the nextLok Sabha and assembly elec-tions together. Responding toa query of leadership change inHaryana Congress, the DeputyChief Minister said that theCongress party's formula ofchange of guard has failedmiserably in Punjab and theresults of the changes made inthe Himachal PradeshCongress leadership will beout in November this year.

Tracing pre and post Independence Indian military history through a Book on RIMCAMITABH SHUKLA

It was there to defend Srinagarwhen tribal marauders came

in 1947, it was again there todefend borders in Punjab in1965, in 1971 it was therefighting on both the easternand the western front. In1974, when the first nucleardevice was tested in Pokhran itwas there, so was it in Maldives,in Sri Lanka and it stood face-to-face with China in 1987. Itdrove the Pakistani army outfrom Kargil in 1999, in 2008 itdefended Bombay and lastly itdestroyed the enemy base inBalakot.

Seldom has the alumni ofa school contributed so muchin the defence of a nation asthat of the Rashtriya IndianMilitary College, Dehradun.Founded in 1922, the school iscelebrating its centenary thisyear. Air Marshal PP Reddy(Retired), one of the two edi-tors of the Book along withSidharth Mishra describes it asthe "nursery of military lead-

ership" and says that it was theRimcollians, as an alumnus ofRIMC is known, who were inthe higher echelons of the mil-itary at the time ofIndependence, who built andguided the Indian armed forcesinto a formidable foe to reck-on with.

Sidharth Mishra, an alum-nus of the Institute and well-known journalist, who has co-authored the nearly 500-pagebook, says that whenever aneducational institution reach-es a milestone of its existence,the practice has been to bringout self-congratulatory vol-umes in the genre of coffee-table books. He says that unlikethat practice, objectivity hasbeen the main plank of thebook.

The book comprises essaysby the alumni from variousfields, tracing the origin of itsestablishment through its train-ing methodology and groom-ing, puts on record the contri-butions of the alumni, schooland nation building and sifts

hearsay from documentedfacts. There are 26 contributors,most of them senior officers ofthe armed forces, who have sortof drawn a complete picture ofthe Indian armed forces fromthe First World War periodonwards and how Indianisationof the Officer Corps began inthe Great War. Lt Gen NS Brarwrites the first chapter tracinghow Indians were graduallyinducted for training and thencommissioned as officers.When the need was felt forIndianisation of the OfficerCorps, the Prince of WalesRoyal Indian Military College(as it was known then) wasopened on March 13, 1922.

The book has a chapter on

the heroes of the Second WorldWar and the Rimcollians whowere awarded Victoria Cross,Bar to Distinguished ServiceOrder, Distinguished FlyingCross and Military Cross andlists the battles for which theyare awarded. In the Battle ofAbyssinia (now Ethiopia)Africa, PS Bhagat was given theVictoria Cross, highest gal-lantry award of the pre-Independence era. Despiteclose enemy fire, without foodor rest for four days, he cleared15 minefields over a distance of55 miles and was evacuatedafter punctured eardrums.

Then, there is a chapter onintegrating J&K and the role ofRimcollians. In the Battle ofBadgam, Major SomnathSharma, at the age of 25 wasmartyred and due to his brav-ery became the first recipient ofthe highest gallantry award ofIndependent India--Param VirChakra. His efforts had signif-icantly slowed down theadvance of the enemy raidersand bought valuable time for

the Indian troops to fly intoSrinagar.

In the 1961 Liberation ofGoa, called Operation Vijay, LtGen KP Candeth played a piv-otal role in retaking the colonyfrom the Portuguese.

In the 1965 Indo-Pak War,three Rimcollians, Major GCVerma, Major MS Bal andMajor JC Pandey made thesupreme sacrifice. Similarly inthe 1971 war, the entire west-ern border with Pakistan wasunder the command ofRimcollians and the book liststhe contributions of the alum-ni in the liberation ofBangladesh. IPKF operationin Sri Lanka in 1987, OperationCactus in Maldives in 1988,Kargil Conflict in 1999--allhad the presence ofRimcollians, the book lists.There are thrilling chapters onthe Rimcollian Infanteers, theTankmen from Rajwada, theGunners, flying wings andother branches.

Interestingly, it is not onlyabout the armed forces that the

book talks about. But also,about those Rimcollians whohave cracked JEE, CAT, NEET,GRE, GMAT and other examsand their success in differentwalks of life. Be it chroniclingmilitary history of IndependentIndia and successes throughindividual and team efforts,Valour and Wisdom makes aneffort to project the need topreserve institutions, whichhave kept alive the values andtraditions, which the foundersof our national struggle nursed.The writer says that the bookis an attempt to set right thehistorical perspective, analysequalities which made theschool alumni leaders extraor-dinaire and visionaries in theirown right. "This effort wouldprobably aid those who seek tolearn from the lessons of thepast for a better future," saysMishra.

EDITORS: AIR MARSHAL PPREDDY (RETD) AND SIDHARTH MISHRA

BOOK RREVIEW:

VALOURAND

WISDOM

Punjab Police AGTF arrests notorious criminal,thwarts “possible target killing attempt”PNS n CHANDIGARH/SAS NAGAR

Punjab Police’s Anti-Gangster Task Force (AGTF) on Sunday arrested a notorious criminal from Kharar in Mohali district,claiming to thwart a “possible attempt” of targeted killing.

The accused – identified as Gurinder Singh alias Guri Shera of Sindhwan village in Fathegarh Sahib – was arrested fromnear Nadiala chowk. The police also recovered two .30 calibre pistols and one .32 calibre pistol, along with 10 live car-tridges, from his possession, officers added.AGTF member and Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) Ropar range Gurpreet Singh Bhullar, sharing details, saidthat Guri Shera and his associate – identified as Gurpreet Singh alias Jony of Malakpur Jatta village in Patiala – indulged inillicit smuggling of weapons and a case had been registered against them at Kharar city police station. He said that followingreliable inputs, police teams under the supervision of Mohali senior superintendent of police (SSP) Vivek Sheel Soni appre-hended Guri Shera and recovered the ammunition.The DIG said that during interrogation, Guri disclosed that he used to procure arms and ammunition from states likeMadhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh and he was directed by a European-based handler to target an individual in an impor-tant city in Punjab.DIG Bhullar added that the accused was also paid Rs 1.50 lakh to purchase arms or ammunition and for logistic support tocommit the crime. They also used to deliver these weapons to their gang members in Punjab.Bhullar added that further probe is on to unravel the conspiracy and Guri’s aide Jony will also be arrested soon.An FIR has been registered under sections 25 (7) and (8) of the Arms Act. Guri Shera has six cases, including for extortion,under the Arms Act, snatching and dacoity, registered against him in the state, officers said.

Atal Cancer Tertiary Care Centre to be inaugurated today at Ambala Cantt Civil Hospital

Will ttake eevery sstep tto rrestore PPunjab’s ppristine gglory: MMannPNS nNAGPUR/CHANDIGARH

Punjab Chief MinisterBhagwant Mann on

Sunday said that his govern-ment will take every step torestore pristine glory of statein every field.

“We will give impetus toemployment, sports andindustrial growth besides

eradicating corruption, unem-ployment, drugs and pollutionfrom Punjab to make it afrontrunner state in country,”said Mann during a functionto mark Golden Jubilee of aleading newspaper — Lokmatat Nagpur.

The Chief Minister saidthat his predecessors havelooted the state mercilesslydue to which Punjab, once

known for vigour of its sons inArmy, sportsmanship of play-ers like late Dara Singh andsweetness of its water, haslagged behind.

“Due to negligence of pre-vious governments, drugs havemade inroads in the state.However, AAP Governmentwill reverse all these things andmake Punjab a leading state incountry,” he declared.

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To enhance ease of doingbusiness,the Department

of Telecom has removed net-work operation and control-centre charges for the use ofspace segments for all serviceslike

VSAT, satellite telephonyetc for which permits are issuedby the department. The DoTearlier levied Rs 21 lakh pertransponder per annumfor 36megahertz of spectrum on apro-rata basis as NOCCcharges.

Besides this, the depart-ment also levied NOCCcharges of Rs 6,000 for everytrial of antenna that are usedfor receiving and transmittingsignals. "There shall be noNOCC charges for use of spacesegment for all DoT licenseesfor commercial and captiveVSAT services, GMPCS (satel-lite phone service), NLD(national long distance) andother telecom licensees having

unified licence or standalonelicense. This order shall beeffective from April 1, 2022,"DoT said in an order datedMay 6. The NetworkOperations Control Center wascreated under the DoT to con-trol the transmissions fromground segment (satellite earthstations) along with the mastercontrol facility underDepartment of Space to man-age the operation of satellites inorbit.

Satellite industry bodyISPA director general AshokBhatt said that the DoT hasamended the Unified Licenseto allow satellite based IoTservices, land mobility ser-vices and also the removal ofNOCC monitoring charges."We believe that these pro-gressive policy steps are in theright direction and showcasethe government's commitmentin supporting the growth ofdigital communication byleveraging the potential andcapability of the satellite com-

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The BJP has stepped upefforts to end "factional

fighting" in the poll-boundRajasthan. Party president JPNadda is to visit the state onMay10-11 to mobilize the stateorganisation to take on theCongress-led Gehlot govern-ment ahead of the party's cru-cial Jaipur National meet onMay 20.

On his proposed trip onMay 10-11, Nadda is expect-ed to visit Suratgarh andHanumangarh in Ganga Nagarin Northern Rajasthan andinteract with local and boothlevel workers to assess theparty's connect with voters.

The focus of Nadda in histour, second to the state sinceearly last month, is to end the

continuing factional fightingbetween state president SatishPoonia and former two-timeChief Minister VasundharaRaje.

Poonia faction along withcentral 'Jal ShaKti' MinisterGajendra Singh Shekhawatare strongly against makingRaje a CM face again. Rajegroup is insisting on the cen-tral leadership announcingher name as BJP's CM candi-

date. Though the BJP centralleadership has indicated thatthe assembly elections will becontested under the leadershipof Prime Minister NarendraModi, the internal feud in theBJP state unit sees no end. Rajerecently did not participate inthe 'Hoonkar rally' organizedby the Poonia- led the groupin the state

Even as the Congress itselfis a divided house with SachinPilot wanting the Congresshigh command to launch himas CM face in Rajasthan, theBJP, the challenger, is yetunable to put its "acts togeth-er" to make use of anti-incum-bency factor against the rulingCongress, according to theBJP state leaders.

Nadda who last monthhad a four-hour-long discus-sion with all BJP state leaders,

including Raje, at his residencein Delhi, is likely to do straighttalk with the BJP unit inRajasthan in his May 10 visit.

The party president hasalready visited SawaiMadhopur in April when heinteracted with state leaders.Union Minister Amit Shahtoo is exoected to maketour,this month, of SouthrrnRajasthan tribal districts shar-ing borders with Gujarat.

BJP National meet of allimportant office bearers fortwo-days at Jaipur on May20-21 will be presided byNadda where importantorganisational decisions maybe taken about Rajasthan andseveral other BJP-ruled state,including Madhya Pradeshwhich is also to face assemblypolls before November, nextyear, said BJP sources .

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President Ram Nath Kovindon Sunday underlined the

need for “knowledge sharing”and said that it is our dutywhich leads to “greater growthof knowledge itself ”.

Speaking on the occasionof the inauguration of the per-manent campus of the IndianInstitute of Management,Nagpur, the President said,“Our traditions have alwaysemphasized upon sharing,especially in the field of knowl-edge.

Hence, it is our duty toshare the knowledge which wehave gathered. Knowledgesharing leads to greater growthof knowledge itself.”

Educational institutes arenot just mere places of learn-ing; it is the place that polishthe inner and hidden talents inpeople, the President furthersaid. Highlighting the value ofinnovation and entrepreneur-

ship in today’s era, PresidentKovind said that both have theability to not just ease lives butalso facilitate employmentopportunities.

“We are living in an erawhere innovation and entre-preneurship are appreciatedand encouraged. Both innova-tion and entrepreneurship havethe ability to not just ease ourlives through technology butcan also provide employmentopportunities to many people.

The eco-system at IIM,Nagpur would promote amongthe students the mindset ofbecoming job-creators, insteadof being job-seekers,” thePresident said.

He expressed hope thatjust as IIM Ahmedabad hasprovided mentorship to IIM,Nagpur, the leading profes-sional schools of our country,technical, management, orhumanities would providementorship to establish similarinstitutions.

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Women with obesity andoverweight, particular-

ly women with high waist cir-cumference, are more sus-ceptible to fractures thanthose with normal weight. Inmen, however, underweight,not overweight, is associatedwith a greater risk of brokenbones, as per new study pre-sented at the EuropeanCongress on Obesity (ECO)in Maastr icht , theNetherlands

In men, however, beingunderweight, not overweight,is associated with a greaterrisk of broken bones.

Obesity has long beenthought to help protectagainst fractures. This isbecause mechanical loadingon bones, which increaseswith body weight, helpsincrease bone mineral densi-ty, an important determinantof bone strength.

However, recent studieshave suggested that the rela-tionship between obesity andfracture risk varies dependingon sex, the skeletal site stud-ied and definition of obesityused (body mass index [BMI]vs. waist circumference).

To find out more, DrAnne-Frederique Turcotte,Endocrinolog y andNephrology Unit, CHU de

Quebec Research Centre,Quebec City, Canada, andcolleagues, analysed datafrom CARTaGENE, aprospective population-basedcohort of almost 20,000 indi-viduals aged 40-70 years fromQuebec, Canada.

Part icipants inCARTaGENE were selectedrandomly between 2009 and2010, assessed once at recruit-ment and followed throughhealthcare administrativedatabases unti l March2016.BMI and waist circum-ference (WC, a measure ofabdominal obesity) were mea-sured at recruitment. Inwomen, greater WC was lin-early associated with anincreased risk of fracture.

For each 5cm (two inch)increase in WC, the risk offracture at any site was 3 percent higher and the risk of adistal lower limb fracture was7 per cent higher.

The association betweenWC and ankle fractures waspart icularly strong. Inwomen, greater BMI wasassociated with a greater riskof distal lower limb fractures.Compared with women witha BMI of 25 kg/m , those witha BMI of 27.5-40 kg/mshowed a greater risk of dis-tal lower limb fractures.

The increase in risk roselinearly from 5% in those

with a BMI of 27.5 kg/m , to40% in those with a BMI of 40kg/m .

Women with a BMI of22.5 kg/m had a 5% lowerrisk of distal lower limb frac-tures than those with a BMIof 25 kg/m .It isn’t knownwhy obesity is associated witha higher risk of fractures inwomen.

However, most fracturesare a result of a fall and fallsare more common in peoplewith obesity. The ankle,unlike the hip and thigh-bone, is not protected by softtissue, which could make itmore prone to breaking dur-ing a fall.

Dr Turcotte adds: “Waist

circumference was morestrongly associated with frac-tures in women than BMI.This may be due to visceral fat– fat that is very metabolical-ly active and stored deepwithin the abdomen, wrappedaround the organs – secretingcompounds that adverselyaffect bone strength.

“We also know that peo-ple with obesity take longer tostabilize their body, whenthey trip, for example. This ispart icularly pronouncedwhen weight is concentratedat the front of the body, sug-gesting that individuals withthe distribution of body fat inthe abdominal area may be athigher risk of falling.”

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After the Indian WomenPress Corps (IWPC), the

Foreign Correspondents' Club(FCC) has also been servedan eviction notice. The clubhas been asked to vacate thebungalow allotted to them byJuly 31.

The FCC was recently atthe centre of controversy forrefusing to host an event con-nected to 'The Kashmir Files'director Vivek Agnihotri. Thenotice is dated May 4, whichis the same as the IWPC. TheFCC occupies bungalow No.AB 19, Mathura Road, NewDelhi.

In a letter to the FCCpresident on May 4, theDirectorate of Estates underthe Union Housing andUrban Affairs Ministry said ithas, however, extended theperiod of retention of the

bungalow located on MathuraRoad till July 31.

"I am directed to conveythe in-principle approval ofthe competent authority forretention of governmentaccommodation bungalowno.

AB-19, Mathura Road,New Delhi allotted to ForeignCorrespondents' Club ofSouth Asia for a period of upto July 31, 2022, on the pre-vailing terms & conditions,"Deputy Director (Estates)Hari MP said in the letter.

The letter also asked theFCC president to find suitableaccommodation and arrangeto vacate the aforesaid houseon or before July 31.

Reacting to the govern-ment's move, FCC presidentMunish Gupta said, "We had-n't formally received the let-ter until yesterday. We willexamine and respond. It is our

understanding that suchnotices have been sent toFCC and others also in thepast."

In its notice sent toIWPC, the Directorate ofEstate says, "I am directed toconvey by the principalapproval of the competentauthority for retention of gov-ernment accommodationBungalow No. 5, WindsorPlace, allotted to IndianWomen's Press Corps, for aperiod up to 31 July 2022." It'sclear from the letter that noalternate accommodation willbe provided to the IWPC bythe government.

However, Shobhna Jain,President of IWPC, said,"This is routine proceduralwork. For the last 25 years, wehave been applying for renew-al whenever it is about toexpire, and there is nothing toread in between the lines."

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Vice President M VenkaiahNaidu on Sunday asserted

that a progressive, modernIndia must have a police forcewhich meets democratic aspi-rations of the people and calledfor a renewed thrust to imple-ment police reforms.

Addressing a gathering hereafter releasing a book, 'The

Struggle for Police Reforms inIndia', authored by former IPSofficer Prakash Singh, the vicepresident stressed the need toupgrade skills of police per-sonnel to effectively tackle 21stcentury crimes such as cyber-crimes and economic offenceswhich require special inves-tigative expertise.

According to an officialstatement issued by the VicePresident Secretariat, Naidureferred to the instances of mis-use of police force during the"infamous Emergency", saying

it was used with impunity tosuppress human rights andimprison thousands of people,including political opponents.

Subsequently, a NationalPolice Commission was set upin 1977, which submittedreports with detailed multi-dimensional proposals forpolice reforms, he recalled.

However, he noted thatnot much headway has beenmade in bringing reforms inpolice forces at the individualand institutional levels. Naidualso flagged certain issues thatneed to be addressed on a war

footing, including filling up ofvacancies in police depart-ments and strengthening thepolice infrastructure in tunewith the requirements of mod-ern age policing. He called forparticularly strengthening thepolice units at the grassrootswho are the first responders inmost cases. Naidu also wantedhousing facilities for policepersonnel to be improved.

