Army respects rights of adversaries: Rawat - SPLessons

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saturday, december 28, 2019 Delhi

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Eightyearold girl rapedand murdered in NuhNUH

An eightyearold girl was

allegedly raped and

murdered in Nuh, the police

said on Friday. The girl from a

village in Ferozepur Jhirka

had taken her goats for

grazing in the forest on

Thursday when she went

missing. Her parents found

her body on Friday morning

and informed the police.

CITY A PAGE 4DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

IAF bids farewell to

MiG-27 at ceremony

in Jodhpur

page 9

Jammu and Kashmir

will get statehood soon,

says Ram Madhav

page 12

Israel’s Netanyahu

sweeps party primary

in re-election boost

page 14

Travis Head’s century

puts Australia in

command

page 19

Army chief Gen. Bipin Rawaton Friday asserted that theIndian armed forces havethe utmost respect for human rights and pointed outthat the Human Rights Cellin the Army headquarterswas being upgraded to thelevel of a Directorate.

His comments come a dayafter he said students leading crowds to carry out arson and violence is not leadership, in an apparentreference to the protestsacross the country againstthe Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA).

“The armed forces notonly ensure protection ofhuman rights of our own people but also of adversariesand deal with the prisonersof war as per the GenevaConventions,” he said, whilespeaking on ‘Preserving Human Rights in times of Warand Prisoners of War’, at theNational Human RightsCommission.

The human rights cell,created in 1993, was beingupgraded as a Directorate,which would be headed byan Additional Director General of the rank of a MajorGeneral. It would also havepolice personnel to addresscomplaints and facilitate related enquiries, he stated.

Women inductedGen. Rawat said a new initiative was undertaken in October last by recruiting woman jawans in the MilitaryPolice force. The Army tookalong police personnel insearch operations, keepingin view the concerns of women during such operations. “The Army has nowdecided to deploy lady jawans of its Military Policeforce also.”

To ensure protection ofhuman rights during counterinsurgency operations, acourt of inquiry was held after every operation and allrelated records maintained.

Referring to the ArmedForce (Special Powers) Act(AFSPA), he said the Act gavealmost the same powers tothe Army that were exercised by the police and the

Central Reserve PoliceForce, in connection withsearch and inquiry operations. However, over theyears, the Army “itself hasdiluted its application underthe 10 commandments issued by the Chief of the Army Staff�� that are to be strictlyadhered to by every soldier,particularly those deployedin antiinsurgency areas.”

Army respects rights of adversaries: RawatIts rights cell will have policemen to redress complaints

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI

Tardy takeoff��: Rescue personnel at the site of a plane crash near the Almaty International Airport in Kazakhstan on Friday.Twelve people died when a Bek Air plane with nearly 100 passengers crashed into a building shortly after takeoff��. * AP (PAGE 14)

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Search for life

Union Home Minister AmitShah on Friday dared Congress leader Rahul Gandhito prove his accusation thatthe Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) will strippeople, let alone Muslims,of their citizenship.

Mr. Shah, however, didnot make any comment onthe National Register of Citizens (NRC). “I want to telleveryone, and especiallythe minorities, that the Congress and company are misleading and spreading rumours that under the CAA,the citizenship of Muslimbrothers is about to be takenaway. I challenge Rahul ba-ba to please come and pre

sent any single provision inthe Act that mentions thatcitizenship of any personwill be taken away,” said Mr.Shah in Shimla at a rally tocommemorate the BJP’s twoyears of power in the State.

Prove allegations onCAA, Shah dares Rahul It only confers citizenship: Ministerspecial correspondent

CHANDIGARH

CONTINUED ON A PAGE 12

Amit Shah

OUTREACH TO MUSLIMS A PAGE 13

Former Congress presidentRahul Gandhi on Friday equated the National Registerof Citizens (NRC) and theNational Population Register (NPR) with the demonetisation of November 2016.He said both the exercisestaxed the poor and if theNRC was implementedacross India, the poorwould suff��er the most asthey would have to paybribes to correct any mistakes made during the enumeration.

“Whether NPR or NRC, itis a tax on the poor peopleof the country. You understand demonetisation. Itwas a tax on poor people.

Go to banks and give yourmoney but do not withdrawmoney from your account.Entire money went to thepocket of 1520 rich people.This [NPR or NRC] is thesame thing,” he told reporters at Raipur airport.

Rahul equates NRC, NPRwith demonetisationBoth tax the poor, says Cong. leader


NEW DELHI

CONTINUED ON A PAGE 12

Rahul Gandhi

The Modi government cameto the defence of Army chiefGeneral Bipin Rawat onFriday after he drew fl��akfrom several quarters for hisremarks criticising thoseleading protests and guidingstudents to carry out arsonand violence.

Speaking to ANI, UnionMinister and former Armychief Gen. V.K. Singh (retd.)defended Gen. Rawat’scomments and asked theOpposition not to politiciseeverything. There wasnothing political in askingstudents to maintain peacewhile protesting, he said.

“In our great country, theOpposition can turnanything into a controversy.Ideal would have been tosee the statement in thecontext in which Army chiefhas said a particular thing.Ask him what he meant. Idon’t see any politics in it. IfI tell students ‘don’tunnecessarily damageproperty’, is it politics?Search your heart and askthis question,” Gen. Singhsaid.

The Opposition hadalleged that the Armychief’s comments werepolitical in nature and thathe should desist fromindulging in politics.

No politics in what Armychief said, says V.K. SinghAsian News International

New Delhi

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By the rulebook: Army chief Bipin Rawat addressing offi��cersand interns of the NHRC in New Delhi on Friday * PTI

‘Solving traffi��c chaos keyagenda for next term’NEW DELHI

Addressing traffi��c congestion

and ensuring 24hour

drinking water in Delhi will be

on the agenda of the AAP

government in the next fi��ve

years if reelected, Chief

Minister Arvind Kejriwal said

on Friday. AAP will release its

manifesto for the upcoming

Assembly polls between

January 15 and 20, the Chief

Minister announced.

CITY A PAGE 3DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

NEARBY

Modi is lying aboutdetention camps: GogoiGUWAHATI

Senior Congress leader Tarun

Gogoi on Friday called Prime

Minister Narendra Modi a

“liar” for saying that there is

no detention camp in the

country. “In 2018, the Modi

government had sanctioned

₹��46 crore for the largest

detention centre at Matia in

Goalpara district of Assam for

housing 3,000 illegal

immigrants,” Mr. Gogoi said.

EAST A PAGE 6DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

Peaceful protests against theCitizenship (Amendment)Act were held here on Fridayamid heavy deployment ofsecurity personnel.

Demonstrations werestaged outside Jama Masjidin Old Delhi, Jor Bagh, UttarPradesh Bhawan and Seelampur after Friday prayers.At U.P. Bhawan, around 357protesters, including 75 women, were detained for defying prohibitory orders.

Protesters at Jor Baghstarted their march towardsthe Prime Minister’s housebut were stopped by the police near the Jor Bagh metrostation. They staged a protest at the site for an hourand later dispersed.

In Old Delhi, the protesters gathered outside gatenumber 1 of Jama Masjid andraised slogans. Former Congress MLA Shoaib Iqbal andparty leader Alka Lambawere among the leaders who

took part in the protest.Speaking from a raised platform outside the mosque,Mr. Iqbal and Ms. Lamba demanded that the Central government should call a jointsession of Parliament andwithdraw the CAA and alsotell people that the NationalRegister of Citizens will notbe implemented across thecountry.

The protesters, many ofthem not associated withany political party, said theiragitation will continue tillthe government scraps thenew citizenship law and promises not to implement theNRC. At Jamia Millia Islamia,students observed a daylong hunger strike against alleged police brutality duringtheir protests. The studentsdemanded an impartial judicial inquiry into the deathsduring the antiCAA protestsacross the nation, release ofillegally detained protestersand arrest of those involvedin violence.

Over 300 detained at U.P. Bhawan

STAFF REPORTER

NEW DELHI

Protesters raise slogans against CAA, NRC and NPR afterFriday prayers at Jama Masjid. * SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR

Peaceful protests held incity amid tight security

Renowned for its colourfulglass bangles, Firozabad sawonly red on December 20.It’s been a week since six people were shot dead here,but posters, drones, andheavy police deploymenthave scared residents intostaying indoors.

An eerie calm prevailedon the Rasulpur bypasswhere protests against theCitizenship (Amendment)Act had spilled on to fromthe Mohammedgunj marketon December 20.

On Friday, most shops onboth sides of the road andalong interior streets in residential areas remained shutamid heavy police and paramilitary deployment.

The policemen wore antiriot gear with helmets andheld batons in their hands asthey made sure there was noassembly before or afterJumme ki Namaz (Fridayprayers).

At every road junctionand along prominentstreets, posters were seenevery few metres displayingpictures of those who authorities allege threw stonesduring the protest on December 20. “Identify themand tell the police,” read themessage in Hindi.

“These are the peoplewho are behind the violencethat took place in Firozabadon December 20. These radicals committed arson,caused damage to public

property and harmed people. Identity them and helpthe police. You just have tocall. Fulfi��l your duty as a responsible citizen. Your identity will be kept confi��dential,”said the poster accompaniedby a collage of 10 photos.There were at least threeposters at each location.

Locals said they wereafraid of getting picked upby the police or beingstopped to be asked “unnecessary” questions and ofthe drones hovering overtheir houses taking picturesand videos.

Big chaseRaeesa Begum, 36, a resident of Rehmat Nagar, saidher four daughters and threeminor sons run back insidethe house as soon as they seea police car. “Bas yahi darlaga rehta hai ki police gharke andar na aa jaaye, ha-

mare bacchon ko le jaaye(we are scared that the police shouldn’t enter ourhouse and take our children).” She added that shehad instructed the boys notto leave the house. “What ifthey look similar to someonewho is in those posters andthe police take them for interrogation,” she said.

Salma (53), another resident of Rehmat Nagar, saidshe saw a drone hovering over her residence on December 25 evening. “Now theyare taking pictures of us drying clothes also. What if theytake pictures of our childrenin these cameras and postthem too,” she asked.

Friday prayers in Baghiyawas marked by announcements on loud speakersfrom a mosque urging people to either return to workor their homes so as to ensure peace in the locality.

Incidents of December 20 leave residents apprehensive

Hemani Bhandari

FIROZABAD

Fear in the air: People in Firozabad say they are afraid of getting picked up by the police. * HEMANI BHANDARI

Posters, drones keep fearfullocals indoors in Firozabad

A ND-NDE

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DELHI THE HINDU

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CITY

Dance: The second day of IIC WinterFestival of Dance will feature a Sat-triya recital by Meenakshi Medhi fromDelhi, a disciple of the late Guru Ad-hyapak Jibanjit Dutta and AdhyapakHaricharan Bhuyan Borbayan, fol-lowed by a Kuchipudi recital by VidhyaS. from Chennai, a disciple of GuruKalaimamani Sailaja, at C.D. Desh-mukh Auditorium, India InternationalCentre (IIC, 6 p.m.

Exhibition: “The Homeland” an ex-hibition that interrogates the idea ofhome by Moutushi Chakraborty atKamaladevi Complex, IIC, 11 a.m. - 7p.m.

Exhibition: ‘Alekhya’, a group showof painting exhibition by Artist Nidhiand Artist Mohit Bhardwaj along withtheir mentors Artist Ganesh PrasadSahu and Artist Krishna Shreshtha atAIFACS, 11 a.m. - 7 p.m.

Exhibition: “India: A Mapful Story”,an exhibition of historical maps andother engravings by Anubhav Nath,Curatorial Director of Ojas Art Galleryat 1AQ, Qutab Minar Roundabout,Mehrauli Road, 11 a.m. - 7 p.m.

(Mail your listings for this column [email protected])

DELHI TODAY

Over 350 people were detained on Friday after theystaged a demonstration outside Uttar Pradesh Bhawanhere over alleged policeatrocities against those protesting the Citizenship(Amendment) Act (CAA) andthe proposed panIndia National Register of Citizens(NRC).

Deputy Commissioner ofPolice (New Delhi) Eish Singhal said the protest was heldin violation of Section 144 ofthe CrPC imposed in the area.

“The protesters did nothave permission and wereasked not to protest but theyrefused to follow the directions issued by the police...357 protesters, including75 women, were taken toMandir Marg and ConnaughtPlace police stations. All ofthem were released by 5p.m,” he said.

The offi��cer said on Thursday, Badre Alam, the leader ofthe protesters, was told bythe police to take proper permission to hold a protest atU.P. Bhawan or conduct thesame at Jantar Mantar. “Buthe did not pay any heed to theadvice of the police,” the DCPadded.

The police said they haddeployed adequate securitypersonnel in and around U.P.Bhawan.

“Most of the roads leadingto the Bhawan were barricaded. The police and paramilitary personnel were deployed to stop any protestersmarching towards U.P. Bhawan,” said an offi��cer.

Around 150 people marching towards U.P. Bhawan weredetained at Kautilya Margroundabout. All of them weretaken to Mandir Marg policestation in buses, the policesaid. There was also a water

cannon on standby at thespot, they said.

Some of the protesterswere sent back before theyreached U.P. Bhawan. Udbhav Seth (19), a student of Delhi University, who wasstopped nearly halfakmaway from U.P. Bhawan said:“I told them [police] that Iwas going to meet my parentswho work nearby but theyasked me to go back anyway.”

No batons, police toldA policeman on duty at Kautilya Marg said: “We have clear

instructions to not allow anyperson to go beyond the barricade. We have been instructed not to hold baton orshield while dealing withprotesters.” Students of various colleges and peoplefrom various localities participated in the stir.

Jor Bagh protestIn another protest at JorBagh, around 100 protestersmarching towards Prime Minister Narendra Modi's residence to demand the releaseof Bhim Army Chief Chan

drashekhar Azad and againstthe CAA were stopped by thepolice outside Jor Bagh metrostation.

Delhi Police SpokespersonM.S. Randhawa said all theprotests, held across the city,ended peacefully.

