SIMONTINI BHATTACHARJEE

AHMEDABAD: As campaigning for the second phase of the Gujarat Assembly elec-tions came to an end, Prime Minister Nar-endra Modi on Tuesday made an emotional plea to the state’s people.

“With the Government of India and Government of Gujarat working together, the strength rises manifold. This one plus one is not two but eleven, and together we will take Gujarat to new heights,” PM Modi said.

In remarks laced with nostalgia, the PM recalled that it had been three and a half years since he “got the honour to travel across the length and breadth of Gujarat to seek the blessings of the people.”

“During my travels across Gujarat, the level of affection I have received from the people is unparalleled in my 40 years of pub-lic life. This affection gives me strength and motivates me to devote all my time to India’s development,” he said.

He urged the people of the state to come out to vote in large numbers in the second and final phase of the elections, on Decem-ber 14.

Earlier on Tuesday morning, the PM flew in a sea-plane from the Sabarmati River here to Dharoi Dam in Mehsana district on the last day of campaigning for the Gujarat Assembly polls.

Modi boarded the single-engine sea-plane from near the Sardar Bridge connect-ing the old city with Ahmedabad West, the first-ever flight by such a craft in the country.

A special jetty was constructed to facil-itate the prime minister’s boarding from the river.

The plane took off from the Sardar

Bridge-end amid chants of “Modi-Modi” from BJP workers and other city dwellers, who flocked the Sabarmati Riverfront to witness this one-of-a-kind event.

The plane landed at Dharoi Dam reser-voir in Mehsana.

From Dharoi, the prime minister pro-ceeded to Ambaji Temple in Banaskantha district via road. He returned to Ahmedabad by the sea-plane later on Tuesday evening.

Modi had on Monday said at a poll rally that on Tuesday, for the first time in the his-tory of the country, a sea-plane will land on the Sabarmati river.

“I will go to Ambaji in the sea-plane after

landing in Dharoi dam and come back,” he said.

He said the BJP had planned a road show for Tuesday in Ahmedabad.

“However, the administration has not given permission, and I had time, so I decided to go to Ambaji in the sea-plane,” Modi had said.

“We cannot have airports everywhere, so our government has planned to have these sea-planes,” he said.

Photos showed the Prime Minister buck-led in a seat in the seaplane. John Goulet, the pilot who flew the seaplane, said, “It was a very pleasing experience. I gave him a safety

briefing. He was a very good passenger. Sea-planes are very common in many countries; it should be popular in India also as you have lakes, the rivers, the coastal areas.”

Chief Minister Vijay Rupani on Monday said this is for the first time in the country’s history that a sea-plane will land on a water body and that will be the Sabarmati river.

Union ministers Smriti Irani and Par-shottam Rupala addressed a series of pub-lic meetings.

The state party president Jitu Vaghani and Chief Minister Vijay Rupani also reached out to north Gujarat voters as the final phase of campaigning ended on Tuesday.

PUBLISHED FROM DELHI & KOLKATA VOL. 12, ISSUE 343 | Wednesday, 13 December 2017 | New Delhi | Pages 16 | Rs 3.00

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12 special courts to hear cases against netas

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: At least 12 special courts would be set up to decide cases involving politicians as accused, the Centre on Tuesday told the Supreme Court.

It also sought more time to col-lect and collate data of pending cases against lawmakers across the country.

The Ministry of Law and Justice, in an affidavit filed in pursuance of an order asking it to come up with a scheme to set up special courts to deal with cases involving lawmakers, said it had allotted Rs 7.8 crore for the purpose.

Seeking time to file details of cases pending against the lawmakers in trial courts and high courts across the country, the Centre said informa-tion had been requested from various high courts, but their responses were still awaited.

The document, filed through Reeta Vasishta, Additional Secretary of Ministry of Law and Justice, said that as per the scheme, “12 special courts for one year” shall be set up to dispose of cases against politicians.

It said this scheme was given in-principle approval by the Ministry of Finance on December 8.

The apex court had on November 1 directed the Centre to place before it details regarding 1,581 cases involv-ing MPs and MLAs, as declared by the politicians at the time of filing their nominations during the 2014 gen-

eral elections.It had asked the government to

apprise it of how many among these 1,581 cases have been disposed of within one year and how many have ended either in conviction or acquittal.

The government’s affidavit has said that the figure of 1,581 cases has been obtained from an NGO, but the data as to in which courts these cases are pending is not available.

“It is difficult to gather the facts and figures required to answer the queries mentioned in the order of the court.

“Since the states in which these cases are pending is available, the ministry has initiated action by seek-ing to collect the requisite details from the respective state governments,” the affidavit said.

The Centre had earlier told the top court that decriminalisation of politics has to be done and it was not averse to the setting up of spe-cial courts to deal with cases involv-ing politicians and speedy disposal of these matters.

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Guj voters will spring a ‘surprise’, says Rahul

MPOST BUREAU

AHMEDABAD: Prime Minister Nar-endra Modi’s comments against his predecessor Manmohan Singh over a dinner meeting with Pakistani dip-lomats were unacceptable, Congress president-elect Rahul Gandhi said here on Tuesday.

The prime minister had insinuated that Manmohan Singh was colluding with Pakistan in the Gujarat polls. The former premier responded by saying Modi was setting a “dangerous prec-edent” and asked him to apologise to the nation.

“What Modiji has said about for-mer PM Manmohan Singh is not acceptable,” Gandhi said at a press conference here today, the final day of campaigning for the Gujarat Assem-bly elections.

He said the prime minister had refrained from speaking on corruption during the campaign in his home state.

Modi, Gandhi added, had remained silent on allegations against BJP pres-ident Amit Shah’s son Jay Shah and the alleged irregularities in the Rafale fighter jet deal.

“PM Modiji has not spoken a word about corruption. He is silent on Jay Shah and Rafale deal,” he said.

The Congress leader also took on those who raised eyebrows over his vis-its to temples in Gujarat, wondering if it was wrong to pray for the well-being of people of the state.

“Mandir jana mana hai kya (Am I not allowed to visit temple)? I have asked for the well-being of the people

of Gujarat during my temple visits,” Gandhi said when asked the reason behind his frequent temple visits in the poll-bound state.

Taking a jibe at Modi over his sea-plane ride from the Sabarmati River here to Dharoi Dam in Mehsana dis-trict, Gandhi said it was a distraction from the main issues of Gujarat.

The Congress leader also said he was confident that his party would win the elections in the state.

“We are confident that Congress will win in Gujarat,” Gandhi said.

Addressing an election rally in Palanpur in Gujarat on Sunday, Modi had sought to suggest that Pakistan was trying to influence the assembly polls in the state.

He claimed that some Pakistani officials and Manmohan Singh met at Aiyar’s house over dinner on Decem-ber 6. This was a day before Aiyar’s “neech” jibe against Modi that led to his suspension from the party.

MPOST BUREAU

SRINAGAR: The Kashmir valley was cut off from the rest of the coun-try on Tuesday as flight operations at the Srinagar airport were sus-pended, and the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway and Mughal road were closed for traffic due to snow-fall and rain.

The present weather conditions in Jammu and Kashmir are likely to continue till Thursday due to a west-ern disturbance over the state, the meteorological (MeT) office said.

The 300-km long highway, the only all-weather road linking Kash-mir with the rest of the country, was closed following heavy rains and snowfall at several places, including the Jawahar Tunnel, and incidents of shooting stones near Panthal.

In Jammu, the Mughal road,

connecting Poonch and Rajouri with south Kashmir’s Shopian dis-trict, was also closed after heavy snowfall in Pir Ki Gali.

“The highway and the Mughal road are closed for the second day today. The highway was closed due to heavy snowfall at the Jawahar Tunnel, the Patnitop and Ramban areas and landslides at Pathiyal. There has been heavy snowfall in Pir Ki Gali and other areas en route Mughal road,” police officials said.

In the state’s summer capital, flight services to and fro from the Srinagar International Airport were hit due to poor visibility caused by the heavy snowfall, airport authori-ties said.

Director, Srinagar airport, Sha-rad Kumar said, “Air traffic to and fro from the airport has been sus-pended due to low visibility. There

has been no improvement in the visibility around the airport so far.”

“We are monitoring the situa-tion. If visibility improves, we will resume flight operations,” he said.

However, in Gulmarg, the cold-

est in Jammu and Kashmir at minus 6.5 degrees Celsius, the spell of snowfall brightened prospects for winter sports as nearly four feet of snow accumulated at the ski resort.

Srinagar, which is experienc-

ing intermittent rains since Tues-day morning, received snowfall till 10 am, while heavy snow was recorded in Sonamarg and Baltal, base camps of the annual Amar-nath Yatra in central Kashmir, the MeT office said.

Moderate snowfall was reported from across south Kashmir, includ-ing Pahalgam, a tourist resort, where seven inches of snow has accumu-lated so far, it said, adding 3.5 feet of snow accumulated at Sonamarg.

The Srinagar-Kargil, Bandipora-Gurez, Kupwara-Macchil, Kupwara-Keran and Kupwara-Karnah roads were also closed, police officials said.

In Jammu, there was very heavy snowfall in the hill regions of Doda, Kishtwar, Ramban, Kathua, Rajouri, Reasi and Poonch districts, due to which some inter-district and inter-state roads were closed.

Kashmir cut off due to heavy snowfall

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday held that hotels and restaurants are not bound by the maximum retail price (MRP) when they sell bottled mineral water.

A bench led by Justice Rohinton F Nariman held that provisions of Legal Metrol-ogy Act would not be appli-cable in selling bottled water in hotels and restaurants and therefore, no prosecution can be launched against them for selling above MRP.

The court noted that com-posite elements of sale and service are there in hotels and restaurants where consum-ers also enjoy the ambience, invested into by these com-mercial establishments.

“It is not a case of simple sale. Nobody goes to a hotel to buy or take away a bottle of mineral water,” observed the bench. It rejected the govern-ment’s argument that even a sale in hotels would require mandatory compliance with the provision of the Act and that there would be jail term and fine for selling above MRP. AGENCIES

Hotels & restaurants can sell bottled water above MRP, rules SC

AIR, ROAD TRAFFIC BADLY AFFECTEDFive soldiers missing along LoC, three after avalanche in Gurez

MPOST BUREAU

SRINAGAR: Five soldiers have gone missing along the Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmir’s Gurez and Naugam sectors, following heavy snowfall in the valley since Monday, a defence official said on Tuesday.

Jammu and Kashmir is expe-riencing widespread snowfall and rain with the meteorological (MeT) office forecasting present weather conditions to continue till Thurs-day due to a western disturbance over the state.

“Two soldiers fell down a slope in Naugam sector (Kupwara dis-trict) while three others went miss-ing from a forward post in the Kanzalwan sub-sector of Gurez (Bandipora district) during heavy snowfall,” Defence spokesman Col-onel Rajesh Kalia said here.

Search and rescue operations

are on to trace the five missing sol-diers, he said.

Earlier, a police officer had said that the three soldiers in Gurez sec-tor went missing after an avalanche hit their post at Baktoor near the LoC.

An army porter is missing since Monday after he came under an avalanche in Tulail in Gurez.

WOMEN HAVE BEEN THE STRONGEST PEOPLE IN MY LIFE: SHAHID KAPOOR PG15

LENDING A HELPING HANDCENTRE TO SUPREME COURT

Delhi govt to bear entire cost of treatment for accident victims

14 crore PAN-Aadhaar linkages done till now

ROUSHAN ALI

NEW DELHI: The Delhi gov-ernment will bear the cost of treatment of victims of road accidents and acid attacks at government and private hos-pitals under a new scheme approved by the Cabinet on Tuesday.

At a press conference here, Health Minister Satyendar Jain said the scheme would also cover the victims of fire-related incidents on streets.

The scheme was approved in a Cabinet meeting which was chaired by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

It will now be sent to Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Bai-jal for approval.

“The move is aimed at sav-ing lives of such people during the golden hour after a road

accident,” Jain said.Most people attempt to

take road accident victims to a government hospital even if a private hospital in nearby, thereby denying treatment within the ‘Golden Hour’, he said.

“The Cabinet has approved the scheme for road accident victims. The Delhi govern-ment will bear the treatment cost of such people in both its own and private hospitals,” Jain said.

If an acid attack happens on streets, such victims would also be covered, he said.

Jain claimed that 8,000 accidents occur on Delhi roads every year, affecting 15,000-20,000 people, and about 1,600 people die per year due to road accidents.

Delhi government has roped in all private hospitals in the national capital for this scheme, those who help take accident victims to hospitals will get a reward of Rs 2000 from the government with appreciation certificates.

According to police, more than 700 PCR vans have been guarding the streets of Delhi covering vulnerable points and also the border areas of the capital. PCR vans have helped ferry over one lakh accident victims to hospitals in 2016-17.

NEW DELHI: Over 14 crore Permanent Account Num-bers (PANs) have been linked with Aadhaar till now, official sources said on Tuesday.

With this, about 41 percent of PANs are now linked with Aadhaar numbers.

There are about 33 crore

PAN cards, while Aadhaar has been issued to approximately 115 crore people.

“Over 41 crore PANs have been linked with the Aadhaar till now. The linkages are ongo-ing,” a senior official said. The CBDT, the policy-making body for the Income Tax Depart-ment, last week extended the deadline for this linkage to March 31 next year. MPOST

» PM urged Gujarat voters to come out to vote in large numbers in the second and final phase of the elections, on December 14

» John Goulet, the pilot who flew the seaplane, said the PM was a very good passenger

» First time in the country’s history that a sea-plane landed on a water body

GUJARAT SOARS

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PM Narendra Modi waves to the crowd as he returns from Dharoi Dam in Mehsana district to Sabarmati riverfront by the sea-plane, in Ahmedabad PTI

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NIRBHAYA CASE: POLICE OPPOSE REVIEW PLEA OF CONVICT IN SC PG5

CITY

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GUJARAT CAMPAIGNING DUST SETTLES 6

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WHY INDIA IS THE IDEAL HUB 8

INTERNATIONAL

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BUSINESS

INFLATION UP TO 15-MONTH HIGH 13

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REAL MADRID EYE 5TH PRIZE OF 2017 14

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2 mp townMILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Wednesday, 13 December, 2017

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GMI NIGHTTo showcase the strength and diver-sity of students and faculties Global Music Institute is organizing GMI Night. Performances by different ensembles will feature a range of genres including Jazz, Rock, Pop, Blues and Brazilian mu-sic. The performance will cover various popular artists such as Stevie Wonder, Chick Corea, Beatles, Chainsmokers, Led Zeppelin, Radiohead, Lian LaHavas, Gregory Porter, to name a few.WHEN: December 16WHERE: The Piano Man Jazz Club TIMINGS: 8:45 pm onwards

RENDEZVOUS WITH NATUREFor the first time in Delhi, Asish Kumar Das, a renowned sculptor artist featur-ing his work in New Delhi for a week. He is celebrating 25 years of his profes-sional journey. The show talks about the inherent fervour particularly the culture, religion, language so interwoven with

Nature around has always touched his life. The rendezvous with nature has brought forth an eclectic vision in his sculptures sometimes as Man reaching for the moon or in other cases the differ-ent Mudras of Buddha used rhetorically in the journey of peace and satisfaction. WHEN: Till December 16WHERE: Lalit Kala Akademi TIMING: 11 am – 7:30 pm

MATILDA COMES TO DELHIGood news for the theatre lovers in Delhi. Oye! Matilda! Tu hai Ustaad! an adaptation of Roald Dahl’s classic tale, Matilda is coming to town. get ready to soak in the story of a wonderful little girl, who happens to be a genius. Her story revolves around her pleasing teacher versus her not-so-good parents and the worst school principal imagin-able. This musical Drama has been scripted & directed by Indian stage ac-tor and director Lushin Dubey & Bubbles Sabharwal from KidsWorld theatre group.WHEN: December 14 – 17WHERE: HUB @ DLF PromenadeTIMING: 5:30 pm onwards

DAYINDAYOUT What’s on Around Town

‘Feminism’ is Merriam-Web-ster’s word of the year for 2017 for being the top lookup throughout the

year, amid a spike in reports of sexual assault and harassment in the news, the dictionary announced recently.

Feminism is defined as ‘the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes’ and ‘organised activity on behalf of women’s rights and interests,’ according to merriam-webster.com.

“The general rise in look-ups tells us that many people are interested in this word; specific spikes give us insight into some of the reasons why,” said lexicographer Peter Sokolowski, Merriam-Webster’s editor-at-large.

“Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Year is a quantitative measure of interest in a particular word. Our online dictionary gives us insight into the collective curiosity of the pub-lic, with millions of words looked up every month,” Sokolowski said.

Nine more nota-ble words that sent people to the dic-tionary in 2017 were: complicit, recuse, empathy, dotard, syzygy, gyro, federal-ism, hurricane and gaffe.

Surreal was Merriam-Webster’s word of the year last year.

Feminism spiked fol-lowing news coverage of the Women’s March on Washing-ton, DC in January and other related marches held around the

US and internationally.The word spiked again when

American political pundit Kel-lyanne Conway said during an interview that she did not con-sider herself a feminist.

In this case, the definition of feminism was itself the subject of the news story – an invita-tion for many people to look up the word.

“Interest in the dictionary definition of feminism was also driven by entertainment this year: we saw increased lookups after the release of both Hulu’s series The Handmaid’s Tale and the film Wonder Woman,” said Sokolowski.

More recently, lookups of femi-nism have been increasing in conjunc-tion with the many accounts of sexual assault and harassment in the news.

Many women have come for-ward to share their sto-ries with journalists

and many more

women joined in on social media using the #MeToo hashtag to say that they too have been affected by such behaviour.

‘Complicit’ which means ‘help-ing to commit a crime or do wrong in some way’ was also a top lookup throughout the year, driven primar-

ily by politics – and ‘Saturday Night Live.’

Lookups of ‘recuse’ spiked several times

this year, and all the spikes were in reference to US Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

While it did not appear at the centre of any major events this year, ‘empathy’ was one of our top lookups throughout the year.

‘Dotard’, an old-fashioned word was made new again in Sep-tember when North-Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency released comments from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un that called Donald Trump ‘a mentally deranged US dotard.’

‘Syzygy’, defined as ‘the nearly straight-line configura-tion of three celestial bodies in a gravitational system,’ also saw a small spike at the beginning of December because of the supermoon.

The word ‘gyro’ spiked in March when a widely shared sketch

from The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and country singer Luke Bryan began with them ordering from a New York City food truck and ended with a music video for a song called ‘I Don’t Know How to Pronounce Gyro.’

Gyro is ‘a sandwich especially of lamb and beef, tomato, onion, and yogurt sauce on pita bread.’

‘Federalism’ spiked in Sep-tember as Congressional

squabbling over the fate of the Afford-

able Care Act took centre stage.

‘Hurri-cane’ was a top lookup throughout the early part of September, as these storms

battered the islands and coasts.

‘Gaffe’ spiked in lookups this year start-

ing in February, following a surprising and awkward

moment at the climax of the 2017 Academy Awards. PTI

Word of the year: ‘FEMINISM’Lookups of ‘feminism’ increased in conjunction with

the many accounts of sexual assault as well as the news coverage of ‘Women’s March on Washington’

OUR CORRESPONDENT

THE STAGE AT KAMANI Auditorium will swing to the rhythms of music when ballet dancers from three nations i.e.,

India, Italy and Japan will come together on Friday evening (December 15).

With an aim of raiding the exposure and performance standards of the Indian artists, Elan

Ballet – a contemporary and Ballet dance academy based out of Delhi is organizing India’s first ever

International Ballet Dance Festival. Starting from 6:45 pm, there will be over 45 artists who will be

giving at least 14 performances at this festival. The constant objective at Elan Ballet

is to try and change the mindset of bal-let dancers in India from merely

wanting a certification course to actually looking for years of foundation training. The train-ing programmes along with

performance opportunities at the company are of the highest standards,

through collaborations with prestigious faculty, both nationally and internationally. The company also provides support to exception-

ally talented dancers to audition with companies abroad and/or to apply for scholarships for further training.

This festival will be featuring the beauty of western dance and will act as bridging the gap between India and rest of the countries in the field of dance. From Italy, two companies are going to perform at the festival, namely, Val-entin Bartes – the President of Arte Italia Cultural Association and Roberta

Ferrara – the director Choreographer of Equilibrio Dinamico Company and Artistic director of International Contemporary Project Experimental

FOCUS danza. Ritika Chandra - a certified teacher from American Bal-let Theatre will be performing on behalf of Elan Ballet. Whereas, Iwata Ballet Academy will be presenting ballet dance piece on behalf of Japan.

Coffee turns out to be your best friend to give warmth in the winter season but do you know that you get

a supple skin if you try coffee on your skin in the chilly season?

Here are some reasons why coffee is good for the skin in winter.4A coffee brew not only gets you

kicking in the morning but is also one of the healthiest natural ingredients to keep your skin glowing whether it’s in the form of beans, liquid or grounded coffee.4Exfoliating and brightening

properties of coffee make it a pop-

ular ingredient in many beauty and wellness products for both men and women. Caffeine extracts help reju-venate skin in addition to repairing UV damage.4The antioxidants in coffee help

combat UV damage to your skin and is good for the overall health of your skin, giving it a rich glow.4Grounded coffee beans

can be used to prepare a home-made body scrub (can be mixed with honey). Since coffee is a gen-tler exfoliating agent than peach or walnut, the scrub removes dead skin without irritation in addition to mois-

turizing your skin.4Eye-puffiness or eye bags are

another regular feature that can be easily cured at home using cof-fee. Coffee ice cubes can be gen-tly rubbed under your eyes for a soothing effect reducing puffiness or redness around the eyes.

Stephanie Schedel – Head of training at Malu Wilz also listed some Do It yourself (DIY) ways to get flawless skin with coffee.

Try coffee treatment for supple skin this winterFACIAL EXFOLIATIONINGREDIENTS AND PROCESS: Three spoons of any kind of plant oil (almond oil, grape seed oil, olive oil, etc.); Three spoons of coffee grounds; Mix and apply in circular motions on the skin. Rinse off with lukewarm water; Makes skin soft and supple. For extra care add a squeezed half of avocado.

COFFEE EYE MASKINGREDIENTS AND PROCESS: Fights tired eyes and dark circles; five tea spoons warm coffee grounds; one teaspoon honey; one tea-spoon olives: Mix to a balm: Add some more honey if necessary. Put on closed eyes and let it rest for 30 minutes. Remove with lukewarm water. Lukewarm coffee pads are a simple. IANS

BOOK RELEASE ON KISHORE KUMAR

‘Composer Kishore Kumar’ – a book written by Kamal Dhiman, an employee of IP University, on the life of legendary playback singer of Hindi cinema, was released by K J Alphons, Minister of Tourism, Govt. of India at a glittering function organized at Pyare Lal Bhawan on December 11. The book is an attempt to understand Kishore Kumar as a composer. After ‘Gata Rahe Mera Dil’, Versatile Genius – Kishore Kumar and Main Hoon Jhumroo, this is the fourth book of the author on Kishore Kumar. He has also written a book on Dev Anand by the name of ‘Evergreen Dev Anand’. The programme was organized by Kishore Kumar Memorial Club.

Ballerinas to enthrall Delhi audiences

3mp cityMILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Wednesday, 13 December, 2017

Delhi Cabinet gives nod to revamp govt policies

Millennium Post - New Delhi Edition to carry the Ad with Delhi Tel. No. Only. Schedule Date :- 06/12/2017

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OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Delhi Cabinet on Tuesday approved the pro-posal of finance and planning department to revamp and strengthen the Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) unit, to ensure effective design, devel-opment and implementation of government Policies.

The Cabinet meeting was chaired by the Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

The decision acknowledges the fact that advances in ana-lytical tools and techniques related to Monitoring and Evaluation in the last decade combined with an increasing complexity and diversity of schemes warrant a scientific,

evidence-based approach to policy making.

“The newly created Mon-itoring and Evaluation Unit will create a government-wide road-map for effective use of modern Monitoring and Eval-uation tools and techniques in Government of Delhi for improved policy making and better delivery of public ser-vices,” said PWD Minister Saty-ender Jain.

Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister Manish Siso-dia said, “It is under the present government that such a bold vision for strengthening and modernising the Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) func-tions of the Planning Depart-ment has been first articulated,

and tangible actions towards the same initiated in the form of a comprehensive Outcome Budget for 2017-18. This is because our government believes in the fundamental value of data-driven policy-making and the role scientific surveys and evaluations can play in helping elected govern-ments better deliver public ser-vices to citizens and with the highest cost-effectiveness.”

“Besides guiding Outcome Budgeting, it will help Gov-ernment of Delhi to conduct independent surveys and eval-uations, enable data analysis and assessment of large gov-ernment data sets. The unit will also lay a road -map for Delhi government to join the

open data movement by mak-ing large government datasets open to citizens and research-ers,” Sisodia added.

In March 2017, the Delhi government became India’s first state government to release a comprehensive Outcome Budget which links all its major schemes and programmes with tangible Output and Outcome indicators, and establishes annual targets for each.

“In October 2017, the Delhi government also become the first state government to announce Rs 5 Crore “Pol-icy Impact Fund” dedicated to using scientific methods to determine the impact of gov-ernment schemes and policies,” said Sisodia.

SAYANTAN GHOSH

NEW DELHI: The hardship of noise pol-lution has not escaped the life of a 5-year-old girl Samriddhi Goswami, a resident of Rohini. She has moved National Green Tribunal (NGT) alleging noise pollution done by the Delhi Metro.

In the hearing of the plea, the NGT of Tuesday rapped the Delhi Metro Railway Corporation over the issue of noise pollu-tion and directed to strictly adhere to envi-ronmental norms.

A bench headed by NGT Chairperson

Justice Swatanter Kumar directed the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) to com-ply with the prescribed limits and directed the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) to ensure that no noise pollution is caused by its activities, including con-struction and operation.

Samridhi, filed the appeal through her father Rakesh Goswami, seeking to shift of Rohini sector 18-19 Metro sta-tions to a suitable alternate site as noise levels were found to be above 85 decibels. The girl, in her plea filed through advo-cates Salik Shafique and Rahul Khurana,

has also sought an erection of sound bar-riers around the Rohini Sector-18 Metro station in West Delhi and compensation for causing trauma due to noise pollution due to construction and trial of the metro rail and the station.

The plea said the applicant has made several complaints through her father to various authorities.