Stressing that the behav-iour of police personneltowards the common peopleshould be courteous andfriendly, the vice presidentcalled upon senior police offi-cers to lead by example.

"A visit to a police stationshould be a hassle-free experi-ence for a person who goesthere seeking help. The firstthing to reform for this is theattitude of police -- they mustbe open-minded, sensitive andreceptive to each individual cit-izen's concerns," he said.

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The value of the vote of aMember of Parliament is

likely to go down to 700 from708 in the presidential pollsscheduled in July due to theabsence of a legislative assem-bly in Jammu and Kashmir,officials said on Saturday.

The value of the vote of anMP in a presidential election isbased on the number of elect-ed members in legislativeassemblies of states and unionterritories, including Delhi,Puducherry and Jammu andKashmir. The ElectoralCollege for the presidentialelection comprises the mem-bers of Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabhaand those of the legislativeassemblies of states and union

territories including Delhi,Puducherry and Jammu andKashmir. Before it was bifur-cated into two union territoriesof Ladakh, and Jammu &Kashmir in August 2019, theerstwhile state of J&K had 83assembly seats.

According to the Jammuand Kashmir ReorganisationAct, the Union Territory of J&Kwill have a legislative assembly,while Ladakh will be governeddirectly by the Centre.

The government hadannounced that elections to thelegislative assembly would beheld after the completion of thedelimitation of assembly con-stituencies. Last week, theDelimitation Commission forJammu and Kashmir notifiedits final order in which it has

recommended a 90-memberHouse for the newly carved outunion territory. But it maytake some time to have anelected House in place in theUT.It is not for the first timethat legislators of a state assem-bly will not be able to partici-pate in the presidential elec-tions.

In 1974, the 182-memberGujarat Assembly was dis-solved in March following theNavnirman Andolan and couldnot be constituted before thepresidential election in whichFakruddin Ali Ahmed waselected.

However, Jammu andKashmir will not go unrepre-sented in the presidential elec-tions as members of Lok Sabhawill be eligible to exercise their

franchise to elect the FirstCitizen of the country.The value of the vote of aMember of Parliament hasbeen fixed at 708 since the 1997presidential election.

The value of vote of aMember of Parliament for thefirst Presidential election in1952 was 494. It increasedmarginally to 496 in the 1957presidential election, followedby 493 (1962), 576 (1967 and1969).

The presidential electionswere held in 1969 due to thedeath of President ZakirHussain on May 3, 1969.In the 1974 presidential elec-tion, the value of vote of an MPwas 723. It has been fixed at 702for the presidential electionsfrom 1977 to 1992.

The Chief Justice of India(CJI) N V Ramana on

Monday would administer theoath of office to Chief Justice ofGauhati High Court JusticeSudhanshu Dhulia and GujaratHigh Court Judge JusticeJamshed B Pardiwala asSupreme Court judges.

Two days after the apexcourt collegium headed by theCJI recommended the namesof the two high court judges,the Union Law Ministry swift-ly announced their appoint-ments on Saturday in separatenotifications.

With the appointment ofJustice Dhulia and JusticePardiwala, the top court willregain its full strength of 34judges which had come downto 32 after the retirement ofJustice R Subhash Reddy onJanuary 4 this year.

Instead of the CJI's court-room, the usual place for suchevents, the swearing-in cere-mony will be held in the newly-built auditorium of the addi-tional building complex of theapex court at 10.30 AM onMonday. The CJI would be cre-ating a history of sorts byadministering oath of office to11 apex court judges. JusticePardiwala will go on to serve asthe CJI for over two years,

sources aware of the procedureto appoint members of thehigher judiciary said.

Justice Dhulia, who will bethe second judge to be elevat-ed from Uttarakhand, is thesibling of national award-win-ning film director and actorTigmanshu Dhulia. He willhave a tenure of a little overthree years.

Justice Pardiwala will bethe fourth judge from the Parsicommunity to adorn the topcourt bench and the first highcourt judge from the minoritycommunity who has been ele-vated in the last five years, afterJustice S Abdul Nazeer. JusticeNazeer was elevated to theSupreme Court in February2017.

With the retirement ofJustice R Subhash Reddy onJanuary 4 this year, the totalstrength of apex court judgeshad come down to 32 againstthe sanctioned strength of 34.Justice Dhulia, born on August10, 1960, is from Madanpur, aremote village located in PauriGarhwal district ofUttarakhand. He joined the Barat Allahabad High Court in1986.An alumnus of SainikSchool, Lucknow, he did hisgraduation and Law from theUniversity of Allahabad.

Over 79,000 calls, includingthose related to pension,

Covid support and abuse, havebeen received by the nationalhelpline for the elderly sinceOctober last year, according toofficial data.

However, out of the total5,07,493 calls received by the

helpline since October 1 lastyear, 4,28,442 have been 'nonserviceable calls', constituting 84per cent of the total callsreceived on the helpline.

The non-serviceable callsinclude call drops, nuisance

calls, calls for services for non-elderly, calls with out of scoperequests and calls outside officehours.

As many as 79,051 service-able calls have been received bythe helpline over the period onissues related to pension (22,430calls), Covid support (6,406),abuse (4,748), old age homes(2040), emotional support(1,856) and maintenance(1,326), according to officialdata.

More calls on toll-free num-ber 14567 have been receivedfrom men (44,348) than women(18,363). The helpline waslaunched to address the issuesof elders especially in view of the

pandemic. The Ministry ofSocial Justice andEmpowerment has started state-wise call centres in 28 states andUTs under the ELDERLINEproject.

The helpline also helps con-nect people to old age homes,caregivers, day care centres,hospitals and doctors, eldercare products, etc. These callsare generally made by callerswho need these details lookingfor specific elder care services.About 5,959 calls led to fieldinterventions like rescue of ahomeless elderly and care for anabused elderly.

Among states/UTs, thehighest number of calls havebeen received from UttarPradesh at 96,764 followed byMaharashtra at 40,239,Rajasthan at 30,219 calls,Karnataka at 29,953 andMadhya Pradesh at 26,689 andUttarakhand at 23,685.

A senior official saidhelpline is still picking up inmany states and volume of callsis expected to increase soon.The official said in case ofmental support calls are con-nected to mental health profes-sionals with experience in geri-atric therapy and counselling.

�� &67��6-89

Congress leader RahulGandhi on Sunday stepped

up his attack on the govern-ment over the hike in price ofdomestic LPG cylinder, andsaid only his party governs forthe welfare of poor and middleclass families.

Cooking gas LPG priceswere on Saturday hiked by Rs50 per cylinder, the secondincrease in rates in just over sixweeks following the firming ofinternational energy rates.

Non-subsidised LPG nowcosts Rs 999.50 per 14.2-kgcylinder in the national capital,up from Rs 949.50 previously,according to a price notifica-tion of state-owned fuel retail-ers.

In a tweet, Gandhi com-pared the price of domesticLPG cylinder of about Rs 410with a subsidy of Rs 827 in2014 under a Congress-ledgovernment to that of over Rs999 with "zero subsidy" in2022 under the BJP-led Centre.

"2 cylinders then for theprice of 1 now!" the formerCongress chief said.

"Only Congress governsfor the welfare of poor & mid-dle class Indian families. It's thecore of our economic policy,"he said. After the hike onSaturday, Gandhi had said mil-lions of Indian households arewaging a difficult battle against"extreme inflation", unem-ployment and "poor gover-nance".

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Aday after Union MinisterAmit Shah advised saf-

fron workers to fight their wayup like Chief Minister MamataBanerjee did as the Oppositionleader, more Bengal BJP work-ers deserted the party, takingthe number of such desertionsto at least 120 in the past fewdays.

While 80 members hadleft the party in Jhargram dis-trict alleging lack of sincerity inthe leadership 20 saffron func-tionaries on Sunday resignedtheir posts in North 24Parganas complaining arbi-trary functioning of the lead-ers.

A district level leader wholeft his post said without nam-ing any BJP leader, “if we willhave to learn from MamataBanerjee then why should wenot join the TrinamoolCongress … where is there apoint in continuing in the BJP… we had joined the party withPrime Minister Narendra Modias our ideal and not MamataBanerjee … how can we followin the footsteps of a ChiefMinister whose men are mur-dering, raping and looting ourworkers … she can never be anexample.”

While hearing complaints

of State and ruling party repres-sion --- and facing demands ofcentral intervention throughArticle 355 or 356 --- from theparty men, Shah had in aclosed-door meeting told localleaders that they should notlook for any short cuts topower and instead of lookingup to New Delhi for backupsupport the State leadershipshould build up the fight frombelow as there was no possi-bility of imposing central rulein Bengal.

She told the Bengal leadershow Banerjee had worked hardfor two-and-half decadesbefore she could throw the 34years of Marxist regime out ofpower. He asked the party mento fight TMC’s atrocities polit-

ically rather than relying onothers (read the central lead-ership) to do the work forthem.

He also asked the Stateleaders not to rely too much onthe central investigating agen-cies to prepare the ground for

the BJP by weakening theTMC. Instead the present Statepresident Sukanto Majumdarshould follow in the footstepsof his predecessor Dilip Ghoshwho had concentrated on cre-ating a strong booth-level orga-nization.

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Bengal BJP president SukantoMajumdar on Sunday

attacked the TrinamoolCongress calling it a “party ofserial killers” two days after oneof its district level youth wingleaders Arjun Chowrasia wasfound hanging in mysteriouscircumstances at an abandonedrailway quarter near his resi-dence at Kashipur in NorthKolkata.

Chowrasia was scheduledto lead a motorbike processionto welcome Home MinisterAmit Shah who was visitingBengal on the day of his mys-terious death.

Following a High Court

order the postmortem of thedead person was conducted atthe Alipore Army CommandHospital instead of the State-run RG Kar Medical CollegeHospital. His autopsy report stillexpected.

Attacking the TMCGovernment Majumdar said,that “the BJP workers are beingkilled in Bengal in the same wayfor the past several years … toavoid murder charges and to lettheir deaths pass off as suicidesthey are being killed and thenhung with saffron flags aroundtheir neck … this has been hap-pening in Jangalmahal, NorthBengal, South Bengal and nowin Kolkata … we have no doubtthat this is a government of ser-ial killers.”

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With two more deaths, thedeath toll in the blaze in

a firecracker factory inSaharanpur reached five, policesaid on Sunday.

Fire had suddenly brokenout in the firecracker factorylocated in Sorana village inSarsawa area of Saharanpur onSaturday.

Senior Superintendent ofPolice Akash Tomar said thatthree persons, including Rahul,the factory licence holder, per-ished in the blaze on Saturdaywhile two more died duringtreatment. He said the condi-tion of one more person wasstated to be serious and he wasrushed to the PGI inChandigarh.

The fire spread fast becauseof the inflammable material andled to an explosion which madethe situation more chaotic. Bythe time fire tenders and policereached the spot, some of theworkers had suffered seriousinjuries and they were rushedto the district hospital andmedical college hospital, theSSP said.

The raging flames were sointense that some two-wheelersand cars parked near the factory

also caught fire and werereduced to ashes, the SSPadded.Meanwhile in Bahraich,an 8-year-old boy was draggedunderwater by a crocodile whilebathing in a pond onSaturday.The remains of thebody were located by diversearly Sunday.

“Virendra of Gud villageunder Motipur police stationwas attacked by a crocodilewhen he went to the pond withhis sister," Divisional ForestOfficer (DFO) AkashdeepBadhawan said.

Upon being attacked bythe crocodile, the boy's sisterrushed to home and told theincident to her family and theyalerted the authorities. Soon,the Forest department launcheda search operation.

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Two months after winningthe Uttar Pradesh

Assembly elections for the sec-ond successive term, theBharatiya Janata Party is all setto rejig its organisation in thestate with new faces on topposts.

The BJP will soon have anew State president and generalsecretary (organisation). TheUP Assembly election resultswere declared on March 10.

The incumbent BJP Statepresident Swatantra Dev Singhhas been inducted into theYogi Adityanath cabinet andthe all powerful general secre-tary (organisation) Sunil Bansalis all set to be shifted to someother state. With the impend-ing change in organisation,the state BJP has not plannedany new organisational pro-grammes for the coming days.

Sources in the BJP said thatRashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh(RSS), the political mentor ofthe BJP, was looking to shiftSunil Bansal to the BJP organ-isation in either Odisha orDelhi and was looking for hisreplacement in UP.

There is no fixed term forthe post of general secretary(organisation) in the BJP; theincumbent general secretary(organisation) is all set to be

replaced despite the party’sremarkable victory in therecent UP assembly polls.

The sources said that innext few days the BJP wouldannounce its new party presi-dent of the UP unit followingwhich the RSS would appointthe new general secretary(organisation).

The role of the generalsecretary (organisation) is con-sidered to be crucial in everystate unit of the BJP, as they areappointed by the RSS. Thegeneral secretary is mandatedto function as a link betweenthe RSS and the BJP. If the BJPis in power in any state, theparty general secretary (organ-isation) is supposed to play akey role of the communicatorbetween the RSS and the gov-ernment while being a part ofthe party-government’s coregroup.

Sunil Bansal was broughtto the UP unit to assist top BJPleader and current UnionHome Minister Amit Shahahead of the 2014 Lok Sabhaelections. Prior to that, he wasa pracharak in RSS studentswing Akhil Bharatiya VidyarthiParishad (ABVP). Consideredclose to Shah, Bansal provedhimself, with the saffron partywinning 71 of the state’s 80 LokSabha seats in 2014 and sweep-ing the assembly elections in

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Mother's Day has no mean-ing in the life of 60 years

old Dalit woman of Bade vil-lage of Lodha police station,district Aligarh because evenafter making 65 rounds ofpolice station she failed to reg-ister FIR for her 17-year-olddaughter Nirbhaya (namechanged to protect privacy).Nirbhaya, who was kidnappedat the age of 14, was gang-rapedin Palwal, Haryana, herobscene video was made andafter that she was sold to ahandicapped person in Ambalafor Rs 50000. There too, her

daughter was sexually assault-ed and later she was forced tomarry the same handicapped atthat time. Not only this, fakemarriage papers were made.Since 2018 till now the moth-er, Vimla (name changed), andher family members have beenmaking rounds of Lodha policestation and police officers butthey have not been successfulin registering the FIR. Today,on Mother's Day, Nirmalaregrets that as a mother, shecould neither get justice for herdaughter nor fulfill her moth-er's duty for the atrocitiescommitted on her daughter.She says that Mother's Day is

meaningless for me. Vimla has become very ill

in the grief of her daughterwhereas the father has becomean alcoholic and is in a semi-deranged state. Uncle ofNirbhaya, Ramesh (namechanged), said that in 2018,when his niece was 13 yearsold, relatives of neighbors of myown village who were residentsof Palwal Haryana, Sohail andDilawar kidnapped his niecewhen her parents went forselling goods. Sohail andDilawar kidnapped her by lur-ing her to meet with her par-ents. Sohail and Dilawar tookher to Palwal, Haryana and

locked her in a room of ahouse. For 1 month, both rapedher collectively and madeobscene videos.

Ramesh said Sohail andDilawar took her to Ambalaafter a month and sold herthere for ? 50000 to a personnamed Shahenshah, a handi-capped person and a residentof Mahesh Nagar. There too shewas started being tortured andraped against her will for 1 year.Fake documents were madeafter changing her name, andthen she was forcefully marriedto Shenshah first in the templeand then in the court. Whenshe protested, the ankle of her

foot was cut off with an ax. In2021, the atrocities on Nirbhayawere not seen by Chhota Lala,the brother-in-law of theShahenshah and he handedover her to us by quietly evict-ing Nirbhaya from the house inthe middle of the night.Nirbhaya told the pioneer thatSohail and Dilawar operate ainter State human traffickinggang and there were manyother girls along with me whowere a victim of human traf-ficking and obscene videos.

Since Nirbhaya was kid-napped in 2018, her parentshave been making rounds ofthe police officers of Lodha

police station to register an FIR,but till date her FIR has notbeen registered. Not only this,Lodha police went to Ambalaand found Shahenshah athome, but neither arrestedShahenshah nor they recordedNirbhaya statement 164 CrPC.

The surprising thing isthat how the Lodha policereached Ambala without reg-istering an FIR. In this contextPraveen Gautam SeniorAdvocate of the High Courtsays that in the case of sexualassault and rape, it is necessaryfor the victim to have a state-ment under section 164 ofCrPC. And without registering

an FIR, the police cannot doinvestigation out of any stateand without registering thedeparture in the police station,without a warrant, the policecannot interogate anyone.

Perhaps this is the first casewhere discussions are going onbetween the authorities onwhether or not to file an FIR forthe rape victim. Because whenthe order to register the FIR ofthis case was given by GabhanaCO Vineet Kumar to the sta-tion incharge Lodha, then thestation in-charge Lodharefused the order of the CO. Inthis regard Praveen KumarSingh, said this is an FIR of a

heinous crime and i can't reg-ister it without discussing itwith the higher officials.

When CO Gabhana wasasked about FIR in this regard,he said discussions are going onwith the higher officials andthey have asked for a fullreport.

Even today on Mother'sDay, victim's family membersand her mother went to Lodhapolice station and could notregister an FIR. Not onlyNirbhaya, but there are manyrape victims whose mothers aremaking rounds of police sta-tions and courts for justice evenon Mother's Day.

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Two terrorists including onePakistani commander were

neutralised by the joint team ofsecurity forces in CheyanDevsar area of Kulgam onSunday while one filtrator wasgunned down by the armyjawans along the line of controlin Lam area of Nowshera sec-tor of Rajouri and one consta-ble of Jammu & Kashmir policesuccumbed to his fatal injuriesin the last 24 hours in Srinagar.The slain terrorists wereresponsible for the targetedkilling of security personneland a member of the minoritycommunity killed in Kulgam.

Around 70 terrorists havebeen eliminated by the securi-ty forces since January 1, 2022in various anti-terrorist oper-ations.

On the other hand BSFtroops fired several roundsafter picking up the move-ment of a Pakistani dronealong the International Border(IB) in the Arnia sector lateSaturday evening. The dronereturned to the Pakistani sidebut a massive search operation

was launched to ensure thatthere was no airdropping of thepayload by the flying object.

According to a policespokesman, "a joint cordonand search operation waslaunched by the Police andArmy (09RR) in CheyanDevsar area of Kulgam"."During the search operation,as the joint search partyapproached towards the sus-pected spot, the hiding terror-ists fired indiscriminately uponthe joint search party whichwas effectively retaliated lead-ing to an encounter. Later on,a CRPF team of CRPF alsojoined the operation".

