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PUBLISHED FROM DELHI & KOLKATA VOL. 3, ISSUE 346 | Saturday, 23 December 2017 | Kolkata | Pages 16 | Rs 3.00

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In today’s paper

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CM LAUNCHES ANNUAL X-MAS FEST IN MAYOR SOVAN CHATTERJEE’S PRESENCE

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: In the run-up to X-Mas, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee inau-gurated the Kolkata Christmas Festival by lighting the Christmas tree outside Allen Park on Friday evening. With fes-tive lights flickering to life, a loud cheer went up in the air which marked the official start of the festival.

In the same breath, Banerjee ques-tioned the rejection of Bengal tab-leau from Republic Day parade and said whether the decision was taken because the theme was unity and the state wanted to show that only harmony among people can ensure peace.

Stating that the decision to reject the tableau “is an insult to Bengal”, she said: “…You all must know that this year we had proposed to present a tableau with the theme of “Ekatai Sampriti” for the Republic Day parade and is this the rea-son for the rejection?” Millennium Post was the first to report that there would be no Bengal tableau at the upcoming Republic Day parade.

Banerjee said that the state was not only called to attend the meeting in Sep-tember and October but the proposed theme was also appreciated. “We had even accepted all their suggestions. But haven’t received the communiqué to attend the next meeting,” she said add-ing that this comes at the time when Bengal’s tableau had won the first prize twice in 2014 and 2016 respectively.

“In 2015 they had rejected Bengal’s

tableau on Kanyashree Prakalpa as the theme coincided with a similar project on Beti Bachao Beti Padhao,” Banerjee said the Centre did not give any recog-nition to Kanyashree but it was awarded the first prize by the United Nations.

Explaining the importance of “Eka-tai Sampriti”, she raised a question as to why the Centre has cancelled the national holiday on Christmas and sought a clarification behind taking this step after demanding the withdrawal of the decision. “The logic behind can-celling the national holiday on Christ-mas Day should be explained or else I

would say that there must be a purpose behind it,” Banerjee said.

She further said that unlike the Centre, the state government still gives hol-

iday on Christmas Day and in no way has it affected work. “I still feel that the Centre should withdraw its decision and once again announce Christmas Day as a national holiday,” Banerjee maintained adding that sentiments of the people should not be hurt. “The message of Christmas is to include everybody. Our government started the Christmas festi-val because we want everybody to come here and experience this festival. We cel-ebrate all festivals. I have been attending the mid-night mass every year including all my officials,” said the Chief Minister.

She also released a book on veteran Olympian and hockey player Gur-bax Singh, along with a newly con-structed bridge over Tolly’s Nullah and a museum and a library of the Kolkata Police.

‘Why is Bengal tableau being dropped from R-Day parade?’

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OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI/ MUMBAI: Dismiss-ing rumours, both the government and the Reserve Bank on Friday said there was no question of closure of any pub-lic sector bank (PSB). The decision of the Reserve Bank to initiate a ‘prompt corrective action’ (PCA) against large state-owned lender Bank of India led to rumours that the government may close down some banks. The RBI in a state-ment said that it has come across some “misinformed communication” circulat-ing in some section of media, including social media, about closure of some pub-lic sector banks in the wake of their being placed under the PCA.

The government too dismissed such rumours saying that on the contrary it is planning to strengthen the state-owned banks. “No question of closing down any Bank. Government is strengthening PSBs by 2.11 lakh crore recapitalisation plan. Do not believe rumour mongers. Recap,

Reforms roadmap for PSBs firmly on track,” said financial services Secretary Rajeev Kumar in a tweet.

The RBI, on its part, clarified that “the PCA framework is not intended to con-strain normal operations of the banks for the general public”. The central bank had issued a similar clarification in June also. It emphasised that the PCA framework has been in operation since December 2002 and the guidelines issued on April 13, 2017 are only a revised version of the earlier framework.

Banks lost ̀ 16,789 cr to frauds last fiscal

NEW DELHI: Banks lost a whopping Rs 16,789 crore on account of frauds in the last fiscal, the finance ministry said in the Lok Sabha on Friday. The Reserve Bank has informed that as per the fraud monitoring reports submitted by the scheduled com-mercial banks and select financial institu-tions, “the amount lost on account of frauds during 2016-17 was Rs 16,789 crore”, said Minister of State for Finance Shiv Pratap Shukla in a written reply. He further said an inter-disciplinary standing committee on cyber security has been constituted by the RBI comprising academia, informa-tion security audit, forensic and cyberse-curity experts.

The committee reviews, inter alia, threats inherent in the existing or emerging technol-ogy, and suggests appropriate policy inter-ventions. MPOST

Quick News44

NEW DELHI/ JAIPUR: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday said it has arrested two persons in connection with its money laun-dering probe in the Bikaner land scam case, which is allegedly linked to Robert Vadra, the brother-in-law of Congress President Rahul Gandhi. The agency said it has arrested the “main fraudster” in the case, Jaiprakash Bagarwa, and Ashok Kumar under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). These are the first arrests in this case.

They were arrested from Rajasthan’s capital Jaipur on Thursday night and produced in a spe-cial court there on Friday, informed a senior offi-cial. “Ashok Kumar is a close associate of Mahesh Nagar of M/s Skylight Hospitality Private Ltd,” it said. Skylight Hospitality is a firm that has been alleged to be linked to Vadra. The agency had searched the premises of Kumar and Nagar in April this year. It had said that in four cases of land purchase in Bikaner by this firm, the “authorised representative” was Nagar. Kumar, it has been alleged by the agency, purchased land in the same area using the “power of attorney” of others. It is also alleged that Kumar is a “close associate” of Nagar. MPOST

GANDHINAGAR: Vijay Rupani is all set to get a second term as Gujarat chief minister, as first reported by Millennium Post on December 20. After four days of hectic parleying and meet-ings, the Gujarat Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Legislature Party on Friday unanimously elected Rupani as its leader.

The announcement was made by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, the party’s cen-tral observer for the selection of the Gujarat chief minister, after a meeting of the state BJP Legis-lature Party here. MPOST

ED raises heat on Robert Vadra with aides’ arrest

BJP gives Vijay Rupani 2nd term as Gujarat CM

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PIC/MPOST

GAUTAM LAHIRI

NEW DELHI: Reaching out to the international community, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has planned a global conference of Par-liamentarians of Indian Origin of dif-ferent countries. The meet would be a first of its kind. In an interaction with members of the Indian Associ-ation of Foreign Affairs Correspon-dents on Friday, Secretary of Overseas Indian Affairs Ambassador Dnyanesh-war Mulay informed that the day-long conference would be held on 9th Jan-uary in New Delhi, where about 125 MPs of Indian origin of foreign coun-tries would be present. Incidentally, 9th January coincides with Annual Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD).

After coming to power, the Modi Government had decided to hold the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas bi-annually, which earlier used to be held every year during the UPA regime. The over-seas indian affairs department under the MEA has already identified about 285 law makers of different countries who are of persons of Indian origin. “But so far we have confirmation from 125 MPs on attending the conference,” said Mulay.

As the format of the conference is still being planned, Mulay could not confirm the presence of either the Pres-ident, Vice-President or Prime Minis-ter. Generally the PBD is inaugurated by the President and the valedictory session is addressed by the Prime Min-ister. This time, as it is MPs who are being invited, Lok Sabha Speaker Sum-itra Mahajan, too, may be present as a guest at the prestigious conference.

Mulay on Friday confirmed that four Democratic members of the US Congress and one senator are com-ing to attend the conference. Indian Americans now have their largest ever presence in the US Congress and the community has its first Sena-tor in Kamala Harris, who won from California.

Ami Bera has won his Califor-nia seat narrowly while Raja Krish-namurthi from Chicago, Pramila Jayapal from Washington and Ro Khanna from California are the fresh Indian Americans faces in the US leg-islature. As a child, Harris used to visit Chennai, where her grandparents lived in the 1950s. Her mother Shyamala grew up in Chennai and came to the US for higher studies where she met Harris’s father.

Pravasi Bharatiya Divas meet to have a special class of PIOs:

Parliamentarians of Indian Origin

125 INDIAN-ORIGIN MPs FROM ABROAD TO ATTEND

OUR CORRESPONDENT

MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Friday quashed the sanction accorded by Maha-rashtra Governor Ch Vidyas-agar Rao to the CBI to prosecute Ashok Chavan in the Adarsh housing scam, in a relief to the Congress leader who had to quit as chief min-ister after he was implicated in the corruption case. Chavan, currently the president of the Maharashtra unit of the Con-gress, had served as chief min-ister between December 2008 and November 2010 before he was asked to step down over corruption charges in the Adarsh scam. The scam kicked up a huge political storm and was highlighted by the BJP in the 2014 Lok Sabha poll campaign.

A bench of Justices Ran-jit More and Sadhana Jadhav held that the sanction granted by the governor could not be “sustained” since it was not based on any fresh material produced by the CBI that could be considered as plau-sible “evidence” by courts dur-ing trial. “It was permissible for the Hon’ble Governor (Rao), the sanctioning authority in the present case, to review or reconsider the earlier decision of the erstwhile governor’s (his predecessor Governor K San-karanarayanan) decision not to grant sanction, since the CBI claimed that some fresh material had surfaced after the

earlier sanction was refused,” the bench said.

“However, the agency (CBI) failed to present any fresh material capable of being converted into evidence that can be substantiated at the time of trial. Therefore, in the absence of fresh material, the sanction cannot be sustained, and is quashed and set aside,” the bench said. The court was hearing a petition filed by Cha-van challenging a decision of Governor Rao granting sanc-tion to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to prose-cute him in the Adarsh hous-ing society scam in which he was implicated that led to his resignation as cheif minister.

Chavan is among 14 retired and serving defence person-nel, bureaucrats and politicians named as accused in the scam.

The CBI has accused Cha-van of approving additional floor space index (FSI) for the Adarsh society in posh South Mumbai, and accepting two flats for his relatives in return when he was the chief minister.

ADARSH HOUSING SCAM

HC scraps Guv nod to prosecute ex-CM

Ashok Chavan had to resign as Maharashtra CM due to the case

No question of closing any PSB, assure Govt & RBI‘CORRECTIVE ACTION’ ON BoI LED TO FALSE MEDIA RUMOURS

After 2G case verdict, DMK has emerged as gold refined by fire

DMK LEADER M K STALIN

CITY

GST MORE PRIMITIVE THAN VAT: MITRA 4

NATION

SP TO OPPOSE UPCOC BILL 6

EDIT

UNDOING HEALTH CARE 8

INTERNATIONAL

UN RIGHTS CHIEF WON’T SEEK 2ND TERM 10

BUSINESS

THYSSENKRUPP IN WORKERS’ PACT 13

SPORT

INDIA BEAT LANKA IN T20 MATCH 14

US APPLE ADMITS TO SLOWING IPHONES AS BATTERIES AGE PG12

ECO PARK BREAKING RECORDS OF POPULARITY PG4

QUARTER OF ROHINGYA REFUGEE CHILDREN ACUTELY MALNOURISHED PG10

PAD MAN IS AN HONEST SUBJECT: AKSHAY PG15

‘Insult to Bengal,’ says Mamata

2 mp around townMILLENNIUM POST | Kolkata | Saturday, 23 December, 2017

NANDINI GUHA

WANT TO INDULGE in some casual gifting this Christmas? Kreativ, an NGO in association with Kinjal (a little magazine running for 45 years) is all set to organise ‘Zephyr 2’, a pre-Christ-mas exhibition for the year 2017. In its second year, Kinjal has planned a big-ger show with 25 stalls from different genres of handmade products. Most of

the organizations run home based busi-nesses and will be selling bakery items, home décor and handicraft items, cro-chet jewellery, junk jewellery, paper products, candles and soap and so on. One NGO will be selling jams and cook-ies made by underprivileged children. The exhibition will be on till Decem-ber 23 at Sudha Hall in South Kolkata.

Kreativ is an organization known for making unique handicraft items from

recycled paper and is run by two stu-dents, Chandrayee Chattopadhyay and Sauvik Modak, classmates from Patha Bhaban. The duo use newspaper and recycled paper, cast them into a mould and make paper aprons, utensils, dolls, home décor items, cufflinks and so on. “We would like to make paper clothes one day as they did in Japan during the World War II. We are making all kinds of disposable aprons now which are

used by students attending cookery courses and even in hospitals. The price var-ies from Rs 100 to Rs 500 depending on the quality of the paper and the design”, Chattopadhyay told Millen-nium Post.

The main aim behind conducting this exhibition is to uphold the upcoming student and women start-ups from all over Bengal and bring them under a

single roof. It also aims to give you an opportunity to buy unique and exclusive gifts for friends, family as Christmas is all about gifting and making merry with all your loved ones.

The exhibition was inaugurated by Alokananda Roy and was attended by Barun Chanda, Mallar Ghosh, Parthasarathi Deb and Chiranjeet Chakraborty.

CHRISTMAS GIFTING: HANDMADE products can make a make a difference

SYEDA EBA

Even multiple tiger attacks didn’t take away the fighting spirit of Daulat Singh Shaktawat – a forest officer, who has set uncountable

examples of courage and bravery. While revealing certain behavioural

traits of the charming animal, Singh, dur-ing a conversation, talked about his affin-ity towards the wild beast. “Ironically, this wild beast is a solitude loving calm crea-ture unless you disturb him,” mentions the author of a recently released book namely, ‘My encounter with the big cat and other

adventures in Ranthambhore.’“Many people are

unaware of the fact that tigers

have a natural instinct of moving towards the forest. If you don’t disturb them, there is

no possibility of an attack. All the past incidences proves that every time a

tiger went violent, it was the people who surrounded him thereby provoking a mis-hap,” he further added.

Daulat Singh Shaktawat served the country as an Assistant Conservator of For-ests (ACF) for 20 years. Though he holds a great experience in dealing with tigers, he couldn’t save himself from a deadly attack which ultimately led to the loss of his eye. After he was discharged from the hospital, Singh went on for his job with the same enthusiasm. But what motivates him to keep moving without any fear?

He calls it the ‘bond’ that he shares with tigers. “I have spent 20 years of my life with them. If you are continuously involved with a person, thing or animal, it’s natural to get attached. Since I have spent about half my life with them, they are a habit for me. No matter how worse the situa-tions were at a point, I still can’t imagine my life without them,” he added. Look-

ing at such a low count of the tigers, it’s a situation of dilemma where saving one’s life without killing the animal is quite dif-ficult. Answering the inquisitive minds, Singh said, “Firstly, I would like to clear a misunderstanding that says the population of tigers is decreasing. It’s not the case. The tiger saving project that was started in 1973 worked well. Else we would not have been able to spot a single tiger today. Secondly, situations worsen only if the animal moves outside the forest periphery, else it’s easy to control them using a tranquilizer.”

The book published under the banner of ‘Niyogi books’ is the first set of experi-ence that he has shared.

DAULAT SINGH'S encounter with the ‘Big Cat’

This tiger roars loud‘TIGER ZINDA HAI’

Director: Ali Abbas Zafar; Starring: Salman Khan, Katrina Kaif, Sajjad Delafrooz, Girish Karnad, Kumud Mishra, Paresh Rawal; Rating:

When did this Tiger ever stop roaring? Well...okay, “Tubelight” didn’t quite work . Salmaniacs didn’t want to watch him

as a whimpy whiny crybaby hero. The message is hammered loud and clear in “Tiger Zinda Hai”(TZH), a homage to Salman Khan’s indomitable powers of hero-giri. From the first frame to the last blast, this is a fanboy director making sure that every moment of the narrative is paisa vasool for the Salman fans. “Tiger Zinda Hai” is a 2 ½ hour homage to Salman Khan’s superstardom. In the cinema of the Southern superstars like Rajinikanth or even Mammoothy(see his lat-est release Masterpiece where in almost every frame the star is eulogized)it is common practice to extol the virtues of the Man Of the moment, to the extent that the other members of the cast appear to be afterthoughts.

Almost every supporting actor in TZH- and that includes the diligent Katrina Kaif -is an extension of Salman Khan’s superstardom, his or existence defined by how much he or she hero-wosrhips our intelligence officer Avinash Singh Rathod a.k.a Tiger. The lengthy eulogy gets tedious only when the actors pause to tell us what a daunting one-man army our hero is. And since that happens quite often, we are frequently asked to hold our horses, while the compliments flow and the speed breakers are served up. Once those are out of the way TZH is a lot of fun to watch. The sheer silliness of a one-man army mowing a mayhem across terrorism, at a time when heroes in cinema across the world are exposing their vulnerability more than their virility (see the haunting Call Me By Your Name to know what I mean) is laughable.

So is the attempt to infuse a political urgency to an endeavour that is clearly on a one-point mission: no, not save the tiger, but celebrate the hero’s macho-giri until it hurts. And I don’t mean the muscles.

To his credit director packs in quite a punch. The narra-tive takes us through a collage of quirky, appealing locations where some really well-choreographed action scenes are shot with breathless zeal. Full marks to cinematographer Marcin Laskawiec and action director Tom Struthers, not to mention the pulse-pounding yet discreet background score by Julian Packiam. Salman’s superstardom is like a pitcher of brack-ish brew whose bitter hue is best tasted when recycled with gusto. TZH looks like many other anti-terror films includ-ing Baby and Naam Shabana. It’s sad to see actors like Girish Karnad, Paresh Rawal, Kumud Mishra and Angad Bedi hanging around only to make sure the leading man looks his Sunday best. As for Katrina Kaif she remains as deadpan as ever. Thank God some things never change. But she’s sur-prisingly effective in the action scenes. As for her chemistry with Salman, his eyes melt like a icrecream cone left out in the sun, each time she’s around. Will someone make an intense love story with the two? IANS

Gear up for

SYEDA EBA

At Christmas play and make good cheer, for Christmas comes but once a year.

The festive month is finally here to wave the magic wand over this world and spread happiness. It’s that

time of the year when everyone awaits Santa to drop down a special gift and to plan happy moments with your loved ones.

And because no such celebration is possible without mouth-water-ing cakes, glittering decorations and theme based new clothes, we roamed around the Capital city to find the best places to shop from. Keep your weekend free this time and head towards the markets of central Delhi. We are sure you will find what you are looking for at the best rates.

CONNAUGHT PLACEVery well known as the frenetic

zone of Delhi, CP is the ultimate hub for shopaholics and partyholics. If you are looking forward to buy some decent yet affordable stuff to wear, this is the right place. From Lacoste to Puma, Woodland and Mufti, all the well-known brands are offering major discounts on most of its prod-ucts. Hence, buying a gift from these stores for your family and friends won’t be a bad idea either.

Apart from this, the market is

offering a great collection of perfumes and bags. ‘Uphar center’ is one such shop you can stop by. As for the deco-ration, you can head towards ‘Shaw sons’ that lies in block-B. Though there is nothing new or exceptional to buy from here, you can always go for balls and bells to embellish your house a little.

And of course, there is no better option than ‘Wenger’s’ to treat your-self with a delightful range of cakes, pastries, chocolate fudge, and snacks this Christmas. The bakery has come up with cute little Christmas spe-cial cakes available in different fla-

vours, shapes and sizes. The price range starts at Rs 900 onwards. From butterscotch to chocolate and Vanilla, you can pre-order as per your wish.

While roaming across, don’t for-get to pay a visit to Paalika Bazaar as you can get a deal on men’s wear and

floret jewellery.

KHAN MARKETKhan market is the place which

is celebrating Christmas to its full-est. An amazingly decorated area with fairy lights and Christmas trees seems like imparting happy vibes to the visitors. Here you can find the one-stop destination for all your party needs. ‘Kriti Cre-

ations’, quite a famous shop, offers you a great deal of choice in Christ-mas trees. You may also get some the-matic and customised trees in here. Additionally, you can also shop for the traditional Christmas goodies, tree ornaments, jingling bells, tiny

snowballs and miniature Santas to adorn your homes. Starting from Rupees 100, you can get everything at a single place.

JANPATHOwing to the popularity of the

festival among all the Indians – irre-spective of their religion – markets like Janpath offers stuff to suit every-body’s taste. If you are willing to plan something unconventional rather than sticking to the theme of ‘red and white’, head towards the mar-kets of Janpath. Handmade carpets with zardozi work on it, kantha table runners, and a lot many home decor items are available to paint your home with colours. You can also opt for chandeliers, lamps, wind chimes, statues and paintings at an afford-able price at this point of time. The market is dominated by Kashmiri overcoats/jackets and silver jewellery, thereby catching the attention of girls in huge numbers.

So, these were the three major destinations to proceed towards. Apart from the aforementioned places, you can also take Dilli Haat, INA and Sarojni Nagar into consid-eration. Though the markets does not have any Christmas centric stuff, yet you can find pretty handicrafts to give a local, traditional and fresh feel to your home. Go out of the way this Christmas and start your shopping now onwards.

Christmas SHOPPINGThis festive season, head towards the markets of central Delhi to get the best Christmas stuff at a discounted rate

PICS/NANCY GUPTA

MAKING HEALTHCARE ACCESSIBLE

NOW, TRUCKERS can get a health check-up on the go without making a special trip to the hospital. Apollo Tyres have come up with their brand new mobile medical unit, christened as ‘Apollo Tyres Healthcare Express’ for the health check of the truckers and the allied population.

This mobile medical unit will provide basic health check services, in addition to the treat-ment of sexually transmitted infections, vision screening, and providing spectacles at subsidised cost, blood group and blood sugar tests and screening for HIV. The first ‘Apollo Tyres Healthcare Express’, based out of Delhi, would be staffed with an MBBS doctor, Pharmacist, Lab Technician and three outreach workers, and will cover various entry-exit routes of Delhi/NCR where there is a trucking halt. The second unit would operate from Namakkal in Tamil Nadu.

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

mp city3MILLENNIUM POST | Kolkata |Saturday, 23 December, 2017

State seeks Centre’s nod to sell more power to B’desh

Bengal has made rapid strides in

education: Ex-UGC chief

KOLKATA: Former University Grants Commission (UGC) Chairman Ved Prakash on Fri-day lauded the efforts of the Bengal government for its progress in the field of higher education.

Prakash, who was in the city to deliver DK Sanyal Memorial Lecture on “History of Progress towards Quality Higher Educa-tion” at IISWBM, said: “West Bengal is doing exceedingly well in higher education with the present government focus-ing a lot on setting up more col-leges and universities across the state. The colleges and univer-sities have been offering multi-disciplinary courses with close to 50,000 teachers associated with imparting higher educa-tion in different institutions.”

He also praised the rapid strides of the Bengal govern-ment for its improvement in Gross Enrollment Ratio in higher education, in which the state has made it among the top five in the country. Stressing on benchmarking as an important measure to enhance the quality of education, Prakash urged leading institutions like Jadav-pur University and Presidency University to come together. “You have to identify some key areas in which different institu-tions have excelled and bench-marking can be done,” he said.

He suggested that teachers should be encouraged to come up with a preamble on why he/she would teach a particu-lar subject. This will help stu-dents to take up subjects “He/she would also come up with a small write-up on the aim of imparting education,” he said.

He also prioritised revisit-ing the curriculum constantly and coming up with changes from time to time as per the changing scenario in the country. He further added that apart from good faculty members, institutions should accord priority to professional development of the faculty members for ensuring quality education. MPOST

WELCOMING THE YULETIDE SPIRIT

No visit to the City of Joy is complete without a stroll down Park Street during Christmas as Kolkata gears up to welcome the festivities bringing in cheer for the New Year PIC/AMIT DATTA

CM to inaugurate Bangla Sangeet Mela today

Abhishek leads rally to protest against proposed FRDI Bill

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Bangla Sangeet Mela 2017 and Biswa Ban-gla Loksanskriti Mela which Chief Minister Mamata Baner-jee will inaugurate on Saturday is a classic example of how the state government is showing respect to the established and budding artistes and musicians alike.

Special awards will be given to Jeet Ganguly and Abhijeet at a function at Uttirno. The Sangeet Mela will be held from December 24 to 30 while Biswa Bangla Loksanskriti Mela will be held from December 24 to January 1, 2018.

Nearly 3,000 well-known and budding artistes will take part in the Sangeet Mela. The programmes will be held at Rabindra Sadan, Sisir Man-cha, Phanibhusan Vidyabi-nod Yatramancha, Rabindra Okakura Bhavan, Madhusudan Mancha, Hedua Park, Mad-husudan Mukta Mancha and Deshpriya Park. There will be a whole night programme at Rabindra Sadan on December 30 to mark the closing of the functions.