But her grievance was not redressed and the complaint was disposed of by Delhi Metro with remarks that the “griev-ance can’t be resolved to the satisfaction of customer”.

Referring to the Environment Impact Assessment Report of metro stations pre-pared in August 2011, the plea has said the document provides that noise pollution may not pose a health risk but can lead to sleep disorders, stress, high blood pressure and anxiety.

The petition has made the ministry of environment and forests, the Delhi gov-ernment, Central Pollution Control Board, Delhi Pollution Control Committee, North Delhi Municipal Corporation and Delhi Metro Rail Corporation as parties in the case.

The representatives of the DMRC have assured the green court to look after the issue and to respond accordingly. How-ever, the residents of the area have the same problem as reported to the NGT.

In March, nine-year-old Uttarakhand resident Ridhima Pandey had moved the NGT saying the Centre was not doing enough to reduce the impact of climate change in India.

The tribunal then issued notices to the Ministry of Environment and Forests and the Central Pollution Control Board, ask-ing for a response.

5-year-old girl moves NGT over noise pollution by Delhi Metro

Confusion prevails over FIR on Fortis hospital

PIYUSH OHRIE

GURUGRAM: There is confu-sion over the recent FIR filed by the Haryana government against the Fortis hospital in Gurugram while the Haryana government claims that the for-mal complaint filed is against the management. T

The Gurugram police claim that at present there is name of only one senior doctor that is Dr Vikas Verma. The lack of coordination has resulted in many to question over the Haryana government’s claim of taking firm action against the hospital.

Responding to the criti-cism, the state health minis-ter Anil Vij again reiterated that all those staff members that were found to be respon-sible for abdicating their med-ical responsibility have been named.

“The state government is not taking this case lying down and we have asked the authori-ties to take strict action against the management that has been indicted in the report. It may be possible that as all names in the FIR does not fill in, the entire list may not have been incorpo-

rated, “said the health minister.On Sunday an FIR was filed

at the Sushant Lok police sta-tion under section 304-part -2 of the Indian Penal Code. Few days before the FIR, the health minister had asserted that the hospital had direct role in the death of its Adhya.

Stating facts from the inquiry report he mentioned that the hospital had removed the ventilator, did not provide the oxygen cylinder and the ambulance after the family decided to shift her to another hospital.

It was also found that the hospital had made exorbitant profits by not providing the generic medicines.

There was huge outrage over the incident after the hos-pital charged Rs15.79 lakhs in amount for fifteen days treat-ment of Adhya Singh, who had dengue shock syndrome. After the death of their daugh-ter, the aggrieved father further highlighted that how he was harassed by the authorities in obtaining the death certificate for his kin.

In order to raise aware-ness of the rampant corrup-tion in the private healthcare system, Jayant Singh has taken to social media actively. He has requested people to mention of the trouble faced by them dur-ing the treatment of their close ones in such hospitals.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: After rain Del-hi's air quality became "poor" from "very poor", more rain is expected on Tuesday night, predicted the MeT department. However, the smog has par-tially engulfed the city through-out the day.

In the last 24 hours, from 8:30 am as on Monday, Del-hi’s Safdarjung observatory recorded 7.8 mm of rains while the Palam observatory wit-nessed 6.8 mm of rains.

Moreover, the minimums as recorded by both the obser-vatories dropped by 5 degrees and settled in lower teens. Offi-cials observed that Delhiites relished season’s first wet spell last evening that brought the temperatures a few notches down and washed off the pol-lution which was prevalent in the region for a long time. With this, finally, Delhiites gasped some fresh air.\

“In fact, these rains were the first December rains since 2014 as the national capital failed to observe any rains in the month of December in the year 2015 and 2016," said an official.

As per SAFAR (System of Air Quality and Weather Fore-casting and Research), the air quality of Delhi showed mar-

ginal improvement and from the ‘severe’ to ‘very poor’ cat-egory, Delhi’s AQI lingers between ‘poor and ‘moderate’. As per the latest report, the city recorded PM10 at 188 while PM2.5 at 113.

According to the experts, these rains were due to the effect of a Western Disturbance over the Western Himalayan Region.

But now as the weather system has started travelling eastwards, rains have seized. Which is why, Tuesday morn-ing in Delhi and NCR began on

a sunny note. "Due to the absence of any

significant rains, the tempera-tures are likely to once again start witnessing a rising trend. Though the cloudy weather is likely to prevail over the city for the next 24 hours, chances of another spell are very bleak," officials noted.

The light easterly winds will also start prevailing over the region thereby incurring mois-ture over the region. With all these factors, the pollution lev-els are once again expected to spike up.

Rain brings down toxicity of air; smog remains a worry

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: School chil-dren will be permitted to use the DDA sports complex on payment of entry charges of Rs 15 per day and can also make monthly passes, the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) took the decision on Tuesday.

The decision to this effect was announced in the meet-ing of the DDA’s Sports Man-agement Board (SMB) chaired by Lieutenant-Governor cum Chairman of Sports Manage-ment Board on Tuesday.

According to the official report, school children are permitted to use the DDA sports complexes on payment of entry charges of ̀ 15 per day. School children would also be permitted to use the free facil-ities at DDA sports complexes from 8 am to 7 pm daily for which monthly pass of Rs 300 would be issued. For facilities

for which user charges are to be paid, school students would need to pay only 50 per cent of rates paid by members of the sports complexes.

“To facilitate utiliza-tion of facilities at DDA Siri Fort Sports Complex, for which there is always a huge demand, individuals who have taken three months temporary membership of the complex 10 times in the last five years, would be eligible for annual tenure membership.

The annual tenure mem-bership would be renewable and after taking this for atleast 10 times, individuals would be eligible for applying for life-time membership, subject to assessment of the capacity of the complex. Rates for one year tenure membership, including dependents would be Rs 5,000 for government category and Rs 8,000 for non-government category,” said the report.

School kids will now be allowed to use DDA complex

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Delhi BJP on Tuesday blamed the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) govern-ment for its alleged failure to rein in private hospitals, attrib-uting the recent incident of a baby being mistakenly declared dead as a result of the “fail-ure” to implement the Centre-enacted Clinical Establishments (Registration and Regulation) Act, 2010.

In a letter written to the Chief Minister Arvind Kejri-wal on Tuesday, The Leader of Opposition in the Delhi Assem-bly, Vijender Gupta said that it is essential in the present health scenario of Delhi that the 64-year-old outdated and toothless the Delhi Nursing Home Registration Act, 1953, which presently govern the clinical establishments in the city be replaced by the more effective new Act.

He urged him to stop blam-ing BJP and do some honest introspection. He asked him if it is not a fact that his Health Minister promised some lead-ers of Health Establishments in April 2015 that the Clini-cal Establishment Act will not be implemented without tak-ing care.

He also added that the leg-islation was needed due to wide variation in health care delivery across providers, resulting not only in compromised patient

safety but also concerns about transparency and accountabil-ity in healthcare costs.

The Act permits health authorities to conduct inspec-tions and penalise or cancel licenses of hospitals that are found to be fleecing patients, either by prescribing need-less tests and procedures, or overcharging.

“But the government is playing soft with the medical community without taking public interest in consideration. The results of such attitude are before us in the form of exploi-tation, overcharging and negli-gence,” he alleged.

The LoP said that Health Minister Satyendar Jain had assured the medical community in April 2015 that a “doctor-friendly” Bill would be intro-duced in the Assembly in lieu of the present clinical establish-ment Act.

Gupta accused the Health Minister of “unfairly protect-ing the interests of the strong medical lobby” even as it “sac-rificed the rights and interest of patients” with regard to good, efficient, accountable and cost-effective medical care.

“Health minister had assured the doctors that his ministry would hurry up to implement the Act as the minis-ter himself felt it would embar-rass the medical community and healthcare establishments in a big way,” Gupta said.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Tuesday directed the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) to state the total number of drains falling in the second phase of the Yamuna cleaning project and quality of waste being released into the river.

A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Swatan-ter Kumar asked the DJB and the National Mission for Clean Ganga to submit all the details by Wednesday. The green panel also sought information on the number of sewage treatment plants which are proposed to be constructed in Phase-II, which primarily deals with Shahdara, Barapullah and other drains.

During the hearing, the tribunal noted that work on the Phase-I of the cleaning, christened as "Maily Se Nir-mal Yamuna" Revitalisation Project was already in prog-ress and it would now monitor the work of the next stage. The Phase-I of the clean Yamuna project aims to lower the pol-lution levels in the Najafgarh and Delhi Gate drains, while Phase-II deals with Shahdara, Barapullah and other drains.

NGT directs to submit Yamuna cleaning details

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Delhi gov-ernment’s decision to cancel the licence of a Max hospi-tal's unit in the Capital has united hospital chains, which accused authorities of target-ing the private sector that they said is bridging the wide gap in healthcare services due to poor investment in public facilities.

On December 8, 2017, Delhi health minister Satyen-dra Jain cancelled the licence of Max Shalimar Bagh after a premature baby was wrongly declared dead.

“My personal belief is, this is a wrong move. Instead of giv-ing enough notice, they just cancelled the licence,” said a senior official at private health care.

“What about patients who have to go for emer-gency services? We are hold-ing the private sector so much accountable countable, why are the same standards not applied for the public sector?” the offi-cial added.

“We do not have any prob-lem with private hospitals but we cannot tolerate criminal negligence,” Jain had said.

Doctors’ fraternity united against Max license cancellation

AAP shielding medical lobby, claims BJP

mp city4MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Wednesday, 13 December, 2017

ENFORCEMENT DRIVE AGAINST ILLEGALLY PARKED HEAVY VEHICLES IN SOUTH DELHI NEW DELHI: An enforcement drive against illegally parked heavy ve-hicles on the roads under South zone, SDMC, was on Tues-day launched jointly by the General and Licensing Branch, South zone and Transport Department of Delhi government. An action was taken against unauthor-ized parked vehicles on roads in the area of 100 Foota Road Chhattarpur. The joint team took a round of various roads to find out parked vehicles on road. They lifted/seized one bus, four trucks and one tempo traveller parked on road. A strong message against illegally parking of vehicles on roads has been given by this action.

NIGERIAN NATIONAL AMONG TWO HELD DOE DRUG TRAFFICKINGNEW DELHI: Two persons including a Nigerian national arrested for his involvement in drug trafficking. Police claimed that the value of the drug recovered from the accused worth Rupees 45 lakhs in the international market. According to police the accused were identi-fied as Har Govind Singh (33) and Ikenna Okoye permanent resident Nigeria who were arrested from Vikas Puri area.“Har Govind Singh elder brother was caught in Punjab for supplying Heroin and is presently in Faridkot Jail. In the absence of his elder brother, he started supplying Heroin in Sirsa after procuring it from Ikenna Okoye,” police said. Police claimed that the other accused Ikenna Okoye came to India on tour-ist Visa and started living with his fellows Nigerians. To earn quick and easy money, he started supplying drugs in the area of Uttam Nagar and Dwarka and he also started consuming drugs.

CITY BRIEFS

Fire in Narela area leaves woman, daughter dead

Two-year-old dies after falling into bucket

Child abuse: NCPCR mulls using sketches as evidence

102 get job under Delhi Police’s YUVA scheme

CISF apprehends man with pistol

and cash at Metro stationABHAY SINGH

NEW DELHI: In order to create awareness among the society about the child abuse, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) have come up with a user handbook. Regressive behaviour such as bed wet-ting, thumb sucking, and if the child starts paying too much or too little attention to his or her appearance can be the sign of sexual abuse, as per the handbook.

The child rights body is also working on the direction that sketches of the child which relates to some abuse should be used as an evidence in abuse cases. In future, they may hold a meeting with stakeholders including police on taking chil-dren sketches as evidence.

The book named “User Handbook for Implementa-tion of the POCSO Act” a copy of which is with the Millennium Post have highlighted the symp-toms of sexual abuse and also about supportive and unsup-portive behaviour on child victims. Some symptoms were

fatigue and sleeping difficulties, poor attendance of the child in school, sudden accumula-tion of money or gifts, unex-pected behavioural changes in a child such as withdrawal or unjustified or inappropriate aggression and sudden dislikes from certain specific people or places where she was comfort-able with earlier.

With the symptoms, the child rights body has also come up with the do's and dont's. In the case of child abuse, the commission think that parental attention is required. “A child who had faced the abuse had to be listened properly; and instead of blaming the child tell the minor that he or she is brave and also boost the con-

fidence,” said the commission. The child complaints should not be ignored and never send the child with a person or to a place where the kid is uncomfortable.

Recently, NCPCR found that child who is the victim of abuse cannot report it due to some problems but some-times through sketches, they draw the situation in which the abuse happened and it can help police as well as the com-mission in the investigation of the case. Yashwant Jain, NCPCR member, stated that they were taking every step to curb child abuse.''We are working on the direction to create an envi-ronment where children can live happy without any fear,” said Jain.

NEW DELHI: Two men were apprehended for allegedly car-rying a country-made pistol and suspicious amount of cash of around Rs 1.5 lakh in their bag, while entering at Adarsh Nagar Metro station on Tues-day. According to a Central Industrial Security Force offi-cial, “The incident was reported at around 12.20 PM at Adarsh Nagar Metro Staion during the screening of the bag at X-ray machine. Official at the machine noticed the image of pistol and cash inside a bag, later the bag was physically checked in pres-ence of the passenger.”

The bag belonged to a man identified as Bhupendra K (19) and his associate G Singh (32), residents of Firozabad in Uttar Pradesh. A country-made pis-tol and Rs 1,59,898 in cash was seized from the bag, the official said. The two men were handed over to the police as they failed to furnish legal documents for possessing the weapon and cash, he said. Carrying arms and ammunition in the Delhi Metro is banned under law. MPOST

OUR CORRESPONDENT

GREATER NOIDA: A 24-year-old drug addict shot a bullet in leg of a rehabilitation centre’s staffer when he had come with his team to pick up the drug addict for treatment at their de-addiction centre.

According to police, the incident occurred in Gejha vil-lage in Phase-2 area of Noida at around 4am on Tuesday. The victim identified as Vivek (26) had come up from Dehra-dun with a team of four mem-bers to pick the drug addict from his home following a call from his family members that their kin is an alcoholic and he needs treatment at the rehab centre.

Balwinder Tyagi, the drug addict, refused to go with the team and turned violent when they tried taking him away forcefully. The team from Jagriti Foundation, an NGO for drug addict, had a heated argument with Tyagi’s fam-ily following which Balwinder shot a bullet in the leg of one of the staffers. The other staff-ers also ran away from there in order to save themselves.

Police said that the accused was under the influ-ence of drugs when the inci-dent took place.

“Upon receiving the infor-mation a police team rushed to the spot and took the vic-tim to nearby hospital where doctors declared his condi-tion to be critical. However accused drug addict, his father and brother fled away from the spot after the incident” said Shahwez Khan, station house officer, Phase-2 police station.

“We have registered a case of attempt to murder and are conducting search operations at various suspected locations to nab the accused” added Khan.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: In a tragic incident, a man shot his wife dead with a country-made gun suspecting her having an illicit affair, in RK Puram in Delhi. “We received a call from the victim's daughter who informed us of the murder. Our teams soon reached the spot and all forensic evidence were collected,” said a senior police officer.

At around 9:40 pm on Monday, the accused's daugh-ter informed police about the murder of her mother by her father. When the police reached the spot, they found the 51-year-old Meena lying in a pool of blood. She was rushed to trauma center but she suc-cumbed to her injuries. She was

shot with a country-made pis-tol. The cops soon secured the spot and crime team collected all forensic evidence.

The inquiry revealed that the husband of the deceased Meena murdered her and fled the spot. “The husband Bala Ram works in CPWD as a pump operator and he ran away after the crime. We soon made teams to apprehend him and finally he was caught from Kotla Mubarakpur on a tip-off,” said the officer.

On December 10, the vic-tim's son and his wife visited Burari to attend a function leaving her mother and father at R K Puram. The victim's daughter told police that rela-tion between her father and mother were not cordial and her father used to beat her

mother as he had doubt on her mother's character.

On December 11, she called her mother thrice but her mobile was found switched off. She contacted her father and enquired about her mother who informed that her mother had gone out. Getting suspi-cion, she contacted her brother on phone who started crying. She with her husband imme-diately rushed at her parental house and found her mother lying on floor. Her father could not give any explanation about her mother. She found blood oozing from head and back of her mother. Blood stained clothes were also found at the spot and in washroom. Investi-gation led to the arrest of Bala Ram, who the police suspects of killing his wife.

Man suspects wife of illicit affair, shoots her dead

GURUGRAM: A drive is going to be launched by the Guru-gram police against adver-tisements and operations of fake agents who lure students and other persons for sending them abroad. The move by the district comes after the strict observation by the Punjab and Haryana high court which in turn resulted in DGP Haryana asking his team in Gurugram to prevent people from getting victimised by such schemes.

The police will check the antecedents of these agents, advertisements and action would be initiated against those who do not have proper permission, registration and license to operate. Keeping in mind the sensitivity of matter, Gurugram Police has decided to launch a special 15 days drive/campaign from Decem-ber 16 to December 31 to trace out unauthorised agents who telecast their advertisements.

“It has come to the notice that advertisements being telecast/displayed by the fake agents are often seen at back of the auto rickshaws and at several places and on TV channels, advertisements are being circulated for attracting the people/students for send-ing them abroad for studies as well. Gurugram Police will take strict action against such unauthorised agents/advertis-ers as per law,” said Ravinder Singh, spokesperson Guru-gram police. MPOST

ABHAY SINGH

NEW DELHI: Five days before she could celebrate her second birthday, a girl died after fall-ing inside a drain in North East Delhi's Maujpur area. Family members claimed that the inci-dent happened outside a gov-ernment school.

According to police in North East Delhi, the inci-dent was reported on Tuesday morning when the minor vic-tim was returning home with her father. When they reached near drain her father who had vegetable shop went to check his shop and left the girl stand-ing she somehow fell inside the

drain. “It was only one minute I left my daughter and when I returned my daughter was nowhere, I checked every-where when one kid after 10 minutes informed me about her I went inside the drain and rushed to the hospital where she was declared brought dead,” Anirudh, the girl's father told Millennium Post.

The father stated that he did not hear the sound of her daughter falling inside the drain. He further added that her birthday was on 17 Decem-ber now the family is left with her memories and tears. The incident just happened the girl's father drop off her elder

sister at school and the minor was accompanying her. “She was telling me about choco-lates and other things like every kid talks about within a minute I lost my beloved child,” said the father.

"We are trying to look into the circumstances under which the girl fell into the drain," said

a police officer, adding that the victim has been identified as Sreshti. Her father, Anirudh Pratap Singh, had set up his kiosk right outside the school, police said.

DCP (northeast) A K Sin-gla said police have initiated inquest proceedings under CrPC Section 174.

The victim was found inside the drain after 15 min-utes when some people at the spot had turned up at the spot to clean the drain follow-ing which she was rushed to a nearby hospital. Police said doctors declared her dead on arrival and police were alerted about the incident.

ZAFAR ABBAS

NEW DELHI: In a noble initiative, 102 youth trained under YUVA initia-tive of the Delhi Police were selected for different jobs at the mega job fair organised in Kirti Nagar. The event was chaired by Sanjay Baniwal, Special Commissioner of Police (WS A&M), Delhi; while Dr Sonali Sinha, COO, Tourism and Hospitality Skill Coun-cil (THSC)and Ankur Singh Chauhan (Director and Head-Delhi State), CII brought employers from the industry.

Under Yuva Initiative, Delhi Police reaches out to Capital's youth from eco-nomically weaker sections and pro-vide them skill training under different trades.

“The idea was to channelise the energy of young adults and children

from the under privileged sections of the society to make them productive

members of the society and to prevent them from moving towards crime and

drugs at an early age. A total of 102 job offers were made to about 80 can-didates and some candidates bagged more than one offer,” said PRO Delhi Police, Madhur Verma.

Kirti Nagar SHO Anil Kumar said that this initiative is giving a new life to those who has somehow lost direction or are struggling to find one.

“Lots of youth have benefitted from YUVA scheme and in Kirti Nagar alone 266 youths have secured job so far,” he said.

“I have secured a job at a leading international food chain with a hand-some salary. With my personal experi-ence i could say that YUVA has helped me a lot. I think several youths like me have benefited getting more exposure.” said Tehseen Gilani, a resident of Kabi Karim who got a job in the job fair.

ABHAY SINGH

NEW DELHI: Just two days after her brother was married, a woman and her daughter died in a fire in Narela area of Outer Delhi on Tuesday morning. Two other persons were also injured as the inci-dent happened when the fam-ily members were sleeping.

According to police, the deceased was identified as Parminder Kaur (45) and her daughter Harinder Kaur (15) who lived on the second floor of the house in Narela area. The injured victims were identified as Gurmeet (50) and

two-and-half-years-old Jas-preet who are reported to be stable.

Police official told Millen-nium Post that more than 10 relatives including the owner of the building were there at the time of the incident but they rescued themselves.

Fire official claimed that they received a call around 7 am after which 11 fire ten-ders were rushed to the spot. The fire was doused by around 10 am. From the three-story house they took out four per-sons and they were rushed to the hospital. The fire started from ground floor which was

a mattress godown owned by the landlord who lived with his family on the first floor. The victim’s family was living on the second floor.

Police sources said that at the time of the incident, many deceased’s relatives were sleep-ing as they had come to attend the Parminder's brother wed-ding in Narela area. “They saw the smoke and they rushed to the ground in order to save

themselves. Deceased’s hus-band noticed that his wife and child was not there. A PCR call was made and the fire depart-ment also rushed to the spot,” said a police official.

Police official further stated that they died due to suffoca-tion after the smoke entered the house as soon fire started. They might not have got any time to save themselves. “Smoke might have entered the body of the deceased and they were unable to alert any-one about their presence,” said police official. The exact cause of the fire has yet to be ascertained.

Two other persons were also injured in the incident

Drive against fake agents promising students to send

them abroad

The exact cause of the fire has yet to be ascertained

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: A two-year-old child died after he fell inside the bucket in North West Delhi's Wazirpur Village. Police claimed that at the time of incident, his mother was in neighborhood and father was sleeping in the house.

The deceased was identified as Aditya who lived with his family in Wazirpur Village in Ashok Vihar area. He was the native of Uttar Pradesh. Deputy Commissioner of Police (north-west) Aslam Khan stated that the child died by drowning in a bucket full of water at 5 PM. At the time of the incident, his Mother was in neighborhood and Father was sleeping in the house.

The victim was playing in the house and somehow he fell on the bucket. One of the fam-ily members came inside the house for some work and found the child drowning. Hearing the mother's cries, neighbors reached the house and rushed the boy to a nearby private hospital, but he could not be revived.Police claimed that they are investigating the case from all angles.

In February 2017, Two young twins fell inside

a washing machine and died, while their mother was out to buy detergent, in Rohini's Avantika Apartments. Using the pile of clothes that their mother had left behind, one of the twins climbed to the top of the machine and peeped inside and fell into the machine, his brother followed him to his watery grave. As they both fell head first, they got trapped. Another incident was reported from Loni in which a one-year-old toddler acci-dentally fell into a bucket of water and drowned. The deceased mother was busy with household chores and noticed the boy's upended body in the bucket 15 minutes later.

Rehabilitation centre staffer

shot at by drug addict

OUR CORRESPONDENT

GHAZIABAD: Bhartiya Janta Party’s newly elected mayor from Ghaziabad, Asha Sharma, took oath on Tues-day along with 100 councilors of Municipal Corporation in Ram Leela grounds of Ghanta Ghar in Ghaziabad.

On the occasion, present were, Member of Parliament and Minister of State for Exter-nal Affairs General (Rtd) V.K. Singh who was the chief guest at function.

Meerut Divisional Com-missioner Dr. Prabhat Kumar administered the oath to

Sharma while the new Mayor administered the oath to the 100 councilors at the ceremony.

Speaking on the occasion Dr. Kumar said “the newly elected mayor will find her duty increasingly onerous as the corruption in Ghaziabad Nagar Nigam is widespread. The complaints of corruption are very often reported to us in the divisional office. We wish all the good luck to the new mayor in order to deal with all the challenges and putting efforts to combat cor-ruption and other such illegal practices”.

NEW DELHI: The daily aver-age ridership of the state-run Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) has declined by over 35 per cent between 2012-13 and 2016, according to a report pre-pared by NGO Centre for Sci-ence and Environment (CSE).

The daily average ridership of the DTC went down from 47 lakh in 2012-13 to 30 lakh by the end of 2016, it said. The report, which is based on data

available till November 2016, claimed that even the rider-ship figure of 30 lakh was an "overestimation". As per the latest available DTC statistics, about 30 lakh passengers are carried daily, of which only 14 lakh (45 per cent) are ticketed passengers. The rest 16 lakh (55 per cent) use passes, it noted.

It is "officially assumed" that each pass holder makes an "absurdly high" nine trips

per day. "Thus, a pass holder is counted as travelling nine times during the course of a single day and that inflates the daily trip number. It is possible, therefore, that the DTC's daily ridership is expected to be much less than the currently stated 30-lakh fig-ure," it said.

The DTC bought new buses way in 2011-12. There has been almost no addition to the fleet in the past five years. "If no new

buses are added now, the entire fleet will get nearly phased out by 2025," said the report.

"This is unacceptable, espe-cially at a time when travel demand and pollution prob-lems are exploding in the city. If this is not acknowledged and resolved immediately, it will make the problem of pollution and congestion irreversible," said Anumita Roychowdhury of the CSE. MPOST

DTC's daily average ridership down by 35% in 4 yrs: CSE

SELF DEFENSE TECHNIQUES

School girls demonstrating self defense techniques during the closing ceremony of ‘Sashaki’, an initiative of Delhi Police towards empowering women, in New Delhi on Tuesday PIC/MPOST

Days before birthday, girl drowns in drain

BJP’s newly elected Gzb mayor takes oath

Family members claimed that the incident happened outside a government school

5mp nationMILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Wednesday, 13 December, 2017

Police oppose review plea of convict in SC

Jayanthi forest land case: CBI hands over records to I-T dept

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Police on Tuesday opposed in the Supreme Court a plea filed by one of the four death-row convicts in the December 16, 2012 gangrape and murder case for review of its verdict upholding the capital punish-ment awarded to him.

The police told a bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices R Banu-mathi and Ashok Bhushan that submissions advanced by the counsel appearing for con-vict Mukesh does not make out a case for review of the apex court’s judgement.