In the ensuing encounter,02 terrorists of proscribed ter-ror outfit LeT including aPakistani terrorist commanderHaider was killed. The otherkilled terrorist has been iden-tified as Shahbaz Shah ofKulgam.

As per police records thekilled terrorist Haider was cat-egorized terrorist who wasactive for more than two yearsin North Kashmir and hadrecently shifted his base toSouth Kashmir. The killed ter-

rorist was part of groupsinvolved in several terrorcrimes, civilian atrocities andvarious killings includingrecent killings of police per-sonnel SgCT MohammadSultan and Ct Fayaz Ahmad on10/11/2021 at Gulshan ChowkBandipora. Besides, he wasalso involved in an attack onNaka party near Nishat ParkBandipora on 11/02/2022 inwhich SPO Zubair Ahmadattained martyrdom while 04other security personnel gotinjured including 03 policepersonnel and an ASI of BSF.

The other killed terroristShahbaz Shah was a hybrid ter-rorist and was involved in the

killing of a civilian belonging tominority community namelySatish Kumar Singh on13/04/2022 at Kakran area ofKulgam. After this attack saidterrorist was categorised.

In Jammu region, an infil-trator was gunned down by thearmy along the line of controlin Nowshera sector of Rajourilate Saturday evening. DefencePRO in Jammu, Lt-ColDevender Anand said an alertArmy patrol eliminated a ter-rorist trying to infiltrate alongthe Line of Control in the Lamsector, Naushera(J&K). Thebody of the terrorist alongwith items for survival havebeen recovered .

Meanwhile,“a drone fromthe Pakistan side was observedcoming towards the Indianside in the Arnia area at 7.25pm with blinking light onSaturday,” Deputy InspectorGeneral of BSF, JammuFrontier, S P Sandhu said. Hesaid the alert BSF troops firedaround eight rounds to shootdown the drone immediatelyafter it crossed into the Indianside but it managed to flyback.

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Unni Rajan, the mega star of Malayalammini screen is all set to do in real life

what the Father of the Nation had beenteaching the world till he breathed his last.“The respectability and elegance of the jobwhich we do lies in the perfection and ado-ration with which we execute the jobe,”Mahatma Gandhi had said through hisspeeches and writings. When on Monday,Unni Rajan wears the uniform of theScavenger in Kerala Government-runpost-matric hostel in Kasaragod, he wouldbe setting new records.

Unni Rajan may be the first star fromthe world of glamour to take up the job ofscavenger. There are instances of head loadworkers, history sheeters, conductors androad side vendors making it big in celluloidbut the reverse of this incident is unheard

of.“It was my dream to get a

government job and I had reg-istered as a job seeker in theemployment. When I was calledfor the personal interview, theinterviewers asked me whetherI was serious in taking up thisjob. I replied that with the kindof educational qualification Ihave, this is the best job I can aspire for,”Unni Rajan told The Pioneer. He pointed outthat Mahatma Gandhi too had cleaned toi-lets and wash rooms even while he was lead-ing the nation in its struggle for freedom.

Unni said that returns from TV serialsare meagre and there is always an elementof uncertainty associated with the world ofglitterati. Unni, who hails from Kasaragodis 42 and is the sole earning member of hisfamily. He is the popular star of Marimayam,

a serial telecast by ManoramaTV. Though Unni’s appearanceis limited to a few scenes, it is hispresence that evokes tons oflaughter. He does not delivermuch dialogues but his monosyllables and reactions are suffi-cient to send the viewers to astate of spree.

The combination scenes fea-turing Unni Rajan and Mani Shornur aresequences rated as unparalleled even inMalayalam fils. The elan and poise withwhich they perfect the roles are beingwatched keenly by seasoned artists andmovie makers.

The designation scavenger which waslooked down with contempt is likely to getrecognition and acceptability among thenew and old generations with Unni Rajan’sentry to the world of cleaning and hygiene.

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Ahead of crafting Bharatiya Janta Party's(BJP) final poll strategy in Jammu &

Kashmir, a frontal right wing organisation,Jammu and Kashmir People’s Forum,backed by the Rashtriya SwayamsevakSangh, Sunday raised a poll pitch in sup-port of reclaiming parts of Jammu andKashmir under the “illegal occupation ofPakistan''.

The event, organised in the premisesof Padma Shri Padma SachdevGovernment PG College for Women,Gandhi Nagar, witnessed a huge presenceof displaced refugees from areas ofPakistan Occupied Jammu and Kashmir(PoJK). The venue of the memorial cere-

mony was painted in colors of the Nationaltricolor.

Senior BJP leaders from the region alsoattended the function along with their sup-porters.

The local BJP leaders along with theirsupporters were working overtime toensure the grand success of the memori-al ceremony. Ahead of the forthcomingAssembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir, thelocal BJP unit, facing the wrath of the com-mon public, wanted to test political watersand their support base in the city of tem-ples. Several religious leaders also attend-ed the 'Shradhanjali and PunyabhoomiSmarn Sabha' along with PoJK refugeesfrom across the nation. On the occasionrich tributes were paid to the saviours of

Jammu and Kashmir and to those who losttheir lives to save their families during thePakistani invasion on October 22, 1947. Asmall documentary giving graphic detailsof the brutal attack by the Pakistaniinvaders was also exhibited for the audi-ence.

Speaking on the occasion a seniorVishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leaderSurendra Jain raised a pitch for reclaim-ing parts of Jammu and Kashmir under the“illegal occupation of Pakistan”.Amidchants for liberation of PoJK, the VHPleader said “whether you want compen-sation or land of your ancestors and reli-gious places like Sharada Peeth…thepledge you have taken is shortly becom-ing a reality,” he said.

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In her first public posturingafter release on bail in the

“Hanuman Chalisa” case andsubsequent discharge from acity hospital, Independent MPfrom Amravati Navneet Ranadared Maharashtra ChiefMinister Uddhav Thackerayto contest and win against herfrom any constituency inMaharashtra.

Interacting after her dis-charge from the LilavatiHospital where she had beenadmitted for a check-up fol-lowing the court orders,Navneet said: “If I recitingHanuman Chalisa or taking thename of Lord Ram is a crime,I am prepared to be behindbars for not just 14 days (forwhich she her MLA-husbandremanded in custody aftertheir arrest in the HanumanChalisa case) full 14 years.The people have seen the wayI was acted against. I will con-tinue my fight”.

In an apparent politicalgrandstanding, Navneet threwa challenge to the chief minis-ter by saying: “You can contestfrom any constituency in

Maharashtra, I will be youropponent. Prove it you can getelected from the people”.

Coming down heavily onthe ruling Shiv Sena, Navneetsaid that she would campaignagainst the Sena in the forth-coming BrihanmumbaiMunicipal Corporation(BMC). “The Shiv Sena hasbeen in power in the BMC fortwo generations. The Sena isindulging in massive corrup-tion in BMC. I am the daugh-ter of Mumbai. I will worktowards unseating the ShivSena from power in the BMC.Watch my words, Mumbaikarsand Ram bhakt will burndown the Sena’s Lanka in thecoming months,” she said.

Earlier in the day beforeher discharge from therew,senior BJP leaders DevendraFadnavis visited the LilavatiHospital and made enquiriesabout her.

In related development,Navneet’s MLA-husband RaviRana said that the MVA gov-ernment took forcible actionagainst his MP-wife as chiefminister Uddhav Thackeraywas “scared of her”. He allegedthat the police treated Navneetand him badly denying them

basic facilities at the policelockup on the first day of theirarrest.

Targeting Shiv Sena chiefspokesperson and Rajya Sabhamember Sanjay Raut for hisstatement that the Rana couplewould be buried 20 feetbeneath the earthy, Navneetsaid: “That ‘popat’ (parrot)said in Nagpur that he wouldbury me 20 feet under theground… just wait and see,with the Lanka of corruptionthey have erected in the BMC,the people of Mumbai andMaharashtra will dump them20 feet below the earth.”

Meanwhile, Shiv SenaSpokesperson Dr. ManishaKayande dared Navneet tomake her MRI report public sothat the people would knowwhat exactly was wrong withher.g

“When the ‘Bunty-Babli’(Ranas) couple was arrested,Babli (Navneet) was cribbingand crying in jail and hospital.But, now after her dischargeshe has suddenly become soenergetic. My challenge toNavneet: Make your MRIreport also public, let the peo-ple know what exactly waswrong with you… She was seen

today standing and talking forhours with the media, floutingthe court orders,” Dr. Kayandesaid

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Mumbai: The Mumbaipolice will move theMumbai City Civil &Sessions Court againstNavneet and Ravi Rana forflouting the bail conditions.

Talking to media per-sons, Special PublicProsecutor Pradeep Gharatsaid: “When they weregranted bail, point no 3specifically mentions thatthey should not speak to themedia. I have read the con-dition again and I have seenclips of their interactionwith the media. It clearlyviolates the conditionsimposed by the court. And,hence, we are duty bound toinform the court of thedevelopments.” PNS

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cleaning. Moreover, the draft-ing of petitions, affidavits aswell judgments in districtcourts and High Courts istortuous when it comes toterminology. An institutionunder my charge a few yearsago received a judgment thatbegan with Rabindra NathTagore and went on in thatpoetic tone; it was a pleasureto read it. But we had toappeal to the apex court,which turned down the poet-ic piece. All this means a con-sumption of time, moneyand the need for more solic-itors, advocates and judges.

Way back in 1976, we hadto take legal opinions on acompany based in the UK.The London lawyer produceda draft the next day that wasjust a little longer than onepage. The one that camefrom India was ten timeslonger; the difference was inthe style of writing. The advo-cate in the UK preferred theshorter one and rightly sobecause the points coveredwere about the same. Theother area of editing isappeals. I am not a lawyer, yet

I have come across a case oftenant eviction which beganin Mumbai’s Small CausesCourt and ended up in theSupreme Court! The right toappeal should be reduced totwo. Before commencing thefinal hearing, the judgeshould decide how muchmaximum time the twoopposing advocates wouldbe permitted. If either advo-cate exceeds his limit, s/heshould have to pay a stipulat-ed sum of money every extraminute, as is done on taxirides for every hundredmetres exceeding the mini-mum fare.

Very recently, I heard ofan advocate arguing in theapex court for two full work-ing days. Adjournmentsshould cost expensively to therequesting side; say, half thecourt fee charged to the liti-gant. Otherwise, adjourn-ments would continue to beavailed freely and popularadvocates would carry ongetting more and more briefs.Whereas if the client has topay an adjournment fee, s/hewould choose an advocate

who has served in Delhi aswell as in other cities.

Judicial activism shouldbe kept to the minimum asalso public interest litigation(PILs). The latter was intro-duced to help the poor andthe voiceless to articulatetheir grievances. It was nevermeant for the rich and influ-ential. How to “plead prompt-ly without failing to commu-nicate with the judge” is onesubject that should be taughtseriously. In my college days,a great many topics weredealt with. Often, as a result,if an advocate argued speed-ily, the judges could notalways understand the finerlines of the argument. Or theadvocate had to go on plead-ing indefinitely until he felt hehad got his point across, orthe judge stopped him fromgoing on. Given the currentstate of our judicial system,this must be consigned to history.

(The writer is a well-known columnist, an authorand a former member of theRajya Sabha. The viewsexpressed are personal.)

�� Sir — Time and again, former Congresspresident Rahul Gandhi throws tantrumsand is thus becoming a laughing stock infront of the public. But this time round,it has exceeded all limits and showed hisignorance in the open. The Congressleader sitting alongside the party cadrewas seen asking “What is the maintheme today?”, thus exhibiting his utterignorance on the subject of the meetingthat he was attending. We can wellunderstand how to go to the extent ofelaborating and giving a lecture when hedoes not know the subject. It is indeed atesting time for the Congress and its partycadre to manage a leader who is ignorantabout basic things and needs a note toshow his presence.

On the other hand, the leaders fromother parties have command over the sub-ject and make relevant speeches ratherthan looking for a subject. The recent rallyin Telangana also revealed Rahul Gandhi'stotal ignorance. It is indeed a dangerousproposition to have a national leader fromthe Opposition party going blank on basicthings.

Gundu K Maniam | Coimbatore

�� Sir — The Punjab & Haryana High Courtin a midnight hearing recently directedthe Punjab Government to not take anycoercive action against BJP leader TajinderBagga until the next hearing on May 10.The BJP leader had moved the HighCourt challenging the non-bailable arrestwarrants issued against him by a Mohalicourt relating to a case registered againsthim on the charges of making provoca-tive statements, promoting enmity and foralleged criminal intimidation.

As per the court’s order, the arrestwarrant was issued against Bagga by thecourt of Judicial Magistrate RavteshInderjit Singh. Keeping in view the factthat sufficient opportunities had alreadybeen granted to the accused to join theinvestigation and, despite that, the accusedhas failed to join the investigation, thecourt ordered that it is necessary in the

interest of the justice to issue non-bailablewarrants of the accused, Tejinder PalSingh Bagga for 23.05.2022, who is evad-ing arrest, in order to facilitate the inves-tigation. All these developments tookplace following the dramatic instances thatled to an open political war between theBJP and the AAP, which has since takenan ugly shape.

Bhagwan Thadani | Mumbai

�� Sir — The Union Government’s stance onthe sedition law is clear and unambigu-ous; it is in favour of retention of theIndian Penal Code’s Section 124A pertain-ing to sedition and treating the 1962Constitution Bench upholding its valid-ity as a ‘binding precedent’. At the sametime, the enlightened opinion is that thesedition law has become a legal anachro-nism and has to be scrapped. This colo-nial-era law is mostly slapped on dis-senters and defenders of basic humanrights and religious freedom, politicalactivists fighting for greater autonomy and

critics of the Government’s strong-armtactics. Obviously, the purpose of retain-ing the sedition law becomes dubious.

There have been umpteen instances toshow that it has been rampantly misused‘to punish’ those who exercise their legit-imate democratic right to hold theGovernment of the day to account for itspolicies and acts of commission and omis-sion. Nowadays anyone who does not toethe line and is critical of the Governmentand its misdoings is accused of seditiousactivity. The sedition charge is oftenslapped in the guise of abusing humanrights activists, independentjournalists,Dalit leaders and leaders offarmer movements. The sedition lawhangs like the sword of Damocles over theheads of those who stand up for citizens’rights and work to advance the causes ofjustice and freedom.

G David Milton | Maruthancode

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At the CMs-CJs’ (ChiefM i n i s t e r s - C h i e fJustices) conference inDelhi on April 30,

Prime Minister Narendra Modiand Chief Justice of India NVRamana too were present. Therewas a free and frank discussionon why cases in most of thecourts are languishing. ThePrime Minister said three and ahalf lakh undertrials are lan-guishing in prisons and expedit-ing their trials is essential todeliver justice as soon as possi-ble. Most of these undertrials arepoor and deserve early justice.The Prime Minister advisedthe use of the local language upto the district-level courts to dis-pense justice.

Chief Justice Ramanaopined that one of the causes ofpiling up of the cases is the non-performance of the legislatureand the executive, itself a con-tentious issue. Perhaps, the CJI’scontention is that laws passedare not clearly drafted and thatleads to unnecessary controver-sy. “I think the time has comenow to revisit the demand andtake it to a logical conclusion.The practice of law beforeConstitutional courts shouldbe based on one's intelligenceand understanding of law…,” theChief Justice of India said.

Similarly, indifferent admin-istration at the lower level com-pels citizens to approach courtsto seek justice. The judiciary’sperpetual grouse is that despitevacancies, judges are notappointed on time. There are anumber of points that trouble allthe three wings of Government.

Seventy per cent of the casesarise from the administrative sideor the government. The first stepshould be to restrain the func-tionaries from giving adversedecisions. Doubts should becleared by the departmentlawyers and the courts must notmake the citizens spend time andmoney on litigation unlessabsolutely necessary.

According to the PrimeMinister, the Centre hasrepealed 1,450 laws becausethey had become obsolete, andanother 350 laws are lined up tobe struck off. The States shouldalso pursue this line of spring

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This is evident since so far as IRhas not even formulated the guide-lines for construction and mainte-nance of assets for speed beyond160 kmph, although R & D arm ofIR, RDSO was assigned the taskmore than three years ago.

A glance at the time table pub-lished by the IR (for period July2019-June2020) shows that evenfor train like Vande Bharat, Tejas& Shatabdi expresses on differentroutes, there is a vast difference inactual average speeds. While thehighest average speed is only 96Kmph for Varanasi-New DelhiVande Bharat, it is as low as 53Kmph for Dehradun andKathgodam Shatabdis. This ismainly on account of various per-manent and temporaryspeedrestrictions and operational factorslike number of halts & timeallowances provided in the timetable for planned maintenanceworks and unforeseen incidents.Unless these impediments areremoved in a time-bound manner,merely increasing the maximumspeed will provide only limitedadvantage in terms of overallreduction in travel timein spite ofprohibitive capital expenditure.

The average speeds remainlow even with induction of morepowerful locomotives also becauseof differential speeds of varioustrains as all of them, includingfreight trains, share the same trackwith curves on which speeds areregulated and the maximumspeeds are achieved only for asmall time in a run. The impact oflaying flatter horizontal curva-tureonaverage speeds is evidentfrom the experience of Mumbai

and Madgaon section of KonkanRailway which was originally builtfor 160 kmph speed potentialwith flatter curves and hardly anypermanent speed restrictions;onthis section, Tejas express is able toachieve an average speed of 85kmph in spite it being non-electri-fied single line.

With multiple objectives ofspeed and capacity, IR sanctionedthe project to increase the speed to160 kmph on New Delhi-Howrahand New Delhi-Mumbai Centralroutes, to be completed by March2023, at a cost of about 17000 cr.The scope of the project includesfencing, Automatic TrainProtection System, Mobile TrainRadio Communication and auto-mated and mechanised diagnosticsystems. Major portion of 17000 cris planned thorough institutionalfinancing (about �16000 cr) andtill March 2020, no expenditurehas been incurred. In addition, thecost of removal of all level cross-ings, is funded separately. Underthe circumstance, completion ofthese two works by end of this fis-cal looks too far-fetched and thereis a high risk of severe cost andtime overruns.

It is conceivable that once thisinfrastructure is put in place, themaximum speed capability ofTrain 18 type rolling stock can beincreased to 200 kmph with minorinputs from IR engineers them-selves. As for increase in averagespeeds, IR should try out tilting insome Train 18s to assess its relia-bility in the Indian environment.