It was the erstwhile Left Front government that had started gaan mela which was a chaos. Only the preferred artistes were given chances. The functions never started on time and only the renowned performers were given a token remuneration. The musicians were very poorly paid.

After coming to power in 2011, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee ensured that all artistes, including vocalists, instrumentalists and musi-cians, would get remuneration irrespective of their name and status.

The Information and Cul-tural Affairs department is managing the Mela in a beau-tiful manner.

All the artists have been asked to give their signatures in accordance with their bank accounts in the letter of con-firmation. They have also been asked to be present at the venue half-an-hour before the programme and register their names. Accordingly, they would be asked to perform on stage.

The schemes taken by Mamata Banerjee have saved

many folk artistes who had joined other vocations to earn a livelihood. They are given monthly stipends and the state government has given them regular programmes to help them to earn a respectable liv-ing. Folk music have regained its past glory and there are no Melas organised by the state government departments where folk artistes are not invited.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: The Trinamool Congress has always stood beside the common man and will resist passing of the dra-conian Financial Resolution Deposit Insurance (FRDI) Bill by the Centre, party’s MP and president of the youth wing Abhishek Banerjee said on Friday.

Addressing a gathering at Hazra More on Friday after-noon, Abhishek said: “We had opposed anti-people policies like demonetisation and GST. We will oppose FRDI too. There is no difference between BJP leaders and chit fund owner Sudipta Sen. He robbed public of their savings through chit funds and the BJP leaders will loot the common people in name of FRDI Bill.”

Earlier, a rally to protest against the FRDI Bill was taken out from Jadavpur University which converged at Hazra

More. It was led by Abhishek and several other party veter-ans including Sovandeb Chat-topadhyay. Criticising the Centre, Banerjee said if the Bill is passed, it will take away the savings of the common man

from the banks. It may be mentioned that in

the core committee meeting of the party which was held at the Trinamool Bhavan on Octo-ber 16, party supremo Mamata Banerjee had slammed the Bill.

All MPs and MLAs were pres-ent there. She had said that the Centre was again planning to rob the common people. “Through demonetisation and GST, the Centre has already hit the interest of the common man who have become poorer with each passing day and now through the FRDI Bill, it will take away their savings.”

She also wrote a letter to Union Finance minister Arun Jaitley and requested him not to table the Bill.

The Trinamool Congress will hold meetings in the dis-tricts up to the block level to oppose the Bill and make peo-ple aware of it.

The Financial Resolu-tion and Deposit Insurance (FRDI) Bill proposes to cre-ate a framework for oversee-ing financial institutions such as banks, insurance companies, non-banking financial services (NBFC) companies and stock exchanges in case of insolvency.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: The Mamata Banerjee government has approached the Centre seeking its approval to sell additional 1,000 Mega Watt power to its neighbouring country Ban-gladesh. The Bengal govern-ment is presently selling 250 Mega Watt (MW) of power to Bangladesh.

“We have been selling 250 MW of power to Bangladesh and we want to sell additional 1,000 MW to our neighbouring country. We have approached the Union Power ministry for giving clearance to us to sell the additional power,” state Power minister Sovandeb Chattopad-hyay said on the sidelines of the inauguration of the 30th Indus-trial India Trade Fair (IITF) organised by Bengal National Chamber of Commerce and

Industry (BNCCI) at Park Circus Maidan. The minister maintained that Bengal is a power surplus state and is ready to sell power to Bangladesh.

A delegation from the state Power department had visited Bangladesh some months back who had given the feedback that Bangladesh is eager to take power from Bengal. “We had written to the Union govern-ment nearly two months back and are waiting for its nod,” Chattopadhyay said.

According to the minister, the state is capable of selling power not only to Bangladesh but also to other neighbouring countries like Nepal and Bhu-tan but made it clear that this depends on the Centre’s policy and approval.

He further added that sus-tainable power supply has been the main aim of the state gov-

ernment under the leadership of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her department is ready to supply power to any industrial venture in the state.

The IITF was inaugurated by Amir Hossain Amu, Min-ister of Industries, Bangladesh in the presence of Stella Budi-

riganya, Ambassador, Embassy of The Republic of Burundi in New Delhi.

Amu in his inaugural speech said that the country would buy additional power from India depending on the deficit situation. The fair will be held till January 1.

Abhishek Banerjee, Sovandeb Chattopadhyay and others at the rally in Kolkata on Friday PIC/MPOST

Sovandeb Chattopadhyay, Bratya Basu and Satyam Roychowdhury at the event with others on Friday PIC/MPOST

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at an event on Friday PIC/MPOST

ICA - 2643(7)/2017

mp city4MILLENNIUM POST | Kolkata | Saturday, 23 December, 2017

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OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Believe it or not, Eco Park has recorded a foot-fall of 90 lakh since its inaugu-ration in January 2013.

The record kept with Hous-ing Infrastructure Develop-ment Corporation (HIDCO) says that till Thursday, 90,13,229 people have vis-ited the urban park which is the biggest of its kind in the country.

After coming to power in 2011, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee asked the officials of HIDCO to develop the area into a park. Eco Park stands on 480 acres of land which is sur-rounded by 112 acres of water body. She had named Eco Park as Prakriti Tirtha.

Cleanliness is the USP of Eco Park. The park is cleaned twice every day. It is expected that there will be a huge crowd during Christmas and New

Year’s Day when the garden will be cleaned in the afternoon.

The miniature replicas of ‘seven wonders of the world’ have been installed at the park and it has been a grand suc-cess. On December 17, around 12,000 people visited the seven wonders. Special arrange-ments have been made so that the visitors can see the won-ders without hassle during the

forthcoming festive days.There is a Japanese gar-

den which include a Pagoda, a place of meditation, a wish tank and a restaurant where Japanese food is served. Japa-nese experts and architects had come and expressed their satis-faction during the construction of the garden. There is a rep-lica of the heritage toy train of Darjeeling. The Ghoom railway

station of Darjeeling Himala-yan Railway has been recreated.

There is an arena where the visitors can ride bicycles and tandems. Café Ekante, again named by Mamata Banerjee, has become immensely popu-lar among the foodies. There is even a houseboat restaurant.

Eco Park has become pop-ular among both the domestic and international tourists and hundreds of them visit it every year. There is a museum where some of the best Durga idols and their decorations have been kept.

Special arrangements have been so that visitors can see the park peacefully during the forthcoming festive sea-son. CCTVs will be installed and toilet banks will be set up. There will be additional ticket counters. The success of Eco Park is another dream project of Mamata Banerjee that has come true.

Eco Park breaking records of popularity

The park has seen a footfall of 90 lakh since its inauguration in 2013

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: A 40-year-old woman was arrested on Fri-day from near Dhulagarh in Howrah when she was carry-ing hasish worth around Rs 50 crore.

Acting on a tip-off, officers of the Excise department con-ducted a raid in a bus that was about to leave Dhulagarh for Kolkata. The woman was car-rying a bag and there was also a minor girl with the woman.

The officers had asked the woman to come down from the bus and they found two packets containing hasish in her bag. After examining the material, investigating officers confirmed that the intoxicant is quite expensive and the woman was engaged as a “carrier”.

Police are suspecting that the attempt to bring hasish into the city was being made to sup-ply it in some night clubs ahead of New Year. The investigating officers would interrogate the woman to know who had asked her to supply the same and to whom she was about to hand it over after reaching Kolkata.

Woman held with hasish

worth Rs 50 cr

KOLKATA: The hurried launch of GST without proper infrastructure in place has made the indirect tax system more “primitive” than the VAT regime, said West Bengal Finance minister Amit Mitra.

The Centre, he said, is using ledger for manual record of refunds due to lack of inter-face between the GST network and customs Electronic Date Interchange (EDI) as well as the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT). This was one reason why he had asked the Centre to push back the date of GST launch, the minister said.

Even in the VAT system, there was no manual inter-vention in the entire process of filing of returns, Mitra said while addressing an award cer-emony organised by Federation of Indian Export Organisation here last evening.

Citing a parliamentary committee report, the minis-ter said owing to the GST sys-tem, exporters were unable to get refunds and at least 10-15 per cent of their working capi-tal was locked.

The committee noted that a sharp liquidity crunch has gripped majority of export-

ers due to blocking of funds, Mitra said.

“The delay in disbursing refunds means your capital is blocked. The committee’s report said the (quantum of) blocked capital (stuck up with the government for refunds) could be between 15-20 per cent of the working capital. Declining of the working capi-tal would lead to losing of jobs by the workers,” Mitra pointed out.

“There are job losses due to less business in gems and jew-ellery sector, I am also deeply concerned about SME and unorganised sectors which are cash-based,” Mitra said.

Despite GST-related hur-dles, Mitra was optimistic about the overall growth of exports from West Bengal.

In 2016-17, export from the state was worth Rs 53,649 crore and it is expected to touch Rs 75,000-80,000 crore in 2019-20, Mitra said.

Some 10 items account for almost two-thirds of the total exports from the state with jewellery, fishery and leather among the majors. AGENCIES

Mitra slams hurried launch of GST, calls it ‘more primitive than VAT’

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: A high-level coor-dination committee, headed by Chief Secretary Malay De, has been formed to ensure that people do not get cheated by “deposit mobilising com-panies,” which have changed their modus operandi to collect money after promising sub-stantive return in goods and services instead of assuring high rates of return in cash.

The committee, headed by the Chief Secretary, is also comprised of the state Home Secretary and a senior official of the state Consumer Affairs department. In district level, the work will be monitored by deputy superintendent rank officers.

The step to form the com-mittee has been taken after the state government received information that in some dis-tricts, a section of deposit mobilising companies are col-lecting money by befooling people. These companies have taken up the new modus ope-randi after stringent measures were taken against some com-

panies which used to collect money through different chit fund schemes.

Now, agents of the com-panies are collecting money through different monthly schemes, assuring foreign tours, high-end gadgets, etc. Options are being given to deposit money at the end of every month, on a quar-terly basis or as a one-time investment.

But complaints have been received, mainly from four districts, that many investors have not received anything after depositing money every month for a tenure of one year.

It may be mentioned that the state government has set up the Directorate of Economic Offences (DEO) to check such activities. DEO, which is entrusted with enforce-ment of West Bengal Protec-tion of Interest of Depositors in Financial Establishments Act (WBPIDFE), has also received such complaints and took up a massive awareness campaign to make people aware that they shouldn’t invest in such schemes. Now, with the forma-

tion of the committee headed by the Chief Secretary, more stringent measures would be taken to restrict functioning of such groups so that people do not fall into their trap.

It may be mentioned that

some, including directors and key persons of such companies, were arrested and the work to identify more such people to ensure that they get arrested as early as possible, has already begun.

Committee formed to protect people from ‘deposit mobilising companies’

CBI raids offices of chit fund company KOLKATA: Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) conducted a raid in the offices of chit fund com-pany Kolkata Weir Industries Private Limited on Friday. Sources said that a team of 8 CBI officers conducted the raid in the sealed office of the chit fund company at Rashbehari Avenue. The office was sealed in 2016 following an order of SEBI. The raid continued for around four hours and many important documents were seized. The office has been sealed again by officers of CBI after completing the raid. It may be mentioned that the company had its headquarters at the office at Rashbehari Avenue from where work in all other offices were being operated. At the same time, raids were conducted in 12 different offices of the company in Bengal and Jharkhand. These places include the houses and offices of the directors of the company, that had initiated its functioning from Diamond Harbour. MPOST

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: A delegation from Morroco, accompanied by senior officials of Titagarh Wagons, visited the Haldia Dock Complex (HDC) on Friday and held discussions related to trade and commerce.

It may be mentioned that G Senthivel, deputy chairman of HDC, explained the existing infrastructure facilities of HDC and the proposed developmen-tal projects. “HDC is having plans to expand its capacity by at least 10 MT in the coming years. Letter of Intent (LOI) has been issued for develop-ment of Outer Terminal-II and construction of a liquid cargo jetty at Shalukhali which will increase the capacity by 4.5 MT,” said a senior official of HDC.

The team was also informed that to overcome draft con-straints, transloading at sand-heads in Sagar is likely to commence by the start of Jan-uary, 2018, for which the con-tractors appointed have already mobilised floating cranes.

Moroccan delegation

visits Haldia Dock ComplexSOUMITRA NANDI

KOLKATA: For the first time, Elgin Road, which is famous for the residence of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, will turn into Fun Street on Sunday, Decem-ber 24.The Bhowanipore Sports Lovers Association is busy put-ting all arrangements in place to host the event from 5:30 a.m to 8:30 a.m.

The Fun Street will begin from the Sarat Bose-Elgin Road crossing and culminate just in front of the crossing of Samb-hunath Pandit Hospital on Elgin Road.

“The main objective of organising the event is to bring in people from all communities on Elgin Road and welcome Christmas and New Year 2018. India offers unity in diversity and in our state, Chief Min-ister Mamata Banerjee advo-cates religious harmony in the best possible way. Delivering the message of harmony is the main purpose,” said Ashim Kumar Basu, chairman of the Club and councillor of ward 70.

According to Basu, there will be complete family enter-tainment for one and all on Elgin Road on the day. “The

people in our locality have been constantly urging me to do something different this year during Christmas. Elgin Road is dazzling with lights and now Fun Street is my Christmas gift to all,” he added.

It is an open-to-all event where people can reclaim the roads with cycles, roller-skates and outdoor games like bad-minton, cricket, football and

basketball. There will be a spe-cial zone for kids’ activities and a zone for karate and other forms of martial arts, along with DJ music.

The nod of Kolkata Police’s Traffic department has already been taken in this regard. Happy Street event has already been held in Park Street and last Sunday it was held at Southern Avenue in South Kolkata.

Elgin Road to take on the garb of ‘Fun Street’ on Christmas eve

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: The education-alists, political parties and the teachers organisations want detention system to be back in the state. However all the stakeholders had differed on the question of whether it would start from Class I or Class V.

It has been learnt that the deliberations in the meeting will be shared with Chief Min-ister Mamata Banerjee and will be placed in the state cab-inet for the final decision. The matter will be finally passed in the state assembly.

State Education minister Partha Chatterjee chaired a meeting at Bikash Bhavan in Salt Lake on the issue of deten-tion where all political parties, teachers organisations and educationalists shared their opinion. It has been learnt that the Education department wants the pass fail system to be introduced from Class V.

The Centre had made it clear that the states can decide on their own whether they will continue with no detention till Class VIII or will bring back the pass-fail system.

On the other hand, the Congress wants detention to start right from Class I while the CPI(M) wants it from Class V. Most of the educa-tionalists present in the meet-ing opined that detention should start from the fifth standard and said that the standard of school education

has declined since the intro-duction of the ‘no-detention’ system in 2009.

Educationalist Pabitra Sarkar said that he personally wants detention from Class V or VI. However, he sug-gested that students who fail, should be given some ‘reme-dial teaching’. Educationalist Nrisingha Prasad Bhaduri, who is a specialist of Indian epics and Puranas, pitched for detention from class I.

It may be mentioned that the “no-fail” policy, mandated by the Centre’s Right to Edu-cation Act, was introduced in 2009 to ensure that children till 14 years of age did not quit studies for fear of failure.

In the present system, students till Class VIII are awarded grades and not marks, and are promoted even if they are not ready for the next class which has ultimately resulted in difficulty in cop-ing with the syllabi of Classes IX and X.

Stakeholders divided on detention system in schools

State Education minister Partha Chatterjee chaired a meeting at Bikash Bhavan in Salt Lake on the issue of detention OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: A training pro-gramme on how to deal with radiological emergency was undertaken by National Disas-ter Management Authority (NDMA) at Kolkata airport.

It has been learnt that NDMA had reviewed the inci-dent of radiological emer-gency in the Cargo Complex of the airport in New Delhi and a need was felt for imme-diate training of airport emer-gency handlers on Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) emergency management.

AAI has signed an MoU with NDMA and Nuclear Medicine and Allied Services (INMAS) to conduct training programmes at 12 airports.

The first training pro-gramme was successfully completed at Chennai air-port and the second training programme was organised at NSCBI airport, from Decem-ber 18 to 22.

About 52 participants from different organisations attended the five-day training programme. Table top exercise was also organised at the Cargo Complex under group sensiti-sation programme.

NDMA holds event on radiological emergency

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Park Street, which claims a history of more than two centuries, is housing its youngest store (Spencer’s), which is only 65 days old, hav-ing opened its door on Octo-ber 17, 2017.

The 4,000 sq ft outlet offers to customer more than 15,000 items, which is expected to go up sharply during the remain-ing eleven days of the year. Contrary to general belief, its

demand of cakes reaches its peak a day before Christmas.

More than 24 varieties of Spencer’s cakes are on offer at the youngest Park Street store, according to the store manager.

Spencer’s state-of-art bak-eries in Kolkata cater to 25 Spencer’s outlets in the city. The demand is highly encour-aging and a footfall of more than 10,000 a day is expected at Park Street Spencer’s, the youngest shop, yet to celebrate

its 100 days.While Plum Cake com-

prises 30% of the demand, followed by Dundee Cakes (15%), the eggless vegetarian cakes are expected to be in demand till the New Year.

Keeping in mind the lat-est demand trend, vegetar-ian cakes are also being tasted eagerly by citizens, both veg-etarians and non-vegetarians. The Spencer’s Christmas price range this year is from Rs 90 to Rs. 299.

Spencer’s gears up for X-mas at Park Street

5mp nationMILLENNIUM POST | Kolkata | Saturday, 23 December, 2017

OUR CORRESPONDENT

JAIPUR: Indian Army chief General Bipin Rawat on Fri-day said peace talks with Paki-stan can take place only when it stops supporting terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir.

Given its actions, it doesn’t appear that Pakistan really wants peace, the Army chief added.

He was in the western sec-tor, close to the India-Pakistan border, to witness the Hame-sha Vijayee exercise conducted by the Southern Command in Thar desert.

Rawat said Pakistan should stop supporting terrorists.

Only then can we say that peace talks should take place, he told reporters in the exercise area near Barmer.

“We also want relations should be better but given what kind of actions there are (from their side) and terrorism is spreading in Jammu and Kash-mir, it doesn’t appear that they really want peace, Rawat said.

The Army, paramilitary forces and Jammu and Kashmir police have been taking actions against militants in Jammu and Kashmir successfully and the action will continue, he added.

Rawat’s comments come a day after Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said India would like good relations with Pakistan provided Islamabad takes action against terror groups.

“It is important for Paki-stan to understand our core concern, which is terrorism. We have time and again asked them to take action against terrorists who are operating from their soil. This is some-thing they (Pakistan) will have to handle if they are serious

in cultivating this friendship,” Kumar said.

The assertions follow Pak-istan’s Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa pledging his support for better ties.

According to media reports, Bajwa has said he will support any initiative of the civilian government to resolve issues with India through talks.

In a rare move, the Pakistan Army chief briefed the Senate - the upper house of the par-liament - on security situation and regional issues on Tuesday.

Peace talks when Pak stops supporting terror in JK: Rawat

Let people watch it, says TMC leader

Derek O’Brien SIMONTINI BHATTACHARJEE

NEW DELHI: Trinamool Con-gress (TMC) Rajya Sabha mem-ber Derek O’Brien raked up the issue of Rajya Sabha TV tele-cast disruption on Thursday and briefed the issue of “black-out” on the floor of the House on Friday.

O’Brien mentioned, “The telecast was stopped at 2.13pm yesterday when Congress mem-bers were protesting over Prime Minister Modi’s remarks against Manmohan Singh and others. These are “democratic scenes”, so let the people watch it.”

“This is also part of parlia-mentary democracy,” he fur-ther added. The TMC MP in the Upper House also urged the Chairman of Rajya Sabha, Ven-kaiah Naidu, that the live broad-cast should not be shut down. To this, Naidu also asserted that this is a “suggestion” and not a “point of order”.

For the past week the warmth of the floor of the house is scorching over opposition Congress’ demand for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s apol-ogy for his remark against his predecessor Manmohan Singh

during Gujarat Assemble elec-tions’ campaign.

Even sources said that step-ping up an effort to end the log-jam, Vice President of India and the Chairman of Rajya Sabha Venkaiah Naidu also met the Leader of Opposition in the Upper House Ghulam Nabi Azad and his deputy Anand Sharma in MoS, Parliamentary Affairs Ministry Vijay Goel’s chamber in Parliament.

Apart from Derek O’Brien the Chairman also allowed Samajwadi Party (SP) MP Naresh Agarwal to speak on his demand over the hike in the sal-aries of Members of Parliament.

The Winter Session of the Parliament will end on Janu-ary 15, 2018.

Army chief witnesses military exercise near Indo-Pak border

JAIPUR: Army chief General Bipin Rawat on Friday wit-nessed the ‘Hamesha Vijayee’ military exercise in Thar desert close to the India-Pakistan bor-der where army and air force in integration executed manoeu-vres to evaluate the capabilities to strike deep into the enemy territory.

The exercise conducted by the Southern command was aimed at streamlining oper-ational procedures, defence spokesperson Lt Col Manish Ojha said.

Rawat witnessed the army executing its manoeuvres in a network enabled environ-ment by employing diverse ele-ments of combat and combat support arms fully integrated with air assets to achieve deci-sive results. Having closely wit-nessed the exercise, the Army chief commended the forces on their battle preparedness and synergised orchestration of complex operational manoeu-vres, Ojha said.

Rawat also complimented

the troops on achieving a high standard of training during the exercise and termed it as “highly successful”.

The Southern Army Com-mander, Lieutenant General D R Soni, stated that a num-ber of vital concepts were vali-dated during the exercise and a number of important lessons were drawn which will enable the army to further stream-line its operational plans and procedures. With an emphasis on surveillance, a multitude of aerial and land based surveil-lance devices were fielded to gain information and present a comprehensive picture to the commanders, he said.

Various electronic warfare equipment and other new age force multipliers were also used to amalgamate technology and further refine real time infor-mation of adversary’s activities which was shared with various command and control centres for planning and execution of coordinated operations, Ojha said.

CONG PROTEST IN LSSebi conducts ‘search & seizure’ in WhatsApp leak

caseOUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: In a major crackdown against leak of price sensitive information about listed firms, market watchdog Sebi on Friday con-ducted searches at premises of more than 30 market analysts and dealers and seized docu-ments, computers, mobiles and laptops.

The searches follow a probe into circulation of unpub-lished price sensitive infor-mation about various listed companies, including some blue chips, through WhatsApp messages and social media chatrooms. “Sebi carried out ‘search and seizure’ operations in major cities on Friday. The operations were conducted at the residences and offices of more than 30 market analysts and dealers in securities mar-ket,” a source familiar with the development said.

“Registers, documents, computers, mobile phones and laptops, among other things, were seized,” the source added.

The operations involved more than 70 Sebi officials, assisted by the state police departments.

This is one of the biggest operations since Sebi got the search and seizure powers.

Cong continues protests over PM’s remarksAadhaar needed for food under nutrition missionOUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The pro-tests by Congress in the Lok Sabha over the remarks made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi against former premier Manmohan Singh entered the fifth day on Friday, as it also asked the BJP to apologise for the charges it had made regard-ing the 2G spectrum scam.

Soon after the House assem-bled and took up the Ques-tion Hour, Congress members

trooped into the Well raising slogans demanding an apology from Modi for his charges dur-ing Gujarat poll campaign that Manmohan Singh and others had colluded with Pakistan to rig the election results.

The protesting Congress members continued to raise slogans for an hour even as Speaker Sumitra Mahajan con-tinued with the Question Hour proceedings.

A visibly upset Congress leader in the House Mallikar-

jun Kharge raised concerns about not being allowed to raise the issue despite making the demand for the past five days. Few minutes after the Zero Hour began at noon, the protesting Congress members walked out.

Besides seeking an apol-ogy from Modi, the Congress members also sought an apol-ogy from the BJP for alleging that a scam had taken place in connection with the 2G spec-trum allocation during the UPA rule.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Aadhaar reg-istration is required for chil-dren availing food under the centrally-sponsored National Nutrition Mission, the Lok Sabha was informed on Friday.

Union Minister of State for Women and Child Develop-ment Virendra Kumar said the use of Aadhaar as identity doc-ument for delivery of services or benefits or subsidies simpli-fies the government delivery

processes.He said it brings in trans-

parency and efficiency, and enables beneficiaries to get their entitlements directly in a convenient and seamless manner.