The apex court had on May 5 upheld the death penalty to the four convicts - Mukesh (29), Pawan (22), Vinay Sharma (23) and Akshay Kumar Singh (31), saying the “brutal, bar-baric and diabolic nature” of the crime could create a “tsu-nami of shock” to destroy a civilised society.

A 23-year-old paramedic student was gangraped on the

intervening night of December 16-17, 2012 inside a moving bus in South Delhi by a gang of six persons and severely assaulted before being thrown out naked. She succumbed to her injuries on December 29, 2012 at Mount Elizabeth Hos-pital in Singapore.

During the hearing, the bench told advocate M L Sharma, appearing for Mukesh, that he has to make out a case for review of the analysis

arrived at by the court in its May 5 verdict.

When the counsel raised the issue of alleged “illegal evi-dence” against the convict, the bench said, “you had argued all these points and we had rejected it”. “How were the marks of your (Mukesh) teeth found on the leg of the victim,” the bench asked.

To this, Sharma alleged that Mukesh was framed by the police and tortured.

When he claimed that the state had bribed the victim, the bench shot back, “no sugges-tion was given in the evidence on this. You cannot take this ground in review now.”

Sharma also raised other issues, including that of dying declaration of the victim and the place of Mukesh’s arrest.

Senior counsel Siddharth Luthra, representing the police, countered these sub-missions and said these issues have already been gone into by the trial court, the Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court.

Luthra, while taking strong exception to the allegations about bribing the victim, said these issues cannot be raised now. He said Mukesh was for-mally arrested in Delhi.

The bench concluded hearing the arguments on the review plea filed by Mukesh.

However, advocate A P Singh, who is represening the other three convicts, told the bench that he would soon file review petitions on behalf of Vinay and Pawan.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The CBI on Tuesday handed over to the Income Tax department cru-cial documents in connection with a case of alleged irregu-larities in giving clearance to a mine in Jharkhand against for-mer Union environment min-ister Jayanthi Natarajan.

A team of the CBI and I-T officials reached Natara-jan’s residence in Chennai and handed over the records to the taxmen, highly-placed sources said.

The documents were seized and kept sealed by the CBI at the former minister’s residence following the searches there in September this year, they said.

The sources said the tax authorities had requested the CBI to hand over the files to the former for their probe into the case.

The CBI had booked Nata-rajan for alleged abuse of her official position in diverting forest land for a steel plant in Jharkhand in violation of law.

The agency had registered an FIR against her in connec-tion with the clearance given during her tenure (in 2012) for the diversion of forest land for

mining, in alleged violation of law and against the advice of officials, CBI sources familiar with the matter said.

Apart from Natarajan, the agency had also booked Umang Kejriwal, then man-aging director of Electrosteel Casting Limited (ECL), and the company. The case pertains to diversion of forest land in Saranda Forest in Singhbhum district of Jharkhand to ECL in alleged violation of the For-est (Conservation Act).

The permission for the same was denied by former Minister

of State for environment Jai-ram Ramesh, but granted when Natarajan assumed office. She was MoS with independent charge of the ministry between 2011 and 2013.

“Jayanthi Natarajan, then Minister of State for environ-ment and forests, accorded the approval for diversion of 55.79 hectares of forest land for non-forestry use to ECL, though the same had been rejected by the earlier MoS...without any change in the circumstances after rejection,” the CBI FIR stated.

NIRBHAYA RAPE CASE Teacher held for sexual

harassment of two Class VII girlsBERHAMPUR: A teacher in a government-run school in Odisha’s Ganjam district was arrested on Tuesday for alleg-edly outraging the modesty of two Class VII girl students.

The assistant teacher in Gahangu upper primary school, was arrested on the basis of complaints lodged by the girls, both aged around 12 years, said inspector in charge of Buguda police station, Rama Chandra Biswal. In separate complaints, the girls alleged that the teacher touched them inappropriately on their pri-vate parts inside a room in the school on Friday, he said.

The students had informed about the teacher’s acts to their parents who lodged complaints with the police. A large number of people, including parents of the students, staged a dem-onstration outside the school demanding immediate action against the teacher. The teacher, however, denied the allegation and claimed that there was an attempt to tarnish his image.

The arrested teacher has been booked under various sections of IPC and Protec-tion of Children from Sexual Offence (POSCO) Act, the IIC said.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The all-women crew of the Indian Navy on Tuesday left New Zealand for the next leg of their voyage to circumnavigate the globe. The Indian naval sailing ves-sel Tarini left Lyttelton this morning for its onward jour-ney to Port Stanley (Falk-lands), the Indian Navy said in a statement.

INSV Tarini had arrived at Lyttelton on November 29 after completion of the second leg of the voyage to circumnavigate the globe.

The six crew of the sailing

vessel Tarini, led by Lieuten-ant Commander Vartika Joshi, started their maiden voyage on September 10 from Goa and are expected to complete the

voyage in about eight months.The other crew members

of the group are Lieutenant Commanders Pratibha Jam-wal, P Swathi, and Lieutenants

S Vijaya Devi, B Aishwarya and Payal Gupta.

The crew of INSV Tarini was officially welcomed to Lyttelton by Andrew Turner, Deputy wMayor of Christ-church on November 29.

The crew was also wel-comed in the traditional Maori culture by members of the community, the Navy said.

MP from Christchurch Central, Duncan Webb, also visited the vessel to welcome the crew. The crew had several engagements during its stay in Lyttelton, including a call-on meeting with Mayor of City of Christchurch, Lianne Dalziel.

UGC receives 100 applications for HRD’s world-class tag

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The University Grants Commission (UGC) has received 100 applications, maximum being from public institutions, including seven IITs, for the Human Resource Development Ministry’s ambi-tious 20 world-class institu-tions project, according to an official data.

The 90-day deadline of receiving applications from all institutions expires on Tuesday.

Under public sector, 10 central universities, 25 state universities, six deemed to be universities, 20 institutions of national importance and six stand-alone institutions have applied.

Under private sector, nine private universities and 16 deemed to be universities have applied in brown field cat-egory and eight institutions have applied in the green field category.

“Overwhelming response to the idea of institutions of eminence. This is how world-class uiversities were built in various countries. The same thing will happen in India,” Union HRD Minister Prakash

Javadekar said.Among those who have

applied from the public sec-tor are seven Indian Insti-tutes of Technology (Madras, Delhi, Bombay, Kharagpur, Kanpur, Guwahati, Roorkee), Delhi University and Jawaha-rlal Nehru University, Jadhav-pur University, Goa University, Panjab University and Manga-lore University.

From the private sector, the O P Jindal Global University, Ashoka University, Manipal University and Amity Uni-versity, among others, have applied for the tag.

The UGC had in Septem-ber started inviting applica-tions from all institutions that are keen to enter the top 100 of global rankings with the gov-ernment’s assistance.

The Centre wants to estab-

lish a total of 20 ‘Institutes of Eminence’ -- a distinct category of deemed-to-be- universities, supporting them to become “World Class” institutions.

By March-April 2018, 20 (10 each from public and pri-vate category) institutions will be accorded the eminence sta-tus with a mandate to achieve the world-class status over a period of 10 years.

The selected institutions will have the freedom to choose their own path to become world-class institutions.

“They will be provided with greater autonomy to admit up to 30 per cent foreign students, to recruit up to 25 per cent foreign faculty, to offer online courses up to 20 per cent of its programmes, to enter into aca-demic collaboration with top 500 in the world ranking insti-tutions without permission of the UGC,” a senior HRD Min-istry official said.

The instituions will also be free to fix and charge fees from foreign students with-out restriction and will have a flexibility of course structure in terms of number of credit hours and years to take a degree and fixing of curriculum.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Giving a boost to con-fiscation of narcotics and psychotropic substances in the country, the Centre on Tuesday announced monetary rewards up to Rs 20 lakh to officers involved in drug interdiction.

In a revised guideline, the home min-istry said an officer involved in seizure of drugs was eligible for Rs 20 lakh reward during his entire career and Rs 50,000 at a time.

However, a maximum reward of Rs 2 lakh may also be given to an individual, in exceptional cases, by the Apex Central Rewards Committee.

Up to 50 per cent of the total admissi-ble reward amount can be given at pre-trial stage i.e. if the test report from the chemi-cal lab turns positive, it said.

Earlier, the maximum reward in each case was Rs 50,000 for an officer up to the rank of deputy commissioner and not

exceeding Rs 25,000 for an officer in the rank of joint or additional commissioner.

According to ‘Guidelines for Grant of Rewards to be paid to Officers, Informers and other persons, 2017’, the reward sanc-tioning authority should consider factors like accuracy of the information, degree of risk involved, extent and nature of the help rendered by the informer and whether the information also gave clues of the person involved in the drug trafficking racket.

The Narcotics Control Bureau, under the home ministry, has been made the coordinating agency to process the reward proposal of other central and state agencies, working in the field of drug interdiction.

Certain principles have also been laid down in the matter like the reward should not be granted as a matter of routine.

The criteria for grant of reward to informers, provision for special efforts made by government officials in develop-ing the information, effecting the seizure

and post-seizure investigation, has also been prescribed.

It also excludes any work done by an officer in his normal course of duty.

As per the new guidelines, the reward scheme will be made applicable to inform-ers whose information leads to seizure of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances, controlled substances, forfeiture of ille-gally acquired property under chapter V A of the NDPS Act and contravention of rules made there under.

Officers of Centre, state governments and Union Territory administration who make such seizures, and conduct success-ful investigation, prosecution and post-investigation work are entitled for the rewards. Officials of other central, state governments and UT administrations who assist in the seizure of drugs will also be eligible for the honour.

New drugs and psychotropic sub-stances have also been included in the revised reward policy.

Rewards of Rs 20 lakh to officers involved in drug seizures: Govt

Navy’s all-women sailing team leaves New Zealand

Rajasthan Cabinet decides to amend law to allow bull

calves’ exportOUR CORRESPONDENT

JAIPUR: The Rajasthan Cab-inet on Tuesday decided to amend an act related to pro-tection on bovines to allow the export of bull calves of the age of 2 years or above to other states, parliamentary affairs minister Rajendra Rathore said.

The bill will be forwarded to the president for his consent before it is introduced in the state Assembly, he said.

The amendments to the Rajasthan Bovine Animal (prohibition of slaughter and regulation of temporary migra-tion or export) Act are being made to allow the export of bull calves of 2 years or above age to only those states which have act for probibiting cow slaughter-ing, he said. The buyer will have to produce an affidavit that he will take care of the calves and will later use them for the pur-pose of agriculture or dairy farming, Rathore told report-ers. He said the amendment is for allowing only male calf.

“This is for Nagauri bull calves who are known for their good growth and built,” he said.

Railways enhances age limit to re-engage retired employees to 65

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Retired from the railways, but yet to turn 65? Now, retired rail employees can seek re- engagement with the national transporter till they attain the age of 65 years.

In a letter written by the Railway Board to all the gen-eral managers on Tuesday, the age limit of the retired employ-ees seeking re-engagement has been enhanced from 62 to 65 years, allowing more of such employees to lend their exper-

tise to the railways.“The board has decided

to enhance the maximum age limit for re-engagement of retired hands to 65 years from the existing age limit of 62 years.

“Further, it has also been decided to extend the valid-ity of the scheme of re-engage-ment of retired employees to January 12, 2019 as against the existing validity up to Septem-ber 14, 2018,” the letter stated.

The board, in a letter dated October 16, had empowered

the divisional railway managers (DRMs) to re-engage retired rail personnel in appropri-ate posts. It had also said that those re-appointed could only be in service till they turned 62, which has now been extended to 65 years.

The retirement age for the employees is 60.

The monthly remuneration of such employees would be determined by “reducing the pension amount from their last drawn salary”, the letter written in October had stated.

The Rly board, in a letter dated October 16, had empowered the divisional railway managers (DRMs) to re-engage retired rail personnel in appropriate posts

Bank fraud case: Court seeks ED’s reply on bizman’s bail plea

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: A Delhi court has sought response from the Enforcement Directorate (ED) by December 20 on the bail application of Delhi-based businessman Gagan Dhawan, arrested in a Rs 5,000-crore money laundering case.

Additional Sessions Judge Sidharth Sharma posted the matter for arguments on the plea moved by Dhawan, seek-ing relief, for the next date when his judicial custody is also scheduled to end.

In his application, the accused has sought the relief saying he was not required for further investigation and no purpose will be served by keeping him in custody.

Dhawan, arrested on November 1, was sent to the judicial custody on Novem-ber 15 by the court after spe-cial public prosecutor Nitesh Rana, appearing for ED, had said he was not needed for fur-ther custodial interrogation.

The ED had alleged that Dhawan had facilitated the directors of Gujarat-based pharma firm Sterling Biotech Ltd (SBL) in the purchase of several properties and helped in misuse and diversion of the credit facilities of several bank totalling Rs 5,000 crore.

“Rs 1.5 crore was received by the accused from SBL group.

Prior to that, the amount

of bank loans was rotated in various group companies of SBL group,” according to the agency.

The lower court had on November 14 issued non-bailable warrants against two other persons -- SBL direc-tors Nitin and Chetan Sande-sara. The agency told the court that Chetan may have left the country.

Dhawan was arrested in an alleged bank fraud case involv-ing SBL under sections of the Prevention of Money Laun-dering Act (PMLA).

The firm and Dhawan were also being probed by the ED for allegedly bribing senior Income Tax department offi-cials in an earlier criminal complaint.

The CBI had recently booked Sterling Biotech, its

directors Chetan Jayantilal Sandesara, Dipti Chetan Sand-esara, Rajbhushan Omprakash Dixit, Nitin Jayantilal Sande-sara and Vilas Joshi, chartered accountant Hemant Hathi, former director Andhra Bank Anup Garg and some uniden-tified persons in connection with the alleged bank fraud case.

It had alleged that the com-pany had taken loans of over Rs 5,000 crore from a con-sortium led by Andhra Bank which had turned into non-performing assets.

The FIR had also alleged that the total pending dues of the group companies were Rs 5,383 crore as on December 31, 2016. The ED had taken a cognisance of this FIR to file a money laundering case against them.

Controversial meat exporter Moin Qureshi granted bail

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Controversial meat exporter Moin Qureshi was on Tuesday granted bail in a money laundering case by a special court, which said he cannot be punished by keep-ing him incarcerated before his conviction.

Noting that the allegations against Qureshi were serious, Special judge Arun Bharadwaj put several conditions while granting the relief on a personal bond and a surety of Rs two lakh each.

The court directed the accused to deposit his pass-port, not to leave the country without its prior permission and not to influence the wit-nesses in the case.

In a 20-page order, the court said the Enforcement Director-ate (ED), which is probing the case, availed full opportunity to unearth the offence of money laundering allegedly commit-ted by Qureshi and from time to time and his custody was given to the ED to the maxi-mum extent permissible under the law.

“Now the complaint has been filed. Statements of the prosecution witnesses have been recorded... The required documents necessary for pros-ecuting the applicant have been gathered during investigation,” it said.

MHA releases Rs 174 crore to six states for border development

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Home Min-istry has released Rs 174 crore to six states having an interna-tional border for development of infrastructure in forward areas, an official said.

The states that will be bene-fited include Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.

“An amount of Rs 174.32 crore was released to Assam, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Uttar Pradesh and

West Bengal under the Border Area Development Programme (BADP),” the official said on Tuesday.

The fully centrally funded BADP programme covers all villages which are located within the 0-10 km of the inter-national border in 17 states.

However, priority is given to those villages which are identified by border guarding forces for speedy development of infrastructure.

The schemes permissible

under BADP include activities relating to ‘swatchhta aabhiyan’, skill development programmes, promotion of sports activities, promotion of rural tourism, border tourism and protection of heritage sites.

Construction of helipads in remote and inaccessible hilly

areas, which do not have road connectivity, skill development training to farmers for the use of modern/scientific technique in farming, organic farming are other areas which come under the BADP.

Assam shares International Border with Bangladesh, West Bengal shares border with Nepal and Bhutan, Gujarat with Pakistan, Manipur with Myanmar, Uttar Pradesh with Nepal and Himachal Pradesh with China and Nepal.

6MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Wednesday, 13 December, 2017

mp nationGujarat campaigning dust settles; stage set for polls

SIMONTINI BHATTACHARJEE

AHMEDABAD: The cur-tains came down on Tuesday on campaigning for the sec-ond phase of polling in Guja-rat, where the canvassing saw charges flying thick and fast with the top brass of the BJP and the Congress launching no holds barred attacks against each other.

Top leaders from the two parties criss-crossed the regions going to polls on December 14 and addressed a number of ral-lies where they pulled out all stops to woo the voters.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi spearheaded the cam-paign for the ruling party and president of Congress Rahul Gandhi helmed the stumping for his outfit.

The second and final phase of elections, for which the open campaigning ended at 5 pm, will see 93 assembly seats spread across 14 districts in north and central Gujarat going to polls.

The first phase of voting for the 182-member house, held on December 9, covered 89 seats.

A total of 851 candidates are in the fray for the second phase, where 2.22 crore people are eli-gible to vote.

The Gujarat contest is being

seen as a prestige battle for Modi in his home state, where a reinvigorated Congress has sewed up a broad social coali-tion with prominent Patidar, OBC, and Dalit leaders in its bid to unseat the BJP in power for over two decades.

The influential Patidar community, which accounts for around 12 per cent of the state’s population, could prove to be the ‘X factor’ in the polls in which agitating quota spear-head Hardik Patel pledged

support to the Congress and appealed to people to “uproot the BJP” this time.

As the campaign was near-ing its end, “Vikas” (devel-opment) took a back seat, and caste and religious issues received prominence.

Pakistan, too, found ample mention in the final stages of the electioneering.

Modi set off a politi-cal storm when, speaking at a rally in Palanpur, he talked about a meeting held at sus-

pended Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar’s home in Delhi and attended by some Paki-stani dignitaries, a former Vice President of India and former prime minister Manmohan Singh. This meeting, Modi claimed, happened a day before Aiyar called him “neech” (lowly sort of person).

During the campaign, Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah trained guns on the Congress on issues like Ram Temple, alleged Pakistani interference

in the Gujarat polls and Aiyar’s remarks.

On the other hand, Gan-dhi persistently and tenaciously attacked Modi and the BJP for “not talking about the future of Gujarat” and skipping key issues being faced by the people of the state.

He accused Modi of ignor-ing the masses and working for only a handful of industrialists.

The last day of campaign-ing saw both Modi and Gandhi visiting temples. While Gandhi paid a visit to the famous Lord Jagannath Temple in Ahmed-abad, Modi took blessings at the famous Ambaji Temple in Banaskantha.

Hardik Patel charged up the campaign by holding a mas-sive rally in Nikol area of the city, where he appealed to vot-ers to “teach a lesson” to the BJP this time. The 24-year-old, arguably the most talked about personality in Gujarat on Tuesday, even held a road show here defying authorities who had denied permission for the event. Several senior leaders from both the BJP and the Congress also campaigned extensively for their candi-dates in major parts of north and central Gujarat.

In the 2012 assembly polls, the BJP had won 115 seats, while the Congress bagged 61.

PRISONER DIES IN JAIL, SECOND INCIDENT IN TWO DAYS MUZAFFARNAGAR: A 72-year-old, who was serving his life term in a district jail here, on Tuesday died of tuberculosis (TB), a prison official said. The deceased, identifed as Gaffar, was shifted to the disrict hospital in serious condition, where he was declared dead be-cause of TB, jail Superintendent AK Saxena said. Gaf-far was arrested on charges of murder in 2014, and was serving his life imprisonment, he said. This is the second such incident within a span of two days when a jail inmate has died here. On Monday, Roop Chand, an undertrail in the same jail died in the Meerut’s Medical College due to some illness.

PM MODI TO VISIT MIZORAM ON DECEMBER 16 AIZAWL: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to make his maiden visit to Mizoram on December 16, an official release said on Tuesday. Modi would address a public meeting at the Assam Rifles ground, where he would inaugurate a 60-MW Tuirial Hydro Electric Project, it said. Police officials said security would be boosted during the prime minister’s visit.

1,100 CARTONS OF ILLEGAL LIQUOR SEIZED, 2 ARRESTED IN UP MUZAFFARNAGAR: A total of 1,100 cartons of smuggled liquor, valued at Rs 35 lakh, were on Tuesday seized after two people were arrested here in the district, an excise official said. A team of the excise department intercepted the truck and seized the cartons of liquor, allegedly being smuggled from Haryana, excise officer Akhilesh Kumar said. The two accused, identified as Ashok and Vijay Kumar, were arrested in this connection, he said. “During interroga-tion, both the accused revealed of taking the smug-gled liquor to Gorakhpur,” the officer said. A case has been registered under the Excise Act, he said, adding that the matter was being investigated.

MOMENTS BEFORE TAKING OATH, RLD LEADER DIES OF HEART ATTACKBAREILLY: RLD leader Mohammed Usman died of heart attack here on Tuesday, moments before he was to take oath as the newly elected member of Thiriya Nijamat Khan nagar panchayat. According to the of-ficial website of the State Election Commission, Usman (55) was elected from ward number 13-Kalmi Bagh on a Rashtriya Lok Dal ticket. “Usman used to run a tea shop on Kacheri Road here. He was preparing ‘samo-sas’ at the shop this morning when he suddenly fell ill,” Additional district magistrate (administration) S P Singh said. “He was rushed to a hospital, where doctors de-clared him brought dead. The doctors said Usman died of heart attack,” he said. RLD district president Bakar Ali condoled the death and said Usman was an active party worker.

11 COMMUNITIES FROM SIKKIM DEMAND ST STATUSNEW DELHI: Eleven communities from Sikkim on Tuesday urged the central government to grant them the scheduled tribes (ST) status. A delegation of the indigenous communities from Sikkim met Union Minister for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) Jitendra Singh and submitted a memorandum placing the demand, an official release said. The delegation included representatives of communities such as Rai, Mangar, Gurung, Thami, Bhujel, Jogi, Sanyasi, Giri, Newar, Khas (Bhawn and Chettri) and Dewan (Yakha). The delegation presented a memorandum to the minister for providing ST status to their communities, the release said.

NATION BRIEFS

Violence over mysterious death of youth in Karnataka

OUR CORRESPONDENT

BENGALURU: Violence over the mysterious death of a teenager in Honnavar last week spread to another town in Karnataka’s coastal Uttara Kannada district on Tuesday as the BJP stepped up its pro-test and sought an NIA probe in the case.

Police said they resorted to “mild” lathicharge and used tear gas to disperse the agita-tors as a section of them pelted stones at the forces, damaged vehicles and burnt tyres during a protest called by the BJP and others in Sirsi.

The saffron party has main-tained that 18-year old Paresh Kamalakar Mesta was a “Hindu activist” killed by “Jehadi ele-ments”, and demanded a probe by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

Kumta in the same district also witnessed violence when the car of IGP (Western Range) Hemanth Nimbalkar was set ablaze on Monday amid pro-tests seeking justice for Mesta, whose body was found on Fri-day. He was reported missing on December 6.

Mesta’s family and locals have alleged that he was abducted and killed amid reports that the body bore marks of attack by sharp objects. Police, however, rejected these claims, citing the postmortem report.

Karnataka Chief Minister

Siddaramaiah has accused the BJP of using the incident for “political gains”.

Senior police and dis-trict administration officials said the situation at Sirsi was now under control and peace had been restored by dispers-ing the crowd. Several people, including local BJP MLA Vish-weshwar Hegde Kageri, were detained by the police.

Police said the situation in Kumta was also normal.

BJP and some other outfits had called the protest in Sirsi, demanding the arrest of those responsibl for Mesta’s death.

Meanwhile, a political slug fest has erupted between the ruling Congress and the BJP, as the two hold each other responsible for the incident.

“A desperate @BJP4Karna-taka stoops so low as to use the unfortunate death of a youth Paresh Mesta in Honnavar for political gains...People are get-ting hurt by their irresponsible acts,” Siddaramaiah said in a tweet.

Home Minister Ramalinga Reddy claimed such incidents were provoked “purposefully” by the BJP, keeping in mind the assembly elections, due early next year. Stating that the BJP’s intention was to disturb law and order, Reddy asserted, “We won’t let that happen. We will take appropriate action as per law”.

The BJP, which has termed the death as “the handiwork of jehadi elements”, on Tuesday petitioned Governor Vajubhai Vaila, demanding a probe by the NIA in the case.

BJP leaders led by K S Esh-warappa staged a protest march from Vidhana Soudha, state secretariat, to Raj Bhavan here.

Calling Mesta a “Hindu activist”, Eshwarappa accused the government of turning Kar-nataka into Kerala, and claimed this was 20th such killing of a Hindu activist in the state.

He alleged police and doc-tors (involved in postmortem) had been “utilised” by the gov-ernment to “close the case”.

Both Houses of Maha Legislature adjourned over farmers’ issuesOUR CORRESPONDENT

NAGPUR: Both the Houses of the Maharashtra Legislature were on Tuesday adjourned for the day as the opposition parties raised slogans against the state government over the farmers’ issues.

In the Legislative Council, as soon as the proceedings began for the sec-ond day of the winter session, Leader of the Opposition Dhananjay Munde and other members started raising slogans condemning the BJP-led state government for “looting” the farmers. They also sought “relief ” for the cul-tivators. While shouting the slogans, these members entered the well of the House, after which Council Chairman Ramraje Naik Nimbalkar adjourned it for half an hour.

After the business resumed, Leader of the House and minis-ter Chandrakant Patil requested the

opposition members to let the House function in a smooth manner saying that yesterday’s work was still pend-ing and important issues need to be discussed.

However, when the Question Hour began, the opposition once again rushed to the well of the House and started raising slogans, follow-ing which the Upper House was adjourned for the second time for half an hour. After the proceedings resumed, supplementary demands were tabled amid protests from the opposition and the House was adjourned for the day.

In the state assembly as well, the opposition Congress and NCP cre-ated ruckus over the farm loan waiver and the agrarian crisis, due to which it was adjourned for the day by Pro-tem Speaker Yogesh Sagar around noon, after the conclusion of the Question Hour.

When the proceedings of the Lower House began for the day, the leaders of Congress and NCP started raising slogans alleging that the BJP-Shiv Sena-led government had mis-erably failed to resolve the farmers’ issues.

They alleged that the government was not taking timely steps to curb the pink bollworm attack on cotton crop.