With the fillip given in recentyears to construction of express-ways, improvements in designs

and comfortable speeds of cars,affordability of modern touristtaxis and higher penetration of airtravel, IR will find it difficult toeven retain its present share of pas-senger traffic. If the travel time ofinter-city Shatabdi type day trainsis not reduced by increasing theaverage as well as maximum speed,rail travel may no longer offer asignificant journey time advantageover road, beset as it is already withan extra travel time to and fromthe station. Readers would recallthat Mumbai-Pune Shatabdiexpress had to be discontinuedbecause of poor patronage after thecommissioning of Mumbai-Puneexpressway. Similarly, unless thetravel time of Rajdhanis is reduceddrastically, making services likeNew Delhi to Mumbai andHowrah truly overnight, similarscenario may emerge after comple-tion of new expressways.

It is obvious that irrespectiveof the road quality, a Ferrari willrun only with the speed of an auto-rickshaw in Chandni Chowk; forthe same reason, if IR is genuine-ly serious to run semi-high-speedtrains on existing tracks, with adecent average speed, say around120 km/h, then the whole eco-sys-tem needs a relook; improvementsin rolling stock, particularly onreducing the gap between freightand passenger train speed, time-tabled running of goods trains,reliability of assets and completingthe two projects of 160 kmph,without many permanent speedrestriction, expeditiously.

With a young and dynamicminister in charge of Railways, thetime to act is now.

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(Gupta is retiredMember(Engineering)

and Mani is retiredGeneral Manager,

Indian Railways. Bothare independent rail

consultants. The viewsexpressed are personal.)

Hyper-inflation - rapid,excessive, and out-of-control general

price increases - has becomea serious issue with PrimeMinister Narendra Moditalking to states for bringingdown the fuel prices, suppos-edly a key reason for the economic trouble.

Soaring corporate profi-teering is another reason forthe rising prices. The top 20companies continue to have70 percent profits, as perMerci l ius InvestmentManagers, and higher productprices in a supposedly sub-dued market. Unilever, SuzukiMotor and JSW Steel all are inthe game of raising prices.

Most companies are rais-ing prices in response to theglobal supply squeeze in thewake of the Russia-Ukraine

war. It needs a probe. Despite efforts by the gov-

ernment, except Gujarat andKarnataka, not many states areknown to have given relief intheir taxes on petroleumproducts. This is becoming apolitical issue with the oppo-sition joining the spat and thefinance ministry announcingthat Rs 78,704 crore of thestates’ shares of cess are yet tobe transferred.

This is despite the Brentcrude falling to $104 a barrel.For the past about two years,the benefits of unprecedentedlow crude prices were notpassed on to the consumers.Fuel prices have risen by 31percent in eight years.

Even petrol pumps sup-posed to be benefitting fromhigher commissions as fuelprices rise, are paying almost

double the cost for tankers. Inaddition, the rising toll taxesare making goods even moreexpensive. Tolls also affectinter-region and localizedtrading. The country sees anopportunity in the Ukraine sit-uation of globally selling foodgrains at a higher price. Whilethis may ensure higher remu-neration to farmers, there is aflip side. It could cause domes-tic prices to soar. The primeminister recently said the gov-ernment was approachingWorld Trade Organisation for

facilitating sales of Indianfood grains in the world mar-ket. The WTO still has notcome out with its terms. TheUkraine situation has createda void as the largest suppliersare unable to meet the worlddemand. Ukraine exportedabout 1.7 million tons grainslast month, according to con-sultant ProZerno. The most-recent volume still is onlyabout half of March 2020.Markets are bracing for moreupheavals as deliveries fromUkraine and Russia - whichtogether account for about aquarter of the world’s grainstrade - turn increasingly com-plicated and raise the spectreof food shortages.

A new market may grad-ually open up for India. Itsramifications are too early tostudy. India domestically has

been overflowing with foodgrain. About 80 crore peopleare being given free food dolesworth over �2 lakh crore a yearfor past two years. While Indiais the second-largest wheatproducer with a share ofaround 14.14 percent of theworld’s production in 2020, itaccounted for less than 1 per-cent of global wheat exports.The export potential could belarge but with corporate dom-ination, dream prices mayelude farmers. The ramifica-tions on the domestic marketcan cast shadow on the polit-ical spectrum.

Coal shortage, its higherprices and dependence onthermal power is increasingpower cost per unit to �6 toover �10 or more. This wouldmake use of electricity fortrains, vehicles, farms and

industry an expensive affair.Inflation is eating vol-

umes of large companies likeHindustan Unilever (HUL),claims CEO Sanjiv Mehta buthe has no answer for its high20 percent operating mar-gins, lower than earlier 24 per-cent. The rising prices are‘rationalising’ consumerspending. High raw materialprices are now being compen-sated by raising productprices. As the company tries totransfer costs, consumers arebeing thrifty and settling forlower priced products. Still, itis having profits at �2203crore or 8.5 percent. This tes-tifies that high profiteering isthe bane.

The consumer buys onlywhat he needs of the FMCG.Many companies foresee adecline in high profits .

Intelligent consumer spendingis hitting large companies inurban and rural areas. Risingprices are hurting householdconsumption. Overall mar-ket trends can improve ifprofits are rationalized.

The UN Conference forTrade and Development findsthat despite everything, the e-commerce trade is growing. It,however, does not considerthis healthy. Total retail salesduring the pandemicincreased to 19 percent in2020 up from 16 percent in2019. It has hurt the least-developed countries as well assmall businesses.

Modi needs to set up acommittee of experts and acttough to ensure the countrygoes back to a magic low inflationary phase forconcerted growth.

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(The writer is a senior journalist. The views

expressed are personal.)

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�+��7�� Development of Train 18 —Vande Bharat Express — thefirst semi-high-speed trainofIndian Railways (IR), and sub-

sequent announcement of its large-scaleproliferationwith 400 rakes in three years,raised the hope that India would soonhave a sizeable sector of such trains. Thesemi-high-speed sector is ill-defined butin the Indian context, stuck as we are inthe mail/express train speed range of 110to 130 km/h for decades, it would meanpassenger train operation in the speedrange of 160 to 200 km/h.

The reality, however, is far-removedfrom the hope. IR has only a smallstretch of track and allied infrastructurebetween Delhi and Agra which is fit fortrains to run at 160 km/h.IR has been talk-ing about running coaching trains at160km/h speed for more than five decadessince 1960s and the timeline for achiev-ing the number of times has been revised,embarrassingly, on several occasions. IR’sflagship trains, Rajdhanis and Shatabdiscontinue to ply at the same maximumspeeds up to 130 km/h since their induction.

Another important aspect which isperhaps as important, if not more, thanthe maximum speed of operation is theaverage speed of trains. It calibrates thecapacity of IR to run passenger trains con-sistently at a good speed. Comptroller andAuditor General of India recently tableda report in parliament, berating IR for notmaking any perceptible improvement inthe running speed of mail/express trainsdespite spending a significant amount of�2.5 lakh crore on track infrastructurebetween 2008 and 2019. The report stat-ed that the average speed of such trainsin 2019-20 was only 50.6 km, which is lessthan per cent higher than what was reg-istered a decade back. IR has talked about‘Mission Raftaar’ since 2016-17, whichenvisaged raising the average speed ofthese trains from 50 kmph to 75 kmph by2021-22. While the target has been missedby a mile, there appears to be no hope ofachieving an average speed of even 60Km/h in near future.

A project to increase the maximumspeed of operation to 160 km/h on Delhi-Howrah and Delhi-Mumbai section is inhand for some years. While the declaredtarget date of completion is March 2023,the project is not likely to see completionby then, or even by 2024. IR must look atits strategy closely as such default indicatessome gaps in planning, financing and execution.

Let us see this in global perspective.There are more than 20 countries wherepassenger trains run at a speed of 200kmph or more; there aremany countrieswhich have achieved this by upgradingtheir existing track, allied infrastructureand rolling stock, including tilting, to raiseaverage and maximum speeds to the rangeof 150 and 225 kmph respectively; butafter the fiasco of the Talgo train trialdrama, this may be a distant dream for IR.

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Sri Lanka's main OppositionSJB said on Sunday that it

has rejected an offer by embat-tled President GotabayaRajapaksa to its leader SajithPremadasa to head an interimgovernment, amid continuedpolitical uncertainty in thecountry which is now under astate of emergency.

"Our leader refused toaccept the president's offer,"Tissa Attanayake, the nationalorganiser for Samagi JanaBalawegaya (SJB) toldreporters. Rajapaksa had calledover the telephone bothPremadasa and Harsha de

Silva, the SJB economic guru,on the prospect of forming aninterim government which hadbeen a demand endorsed by thepowerful Buddhist clergy aswell as the group which hadbroken away from the rulingSri Lanka Podujana Peramuna(SLPP) coalition.

The SJB announced onSaturday that they would backthe proposal from the lawyers'body BASL which had advo-cated for the setting up of aninterim government for a peri-od of 18 months with a moveto abolish the presidential sys-tem of governance. They hadalso called for the repealing ofthe 20th Amendment to the

Constitution which conferredunfettered powers to Rajapaksain 2020.

The Bar Association of SriLanka (BASL) calls for therestoration of the 19Amendment to theConstitution which hadempowered Parliament overthe president. The SJB is tohave a discussion with theBASL on this proposal, the SJBleader Harin Fernando said.The 19A adopted in 2015pruned presidential powers byempowering Parliament abovethe executive president.

However, the 19A wasscrapped after GotabayaRajapaksa won the November

2019 presidential election. Meanwhile, former

President Maithripala Sirisenaalso met Premadasa onSaturday to ask the SJB to takeover the interim government.

Premadasa, 55, has alreadyannounced that he would notbe a party to any governmentheaded by the two Rajapaksas- Gotabaya and Mahinda.

The SJB, which has hand-ed over to the parliamentarySpeaker motions of no-confi-dence against the SLPP coali-tion government and PresidentGotabaya Rajapaksa, is puttingpressure on parliamentarySpeaker Mahinda YapaAbeywardena to advance thedate of its debate.

The Buddhist clergy toohas intensified pressure onRajapaksa to implement theinterim government plan.

The Government hemmedin by a month of street protestshas imposed a state of emer-gency, which gives the securi-ty forces sweeping powers tocrack down on dissent.

Sri Lanka is currently in thethroes of unprecedented eco-nomic turmoil since its inde-pendence from Britain in 1948.

Thousands of demonstra-tors have hit the streets acrossSri Lanka since April 9, as thegovernment ran out of moneyfor vital imports; prices ofessential commodities haveskyrocketed and there are acute

shortages in fuel, medicinesand electricity supply. Despitemounting pressure, PresidentGotabaya Rajapaksa and hiselder brother and Prime

Minister Mahinda Rajapaksahave refused to quit office.In aspecial Cabinet meeting onFriday, President Rajapaksadeclared a state of emergency

with effect from Friday mid-night. This is the second emer-gency declared in just over amonth. Rajapaksa haddeclared an emergency on

April 1 also after a mass protestopposite his private residence.He had revoked it on April 5following severe criticism of hismove.

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Sri Lanka's Defence Ministryhas appealed to the public

to assist it in managing the cur-rent economic crisis and unrestin the country with "utmostintelligence and patience" andalso cancelled the leaves of allsecurity personnel, followingthe declaration of a state ofemergency in the country byembattled President GotabyaRajapaksa.

In a special Cabinet meet-ing on Friday, PresidentRajapaksa declared a state ofemergency with effect fromFriday midnight. This is thesecond emergency declared injust over a month. Rajapaksahad declared an emergency onApril 1 also after a mass protestopposite his private residence.He had revoked it earlier onApril 5. Sri Lanka's Ministry ofDefence on Saturdayannounced that due to the dec-laration of a state of emergency,

the leave of security forces per-sonnel is cancelled, the DailyMirror newspaper reported.

All military person-nel are to report to duty withimmediate effect, said theMinistry of Defence.

In a separate state-ment, the ministry requestedall citizens to "assist in man-aging the current economicand social crisis and unrest inthe country with the utmostintelligence and patience."

"It must be stated that weall respect the democratic rightof the people of Sri Lanka topeacefully express their agita-tions and protests within thedemocratic framework," thestatement said, amidst weeks ofprotests demanding the resig-nation of the President and thegovernment, blaming the pow-erful Rajapaksa clan for mis-handling the island nation'seconomy, already hit by thepandemic. "Nevertheless, espe-cially the last few days, the

struggle that has been going onas a peaceful struggle has beenchanged and the democraticrights of the people have beenviolated in an attempt to dis-rupt the normal life of the peo-ple in the country," the min-istry said in a statement.

It is a fact that ingeneral we are all in great dis-tress due to the protests andhartals being carried out invarious parts of the country ina manner that affects theirdaily lives," it added.

The ministry said therehad been reports of protestersbehaving in a "provocativeand threatening manner" with-out any regard for the prevail-ing law and order in the coun-try, disrupting the work of thePolice and Security Forceswho are committed to main-tain law and order. "Due tothis reason, the majority of thelaw-abiding citizens of thecountry find it very difficult tomaintain the essential services

required to carry out their dailylives," it said."Considering thestatus quo, the State ofEmergency in the DemocraticSocialist Republic of Sri Lankahas been declared from mid-night on May 6, 2022 in accor-dance with Constitutionalpowers vested in HisExcellency the President ofthe country...To maintain pub-lic peace, securing the lives ofthe people and ensuring socialstability and to establish theconstitutional institutionsestablished in accordance withthe provisions of theConstitution," it said.

Sri Lanka is cur-rently in the throes of unprece-dented economic turmoil sinceits independence from Britainin 1948. The crisis is caused inpart by a lack of foreign cur-rency, which has meant thatthe country cannot afford topay for imports of staple foodsand fuel, leading to acuteshortages and very high prices.

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Relatives of the missing inCuba's capital desperately

searched on Saturday for vic-tims of an explosion at one ofHavana's most luxurious hotelsthat killed at least 26 people.

They checked the morgue,hospitals and if unsuccessful,they returned to the partiallycollapsed Hotel Saratoga, whererescuers used dogs to hunt forsurvivors.A natural gas leakwas the apparent cause ofFriday's blast at the 96-roomhotel.

The 19th-century struc-ture in the Old Havana neigh-borhood did not have anyguests at the time because itwas undergoing renovationsahead of a planned Tuesdayreopening after being closed.

Havana city officials raisedthe death toll to 26 on Saturday,according to the officialCubadebate news site.

The dead included fourchildren and a pregnantwoman. Spain's PresidentPedro Sánchez said via Twitterthat a Spanish tourist wasamong the dead and thatanother Spaniard was serious-ly injured.Cuban authoritiesconfirmed the tourist's deathand said her partner was

injured. They were not stayingat the hotel. Tourism MinisterDalila González said a Cuban-American tourist was alsoinjured.

Representatives of Grupode Turismo Gaviota SA, whichowns the hotel, said during anews conference Saturday that51 workers had been inside thehotel at the time, as well as twopeople working on renova-tions. Of those, 11 were killed,13 remained missing and sixwere hospitalised. Gonzálezsaid the cause of the blast wasstill under investigation, but alarge crane hoisted a charredgas tanker from the hotel'srubble early Saturday. Searchand rescue teams workedthrough the night and intoSaturday, using ladders todescend through the rubbleand twisted metal into thehotel's basement as heavymachinery gingerly movedaway piles of the building'sfaçade to allow access. Above,chunks of drywall dangledfrom wires, desks sat seeming-ly undisturbed inches fromthe void where the front of thebuilding cleaved away.

At least one survivor wasfound early Saturday in theshattered ruins, and rescuersusing search dogs clambered

over huge chunks of concretelooking for more.

Relatives of missing peopleremained at the site while oth-ers gathered at hospitals wherethe injured were being treated.

A desperate Yatmara Cobasstood outside the perimeterwaiting for word of her daugh-ter, 27-year-old housekeeperShaidis Cobas.

"My daughter is in theSaratoga; she's been there since8 a.M. (Friday), and at this timeI don't know anything abouther," Cobas said.

"She's not at the morgue,she's not in the hospital." Themother said she had goneeverywhere seeking answersfrom authorities, but comingup empty."I'm tired of the lies,"she said. Lt. Col. Enrique Peñabriefed Comandante RamiroValdés, who fought alongsideFidel Castro, on the searchefforts at the site Saturdaymorning. Peña said the pres-ence of people had been detect-ed on the first floor and in thebasement and four teams ofsearch dogs and handlers wereworking. He did not know ifthe victims were alive or dead.

"I don't want to move fromhere," Cristina Avellar told TheAssociated Press near the hotel.

Avellar was waiting for

news of Odalys Barrera, a 57-year-old cashier who hasworked at the hotel for fiveyears. She is the godmother ofBarrera's daughters and con-siders her like a sister.Neighbors were still in shock aday after the explosion.

"I thought it was a bomb,"said Guillermo Madan, a 73-year-old retiree, who lives justmeters from the building, but

was not injured. The three-decade resident of the neigh-borhood was cooking andwatching television when heheard the blast. "My roommoved from here to there. Myneighbor's window broke, theplates, everything."

Katerine Marrero, 31, wasshopping at the time. "I left thestore, I felt the explosion," shesaid. "Everyone started to run."

Although no tourists werereported injured, the explosionis another blow to the country'scrucial tourism industry. Evenbefore the coronavirus pan-demic kept tourists away fromCuba, the country was strug-gling with tightened sanctionsimposed by former U.S.President Donald Trump andkept in place the Biden admin-istration.

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John Lee, a hard-line securi-ty chief who oversaw a crack-

down on Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement, waselected as the city's next leaderon Sunday in a vote cast by alargely pro-Beijing committee.

Lee was the only candidateand won with over 99 per centof the vote in which nearly all1,500 committee memberswere carefully vetted by thecentral government in Beijing.

He will replace currentleader Carrie Lam on July 1.Her five-term was marked byhuge pro-democracy protestscalling for her resignation, asecurity crackdown that hasquashed virtually all dissent,the recent COVID-19 wavethat had overwhelmed thehealth system - events thathave undermined Hong Kong'sreputation as an internationalbusiness hub with Western-style freedoms. "I look forwardto all of us starting a new chap-ter together, building a HongKong that is caring, open and

vibrant, and a Hong Kong thatis full of opportunities andharmony," Lee said in his vic-tory speech.