“We had made elaboratesecurity arrangements. People gathered at many placesbut dispersed after a peacefulprotest. We had deployeddrones to keep watch on antisocial elements,” he said.

The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation on Friday closed theLok Kalyan Marg metro station, for over an hour, due todemonstrations outside theU.P. Bhawan.

(With inputs from Elisha Vermani)

Over 300 detained for protestingoutside U.P. Bhawan against CAADCP says stir conducted in violation of Section 144, detainees released by 5 p.m.

SAURABH TRIVEDI

NEW DELHI

(Above) Women beingdetained during a protestagainst the CAA; studentsraise slogans outside U.P.Bhawan on Friday.

* R.V. MOORTHY

Hundreds of people gathered outside Jama Masjid inOld Delhi to protest againstthe Citizen (Amendment)Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) onFriday.

With placards reading —“India against CAA NRC”“Withdraw CAA” and “WeDemand Equality” — theprotest amid police presencewas peaceful.

Former Congress MLAShoaib Iqbal and Congressleader Alka Lamba wereamong those who headedthe protest, though many ofthe protesters were peoplewho came for namaz at themosque.

The protestors said theywill continue the agitation as

long as the government doesnot strike down the CAA andpromise to not implementthe NRC. Mr. Iqbal and Ms.Lambademanded that theCentre should call a joint session of the Parliament andtake back CAA, and also tellpeople that NRC will not beimplemented.

Identify me: LambaWearing a hijab before entering the platform, Ms. Lambasaid: “Since the Prime Minister said in Jharkhand thatprotesters can be identifi��edby their clothes, people likeme have started to changetheir clothes. Now identifywho is a Hindu and who is aMuslim.”

A 25yearold protester, Irshad Ahmad, who works at ashop, had come to the mos

que to off��er prayer when hecame to know about the stir.“We are protesting so thatour voices are heard.”

A senior citizen, FahimAktar, who gives tuitions fora living said: “Now that BabriMasjid issue is over and weMuslims have accepted thatverdict, the BJP is looking forsomething else to divide people.” Mohammad Suhail,29, who had come from Laxmi Nagar with a handmadeposter that reads — Indiaagainst CAA NRC — said:“Modiji has accepted refugees from six religions, thenwhy not Muslims? We had also fought for independence.” Mr. Suhail said hehad to come to Jama Masjidto protest as the police didnot allow him to the same inLaxmi Nagar. When asked

whether the protest is dyingdown at Jama Masjid, 24yearold DU student Mohammad Numan, said: “Police’sviolence is very high. In Banaras, people were draggedout of their houses andbeaten.”

“Those who failed in ClassX and XII are now telling university students that theyare being misled,” he added.

The protesters said compared to last Friday whenthere was a call for protestand people had shut theirshops in Old Delhi, this time,the stir was “weaker”.

Meanwhile, 40yearoldKurshid Ahmed, selling capsand prayer beads said: “Thenumber of tourists has fallenby at least 70% since theprotests began and the business is also aff��ected.”

Cong. leaders head stir; will continue agitation till govt. strikes down CAA: demonstrators

Staff reporter

New Delhi

Protesters raise slogans against CAA and NRC on Friday outside Jama Masjid in Old Delhi. * SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR

Jama Masjid observes peaceful protest

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday said diversity isthe “biggest quality of India”and if anyone is trying tosnatch it, then people have tomake all eff��orts to stop them.

Addressing a Christmasand New Year celebration atthe Delhi Assembly, he said:“Our country’s soul is that ithas diff��erent religions,castes, languages, and cul

tures. You will not fi��nd thisdiversity in any other country, which is our biggestquality.”

He said the governmenthas tried to serve the poor asshown by Jesus Christ. “Ourgovernment has completedfi��ve years and the satisfactionwe have is that we have triedto run it on the path shownby Christ. For the poor, weopened Mohalla Clinics andalso made schools better,”

Mr. Kejriwal said. He added ifthey could complete 1% ofwhat Jesus had said then hewould consider themselveslucky.

“Archbishop Anil Joseph T.Couto, Bishop Rt. Rev. Subodh C Mondal, Diocese Rt.Rev Waris K Masih, BishopRt. Rev Jacob Mar Barnabas,Bishop Karam Masiah, andMLAs present on the occasion,” an offi��cial statementsaid.

If anyone tries to snatch diversity,make all eff��orts to stop them: Kejriwal

CM says he has tried to run the govt. on path shown by Christ

Staff Reporter

New Delhi

The museum of Delhi MetroRail Corporation (DMRC) atPatel Chowk station on Friday turned 11 and a host ofactivities were held at the venue, said offi��cials.

An exhibition themed onsuicide prevention campaign‘#Nevergiveup’ was also inaugurated on the occasion.The campaign is an initiativeof the DMRC launched earlier this year to spreadawareness on suicide

prevention.Established in 2008, the

museum has been a specialattraction for visitors andcommuters of the Delhi Metro over the past decade.

The museum has alsobeen the venue for variousevents and initiatives takenup for children by the DMRC.

“Over 30 girl childrenfrom the NGO — SarthakPrayas — were invited to visitthe museum and take part inthe anniversary celebrations,” the DMRC said in a

statement.

Help those in distressThe children were told aboutthe history of the Delhi Metro. A ‘nukkad natak’ by artists was also organised forthem.

A pledge was administered to the children to staypositive and help those indistress. To spread the message, takeaway cards withpositive messages were keptat the exhibition, which canbe collected by the visitors.

Delhi Metro museum turns 11, launchesexhibition on suicide prevention campaign

DMRC invites 30 girls from NGO, organises ‘nukkad natak’

Press Trust of India

New Delhi

A court here allowed the police on Friday to carry out abone ossifi��cation test to ascertain the age of an accused, arrested in connection with a violent protest atSeemapuri against the Citizenship (Amendment) Actand National Register of Citizens, claiming juvenility.

Metropolitan MagistrateGita passed the directions after the police submitted that

the accused did not have anyvalid age proof and it needsto conduct the test. Thecourt directed the MedicalSuperintendent of GTB hospital to conduct the test onDecember 28 and asked thepolice to submit the reportby December 30.

Bone ossifi��cation test“In the opinion of the court,the ossifi��cation test of accused is necessary as no document as mentioned in the

documents to prove one’sage. The court had earlier directed the investigating offi��cer to verify the documentssubmitted by the accusedand fi��le a report by today.

Meanwhile, 10 other accused arrested in the casefi��led bail pleas in the court.

The court had earlier sent14 people, arrested in connection with violent protestsat Seemapuri, against CAAand NRC, to 14day judicialcustody.

ments submitted by thecounsel for the accused toprove his age were not validas they were certifi��cates issued by a Madrasa where hestudied. The police said noother identity proof wasavailable with them andhence bone ossifi��cationshould be done to ascertainhis age.

Advocate Raza opposedthis and said that as per theCentre’s notifi��cation, certifi��cates from Madrasa are valid

Juvenile Justice (Care andprotection of children) Act,2015, is produced on behalfof the accused. And in theabsence of any such document, bone ossifi��cation testis last resort by which age ofaccused can be determined,”the court said. The court washearing a plea, fi��led throughadvocates Zakir Raza andMonis Rais, claiming that theaccused was a juvenile.

During the hearing, thecourt noted that the docu

Seemapuri violence: court allows test to ascertain age of accusedPolice say no valid identity proof available; asked to submit report by December 30


New Delhi

Man killed in accidentalfi��ring in RohiniNEW DELHI

A 22-year-old man was killed

allegedly after his friend

accidentally fired at him on

Tuesday evening in Rohini’s

Kanjhawala, the police said

on Friday. The victim,

identified as Ashish, was a

resident of Nizampur Village,

they said. His friend Gaurav

(22), was arrested on

Thursday from Bahadurgarh,

a senior officer said. It is

being investigated whether

the firing was accidental or

not, the police added.

IN BRIEF


THE HINDU DELHI

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CITY

Addressing traffi��c congestion and ensuring 24hourdrinking water in Delhi willbe on the agenda of theAam Aadmi Party government in the next fi��ve years,if reelected, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal saidon Friday.

He was addressing agathering at a town hallmeeting, the second oneheld as part of AAP’s election campaign.

“Travel for women willbe free in buses and electricity will be free till 200units as long as AAP is inpower in Delhi,” Mr. Kejriwal said at the PitampuraDilli Haat.

“As long as we have ourgovernment in Delhi, wewill continue to provide pe

oplecentric schemes. Previous governments havenot done it, and we do notcare about whether theywill do it in the future, butwe will make sure that wecontinue to work for thewelfare of the people," headded.

The Chief Minister saidthat AAP would make its

manifesto for the Assemblyelections based on consultations with people throughtown hall meetings.

“We discussed cleanliness on Thursday, and nowwe are discussing traffi��ccongestion. We will continue to discuss and add anissue each day to ensurethat all important pointsare covered in our manifesto, which is to be releasedaround January 1520,2020,” he said. The DelhiAssembly polls are likely tobe held in February.

List of roadsTalking about traffi��c congestion, Mr. Kejriwal saidthat the government hasdesignated a consultant tocreate a list of locations inDelhi where there are dailytraffi��c jams.

“The designated consultant will provide us with areport within 910 monthson how to solve the problem of traffi��c congestion inthese locations,” he said.

The Chief Minister addedthat they will then startworking on resolving congestion issues on each roadmentioned in the list.

“Just as we have workedon addressing issues in thefi��elds of education, health,power, water, sewer, anddrainage, etc., in the lastfi��ve years, we will work onresolving traffi��c congestionissues in the next fi��veyears,” said Mr. Kejriwal.

He added that currently93% of Delhi receives tapwater. “Our next step is toprovide 24hour water supply to the people of Delhi,”he said.

‘Will work on solving traffi��ccongestion in next tenure’Arvind Kejriwal says AAP will release election manifesto around mid-January

Staff Reporter

New Delhi

Arvind Kejriwal

A blanket of fog engulfs India Gate in New Delhi. * SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR



Through the haze

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal met with members of theTown Vending Committees(TVCs) on Friday and urgedthem to facilitate a survey toresolve the issue of displacement of street vendors byauthorities.

He also announced thatthe Delhi government wouldbear the cost of the survey,which is to be conducted bythe municipal corporations.

“I hope that the vendorswill not have to face any obstacles after the survey... industrialists and big businesses have a problem with streetvendors and smallscale businesses. They have a problemwith parallel businesses asthey stand to lose. I promisethat I will not let injusticeagainst you [street vendors]prevail” he said.

Source of employment“I believe the governmentmust ensure employment tothe people when the country

is suff��ering from major unemployment and economicslowdown. We often hearabout incidents where streetvendors are removed fromtheir places by the authorities,” Mr. Kejriwal said, adding: “In other countries,street vendors are encouraged as they are a source ofemployment.”

In India, street vendors areseen as encroachers... but inother countries, the vendorshave legal support of their governments... the same system

should be established in India, said the Chief Minister.

Mr. Kejriwal also sought toassure the street vendors thatafter the survey was conducted, vendors would be allotteda permanent space and noauthority would be able todisplace them.

“I want to request the civicbody offi��cials to call a meeting of the TVCs by Tuesday.The meetings will decide andfi��nalise the agencies that willcarry out the survey,” saidMr. Kejriwal.

Kejriwal says vendors should not be seen as encroachers


New Delhi

Big businesses have a problemwith street vendors, says CM

A street vendor prepares a cup of tea for a customer in OldDelhi on a cold Friday morning. * AFP

The Delhi Congress on Friday released a ‘postmortemreport’ on the ‘10point report card’ by the AAP government and termed it a“bundle of lies”.

DPCC chief Subhash Chopra said that the reality ofthe Arvind Kejriwalled government is that “it providesonly dirty drinking waterand polluted air to the people of Delhi”. He added thatthe AAP government hasbeen promoting itself with“misleading ad campaigns”and “lies”, and that Mr. Kejriwal has woken up to the reality of the welfare of the people only in the last threemonths of his government’stenure.

“AAP, which came to power on the issue of Lokpal andSwaraj, is now running awayfrom both issues and the Lokayukt, which was established by the then Congressgovernment, has been madeineff��ective,” said Mr. Chopra.

The party further claimedthat the AAP governmenthad not spent 42% of its budget on health and that the“infl��ated health budget remained only on paper”.

Former MP SandeepDikshit said that Mr. Kejriwalhad promised to set up 1,000Mohalla Clinics, but established only 189 clinics outof which 100 are not functional. He added that theclinics were opened aftershutting down 500 government dispensaries.

Congress picks apartAAP govt. report card It is a bundle of lies: Subhash Chopra


New Delhi

A report by the BJPlinkedthinktank, Public PolicyResearch Centre (PPRC),has claimed that Central government schools outperformed Delhi governmentschools in 2019.

The report, released onFriday, was compiled overthree months based onaround 1,000 Right to Information replies by the AamAadmi Party government.

Govt. rejects fi��ndingsThe report claimed thatClass 10 pass percentage inDelhi government schoolscame down from 95.81% in2015 to 71.58% in 2019; passpercentage of Kendriya Vidyalayas during the same

period improved from99.59% to 99.79%.

The Delhi governmenthas dismissed the reportstating that it was “unfair”to compare its schools withCentrerun Kendriya Vidyalayas, which admit studentsthrough entrance tests.

“Over 1.6 lakh Delhi government school studentssat for Class 10 Board examin 2019; the number in Kendriya Vidyalayas of Delhiwas around 7,800,” said agovernment offi��cial.

PPRC director and BJPMP Vinay Sahasrabuddhealleged that the Delhi government “indulged in propaganda” and publishedfullpage advertisementsbut did “nothing” on theground.

KVs outperformed Delhigovt. schools: think-tankReport based on 1,000 RTI replies


New Delhi

A 30yearold man died andhis friend was injured aftera truck hit their motorcycleon Signature Bridge here,the police said on Friday.