Talking to reporters outside the assembly after it was adjourned, Leader of Opposition in Assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil said, “Cot-ton crop is a major source of income for farmers in Vidarbha and Marath-wada regions. The losses they incurred due to the worm attack runs into sev-eral hundred crores of rupees. The government should announce some compensation to the affected farmers.”

Before the proceedings of the Assembly began on Tuesday, the opposition parties staged a protest

outside and shouted slogans against the government. The opposition has been demanding immediate decisions to end the agrarian crisis in the state.

Meanwhile, the Congress and NCP on Tuesday held a rally here over the issue of farmers against the BJP-led govern-ment at the Centre and in the state.

Zaira Wasim incident: Vistara submits final report to DGCA

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Vistara on Tuesday sub-mitted its final probe report to aviation regulator DGCA on the incident of a man allegedly molesting actor Zaira Wasim on board a Delhi- Mumbai flight this week, an airline source said on Tuesday.

Following the incident on December 9, one Vikas Sachdev was arrested for alleg-edly molesting the actor.

The source said the airline has submit-ted its final investigation report into the incident to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

According to the source, the detailed probe report was prepared after talking to all the people concerned in the incident, including Wasim, crew and ground han-dling staff.

Earlier, the airline had submitted an initial report to the DGCA.

The source also said that no action has been taken against any staffer as no one has been found guilty of any violation.

When contacted, Vistara spokesperson was not available for comment.

“We are deeply concerned and regret

the unfortunate experience Zaira Wasim had onboard our flight last night. We con-tinue to give this case our highest attention and are extending our full support to all relevant authorities for the investigations underway,” the airline had said in a state-ment on December 10.

The “Dangal” actor, who had narrated

her ordeal on the Vistara flight from Delhi to Mumbai on Instagram, had said that a passenger sitting behind her put his feet on her armrest.

In the video, which Wasim recorded immediately after deboarding the flight, the 17-year-old actor broke down sev-eral times.

Ockhi: TN CM hikes relief amount from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 20 lakh

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KANYAKUMARI: The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami on Tuesday announced Rs 20 lakh compen-sation for the kin of fishermen who died in the cyclone that devastated the coastal areas of the state recently.

Palaniswami, who visited the cyclone-hit areas of the dis-trict, also said search opera-tions would continue for the state’s fishermen missing in Ockhi cyclone’s aftermath.

“The government has accepted the demand for a compensation of Rs.20 lakh for

those who had lost their kin in the cyclone,” the chief minis-ter said.

Earlier, the government had declared a Rs ten lakh solatium to the bereaved families.

Fishermen associations in parts of Kanyakumari and in Tirunelveli district have been staging protests demanding that the Centre and state expe-dite efforts to rescue missing fishermen besides a higher compensation package.

Among their demands were that the chief minister visit cyclone-hit areas and make an on-the-spot assessment of the damage, compensation of Rs 25

lakh for next of kin of deceased fishermen and Rs five lakh for affected families.

“The government is work-

ing very sincerely and with extreme care to help the affected fishermen in the district,” Palaniswami said, addressing fisherfolk at Thuthur.

The government has spo-ken to the Union Home min-ister also to take steps to trace the fishermen who were miss-ing, Palaniswami said.

He also assured jobs for one member from each fam-ily who had lost their kin in the cyclone.

The Kerala government recently announced a relief amount of Rs 20 lakh each to the next of kin of deceased fishermen.

‘Traditional knowledge diminishes among tribals’

OUR CORRESPONDENT

THIRUVANANTHA-PURAM: Traditional knowl-edge passed down several generations of the tribals in Kerala by their ancestors has suffered massive erosion and is gradually disappearing now, a study said.

Conducted by the city-based Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management-Kerala (IIITM-K), the study revealed that the dwindling of traditionally-inherited knowledge is mostly among tribal youths, especially among men.

A first-of-its-kind study in India provides a quantitative estimate of traditional knowl-edge that is disappearing at an alarming rate, IIITM-K sources said.

“The degradation of con-ventional knowledge is alarm-ing,” revealed the study, conducted by C V Raman Laboratory of Ecological Infor-matics at the IIITM-K among

eight tribal races in the West-ern Ghats.

The tribal groups Kurichyar and Kattunaikkar (Wayanad district), Cholanaikkar and Paniyar (Nilamburin Malap-puram); Irular and Kurumbar (Palakkad) and Kaanikkar and Malapandaram (Kollam dis-trict) were covered under the study.

As per the findings, the Kurichya and Kurumba trib-als have lost more than half of their traditional knowledge, Cholanaikar and Malapanda-ram tribals have lost 33 per cent while Kaani and Kattunaikkar have lost 40 to 45 per cent.

Malapandaram tribals have ‘very least traditionally-acquired knowledge before and now,’ it said.

Elaborating on the study, Head of C V Raman Labora-tory of Ecological Informatics, Jaishankar R Nair said it was conducted among the tribals living in the Western Ghats as it is included in the UN s World Heritage Site.

Snowfall, rains add to chill across Uttarakhand

OUR CORRESPONDENT

DEHRADUN: Snowfall in the higher reaches of the hill dis-tricts of Uttarakhand and rains in most places brought the tem-peratures down across the state on Tuesday making it chillier.

Widespread rains were reported from most places in the last 24 hours while 1-2 feet of snow was received in areas located above 3,000 feet and in Chamoli, Rudraprayag and Uttarkashi districts, Meteoro-logical office director Vikram Singh said.

The four Himalayan shrines of Kedarnath, Badrinath, Gan-gotri and Yamunotri located in

these districts are snow- laden while the maximum temper-ature has plummeted by 4-6 degrees Celsius at most places due to light to moderate rains adding to the chill, he said.

The maximum temperature in Dehradun yesterday was 26 degrees Celsius which hovered around 20 degrees Celsius, he said. Overcast conditions still prevail and intermittent rains are continuing, he said.

Similar weather will persist in Uttarakhand till tomorrow, he said, adding that the clouds may lift by Thursday morning.

However, minimum tem-perature will drop as the weather clears up, Singh said.

7mp nationMILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Wednesday, 13 December, 2017

Doklam standoff put severe pressure on ties: China

OUR CORRESPONDENT

BEIJING: The Doklam stand-off had put “severe pressure” on India-China ties though the issue was resolved through dip-lomatic means, Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi told External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj during their meeting in New Delhi. The bilateral ties went through a serious test after Indian border troops “illegally trespassed” into the Chinese territory in June, Wang told Swaraj on Monday.

The Chinese foreign minis-ter was in New Delhi to attend the Russia-India-China (RIC) Foreign Ministers’ meeting.

Although the standoff ended eventually through dip-lomatic means more than two months later, lessons must be learned and efforts must be made to avoid such an incident in the future, said Wang, whose comments were posted on the Chinese Foreign Ministry web-site on Tuesday. “The stand-off put the bilateral relations under severe pressure,” he said. Wang said that the India-China relations are at a crucial period and the most important thing between the two countries is to really cultivate mutual trust.

Leaders from both coun-tries have shared the view that China and India should regard each other’s development as opportunities rather than chal-lenges, and China and India are partners rather than rivals,

thus the two sides should sin-cerely implement the consen-sus reached by the leaders of

the two countries, Wang noted.While enhancing strategic

communication at all levels,

restoring dialogue mechanisms that have been established and deepening pragmatic cooper-

ation in all fields, both sides should also properly manage differences so as to maintain peace and tranquility in the border areas, he said. Wang’s visit to New Delhi is the first by a top Chinese official to India after the 73-day Doklam stand-off and after the commence-ment of the second five-year term of President Xi Jinping.

The Doklam standoff ended on August 28 after Chi-nese troops stopped build-ing a key road close to India’s ‘Chicken Neck’ corridor. India had objected to the construc-tion highlighting its security concerns. The road was being built by China in an area also claimed by Bhutan. Besides Swaraj, Wang also called on President Ram Nath Kovind and National Security Advi-sor Ajit Doval. “ A day before he took of from beijing...China increased strength of troops from 200 to 1800 ( usual pres-sure tactics to influence and dominate talks) ....and now tell-ing India that....China is...

In his meeting with Doval, Wang said China and India should make correct choice in development of relations with-out politicising and complicat-ing issues left over by history.

India-China relations are at a crucial moment when both sides need to make right choice on the future of the bilateral relations, Wang was quoted as saying by the state-run Xinhua news agency.

Public data office to make internet accessible to all

Convene meeting on feasibility of having open jails: SC to MHA

DHIRENDRA KUMAR

NEW DELHI: On the lines of public call office (PCO), which was started to make voice call-ing affordable and accessible to each and every one, the govern-ment has decided to open pub-lic data offices (PDO) across the country to provide Wi-Fi hotspot services at reasonable rate.

According to officials asso-ciated with the project, the prime objective of the initia-tive is to make each and every public welfare service accessi-ble to the people of the country and it can be only done when all the beneficiaries would have the accessibility of inter-net services.

“Internet has become a necessity and availing welfare schemes or other needed ser-

vices without internet wouldn’t be a convenient affair after some years. The PDOs that would be opened in every nook and corner would help people in accessing internet services at affordable rate,” the official said.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has launched a pilot project to establish Wi-Fi hotspots across the country. As per the official, 11 companies have joined the

hands with Trai in setting up over 400 Wi-Fi hotspots as a part of the pilot project.

As PCOs were being estab-lished at local kirana stores, societies, etc, similarly, the pub-lic data offices would be started at any store, society, company, etc.

“The users can choose Wi-Fi coupon vouchers rang-ing from Rs 2 to Rs 20 to use the services and the coupons would be valid from 30 minutes to a whole day depending upon the plan,” the official said, add-ing that users can make pay-ments through BHIM App or any other mode of digital transaction.

The project, which is sched-uled to complete in January, would be rolled out in the country after the approval of Telecom Ministry.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Ministry of Home Affairs to convene a meeting of directors general or inspectors general of prisons of all states and union territories to discuss the feasi-bility of establishing open jails across the country.

Semi-open prison or open prison allows convicts to work outside the premises of the jail and earn a livelihood and

return in the evening.The concept was brought in

to assimilate the convicts with the society and reduce their psychological pressure as they face lack of confidence in lead-ing normal lives outside.

The apex court asked the Ministry of Home Affairs to send a communication to all the states and Union Territories s for their response on whether they were willing to set up open jails and how they would man-age them.

A bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta said the concerned authorities of states and UTs would give their response to the Ministry of Home Affairs within four weeks after which a meeting be held in the first week of Febru-ary to discuss the issue.

During the hearing, an advocate, assisting the court as an amicus curiae in the matter, said there were 63 open prisons in the country as of now hous-ing around 6,000 inmates.

Hry govt to facilitate pilgrims travelling to Patna Sahib

OUR CORRESPONDENT

CHANDIGARH: The Hary-ana government would arrange for two trains from Ambala and Sirsa on December 22 to facilitate pilgrims headed to Patna Sahib gurdwara in Bihar to mark the concluding cere-mony of the 350th ‘Prakashot-sav’ of Guru Gobind Singh, a top official said on Tuesday.

The closing ceremony of the 350 birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh, the 10th Sikh Guru, would be held from December 22 to 25 at the Patna Sahib gurdwara.

Presiding over a meet-ing of officers of the district administration through video conference, Sameer Pal Srow, Director, Information, Public Relations and Cultural Affairs and Languages and Griev-ances Departments, said the city magistrates in each district

would be the nodal officers overseeing the implementa-tion of the scheme. Srow said the respective district level committee constituted for this purpose would select up to 140 pilgrims from each district.

“The train from Ambala will leave at 10:30 am on December 22 and reach Patna at 3 pm on December 23, via Kurukshetra, Karnal, Panipat, Sonipat and Delhi. Similarly, the train from Sirsa will also

leave at the same time on December 22 and reach Patna at 5 pm on December 23, via Hisar, Bhiwani, Rohtak and Delhi,” he was quoted as say-ing in an official release.

Srow said adequate arrangements would be made for food and accommodation of pilgrims. “Interested pil-grims can submit their appli-cations at the office of Deputy Commissioner concerned by 5 pm on December 19,” he said.

Govt takeover of Unitech: NCLT should have taken

our leave, says apex court NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court today said the company law tribunal should have taken its leave before allowing the Centre to take over the man-agement of embattled realty firm Unitech Limited, as it was seized of the matter.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Jus-tices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud asked the Centre why it had not taken the apex court’s permission to move the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) for sus-pension of Unitech’s directors and their substitution by gov-ernment nominees. “The leave of this court, which is seized of the matter, should have been taken by the NCLT,” the bench observed, adding, “we are only asking that we are seized of the matter and the NCLT is pass-ing the order”.

Additional Solicitor Gen-eral Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, sought time till tomorrow to seek instruction from the concerned authori-ties on the appeal of Unitech Limited against the order of the NCLT. The court granted time and fixed the pleas, including the fresh appeal filed by Uni-tech against the NCLT order, for hearing tomorrow.

Senior lawyers Mukul Rohatgi and Ranjit Kumar, appearing for the real estate firm and its promoters, said the apex court had given time to Unitech chief Sanjay Chan-dra to negotiate from jail to sell

assets to generate Rs 750 crore for refunding money to home buyers but, in the mean time, the Centre has approached the NCLT. Rohatgi alleged that the NCLT did not issue notice to the firm and its directors and passed the interim order, which was virtually a final order, and allowed the Centre to take over the firm.

“I have serious apprehen-sion about the manner in which the petition was filed and enter-tained by the NCLT despite the fact that the Supreme Court was seized of the matter,” he said, adding “no judicial tri-bunal can pass such an order”.

Earlier, the apex court had agreed to hear today the appeal of Unitech Limited challeng-ing the NCLT order allow-ing the Centre to take over its management.

The NCLT, on December 8, had suspended all the eight directors of the realty firm over allegations of mismanagement and siphoning of funds and had authorised the Centre to appoint its 10 nominees on the board.

The NCLT order had come after the Centre moved the panel with a view to protect the interests of nearly 20,000 home buyers. Unitech alleged that the takeover of the management of the company by the Cen-tre would make it difficult for them to deposit Rs 750 crore as directed by the apex court to safeguard the interests of homebuyers. MPOST

6 sentenced to death in

‘honour killing’ of Dalit man OUR CORRESPONDENT

TIRUPUR: Six persons were sentenced to death by a court here today in connection with the suspected honour killing of a 22-year old Dalit man in full public view in nearby Udumalpet in March last year.

Those sentenced to death included the father of the woman, who had married the Dalit man despite opposition from her family.

Tirupur Principal District and Sessions Judge Alamelu Natarajan also sentenced another accused to life term and another to five years imprisonment in the case.

The judge acquitted three other accused, including the mother of the woman, a Caste Hindu.

During the trial, the pros-ecution has argued that it was a case of honour killing.

The case drew outrage as a video showing the savage attack by three persons who hacked the man, Shankar, and his wife Kausalya near a busy road on March 13, 2016 was telecast by TV channels.

In the video, the three men were seen attacking Shankar and his wife, dealing repeated blows on them and leaving the place on a two-wheeler after the cold blooded mur-der even as scared bystand-ers remained mute witnesses to the carnage.

Various political parties had condemned the killing.

Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj and her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, before a meeting in New Delhi on Monday PTI

ABRIDGED e-NIT NIT ref. no.

Name of work Estimated Amount

Last date of applica-tion submission

NIT-116 Of 2017-18

Construction of 2(Two) Community Bhawans named ‘Gorkha Samaj Ghar’ in Bagrakote and Oodlabari within the Dis-trict of Jalpaiguri, during the year 2017- 18- Proposed by Task Force for upliftment of the Gorkha Community of Dooars Terai Region

Rs. 3212868.00

27/12/2017 upto 12.00 hours

Sd/- Executive Engineer

North Bengal Development Department

Details can be seen in the Official Website www.wbnorthbengaldev.gov.in

Government of West Bengal North Bengal Development Department

Branch Secretariat Uttarkanya, Fulbari, Jalpaiguri

WB HIDCON. I. T No.- 64 of G.M (E)-II of 2017-2018

Sealed Tenders are invited for above NIT having experienced in similar nature of works from any Govt. Organization. Last date of receiving application-15/12/2017 up to 2:00 P.M. All other information and details may be obtained from the office of the. G.M WB HIDCO at HIDCO BHABAN, 35-1111, Biswa Bangla Sarani, New Town, Kolkata. Detailed may be seen in our website at www.wbhidcoltd.com.

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Govt of West Bengal Finance Department

Empanelment of Valuation Agencies Request for Proposal

The Government of West Bengal has decided to form a panel of reputed Firms /Agencies for valuation of assets of the State Government and its parastatals. This Panel will be operational for a period of 3 years.

Reputed Firms / Agencies / lLPs / Companies who have expertise in valuation of assets and enterprise valuation may apply for empanelment. The scope of work is mentioned in the RFP document which may be downloaded from the Government of West Bengal Finance Department’s website www.wbfin.nic.in

Bid submission start date 13.12.2017, Bid submission end date 02.01.2018.

Contact: Joint Secretary, Finance Department, Government of West Bengal, Tel No. 033-2253-5441, 9433336754.

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mp editorial8MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Wednesday, 13 December, 2017

SUBRATA MAJUMDER

It is impossible to make sense of the Bitcoin-mania that has been making waves of late.

In just a span of one year, the crypto-currency has doubled four times. The price of one Bitcoin in early Janu-ary was $1,000 (almost Rs 64,000). It rose to $2,000 by May. In August, it breached $4,000. By late November, it was $8,000 and, two weeks later, it had crossed $16,000. Nothing short of a bubble can explain such an astro-nomical run. In fact, most recently, the market valuation of Bitcoin in South Korean markets briefly surpassed that of JP Morgan, the world’s largest bank.

The Bitcoin bubble is quite remi-niscent of the myriad bubbles in global economic history beginning with the infamous Tulipmania of the 1600s. The tulip bulb bubble occurred in Holland during the early 1600s when compet-ing for the rarest tulip bulbs became a status symbol and speculation eventu-

ally drove its price to the extremes. At its peak, the price of tulip bulbs rose as much as 1,100 per cent in a month. All of this came to an abrupt end in 1637 when prices dropped to an extent that bulbs began trading at a fraction of what they once had, miring many in financial ruin. All bubbles end in a similar fash-ion. Only the extent differs.

Olivier Blanchard and Mark Watson, in their 1982 paper “Bubbles, Rational Expectations and Financial Markets”, explain why assets like gold, just like Bitcoins, are prone to evolve into bub-bles. First, gold acts as a hedge against inflation. This, however, is not true in the case of Bitcoins. The second reason that Blanchard and Watson give for a regular gold frenzy is that people base their choices on whether or not to hold an asset based on past returns rather than market fundamentals. Therefore, investors who witness a rise in asset prices believe that they can hold on to

it themselves as long as it appreciates and get out of the market before the market crashes.

The latter reason holds true in the case of Bitcoins, which are largely being driven by such speculation. Even though the Blockchain technology behind the currency is revolutionary and could very well be the Next-Big-Thing, it does not explain the astronomical 16-fold rise that it has displayed this year. It would make sense if this trend were occur-ring in light of a broader loss in confi-dence in fiat money. But this is clearly not the case in the current global eco-nomic scenario, which finally seems to be picking up.

It can also be argued that since Cen-tral banks have been practicing easy monetary policy since the crisis to revive economic activity, asset prices have dis-played an upward trend. Therefore, in a market where stocks, bonds, and other such assets are overvalued, Bitcoin is

not an exception. Its rise can be merely a hedge against oncoming interest rate hikes. But, that does not explain why the rise in gold prices has not been similar. In fact, the rise in gold prices has been lower than that in stocks.

There is an additional aspect of the Bitcoin that might explain its wide-spread appeal: the anonymity involved in its transactions. Bitcoin transactions can be made securely without revealing one’s identity, which makes it easy to bypass the government eye altogether. If true, the rise of Bitcoins could point to a disturbing trend of breakdown of global institutions. The Bitcoin craze can be seen in conjunction with a spate of shocking election outcomes that have been witnessed globally which reflect a larger loss in confidence in institutions that have guided growth.

However, in such a case, the longev-ity of the currency will be dependent on the government’s appetite to allow such transactions. It is hard to imagine governments allowing large-scale anon-ymous transactions that evade any taxa-tion and enable criminal activity. China has already banned the currency. On the other hand, Japan has made it legal ten-der in an attempt to become the global centre of fintech. The jury is still out on what course governments across the globe will take. American economist and chess Grand master Kenneth Rogoff put it best recently when he said: “The long history of currency tells us that what the private sector innovates, the state eventually regulates and appropriates.”

Either when the speculative run ends or governments decide to regulate, the Bitcoin dream run is bound to come to an end. It is best to steer clear of the dreaded eventuality.

(Dr. Amit Kapoor is chair, Institute for Competitiveness, India.

Chirag Yadav, senior researcher at the Institute has contributed to the article.

The views expressed are personal.)

The bounce back in the share of manufactur-ing in second-quar-ter GDP in 2017-18

unleashed a fresh impetus to the Make in India initiative, which remained tardy in the post demonetisation period. The manufacturing sector growth resurged to 7.0 per cent, nearly to the previous year’s level, after a sharp drop to 1.2 per cent in the first quar-ter of 2017-18. This shows that the impact of demonetisation was a short term effect.

Today, the Indian economy is globally integrated. It has become one of the important engines for global growth. To this end, polarisation of Make in India on sectoral growth and labour intensive industries is not the panacea for success. Integration of manufacturing through the global value chain (GVC) had become vital for Make in India.

Firms in developed coun-tries combined their high-tech knowhow with lower wage labour in developing coun-tries to produce their goods at lower costs. Eventually, pro-duction has become increas-ingly fragmented through the growing prevalence of GVC, with production of compo-nents across the borders. South East and East Asia, especially, exemplified this new pattern of production.

In this process of GVC value added manufacturing, many of the developing coun-tries, such as China, Vietnam, Thailand, Bangladesh, Mex-ico, and other South East Asian countries, have benefitted by sharing labour-intensive pro-duction with low cost for the developed nations . But India trailed behind in this race. Reasons: there were limitation of scale, difficulty in access-ing cheap credit and lack of adequate skilled labour. These economic ills shadowed India’s potential as a manufacturing exporter and became detrimen-tal for it to enter the GVC net-work of manufacturing.

Given the new wave of manufacturing in the world and India’s growth being glob-ally integrated, sectoral devel-opment and labour intensive industries are not the only catalysts for the Make in India success. Technology upgrada-tion and skilled manpower are imperative for India to become party to GVC manufacturing network. Even though the country’s manufacturing land-scape has made a transforma-tional change from traditional to modern industries, such as automobile and electronics, which resulted in traditional labour-intensive industries being outstripped by technol-ogy base industries, the changes are yet to make India potent for GVC network for manu-facturing, like Vietnam and other South East Asian coun-tries. This is despite the fact that India is already engaged in multilateral FTA with ASEAN and bilateral FTAs with Malay-sia and Thailand.

Success of GVC value added manufacturing network depends on how the compo-nent makers, dubbed “sup-

porting industries”, function efficiently to upgrade technol-ogy, which is required for the assemblers. To cut costs and re-enter competitiveness, Toy-ota Motor Company, after the Japanese currency yen appreci-ated, adopted the GVC system of manufacturing to produce their Asian car models. It set up a five-country network for auto part production in four ASEAN countries and India. Production facilities for diesel engine, press parts and axle were set up in Thailand, manual transmission (middle type) in Philippines, engine computer in Malaysia, gasoline engine and door lock in Indonesia and manual trans-mission (large type) in India.

In this current trend of global production, how should India’s manufacturing land-scape fit in if Make in India vows for a success? India’s man-ufacturing sector needs to be divided into two parts. The first part should include develop-ment of natural resource-based industries, such as agro-based, textile, mining and metal indus-tries. The second part can cover component-based industries,

such as automobile, electronic and digitisation.

It is the second part where GVC value-added manufactur-ing will work well. India can be the manufacturing hub for component and parts in GVC production network, which are labour intensive, for the devel-oped nations. Factors which go in favour of India are India’s demographic dividend and edge in low-cost manufactur-ing competitiveness over South East and East Asia countries.

However, one of the impor-tant headwinds for low-cost manufacturing In India is the lack of skill development. It is an important factor to make a nation potent for GVC manu-facturing network. India is yet to ramp up its bottom down skilled workforce. Only 2 per-cent of the workforce is skilled in India, compared to 40 per-cent in China. The reason for abysmally low skill develop-ment is that formal education does not impart suitable skills to make candidates viable for employment. The ITIs – gov-ernment run training institutes -- are either poorly managed

or outdated. In China, skill development is geared up by steering secondary schools stu-dents into formal skill training programme.

Given the Indian econo-my’s integration into the global economy, which depends on advancement of technology, Make in India warrants the Sup-porting Industry model, which Vietnam adopted for their suc-cess in industrial growth.

Supporting industries are a group of manufacturing indus-tries that supply parts and com-ponents or process them for the assemblers, such as automobile, electronics and precision equip-ment. Supporting industry is low cost, capital intensive and high labour intensive with high –skilled labour.

In Vietnam, Supporting Industry proved to be a boon to the growth of automobile and electronic industries The country has achieved 90 per-cent localization in manufac-turing motorbikes. Vietnam is the second biggest manufac-turer of motorbikes in ASEAN. Electronic exports from Viet-nam are ten times more than India’s.

Electronic is a Support base industry. Manufacturing of mobile phones and elec-tronic components is low cap-ital and high labour-intensive industries. There are several factors which favour India as a better destination for mobile phone and electronic compo-nent manufacturing. Cheap wages and low land cost can prove propitious for the devel-opment of component and parts for mobile and other electronic equipment manu-facturing in the GVC network of manufacturing.

India is moving towards digitisation. To this end, the GVC network of manufactur-ing will work well. According to Morgan Stanley, digitiza-tion and Smart City will boost the country’s GDP growth in 2026-27. IPA

(The views expressed are strictly personal.)