“Aadhaar obviates the need for producing multiple doc-uments to prove one’s iden-tity. Aadhaar would be unique identity of the beneficiaries,” he said during Question Hour.

The minister, however, said the beneficiaries’ not possess-

ing Aadhaar card would be assisted by the field function-aries to obtain Aadhaar.

Till such time, they would be provided the Anganwadi services on the basis of alter-native identification document, he said.

This would help in individ-ual and Aadhaar-based track-ing of children for nutritional outcomes and would also aid in area based tracking of under-nutrition status in the country, he said.

The government has recently approved the National Nutrition Mission to address the problem of malnutrition in the country at a total cost of Rs 9,046.17 crore for a period of three years from 2017-18 to 2019-20.

Bill to protect Delhi slums from punitive action introduced in LS

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: A bill to provide a three-year extension to a law that protects slums and some unauthorised constructions in the national capital region from punitive action till a framework for orderly arrangements are in place, was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Friday.

Housing and Urban Devel-opment Minister Hardeep Singh Puri introduced the National Capital Territory of Delhi Laws (Special Provi-sions) Second (Amendment) Bill, 2017.

The bill, which was approved by the Cabinet last week, provides for extending

the provisions of the National Capital Territory of Delhi Laws (Special Provisions) Second Act, 2011 for three years from January 1, 2018.

According to the bill’s State-ment of Objects and Reasons, it aims to extend the validity of the Act to continue the protec-tion to certain forms of unau-thorised developments in the National Capital Territory of Delhi from punitive action for a “limited period”, till Decem-

ber 31, 2020.Further, the bill seeks to

allow time to the “government, urban local bodies and other organisations involved to take a balanced and well-considered view on policies, norms and strategies for orderly imple-mentation of plans regarding these unauthorised develop-ments,” it said.

Under the Act, orderly arrangements had to be made for relocation and rehabili-tation of “slum dwellers and Jhuggi- Jhompri clusters”, reg-ulation of unauthorised col-onies, village abadi area and their extensions, and regulari-sation of urban street vendors, among other things.

Congress members continued to raise slogans for an hour even as Speaker Sumitra Mahajan continued with the Question Hour proceedings

NATIONAL CONSUMER DAY

Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Ram Vilas Paswan, along with MoS CR Chaudhary, visits an exhibition on the National Consumer Day 2017 in New Delhi

BJP’s foundation based on ‘lies’: Rahul Gandhi

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Escalating his attack on the BJP, newly-elected Congress president Rahul Gan-dhi on Friday alleged that the entire architecture, structure and foundation of the rul-ing party was based on “lies” and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Gujarat model’ was “flawed and fake”.

He was speaking after chairing the first meeting of the Congress Working Com-mittee (CWC), the highest decision-making body of the party, as the Congress chief, with his mother Sonia Gandhi seated next to him, alongwith former prime minister Man-mohan Singh and other senior members.

Sources said the issue of indiscipline in the party, with leaders giving out-of-turn statements that hurt the party’s prospects in the recent assem-bly elections, were also raised at the meeting, besides the need to strengthen the organisa-tional structure.

Rahul Gandhi, who had launched a relentless onslaught against Modi during the Guja-rat polls, continued in the same vein as he termed the ‘Gujarat model’ a “lie”.

He alleged that people of the state say it is a “flawed and fake” model where there is “stealing” of resources which are handed over to a “few vested interests”.

“The whole architecture

of the BJP is about lies, their whole structure is about lies...BJP’s entire foundation is based on lies.

“If you see the Modi model in Gujarat, it was a lie, clearly. When we went to Gujarat and we spoke to the people of Guja-rat, they said there is no model. What is going on is the steal-ing of resources of the peo-ple of Gujarat and that’s their design,” he told reporters after the meeting.

Gandhi alleged that whether it was putting Rs 15 lakh in every bank accounts, the 2G spectrum allocation issue, or the Modi model, “one by one the lies are coming out”.

In his inaugural speech, he said he was surprised to see that it is universally understood by people of Gujarat that “this a flawed, fake model”.

“The main expression was that he (Modi) has handed over Gujarat to a few vested interests and he has taken tremendous benefits from Gujarat but Guja-rat hasn t received anything in return,” he said.

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6MILLENNIUM POST | Kolkata | Saturday, 23 December, 2017

mp nation

WOMEN GETS 7 YRS IMPRISONMENT FOR HELPING IN FRIEND’S RAPEMUZAFFARNAGAR: A fast track court here has sentenced a woman to seven years imprisonment for helping a man and his wife in the rape of her friend 14 years ago. Judge Ashok Kumar yesterday held that Rita Kumari helped Ugar Sain and his wife in the rape of a 22-year-old girl at Titawi village in the district on June 3, 2003. Ugar Sain and his wife were convicted in 2006, the government lawyer said. Rita Kumari, a friend of the survivor, was found guilty under IPC section 210 B (criminal conspiracy). The court also imposed a fine of Rs 3,000 on her.

DSP THREATENS DOCTOR; PROBE ORDERED IN JAMMU & KASHMIRSRINAGAR: A deputy superintendent of police alleg-edly threatened a doctor working at the Emergency Hospital at Qazigund in Anantnag district, prompting the police to launch an inquiry. “We regret it and at the same time assure that necessary action shall be taken into the matter,” a police official said about yes-terday’s incident. The officer will report to the Deputy Inspector General of Police, south Kashmir range for an inquiry, he said. The Doctors’ Association of Kashmir called the incident “unfortunate”.

5 INJURED IN LPG CYLINDER EXPLOSION IN UPLAKHIMPUR KHERI: Five people were injured on Fri-day when an LPG cylinder exploded in a house in the densely-populated Sabji Mandi locality here, police said. Following the blast, the house, belonging to one Pankaj Shukla, was badly damaged and the roof of the kitchen collapsed, they said. According to Shukla, his wife was cooking food when the blast took place, the police said. City kotwali incharge Ashok Pandey said that the fire brigade was rushed to the spot which doused the flames and took out four other LPG cylin-ders stored in the house. The injured, including Shukla and his wife and three neighbours, were admitted to a district hospital, he said, adding their condition was reported to be safe. The reason for the blast was reported to be gas leakage, Pandey said.

SEVEN OF FAMILY FOUND DEADHYDERABAD: Seven members of a family, including three children, were on Friday found dead at a poul-try farm in a village here, police said. A senior police official said the family is suspected to have consumed poison in their food last night. The family was appar-ently facing financial problems, he said, adding that they were inquiring into all aspects. According to the police, the family’s head, identified as Balaraju, be-longed to Munigadapa village in Jagdevpur mandal of Siddipet district. He was working as farm labourer and taking care of the poultry there at Rajapet village, which comes under the jurisdiction of Racha-konda police commissionarate. “Most probably we are suspecting food poisoning. Prime facie, we don’t find any foul play like homicide. We cannot come to a conclusion until we get the autopsy report,” the police official said. He said they have learnt that the family had financial problems in the past.

8-YEAR-OLD RAPED BY SIX NEIGHBOURHOOD BOYSPUNE: An eight-year-old girl was allegedly raped by six boys, a 19-year-old and five minors aged about 10, living in her neighbourhood, police officials said here on Friday. All six have been held following a complaint from the girl’s mother on Thursday. She alleged that the six, all living in her neighbourhood in Kondhwa area, sexually assaulted her daughter, an official said. The police arrested the 19-year-old and sent the five boys, in the age group of 10 to 11, to an observation home, he said. The incident came to light yesterday when the woman took her daughter to a doctor after she complained of abdominal pain. The doctor found some marks on the girl’s body during a medical examination and suspected it to be a case of sexual abuse, the official said.

NATION BRIEFS

SP to oppose UPCOC Bill tooth and nail: AkhileshOUR CORRESPONDENT

LUCKNOW: Samajwadi Party supremo Akhilesh Yadav on Friday said his party would go hammer and tongs against the “draconian” Uttar Pradesh Control of Organised Crimes Bill in the assembly and on the streets, claiming the legis-lation was aimed at threaten-ing the opposition. From the intentions of the government, he said, it does not appear that the people will get justice after the UPCOC Bill is passed.

“It has been brought to threaten the apposition. We will protest against it from the legislature to the streets,” the former chief minister told reporters here.

The UPCOC Bill, 2017, drafted on the lines of stringent Maharashtra Control of Organ-ised Crime Act (MCOCA) was passed by the UP Assem-bly yesterday amid opposition walkout.

“We have majority in the Legislative Council,” he said, when asked about what his party would to do prevent the passage of the bill.

In the 100-member Coun-cil, while the ruling BJP has just 13 members, the Samajwadi Party has 61 members, the BSP nine, Congress two, RLD one and ‘others’ 12. Two seats are vacant.

When asked about the state government’s decision to with-draw 20,000 political cases, he said cases with serious charges were lodged against Chief Min-ister Yogi Adityanath and his deputy also.

“Will the CM sign the file pertaining to withdrawal of

cases against the deputy CM?” he asked.

Reacting to the SP chief ’s comments, cabinet minis-ter and government spokes-man Sidharth Nath Singh said, “Akhilesh Yadav should say why he is afraid of the UPC-OCA...He should know that court orders have come on cases pending against the CM.” 

“The cases lodged out of political vendetta will be with-drawn. This is for everyone irrespective of their party affil-iations,” he said.

Samajwadi party president and former UP CM Akhilesh Yadav addresses the media at the party office, in Lucknow on Friday PTI

SP, Cong stage walkout in UP

AssemblyOUR CORRESPONDENT

LUCKNOW: Members belonging to the opposition Samajwadi Party and Congress on Friday accused the BJP gov-ernment of harassing farmers, who were using soil from their own land for dwelling units, in the name of checking illegal mining. The matter was raised in the state Assembly during Question Hour by SP member Parasnath Yadav, who was sup-ported by Congress Legislature Party leader Ajay Kumar Lallu and by Leader of the Opposi-tion Ram Govind Chowdhury.

They alleged that farmers were being harassed for using soil from their own field for domestic purposes on the pre-text of checking illegal mining.

The police harass them and leave only after extorting money from innocent farmers, members charged.

Anant Geete’s car meets accident, security officer

injuredOUR CORRESPONDENT

MUMBAI: Union Minister Anant Geete escaped unhurt after his car on Friday met with an accident in which his per-sonal security officer (PSO) sustained injuries in Maha-rashtra’s Raigad district, the police said.

According to an official, the incident occurred at 12.30 pm near Pali village when the Union minister for heavy industries and public sector enterprises was travelling from Khopoli to Pali.

A speeding motorcycle came in front of the minister’s convoy and the pilot vehicle applied brakes. Geete’s car which was just behind the pilot vehicle hit it. Another car hit the minister’s vehicle from behind, SP of Raigad Anil Paraskar said.

The minister’s PSO, who was accompanying the minis-ter, sustained injuries and has been admitted to a private hos-pital, he said, adding, after the incident, the Union minister halted at a nearby state guest house and later departed for his scheduled events.

DMK has emerged like ‘gold refined by fire’: Stalin on 2G caseOUR CORRESPONDENT

CHENNAI: DMK leader M K Stalin on Friday said the ver-dict in the 2G spectrum alloca-tion case has come as a “blow” to those who wanted to “taint” the party.

Hailing the acquittal of Kanimozhi and A Raja, he said the party has now emerged like “gold refined by fire.” 

Quoting certain obser-vations made by the special judge in the verdict, Stalin said it showed the case was “fab-ricated with an aim of target-ing and sidelining DMK” at the national level.

“The DMK, after having faced insults and slander for baseless false charges, swam through the river of fire, and after seven years has emerged as gold refined by fire,” Stalin, DMK working president, said in a letter to partymen.

The DMK was always con-fident of telling the truth to the world, Stalin said a day after the special court in Delhi acquit-ted party leaders Kanimozhi, a Rajya Sabha MP, and former Telecom minister A Raja.

The DMK leader said Raja as then Telecom min-

ister, adopted “progressive measures” in allocating 2G spectrum aimed at the welfare of the poorer sections of the society. This, Stalin claimed, led to an increase in mobile phone users even while bringing the rates down.

He said CAG Vinod Rai had made charges of “presump-tive loss” of Rs 1.76 lakh crore in spectrum allocation and even those who were aware of the differences between “prac-ticality and presumption blew up” the matter.

“Those with political ven-detta, and media known for sensationalism blew up the issue against DMK in the electoral field,” he said in an

apparent reference to the 2011 Assembly polls in Tamil Nadu which the AIADMK and its allies swept.

Raja was always confident of getting justice through a legal battle and he himself put forward “strong arguments” before the court even as “Kan-imozhi also proved she was not guilty,” Stalin, also state leader of opposition, added.

Party president and his father M Karunanidhi was overjoyed when he was told about the outcome of the case, Stalin said.

Raja and Kanimozhi, besides 15 other accused and three companies, were yester-day acquitted by a special court.

93 prisoners to be set free in UP on Vajpayee’s birthdayOUR CORRESPONDENT

LUCKNOW: The birthday of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on Decem-ber 25 will bring cheers to the faces of 93 prisoners as the Yogi Adityanath govern-ment has decided to set them free on that day. These 93 convicts, who are going to be freed, are lodged in different jails of Uttar Pradesh and their names were chosen from a list of prisoners who have com-pleted their tenure in jail.

“It has been decided to set free 93 prisoners convicted in different cases on the 93rd birthday of former Prime Min-ister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. These prisoners have com-pleted their tenure in jail but could not be released due to non- payment of fine imposed on them,” Principal Secretary (Home) Arvind Kumar said in an order issued here.

He directed the prisons department to ensure the fine is paid by NGOs, trusts and others, after verifying their credentials.

“The names of convicts to be set free have been picked up in a random manner from a list of 135 such prisoners who

are not named or are serv-ing imprisonment in another case,” a senior Home depart-ment officials said.

Vajpayee had represented Lucknow in the Lok Sabha five times -- 1991, 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2004.

His legacy was taken for-ward by BJP leaders Lalji Ton-don and Rajnath Singh, who won Lok Sabha elections in 2009 and 2014.

“Vajpayee is the first and the only non-Congress leader who completed his full term as Prime Minister. He means a lot not only in Lucknow seat which he served but for the entire state and in his regime a number of historic schemes were launched in his regime,” BJP Spokesman Shalabh Mani Tripathi said.

Agitating govt doctors in Rajasthan

continue strike

Chhattisgarh: Naxals torch 13

vehicles in Sukma district

OUR CORRESPONDENT

JAIPUR: Striking govern-ment doctors in Rajasthan on Friday refused to resume their duties in hospitals where patients faced difficulties.

The doctors are accusing the government of not exe-cuting the promises made to them last month and tak-ing vindictive action against them.

The in-service govern-ment doctors went on an indefinite strike on Decem-ber 16 against the arrest of some of their fellow doctors under the Rajathan Essen-tial Services Maintenance Act (RESMA). The act was invoked after the doctors threatened that they would go on strike.

As many as 86 doctors had been arrested before the Rajasthan high court on Tuesday directed the agitat-ing doctors to resume their duties and assured them that no doctor would be arrested.

Dr Durgashankar Saini, general secretary of All Raj-asthan In-Service Doctors’ Association said in a state-ment that doctors at private hospitals would also boycott work for a day on Decem-ber 25 if the government did not initiate steps to end the deadlock.

Mahesh Sharma, a lawyer for the agitating doctors, said the doctors would resume work only after “the vindic-tive action” against them is stopped.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

RAIPUR: Naxals set ablaze atleast 13 vehicles, including ten engaged in road construc-tion work, in Chhattisgarh’s Sukma district, police said on Friday.

The incident took place last evening under Kistaram police station limits where construc-tion of road is underway between Kistaram and Pal-lodi village, a senior police official said.

However, security forces reached the spot this morn-ing and are sanitising the area suspecting that Naxals might have planted explosives to target security personnel after torching the vehicles in the area-considered as Maoist stronghold, he said.

Last month, a camp of security forces was set up in Pallodi following which vil-lagers had demanded to con-struct a road between Pallodi and Kistaram that passes through dense forest, he said.

In view of the demand, the road is being constructed on a stretch of 5 kms between the two villages, located around 500 kms away from the capi-tal, he said.

Last evening, when the labourers were returning along with vehicles to Kistaram after completing work for the day, large number of armed ultras stopped them.

The cadres also stopped some auto-rickshaws used for ferrying villagers and workers in the area, he said.

Karnataka CM hits back at Yogi Adityanath on law

and order issue

OUR CORRESPONDENT

BENGALURU: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Friday slammed his Uttar Pradesh counterpart Yogi Adityanath for flaying his gov-ernment on the law and order front, saying, on the contrary, there was lawlessness in UP.

“There is no other place in the country where law and order had deteriorated to the extent it has happened in UP and Bihar,” Siddaramaiah said.

“There is no law there in UP. What will they come and teach us here?” he told report-ers at Belagavi.

Siddaramaiah’s comments come a day after Adityanath lashed out at the state govern-ment, alleging that the way Hindu and BJP workers are being “brutally” killed signi-fied “a state of anarchy.”

The chief minister also crit-icised Adityanath for accus-ing the Congress of “insulting” India’s rich tradition by show-ing respect to the 18th cen-

tury Mysore ruler Tipu Sultan, whose birth anniversary cel-ebrations by the government had triggered a controversy.

“What is my name- Sid-darama, there is Rama in my name.

We celebrate Rama jayanti, Hanuma jayanti, also Tippu jayanti,” Siddaramaiah said.

Listing ‘jayantis’ of vari-ous social reformers, religious and historical leaders like Basava, Kittur Rani Chenna-mma, Valmiki and Kanakadas observed by the state govern-ment, he said “We celebrate jayantis of every one.”

Speaking at the “Parivar-thana Yatra” rally, organised by the state BJP in Hubballi yes-terday, Adityanath had called Karnataka “the land of Hanu-man” and home of valour and courage which was ruled by the erstwhile Vijayanagara empire.

It was unfortunate that the Congress “instead of wor-shiping Hanuman and Vijay-anagara was worshiping Tipu Sultan,” he had said.

MP CM lays foundation for ‘world’s largest’ solar plantREWA: Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Friday laid the foundation stone for the “world’s largest” ultra mega solar power plant at Gurh tehsil in the district. The green energy generated at this station will be provided to Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) to run its trains in the national capital. “It is a matter of happiness that the foundation stone for the world’s largest solar plant is laid at Gurh. It will generate maximum green power without any pollution. Earlier, electricity was generated using thermal and hydro sources and it (ther-mal) causes lot of damage to the environment,” Chouhan said while addressing a function on the occasion. The solar plant will generate 750 MW electricity and is being established with at an investment of Rs 4,500 crore. MPOST

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ICA/T 6495(2 )/2017 e — Tender Notice The following e- Tenders are invited by the Assistant Director of Fisheries, South 24 Parganas, Alipur on behalf of Governor of West Bengal for supply o Fishery inputs and civil work in the district of South 24 Parganas In the website www.wbtender.gov.in

Sd/ -Assistant Director of Fisheries

South 24 Pargana,

7mp nationMILLENNIUM POST | Kolkata | Saturday, 23 December, 2017

Naveen removes Minister for remarks on Brahmins

OUR CORRESPONDENT

BHUBANESWAR: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today removed Agriculture Minister Damodar Rout from his ministry in the wake of his “derogatory” remarks against the Brahmin community.

“I strongly disapprove of anyone who makes deroga-tory remarks against any caste, creed or religion. I have dis-missed Dr (Damodar) Rout from the Council of Ministers,” Patnaik told reporters here.

Rout is also the Biju Janata Dal vice-president.

Patnaik said, “A letter has been sent to the Hon’ble Gov-ernor in the evening to accept this dismissal.”

Rout was not immediately available for comment as he was away in his constituency.

The removal of the min-ister followed state-wide pro-tests by Brahmins against the “derogatory” and controversial remarks he had made about the community at a function in Malkangiri on December 17.

The veteran leader, who represents Paradip in the Assembly, said that “while no tribal is seen begging in any part of the state, one can spot Brahmins resorting to begging in places such as bus stands”.

The remarks of the 75-year-old leader triggered sharp

reaction across the state and members of the Brahmin community were up in arms demanding his immediate removal from the Council of Ministers and unconditional apology from him.

Terming Rout’s remarks as casteist and inappropri-ate, Brahmins, who constitute about nine per cent of the state’s population, staged demonstra-tions and dharnas in different

places to press their demand.The senior leader, who cel-

ebrated his birthday last week, has been in the eye of a storm for quite some time as his remarks in the past had also triggered controversies and protests from various segments of society.

The seven-time MLA was under severe attack after his remarks about a spate of sui-cide by farmers in the state

allegedly due to crop loss caused by different reasons such as pest attack and unsea-sonal rains.

While refusing to visit the house of a farmer in Bargarh district who had committed suicide, Rout had stated that the deceased did not belong to BJD and therefore, there was no reason for him to meet his family members.

His remark that no com-pensation would be provided to the farmers who had set afire their pest infested crops had also evoked strong protest from different quarters.

The veteran leader had also made controversial remarks about a woman BJP leader and Anganwadi workers in October this year. He later expressed his regret for his comments.

Rout, who is considered as a confidant of late Biju Patnaik, found place in all the four min-istries headed by Naveen Pat-naik, but he failed to enjoy full term as minister in any of the tenures. He had earlier been asked thrice to resign because of different reasons. This was for the first time that he was removed from the Ministry.

Since 1979, Rout had been in charge of more than 15 dif-ferent departments during his long political innings after he became MLA for the first time in 1977.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

MUMBAI: Vistara has sub-mitted its response to aviation regulator DGCA’s show-cause notice seeking explanation on why the airline did not file a police complaint in the alleged molestation case involving a Bollywood actress, who is a minor, a source said on Friday.

The actress was allegedly molested by a man onboard a Delhi-Mumbai flight of Vistara earlier this month.

“Vistara has submitted its response to the show-cause notice issued by the DGCA in the incident involving a minor Bollywood actress who was allegedly molested by a fellow passenger on one of its flights from Mumbai,” a source privy

to the development said.The airline’s spokesperson

was not immediately available for comments.

The DGCA had issued a notice to Vistara asking it to explain as to why it did not file the police complaint in the alleged molestation case.

The source said the airline filed its reply with the aviation regulator two days ago and is fully cooperating with the police investigation.

Earlier this month, the air-line had submitted its final investigation report into the incident to the Director-ate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). The “Dangal” actor had narrated her ordeal on the Vistara flight from Delhi to Mumbai on Instagram.

Molestation case: Vistara submits

response to DGCA

HC order reaffirms my faith in judiciary: Ashok Chavan

OUR CORRESPONDENT

MUMBAI: The Governor’s office has been saved from set-ting a “new precedent”, Con-gress leader Ashok Chavan said on Friday after the Bombay High Court quashed the sanc-tion to prosecute him granted by the Maharashtra governor in the Adarsh housing soci-ety scam. Maintaining that the allegations against him were baseless and without any proof, the former chief minister said the court order reaffirms his faith in the judiciary.

The high court on Friday quashed and set aside Gover-nor Ch Vidyasagar Rao’s sanc-tion granted to the CBI in 2016 to prosecute the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee president in the Adarsh Hous-ing scam.

“The HC order reaffirms my faith in the judiciary. I am satisfied. The state governor had given the sanction to pros-ecute me overruling the deci-

sion of his predecessor. With today’s court decision, the gov-ernor’s office has been saved from setting a new precedent,” Chavan told reporters.

He said he had always main-tained that the case against him was “politically motivated.”

Chavan said the court order came because the allegations against him were “baseless and without any proof”.

“I suffered personal damage in the last seven years because of the charges against me. I had to quit as the chief minister. But, I am involved in my party work. I am thankful to the people in my constituency for standing by me,” Chavan said.

He also said the BJP should not indulge in the politics of vendetta at a personal level.

To a question on whether he would be the chief ministe-rial face of the Congress in the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly polls, Chavan said any decision in this regard would be taken by the party.

Lieutenant Gen Sahrawat takes over as DG NCC

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Lieutenant General B S Sahrawat, SM took over the reins of National Cadet Corps as its Director General.