Lam congratulated Lee ina statement and said she wouldsubmit the election results toBeijing. The election followedmajor changes to Hong Kong'selectoral laws last year to ensurethat only "patriots" loyal toBeijing can hold office. The leg-islature was also reorganised toall but eliminate oppositionvoices.

The elaborate arrange-ments surrounding the prede-termined outcome speak toBeijing's desire for a veneer ofdemocracy.

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America's faithful are bracing- some with cautionary joy

and others with looming dread- for the Supreme Court topotentially overturn landmark1973 Roe v. Wade decision andend the nationwide right tolegal abortion.

A reversal of the 49-year-oldruling has never felt more pos-sible since a draft opinion sug-gesting justices may do so wasleaked this week.

While religious believers atthe heart of the decades-old fightover abortion are shocked at thebreach of high court protocol,they are still as deeply dividedand their beliefs on the con-tentious issue as entrenched as

ever. National polls show thatmost Americans support abor-tion access. A Public ReligionResearch Institute survey fromMarch found that a majority ofreligious groups believe it shouldbe legal in most cases - withexception of white evangelicalProtestants, 69 per cent of whomsaid the procedure should beoutlawed in most or all cases.

In conservative Christiancorners, the draft opinion hassparked hope. Faith groups thathave historically taken a stronganti-abortion stance, includingUS Conference of CatholicBishops, have urged followers topray for Roe's reversal. The Rev.Manuel Rodriguez, pastor of17,000-strong Our Lady ofSorrows Catholic church in

New York City's Queens bor-ough, said his mostly Latinocongregation is heartened byprospect of Roe's demise at atime when courts in some LatinAmerican countries such asColombia and Argentina havemoved to legalise abortion.

"You don't fix a crime com-mitting another crime,"Rodriguez said. Bishop GarlandR. Hunt Sr., senior pastor of TheFather's House, a nondenomi-national, predominantly AfricanAmerican church in PeachtreeCorners, Georgia, agreed. "Thisis the result of ongoing, neces-sary prayer since 1973," Huntsaid. "As a Christian, I believethat God is one that gives life -not politicians or justices. I cer-tainly want to see more babies

protected in the womb." No faithis monolithic on the abortionissue. Yet many followers offaiths that don't prohibit abor-tion are aghast that a view heldby a minority of Americanscould supersede their individualrights and religious beliefs.

In Judaism, for example,many authorities say abortion ispermitted or even required incases where woman's life is indanger. "This ruling would beoutlawing abortion in caseswhen our religion would permitus," said Rabbi DanyaRuttenberg, scholar in residenceat the National Council of JewishWomen, "and it is basing its con-cepts of when life begins onsomeone else's philosophy ortheology".

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A52-year-old Nepali Sherpahas climbed Mount Everest

for the 26th time, bettering hisown record for most number oftimes to scale the world's high-est peak, expedition plannerssaid on Sunday.

Kami Rita and his group of11 Sherpa guides summittedthe 8,848.86-metre peak at6.55 pm (local time), said DawaSherpa, manager of SevenSummit Treks Pvt Ltd. TheSherpas made the expedition tofix ropes along the trekkingroute, to help climbers ahead ofthe peak climbing season start-ing May. The group climbedthrough the traditional south-

east ridge route which waspioneered by New Zealand's SirEdmund Hillary and NepaliSherpa Tenzing Norgay in1953. This year the Departmentof Tourism, Nepal has issuedpermits to 316 individuals toclimb the peak.

Rita scaled Mt Everest forthe first time on May 13, 1994.Besides Mt Everest, Rita hasalso scaled Mt Godwin-Austen(K2), Mt Lhotse, Mt Manasluand Mt Cho Oyu. He alsoholds record for most climbsover 8000 metres. Till date,Everest has been climbed10,657 times, many haveclimbed peak multiple times.Over 300 people have died try-ing to scale the peak.

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Israeli police said on Sundayforces captured two

Palestinians who killed threepeople in a stabbing attacklast week and fled the scene,sparking a massive manhuntand keeping country on edge.

The two attackers went ona stabbing rampage in ultra-Orthodox city of Elad onThursday, Israel'sIndependence Day, killingthree and wounding at leastfour others before bolting. Thestabbing was latest in a seriesof deadly assaults deep insidecountry in recent weeks. Itcame as Israeli-Palestinian ten-

sions were already heightenedby violence at a major holy sitein Jerusalem sacred to Jews andMuslims.

"We will continue to chasedeterminedly those who wishworst upon us at all times, andwe will reach them," PublicSecurity Minister Omer Barlevsaid in a statement.

A joint statement by police,military and Shin Bet internalsecurity agency said the men,identified as 19- and 20-year-old Palestinians, were caughtnear a quarry not far from Eladfollowing a search that beganThursday by special forces andcommando units using heli-copters and other means.

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The UK and IrishGovernments have urged

rival parties in NorthernIreland to come together to res-urrect its power-sharing gov-ernment after Irish nationalistparty Sinn Fein scored a his-toric victory in local electionsto become the biggest party inNorthern Ireland's Assembly.

Sinn Fein, which seeksunion with Ireland, won 27seats in the 90-seat legislature,beating the DemocraticUnionist Party, which secured25 seats. It's the first time inNorthern Ireland's history thatan Irish nationalist party hastopped voting. But it 's

not clear whether Sinn Fein willlead a new government becauseof Northern Ireland's delicatepower-sharing politics andongoing tussles over the lega-cy of Britain's exit from theEuropean Union.

While Sinn Fein's vice-president Michelle O'Neill nowhas the right to the post of firstminister, a functioningNorthern Ireland Executive - ordevolved government - cannotbe formed unless the largestunionist party agrees to join inthe role of deputy first minis-ter. In February DUP's PaulGivan quit as first minister inprotest against post-Brexit bor-der arrangements, collapsingthe Executive. His party has

said it will not return to gov-ernment unless their demandsover the customs arrangementsare met. Leaders in Londonand Dublin said all partiesmust now re-establish the gov-ernment as soon as possible.

Irish prime ministerMicheál Martin said lateSaturday that "it is now incum-bent on all political parties andelected representatives to deliv-er on their mandate."

"Power-sharing and prin-ciples of partnership, equalityand mutual respect are at theheart of the Good FridayAgreement, through whichpeace has been secured andprogress achieved for almost 25years," he added.

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More than three decadesafter a largely peaceful

"People Power" revolt over-threw Philippine dictatorFerdinand Marcos, his son andnamesake has emerged as thetop contender in Monday'spresidential election based onmost voter-preference surveys.

Here are some key factsabout the major issues, theleading candidates and electionconcerns:

WHAT'S AT STAKEIf Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

Triumphs, it will be a stunningreversal of the 1986 pro-democracy uprising that boot-ed his father out of office intoglobal infamy. Many Filipinos

remember the human rightsatrocities and plunder thatunfolded under his dictatorshipand would likely push backagainst any perceived threat todemocracy or Marcos Jr.'sattempt to recover his family'sassets that were seized by thegovernment as ill-gottenwealth.

The winner stands toinherit immense problems,including an economy bat-tered by the coronavirus pan-demic, deeper poverty andunemployment, hyperinflationdue to skyrocketing oil and gasprices, decades-old insurgen-cies and inflamed political divi-sions. Outgoing populist leaderRodrigo Duterte's successoralso likely faces calls to prose-

cute him for his bloody crack-down on illegal drugs that hasleft thousands of mostly poorsuspects dead and alarmed theinternational community. TheInternational Criminal Courthas been investigating thekillings as a possible crimeagainst humanity.

FERDINAND MARCOSJR

A former provincial gov-ernor, congressman and sena-tor, the 64-year-old son of thelate dictator is waging the mostimpressive attempt yet of theMarcos family to recapture thepresidency. His mother, ImeldaMarcos, twice unsuccessfullyattempted to retake the seat ofpower after returning with her

children to the Philippinesfrom exile in the United States,where her husband died in1989. Marcos Jr has defendedhis father's legacy and stead-fastly refuses to apologize forand acknowledge the atrocitiesand plunder during the dicta-torship.

Married to a lawyer, withwhom he has three sons, he hasstayed away from controversies,including a past tax convictionand the Marcos family's refusalto pay a huge estate tax.Throughout his campaign, hetenaciously stuck to a battle cryof national unity. He deniesaccusations that he financed ayears-long social media cam-paign that harnessed onlinetrolls to smear opponents and

whitewash the Marcos family'scheckered history, daring crit-ics to "show me one."

LENI ROBREDOAs an economics student at

the state-run University of thePhilippines in the 1980s, LeniRobredo joined the massiveprotests that led to the ousterof the elder Marcos.

The 57-year-old also tookup law and successfully ran fora seat in the House ofRepresentatives in 2013 in herfirst foray into politics after herhusband, a respected politician,died in a plane crash in 2012.She defeated Marcos Jr. In the2016 vice presidential race witha narrow margin in their firstelectoral faceoff.

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Dozens of Ukrainians werefeared dead on Sunday

after a Russian bomb destroyeda school sheltering about 90people in the basement asMoscow's invading forces keptup their barrage of cities, townsand villages in eastern andsouthern Ukraine.

The governor of Luhanskprovince, one of two areas thatmake up the eastern industri-al heartland known as theDonbas, said the school in thevillage of Bilohorivka caughtfire after Saturday's bombing.

Emergency crews foundtwo bodies and rescued 30people, he said."Most likely, all60 people who remain underthe rubble are now dead," Gov.Serhiy Haidai wrote on theTelegram messaging app.Russian shelling also killedtwo boys, ages 11 and 14, in thenearby town of Pryvillia, hesaid. Since failing to captureUkraine's capital, Russia hasfocused its offensive in theDonbas, where Moscow-backed separatists have been

fighting since 2014 and occu-py some territory.

The largest European con-flict since World War II hasdeveloped into a punishingwar of attrition due to theUkrainian military's unex-pectedly effective defense.

To demonstrate success,the Russian military worked tocomplete its conquest of thebesieged port city of Mariupol,which has been under relent-less assault since the start of thewar, in time for Victory Daycelebrations on Monday. Asprawling seaside steel mill isthe only part of the city notunder Russian control.

All the remaining women,children and older civilianswho had been sheltering withUkrainian fighters in theAzovstal plant were evacuatedSaturday. The troops still insidehave refused to surrender; hun-dreds are believed to bewounded.

After rescuers evacuatedthe last civilians Saturday,Ukrainian PresidentVolodymyr Zelenskyy said inhis nightly address that the

focus would turn to extractingthe wounded and medics.Zelenskyy said in his nightlyaddress that work would alsocontinue Sunday on securinghumanitarian corridors for res-idents of Mariupol and sur-rounding towns to leave.

The Ukrainian govern-ment has been reaching out tointernational organizations totry to secure safe passage forthe estimated 2,000 fightersremaining in the plant's under-ground tunnels and bunkers.

Zelenskyy acknowledgedthe difficulty, but said: "We arenot losing hope, we are notstopping. Every day we arelooking for some diplomaticoption that might work."

The Ukrainian leader wasexpected to hold online talksSunday with British PrimeMinister Boris Johnson, USPresident Joe Biden and lead-ers from other Group of Sevencountries.

The meeting is partlymeant to display unity amongWestern allies on Victory inEurope Day, which marks NaziGermany's 1945 surrender.

Elsewhere on Ukraine'scoast, explosions echoed againSunday across the major BlackSea port of Odesa, whichRussia struck with six cruisemissiles on Saturday.Authorities offered no imme-diate damage reports.

The Odesa city councilsaid four of the missileslaunched Saturday hit a furni-ture company, with the shockwaves and debris badly dam-aging high-rise apartmentbuildings. The other two hit the

Odesa airport, where a previ-ous Russian attack destroyedthe runway.

Ukrainian leaders warnedthat attacks would only wors-en in the lead-up to VictoryDay, the May 9 holiday whenRussia celebrates NaziGermany's defeat in 1945 withmilitary parades. RussianPresident Vladimir Putin isbelieved to want to proclaimsome kind of triumph inUkraine when he addressesthe troops on Red Square on

Monday.In neighbouring Moldova,

Russian and separatists troopswere on "full alert," theUkrainian military warned.

The region has increas-ingly become a focus of worriesthat the conflict could expandbeyond Ukraine's borders.

Pro-Russian forces brokeoff the Transnistria section ofMoldova in 1992, and Russiantroops have been stationedthere since, ostensibly as peace-keepers.

Those forces are on "fullcombat readiness," Ukrainesaid, without giving details onhow it came to the assessment.

Moscow has sought tosweep across southern Ukraineboth to cut off the countryfrom the Black Sea and to cre-ate a corridor to Transnistria.But it has struggled to achievethose objectives.

In a sign of the doggedresistance that has sustained thefighting into its 11th week,Ukraine's military struckRussian positions on a BlackSea island that was captured inthe war's first days and has

become a symbol of Ukrainianresistance.

Satellite photos analysed byThe Associated Press showedUkraine targeting Russian-heldSnake Island in a bid to impedeRussia's efforts to control thesea.

A satellite image takenSunday morning by PlanetLabs PBC showed smoke risingfrom two sites on the island.On the island's southern edge,a fire smoked next to debris.That corresponded to a videoreleased by the Ukrainian mil-itary showing a strike on aRussian helicopter that hadflown to the island. A PlanetLabs image from Saturdayshowed most of the island'sbuildings, as well as whatappeared to be a Serna-classlanding craft, destroyed byUkrainian drone attacks.

The most intense combatin recent days has taken placein eastern Ukraine. AUkrainian counteroffensivenear Kharkiv, a city in thenortheast that is the country'ssecond-largest, "is making sig-nificant progress and will like-

ly advance to the Russian bor-der in the coming days orweeks," according to theInstitute for the Study of War.

The Washington-basedthink tank added that "theUkrainian counteroffensivedemonstrates promisingUkrainian capabilities."

However, the Ukrainianarmy withdrew from Luhanskprovince's embattled city ofPopasna, Haidai, the regionalgovernor, said Sunday.

In a video interview post-ed on his Telegram channel,Haidai said that Kyiv's troopshad "moved to stronger posi-tions, which they had preparedahead of time."

The Russia-backed rebelshave established a breakawayregion in Luhansk and neigh-bouring Donetsk, which togeth-er make up the Donbas. Russiahas targeted areas still underUkrainian control.

"All free settlements in theLuhansk region are hot spots,"Haidai said. "Right now, thereare shooting battles in (the vil-lages) of Bilohorivka, Voivodivkaand towards Popasna."

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The UK government pledgedan additional 1.3 billion

pounds in military support toUkraine during this financialyear to help the countrycounter Russian forces in theongoing conflict, as BritishPrime Minister Boris Johnsonand other G7 leaders met vir-tually with Ukrainian PresidentVolodymyr Zelenskyy onSunday.

The meeting came on aday, which is being markedacross Europe as VE Day - orVictory in Europe Day thatended World War II on May 8,1945. The additional UK fund-ing will go towards electronicwarfare equipment, a counterbattery radar system, GPS jam-ming equipment and thou-sands of night vision devices,among other military kitpledged by Johnson earlier.

"[Russian President]Putin's brutal attack is notonly causing untold devastationin Ukraine - it is also threat-ening peace and security across

Europe," said Johnson."The UK was the first

country to recognise the scaleof the threat and sent arms tohelp the Ukrainians defendthemselves. We will stand bythat endeavour, working withour allies to ensure Ukraine cancontinue to push back theRussian invasion and survive asa free and democratic country.In the process, we are bolster-ing our own security and econ-omy, turbocharging the devel-opment and production of cut-ting-edge defence equipmenthere in the UK," he said.

The extra 1.3 billionpounds comes from theReserve, funds the UK gov-ernment said it has set aside forthe most pressing emergencies.

This latest commitment isin addition to the UK's currentpackage for Ukraine that totalswell over 1.5 billion pounds.The support already providedincludes around 400 millionpounds in humanitarian aidand grants and unlocking over700 million pounds in addi-tional World Bank lending

through loan guarantees."The situation in Ukraine

continues to cause immensesuffering with every day bring-ing new, tragic stories of Putin'sbrutality," said UK ChancellorRishi Sunak.

"We are unwavering in oursupport for the people ofUkraine - and this extra 1.3 bil-lion pounds will ensure wecontinue to provide the neces-sary military and operationalsupport they need to defendthemselves against Putin. TheUK is at the forefront provid-ing economic,

humanitarian and defen-sive support to Ukraine and weare working tirelessly to bringan end to this conflict," he said.

The latest announcement isalso said to help support thedefence industry in the UK,with Johnson and UK DefenceSecretary Ben Wallace set tohost a meeting of leadingdefence companies later thismonth to discuss "rampingup" production in response toincreased demand created bythe conflict in Ukraine and aglobal shift away from Russian-made weaponry.

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Sparks fly as a circular sawslices into metal, while

welders nearby work feverish-ly to the sound of blaringheavy metal.

Upstairs, sewing machinesclatter as women mark patternson cloth being shaped into bul-letproof vests.

An old industrial complexin the southeastern Ukrainianriverside city of Zaporizhzhiahas become a hive of activityfor volunteers producing every-thing from body armor andanti-tank obstacles to camou-flage nets, portable heatingstoves and rifle slings forUkrainian soldiers fightingRussia's invasion.

One section specializes invehicles, armour-plating some,converting others into ambu-lances. Another organises foodand medical deliveries.

With the front line about50 kilometers (30 miles) fromthe city, some sections of theoperation, such as the stitching

of bulletproof vests, are work-ing around the clock in shiftsto meet demand.

Crowdfunding has broughtin enough money to buy steelfrom Sweden, Finland andBelgium, which is lighter thanlocal steel, organizers say, a cru-cial quality for body armor.

The operation is the brain-child of local celebrity VasylBusharov and his friendHennadii Vovchenko, who rana furniture-making business.

They named it Palianytsia,a type of Ukrainian breadwhose name many Ukrainianssay cannot be pronouncedproperly by Russians.

The operation relies entire-ly on volunteers, who nownumber more than 400 andcome from all walks of life,from tailors to craftsmen tolawyers. Apart from thoseinvolved in production, thereare also drivers deliveringhumanitarian aid and medicalequipment bought throughdonated funds.

"I feel I am needed here,"

said fashion designer OlenaGrekova, 52, taking a briefbreak from marking fabric forvests.

When Russia invaded onFebruary 24, she was inThailand seeking inspirationfor her spring collection.Initially, she said, she wonderedwhether it was a sign from Godthat she shouldn't return. Herhusband and two adult sonsurged her not to. "But I madea decision that I had to goback," she said. She had knownBusharov for years.