Why India is the ideal hubEDITORIAL

Make in India success hinges on global value chain manufacturing

The Bitcoin bubble is quite reminiscent of the myriad bubbles in global economic history beginning with the infamous Tulipmania of the 1600s. The tulip bulb bubble occurred in Holland during the early 1600s when competing for the rarest tulip bulbs became a status symbol

India can be the manufacturing hub for component and parts in GVC production network, which are labour intensive, for the developed nations. Factors which go in favour of India are India’s demographic dividend and edge in low-cost manufacturing competitiveness over South East and East Asia countries

A Bangladeshi-origin man, who triggered a blast at a metro station in New York City, had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State terror group and was motivated by Israeli actions in Gaza, US offi-

cials said. Akayed Ullah, the 27-year-old suspected bomber, detonated a pipe bomb strapped to his body in a crowded passageway during the morning rush hour, injuring himself and three others. The device prematurely exploded between two subway platforms near Port Authority, America’s larg-est bus terminal, injuring four persons and causing chaos in one of the busiest commuter hubs in the metropolis, officials said. Pledging allegiance to the ISIS terror group, he told investigators that his planned terrorist attack in New York was mainly because of the recent Israeli actions in Gaza, officials said as per multiple media reports. A law enforce-ment official quoted by CNN said that recent Israeli actions in Gaza had compelled Ullah to carry out the attack, add-ing that the suspect had said he was “upset” with the “incur-sion into Gaza”. The Homeland Security spokesman Tyler Houlton said Ullah is now a lawful permanent resident. He came to the US in 2011 on an F43 family immigrant visa, which is granted to children of American citizens siblings. A day after an ISIS-inspired Bangladeshi-origin man trig-gered a blast at a busy metro station in New York City, US President Donald Trump urged that Congress to must end “chain migration” and fix the “lax” immigration system to keep Americans safe. The Bangladeshi ISIS sympathiser had no criminal record back home, a police official said on Tues-day, even as Dhaka vowed “zero tolerance” against terror-ism. He had entered the US through “extended-family chain migration,” a system President Donald Trump is seeking to end that allows families to sponsor relatives to come to the US. As per Dhaka Tribune, he last visited Bangladesh in Sep-tember. “The attempted mass murder attack in New York City, the second terror attack in New York in the last two months, once again highlights the urgent need for Congress to enact legislative reforms to protect the American people,” Trump said. “First and foremost... America must fix its lax immigration system, which allows far too many dangerous, inadequately vetted people to access our country.” Trump further said that “the terror suspect entered our country through extended-family chain migration, which is incom-patible with national security,” The US President said that his executive action to restrict the entry of certain nation-als from eight countries, which the Supreme Court recently allowed to take effect, is just one step forward in “secur-ing” the immigration system. “Congress must end chain migration,” he said, listing a slew of measures to improve and secure the immigration system”; “The terrible harm that this flawed system inflicts on America’s security and economy has long been clear. I am determined to improve our immigration system to put our country and our people first,” Trump said. Trump said those convicted of engaging in acts of terror deserve the highest penalty allowed by law, including the death penalty in appropriate cases. America should always stand firm against terrorism and extremism, ensuring that their institutions can address all evil acts of terror, he said. White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said the attack underscored the need for Congress to work with the President on immigration reforms that enhance the national security and public safety. “We must protect our borders, we must ensure that individuals entering our country are not coming to harm our people, and we must move to a merit-based system of immigration.

A million hearts skipped a beat when India’s most talked-about couple — Bollywood star Anushka Sharma and Indian cricket Captain Virat Kohli — on Monday tied the knot in Italy, ending days

of suspense and intense media speculation about the cou-ple’s marriage plans. The Indian cricket team captain took to Twitter to announce the news, and the post sent Twitter into overdrive as it went on to receive around 6000 retweets and 15000 likes in just 12 minutes! There were tweets every sec-ond as fans begged the couple to end their agony and share their photos. The two were soon top trends in social media, and when the images finally came, the virtual world went berserk. In one of the most eagerly anticipated weddings in tinsel town and the playing fields, the two wed in a private ceremony, attended by close family members and friends, at a resort in Tuscany, Italy. “Today we have promised each other to be bound in love forever. We are truly blessed to share the news with you,” Sharma and Kohli said on Twitter, posting pictures of the wedding ceremony. The bride looked positively regal in a pink Sabyasachi wedding lehenga, while the groom looked dapper in a colour-coordinated sherwani from the same designer. “This beautiful day will be made more special with the love and support of our family of fans and well-wishers. Thank you for being such an important part of our journey,” they said in identical Tweets. Sharma and Kohli, who were married by Hindu wedding rituals, will host a reception in New Delhi on December 21 followed by another bash in Mumbai for their industry friends and cricketers on December 26. A wedding between a cricketer and a Bollywood star always makes headlines, but Virat and Anushka are two individuals with sparkling careers. Nobody expected a wedding right now, but as people were wonder-ing will-they-won’t-they, the cricketer and actor turned the conversation to ‘when will they’. The sudden announcement caught everyone off-guard. The couple met during a sham-poo ad shoot in 2013 and sparks instantly flew. Their crack-ling chemistry was there for everyone to see, and a whirlwind romance began. A recent television advertisement shows the couple expressing their feelings for each other. The lovelorn look in their eyes is unmistakable. A section of the media coined the term Virushka to refer to the power couple who seemed inseparable. In 2014, an Australian commentator, Michael Slater called Anushka, Virat’s wife by mistake. The celebrity couple, who had been dating for four years, kept their wedding plans under wraps despite the prying eyes of the paparazzi. In October, a newspaper reported that an Italian wedding may be on the cards for the couple. The rumours gained momentum after Kohli was rested for the remaining ODI series against Sri Lanka. In a statement by Sharma’s representative, the couple said they will shift to their new residence in Worli, Mumbai later this month. After the reception, the couple will fly to South Africa where Kohli will be prepping for the upcoming series. The actor will spend the New Year’s Eve with her husband before flying back to Mumbai to start the shooting of Aanand L Rai’s film with Shah Rukh Khan.

Consequence of chain migration?

Whirlwind romance and fairytale wedding

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millenniumpost.inMACABRE KILLING IN RAJASTHANdear

EDITOR

Some villains of the deepest dye are perpetrating crime under the religious umbrella and common people have to face the music-what a rampant disorder of law engulfs the very sovereignty and fraternity of the country. The villains escape from rigorous and exemplary punishment. The recent incident in Rajasthan of the macabre killing of a poor Muslim worker from Bengal having labeled on ‘love jihad’ shakes the whole country. The hardcore criminals make religious fur fly on the fake and futile reasons and instigat-ing communal disharmony very often. The issue of repeated crime should not be kept on the back burner for it endangers the strength of the nation. Punishment should be immediately meted out to the criminal to set an example.

It is best to steer clear of Bitcoins lest the bubble burstsThe Bitcoin dream run

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I like the religion that teaches liberty, equality and fraternity

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B. R. AMBEDKAR

AMIT KAPOOR

India’s manufacturing landscape has made transformational change from traditional to modern industries (Representational Image)

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9mp in focusMILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Wednesday, 13 December, 2017

With American President Don-ald Trump drag-ging the global

fraternity closer to disaster and flaring of insidious war-mongering, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s presence on the international scenario has become imperative. The way he handled the Syrian crisis and the Middle East worries makes him appear as perhaps the only individual available on the global front on which the global fraternity could rely for easing nervousness.

On 6 December 2017, Presi-dent Vladimir Putin announced that he will seek re-election for a second consecutive term and a fourth term overall. With his approval ratings topping 80 per cent, Putin is certain to win a quick victory in the March 18 vote.

The President of Russia is directly elected for a term of six years, since being extended from four years in 2008 dur-ing Dmitry Medvedev’s administration.

Putin made the announce-ment at a meeting with work-ers of the GAZ factory in Nizny Novgorod. Several hours ear-lier, he was asked about his intentions in Moscow and sig-naled that he would run but stopped short of declaring his bid.

Putin has been in power in Russia since 2000. He served two Presidential terms in 2000-2008, then shifted into the Prime Minister’s seat because of term limits. Medvedev had the Presidential term extended to six years and then stepped down to let Putin reclaim Presi-dency in 2012.

Putin will have spent 24 years as Russian leader by the end of his term in 2024, includ-ing four years when he was Prime Minister, but still called the shots.

“Russia will continue mov-ing forward, and nobody will ever be able to stop this forward movement,” he said, in what may be an early sign that the campaign would invoke nation-alist rhetoric of a Russia fac-ing off against a hostile West. Putin has spent a year dodging the question about whether he would run in the elections.

The election date was moved to 18 March to coin-cide with the anniversary of the annexation of Crimea in an attempt to boost patriotic spirits in the absence of real political compulsions.

The people denouncing Vladimir Putin as an auto-crat, an aggressor and worse, nevertheless, feel that a Rus-sia without him could be pre-dictable and more dangerous than a Russia with him at the helm. Putin may not be popu-lar in many parts of the western world, but it is a fact that he has

the political ability and acumen to foil the western manipula-tive strategy.

He may spring a surprise by committing himself to the Marxist ideology. This would be a deft political move to send a strong message to the west-ern world. No doubt Putin is perceived as a camp follower of the capitalist economy and the world. But for taming the western capitalist world he had to adopt this strategic line. It is more important for the reason that he does not like to present himself as a protagonist of poli-tics of hegemony.

The overwhelming con-sensus is that Putin will win as he symbolises the Russian aspiration and ethos. Though he does not pretend to be an ultra-nationalist, his actions are focused in this direction. Basi-cally, this is the reason that he is being perceived as the harbin-ger of the Russian cause.

What simply smarten up Putin’s image has his deft han-dling of the Syrian crisis and breaking the backbone of the ISIS. No doubt the west-ern countries had launched a vicious tirade against Putin and Russia and even accused him of large-scale killing of innocent people and children, but the fact remains that the western lobby under the leadership of America was least interested to eliminate the Islamists and liberate Syria.

The Presidential set up is the most powerful institution. His detractors accuse him of misusing the system and turn-ing it as a personalised system: But it feeds him the intelligence he wants, it oversees ministries and governors, and it coordi-nates his “active measures” political dirty tricks campaign in the west. The Russian people and the leaders will eventually realise some day that Russia

might have been in a deep crisis if Putin was not in command. It is true that he believes in capi-talist commitment, but the fact of the matter is that these forces would have ravaged and further split Russia.

Notwithstanding Putin pur-suing a democratic line, away from the Marxist polemics, the western world still looks at him with suspicion and skepticism. West hates and derides Putin primarily for the reason that he desires and strives to restore the past glory of Russia. His pres-ence certainly denies them the opportunity to meddle in and dictate to Russia.

Once they failed in their design after the Croatia issue, they have launched a vicious campaign about Putin being anti-democracy. The most com-mon refrain has been: “Putin has become increasingly insu-lated from news which is anti in nature and also critical opin-ions. As a result, he often makes serious mistakes in his eval-uation of the global scenario. He and his cronies, time and again, have especially shown themselves unable to under-stand democratic societies and the resilience that lies beneath the surface of fractiousness and short-termism.”

There is nothing new in these allegations. The western world is known for such insin-uation. It has accused Putin of managing and influencing the election of Trump. He was even accused of launching a cam-paign of hacks, disinformation, and covet political donations along with resorting to other gambits to control and shape western politics. While the motive of any action is judged by the impact it makes on the political scenario, so far any assessment does not charge Putin with worsening the global political scenario. IPA (The views are strictly personal.)

It is not that the Middle East was waiting to welcome any harbinger of peace which has been spoilt by the US recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. However, what it does is give further impetus for more conflicts. Even though ISIS has been considerably weakened, it continues to spread havoc. The idea is not yet dead

No doubt Putin is perceived as a camp follower of the capitalist economy and the world. But for taming the western capitalist world, he had to adopt this strategic line. It is more important for the reason that he does not like to present himself as a protagonist of politics of hegemony

What will this lead to?Will American recognition of Jerusalem Israeli capital have far-reaching consequences

for the collective fate of the Middle East and the world? Asks Pathikrit Payne

Putin best against Western machinations

Last week, US President Donald Trump recognised Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. American recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and

Trump’s subsequent orders to state depart-ment to start the process of shifting the US Embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, marks the end of seven decades of status-quo that successive US Administration had maintained over the contentious issue of Jerusalem and its disputed ownership. Without getting into the nitty-gritty of the history related to the Jeru-salem dispute and its connection with all the Abrahamic religions, this article would focus on what kind of implication this decision will have on the already fragile, conflict-ridden environment of the Middle East and its pos-sible impact elsewhere.

Proverbial bedfellows: The Middle East & conflict

For several centuries now and especially since the first half of 20th century, the Middle East and peace have found it nearly impos-sible to coexist. Even when there have been brief periods of peace, it has been intermit-ted by multiple conflicts in several parts of not just Middle East but also in its contigu-ous North African region. Both the World Wars have had a profound impact on this region. In fact, the Middle East had been a key theatre in both the World Wars. Mayhem of World War I was followed by Turkish War of Independence and Franco-Syrian War among many. Later, the end of World War II and the formation of Israel led to a series of Arab-Israeli conflicts followed by eight-year long Iraq-Iran war and then the Iraqi inva-sion of Kuwait that led to Gulf War.

Post 9/11, terror attack on the US resulted in US invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan. The impact of that still resonates across the spec-trum of the Middle East because of the rise of Al Qaeda in Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), resurgence of sectarian conflicts, and series of terror attacks that ripped apart the fabric of many countries including Iraq. The Israel Lebanon face off in 2006 added further fuel to the fire.

From 2010 onward, Arab Spring, often alleged to have been orchestrated by certain vested interests to trigger further mayhem in the Middle East, resulted in civil war kind of situation spreading like an epidemic from one state to another, often ravaging them from inside. The tumultuous environment created the perfect milieu for the spawning of ISIS and the mayhem was ably complemented by an insane bloodbath. From Northern Iraq to Syria, ISIS mauled anything that came on its path while its tentacles spread across the state after state in the Middle East, North Africa, Europe, South and South East Asia. In other words, what often starts in the Middle East

does not always end there.

The prelude to the recognition of JerusalemIt is not that the Middle East was waiting

to welcome any harbinger of peace which has been spoilt by the US recognition of Jerusa-lem as the capital of Israel. However, what it does is to give further impetus for more con-flicts. Even though ISIS has been consider-ably weakened, it continues to spread havoc. The idea is not yet dead. There is a profound possibility of them using this emotive issue to attract more youth towards them and in the name of revenge, instigate more terror attacks, often through lone wolves, across Europe and elsewhere.

Additionally, after the Syrian theatre, Yemen has been for more than a year the new ring for Saudis and Iranians to sort out their never-ending sectarian face-offs at the cost of innocent Yemenis. Both Iran and Saudis continue to blame each other for unwarranted interference. The stage was also being set for taking forward the antagonism to Lebanon. Saudis have for long accused Iran of support-ing Assad regime in Syria as also aiding the Houthi rebels in Yemen. In both places, Saudi backed forces have been on the back foot. The detention of Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri by Saudis made Lebanon’s Iran

backed Hezbollah to term it as a declaration of war on Lebanon. Now the Jerusalem issue may be used by Iran and Hezbollah to blame Saudis more for being soft on Israel and thus would be the tipping point for not just more violence in the Middle East but the start of a new era of sectarian rivalry.

The Saudi reaction to Jerusalem issue: Mute for obvious reasons

The predicament for the incumbent Saudi regime is that given the fragile condition of the ruling dispensation, it would be difficult for Prince Salman led Saudi Arabia to be able to do anything drastic or provocative beyond the cursory token words of condemnation. The ascent of Crown Prince Salman followed by a series of arrests of rival princes, officials and business barons through a sort of ‘soft coup’ or ‘purge’ may have put him in charge of affairs but needs enormous American sup-port to remain there as an acceptable face and to keep internal enemies at bay.

Further, his plans to diversify the Saudi economy and gradually steer it away from its complete dependence on oil even while attempting to keep the subsidy addicted pop-ulace happy through tumultuous times of low oil price, declining forex reserves and an expensive as well as clueless, never-ending war

in Yemen, need support from US to sustain. This year Saudis also signed a $110 billion defence deal with Trump Administration, a further vindication of the extent coopera-tion (or dependence) the Saudis have with US Administration. However, even though the Saudi Administration may stay away from any kind of provocative act for the time being, the same cannot be said about the innumer-able Wahhabi followers both inside Saudi Arab and beyond.

Jerusalem: An issue that galvanises Mus-lims across the world

There is no denying that Jerusalem is as much an emotive issue for the Muslims across the world as it is for the Jews. Even for many who have stopped being worried much about the issues of Israel and Palestine, news sur-rounding Jerusalem act as a catalyst to gal-vanise them too. Thus while most (if not all) Muslim majority states may not attempt to trigger anything big for fear of dilapidating their relation with the US, the possibility of certain rogue elements attempting the same cannot be ruled out. Till now there have only been sporadic clashes between Palestinians and the Israel security forces. However, if the clashes lead to rise in casualties, it may lead to more chain reactions.

The Hamas and Hezbollah factorIt would be foolhardy to presume that both

Hamas and Hezbollah would sit idle for long. Even though Israel recently destroyed a Hamas tunnel, tensions remain palpable. While it is still too early to predict that there would be a repeat of either the Israeli-Hezbollah con-flict of 2006 or the Israeli-Hamas conflict of 2014, neither can be ruled out. Hezbollah’s supreme leader Hassan Nasrallah has already given out calls for a Palestinian uprising and a field strategy with allies against Israel. The possibility of any conflict leading to thou-sands of youth from North Africa and from other parts of Asian as also Europe rushing in to join the war against Israel cannot be ruled out. There is also a profound possibility of Iran-backed Hezbollah would attempt to pit Saudis and Israelis on the same side and thus gain upper hand in the so-called resistance against Israel. What can also not be ruled out are pre-emptive strikes by Israel on Hezbol-lah and others.

Reaction in Malaysia and Turkey: Does that indicate something?

As stated earlier, the impact of issues that erupt from the Middle East rarely remains restricted to the Middle East only, the state-ment of Malaysian Defence Minister on the issue of Jerusalem being recognised as Capital of Israel, vindicate the same. Defence Minister Hishammuddin Tun Hussein stated recently that his country’s armed forces are prepared of any eventuality and termed the American decision as a slap on the face of the entire Muslim world. Likewise, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan

has called for a meeting of Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to ‘coordinate a Muslim reaction’ to the US declaration on Jerusalem and has termed Jerusalem decision as a ‘red line for Muslims’.

Precursor to another global conflict?When Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Aus-

tria was assassinated June 28, 1914, not many had anticipated that it would eventually lead to the start of World War I followed by World War II and more than three decades of intense turmoil would end with the death of Adolf Hitler. Would the declaration of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital trigger something on that line or would it just pass off as a flash in the pan through the sand dunes of time? Would the common enemy of Iran bring Israel and Saudis even closer in case of an all-out Hezbollah led attack? Would it lead to something bigger? Only time can give the answer to these questions. Meanwhile, the Middle East and conflict would continue to remain proverbial bedfellows with peace hav-ing little scope to sneak in and make a mark. (Views expressed are strictly personal.)

The incumbent President’s reelection will augur well for Russian federation, writes Arun Srivastava

tweetRETWEET

BRAHMA CHELLANEY@Chellaney

MANDEEP SINGH BAJWA@MandeepBajwa

KAPIL SIBAL@KapilSibal

RAMESH SRIVATS@rameshsrivats

Ex-presidents or PMs must act responsibly even after they leave office. They normally refrain from intervening in national debates. Manmohan Singh doesn't believe in such standards. He showed poor judgment in stoking controversy by dining with an adversary state's representatives

My blood boils when I see Sanghis, no one from whose family ever fought for this country insinuate that General Deepak Kapoor is in cahoots with the Pakistanis to destabilise India. The General, may I remind everyone, defended his motherland in the 1971 war.

Inviting Kasuri for dinner is misadventure .Inviting ISI to Pathankot after terror attack at Defence station is neighbourly conduct ? Wah !

By the way, why is Virat Kohli marrying Anushka Sharma being called #VirushkaWedding. Why not #Korma?

Trump declaring Jerusalem the capital of Israel has been stoking controversy

There is an overwhelming consensus that Putin will win as he symbolises the Russian aspiration and ethos

mp world10MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi |Wednesday, 13 December, 2017

NEW YORK SUBWAY BOMBING

Will form next govt in Nepal by end of

month: Left alliance

KATHMANDU: The alliance of Nepal’s main Communist parties on tuesday said it will form the next government by the end of the month, after win-ning a majority in the historic provincial and parliamentary polls.

The alliance has so far bagged 113 seats out of a total 165 under the first-past-the-post system. The CPN-UML has secured 77 seats followed by CPN-Maoist with 36 seats while Nepali Congress is third with 21 seats. The results of only five seats remain to be declared. “The new Left government in Nepal will be formed by the end of December with the Election Commission offi-cially publishing the results of all the winning candidates in provincial assembly as well as House of Representatives,” said Bishnu Rijal, spokesperson of the CPN-UML election mobili-sation committee.

The House of Represen-tatives consists of 275 mem-bers, of which 165 would be elected directly under the first-past-the- post system while the remaining 110 will come through the proportional rep-resentation system.

The parties will intensify work on party unification and government formation once the leaders of CPN-Maoist

Centre and CPN-UML - for-mer prime ministers Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ and K P Oli - who are now in their home districts to hold victory rallies, return to the capital, Rijal said.

CPN-UML chairman Oli is expected to lead the Left alli-ance government to be formed in a couple of weeks.

The CPN-UML and the CPN-Maoist have forged an electoral alliance for the land-mark polls, which is seen as a turning point after two decades of conflict and political insta-bility in Nepal. The poll out-come is expected to mark the end of Nepal’s transition to a federal democracy, 11 years after the end of a brutal civil war in 2006. Since then, the Himalayan nation has seen 10 prime ministers.

Meanwhile, the Left alli-ance is inching towards a clear majority to form a new govern-ment with more election results coming in. According to the EC, the vote counting under the proportional category will conclude by mid-December. The combined strength of the two Madhesi parties has reached 21, with RJPN secur-ing 11 seats and FSFN winning 10, ensuring that they will now have a stronger presence in Par-liament. AGENCIES

DHAKA: Bangladesh Police detained the wife and in-laws of New York’s ‘attempted suicide bomber’ Akayed Ullah for ques-tioning in Dhaka, the media reported.

The counterterrorism unit detained the three on Tues-day afternoon from Zigatala’s Moneshwar Road.

“The three have been brought in for questioning,” Counterterrorism Unit Dep-uty Commissioner Saiful Islam told bdnews24.com.

Akayed’s wife Jannatul Fer-dous and their six-month-old child live with her parents at a home on Moneshwar Road.

Akayed, 27, who hails from Chittagong, has lived in the US for seven years. US police officials say he started as a cab driver and then became an elec-trician at a real estate company after 2015. New York City police detained Akayed after he had injured himself after detonat-ing a pipe bomb at the crowded Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan. He was later admit-ted to hospital.

US police officials say the bomb was tied to his body.

They claim Akayed had been inspired by Islamic State propaganda.

Bangladesh police began

searching for Akayed’s family after his identity was confirmed.

An official from the coun-terterrorism unit said they

found the address of Akayed’s in-laws on Tuesday afternoon.

Akayed’s father-in-law Zul-fikar Haider, mother-in-law

Mahfuza Akhtar and their chil-dren rented the house.

The Bangladesh embassy in Washington DC reiterated Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina government’s ‘zero tolerance’ policy against terrorism.

“A terrorist is a terrorist irrespective of his or her eth-nicity or religion, and must be brought to justice,” the embassy said in a statement.

“Government of Bangladesh is committed to its declared pol-icy of ‘Zero Tolerance’ against terrorism, and condemns ter-rorism and violent extremism in all forms or manifestations anywhere in the world, includ-ing Monday morning’s incident in New York City.”

Akayed is said to be in seri-ous condition at Bellevue Hos-pital Center. The local media have published a photo of the bearded suspect lying on the ground with burn injuries on his belly. New York Post reported quoting sources in the police that the suspect had wires attached to him and a 5-inch metal pipe bomb and battery pack strapped to his midsection. AGENCIES

Trump calls for ending family immigration following NYC bombingNEW YORK: Blaming a “lax” immigration system for the bomb attack here by a Ban-gladeshi immigrant, US Pres-ident Donald Trump has renewed calls to end immi-gration based on family ties.

Calling Monday’s bomb-ing at a New York transpor-tation hub by Akayed Ullah “attempted mass murder”, Trump said: “On tuesday’s terror suspect entered our country through extended-family chain migration, which is incompatible with national security.”

He demanded that Con-gress should end chain migra-tion, the process by which relatives of immigrants can be sponsored for immigration by their relatives, and can, in turn, sponsor other relatives.

According to police, Ullah has told them that he was inspired by the Islamic State (IS) terror group and that he wanted to avenge the US attacks on IS in Syria and

elsewhere.Officials described the explosive device he crafted as a “low-tech” pipe bomb, which he strapped to himself with velcro to carry out a suicide attack. However, the bomb only wounded him severely and caused light injuries to three others when it went off in an underground passageway at the Times Square metro sta-tion connecting trains and the nearby interstate bus terminal.

Officials said that he was radicalised through the Inter-net. According to SITE Intelli-gence Group, which monitors

terrorism, IS had recently tried to instigate attacks on the city during the holiday season by issuing propaganda mate-rial showing a Santa Claus in Times Square near a box of explosives with the caption, “We meet Christmas in New York.”

Ullah’s attack was the sec-ond terrorist attack in New York in less than two months.

On October 31, an immi-grant from Uzbekistan drove a small truck into pedestrians near the World Trade Centre killing eight people.

“America must fix its lax immigration system, which allows far too many danger-ous, inadequately vetted peo-ple to access our country,” Trump said in his statement.Although Trump mentioned his ban on people coming to the US from eight coun-tries as important for keep-ing America safe, neither Uzbekistan nor Bangladesh is on his list. AGENCIES

Bangladesh police detain wife, in-laws of suspect bomber

EU suspends funding for Cambodian

electionPHNOM PENH: The European Union has sus-pended funding for Cam-bodia’s 2018 general election because the vote cannot be credible after the dissolution of the main opposition party, accord-ing to a letter sent to the national election commit-tee on Tuesday.

The Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) was dissolved by the country’s highest court last month at the request of the gov-ernment of Prime Minis-ter Hun Sen after the arrest of opposition leader Kem Sokha for alleged treason.

“An electoral process from which the main oppo-sition party has been arbi-trarily excluded cannot be seen as legitimate,” the let-ter said. “Under these cir-cumstances, the European Union does not believe there is a possibility of a credible electoral process.”

Some Western donors have condemned the CNRP dissolution as the most serious blow to democ-racy since an international peace deal and U.N.-run elections in the early 1990s ended decades of war and the Khmer Rouge geno-cide that killed at least 1.8 million Cambodians in the 1970s.