The Gen Officer is a third generation army officer. He is alumnus of the National Defence Academy, Khada-kwasla & Indian Military Academy, Dehradun. He was commissioned in Dec 1980 in 13th Battalion (REZANG LA), the KUMAON Regiment. The Gen Officer has done all pro-fessional courses to include the prestigious NDC Course. He holds a Masters degree in Man-agement Studies from Osmania University, Hyderabad and M. Phil from Madras University.

The removal of the minister followed state-wide protests by Brahmins against the “derogatory” and controversial remarks he had made about the community at a function in Malkangiri on December 17

US Navy Secretary meets Foreign Secy, Navy ChiefOUR CORRESPONDENT

New Delhi: US Secretary of the Navy Richard V Spencer held wide-ranging talks with Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar and Navy Chief Admiral Sunil Lanba to further boost bilateral naval cooperation besides pursuing common interests in the Indo-Pacific.

The US Embassy said cooperation between the two navies, shared commit-

ment of both countries to the rule of law, freedom of navigation and free and fair trade were discussed in the meetings.

The US has been pushing for an impor-tant role by India in the Indo-Pacific region where China has been expanding its presence aggressively.

“The relationship between the United States and India is based on our shared values and desire to preserve peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region and

across the seas,” the Embassy quoted Spen-cer as saying.

He said, “India is a model for peace-fully resolving maritime border disputes and a strong provider of security. We look forward once again to joining the Indian Navy and Japan Maritime Self Defense Force in the Malabar exercise to be hosted in the Pacific next year.”

This is Spencer’s first visit to India as Secretary of the Navy.

Chhattisgarh: Congress brings no-trust motion

against BJP govtOUR CORRESPONDENT

RAIPUR: The main opposi-tion Congress on Friday came out with a 168-point `charge sheet’ in the Chhattisgarh Assembly as a part of its no-confidence motion against the Raman Singh-led BJP government.

Debate on the no-confi-dence motion is underway in the House on the last day of the four-day winter session.

In the morning, Congress MLAs started the debate, alleg-ing that the government has failed on several fronts and its ministers are involved in scams.

Congress MLAs Dhanen-dra Sahu, Satyanarayan Sharma, Arun Vora and oth-ers accused the state govern-ment of leaving unemployed youth in the lurch while pro-tecting those possessing fake caste certificates.

The state is going through

“undeclared economic crises”, Congress legislators said.

They also alleged that the fourth pillar of democracy -- media -- is under attack in the state, while the law and order situation in the Bastar region has deteriorated.

Women are not safe, and the number of rape and moles-tation cases has multiplied, they said. The state govern-ment hasn’t fulfilled its prom-ises and farmers’ situation has worsened, the opposition MLAs said.

Countering the charges, revenue minister Prem Prakash Pandey, agriculture minister Brijmohan Agrawal and other BJP MLAs including Shivratan Sharma dubbed the motion brought by the Con-gress as “weak”.

In the last 14 years, the BJP government introduced and successfully implemented sev-eral welfare schemes, the rul-ing party MLAs said.

Notice Inviting e-Tender No. 15 of 2017-18 (3rd Call) EE/TD/PWD, Purba Medinipure invites e-tender for the work 1) “Repair, renovation and roof treatment work in kitchen of Purba Medinipur District Hospital”Estt. Amt.: Rs. 5,92,127.00 Tender ID-2017_WBPWD_144954_1.

2) “Repair, Renovation and roof treatment work of old Nursing Hostel of Purba Medinipur District Hospital at Tamluk”. Estt. Amt.: Rs. 5,29,721.00 Tender ID-2017_WBPWD_144954_2.Bid Submission End Date is 29.12.2017 at 16.00 Hours. For details visit the website http://wbtenders.gov.in Sd/-

Executive Engineer, PWD,Tamluk Division

WB/WRDD/EEAM/CS/eNIT 23/ 2017-18 Exe. Engg (AM) Chinsurah (AM) Divn Chinsurah Hooghly invites e-Tender ID No. 2017_WRDD_144907_1 from Bonafied & experienced agencies for Installation works of Chandur Major RLI under Aramabagh Block under Core-Sector Programme in Hooghly. Closing date of Bid Submission 08.01.18 (6.00 pm). Detailed information will be available at the site http://wbtenders.gov.in & in the Office. Sd/-

Executive Engineer (Agri-Mech)Chinsurah (Agri-Mech) Division

Chinsurah

WBWRDD/EEAM/CS/eNIT-24/2017-18 (Pack 1,2&3)Exe. Engg (AM) Chinsurah (AM) Divn, Chinsurah Hooghly invites e-Tender ID No. 2017_WRDD_144958_1 from Bonafied & experienced agencies for Renovation works of 03 separate (WTA) Major RLI under Core-Sector Programme in Hooghly. Closing date of Bid Submission 08.01.17 (6.00 pm). Detailed information will be available at the site http://wbtenders.gov.in & in the Office. Sd/-

Executive Engineer (Agri-Mech)Chinsurah (Agri-Mech) Division

Chinsurah

WBWRDD/EEAM/CS/eNIT-25 /2017-18Exe. Engg (AM) Chinsurah (AM) Divn, Chinsurah, Hooghly invites e-Tender ID No. 2017_WRDD_144993_1 from Bonafied & experienced agencies for Renovation & Conversion of Purba Haripur Major RLI under Arambagh Block under Core-Sector Programme in Hooghly. Closing date of Bid Submission 18.01.17 (6.00 pm). Detailed information will be available at the site http://wbtenders.gov.in & in the Office Sd/-

Executive Engineer (Agri-Mech)Chinsurah (Agri-Mech) Division

Chinsurah

ABRIDGED -e-NIT Tender ref. Name of work Estimated

Amount Last date of bid submission

NIT No. 129 of 2017-18

CONSTRUCTION OF PRAYER ROOM, GUARD ROOM, TOILET BLOCK, RENOVATION OF GATE, LAND DEVELOPMENT & STRENGTHENING OF BOUNDARY WALL AT SANTIPARA. KABRASTAN IN THE DISTRICT OF JALPAIGURI.

`1,86,34,195.00 15/01/2018 up to 15:00 Hours

NIT No. 131 of 2017-18

CONSTRUCTION OF BOUNDARY WALL, LAND SCAPING WORK, INTERNAL PATHWAY, SUPPLY-ING AND INSTALLATION OF GAZEBO AT JUBLEE PARK IN THE DIST. Of JALPAIGURI

`2,42,54,782.00 16/01/2018 up to 15:00 Hours

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

Sd/- Superintending Engineer

North Bengal Development Department

Government of West Bengal North Bengal Development Department

Branch Secretariat Uttarkanya, Fulbari, Jalpaiguri

E_Tender Notice E_Tender Notice is being invited by the E.E./PWD/NBCD, Siliguri, for the following work, details of which may be had from this office dur-ing the office hours or at http.//etender.wb.nic.in or at www.pwdwb.in

Tender Ref No : WB/PWD/EE/NBCD/NIT/18/2017-18Tender ID : 2017_WBPWD_144917_1Bid submission End Date for all the following works : 08/01/2018 at 3.pm

Name of work : Construction of footpath, Railing and side drain at Khaprail more along Matigara-Kurseong Road under North Bengal Construction Division, PWD, during the year of 2017-18 Estt. Amount : `16,38,138.00 Eligibility : Bonafied Contractors Note :- Any subsequent corrigendum If necessary will be published

on website only Executive Engineer (PWD)

North Bengal Construction Division

mp editorial8MILLENNIUM POST | Kolkata| Saturday, 23 December, 2017

ARUN MITRA

Storks deliver babies. That is where babies come from. You don’t believe me? But isn’t it true? Because the land that is

home to Kama Sutra and Khajuraho, today stifles the existence of sex and the other normal bodily functions associated with it. The Information and Broadcasting Ministry has banned the airing of sexually titillating con-dom advertisements between 6 am and 10 pm. Advertisements that are educative and subtle, more like the older ‘Nirodh’ ads, will be permitted to ply their trade. But Sunny Leone showcasing carnal pleasures won’t be allowed. See, my problem is not with the ban per se. I have an issue with the entire premise of us not being able to talk openly about sex.

Sex must be discussed in low voices and whispers. Blushing, smirk-ing, wicked jokes, a post-coital single tear rolling off the cheek of an actress à la ‘Parineeta’, may all symbolise sex. Blossoming flowers, canoodling birds, heaving bosoms and impossible pelvic thrusts in Hindi film songs, all represent sex through their sly motifs.

The portrayal of sex in Indian cin-ema, television, and print is made through ‘suggestions’. We suggest that two people on screen may have sex but we won’t confirm it. There is always room for it to be something else. Remember that ridiculous scene in ‘Pyaar Ke Side Effects’ where drinking coffee meant having sex. We resort to innuendos because any blatant mention of sex or the passions surrounding it is looked upon as immoral, un-Indian. Any direct portrayal will be snipped by the Censor Board.

We are perhaps the most hypo-critical nation, given the rich heritage of sex that we carry on our shoulders. We gave to the world its handbook

on sex, but look at us squirming at its mention now. On one hand, we have the second-largest population in the world. No guesses on how we reached that landmark number. We had sex, lots and lots of it, and without protec-tion. But while socially regressive tele-vision serials are beamed in all its glory, and filmy commercials of crassness that pass off as sex comedies take up air time, we don’t want sexually rous-ing condom advertisements. All this is being done to protect children from wanting to have sex.

But parents should have greater worries in life today than their kids

watching condom advertisements. Recent incidents of child abuse and murder throw up the urgent question of the general safety of the child, even at school. The Internet too is an open Pandora’s box which gives kids access to things far more dangerous and scar-ring. The Blue Whale Challenge, rape videos, sex with minor videos, ways to kill someone or commit suicide; the Internet is teeming with seedy, explicit, and often harmful content.

The more we treat sex as taboo; the more it becomes incomprehensible to children and young adults. The more we talk about it, build education and

awareness around it, will we be able to accept sex as just another natural phe-nomenon. Putting sex behind a ‘purdah’ will only create more curiosity around it, keep it as a forbidden topic. We need kids, young adults, and everyone else to talk more about sex, the responsibili-ties that come with it, the safety that is mandatory. The more we talk, the bet-ter will we understand the oldest sport in the world. So, like the American hip hop band, Salt-N-Pepa sang in the 90s, ‘Let’s talk about sex.’

(The writer is a journalist and media entrepreneur. The views expressed are strictly personal.)

The National Medical Com-mission Bill has been cleared by the Cabinet. It will soon be tabled in Parliament for

debate. If passed, this will become an Act, which will replace Medical Council of India (MCI) and regulate the medi-cal education in India. Till date the MCI has been the regulatory body, which decides about the admission process to the undergraduate as well as post-graduate classes; it sets basic minimum standards required to open a medical college and carries out regular inspec-tions of the colleges to check the sta-tus of education. The MCI also has the power to derecognise any medical col-lege, which does not fulfill the required standards. The MCI also decides the medical curriculum. It also maintains a registry of doctors, who have to get reg-istered with their respective state med-ical councils, which in turn send the details to the MCI from time to time. Whereas the government-nominated members form majority in the MCI, it has elected members as well, which gives it a partial democratic structure. Unfortunately, the MCI has lost its rep-utation as there have been allegations

of corruption against the higher-ups in the council.

The Supreme Court of India had taken cognizance of the irregularities in the council and recommended restruc-turing of the system so as to make it more transparent to do away with cor-ruption and maintain high standards of medical education. The government had some time ago proposed a National Medical Commission instead of the MCI, which was put in public domain for suggestions. As per reports, it has now been cleared by the Cabinet with minor amendments to the original draft. A review of the original draft of the bill clearly indicates that it will not yield the desired result. According to this, NMC has 25 members, all of whom will be nominated by the Central or the state government/UT. This makes the regulatory body totally undemocratic, with only bureaucratic control and no involvement of various stakeholders.

Its most flawed clause is that it will give a free hand to any for-profit organ-isation to open a medical college. Up till now the medical colleges were permitted to be opened by not for profit organisa-tions. These colleges will be free to fix

their tuition fee. The government may exercise control over the tuition fee of only up to 40 per cent of seats, which means tuition fees in 60 per cent plus seats will be at the mercy of private man-agements. Thus, the cost of medical edu-cation, which is already very high in the private sector, will further rise and will be virtually reserved for the rich classes. Since there will be no regular inspec-tions, check on the standard of medical education will be compromised. Already the low standard of education in many medical colleges, which are notoriously known to hire faculty and patients dur-ing inspection, will further go down.

There is a proposal to introduce exit exam for the undergraduate students. This is being done because the difference in the standard of education in various medical colleges is glaring. Instead of meeting its responsibility to standardise education, the government is working on an approach to judge the ranking of the colleges by the performance of the students. This will put the future of many students in substandard medical college in the dark. There are several instances where colleges have been closed down and students are running from pillar to

post to seek themselves transferred to suitable institutions.

It is obvious that medical education will become totally unregulated and go in the hands of business interests. It would be naïve to expect a person who has spent crores on getting education to have social interest and service attitude towards healthcare. The already over privatised healthcare in our country will further get expensive and go out of reach of the majority of citizens who are already devoid of quality health care due to high cost of out of pocket expenditure.

It is high time that the medical pro-fession and the civil society speak up for positive actions towards raising the stan-dard of medical education and bringing it within the reach of common man. There is a need for strong debate in the country as to how healthcare system should be so as to provide universal healthcare to all. IPA

(The author is senior vice President Indian Doctors for Peace and Devel-

opment, Former Chairman Ethical Committee Punjab Medical Council & Member core committee, Alliance

of Doctors on Ethical Healthcare. The views expressed are strictly personal.)

Undoing healthcareEDITORIAL

Costs of medical education and healthcare will sky rocket

Parents should have greater worries in life today than their kids watching condom advertisements. Recent incidents of child abuse and murder throw up the urgent question of the general safety of the child, even at school

It is obvious that medical education will become totally unregulated and go in the hands of business interests. The already over privatised healthcare in our country will go further beyond reach of most citizens who are already deprived of quality care due to high cost

After the shoddy performance of prosecution that ended with ‘Nobody killed Aarushi’, we now have yet another anti-climatic situation with ‘Nobody scammed the 2G spectrum’. As the CBI special

court went on to hear the carefully arranged files organised by the CBI to prosecute the ministers involved during the UPA-II tenure along with several influential businessmen, the nation stood with abated breaths for a verdict whose out-come seemed quite obvious. The 2G scam in 2010-2011 had uprooted our society. Tagged as the biggest scam of modern India, it was posited at a value that cost the national exchequer approximately Rs 1.76 lakh crore—becoming the ‘fraud of the century’. A major aberration which had highlighted the crony capitalism and underhand money laundering, endemic to the erstwhile UPA government; a crucial underlying fact that had jolted the Narendra Modi government to power. With fingers being pointed at the top brass of the UPA leadership and the Prime Minister himself not being exempt from the shadows of a murky business deal, the 2G scam and the Commonwealth scam collectively led to the decimation of the UPA government, with the Congress being reduced to an abysmal 44 seats in the lower house of the Parliament. However, as the CBI special court judge OP Saini observed, there was no critical collection of data that pointed fingers directly to the telecom minister, A Raja or Kanimozhi, two leaders of the DMK who were the most lambasted during this obnoxious dealing. As the Comp-troller and Auditor General, Vinod Rai had observed, there was undoubtedly a massive loss to the national exchequer witnessed during the 2G allocation with fingers automatically pointing towards the telecom minister, yet the CBI failed to posit ade-quate findings that would automatically blacklist those who had so forth been charged as guilty. The primary concerns sur-rounding the 2G scam had been with its unlawful allocation. Instead of abiding by the listed first-come-first-serve policy, Raja had been accused of following a partial method where he derived monetary favours and thereby allowed allocations, even to those companies that did not qualify to fulfil the nec-essary requirements that precede such allocation. That a scam occurred remains unquestioned, because the CAG had pointed out, without a doubt, the massive damage that was incurred upon government exchequer which ultimately led to the can-celling of the licenses of 122 companies involved. However, the failure, in this regard, has been on the part of the CBI to unearth enough believable evidence that would provide a natu-ral colour to its argument. The CBI failed to prove that Raja or his office manipulated the cut-off date or the first-come-first-serve policy. There was insufficient testimony to prove that Raja or any of the accused ignored the ineligibility of Swan Telecom or Unitech group companies. Saini in his verdict observed that there were major lapses that precluded the assured occurrence of such a massive organised crime. Those familiar with Saini, say unambiguously that he spent every minute dedicating his time to discover the truth hidden behind the veils of the 2G scam, one that has harangued our country and its exchequer for years to come. It has tarnished the future of the telecom industry which was riding on a high, seeking to make success-ful inroads in the foreseeable future. Saini observed that the scam was the result of an artful arrangement of facts which were amplified beyond recognition to suit a narrative that was pervading the time. The lapses that were present were at the level of policymaking—the UPA government had been unsuccessful in efficiently implementing the 2G spectrum. Yet the direct consequence of inefficiency piled onto a full-fledged scam, is an arbitrary outcome that was propagated by some and turned into reality by the belief of several others. The CBI hearing comes in direct contradiction to what the Supreme Court had observed in 2012, when it had cancelled 122 licenses and slammed a fine of 17 crores on seven illegal beneficiaries. Not to forget, this was the tide upon which the BJP had swayed to power in 2014. While the verdict came as a massive relief to the Congress that has been battling a lost war against accusations of severe corruption, it has been a setback for the BJP whose accusations now, do indeed seem like propa-ganda. Political games aside, one fact remains unchanged. The policymaking in our country is completely skewed. The UPA government may not have scammed, but they surely faltered when it came to successfully implementing the 2G that would have revolutionised the face of telecom in India today. The CBI intends to challenge this verdict in the Delhi High Court, further dragging the blame game of what was one of the most unfortunate decision-making processes of modern India. The solution should adequately be directed towards reviving tele-communications today rather than fighting a battle of saving egos. One question continues to linger: if there are no default-ers, then where is the Rs 1.76 lakh crore resting?

The Trump government faced a strong whiplash at the UN General Assembly, as 128 countries voted against the US’s move to recognise Jerusalem as the official capital of Israel. To recall, Jerusalem has been the hot-

bed of controversy, with both Israel and Palestine claiming its stakes on the city, recognising it as their official capital. A uni-versal declaration restricts the resolution of Jerusalem solely as a matter of contention between the two parties involved—namely Israel and Palestine. The UN and the rest of the world have refrained from entering negotiations or passing verdicts when it came to the fate of this holy city. Since the 1980s, when the UN had declared Israel’s annexation of Jerusalem as a vio-lent disobedience of international law, all countries that had so forth located their embassies in Jerusalem, moved out to duly recognise Tel Aviv as the administrative head of the state of Israel. Since then, the matter of Jerusalem remains unresolved for the both the Palestinians and the Israelis. After Donald Trump reversed all laws of his predecessors to reinstate Jeru-salem as the lawful capital, violent protests had broken out between supporters of both states, as a stake to the holy city is a matter of great contention. The Trump government, habitually exercising its muscle flexing, came back strong to state that the US embassy would be relocated, much to the joy of Netanyahu and the rest of Israel, without considering the crisis it would set forth for the governance in place. The UN has harshly repri-manded Trump’s move, yet he continued to remain undeterred. India’s vote, which matched the majority that rejected the Trump government’s calling, was greatly anticipated, consid-ering the proximity it shares with both Trump and Netanyahu. However, India displayed its commitment to resolving peace in the region and disregarded Trump’s move that completely jeopardises the fate and state of affairs in the holy city. While many believed Trump would reverse his move, learning from his mistake and reflecting upon the reprimands it received from the international community, the Trump government instead came down harshly upon those that had voted against his pol-icy decision. Nikki Haley sent out a strong message saying that the US would remember this day of international sabotage that had shockingly questioned the US’s sovereignty. The US’s move belittles the entire Palestinian movement that has been on for the last several decades. Its open threat to the international community further highlights the disregard that the Trump administration hosts for the rest of the world when misalign-ing with its own prospects. Governance isn’t child’s play—it is time Trump realised the consequences of his decisions.

Fault sans defaulters

Failing Trump

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millenniumpost.inMOCKERY OF HEALTHCAREdear

EDITOR

The field of medicine and public health requires severe scrutiny from the authorities and the government. The mushrooming of private medical colleges and hospitals has to be checked. There is no restriction or supervision that restrains the unlawful activities conducted here. Citizens pay lakhs of rupees for the admission of their children to become doctors and pay lakhs more for the treatment of family members. The price of living is indeed at its peak today. The government must wake up.

India gave to the world its handbook on sex, but look at us squirming at its mention now

Let’s talk about sexRAKESH SAINI Via email

Without health life is not life; it is only a state of langour and suffering - an image of death

Quote martial

BUDDHA

SHUTAPA PAUL

There is a pressing need for universal and affordable healthcare for all (Representational Image)

The more we treat sex as taboo, the more it becomes incomprehensible to children and young adults (Representational Image)

9mp in focusMILLENNIUM POST | Kolkata | Saturday, 23 December, 2017

JAGDEEP S. MORE

A THOUSAND MIRRORS

GARGA CHATTERJEE

Parents and teachers have been the epit-ome of human respect and dignity since

time immemorial. No matter whether a child is impressive or a rogue, he is his dignified best before them. The mother has always been the pivotal force and an emotional epicentre for any human being. The Hindi oldies have depicted this serene emotion beautifully hundreds of times. The famous dialogue “Mere Paas Maa Hai” of the Bol-lywood blockbuster Deewar became the symbol of India’s rich culture. A. R. Rahman in his Oscars speech quoted the same portraying India’s ethnic richness. The news items sur-facing of late show that times have changed since recently, a sixteen-year-old murdered his mother and sister with his cricket bat, pizza cutter, and scissors. This came like a night-mare and to everybody’s horror, it was a real incident.

This not an isolated incident. Last September two class XII students stabbed their teacher when he didn’t allow them to take the examination due to short attendance. The teacher later succumbed to the injury in the hospital. In November, a report shook the town of Baha-durgarh, Haryana when a stu-dent brutally beat the teacher at school because he got less marks in Mathematics. The entire inci-dent was caught on cameras in the school. Most infamous of them all is the recent inci-dent of a Gurugram school boy murdering a seven-year-old in the school premises. A similar incident happened in a gov-ernment school of Faridabad a year earlier. Molestation of young girls in the school, toilets, playgrounds, and school buses by senior boys has become common for the newspaper headlines.

It is a matter of shame that our society has come to its extreme lowness. Today India is gradually replacing the west

in terms of the degree of crime. That is why the Juvenile Justice Board has decided to consider the minor accused as an adult.

It is time to introspect. Who is to blame for this sud-den splurge in the heinous crime rate? Who is snatching away the childhood of our chil-dren? Is it the disintegration of the joint family system, influ-ence of television and inter-net, lack of time, availability of easy funds or uncontrolled free-dom? It is that such incidents happen overnight? They are the reflection of our changing society. According to psycholo-gist Vikas Attry, “our society is undergoing a huge churning, the vibrations of which can be felt at school levels but we pre-fer not to move by it, like an ostrich prefers to bury his head under sand if it encounters an enemy pretending he has seen none, only to be killed later”. He adds that emotions are gradu-ally becoming dead because we are feeding our young ones too much attention and never say-ing no to them. The younger generation is not used to hear a

‘no’ for their demands, no mat-ter how vague they may be.

Most of the Government schools do not have adequate infrastructure and human resources. The hyper-skewed pupil to teacher ratio often leads to neglect and students derail before time. The teachers are equipped with no tools to coun-ter them but to surrender to their temperament and mood swings. The greatest sage and teacher Chanakya proposed four cardinal methods namely Saam, Daan, Dand, Bhed in order to get the work done.

The concept of Dand has totally been wiped out from the present education system. Dand is not corporal punish-ment but the sense of abiding by the responsibilities given, be it towards the parents, teachers or institutions. In today’s times, a teacher is equipped with no tool to perform this responsi-bility among the students. There is a huge void between what is said in the rule books and what practicality demands. It is said that every child is special, but the schools are actually becom-

ing marks-minting factories. Teachers are more into training rather than educating as this is what the unwritten rule of their service books demand.