Sandeep fell from thebridge after his bike was hitby a truck as he and hisfriend Abhishresth, both residents of Nathupura, werecoming from Gokulpuri onWednesday night.

The police took the duoto a nearby hospital whereSandeep, who was an electrician, was declaredbrought dead by doctors

Abhishreth, 28, is undergoing treatment. A case hasbeen lodged at Timarpurpolice station.

One dead aftertruck hits bike


new delhi

Junior Engineer held fortaking ₹��36,000bribeNEW DELHI

A Junior Engineer of the Delhi

Jal Board was arrested for

allegedly taking a bribe of

₹��36,000 from a private firm

manager, officials said on

Friday. The AntiCorruption

Branch said Auragzaib Khan, a

plant manager of a private

firm. lodged a complaint on

Thursday alleging that a JE

posted at the DJB’s Keshopur

Sewage Treatment Plant had

demanded a bribe for

clearance of the firm’s bills.

A trap was laid and the accused

was caught while taking the

bribe, an ACB official said. PTI

IN BRIEF

CMYK

A ND-NDE


DELHI THE HINDU


CITY

Delhi residents have not gotten any benefi��t from theCentre’s urban housingscheme due to the ego of aChief Minister who does notwant to implement a schemein the name of the Prime Minister, Housing and UrbanAff��airs Minister HardeepSingh Puri said on Friday.

Delhi is the only Statewhich has not submitted anyproposal under the urbansection of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), afl��agship central scheme promising housing for all by2022. Earlier this week, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal launched the MukhyaMantri Awas Yojana for residents of the city’s slum clusters and promised to providethem with pucca houses.

“He has prioritised his egoand the name of a scheme,and he has sacrifi��ced thescheme for his ego... If deve

lopment is going to be basedon the nomenclature of ascheme, then you are depriving your own citizens,” saidMr. Puri.

Queries to the Delhi government about the State’sfailure to implement the central scheme, and Mr. Puri’sallegations, were notanswered.

Mr. Puri claimed that theAAPled Delhi government’sdecision to put on hold formore than a year a survey forinsitu slum rehabilitationunder the PMAY was a classic example of “a political

approach based on a pack oflies”. While the State hadconsented to the survey inJanuary 2018 and acceptedmoney to conduct the samein September, it never completed the survey, deprivingthe city’s slumdwellers ofbenefi��ts under the centralscheme, said Mr. Puri. TheCentre is now implementingslum rehabilitation throughthe centrally run Delhi Development Agency.

“If they had a conscience,they would have made atleast a proposal,” he added.

PMAY (Urban) waslaunched in June 2015 andincludes four verticals to develop urban housing, threeof which require the Stategovernment to present proposals to the Centre. PMAYdata shows that no such proposals have come from theState.

However, more than16,000 people in the cityhave taken advantage of the

fourth vertical, which is acreditlinked scheme whereby individuals directly applyfor interest subvention ontheir housing loans withoutany State involvement. Also,PMAY has completed morethan 50,000 homes in the city which were sanctionedunder the earlier centralscheme, the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban RenewalMission, with proposalscoming from the previousCongress government inDelhi.

In total, the PMAY hascrossed the one crore milestone in terms of houses sanctioned nationwide, asagainst a validated demandof 1.12 crore. However, only32 lakh houses have actuallybeen completed so far, withanother 28 lakh havingreached the groundingstage. The Centre expects tosanction the entire targetnext year and complete construction by 2022.

CM deprived Delhiites of Centre’shousing scheme benefi��ts, says Puri‘Only State to not submit proposal under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana’

Hardeep Singh Puri *


NEW DELHI

It was the coldest night ofthe season on Friday withthe minimum temperaturesettling at 4.2 degrees Celsius in the Capital with theMet department forecasting that it may slip furtherin the next few days.

According to the bulletin issued by the Met department, a fresh westerndisturbance is very likelyto aff��ect the western Himalayan region from December 30 night onwards andunder its infl��uence, Jammuand Kashmir, HimachalPradesh and Uttarakhandare very likely to experience light or moderatescattered to fairly widespread precipitation between December 31 and January 3 with peakintensity on January 2.

Under its infl��uence,light/moderate isolated toscattered rain/thundershower is also very likelyover Punjab, Haryana,Chandigarh and Delhi during the same period.

The Met said that due tothese prevailing meteorological conditions, coldday to severe cold day conditions will continue inDelhi till December 29.

December cold spellThe city has been witnessing the longest Decembercold spell since 1997 whenthe mean maximum temperature was 17.3 degreesCelsius.

This year, the meanmaximum temperature tillThursday was 19.85 degrees Celsius and is expected to dip to 19.15 degreesby December 31.

Minimum plummets to4.2°C, lowest this seasonMet forecasts further dip in mercury


NEW DELHI

Fire breaks out atbuilding in Vasant Vihar NEW DELHI

A major fire broke out at a

residential building in south

Delhi’s Vasant Vihar on Friday,

a fire department official

said. The department got a

call regarding the incident

around 8.30 p.m. and four

fire tenders were rushed to

the spot, he said. No casualty

has been reported so far, the

official said, adding that the

reason behind the fire is yet

to be ascertained. PTI

IN BRIEF

Thief, jeweller who boughtstolen ornaments arrested NEW DELHI

A man has been arrested for

stealing jewellery and a

jeweller was nabbed for

purchasing stolen ornaments

from him, the police said on

Friday. The alleged thief,

identified as Sunil Kumar (42),

a resident of Vijay Vihar, used

to sell stolen articles to

Rakesh (43), a jeweller in

Nangloi, they said. One

countrymade pistol and two

live cartridges were recovered

from his Mr. Kumar’s

possession. Stolen silver

weighing 4 kg and 520 gram

of gold ornaments were

recovered from the jeweller,

they added. PTI

The air quality of Delhi continued to be in the ‘verypoor’ category on Fridayand is expected to deteriorate and enter ‘severe’ category on Sunday. The airquality is likely to improveand enter ‘very poor’ category again by Tuesday, saidgovernmentrun monitoringagency SAFAR.

The city’s air quality index (AQI) on Friday was 373(very poor), up from Thursday’s 349, according to the 4p.m. bulletin of the CentralPollution Control Board(CPCB), which is the averageof the past 24 hours.

“The AQI on Saturday isforecast to be at the higherend of ‘very poor’ categorywith some areas entering‘severe’ category. Strongnearsurface inversion is

predicted for Saturday andDecember 29 night whichwill make AQI further deteriorate and touch ‘severe’category on December 29and 30,” SAFAR said.

On Friday, the average level of PM2.5 was 200.9 ug/m3 more than three timesthe safe limit of 60ug/m3, asper Indian standards, in DelhiNCR at 6 p.m., the CPCBsaid. But the level is morethan eight times the safe limit of 25 ug/m3, as set byWHO.

Air quality remains ‘verypoor’, likely to worsenCondition may improve by Tuesday

Staff Reporter

New Delhi

Following a plea challengingthe validity of an environmental clearance granted toa thermal power plant in Bulandshahr, the NationalGreen Tribunal (NGT) hasdirected the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB)and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi to collectrelevant data and furnish areport.

A Bench headed by NGTchief Justice Adarsh KumarGoel was hearing a pleamoved by NGO Social Actionfor Forest and Environment(SAFE), which also soughtdirections to collect ambient air quality for the winter months this season.

While passing its order,the Bench said, “Let thejoint committee of the CPCBand IITDelhi collect the da

ta and furnish the same byFebruary 19. The State [Uttar Pradesh] pollution control board may provide requisite logistics to thecommittee for the purpose.”

Earlier, following a reportfurnished by an expert appraisal committee, the NGThad said, “A proper verifi��edinformation has to belooked into...” and had directed the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change to furnish anaffi��davit.

NGT seeks report onclearance to thermal plantPlea challenges environmental nod

Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI

A Delhi court has acquitteda Delhi Police subinspector (SI) and a constable in acorruption case as the Central Bureau of Investigationprobe offi��cers failed to recover the money allegedlytaken as bribe despite laying a trap at the police station where they were posted at that time.

InterrogationAccording to the prosecution, the SI had demandedand obtained the money asbribe through the constable at the police station.The constable was arrestedand interrogated in policecustody for two days, butthe bribe money could notbe recovered.

“Considering the totality

of facts and circumstances,I conclude that the prosecution has failed to provebeyond reasonable doubtthat there has been demand of bribe on the partof accused Deepak Vashistand acceptance of bribemoney through coaccused

Dharam Pal,” AdditionalSessions Judge Arvind Kumar said while acquittingthe two policemen.

“Admittedly taintedamount has not been recovered. The prosecutionfailed to show that therewas any conspiracy on thepart of accused persons forcommission of aforesaid offences and that accusedpersons had caused disappearance of evidence of offence,” the Judge furthersaid.

“Pondering over the ongoing discussion, I am ofthe considered opinionthat prosecution has failedto bring home guilt of accused persons beyond reasonable doubt. Accordingly, I hereby acquit them ofall the charges,’’ Mr. Kumarsaid.

Probe offi��cers fail to recover money allegedly taken as bribe

Nirnimesh Kumar

New Delhi

Court acquits Delhi Police SI and constable in corruption case

<> The prosecution

failed to show that

there was any

conspiracy on the

part of the accused

persons for

commission of

aforesaid off��ences

and that the

accused persons

had caused

disappearance of

evidence of off��ence

Arvind Kumar

Additional Sessions Judge

A Delhi court has allowed aman to recover ₹��24.20 lakhloan from his friend with 6%interest for the period his recovery suit was pending.

The plaintiff�� used to lendmoney to his friend as he required it for running his chitfund business. According tothe complaint, the lenderhad lent this amount to theborrower between September 2008 and January 2009.

The plaintiff�� would lendmoney and the borrowerwould issue promissorynotes to guarantee repayment. At the time of the repayment, the defendantwould issue cheques in his favour and take back the promissory notes.

For this loan amount, the

borrower had also issued acheque in his favour. Butwhen the plaintiff�� depositedit for encashment in hisbank, it was rejected with thecomment that the account ofthe issuer of the cheque didnot have suffi��cient money tomake the payment.

Thereafter, he served a legal notice on him but he didnot bother to return the money. Then, he fi��led a recoverysuit.

In his defence, the defen

dant submitted that thecheque the plaintiff�� presented to the back was actually astolen one.

But Additional SessionsJudge Brijesh Kumar Gargdismissed his defence, sayingthat though he lodged a complaint regarding the loss ofthe cheque, he failed to inform about it to his bank.

“The defendant has failedto produce on record anywritten information or instructions issued by him tohis banker for stopping thepayment of the missingcheques. The defendant hasfailed to give any such intimation or instruction to hisbanker till 23.02.2009 or thereafter, when the cheque wasreturned by his banker for insuffi��ciency of funds,’’ Mr.Garg said allowing the suit.

Court allows man to recover₹��24 lakh loan from friendCheque issued by borrower was rejected by the bank

Nirnimesh Kumar

New Delhi

An eightyearold girl was allegedly raped and murdered and a toddler was sexually assaulted in separatecases in Nuh in the past 24hours, the police said onFriday.

A 14yearold has beenapprehended in connectionwith the assault on thetoddler.

The eightyearold girlfrom a village in Nuh district, had taken her goats forgrazing in the forest withher friends on Thursdaywhen she went missing. Herparents found her body onFriday morning and informed the police.

“When she did not returnhome in the evening withher friends, the family alongwith the villagers searchedfor her till late at night. Theyresumed the search at daybreak on Friday and foundher body,” said Superintendent of Police, Nuh, Sangeeta Kalia.

The body had injuriessuggesting rape, said Ms.

Kalia. A case of murder under the Indian Penal Codeand rape under the Prevention of Children from SexualOff��ences Act has been registered in this connection.The postmortem was conducted by a medical boardof Nalhar Medical College.

The body was found at anisolated spot inside the forest, she said, adding: “Evenif the girl had screamed forhelp no one would haveheard her.”

She was strangled todeath with her dupatta, theoffi��cer said. The suspectwas spotted with the decea

sed’s goat by some villagers.“Five teams have been constituted to investigate thecase. The suspect is in hisearly 20s,” said Ms. Kalia.

Juvenile beats victimIn the second case, a teenager took a twoyearold girlto mustard fi��elds in Tauruwhile she was playing outside her home on Thursdayafternoon, the police said.

Her parents werealarmed by her screams andrescued her. The juvenile inconfl��ict with the law alsobeat up the child criedwhen he tried to rape her.

Teen apprehended for assaulting toddler in a separate case


NUH

Crime spot of the fi��rst incident. * SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

8yearold girl raped, killed in Nuh

A group of men sit around a fi��re on a cold Friday evening in New Delhi. * SUSHIL KUMAR VERMA



The fi��re brigade

Following a petition challenging the environmentalclearance (EC) granted toan integrated solid wastemanagement unit in Gurugram, the National GreenTribunal has directed theHaryana State PollutionControl Board to maintainvigil on the operation of theplant, while permitting theclearance granted.

A Bench headed by NGTchairperson Justice AdarshKumar Goel observed thatwaste dumps cannot be left

unattended and hence, theunits are required tooperate.

“Even though the datafurnished by the projectproponent may be open tochallenge, the fact remainsthat there is a huge wastedump site which cannot beleft unattended and suchwaste has to be processedand removed. In view ofthe above, we are unable tointerfere with the grant ofenvironmental clearancefor the waste processing facility,” the Bench said.

While directing the State

Pollution Control Board(SPCB) to be vigilant on thefacility’s functioning, theBench said, “However, operation of waste processingfacility must be subjectedto appropriate vigilance bythe SPCB and necessary safeguards be employed asper conditions of EC or asmay be otherwise considered necessary.”

‘Eco-sensitive areas’The directions came whenthe green panel was hearing a petition moved by Vivek Khamboj, who alleged

that the project was proposed to come up in ecosensitive areas.