Arriving home on March 3,she gathered her equipment thenext day and by March 5 wasat Palianytsia. She's been work-ing there every day since, barone, sometimes even at night.

Shifting from designingbackless ballgowns to creatingfunctional bulletproof vestswas "a new experience for me,"Grekova said. But she soughtfeedback from soldiers for herdesigns, which have armorplates added. Now she is help-ing to produce several versions,

including a prototype sum-mer vest.

In another section of theindustrial complex, 55-year-oldIhor Prytula was busy makinga new camouflage net, windingpieces of dyed fabric through astring frame. A furniture-maker by trade, he joinedPalianytsia at the start of thewar.

He had some militaryexperience, he said, so it waseasy to get feedback from sol-diers on what they needed.

"We speak the same lan-guage," he said.

For Prytula, the war is per-sonal. His 27-year-old son waskilled in late March as hehelped evacuate people fromthe northern town ofChernihiv. "The war and death,it's bad, trust me, I know this,"he said. "It's bad, it's tears, it'ssorrow."

The call for volunteerswent out as soon as the warbegan. Busharov announcedhis project on Facebook on Feb.25.

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Russian forces kept up theirbarrage of southern

Ukraine, hitting the majorBlack Sea port of Odesa withcruise missiles and bombard-ing the steelworks up the coastin Mariupol, where Ukrainianfighters remained trappedunderground.

Moscow was aiming tocomplete its conquest ofMariupol in time for VictoryDay celebrations on Monday.But it's forces continued to facedogged resistance fromdefenders within the bunkersbeneath the factory. Civilianshave been evacuated.

In a sign of the unexpect-edly effective defence that hassustained the fighting into its11th week, Ukraine's militaryflattened Russian positions ona Black Sea island that was cap-tured in the war's first days andhas become a symbol of resis-tance.

Western military analystsalso said a Ukrainian coun-teroffensive was advancingaround the country's second-

largest city, Kharkiv. Ukraine's military said

retreating Russian forcesdestroyed three bridges on aroad northeast of the city to tryto slow the Ukrainian advance.

The largest European con-flict since World War II hasdeveloped into a punishing warof attrition that has killedthousands of people, forcedmillions to flee their homesand destroyed large swaths ofsome cities.

Ukrainian leaders warnedthat attacks would only wors-en in the lead-up to VictoryDay, when Russia celebratesNazi Germany's defeat in 1945with military parades. RussianPresident Vladimir Putin isbelieved to want to proclaimsome kind of triumph inUkraine when he addresses thetroops on Red Square onMonday.

US Secretary of StateAntony Blinken said Saturdaythat Ukrainian PresidentVolodymyr Zelenskyy and hispeople "embody the spirit ofthose who prevailed during theSecond World War." He

accused Putin of trying "totwist history to attempt to jus-tify his unprovoked and bru-tal war against Ukraine."

"As war again rages inEurope, we must increase ourresolve to resist those who nowseek to manipulate historicalmemory in order to advancetheir own ambitions," Blinkensaid in a statement as theUnited States and UnitedKingdom commemorate theAllied victory in Europe.

The most intense fightingin recent days has been in east-ern Ukraine, where the twosides are entrenched in a fiercebattle to capture or reclaim ter-ritory. Moscow's offensivethere has focused on theDonbas, where Russia-backedseparatists have been fightingsince 2014.

The governor of Luhanskregion, one of two that makeup the Donbas, said a Russianstrike destroyed a school in thevillage of Bilogorivka where 90people were seeking safety inthe basement. Gov. SerhiyHaidai, who posted pictures ofthe burning rubble on the

Telegram messaging app, said30 people were rescued. Rescuework was ongoing.

Haidai also said two boysaged 11 and 14 were killed byRussian shelling in the town ofPryvillia, while two girls aged8 and 12 and a 69-year-oldwoman were wounded.

In neighboring Moldova,Russian and separatists troopsare on "full alert," theUkrainian military warnedSunday. The region has

increasingly become a focus ofworries that the conflict couldexpand beyond Ukraine's bor-ders.

Pro-Russian forces brokeoff the Transnistria section ofMoldova in 1992, and Russiantroops have been stationedthere since, ostensibly as peace-keepers.

Those forces are on "fullcombat readiness," Ukrainesaid, without giving details onhow it came to the assessment.

Moscow has sought tosweep across southern Ukraineboth to cut off the countryfrom the sea and create a cor-ridor to Transnistria. But it hasstruggled to achieve thoseobjectives.

On Saturday, six Russiancruise missiles fired from air-craft hit Odesa, where a curfewis in place until Tuesday morn-ing. Videos posted on socialmedia showed thick blacksmoke rising over the Black Seaport city as sirens wailed.

The Odesa city councilsaid four of the missiles hit afurniture company, with theshock waves and debris badlydamaging high-rise apartmentbuildings.

The other two missiles hitthe Odesa airport, where therunway had already been takenout in a previous Russianattack.

Air raid sirens soundedseveral times early Sunday,the city council said.

Satellite photos analyzedby The Associated Pressshowed Ukraine targetingRussian-held Snake Island in a

bid to impede Russia's effortsto control the Black Sea. Animage taken early Saturday byPlanet Labs PBC showed thatmost of the island's buildingshad been destroyed byUkrainian drone attacks, aswell as what appeared to be aSerna-class landing craftagainst the island's northernbeach.

The image correspondswith a Ukrainian militaryvideo showing a drone strikingthe Russian vessel, engulfing itin flames. Snake Island, locat-ed some 35 kilometers (20miles) off the coast, figured ina memorable incident early inthe war when Ukrainian bor-der guards stationed theredefied Russian orders to sur-render, purportedly using col-orful language.

In Mariupol, Ukrainianfighters made a final standagainst a complete Russiantakeover of the strategicallyimportant city, which wouldgive Moscow a land bridge tothe Crimean Peninsula,annexed from Ukraine duringa 2014 invasion.

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Red Soviet flags and orange-and-black striped military

ribbons are on display inRussian cities and towns.Neighbourhoods are stagingholiday concerts. Flowers arebeing laid by veterans' groupsat monuments to the GreatPatriotic War, as World War IIis known in the country.

At first glance, preparationsfor Monday's celebration ofVictory Day, marking thedefeat of Nazi Germany in1945, seem to be the same asever.

But the mood this year isvery different, because Russiantroops are fighting and dying

again.And this battle, now in its

11th week, is going on inneighboring Ukraine, againstwhat the government has false-ly called a campaign against"Nazis."

The pride and patriotismusually associated with Russia'smost important holiday,marked by a huge parade ofsoldiers and military hardwarethrough Red Square, is mixingwith apprehension and uneaseover what

this year's Victory Daymay bring.

Some Russians fear thatPresident Vladimir Putin willuse it to declare that what theKremlin has previously called

a "special military operation" inUkraine will now be a full-fledged war - bringing with ita broad mobilization of troopsto bolster Russia's forces.

"I can't remember a timewhen the May 9 holiday wasanticipated with such anxiety,"historian Ivan Kurilla wrote onFacebook.Ukraine's intelligencechief, Kyrylo Budanov, saidMoscow was covertly preparingsuch a plan. British DefenseSecretary Ben Wallace toldLBC Radio that Putin was "lay-ing the ground for being ableto say, Look, this is now a waragainst Nazis, and what I needis more people.'"

The Kremlin denied hav-ing such plans, calling the

reports "untrue" and "non-sense."

Asked by The AssociatedPress on Friday whether mobi-lization rumors could dampenthe Victory Day mood, Putinspokesman Dmitry Peskov said"nothing will cast a shadow"over "the sacred day, the mostimportant day" for Russians.

Still, human rights groupsreported a spike in calls frompeople asking about laws con-cerning mobilization and theirrights in case of being orderedto join the military.

"Questions about who canbe called up and how havestarted to flow on a mass scalethrough our hotline about therights of conscripts and the

military," said Pavel Chikov,founder of the Agora legal aidgroup, on the messaging appTelegram.

Russian state TV hasramped up the patrioticrhetoric. In announcing theFeb. 24 military operation,Putin declared it was aimed atthe "demilitarization" ofUkraine to remove a perceivedmilitary threat to Russia by"neo-Nazis."

A recent TV commentarysaid Putin's words were "not anabstract thing and not a slogan"and praised Russia's success inUkraine, even thoughMoscow's troops have gottenbogged down, making onlyminor gains in recent weeks.

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US First lady Jill Biden madean unannounced visit to

western Ukraine on Sunday,holding a surprise Mother'sDay meeting with the nation'sfirst lady, Olena Zelenska, asRussia presses its punishingwar in the eastern regions.

Biden travelled under thecloak of secrecy, becoming thelatest high-profile American toenter Ukraine during its 10-week-old conflict with Russia.

“I wanted to come onMother's Day,” Biden toldZelenskyy. “I thought it was

important to show theUkrainian people that this warhas to stop and this war hasbeen brutal and that the peo-ple of the United States standwith the people of Ukraine.”

The first lady travelled byvehicle to the town ofUzhhorod, about a 10-minutedrive from a Slovakian villagethat borders Ukraine. She spentabout two hours in Ukraine.

The two came together ina small classroom, sitting acrossa table from one another andtalking before reporters beforethey met in private. Zelenskyyand her children have been atan undisclosed location for

their safety.Zelenskyy thanked Biden

for her “courageous act” andsaid, “We understand what ittakes for the U.S. First lady tocome here during a war whenmilitary actions are takingplace every day, where the airsirens are happening every day-- even today.”

The school where they methas been turned into transi-tional housing for Ukrainianmigrants from elsewhere in thecountry.

The visit allowed Biden toconduct the kind of personaldiplomacy that her husbandwould like to be doing himself.

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Canadian Prime MinisterJustin Trudeau madea sur-

prise visit to Irpin, which hadbeen damaged by Russia'sattempt to take Kyiv at the startof the war, according toUkrainian media outletSuspilne and Irpin MayorOlexander Markushyn.

Canadian officials did notimmediately acknowledgeTrudeau's presence.

Trudeau is the latestWestern leader to come toUkraine to offertheir support tothe country.

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Mumbai: Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharaman has saidthe recent interest rate hike bythe Reserve Bank was not sur-prising for her but the timingwas, asserting that the risingcost of funds will not impactthe government’s plannedinfrastructure investments.

For the first time sinceAugust 2018, RBI had on May4 delivered a blunt 40 basispoints increase in key repo rateto 4.40 per cent, and also hikedthe cash reserve ratio by 50basis points to 4.5 per cent afteran unscheduled meeting ofthe rate setting panel, citingincreased inflation pressuresfollowing the Ukraine war andthe resultant spike in crude oilprices.

Retail inflation printed at6.9 per cent in March and theApril reading is forecast to top7.7 per cent.

“The timing of RBI’s ratehike came as a surprise but notthe action itself as peoplethought it should have beendone anyway….It came as asurprise because it’s betweenthe two MPCs (monetary pol-icy committee) meetings. Butthe US Fed had been saying itall the while,” Sitharaman saidin her first reaction to the ratehike while addressing an awardfunction organised by theEconomic Times on Saturdayevening here.

She said that in the lastMPC meeting, the RBI gaveindications that it’s time forthem to also act, and the hikewas part of a synchronisedaction by major central banksacross the globe.

“In a way, it was a syn-chronised action. Australia didit, and the US did it that night.So, I see a greater understand-ing among central banks nowa-days. But the understanding ofhow to handle recovery fromthe pandemic is not fullyunique or typical for onlyIndia. It’s a global issue.

“And even as we handledthat recovery, inflation, whichwas really festering… and fes-tering at some unbelievable

highs, let us say in the US andBritain, not so much in ourcountry...Still, the challenge ofrecovery versus inflation seemsto be following a particulartemplate that’s across the globenow,” she said. However, shewas quick to assert that the cen-tral bank’s decision will notimpact the government’splanned huge infrastructureinvestments running into tensof billions of dollars.

On the economic sanc-tions against Russia after itsinvasion of Ukraine, she saidthe blockades were “constrain-ing us” as traditional buyersfrom Russia were shifting tosources from the Indian basketof crude, 80-85 per cent of

which is from the Middle East.This shift was likely to putmore pressure on the Indiancrude basket price.

“The sanctions have result-ed in people rushing to alter-native sources where coun-tries like us are there fordecades. Now suddenly it willbe crowded with more peoplewho want to buy the samething. So, supply and pricefactors will now have its ram-ification on us,” she said andmade it clear that India willcontinue to buy crude fromwherever it was availablecheaply.

“In matters related to ouroil consumption and buying itfrom the source which gives usa concessional rate, we’veasserted our right in doing that.We’ve been explaining thatwe’ll certainly purchase it, so itis something that hasn’t beensaid for the first time. We’ll goahead with what is good for us.We need cheap fuel. If it isavailable, why won’t we want tobuy it?,” she said.

Sitharaman said evenbefore the war, there was anincrease in prices of fertilisers.The government had to seekextra spending approval duringthe supplementary demandsbecause of the way crude oilwas playing up and the rise incommodity prices due to sup-ply disruptions. PTI

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New Delhi: The Governmentis likely to invite financial bidsfor Shipping Corporation ofIndia by September, after theprocess of demerger of non-core assets is completed, anofficial said.

As part of the strategic-saleprocess, the Government ishiving off Shipping House andthe training institute and someother non-core assets ofShipping Corporation of India(SCI).

“The process of demergeris time consuming. We wouldbe ready to invite financialbids in 3-4 months,” the officialsaid.

The board of ShippingCorp met last week andapproved an updated demerg-er scheme for hiving off thenon-core assets of SCI toShipping Corporation of IndiaLand and Assets Ltd (SCILAL)including Shipping House,Mumbai and MTI (MaritimeTraining Institute), Powai tocomplete the process of de-merging all the non-core assetsto the new company SCILAL.

As per the balance sheet ofSCI, the value of non-coreassets held for demerger as ofMarch 31, 2022, stood at �2,392crore.

The SCI board in Augustlast year, had approved ademerger scheme for hiving off

the identified non-core assetsand incorporated SCILAL inNovember 2021, for holdingsuch assets of the company,which is under the Ministry ofPorts Shipping and Waterways.

The Ministry in April 2022,had directed SCI to expeditethe process of demerger ofnon-core assets of SCI toSCILAL and also requestedthe Board of SCI to review thedemerger scheme for hiving offthe non-core assets, includingShipping House, Mumbai andMTI, Powai.

“Such modifications donot have any impact on carry-ing value of non-core assets inthe financial statements. Theimplementation of the Schemeincluding the modified schemeis in process and consideringthe reiteration by MoPSW andDIPAM to expedite thedemerger process, there is acertainty of completion of theprocess in the near future …,”as per the SCI independentauditor’s report presented to theBoard.

In March last year the gov-ernment had received multiplebids for privatisation ofShipping Corporation of India.

The Department ofInvestment and Public AssetManagement (DIPAM) inDecember 2020, had invitedexpressions of interest (EoI) forstrategic disinvestment of itsentire stake of 63.75 per cent inShipping Corp of India, alongwith the transfer of manage-ment.

The Cabinet in Novemberin 2020, had given in-principleapproval for strategic divest-ment of Shipping Corp.

The privatisation of SCI isnow likely to be completed inthe current fiscal. The govern-ment has budgeted to garner�65,000 crore from CPSE dis-investment in the ongoing2022-23 fiscal.

While the government hasalready raised �3,000 crorefrom minority share sale inONGC, another �21,000 crorewould come in from the ongo-ing IPO of Life InsuranceCorporation this month and�211.14 crore after the han-dover of Pawan Hans manage-ment control to Star9 MobilityPvt Ltd, a consortium of BigCharter Pvt Ltd, MaharajaAviation Pvt Ltd and AlmasGlobal Opportunity Fund SPC,by June. PTI

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New Delhi: The Gujarat HighCourt ruling that actual valueof land should be deductedbefore levying GST on under-construction flats would reducethe tax outgo for homebuyers,provided the contractualarrangement transparentlydenotes the land value, expertssaid.

Currently, GST is levied onsale of under-constructionflats/units wherein the entirevalue of flat or unit (includingvalue of underlying land) istaxed after giving Ad Hocdeduction of 1/3 of value offlat/unit towards land irre-spective of actual value of land.

Experts said in urban areaor metro cities actual value ofland is much higher than 1/3value of flat and application of1/3rd deduction is arbitrary innature as it is applied uniformlyirrespective of the area, size andlocation of land.

“This is indirectly levyingtax on land which is beyond thelegislative competence of theUnion to levy GST on land.This (Gujarat HC) decisionwill squarely apply where saleagreement clearly specifiesvalue of land and also con-struction services. This is well

reasoned and fair decision, iffollowed, the tax incidence onindividuals buying under-construction flats will reducesubstantially,” N.A. ShahAssociates Partner NareshSheth said.

In its verdict on Friday lastweek, the Gujarat High Courtin case of Munjaal ManishbhaiBhatt vs Union of India hasread down paragraph 2 ofNotification No. 11/2017 man-dating 1/3rd deduction of Landas ultra-vires.

Further, the court observedthat mandatory deduction of1/3rd for value of land is notsustainable in cases where thevalue of land is clearly ascer-tainable or where the value ofconstruction service can bederived with the aid of valua-tion rules. Such 1/3rd deduc-tion can be permitted at theoption of a taxable person par-ticularly in cases where thevalue of land or undividedshare of land is not ascertain-able.

Athena Law AssociatesPartner Adv Pawan Arora saidflat buyers who have alreadyborne the incidence of excessGST due to standard 1/3rddeduction, may proceed to file

refund claim with the jurisdic-tional GST authority of thedeveloper.

Gujarat High CourtAdvocate Avinash Poddar, who

was also the arguing counsel inthe case, said it is expected thatnow the Government will comeup with Valuation Rules asearlier done in the service tax

regime.“It should be understood

by the buyers that developerscannot take this stand, till theGST Department synchronis-es itself with the judgment ofthe Hon’ble Court. In such ascenario, developers may con-tinue to pay tax on 2/3rd con-sideration of flats under protestand thereafter, theDevelopers/Buyers may filethe refund claim with the juris-dictional GST authority of theDeveloper,” Poddar said.

Dhruva Advisors PartnerRanjeet Mahtani said thisjudgement is important owingto the impact it will have onreal estate arrangements anddevelopment agreementsacross India.

