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T he Kerala High Court on Monday came down heav- ily on the State Government while hearing a series of peti- tions filed by various Hindu organisations challenging the restrictions imposed at Sabarimala, the holy shrine in the Western Ghats. Justices Ramachandra Menon and N Anil Kumar lambasted police for “blatant violation of human rights” against women devotees and children who were taking rest at the covered walkway at the shrine on Sunday night by pumping water to make them leave the spot. The State had a sleepless night on Sunday following the crackdown by police on devo- tees who were taking rest at the walkway and were reciting hymns and Ayyappa devo- tional songs. Police arrested 69 devotees, threw down their holy “Irumudikettu”, (the bun- dle containing offerings to the deity which could be opened only inside the sanctum of the temple) and assaulted them for reciting Ayyappa hymns. They were taken to a court in Pathanamthitta, and were remanded in 14 days custody under non-bailable sections of the IPC on Monday and sent to Central Jail at Thiruvananthapuram. This led hundreds of Ayyappa devotees to undertake Nama Japa Yatra (rallies in which the partici- pants recite hymns and devo- tional songs in praise of Lord Ayyappa) at police stations across the State. The rallies concluded peacefully but not before some of them were assaulted by police. The devotees staged a Nama Japa Yatra in front of Cliff House, the official resi- dence of the Chief Minister in the Capital city. The High Court while hearing the petitions filed by Hindu organisations on Monday took police to task for their actions which were not in synch with a pilgrimage centre. Continued on Page 4 P rime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday inaugu- rated at Sultanpur village in Gurugram the long pending 83-kilometre stretch between Manesar and Kundli of the Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP), also known as Western Peripheral Expressway (WPE). The PM also inaugurated 580 crore 3.2 km-long Ballabhgarh-Mujesar Metro rail link project, which would facilitate travel for people of Delhi and Faridabad, and laid the foundation stone of the Shri Vishwakarma Skill University, which will come up at Dudhola in Palwal district. Ballabhgarh becomes the fourth city in Haryana to get Metro connectivity after Gurugram, Faridabad and Bahadurgarh. With the inauguration of the Kundli-Manesar section of the KMP Expressway, the entire stretch of 135-km high- way, which is intended to ease congestion by bypassing Delhi on its western border, is now open for traffic. Addressing a public gath- ering in Sultanpur later, Modi said with the inauguration of the KMP project, Ballabhgarh- Mujesar rail link and the foun- dation stone of the skill varsi- ty being laid, Haryana has taken one more step towards all-round development. Inaugurating the express- way, Modi said, “It is a signif- icant day for Haryana and it will bring about a transport revolution in the State. He also blamed the previous Congress regime in Haryana for creat- ing obstacles and delaying development projects. “Work was going on this (KMP) Expressway for 12 years. You should have got this expressway 8-9 years back. It was to be used during the (2010) New Delhi Commonwealth Games. This shows the work culture of the previous Government which encouraged delays and wastage of public money,” Modi said. During a public rally at Sultanpur, the PM recounted the achievements of his Government in developing infrastructure in the country. F our people, including two women, were charred to death after they were trapped inside a narrow cloth launder- ing unit in Beedanpura area of Central Delhi on Monday. The tragedy struck when “solvent”, a chemical used for ironing clothes made of cotton, spilled on to the floor and caught fire. Delhi Fire Services Chief Fire Officer Atul Garg said fire- fighters received a call at 12.23 pm regarding the fire in a house at street number-3 in Beadonpura following which two fire tenders were rushed to the spot and fire was brought under control by 12.50 pm. However by then the four had died in the blaze. “The owner of the illegal unit Ajay Khurana (45) has been arrested. The bodies have been handed over to the fam- ilies concerned after post- mortem. A case under Section 304 of Indian Penal Code has been registered at Karol Bagh police station and investigation is underway,” said Amit Sharma, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Central district. Detailed report on P2 A top Dubai court on Monday ordered the extra- dition of British national and alleged middleman Christian Michel, who is wanted by the Indian investigative agencies in the 3,600 crore AgustaWestland VVIP chop- pers deal case. Michel, 54, is currently in jail in Dubai since he was arrested and sent to custody pending the legal and judicial procedure in the UAE. The Court of Cassation upheld on Monday a lower court order which ruled that Michel could be extradited, dismissing appeals filed by his defence lawyers, PTI quoted Khaleej Times as having reported. Judge Abdelaziz Al Zarouni, who headed the bench, pronounced the decision in the presence of member judges Musabeh Thaaloub, Mostafa Al Shinawi, Mahmoud Sultan and another judge, report said. On Monday, Michel’s lawyer Abdul Moneim sub- mitted documents showing that courts in Switzerland and Italy had ruled not to extradite his client. “The judicial authorities there concluded that there was no criminal element in the case,” the lawyer argued. Earlier, he argued at Dubai’s highest court that the extradition request procedure of Michel would be a “violation” of the international treaty signed between the UAE and India. Continued on Page 4 A ndhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu called on his Bengal counterpart Mamata Banerjee on Monday as part of his effort to bring the Opposition parties on one platform to topple the BJP in the next year’s Lok Sabha polls. After the meeting, Mamata said everyone would be the face of a “mahagathbandhan” and they would fight together against the BJP to save the nation. Naidu said the proposed November 22 meeting of anti- BJP parties in Delhi had been postponed and it will now be held sometime before the Winter Session of Parliament beginning December 11. “We wanted to meet on November 22 (but) because of elections we want to make it before Parliament (Winter) Session,” said Naidu, adding those who were opposing the BJP will join and discuss (the future plans). “We will chalk out a pro- gramme to move forward and take this momentum further on the agenda to protect the nation,” he said. Incidentally Mamata had been among the earliest lead- ers to call for an Opposition unity through Federal Front against the BJP in which she floated the “one against one” theory according to which she said, “the parties that are strong in a particular place should fight the BJP and the remaining parties should sup- port them.” Talking to the reporters after the meeting, the TDP chief said the BJP Government had crossed all the limits of “intolerance towards the Opposition parties and the minorities” and was using the Central agencies like CBI, ED and Income Tax Department to harass and malign them. In fact these premier insti- tutions, including the Reserve Bank of India and CAG, were under “severe pres- sure” from the Government to serve its interests, he said. The two leaders, who met in Kolkata for about an hour and a half, said majority anti- BJP parties have expressed their opinions to unite for the single-most important cause of ousting the BJP from power. Both leaders are in touch with their Opposition parties’ counterpart like Congress pres- ident Rahul Gandhi, former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda, his son and Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy, NCP chief Sharad Pawar, National Conference’s Farooq Abdullah, DMK chief MK Stalin and others. Meanwhile, the Bengal BJP on Monday staged road block- ades in Kolkata and district headquarters protesting alleged attacks on State BJP president Dilip Ghosh and senior leader Joy Banerjee. The two leaders were attacked allegedly by Trinamool workers in Hooghly district while they were return- ing from a meeting. Blockades were staged at Midnapore, various places in Kolkata, Hooghly, Asansol and elsewhere, sources said. Mumbai: Signalling a tempo- rary truce, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Government on Monday agreed to refer to an expert committee the contentious issue of appropriate size of reserves that the RBI must hold, while restructuring of stressed loans of small busi- nesses would be considered by the Central bank. The setting up of the com- mittee, whose members will be decided by the Government and the RBI, followed a marathon nine-hour meeting of the central board that dis- cussed threadbare issues that had brought the RBI and the Finance Ministry at logger- heads. “The Board decided to constitute an expert committee to examine the ECF, the mem- bership and terms of reference of which will be jointly deter- mined by the Government of India and the RBI,” the Central bank said in a statement. The capital base of the RBI is 9.69 lakh crore, and inde- pendent director and Swadeshi ideologue S Gurumurthy and the Finance Ministry have been wanting it to be lowered in line with global practices. Continued on Page 4 A s many as 1.54 crore voters including just over 76 lakh female, will cast votes on Tuesday at 19,336 polling booths for 72 seats across 19 districts amid unprecedented security arrangements in Chhattisgarh to decide fate of doctor-turned-politician Raman Singh-led BJP Government. A total of 1,079 candidates are in the fray, and both Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are contesting all the 72 seats. The Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is in the fray for 25 seats and its ally and former Chief Minister Jogi’s Janta Congress Chhattisgarh (J) is vying in 46 seats. The Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has fielded candidates in 66 con- stituencies. Chhattisgarh which was formed with a split of Madhya Pradesh in 2000, is witnessing a three-way poll battle this time. BJP is in power since Dec 2003 and the party expects the record fourth term in a row in the mineral-rich State though the Congress has put its all efforts to return to power. Jogi, who ruled the state for the first three years as a Congress Chief Minister, later floated his own outfit and aligned with the BSP and the CPI, is perceived to impact the poll battle where the vote share difference between the BJP and the Congress was less than one per cent in 2013. In last election, the BJP with 41.04 per cent vote share had own 49 seat, while the Congress won 39 seats with a vote share of 40.29 per cent in the 90-member Assembly. Among the prominent faces in fray in the last phase are state Congress chief Bhupesh Baghel (Patan), Leader of Opposition in the Assembly T.S. Singh Deo (Ambikapur) and former Union Minister Charandas Mahant (Shakti). For the BJP, the list includes Agriculture Minister Brijmohan Agrawal (Raipur City South), PWD Minister Rajesh Munat (Raipur City West), Industry Minister Amar Agrawal (Bilaspur), Higher Education Minister Prem Prakash Pandey (Bhilai Nagar), Tourism Minister Dayaldas Baghel (Nawagarh) and state party president Dharamlal Kaushik (Bilha). For the third front, Jogi is in the fray from Marwahi, his wife Renu Jogi is contesting from Kota, while his daughter- in-law Richa Jogi is a BSP nominee from the Akaltara seat. The high-decibel election campaign which ended on Sunday, saw Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP President Amit Shah, Chief Minister Raman Singh and his Uttar Pradesh counterpart Yogi Adityanath raising the pitch for the party. For the Congress, which looking to unseat the BJP, President Rahul Gandhi led from the front targeting Modi and the Raman Singh Government over alleged cor- ruption and agrarian distress. Besides flaying Prime Minister Narendra Modi for demonetisation, Gandhi also dared the Prime Minister to speak up over the Rafale deal which the Congress calls to be India’s “biggest defence scam”. The BJP’s campaign cen- tered around attacking the Congress over dynasty politics, with the Nehru-Gandhi fami- ly being the focal point of both Modi and Shah’s attack. The state has total 90 seats and voting was held in the first phase on November 12 for 18 seats. The results will be declared on December 11. RNI Regn. No. CHHENG/2012/42718, Postal Reg. No. - RYP DN/34/2013-2015
12

ˆ - The Pioneer · 2019-03-04 · Agriculture Minister Brijmohan Agrawal (Raipur City South), PWD Minister Rajesh Munat (Raipur City West), Industry Minister Amar Agrawal (Bilaspur),

Aug 08, 2020

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Page 1: ˆ - The Pioneer · 2019-03-04 · Agriculture Minister Brijmohan Agrawal (Raipur City South), PWD Minister Rajesh Munat (Raipur City West), Industry Minister Amar Agrawal (Bilaspur),

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The Kerala High Court onMonday came down heav-

ily on the State Governmentwhile hearing a series of peti-tions filed by various Hinduorganisations challenging therestrictions imposed atSabarimala, the holy shrine inthe Western Ghats.

Justices RamachandraMenon and N Anil Kumarlambasted police for “blatantviolation of human rights”against women devotees andchildren who were taking restat the covered walkway at theshrine on Sunday night bypumping water to make themleave the spot.

The State had a sleeplessnight on Sunday following thecrackdown by police on devo-tees who were taking rest at thewalkway and were recitinghymns and Ayyappa devo-

tional songs. Police arrested 69devotees, threw down theirholy “Irumudikettu”, (the bun-dle containing offerings to thedeity which could be openedonly inside the sanctum of thetemple) and assaulted them forreciting Ayyappa hymns.

They were taken to a courtin Pathanamthitta, and wereremanded in 14 days custodyunder non-bailable sections ofthe IPC on Monday and sent toCentral Jail atThiruvananthapuram. This ledhundreds of Ayyappa devoteesto undertake Nama Japa Yatra(rallies in which the partici-pants recite hymns and devo-tional songs in praise of LordAyyappa) at police stationsacross the State.

The rallies concludedpeacefully but not before someof them were assaulted bypolice. The devotees staged aNama Japa Yatra in front ofCliff House, the official resi-

dence of the Chief Minister inthe Capital city.

The High Court while

hearing the petitions filed byHindu organisations onMonday took police to task for

their actions which were not insynch with a pilgrimage centre.

Continued on Page 4

����������� -.- .%�

Prime Minister NarendraModi on Monday inaugu-

rated at Sultanpur village inGurugram the long pending83-kilometre stretch betweenManesar and Kundli of theKu n d l i - Ma n e s a r- Pa l w a l(KMP), also known as WesternPeripheral Expressway (WPE).

The PM also inaugurated�580 crore 3.2 km-longBallabhgarh-Mujesar Metrorail link project, which wouldfacilitate travel for people ofDelhi and Faridabad, and laidthe foundation stone of the ShriVishwakarma Skill University,which will come up at Dudholain Palwal district.

Ballabhgarh becomes thefourth city in Haryana to getMetro connectivity afterGurugram, Faridabad andBahadurgarh.

With the inauguration ofthe Kundli-Manesar section ofthe KMP Expressway, theentire stretch of 135-km high-way, which is intended to easecongestion by bypassing Delhion its western border, is nowopen for traffic.

Addressing a public gath-

ering in Sultanpur later, Modisaid with the inauguration ofthe KMP project, Ballabhgarh-Mujesar rail link and the foun-dation stone of the skill varsi-ty being laid, Haryana hastaken one more step towardsall-round development.

Inaugurating the express-way, Modi said, “It is a signif-icant day for Haryana and itwill bring about a transportrevolution in the State. He alsoblamed the previous Congressregime in Haryana for creat-ing obstacles and delayingdevelopment projects.

“Work was going on this(KMP) Expressway for 12years. You should have got thisexpressway 8-9 years back. Itwas to be used during the(2010) New DelhiCommonwealth Games. Thisshows the work culture of theprevious Government whichencouraged delays andwastage of public money,”Modi said.

During a public rally atSultanpur, the PM recountedthe achievements of hisGovernment in developinginfrastructure in the country.

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Four people, including twowomen, were charred to

death after they were trappedinside a narrow cloth launder-ing unit in Beedanpura area ofCentral Delhi on Monday. Thetragedy struck when “solvent”,a chemical used for ironingclothes made of cotton, spilledon to the floor and caught fire.

Delhi Fire Services ChiefFire Officer Atul Garg said fire-fighters received a call at 12.23pm regarding the fire in ahouse at street number-3 inBeadonpura following whichtwo fire tenders were rushed tothe spot and fire was broughtunder control by 12.50 pm.However by then the four haddied in the blaze.

“The owner of the illegalunit Ajay Khurana (45) hasbeen arrested. The bodies havebeen handed over to the fam-ilies concerned after post-mortem. A case under Section304 of Indian Penal Code hasbeen registered at Karol Baghpolice station and investigationis underway,” said AmitSharma, Additional DeputyCommissioner of Police(DCP), Central district.

Detailed report on P2

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Atop Dubai court onMonday ordered the extra-

dition of British national andalleged middleman ChristianMichel, who is wanted by theIndian investigative agencies inthe �3,600 croreAgustaWestland VVIP chop-pers deal case.

Michel, 54, is currently injail in Dubai since he wasarrested and sent to custodypending the legal and judicialprocedure in the UAE.

The Court of Cassationupheld on Monday a lowercourt order which ruled thatMichel could be extradited,dismissing appeals filed by his defence lawyers, PTIquoted Khaleej Times as havingreported.

Judge Abdelaziz AlZarouni, who headed thebench, pronouncedthe decision in thepresence of memberjudges MusabehThaaloub, Mostafa AlShinawi, MahmoudSultan and anotherjudge, report said.

On Monday, Michel’s

lawyer Abdul Moneim sub-mitted documents showingthat courts in Switzerland andItaly had ruled not to extraditehis client.

“The judicial authoritiesthere concluded that there wasno criminal element in thecase,” the lawyer argued. Earlier,he argued at Dubai’s highestcourt that the extraditionrequest procedure of Michelwould be a “violation” of theinternational treaty signedbetween the UAE and India.

Continued on Page 4

��������� ��� 1201%�%

Andhra Pradesh ChiefMinister Chandrababu

Naidu called on his Bengalcounterpart Mamata Banerjeeon Monday as part of his effortto bring the Opposition partieson one platform to topple theBJP in the next year’s LokSabha polls.

After the meeting, Mamatasaid everyone would be the faceof a “mahagathbandhan” andthey would fight togetheragainst the BJP to save thenation.

Naidu said the proposedNovember 22 meeting of anti-BJP parties in Delhi had beenpostponed and it will now beheld sometime before theWinter Session of Parliamentbeginning December 11.

“We wanted to meet onNovember 22 (but) because ofelections we want to make itbefore Parliament (Winter)Session,” said Naidu, addingthose who were opposing theBJP will join and discuss (thefuture plans).

“We will chalk out a pro-gramme to move forward andtake this momentum furtheron the agenda to protect thenation,” he said.

Incidentally Mamata hadbeen among the earliest lead-ers to call for an Oppositionunity through Federal Frontagainst the BJP in which shefloated the “one against one”theory according to which shesaid, “the parties that are strong in a particular placeshould fight the BJP and theremaining parties should sup-port them.”

Talking to the reportersafter the meeting, the TDPchief said the BJP Governmenthad crossed all the limits of“intolerance towards theOpposition parties and theminorities” and was using theCentral agencies like CBI, ED

and Income Tax Department toharass and malign them.

In fact these premier insti-tutions, including the Reserve Bank of India andCAG, were under “severe pres-sure” from the Government toserve its interests, he said.

The two leaders, who metin Kolkata for about an hourand a half, said majority anti-BJP parties have expressedtheir opinions to unite for thesingle-most important cause ofousting the BJP from power.

Both leaders are in touchwith their Opposition parties’counterpart like Congress pres-ident Rahul Gandhi, formerPrime Minister HD DeveGowda, his son and Karnataka

Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy, NCP chiefSharad Pawar, NationalConference’s Farooq Abdullah, DMK chief MKStalin and others.