A government spokes-man said the EU decision would not affect the elec-tion, in which Hun Sen is expected to extend more than three decades in office that make him the world’s longest serving prime min-ister. “This is their will,” spokesman Phay Siphan told Reuters on Tuesday. “We have our own money.”

The European Union and Japan are the biggest donors to Cambodia’s elec-tion commission. AGENCIES

China building network of refugee camps along N Korea borderBEIJING: China is quietly building a network of refugee camps along its border with North Korea, the Guardian reported on Tuesday.

The existence of plans for the camps, first reported by the Financial Times last week, emerged in an apparently leaked internal document from a state-run telecom giant that has apparently been tasked with providing them with internet services.

The China Mobile docu-ment, which has circulated on social media and overseas Chi-nese websites since last week, reveals plans for at least five ref-

ugee camps in Jilin province. The document says: “Due

to cross-border tensions, the (Communist) party commit-tee and government of Chang-bai county has proposed setting

up five refugee camps in the county.”

It gives the names and loca-tions of three such facilities: Changbai riverside, Chang-bai Shibalidaogou and Chang-

bai Jiguanlizi. A spokesman for China’s Foreign Ministry declined to confirm the camps’ existence at a regular press briefing on Monday but did not deny they were being built.

“I haven’t seen such reports,” the Guardian quoted Lu Kang as saying.

Cheng Xiaohe, a North Korea specialist from Ren-min University in Beijing, said while he could not confirm whether the document was gen-uine, it would be irresponsi-ble for China not to make such preparations.

Tensions on the Korean peninsula have soared this year as US President Donald Trump has stepped up pressure on his North Korean counterpart and Pyongyang has accelerated its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes. AGENCIES

Tensions on the Korean peninsula have soared this year as Donald Trump has stepped up pressure on his North Korean counterpart

Ullah, who had a homemade bomb strapped to his body, set off an explosion in an underground pedestrian corridor between New York’s Times Square and the Port Authority Bus Terminal at rush hour, injuring himself and three others in what New York Mayor Bill de Blasio called an attempted terrorist attack

Pentagon to allow transgender people to enlist in military

WASHINGTON: Transgender recruits will be allowed to enlist in the military beginning Jan. 1, the Pentagon said Monday, as President Donald Trump’s ordered ban suffered more legal setbacks.

The new policy reflects the difficult hurdles the federal gov-ernment would have to cross to enforce Trump’s demand ear-lier this year to bar transgender individuals from the military.

Three federal courts have ruled against the ban, includ-ing one Monday in Washing-ton state.

In October, US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly barred the Trump administra-tion from proceeding with its plan to exclude transgender people from military service. Part of the effect of the ruling was that the military would be required to allow transgen-der people to enlist beginning Jan. 1.

The government had asked Kollar-Kotelly to put the Jan. 1 date on hold while they appealed her full ruling but she declined Monday, reaffirming the Jan 1 start date. AGENCIES

Man arrested trying to climb wall at Buckingham Palace

LONDON: British police on Monday said they had arrested a man who tried to climb a wall at Queen Eliz-abeth’s Buckingham Palace home in central London, but said that the incident was not terrorism-related.

The 24-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of tres-pass on Sunday evening, three minutes after he stepped over a low outer perimeter fence near the palace, the Metro-politan Police said.

“The man was not found in possession of any offensive weapons and the incident is not being treated as terror-ist related,” police said in a statement.

He has been released on conditional bail and has undergone a mental health assessment.

British police are on high alert after five attacks blamed on terrorism this year. In August, a man wielding a sword outside the palace was charged under terrorism laws. Three police officers suffered

minor injuries detaining him.A number of people have

tried to get into the palace grounds in recent years. A woman was arrested in Octo-ber for attempting to scale the gates of the palace.

In May 2016, a man with a conviction for murder climbed over the wall and walked for about 10 minutes around the grounds of the pal-ace before being arrested. He was jailed for four months.

Four years ago, a man armed with a knife tried to enter through a gate and was later jailed for 16 months. A month earlier, two men were arrested following a break-in at the palace.

One of the biggest security breaches at Buckingham Pal-ace happened in 1982 when an intruder, Michael Fagan, climbed a wall and wandered into a room where the queen was in bed. AGENCIES

Explosion at major Austrian gas hub, 1 deadVIENNA: An explosion rocked one of Europe’s biggest gas pipeline hubs in Austria on tuesday, leaving one per-son dead and 18 injured, emer-gency services said.

The incident happened at Baumgarten east of Vienna, Austria’s largest reception point and the main distribu-tion hub for gas imports from Russia, Norway and elsewhere.

“An explosion occurred at 8:45 am (local time), followed by a fire,” police spokesman Edmund Tragschitz told AFP, adding that the cause was not immediately clear. “Things are under control,” he said. He later put the number of people hurt, including one seriously as well as those with minor injuries, at around 60.

But Red Cross spokes-woman Sonja Kellner told the Austria Press Agency that one

person had been killed and 18 injured. Police said on social media that people should avoid the area around Baumgarten near Austria’s eastern border with Slovakia.

Several fire brigades from the surrounding area were called in to help.

The Baumgarten gas hub receives some 40 billion cubic metres of gas annually and redistributes it elsewhere in Europe including to Germany and northern Italy. AGENCIES

Chinese indulging in crime will be tried in PakistanISLAMABAD: Chinese expatriates involved in criminal activities in Paki-stan will face punitive action, officials said. Pakistan has witnessed a rapid increase in the number of Chinese nationals due to development projects and joint ventures under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). Some Chinese expatriates, however, were found to be involved in criminal activities including fraud, Dawn online reported. The matter was discussed at

a joint meeting of the Home Depart-ment and the Vice Consul General of China. The consul said Beijing had no objection if legal action was taken against Chinese nationals for involve-ment in criminal activities. A police of-ficial said no major offence committed by Chinese nationals had come into notice so far. But minor offences like getting drunk was common. In March, two Chinese were arrested in Pakistan for ATM skimming fraud. AGENCIES

ICA-2534(2)/2017

Cooch Behar Zilla Parishad Cooch Behar

E-Notice Inviting Tender ( in brief)Following e-Tenders are herby invited on behalf of Cooch Behar Zilla Parishad vide NIT No WBZP/69/DE-ET/COB/2017-18 for Beautification of Garden & 70/DE-ET/COB/2017-18 for construction of road for which last date of Technical & Financial bid submission - 26.12.2017 up to 6.00 P.M. For details the website https: // etender.wb.nic.in may be accessed. Sd/-

Addl. Executive OfficerCooch Behar Zilla Parishad

Cooch Behar

Government of West Bengal Office of the C.M.O.H., Paschim Medinipur

Zilla Swasthya Bhavan, Saratpally, Paschim Medinipur, Medinipur, 721101 Phone - 03222-273775, Fax-03222-275695, E-mail:dhfws_mid_west@yahoo.com

No. HC/Re-e-Tender/Security/5903 Date:08.12.17e-TENDER NOTICE

C.M.O.H., Paschim Medinipore invites e-tender for engagement of Security Services for Kharagpur Sub-divisional Hospital, Ghatal Sub-divisional Hospital, Paschim Medinipore for the period from 2017-2020. For details please visit the website — https://wbtenders.gov.in & www.wbhealth.gov.in and the Notice Board of the office of the CMOH, Paschim Medinipore. Online document download start date on 09.12.2017 10.00 A.M. Online bid submission closing date & time-26.12.2017 up to 4.00 PM

Sd/- Chief Medical Officer HealthPaschim Medinipur

District Hospital, HOWRAHNIT No.3961/Supdt/DHH, Dt.12.12.2017 Tender is hereby invited for the Laboratory Investigation Service for the District Hospital, Howrah. Last Date of application submission: 29/12/2017 within 3.30 p.m Please Visit: www.healthyhowrah.org

Sd/- SuperintendentDistrict Hospital, Howrah

mp world 11MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi |Wednesday, 13 December, 2017

Lawmakers seek probe into Trump’s sexual allegations

WASHINGTON: Over 50 Democratic women lawmakers have sought a thorough con-gressional probe into the sexual misconduct allegations against President Donald Trump, say-ing a full inquiry into the accu-sations was “long overdue”.

In a letter sent to Chair-man and Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reforms, the 54 women law-makers who signed it noted that in the time of “Me Too”, women across the US were coming forward with their own harrowing stories of sex-ual harassment and assault.

“Members of Con-gress have also come under scrutiny and investiga-tion, with some resigning, for improper sexual conduct,” the letter said.

“We cannot ignore the multitude of women who have come forward with accusations against Trump. With that said, the President should be allowed to present evidence in his own defence,” it said.

President Trump lashed out at Democrats for targeting him with “false accusations and fab-

ricated stories.”“Despite thousands of

hours wasted and many millions of dollars spent, the Democrats have been unable to show any collusion with Russia - so now they are moving on to the false accu-sations and fabricated stories of women who I don t know and/or have never met. FAKE

NEWS!,” Trump tweeted.The allegations of sexual

misconduct against 71-year-old Trump have received renewed attention recently after several prominent men in the worlds of politics, enter-tainment and media have been accused of sexual harassment, assault and rape.

Over the past two

years, about 16 women have accused Trump of mak-ing unwanted sexual advances against them prior to his assuming the presidency.

Three of the Trump’s accus-ers at a news conference yes-terday demanded that the US Congress investigate their allegations against the US President.

They detailed their accounts of being groped, fondled and forcibly kissed by the business-man-turned-politician.

Last year, Trump dismissed the allegations as “false”.

He downplayed his remarks in a video that showed him making lewd remarks as noth-ing more than “locker room talk” at the second presidential debate and said he has never kissed or groped women with-out consent.

White House Press Secre-tary Sarah Sanders said yes-terday the president had addressed the accusations directly and denied all of these allegations.

“This took place long before he was elected to be President. And the people of this country, at a decisive election, supported President Trump, and we feel like these allegations have been answered through that pro-cess,” Sanders told reporters at her daily news conference.

As the President said himself, he thinks it’s a good thing that women are com-ing forward, but he also feels strongly that a mere allegation shouldn’t determine the course, she said. AGENCIES

Trump will bring US back into climate

deal: Macron

PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron has said he believes US President Don-ald Trump will bring Wash-ington back into the Paris deal on combating climate change.

But Macron said in an inter-view to CBS News on Mon-day that he will not agree to Trump’s demand that Ameri-ca’s terms should be negotiated.

The French President, on the eve of a climate sum-mit he arranged in Paris, condemned the manner in which the US had signed an international deal, then withdrawn from it.

“The US did sign the Paris agreement. It’s extremely aggressive to decide on its own just to leave and no way to push the others to renegotiate because one decided to leave the floor. I’m sorry to say that. It doesn’t fly,” said Macron.

Macron told CBS he was not willing to be accused by future generations of under-standing the extent of the cli-mate problem but doing too little to solve it.

Scientists were waiting to see whether Tuesday’s sum-mit of 50 senior ministers and Prime Ministers will achieve its aim of giving a boost to the current sluggish progress on cutting emissions, the BBC

reported.The important announce-

ments to be made on key financial issues included rais-ing cash to give poor countries clean energy, stopping devel-opment banks lending for new coal plants and insisting that firms disclose any fossil fuel assets that might be devalued if governments clamp down on emissions.

On being asked, the French President called his relation-ship with his US counterpart “very direct” and said that he was frank about his opposi-tion to Washington recogniz-ing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. AGENCIES

We see Trump’s tweets as official statements: KremlinMOSCOW: Tweets by US President Donald Trump are viewed in Moscow as his official position and read by his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin said on Tuesday. A prolific user of Twitter before he was elected late last year, Trump has continued to use the social media platform to voice his views on policy and world affairs since moving into the White House. Kremlin spokes-man Dmitry Peskov said it was not his place to comment on Trump’s actions, but added: “In any case, everything

which is published from his authorised Twitter account is perceived by Moscow as his official statement. “Naturally, it is reported to Putin along with other infor-mation about official statements by poli-ticians,” Peskov said, adding that Putin was not a Twitter user himself. Trump’s activity on Twitter have previously cause controversy. His tweets sparked outrage in Britain last month and a sharp rebuke of Prime Minister Theresa May when he retweeted anti Islam videos from a Brit-ish far-right group. AGENCIES

Magnitude 6.2 quake hits

southeastern IranTEHRAN: A 6.2-magnitude earthquake struck Iran’s south-eastern province of Kerman on tuesday, the Iranian seis-mological centre reported, though media reported mini-mal damage.

A woman was taken to hos-pital for injuries in the town of Ravar, and old houses in six vil-lages were damaged, Fars news agency quoted the country’s emergency services chief as saying an hour after the quake.

It struck at 12:13 pm (0843 GMT) with the epicentre near the town of Hejdak, some 50 kilometres north of the pro-vincial capital of Kerman and about 800 kilometres from Teh-ran. It was measured as magni-tude 5.9 by the US Geological Survey and several smaller aftershocks were reported.

Schools were closed in some areas of the province, ISNA news agency reported.

Iran sits on several fault-lines, and on tuesday’s quake comes less than a day after a 6.0-magnitude tremor struck the western province of Ker-manshah along the border with Iraq. On November 12, Ker-manshah was hit by a major 7.3- magnitude quake that killed 620 people according to the latest toll provided yester-day by Tasnim news agency. Iran’s worst quake in recent years struck near the city of Bam in 2003, by a 6.6 -magni-tude tremor that killed at least 31,000 people. AGENCIES

EU demands Brexit agreement made

legally binding

LONDON: The Brexit agree-ment struck by Theresa May last week must be turned into a legally binding treaty if the UK wants to progress to trade talks, the EU is set to insist – after the British government appeared to row back from its commitments just days after it was agreed.

The Independent under-stands that the European Parliament is to revise its red lines following comments by David Davis that the agree-ment was just a “statement of intent” and claims in the Commons by Ms May that the UK would not be bound to pay its divorce bill if no trade talk was inked.

Meanwhile, a leaked draft copy of the European Council’s text on last week’s agreement, set to be agreed by EU27 heads of state and government on Friday, shows

the countries will insist that the UK start drafting the deal into law.

MEPs are said to be “pissed off” with Mr Davis’s comments despite the Brexit Secretary having backed away from them the next day and claiming he meant the deal was “more than just legally enforceable”.

A draft of the Thursday and Friday summit’s conclu-sions reported by The Times says: “Negotiations in the sec-ond phase can only progress as long as all commitments undertaken during the first phase are respected in full and translated faithfully in legal terms as quickly as pos-sible.” While the European Parliament’s resolution is still being drafted, it is understood that the text is likely to con-tain similar demands to the council’s text. AGENCIES

2 Palestinians killed in Israeli

airstrikes on GazaGAZA: Israeli airstrikes killed two Palestinians riding a motorbike in northern Gaza Strip, officials said on Tuesday.

Eyewitnesses and paramed-ics said an Israeli missile hit a motorbike killing two riders which the Israeli Army spokes-man has denied, Xinhua news agency reported.

The deceased, identified as Hassan Ghazi Nasrallah and Mustafa al-Sultan, were mem-bers of Islamic Jihad armed wing Saraya al-Quds, said Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qedra.

The tension in the Gaza Strip has been escalating since US President Donald Trump declared Jerusalem as the cap-ital of Israel last week. Several rockets were fired. AGENCIES

Charles Jenkins, US soldier who defected to North Korea, dies aged 77WASHINGTON: Charles Jenkins, a US soldier who defected to North Korea and later married a Japanese victim of the regime’s cold war ab-ductions, has died in Japan aged 77. Jenkins, a native of North Carolina, became an unlikely celebrity in Japan after his wife, Hitomi Soga, was freed by North Korea in 2002 and returned to her native country. Two years later, he and the couple’s two daughters, Mika and Brinda, joined Soga and

settled in her hometown on the remote Sea of Japan island of Sado. In the US, however, some regarded Jenkins as a traitor after details emerged of his defection to the com-munist North in 1965, at the height of the cold war. He was accused of deserting his unit while on patrol in South Korea and fleeing to North Korea, where he taught English and occasionally played sinster Ameri-cans in propaganda films. AGENCIES

TRUMP’S UK VISIT EXPECTED IN 2018LONDON: The US Ambas-sador to Britain has said he expects President Donald Trump to visit the UK in the new year despite his Twit-ter row with British Prime Minister Theresa May, the media reported on Tuesday. Woody Johnson told the BBC on Monday night that the dis-agreement was “probably misinterpreted”. Johnson said Trump’s relationship with the UK was still “very very good”.Trump has not yet set a date for the visit. AGENCIES

The French President, on the eve of a climate summit he arranged in Paris, condemned the manner in which the US had signed an international deal, then withdrawn from it

L-R Rachel Crooks, Jessica Leeds and Samantha Holvey attend a news conference in New York to discuss their accusations of sexual misconduct against Donald Trump

Thailand welcomes easing of EU

political sanctionsBANGKOK: Thailand’s mili-tary junta has welcomed the European Union’s decision to ease political sanctions imposed against it for over-throwing an elected govern-ment in 2014.

The EU’s announcement is “good news” that underscores positive developments under military rule, Thai Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai said Tuesday.

The EU’s Foreign Affairs Council announced Mon-day that it was “appropriate to pursue a gradual politi-cal re-engagement with Thai-land” because it had improved human rights conditions, adopted a new constitution and set an election date for 2018.

The EU suspended official visits with Thailand in response to the coup.

It said it would continue to review its relationship with Thailand while watching for the lifting of media restrictions and ban on political activities, and “the installation of a dem-ocratically elected civilian gov-ernment.” The EU also urged the junta not to try civilians in military courts on charges of insulting the royal family, or lese majeste. Thailand’s lese majeste law is the harshest in the world, providing punish-ment of up to 15 years in prison per offense. AGENCIES

millenniumpostNO H ALF TR U THS

millenniumpost.in

I, Monika Devi W/o Shri Brijesh Kasana R/o A-85-92, Milan Garden, Mandoli Delhi-93 That my both the names i.e. Mukesh Devi or Monika Devi are names and both are same person. That Mukesh Devi would hencefroth be known as Monika Devi by virtu of our marriage.

CHANGE OF NAME

OFFICE OF THE SUPERINTENDING ENGINEER PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT, CIRCLE NO-1 RAIPUR (C.G.)

Tender Notice (1stCall) Contractors, Registered appropriate class in Unified Registration System [e- Registration]

invited Online tenders for the following works :-

Note :- All eligible/interested contractors are mandated to get enrolled on the e Procurement portal (https://eproc.cgstate.gov.in) in order to download the tender documents and participate in the subsequent bidding process. Superintending Engineer

P.W.D. Raipur Circle No-1 G 46368/4 Raipur (C.G.)

mp business12MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Wednesday, 13 December, 2017

NEW DELHI: India Inc's merger and acquisition activ-ity registered a growth of 55 per cent year- on-year in November with deals worth $3.2 billion, powered by big-ticket transactions and revival in cross-border activity, says a report.

According to assurance, tax and advisory firm Grant Thornton, cross-border deal tally logged an over seven-fold increase in value terms in November. The month recorded four cross-border transactions valued at over $100 million compared to only one such deal in Novem-ber 2016.

In November, there were 39 M&A transactions worth $3,217 million while in the same period last year, there were 45 deals worth of $2,074 million.

"Aggregate value of M&A transactions increased by over 50 per cent despite a minor dip in transaction vol-umes. This increase was pri-marily driven by a couple of cross-border transactions in telecom, pharma, healthcare and biotech sectors aggregat-ing $1.9 billion," said Prashant Mehra Partner at Grant Thorn-ton India LLP.

Compared to October 2017, the M&A deal space in Novem-ber has been encouraging with

an 8 per cent jump in volumes while the value dropped by 15 per cent on account of reduced big- ticket transactions.

November did not see any deal in the billion dollar cat-egory compared to one in October.

In January-November, there were 389 merger and acquisition deals worth $39.86 billion, registering a 7 per cent decline in value terms and 20 per cent fall in terms of number of transactions over the equiva-lent period last year.

Sector-wise, pharma and healthcare led the counter in November, accounting for 42 per cent of total deal value, driven by Fortis Healthcare's

acquisition of Indian portfolio of RHT health trust for $715 million.

November also wit-nessed Torrent Pharma's big-gest acquisition till date with Unichem Laboratories' Indian and Nepal businesses for $554 million. Its last big-ticket acquisition was in December 2013 valued at $322 million to acquire Elder Pharma's India and Nepal businesses.

IT and ITeS and start-up sectors led the deal vol-ume tally, taking a 36 per cent share, mainly a result of revived domestic investor interest in the IT solutions and fintech space, respectively, the report said. PTI

India Inc November M&A deal tally grows 55% to $3.2 billion

NEW DELHI: Equity mutual funds registered an inflow of over Rs 20,000 crore in Novem-ber, buoyed by strong partic-ipation from retail investors coupled with lacklustre perfor-mance of real estate and gold.

This has taken the total inflow into such funds to over Rs 1.16 lakh crore in the first eight months of the ongoing financial year, as per the latest data with the Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi).

"The key contributor to this being significant flows in to equity through new funds and Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs).

We also see greater adoption of online investments starting to positively impact equity fund inflows," Sharekhan Investment Solutions Director Stefan Groe-ning said.

According to Amfi data, equity funds, which also include equity-linked sav-ing schemes (ELSS), saw net inflows of Rs 20,308 crore in November, compared to Rs 16,002 crore in the preceding

month. It stood at Rs 18,936 crore in September.

This also marks the 20th straight month of inflows into equity schemes. Prior to that, such funds had witnessed a pullout of Rs 1,370 crore in March 2016.

This was also the fifth con-secutive month that saw net monthly inflows in excess of Rs 10,000 crore. The strong inflow has pushed the asset base of equity mutual funds to Rs 7.33 lakh crore at the end of Novem-ber, from Rs 7.08 lakh crore in the month before.

SIPs have been the pre-ferred route for retail inves-tors in mutual funds as it helps them bring down market tim-ing risks. It is an investment vehicle that allows investors to invest in small amounts peri-odically, instead of lump sum amount. The frequency of investment is usually weekly, monthly or quarterly.

The industry received about Rs 5,893 crore last month through SIPs compared to Rs 5,621 crore in October. PTI

Retail investors push Nov equity MF

inflows to ̀ 20,000 cr

MUMBAI: The markets regu-lator is "seriously" looking into the complaints about some individuals allegedly circulat-ing key financial details and other market moving informa-tion about listed companies on social media groups before they are made officially public.

Securities and Exchange Board chairman Ajay Tyagi on Tuesday confirmed that the regulator has come to know of instances wherein price-sensi-tive financial data of reputed companies was leaked to right before the earnings were for-mally made public.

"We are taking that (What-sApp leaks) very seriously.

How come such messages about reputed listed compa-nies are leaked quite close to the financial results is something we are not going to sit quietly on," Tyagi told reporters on the side-lines of an investment banking summit here.

A reported by PTI earlier, Sebi and the exchanges are examining trade details of over two dozen stocks as part of a probe into the alleged leak of key financial details through social

media platform WhatsApp. The regulator is also considering seeking call data records of the persons involved.

The companies include sev-eral blue-chips, officials had said earlier. Besides, Sebi is also considering seeking call data records (CDRs) of all the per-sons involved in the circulating such key financial details and other price-sensitive informa-tion about publicly traded com-panies on social media groups before they are made public.

The regulator has powers to seek call data records, excluding the exact content of the commu-nication, from telecom service providers.

Sebi will also seek clarifica-tion from brokerages and listed firms if such individuals were found to be associated with them. PTI

Sebi to probe data leaks via social media: Chief Tyagi

MUMBAI: The markets watch-dog Sebi is planning to make the initial public offering (IPO) pro-cess easier and faster by simpli-fying the entire procedures with a focus on reducing the listing time to four days from six now.

The Securities and Exchange Board (Sebi) has already reduced the listing time from the seven days in the past to six days after the close of the bidding. This still blocks the fund of an investor if she/he could not get the entire sub-scription locked in for those many days time.

Earlier, the regulator had ended the practice of allow-ing the issuer to block the entire subscription amount in demat accounts by allowing the money to be blocked in the investor's account through the Absa facility. PTI

... May reduce listing time from six to four days

BUENOS AIRES: Jack Ma, the founder and executive chair-man of Alibaba, on Tuesdday urged WTO members to adopt easier and transparent rules for e-commerce so as to support small businesses and encourage them to succeed in the global marketplace.

"E-commerce is future...it is the solution for small business," Ma said. He was addressing a session to launch an initiative, 'Enabling e-commerce' to pro-mote policies and practices for small businesses on the side-lines of the 11th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO).

The presence of the world's leading e-commerce player at the WTO is significant as member countries are divided over the way the issue should be handled by the multilateral trade body.

While some countries want to push e-commerce to the negotiating table, India and others maintain that binding rules would restrict the policy space to deal with the emerging sector, and favour the continua-tion of 1998 Work Programme with non-negotiating mandate.

Ma said policies dealing with e-commerce should be improved and modernised as it is an important platform for small businesses.

He said: "The problem with globalisation is that its benefits have not been made available to all. We cannot stop globalisa-tion, we must improve it.

"If businesses and govern-

ment work together, we can create a more inclusive trade model to expand the benefits of globalisation to those who have been left behind."

The Enabling e-commerce initiative, he added, envisions a world where small businesses, young people and developing countries can succeed in global marketplace.

WTO Director General Roberto Azevedo said that e-commerce can lift up small businesses around the world.

"The vibrant debate on these issues has shown the desire of many WTO members to bridge the digital divide, and to gain a deeper understanding of the challenges and opportunities of e-commerce," said Azevedo.

The Enabling e-commerce is a joint initiative of the WTO, the World Economic Forum (WEF) and the electronic World Trade Platform (eWTP).

Founder of e-commerce giant Alibaba, Ma had came out with the concept of eWTP to bring small and medium-sized enterprises more fully into the global economy. PTI

CHANDIGARH: Retirement fund body EPFO on Tues-day advised subscribers not to completely withdraw funds for petty reasons, saying they will lose out on the social security benefits that come only when continuity is maintained.

The Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) further said that PF money aimed at social security bene-fit and people should not treat it like a bank account.

"We want to convey all our members not to be tempted to make final withdrawals from their Provident Fund balances unless and until it is really nec-essary. They should continue to live with the fund until they retire from service, that is our primary objective.