“Particularly, where thevalue of land is on the higherside (for example in the fourmetro cities) vis-à-vis con-struction cost, when comparedwith other cities and towns ofIndia, the arbitrariness is stark;in such cases the taxpayer, if he/ she can establish the actualvalue of land / undivided shareof land to be reduced from thetotal consideration will have alower GST impact.

“In these inflationary

times, the verdict is a mildboost for the real estate sectorgiven the potential reduction inGST outgo, provided the con-tractual arrangement trans-parently denotes the land value/ value of undivided share ofland,” Mahtani said.

AMRG & AssociatesSenior Partner Rajat Mohansaid this is a triumph for theentire real estate sector againstthe imposition of tax on arbi-trarily computed taxable value.The ruling will bring immedi-ate relief to the writ applicantsand would have a high value forthe taxpayers in Gujarat; how-ever, this would hold only per-suasive value for the rest ofIndia. “Based on this ruling,other players are also expectedto litigate the same issue inhigher forums. Even after anunambiguous judicial ruling,developers are not expected topass on the benefit of such taxcuts, as this matter would bechallenged in the apex court,”Mohan said.

This ruling ideally shallpave the way for a clarificato-ry circular by the departmentthat would bring smiles to theentire ecosystem, Mohan said. PTI

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New Delhi: The top-10 mostvalued firms suffered a com-bined erosion of �2,85,251.65crore from their market valu-ations last week, mirroring anoverall weak broader markettrend, with Reliance Industriesemerging as the worst-hit.

On a weekly basis, theSensex slumped 2,225.29 pointsor 3.89 per cent, while the Niftylost 691.30 points or 4.04 percent.

The market valuation ofReliance Industries tumbled�1,14,767.5 crore to reach�17,73,196.68 crore, falling themost among the top-10 firms.

The market capitalisation(mcap) of Tata ConsultancyServices tanked �42,847.49crore to �12,56,152.34 crore.

HDFC Bank’s valuationdived �36,984.46 crore to�7,31,068.41 crore and that ofHindustan Unilever got erod-ed by �20,558.92 crore to

�5,05,068.14 crore.ICICI Bank’s mcap

slumped �16,625.96 crore to�5,00,136.52 crore and that ofBharti Airtel declined by�16,091.64 crore to �3,90,153.62 crore.

HDFC’s valuation wentlower by �13,924.03 crore to�3,90,045.06 crore and that ofState Bank of India fell by�10,843.4 crore to � 4,32,263.56crore.The valuation of Infosysplunged �10,285.69 crore to�6,49,302.28 crore and that ofAdani Green Energy dipped�2,322.56 crore to � 4,49,255.28crore.

In the ranking of top-10firms, Reliance Industries wasleading the chart, followed byTata Consultancy Services,HDFC Bank, Infosys,Hindustan Unilever, ICICIBank, Adani Green Energy,State Bank of India, BhartiAirtel and HDFC. PTI

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New Delhi: Global marketstrends, inflation, release ofindustrial output data andquarterly earnings will dictatemovement of the equitybenchmarks this week, analystssaid, adding that volatilitymight continue amid slew ofannouncements of macroeco-nomic data at the global leveltoo.

Moreover, foreign fundmovement, crude oil pricesand trend in rupee would alsoact as major drivers for theequity market, they added.

“The direction of globalequity markets along withmovement in dollar index andcrude oil prices will continue todominate while inflation num-bers of the USA on May 11 andinflation and IIP numbers ofIndia on May 12 will alsocause volatility in the market,”

said Santosh Meena, Head ofResearch, Swastika InvestmartLtd. Meena said the last batchof fourth quarter earnings willhave a stock-specific movementwith SBI, Tata Motors, L&T,UPL, Tech Mahindra and Ciplaare among the key results slat-ed to be announced.

“This week, participantswill first react to Reliance num-bers which were announcedpost-market on Friday. Besides,developments on the Russia-Ukraine front and performanceof global markets will be on theradar.

“On the macroeconomicfront, IIP (Index of IndustrialProduction) and CPI(Consumer Price Inflation)data are scheduled for May 12and market will be eyeing thesenumbers to gauge the nextpossible move from the RBI,”

said Ajit Mishra, VP Research,Religare Broking.

Billionaire MukeshAmbani’s Reliance IndustriesLtd on Friday reported a 22.5per cent rise in its net profit forthe quarter ended March 2022on the back of bumper oilrefining margins, steadygrowth in telecom and digitalservices and strong momentumin the retail business.

This week, market willtrack inflation numbers acrossthe globe, said Vinod Nair,Head of Research at GeojitFinancial Services.

Yesha Shah, Head of EquityResearch, Samco Securities,said, “Given a slew of macro-economic releases, the currentresult season and several IPOsthat will open for subscription,volatility seen last week isexpected to persist. PTI

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New Delhi: Foreign investorshave pulled over �6,400 crorefrom the Indian equity marketin the first four trading sessionsof the ongoing month when theReserve Bank of India (RBI)and US Federal Reserve raisedinterest rates.

Given the headwinds interms of elevated crude prices,inflation, tight monetary poli-cy among others, FPIs’ flows inIndia are expected to remainvolatile in the near term,Shrikant Chouhan, Head -Equity Research (Retail), KotakSecurities, said.

Foreign Portfolio Investors(FPIs) remained net sellers forseven months to April 2022,withdrawing a massive amountof over �1.65 lakh crore fromequities. This was largely on theback of anticipation of a ratehike by the US Federal Reserveand due to the deteriorating

geopolitical environment fol-lowing Russia’s invasion ofUkraine.

After six months of sellingspree, FPIs turned into netinvestors in the first week ofApril amid correction in themarkets and invested � 7,707crore in equities. After a shortbreather, once again they

turned net sellers during theholiday-shortened April 11-13week, and the sell-off continuedin the succeeding weeks too.

FPI flows continue toremain negative in the monthof May till date and they havesold around �6,417 crore dur-ing May 2-6, data with depos-itories showed. PTI

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New Delhi: Lowering taxes onhybrid vehicles can lead tofaster adoption of electric vehi-cles in the country, accordingto a senior official of HondaCars India Ltd (HCIL).

The automaker noted thathybrid technology is currentlybest suited for Indian condi-tions as it is not dependent onexternal charging infrastruc-ture.

The total tax incidence onhybrid vehicles in the countryis 43 per cent, which is inclu-sive of GST, while battery elec-tric vehicles attract a tax ofabout 5 per cent.

“There is a big gap (intaxes). So, yes it would be a wel-come step if the governmentcould support us (by reducingtax on hybrid vehicles as well)...We request the government ifthey could consider it,” HondaCars India Ltd (HCIL) Vice-President (Marketing andSales) Kunal Behl told PTI.

He further said: “Webelieve if they (government)can reduce it, the adoption ofthe electric vehicles would bevery fast.”

Behl noted that hybridvehicles could help in the tran-sition to fully electric vehicleswhile at the same time helpingin cutting down vehicularemissions and fossil fuel con-sumption.

“We really respect the gov-ernment’s understanding thatthey want to bring down theemission levels...They want toreduce the consumption of

fuels, so both these objectivesare met by the hybrid vehicles.So, I am sure there could pos-sibly be a thought which goesin the government into relook-ing into favourable conditionswhere customers can adapt tosuch technologies faster,” hestated.

Honda believes thathybrids are the best solution forthe country as buyers do notencounter range anxiety issuesand there are no curbs on theperformance of the vehicle aswell, Behl noted.

“According to us in the cur-rent scenario there is nothingbetter than this (hybrid).. It isthe best solution right now,” headded.

The company, which hasforayed into the mainstreamhybrid segment with the intro-duction of City e:HEV, plans toultimately transition to fullbattery electric vehicles as perthe global vision of its Japan-based parent company.

Honda globally plans tolaunch 30 EV models by 2030,with an annual productionvolume of more than 20 lakhunits. PTI

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New Delhi: The cost accoun-tants’ institute has requested thegovernment to consider allow-ing cost and managementaccountants to conduct finan-cial audit of MSMEs and pri-vate limited companies.

The Institute of CostAccountants of India, set upunder an Act of Parliament, hasaround 90,000 members andabout 5 lakh students.

Seeking to ensure compe-tition as well as parity amongcost and management accoun-tants, and chartered accoun-tants, the institute has asked thegovernment to allow its mem-bers to do various activities,including the tax audit underthe Income Tax Act, 1961.

The institute has alsosought permission for con-ducting financial audit ofMSMEs (Micro, Small andMedium Enterprises) and pri-vate limited companies as perglobal standards, concurrentaudit of banks and audit ofgrant-in-aid of grantee organ-isations/ institutions.

In this regard, the institute,last month, submitted a mem-orandum to Finance andCorporate Affairs MinisterNirmala Sitharaman.

The institute’s President PRaju Iyer recently told PTIthat allowing cost and man-agement accountants to carryout financial audits MSMEsand private limited companieswill help in effectively creatingcompetition. PTI

New Delhi: The Governmentmay infuse �3,000-5,000 croreadditional capital in the threepublic sector general insur-ance companies based on theirperformance and requirementduring the year, sources said.

The capital infusion wouldhelp improve the financial healthof the general insurance firms -- National Insurance CompanyLimited, Oriental InsuranceCompany Limited and UnitedIndia Insurance Company. Inthe last financial year, the gov-

ernment made capital infusionof �5,000 crore in these threeinsurance companies.

During 2020-21, �9,950crore was infused in three PSUgeneral insurers by the gov-ernment out of which �3,605crore was infused in UnitedIndia Insurance, �3,175 crore inNational Insurance and � 3,170crore in Oriental Insurance.

Fund support was given tothe weak general insurancecompanies last financial year,some more fund requirement

is there to bring them back onprofitability path, sources said.

Capital infusion of �3,000-5,000 crore may be done inthese companies based on theirperformance, sources said,adding, the government hasalready enhanced their autho-rised capital keeping furtherfund infusion in mind.

The three public sectorgeneral insurers are short ofsolvency margin and toimprove operational efficien-cies an external consultant will

be appointed soon.Four public sector firms

through General Insurers’Public Sector Association ofIndia or GIPSA have issued arequest for proposal (RFP) toreorganise the insurers, andachieve profitability andemployee development.

“There is a proposal forrestructuring the organisationto bring in profitable growthand employee developmentthrough performance man-agement”, the RFP said. PTI

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Mumbai: Foreign funds' own-ership in domestic equities fellto pre-Covid lows and hit amulti-year low of 19.5 per centin March this year in NSE500companies valued at USD 619billion, shows an analysis.

At 19.5 per cent the FPIownership in March 2022, isthe lowest in the past threeyears, when it was 19.3 per centin March in 2019, which was apre-COVID period.

On a year-on-year basistheir ownership stood at 21.2per cent, second highest onrecord in March 2021, accord-ing to a report by the WallStreet brokerage Bank ofAmerica Securities India.

Foreign funds' ownershipin the domestic equities was at18.6 per cent in December2017, the lowest in five years,and the peak was in December2021, when they owned 21.4

per cent of domestic equities.Significantly, the share loss

of foreign portfolio investors(FPIs) has been well correctedby the steeply rising ownershipof the stocks by domestic funds,who pumped in USD 6 billionin March and USD 14.6 billionin FY22, the report said.Of theUSD 619 billion of FPI own-ership, the highest incrementalallocation were in energy stockswith 16.2 per cent, followed by

IT at 14.8 per cent, andcommunication services at 4per cent.In overall allocation,financials still led the chart with31.4 per cent followed by dis-cretionary (9 per cent).

March alone saw the sixthconsecutive month of FPI out-flows, which was the mostsevere since March 2020 (afterthe pandemic scare) on theback of continued geopoliticalrisks. PTI

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Uruguayan striker RodrigoZalazar smashed a late win-

ner in off the bar as Schalkecame from two goals down tobeat St Pauli 3-2 and win promo-tion back to the Bundesliga onSaturday.

Zalazar turnedGelsenkirchen's Veltins Arenainto a madhouse when he scoredagainst former club Pauli tocomplete a dramatic comebackand return Schalke to the topflight.

Two points clear at the topof the German second divisionat kick-off, Schalke needed a winto secure promotion with agame to spare and in front oftheir own fans.

They looked set for disap-pointment when Igor Matanovicscored two early goals to put the

visitors 2-0 up after just 17minutes. The hosts fought backin the second half, however, withSimon Terodde first convertinga penalty and then pouncing ona defensive error to bring his sidelevel.

St Pauli's Marcel Beifus

missed a golden chance torestore the lead before Zalazar'sbrilliant strike completed a bril-liant comeback to send 60,000Schalke fans into ecstasy. StPauli capitulated in the dyingminutes, as both Beifus andMatanovic were sent off.

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Carlos Alcaraz believes the sky is thelimit after becoming the first play-

er to beat Rafael Nadal and NovakDjokovic at the same tournament onclay as he stormed into the Madrid Openfinal on Saturday.

The 19-year-old Spaniard reachedhis second ATP Masters final in fiveweeks and claimed his first win over areigning world number one, overcom-ing Djokovic 6-7 (5/7), 7-5, 7-6 (7/5) infront of a sell-out home crowd at theCaja Magica.

Alcaraz has a tour-leading sevenwins against top-10 players this season.He enters Sunday's final against defend-ing champion Alexander Zverev carry-ing a nine-match winning streak, hav-ing triumphed in Barcelona a couple ofweeks ago.

He is the youngest player to beat aworld number one in 17 years.

Asked if he sees a limit to what hecan achieve, Alcaraz said: "I don't thinkso. Tomorrow I will go for the final asI did in Miami. I'm really happy to beable to play a second Masters 1000 final."

"I would say that I feel ready to com-pete against them (the top players) inevery single tournament, in every sin-gle surface," added the Miami champi-on.

Zverev moved into his third Madridfinal with a 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 win againstGreek world number five StefanosTsitsipas, in a clash that finished at 1:06am local time (2306 GMT Saturday).

The German second seed, a cham-pion in the Spanish capital in 2018 and2021, extended his Madrid winningstreak to nine consecutive matches.Zverev has won both of his previousmeetings against Alcaraz.

"He held his nerves very well. Forsomebody of his age to play so mature-ly and courageously is impressive.

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World championshipleader Charles Leclerc

claimed pole position and ledFerrari to a front-row lockouton Saturday when he toppedthe times in qualifying for theinaugural Miami Grand Prix.

The 24-year-oldMonegasque driver clocked afastest lap in one minute and28.796 seconds to outpace histeam-mate by two-tenths infront of an enthusiastic sell-outcrowd at the MiamiInternational Autodrome.

Defending world champi-on Max Verstappen was thirdafter making a slight mistakeon his final flying lap. His RedBull team-mate Sergio Perezwas fourth with Valtteri Bottas

fifth for Alfa Romeo and seven-time champion LewisHamilton sixth for Mercedes.

It was Leclerc's third polethis year and the 12th of hiscareer. For Sainz it is the sec-ond time he had secured a frontrow start. It was Ferrari's firstfront row lockout since the2019 Mexican Grand Prix.

"It is amazing to be hereand the fans are crazy," said adelighted Leclerc. "It is going tobe a big challenge tomorrow,but we feel very motivated asthere are so many Ferrari fanshere. Hopefully we can comeout on top!"

Verstappen, who in thechampionship and trailsLeclerc by 27 points, swal-lowed his disappointment andsaid: "Overall, I am pretty

pleased with qualifying as Ionly did four or five laps yes-terday. But we have to startmaking these weekends lessdifficult."

Pierre Gasly of Alpha Tauriqualified seventh ahead ofLando Norris of McLaren andYuki Tsunoda in the secondAlpha Tauri with Lance Strolltaking 10th for Aston Martin.

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Liverpool's Premier League titlehopes suffered a huge bloweven though they went top ofthe table as Tottenham clung

on for a 1-1 draw at Anfield onSaturday.

The Reds edged ahead ofManchester City on goal difference,but the English champions can nowafford to draw one of their remain-ing four games and still retain theirtitle.

Pep Guardiola's men can retaketop spot and open up a three-pointlead when they host Newcastle onSunday.

A share of the spoils took

Tottenham to within a point offourth-placed Arsenal, but theirchance of a top-four finish now alsorely on the Gunners dropping pointsin two of their final four games.

Son Heung-min rounded off abrilliant team move to put Spurs infront on 56 minutes.

Luis Diaz's deflected shot levelled16 minutes from time, but JurgenKlopp's men failed to find a winner.

Twenty-one points separate thesides, but Spurs have made a habit ofsaving their best for the big occasion.

Antonio Conte's men are unbeat-en in all four meetings with City andLiverpool this season.

Liverpool did not start like a sidefatigued by reaching the Champions

League final in their 57th game of theseason against Villarreal in mid-week, as the intense press from thehome side penned Tottenham in.

However, the visitors were first toseriously threaten when AlissonBecker had to be sharp off his line toprevent Harry Kane's cross reachingSon and Rodrigo Bentancur fired thefollow-up far too close to the Brazilianstopper.

Liverpool's best efforts before thebreak came from set-pieces as Virgilvan Dijk hit the crossbar, while Diazalso tested Hugo Lloris after beingteed up by Sadio Mane.

Spurs also hit the woodwork inthe first-half when Pierre-EmileHojbjerg took aim from long range.

The second-half followed thesame pattern, with Liverpool campedin the Tottenham half, but this timeSpurs did pick them off on thecounter-attack.

Kane was given time to assess hisoptions and picked out RyanSessegnon who slid the ball across thebox for Son to tap in his 20thPremier League goal of the season tomove within two of Mohamed Salah.

It was the first time Liverpoolhave trailed at Anfield in a leaguematch since February and Spurscould have doubled their lead hadSon controlled another Sessegnoncross moments later.

Salah did his best to extend hisadvantage in the race for the Golden

Boot and rescue the Reds' title chal-lenge only to be denied by a brilliantblock from Ben Davies.

Diaz swung the match and the tiein midweek as Klopp's men camefrom 2-0 down on the night to win3-2 against Villarreal and reach a thirdChampions League final in five sea-

sons. The Colombian has been a sen-sational signing since arriving inJanuary and made another contribu-tion with a slice of fortune.

Diaz's shot from outside the boxtook a huge deflection off Bentancurto wrong-foot Lloris.

But Liverpool will have to settle

for a shot at cup glory unless Citystumble as Tottenham held firm inthe closing stages.

Klopp's men, who have alreadylifted the League Cup, face Chelsea inthe FA Cup final next weekend andthen Real Madrid for the EuropeanCup in Paris on May 28.