Meanwhile, the Bengal BJPon Monday staged road block-ades in Kolkata and districtheadquarters protesting allegedattacks on State BJP presidentDilip Ghosh and senior leaderJoy Banerjee. The two leaderswere attacked allegedly byTrinamool workers in Hooghlydistrict while they were return-ing from a meeting.

Blockades were staged atMidnapore, various places inKolkata, Hooghly, Asansol andelsewhere, sources said.

Mumbai: Signalling a tempo-rary truce, the Reserve Bank ofIndia (RBI) and theGovernment on Mondayagreed to refer to an expertcommittee the contentiousissue of appropriate size ofreserves that the RBI musthold, while restructuring ofstressed loans of small busi-nesses would be considered bythe Central bank.

The setting up of the com-mittee, whose members will bedecided by the Governmentand the RBI, followed amarathon nine-hour meetingof the central board that dis-cussed threadbare issues thathad brought the RBI and theFinance Ministry at logger-heads.

“The Board decided toconstitute an expert committeeto examine the ECF, the mem-bership and terms of referenceof which will be jointly deter-mined by the Government ofIndia and the RBI,” the Centralbank said in a statement.

The capital base of the RBIis �9.69 lakh crore, and inde-pendent director and Swadeshiideologue S Gurumurthy andthe Finance Ministry have beenwanting it to be lowered in linewith global practices.

Continued on Page 4

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As many as 1.54 crore votersincluding just over 76 lakh

female, will cast votes onTuesday at 19,336 pollingbooths for 72 seats across 19districts amid unprecedentedsecurity arrangements inChhattisgarh to decide fate ofdoctor-turned-polit icianRaman Singh-led BJPGovernment.

A total of 1,079 candidatesare in the fray, and bothCongress and Bharatiya JanataParty (BJP) are contesting allthe 72 seats. The Mayawati-ledBahujan Samaj Party (BSP) isin the fray for 25 seats and itsally and former Chief MinisterJogi’s Janta CongressChhattisgarh (J) is vying in 46seats.

The Arvind Kejriwal-ledAam Aadmi Party (AAP) hasfielded candidates in 66 con-stituencies.

Chhattisgarh which wasformed with a split of MadhyaPradesh in 2000, is witnessinga three-way poll battle thistime. BJP is in power since Dec2003 and the party expects therecord fourth term in a row inthe mineral-rich State thoughthe Congress has put its allefforts to return to power.

Jogi, who ruled the state forthe first three years as aCongress Chief Minister, laterfloated his own outfit andaligned with the BSP and theCPI, is perceived to impact thepoll battle where the vote sharedifference between the BJPand the Congress was less thanone per cent in 2013.

In last election, the BJPwith 41.04 per cent vote sharehad own 49 seat, while theCongress won 39 seats with avote share of 40.29 per cent inthe 90-member Assembly.

Among the prominentfaces in fray in the last phaseare state Congress chiefBhupesh Baghel (Patan),Leader of Opposition in theAssembly T.S. Singh Deo(Ambikapur) and formerUnion Minister CharandasMahant (Shakti).

For the BJP, the list includesAgriculture MinisterBrijmohan Agrawal (RaipurCity South), PWD MinisterRajesh Munat (Raipur CityWest), Industry Minister AmarAgrawal (Bilaspur), HigherEducation Minister PremPrakash Pandey (Bhilai Nagar),Tourism Minister DayaldasBaghel (Nawagarh) and stateparty president DharamlalKaushik (Bilha).

For the third front, Jogi isin the fray from Marwahi, hiswife Renu Jogi is contestingfrom Kota, while his daughter-in-law Richa Jogi is a BSPnominee from the Akaltaraseat.

The high-decibel electioncampaign which ended onSunday, saw Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, BJP PresidentAmit Shah, Chief MinisterRaman Singh and his UttarPradesh counterpart YogiAdityanath raising the pitch forthe party.

For the Congress, whichlooking to unseat the BJP,President Rahul Gandhi ledfrom the front targeting Modiand the Raman Singh

Government over alleged cor-ruption and agrarian distress.

Besides flaying PrimeMinister Narendra Modi fordemonetisation, Gandhi alsodared the Prime Minister tospeak up over the Rafale dealwhich the Congress calls to beIndia’s “biggest defence scam”.

The BJP’s campaign cen-tered around attacking theCongress over dynasty politics,with the Nehru-Gandhi fami-ly being the focal point ofboth Modi and Shah’s attack.

The state has total 90 seatsand voting was held in the firstphase on November 12 for 18seats. The results will bedeclared on December 11.

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���������� ��� ������������������� ��������'����� RNI Regn. No. CHHENG/2012/42718, Postal Reg. No. - RYP DN/34/2013-2015

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Page 2: ˆ - The Pioneer · 2019-03-04 · Agriculture Minister Brijmohan Agrawal (Raipur City South), PWD Minister Rajesh Munat (Raipur City West), Industry Minister Amar Agrawal (Bilaspur),

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BJP president Amit Shah willbe on a day visit to Mizoram

on Tuesday, where he willaddress a public meeting first atAriopagi, Lawngtlai and there-after, at Varirengte in the State.

Shah will also address aPress conference and releaseVision Document of the BJPfor Mizoram at the State BJPOffice in Aizawl.

The first public meetingwill be at Lawngtlai in themorning followed by JointYMA playground, Vairengtelater in the evening. The battlefor votes in Mizoram is a directfight between ruling Congresswhich has been in power since2008 and Mizo National Front(MNF), the biggest regionaloutfit. An optimist BJP whichalready penetrated North-Eastwell and succeeded in Assam,Manipur and Meghalaya hasfielded 39 candidates for the40-strong Mizoram Assembly.The State has 87 per centChristian population.

New Delhi: A high-poweredtelescope will be installed alongthe Indo-Pak border for devo-tees to view Kartarpur Sahib inPunjab, one of the holiestshrines of Sikhs.

The Government onMonday also announced that acommemorative coin andpostage stamps will be releasedas part of a series of activitiesplanned to mark the 550thbirth anniversary of GuruNanak Dev.

The Ministry of Electronicsand IT will install a high-pow-ered telescope in India for thedevotees to view KartarpurSahib in Pakistan, while theRailways Ministry will run atrain, which will pass through

places associated with the Sikhguru, a Home Ministry state-ment said.

The issue of KartarpurSahib came into focus afterPunjab Minister Navjot SinghSidhu visited Pakistan in Augustto attend the oath-taking cere-mony of his cricketer-turned-politician friend Imran Khan asPrime Minister of that country.

After his return, Sidhuclaimed that Pakistan Armychief Qamar Javed Bajwa hadtold him that Pakistan mayopen a corridor to KartarpurSahib, which is located justacross the International Borderin Punjab.

Kartarpur Sahib is the finalresting place of Guru Nanak.

The National ImplementationCommittee, chaired by RajnathSingh, also launched events,including the release of com-memorative coin and postagestamps. Following this, it wasdecided that the 550th birthanniversary of Guru Nanak Devwill be commemorated througha series of activities, commenc-ing in November, throughoutthe country and across theglobe, the statement said.

"The year 2019 marks the550th birth anniversary ofShri Guru Nanak Dev Ji, thegreat saint and founder of theSikh faith. Guru Nanak'steachings of love, peace andbrotherhood hold universalappeal," it said. PTI

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The fast track court handlingNational Herald case on

Monday dismissed seniorCongress leader Motilal Vora'splea seeking to restrain com-plainant Subramanian Swamyfrom tweeting about the caseand using "derogatory lan-guage" against Congress leaders.Additional Chief MetropolitanMagistrate Samar Vishal reject-ed the plea of Vora, also anaccused in the case, sayingthere was nothing to show thatthe tweets caused any damageto the trial of the case, or anyprejudice to the court.

Vora, in his application,had alleged that Swamy wastrying to influence the courtproceedings with his tweets. Healso accused Swamy of usingderogatory language againstCongress leaders Sonia Gandhiand Rahul Gandhi often on thesocial media platform. The

court said the tweets cited byVora "cannot be said to inter-fere or obstruct the adminis-tration of justice nor can be saidto prejudice the due course ofany judicial proceedings, first-ly because no such instance dueto which the applicant can saythis has either been stated inthe application, nor has beenput forth in the argument".

"The trial is going on andhas reached the stage of evi-dence, and I am unable to findanything on record nor any-thing has been put forth toshow that these tweets mayhave caused any damage to thetrial or any prejudice to the

court," the judge said. It said "acourt cannot prohibit any per-son from reporting the pro-ceedings of a case unless it isshown that the reporting ispatently and malafidely false".

"The tweets may not behappily worded from the pointof view of the applicant or otheraccused, but how they interferein the administration of justiceor are prejudicial to the defenceof the accused is not clear," thecourt said, posting cross exam-ination of Swamy in the maincase to January 11.

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In the wake of confrontationbetween the Government

and the RBI, Congress presi-dent Rahul Gandhi onMonday hoped that theCentral bank gathered thecourage to put the onus of liq-uidity crisis on Prime MinisterNarendra Modi. Rahul said ifRBI Governor Urjit Patel hasa "spine" he will show thePrime Minister "his place".

Later, the RBI's crucialboard meeting on Mondaytook up the liquidity crisis thathas triggered a tiff between thegovernment and the centralbank. "Mr Modi and hiscoterie of cronies, continue todestroy every institution theycan get their hands on.Today,through his puppets at the RBIBoard Meet he will attempt todestroy the RBI. I hope MrPatel and his team have aspine and show him his place,"Rahul tweeted earlier in the

day.The Congress has accused

the Modi Government ofdestroying every institutionin the country and the latestone being the RBI. The meet-ing is being held in the back-ground of tension betweenthe Centre and the RBI afterFinance Ministry cited thenever-used-before Section 7 ofthe RBI Act which empowersthe Government to issue direc-tions to the RBI Governor.

The Government onNovember 9 had said it wasdiscussing an "appropriate"size of capital reserves that thecentral bank must maintainbut denied seeking a massivecapital transfer from the RBI.Economic Affairs SecretarySubhash Chandra Garg hadalso clarif ied that theGovernment wasn't in anydire needs of funds and thatthere was no proposal to askthe RBI to transfer �3.6 lakhcrore.

New Delhi: The Supreme Courton Monday deferred tillNovember 26 hearing on theplea of Zakia Jafri challengingthe clean chit given by theSpecial Investigating Team (SIT)to Narendra Modi, who wasthen Gujarat Chief Minister, inconnection with the 2002 post-Godhra riots.

Zakia, the wife of Ehsan Jafri,an ex-MP who was killed in oneof the worst incidents during theriots, has challenged the GujaratHigh Court's October 5, 2017order rejecting her plea againstthe SIT's decision.

A bench headed by JusticeA M Khanwilkar said, "Thematter will take some time forhearing. The plea will be heard

on November 26".At the outset, senior

Advocate Mukul Rohatgiappearing for the SIT, saidZakia's plea was not maintain-able and social activist TeestaSetalvad cannot be the secondpetitioner in the case. The benchsaid it will look into the appli-cation before hearing the matteron making Setalvad as the sec-ond petitioner in Jafri's plea.During the previous hearing,Jafri's counsel had said thatnotice needs to be issued in theplea as it pertains to the aspectof alleged "larger conspiracy"during the period from February27, 2002 and May 2002 and hadalso maintained that after the SITgave a clean chit in its closure

report in the case before a trialjudge, a protest was filed by thepetitioner which was dismissedby the magistrate without con-sidering "substantiated merits".

On February 8, 2012, theSIT filed a closure report, giv-ing the clean chit to Modi and63 others, including senior gov-ernment officials, saying therewas "no prosecutable evidence"against them. Ehsan Jafri wasamong 68 people who werekilled at the Gulberg Society inAhmedabad when a mobattacked it on February 28,2002, a day after the S-6 Coachof the Sabarmati Express return-ing from Ayodhya at Godhrawas burnt, triggering the riots inGujarat. PTI

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In the wake of the "terror"attack in Punjab, where three

people were killed and 20 oth-ers injured in a grenade blast,Union Home Minister RajnathSingh on Monday reviewedthe security situation in thecountry.

Senior officials of theHome Ministry and securityagencies briefed the HomeMinister regarding the explo-sion at a religious gatheringnear Amritsar on Sunday, anincident which police are treat-ing as a "terrorist act".

The Home Minister direct-ed the officials to provide allassistance to the PunjabGovernment in their investi-gation to nab the perpetratorsof the crime, a Home Ministryofficial said.

Singh was told that a team

of the National InvestigationAgency has already visited theblast site along with their inves-tigators and explosive experts.

Three persons, including apreacher, were killed and 20others injured when two-motorcycle borne men threwgrenade on a religious congre-gation on the outskirts ofAmritsar.

The incident took placeinside the Nirankari Bhavan'sprayer hall at Adliwal villagenear Amritsar's Rajasansi,police said.

A religious congregation ofthe Nirankari followers wasbeing conducted inside theBhavan at the time of the inci-dent. The Sant NirankariMission is a spiritual organisa-tion and the Bhavan lies closeto the Amritsar internationalairport and the Indo-Pak bor-der.

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With an aim to break themyth and stigma sur-

rounding leprosy, a three-dayYouth Festival 'Youth againstLeprosy' was kicked off fromMonday here. Mentionworthy,India accounts for 60 per cent ofglobal cases. Its purpose is towork towards the socio-eco-nomic development of thoseaffected by the crippling diseaseand their families.

Several youths from leprosycolonies across the city have con-gregated at the festival organisedby Sasakawa-India LeprosyFoundation (SILF), an organi-sation that focuses on creatingeconomic opportunities for lep-rosy-affected people.

Vineeta Shanker, executivedirector of the SILF said that ideabehind holding the YouthFestival, bringing youth andstakeholders under one roofhere, is to make the youngergeneration aware about the dis-ease. "They have a little idea orunderstanding on leprosy as adisease. Whatever little they

may know comes from familyand friends and is often vagueand reaffirms the stigma againstthe disease."

It is unfortunate that despitebeing non contagious and fullycurable, leprosy is still consid-ered as a curse and the myth isstill there that whoever will getin touch with these people willget affected, Shanker said. Shepointed out that "In 2005, whilewe were applauding ourselves,we did not look deep enough tosee the regional variations. That,in itself, should have given us apointer that this problem was farfrom over."

Tehseen Zaidi,Communications and AdvocacyManager with SILF informedthat the collaborations like YouthFestival provides a platform for

the youth from the sector toshare their ideas and challengesin tackling the disease.

Prestigious Rise to DignityAwards is being given for thehard work and dedicationshown by persons affected by

leprosy who are now effiscimi-nation iciently running liveli-hood enterprises. "This initiativehas enabled them to make a suc-cessful transition from beggingto a dignified livelihood," saidTehseen.

The awardees of the 8thRising to Dignity Awards-2018are two groups from Indore,Madhya Pradesh andKamareddy District inTelangana. An all women groupof Indore, dealing in Sari retail-ing project and a mix group ofmen and women from

Vendrikal, Kamareddy runningDairy and Goat Rearing(Agricultural Development andfinancing) project have won theaward.

India still accounts for 60per cent of new cases reportedglobally.

In the year 2007, new casesdetected in India were 137,685,and nine years later in 2016, thenumber remained almost thesame at 135,485, a significantincrease over the 127,326 newcases detected in 2015, accord-ing to a study.

New Delhi: The CIC has direct-ed the Registrar General ofIndia (RGI) to change its prac-tices of data collection, espe-cially with regard to births anddeaths.

Information CommissionerYashovardhan Azad, in animportant order, issued direc-tives to make changes in thesoftware and practices of theRGI.

He was hearing a petitionfiled by an RTI applicant, seek-ing information about thedeaths reported in all the wardsof Mumbai in 2016.

The information was notprovided to him, followingwhich he approached theCentral InformationCommission (CIC).

During the hearing, theofficial representing the RGIsaid the office was a data aggre-gator.

He submitted that theStates were tasked with theoverall implementation under

section 3 of the Registration ofBirths and Deaths (RBD) Act,whereas the ground-levelrecord was maintained by theregistrars appointed by therespective States, Azad noted.

"Despite the contention ofthe PIO that the CRS (CivilRegistration System) Divisionof the Registrar General, Indiacannot be held to be the custo-dian of ward-wise data assought by the appellant, thecommission finds that the roleof the Registrar General in theimplementation of the RBD Actcannot be lost sight of," he said.

Azad added that the pre-sent controversy was limitedonly to the practices related todata maintenance and preser-

vation."There is no legal impedi-

ment in creation of two or moreequally effective access points ofinformation, both at the centralas well as at the state level. It israther a question of 'data mir-roring' and the essential ques-tion raised in the present caserequires forging new practicesof data management, which isin furtherance of the RBD Actas well as the RTI Act," he said.

The CIC also took note ofthe PIO's submission that it wascomparatively difficult to reg-ister the data of deaths with thecause of the deaths, in contrastto the data regarding births,Azad added.

"The judicious aggregationas well as the preservation of the'data of death' are very impor-tant for ensuring the quality oflife of the living. The data is acrucial indicator of various fac-tors, which is a key for ensur-ing good governance and effi-cient policy planning. PTI

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Nearly two years after theReal Estate Regulation Act

(RERA) was enacted by theParliament, six northeasternStates have finally agreed toimplement the law, paving wayfor protecting the interest ofhomebuyers in these States.Arunachal Pradesh,Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram,Nagaland and Sikkim havefailed to notify RERA due toland and other issues.

The development comesafter a team of the UnionHousing and Urban Affairs(HUA) Ministry visited thenortheastern States on October26 and held a workshop withtheir representatives and dis-cussed the issues coming in theway of notifying the Act.

According to HUA secre-tary Durga Shankar Mishra, thenortheastern States have agreedto implement RERA. We arehelping them in notifying the

RERA rules.Sources said representa-

tives of these states had someissues about the implementa-tion of RERA, but the Ministryofficials cleared all their doubtsin the last month's workshop.

The Act, which providesproper protection to homebuyers, was enacted by theParliament in 2016. The Stateswere given powers to notifytheir respective rules andappoint regulatory authori-ties.

All States and UnionTerritories in the country hadnotified the rules under RERA,except the six northeasternstates and West Bengal. The Act

is not applicable in Jammu &Kashmir. "There are 27 Statesthat have established theAuthority. Out of them 14States have set up interim ones.All the States of northernregion have established per-manent Regulatory Authoritiesexcept Himachal Pradesh,Delhi and Chandigarh," anofficial of HUA said.