“Main grievance of theappellant claiming to be aresident of the area is thatthe project proponent hasconcealed material information with regard to existence of the sacred grove ofMangar Bani which is inclose proximity to the project site as well as severalwaterbodies and ecosensitive areas in the Aravallilandscape,” the Bench alsoobserved while noting theallegations.

Plea challenges environmental clearance granted to solid waste management unit

Staff Reporter

New Delhi

‘Maintain vigil on operation of Gurugram plant’

Salman Rushdie’s ancestralhouse in Civil Lines here,which the globally renowned writer’s father hadagreed to sell to a Congressleader in 1970 but the dealwas stalled due to a disputebetween the two sides, hasbeen valued at ₹��130 croreby the Delhi High Court.

The dispute had gone allthe way to the SupremeCourt, which on December3, 2012, ruled in favour offormer Congress leaderBhiku Ram Jain’s side, di

recting the Rushdies tohand over the house to theJains for the market price ason date of the order.

The apex court, however, left it to the Delhi HighCourt to determine the

market value of theproperty.

The High Court has nowdetermined the market value of the property, as onDecember 3, 2012, to be₹��130 crore, since the Rushdies said they had a buyerto purchase the house atthat price.

Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw said, however, that ifthe Jains are unable to purchase at that price, theRushdies will have to sellthe house for ₹��130 crorewithin six months to someother buyer.

Further, if the Rushdiesare unable to sell it for minimum ₹��130 crore within thegiven time, 60 days fromthen, the Jains would be entitled to purchase the property for ₹��75 crore whichwas the circle rate prevailing on December 4, 2012,the High Court said.

It said that if the Jainscannot purchase the property for ₹��75 crore, theRushdies would stand relieved of the agreement entered into by both sides in1970 with regard to thehouse.

Rushdie’s ancestral house valued at ₹��130 croreThere is a dispute over sale of the house between Rushdies and exCong. leader

Salman Rushdie *


New Delhi

One person was killed andfour others were injuredcritically due to an explosion in the furnace of a factory in Himachal Pradesh’sSolan district on Friday,police said.

As per the information,the blast occurred at Siddhivinayak Saria Factory inNangal village of Nalagarhin the district at around7.30 a.m.

One of the injured succumbed to his injurieswhereas the condition ofthe other four is stated tobe critical,police said.

One dead inHimachalfactory blast

press trust of india

Shimla

CMYK

A ND-NDE


THE HINDU DELHI


0DISCLAIMER: Readers are requested toverify and make appropriate enquiries tosatisfy themselves about the veracity ofan advertisement before responding toany published in this newspaper. THGPUBLISHING PVT LTD., the Publisher &Owner of this newspaper, does not vouchfor the authenticity of any advertisementor advertiser or for any of the advertiser’sproducts and/or services. In no event canthe Owner, Publisher, Printer, Editor, Dir-ector/s, Employees of this newspaper/company be held responsible/liable inany manner whatsoever for any claimsand/or damages for advertisements inthis newspaper.

Timings

DELHI

SATURDAY, DEC. 28

RISE 07:13 SET 17:33

RISE 08:54 SET 19:34

SUNDAY, DEC. 29

RISE 07:13 SET 17:34

RISE 09:39 SET 20:30

MONDAY, DEC. 30

RISE 07:13 SET 17:34

RISE 10:19 SET 21:26

NORTH

Western Uttar Pradesh,placed under an unprecedented security cover, witnessed a peaceful Friday.

Ahead of Friday prayersand apprehensive about violent protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act,sensitive areas of Aligarh city were put under the lens ofa web of CCTV cameras.

“We added 2025 camerasin sensitive areas such asShah Jamal which acted as adeterrent. There are morethan 125 CCTV cameras inthe Muslimdominated Upper Court area of the city,”said Abhishek, SP (City), Aligarh.

“We also reached out tomaulanas and senior religious leaders as last week arumour was spread that thewater and electricity supply

of Muslim areas would becut. In community meetingwe made it amply clear thatwe are not against peacefulprotest as long as law and order was not disturbed,” saidMr. Abhishek.

A local requesting anonymity said every activity of

theirs was being watched.“There is no privacy left,” hecomplained.

Ashutosh Upadhyay, whoworks with a private company that helps the police inplacing cameras and recording the footage in Kotwali,said there was no intent to

disturb people. “It is just tokeep an eye on any unlawfulactivity. The footage gets deleted after 20 days,” he said.

In Aligarh Muslim University, some nonresident students kept fast to protestagainst the CAA and copiesof the Act were torn.

In Meerut, the policemade public announcements reminding residentsof areas such as Hapur Road— where violent protestserupted last week — that itwas their city and maintaining public order was theirresponsibility.

People were not allowedto assemble at one place after the Friday prayers. Localreligious leaders were ropedin to make an appeal forpeace.

In Ghaziabad’s sensitiveLoni area, posters were putup by the district adminis

tration explaining that theCAA didn’t discriminateagainst any particular religion.

Like Meerut, the Bijnorand Rampur district administrations have also issuednotices to those who allegedly vandalised public property last Friday.

Week’s time to replyIn Rampur, the District Magistrate has issued notices to28 people for the recovery ofaround ₹��15 lakh. “They havebeen given a week to reply tothe notice,” said an offi��cial.

In Bijnor, locals complained that the police hasarbitrarily put photos ofthose who allegedly destroyed public property onDecember 20. Offi��cial sources said people were being given time to clear theirnames.

Western U.P. peaceful amid tight vigilDistrict administrations issue notices to those who allegedly vandalised public property last weekSpecial Correspondent

Ghaziabad

Tight security in Aligarh on Friday. * MANOJ ALIGADI

Villagers damaged an earthmover and a jeep in the Ratapani Wildlife Sanctuary inRaisen district after authorities removed a shrine of a local godman encroachingupon the point of origin ofthe Betwa river on Fridaymorning, said the districtCollector.

Denying reports of fi��ringby offi��cials, Collector Umashankar Bhargav said while ajoint team of foresters, thepolice and revenue offi��cialswas returning from the JhiriBaheda village, 30 km fromhere, after carrying out thetask, villagers skulking be

hind trees pelted stones onthe vehicles, causing damage.

“We have removed the encroachments and freed thepoint of origin of the river. No

injuries were reported,” hesaid. In the past eight years, alocal godman had developeda hut, a cow shelter and ashrine on the spot.

The Kamal Nath government a month ago hadlaunched a drive against encroachments and mafi��a in different regions and of varyingnature.

“We were caught unawares at night,” said HrideshSingh, sarpanch of the village, home to 4,000 families.“We awoke to loud thuds ofbuildings being broughtdown.”

At least the authoritiesshould have informed andconsulted villagers fi��rst, hesaid. “The centuriesold Hanuman temple, whose structure was built by the panchayat, is still intact. Onlyencroachments that cropped

up over the years around ithave been brought down,” headded.

‘Tear gas used’As villagers gathered aroundthe blocked roads, forestersfi��red tear gas shells at them,claimed Mr. Singh. “Especially on Sundays, there are people from Bhopal and elsewhere who visit the spot forpicnics. And residents of 20villages around come to prayhere.”

Recently, a panel set up bythe State government had fi��nalised the contours of a proposed tiger reserve, the seventh for the State, to becarved out of the sanctuary.

Villagers in M.P. oppose removal of godman’s shrine Structure was encroaching upon the point of origin of the Betwa river inside the Ratapani sanctuary

Sidharth Yadav

Bhopal

The shrine that was demolished in the Ratapani WildlifeSanctuary. * SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

With the production of anadditional 946 MW of electricity in the last one year,the power sector has got aboost in Rajasthan. TheState government also plansto obtain solar power, produced by farmers in theplants set up in their fi��elds,for the Grid.

Energy Minister B.D. Kalla said while inaugurating a33 KV Grid substation at Padasoli village in Jaipur district earlier this week that a660 MW unit of the Suratgarh Super Thermal Power

Plant would be dedicated tothe people by March nextyear.

The additional 946 MWpower included the electricity generated in the Stateand the power procuredthrough the interStateagreements.

Hybrid power policyMr. Kalla said the hybridpolicy for solar and windpower announced this yearwith the provisions forstamp duty and ceiling exemptions would help promote these two crucial sectors of energy.

Power sector gets a boost in RajasthanAdditional production of 946 MW Special Correspondent

JAIPUR

The Enforcement Directorate has started moneylaundering probe into investments of the Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL) employees’provident fund to the tuneof ₹��4,100 crore in the Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Limited (DHFL).

The ED investigation isbased on the fi��ndings of theUttar Pradesh police, whichhave arrested more than adozen accused persons inits case so far.

Among them are thenUPPCL Managing DirectorA. P. Mishra, besides twoother offi��cials, Praveen Kumar Gupta and SudhanshuDwivedi. The funds were invested in the DHFL between 201718, allegedlythrough brokerage fi��rms.

ED probe intoPF moneyin DHFLSpecial Correspondent

NEW DELHI

The governmentrun J.K.Lon Children’s Hospital inRajasthan’s Kota town hasordered an investigation into the death of 10 infants intwo days earlier this week.Aged between one day andone year, six infants diedon December 23 and fouron December 24.

The hospital administration has appointed a threemember committee, headed by Paediatrics Department’s chief Amrit LalBairwa, to probe into thedeaths.

The State governmenthas asked Medical Education Secretary Vaibhav Galriya to look into the matterand sent a team of doctors

from Jaipur to Kota.The hospital has main

tained that since the children are mostly referredfrom private hospitals inthe nearby districts to thegovernment health facilityat the terminal stage oftheir illness, an average ofone to three infants die every day.

J.K. Lon Hospital Superintendent H.L. Meena saidon Friday that though thedeath of 10 infants in twodays was high, it was “notunusual”.

Chief Minister AshokGehlot told reporters onthe sidelines of a functionhere that he would wait forthe investigation report before taking action in thematter.

Kota hospital ordersprobe into infant deaths Ten died in two days this weekSpecial Correspondent

JAIPUR

Published by N. Ravi at Kasturi Buildings, 859 & 860, Anna Salai, Chennai-600002 and Printed by S. Ramanujam at HT Media Ltd. Plot No. 8, Udyog Vihar, Greater Noida Distt. Gautam Budh Nagar, U.P. 201306, on behalf of THG PUBLISHING PVT LTD., Chennai-600002. Editor: Suresh Nambath (Responsible for selection of news under the PRB Act).

Regd. DL(ND)-11/6110/2006-07-08 ● RNI No. UPENG/2012/49940 ● ISSN 0971 - 751X ● Vol. 9 ● No. 307

Three students, who hadgone missing in Jhajjartown in Haryana, were rescued, police said on Friday.Two girls and a boy hadgone missing on December25 and 26 respectively,they said.

The parents of the girlsfi��led a missing complaintwith the police, a HaryanaPolice spokesman saidhere. “The girls had goneto a coaching centre on December 25 but did not return home,” he added. TheClass 8 boy went out for amorning walk on December 26 and did not return,the spokesman said.

The police traced theboy to his maternal uncle’shouse in Delhi, while thegirls were traced from Jhajjar, the spokesman said.

Missingstudentsrescued

Press trust of india

Chandigarh


DELHI THE HINDU


EAST

West Bengal Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee is likely toattend the swearingin ceremony of Hemant Soren asJharkhand Chief Minister inRanchi on December 29,Trinamool Congress sources said.

With top Opposition leaders of the country scheduled to attend the programme, Mr. Soren’sswearingin ceremony islikely to be a “show of unity” in the wake of countrywide protests against theamended Citizenship Actand the proposed panIndiaNRC.

“We share a very good relationship with JharkhandMukti Morcha and HemantSoren. So far, it has been decided that our party chiefalong with some seniorleaders would attend Mr.Soren’s swearingin ceremony on December 29,” a senior TMC leader said.

The ceremony will be

more of a “show of strengthand unity of Oppositionleaders”, he said.

“This would send out avery crucial political message in the wake of ongoingunrest across the countryover the Citizenship(Amendment) Act,” anotherTMC leader said.

Ms. Banerjee, earlier thisweek, had written to all Opposition leaders and theChief Ministers to unite andfi��ght the amended Citizenship Act and the proposedNRC.

Mamata to attendSoren’s swearinginIt will be a show of strength: TMC


Kolkata

Mamata Banerjee.* FILE PHOTO

CPI(M) Polit Bureau member and former Tripura CMManik Sarkar on Friday alleged that whenever theLeft leaders and membersprotest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act andthe National Register of Citizens, they are attacked byBJP workers while the police stand inactive.

In a letter to the DirectorGeneral of Police,Mr. Sarkar said that BJP workersattacked the Left Frontleaders at Belonia andUdaipur in southernTripura.

BJP workersattacking Leftleaders: Sarkar

Indo-Asian News Service

Agartala A new LPG bottling plant ofthe Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited was inaugurated by Odisha GovernorGaneshi Lal in Bolangir district on Friday.

Prof. Lal inaugurated theplant as VicePresident M.Venkaiah Naidu, who wasscheduled to inaugurate thefacility, could not reach Bolangir due to inclementweather.

The VicePresident expressed regret for not beingable to attend the programme. He was also scheduled to attend the platinum jubilee celebrations ofRajendra College atBolangir.

In a voice message, Mr.Naidu wished success forthe project which was completed three months aheadof schedule. “It will help women and provide employment to the local youths,”he said.

Set up at Barkhani village,the plant is spread over 23acres and has the capacityto produce 42 lakh cylindersper year. It has been set upat a cost of ₹��103 crore.

In his address, the Governor said that the plant willfulfi��l the needs of the peoplein 14 districts in the westernregion of Odisha. The plantis part of the Central government’s ‘Look East’ policy,he added.

Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan said providing clean cooking fuel tothe people was the main objective of the Centre.

Mr. Pradhan said therewere only 13.20 crore LPGconsumers in the countrytill 2014 and now it hascrossed 27 crore.

State Agriculture MinisterArun Kumar Sahoo, LokSabha MP from BolangirSangeeta Kumari Singh Deoand local MLA NarasinghaMishra were present.