Counselling has become synonymous with giving them extra attention which they want to grab if not through legitimate action then through mischief. The problem aggravates in the small towns where the parents are semi-literate or illiterate. The stubbornness of the child plays merry hell in front of the timid personality of the par-ents. The upbringing of a child leads to additional problems as it always keeps the parents in constant fear as the former might take a wrong step of harming himself resulting in the latter surrendering in front of their young ones. This uni-versal mode of surrender from the parents and teachers gives them an edge and make them attention seeking individuals. They are unduly pampered and all their demands are met. ‘Break-up, move-on, one night stand, so-what, bottoms-up, smoke it out’ have become the

part of school-goers lingo. Defi-ance of a child is not curtailed but celebrated in.

Today, the education sec-tor is flooded with advisories for educators, each one hosting a new diktat and hundreds of ‘don’ts’ rather than focusing on the ‘dos’. We are forgetting that these children are the future workforce and entrepreneurs. How will they cope with the brutal realities of life and work? After a decade or two, this gen-eration will probably become numb to emotion as acceptance for each and everything is grad-ually becoming a part of their lives. We as the society do not understand that we are applying a wrong solution to this prob-lem. Instead of the Juvenile Jus-tice Board considering the child as an ‘adult’, the school should consider them as one and take the necessary actions before it’s too late. Children are attaining maturity at an early age; this fact still remains indigestible to the society at large. Some intellec-tuals accept this but prefer to remain neutral.

The need of the hour is to equip teachers with methods to curtail and counter the uncon-trolled rage and demands of the students at the school level before society begins to bear the brunt of it. Restricting the role of an educator is like expect-ing one to prepare a divine cuisine without using a knife. Small amercements at school are beneficial for the larger good of students. Sanctions at the school levels both by parents and teachers are necessary for exonerations later in life. This beautiful couplet from Ramd-hari Singh ‘Dinkar’ the Rash-trakavi (National Poet) of India summarises the current situa-tion of teachers and beautifully narrates the expiate: ‘Kshama shobhati us bhujung ko jiske paas garal ho, usko kya jo dantheen vishrahit vineet saral ho’.

(The author is an educationist. The views

expressed are strictly personal)

The uncoupling of values and politics where the Hindi-Hindu belt has sought to dissociate itself from the rest of the Indian Union poses the greatest threat to the unity and integrity of the diverse federal democratic Union of India

The need of the hour is to equip teachers with methods to curtail and counter the uncontrolled rage and demands of the students at school level before society begins to bear the brunt of it. Restricting the role of an educator is like expecting one to prepare a divine cuisine without using a knife

Dangerous nationalismWe must confront the criminal ecosystem and ideology endorsed by some people

Toothless teachers, tough students

516. That is the number of people from all over the Indian Union who depos-ited money in one week amounting to more than 3 lakh Indian Rupees (what

we Bengalis call Taka) in the account oper-ated in the name of Shambhulal Regar before the account was frozen. Who is Shambhulal Regar? He is a Rajasthani man whose poli-tics is Hindu nationalism. His politics is also Hindi nationalism for he chose to commu-nicate with his Hindu brothers and sisters in Hindi. He knows what kind of people he wants to communicate with, hence he used Hindi over Marwari or Mewati. What did he communicate? He communicated the rea-sons for his actions and some hate speech. What was his action? This Hindi-Hindu man had taken Afrazul Khan, a Muslim Ben-gali seasonal migrant to Rajasthan and had hacked Afrazul to death. He had begged for his life in his mother tongue Bengali and the Hindi he could muster as he lay bleeding. In his last moments, he called his mother, laying on the brutal soil of a land far away from Bengal, a land where no one heeded or understood his calls for help. Then Shamb-hulal Regar burned Afrazul’s body. How do we know all this? Because this Hindi-Hindu-Hindustan ideology-inspired hate machine called Shambhulal Regar got a 10-year-old child, Shambhulal’s nephew, to film the whole thing. After he did what he did, he recorded another video message. Then he made the videos (the killing and the ‘message’) pub-lic. It went “viral”. That was the whole point.

Imagine the impunity and the general ecology of Bengali-hate and Muslim-hate in which such a crime and its video making occurs. Afrazul was a married family man. Shambhulal claimed he was out to entrap a Hindu woman in Rajasthan. This has been shown to be false as the Hindu woman in question said that she didn’t even know Afra-zul. So a man can be killed with a completely random cooked-up charge and the killing can be filmed. While such practice has been pretty shockingly routine for all kinds of government-salaried security forces in the Indian Union, Hindi-Hindu-Hindustan ide-ology vigilante groups in Hindi belt states have now joined this bloodsport. Afrazul’s family tearfully asked that this man Shamb-hulal Regar be hanged. Let me state on record that he won’t be hung. Let me also predict on record that if he is convicted (I use the “if ” very consciously), he will not serve a complete term. He will have opportunities to come out of the jail under various ruses. He might even be released early as part of some pardon or “good behavior”. Let me put all of this on record. We must confront the criminal state ecology and ideology that non-Hindi-Hindu-Hindustan ideology people are dealing with here.

Why was Afrazul killed? Shambhulal Regar himself provides some clues. He was unhappy that a temple dedicated to the main

character of the epic Ramayan called Ram was not built even so many after Hindi-Hindi-Hindustan ideology radical mobs destroyed an old mosque called Babri Mas-jid in Ayodhya. It is not this toxic ideology is absent in West Bengal. In the run-up to the 1992 Babri Masjid demolition, funds were raised from Kolkata too, from areas with the biggest amount of money-makers and the greatest alienation, even hatred, for the syn-cretic and non-communal culture of Ben-gal. It is important that this is said out loud. This Bengali brother, Afrazul Khan, has been killed and burned in Rajasthan and those who contributed to the hate-filled ideology that killed him exist in Bengal, as we speak. They are the ones who are most conspicu-ous with their silence (they falsely imagine that tactical silence makes them inconspic-uous) while everyone else is enraged at the killing of a brother. But they are simply not silent. They are active. Funds in Shambhulal Regar’s name also came from some people in West Bengal. Who are these people? Are these the people due to whom BJP gets solid votes in certain areas of West Bengal? Who are these people? The people of Bengal have

a right to know the traitors of Bengal and sick sociopaths in their midst who raise funds for someone who killed a Bengali in Rajasthan because he was a Muslim Bengali.

Some of these people who are silent now were not silent during the so-called Padma-vati controversy – a queen from Rajasthan. Padmavati like other Bollywood contro-versies have that same element on and on, Northern Hindu-Muslim divisions and this makes such “controversies” an attention and resource sink for the rest of us, the non-Hindi people. It is not accidental. It is by design. It is the Hindi film industry called Bollywood that make film and after film on Pakistan while no majority Hindi speaking state shares a bor-der with Pakistan. It is a warped ideology, a factory of producing hate, that scratches that Hindi belt itch of Muslim hate through the proxy word Pakistan, something that Narendra Modi did so regularly earlier and given the tightness of the Gujarat election, resorted to even now. Hindi imagination and Bollywood thus capture that self-imag-ination where Pakistan is the necessary evil other and without whose demonisation, their own self-identity or nationalism or whatever

does not exist. The Tamil or the Naga or the Kannadiga has no such anxiety. During the Padmavati controversy, an outfit called Karni Sena and some Rajasthani migrants to Ben-gal protested some portrayal of “their” queen who mythically committed suicide by self-immolation as a norm that is characteristic of intense anti-women and patriarchal soci-eties, where “honour“ is a cover for wanton brutality. None of these people protested the real killing and real burning of a real human being, a migrant like them, from the land they earn their bread and butter from. That is how toxic this ideology is. That is how shame-less it makes some human beings. The Ben-galis have noted this. It is all over in social media. Bengalis have also noted that a huge procession came out in Rajasthan on 14th December 2017, in support of this sociopath who killed a Bengali migrant worker. The procession was so huge that the number of people arrested from the procession stands at 175. The violent protesters have injured 12 policemen. There has been no condemnation of the fund-raising or the procession in sup-port of the killer from any significant Raj-asthani group in West Bengal nor the West

Bengal branch of BJP.The Delhi media and the Delhi liberal

circles pointed out that Afrazul was Muslim and that he was “Bengali speaking”. They cautiously avoided the word Bengali. Yes, Afrazul was a Bengali. Delhi media knows well the potentially politically explosive pos-sibilities of this obvious characterisation and hence, it dutifully avoids it. For that has the potential to destroy Delhi hegemony. And the word is out on the street in more than whis-pers. Bengal doesn’t need Delhi to recognise its martyrs. The popular and populist Chief Minister of West Bengal immediately con-demned the killing and characterised Afra-zul as a Bengali. She knows where the pulse of public rage is. She knows its cuts across religious lines. She has used the term Ben-gali and this is a break from nearly 70 years of tradition when Delhi headquartered par-ties who squirmed at saying the word “Ben-gali”, ruled Bengal. Not anymore. And that matters. It is not accidental that Bengal is the frontline target state of communal forces – the amount of pressure being built through fake news, communal provocations, outside Bengal funds and Union government pol-icy is staggering. The struggle for keeping peace in fortress Bengal shows the develop-ing unity against Hindi-Hindu-Hindustan that is being forged.

It is being realised that certain sections of Bengal and in some other non-Hindi states that the present regime has unleashed a socio-political culture that is completely alien to the values of these non-Hindi linguis-tic national homelands. It is this uncoupling of values as well as politics where the Hindi-Hindu belt has sought to dissociate itself from the rest of the Indian Union which poses the greatest threat to the unity and integ-rity of the diverse federal democratic Union of India. And in its divergence, the Hindi-Hindu lands find themselves more similar to their historical long lost brother whose ideas of vain honour, religious fanaticism, self-identity built upon hating others and hate of minorities it closely resembles. That is the communal belt of Pakistan. It is here that Mumtaz Qadri is considered a martyr, for killing a fine man called Salman Taseer because Taseer believed that compassion and justice are pre-conditions of being human – Hindu, Muslim, Christian comes later. Lawyers feted this Qadri, funds were raised for him and after his hanging, his grave has become a mausoleum and his Barelvi follow-ers are now considering him divine. Shamb-hulal Regar has already matched Qadri in being a fanatic killer, having supporters who otherwise camouflage as “decent” people and in being the recipient of funds raised in the defense of a cold-blooded murderer. But divinity will elude him. Because he will not hang. He will not become god or demi-god. He might become a living saint. (The views expressed are strictly personal)

Reasonable checks at school by both parents and teachers are necessary

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From pelting stones to playing #football for India: Afshan Ashiq, Captain of J&K Women's Football Team, has come a long way. :)"My nationality is INDIAN" She says. :)May your dream of playing for #TeamIndia come true, girl!

Thank you President Trump and Ambassador Haley for standing up for Israel and for standing up for the truth. Ultimately the truth will prevail.

We have to safeguard our ancient traditions and culture. We have to think of giving back to society.

1942: Quit India Movement.75 years later...2017: Acquit India Movement#AdarshScam #2GScamVerdict

An outfit called Karni Sena came out to protest the portrayal of “their” queen which conflicted with their ethos (Representational Image)

Every child is special but schools are fast becoming marks-minting factories causing children stress (Representational Image)

mp world10MILLENNIUM POST | Kolkata |Saturday, 23 December, 2017

UN human rights chief won’t seek

2nd termUNITED NATIONS: The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights who has openly criticised powerful governments, including the Trump administration, has said he will not seek a second four-year term as it “might involve bending a knee in supplication”.

The decision by Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, a Jordanian prince and former diplomat, was conveyed in a short state-ment that was emailed to his staff on Wednesday. His four-year term expires next Sep-tember, the New York Times reported. “After reflection, I have decided not to seek a second four-year term,” Al-Hussein wrote. “To do so, in the current geopolit-ical context, might involve bending a knee in suppli-cation; muting a statement of advocacy; lessening the independence and integrity of my voice - which is your voice.” This week Al-Hussein described the US decision to recognise Jerusalem of Isra-el’s capital as “dangerously provocative” and blamed the President’s announce-ment for violence in which five people died. AGENCIES

Pakistan court orders intelligence

agencies to find missing activist

ISLAMABAD: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday ordered the intelligence agencies to look for missing activist Raza Mehm-ood Khan and present him in court as soon as possible after the police stated that they were unable to find the activist.

Justice Qazi Amin Ahmed conducted the third hearing in the case of Khan, who had gone miss-ing from Lahore on December 2 prompting fears for his safety, Dawn online reported.

Khan, in his late 30s, report-edly formed a group called Aaghaz-i-Dosti, a platform to fur-ther the cause of peace between India and Pakistan.

He is also known for posting messages on social media critical of the Army and its alleged links with extremist groups. Khan was also active with a group working for environmental protection.

Activists belonging to various rights groups, along with friends and family, have been agitating for his release. They claimed he has been unlawfully detained by the security agencies as he has been critical of them.

A social media campaign with hashtag #FindRaza was launched earlier this month demanding the safe return of the activist. Fel-low activists have been holding peaceful gatherings pushing for Khan’s recovery. An appeal was also made to President Mamnoon Hussain and Prime Minister Sha-hid Khaqan Abbasi.

During the last hearing on December 18, Justice Amin had ordered the Station House Offi-cer of Naseerabad police station to present Raza on the next (Fri-day’s) hearing.

Advocate Asma Jahangir told the court that Raza’s fam-ily had received phone calls from unidentified numbers and they told them that he’d soon be with his family. AGENCIES

‘Quarter of Rohingya refugee children

acutely malnourished’

GENEVA: A quarter of Rohingya children under the age of five who fled to Ban-gladesh from Myanmar suffer from potentially life-threaten-ing levels of malnutrition, the United Nations said on Friday.

The UN children’s agency said that three health and nutrition surveys conducted between October 22 and November 27 showed up to 25 per cent of the young chil-dren crammed into Bangla-deshi refugee camps have acute malnutrition, among other maladies.

“Nearly half the children surveyed have anaemia, up to 40 per cent have diarrhoea, and up to 60 per cent have acute respiratory infections,” UNICEF spokesman Chris-tophe Boulierac told report-ers in Geneva.

More than 655,000 people from the Rohingya minor-ity Muslim community have fled Myanmar’s Rakhine state since late August during military operations that the

UN has described as ethnic cleansing.

Around half of them are children.

Bangladesh’s UNICEF head Edouard Beigbeder said that “our worst fears have been confirmed”.

“Refugee children who have already endured unimaginable suffering in fleeing their homes are now facing a public health crisis,” Beigbeder said in a statement.

On November 3, UNICEF warned that 7.5 per cent of the children in one of the camps in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district were at risk of dying from acute malnutrition.

New surveys at the Kutu-palong and Nayapara refu-gee camps, as well as other make-shift settlements, that included more than 1,700 children highlighted the wors-ening situation.

“Less than 16 per cent of children are consuming a minimal acceptable diet,” UNICEF said. AGENCIES

NORTH KOREA CRISIS

Confounding US policy, India partners with Iran to aid Afghanistan UNITED NATIONS: In an aid programme that confounds the US policy in the region, India is partnering with Iran to send Afghanistan the assistance that President Donald Trump has said New Delhi should provide.

“Last month, the first con-signment of wheat grain assis-tance from India reached Afghanistan through Chhaba-har port in Iran,” India’s Dep-uty Permanent Representative Tanmaya Lal told the Council on Thursday.

“While it was regrettable that the denial of overland access to Afghanistan “hurts the welfare of the Afghan peo-ple,” he said, “a new era of enhanced, reliable and robust connectivity” through Iran has begun.

Pakistan does not allow Indian assistance to Afghani-stan pass through its territory.

This Indian aid, which pre-dates Trump’s request and is an element of India’s broader international assistance policy, puts two elements of the US President’s regional policies at odds: He wants India to pro-vide aid to Afghanistan but he also wants to isolate Iran.

Announcing his new pol-icy for Afghanistan in August, Trump said that he wanted India “to help us more with Afghanistan, especially in the area of economic assistance and development”.

The National Security Strat-egy unveiled earlier this week called upon India to increase aid in the region, but it declared that the US “was rallying the world to confront “the danger posed by the dictatorship in Iran”.

Trump sees Iran as one of its greatest foes, accusing it of creating regional instability and sponsoring terrorism, even as he makes common cause with some countries from where support in men, money and materials flow to terrorists in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

The US is dependent on Pakistan for ferrying supplies sent by sea for it troops and its programmes in landlocked Afghanistan.

But India will not be able to provide any substantial mate-rial assistance to Afghanistan through Pakistan and will have to rely on Iran, making Tehran by default a hidden collabora-tor furthering an element of Trump’s policy involving New Delhi and Kabul.

The first consignment of 1.1 million tonnes of wheat India had committed to providing Afghanistan reached Zaranj through the Chhabahar port in Iran and the Indian-built Delaram-Zaranj highway from the Iran border. India pledged a $1 billion dollar package for Afghanistan last year. AGENCIES

Tougher North Korea sanctions could hit home, say analysts

SEOUL: Newly proposed sanc-tions on North Korea could have a significant effect on the isolated country’s already struggling economy, analysts said ahead of an expected UN Security Council vote on Fri-day, which will hinge on sup-port from China and Russia.

Tensions have been rising over North Korea’s nuclear and missile programmes, which it pursues in defiance of years of different UN Security Coun-cil resolutions, with bellicose rhetoric from the North and the White House.

But US diplomats have made clear they are seeking a diplomatic solution and have proposed a number of new, tougher sanctions designed to ratchet up pressure on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

North Korea regularly threatens to destroy South Korea, the United States and Japan and says its weapons programmes are necessary to counter US aggression. The

United States stations 28,500 troops in the South, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War.

On Friday, a spokesperson for North Korea’s foreign min-istry called US President Don-

ald Trump’s recently released national security strategy the latest American policy seeking to “stifle our country and turn the entire Korean peninsula” into an outpost of American hegemony.

He said Trump was seek-ing “total subordination of the whole world”.

The draft UN resolution, seen by Reuters on Thursday, seeks to ban nearly 90 percent of refined petroleum product exports to North Korea by cap-ping them at 500,000 barrels a year and demand the repatria-tion of North Koreans working abroad within 12 months.

It would also cap crude oil supplies to North Korea at 4 million barrels a year, as well as ban a number of North Korean exports such as machinery, lumber, and other products and resources.

“If they were enforced, the cap on oil would be devastat-ing for North Korea’s haulage industry, for North Koreans

who use generators at home or for productive activities, and for (state-owned enterprises) that do the same,” said Peter Ward, a columnist for NK News, a website that tracks North Korea.

The forced repatriation of foreign workers would also cut off vital sources of foreign cur-rency and investment not only for the government but also for North Korea’s emerging market economy, he said.

“If such sanctions were enforced, they would thus impede and endanger North Korea’s economic develop-ment.” Asked about the effects of sanctions before these lat-est proposals were announced, Michael Kirby, who led a UN inquiry into human rights abuses in North Korea, said cutting off fuel imports would be “a very serious step”. “Cut-ting off oil, petroleum supplies would obviously have a very big impact on the ordinary popula-tion,” he said. AGENCIES

The National Security Strategy unveiled earlier this week called upon India to increase aid in the region, but it declared that the US ‘was rallying the world to confront ‘the danger posed by the dictatorship in Iran’

PHILIPPINES FERRY MISHAP TOLL RISES TO 5MANILA: The death toll in the Philippines ferry mishap has risen to five, the Na-tional Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) said on Friday. “All 252 passengers and crew have been accounted for,” NDRRMC spokesper-son Romina Marasigan was quoted by Xinhua news agency. AGENCIES

Russian hackers targeted more than 200

journalists globallyPARIS: Russian television anchor Pavel Lobkov was in the studio getting ready for his show when jarring news flashed across his phone: Some of his most intimate messages had just been pub-lished to the web.

Days earlier, the veteran journalist had come out live on air as HIV-positive, a taboo-breaking revelation that drew responses from hundreds of Russians fight-ing their own lonely struggles with the virus. Now he’d been hacked.

“These were very personal messages,” Lobkov said in a recent interview, describing a frantic call to his lawyer in an abortive effort to stop the spread of nearly 300 pages of Facebook correspondence, including sexually explicit messages. Even two years later, he said, “it’s a very trau-matic story.”

The Associated Press found that Lobkov was tar-geted by the hacking group known as Fancy Bear in March 2015, nine months before his messages were leaked. He was

one of at least 200 journalists, publishers and bloggers tar-geted by the group as early as mid-2014 and as recently as a few months ago.

The AP identified jour-nalists as the third-largest group on a hacking hit list obtained from cybersecurity firm Secureworks, after dip-lomatic personnel and U.S. Democrats. About 50 of the journalists worked at The New York Times. Another 50 were either foreign cor-respondents based in Mos-cow or Russian reporters like Lobkov who worked for inde-pendent news outlets. Others were prominent media figures in Ukraine, Moldova, the Bal-tics or Washington. The list of journalists provides new evi-dence for the U.S. intelligence community’s conclusion that Fancy Bear acted on behalf of the Russian government when it intervened in the US presi-dential election. Spy agencies say the hackers were working to help Republican Donald Trump. The Russian govern-ment has denied interfering in the American election. AGENCIES

8 killed in Taliban suicide attack on Afghan police stationKANDAHAR: At least eight people were killed and many others wounded after a Taliban suicide car bombing struck a district police station in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province on Friday, the police said. The attack occurred around 4.30 a.m. when a Taliban suicide bomb-

er drove a hijacked explosive-laden military vehicle into the Maywand district police station, an Afghan police official told Xinhua news agency. The death toll included seven policemen and the suicide bomber. Eight police personnel were wounded. AGENCIES

New surveys at the Kutupalong and Nayapara refugee camps, as well as other make-shift settlements, that included more than 1,700 children highlighted the worsening situation

e-Tender Executive Engineer, P.W.D., Nadia Division invites online tender for 3 Nos. Civil Works — amounting to Rs. 7,40,634.00, Rs. 6,44,865.00, & Rs. 19,09,843.00 Tender Ref. No.: WBPWD/EE/ND/NleT-16/2017-18 & Tender Id: 2017_

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Documents download / sale end date- 04/01/2018 upto 12:00 Noon. For details log on to http://www.wbtenders.gov.in

Sd/- Executive EngineerNadia Division P.W.D.

ABRIDGED TENDER NOTICE N.I.T. No. 11 & 12 of 2017-18 of E.E (A-I)

Krishnagar-II (A-I) Division, Sealed Tenders are invited by the Executive Engineer (A-I), Krishnagar-II (A-I) Division, Bhaluka Road, Krishnagar, Nadia for maintenance work of Pump House & Pipeline at different DTW site under Krishnanagr-II (A-1) Division. 1. Last date of application for issuing Tender Paper is 03.01.2018 upto 2.00 P.M 2. Dite of Purchasing Tender Documents 08.01.2018 upto 4.00 P.M 3. Date of Dropping of Tendet 11.01.2018 upto 1.30 P.M Other details may be had from the office of the undersigned.

Cooch Behar Zilla Parishad Presse-Tender Notice ( in Brief) 6th Call

E-Tender is herby invited on behalf of Cooch Behar Zilla Parishad in item-wise rate vide NIT No. WBZP/13/DE-ET/COB/2017-18 (6th CALL) for supply of various items of Plates & Chemicals from bonafide Suppliers / Distributors / Dealers. Detailed information may be had from the website https://etender.wb.nic.in. Last date & Time for bid submission - 05.01.2018at 6.00 P.M. Bidders may call at (03582)227445 / 222550 Sd/-

Addl. Executive OfficerCooch Behar Zilla Parishad

Cooch Behar

ABRIDGED -e-NIT NIT NIT ref. no.

Name of work Estimated Amount

Last date ofbid submission

26(3rd

Call) (EL/SE) 2017 - 18

Replacement of SV/MetalTube by LED street lighting luminaries at dif-ferent lanes and bylanes of Cooch-behar Municipality in the district of Cooch Behar.

1,35,25,000.00 16/01/2018 up to 12.00Hours

Sd/- Superintending Engineer(Elect)

North Bengal Development Department

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

Government of West Bengal North Bengal Development Department

Branch Secretariat Uttarkanya, Fulbari, Jalpaiguri

ABRIDGED -e-NIT NIT NIT ref. no.

Name of work Estimated Amount

Last date ofbid submission

NIT-130 OF2017-18

Construction of Blacktop Road from Navore to Bhaktipur of Deul Sansad at Kushmandi Block in the district of Dakshin Dinajpur. “(Length - 2.00 KM, Width - 3.75M)

1,53,51,513.00 15/01/2018 up to 15:00 Hours

Sd/- Superintending Engineer

North Bengal Development Department

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

Government of West Bengal North Bengal Development Department

Branch Secretariat Uttarkanya, Fulbari, Jalpaiguri

mp world 11MILLENNIUM POST | Kolkata |Saturday, 23 December, 2017

PREZ’S JERUSALEM MOVE ‘TRUMPED’

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak vowed on Friday to use every means to protest against US President Donald Trump’s rec-ognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, a tough stand likely to win him support among Mus-lim voters.