According to the Ministry,33,750 real estate projects havebeen registered under RERA,while 26,018 agents have beenregistered across the country.Maharashtra tops the list ofStates with 18,392 projects reg-istered.

Instead of implementingRERA, West Bengal had noti-fied its own real estate law —the Housing and IndustrialRegulation Act, 2017 (HIRA).Mishra had written to theBengal Government, asking itto repeal its own act as therewas already a central law on thesubject.

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With as many as 60.53 lakhindividual household toi-

lets constructed and 4.7 lakhseats of community or publictoilets under constructionunder the Swachchh BharatMission (Urban), PrimeMinister Narendra Modipraised the Ministry ofHousing and Urban Affairs(HUA) for its remarkable speedof construction on the occasionof World Toilet day.

Hailing the HUA Ministry,Modi said India is proud of theremarkable speed with whichsanitation coverage hasincreased in the last four yearsand reiterated hisGovernment's commitment toenhancing sanitation facilities.The Prime Minister said thedrive for a cleaner India andensuring better sanitation facil-ities is in fact a people's move-ment.

Modi took to Twitter tothank women and youth fortaking the lead in the sanitation

drive. World Toilet Day, cele-brated on November 19, isabout taking action to ensurethat everyone has a safe toiletby 2030.

"Today, on World ToiletDay, we reiterate our commit-ment towards enhancing clean-liness and sanitation facilitiesacross the nation. We in Indiatake pride at the remarkablespeed with which sanitationcover has increased in the lastfour years," he wrote. He saidit is the 130 crore Indians, par-

ticularly women and youths,who have taken the lead in themovement. "I congratulate allthose working to fulfil thedream of a Swachh Bharat," hesaid.

According to the Ministry,around 4.7 lakh public toiletseats have been constructed sofar. The target set under themission was 5.07 lakh publictoilet seats. More than 12,000public toilets have been built inDelhi since 2015, the ministrysaid. Speaking at an event here,HUA Secretary Durga ShankerMishra said 19 states and UTswere already Open DefecationFree (ODF) in their urbanareas.

"This has been achieved bythe construction of nearly 60.53lakh individual household toi-lets (against a mission target of66 lakhs; i.E. 91.7% construct-ed and under-constructionagainst target)," Mishra said inan official statement.

"In the area of solid wastemanagement, at least 40 per-cent of the total waste generat-

ed in the country is beingprocessed, and 52 percent ofwards are practising sourcesegregation," the ministry offi-cials said.

On the occasion of the"World Toilet Day", the gov-ernment also released StandardOperating Procedures (SOPs)for cleaning of sewers and sep-tic tanks for field staff whorespond to sewer overflows orspills.

The workshop on urbansanitation is aimed at address-ing challenges in the urban san-itation space thereby enableparticipating states and cities inproactively implementingviable, affordable and sustain-able sanitation solutions for aSwachh Bharat.

The Swachh BharatMission (Clean India Mission)aims to achieve 100 per centopen defecation free (ODF)and scientific solid waste man-agement in India by October 2,2019, the 150th birthdayanniversary of MahatmaGandhi.

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New Delhi: India and 10 othercountries in sub-SaharanAfrica accounted for around 70per cent of estimated malariacases (151 million) and deaths(274,000) globally last year,with only India reportingprogress in reducing its malar-ia cases when compared to2016, a report said on Monday.

India has turned out as theonly country among the 11highest-burden countries tomark progress in reducing itsdisease burden, registering a 24per cent decrease in 2017 com-pared to 2016, according toWHO World Malaria Report2018.

By leading the world in

malaria case reductions in2017, India is no longer amongthe top three countries with thehighest malaria burdens.However, 1.25 billion Indiansremain at risk of malaria.

India has set a target ofbeing malaria-free by 2027and eliminating the disease by2030. PTI

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New Delhi: The Supreme Courton Monday asked the BombayHigh Court to deal with the pleaof Lt. Col. Prasad ShrikantPurohit, one of the accused inthe 2008 Malegaon bast case,that he was being prosecuted inthe matter without any validsanction.

A bench headed by ChiefJustice Ranjan Gogoi directed theHigh Court that Purohit's plea bedealt with on November 21. Aspecial court on November 2had commenced the formaltrial against Purohit, SadhviPragya Singh Thakur and fiveother accused after framing ofcharges under various penal lawin the Malegaon blast case.

Purohit, in his plea, referredto the earlier apex court order

by which the trial court and theBombay High Court weredirected to deal with the claimof Purohit that he was beingprosecuted under penal lawsincluding the UnlawfulActivities (Prevention) Act with-out any sanction from theauthorities.

The plea also alleged thatthe charges have been framedagainst Purohit and others bythe trial court which had com-menced the trial without deal-ing with the claim on sanction.

Six people were killed andover 100 injured when an explo-sive device strapped on a motor-cycle went off near a mosque inMalegaon, a town about 200 kmfrom north Maharashtra, onSeptember 29, 2008. PTI

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Some of the polling teams onMonday left by helicopter in

the heavily insurgency-infest-ed Gariaband district forpolling centers located at Odhand Amamora regions , offi-cials informed.

A total of 14 teams along-with Security Officer, MicroObserver and the polling teammembers boarded the heli-copter at 9.15 am from PoliceParade Ground at theGariaband district headquarters.

In both the aforesaid insur-gency-infested polling centers ,polling will be held from 7 am to3 pm while in rest of the pollingcenters in the district, polling willbe held from 8 am to 5 pm.

Moreover, the districtadministration had also madearrangements for wheel chairs

for the differently abled voterswho will be arriving at the var-ious polling centers. The teamsof NCC cadets and NSS vol-unteers will be assisting the dif-ferently abled voters at thepolling centers.

Strict vigil is being main-tained in the polling centersadjoining districts in Odisha,officials informed.

Notably, it may be recalledChoppers had been used also inthe first phase of polls in Bastarwhere polling teams deployedin 22 hyper sensitive pollingbooths in extreme Naxal-hitheavily forested and hillockareas under Narayanpur assem-bly seat during the first phaseof polls were brought backsafely to district headquartersby choppers after polling endedat 3 p.m. on November 12.

These 22 polling boothswere situated in Akabeda,Nednar and Orchha blocks.The district administrationheaved a sigh of relief when allthe polling teams returnedsafely after successfully con-ducting polling.

The EVMs and VVPATswere thereafter safely taken tothe strong room situated inAtmanand Mahavidyalaya ofthe district headquarters.

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The voters can now checktheir names and Polling

Centre online before leavinghome to cast their vote.

The Election Commissionof India (ECI) and the Office ofthe Chhattisgarh ChiefElectoral Officer have launcheda website for the convenienceof the voters.

The webcasting would bedone for 140 polling boothsfalling under Janjgir-Champa

district based assembly con-stituencies while in Bemetara,in all its three Assembly con-stituencies of Navagarh,Bemetara and Saja, 73 pollingbooths will have the facility.

In each State Assemblyconstituency as per 10 percentaverage, the polling centresare being included for web-casting. The nodal officers andthe officers of Bharat SancharNigam Limited (BSNL) havebeen directed to ensure inter-net connection at these centres.

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Objecting to presence ofBharatiya Janata Party

(BJP) leaders from outsidethe State, who were allegedlycamping at BJP office ‘EkatmaParisar’ here, Congress lead-ers led by ChhattisgarhPradesh Congress Committee(CGPCC) Chief BhupeshBaghel staged a sit-in in frontof office of the State ChiefElectoral Off icer (CEO)Subrat Sahoo on Mondayafternoon.

The Congress leadersraised objection that BJP lead-

ers from outside the Stateincluding National Joint

General Secretary(Organization) Saudan Singh,

National General Secretary andIn-charge of Chhattisgarh DrAnil Kumar Jain were stillcamping at Ekatma Parisar.This was a violation of ModelCode of Conduct (MCC) andthe Election Commission mustimmediately take action on it,they demanded.

Later their sit-in was endedafter a delegation led by Baghelmet the CEO.

Baghel later informedmedia persons that they hadalso expressed their suspicionthat the government machin-ery and many officers wereworking in favour of BJP.

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Flying squads and varioustask forces specially consti-

tuted to check the allurementby political parties during thepoll process have seized cashand goods including preciousmetals and liquor worth �13.03crore till November 18.

Providing details onseizures made, State ChiefElectoral Officer Subrat Sahooinformed in a press conferencehere that cash worth �4.62crore, liquor worth �1.76 croreand freebies worth �6.33 crorewere seized by the squads ofpolice, Excise and Income TaxDepartment till Sunday.

The cash amounting to�3.92 crore was seized by policeteams whereas the Income TaxDepartment personnel seized�70 lakhs, he informed. Thusa total progressive seizure bypolice and Income TaxDepartment was worth �4.62

crores, he said.Regarding liquor seizure,

the CEO informed that flyingsquads, static surveillanceteams and police seized a totalconsignment of 93821.14 litersof liquor worth �75.35 lakhswhereas the State Prohibitionand Excise Department seizeda total of 38442.35 liters ofliquor worth �1.01 crore. Thusa combined seizure of132263.49 liters of liquor worth1.76 crore was done by them,the official said.

The special squads alsoseized freebies in form of lap-tops, vehicles, pressure cookerand Sarees worth �6.33 crorewhile the precious metalsincluding gold and silver orna-ments worth �29 lakhs wereseized, he informed.

Drugs and narcoticsweighing a total of 22.16 kgsand estimated price of the con-signment at �1.76 lakhs wasalso seized, Sahoo said.

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AFirst Information Reporthas been lodged based on

the complaint regarding a fakenews citing statement of fatherof a politician which went viralin social media with the ‘fakeletter’ circulated in social mediaregarding loan waiver, saidChhattisgarh Chief ElectoralOfficer Subrat Sahoo onMonday.

On holding the road showand public rally even afterimposition of Section 144,Sahoo said that Raipur DistrictElectoral Officer andSuperintendent of Police haveissued the notice to the con-cerned political party. Actionwould be taken as per rulesafter the reply is provided bythe party, he said.

On Postal Ballot issue,Sahoo clarified that 100 percentdistribution of postal ballot

has been done for thoseemployees, having their correctPart Number and Serial num-ber.

The Election Commissionof India (ECI) has issued direc-tive that if the application con-tains incorrect entries, it can berejected.

Sahoo pointed out as perthe ECI directive, within the200 metres of polling booth nopolitical advertisements shouldexist. “It is not on directive ofany political party, the hoard-ings are being removed,” hesaid, based on a complaintlodged by Congress party.

He said that no electioncampaigning can be donethrough social media as it hasalready ended with the 48hours deadline.

The CEO said that ifrequired, additional securityforces in sensitive areas wouldbe deployed.

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Chief Minister Raman Singh on Monday said that the BharatiyaJanata Party (BJP) is moving ahead with the ‘mission 65-plus’

target to win the polls.Singh while addressing a press conference here said that on

one hand, the Congress party is making promise on waiver offarmer loans in Chhattisgarh and on the other, in Karnataka farm-ers are demonstrating before the State Assembly.

He further said that in second phase of polling in 72 assem-bly constituencies, the wave is in favour of BJP.

Singh further reiterated that this time the party would achievethe target of winning 65 plus seats.

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Page 4: ˆ - The Pioneer · 2019-03-04 · Agriculture Minister Brijmohan Agrawal (Raipur City South), PWD Minister Rajesh Munat (Raipur City West), Industry Minister Amar Agrawal (Bilaspur),

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The State Government hasdeclared a public holiday in

Chhattisgarh on Tuesday(November 20) in view of the second and final phaseof polls to be held in

the State.Notably, polling will be

held in 72 Assembly con-stituencies of the State and theholiday had been declaredunder Negotiable InstrumentsAct, an official press releaseinformed.

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The necessary poll material had been dis-tributed to the polling staff here on Tuesday,

officials informed.The Bilaspur district has six assembly seg-

ments – Kota, Takhatpur, Bilha, Bilaspur,Beltara and Masturi.

The polling staff were distributed ControlUnit, Ballot Unit, VVPAT and all other neces-sary poll material at 8 am, officials informed.

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The Election Commission ofIndia (ECI) as per set stan-

dards has made voting by EVMand VVPAT fully confidential,said Chhattisgarh ChiefElectoral Officer (CEO) SubratSahoo on Monday.

He assured the electorsthat their vote will be kept total-ly confidential. As per Conductof Election Rules 1961, rule 49(l) there is permission to castthe vote but Rule 49 (m) statesthat for the person exercisingthe franchise, it is also manda-tory to keep confidentiality,

Sahoo said.Therefore a compartment

had been made where theEVM/VVPAT is installed andelector has to cast his/her votein it, he said.

The VVPAT holds the slipfor seven seconds where the

number of candidate, nameand election symbol can beseen after which the slip cut offsand falls in drop box.

In case of Persons withDisabilities and blind persons,the assisting person along withpolling agents has to maintainthe confidentiality. If this is vio-lated, then there is provision ofthree month’s imprisonment.

Sahoo pointed out that useof mobile phone and otherelectronic equipment arebanned inside the polling cen-tres. In polling centres , web-cameras have been installed, hesaid.

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Aday before the scheduledhearing on the fate of CBI

Director Alok Verma’s petition,agency DIG MK Sinha onMonday filed an explosive affi-davit in the Supreme Courtaccusing National SecurityAdviser Ajit Doval, CabinetSecretary PK Sinha, LawSecretary Suresh Chandra, CVCKV Chowdary and RAW’sDubai Officer Samant KumarGoel and Minister for StateHaribhai ParthibahiChowdhary for trying to saveCBI Special Director RakeshAsthana from corruptioncharges.

In his affidavit, the CBI DIGaccused Doval of interfering inthe bribery investigation againstAsthana and preventing search-es on the premises of suspects.Sinha, who was transferredwhile probing bribe chargesagainst Asthana, also claimedthat a Union Minister of Statetook “a few crores” to help abusinessman under investiga-tion.

Challenging his transfer toNagpur, Sinha said he pos-sessed “documents that willshock the court”. However,rejecting his request for anurgent hearing on Tuesday,Chief Justice of India RanjanGogoi shot back, “Nothingshocks us.”

Sinha claimed after theGovernment sent Verma andAsthana on “forced” leave andtransferred the entire teaminvestigating charges againstAsthana, he heard an officertelling “things have been man-aged and everything is fine”.

In his affidavit, the CBI DIGalso accused the CabinetSecretary and the Law Secretaryof even intervening to scuttle theCVC’s probe which is moni-tored by the Supreme Court.Sinha also detailed the pressurehe faced in arresting ManojPrasad, who is co-accused withAsthana for allegedly acceptingbribe from businessman SanaSatish Babu, associate of con-troversial meat exporter MoinQureshi.

“On the morning ofOctober 16, 2018, accusedManoj Prasad was intercepted atDelhi Airport on his arrival

from Dubai and brought to theCBI Headquarters. During thefirst few hours of his arrival onCBI Headquarters, Manoj wasgarrulous and arrogant, both atthe same time and in equal mea-sure. He was interviewed by theapplicant (DIG MK Sinha) andothers. He tried his best to wardoff the investigation by droppingnames of ‘high and mighty’ andmentioning his ‘top contacts’ tocreate fear in our mind.

“As per Manoj Prasad,Dineshwar Prasad, father ofManoj and Somesh, who retiredas RAW Joint Secretary, hasclose acquaintance with theNational Security Adviser AjitDoval. This was one of the firstthings Manoj claimed on beingbrought to the CBI HQ as heexpressed complete surpriseand anger as to how the CBIcould pick him up despite hisclose links with NSA Doval,”said the CBI DIG’s affidavit.

“He started bragging andclaimed that his brother Someshis very close to an officer inDubai (name withheld) and toSamant Goel, presently RAWSpecial Secretary, and he can getus finished off/kicked out.Manoj taunted us that you peo-ple have no standing whatsoeverand therefore should stay in lim-its and let him free.

He claimed that recently hisbrother Somesh and SamantGoel helped the NSA on animportant personal matter. Hefurther claimed that India optedout of a contest from INTER-POL.” said the affidavit filed bySinha.

“Regarding genuineness ofthis claim of Manoj, no attemptwas made to verify the claimregarding NSA Doval,” said theaffidavit filed by Sinha. He saidlater he found that ManojPrasad’s information aboutIndia opting out from Interpolwas factually correct.

“When the IO, AK Bassi,came to know that SamantGoel/ Somesh had stopped talk-ing and were exchangingWhatsApp messages, he insist-ed that we need the cellphonesets of the public servants as theevidence is likely to be stored onthe device and that search beconducted. The CBI Directordid not give immediate per-mission and reverted that the

NSA has not permitted the

same,” said the affidavit.The CBI DIG in his affi-

davit also said that during inter-rogation they found that ManojPrasad and brother SomeshPrasad were in regular touchwith Rakesh Asthana andSomesh Goel. He said that therewere several WhatsApp mes-sages to prove this “dubiouslinks.” The officer further saidhis team has records of conver-sation between Rakesh Asthanaand Samant Goel, when ManojPrasad was in their custody.

The affidavit filed by Sinhabrings to light the role of theCabinet Secretary PK Sinha inprotecting Astana.

“In the morning of October17, 2018, a call came from theDCP of Special Cell of theDelhi Police on the mobile ofInvestigating Officer AK Bassi,DSP, CBI, who did not take thecall. Later another Inspector ofSpecial Cell called up andsought to know if Manoj hasbeen arrested. Enquiriesrevealed that the query hadoriginated from the CabinetSecretariat.”

Further, the interesting partis how a Minister in the ModiGovernment intervened withthe DoPT to protect Asthana.“As per Sana, Shri Haribhai(Minister of State) had inter-vened with the senior officers ofCBI through the office of theMinister of Personnel, PublicGrievances and Pension, to

whom, apparently, the CBI

Director reports to,” said theCBI DIG.

He also said that CVCChowdhray also met Sana tosave his relative from theseissues. The officer said that theCVC and Asthana were also intouch during these days.“Sathish Babu Sana also dis-closed that he met CVC KVChowdhary along with oneGorantla Ramesh (close relativeof Chowdhary and owner ofDelhi Public School Hyderabad,as per Sana) somewhere inDelhi (exact date and locationwas not informed) and that theydiscussed Moin Qureshi’s case.As per Sana, in the year 2011,Gorantla Ramesh sold someland and gave around Rs 4 croreout of the said sale considerationto Sana, in the same month, inwhich Sana had given Rs 50Lakhs to Moin Qureshi.Therefore, Gorantla Rameshwas examined by CBI in theMoin Qureshi’s case.