LPG bottling plantinaugurated in OdishaSpecial Correspondent

BHUBANESWAR

The Odisha governmenthas instructed all districtauthorities to keep aclose watch on stockingof onions and potatoes byunscrupulous tradersand take stringent actionagainst them to check therising prices.

In letters to the DistrictCollectors, the Food andConsumer Welfare Department asked them tocarry out raids on business premises to trackthe wholesale and retailprices by verifying bills,vouchers and stocklimits.

Mentioning that theOdisha Potato and Onion(Storage Control) Amendment Order, 2019, willnow be strictly enforced,the letter said that stocklimit of the tuber and thebulb would be fi��xed forthe traders.

Odisha ordersaction againstonion hoarders


Bhubaneswar

Senior Congress leader TarunGogoi on Friday called PrimeMinister Narendra Modi a“liar” for saying that there isno detention camp in thecountry and claimed that theBJPled government at theCentre had sanctioned ₹��46crore for one in Assam’s Goalpara district.

On Gauhati HC orderMr. Gogoi said his governmentin Assam had set up detentioncamps in the State as per aGauhati High Court order.Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had suggestedsuch camps for illegal immigrants, he said.

“Mr. Modi is a liar,” Mr. Gogoi said at a press conferencehere referring to a rally by thePrime Minister in the nationalcapital in which he had saidthat there is no detentioncamp in the country.

“In 2018, the Narendra Modi government had sanctioned

₹��46 crore for the largest detention centre at Matia in Goalpara district of Assam for housing 3,000 illegal immigrants.Suddenly he says there is nodetention camp,” Mr. Gogoisaid.

“Why did the BJP government in 2018 sanction ₹��46crore? This shows Mr. Modi isa liar,” he added.

He said the Congress government which he helmed inthe State had set up detentioncamps in Assam as per the di

rections of the Gauhati HighCourt in 2008.

Mr. Gogoi had led threeconsecutive governments inthe State from 2001 to 2016.

Foreigners’ Tribunal“They (BJP) say these (detention) camps were set up by theCongress. We set them up asper the order of the HighCourt to detain people whowere declared ‘foreigners’ bythe Foreigners’ Tribunal,” headded.

Modi lying about detentioncamps, says Tarun Gogoi‘The Central govt. sanctioned ₹��46 cr. for one in Assam in 2018’


Guwahati

Congress leadersTarun Gogoi (right) and Harish Rawat withAssam Congress chief Ripun Bora at a press conference on CAA,at Rajiv Bhawan in Guwahati on Friday, * PTI

CMYK

A ND-NDE


THE HINDU DELHI


WEST

Union Minister Ramdas Athawale on Friday said he disagreed with RashtriyaSwayamsevak Sangh (RSS)chief Mohan Bhagwat’s assertion that all 130 crore people living in India areHindus.

Speaking in Hyderabad onThursday, Mr. Bhagwat hadsaid that the RSS consideredthe entire population of India as Hindu society, irrespective of people’s individual religions and culture.

Mr. Athawale, a Dalit leader who heads the RepublicanParty of India, a constituentof the NDA, told PTI that hedid not agree with Mr. Bhagwat. “If it is said that the RSSconsiders everyone Indian(instead of Hindu) and weare all united, I can understand. Hindus are the majority community, but there arealso Buddhists, Muslims,Christians, Jains, Dalits, andBackward Classes. All of usare one and united as Indians,” he said.

At one time Buddhismwas a dominant religion inmany countries, includingIndia, he said, adding,“Should we (then) say all ofus are Buddhists?”

Do not agree with Bhagwat’s ‘allare Hindus’ view, says Athawale ‘Hindus are the majority, but there are also Buddhists, Muslims, Christians, Jains’

Ramdas Athawale


Mumbai

The Maharashtra BJP on Friday demanded a report onreverses in Ahmednagar district in the October Assembly polls against the backdropof some prominent faceswho lost levelling charges ofinfi��ghting and sabotage.

Former minister RamShinde, who lost from KarjatJamkhed to NCP chief Sharad Pawar’s grandnephewRohit Pawar, and others likeSnehalata Kolhe (who lostfrom Kopargaon) and ShivajiKardile (Rahuri) had blamedinfi��ghting, and pointed fi��ngers at senior leader Radhkrishna VikhePatil. Mr.VikhePatil had crossed overfrom the Congress to the BJPin July, and won from Shirdiin the Assembly polls.

Party functionaries saidLoP and former Chief Minis

ter Devendra Fadnavis andorganisation secretary VijayPuranik heard out Mr.Shinde and Mr. VikhePatil ata meeting here.

While Mr. VikhePatil refused to divulge details ofthe meeting to reporters andonly said “minor diff��erencesdo exist in every party”, Mr.Shinde said the party had taken serious cognisance of

the poll reverses in Ahmednagar district.

“Mr. Puranik will submit afactbased ground report in15 days based on which corrective action will be taken,”Mr. Shinde told reporters.

He said the responsibilityof handling party aff��airs forupcoming zilla parishadpolls had been given to himand Mr. VikhePatil. Earlierthis month, Mr. Shinde hadlashed out at Mr. VikhePatilclaiming “in whichever party Mr. VikhePatil goes, hecreates mischief and adangerous atmosphere”.

BJP seeks ground report fromAhmednagar on poll reverses Some leaders who lost have pointed fi��ngers at VikhePatil


Mumbai

Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patilhad crossed over from theCongress to the BJP in July,and won from Shirdi.

Goa Chief Minister PramodSawant on Friday said his government, “if required”,would go against the UnionMinistry of Environment,Forest and Climate Changein the Mahadayi river issue.

The belligerence comesafter the Union ministry onDecember 24 wrote to Karnataka stating environmentclearance (EC) was not required for its KalsaBhanduridrinking water project onthe river.

Goa and Karnataka areembroiled in a dispute onsharing of the Mahadayi water, and the former has beenopposing the KalsaBhanduri project.

Speaking to reporters after a cabinet meeting in Porovorim, Mr. Sawant said,“The case regarding the Mahadayi river water diversionis pending before the Supreme Court. I would like tocategorically state thatGoans need not be worried.If required, we will also goagainst the Union Ministry ofEnvironment, Forest andClimate Change.”

High-level meetingMr. Sawant has called a highlevel meeting later in the dayto chalk out the futurecourse of action. “The Goagovernment will also writeto Prime Minister NarendraModi seeking his intervention.”

The CM hit back at Leaderof Opposition Digambar Kamat for suggesting a onedaysession of the Goa Assembly,and said “those who allowedthe (Mahadayi) water to bediverted have no moralground to tell governmenthow to act on the issue”.

The CM said, during Mr.Kamat’s tenure as chief minister (20072012), Karnataka managed to divert the river water, but the latter “did

nothing to stop them”. Mr.Sawant claimed his government had got approval toconstruct six dams on theMahadayi, work on which

would be expedited.Meanwhile, the Progres

sive Front of Goa (PFG) demanded that the State government be dismissed and

the Governor’s Rule beimposed.

The PFG is an umbrellaorganisation of political parties like the Goa ForwardParty and the Shiv Sena, andhas been protesting the Goagovernment’s “ineffi��ciency”to protect the State’s interests on the Mahadayi.

“We have given a deadlineof 48 hours for the CM to resign. The deadline expireson December 28. After that,we will protest at all functions where Mr. Sawant ispresent,” PFG leader Hrudaynath Shirodkar told reporters in Panaji.

“We demand that the GoaAssembly be dissolved, andthe Governor’s Rule be imposed,” he said, adding Governor Satya Pal Malik had“successfully taken up” theissue with PM Modi earlier.

Mr. Shirodkar hit out atthe Centre for its letter toKarnataka even when theMahadayi matter was pending in the SC. He said thePFG’s protest on the issue onDecember 31 would bepeaceful.

CM says the case is pending before Supreme Court, people need not be worried


Panaji

Ongoing battle: Goa and Karnataka are embroiled in a dispute on sharing of the Mahadayi riverwater, and the former has been opposing the Kalsa-Bhanduri project. * FILE PHOTO

Mahadayi river dispute: if need be, willgo against Union ministry, says Sawant

Four people were killedand one man was seriouslyinjured on Friday morningafter their car fell into a drycanal along the JamnagarRajkot Highway in Soyalvillage.

One of the occupants ofthe car was unwell and theothers were taking him tohospital in Rajkot when themishap occurred, a policeoffi��cial said.

He identifi��ed the deceased as driver Haresh Karethiya (28), Rasik Kadawala (35) who was unwell,Naran Chauhan (45) andTapubhai Karena (45), allresidents of Jinawali villageof Jamjodhpur taluka inJamnagar.

Dhiru Kadawala suff��eredsevere injuries and is hospitalised in Dhrol town.“The driver seems to havelost control of the car,” theoffi��cial said.

Four dead, onehurt as car fallsinto dry canal


Jamnagar

Mohan Bhagwat

State minister and Congressleader Balasaheb Thorat onFriday said the need of thehour was to preserve democratic values in the countryas enshrined in theConstitution.

He was speaking at a function on the 121st birth anniversary of social activist andfarmers’ leader PanjabraoDeshmukh. He was the Unionagriculture minister in thefi��rst cabinet of Prime MinisterJawaharlal Nehru in 1952.

“There is a need to takeDeshmukh’s thoughts onpreserving democratic values to the current genera

tion. He was on the committee that drafted theConstitution. The essence ofdemocracy is mentioned inthe preamble and the needof the hour is to preserve itin the country,” Mr. Thoratsaid.

Minister Nitin Raut saidDeshmukh worked for thebetterment of society whilenuclear scientist and formerchairman of the AtomicEnergy Commission Anil Kakodkar said the legendaryleader’s contribution to education and agriculture wasimmense.

Mr. Kakodkar inauguratedDr. Panjabrao DeshmukhScience and Innovative Activity Centre, and said itwould inculcate an attitudeof research and innovationin students.

Mr. Thorat inaugurated alibrary of literature, souvenirs, and other articles ofDeshmukh.


Amravati

Need to preserve democratic values: Thorat

Balasaheb Thorat

Goa Governor Satya PalMalik has said that theState has been “cheated”on the issue of the Mahadayi river and Karnataka’s plan to divert its water for irrigationpurposes is “unacceptable”. He was talking to alocal TV channel onThursday.

“It is unacceptablethat Karnataka wished todivert the river water forirrigation, when Goa,which is located downstream, needed it,” hesaid. “It is unacceptablewhen your water is beingdiverted for irrigationpurpose for other peo

ple. I feel Goa has beencheated,” he said in response to a query.

“The Mahadayi issue isabout the lifeline of Goa.It is a very important issue. If water is reduced inMahadayi basin, then thesaline water will travelupstream,” Mr. Maliksaid.

“My praises are for theopposition here (in Goa)and the government whowent in an allparty meeting to Union minister Prakash Javadekar. Mr. Javadekar assured them tosolve their problem, buthe took time because Karnataka elections (byelections) were going on,” theGovernor said.

‘Goa has been cheated’Press Trust of India

Panaji

Shiv Sena MLA AadityaThackeray on Friday said social media trolls need to beignored, and in a swipe aterstwhile ally BJP, claimed“those who did not fulfi��l promises are not in power now”.

The reference was apparently to criticism of ChiefMinister Uddhav Thackerayby former CM Devendra Fadnavis’s wife Amruta on theSena chief equating the De

cember 15 police action onJamia Millia Islamia studentsprotesting the CitizenshipAmendment Act to 1919’s Jallianwala Bagh massacre.

Ms. Fadnavis had tweeted,“One cannot be a Thackerayby just putting Thackeraysurname. One needs to betrue, principled and shouldthink for betterment of people and party membersabove his own family andpower dynamics.”

In another Twitter dig ov

er Sena’s women workersopposing her for the comments, she had said, “youdont lead people by hittingpeople over the head, thatsassault not leadership.”

Speaking to reporters onFriday, Aaditya Thackeraysaid, “Social media trollsneed to be ignored and focusshould be on developmentwork. Those who did not fulfi��l promises are not in powernow. We should understandtheir plight.”


Mumbai

Aaditya hits out at BJP, says trolls need to be ignored

Aaditya Thackeray

Flying high: Protesters watch an anti-Citizenship Amendment Act rally being taken out at Aurangabad on Friday. * YOGESH LONDHE



Unfurling dissent

<> Vijay Puranik will

submit a fact-based

ground report in 15

days based on

which corrective

action will be taken

Ram Shinde

Former minister

Nationalist Congress Party(NCP) leader Ajit Pawar onFriday said his party’s leadership would decide on hisinclusion in the UddhavThackerayled Maharashtragovernment.

Speaking to reporters after inaugurating a sportsevent at Balewadi stadium,Mr. Pawar said cabinet expansion would take place onDecember 30.

Media reports and statements from a wide of rangeof leaders in the State haveindicated that the BaramatiMLA is the front runner forthe post of deputy chief minister in the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government.

Queried on his chances oftaking oath on December30, Mr. Pawar said, “I have

clarifi��ed my stand on this issue. I will follow the directives of the party leadership.”

Mr. Pawar had briefl��ymoved away from the NCPand become deputy chiefminister under BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis, but the government unravelled in 80hours and the BaramatiMLA came back to mentorSharad Pawar.

Will follow NCP orders: AjitPawar on inclusion in govt. Press Trust of India

PuneThe wood and silver casketcontaining relics of Goa’s patron saint Francis Xavier willundergo restoration in 2020at the hands of Aurangabadbased science branch of theArchaeological Survey of India (ASI) and the work requires immense precision, asenior offi��cial said on Friday.

In 1622, the CatholicChurch canonised Francis,and his body was placed in asilver casket and kept in theChapel of St. Francis of Borgia at Bom Jesus Church in1624. A new casket was madein 1637 by Goan silversmiths.

“We have got approval forthe restoration of SaintFrancis Xavier’s casket inGoa. Some formalities (ofthe approval) are remainingbut we expect the work tostart in the new year,” depu

ty superintending archaeological chemist of Maharashtra and Goa, ShrikantMishra, told PTI.