Najib has been embroiled in a graft scandal over a state-run fund, and has faced unprece-dented criticism from former ruling party stalwarts, making the support of members of the Muslim, ethnic Malay major-ity vital in a general election next year.

“We will continue to fight on this issue, using every avail-able means, through politi-cal and diplomatic channels, through discussion and prayer, until one day, God willing, Jerusalem belongs to the Pales-tinian people,” Najib told a rally

of about 1,500 in the adminis-trative capital of Putrajaya.

He said he would not “sac-rifice the sanctity of Islam” despite his friendship with Trump. Najib visited the White House in September.

“It is our first duty as Mus-lims to uphold the religion. If Jerusalem is a sacred land for Muslims, then it is upon us to free it from the grasps of Zion-ists,” Najib said.

Najib and his ruling party have been burnishing their Islamic credentials with the aim of boosting their chances in the general election, which must be held by mid-2018.

About 60 percent of Malay-sia’s population is ethnic Malay Muslim, with most of the rest ethnic Chinese and ethnic Indian. Najib, who did not mention the election in his speech at the rally, is hoping

to win a third term despite the multi-billion dollar corruption scandal at 1Malaysia Develop-ment Berhad (1MDB) that has dogged his premiership for two years. US Attorney-General Jeff

Sessions this month described the scandal at the sovereign fund set up by Najib as the worst form of kleptocracy. The US Department of Justice has filed several lawsuits to seize

more than $1.7 billion in assets believed to have been stolen from 1MDB.

Sessions did not identify any officials he thought were corrupt. AGENCIES

US V-P makes surprise visit to Afghanistan

WASHINGTON: US Vice President Mike Pence made a surprise visit to Afghanistan, where he has met with Afghan leaders and reviewed American troops deployed there.

Pence left Washington on Wednesday afternoon on a military jet, arriving at the Bagram air base near Kabul, from where he was taken by helicopter to the presidential palace in the Afghan capital.

There Pence met with President Ashraf Ghani and the country’s chief executive, Abdullah Abdullah, Efe news reported.

“I hope my presence here is tangible evidence” of the Don-ald Trump administration’s commitment to Afghanistan, Pence told the reporters accom-panying him to the meeting on Thursday.

After speaking with the Afghan leaders, Pence returned to Bagram to address some 500 US soldiers.

“I believe victory is closer than ever before,” Pence told

the troops.“It’s because of all of you

that we’re safe. It’s because of you that we’re free. It’s because of you that freedom has a future in Afghanistan and America and all across the wider world,” he said.

Pence, in addition, said that as long as Trump was Presi-dent, the US troops would remain in Afghanistan.

“The US will no longer be bound by arbitrary timetables in Afghanistan. As the Presi-dent said, America’s enemies must never know our plans. They must never believe they can wait us out. AGENCIES

Pence met with President Ashraf Ghani and the country’s chief executive, Abdullah Abdullah

Will use all means to fight decision, says Malaysian PM

Europe rebuked for sending

Afghans back to their country

HAMBURG: Britain and other European nations are under increasing pressure to explain why they are sending hundreds of desperate Afghans back to one of the world’s most danger-ous countries.

MPs and MEPs have raised questions about whether the EU tied a 2016 aid package for Afghanistan to its willingness to take back refused asylum seekers.

Since the deal, forced repa-triations have accelerated. The International Organisation for Migration says 500 Afghans have been forcibly removed back to Afghanistan this year, compared to 200 last year. More than 3,000 have returned voluntarily this year.

As of September 2017, Afghans accounted for the larg-est number of asylum applica-tions in the EU, with 170,045 pending cases. But they lose more than 50% of asylum appeals – far more than Syri-ans do – because some parts of the country, such as the capital, Kabul, are now considered safe.

Human rights activists say people sent home could be killed, and Amnesty has accused Germany and other European countries of breaking international law by deporting at a time when civilian casual-ties in the country are at their highest for years.

In a report discussed by the UN security council this week, the UN secretary general, Antonio Guterres, noted that security was parlous through-out the country.

The UN’s assistance mission in Afghanistan said that in the first nine months of 2017 more than 2,000 civilians were killed and more than 5,000 injured.

In Germany, the repatria-tions have sparked a wave of airport protests, with signs reading “Don’t send people back to die”. Some pilots have joined the movement. AGENCIES

UK Parl at risk of Grenfell style disaster: Building chief

LONDON: Britain’s Houses of Parliament are in danger of suffering from a Grenfell Tower-style disaster unless urgent repairs are under-taken, the outgoing official responsible for the building has warned.

The Palace of Westminster, home to the House of Com-mons and House of Lords as well as the famous clock tower, is at high risk of a major fire, according to David Leakey, Black Rod of Westminster, a post responsible for maintain-ing the palace’s upkeep.

As he stood down after seven years in the role this week, Leakey urged lawmak-ers to back a speedy overhaul of the sprawling site to avert a potential catastrophe.

“I know what the risks are here,” he told The House magazine.

“Knowing in detail that the expert recommendation is that you should do this quickly and now, not slowly over time in phases, I know that is necessary in order to prevent another Grenfell

Tower happening here.”Leakey added: “If we don’t

learn the Grenfell lesson, this building could burn down, just like it did in 1834 when there was a decade of delay and procrastination about how or when to refurbish the building.”

The blaze which engulfed the Grenfell Tower residential block in west London in June killed 71 people.

A parliamentary report last year recommended that lawmakers decamp from their two chambers for six years while the crumbling building is renovated extensively.

Four years of much-needed repairs are already under way on the site’s clock tower, leaving the Big Ben bell’s beloved chimes — which feature on British television and radio news bulletins —largely silenced since August.

But members of parlia-ment have yet to decide on the details of the so-called res-toration and renewal project, and are due to discuss it again in the new year. The estimated cost of a full-scale overhaul -- 4.3 billion pounds—has left lawmakers reluctant to sign off on the work, according to Leakey. AGENCIES

Things aren’t easy between us: Boris Johnson spars with Russian counterpart

MOSCOW: Boris Johnson and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, have sparred over the issue of alleged Rus-sian meddling in the Brexit ref-erendum during the first visit by a British foreign secretary to Moscow for five years.

Lavrov made the latest in a series of blanket Russian deni-als over interference in western votes, and said Johnson himself had said there was “no evidence of Russian interference in the Brexit referendum”.

“We haven’t seen any evi-dence except that for four kopecks someone put an advert

on social media,” Lavrov said.Johnson then corrected the

Russian minister, saying: “‘Not successfully’ is what I said.”

“He’s scared that if he doesn’t disagree with me, his reputation will be ruined at

home,” Lavrov said.“Sergei, it’s your reputation

I’m worried about,” Johnson retorted. The exchange, only half-joking, was symptomatic of the deep discord in the rela-tionship. In public comments before the talks, Lavrov chided Johnson for his public criticism of Russia and said the miserable state of bilateral relations was London’s fault. “It’s no secret that our relations are at a low point and that’s not at our ini-tiative,” Lavrov said. “We’ve noticed you and other west-ern countries have your rea-sons for this and you prefer to

speak about them publicly. We would prefer to discuss these issues directly, not in public through microphones.” John-son conceded that “things are not easy between us at the moment”, noting that Britain had issues with Russia’s actions in Ukraine, the western Bal-kans and cyberspace. Johnson also said, however, that “we must not allow ourselves to be defined by these problems” and that there were a number of issues of global importance, notably Syria and North Korea, on which the countries should try to work together. AGENCIES

IS has been ‘crushed’ in Iraq and Syria: May

LONDON: The Islamic State terror group has been “crushed” in Iraq and Syria with the efforts of Britain’s armed forces, UK Prime Minis-ter Theresa May said on Friday during a surprise Christmas visit to troops in Cyprus.

May praised the Royal Air Force (RAF) men and women at Britain’s Akrotiri base in the country for their key role on Operation Shader, the code-name for the fight against Islamic State (ISIS), and dimin-ishing the hold of terrorists in the Middle East.

“Just three years ago, Daesh

[ISIS] declared a caliphate in Iraq and Syria, a safe haven in which to carry out the most barbaric acts and in which to plot murder on our streets at home,” she said. “But on Fri-day, thanks in very large part to your efforts, the so-called

caliphate has been crushed and no longer holds significant ter-ritory in Iraq and Syria. You should be incredibly proud of that achievement,” May said. The RAF base in Cyprus is at the heart of the UK’s operations in Iraq and Syria. It is home to 2,000 military personnel and has been the launch point for more than 1,300 sorties to Iraq and more than 250 to Syria since the US-led action against ISIS began. May said that Brit-ish military intervention was still needed in the region to ensure the terror group did not regroup. AGENCIES

Maduro’s govt blocks opposition candidates from

competingCARACAS: Venezuela’s pro-government constitutional assembly has stripped three of the country’s most influential opposition parties of the right to participate in next year’s presidential election.

The Constituent Assembly ruled that parties who boycot-ted this month’s local elections had lost legitimacy, requiring them to reapply for legal sta-tus and potentially eliminating them from the 2018 presiden-tial race.

The decree has infuri-ated Venezuela’s opposition and drew criticism from the United States, whose embassy said: “The Venezuelan govern-ment and its illegitimate Con-stituent Assembly are inventing rules as they go along. This is not democracy.”

Richard Lapper, an expert on Latin American politics and economics at Chatham House, said the move was emblem-atic of Venezuela’s growing authoritarianism.

“Although you can criti-cise the opposition for the way they’ve handled every-thing, this is a clear sign the government is closing down the democratic space,” he told The Independent. “It has been expected that this would be the next step.”

He said NGOs were “now talking about Venezuela as a complex humanitarian emer-gency” as the government is not allowing any assistance into the country, which is suffering widespread shortages of basic goods. “The shortages are really beginning to bite in the most dramatic fashion,” he added.

“If there’s no means of changing the government within the democratic system, then clearly he [President Nico-las Maduro] is going to control the democratic system in the same way as the North Kore-ans.” The Justice First, Dem-ocratic Action and Popular Will parties did not run candi-dates in this month’s mayoral polls in protest against what they said was a biased election system designed to perpetuate the leftist president’s “dictator-ship.” The government-stacked National Electoral Council relocated dozens of voting cen-tres in predominantly opposi-tion strongholds days. AGENCIES

Catalan pro-independence parties keep their

majority in snap poll

BARCELONA: Catalan pro-independence parties have held their absolute majority in snap regional elections, deal-ing a severe blow to the Spanish government, which had called the polls in the hope of heading off the secessionist push.

The deposed Catalan pres-ident, Carles Puigdemont, described the result as a “a slap to the face” to the Spanish prime minister, Mariano Rajoy.

The three separatist parties won a total of 70 seats in the 135-seat regional parliament even though the centre-right, pro-unionist Citizens party was the single biggest winner, tak-ing 37 seats.

Between them, the three parties will have enough seats to reassemble the parliamen-tary majority that put them into office after the 2015 elections if they can agree a new coalition.

However, they once again failed to attract a majority in favour of independence: tak-ing 47.7% of the vote and two seats down in comparison with the last election.

Together for Catalonia – the party led by Puigdemont – took 34 seats, the Cata-lan Republican Left (ERC) took 32 and the far-left, anti-capitalist Popular Unity Candidacy took four.

The Catalan Socialist party took 17 seats, while Catalunya en Comú-Podem – the Cata-lan version of the anti-austerity Podemos party – took eight.

Trailing them was the Cat-alan branch of Spain’s ruling People’s party, which won three

seats – eight fewer than in 2015.Thursday’s snap elec-

tion was called by the Span-ish prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, in October after he used article 155 of the consti-tution to take control of Cata-lonia and sack its government over its unilateral referendum and subsequent declaration of independence.

The vote, which pitted secessionists against unionists, attracted a record turnout of more than 80%, dispelling fears that holding the election on a weekday rather than the usual Sunday would hit turnout.

Puigdemont had been campaigning from Belgium after fleeing to Brussels on the grounds that he would not receive a fair trial in Spain over possible charges of rebellion, sedition and misuse of pub-lic funds.

His former vice-president, Oriol Junqeras, leader of the ERC, is in prison along with two prominent pro-indepen-dence leaders.

Puigdemont said the results had demonstrated the strength of the Catalan people. “As Cat-alan president I wish to con-gratulate people for delivering an indisputable result,” he said in Brussels. “We have won this election in exceptional cir-cumstances, with candidates in prison, with the government in exile and without having the same resources as the state.”

Marta Rovira, number two on the ERC ticket, said the elec-tion showed that Catalans had voted for a republic. AGENCIES

8.8 mn sign up for Obamacare despite Trump’s ‘repeal’ declaration

WASHINGTON: A total of 8.8 million people have signed up for Obamacare health insur-ance plans for 2018 despite the Republicans attacks on the healthcare law.

The robust enrolment pace defies President Don-ald Trump’s insistence that the Affordable Care Act or Obam-acare is “dead” and will likely make Republican efforts to dismantle the 2010 healthcare law even more challenging after failed repeal efforts this year, Politico magazine reported.

The number is slightly lower than the last year when 9.2 million people signed up for coverage during an open enrol-ment period that was twice as long.

Approximately 8.8 million people enrolled during the six-week open enrolment period in the 39 states that use the fed-eral healthcare.gov website, the Centres for Medicare and Med-icaid Services (CMS) said.

Obamacare supporters

said sign-ups far surpassed their expectations, given the ongoing repeal effort in Con-gress, Trump’s harsh rhetoric against the law and a series of actions taken by his adminis-tration seen as undermining enrolment.

The Trump administration halved this year’s enrolment period to six weeks, slashed advertising by 90 per cent and cut funding for in-person enrolment aides by over 40 per cent.

“This is a remarkable result given the administration’s efforts to sabotage enrolment

by gutting outreach, creating chaos and confusion, cutting off subsidies for low-income families and shortening the enrolment period by six weeks,” said Representative Frank Pal-lone, the top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

“On Friday’s enrolment numbers make clear that the American people want access to high quality, affordable health insurance coverage and they want Congress and the Administration to stop play-ing games with our healthcare system,” he added. AGENCIES

Boris Johnson

Najib Razak

Public Notice This is to bring to the notice of the general public that Two ID Cards of Mr Gajender Kumar issued by ICICI Bank ltd. having ID card no.02509 has been found missing and/or lost on 03/12/2017 .Anyone, who finds the said IDcards, is requested to return the said IDcard to theManager Debt Services & Management Group, ICICI Bank Limited, S D Tower Sector 8,Rohini New Delhi 110085. Therefore, all the customers of ICICI Bank Limited are hereby notified not to makeany payment to any unauthorised person holding the said ID card no. 02509. Please take further notice that anybody making payment to any person holding the said ID cards shall do so at his/her own costs, risk and peril and ICICI Bank shall not be bound and/or responsible for any payment.

mp business12MILLENNIUM POST | Kolkata | Saturday, 23 December, 2017

NPAs: RBI blames i-bankers for faulty project/loan appraisals

Apple admits to slowing iPhones as batteries age

Airtel Payments Bank head Shashi Arora quits

Stocks rally to all-time peaksNEW DELHI: Airtel Pay-ments Bank Managing Direc-tor and CEO Shashi Arora has resigned in the wake of the firm's eKYC licence suspen-sion by Aadhaar-issuing body UIDAI.

"Shashi has decided to move on to pursue opportuni-ties outside of Airtel. We wish Shashi the very best for his future endeavours," the com-pany said in a statement. Arora has been working with Airtel in senior leadership roles since 2006. He was appointed MD and CEO of Airtel Payments Bank on June 1, 2016.

"He has been an asset for Airtel and over the years has contributed to the company’s growth story. Having led the operations in key telecom cir-cles followed by building a strong DTH business, he has laid the foundation for Airtel's payments bank operations," the statement said.

The Unique Identity Authority of India (UIDAI) had barred Bharti Airtel and Airtel Payments Bank from conducting Aadhaar-based verification of customers using the eKYC process.

The action was taken fol-lowing allegations that Bharti Airtel was using the Aadhaar-eKYC based SIM verification process to open payments bank accounts of its subscrib-ers without their 'informed consent'.

UIDAI on Thursday allowed Bharti Airtel to use Aadhaar for re-verification of its mobile customers till January 10 with stiff riders after it returned Rs 138-crore LPG subsidy remitted to the unsolicited payments bank accounts. It, however, main-tained that Airtel Payments Bank eKYC licence will remain suspended till final enquiry and audit report. PTI

MUMBAI: Stock indices on Friday closed on a merry note ahead of Christmas as bench-marks Sensex and Nifty ral-lied to all-time peaks, with IT, technology and capital goods running the show.

While the Sensex came within the kissing distance of 34,000, the Nifty ended slightly short of 10,500. Intra-day, both scaled life highs.

"Passage of US tax reform bill aimed at reducing corpo-rate tax rates and strong US Q3 GDP growth led the rally in global markets, which was extended to the domestic mar-ket and Nifty hit an all time high 10,500 (during the day). The expectation of a good Budget and strong H2 FY18 earnings is supporting this rally," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services.

The 30-share BSE Sensex opened on a strong footing at 33,768.47 and hit a fresh intra-day high of 33,964.28. It ended at 33,940.30, a new closing, up

184.02 points, or 0.55 per cent.The previous closing record

was on December 19 when it had finished at 33,836.74. The index had lost 80 points in the previous two sessions.

For the broader Nifty, the close came at a fresh peak of 10,493, up 52.70 points, or 0.50 per cent, breaking its pre-vious record of 10,463.20 hit on December 19.

For the third straight week, the Sensex advanced, notching up a significant 477.33 points,

or 1.42 per cent. The Nifty was up 159.75 points, or 1.54 per cent, during the week.

IT was a clear winner of the day, riding on a big order win by TCS. Soft crude prices and a strong rupee gave fod-der to bulls.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said in the Lok Sabha that as per the NITI Aayog, the revised projection for invest-ment in infrastructure in 2012-17 is Rs 38,22,822 crore, which is 1.6 times the invest-

ment of Rs 23,77,746 crore achieved in 2007-12 at cur-rent prices.

The rupee soaring to an over fresh three-month high against the dollar fuelled the rally.

The stock exchanges will remain closed on Monday for Christmas.

Broader markets stood out as the mid-cap index main-tained an upward trend for the seventh straight session and finished at a record by gain-ing 0.11 per cent. The small-cap index was also on the rise for the sixth session, beating the Sensex with a gain of 0.58 per cent.

ONGC was the leader of the Sensex ring, with a 2.87 per cent rise, followed by TCS and Infosys. Bajaj Auto, Bharti Air-tel, Wipro, SBI and L&T rallied by up to 1.24 per cent.

IT index was in the big league, up 1.31 per cent.

Technology surged 1.02 per cent, along with capital goods and infrastructure. PTI

1614 159 12 1310 11 14

Intra-day on December 22, 2017 Intra-day on December 22, 2017

High:33,964.28 Low: 33,767.73

BSE SENSEX

Low: 10,448.25High:10,501.10

15 16 9 12 1310 11

NSE NIFTY

Previous close:

10,440.30

Close:10,493.00

Previous close:

33,756.28

Close:33,940.30

+52.70(0.50%)

+184.02(0.55%)

Open:33,768.47

Open:10,457.30

NEW DELHI: The disrup-tive impact of demonetisation announced last year is a tem-porary phenomenon and the scrapping of the high-value currency would bring "perma-nent and substantial benefits", according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

In an interview to CNBC TV18, IMF Economic Coun-sellor and Director of Research Maurice Obstfeld said that although demonetisation, as well as implementation of the Goods and Services tax (GST) caused short-term disruptions, both measures would bring long-term benefits.

"The costs of demonetisa-tion are largely temporary and we see permanent and substan-tial benefits accruing from the move," Obstfeld said.

"Both demonetisation and the GST introduction will bring long-term benefits, though

these caused short-term dis-ruption," he said.

The IMF Chief Economist described GST as a "work in progress" to which the Indian economy is "gradually adjust-ing". With businesses going into a "destocking" mode on inventories in anticipa-tion of the GST rollout from July 1, sluggish manufactur-ing growth, among other fac-

tors, pulled down growth in the Indian economy during the first quarter of this fiscal to 5.7 per cent, clocking the low-est GDP growth rate under the Narendra Modi dispensation.

Breaking a five-quar-ter slump, however, a rise in manufacturing sector output pushed the growth rate higher to 6.3 per cent during the sec-ond quarter (July-September)

of 2017-18. Obstfeld also listed some of the reforms being undertaken by the Indian gov-ernment that have impressed the multilateral agencies.

"The government has taken important first steps like bringing in the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, which helped India improve its posi-tion substantially in the World Bank's 'Ease of Doing Business' rankings," he said.

He also mentioned the recent recapitalisation plan for state-run banks announced by the government and the Asset Quality Review of commercial banks earlier ordered by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

Both measures are designed to address the issue of massive non-performing assets (NPAs), or bad loans, accumulated in the Indian banking system that have crossed a staggering Rs 8.5 lakh crore.

In a report released in Washington on Thursday, the IMF cautioned that the high volume of NPAs and the slow pace of mending corporate bal-ance sheets are holding back investment and growth in India even though structural reforms have helped the nation record stronger growth.

The IMF's Financial System Stability Assessment (FSSA) for India said that overall "India's key banks appear resilient, but the system is subject to consid-erable vulnerabilities".

"The financial sector is fac-ing considerable challenges, and economic growth has recently slowed down," the report said. "High NPAs and slow deleveraging and repair of corporate balance sheets are testing the resilience of the banking system, and holding back investment and growth,” it said. AGENCIES

Demonetisation, GST will bring long-term benefits: IMF

MUMBAI: The Reserve Bank has blamed conflicts of inter-est among merchant bankers as one of the prime reasons for faulty project appraisals that has led to the piling up of huge non-performing assets in the system which has crossed 10 per cent or over Rs 10 trillion as of the September quarter.

"The impairment crisis in the banks has also highlighted certain basic deficiencies with regard to the appraisal of long-term projects with a signifi-cant gestation time," the central bank said in the Financial Sta-bility Report (FSR) for the first half of the current financial year.

"A significant part of such projects undertaken were con-sortium lending with appraisals being carried out by profes-sional merchant bankers with built-in conflicts of interest (since they are paid by the borrowers)," the half-yearly report released late Thursday evening said.

It can be noted that since the public sector banks domi-nate the credit space, lead by the market leader SBI, lenders

have been engaging SBI Caps, the merchant banking arm of SBI, for both loan appraisals as well as loan restructuring and even project appraisals.

With a gross non-perform-ing assets ratio which increased by 19.3 per cent, the corporate sector contributed highest to dud assets among all segments, and was primarily led by met-als, power, engineering, infra-structure and construction sectors, which involve project appraisals.

The GNPAs in basic metals and metal products were 44.5 per cent, that of construction stood at 26.7 per cent, infra-structure (19.6 per cent) and engineering GNPAs zoomed to 31 per cent, the report said.

The report has projected GNPAs to jump to 10.8 per cent by the March quarter and to 11.1 per cent by Sep-tember 2018 and blamed the spike to primarily to private sector banks which had been under-reporting their dud loans. In the September quar-ter, the GNPAs had spike to 10.2 per cent from 9.6 per cent six months earlier.

"The banking stability indi-cator (BSI) shows that the risks remain at an elevated level weighed down by further asset quality deterioration," the FSR noted.

Overall, the stressed assets, including restructured loans and dud loans increased mar-ginally to 12.2 per cent dur-ing the same period from 12.1 per cent. The state-run banks' GNPA shot by 100 bps to

13.5 per cent while the same for their private sector peers jumped to 3.80 per cent.

The report, significantly noted that private sector lend-ers, considered more prudent are the ones reporting the most stress reporting a whopping 40.8 per cent spike in their GNPAs as against 17 per cent by the state-run ones whose lazy banking has been blamed primarily for the mess in the

system.It can be noted that all

the top private sector lenders, including ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and Yes Bank, and even HDFC Bank, have been found to have under-reported their dud assets in the recent RBI" supervision, results of which were recognised over the first two quarters of the fiscal.