“As per Sana, subsequently,CVC Chowdhary called RakeshAsthana to his residence andmade enquiries. Asthanainformed the CVC that there isnot much in evidence againstthem. There is no illegality inthis, but the same is put onrecord here for the sake ofcompleteness. No verificationwas undertaken and the same isbased on disclosure made bySana”

“On October 23, 2018, the

applicant herein was informed

by DIG/DD (SU) that someonespoke to Samant Goel (who wasin Chandigarh at that time) andasked to help him to whichSamant Goel replied thingshave been managed with thePMO and everything is fine.The same night the entire inves-tigating team was shifted,” saidCBI DIG pointing a finger at thePMO.

The CBI DIG also said thaton November 8, Sana wasadvised by Law Secretary SureshChandra to save Asthana fromthe Supreme Court monitoredCVC probe. He said that IASofficer Rekha Rani met Sana tocontact the Law Secretary.

The woman IAS officer wasowner of Sana’s office premises.According to Sana, Chandratold him that he was talking tohim on behalf of CabinetSecretary PK Sinha. “Sana spoketo him on WhatsApp on theevening of November 8.

The Union Law Secretary,Suresh Chandra, said he was inLondon for some work relatedto the Nirav Modi case, that hewas trying to contact him forlast 4/5 days in order to conveymessage of Cabinet SecretaryPK Sinha that the UnionGovernment will offer full pro-tection to him, that there will bea drastic change on Tuesday(13th) and that he (Sana) shouldmeet him (Suresh Chandra)on Wednesday(14th),” the peti-tion says.

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Benched Central Bureau ofInvestigation (CBI)

Director Alok Kumar Vermaon Monday filed his responseto the findings of the CVC’spreliminary probe report oncorruption charges against himin a sealed cover in theSupreme Court.

Verma’s reply came after theSC told him to do so “as

quickly as possible” as thescheduled Tuesday hearingwould not be deferred.

Verma, who was asked bythe SC to file his response tothe Central VigilanceCommission’s (CVC) reportin a sealed cover by Monday 1pm, sought some more timefrom the SC for filing his reply.

However the Bench, head-ed by Chief Justice RanjanGogoi and comprising justicesSK Kaul and KM Joseph, toldVerma’s lawyer GopalSankaranarayanan, “We are not

shifting the date (of hearing).You file it as quickly as possi-ble as we will have to read it.”

Verma’s reply will deal withthe CVC report, which was cat-egorised into four parts by theapex court as “complimentary,very complimentary, not socomplimentary, and veryuncomplimentary” for the CBIDirector.

The SC on November 16had directed Verma, AttorneyGeneral KK Venugopal andSolicitor General Tushar Mehta--- who were also suppliedwith the confidential report ofthe CVC --- to maintain secre-cy, saying it was needed toensure people’s faith in theCBI as an institution.

Earlier, the apex court hadsaid the CVC had made some“very uncomplimentary” find-ings in its probe on corruptionallegations against Verma andwanted further investigationinto some of the charges whichrequired more time.

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From page 1“On what ground you

passed orders making it illegalfor the devotees to stay in thewalkway during night hours?How can you pump water andmake the walkway wet to keepold devotees and tiny tots awayfrom the walkway? Do youhave made alternate arrange-ments for their stay in theSannidhanam after the clo-sure of the temple doors everynight?” asked the judges to theGovernment advocate.

The court said it is not con-tent with the explanations givenby the advocate general andasked the State Police Chief tofile a comprehensive report byThursday.

K Ramkumar, the septua-genarian senior lawyer, whorepresented the devotees saidthe Court told the Governmentand police that they have norights to fix the schedule for thedevotees to pray at the temple.

“The judges were takenaback when they were told thatdevotees were sent back fromthe temple without permittingthem to offer the Irumudykettuat the sanctum, They also askedthe Government to implementthe apex court verdict permit-ting women of all ages in thetemple peacefully and withoutupsetting the other devotees,”said Ramkumar.

He said there was blatantviolation of human rights atSabarimala.

K P Sasikala, leader of theHindu United Front toldreporters after her darshan atthe temple on Monday that theCPI-M led Government hasfailed in making any kind ofbasic arrangements at the tem-ple. “It is to cover up the fail-ure of the Government thatpolice were being used to scareaway the devotees. It is pathet-ic to see that infants have tosleep near heaps of garbagewhere wild boars and pigscome in search of food,” saidSasikala.

But Chief Minister PinarayiVijayan said at Kozhikode thatthe RSS and the BJP werebehind all the troubles atSabarimala. “The Governmentis duty bound to implementthe Supreme Court orderallowing women inside thetemple. What is important is toprotect the rights of the devo-tees. But the RSS and the BJPare fomenting troubles all overthe State,” said the ChiefMinister while inauguratingthe annual meet of the KeralaUnion of Working Journalistsat Kozhikode.

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From page 1Contesting the lower

court’s ruling, according towhich his client could be extra-dited, the lawyer argued thatthe Indian authorities did notfollow ‘the proper procedures’when requesting the extradi-tion, the newspaper reported.

“The request should havebeen filed by India’s Ministry ofHome Affairs rather than itsMinistry of External Affairs,”Abdul Moneim was quoted assaying.

He contended that the pro-cedure was ‘flawed’ since it didnot comply with the clauses ofthe treaty signed on the issue,the paper said. “Accordingly,the lower court order should bereversed,” he argued.

Michel filed his appealbefore the Dubai Court ofCassation within 30 days afterthe lower court’s ruling. WithDubai’s top court upholding thelower court’s decision, it hasbecome final but it will need

approval from the UAEMinister of Justice for theextradition procedure to start.

The extradition procedureis executed in coordinationwith the Interpol and theCriminal investigationDepartment.

Since the appellate courtruled on September 2 that hecould be extradited, in responseto a request filed by the Indian authorities to the UAEin connection with corrup-tion-related charges, Michellost his bail conditions, thepaper said.

Michel, whose passporthad been impounded by thejudicial authorities in Dubaiand had been granted releaseon bail, became ‘wanted’ onSeptember 2, following thedecision issued by the DubaiCourt of Appeals.

India officially made therequest to the Gulf nation ear-lier this year for his extradition,based on the criminal investi-gations conducted in the caseby the CBI and theEnforcement Directorate (ED).

�����111

From page 1The expert committee to

be set up will now decideabout the adequate size ofcapital base.

The central board headedby RBI Governor Urjit Patel,which met amid the on-goingtussle between the FinanceMinistry and the central bankover various issues, discussedthe Basel regulatory capitalframework, a restructuringscheme for stressed MSMEs,bank health under PromptCorrective Action (PCA)framework and the EconomicCapital Framework (ECF).

Patel and his deputies cameface to face with governmentnominee directors — EconomicAffairs Secretary SubhashChandra Garg and FinancialServices Secretary Rajiv Kumar— and independent memberslike S Gurumurthy to arrive ata middle ground on some of thecontentious issues.

According to sources, novoting on any proposal tookplace and a detailed presenta-tion was made by DeputyGovernor NS Vishwanathan tothe board. Vishwanathan is theincharge of banking regula-tion and supervision.

The Board also advisedthat the RBI should consider ascheme for restructuring ofstressed standard assets ofMSME borrowers with aggre-gate credit facilities of up to Rs25 crore, subject to such con-ditions as are necessary forensuring financial stability.

Most of the RBI’s 10 inde-pendent directors, includingTata Sons Chairman NChandrasekaran, attended themeeting that had drawn intensemedia and market attention.

With regard to banks underPrompt Corrective Action(PCA), it was decided that thematter will be examined by theBoard for Financial Supervision(BFS) of the RBI.

Of the 21 State-ownedbanks, 11 are under the PCAframework, which imposeslending and other restrictionson weak lenders. These areAllahabad Bank, United Bankof India, Corporation Bank,IDBI Bank, UCO Bank, Bank ofIndia, Central Bank of India,Indian Overseas Bank, Oriental

Bank of Commerce, Dena Bankand Bank of Maharashtra. ThePCA framework kicks in whenbanks breach any of the threekey regulatory trigger points —namely capital to risk weight-ed assets ratio, net non-per-forming assets (NPA) andreturn on assets (RoA).

Globally, PCA kicks in onlywhen banks slip on a singleparameter of capital adequacyratio, and the government is infavour of this practice beingadopted for the domestic bank-ing sector as well. The Board,while deciding to retain the cap-ital adequacy ratio or CRAR at9 per cent, agreed to extend thetransition period for imple-menting the last tranche of0.625 per cent under the CapitalConservation Buffer (CCB),by one year, that is up to March31, 2020.

CCB currently stands at1.875 per cent and remaining0.625 per cent was to be met byMarch 2019, as per the deadlinefixed by the RBI.

According to sources, thenext meeting of central boardof the RBI is scheduled to beheld on December 14.Amid growing tensions withthe central bank, the FinanceMinistry had sought discus-sions under the never-used-before Section 7 of the RBI Actwhich empowers the govern-ment to issue directions to theRBI Governor.

RBI Deputy Governor ViralAcharya had in a speech lastmonth talked about the inde-pendence of the central bank,arguing that any compromisecould be “potentially cata-strophic” for the economy.

In his first public com-ments since the spat betweenthe RBI and the FinanceMinistry came out in the open,Gurumurthy had last week saidthe stand-off “is not a happything at all”. Gurumurthy, whowas appointed to the board ofRBI a few months back, hadsaid the capital adequacy ratioprescribed in India is 1 per centhigher than the global Baselnorms.

He also pitched for easinglending norms for small andmedium enterprises, whichaccount for 50 per cent of thecountry’s GDP. PTI

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Page 5: ˆ - The Pioneer · 2019-03-04 · Agriculture Minister Brijmohan Agrawal (Raipur City South), PWD Minister Rajesh Munat (Raipur City West), Industry Minister Amar Agrawal (Bilaspur),

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The Maldives’ newGovernment will pull out

of a free trade agreement (FTA)with China because it was amistake for the tiny nation tostrike such a pact with theworld’s second biggest econo-my, the head of the largest partyin the ruling alliance said.

It is the latest sign of abacklash against China in theMaldives, best-known for itsluxury resorts on palm-fringedcoral islands.

“The trade imbalancebetween China and theMaldives is so huge thatnobody would think of anFTA between such parties,”

said Mohamed Nasheed, thechief of the MaldivianDemocratic Party, which leadsthe ruling federal alliance.“China is not buying anythingfrom us. It is a one-way treaty.”

On Saturday, as he tookoffice, the new PresidentIbrahim Mohamed Solihdeclared the state coffers havebeen “looted” and warned thatthe country was in financialdifficulty after racking up debtwith Chinese lenders.

Former President AbdullahYameen, who lost the electionin September, signed the FTAduring a visit to Beijing inDecember, and the samemonth his parliament ratifiedthe treaty despite opposition

protests that he had rushedthrough the 1,000-page docu-ment in less than an hourwithout any debate.

Nasheed, a former presi-

dent and now an advisor toSolih, said parliament wouldnot pass the law changesrequired for the zero tariffsagreement to come into force.

“It was ratified by parlia-ment, but fortunately it calls fordifferent sets of legislation. Weare not going to have this fur-ther legislation. We can’t go with

that,” Nasheed told Reuters in aninterview in the capital Male.

China’s embassy in Maledid not respond to a request fora comment on the trade pact.

But China’s ForeignMinistry said in a statementthat Culture and TourismMinister Luo Shugang,President Xi Jinping’s specialenvoy to the inauguration, toldSolih that China paid greatattention to developing rela-tions with the Maldives.

The Maldives is among anumber of small countrieswhere China has invested bil-lions of dollars building high-ways and housing as part of itsBelt and Road Initiative.Through that initiative, Beijing

hopes to improve trade andinvestment flows with much ofAsia and parts of the rest of theworld.

China was willing to workwith the Maldives to consoli-date their traditional friend-ship, plan their practical coop-eration and promote Belt andRoad to inject “new impetus”into their future relationship,the foreign ministry cited Luoas saying during Sunday’s meet-ing with Maldivian president.

The statement cited Solihas expressing appreciation forChina’s long-term support ofthe Maldives and that he waswilling to further deepen coop-eration under the Belt andRoad framework.

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Brussels: European ministerssigned off Britain’s draft divorcedeal on Monday as theylaunched an intense final weekof negotiations on future cross-Channel ties.

Brexit negotiator MichelBarnier and the Union’sAustrian rotating presidencysaid the negotiated text wouldbe presented to EU leaders ata signing summit on Sunday.

“The first, difficult step isdone,” said Austrian ministerfor Europe Gernot Blumel,whose country holds the rotat-ing EU presidency, after theministers met.

Meanwhile, detailed dis-cussions continue on a parallelpolitical statement setting outthe bloc’s ambitions for futurerelations with post-Brexit Britain— and on a possible extensionto the transition period. Britainwill leave the Union on March29 next year, but remain withinits single market for a further 21

months as negotiators seek adeal to avoid a potential break-down in trade between the keyeconomic partners.

If no deal remains in sightwithin this period, Britain canrequest a one-off extension.Barnier has suggested that thisshould expire at the end of2022, but he admitted that theother 27 member states haveyet to sign off on this date.

“I think that during thisweek we’ll have a definitiveproposition for this date. Thedecision will be made jointlybetween the United Kingdomand the 27,” Barnier said.

Neither European mem-ber states, who want to protectaccess to their single market bynon-member Britain, nor hard-line British Brexiteers, who fearbeing trapped in a bloc wherethey don’t make the rules, wantan endless transition.

Barnier stressed it wasPrime Minister Theresa May’s

Government that had request-ed the extension option andthat he had agreed to it to reas-sure nervous businesses, butwarned: “It can’t be indefinite.It needs to be decided.”

Meanwhile, preparations forSunday’s summit, where Mayand her 27 colleagues will signthe withdrawal agreement,continue apace.

“A painful week in

European politics is starting,”Blomel said. “We have thedivorce papers on the table.Forty-five years of difficultmarriage are coming to anend.” AFP

London: British PrimeMinister Theresa May onMonday vowed that Brexitwould level the playing field formigrant workers in the UK,with migrants from the EU nolonger be able to jump thequeue ahead of those fromcountries like India.

Addressing theConfederation of BritishIndustry annual conference inLondon, she said the country’spost-Brexit immigration sys-tem will be based on skills and

talent rather than which coun-try the immigrant comes from.

“Once we have left the EU,we will be fully in control of whocomes here. It will no longer bethe case that EU nationals,regardless of the skills or expe-rience they have to offer, canjump the queue ahead of engi-neers from Sydney or softwaredevelopers from Delhi,” shesaid in her speech.

“Instead of a system basedon where a person is from, wewill have one that is built

around the talents and skills aperson has to offer,” she said,adding that the core of thepost-Brexit immigration sys-tem will be “skills based” ratherthan “quota based”.

Under the current EU free-dom of movement rules,migrant workers from withinthe economic bloc are free tocome in and find work in theUK, while workers from non-EU countries like India have toundergo strict visa applicationrequirements. PTI

Beijing: Beijing on Monday downplayed the unprecedented fall-out from this year’s APEC summit, which for the first time everfailed to issue a joint statement after US-China trade tensions boiledover. Clashes between the world’s top two economies over the rulesof global trade blocked agreement on a formal written declara-tion by the 21 nations represented at the Port Moresby meeting.

Washington had pressed for leaders to issue what amount-ed to a denunciation of the World Trade Organization and a callfor its wholesale reform — a step too far for Beijing, which wouldlikely suffer in the event of any change to trade rules.

But China on Monday chose instead to focus on the “posi-tive results” of the summit. AFP

Islamabad: Pakistan on Mondayreacted angrily to DonaldTrump’s latest tirade against it fornot doing “a damn thing” forAmerica in curbing terrorism,saying the US President “suffersconveniently from perpetualhistoric amnesia!”

Human Rights MinisterShireen Mazari’s terse remarkscame a day after PresidentTrump defended his adminis-tration’s decision to stop hun-dreds of millions of dollars inmilitary aid to Pakistan for notdoing enough to curb terrorismand criticised Islamabad foroffering a hideout to Laden inAbbottabad. PTI

Brussels: Germany will bar 18 Saudis from entering its territo-ry and Europe’s Schengen passport-free zone over their allegedlinks to the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, Foreign Minister HeikoMaas said on Monday. Maas said the move was “coordinated veryclosely with” states France and Britain and the broader EU asthey seek more information in Khashoggi’s death last month inthe Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Berlin has “decided thatGermany should impose an entry ban on 18 Saudi citizens, whoare presumed to be in connection with this deed, in the Schengeninformation system,” Maas told reporters. AFP

Washington: President DonaldTrump said there is no reasonfor him to listen to a recordingof the “very violent, veryvicious” killing of Saudi jour-nalist Jamal Khashoggi, whichhas put him in a diplomaticbind: how to admonish Riyadhfor the slaying yet maintainstrong ties with a close ally.

Trump, in an interviewthat aired on Sunday, madeclear that the audio recording,supplied by the TurkishGovernment, would not affecthis response to the October 2killing of Khashoggi, a colum-nist for The Washington Postwho had been critical of theSaudi royal family.

“It’s a suffering tape, it’s a ter-rible tape. I’ve been fully briefedon it, there’s no reason for me tohear it,” Trump said. AP

Colombo: Political parties in SriLanka agreed on Monday toform a select committee to con-duct parliamentary affairs amida power struggle set off byPresident MaithripapalaSirisena’s controversial decisionto remove prime minister RanilWickeremesinghe last month.

Sri Lanka’s Parliament,which was convened onMonday for a third floor testagainst disputed prime minis-ter Mahinda Rajapaksa, wasadjourned just ten minutesafter its opening as the law-makers could not decide on themembers of the committee.

The decision to form theselect committee came a dayafter an all-party meeting called by President Sirisena toresolve the crisis ended incon-clusively. PTI

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Colombo: Sri Lankan law-makers have submitted amotion to Parliament seekingthe suspension of state fundsallocated to disputed PrimeMinister Mahinda Rajapaksa,who has lost two no-confi-dence motions. Ousted PMRanil Wickremesinghe’s UnitedNational Party ParliamentarianNavin Dissanayake said that sixUnited National Front MPshanded over the motion to bedebated in Parliament, theColombo Gazette reportedMonday.