“The work is very delicate. The wooden part andthe silver plates will have tobe treated separately. Minuteexamination of the caskethas to be carried out. The 32plates which are nailed tothe wooden casket need tobe removed very carefully,”he said. He said it has to bechecked if the casket has atermite problem, adding thevelvet cloth inside is alsotattered.

Mr. Mishra said an ASIteam of fi��ve to six personswill be part of the restorationwork but more experts willbe pencilled in if required.

St. Francis Xavier died onDecember 3, 1552, on theChinese island of Shangchuan, at the age of 46.


Aurangabad

In 1622, the Catholic Church canonised St. Francis Xavier, and his body was placed in a silvercasket and kept in the Chapel of St. Francis of Borgia at Bom Jesus Church in 1624. * FILE PHOTO

ASI to restore woodsilver casket of Goa’s patron saint

Electrifi��cation of the Konkan Railway CorporationLimited’s (KRCL) routewould be complete withina year, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said on Friday.

It will help curb pollution as diesel engineswould not be used on theline, he told reporters atMargao in Goa.

“The State governmentis working towards makingGoa pollutionfree. Railways will contribute in itsown way by electrifyingthe KRCL line,” he said.

The minister also said innear future newer areas inGoa would be connectedby railway lines.

‘Konkan rail tobe electrifi��edin one year’


Panaji

CMYK

A ND-NDE

SOUTHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

DELHI THE HINDU


The Kerala government hasdecided to stop all proceedings related to the setting upof a Foreigners’ DetentionCentre in view of the “present circumstances.” It alsomaintained that the move toset up the centre “was initiated in 2012 during the term ofthe previous government.”

Responding to a reportthat appeared in these columns on Friday, a communication issued by the ChiefMinister’s Offi��ce said no fi��lesrelated to the project wereseen by the Ministers. Thecampaign that the State wasplanning to set up a detention centre was baseless andit had not taken any such decision as reported. A falsecampaign was being undertaken by some quarters inthis regard, it said.

The Centre had asked allState governments in August2012 to set up detentioncentres for housing foreigners who had illegally enteredthe country, or those whooverstayed after the expiryof passport and visa documents. It was meant forthose who were to be deport

ed to their homeland aftercompleting their punishment here. The Centre wanted the States to draw up proposals in this regard, thecommunication said.

Following the letter, theHome Department convened a meeting on November 4, 2015. The Social Welfare Department wasentrusted with the task ofsetting up the centres immediately outside the police department and jail premises.

On February 29, 2016, theDirector of Social Justice wasasked to submit a recommendation for setting up thedetention centre and a managing committee, consisting of the district social justice offi��cer and a DistrictPolice Superintendent, wasgiven the responsibility.

The Social Justice wing ofthe Secretariat sought information on the likely numberof inmates from the Directorof Social Justice and from theState Crimes Record Bureau.However, the SCRB did notgive any information. TheCentre had been sending reminders to the State departments regarding the letterthat was issued, it said.

No plan to set up detention centre: KeralaChief Minister’s Offi��ce says the move was initiated by the previous government in 2012


KOCHI

People taking out a rally to protest against the CAA, inPalakkad on Friday. * K.K. MUSTAFAH

A Norwegian tourist visitingthe city ran into trouble asthe Foreigners Regional Registration Offi��ce (FRRO)authorities in Kochi askedher to immediately leave thecountry after it emergedthat she had participated ina protest march against theCitizenship (Amendment)Act (CAA) in the city earlythis week.

JanneMette Johansson,71, a Norwegian citizen settled in Sweden, was in thecity since December 12, andparticipated in the People’sLong March on Monday.

She was questioned forhours by immigration offi��cials at the FRRO offi��ce atthe Kochi airport on Thursday before they went to herhotel at Fort Kochi on Fridaywith a directive to immediately leave the country citing violation of visa norms.

In a Facebook post on Friday, Ms. Johansson said Bureau of Immigration offi��cialsshowed up at her hotelagain. “I was told to leavethe country at once, or legalaction would be taken. I

asked for an explanationand also something in writing. I was told that I wouldnot get anything in writing.The offi��cer from the bureauis not leaving me before hecan see that I have a fl��ightticket,” it read.

Shortly thereafter, sheleft for the Kochi airport after her friend arranged aticket to Sharjah on an AirArabia fl��ight at 7.30 p.m.She was to catch a fl��ight toSweden from there.

At the Cochin International Airport, she was subjected to further interrogation for over two hours andher luggage was checked.

Now, Norwegian touristasked to leave countryShe took part in a march on Monday

Staff Reporter

Kochi

Janne-Mette Johanssonleaving a cafe in Kochi. *

REUTERS

Display of skills: Students performing Kalaripayattu against the backdrop of Tipu’s Fort in Palakkad on Friday. Kalaripayattu isone of the oldest martial art forms that originated in Kerala and dates back to the 3rd century B.C. * K.K. MUSTAFAH



Fighting technique

The annual fl��amingo festivalin Nellore district is roundthe corner with the wingedvisitors arriving in largenumbers on their annualsojourn.

District authorities, whoare planning to conduct thefestival in the fi��rst week of January, say they expect thenumber of birds to be muchhigher than usual thanks tocopious rains this year.

More than 40,000 fl��amingos can be seen in action atthe lake, said Sullurpeta Divisional Forest Offi��cer M. HimaSailaja who is overseeing arrangements for the FlamingoFestival from January 3 to 5.“Birds like Blacktailed godwit and Kentish plover,which are rare visitors, havealso arrived at the lake thistime,” Ms. Sailaja said.

A variety of aquatic andterrestrial birds, includingpainted storks, large and little egrets, grey pelicans, greyherons, and water birds likenorthern pintails, blackwinged stilts, northern shovellers, common teal, sea

gulls, terns, sandpipers, andcommon coots have come inlarge numbers this time. Thelake supports a rich biodiversity and high biomass of fi��shes, prawns, crustaceans,coelenterates and planktons.

“About 75 bird species vi

sit the sanctuary, of which30 bird species are migratory. The other feeding migrants that can be spottedare pelicans, painted storks,openbilled storks, grey herons, cormorants, white ibises, spoonbills, egrets, reefherons, and spotbilledducks,” Ms. Sailaja said in aconversation with The Hin-du.

Four venues — Sullurpeta,B.V. Palem, Atakanithippaand Nelapattu — have beenselected for holding variouscultural programmes andstepping up awareness onthe brackish water ecosystem during the festival as thewinged visitors make merryin the 600 sq km area covering the mandals of Tada, Sullurpet, Doravarisatram, Chittamur and Vakadu. Thedepartment has arranged forbinoculars for nature lovers

to view the birds. Educativefi��lms on snakes and birdswill also be screened as partof the festival, she added.

Breeding activity is on infull swing at Nelapattu,where one could see endangered species like grey pelicans, openbilled storks, little cormorants, spoon bills,white ibises and night herons.

A wide variety of birds likeegrets, terns, ducks and waders have also made it to thelake in good numbers. Therich fl��ora at the lake makes ita botanist’s delight. Invertebrates like prawns, planktons, coelenterates, annelids, molluscs andechinoderms thrive here, asdo reptiles like monitor lizard, calotes, cobra, Russel’sviper, and krait, and schoolsof fi��sh like sable fi��sh, white,black and silver pomfret.

Winged visitors fl��ock to Pulicat, with birdwatchers in towDistrict authorities plan to conduct annual fl��amingo festival in fi��rst week of January

Visual treat: Birds arriving at the Pulicat lake in Nelloredistrict. * K. RAVIKUMAR


NELLORE

The Andhra Pradesh Cabinet on Friday decided totread cautiously on the proposal for three capitals forthe State, by resolving toconstitute a highpowercommittee to examine boththe recommendations of ateam of experts led by retired IAS offi��cer G.N. Raoand the fi��ndings of BostonConsulting Group (BCG), expected to submit its reportin the fi��rst week of January2020, and pick the best ofthem.

The members of the committee have not been announced yet.

The government did notmake the muchanticipateddeclaration of Amaravati, Visakhapatnam and Kurnoolas Legislative, Executive andJudicial capital cities.

The threecapital movehad been vehemently opposed by farmers who hadparted with about 33,000acres under the poolingscheme, and the Oppositionparties, mainly the TeluguDesam Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party, which insisted that decentralisationof development (not administration) was the need ofthe hour.

“Chief Minister Y.S. JaganMohan Reddy did not wantto make a hasty announcement because he is aware ofthe concerns raised by farmers in Amaravati and he iscommitted to doing justiceto them and also elicit theopinion of all other stakeholders before going aheadwith a particular plan,” saidInformation and Public Relations and Transport (I&PR)Minister Perni

Venkataramaiah.On alleged “insider trad

ing” in Amaravati, Mr. Venkataramaiah said the Cabinet decided to hand over theinvestigation to the Lokayukta, CBI or the CBCID aftertaking legal advice.

He said a Cabinet subcommittee found evidenceof the largescale purchaseof lands by elected representatives, individuals close tothe former Chief Minister N.Chandrababu Naidu, somecompanies in which he (Mr.Naidu) owned shares andseveral benami transactionsa few months before Amaravati was declared as the capital in December 2014.

Details of those who resorted to insider trading anddared the government to institute an inquiry wouldeventually come out, hesaid.

Jagan didn’t want to make a hasty announcement: Minister

Staff Reporter

VIJAYAWADA

A.P. defers decision on threecapitals; panel to take call

The Belum Caves Festivalin Andhra Pradesh, whichwas to be organised on December 21 and 22, waspostponed to January dueto the dates clashing withGovernor Biswa BhusanHarichandan’s visit to Kurnool district.

Joint Collector Syed Khaja Mohiuddin told The Hin-du that alternative planswere made earlier to celebrate the festival on December 28 and 29. However, as these clashed withthe dates of Visakha Utsav,the district authoritieswere forced to postponethe festival further, he said.

“The festival will be conducted as soon as the schedule is approved by Tourism Minister MuttamsettiSrinivasa Rao. We expectthe festival to be organisedin January,” he said.

Belum CavesFestival in A.P.postponed

Staff Reporter

Kurnool

Chidambaram to begin‘Save India’ protest THIRUVANANTHAPURAM

Congress leader and former

Finance Minister

P. Chidambaram will

inaugurate the ‘Save The

Constitution-Save India’

campaign of the All India

Congress Committee in Kerala

on Saturday. AICC general

secretary K.C. Venugopal said

the CAA discriminated against

Muslim refugees and migrants

seeking legal status in India. It

chipped away at the secular

foundation of the Constitution,

which deemed all persons

equal under Indian law.

Do not implement NRC,NPR, Yechury tells KCR HYDERABAD

The Communist Party of India

(Marxist) has appealed to the

Telangana government not to

implement the National

Register of Citizens (NRC) or

the National Population

Register (NPR) as sought by the

Centre as these were aimed at

discriminating against the

minority communities,

especially Muslims. CPI(M)

general secretary Sitaram

Yechury said already Chief

Ministers of 13 States had

refused to implement the NRC.

The Kerala government’slapse in offi��cially communicating the allotment of twoacres of land and the decision to constitute a societyand its governing body replete with bureaucratsprompted sarod maestroAmjad Ali Khan to eschewthe project for setting up aninternational music instituteat Thiruvananthapuram.

Mr. Khan told The Hinduon Friday that so far he had

not received any offi��cial communication on allotment ofland at Kadakampally village, near the Veli tourismvillage, since the decisionwas made on February 18,2016.

He was also peeved at theformation of the society formanaging the institute. Thesociety’s governing bodycomprises Mr. Khan, his wifeand sons, bureaucrats andothers.

This was in total contravention of his concept about

the institute, and so he decided to opt out.

“Till date I haven’t received an offi��cial letter onland allocation, but only amessage to create an organisation consisting of my family members and bureaucrats, among others. If thegovernment was keen onfl��oating an organisation, itcould have opted for SarodGhar, a registered organisation in Delhi,” he said.

Mr. Khan had expressedhis desire to settle down in

Kerala and open an instituteto former Chief MinisterOommen Chandy when hewas honoured with the SwatiSangeetha Puraskaram in2015. Mr. Chandy hadpromptly consented.

Gurukula system “My dream was to revive thetraditional gurukula systemand have a gurusishya paramapara that would masterand propagate Indian music,its two streams, North Indianand South Indian schools.

certs, said that those inclinedto learning music should goto him with the sole intent tounderstand it and not tothrive in reality shows.

Linguistic barriers“Now YouTube is the gurufor the youngsters and that isnot advisable,” he said.

He also voiced his concerns about linguistic barriers that tend to divide people and warned againstinjecting communal venomin impressionable minds.

The guru would be the institution and his discipleswould take lessons from himin a bohemian fashion. It wasnot just meant to be anotherinstitute for paying salary toteachers by collecting feesfrom the students,” he said.

The subsequent decisionto form the society and itsgoverning body were all seenas a deviation from the original concept and he backedout.

Mr. Khan, who is travellingall over the world giving con

Amjad Ali Khan upset over communication lapse, govt. proposalsKerala’s decision to include bureaucrats in governing body of international music academy irked sarod exponent

Amjad Ali Khan

N.J. Nair

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM

The government is considering banning the PopularFront of India (PFI) and theSocial Democratic Party ofIndia (SDPI) over the violence in Mangaluru duringprotests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act that

left two people killed in police fi��ring.

Speaking to reportershere on Friday, KarnatakaMinister for Primary and Secondary Education S. SureshKumar said this was due tothe alleged role of the twooutfi��ts in instigatingviolence.

Ban on PFI, SDPI understudy: Karnataka MinisterSpecial Correspondent

Bengaluru

A team of researchers fromL.V. Prasad Eye Institute, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and theIndian Institute of PublicHealth, Hyderabad, has wona grant of ₹��10 crore for setting up a centre of excellence in health outcomes research and economics.