The FSR said public private partnership (PPP) projects involving high leverage were also undertaken.

"The exact implications of such risky projects imple-mented through the special purpose vehicle (SPV) route were sometimes not clear to bankers," it said.

The RBI said PPP con-tracts of long-term duration are complex due to involvement of multiple stakeholders and there is a "need to align their objectives for mutual benefit."

"Successful implementa-tion of PPP projects calls for more due diligence by all stake-holders, including public sector contracting agencies, private concessionaires, and bankers," it added. PTI

NEW DELHI: Driven by a historic low solar and wind power tariff, India is about to take a leap of faith on the renewable energy front, lin-ing up green project auctions to the tune of about Rs 2.7 lakh crore in 2018.

The government has drawn up a plan to auction 30 GW (gigawatt) of solar, 10 GW of wind and 5 GW of offshore wind projects next fiscal, pegged at Rs 2.7 lakh crore with an average equipment cost of Rs 6 crore per mega-watt (MW).

To put things in per-spective, wind power tariff dropped sharply to an all-time low of Rs 2.43 per unit dur-ing an auction conducted by Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Ltd (GUVNL) yesterday.

Earlier, the tariff was down at Rs 2.64 during the second

auction of the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) for 1 GW projects in October this year. In the first round, the tariff stood at Rs 3.46.

A senior official attrib-uted this to a fair and trans-parent bidding process on the back of lower equipment and borrowing costs. As for solar power, the tariff too dropped to a record low of Rs 2.44 dur-ing an auction earlier this year.

Investors are upbeat about the government's new pro-posal of offering incentives in the order of Rs 11,000 crore to promote domestic manu-facturing of solar equipment. It is likely to be approved and implemented in 2018.

But worries remain. Huge dependence on import for set-ting up of solar projects due to inadequate domestic manu-facturing capacity here is still

a sticking point. The proposed incentives and the recently floated expression of inter-est for 20 GW solar capacities by the SECI are expected to address the issue.

Power and New & Renew-able Energy Minister R K Singh had earlier said, "We want to bring two expressions of inter-est for setting up domestic manufacturing capacities of solar equipment. That would be for polysilicon..."

Only those who would set up manufacturing capaci-ties in India from polysilicon onwards could bid, Singh had added.

The government, the min-ister had said, would buy equipment for generation of 20 GW, but the bidders would set up manufacturing capac-ity in stages.

"They would set up man-

ufacturing capacity for solar cell and modules in the first year. In the second year, they would set up capacity for solar wafers. In the third stage, they would set up capacity for poly-silicon," Singh had said.

There are also plans to float solar capacities at hydro plants where evacuation facility is available.

To allay industry fears on meeting renewable purchase obligation (RPO), the minister has promised that these issues will be addressed through the Electricity Amendment Bill, which is likely to be pushed in the Budget session of 2018.

He has also given an assur-ance that the RPOs will be made mandatory.

The RPO refers to the legal obligation on some entities to either buy electricity generated by specified 'green' sources, or

buy, in lieu of that, 'renewable energy certificates (RECs)' from the market.

The other big policy ini-tiative that would help the renewable cause is removal of distinction between small (up to 25 MW) and large hydro

power projects under the pro-posed hydro policy, which provides for incentives to the tune of Rs 16,000 crore for this segment.

Currently, large hydro projects are not counted as renewable ones and are not

entitled to incentives available to small projects.

Removal of the distinction is expected to add another 45 GW to the renewable kitty. India's renewable energy capacity now stands at around 60 GW.

This is seen as a crucial step to help India achieve 225 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2022 against the targeted 175 GW. India's target includes 100 GW of solar and 60 GW of wind energy.

Sanjeev Aggarwal, Manag-ing Director and CEO, Amplus Energy, said that in 2018, the states should be on par with the Centre when it comes to promotion and adoption of renewable energy.

About issues raised by the industry on honouring of power purchase agreements, Singh had clarified that these

agreements are legal obliga-tions and must be honoured.

Aggarwal pitched for pro-viding greater powers to state regulators. He also made a case for making RPO a statu-tory requirement and intro-duction of penalties for non-compliance.

He is hopeful of bankabil-ity of discoms and improve-ment in their financial health in 2018.

He suggested that the grid infrastructure needs to be strengthened to accommo-date 175 GW of renewable energy and standardisation of contractual bids. There should be "single window" for land acquisition for grid evacua-tion, and renewable energy specific lending and financ-ing should meet the current investment parameters of the sector. PTI

Wind power: India wears ‘green’ stripes with pride, wants more in 2018

India’s renewable energy capacity now stands at around 60 GW

NEW DELHI: The govern-ment has fixed at Rs 38,22,822 crore the revised projections for investment in infrastructure in the past five years.

Finance Minister Arun Jait-ley said in Lok Sabha that as per the NITI Aayog, the revised projection for investment in infrastructure in 2012-17 is Rs 38,22,822 crore, which is 1.6 times the investment of Rs 23,77,746 crore achieved in 2007-12 at current prices.

Jaitley said the government was very much conscious that the development of infrastruc-ture is crucial to boosting growth and expanding services in the country. The NITI Aay-og's three-year action agenda (2017-18 to 2019-20) has also spelt out how infrastructure development is one of the most crucial elements of economic transformation. "The total allo-cation for infrastructure sector in Budget 2017-18 stands at Rs 3,96,135 crore. The government

recently announced a major infrastructure push with launch of Bharatmala programme," he said during Question Hour.

The FM said the infrastruc-ture projects in the country were implemented in public-private and private modes, while the public sector projects were implemented by the Centre, state governments and local bodies. There is no central or single registry of infrastruc-ture projects along with their funding in the country, he said.

Jaitley said the government has taken a number of steps to mobilise funds from vari-ous sources for development of infrastructure including launch-ing of innovative financial vehi-cles such as infrastructure debt funds, real estate investment trusts, national investment and infrastructure fund, laying down a framework for munic-ipal bonds, allowing complete pass through of income tax to securitisation trusts. PTI

HYDERABAD: Consen-sus with states on inclusion of petroleum products in the ambit of GST would never emerge as they and the Centre are over-dependent on the sec-tor for revenue collection, says industry body Assocham.

FM Arun Jaitley told Rajya Sabha on December 19 that the Centre favoured bringing them under GST but it would want a consensus with the states before taking such a step.

Assocham (The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India) on Friday said it is always desirable for petroleum to be brought under the GST for effecting overall efficiency in the fuel value chain and reducing tax bur-den on consumers. "However, realistically speaking both the Centre and States have been over-depending on petroleum

sector for their revenue collec-tion. Collectively, they impose over 100-130 per cent taxes on petrol and diesel. So, while it is desirable, the resistance is expected from both Centre and States, whatever they may say; after all, are they willing to sac-rifice revenue, and if yes, what alternative sources do they have for the revenue?” it said.

"The maximum GST slab is 28 per cent and even if some

cess is allowed over and above, it can go up to 50 per cent; still consumers would gain. Big point is: governments would not agree easily!", Assocham Secretary General D S Rawat said. It is because of the rev-enue collection that consen-sus would never emerge. In fact, not even one state would be willing to forego revenue; same is true about the Centre, he argued. PTI

SAN FRANCISCO: Apple has confirmed what some conspir-acy theorists suspected, that it intentionally slows perfor-mance of older iPhones as bat-teries weaken from age.

The admission played into concerns that Apple was stealthily nudging iPhone users to upgrade to newer models by letting them think it was the handsets that needed replacing and not just a matter of getting new batteries.

"Our goal is to deliver the best experience for customers, which includes overall per-formance and prolonging the life of their devices," an Apple spokesperson said in response to an inquiry.

"Lithium-ion batteries become less capable of sup-plying peak current demands when in cold conditions, have a low battery charge or as they age over time, which can result in the device unexpectedly shutting down to protect its electronic components."

Lithium-ion batteries are commonly used in mobile devices, and charging capac-ity naturally wanes with use and time.

Meanwhile, smartphone operating software is perpetu-

ally improved with updates that typically increase appetites for electricity.

Last year, Apple introduced a feature to "smooth out" spikes in demand for power to prevent iPhone 6 models from shutting down due to the cold or weak batteries, according to the Cal-ifornia-based company.

The iPhone 6 made its debut in late 2014.

The feature, which slows performance to demand less power, has been extended to iPhone 7 handsets with the lat-est iOS operating software and will be added to other Apple products "in the future," the spokesperson said.

Apple releases new iPhone models annually, and sales of the handsets power its money-making engine.

People worried about per-formance could replace batter-ies, which Apple does for free for iPhones covered by war-ranty or for $79 if that is not the case. Apple design of handsets makes it borderline impossible for people to change batteries themselves.

Rumors have persisted for years at tech news websites devoted to Apple products and among fans of the company's products that iPhone perfor-mance was being intentionally slowed, perhaps to push users to buy newer models.

The consumer electronics industry overall has routinely been accused of designing products that wear out sooner than necessary in a strategy referred to as "planned obso-lescence." AFP

Consensus will never emerge on petrol under GST: Assocham

Govt fixes projected infra investment at ̀ 38.22L cr

mp business 13MILLENNIUM POST | Kolkata | Saturday, 23 December, 2017

Invest in NHAI bonds with 7.5% coupon rates: Gadkari to workers

CORPORATE KALEIDOSCOPE

A two-day workshop was organised by Corporate Vigilance Department of Airports Authority of India at Bhopal Airport from on December 14-15. The workshop was inaugurated by Suresh N Borkar, GM, Vigilance, and around 63 executives and non-executives from various airports of Western Region of AAI participated. Also present on the occasion were MP Juneja, IEM, AAI, Ex CTE, CVC & Ex Addl Member, Railway Board

Under CSR initiative, an agreement was signed between POWERGRID, NR-1 and Municipal Corporation, Faridabad (MCF) for providing one truck mounted sweeping machine with vacuum cleaner to Municipal Corporation, Faridabad in the presence of Seema Gupta, Executive Director, POWERGRID, NR-1 and D R Bhaskar, Chief Engineer, MCF in New Delhi on Wednesday

Steel Min to transfer stake in HSCL to

Housing Ministry

ADITI KHANNA

LONDON: German steel giant Thyssenkrupp has announced a "negotiated settlement" with its workers to clear the way for its proposed joint venture with Tata Steel Europe. As part of the agreement made with workers' union IG Metall on Thursday night, Thyssenkrupp employ-ees have won a guarantee of job security until September 30, 2026. The union will now put the negotiated settlement to a vote at Thyssenkrupp's steel sites in January 2018.

"In the joint working group set up by the Thyssenkrupp Supervisory Board, Thyssenk-rupp and trade union IG Metall have reached a negotiated set-tlement on the conclusion of a collective agreement.

"The agreement will set col-lectively agreed parameters for the planned combination of the European steel activities of Thyssenkrupp and Tata Steel Europe in a 50/50 joint venture," the German steel major said in a statement. Following the set-tlement, the company hopes to complete its JV with Tata by the end of next year.

"As part of the ongoing due diligence, independent expert opinions on the viability of the joint venture and the UK

pension liabilities of Tata Steel Europe are being drawn up.

Following completion of due diligence, the signing of the joint venture agreement is targeted for early 2018. Once regulatory approval has been received, the closing could take place at the end of 2018," Thys-senkrupp said. Its settlement with steelworkers applies to all of Thyssenkrupp’s German steel sites. The collective agreement is to come into force with the start of the joint venture and apply for around eight years until September 30, 2026, the company said. Thyssenkrupp had announced the formation of a joint venture of its European steel activities with Tata Steel Europe in September.

Its stated aim is to create a leading European flat steel pro-

vider and position it as a quality and technology leader.

The new company would have pro-forma sales of roughly 15 billion euros and employ around 48,000 people.

"The settlement corresponds with our understanding of cor-porate responsibility. It gives us the ability to achieve the eco-nomic advantages and syner-gies forecast for the joint venture and so create value as planned for Thyssenkrupp and its share-holders. "At the same time, we are providing the employees of the joint venture with good prospects for the future and securing jobs," said Dr Hein-rich Hiesinger, CEO of Thys-senkrupp AG.

As part of the settlement, workers are assured continua-tion of employment until Sep-

tember 30, 2026, which means the previously announced nec-essary reduction of up to 2,000 jobs will be carried out "in a socially responsible way".

Oliver Burkhard, Chief Human Resources Officer of Thyssenkrupp AG said "We have agreed on the conclusion of a collective agreement that takes account of everything we attach importance to at Thys-senkrupp: a joint solution with the employee side in line with our corporate culture. "This result does justice to the inter-ests of the company and of our employees. It enables us to pro-vide security for our workforce and creates good prospects for the joint venture going forward.

The company said it has given far-reaching assurances for site continuation, with the future of the majority of sites assured until September 30, 2026. Within these site assur-ances, it will still be possible to make changes to individual lines and units. For specific opera-tional units in Bochum, Eichen and H ttenheim, the company has agreed that a profitability analysis will be carried out at the end of 2020 to decide whether they should be continued; inde-pendently of this, these units will continue to operate until the end of 2021. PTI

NEW DELHI: Steel ministry on Friday agreed to transfer its entire 49 per cent stake in Hindustan Steelworks Con-struction Ltd (HSCL) to hous-ing and urban affairs ministry.

The move will pave way for state-owned construction firm NBCC India Ltd to take full control of its subsidiary HSCL.

The Cabinet had last year approved the financial restruc-turing of state-run HSCL and its takeover by NBCC.

In April this year, NBCC acquired HSCL as its subsid-iary by holding 51 per cent of the equity shareholding.

Consequent upon taking over of HSCL by NBCC, the Steel Ministry would transfer its 49 per cent HSCL share-holding to Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), NBCC said in a statement.

A quadripartite agreement to this effect was signed today among steel ministry, Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry, NBCC and HSCL, "facilitating NBCC to have complete con-

trol over financial, administra-tive and operating decisions of HSCL".

After transfer of 49 per cent stake, the Board of HSCL would be reconstituted. There would be re-designation of the post of CMD, HSCL as Man-aging Director and CMD of NBCC would be the chairman on the board of HSCL.

In presence of Steel Min-ister Chaudhary Biren-der Singh and Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hard-eep Singh Puri, the agreement was signed by and among Steel Secretary Aruna Sharma, Sec-retary MoHUA D S Mishra, NBCC's CMD Anoop Kumar Mittal and HSCL's CMD M Bhaduri.

In April this year, HSCL's board allotted Rs 35.7 crore equity share capital, i.e. 3.57 crore equity share of Rs 10 each, constituting 51 per cent of HSCL's post issued share capital to NBCC.

As a result, HSCL became a subsidiary of NBCC. PTI

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Friday stayed a trial court order imposing a fine of Rs 50 lakh on a Kolkata-based iron and steel company in con-nection with a coal scam case.

Justice Anu Malhotra put on the hold till January 22, the next date of hearing, the special CBI court's order to deposit the fine. The high court's interim order came on the appeal of the company, Vini Iron and Steel Udyog Ltd's (VISUL), which has sought waiver of the costs.

The high court also sought response of the CBI on the company's plea seeking setting aside of the trial court's Decem-ber 16 order convicting it in the coal scam case.

"The trial court order is stayed on parity with the other convict's appeal," the court said. The company, in its plea, has said that the special court had wrongly found them guilty of the alleged scam.

The high court on Decem-ber 20 had sought response of the CBI on an appeal by for-mer Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda's close aide Vijay Joshi against the trial court's order awarding him three years

jail term in the case.While admitting his appeal

against conviction and jail term, the court had suspended the sentence of Joshi till the pendency of his appeal and had granted him bail on furnishing a personal bond of Rs one lakh and a surety of the like amount.

Koda, ex-coal secretary H C Gupta, A K Basu, former Jharkhand chief secretary, and Joshi were awarded jail terms of three years for indulging in corrupt practices and hatch-ing a criminal conspiracy in the allocation of Rajhara North coal block in Jharkhand to the Kolkata-based company.

While confirming his bail, the high court had directed Joshi not to leave the country during the entire pendency of his appeal. It had also stayed till January 22, the next date of hearing, the payment of the Rs 25 lakh fine imposed on Joshi by the special court.

The trial court had directed the convict to deposit by Jan-uary 3 the fine amount and had suspended his sentence till February 18 to enable him to appeal before the superior court. PTI

Coal scam case: HC stays Rs 50L fine on Kolkata firm

NEW DELHI: To power ambitious highway growth plans, NHAI will soon come up with a bonds issue offer-ing attractive coupon rates of above 7 per cent, Union Minister Nitin Gad-kari said on Friday, urging the com-mon man to invest in it rather than in chit funds and other such schemes.

"We have decided that NHAI will raise funds from the poor... We will try to give 7.5 per cent to the com-mon man and 7.75 per cent to women, those above 60 years and defence per-sonnel. They will get interest for 10 years. Monthly interest will be sub-mitted to their accounts," Gadkari, the Road, Transport, Highways, Shipping, Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Minister, said here.

Gadkari said his ministry will soon begin work on Rs 7.5 -lakh-crore highway projects under Bharatmala.

He was addressing a ceremony to award certificates for skill devel-opment to workmen from highways construction sector and launch a pro-gramme for imparting skill develop-

ment to one lakh workers here."I will urge workers and the poor

to not to invest in chit funds and other such schemes. Those labourers, con-stables, journalists, people doing small jobs ... we will seek their investment in NHAI bonds. Those in Defence Ser-vices, woman and above 60 years old we will give more interest to them. We are still to finalise it," he said.

The minister said NHAI bonds have a rating of AAA and the 10-year bonds offer much lucrative prospects.

"Banks give 6 per cent and 5.5 per cent interest. We will give you 7.5 and 7.75 per cent interest. The interest will be deposited in the account of the poor and we will build roads from the money of the poor," he said.

Gadkari said the ministry plans to train about 3.5 lakh workers under the skill development programme for highways.

Earlier this year, Moody's Inves-tors Service had upgraded the issuer ratings of NHAI saying it follows the upgrade of the Indian sovereign rating and reflects the strategic importance

of these entities to the country, as well as their close operational and financial links with the government.

Rating agency CRISIL too has said that reforms by NHAI had resulted in a steep decline in the percentage

of high risk highways projects from 53 per cent two years back to 21 per cent now.

Gadkari said that his ministry's ambitious schemes including Bharat-mala and Rs 14 lakh crore Sagarmala

for port-led development offer huge skill development programme and called the Skill Development Minis-try to come forward in this direction.

He also said that a certain percent-age of the projects above Rs 100 crore will be earmarked mandatorily for skill development and his ministry alone would create 2 crore jobs.

He said India faces shortages of 22 lakh drivers and one lakh driving training centres were on the anvil in the first phase in collaboration with states.

Petroleum and Natural Gas Min-ister Dharmendra Pradhan urged the highways ministry to put a ten-der condition in all contracts that all construction workers will get training and certificates.

Commending Gadkari for "out of box" thinking and projects, he said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi too has commended the highways minister's works and his ministry has earmarked Rs 15,000 crore out of Rs 1.3 lakh crore projects for workers payment only. PTI

NEW DELHI: The govern-ment is committed to increas-ing India's contribution to global trade in a "very sig-nificant" manner, Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu said on Friday.

He said he was looking forward to the country, which has about 1.7 per cent share in global trade, taking a rightful place in the world community as a significant player.

Speaking at the foundation stone laying ceremony of the International Exhibition-cum-Convention Centre (IECC) and the Integrated Transit Corri-dor Development Project here, Prabhu said that both imports and exports contribute signifi-cantly to improving the coun-try's GDP.

"When we import some-thing, that also adds to con-sumption, adds to the capacity of Indian manufacturing to cre-ate world- class products. Obvi-

ously when we export, it creates new capabilities," he added.

India is poised to be the third largest economy in the world, Prabhu said, adding that several factors are how-ever need to make that happen.

"One of them obviously is increasing investments, increasing consumption within the country, and also propelling India to a new growth trajec-tory by making global trade as a driving force of increasing the rate of growth of Indian econ-omy," he said.

Referring to the IECC, Prabhu said the Pragati Maidan re-development project will be an exhibit of what India is going to be. "If you look at the kind of facilities that are going to be created, it is truly in the spirit of what modern India should be. This (project) will showcase India's ability to cre-ate world-class infrastructure," he said. PTI

Committed to raise India's share in global

trade, says Prabhu

NEE DELHI: India's leading IT exporter TCS has bagged a $2.25-billion outsourcing con-tract from Nielsen, a television rating measurement firm.

The partnership, signed in October this year, is a renewal of TCS' existing collaboration with Nielsen. The two compa-nies had struck a 10-year deal in 2008 for $1.2 billion, which was expanded to $2.5 billion in 2013. Under new deal, the terms of the agreement have been extended for an additional five years so as to expire on December 31, 2025, with three one-year renewal options granted to Nielsen, the TV rating company said.

"Nielsen has commit-ted to purchase services from TCS from the Effective Date through the remaining term of the Agreement (the 'Minimum Commitment') in the amount of $2.25 billion, including a com-mitment to purchase at least $320 million in services per year from 2017 through 2020, $186 million in services per year from 2021 through 2024, and $139.5 million in services in 2025," it added. PTI

NEW DELHI: As many as 117 companies have gar-nered a staggering Rs 62,736 crore through IPOs in the first eight months of 2017-18, much higher than the cumula-tive amount raised in the last five fiscals, Parliament was informed today.

These 117 initial pub-lic offers (IPOs) include 28 main- board public offers and the remaining for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), Minister of State for Finance Pon Radhakrishnan said in a written reply to Lok Sabha.

During April-November of 2017-18 fiscal, a total of 117 companies raised Rs 62,736 crore through IPO route. This was much more than the cumulative amount of Rs 62,147 crore garnered in the last five financial years.

Besides, the ongoing fiscal has witnessed the highest IPO activity since 2007-08, when companies had mopped up Rs 52,219 crore through the route.

The IPO chart in this fis-cal is led by General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC) that garnered over Rs 11,176 crore.

This was the largest pub-lic float by any firm after the October 2010 offer by Coal India which raised Rs 15,000 crore.

GIC is followed by New India Assurance Company that raised Rs 9,467 crore, HDFC Standard Life Insurance Com-pany (Rs 8,695 crore) SBI Life Insurance Company (Rs 8,386 crore) and ICICI Lombard General Insurance (Rs 5,700 crore). Individually, a total of 106 firms had garnered Rs 29,104 crore in the entire 2016-17, while 74 companies had raised Rs 14,185 crore in 2015-16. PTI

NEW DELHI: Markets regu-lator Sebi on Friday imposed a penalty of Rs 14 lakh on term lender IFCI Ltd for violating disclosure norms.

The regulator's order has come following an investi-gation into trading in shares of Glodyne Technoserve Ltd (GTL) during January, 2012 to April 20, 2013 for suspected price manipulation by pro-moter entities of the firm.

According to a show cause notice issued by Sebi to IFCI, the term lender had provided loan to Glodyne Ventures and Holdings for which the shares of GTL held by its pro-moter Divvyani Sarnaaik were pledged with IFCI.

IFCI had an aggregate of 5 per cent or more of the share capital of GTL in the form of the pledged shares, which were subsequently invoked by the term lender.

Following the invocation of pledge, there was an increase in IFCI's shareholding in GTL with regard to which the term lender was required to make disclosures.

It was alleged that IFCI had

failed to make the required disclosures in terms of SAST (Substantial Acquisition of Shares and Takeovers) Regu-lations and PIT (Prohibition of Insider Trading) Regulations.

"The noticee (IFCI Ltd) was required to make disclosures upon invocation of pledge," Sebi said in an order.

As the non-disclosure to the stock exchange and GTL regarding holding or acquisi-tion of 5 per cent or more of the share capital of GTL and sub-sequent change in sharehold-ing by more than 2 per cent due to invocation of pledge by IFCI remained undisputed, therefore, in view of such non discourse, it is established that the term lender had violated

the SAST Regulations and the PIT Regulations, it added.

For the violations, the regu-lator has imposed a penalty of Rs 14 lakh on IFCI.

IFCI had contented that it was a public financial institu-tion and Government of India undertaking engaged in the business of lending to com-panies and being the pledgee it had invoked the pledge only for selling the shares to recover dues. However, Sebi noted that upon invoca-tion of pledge, IFCI became the beneficial owner of the invoked shares and therefore, the same attracted disclosure requirement in terms of SAST Regulations and PIT Regulations. PTI

AI chatbot ‘Ruuh’ changing handloom weavers’ lives in India: NadellaSAN FRANCISCO: Microsoft's Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based chatbot 'Ruuh' that has begun chang-ing the lives of handloom weavers in India is something that will shape the future of technology, the compa-ny's Indian-born CEO Satya Nadella has emphasised.