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Page 6: ˆ - The Pioneer · 2019-03-04 · Agriculture Minister Brijmohan Agrawal (Raipur City South), PWD Minister Rajesh Munat (Raipur City West), Industry Minister Amar Agrawal (Bilaspur),

Bangladesh, in an ironical move,is seeking the cooperation ofSaudi Arabia to popularise‘model Islam’ amongst her pop-ulation. The project will crys-

tallise in the form of 560 ‘model mosques’across the country built with Saudi funds.Paradoxically, in 1971, Saudi Arabia alongwith other Arab nations, had stronglyopposed the independence of Bangladesh.Her war of liberation, actuated by Banglanationalism, was perceived as anti-theti-cal to Islam. Even secular Turkey and pro-gressive Egypt had chosen to side withPakistan.

Tajuddin Ahmad (1925-1975), thePrime Minister of the wartime provision-al Government of Bangladesh based inMujibnagar (district Meherpur), had atough time convincing the Arab nationsthat the Pakistani armed forces were notfighting a battle of Islamic righteousnessin Bangladesh. They were rather indulgingin “well-documented crimes of arson, loot,rape and murder.” Ahmad had to remindthe Arabs how they had once to fight fortheir own independence from the TurkishOttoman Empire albeit Turks were also fel-low Muslims.

The professed aim of the ‘modelmosque’ project is to salvage Islam fromthe hands of radicals and militants. PrimeMinister Hasina feels that Islam, a religionof peace, has been usurped by theseextreme elements. But how to be sure thatthe religion is in its pristine and peacefulstate in Saudi Arabia? After all, 15 of the19 citizens involved in the hijacking of air-planes used in 9/11 attacks were citizensof the kingdom.

Being starry-eyed about the project,Hasina has put Bangladeshi Taka 8,722crore from the public exchequer into theinitiative, not having received Saudi fundsas yet. But what model of Islam is expect-ed from Saudi Arabia? The desert kingdomis infamous for exporting Wahabism, arigid and intolerant variant of Islam,worldwide. In September 2015 it hadoffered Germany to build 200 mosques —roughly one for each of the 100 refugeesfleeing Syria.

Susane Schröter, Director, FrankfurtResearch Centre for Global Islam, esti-mates that Riyadh has invested at least 76billion Euros ($86 billion) in the last 50years of oil boom to promote Wahabismacross the globe. So, Sheikh Hasina shouldnot complain if she finds Bangladesh drift-ing towards gender segregation, Shariapenal code and prohibition on the publicpractice of other religions and traditions.

Saudi Arabia could not be the modelfor Bangladesh, not merely because the for-mer is a retrograde dynastic monarchy.The identity of the desert kingdom isdefined merely through its religion. Islamhistorically originated in the territory of

Saudi Arabia (formerly calledHejaz), thus the kingdom is toIslam what a shadow is to anobject placed in the sun. Butthe same is not true ofBangladesh, which is placed ina different geographical, envi-ronmental and cultural zone.To make Bangladeshis ‘moreMuslim’ is surely to fomentinternal trouble.

If, today, to believe SheikhHasina, Islam has gone intoradical hands, the reason is notbecause any Government ofBangladesh deliberately pro-moted radical Islam. The rea-son is that every Governmentof Bangladesh has tried toinfuse more and more Islaminto Bangladeshi society. As aresult, Bangladesh, by negatingits foundational principles, isen route to becoming a mirrorimage of Pakistan.

Ironically, the initiativewas started by BangabandhuMujibar Rehman, the absenteefounder of Bangladesh (hewas a prisoner in Mianwali Jailin Pakistan through themonths of the Liberation War).Rahman as the first President(later Prime Minister) ofBangladesh prohibited horseracing, gambling and sale ofliquor in Bangladesh in defer-ence to Islamic traditions.Thus, activities that were per-mitted in the Islamic Republicof Pakistan became haram insecular Bangladesh.

The Pakistani Army, dur-ing the Liberation War, heav-ily damaged the ancientRamna Kalibari, an iconicDhaka structure; it also slaugh-

tered most of its residentsincluding the priest. It wasexpected that sovereignBangladesh would prioritiserebuilding the temple as asymbol of its heritage andcommunal harmony. But toeverybody’s surprise, MujiburRahman got the damaged tem-ple disestablished brick-by-brick in 1972.

The huge cleared up space(along with the dismantledRace Course) was convertedinto a park viz SuhrawardyUddyan named after HuseynShahid Suhrawardy, the archi-tect of the Great CalcuttaKillings (1946) who happenedto be the mentor of Rahmanduring his early years in theMuslim League.

What is distinctive aboutBangladesh is its language,Bengali. It was consistently seenwith suspicion by the Pakistanauthorities. They saw it as animpediment to true Islam. Thepeople of Bangladesh (thenEast Pakistan) rebuffed attemptsby Karachi to impose Urdu. Thelanguage agitation of February21, 1952, that led to sevendeaths in police firing, left anenduring legacy for Bangladesh.

The UNESCO has hon-oured the date by recognisingFebruary 21 as ‘InternationalMother Language Day’. TheBangladesh Liberation War of1971 — as against popularmisconception in India —wasnot prompted by the languageissue. Yet the demolition of theShaheed Minar (estd 1963)dedicated to the language mar-tyrs of 1952 by the Pakistan

Army during 1971 war creat-ed widespread hurt amongBengalis. It was rebuilt after thewar and subsequently expand-ed it in 1983. It has attained thestatus of a pilgrimage centre inBangladesh.

So, why has the Bengalilanguage been exalted to acult status in Bangladesh?This is because they would bebereft of their cultural moor-ings to their soil without it.Their religion, Islam, con-nects them with Arabia, in apsychological sense but italso alienates them from theirancestry, history, culture andenvironment. Hasina shouldintrospect. Why is only anemphasis on Islam needed forcourse correction in an alreadyMuslim majority state?Successive Governments havepromoted only Islam inBangladesh, whether out ofpiety or political expediency,but the result is the deracina-tion of a large section of thepopulation dependent onIslamic curriculum.

Until 1970, says AbulBarkat in his signal book,Political Economy of MadrasaEducation in Bangladesh, therewere 2,721 madrasas. But by2008, their number hadincreased to 14,152. The neteffect is that Bangladesh’s foun-dational legacy is under threat.The ‘model mosques’ projectwill only contribute to thederacination process.

(The writer is an indepen-dent researcher based in NewDelhi. The views expressedherein are his personal)

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Sir — This refers to the editorial,“Whose wings clipped?”(November 19). Undoubtedly, theIT department started question-ing and raiding the Telugu DesamParty (TDP) leaders only after theparty parted ways with theNational Democratic Alliance(NDA). But by revoking generalconsent to the Central Bureau ofInvestigation (CBI), TDP chief, NChandrababu Naidu and WestBengal Chief Minister, MamataBanerjee, have sent negative sig-nals, hinting that there’s a lot morethan meets the eye.

It will take some time beforethe CBI gets its act together asboth its chief and deputy arefighting a dirty battle. But theCentre will do well and assureboth the leaders that they are notin for a witch hunt. This is the leastit can do to restore glory of theinvestigative body. Police reformhas become the dire need of thehour and should not be delayedcome what may. It is institutionslike these that need to have thispride restored for the larger inter-est of the country.

Bal Govind Noida

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Sir — It is alarming that more thantwo tonnes of thick furnace fuel oilspilled when a flexible hosesnapped while discharging oil atthe Kamarajar Port in Chennai inthe wee hours on Sunday. It maybe recalled that this is the secondoil spill within two years — anoth-er occurred on January 28, 2017,

when an LPG tanker rammed intoanother petroleum tanker twonautical miles off the KamarajarPort at Ennore, resulting in mas-sive oil spill that polluted close to35-km coastline.

Though immediate steps havebeen taken to recover the spilledoil with help from skimmers andabsorbent pads, how much itwould succeed is the concern.Besides, it will also cause irrepara-

ble damage to the environment.Had the port authorities takenextra care, the disaster could havebeen averted.

TK NandananKochi

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Sir — Despite the Governmentconcentrating on protecting the

coastal districts from natural dis-asters, the severity of cycloneGaja that had a landfall in TamilNadu and the resulting magnitudeof landslides were high. The dis-aster management team has beenin full swing and the Navy tooextended help that salvaged the sit-uation. However, with the Centreassuring help, it needs to be seenhow soon the affected get rehabil-itated.

KR SrinivasanSecunderabad

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Sir — Finally, after years ofMaratha reservations battle, theMaharashtra Cabinet cleared thedecision to extend reservation tothe Maratha community by creat-ing a new category called theSocially and EducationallyBackward Class on the recommen-dations of the State BackwardClass Commission. The decisionwill bring relief to the State fromthe chain of protests which contin-ued since a long time.

Mohd FaheemMumbai

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Page 7: ˆ - The Pioneer · 2019-03-04 · Agriculture Minister Brijmohan Agrawal (Raipur City South), PWD Minister Rajesh Munat (Raipur City West), Industry Minister Amar Agrawal (Bilaspur),

President Ram Nath Kovind’smaiden visit to Australia comesclose on the heels of the release

of Peter Varghese’s report, ‘An IndiaEconomic Strategy to 2035: Navigatingfrom Potential to Delivery’, a compre-hensive and incisive India strategy tobe commissioned by any PrimeMinister till date. While the reportbodes well for economic ties, thefuture of India-Australia relationshinges on reinventing the 3Cs —Curry, Cricket and Commonwealth —with a new 3Cs approach — nurturingConstituencies of Country Champions— that requires investing in people andinstitutions. Six years ago, Australianeconomist Ken Henry was delegated bythe then Prime Minister Julia Gillardto develop the ‘Australia in the AsianCentury White Paper 2012’, which rec-ommended Australia to expand itsstrategic net in Asia, engage with

Indonesia and rising power India andshape the future of the region.

The Varghese report, too, said thatengaging with India was no more anoption but a necessity. Importantly, bothreports recognised that policy-makingis not a purely Government-task but ajoint exercise involving academics,scholars, analysts and institutions, whopossess knowledge and expertise on theregion and regional matters. Varghesewent a step ahead to posit that theAustralian Government neither had thecapacity nor the inclination to imple-ment a strategy of its own. Let us bemindful that the report is largely an eco-nomic strategy. Business and tradestrategies remain susceptible to period-ic market volatility, domestic politicsand ever altering policy priorities.Therefore, for a long-term future ofbilateral relations, creatingConstituencies of Country Championsis paramount to shape strategic think-ing, influence policy-making and facil-itate people-to-people interaction.

This requires a three-prongedapproach. In the immediate term,focus must be on people and institu-tions who possess requisite country

expertise, lived experiences and profes-sional linkages. In the intermediateterm, lessons must be drawn from therecommendations of research worksand Government reports, notably, theMelbourne Declaration on education-al Goals for Young Australians, 2008,which noted, “India, China and otherAsian nations are growing and theirinfluence on the world is increasing.Australians need to become ‘Asia liter-ate’, engage and build strong relation-ships with Asia”. In the long-term,schools and universities must beencouraged to introduce courses andprogrammes on India, not only sup-porting existing institutions specialis-ing in India-Australia studies but alsocreating new ones. The US andSingapore are two examples where peo-ple and institutions, possessing coun-try expertise, have played a vital role inshaping strategic thinking, lobbied aspeace advocates during testing timesand bolstered a vibrant and well-informed Constituency of CountryChampions. Australia must solve itsAsian literacy conundrum, which hasfuelled debate among academics andpolicy-makers.

Asian literacy is not just about lan-guage proficiency. It is about under-standing values, customs, traditions,socio-political and cultural nuances todecode how a nation thinks and acts.It requires familiarising oneself withAsian history, values and culture earlyin school, alongside developing lan-guage skills and undertaking countryvisits as a part of immersion pro-grammes or other study visits.Unfortunately, a steady decline acrossAustralian primary and secondaryschools in Asian language and historyteaching has made Australia knowl-edge-deficient on Asia, especially, Indiaand Indonesia. During schooldropoff/pickup hours, it is common tosee Asian kids conversing with theirAsian parents in English than in nativelanguage. While English learning isvital, developing Asian multi-lingualproficiency and country knowledge willtrigger intellectual curiosity in youngminds, which can be tapped and sati-ated by universities.

But most Australian universitiesdon’t offer India studies in their curricu-lum, an indication of how they perceiveAustralia’s interests in the Asian centu-

ry. The Ken Henry report has cut lit-tle ice in building Asia-oriented univer-sity curriculum, at least from theIndian viewpoint. There appears a dis-connect between national and institu-tional visions which can be melded byintroducing core and elective courseson India with integrated field study forgaining in-country experience.

Most importantly such courseswould serve the domestic Australianstudents more on whom leadershipmay be thrust upon at various institu-tions for developing or leading Indiastrategy. The CommonwealthGovernment funds several fellow-ships, such as the New Colombo Plan,which supports over 10,000 researchfellowships in 40 Asian countries,including India, producing around900 Australian undergraduates under-taking research, study and internshipsin India during 2015-16. The AustraliaIndia Council grants, Australia-IndianStrategic Research Fund andEndeavour Leadership grant also fundresearch projects on India-Australiaissues but they develop subject exper-tise, not necessarily country expertise.

As per the Australian High

Commission data in New Delhi, thereis a 20-30 per cent increase in the enrol-ment of Indian students, totalling70,000 in 2017 at Australian universi-ties. But this is good news for Australianliteracy in India, as many will return asAustralia’s brand ambassadors andhelp nurture the constituency ofAustralia champions in India. AtIndian universities, Australia remainsa passing reference in courses on Asia-Pacific. New centres are emerging butAustralian literacy in India remains farfrom satisfactory. In the absence ofcountry champions and specialisedinstitutions, overnight experts assumepolicy-making responsibilities, whichis worrisome. During an interview ata high-profile federal department inCanberra, once a ‘expert’ in the panelasked this writer whether he spoke‘Hindu’, unaware of the distinctionbetween Hindu and Hindi. Suchknowledge gaps can only be filled byinvesting in people and institutions onboth sides, and creating Constituenciesof Country Champions.

(The writer is CEO and FoundingExecutive Director, Institute for AustraliaIndia Engagement, Brisbane)

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Jawaharlal Nehru provided India a distinctplace of importance in the internationalsphere with his policy of non-alignmentand Panchsheel. He firmly rejected com-munalism. We cannot think of any state

which can be called communal or religious.We can think of a secular, non-communal,democratic state in which every individual, towhatever religion he/she may belong, has equalrights and opportunities. To him, first and fore-most, democracy meant individual freedom. Onsocialism, Nehru said: “Socialism is...not onlya way of life but a certain scientific approach tosocial and economic problems.” On capitalism,he said: “The forces in a capitalist society, if leftunchecked, tend to make the rich richer and thepoor poorer.”

During the Nehruvian era, industrialisationbecame the first fundamental principle for eco-nomic development of the country. Nehru hada strong conviction that the well-being of theIndian community lay in rapid industrialisationand the use of science and technology. He pre-ferred to set up key industries in the public sec-tor for sustenance of economic independenceand took the public sector to commandingheights of the Indian economy. Nehru said thatthe application of science and technology isinevitable and unavoidable for all countries andpeople today. Scientific approach and temperare, or should be, the way of life, process ofthinking, method of acting and associated withour follow countrymen.

Science deals with the domain of positiveknowledge but the temper which it should pro-duce goes beyond that domain. It is sciencealone that can solve problems of hunger andpoverty, of insanitation and illiteracy, supersti-tion and deadening custom and tradition, ofvast resources running to waste, or a rich coun-tr y inhabited by star ving people.Simultaneously, he worked for ‘trained person-nel’ to effectively implement the policy. Nehruwas convinced that modern technology shouldcome in a big way to help India solve many ofits chronic problems. The launching ofPanchayati Raj was without doubt a great stepforward in taking democracy meaningfully tothe people in rural areas. The process of insti-tution-building received a further fillip whenit was launched.

That people should be actively involved inthe process of nation-building and that India’sdiversity and vastness required a wide institu-tional framework for developmental workwere stressed by Nehru right from the dawn ofIndia’s Independence. Thanks to JawaharlalNehru’s vision, India not only adopted andoperated successfully the Westminster type ofparliamentary democracy, but created new insti-tutions to meet the challenging demands ofspeedy development. In this regard, Nehru’sleadership was dynamic and innovative.

Nehru’s Cabinet colleague, MC Chagla,summed up his personality: “Most people whobecome Prime Minister or Chief Minister owethe adulation they receive from the people sole-ly to the position they occupy. Nehru’s case wasquite different. He honoured the office of thePrime Minister by holding it and the prime

ministership in itself did not add anyfurther lustre to the reputation whichhe already enjoyed either at home orabroad.”

Nehru was an institutionalbuilder. Most institutions establishedby him struck roots despite the lackof adequate resources and the num-ber of trained personnel. He pavedway for India’s educational exaltationby envisioning the country’s top-tierinstitutions, like the Indian Instituteof Technology (IIT), All India Instituteof Medical Sciences (AIIMS), IndianInstitute of Management (IIM) andmany more world-class commercialpublic sector undertakings whichsubsequently became the backbone ofthe Indian economy.

However, contemporary historyhas not treated this statesman kind-ly. This is a pity because today’s gen-eration might know what globalisationis but not about cosmopolitanism.Even as our society globalises at a fre-netic pace, it has turned inwards andbecome claustrophobic. History mustremember Nehru because he taught usto look outward, express solidarity andin the process become cosmopolitan.

An American research scholar,Granville Austin, brilliantly summedup the Nehru era by publishing in hisresearch work that Nehru and his gen-eration initially created tensions in theseamless web, many of which subsidedby the close of the period. It is diffi-cult to imagine how it could have beenotherwise. Citizens’ expectations werehigh, and that of their leaders wereeven higher. But the successes of theperiod were fundamental. Power rela-tionships were sorted out constitution-

ally, the parliamentary system becameentrenched, democracy not only sur-vived Nehru’s charisma but popularparticipation strengthened it, powerwas democratically transferred fromone Prime Minister to another twicein 16 years. One-party Governmentcombined internal party democracyand political variety with preservingnational unity and integrity: Thefoundation was laid for an industrialeconomy and the social revolution wasset in motion. This was no golden agebut the Nehru years set the standardsagainst which others would be mea-sured — and many fell short.