�� 6�9--6

Barcelona secured qualification fornext season's Champions League on

Saturday as Jordi Alba's 94th-minutewinner against Real Betis guaranteed theCatalans' place in the La Liga top four.

Alba's stinging injury-time volleysnatched a 2-1 victory for Barca at theBenito Villamarin to ensure they willplay in the Champions League nextterm, an achievement that is likely tobe crucial to the club's hopes of finan-cial recovery.

When Xavi Hernandez took over ascoach in November, Barcelona layninth in La Liga, with genuine concernsabout their chances of closing the gapon the top four.

But, despite a recent dip in form,significant improvements have seen

Xavi's team surge up the table and theycan now look forward to rejoining thelikes of Real Madrid in Europe's pre-mier tournament next season.

While a trophyless season cannever count as a success for Barca, fin-ishing in the top four is an impressiveachievement for Xavi and a huge relieffor the club.

Victory leaves Barcelona second inthe table, 11 points clear of Betis in fifth,with both teams having three games leftto play. Barca should now be confidentof clinching second place too, with fivepoints the gap between them andSevilla, who play at Villarreal onSunday.

Betis looked like they had sealed apoint after Marc Bartra headed in anequaliser in the 78th minute, three min-utes after Ansu Fati had come off the

bench to give Barcelona the lead. Alba,though, fired in at the back post toclaim all three points for the visitors.

Fati's goal was his first in theleague since November as the 19-year-old continues his latest recoveryfrom another lengthy spell on thesidelines.

The teenager briefly returned inJanuary from a hamstring injury thathas kept him out for the best part of sixmonths, on the back of his nightmare11 months out with a knee problembetween November 2020 andSeptember last year.

Real Betis had to change their goal-keeper after 17 minutes as the injuredClaudio Bravo was replaced by RuiSilva, who was called into action soonafter, tipping Ronald Araujo's headeronto the crossbar.

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Nantes won the French Cupfor the first time in 22

years on Saturday, beating Nice1-0 in the final at the Stade deFrance.

Ludovic Blas drilled homea penalty at the start of the sec-ond half to bring Nantes theclub's first major trophy sincewinning the Ligue 1 title in2001.

For much of the season,Nice looked certain to qualifyfor the Champions League but,after a recent stumble, couldmiss out on Europe altogether.

Nantes, who only avoidedrelegation in a play-off last year,lifted the French Cup for thefourth time and qualified forEurope for the first time in twodecades, earning a place in theEuropa League.

After the two finals played

in an almost entirely empty sta-dium due to the pandemic, asell-out crowd of around 80,000packed the Stade de France —roughly two-thirds Nantes sup-porters. Nice knocked out Paris

Saint-Germain and Marseilleen route to a first final since1997, but struggled to createchances with Amine Gouiriand Kasper Dolberg both with-out a goal in the league since

January.Nice goalkeeper Marcin

Bulka, the PSG loanee whohelped dump out his parentclub on penalties in the last 16,smothered well as Blas dartedinto the box, with Gouiri thenhaving a shot deflected wide ina gritty first half.

A first final without PSGsince 2014 burst into life 15 sec-onds after half-time whenHichem Boudaoui was harsh-ly penalised for a handball as heattempted to block QuentinMerlin's cross.

Blas hammered the result-ing spot-kick past Bulka, spark-ing euphoric celebrations fromthe Nantes players and fans.

Having departed Lille afterleading them to the Ligue 1crown last season, ChristopheGaltier's first season in chargeof Nice is destined to end indisappointment.

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Ralf Rangnick apologised afterManchester United's dismal

season hit a new low with a 'humil-iating' 4-0 defeat against Brighton onSaturday.

United have endured a host ofloss in one of their most embarrass-ing seasons for decades and thislacklustre loss was among the veryworst.

Rangnick's side were routed bygoals from Moises Caicedo, MarcCucurella, Pascal Gross and LeandroTrossard at the Amex Stadium.

After 5-0 and 4-0 defeats againstarch rivals Liverpool, a 4-1 loss atWatford that saw Ole GunnarSolskjaer sacked in November andan FA Cup at home toChampionship side Middlesbrough,it seemed impossible for United tofall any further.

But they were so gutless andhopeless on the south-coast thateven United's travelling supportersturned on them.

Sixth placed United cannot fin-ish in the Premier League's top fourand are certain to miss out on theChampions League for only the fifthtime in 30 seasons.

"It was a terrible performance.From the first until the last minuteit was not enough, we can only apol-ogise for this performance and ahumiliating defeat," Rangnick said.

"We just gave too much timeand space. We were never in a posi-tion where we could stop them play-ing through our lines. We told the

players be as compact as they couldbut we couldn't stop it."

With 58 points and only onegame left, United's fifth successiveaway defeat means they will finishwith their lowest points total in thePremier League era.

It would be no surprise if Erikten Hag, the Ajax boss who hasagreed to take charge from next sea-

son, was having second thoughtsabout his decision to accept the taskof rebuilding a team languishingwell behind the standards set byLiverpool and Manchester City.

Asked if United's players hadfailed to follow his instructions,Rangnick said: "I don't think theyignored the game-plan but weweren't able to stop them.

�� 2'+6

Lazio pile pressure on Romafor fifth place and keep

Sampdoria worrying about rel-egation thanks to a Patric head-er and show of individual skillfrom Luis Alberto.

Luis Alberto curled a freekick onto the head of Patric, thedefender left disconcertinglyunmarked from seven yards. Itwas his first ever Serie A goal.

Luis Alberto had been try-ing all evening and got his goalin absolute style, rolling the ballone way to go around Audero,then cutting back inside tothread his finish through theeye of a needle between twodefenders on the line.Quagliarella thought he'dscored in the final minute, slid-ing in to meet a Bereszynskicross and redirecting it onto thebase of the upright from sixyards.

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Lewis Hamilton admittedto relief and said he and

Mercedes would 'keep chip-ping away' to recover lostspeed after he qualified sixthon Saturday for the MiamiGrand Prix. The seven-timeworld champion had missedout on a top ten start at lastmonth's Emilia RomagnaGrand Prix and praised histeam for their hard work inattempting to improve theirnew car. "That's the best qual-ifying session that I have hadin the last three races," he said."So I'll take that and keep push-ing and keep working hard.

"We've got to keep onchipping away. So much amaz-ing work has gone on in thebackground.

"I don't think we are nec-essarily moving forward atthe rate we would like to, butwe have just got to keep ourheads down and keep workingand eventually we will getthere." Mercedes, winners of arecord eight consecutive con-structors championships inFormula One.

Hamilton relievedas Mercedesregain some form

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Kolkata Knight Riders resembled asinking ship ahead of a rather incon-

sequential IPL-15 match against bottom-placed Mumbai Indians who, even ifalready out of reckoning, will have theirtails up here on Monday.

Panned for trying out too manycombinations at the top, a part of theirconstant chopping and changing strate-gy this season which backfired on thempretty badly, KKR are coming off a 75-rundrubbing at the hands of table toppersLucknow Super Giants. While MI willenter the upcoming game on the back ofa five-run win over second-placed GujaratTitans. MI under Rohit Sharma havealready been eliminated from the race tothe playoffs as they have just four pointsfrom 10 matches and even if they win alltheir remaining games, the five-timechampions can reach only 12 points, farfrom what is needed to advance to thenext stage. Royal Challengers Bangalorehave 12 points already and three otherteams have 16 and 14 points.

Two-time winners KKR, under newcaptain Shreyas Iyer, came a cropperagainst Lucknow Super Giants on

Saturday and the huge margin of defeathas left them with eight points from 11games. They have three matches left andthe maximum they can reach is 14points, which is again something that can-not guarantee even a fourth-place finish.

However, despite the inconsequentialnature of the match, players from both thebeleaguered sides can still gun for indi-vidual glory at the DY Patil Stadium.

With the season coming to a close forboth the teams, the focus will also be onhow to go about the task in the next edi-tion, apart from looking to capping offtheir hugely disappointing campaigns ona positive note. Heading into the game,the Mumbai Indians enjoy an advantagethanks to their massive 22-8 head-to-headrecord against the Knights Riders.

At the moment, the best part aboutMI is that both their openers -- skipperRohit and Ishan Kishan -- clickedtogether against the Titans and theywould certainly look to convert their scin-tillating 40s into bigger scores against thestruggling Knight Riders.

MI captain Rohit is also approachinga milestone as he is 88 runs away fromcompleting 5000 runs for the franchise inthe IPL

�� -'&�'&

One of T20 cricket's all-time greats, Chris Gayle

has revealed that he opted outof IPL-15 because of lack ofrespect, saying he "wasn't treat-ed properly" in the last coupleof years despite doing so much.

The swashbuckling WestIndian has been one of the topperformers with the bat sincethe inception of the lucrativeleague.

After stints with KoklataKnight Riders and RoyalChallengers Bangalore, 'theUniverse Boss' joined PunjabKings. But after enjoying agood 2019 season, when he fin-ished as the sixth highest run-getter in the tournament, Gaylestruggled to find a spot in thePunjab playing XI in 2020 and2021. Last year, Gayle featuredin 10 games and scored 193runs at a strike rate of 125.32,while in 2020, he played justseven matches and amassed288 runs. "For the last coupleof years, the way the IPL wentabout, I felt like I wasn't treat-ed properly," Gayle was quot-ed as saying by 'mirror.co.uk'.

"So I thought 'okay, you(Gayle) didn't get the respect

you deserved after you did somuch for the sport and IPL'. SoI said 'okay, that's it, I'm notgoing to bother to enter thedraft', so I left it as it is.

"There is always going to belife after cricket so I'm just try-ing to adapt to normality."

However, the big-hittingJamaican has also vowed toreturn to the league next year,adding that he would love to

win a title with either RCB orPunjab Kings. "Next year I'mcoming back, they need me!"I've represented three teams inthe IPL -- Kolkata, RCB andPunjab. "Between RCB andPunjab, I would love to get atitle, with one of those twoteams. I had a great stint withRCB where I was more success-ful within the IPL, and Punjab,they've been good.

�� +3+>�9

Rajasthan Royals onSunday said that their

West Indian batter ShimronHetmyer has left for Guyanafor the birth of his first child.

"We are helping him(Hetymer) in every way wecan, and our best wishes arewith him and his wifeNirvani," the Royals said ontheir official Twitter handle.

They also said thatHetymer would return toMumbai soon and resume hisduties for the franchise for theremaining matches of theIPL.

"We look forward toShimron then returning toMumbai, and resuming dutiesat the Royals for the remain-der of our matches in IPL2022," the franchise added.

Royals, who had defeatedPunjab Kings in their lastleague game, will play DelhiCapitals in their next match.

�� )3&6

Kolkata Knight Riders werefound wanting on more

than one front, but head coachBrendon McCullum singledout their struggles in the powerplay, as a disappointing IPLcampaign neared its end.

Former champions KKRsuffered their seventh defeat onSaturday night, a 75-run drub-bing by Lucknow Super Giantshere.

"We struggled in the powerplay which has been a frustra-tion for us throughout the sea-son," McCullum said, addingthat the team needs to find away to be more aggressivewithout losing wickets in thefirst six overs.

The Shreyas Iyer-led sidenow finds itself on the brink ofelimination. "We've been goodthroughout the middle phaseand not too bad at the death,"McCullum said at the postmatch press conference.

"But in the power playwe've been a little stuck andwe've to find a method to notlose many wickets and alsothrow a few punches and get a

few boundaries," he reiterated.KKR have used several

opening combinations this sea-son but failed to find the onethat clicks. Their openers havenot been able to give kind ofstarts required for teams to winmatches. "If you look aroundother teams at the top of thetable, one of their opening

batters is also one of theirhighest run-scorers. It's an areawe haven't been able to settle.Unfortunately, some of theguys haven't been in the formthat they would have liked to.

"That happens, sometimes.In a quick tournament, you dohave to sometimes change per-sonnel.

�� +3+>�9

Delhi Capitals players wereonce again forced into

isolation in the ongoing IPL-15after a net bowler of the fran-chise tested positive forCOVID-19.

"One net bowler testedpositive today morning in test.Players have been asked to stayin rooms," IPL sources saidhours ahead of their Sunday'smatch against Chennai SuperKings.

Delhi Capitals are sched-uled to play against CSK in theday's second match, at the DYPatil Stadium in Navi Mumbai.

Sources said a fresh roundof testing took place on Sundaymorning with all members ofthe contingent confined totheir rooms.

It is the second time dur-ing the IPL 2022 that the Delhiteam has been forced into iso-lation.

Earlier in the season, sixmembers of the franchiseincluding physio PatrickFarhart, all-rounder MitchellMarsh, keeper-batter TimSeifert and three other non-playing members had testedpositive for the virus.

The Capitals' matchesagainst Punjab Kings andRajasthan Royals, originallyscheduled to be played inPune, were also moved toMumbai.

As per the IPL protocol,Delhi Capitals will have toundergo another round of test-ing and till then all memberswill have to be isolated intheir rooms.

�� +3+>�9

Spinner Wanindu Hasarangapicked up a five-wicket haul

after skipper Faf du Plessis'impactful half-century as RoyalChallengers recorded a 67-runvictory over SunrisersHyderabad to boost their play-off hopes in the IPL here onSunday.

Opting to bat on a slowsurface, du Plessis led from thefront with a 50-ball 73 not out,while Dinesh Karthik (eight-ball 30 not out) provided thelate flourish as RCB overcamean anxious start to post 192/3.

In response, SunrisersHyderabad were skittled out for125 to crash to their fourth losson the trot as Hasarangastymied their chase with figuresof 4-1-18-5.

The win also avenged theirshocking nine-wicket loss toHyderabad in the first leg at theBrabourne where Bangalorehad collapsed to 68 allout.

Making amend for a slop-py outing on the field,Hasaranga cleverly used hiswrong ones and derailed theirchase in the middle overs withwickets of the hardhittingNicholas Pooran andJagadeesha Suchith in succes-sive overs.

The Lankan then ended hisspell in style with a double-wicket maiden, dismissingShashank Singh and UmranMalik in successive deliveries tovirtually seal it for Bangalore.

With this, he became thesecond bowler after YuzvendraChahal to get past the 20-wicket mark in the IPL.Hasaranga is now one wicketshy of current Purple Capholder Chahal's tally of 22.

Hyderabad No 3 RahulTripathi made a fine 58 to keepthem in the hunt but JoshHazlewood (2/17) dismissedhim and followed it up with thewicket of Kartik Tyagi next ball.

For Bangalore, it was their

second win in a row, coming onthe back of a hattrick of defeatsas they firmed up their placeinside top-four.

Likewise Bangalore,Hyderabad too had a jitterystart and went on to lose twowickets in the first over in theirtall chase of 193.

Like Kohli, Williamsonalso went for a golden duck ina rare instance -- only third inIPL -- that a wicket fell on thefirst ball of both the innings.

Earlier, Du Plessisslammed eight boundaries andtwo sixes en route to his thirdfifty this season and seized the

initiative after he lost his open-ing partner Virat Kohli.

The South African veteranalong with Rajat Patidar (48 in38 balls; 4x4, 2x6) laid a solidfoundation with a 105-run sec-ond wicket partnership off 73balls.

But Hyderabad bowlers led

by spinner Jagadeesha Suchith(2/30) and BhuvneshwarKumar (0/34) slowed things abit in the middle overs beforeDinesh Karthik gave a last-overflourish (25 runs) to prop upthe total.

Making full use of areprieve by Rahul Tripathi inthe third ball of the final over,the Indian experienced wicket-keeper-batter went on to makea quickfire eight-ball 30 notout.

He smashed four sixes,three of them coming in suc-cession followed by a boundaryin the last over againstAfghanistan debutant FazalhaqFarooqi, en route to his enter-taining cameo.

Hyderabad had their soli-tary moment of glory, the veryfirst ball of the game whenKohli (0) got out for a thirdgolden duck this season, sixthoverall in IPL. This was also hissecond golden duck against thesame team season.

��+3+>�9

Devon Conway continuedhis red-hot form, smashinghis third half-century on

the trot as Chennai Super Kingsput up an imposing 208 for 6against Delhi Capitals in an IPLmatch here on Sunday.

Conway scored 87 off 49 ballswith seven fours and five sixes andalso added 110 for the openingwicket with Ruturaj Gaikwad (41off 33 balls) to lay the foundationfor a big score.

Conway added another 59runs for the second wicket withShivam Dube (32 off 19 balls)before MS Dhoni (21 no off 8 balls)added insult to DC's injuries at thefag end.

The South Africa-born NewZealander has been one of the keyplayers for an ageing CSK side intransition and has responded nice-ly to captain Dhoni's call of beinga like-for-like replacement of Fafdu Plessis.

What makes Conway a stand-out performer among most over-seas recruits is his mastery overspinners which is an absolutemust to be a consistent success inIPL.

Whether CSK make it to play-off this time or not, Conway in all

likelihood will be serving the fran-chise for the next five years at least.

Along with Gaikwad, Conway

showed how aesthetically pleasingstroke-play can destroy the confi-dence of rival bowlers. There

weren't any lap-scoops, switchhits, reverse flicks but shots with-in the 'V' with immaculate use of

feet wile negotiating the spinners.It did help that DY Patil Stadiumtrack resembled a highway due toits flat nature.

Kuldeep Yadav's (3-0-43-0)length was completely in disarrayas Conway repeatedly came downthe ground to loft the deliverieswith disdain.

If the delivery was flighted,Conway would come down thetrack and hit it down the groundor wide of long-on. If the bowlerkept it flat, he would thump itthrough the covers and if it was fastan full, he would play the conven-tional sweep shot over deep squareleg. The shot that stood out was acover drive which was more like aslap with minimal back-lift.

Conway's third consecutivefifty came off 27 balls as poorKuldeep had no clue as to what hadhit him. His deliveries were likecannon fodder as he was hit forfour fours and two sixes in his firstspell. Conway repeated his 'danc-ing down the track' act in Kuldeep'ssecond spell with another loftedsix. It didn't help matters thatAntich Nortje (4-0-42-3) andShardul Thakur (3-0-38-0) bowledshort during their first spell withKhaleel Ahmed (2/28 in 4 overs)being the only saving grace.

Conway's brutal yet classicalassault gave Gaikwad time togather his composure and play hisown game at the other end as CSKreached 100 off 10 overs.

Finally, Gaikwad (41 off 33balls) was dismissed when DCstuck to their gameplan and theopener was left in a tangle tryingto tackle to a 152 kmph bouncerhurled by Nortje.

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