"...we are discouraging peo-ple withdrawing in full for petty reasons, because they are not only losing on their PF money, they are also losing out big time on old age security and pension," V Ranganath, Addi-tional Commissioner, Central PF Commissioner, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh, said.

The EPFO's zonal office here, covering states of Punjab and Himachal Pradesh, held a press conference on Tues-day with a view to disseminate information in this regard and also to highlight several initia-tives that have been taken by it.

"By withdrawal, we mean final payment. For example, you say I have quit the job at place X today and you are not going to be employed, and

whatever balance you have you want that to be given to you. Part withdrawal is what we call the advance which a member draws from his/her PF account, which is not going to impact the membership," he said.

EPFO's objective was to make people aware about all its initiatives, especially in the introduction of new facilities and schemes such as Prad-han Mantri Rozgar Yojana for

the employer and the hous-ing scheme for the employ-ees, which has really made it easy for people to dip into their funds to avail loan facility in an easy manner.

It is very important for employers to be aware of the benefits that the government has set aside by subsidising the pension component of his share under the Pradhan Man-tri Rozgar Yojana.

"So, for him this is a win-win situation, the fresh employ-ment is also generated, the load on the employer is also offset and the cost of compliance is really cheap for the employer. So, what is happening here is the 12 per cent that employee contributes and the 12 per cent which is flowing into the employee's account, of that 8.33 per cent which belongs to the employer is returned by the government to the employer.

"These are the schemes which we really want to press forward and make the people aware, the people here I mean the employer as well as the employee," he said.

Ranganath said it is a situ-ation today where the digitisa-tion or the digital movement

is really enabling the EPFO to go forward and introduce lot of things more aggressively.

Replying to a question, he said in his zone, comprising of Punjab and Himachal Pradesh, there are over 61,000 enrolled establishments, while there are about 10.11 lakh contributing members.

Replying to another ques-tion, he said how pension is calculated is unique to every individual depending on the factors like length of service, contributions made etc.

About other initiatives of EPFO, Ranganath said two years back a Universal Account Number was introduced to facilitate members, which also helps them in case they change their jobs. PTI

EPFO advises members against fully withdrawing funds

Need easier rules of e-commerce, says Alibaba’s Jack Ma

MELBOURNE: In a setback to India’s energy giant Adani, the newly-elected Queensland government has vetoed a plan to give a 900-million dollar conces-sional loan for the construction of a rail line in the controversy-hit Carmichael coal mine proj-ect in Australia.

The Adani group had applied for the Northern Aus-tralia Infrastructure Facility (NAIF) loan worth 900 mil-lion dollars for building the 388-km rail line to connect the major coal mine to the sea port.

The 16.5 billion dollar Car-michael coal mine project is one of the world’s largest.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, after being sworn in, wrote to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to veto an almost $1 billion conces-sional loan for the Adani mine, Brisbane Times reported. She also tweeted a photo of her letter, fulfilling a major poll promise

she had made during the elec-tion campaign to put a stop to the NAIF loan on her first day.

“As I committed during the election campaign, I have today written to the Prime Minister exercising Queensland’s veto over any NAIF funding for the Adani rail line,” she said in a tweet. Earlier last month after reports of conflict of interest emerged, Palaszczuk said her government will exercise its ‘veto’ to not support the NAIF loan to remove doubt about any perception of conflict.

Meanwhile, an Adani Aus-tralia spokesperson said in a statement that the company will

now fully consider and adjust to the constraints the veto of NAIF funding brings.

“We would not be investing our time, money and energy in this manner if our projects were not viable and if we were not serious about delivering our projects which will ultimately generate more than 10,000 direct and indirect jobs across all of our projects,” the state-ment said.

Adani Australia currently employs over 800 people and has invested over 3.3 billion dol-lar in Queensland, which is one of the biggest investments by an Indian company in Austra-lia, it said.

The projects are viewed in a positive light by the Queensland government and considered as critical infrastructure invest-ments, it said, adding that the projects continue to retain the support of the Queensland gov-ernment. AGENCIES

Queensland vetoes loan support to Adani project

NAGPUR: Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) owes "additional sur-charge" of more than Rs 1,900 crore to state- run agency MMRDA for delay in devel-opment of plots in Mumbai, the Maharashtra Assembly was informed on Tuesday.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis gave this information while responding to a query by MLA Sharad Sonawane dur-ing the Question Hour of the Winter Session, which is held in Nagpur.

The MLA from Junnar in Pune district had sought to know the names of the com-panies which have not paid surcharge for delay in plot development to the MMRDA (Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority).

In a written reply in the Lower House, Fadnavis said: "Construction in the G-block of Bandra Kurla Complex owned by MMRDA was not completed by some firms within the (stipulated) four-year period. Hence, additional surcharge for such a delay has not been paid yet by some com-panies, including RIL."

"The dues include Rs 441.08 crore for plot number C-66 and Rs 1,538.73 crore for plot num-ber C-64 from RIL alone," said

Fadnavis, who is also Chair-man of the authority.

RIL is constructing a con-vention-cum-exhibition cen-tre in Bandra Kurla Complex, an upscale business district in Mumbai's suburbs.

There was no immediate comment from RIL on the issue.

Fadnavis said the other companies which have "not yet paid their dues are the Indian Newspaper Society (Rs 56.02 crore for plot number C-63, Jamunaben Foundation (Rs 24.09 crore for plot numbers SF 7 and 9B), Talim Research Foundation (Rs 33.39 crore for plot number SF 6) and Naman Hotel Rs 31.68 crore for plot numbers C-57 and 58".

These companies have not paid the surcharge for the last many years, he said.

The outstanding figures were issued by MMRDA under RTI queries. PTI

RIL owes over ̀ 1,900 crore in surcharge dues to MMRDA

MOSCOW: India and Russia are likely to sign a contract soon on sale of Russian S-400 Triumf air defence system, a senior Rus-sian official said, describing dis-cussions on the deal to be at a "very profound stage".

Presently discussions are going on the exact number of S 400 Triumf air defence systems that will be bought by India, according to Viktor N Kladov, director for international coop-eration and regional policy of Rostec, a state-owned Russian defence and industrial group.

Asked when will the con-tract be signed, Kladov said, "As soon as they prepare the con-tract it will be signed...I cannot give you the time as I don't know but anytime in future because the two teams are working very hard".

"It is being discussed and it is still at a very profound stage. Technical details are being dis-cussed. The two teams are work-ing very hard on negotiations. It is a very sophisticated system, lots of technical details are to be looked into.

"It also includes pricing, training, transfer of technolo-gies, setting up of command and control centers. Even if we supply it now you can't use it as it will take two years to train your personnel only then you can use it," Kladov said.

India had announced in October last year a deal on the Triumf air defence sys-tems from Russia, worth over $5 billion and collaborate in making four state-of-the-art frigates besides setting up a joint production facility for making

Kamov helicopters. The deals were announced following talks between Prime Minister Naren-dra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) Summit held in Goa last year.

The S-400 Triumf long-range air defence missile sys-tem has the capability to destroy

incoming hostile aircraft, mis-siles and even drones at ranges of up to 400 km. India and Rus-sia have been in talks for over a year for the purchase of at least five systems of S-400 that will be a game changer in the region. It is capable of firing three types of missiles, creating a layered defence, and simultaneously engaging 36 targets. While talk-

ing about the India-Russia joint venture contract for production of 200 Kamov 226T helicopters for the Indian armed forces, Kladov said he is hopeful that Russia would start supplying helicopters by the end of 2018, if the contract is signed in the beginning of 2018.

"I hope you (India) start receiving the first batch of heli-copters by the end of 2018, if the contract is signed in Janu-ary-February of 2018. But if the contract is signed at the end of 2018, then you will receive it in 2019. People are asking us when the contract will be signed but it is no longer our business, it is the business of the joint venture team. It is the joint venture team which is looking into it, which is largely controlled by the Indian side," Kladov said. PTI

India, Russia may ink S-400 Triumf air defence system contract

NEW DELHI: State-owned lender IDBI Bank on Tuesday said it will sell 30 per cent stake in NSDL e-Governance Infra-structure Ltd (NEGIL).

This is a part of exercise to exit from non-core business.

The "board of directors of IDBI Bank... have by way of circular resolution approved sale of 1,20,00,000 equity shares of NSDL e-Governance Infra-structure Ltd (NEGIL) consti-tuting 30 per cent stake held by the bank", it said in a filing to stock exchanges.

Last month, IDBI Bank's board also approved sale of 1.5 per cent stake in the lead-ing bourse National Stock Exchange (NSE). PTI

IDBI Bank to sell 30% stake

in NEGIL

NEW DELHI: State-run BHEL on Tuesday announced com-missioning of a 54 MW coal-fired captive power project in Indonesia. The 3x18 MW power project located at Sangatta, East Kalimantan, Indonesia has been set up by BHEL for PT Citra Kusuma Perdana (PT CKP) for their coal-mining operations, BHEL said in a statement.

For the project, the com-pany has designed, engineered, manufactured and supplied the boiler, turbine and generator (BTG) island and associated auxiliaries along with supervi-sory services during erection and commissioning. BHEL has executed several projects in Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.

In Indonesia, the company has earlier successfully executed a 2x30 MW boiler project for PT Makmur Sejahtera Wisesa (PT MSW); and 2x11 MW and 1x15 MW captive power projects for PT Indo Bharat Rayon (PT IBR).

An integrated power plant equipment manufacturer with over 50 years of experience, the company today has a presence in 82 countries in the six con-tinents and has installed nearly 180 GW globally. PTI

Bhel launches coal-fired

power plant in Indonesia

NEW DELHI: Beverages major Coca-Cola India on Tuesday launched a variant of Maaza as it expects the mango fruit drink to become a $1 billion brand by 2023.

"With the launch of Maaza Gold, the company is expand-ing its product portfolio in line with consumers' taste. The com-pany at the same time is also accelerating Maaza's journey towards becoming a home-grown billion dollar brand by 2023," Coca-Cola India & South West Asia Director Marketing Juices Srideep Kesavan said.

The Coca-Cola Company said, it along with its bottling partners in India, procures approximately 1 lakh metric tonne of mango pulp annually. The new variant 'Maaza Gold' offers thicker and smoother mango drink. In 1993, Coca-Cola India acquired Maaza along with Thums Up and Limca from Parle Bisleri. PTI

Coca-Cola India launches Maaza variant in big way

MUMBAI: Microfinance Institutions Network (MFIN) in association with Equifax, a global information solutions company, on Tuesday launched an employee bureau for the microfinance sector.

The bureau will help employers to verify and authenticate the employment details of the talent pool.

MFIN's chief executive offi-cer, Ratna Vishwanathan, said, at present, NBFC-MFI indus-try consists of nearly 80,000 employees and there is a lot of cross movement of the staff especially at the field level, with very little formal background and employment verifications.

"Th database will have non-finance information, that is, excluding salary information of all employees of participat-ing MFIs with a unique key identifier to allow on board-ing of employees," she said on Tuesday. PTI

MFIN, Equifax open staff bureau

for MFI sector

mp business 13MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Wednesday, 13 December, 2017

NEW DELHI: A minor fire broke out on Tuesday at one of the units of Indian Oil Corp's (IOC) Paradip refinery in Odi-sha but it was put out quickly.

No one was injured in the accident, IOC said in a statement.

"The cause of the fire is being investigated," it said.

Operations at all other units of 15 million tonnes a year Paradip Refinery are normal, IOC said.

"A minor incident of fire took place in the FCC-Indmax Unit at around 11.15 am on Tuesday. The fire was put out immediately," the statement said. "There has been no injury to personnel or damage to property due to the incident."

Fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) is one of the most impor-tant conversion processes used in petroleum refineries.

It produces fuels like petrol.IOC did not say if the fuel

production would be impacted by the fire. PTI

Food, fuel prices push November inflation to 15-month-high 4.88%NEW DELHI: Retail inflation hit a 15-month high of 4.88 per cent in November due to costlier fuel, vegetables and eggs, as per data released by the Central Sta-tistics Office (CSO) on Tuesday.

The inflation, based on Con-sumer Price Index (CPI), was at 3.58 per cent in October.

It was 3.63 per cent in November 2016. The previous high was recorded at 5.05 per cent in August last year.

Inflation in protein rich eggs shot to 7.95 per cent in Novem-ber on annual basis, as against 0.69 per cent in the previous month. In the fuel and light seg-ment, it was 7.92 per cent, as against 6.36 in October.

For vegetables it was 22.48 per cent in November. The infla-tion in the segment was a only 7.47 per cent in October.

However, in the pulses seg-ment the print continued to show disinflationary trend as it contracted by 23.53 per cent on annual basis.

On overall basis, the infla-tion in the food segment increased to 4.42 per cent in November as compared to 1.9 per cent in the preceding month.

Both the Consumer Prices Index and the Retail Prices Index measure inflation. Each aim to measure the changes in the cost of buying a ‘basket’ of

products, but they cover dif-ferent items and differences in formulae used to calculate the inflation rate mean that CPI is often lower than RPI. AGENCIES

%

Cereals and products

Meat & fish

Eggs

Milk and products

Fruits

Vegetables

Sugar and confectionery

Spices

Non-alcoholic beverages

Food and beverages

Pan, tobacco andintoxicants

Clothing and footwear

Housing

November2017

Consumer Price Inflation

Annual rate of inflation based onConsumer Price Index

KBK graphicsInfoSource:

Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation

(Provisional

figures)

Base: 2012=100

November 2017: 4.88%

3.63%November 2016:

Oils and fats

Prepared meals,snacks, sweets etc.

Fuel and light

Miscellaneous

Consumer foodprice inflation

Overall Inflation (All Groups)

Pulses &products

7.95

3.27

3.27

4.52

1.10

6.19

22.48

-23.53

-2.08

2.46

5.01

7.80

4.41

7.75

4.96

7.36

7.92

3.63

4.42

NEW DELHI: Industrial pro-duction growth hit a three-month low of 2.2 per cent in October this year, mainly due to subdued performance of man-ufacturing and mining sectors coupled with a contraction in output of consumer durables.

The factory output, mea-sured in terms of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), had witnessed a rise of 4.2 per cent in October 2016, data released by the Central Statis-tics Office (CSO) showed on Tuesday.

When compared on a monthly basis, the IIP grew 4.14 per cent in September this year.

Industrial output rose by a meagre 2.5 per cent in April-October this fiscal as compared to 5.5 per cent in the same period of 2016-17.

In October, growth in the manufacturing sector, which

accounts for 77.63 per cent of the index, slowed to 2.5 per cent from 4.8 per cent a year earlier.

During April-October, manufacturing grew by 2.1 per cent, down from 5.9 per cent in the same period last fiscal.

Consumer durable goods output contracted by 6.9 per cent in October as against a growth of 1.5 per cent in the same month of the previous year. During the first seven months of this fiscal, the out-put of these goods declined by 1.9 per cent as against a growth of 6 per cent last year.

Electricity generation rose 3.2 per cent in October as compared to 3 per cent a year before.

The mining activity recorded almost flat growth of 0.2 per cent in the month under review as against 1 per cent growth in October 2016.

According to use-based classification, the growth rates

in October 2017 over the year-ago month are 2.5 per cent in primary goods, 6.8 per cent in capital goods, 0.2 per cent in intermediate goods and 5.2 per cent in infrastructure/ con-struction goods.

The consumer non-durables have recorded a growth of 7.7 per cent.

In terms of industries, 10 out of 23 industry groups in the manufacturing sector have shown positive growth during October 2017 as compared to the corresponding month of the previous year.

The industry group 'Man-ufacture of pharmaceuticals, medicinal chemical and botan-ical products' has shown the highest positive growth of 23 per cent followed by 12.8 per cent in 'Manufacture of motor vehicles, trailers and semi- trail-ers' and 9.7 per cent in 'Manu-facture of computer, electronic and optical products'. PTI

Industrial output growth slows to three-month-low 2.2% in Oct

2016-17 2017-18

Manufacturing

ElectricityMining

Overall

Weight: 77.633

Weight: 14.373 Weight: 7.994

Weight: 100

Oct Apr-Oct

INDIA'S INDUSTRIAL GROWTH Base: 2011-12=100

Per cent growth in Index of Industrial Productionover corresponding period of the previous year

2016

Oct N D J F M A M J J A S Oct

2017

2.2

3.0 5.35

.9

1.0

0.2

3.4

2.7 3

.2

5.5

2.5

5.94

.8

Oct Apr-Oct

Oct Apr-Oct Oct Apr-Oct

4.2

5.1

2.4

3.5

1.2

4.4

3.2

2.9

-0.3

0.9

2.2

2.12.5

4.53.8

4.2

MUMBAI: Stock market set the clock back on Tuesday as the Sensex tumbled 228 points -- in a break with three sessions of gains -- after investor worry heightened over rising global oil prices ahead of inflation numbers.

Participants were at a cross-roads as they had a clutch of macro pointers such as indus-trial production (IIP) and infla-tion in their sights, slated for release after market hours. Other Asian shares turned weak.

The Sensex closed at 33,227.99, down 227.80 points, or 0.68 per cent. The gauge had

rallied 858.61 points in the pre-vious three sessions.

The broader Nifty settled below the key 10,300-level, down 82.10 points, or 0.80 per cent, at 10,240.15.

"With few cues to push ahead, the caution ahead of key macroeconomic release weighed on prices. Asian peers also offered little support with dollar's firmness ahead of key major central banks' meetings. With pre-Budget talks under way, markets are also weighing the likelihood of the govern-ment levying taxes on long-term capital gains," said Anand James,

Chief Market Strategist, Geo-jit Financial Services. Realty, power and banking were in the grip of selling. Global Brent crude oil prices jumped above the $65 a barrel for the first time since 2015, which could spoil any chance of rate reduction by the Reserve Bank, traders said.

Losses in oil marketers such as HPCL, BPCL and IOC stocks too weighed.

The Federal Reserve, which is scheduled to issue an interest rate policy update on Wednes-day, kicks off its meeting. It is expected to lift rates by 0.25 per cent. Back home, in the

Sensex pack, Coal India tanked the most, losing 2.45 per cent, followed by Cipla, down 2.17 per cent, after participants took profit off the table. Other major losers were Hero MotoCorp, TCS, Tata Steel, ITC and L&T.

A weak trend also extended to the broader markets, with BSE mid-cap and small-cap indices retreating up to 1.01 per cent. Foreign portfolio inves-tors turned net sellers, diluting shares net Rs 185.60 crore on Monday while domestic institu-tional investors bought equities to the tune of Rs 108.94 crore, as per provisional data. PTI

Markets turn inflation-cautious; Sensex dips 228 pts

NEW DELHI: The govern-ment is in talks with Asean countries to extend the India-Myanmar-Thailand (IMT) highway up to Vietnam, a senior official said on Tuesday.

India and Asean countries are holding consultations on the extension of the 1,360 km IMT highway -- from Moreh in India to Mae-Sot in Thailand -- to Laos, Cambodia and to Viet-nam, she said.

"Already some level of dis-cussions have started and...we have also announced certain line of credit for the purpose on certain projects," said Dak-shita Das, Joint Secretary, Min-istry of Road Transport and Highways.

She was speaking at the Asean-India Connectivity Summit, organised here by industry body CII.

"Once we connect, we have a tremendous poten-tial in terms of incremental GDP. Connectivity can gener-ate annually, an estimated $70 billion in incremental GDP and 20 million in incremen-tal aggregate employment by 2025," she said.

The Association of South-east Asian Nations (Asean), has 10 member nations -- Indo-nesia, Malaysia, The Philip-

pines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei Darussalam, Viet-nam, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Cambodia.

Das said that another area on which the government is working to connect India with South East Asia is the IMT Motor Vehicle Agreement (IMT MVA). India, Myanmar and Thailand in 2014 com-menced negotiations for final-ising and implementing the IMT Motor Vehicle Agreement (IMT MVA).

Framework MVAs need to be urgently concluded to utilise the physical road infrastruc-ture on IMT Trilateral Highway and Asean that are central to completing the vision of India-Asean connectivity, Das said.

Yudhvir Singh Malik, Sec-retary at the ministry, said that the Northeast is the "door to building connectivities along with the Asean countries. I look forward to a day when I can drive my car to Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok".

Connecting India with the South eastern countries through a network of road will create jobs, market for crops grown in hilly regions of the Northeast which will also help growers in getting better price for their produce, he said. PTI

Govt, Asean in talks to take IMT highway right up to Vietnam

PM to address Ficci AGM today; India Inc awaits policy signals NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the doyens of Indian Industry here on Wednesday at the Annual General Meeting of Ficci, his first address to an AGM of a national business association after becoming the premier. "After the inaugural session, Modi will interact with all the past presidents of Ficci," said the chamber. At this year’s AGM, Ficci President Pankaj Patel (Chairman & MD, Zydus Cadila) will step down and Rashesh Shah (Chairman & CEO, Edelweiss Group) will take charge. PTI

NEYVELI: NLCI, a Navratna enterprise under the Ministry of Coal, has made a transforma-tion from a lignite mining and power generation company to an energy major.

Total power production has increased by 61 per cent as on December 1, 2017 when com-pared to production capacity as on March 31, 2015.

Further, NLCI has made a significant foray into renew-able and Green Energy Drive by adding Renewable Energy in a big way reaching around 2000 MW during this shortest period. Power generated from wind and solar sources has experienced a growth of 19 times when com-pared with data as on March 31, 2015 and December 1, 2017.

In terms of company Turnover between 2014-15 and 2016-17, NLC India Lim-ited has recorded 42.5 per cent growth while Profit After Tax has gone up by 50 per cent. With the Government of India as its privileged stakeholder,

NLCI is proud to have con-tributed Rs. 4965 crore to the State Exchequer as on March 31, 2017, which marks an increase of 136.7 per cent in a two-year period.

The Share Price of the listed company has risen 52.7 per cent from Rs. 70.30 to Rs. 107.35 over the last two years, reflecting the confidence of the investing public in the growth potential of the company.

On its part, NLCI has rewarded stakeholders with

50.1 per cent increase in Earn-ings Per Share, from Rs. 9.42 in 2014-15 to Rs. 14.14 in 2016-17.

Other financial parameters augur equally well for NLCI, as it continues its saga of growth. Market Capitalisation has increased by 39 per cent, Return on Capital employed by 47.93 per cent, while Dividend Outgo has gone up by 139 per cent from Rs. 469.76 crores to Rs. 1121.97 crores.

Capex has increased by 81.21 per cent, an indicator of dynamic expansion plans under implementation and completion.

All of this has been possible due to the unswerving com-mitment demonstrated by the NLCI family – Valued Added per Employee has increased by 47.65 per cent, Employee Cost as a percentage to Turnover has reduced by 27.35 per cent and as a percentage to Total Cost has decreased by 19.79 per cent.

As part of corporate plans, acquisition of power assets

through the inorganic route is on the anvil at NLCI.

This is expected to increase power generation capacity by additional 3,000 MW, taking the cumulative power capacity to 20971 MW by 2025, derived from diversified sources such as lignite, coal and renewable energy.

The ultimate goal is to lay the foundation for a sustainable future by creating greater green cover in and around its town-ships and operational areas, and producing green power for the Nation.

All these tremendous growth/achievements were accomplished in these two years, not by any outsider, no doubt that under the able stewardship of Dr. Sarat Kumar Acharya, Chairman & Manag-ing Director, the real visionary leader who simply motivated the entire NLC on its journey on the path from existence to excellence creating wealth for wellbeing of humanity. MPOST

Neyveli Lignite to NLC India: A dream saga of energetic & exponential growth

Minister Raju launches upgraded state-of-art Hubballi Airport

HUBBALLI: The upgraded Hubballi Airport was inaugu-rated by Union Minister for Civil Aviation P Ashok Gaj-apathi Raju, in the august pres-ence of Ananth Kumar, Union Minister of Chemicals & Fertil-izers and Parliamentary Affairs; Jayant Sinha, Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation; R V Deshpande, Minister for Large & Medium Industries and Infra-structure Development, Govt. of Karnataka; Santosh S Lad, Min-ister for Labour& Skill Devel-opment, Govt of Karnataka; Vinay R Kulkarni, Minister for Mines & Geology and Dhar-wad District Incharge Minis-ter, Government of Karnataka; Pralhad Joshi, Member of Par-liament (LokSabha); Jagadish Shettar, Member of Legislative Assembly (Hubballi-Dharwad Central) & Leader of Oppo-sition; Aravind Chandrakant Bellad, Member of Legislative Assembly (Hubballi-Dharwad West) and D K Chavan, Mayor, Hubballi-Dharwad Municipal

Corporation. Hubballi is one of the fastest

growing cities in Karnataka and comprises many small, medium and large scale industries which contribute to the growth of the economy of the state. The Kar-nataka Chamber of Commerce & Industry is established here at Hubballi to facilitate the growth of wide range of industries in Karnataka.

The New Terminal building of Hubballi Airport is a cen-

trally air-conditioned building, with an area of 3,600 sqm has a capacity to handle 300 peak hour passengers at a time.

It has all essential passenger-friendly amenities and conve-niences like Check-in Counters, Baggage Conveyors, Elevator, Public Address System, Fire Fighting & Fire Alarm Sys-tem, HVAC, Flight Informa-tion Display System (FIDS), CCTV, Baggage scanners and Car parking etc. MPOST

Civil Aviation Minister P Ashok Gajapathi Raju inaugurating the upgraded Hubballi Airport on Tuesday

Minor fire breaks out at IOC's

Paradip refinery

NEW DELHI: Bharti Airtel on Tuesday said an affiliate of private equity firm Warburg Pincus will acquire up to a 20 per cent stake in its DTH arm Bharti Telemedia for about $350 million (around Rs 2,310 crore).

Out of the 20 per cent, Bharti Airtel will sell its 15 per cent stake in direct-to-home arm and the balance will be sold by another Bharti entity which holds 5 per cent stake in the company.

"Bharti Airtel...and War-burg Pincus, a global pri-vate equity firm focused on growth investing, on Tuesday announced that an affiliate of Warburg Pincus will acquire up to a 20 per cent equity stake in Bharti Telemedia Limited, the DTH arm of Airtel, for approximately $350 million," both the companies said in a joint statement. Upon closing of the transaction, Airtel will own 80 per cent equity stake in Bharti Telemedia Limited.

"Airtel has enjoyed a very successful partnership with

Warburg Pincus in the past and we are excited to part-ner with them once again in an attractive and fast grow-ing space," Bharti Airtel MD & CEO (India & South Asia) Gopal Vittal said.