Nehru was a human being per-ceived to be a demi-god by a large seg-ment of Indians during his life span. Itwas believed that Nehru could do nowrong but he faltered on Kashmir andChina issues. His peace-lovingapproach and over-dependence ontrusted friends caused us deep embar-rassment on both the issues. Two sig-nificant setbacks in his long distin-guished political career were the rea-son why he never recovered from thetrauma. With all its faults, the Indiandemocracy under Nehru’s leadershipgrew to be the most enduring systemin the Third world. Flourishing democ-racy and scientific temper of the nationwere the two greatest gifts of Nehru tohis motherland India. Unfortunately,this freedom might be the reason whyhe is freely abused by a handful of coun-trymen in his absence without any fear.

Even more depressing is the factthat the Grand Old Party, which wasnurtured by the blood and sweat ofNehru, is defenceless against theonslaught from political opponents —

reason being that the currentCongress leadership is intellectuallyhollow and is controlled by politicaladvisers, secretaries and peons ratherthan mass base leaders.

On a positive note, today, whenwe talk about the state of affairs, whichcan be best termed as ‘AdvantageIndia’ that somehow India seems topossess and we hold every single ofthose attributes needed for econom-ic development in the 21st century, wepause and do a historical analysis ofthe situation. How did this advanta-geous state of affairs come about?Clearly, it was not some hiddenpotential in India that was waiting tobe resuscitated from time immemo-rial. Nor is it simply the economicreforms of the last couple of decades.The roots for this success lie deeperthan that. It is in Nehru’s vision forIndia that we need to seek the real rootof this development.

The success of India actuallyowes a lot to the domestic capacitiesbuilt in India to withstand global pres-sures and produce completely inno-vative solutions to important econom-ic challenges. The personality ofJawarharlal Nehru can be scanned bythe endorsement he got from the twogreatest political giants of his era: “Ihave wanted to see you (Nehru). If youhad not come I would have come toyou. You are a man of peace”. (FidelCastro). “This man has overcome twoof the greatest failings in humannature — he (Nehru) knows neitherfear nor hatred.” (Winston Churchill).

(Concluded)(The writer is Editor-in-Chief,

Opinion Express Group)

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Page 8: ˆ - The Pioneer · 2019-03-04 · Agriculture Minister Brijmohan Agrawal (Raipur City South), PWD Minister Rajesh Munat (Raipur City West), Industry Minister Amar Agrawal (Bilaspur),

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Sugarcane farmers fromacross the State staged

protests here on Monday seek-ing loan waiver, higher mini-mum purchase price and relieffor losses incurred due todrought in 17 districts, whichhave been declared drought-hit.

Farmers fromRamanagara, Mandya, Mysuru,Kodagu, Kolar, Gadag,Tumukuru, Shivamogga,Hassan, Haveri, Hubballi,Belagavi and Bagalkot came toBengaluru to protest against theanti-farmers policies of theJD(S)-Congress Governmentin the State.

"Farmers from all over thestate have come to force theState Government meet ourdemands on loan waiver, high-er price for sugarcane andcompensation for kharif croploss due to drought this year,"Karnataka State FarmersAssociation PresidentChamaraj Patil told reporters .

"Though Chief MinisterH.D. Kumaraswamyannounced farm loan waiver inJune, the banks have not writ-ten off a rupee even after fivemonths. Except for makingannouncements and givingassurances, nothing has hap-pened. "We are also unable totake fresh credit as old loanshave not been waived off yet,"Patil added.

Bengaluru City Policestopped hundreds of agitatorsfrom marching towards theVidhana Soudha fromFreedom Park as prohibitoryorders were in place.

The Sugarcane farmers aredemanding payment of �1,500crore dues from state-run andprivate sugar mills for fiscal2017-18; �3,000 per tonnehigher minimum support price(MSP) for sugarcane from�2,500 per tonne fixed lastyear; fresh loans from cooper-ative and state-run banks forthe rabi crop, supply of seedsand fertilisers.

Karnataka is the thirdlargest sugarcane producer afterMaharashtra and Uttar Pradesh,which had harvested 32 milliontonne in 2017-18. The droughthas affected 15-lakh hectares ofagricultural and horticulturalcrops in 17 districts across thestate, with an estimated loss of�8,000 crore.

Meanwhile Chief MinisterHD Kumaraswamy had creat-ed a controversy by callingfarmers goondas and alsoallegedly abused a womanfarmer who was protesting inBelagavi. This has severely hitthe pro farmer image of thecoalition Government led byKumaraswamy and alsoangered the coalition partnerthe Congress.After JayashreeGurannavar, a woman farmerwho was leading the agitation,called Kumaraswamy “a goodfor nothing CM”, the CM hitback calling them “goondas inthe guise of farmers”. After hisstatement farmers were angryand intensified their agitationacross the State.

Later the farmers’ angerforced Kumaraswamy toretract saying that his statementwas misinterpreted.

“My intention was not tohurt anyone. My statement hasbeen misinterpreted by themedia. I apologise if the farm-ers are hurt,” Kumaraswamysaid. Coalition partnerCongress has criticisedKumaraswamy for makingsuch a statement against thefarmers. Deputy Chief MinisterG Parameshwara said that hewould apologise to the farmersfor the CM’s angry statement.“I don’t know in what contexthe has used the word ‘goondas’.But he should not have saidthat. The Congress party hasalways been with the farmersand I personally apologise tothem,” Parameshwara said.

The BJP was quick todemand an apology from chiefminister for his remarks on thefarmer. Yeddyurappa said “TheGowdas call themselves a fam-

ily of humble farmers. Buttheir attitude is exactly theopposite. How could a CM callfarmers “goondas”? hedemanded a clarification fromformer Prime Minister HDDeve Gowda.

However JDS chief H DDeve Gowda has blamed asection of the media forSunday’s incident in Belgaum.Meanwhile Chief Minister hascalled for a meeting of the agi-tating farmers on Tuesday toresolve the issue. "I appeal tothe farmers to be patient as theGovernment is committed tofind solutions to their prob-lems. I held meetings withofficials and stakeholders ondemands of sugarcane growers.I have directed the districtdeputy commissioners toresolve their issues," said thestatement citing the ChiefMinister. Though debt waiverwas not a solution to the farm-ers' woes, Kumaraswamy saidthe State Government wasworking hard to waive off farmloans taken from cooperative,scheduled and State-run banks."I hope the waiver will enablethe farmers to seek fresh loansfor the next crop. The loanwaiver will begin soon as theprocess is at the final stage,"said the Chief Minister.

Claiming that the JanataDal (Secular)-Congress coali-tion Government was pro-farmer, Kumaraswamy said apermanent solution was beingworked out to ensure thatfarmers would not have toprotest or resort to an agita-tion.

"I have been always on theside of farmers and don'thave bias against those fromthe northern or southernregions of the State.

“All are equal and samefor me. As the loan waiveramount is about �48,000crore, we need time andworkforce to verify eachaccount. I want farmers to bepatient and not be desperate,"said the Chief Minister.

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Union Minister AlphonsKannanthanam on

Monday hit out at the KeralaGovernment for turning theSabarimala temple complexinto a "war zone" and treatingthe pilgrims like "dacoits".

"They have imposedSection 144 (prohibitoryorders). The pilgrims are beingtreated like dacoits. Where isthe basic infrastructure...This ispathetic," the Minister, whoarrived here to take stock of thefacilities at the hill shrine, told reporters.

"The State Governmenthas turned the temple complexinto a war zone. The devoteesare not terrorists, they are pil-grims," he said.

Restrictions have beenimposed at the temple complexfollowing protests by activistsof the BJP, RSS and right-wingoutfits over the StateGovernment's decision toimplement the September 28Supreme Court order allowingthe entry of women of all agesinto the shrine.

"The state governmentmust take responsibility...TheUnion Tourism Ministry hadgiven �100 crore...They havenot spent even a rupee..,"Kannanthanam said.

The Union minister visit-ed Nilackal, the base camp,Pamba and SannidhanamMonday morning, hours afterpolice removed around 200-odd people who had gathered

at the temple complex lateSunday night. They held"nama japam" (chanting thename of Lord Ayyappa)protest against the policerestrictions. The police hadalso taken into custody 68 pro-testors on Sunday night.

The CPI(M)-led LDFGovernment is making life dif-ficult for all the pilgrims com-ing here, the Minister said."This is like the Stalin era of theSoviet Union," he said.

"Sabarimala is one of thebiggest pilgrims centre in thecountry. Here, everyone livespeacefully. This Government isdetermined to ensure that peo-ple do not have the right totheir belief," the Minister said.

Pointing out that there wasno basic facilities at Pamba, hesaid there were no toilets andall the three sheds at Nilackalare waterlogged.

"What is the intention ofthe Government? They want tomake sure the pilgrims are notprovided with basic facilities. What is happening with lawand order? Section 144? Is thisa democracy?" Kannanthanamsaid.

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Patna: The Central Bureau ofInvestigation has discoveredthat five minor girls, and nottwo as reported earlier, died inthe shelter home in Bihar'sMuzaffarpur district.

Their post-mortem exam-inations were conducted at aGovernment hospital, policesaid on Monday.

The CBI, probing the allegedrape of 34 girls at the shelterhome, on Sunday searched doc-uments at Shri Krishna MedicalCollege and Hospital and foundthat the post-mortem examina-tions of five girls of the shelterhome were conducted there.

According to the hospitalregister, the post-mortems of twogirls were conducted in 2013,two in 2015 and one in 2017.

The CBI officials are nowtrying to find out as to whomthe bodies of the girls werehanded over after their autop-sies and also whether caseswere registered in the matter.

"A team of CBI officials islikely to soon interrogate somehospital doctors to collect moredetails about the case," a districtpolice officer said.

The CBI had earlier foundhuman bones at a cremationground on October 4 followinga tip-off. It had also carried out

an extensive excavation at theshelter home premises on sus-picion that some inmates mighthave been killed and buriedthere, but could not recoveranything from there.

Last month, a shelter homeemployee Krishna Ram, whoalso ran the press of BrajeshThakur — the main accused —told the CBI sleuths that somebodies were stuffed in gunnybags and disposed of in theBurhi Gandak river a year ago.

However, the CBI couldnot recover anything from theriver. According to the CBI,Ram disclosed that BrajeshThakur had ordered the dis-posal of the bodies. He revealedthat two inmates of Thakur'sNGO, Seva Sankalp Ewam VikasSamiti, had died under mysteri-ous circumstances and theirbodies were dumped in the riverfrom Akharaghat Bridge with thehelp of Guddu, another employ-ee of the shelter home, andVijay Tiwari, Thakur's driver.

Of the 42 girls lodged at theshort-stay home run by BrajeshThakur's NGO, 34 were foundto have been sexually assaulted.The crime came to light after asocial audit by the Tata Instituteof Social Sciences, Mumbai, fivemonths ago. IANS

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Mumbai: A special NIA courthere on Monday directed thata copy of photographs andvideos pertaining to the 2008Malegoan blast be provided toLt. Col. Prasad ShrikantPurohit, who is one of theaccused in the case.

Purohit, in an applicationfiled last week, had asked thespecial National InvestigationAgency (NIA) court to give himcopies of photographs andvideos related to the incident toprepare his defence.

During the argument onMonday, the prosecutionobjected to his plea, saying noother accused had asked forthese documents and that thiswas a delay tactic.

However, special judge V SPadalkar directed the courtregistrar to provide a copy of

the photographs and videos ofthe incident to Purohit. Thematter was then adjourned tillNovember 21. The pho-tographs and videos are part ofthe charge sheets submitted bythe prosecution in the case.

The special court had onOctober 30 framed terrorcharges against Purohit, SadhviPragya Singh Thakur and fiveother accused in the 2008Malegaon blast case, setting thestage for their trial to commence.

On September 29, 2008, sixpeople were killed and over 100injured when an explosive devicestrapped on a motorcycle wentoff near a mosque in Malegaon,a town in Maharashtra's Nashikdistrict and located about 200km from Mumbai. PTI

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Former Assam Minister andsenior Congress leader

Chandan Kumar Sarkar died ata hospital at Bongaigaon onMonday following a cardiacarrest, family sources said.

Sarkar was 65 and is sur-vived by wife, two sons and adaughter.

The Congress leader suf-fered a cardiac arrest at hisBongaigaon home on Mondaymorning and was immediate-ly rushed to a local hospital,where he passed away.

Mourning his death,Chief Minister SarbanandaSonowal said the formerMinister had worked withcommitment and dedicationfor the welfare of the peopleand made significant contri-butions to the political andsocial life of the State.

"As a Minister of the pre-vious Congress Government,Sarkar had rendered valuableservices, which would alwaysbe remembered by the peopleand his death is an irreparableloss to society," Sonowal said ina statement.

Sarkar was elected to thelegislative assembly thrice-1991, 2001 and 2011- fromAbhayapuri South constituen-cy and served as the irrigationMinister in the third term ofthe Tarun Gogoi-led CongressGovernment.

Assam Pradesh CongressCommittee (APCC) presi-dent Ripun Bora expressedshock at Sarkar's death andoffered his condolence to thebereaved family.

"I had held a meeting onthe forthcoming panchayatelections only three days agowhere he was present and hadspoken to him even on Sunday.

It is a big loss for theCongress and during the badtimes of the party, it was healong with Bhumidhar Barmanwho had played a pivotal rolein maintaining the party'sunity," Bora said.

An APCC delegation, ledby Bora, has left forBongaigaon to attend the lastrites of the former Minister.

Finance Minister HimantaBiswa Sarma has also con-doled Sarkar's death and prayedfor the eternal peace of thedeparted soul.

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The Jammu & KashmirPolice on Monday threat-

ened action against thoseuploading videos on socialmedia of executions carried outby militants.

Inspector-General of Police(Kashmir Zone) SP Pani toldthe media: "Action will betaken against those who uploadthese videos on social media."

Videos of executions oftwo youths carried out by theHizbul Mujahideen outfit insouth Kashmir were recentlyuploaded on the social media.

The outfit accused theyouths of providing informa-tion about militants to thesecurity forces.

Pani also said that thepolice were investigating therole of two overground womenworkers arrested recently.

While one woman wasarrested along with ammuni-tion during the search of avehicle in Lawaypora on theoutskir ts of Sr inagar, another, from Sumbal inBandipora district, had beendetained for luring youths toterrorism through herFacebook account.

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Page 9: ˆ - The Pioneer · 2019-03-04 · Agriculture Minister Brijmohan Agrawal (Raipur City South), PWD Minister Rajesh Munat (Raipur City West), Industry Minister Amar Agrawal (Bilaspur),

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In an apparent attempt to cashin on its popularity gained dur-

ing its crusade for Marathareservations for the past twoyears, the hitherto social outfitMaratha Kranti Morcha (MKM)on Monday floated a politicalparty - Maratha Kranti Sena -(MKS) and announced that thenew party would contest all the48 Lok Sabha and 288 Assemblyseats in the forthcoming elec-tions in the State.

A day after theMaharashtra Governmentaccepted the recommendationsof the Maharashtra StateBackward Class Commission(MSBCC) and announced thatit would grant reservations toMaratha community under anew Socially EducationallyBackward Class (SEBC) cate-gory, MKM convenor SureshPatil, along with the outfit’ssenior leaders BapusahebShirsat and Nanasaheb Moshre,

announced the formation of theMKM and said that it wouldcontest the forthcoming LokSabha polls and subsequentAssembly elections in the State.

Addressing a news confer-ence at Kolhapur in westernMaharashtra, Patil said: “Ourparty Maratha Kranti Sena willcontest all the 48 Lok Sabhaseats and 288 Assembly seats inMaharashtra. We are conven-ing our party’s first conventionat Vadgaon in Hatkanangaletown in Kolhapur district onNovember 25. At this con-vention, we will devise a strat-egy mobilise cadres for our newpolitical party in the run-up theLok Sabha polls to be held inMay next year”.

As a first step towards rop-ing in a prominent politicalpersonality into their party,Patil urged Maratha warriorChhatrapati Shivaji’s descen-dant and NCP MP from SataraUdayanraje Bhosale to contestthe forthcoming Lok Sabhapolls on a MKS ticket. “Since hehas extended his blessings toour political, we would like tocontest the Lok Sabha polls onMKS ticket. We will call on himtomorrow at Satara and discussissues relating our politicalparty,” Patil said.

The significance behind

the formation of a politicalparty by the MKS should beseen in the context of massivemobilisation of Marathas aspart of as many 58 mammothsilent morchas organised byMKM in various district head-quarters and major towns andcities across Maharashtra todemand reservations forMaratha community whichaccounts of 32 per cent of thestate’s total population.

It is mainly because of thetremendous pressure mountedby the MKM – which enjoyedthe support of the OppositionCongress, NCP and ruling ShivSena — on the ruling BJP thatthe Devendra FadnavisGovernment has now decidedto accord reservations to theMaratha community under anindependent SEBC category.During the winter session of theMaharashtra Legislature thatbegan on Monday, the StateGovernment is likely to intro-duce a bill according reserva-tions to Maratha community.

It may be recalled thatafter a 15-year-old Maratha girlfrom their community wasgang-raped and murderedallegedly by three Dalit men inAhmednagar district of west-ern Maharashtra on July 13,2016, members of Maratha

community came together andfloated Maratha Kranti Morchato demand among other thingsdemanding reservations ineducation and jobs toMarathas, scrapping of the“misused SC and ST(Prevention of Atrocities) Act,initiation of stern action againstthe culprits behind the gang-rape of the Maratha girl.

The MKM took out silentmorchas in one and districtheadquarter or major townafter another to press for itsvarious demands. Despitebeing without a prominentleader to head the outfit, theMKM became a force to reckon with in the followingmonths.

The tremendous responsethat the MKM evoked for itsmassive silent morchasbenumbed the MaharashtraGovernment and various polit-ical parties. What captured theattention of the state govern-ment, various political partiesand people across the state wasthe disciplined and peacefulmanner in which an apoliticaloutfit like MKM organised itsvarious silent morchas.