Announcing winners ofthe Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance Clinical/PublicHealth Research Center(CRC) grant, a release on Friday said the team includedDr. Raja Narayanan and Dr.Anthony Vipin Das of LVPEI,Dr. Chirantan Chatterjee ofIIMA and Dr. Murthy of IIPH,Hyderabad.

While Hyderabad was in

the reckoning to host theproposed facility, a decisionwith regard to location ofcentre would be announcedsubsequently, sources familiar with the developmentsaid.

The process of selectionincluded a rigorous application submission stage, an international peer reviewstage and a fi��nal interviewthat spanned over sixmonths.

Over the next fi��ve years,the CoE proposed to create afi��rstofitskind unit thatwould use big data in Indianhealthcare along with Machine Learning and economic tool kits to advance the understanding ofevidencebased policy making in Indian healthcare.

It proposed to recruitpostdoctoral fellows, research assistants and conduct training of doctors toengage in economical, evidencebased clinical decisionmaking such as cost effectiveness studies with datafrom India through the Clinical Research Training Programme (CRTP) Fellowshipsembedded within the CRCgrant, the release said.

An international advisoryboard of health economistsand medical outcomes researchers, including thosefrom Harvard and StanfordUniversity, would be advising the team.

Dr. Narayanan is the Principal Investigator for theproject and other memberscoPIs.

Venue of facility in health economics to be decided later


HYDERABAD

₹��10crore for research team to set up centre of excellence

Mandalam festivalends in SabarimalaPATHANAMTHITTA

The auspicious Mandalapuja,

marking culmination of the

41-day annual Mandalam

festival at the Lord Ayyappa

temple in Sabarimala, was

held with ritualistic fervour

on Friday. The holy hillock of

Sabarimala Sannidhanam

witnessed moderate rush of

pilgrims from different parts

of the country who have

turned up to witness the

auspicious Mandalapuja held

between 10 a.m. and 10.40

a.m.

IN BRIEF

Govt. receives panel’sreport on Tipu lessonsBENGALURU

Primary and Secondary

Education Minister of

Karnataka, S. Suresh Kumar,

on Friday said a decision on

the experts’ report on

whether to drop, retain or

modify the lessons on Tipu

Sultan in textbooks would be

taken after consulting Chief

Minister B.S. Yediyurappa. Mr.

Kumar told reporters here

that he received the report

from the experts’ committee

on Thursday. “I am going

through the report,” he said,

and added that a decision

would be taken after

consultation with the CM.

CPI alleges that Sanghwas behind office attack BENGALURU

Alleging that the Sangh

Parivar is behind the recent

attempt to set its Bengaluru

office on fire, Communist

Party of India (CPI) national

general secretary D. Raja on

Friday demanded the

Karnataka Home Department

to take action against those

involved. The CPI State

headquarters situated at

Vyalikaval in the city was

attacked on Wednesday by a

group of men who set fire to

six bikes parked on the office

premises. Party posters

stocked in the godown were

also reduced to ashes.

DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD


THE HINDU DELHI


NATION

Weather WatchRainfall, temperature & air quality in select metros yesterday

Temperature Data: IMD, Pollution Data: CPCB, Map: INSAT/IMD (Taken at 18.00 Hrs)

Forecast for Saturday: Severe cold day conditions and fog likelyin most pockets over Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, northRajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. Dense fog likely in isolated pocketsover north Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, subHimalayanWest Bengal, Sikkim, Odisha, Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura.

city rain max min city rain max min

Agartala............. 3.5....18.0....14.0 Kozhikode....................—....34.0....25.0

Ahmedabad...........—....26.0......9.0 Kurnool .......................—....32.0....21.0

Aizawl................ 3.0....19.0......9.0 Lucknow......................—....15.0......7.0

Allahabad..............—....17.0......6.0 Madurai .......................—....32.0....21.0

Bengaluru .............—....29.0....18.0 Mangaluru ...................—....35.0....24.0

Bhopal ..................—....22.0......5.0 Mumbai .......................—....30.0....19.0

Bhubaneswar.........—....24.0....12.0 Mysuru ........................—....29.0....18.0

Chandigarh ...........—....10.0......7.0 New Delhi ...................—....14.0......4.0

Chennai ................—....30.0....21.0 Patna ..........................—....16.0......9.0

Coimbatore ........ 6.5....30.0....22.0 Port Blair.....................—....29.0....21.0

Dehradun ..............—....19.0......7.0 Puducherry ..................—....30.0....20.0

Gangtok................—....10.0......2.0 Pune............................—....28.0....18.0

Goa.......................—....33.0....24.0 Raipur ...................... 0.5....25.0....16.0

Guwahati ..............—....24.0....11.0 Ranchi ...................... 1.0....17.0......5.0

Hubballi ................—....30.0....22.0 Shillong.......................—....14.0......6.0

Hyderabad ............—....29.0....20.0 Shimla.........................—....13.0......3.0

Imphal ............... 0.1....21.0......5.0 Srinagar.......................—......9.0.... -6.0

Jaipur ...................—....22.0......4.0 Thiruvananthapuram.........—....33.0....24.0

Kochi ....................—....31.0....25.0 Tiruchi.........................—....30.0....22.0

Kohima .................—....16.0......5.0 Vijayawada ..................—....30.0....22.0

Kolkata ............ 11.8....19.0....11.0 Visakhapatnam .............—....29.0....23.0

(Rainfall data in mm; temperature in Celsius)

Pollutants in the air you are breathing Yesterday

CITIES SO2 NO2 CO PM2.5 PM10 CODE

In observation made at4.00 p.m., Noida, UttarPradesh recorded an overallair quality index (AQI) scoreof 496 indicating a severelevel of pollution. Incontrast, Tirupati, AndhraPradesh recorded a healthyAQI score of 50.

Ahmedabad..... 55 .61 .27 ....85 ...86 ....*

Bengaluru ....... 12 .66 .50 ....78 ...98 ....*

Chennai .......... 58 .41 .20 ....85 .....— ....*

Delhi .............. 13 .14 .56 ..414 .350 ....*

Hyderabad ...... ..2 .68 .48 ..128 .113 ....*

Kolkata........... 13 .57 .44 ..211 .136 ....*

Lucknow ......... ..4 .29 .47 ..312 .....— ....*

Mumbai .......... 14 .49 .58 ..227 .172 ....*

Pune............... 69 .16 105 ..154 .116 ....*

Visakhapatnam 10 .59 .45 ..103 .....— ....*

Air Quality Code: * Poor * Moderate * Good (Readings indicate average AQI)

SO2: Sulphur Dioxide. Short-term exposure can harm the respiratory system,

making breathing difficult. It can affect visibility by reacting with other air

particles to form haze and stain culturally important objects such as statues

and monuments.

NO2: Nitrogen Dioxide. Aggravates respiratory illness, causes haze to form by

reacting with other air particles, causes acid rain, pollutes coastal waters.

CO: Carbon monoxide. High concentration in air reduces oxygen supply to

critical organs like the heart and brain. At very high levels, it can cause

dizziness, confusion, unconsciousness and even death.

PM2.5 & PM10: Particulate matter pollution can cause irritation of the eyes,

nose and throat, coughing, chest tightness and shortness of breath, reduced

lung function, irregular heartbeat, asthma attacks, heart attacks and premature

death in people with heart or lung disease

“She was a great teacher solong as you respected her.She would talk to you littlesounds, indications, et al.and she appreciated athoughtful response,” SqnLdr (retd.) Anshuman Manikar fondly recalls his experience of fl��ying the MiG27swingwing fi��ghter jet. Hewas at the Jodhpur Air Forcestation on Friday for the ceremony of deinduction ofthe last squadron of the aircraft with the Indian AirForce (IAF).

This also means that theIAF’s combat strength hasnow fallen to 28 fi��ghter squadrons, way below the authorised strength of 42.

Sqn Ldr Manikar said hisbest recollection of the fi��ghter jet was lowlevel, highspeed runs over range, “optimum mix of fun and watchfulness and a complete

adrenaline rush.”“Not a drawback really,

but fi��ghter trips were somuch better, ergonomicswise. But that was a smallcost to pay, given the diversevariants she serviced,” hetold The Hindu.

End of an eraAt the ‘winding down’ ceremony, the aircraft from theNo. 29 Squadron (SCORPIOS), the only unit in theIAF operating the MiG27 Upgrades, fl��ew for the last time,marking the end of the variable sweep (Swing Wing) eraof the IAF.

To commemorate the historic occasion, the squadronfl��ew in a fi��ve aircraft ‘Arrowhead’ formation, fl��ankedby the Sukhoi 30 aircraft.

The No. 29 Squadron wasraised on March 10, 1958 atthe Air Force Station Halwara with ‘Ouragan’ (Toofani)aircraft.

“The squadron is now slated to be numberplated onMarch 31, 2020, with December 27, 2019 being its last fl��ying day, thereby making theswing wing fl��eet a part of theIAFs glorious past,” the IAFstated.

“MiG 27 swingwing fi��ghter aircraft has been the backbone of the ground attackfl��eet of the IAF for the pastfour decades,” the Air Forcesaid in a statement.

The fl��eet earned its gloryin the historic Kargil confl��ict,

when it delivered rocketsand bombs with accuracy onenemy positions, it added

From 1985 onwards, theIAF has fl��own about 165MiG27 fi��ghters, licencemanufactured by the HindustanAeronautics Limited.

This marks the end ofanother Russian MiG seriesin the Indian inventory. Allthe other MiGvariants, suchas MiG23 BN & MiG23 MFand the pure MiG 27 have already been retired from theIAF. The upgraded MiG21 Bisons and MiG29s now remain in service of which theMiG21s are scheduled to bephased out very soon.

The IAF will continue tooperate three squadrons ofthe upgraded MiG29UPG forsometime, while it is also negotiating for another squadron from Russia.

The Navy operates twosquadrons of the MiG29K/KUB off�� its aircraft carriers.

MiG27 fl��ies into the sunset in JodhpurWith this, the IAF’s combat strength has fallen to 28 fi��ghter squadrons, way below the authorised 42

Dinakar Peri

NEW DELHI

Last fl��ight: The MiG27 fi��ghter jet at the deinductionceremony in Jodhpur on Friday. * SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Actor Kushal Punjabifound dead MUMBAI

Actor Kushal Punjabi, 42, was

found dead in his Bandra

residence in Mumbai on

Thursday night. He left a

note saying that no one

should be held responsible

for his extreme step, said the

police. (BMC Mental Health

Helpline: 022-24131212)

IN BRIEF

Centre to restore pension commutationNEW DELHI

The Labour Ministry will

enforce the retirement fund

body EPFO’s decision to

restore pension commutation

from January 1, 2020 — a

move which will benefit 6.3

lakh pensioners, a source

said. These pensioners had

opted for commutation and

got a lump sum amount at

the time of retirement from

their pension accumulations

before 2009. PTI

IPS officer Rajeev Kumarshifted to IT Dept.KOLKATA

The West Bengal government

has posted IPS officer Rajeev

Kumar as Principal Secretary

of the Information

Technology and Electronics

Department. Mr. Kumar, who

was posted as Additional

Director General, CID, West

Bengal Police, will replace IAS

officer Debasish Sen. Mr.

Kumar has held key posts in

the West Bengal police and

the Kolkata police.

PMC scam: police filechargesheet against 5MUMBAI

The Mumbai police on Friday

filed a 32,000page

chargesheet in the Punjab

and Maharashtra Cooperative

(PMC) Bank scam. It has

named former MD Joy

Thomas, former chairman

Waryam Singh, former

director Surjit Singh Arora,

and Housing Development

and Infrastructure Limited

promoters Rakesh Wadhawan

and Sarang Wadhawan.

In an event of great import tothe preservation of Africancinematic heritage, the negatives of an epic Somali fi��lmthought to have been lostwere “discovered” in thevaults of the Punebased National Film Archive of India(NFAI).

The Somali Dervish, afourhourlong 1985 masterpiece by eminent Somalipoet, playwright and fi��lmmaker Said Salah Ahmed,chronicles the revolutionarySomali Dervish movementunder the leadership of thelegendary anticolonial fi��ghter Mohamed Abdullah Hassan.

Hassan is revered as the‘Father of Somali National

ism’ and known by the sobriquet ‘Mad Mullah’.

The India connectIt chronicles Hassan’s twodecade struggle against British colonialism in the late19th and early 20th centuriestill his death in 1920.

Shooting of the 280minute fi��lm (also known as The

Somalia Dervishes) began in1983 and was completed in1985. It was produced by anIndian company.

In fact, the fi��lm is believedto be the only featurelengthnarrative motion picture pro

duced in the country as Somalia’s cinematic heritagewas buried under the ravages of a bitter civil war, whichcommenced in the 1980s.

“The importance of the‘discovery’ of this fi��lm in theNFAI vaults is hard to overstate, given that there is precious little information onSomali fi��lm heritage,” saidPrakash Magdum, Director,NFAI, speaking to The

Hindu.Mr. Ahmed, who moved to

the United States as the Somali Civil War raged acrosshis country in the 1980s, hadlast seen the fi��lm in 1985 inAbu Dhabi, after which it wasconsidered “lost”.

Subsequently, he made astring of inquiries in fi��lm archives across the globe, in

cluding the Washingtonbased Library of Congressand fi��lm vaults in Paris.

Director delightedMr. Ahmed was speechlesson learning that the NFAI didhave the negatives.

“It is like fi��nding your ownchild back after so manyyears,” said the 74yearoldMr. Ahmed, following his visit to the NFAI on Thursday,where Mr. Magdum, alongwith Ujwal Nirgudkar, consultant, NFAI, handed thereels to him.

Another Somali fi��lm, anhourlong documentary titled A future for Somalia

(1978), too, was found in theNFAI vaults during thesearch for The Somali

Dervish.