Bharti Telemedia had approximately 14 million sub-scribers and approximately $550 million in revenues dur-ing the 12- month period ended September 30, 2017. The company claims to have strong distribution infrastruc-ture, with over 1,500 partners and over 1,58,000 recharge out-lets in approximately 630 dis-tricts of the country. As part of the transaction, Viraj Sawh-ney, Managing Director, War-burg Pincus India, will join the board of Bharti Telemedia Lim-ited, it added. PTI

Warburg Pincus to acquire 20% stake in Airtel DTH for ̀ 2,310 cr

SRINAGAR/NEW DELHI: India's largest telecom com-pany Bharti Airtel on Tuesday announced the launch of 4G services in Dras, Kargil and Leh in the Ladakh region, say-ing that it has become the first operator to provide the high speed data services in the area.

"Customers in 130 towns and villages, including Kar-gil, Leh, and Dras, will now be able to enjoy affordable high speed data services and get on to the digital superhigh-way," an Airtel statement said on Tuesday.

While the roll out in Ladakh region would provide fast data speeds to the local population, the 4G deploy-ment will also ensure that tourists visiting the region stay connected to high speed data services, it said. PTI

Airtel rolls out 4G services in

Kargil, Dras, Leh

NEW DELHI: State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) has sought access to a data room to help fix the price at which it can acquire government's 51.11 per cent stake in HPCL.

India's largest oil and gas producer has so far been given an information memorandum (IM) by government's transac-tion advisor which ONGC feels is not sufficient to arrive at a valuation of Hindustan Petro-leum Corp Ltd (HPCL), sources privy to the development said.

ONGC, they said, wants to better understand HPCL's financials, particularly the investments it has commit-ted in projects like a greenfield refinery at Barmer in Rajasthan, before it embarks on buying the government stake which at today's price is worth over Rs 32,600 crore.

Sources said ONGC wants to do a proper due diligence on HPCL and access to data room is a prerequisite for that.

HPCL already has a data room and will give access to the same to ONGC if the seller (government) so desires, a com-

pany official said. The official said the company has already shared information with gov-ernment's transaction advisor and it is ready to share more if the need arises. Previously, the government was of the view that ONGC should arrive at a valuation of HPCL based on the publicly available information. The bulk of IM is made up of publicly available information.

Sources said ONGC wants a better fix at the kind of money it will need to invest in HPCL post acquisition and so wants access to data room.

The Cabinet on July 19 approved the sale of govern-ment's entire 51.11 per cent stake in HPCL to ONGC as part of its Rs 72,500 crore disinvest-ment target for the current fis-cal, 2017-18. PTI

ONGC seeks access to data room to fix HPCL buy price

SEOUL: A new high-qual-ity counterfeit $100 bill has been found in South Korea, bank officials said on Tuesday, prompting suggestions the sanctions-hit North might have resumed forging "supernotes".

A team of forgery special-ists at KEB Hana Bank have confirmed that a $100 note found at a Seoul branch in November was a fake which was almost impossible to dis-tinguish from real banknotes, they said.

"It was the first of a new kind of supernote ever found in the world," Yi Ho-Joong, head of the KEB Hana Bank's anti- counterfeit centre told AFP.

Previous "supernotes" were dated either 2001 or 2003 but the new forgery is dated 2006.

The same methods includ-ing raised and dented print-ing and no-smudge inks that are normally used for real banknotes have been applied to the newly found supernote, he said.

"You need facilities worth some $100 million to produce

counterfeit bills of this qual-ity and no crime rings would invest that much to make fake dollars," he said.

"Only state-level organisa-tions can afford such facilities."

South Korean news media suggested the North might have resumed producing fake banknotes to circumvent tight-ening international sanctions against its nuclear and missile development.

But Yi said there was no evi-dence to link the newly found supernote to North Korea -- although Pyongyang has a track record of its diplomats getting caught with high-qual-ity forgeries. The bank has alerted judicial and intelligence authorities about the discovery, Yi added. PTI

‘Supernote’ found in S Korea... from North?

NEW DELHI: Leading bourse BSE on Tuesday asked asset management companies to ensure that individual clients compulsorily submit their Aadhaar details from January onwards as part of compliance with anti-money laundering rules.

The instruction has been issued after the government amended, in June, the Pre-vention of Money Launder-ing (Maintenance of Records) Rules with regard to collec-tion of Aadhaar number from clients. Various requirements related to the amended rules have been "made manda-tory, with effect from January 1, 2018", according to a BSE circular issued for the mutual fund segment.

In case a client is an indi-vidual who is eligible to be enrolled for Aadhaar, he or she will have to submit the Aadhaar number to the reporting entity – asset management company (AMC), the exchange said. PTI

Aadhaar to be must for AMC clients from

Jan, says BSE

mp sport14MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi |Wednesday, 13 December, 2017

MESSI’S BROTHER UNDER HOUSE ARREST OVER GUN POSSESSION BUENOS AIRES: Matias Messi, older brother of Lionel, has been sentenced to house arrest in Argentina for possession of a weapon, a prosecutor said. Messi, 35, was to be discharged from hospital later and transferred to his home in Rosario, 300 km north of the capital Buenos Aires, head of the prosecutor’s office for Cybercrimes and Weapons Lucas Altare said.

ATK ROPE IN FORMER NEWCASTLE PLAYER RYAN TAYLOR IN PLACE OF CARL BAKERKOLKATA: Two-time ISL champions ATK announced that the team has signed former Newcastle United player Ryan Taylor as a replacement for the injured Carl Baker. Ryan, a versatile player and former England U-21 inter-national, can play as a full-back or across the midfield and has excellent free-kick taking and dead ball skills.

PISTORIUS INJURED IN PRISON BRAWL OVER USE OF PUBLIC PHONE JOHANNESBURG: Former Paralympic champion and convicted murderer Oscar Pistorius has been injured in a prison brawl over the use of a public phone, a South African official said on Tuesday. The double amputee was left with a bruise after “an altercation with another inmate over the use of a public phone” on Dec 6, according to the department of Correctional Services.

If we play like we did, we will win

the series: Perera

MOHALI: Sri Lanka produced a near flawless performance in Dharamsala and captain Thisara Perera is expecting an encore from his team in the sec-ond ODI to win a maiden series in India.

“It is a good opportunity to win the series. Not many teams have won series in India. We want to do something special, like we did in Dharamsala,” Per-era said on the eve of the second match of the three-ODI series.

Adverse weather conditions in Dharamsala meant Sri Lanka had to spend an extra night in the hills and only arrived here in today morning. They arrived at the PCA Stadium late after-noon and practiced amid cold and overcast conditions.

Asked if there is an added pressure on the Sri Lankan team, Perera replied in the negative.

“It is not pressure. It is another game for us. Every-one knows if we win tomorrow we will win the series. We will give our 200 per cent,” the all-rounder said before hinting that they would go with the same XI that beat India by seven wickets in the series opener.

The visitors are a confident lot, having ended their 12- match losing run in Dharamsala but they expect India to come back harder, just like they did against New Zealand last month after losing the opening game of the three-match series.

“Yes they can but we are focused on our job. It was good to win after 12 losses and we know if we can repeat that per-formance, we will win tomor-row,” said Perera.

The Sri Lankan captain has the experience of playing at this ground, having represented Kings XI Punjab in the Indian Premier League. AGENCIES

I have game to play for India, says 18-yr-old

Sundar MOHALI: All of 18, Washing-ton Sundar says an unflinching belief in his game has helped him break into the Indian team.

Not so long ago Sundar flunked the Yo-Yo test, which has to be cleared to make the national team, but he worked hard on his fitness to convince the selectors. “For any crick-eter, playing for India is the ultimate dream. As an 18-year-old, I have got the opportunity to play for India and it is a great feeling. I trust a lot in my prep-aration and it has paid off.”

Sundar first made the T20 team for the upcoming T20 series against Sri Lanka before being named a last minute replacement for the injured Kedar Jadhav in the ongoing ODIs. Sundar, who bowls off-spin and bats left-handed, is unlikely to get a game in the series but is relishing his time in the Indian dressing room.

“It has been my fourth day to be precise but I do not feel that I just became part of the team. I knew lot of players before, have played with Mahi bhai (Dhoni) in the IPL. They all made me feel at home,” said Sundar ahead of the second ODI against Sri Lanka. Though he failed the fitness test, Sun-dar said he always believed in his ability. What if he is just 18.

Sundar attracted atten-tion with his performances in the IPL, helping Dhoni-led Pune Supergiants reach the final. But it was not enough to play for India, so, he worked harder on all aspects of his game. AGENCIES

Hurt and embarrassed, India seek revenge vs SL in Mohali

MOHALI: Handed an embar-rassing defeat in the inaugu-ral ODI, a wounded India would look to get even against an inspired Sri Lanka in a do-or-die second match, here on Wednesday.

The loss not only hurt but was also an eye-opener for a team that has been dominant all throughout the long home season.

Proving that the opening day surrender to Sri Lanka pac-ers at the Eden Gardens was no aberration, the Indian bat-ting stood exposed once again against the moving ball.

Chandigarh won’t be as cold as Dharamsala but the pacers should come into play considering it is another 11:30 am start to the day-night affair.

In that case, it will be another test for the Indian batsmen if the home team hap-

pens to bat first in a must-win contest.

Barring old war-horse MS Dhoni, the highly-rated bats-men seemed like sitting ducks every time Suranga Lakmal pitched the ball up in the off-stump corridor.

After the experienced Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan fell early, it was an ideal oppor-tunity for the likes of Shreyas Iyer, Dinesh Karthik and Man-ish Pandey to weather the ini-tial storm and make a big score.

However, they all came a cropper and if it was not for Dhoni’s fighting 65, India could well be out for their lowest ever total. If it was one person, who would be gutted looking at his teams’ performance, it would be captain Virat Kohli, who opted out of the series to get married to Bollywood actor Anushka Sharma in Italy.

Rohit, leading the side in Kohli’s absence, was not amused either in his first ODI as captain. Though, he prom-ised that the team will learn from Dharamsala debacle and bounce back in the remaining two games.

“It is important to thrive in these conditions and come out good. It is an eye opener for all of us,” Rohit had said after the seven-wicket loss.

He is unlikely to tinker with the playing eleven but there is a possibility that Ajinkya Rahane is picked to shore up the inex-perienced batting, especially the middle order.

Rahane sat out of the open-ing game as the team man-agement only sees him as the back-up opener in the presence of Sharma and Dhawan.

However, he has batted in the middle-order in a few

games out of the 84 ODIs he has played. In the bowling department, the worry for India will be the performance of Hardik Pandya, who again leaked runs as the hosts tried to defend a paltry 112.

He is picked as the bowl-ing all-rounder for the South Africa Test series and needs to be at the top of his game ahead of the crucial tour start-ing next month. Considering Sri Lanka cantered to victory in 20.4 overs, spinners Yuzven-dra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav did not come on to bowl. They would be itching to get back into action after a month’s gap.

While India find them-selves in an unusual situation at home, Sri Lanka have a golden opportunity to seal the series after ending a 12-match losing streak with a thumping win in Dharamsala. New Zealand too

were on the cusp of history last month but faltered after win-ning the series opener as India bounced back to win the next two games.

The win must have done a world of good to the islanders’ confidence after the beating they have taken at the hands of India at home and away this season. Lakmal was lethal again on a helping pitch while Angelo Mathews too made a promising return with the ball.

Also effective on a seam-ing surface was pacer Nuwan Pradeep. The batting too clicked and completed the modest chase rather comfortably.

As put by Rohit after the match, another 70-80 runs and it could have been a different story with the ball still moving in the evening. The match will start at 11:30 am. AGENCIES

Indian attack has got ability to get 20 SA wickets: Umesh NEW DELHI: Speedster Umesh Yadav says the current Indian attack has the ability to take 20 wickets in a Test match during its tour of South Africa, seen by many as the side’s lit-mus test following a string of successes at home.

“The wickets in South Africa will put the focus back on the fast bowling unit and rightly so. There will be a lot of expectation from us and I believe this attack has the ability to get 20 South African wickets. All of us had a good 14 months at home and it’s time to translate into overseas success,” Yadav said during an interview.

What makes Yadav optimis-tic is the lion-hearted perfor-mance of the pacers on rather unresponsive home tracks in recent times. “I believe good fitness, proper plans were key

to our success in the sub-conti-nent. But the main thing is the attitude with which you enter the field. If we can maintain it in South Africa, no one can stop us,” said the man, who is one shy of completing 100 Test wickets.

Sanjay Manjrekar, in a col-umn, urged Yadav to bowl a line where batsmen don’t leave most of his deliveries and also owing to the suspect slip catching of the Indian team. Yadav felt like Kapil Dev, his strength is natu-

ral outswinger and he doesn’t want to lose it trying to bowl too many inswingers.

“Like Kapil Dev, my natural delivery is outswinger. If I try to bowl too many incoming deliv-eries, it can lead to me losing my outswinger, which I don’t want. Obviously, there will be a few change-ups with incom-ing deliveries but outswinger remains my core strength,” Yadav said. Indian pacers got carried away with their line on earlier occasions when they got pacer-friendly wickets, but it won’t happen this time around, he assured.

“During earlier tours, we were younger and more excited. But now, all of us — Ishant, Shami, Bhuvi and myself know how to curb our over enthusi-asm. We will be assessing the conditions,” said Umesh. AGENCIES

Sindhu, Srikanth eye maiden Dubai Super Series Final title DUBAI: Top shuttlers P V Sindhu and Kidambi Sri-kanth would be aiming for a great finale to what has been a good year for Indian badminton when they take the court at the USD one million Dubai Super Series Final starting on Wednesday. Only the very best participate in this prestigious tournament with only the top eight in the respec-tive men’s and women’s singles rankings earn-ing the right to compete. World No.3 Sindhu and World No.4 Srikanth can’t afford to lower their guard when they begin their campaign against China’s world No.9 Hi Bingjiao and World No.1 Viktor Axelsen of Denmark respectively at the Sheikh Hamdan Indoor Stadium here. Both Sindhu and Srikanth are coming into the tourna-ment after a highly successful year. AGENCIES

Hostile Wagner destroys West Indies as NZ sweep series

HAMILTON: A brutal spell from Neil Wagner, includ-ing three wickets and a bro-ken arm, led New Zealand to a comprehensive victory over the West Indies in Hamilton on Tuesday.

The tourists, set a target of 444, folded to be nine for 203 at tea on day four with Sunil Ambris retired hurt and unable to continue batting.

The 240-run victory saw a dominant New Zealand wrap up the series 2-0 after winning the first Test by an innings.

The hostile Wagner accounted for most of the dam-age in the second innings in Hamilton with his short-ball barrage targeting the body.

Ambris was taken to hos-pital after a vicious blow to the forearm. He tried to struggle on and reached five before trudg-ing from the field. It ended a tough Test baptism for Ambris who was twice dismissed in his first three innings by treading on his stumps. Shai Hope, on 23, also required on-field medi-cal attention after being on the forearm by a rising Wagner delivery. When play resumed he attempted an ambitious hook at another short deliv-ery and was caught by Colin de Grandhomme at long leg.

Shane Dowrich lasted two balls after Ambris left when he fended a Wagner bouncer to Henry Nicholls at short leg.

Chase and Reifer manu-factured a solid 78- run part-nership until midway between the lunch and tea breaks when Chase, on 64, went in simi-lar fashion to Hope, pulling a Wagner bouncer to the safe hands of de Grandhomme. Rei-fer was out soon after for 29, edging a good ball from Tim Southee to give Williamson his second smart catch at gully, before Mitchell Santner cleaned up the last two wickets. AGENCIES

Real Madrid eye fifth prize of 2017MADRID: Real Madrid can round off the most success-ful year in the club’s already glorious history by claiming a fifth trophy in 2017 at the Club World Cup in Abu Dhabi this week.

They won La Liga, the Champions League, UEFA and Spanish Super Cup in a thrilling fashion after hitting top form in a four-month spell between April and August, but since then the European champions have faded, under-standably fatigued by a heavy schedule.

Madrid trail Barca by eight points at the top of La Liga and finished second to Tottenham Hotspur in their Champions League group, which proved costly as they were paired with free-spending Paris Saint-Ger-main in a blockbuster last 16 tie on Monday. However, traces of the Madrid that swept aside the likes of Bayern Munich, Juven-tus, Atletico Madrid, Manches-ter United and Barcelona in the spring and summer were back as Real hit five past Sevilla before half-time in a 5-0 rout on Saturday.

Until then Madrid had lacked the same killer instinct

as last season with Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema scoring a combined total of just six times in La Liga, while Gareth Bale has made just one brief appearance as a substi-tute since September. “We are improving in every sense,” said Zidane after thrashing Sevilla. “If you play well, you will cre-ate more chances. We created plenty of chances.”

Ronaldo scored twice at the weekend to celebrate pick-ing up his fifth Ballon d’Or in style and his return to form is timely, as Madrid face Bar-

celona in their final game of the year on December 23 once their work in the Middle East this week is done.

“It is a reward just to be here,” said Madrid captain Sergio Ramos. “We have the opportunity to defend our title.

“We are preparing with plenty of desire and excitement.

After a great game against Sevilla we are very motivated and our confidence is very high.” Real’s return to form coincided with a change of tac-tics from Zidane as the pace of Marco Asensio and Lucas

Vazquez on the wings pro-duced an instant impact.

However, if the Spanish duo are to keep their places then the French coach has to bench two of his preferred midfield diamond of Case-miro, Toni Kroos, Luka Modric and Isco. After missing out at the weekend, Casemiro and Isco are expected to feature on Wednesday when Real take on Al Jazira, who have already dealt with Oceania’s Auck-land City and Asian champi-ons Urawa Red Diamonds to reach the last four. AGENCIES

PSG HOPE NEYMAR WILL RETURN SOONRIO DE JANEIRO: PSG are hoping Neymar will return from Brazil in three-four days after he went home for personal reasons, coach Unai Em-ery said. “We gave him permission to make this journey. I hope he comes back in three or four days’ time,” he said. AGENCIES

DEMBELE BACK IN TRAINING FOR BARCAMADRID: There was good news for FC Barcelona when striker Ousmane Dembele took part in the Spanish football club’s training session. It is the first time that the club’s record signing has worked alongside his team-mates since suffering a tendon injury while playing away to Getafe on September 16. After suffering the injury, club doctors estimated Dembele would be out for around four months, but his appearance on Monday appears to confirm that his recovery is progressing. AGENCIES

PIC/PTI

15MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Wednesday, 13 December, 2017mp Entertainment

Women have been the STRONGEST PEOPLEin my life: Shahid Kapoor

NEW DELHI: Actor Shahid Kapoor says the strongest people in his life have been women, especially his mother Neelima Azeem who has been a single parent. He also calls his wife Mira and daughter Misha his ‘whole world’ and says he couldn’t have been happier in his life than now.

Shahid spoke on the sidelines of Reebok FitToFight Awards 2.0, where the brand felicitated women nominees from across the country for their spirit and courage.

“I don’t think there is anything which resonated with me so naturally as this campaign did. The strongest people in my life have been women, starting with my mother. She was a single parent and she was the most powerful and the strongest, and a person I would depend on the most,” said Shahid, who endorses Reebok with Kangana Ranaut.

“Today, Mira and Misha are my whole world and I can’t think of any reason why this initiative would not connect with me. It’s the most natural connect,” said the actor, who also believes women are fitter than men.

“Women know how to deal with situations better than most men do. They are very independent and self-assured,” he said.

So is he going to inculcate these traits in Misha too?“I want her to discover herself, be respectful towards

family and appreciate everything that she has. I want her to spread love and happiness,” he said of his little one, who was born in August 2016.

Coming from an industry where heroines often com-plain about not getting the equal screen space compared to their male counterparts, Shahid feels the journey of female stars has changed over the years.

“It’s important to recognise roles for their power, for their impact. It doesn’t matter whether it is male or female. I think stories that deserve being told, the characters that deserve being showcased, must be showcased. There is nothing like male or female in art. It’s just about discuss-ing life, connecting with people and saying something substantial.”

“I think it’s amazing to see that so much has been cre-ated in films which are female-centric and they are loved by audiences. It also goes to show that we have a lot of women in the audience, in case anybody had forgotten,” he said.

And what does he think about pay equality?“I think it is changing for the positive. I think people

are recognising (the issue) and it is all co-related. Today, women-oriented films have started doing extremely well and they have developed a market for themselves. There-fore, the change is naturally happening. Like I said before, it’s not about male or female. If you deserve to be paid a cer-tain amount because that is how viable you are, you must be paid that,” Shahid told in an interview. IANS

The Udta Punjab actor finds women fitter than men. He says that Women are self-assured and know how to deal with situations better than most men do

Violence is not the way: Aamir on ‘Padmavati’

NEW DELHI: Everyone has a right to protest but violence is not the way, says Bollywood star Aamir Khan, terming the threats to Deepika Padukone and Sanjay Leela Bhansali over their film Padmavati as ‘most unfortunate’.

The actor said he would not like to ‘comment directly’ on the raging con-troversy over Padmavati but violence is never a solution.

“I feel that everybody has a right to protest. But I think in a democracy and in a country where we believe in the rule of law, I don’t think anyone should be threatening people with violence. That is most unfortunate,” Aamir told in an interview.

The film’s release date has been deferred following protests from vari-

ous Rajput groups and political leaders who have accused Bhansali of distort-ing history.

Director Bhansali had said the film is based on the 16th century epic poem ‘Padmavat’.

The row took an ugly turn with death threats to Deepika and Bhansali.

“No matter what walk of life you are in, whether you are a film person or a non-film person – you could be a doctor, an engineer, a government ser-vant – but to be threatened physically is most unfortunate.”

“I don’t believe in that philosophy. It reflects badly on us when things like this happen,” Aamir said. Accord-ing to the actor, such threats are not restricted to film people.

“As an Indian, it makes me sad. It is not just restricted to a film personal-ity, it could be anyone. The rule of law should be upheld and no one should be above the law and no one should take violence in their hands.” PTI

‘Change will happen if women start

motivating each other’NEW DELHI: Actor Malaika Arora says that she has been brought up in a household where she was always taught to express herself freely and this is what she expects from others too.

For her, freedom of expression is essential for both men and women and change will happen if women start motivating each other.

When asked what moti-vates her girl squad that includes Kareena Kapoor Khan, Karisma Kapoor and Amrita Arora to be fit to fight, Malaika told in an interview: ‘Women should motivate each other and that is where change happens when women motivate each other, when women uplift each other, when women stand for each other. You know it that woman is your worse enemy, a woman can pull you down, so I think it’s important that women should moti-vate each other.’

Recalling one instance, she said: ‘I remember an instance, when after my baby I was going back to be fit again. It was not an easy task for me, it was a challenge. I think every mother has to deal with it, but the good thing was I had people around me to motivate me and push me to do better and I think that really helps.’

The mother of one, who is a part of the Reebok Fashion-ably Fit Family, was present at the brand’s FitToFight Awards 2.0 in Mumbai. The night witnessed the brand felicitating women nom-inees from across the country for their spirit and courage.

Malaika, who is currently seen host-ing ‘India’s Next Top Model Sea-son 3’, says that for her, fitness is wor-ship purely because ‘it helps my mind, body and soul,’ she said. IANS

NEW YORK: Actor Hugh Jackman says he would love to see superheroes Iron Man, the Hulk and Wolverine in a film together. However, Jackman, who made his final appearance as Wolverine in James Mangold’s Logan earlier this year, said he will never return to play the role again, reports aceshowbiz.com.

During an event here for his film The Greatest Showman, Jackman spoke about the potential Disney-Fox merger, which would effectively put all the characters of mutant-kind and the Fantastic Four under the same studio umbrella as the Marvel Cinematic Universe films.

Jackman said: ‘It is interesting

because for the whole 17 years I kept thinking that I would love to see, particularly, Iron Man and the Hulk and Wol-verine together. And every time I saw an Avengers movie I could just see Wolverine in the mid-dle of all of them like punching them all on the head.’

Hugh wants to see someone else as Wolverine: ‘The ship has sailed for me. but for someone else I would like to see Wolverine in there’ IANS

Want to see Iron Man, Hulk, Wolverine together: Jackman LOS ANGELES: Singer Ed Sheeran finds it healthy that he deleted

his Twitter account as he now steers clear from anything said about him.

‘If you were a massive musician in the 1960s, 1970s or 1980s, you’d avoid (the hate) because, by and large, people never say bad things to your face. I read online, though, and now people can hide behind a screen, you get true feelings.

‘I’ve met many journalists who said stuff about me, but when you meet them, it’s all smiles,’ Sheeran told The Sunday Times’ Culture

magazine, reports femalefirst.co.uk. ‘But I don’t think any musician has had

their sanity or career helped by replying to people on Twitter. People either really love you or you’re the antichrist. Nobody just says, ‘He’s all right.’ And since I’ve deleted my account, I haven’t really paid

attention to anything said about me, which has been healthy,’ he added.

The ‘Perfect’ singer is not bothered by his critics because he feels he has enough fans to give him a ‘very, very healthy living’.

‘I’ve tapped into as many people that are going to see me live as I can. I’m not everyone’s cup of tea, but I’m enough people’s cup of tea to have a very, very healthy living, so I don’t feel a need to justify it.’

His last actual post on Twitter came as he slammed critics of his Glastonbury performance after some fans claimed he was using a backing track instead of a live band, unaware that he had been building his tracks live with the mechanism. IANS

LONDON: Singer James Arthur says he wants to become an actor, and isn’t against the idea of being the next James Bond.

“I like a lot of British films like Shane Meadows (filmmaker) kind of stuff, I guess quite serious, gritty, like This Is England kind of stuff (is what I’d like to do),” mirror.co.uk quoted Arthur as saying.

‘I don’t suppose I’d be that ver-satile because of the way I look. I couldn’t be the Hugh Grant type so I’d probably get cast as the thug.’

But when he suggested he could be the next James Bond, he said: ‘Now you are talking. Imagine say-ing, ‘Shaken not stirred’ in a (Mid-dlesbrough) accent though.’

Arthur, who won ‘The X Fac-tor’ in 2012, also said he has some

exciting collaborations coming up next year but was staying tight-lipped about who he was working with. IANS

James Arthur wants to become an actor

Quitting Twitter helps Ed Sheeran feel healthy

16 MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Wednesday, 13 December, 2017