On August 9 last year, morethan five lakh Marathas owingallegiance to MKM virtuallylaid seize to south Mumbai for

nearly six hours to press forreservations and other demands,compelling the BJP-led saffronalliance Government to comewith a package for Marathas,including concessions in educa-tion along the lines of OtherBackward Classes (OBCs) andannounce its readiness to accordreservations to the community ineducation and Government jobs.

Mumbai’s was the 58thsilent morcha that the MKMtook out every since the mem-bers of Maratha communitycame together and floated theoutfit in August 2016. Later on,MKS also became a party to thepublic interest litigations in theBombay High Court which onAugust 7 2018 directed theMaharashtra State BackwardClass Commission (MSBCC)would submit its report to theState Government on the socio-economic status of the Marathasby November 15, so as to expe-dite the process of accordingreservations to Marathas.

It remains to be seen if thenew political outfit MKS wouldevoke as much response fromthe people in the run-up to theLok Sabha as the MKM evokedduring the course of its 58 silentmorchas taken out in variousparts of the State for a periodspanning one full year.

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Kolkata: The CPI(M) onMonday attacked ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjee forbanning the CBI from Bengal.

Wondering as to why theState Government made a priorpermission mandatory for theCentral investigating agency tocarry out investigations in theState, State CPI(M) secretaryand party politburo memberSuryakanto Mishra said “theorder itself smacks of some-thing fishy.”

He said “when we were inpower we had given a “gener-al consent order” allowing theCBI to conduct any kind ofprobe in the State because wewere sure of our clean recordsand were not afraid of the CBI,”adding “why this Governmenthad to withdraw that ordermaking it mandatory to seekthe Government’s permissionfrom the State before a probe.”

This meant that “they havesomething to hide from the peo-ple,” Mishra said adding “the rea-son why they have stopped theentry of CBI is that the Agencyis catching new faces every dayand getting information regard-ing the involvement of seniorTMC leaders who flank theChief Minister.”

These leaders’ involvementcould jeopardize the entireGovernment and the TMCwhich was why the CBI hadbeen blocked in Bengal, Mishrasaid adding the TMC was alsoafraid of the way the BJP wasutilizing its leaders’ involve-ment in corruption to makethem leave that party. PNS

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Escalating tension betweenIndia and Pakistan is keep-

ing border residents worriedahead of a harsh winter seasonin Jammu & Kashmir.

In the absence of start ofconstruction work on individ-ual/community bunkers alongthe line of control andInternational Border in Jammudivision, the border residentsare spending sleepless nights.

Over 14,000 communityand individual bunkers wereapproved at a cost of �415.73crore for border residents fac-ing Pakistani shelling in Jammudivision.

A total of 13,029 individualbunkers and 1431 communitybunkers were sanctioned toaccommodate border residentsduring cross border firing.

On ground zero, the theborder residents of most vul-nerable areas, falling in thedirect line of firing of Pakistanarmy, continue to wait for startof construction work.

"We are now tired of hear-ing big announcements regard-ing sanction of bunkers fromCentral Ministers and localBJP leaders but on ground zerothe construction work is yet tobegin in frontier Rajouri dis-trict", border residents of worstaffected villages in Nowsherasector told The Pioneer.

Confirming the status ofconstruction work of bunkers,

Deputy Commissioner, RajouriMohd Aijaz told The Pioneer,"the construction of bunkers isexpected to begin soon after thefixation of rates in the district".

He said talks are going onto resolve the issue with the con-tractors. He said an estimatednumber of over 5000 bunkerswere sanctioned by the centralgovernment for the frontierdistrict. Under a pilot project asestimated 100 bunkers wereconstructed in the district dur-ing peak hostilities last year.

Meanwhile, Executiveengineer, Public worksDepartment (R&B) Division,Kathua Monday issued a warn-ing to the contractors to startconstruction of bunkers with-in seven days time and com-plete the construction byDecember 2018.

At least 3076 individualand 243 community bunkerswere sanctioned for Kathua.

According to officialsources, the construction workof bunkers were sanctioned onpolitical considerations,withoutascertaining their credentials.

Speaking to The Pioneer,Deputy Commissioner, Kathua,Rohit Khajuria said, "majorityof contractors who have beenawarded contracts are not ade-quately equipped to take upconstruction work of thesebunkers in one go". He saidthey lack experience and do noteven possess capacity to exe-cute the task on this scale.

He said despite repeatedreminders they have failed tostart construction work onground zero.

J&K Chief Secretary ismonitoring the constructionwork of bunkers on weeklybasis. These contractors havebeen directed to execute thetask within stipulated timeperiod failing which fresh ten-ders will be floated,officialsources said.

Out of 14460 bunkers,7298 bunkers would be con-structed along the LoC in thetwin districts of Poonch andRajouri, and 7162 undergroundbunkers would be constructedalong the IB in Jammu, Kathuaand Samba districts.

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Jammu: A senior BSF officerwas killed in a blast under mys-terious circumstances in one ofthe border outposts in Sambasector of Jammu frontier whilefour others received criticalinjuries, on Monday. Theinjured were immediatelyrushed to the military hospital

in Jammu. BSF spokesman inJammu confirmed, "one BSFofficer was killed in a blast ata BoP in Samba sector onMonday". The deceased officerwas identified as AssistanceCommandant Jabbar Singh.

Two inspectors and twosub-inspectors received criticalinjuries in the blast.Unconfirmed reports claimed,during grenade practice insideBoP one Assistant Commander,Jabbar Singh, was killed whilefour others were injured. PNS

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Amove by the Pune police toquestion senior Congress

leader Digvijay Singh in con-nection with the investigationsinto the activities of the bannedCPI (Maoist) took a politicalturn on Monday with the rul-ing BJP making an issue in thecampaign for the MadhyaPradesh Assembly polls anddaring the Congress leadershipto expel Singh from the partyfor his alleged Maoist links.

After news reports emanat-ed from Pune that the localpolice planned to questionSingh over the finding that hismobile number was mentionedin one of the letters claimed tohave been seized from thearrested Maoist sympathisers,BJP spokesperson Sambit Patratargeted the senior Congressleader for his alleged Maoistlinks.

Talking to media persons atUjjain in Madhya Pradesh, Patraalluded to the reported recoveryof a letter allegedly linking Singhto the CPI (Maoist) and chargedthat the senior Congress hadlinks with the outlawed Maoists.He dared Congress presidentRahul Gandhi to expel Singhfrom the party.

“Now that it has becomeclear that Digvijay Singh haslinks with the Maoists. Thematter is serious and it involvesnational security. I would liketo know if Rahul Gandhi wouldexpel the senior Congress fromthe party or decorate him as arevolutionary,” Patra asked.

Meanwhile, Pune’s JointPolice CommissionerShivajirao Bodkhe confirmedthat the team investigating theBhima-Koregaon riots, whichhas so far arrested ten humanrights activists from variousparts of the country for theiralleged links with Maoists,might question the seniorCongress leader for his linkswith the arrested activists. “Wemay call him for questioning,but we have not fixed anytime-frame for it,” Bodkhe said.

The investigations by thePune police have revealed thatin a letter written on September25, 2017, one ‘Com Prakash’purportedly tells one ‘ComSurendra’ that Congress leaderswere “very much willing toassist” in their efforts to “inten-sify nationwide protests usingstudents”. The letter allegedlymentions a mobile numberthat ‘Com Surendra’ can contact“in this regard”. This is report-edly Singh’s mobile number.

‘Com Surendra’, accordingto the investigators, is a refer-ence to Surendra Gadling, aNagpur-based lawyer who wasarrested on June 6. ‘ComPrakash’ is said to be one of thetop CPI(Maoist) commanders.

The purported letter, inwhich there is alleged referenceto the senior Congress leader,became public after the Punepolice submitted it in court asevidence of the links betweenthe arrested activists and thetop Maoist brass

Singh had earlier daredthe Centre and statement toarrest him. Singh was earlierquoted as saying: “If I amguilty, I challenge the Centre

and the State Government toarrest me”.

On their part, the Punepolice claim that they haveascertained the mobile numbermentioned in the incriminatingletter was that of Singh.

It may be recalled that fiveMaoist-linked activists HumanRights activists Rona WilsonJacob, Surendra Gadling, SudhirDhawale, Prof Shoma Sen andMahesh Raut were arrested bythe Pune police on June 6, inconnection with the ElgaarParishad and subsequentBhima-Koregaon caste riots.

Subsequently on June 8,the investigators had claimedthat they had recovered fromthe laptop of Wilson an alleged-ly incriminating letter, whichuncovered an alleged plot by theMaoists to carry out “RajivGandhi-type” assassination ofPrime Minister Narendra Modi.

On August 28, the Pune

police arrested five more activistsVaravara Rao, Vernon Gonsalvesand Arun Pereira, SudhaBharadwaj and GautamNavlakha for their associationwith the Elgaar Parishad held inPune ahead of the January 1,2018 Bhima-Koregaon riots andtheir alleged links with theMaoists. However, the SupremeCourt ordered that the fivearrested activists be placed underhouse arrest till September 6.

In a charge-sheet filed ina Pune special court onNovember 15 against 10 per-sons, including five activistsarrested for their allegedMaoist links, the investigatorshad said that accused numbertwo Rona J. Wilson had col-luded with Shoma Sena andPrashanto Bose, secretary ofthe outlawed CPI (Maoist)’sEastern Regional Bureau,along with other under-ground activists hatched aconspiracy to kill the PrimeMinister of India. “All thefive (arrested) arrested accusedwere part of the conspiracy towage a war against the nationwith illegal bombs and arms totopple the government withviolent means,” the charge-sheet said.

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The body of an arrestedIndian fisherman, who died

in a Karachi jail, is expected tobe sent back to India onNovember 29, an activist saidon Monday.

Nanubhai KanabhaiSolanki, 45, who was arrestedin November 2017 by theMaritime Security Agency ofPakistan for allegedly strayinginto Pakistani territorial waters,was ailing for some time beforehis death on September 20.

"Solanki hailed from Unatehsil of Gir Somnath districtof Gujarat. His body was keptat Edhi Foundation's morguein Karachi for couple ofmonths. It is expected to besent back to India to his fam-ily on November 29," PakistanIndia Peoples' Forum for Peaceand Democracy activist JatinDesai said.

Besides, another 460 Indianfishermen continue to languishin Pakistani jails for years, asagainst 90 Pakistani fishermenin Indian jails, he said.

"Both countries need towork out a mechanism throughwhich - if someone dies in thecustody of the other country -his body should be immediatelyreturned to his country. The sadreality is it takes minimumone month for this process. InSolanki's case, it took over twomonths," Desai added.

He said both countriesmust immediately revive theIndia-Pakistan JudicialCommittee on Prisoners com-prising retired judges of high-er judiciary on both sides.

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Page 10: ˆ - The Pioneer · 2019-03-04 · Agriculture Minister Brijmohan Agrawal (Raipur City South), PWD Minister Rajesh Munat (Raipur City West), Industry Minister Amar Agrawal (Bilaspur),

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Nissan chairman CarlosGhosn was reportedly

under arrest in Tokyo onMonday, as his firm accusedhim of “significant acts of mis-conduct” and said it would seekto oust him.

Japan’s public broadcasterNHK and other media outletssaid Ghosn had been arrestedafter being questioned byJapanese prosecutors for vari-ous improprieties includingunderreporting his income.

“The Tokyo District PublicProsecutor’s Office arrestedNissan chairman Ghosn onsuspicion of violation of theFinancial Instruments andExchange Act,” NHK said.

In a statement, Nissan saidit had been conducting a probeinto Ghosn for several monthsafter receiving a whistleblowerreport and had uncovered mis-conduct going back severalyears.

The Tokyo prosecutor’soffice had no comment on thereports about Ghosn, who alsoheads an alliance of Renault,Nissan and Mitsubishi.

Nissan said it had launchedan investigation into bothGhosn and RepresentativeDirector Greg Kelly severalmonths ago.

“The investigation showedthat over many years bothGhosn and Kelly have beenreporting compensationamounts in the Tokyo StockExchange securities report thatwere less than the actualamount, in order to reduce thedisclosed amount of CarlosGhosn’s compensation,” thestatement said. “Also, in regardsto Ghosn, numerous other sig-nificant acts of misconducthave been uncovered, such aspersonal use of company assets,and Kelly’s deep involvementhas also been confirmed.”

The company said it hadprovided information toJapanese prosecutors andwould propose to the board ofdirectors that it “promptlyremove Ghosn from his posi-tions” along with Kelly.

The astonishing news firstemerged on Monday evening,when the Asahi Shimbun news-paper reported Ghosn wasbeing questioned by prosecu-

tors and was likely to facearrest.

Public broadcaster NHKreported that Tokyo prosecu-tors were raiding Nissan’s head-quarters in the city ofYokohama.

Renault shares plunged 12percent in late morning trad-ing in Paris on the shock news,which emerged after the end ofthe Tokyo session. “If he isarrested, it’s going to rock theRenault-Nissan-Mitsubishialliance as he is the keystone ofthe alliance,” said SatoruTakada, an analyst at TIW, aTokyo-based research and con-sulting firm.

“He is the man of charismafor the alliance. It is likely tohave a negative impact on itsbrand image,” he told.

Nicknamed Le Cost Killer,Brazil-born Ghosn, 64, isknown for overhauling Renaultand Nissan starting in thenineties. Renault came to therescue of the then-ailingJapanese automaker in 1999and parachuted in Ghosn, whoset about slashing costs andjobs in a huge corporate over-haul.

In 2016, Ghosn also tookcharge at troubled Mitsubishiafter Nissan threw it a lifeline,buying a one-third stake forabout $2.2 billion as it wrestledwith a mileage-cheating scan-dal that hammered sales.

Ghosn has a high profile inJapan and is known as a majoradvocate of the country’s autosector. He has not yet com-mented on the allegations.

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The BSE benchmark Sensexrallied over 300 points

Monday to end at over a six-week high of 35,774.88 asinvestors widened their port-folios ahead of the RBI’s boardmeet outcome amid foreignfund inflows.

Also, positive cues fromother Asian markets and afirm opening in Europeanshares buoyed investor senti-ment here.

A crucial meet of theReserve Bank’s central board isunderway amid a rift betweenthe central bank and the gov-ernment over future course ofpolicies.

The finance ministry nom-inees and some independentdirectors were expected to takeon Patel and his team overissues ranging from MSMEcredit to the central bank’sreserves, though both sidesare in favour of reaching a com-mon ground.

Expectations of a positiveoutcome boosted marketmood after the meetingbegan.

According to analysts,domestic bourses are focusingon RBI’s board meet to get cueson liquidity crunch with non-banking financial companies(NBFCs) and relaxing normsfor state-run banks.

The Sensex started off ona high note at 35,647.62 andcontinued its upward march tohit a high of 35,818.65 as buy-

ing activity gathered momen-tum. It finally settled 317.72points, or 0.90 per cent, high-er at 35,774.88.

This is the benchmark’shighest closing since October3 when it had closed at35,975.63. The barometer hadgained 315.17 points in the pre-vious two sessions.

Also, the broader NSENifty raced past the 10,750-mark to touch a high of10,774.70 before settling at10,763.40 points, showing a riseof 81.20 points, or 0.76 percent.

Yes Bank was the star per-former among Sensex con-stituents, jumping 7.19 percent, its biggest gain in almostthree weeks.

ITC, Tata Motors,IndusInd Bank, Vedanta, SunPharma, RIL, M&M, MarutiSuzuki, Tata Steel, L&T, Wipro,TCS, Hero MotoCorp, BhartiAirtel, Adani Ports, KotakBank, PowerGrid, HDFC Bank,HUL, Infosys, HDFC and CoalIndia also gained up to 2.77 percent.

However, ONGC, ICICIBank, SBI, Asian Paints, NTPC,Axis Bank and, Bajaj Auto allsuccumbed to profit-bookingand ended lower by up to 1.37per cent.

Jet Airways stock plunged6.88 per cent, after Tata Sonssaid on Friday that it was onlyin preliminary talks with thestruggling carrier, but had notmade a proposal to acquire astake.

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Trai is expected to meettelecom industry players

next month, to deliberate onthe issues that will be taken upduring 2019, its Chairman RSSharma said Monday.

The discussion — now anannual feature — is howeverexpected to entail a wider set ofplayers in the telecom spacethis time, spanning operators,infrastructure providers andothers.

“The meeting will takeplace next month. We will talkto them and ask them about theitems they think, should betaken up in the next calendaryear,” Sharma told on the side-lines of an interactive sessionon ‘New RegulatoryFramework for Broadcastingand Cable Services’.

This time around, TelecomRegulatory Authority of India(Trai’s) discussion would not belimited to telecom serviceproviders alone but expected toinclude infrastructureproviders and “couple of otherstakeholders in telecom space”as well, he noted.

“So it will be a broaderconsultation to figure out thenew areas to be deliberatednext year,” Sharma said.

He noted that the priorityareas for 2018, too, were iden-tified through a prior discus-sion with players.

“We certainly have ourown list of areas too, Sharmasaid.

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National Stock Exchange ofIndia Ltd (NSE), India’s

leading stock exchange onMonday announced the launchof its new mobile app andweb-based platform ‘NSEgoBID’ for retail investors tobuy Government securities.Ajay Tyagi, Chairman SEBI

launched the new App at anevent held in Mumbai.

The ‘NSE goBID’ App willbe available to all the registeredinvestors with NSE’s tradingmembers and will also facilitatetrading members in acquiringnew retail investors.

It wil l al low retai linvestors to make paymentdirectly from their bank

accounts using the UnifiedPayments Interface (UPI) andinternet banking. While retailinvestors will benefit from aconvenient payment option,its cost effectiveness willappeal to Trading Members ofNSE as the cost associated forsetting-up infrastructure ismuch lower than the existingplatform.

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The Government will nextweek launch the fourth

tranche of CPSE ExchangeTraded Fund to garner up to�14,000 crore, investmentbanking sources said.

The Government hasalready raised �11,500 crore inthe earlier three tranches of theETF, which functions like amutual fund scheme.

The issue will open earlynext week and investors wouldget 3.5-4 per cent discountover the issue price, the sourcessaid.

The Government is aimingto mop up �8,000 crore, with agreen-shoe option to retaineither �4,000 crore or �6,000crore from the fourth tranche

of CPSE ETF, they added.The number of scrips in

the CPSE ETF has beenincreased to 11 state-ownedcompanies, as against 10 earli-er, with the entry of four newfirms namely NTPC, SJVN,NLC and NBCC.