'Ruuh' has been built entirely by the research team in India.

"What's incredible is that the team discovered how 'Ruuh' can

help handloom weavers in rural communities create new economic opportunity by generating design patterns, inputting pictures and colours with the help of neural net-works," Nadella wrote on LinkedIn in a post titled "The people and proj-ects that inspired me in 2017" late on Thursday.

By creating new designs, said Nadella, "they're able to grow their markets and generate new revenue,

helping to preserve this ancient art form and carry on a family business that spans generations".

Not just 'Ruuh,' social chatbots built by Microsoft have over 100 mil-lion users with 30 billion conversa-tion sessions across five countries.

"Three years ago in China, our team built and introduced our first social chatbot called Xiaoice, which has the ability to chat in natural language, as well as create content

ranging from art to poetry," Nadella wrote.

According to him, the stories of Microsoft teams and employees illustrate the intersection of per-sonal passion in areas like health care, accessibility and education with new technologies - the Cloud, AI, Mixed Reality (MR) and quantum computing.

"An amazing collaboration - called Project Premonition - between Microsoft researcher Ethan Jackson, a team from Microsoft Research,

the University of Pittsburgh, Johns Hopkins University, University of California Riverside, and Vander-bilt University is utilizing the Micro-soft Cloud and our AI platform to detect pathogens before they cause outbreaks." Their work turns the pesky-yet-dangerous mosquito into a powerful data source that detects the emergence of disease pathogens before they have a chance to infect others. AGENCIES

Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said NHAI bonds have a rating of AAA and the 10-year bonds offer much lucrative prospects

Sebi slaps Rs 14L fine on IFCI for violating disclosure norms

TCS secures $2.25-bn deal from Nielsen

Thyssenkrupp strikes pact with workers ahead of Tata merger

117 cos raised Rs 62,736-cr via IPOs in Apr-Nov

FY’18: Govt

mp sport14MILLENNIUM POST | Kolkata | Saturday, 23 December, 2017

NEW DELHI: Gokulam Ker-ala FC posted their first win of the 11th Hero I-League, getting the better of Indian Arrows 2-0 at the Ambedkar Stadium here on Friday.

Ghanian Daniel Addo (11th minute) and Syrian Khaled Alsaleh (64th) scored for the visitors, while the Arrows pro-duced a spirited performance but failed to post any goals.

In the first half, Gokulam Kerala FC were the more attacking and even looked more in control even though possession was split equally.

The initial enterprise was shown by the Indian Arrows. In the 8th minute, the self-driven and pacy Aniket Jadhav first cut in from the left to play the ball to Abhishek Halder near the top of the box, but his fee-ble left footer lacked direction.

A minute later, he again broke through from the left beating Provat Lakra for pace but could not get the critical pass in.

Then almost against the run of play, Kerala's Ghanian centre-back, Daniel Addo jumped high above everyone, off a Rohit Mirza corner from the left flank in the 11th min-ute, to drill a header into the Arrows net.

The Arrows defence could certainly have been more alert and proactive in mark-ing Addo. The Arrows were clearly rattled and frustrated by the goal as Aniket earned the game's first yellow card in the 30th minute for his inces-sant aggression.

In the 35th minute, Gokulam's Syrian recruit Khaled Alsaleh put Rohit Mirza, who had a fantastic game incidentally, through on the right.

His attempt to break in was thwarted illegally by Anwar Ali, just outside the box. Khaled fired in a left-footer, but it rebounded off the goalline

milee. Then in the 37th min-ute, Abhishek Halder lost the ball inside his own half and Usman Ashik broke free into the Arrows box from the left.

His diagonal left-footer beat Dheeraj but rolled past the far post. Just at the stroke of the lemon-break, Gokulam got another chance when a lovely through ball from Usman found Rohit clear in the box with just the goalkeeper to beat. But Dheeraj, rushed out to clear just in time.

The Arrows began the sec-ond half with a lot more intent.

Three corners and a couple of set pieces in advantageous positions being the result.

In the 58th minute, from one of those free-kicks from about 30-yards away, Sanjeev Stalin curled a vicious right- footer which beat the Gokulam keeper Bilal all ends up but struck the upright, in what turned out to be the Arrows best chance of the game.

Stalin's overenthusiasm post the free-kick though cost his team a second goal. He picked up a needless yellow card on the right flank with a reckless tackle on Santu Singh.

From the resultant free-

kick, Alsaleh curled a looping left-footer, which beat every-one including Dheeraj in goal, to double Gokulam's lead in the 64th minute.

Stung by the reverse, Arrows tried their best to come back into the game and Usman was replaced by Syed Shoaib Ahmed in the 75th minute by Gokulam coach Bino George to ensure more muscle in the defensive midfield.

The Arrows coach Matos, made his last throw of the dice with a double substitution in the 86th and 87th minute.

Abhijit Sarkar came in for Jadhav and Boris Thanjam was replaced by K. Meetei.

But in spite of the fact that most of the play was happening in the Gokulam half, the spir-ited Arrows side could not find a consolation goal.

Daniel Addo was adjudged the Hero of the Match for his overall robust performance in defence as well as for scor-ing the first goal to break the deadlock.

Midfield spearhead Jaekson Singh made a comeback into the starting eleven and so did Aniket, the striker who struck twice in the Arrows opening game win against Chennai City FC.

Gokulam move from ninth to the seventh position on the points table with this win while the Arrows slipped to ninth place. AGENCIES

I-League: Gokulam Kerala FC post 2-0 win over Indian Arrows

NEW DELHI: The Australian women's team will tour India in March 2018 to play three ODIs against the hosts as part of the ICC Women's Champi-onship (2071-2020), the BCCI said on Friday while announc-ing a T20 tri-series also involv-ing England.

The three One-day Interna-tionals will be held from March 12 to March 18 in Baroda, while the tri-series will kick off with India taking on Australia on March 22.

All the matches of the tri-series will be held in Mumbai, with the final slated for April 3.

England will start their campaign with a match against Australia on March 24.

"The Australian Women's Cricket Team will travel to India in March 2018 to take part in three ODIs against Indian Women's Cricket Team

as part of the ICC Women's Championship (2017-2020). Prior to the ODI series, Austra-lia Women will play two one-day warm-up matches against India A in Mumbai.

After the completion of the ODI series, a T20I Tri-Series featuring India Women, Aus-tralia Women and England Women will be held at the Brabourne Stadium (CCI) in Mumbai," the BCCI said in a release. AGENCIES

Australia women team to tour India for ODIs, T20 tri-series

ONGC Para Games reaffirms equal

opportunity for staff

NEW DELHI: The First edition of the 3-day ONGC Para Games, a unique HR initiative for the specially abled employees has evoked huge enthusiasm among the 120 participants, out of which 20 were lady sports enthusiasts. In spite of being physically challenged, the participants had shown their mettle and fighting attitude to take part in various sports.

Speaking on the occasion, ONGC Director-HR D D Misra, said, “The philosophy behind conducting the ONGC Para Games is to provide similar sporting avenues to specially abled employ-ees that the regular employees enjoy”.

Misra further pointed out that ONGC is an equal opportu-nity employer and all these initiatives are taken to accomplish this objective. ONGC Para Games, which kick-started on December 19, will be a regular Annual feature. The company is always sup-porting initiatives that seek to eliminate disparities of all forms against the physically challenged by not only creating opportu-nities for livelihood but also instilling confidence for growth at par with everyone in the society. The valedictory function was graced by George Abraham, the architect behind the concept of Blind Cricket in the country. MPOST

INDORE: A good all-round performance helped India beat Sri Lanka by 88 runs in the second Twenty-20 Inter-national (T20I) match at the Holkar Cricket Stadium here on Friday.

Skipper Rohit Sharma, who blasted a 35-ball century, piloted India to a mammoth 260, the joint-second highest T20I total. In reply Sri Lankan batsmen struggled and were dismissed at 172, losing the series 0-2.

For India, spinners Yuzven-dra Chahal 4/52) and Kuldeep Yadav (3/52) were the most successfull bowlers.

Chasing 261, the visitors started off on a positive note as openers Niroshan Dick-wella (25) Upul Tharanga (47) added 36 runs in 4.3 overs before Dickwella was dis-missed by pacer Jaydev Unad-kat. His 19-ball innings ended through a good catch by Har-dik Pandya.

Incoming batsman Kusal Perera (77) then joined Thar-anga. The duo played sensibly and played the ball to its merit. They also punished the bad balls to forge a 109-run part-nership for the second wicket.

But just when things seemed good in the mid-dle for the visitors, Tharanga top-edged the ball which was perfectly caught by spinner Yuzvendra Chahal in the 14th over. His 29-ball innings was

laced with three boundaries and two sixes.

With the scoreboard read-ing 145/2, skipper Thisara Per-era (0) arrived in the middle and was sent packing in the very first ball of the next over. Pandya took a brilliant catch to dismiss the skipper off china-man Kuldeep Yadav.

The same over saw another wicket and this time it was Manish Pandey who took the catch. While trying to go for a big one, Kusal Perera failed

to connect with the ball prop-erly and gifted his wicket in the 15th over. His 37 ball innings was laced with four boundar-ies and seven sixes.

After that, it seemed like the Sri Lankan batsmen were in a hurry. Asela Gunaratne (0) departed on the first ball. Lower order batsmen Chaturanga de Silva (1), Sadeera Samarawick-rama (5), Akila Dananjaya (5), Dushmantha Chameera (3), were also dismissed early and cheaply to clinch the issue.

Earlier, put in to bat, skip-per Rohit Sharma blasted a 35-ball century to power India to the joint-second highest T20I total of 260/5.

India rode on a record opening partnership of 165 runs, bettering the previous 158 runs between Lokesh Rahul and Shikhar Dhawan, as Rohit plundered the Sri Lankan bowlers to notch his second T20 ton (118 from 48 balls; 48x12, 6x10).

From the onset, there was

no stopping the Mumbai right-hander, who also equalled the fastest T20I century with South Africa’s David Miller as India raced to 50 in the first five overs.

While his opening part-ner Rahul (89 off 49; 4x5, 6x8) started the onslaught with a couple of boundaries, Rohit took over by pulling Nuwan Pradeep for a thunderous six over mid-wicket before taking Akila Dananjaya to the skies thrice to milk 16 runs off the off-spinner’s first over.

Rohit brought up his half century off just 23 deliveries, sending medium pacer Asela Gunaratne over deep mid-wicket for a maximum before swiftly moving on to 97 when he took his Sri Lankan coun-terpart Thisara Perera to the cleaners four times, thrice con-secutively as the over yielded 26 runs.

The Mumbaikar brought up his century in the next over, lacing a length ball through the covers for a boundary off Angelo Mathews before belting two sixes and a four off Dush-mantha Chameera, who finally managed to bring the curtains down on Rohit’s innings with a slower one.

The fall of Rohit, brought in former India skipper Mahen-dra Singh Dhoni (28 off 20; 4x2, 6x2), who added 78 runs for the second wicket with Rahul. AGENCIES

COIMBATORE East Bengal continued their winning run in the Hero I-League 2017-18 thanks to two first- half strikes from Katsumi Yusa and Charles D’Souza against Chennai City.

Yusa and D’Souza scored in the 26th and 31st minute respectively.

East Bengal moved into the second spot on the I-League table after a 2-1 away win over Chennai City FC at the Jawa-harlal Nehru Stadium in Coim-batore on Friday.

Katsumi Yusa (28’) broke the deadlock while Charles de Souza (31’) scored against his former employers soon after. Alexander Romario Jesuraj (43’) got the only goal for Chennai City FC in their first ever home game this season.

The hosts made a solitary change from their 2-0 win against Churchill Brothers by bringing in Charles Anandraj Lourdusamy for striker Murilo Ribeiro de Almeida. The visi-tors made three changes with Luis Barreto, Lalramchullova and Charles De Souza being brought in.

There was a lot of talk of the game being postponed over the poor playing surface how-ever, the match commissioner deemed the ground fit to play.

East Bengal enjoyed more possession and also had a few swipes at goal. It was Katsumi Yusa who scored the first goal of the game as East Bengal were rewarded for their persistence.

Mahmoud Al Amna sent a cross from the right which was parried off by Uros Poljanec.

However, the loose ball came straight at the feet of Yusa who only had to tap-in from close range.

Charles de Souza doubled the lead within five minutes. It was yet another mistake from Poljanec in goal who failed to punch a ball which allowed the Brazilian to head home with ease.

Jamil replaced young Prakash Sarkar in favour of Mohammed Rafique and the hosts had one back in no time just after the India international got onto the field.

Michael Soosairaj’s long throw-in resulted in a goal-mouth melee which saw Alexan-der Romario Jesuraj convert by

hitting the top corner of the net.The scoreline remained 2-1

in favour of the Kolkata giants at half-time.

Willis Plaza once again disappointed the East Bengal faithful with his listless dis-play. Chennai saw more of the ball but couldn’t carve out any clear cut scoring opportunities. The match ended in favour of East Bengal who held on for a victory.

East Bengal trail leaders Minerva Punjab FC by three points and are placed second. The Red and Golds next face Gokulam Kerala FC at home while seventh-placed Chennai City travel to come up against Mohun Bagan. AGENCIES

East Bengal beat Chennai City 2-1, move to second position

India beat Lanka by 88 runs to take unassailable 2-0 lead

Rohit Sharma plays a shot during the second T-20 cricket match against Sri Lanka in Indore on Friday PIC/PTI

Katsumi Yusa (28’) broke the deadlock while Charles de Souza (31’) scored against his former employers soon after

GOVERNMENT OF MAHARASHTRA SPECIAL PROJECT (P.W) DIVISION, YAVATMAL

E-TENDER NOTICE No. 25/2017-18 Sealed Tenders are invited in “B-1 Format” for following works by Executive Engineer, Special Project (P.W.) Division,

Date Time of Opening the Tenders Appending for E-Tender 1 Details of Tender form is available on website “https://pwd.maharashtra.etenders.in.” The tender-

ers should please. 2 Tenderes are to submit their offers online / electronic system. 3 Intending Tenderness should register themselves for Digital Signature in appropriate class and get

registered for 4 For any clarification, please contact on 07232 - 242782 during office hours. 5 Contact person & address for correspondence : Executive Engineer,Special Project (P.W.) Division, Yavat-

mal. Tel Sd/-Executive Engineer

Special Project (p.w.) Division, DGIPR/2017/2018/4937 Yavatmal

15mp Entertainment

MUMBAI: Akshay Kumar says his forthcoming film Padman is an honest subject. Asked about his expectations for the film and the research work involved, Akshay said: “I didn’t do the research, my wife (Twinkle) did it. The concept is hers and it was written by R. Balki.”

“It is a very honest subject which we have to bring in front of the Indian audience. It is a must subject which is why I went for it.” Many celebrities have acquired theatres and actor Ajay Devgn is one of them.  Is Akshay interested in acquiring such properties? He said: “No. I would like to only make cinema. I won’t be able to do that (acquire theatres) because there will be too much work for me.” Akshay was asked about the issue of Marathi films like Deva not being able to get screens for its release. 

“The content that Marathi films are providing is much better than Hindi cinema. I have watched them and made remakes of two such films. I have also made Marathi cinema. So, I think whatever small problem is there, has been solved,” said Akshay. Padman, directed by R. Balki, is based on Arunachalam Muruganantham, who created a revolution in the field of affordable menstrual hygiene.

Produced by KriArj Entertain-ment, Mrs. Funnybones Movies, Hope Productions and Columbia Pictures, the film will release on January 26, 2018. Actor Akshay Kumar says he and superstar Salman Khan couldnt work on Kesari together but he is mak-ing the film with filmmaker Karan Johar. Salman had teamed up with Akshay for a project in which the latter was to play the hero. Asked about Padman clashing with Neeraj Pandey’s Aiyaary at the box office next year, Akshay said: “Both the films are absolutely differ-ent from each other. Neeraj Pandey (direc-tor) is a dear friend. And, yes, this word ‘clash’ has actually come from media. We have no prob-lem in releasing films. There are around 4,000-5,000 screens in India and my film is screened in 2,800 screens. I think it’s fair enough.” IANS

IS AN HONEST SUBJECT: AKSHAY KUMAR

Slated to release on January 26,

‘Padman’ is based on Arunachalam Muruganantham,

who created a revolution in the

field of affordable menstrual

hygiene

MUMBAI: Actor Nawazud-din Siddiqui says he is grate-ful for getting the opportunity to play the role of Shiv Sena founder Balasaheb Thackeray in a biopic. Starring Nawazud-din in the titular role, the biopic penned by Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut, will be directed by Abhijit Panse.

Speaking at the launch of a teaser of the film on Thackeray last night, Nawazuddin said, “It’s an important day for me today as the teaser of the film is launched. I have got the oppor-tunity to play the role of great personality like him, I think any actor would have agreed to play his role.”  The teaser was launched by superstar Amitabh Bachchan.“I am thankful and grateful to Sanjay Raut, Uddhav Thackeray, Abhijit for the film and

Bachchan sir for launching the teaser. I am sure Abhijit and we would take this biopic upto the mark,” said Nawazuddin, who is shooting in Mauritius.

“Everyone would be think-ing, how can I speak Marathi, let me tell you, Bal Thac-keray sahab would be giving me inspiration and would be showering his blessings (on me) to play the part,” he said in Marathi. Bachchan said he was grateful for being invited for the teaser launch. He said a three-hour film will be too short to bring Thackeray’s illus-trious life on-screen.

“I don’t think Balasaheb’s life can be shown in three hours. I wish there is a series

made on him of three-four

hours, for his personality,

work and

life is much beyond a film. I feel it should be shown in a web series of many episodes. I con-gratulate and wish Sanjay Raut the best for this film.”

“If I am required for the film I would love to be a part of it in any capacity. I will always be ready to contrib-ute to this film, in every way possible,” Bachchan said. “We were very close to each other, we were more like a family. I respect him a lot,” he said. The Pink star recalled that when he got married, Thackeray had called him saying he wanted to meet his wife Jaya Bachchan. Bachchan said Thackeray stood by him in his tough times.

“There were instances in my life when there were some allegations against me, Bala-saheb used to often call me and ask if it is true or not. The biopic will release on January

23, 2019. PTI

MUMBAI: Superstar Salman Khan has once again topped the Forbes’ annual list of the highest-earning entertainers in the country. The 2017 Forbes India Celebrity 100 list rankings are based on estimates of entertainment-related earnings of celebrities. The 51-year-old actor pipped Shah Rukh Khan to the top after raking in Rs 232.83 crore in the period of October 1, 2016 to September 30, 2017, backed by endorsements of several brands.

Shah Rukh with Rs 170.5 crore, retained his last year’s position at number two, and was followed by newly-mar-ried Indian cricket captain Virat Kohli with Rs 100.72 crore. The list also features 13 actors from the south this year as against 11 last year. The only woman in the top 10 is actor Priyanka Chopra (at number 7 with Rs 68 crore), as she continued to make her mark internationally.

Shuttler PV Sindhu with earning of Rs 57.25 crore

was the highest money gainer as her total

earnings soared nearly 17 times,

propelled by several brand endorse-ments follow-ing her 2016 Rio Olympics

silver medal. PTI

Salman Khan tops Forbes India Celebrity

100 list for 2nd year

‘Grateful for opportunity to play Thackeray’

LOS ANGELES: Writer Mark Schwahn, who was earlier sus-pended from TV drama “The Royals”, has been fired from the show following an inves-tigation into the allegations of sexual harassment against him.

“We have concluded our investigation and Mark will not be returning to ‘The Roy-als’,” a spokesperson for Lion-sgate TV said in a statement, reported Variety. “The fourth season of the show has already completed production and will air as scheduled on E! in the spring,” he added.

Trouble began for Schwahn after the cast and crew of the 2003 hit show “One Tree Hill”

released a joint statement in support of writer Audrey Wau-chope, who took to Twitter about harassment from the 51- year-old creator without nam-ing him. Soon after, 25 cast and crew members of “The Royals” accused Schwahn of “repeated unwanted sexual harassment of multiple female members of

cast and crew”.“The Royals”, a contem-

porary royal drama featuring actor Elizabeth Hurley, had wrapped its production on fourth season in September. The female members of the team said that they had soon realised they had to handle the situation on their own. PTI

LONDON: Britain’s Prince Harry and his fiancee Meghan Markle on December 21 released a set of intimate photographs marking their engagement last month. The 33-year-old fifth in line to the British throne is seen hand-in-hand with the 36-year-old American actor on the grounds of Frogmore House in Wind-sor in photographs taken by fashion photographer Alexi Lubomirski earlier this week.

The series includes a black and white portrait of the cou-ple embracing, with Meghan in a sweater by designer Vic-toria Beckham wrapped in Prince Harry’s Burberry coat as she holds his face and they both smile. A colour photo-graph shows the prince and his bride-to-be, dressed in a flowing black dress with gold detailing, sitting on the steps at Frogmore House.

The prince is dressed in a blue suit and the couple have their heads pressed together and are holding hands in a way that shows off Markle’s engage-ment ring, which was designed by the prince.

“Prince Harry and Ms

Meghan Markle have chosen to release official photographs to mark their engagement. The photographs were taken by Alex Lubomirski earlier this week at Frogmore House, Windsor,” Kensington Palace said in a statement. Lubomirski thanked the couple for allow-ing him to take the official engagement portraits.

“Not only was it an incred-ible honour, but also an immense privilege to be invited to share and be a witness to this young couple’s love for each other. I cannot help but smile when I look at the photos that

we took,” he said. A second black and white image, shared by the couple via social media site Instagram as a “candid” shot shows them walking in embrace along the grounds of Frogmore House near Wind-sore Castle, the venue of their wedding set for May 19 next year. “Thank you so much for all of the wonderful comments following the release of Prince Harry and Ms Meghan Mar-kle’s engagement photographs. The couple are so grateful for the warm and generous mes-sages they have received dur-ing such a happy time in their

lives,” Kensington Palace said with the release on Instagram.

In a break from royal tra-dition, Markle has also been invited to join the festivities at Sandringham this year despite not being officially married to Harry as yet. PTI

LOS ANGELES: Responding to direc-tor Woody Allen’s “witch-hunt atmo-sphere” remark, actor Olivia Munn said the system is complicit for letting preda-tors back into the mainstream. Allen, an Oscar-winning director, had voiced his concern about Hollywood slipping into a “witch-hunt” culture in the aftermath of Harvey Weinstein scandal where multiple women accused the producer of sexual misconduct.

“The possibility of an overcorrection is much less worrisome than all of the injustices that led us to this moment. Woody’s gut instinct to fear what this might become would be better suited to a gut instinct to hold back an urge that could be wrong,” Munn wrote in an op-ed for Entertainment Weekly.

Munn was one of six women who came forward with accusations against Ratner, as initially published in The Times.

The star claimed the director once mas-turbated in front of her and made sexu-ally aggressive comments to her in public.

“When people ask how these men in powerful positions were able to hurt so many people for so many years, I look to the people at the top and ask those questions. “The system that lets men like (Brett) Ratner and Allen back in, is the same system that creates disparity. It’s tilted to roll back into their favour while the rest of us are saddled with a Sisyph-ean task,” she wrote.

The X-Men: Apocalypse actor called for a “zero- tolerance policy” for sexual

assault, harassment and misconduct in Hollywood.

“This is not a ‘women’s’ issue, this is an abuse-of-power issue and until we eradi-cate the diseased roots of our infrastruc-ture and make foundational, systemic changes, nothing will change. “We can use this moment to create a lasting shift. We should create a zero-tolerance policy with actionable consequences for sexual assault and any other forms of abuse,” she added.

The actor also advocated equal pay for women in the industry as a way to prevent them from feeling inferior. PTI

‘The Royals’ creator Mark Schwahn fired after probe

Olivia Munn takes on Woody Allen for his “Witch Hunt” remarks

Prince Harry, Meghan Markle release intimate

engagement snaps

MILLENNIUM POST | Kolkata| Saturday, 23 December, 2017

16 MILLENNIUM POST | Kolkata | Saturday, 23 December, 2017