Three existing companies,GAIL, Engineers India Ltd(EIL) and ContainerCorporation of India, havebeen removed from the indexas the Government holding inthese companies has fallenbelow 55 per cent.

Since the weightage andscrip value of these three com-panies were higher, four newCPSEs had to be included inthe ETF to replace them tokeep the CPSE ETF indexvalue at the same level.

The other seven bluechipPSUs in the CPSE ETF areONGC, Coal India, IOC, OilIndia, PFC, REC and BharatElectronics.

CPSE ETF was set up in2014 and the Governmenthas so far sold stake in the 10companies in the basket inthree tranches, thereby rais-ing �11,500 crore — �3,000crore from the first tranche inMarch 2014, �6,000 crore inJanuary 2017 and �2,500crore from the third in March2017.

In June 2018, theGovernment garnered about�8,400 crore through follow-onoffer of another ETF — Bharat22 ETF, which comprises sharesof 22 companies, includingbanks.

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Commerce and IndustryMinister Suresh Prabhu

Monday said that discussionagenda of the World TradeOrganisation (WTO) mustinclude both old as well as newissues to maintain the relevanceof the global trade body.

He said that there werechallenges before the globaltrade and their impact wouldhave implications on the worldeconomy.

“Today, we must agree thatwithout WTO, we will have aproblem because we need glob-al trade...We must make sure

that WTO remains intact.WTO has to change andchange for the better,” he saidhere at a programme organisedby law firm Lakshmikumaranand Sridharan and an industrychamber.

Prabhu said that based onhis discussions with othermember countries, an agendawas being prepared which willbe forward looking, agreeableto all nations and include sub-stantive issues.

“We cannot forget theissues that have been put on thetable with an agreement of allthe countries and those issuesalso need to be taken intoaccount... So, we cannot forgetthe so-called old issues. At thesame time, we cannot just for-get inclusion of new issues. So,we must find out a proper sub-stantive agenda which will be

encompassing all these impor-tant elements,” he added.

While developing coun-tries, including India, wantissues related to agriculturalsubsidies to be resolved, devel-oped nations, such as the US,are keen to push forward newmatters related to e-commerceand investments.

WTO’s relevance is nowunder question as some coun-tries are taking unilateral mea-sures, which are impactingglobal trade.The 164-memberGeneva-based organisationdeals with global trade-relatedissues.

At its last meeting inArgentina in 2017, the talkscollapsed after the US wentback on its commitment to finda permanent solution to thepublic food stockholding issue,a key matter for India.

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Air passengers can now seekhelp of chatbots to resolve

their problems and register griev-ances using social media, with theGovernment on Monday launch-ing an upgraded version ofAirSewa digital platform.

Passengers will also haveaccess to real-time flight statusand schedule for both domes-tic and international flightswith AirSewa 2.0, according tothe Civil Aviation Ministry.

Besides, the ministry plans tocome out with the next generationof AirSewa 3.0 digital platform inthe next few months, wherein airtravellers can register themselvesunder DigiYatra initiative.

DigiYatra seeks to pro-mote paperless and hassle-freeair travel. It is biometrics-

based digital processing systemfor passenger entry and relat-ed requirements at the airport.

AirSewa 2.0, the upgradedversion of the web portal andmobile app, provides chatbotsupport for faster resolution andpersonalised traveller experi-ence. Also, passengers can sign upusing their Facebook and Googleaccounts. Generally, chatbots arecomputer programmes thatinteract with people throughaudio or text messages.

Among other features,grievances can be registeredusing social media with hash-tag ‘#AirSewa’.

The AirSewa portal andmobile app were launched inNovember 2016. Since the launch,AirSewa 1.0 has helped resolve sig-nificant number of air passengerconcerns, as per the ministry.

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Page 11: ˆ - The Pioneer · 2019-03-04 · Agriculture Minister Brijmohan Agrawal (Raipur City South), PWD Minister Rajesh Munat (Raipur City West), Industry Minister Amar Agrawal (Bilaspur),

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Ajudging controversy couldn'tstop the Indian juggernautfrom rolling with as many as

eight pugilists reaching the quar-terfinals in the ongoing AIBAWomen's World BoxingChampionships on Monday.

Sonia Chahal (57kg), Pinki Rani(51kg) and Simranjit Kaur (64kg)won their respective pre-quarterfi-nal bouts to place themselves just astep away from assuring a medalwhile Saweety Boora (75kg) was thelone Indian boxer to lose her bouton an eventful day at the K D JhadavStadium.

MC Mary Kom (48kg), ManishaMoun (54kg), Lovlina Borgohain

(69kg) and Kachari Bhagyabati(81kg) booked their quarterfinals onSunday while Seema Poonia willdirectly begin her campaign at thelast-eight stage on Tuesday againstXiaoli Yang of China.

Former champion L Sarita Devi(60kg) was the second Indian boxerto bow out of the tournament in thepre-quarterfinals after losing to2016 World Championship Silvermedallist Kellie Harrington ofIreland in a split 3-2 verdict onSunday.

The best show for the Indianswas in the 2006 edition at homewhen the country won 8 medals. Thecountry won just two and onemedal in the last two editions andthis one may turn out to be the best

in recent times.The fifth day's proceedings were,

however, marred by a judging con-troversy when 2014 Gold-medallistStanimira Petrova of Bulgaria (57kg)accused the judges of "corruption"after losing her pre-quarterfinal toIndia's Sonia Chahal.

"I want to say only one thing, itis corruption by the judges. It is nota fair result," the 27-year-old Petrova,who won a Gold in 54kg in the 2014edition, told reporters after losing toSonia.

She was seen laughing when

Sonia was announced the winnerand also waved his index finger indispleasure.

Her coach Petar Yosifov Lesovthrew a water bottle inside the ring

and the world body AIBA later with-drew his accreditation and barredhim from the ringside.

The 21-year-old Sonia, daugh-ter of a Haryana farmer, was trailing

after the second round but recoveredwell in the final round to win theclose bout on 3-2 split decision.

All the five judges gave 10-9points in favour of the Indian in the

third round and that sealed the winfor the local hope.

Sonia, on her part, said it was afair result.

"How can all the five judges gowrong? It was a fair decision," shesaid.

This was Sonia's first majorinternational event having risen tosenior level by winning a Gold in theNational Championships in 2016.

Last year, she won a Gold in theSerbia Cup. She won a Bronze in theAhmet Comert Boxing Tournamentthis year. Sonia next faces AriasCastenada Yeni Marcela of Columbiain the quarterfinals on Tuesday.

Pinki and Simranjit, on theother hand, notched up easy winswith all the judges giving unanimous5-0 verdicts in their favour.

The 28-year-old Pinki was trail-ing behind her English opponentAlice Ebonie Jones in the first roundbut recovered in the next two toemerge victorious in the end. It wasa close call on the part of four judgeswho gave 29-28 in favour of theIndian while the fifth judge gave aclear 30-27.

"It was an easier one than myearlier (opening round) bout.Today's opponent was young andinexperienced while my previousopponent (Armenia's 2014 youthworld champion Anush Grigoryan)was more experienced," she said.

Pinki next faces Pang Chol Miof North Korea in the quarterfinalson Tuesday.

The 23-year-old Simranjit's 5-0win against Megan Reid of Scotland,was the most impressive amongIndian bouts of the day as she wonall the rounds for an a 30-27, 30-27,29-28, 30-27, 30-27 win.

Simaranjit, who won Gold in theAhmet Comert tournament inTurkey this year, was taking the ringthree months after he father passedaway. She said on Sunday that shewould try hard to win a medal forhim.

Simaranjit from Chakar villagein Ludhiana next faces Amy SaraBroadhurst of Ireland in the quar-terfinals on Tuesday.

India, however, suffered a joltwith Saweety Boora losing her open-ing to Elzbieta Wojcik of Poland in75kg in a unanimous decision.

The 23-year-old Saweety wonSilver in the 2014 WorldChampionships in 81kj but wascompeting here in 75kg.

All the five judges were not infavour of the Indian in all the threerounds with the Polish boxer win-ning 30-26, 30-27, 30-26, 30-27, 30-27.

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Alexander Zverev emphaticallyannounced his arrival at the top

of the men's game by overpoweringNovak Djokovic 6-4, 6-3 to win hisfirst ATP Finals title.

The 21-year-old German, mak-ing his second appearance at the end-of-season showpiece, outlasted six-time champion Roger Federer in thesemi-finals and repeated the featagainst the world number one onSunday.

Djokovic had not been brokenonce in the tournament coming intothe match, winning all 36 servicegames and only facing two breakpoints but Zverev wrecked his num-bers, breaking four times in thematch.

The German, coached by IvanLendl, faltered just once whenDjokovic broke him early in the sec-ond set but that was the only blem-ish on an extraordinary performanceof power and skill.

"I really can't describe it," saidZverev.

"It is the biggest title I have everwon. Firstly, I want to congratulateNovak and we may never have seenthe tennis he has played in the last fewmonths before. He barely lost amatch but thankfully he did to me.

"We (Djokovic and Zverev) hadso many talks, not only abouttennis but all different types ofsubjects — I won't mentionwhat — but you are a sharingperson and you have sharedsome titles with me. I appre-ciate you letting me win onetoday."

The Serbian top seed, 31,came into the match seekingto equal Federer's record of six ATPFinals wins but was immediatelyaware he had a fight on his hands atLondon's O2 Arena.

Djokovic beat Zverev 6-4, 6-1 intheir round-robin match onWednesday but it was a different storyin front of a packed and vociferouscrowd on Sunday.

With both players going toe-to-toe from the back of the court, thefirst set went with serve until theninth game, when Djokovic dumpeda forehand into the net to concede thebreak.

��������Roared on by the crowd, Zverev

hit three aces on his way to sealing thefirst set 6-4.

Still on a high, the third seedbroke an out-of-sorts Djokovic imme-diately at the start of the second setto leave the top seed with a mountain

to climb.Showing nerves for the first time,

he double-faulted twice in his nextservice game as Djokovic got back onlevel terms but the German brokeagain to lead 2-1 as the Serb's error

count mounted.Zverev broke Djokovic

for the third time in the sec-ond set in the ninth game,producing a stunning back-hand down the line at fullstretch to win the champi-onship.

The young German hasoften been talked about as

the leader of the next generation butdespite having three Masters titlesunder his belt in his short career, hehas a poor record at the Slams.

Djokovic slipped to an unaccus-tomed low of 22nd in the world ear-lier this year but has lost just threematches since the beginning ofWimbledon as he charged back up therankings.

"Sascha (Zverev) definitely playedmuch better than he did in thegroup stage," he said. "He deserved towin. He's still quite young but he's hadan amazing career so far and I wishhim all the best for his future.

"Speaking of being young, hope-fully I'll play many more years and I'llsee you guys here in years to come."

Elsewhere, Mike Bryan and JackSock won the doubles title in thrillingfashion , coming from a set down tobeat Pierre-Hugues Herbert andNicolas Mahut 5-7, 6-1, 13-11.

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Saina Nehwal and KidambiSrikanth will start

favourites when they spear-head the Indian challenge atthe Syed Modi Internationaltournament, which has lost abit of sheen with the pulloutof Olympic Silver medallist PV Sindhu.

The tournament beginshere on Tuesday.

With Sindhu missing,India will have two defendingchampions in the tourna-ment with Sameer Vermalooking to retain the title toenhance his chances of qual-ifying for the year-endingWorld Tour Final. The mixeddoubles pair of Pranaav JerryChopra and N Sikki Reddy,too, will eye a repeat.

Sindhu decided toskip the event to focus onnext month's World TourFinals in China but therewon't be any shortage of starpower when the World TourSuper 300 event gets under-way with the qualifiers.

In Sindhu's absence,Saina will be the cynosure ofall eyes and the celebrated

Indian has been indecent form this yearhaving won a Gold atthe CommonwealthGames and a Bronze at

the Asian Games. She willlook to secure her maidenBWF title of this season whenshe begins her campaign

against Mauritius' Kate FooKune in the opening round.

With a host of Indiansmaking up the draw, Saina islikely to face little resistancetill her journey to the finals,where she is expected tomeet former Olympic cham-pion China's Li Xuerui, whohas won at Canada, US andthe China Masters after mak-ing a comeback.

Srikanth, too, will belooking for his first title of theseason after being in ram-paging form last year, win-ning four titles. The Indianhas been in decent form,winning a Silver at theCommonwealth Games andreaching the quarterfinalsconsistently.

The Indian will hope to

claim the men's singles titleafter winning it in 2016 fol-lowing three final appear-ances. However, he will facetough resistance from secondseed H S Prannoy andSameer, who won titles atSwiss Open and HyderabadOpen.

Srikanth is likely to meetParupalli Kashyap in the sec-ond round if the 2014Commonwealth Gameschampion manages to beatTanongsak Saensomboonsukin the opener.

While, Prannoy will startagainst Thailand's AdulrachNamkul and is likely to meet2014 Commonwealth GamesBronze medallist R M VGurusaidutt in the thirdround.

For that, Guru, who istrying to make a comebackafter recovering from acareer-threatening ankleinjury, will have to fight hisway against Germany'sJonathan Persson and prob-ably Misha Zilberman ofIsrael to enter the quarterfi-

nals.Fourth seed B Sai

Praneeth, who had won theSingapore Open last year,will square off against Russia'sSergey Sirant in the openingmatch, while Subhankar Dey,who claimed his maiden titleat SaarLorLux Open, willopen against China's ZhouZeqi.

Seventh seed SourabhVerma, who won titles atRussia and Dutch Open, willstart against China's ZhouZeqi.

Also in action would beeighth seeded India's topmen's doubles pairs ofSatwiksairaj Rankireddy andChirag Shetty, who are theSilver medallists at theCommonwealth Games, andNational champions ManuAttri and B Sumeeth Reddy.

The women's doublespair of Ashwini Ponnappaand N Sikki Reddy will alsolook to put their best foot for-ward, while Ashwini will alsopair up with Satwik in mixeddoubles.

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Haris Seferovic starred with a hat-trick as Switzerland staged a sen-

sational comeback to thrash Belgium 5-2 in Lucerne on Sunday and qualify forthe Nations League finals in dramaticfashion.

Thorgan Hazard's early double leftSwitzerland needing to win by two goalsto qualify from Group A2 but the hostsquickly fought back, with RicardoRodriguez's penalty and Seferovic'sfirst two goals seeing them into a 3-2half-time lead.

Nico Elvedi nodded home aXherdan Shaqiri cross in the 62ndminute, and Vladimir Petkovic's mensealed a stunning win when Seferoviccompleted his treble late on.

"I want to congratulate each play-er, there was a big mental reaction, theplayers never gave up, they alwaysbelieved," said Swiss coach Petkovic."They played with will, intelligence andwith their heads."

After a thrilling match that con-tinued a trend of goal-filled encountersin the inaugural edition of the NationsLeague, Switzerland will play at thefinals in June next year, alongsideEuropean champions Portugal andEngland, with the final spot going toeither France or the Netherlands onMonday.

Roberto Martinez's men saw theirsix-match unbeaten run since reachingthe World Cup semi-finals brought toan shuddering halt.

"We forgot to defend well, we gaveSwitzerland the opportunity to getback in the game," said Spanish coachMartinez.

"We had a lot of excitement, wereally wanted to finish top of thegroup. The disappointment will makeus more focused when the (Euro 2020)qualification starts."

Earlier on Sunday, Valentino Lazaro

scored an injury-time winner as Austriabeat Northern Ireland 2-1 in a deadrubber in Belfast that Marko Arnautovicdescribed as a "fight".

Northern Ireland had already beenrelegated from Group B3, while Austriawere guaranteed to finish second.

"We can be proud of the win. Wewanted to come here, to finish well witha win and we did that," West Ham for-ward Arnautovic told Sky Sports.

"He (Gareth McAuley) tried tochoke me, fight with me, I don't knowwhy. It is not good to fight with me."

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Spain responded to theirNations League disappoint-

ment by beating Bosnia 1-0 onSunday but an unconvincingvictory will have done little tolift the mood.

Luis Enrique's side needed21-year-old debutant BraisMendez, on as a substitute, toscore the only goal of a scrap-py game at Estadio GranCanaria, in which neither sidewould have been unfairly rep-resented by a stalemate.

Spain already knew theirhopes of progressing to theNations League finals wereover after England snatched topspot in Group 4 following a last-gasp win at Wembley overCroatia.

A thrilling conclusion,which would have sent Spainthrough had Croatia held on fora point, was a feather in the capfor the inaugural tournamentand came in stark contrast tothis rather underwhelmingfriendly a few hours later.

"Bad luck and mistakes we

made meant we didn't make thefinals," Luis Enrique said. "Iwould have liked a draw(between England and Croatia)but I'm focused on qualificationfor the EuropeanChampionship and I think theteam looks good."

A narrow win over Bosniacame with a rotated and youth-ful line-up, in which only Iscoand Dani Ceballos survivedfrom Thursday's defeat byCroatia in Zagreb.

Harry Kane's late winneragainst Croatia had the Spanishpress swooning for a striker ofhis calibre and another erraticperformance from AlvaroMorata hardly promoted theChelsea striker's cause.

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Indian boxing coach Shiv Singhon Monday questioned the ref-

eree's decision to award standingcounts against Sarita andSaweety Boora but refused toterm it the reason for their loss-es.

Former world championSarita, who lost a close bout in60kg against Kellie Harrington ina 3-2 split decision on Sunday,

faced a standing count in thethird round while Saweetyendured the same situation in thesecond round of her 75kg boutagainst Elzbieta Wojcik.

Singh said both Sarita andSaweety fell down not from thepunches of their opponents andwondered how standing countswere done against them.

"Sarita slipped after her legsentangled with those of heropponent and it was not from a

punch. In Saweety's case, she waspulled down. It was not from apoint scoring punch," the coachtold reporters.

"In case of Saweety, the ref-eree was on the blind side (and sodid not see it) when she fell downbut still gave a standing count. Incase of Sarita, the referee saw it(how Sarita fell after entanglingwith her opponent) but he alsostill went for a standing countyagainst Sarita," he added.

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Page 12: ˆ - The Pioneer · 2019-03-04 · Agriculture Minister Brijmohan Agrawal (Raipur City South), PWD Minister Rajesh Munat (Raipur City West), Industry Minister Amar Agrawal (Bilaspur),

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