‘The Somali Dervish’ is a masterpiece by Said Salah Ahmed and was last seen in 1985

Shoumojit banerjee

pune

Lost treasure: Filmmaker Said Salah Ahmed, centre, with NFAIdirector Prakash Magdum. * SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Negatives of ‘lost’ 1985 Somali epic found at NFAI

CMYK

A ND-NDE


DELHI THE HINDU


EDITORIAL

Arun Kumar

The Centre and the States areso short of resources thattheir fi��scal defi��cit is burgeon

ing. The Prime Minister, at a function of the Associated Chambers ofCommerce and Industry of Indiarecently, was optimistic but theReserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor was less positive, admittingthat the country’s economic problems are also structural. The government has argued that itsstructural reforms would pay dividends in the long run. Whether ornot that happens, action is needednow. So, what should the government do?

Impact on tax revenuesIt has to give lead to the economysince the private sector, in its reaction to the slowdown, has lost confi��dence and is investing less,which is only aggravating the economic crisis. An RBI report suggests that business confi��dence,consumer confi��dence and capacity utilisation are down. So, there isno escaping the fact that the government has to garner resources

and give a boost to the economyby increasing its investments. Butthe slowdown has adversely impacted growth of tax revenues.

The government calculated taxrevenues on the assumption of a12% nominal growth. But, it hasbeen around 9%, both last and thisyear. So, in 201819, tax revenuewas short by about ₹��1.5 lakh crore.But this was not refl��ected in theplanning for the 201920 Budget.Therefore, given that the base forcalculating tax revenue this yearwas wrong and the rate of growthis incorrect, the revenue shortfallfor the Centre will be even largerthan last year — around ₹��2 lakhcrore.

The States get 42% of this revenue so they will get ₹��84,000 croreless. Further, the concessions incorporate taxation of ₹��1.45 lakhcrore will also mean ₹��58,000crore less revenue for the States.While the Centre has obtained₹��1.76 lakh crore from the RBI’s reserves, no such succour is available to the States. The Centre willalso get the proceeds of disinvestment but that is not shared withthe States. In brief, the States willhave a larger shortfall in resourcesthan the Centre. So, what can theydo?

The Goods and Services Tax(GST) Council met on December18, where it was expected to helpraise more indirect taxes by rais

ing rates. Mercifully, that did notoccur. So, revenue from indirecttaxes cannot fi��ll the resource gap.The States have also been complaining that they are not gettingthe funds that are due to themfrom the Centre. The Centre haspartly responded to this by transferring more, but that raises itsdefi��cit.

The Centre is required to givethe States: their share of Integrated Goods and Services Tax (IGST)and compensate them if the revenue growth of State Goods andServices Tax is less than 14%. Thislast is to come from the cess collected on sin goods and luxurygoods. One of the big contributorsto GST has been the auto sector,but with sales falling over the last10 months collections have declined. The Centre is apparentlyholding back the States’ share ofIGST and arguing that the cess collection is inadequate to compensate the States for their shortfall.

The dilemma is that if the GSTrates are increased, prices would

rise and demand would furtherslump, further aggravating theslowdown and shortfall in revenues. One of the suggestions hasbeen to raise the 5% slab to 6% or10%. It has also been suggestedthat taxes on petro goods and liquor for human consumption are under the purview of the States, andthey can raise tax rates on theseitems. But these will be infl��ationary moves and demand would fall.

The problem is compounded bythe shortfall in direct tax collections. This is both the result of corporate tax concessions and theslowing economy. Incometaxrates cannot be raised now sincethat would be seen as inequitable— rich corporates will pay a lowertax rate than the middle classes,who pay incometax.

Eff��ect of IT reductionThere is pressure to reduce incometax rates to boost demand inthe economy. But a cut in incometax rates will largely benefi��t lessthan 2% of the citizens who pay asignifi��cant amount of incometax.They are welltodo and unlikely toincrease consumption. Similarly,the cut in corporate tax rates willnot boost demand since neither investment nor consumption willrise. Investment will rise onlywhen capacity utilisation improves. Much store is being laid atthe doors of multinational corpo

rations relocating their factoriesfrom China to India but this will betoo small to arrest the current declining trend in investment in India.

Unorganised sector missedThe problem has been that government has been in denial anddelayed action till after the Budgetin July 2019. Even then it catered tothe corporate sector slowdownand not where the problem originated from: the unorganised sector. The concessions to the corporate sector have narrowed thefi��scal space available without raising demand.

If the unorganised sector is separately accounted for, the economy is in a recession — it is not just aslowdown as offi��cial data basedonly on the organised sector indicates. The fi��scal defi��cit at all levelsof government is already high so apolicy decision is needed on howmuch more it can be. If the fi��scaldefi��cit is allowed to rise further,extra resources can be used toboost incomes in the unorganisedsectors through greater public investments. In the 150th year ofGandhiji, his talisman, “last person fi��rst” is the need of the hour.

Arun Kumar is Malcolm Adiseshiah Chair

Professor, Institute of Social Sciences, New

Delhi, and the author of ‘Ground

Scorching Tax’

How not to counter economic stagnation The government has to garner resources and give a boost to the economy by increasing its investments

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The recent enactment of theamendments to the Citizenship Act have left many, and

certainly myself, very disturbed.The legislation itself is undoubtedly problematic and is compounded by the linkages with the National Register of Citizens (NRC). I wasa part of a People’s Tribunal on thedeployment of the NRC in Assam,and we found that even though itwas conducted under the aegis ofthe court, it was a disastrous exercise with terrifying consequences.

The protests that have followedthe Citizenship (Amendment) Act(CAA), 2019, were not surprising,but the manner in which the protesters were treated certainly is.The reaction of the law and ordermachinery to what were essentially studentled peaceful protestshas led to incidents of violenceand loss of property across thecountry, which is terribly unfortunate. This is a refl��ection of thetimes we live in and signals thatthe youth in our country have tospend the next signifi��cant amountof time battling a leadership thatcomes across, at once, as communal and authoritarian.

Subdued judiciaryAt such times, empathy is but anatural reaction, particularly froma generation that has lived throughand seen the worst of the authoritarian regime that was the Emergency. In this context, what I personally feel worse about is that thevoice of the judiciary in this narrative is either almost entirely absentor has been overwhelmed by astrong executive.

The CAA is touted as a “fasttrack” means of granting citizenship by naturalisation to what itidentifi��es as persecuted minorities(Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains,Parsis and Christians) from threeneighbouring countries (Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan).Those belonging to these communities from these countries willnot, as per the law, be regarded as“illegal immigrants”.

Restrictive defi��nitionSince the Bill was proposed, andafter it was eventually enacted, wehave seen multiple perspectivesemerge that off��er frameworks ofdiff��erent kinds to explain the legislation and the politics surroundingit. The primary, and arguably, themost important view is that the legislation is unconstitutional. It isso for many reasons, not least thatit is arbitrary and violates the rightto equality before the law enshrined in Article 14 of the IndianConstitution. It deliberately marginalises Muslims as a minority community, and uses religious identityas the basis for granting citizenship. In doing so, it erodes the spirit of the Constitution. There is nolegislative basis for singling outpersecution of religious minoritiesas the basis for granting Indian citizenship, just as there is no logic inrestricting “fast track” naturalisation to persons from three countries alone. Surely, persecution ofany kind ought to be the sole criterion for granting citizenship to immigrants. Restricting the defi��nition of persecution in this mannererodes the premise on the basis ofwhich the republic of India wasconstructed, and ignores the historical realities of the freedomstruggle (founded on principles ofequality and diversity) whichbrought us Independence.

Alternative perspectives existtoo, on the opposite side of thespectrum, fuelling a narrative that

the CAA is not harmful at all and isintended merely to off��er amnestyand a speedy route for legitimatemigration. Arguably, this narrative— that the CAA is not harmful —is amore important issue than thequestion of constitutionality, for ittries to sweep under the carpetthe grand design that this legislation forms a small part of.

Of a religious nationalismWhat is the grand design, you maywell ask. On the face of it, the implications of the CAA is to isolateindividuals who identify as belonging to the Muslim community. Ifyou restrict the understanding ofthe law, as the government wouldhave it, to applying it only to immigrants, then this law automaticallymakes Muslim immigrants secondclass priorities when they are onIndian soil, even though they mayhave made the long trek to Indiafor the same reasons (poverty, political persecution, etc.) that drovetheir Hindu or Christian neighbours out. If you expand the understanding of this law, as the government has overtly done (bylinking the NRC to the CAA), it hasimplications of making all Muslimsin India second class citizens. Indoing so, this law and policy subverts and even destroys fundamental constitutional principles ofsecularism, fraternity, andhumanity.

The roots of this lie in the ideology of cultural and religious na

tionalism propagated by Hindutvaicons, i.e., Vinayak Damodar Savarkar and his ilk, with Savarkarpropounding that the ideal wasthe “Hindu Rashtra (state), HinduJati (race) and Hindu Sanskriti (culture)”. In the form of religious nationalism, this ideology envisagesa nation under Hindu rule, a Hindu rashtra in Akhand Bharat (a United India), premised on the beliefthat only Hindus can claim the territory of British India as the land oftheir ancestry, i.e. pitrubhumi,and the land of their religion, i.e.the punyabhumi. In this context,Muslims and Christians are viewedas foreigners who are not indigenous to the territory of India, andwhose religion originated in a separate holy land.

My personal background linksup with this narrative in moreways than many would imagine.My maternal grandfather was thepresident of the Hindu Mahasabhain the 1940s, and the fi��rst writingsthat I was ever exposed to in myschool days were Savarkar’sworks. Writing in 1938, when Hitler was on the rise, Savarkar justifi��ed Hitler’s policies towards theJews and driving them away fromthe motherland. He said, “A nationis formed by a majority living therein. What did the Jews do in Germany? They being in minoritywere driven out from Germany.”While absorbing what I read as achild, and admiring (even now) hispoetry, I was also always questioning the Mahasabha as an institution, attempting to understandwhat prompted their actions. Evenin those times, I was especiallystruck by Savarkar’s obsessionwith Fascist dictators of the times,notably Hitler and Mussolini.

The ideological positions onmarginalisation, majoritarianism,and constitutionality taken by theHindu Mahasabha and its successors have been consistent, but intheir consistency, they have also

revealed fl��aws in holding on to animaginary idea of a Hindu rashtra,and disengaging from the realityof a culturally, linguistically, andreligiously diverse, modern India.

Because the CAA is immoral, apeople’s movement is inevitableand necessary, for otherwise thefundamental principles on whichthe constitutional idea of Indiarests will be destroyed for something that can render deep woundsforever.

A turning pointIn the wake of the CAA protests,the Chief Justice of India reportedly said that if people/protesterswanted to “take to the streets”,then they need not approach thecourts. Some could read this statement as a sort of warning thatgood behaviour was a prerequisitefor obtaining justice. In any event,in a democracy, protest and a recourse to the judiciary are optionsthat are legitimately available tothe people. Indeed, to dissent orprotest is the lifeline of a democracy. But, what is the judiciary supposed to do when society as awhole is protesting? In such a scenario, as is playing out now, thereis no clear line that can be drawnbetween declaring protesters asgood or bad.

Historically, Indian courts havehad a chequered history in tackling circumstances where they arethe fi��nal arbiter. Especially whenfaced with a powerful executive,courts have tended to falter, theEmergency being a case in point.This is a watershed moment forthis generation of judges to undothe wrongs done by their predecessors 40 years ago to the peopleof India. We eagerly await thesereparations.

Ajit Prakash Shah is a former Chief Justice

of the Delhi High Court and former

Chairperson of the Law Commission of

India

In CAA narrative, fi��nding the judiciary’s lost voiceThis is a watershed moment for the judiciary not to falter and for judges to undo the wrongs of the past

Ajit Prakash Shah

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Army chief ’s remarksIt is unbecoming of anArmy chief, now outgoing,to make a politicalstatement while still inservice (Page 1, “ArmyChief: leading crowds forarson is not leadership”,December 27). As anindividual, everyone hasthe liberty to hold or havetheir opinion oneverything, but one cannotclaim liberty to ventilate allone’s opinions whileholding a responsibleposition in an organisation.Unfortunately, the Army’schief’s tone and tenor onlystrengthen the perceptionthat such statements madeat the fag end of theperson’s tenure are in orderto seek a postretirementposting. The governmentmust strive to uphold theglory and the strictdiscipline the Indian Armyis known for. A.G. Rajmohan,

Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh

■ With his sweeping remarks,the Army chief has not onlyoverstepped the muchimportant line held in highesteem in a constitutionaldemocracy (the division ofthe polity from the militaryand the very supremacy ofcivilian leadership over themilitary) but also done greatdamage to his reputation andthe offi��ce he holds. Hispublicly expressedconviction could only addimpetus to the attempts byCentral government tocriminalise the protestsagainst the Citizenship(Amendment) Act, 2019. M. Jeyaram,

Sholavandan, Tamil Nadu

■ Perhaps the Army chief isbeing criticised a bit toounfairly. The context wasabout leading people in theright direction and it wouldbe incorrect to interpret thisas inteference by the IndianArmy in civilian aff��airs. The‘democratic leaders’ should

realise that the patience ofthe Army cannot and shouldnot be tested throughdespicable acts or deeds thatendanger the smoothconduct of democracy.B. Veerakumaran Thampi,

Thiruvananthapuram

Labelling protestersIt is unfortunate that theHome Minister, Amit Shah,has chosen to call thoseprotesting against theCitizenship (Amendment)Act, 2019, and the NationalPopulation Register as the“tukde tukde” gang(“splintering group”) ‘underthe leadership of theCongress and that theyshould be punished in thecoming elections’ (Page 1,December 27). The unsecularand divisive nature of the Actis very obvious in itswording. There were somewho said in Parliamentbefore the introduction ofthe Bill that even though thelaw was bound to raise a

controversy, the governmentdid not want to procrastinateon the issue. Hence theMinister cannot claim thatthe protests by students andothers are at the instigationof the Opposition parties.Instead of continuing toadopt a belligerent stand, thegovernment should initiate aconsultative process with allstakeholders.K. Natarajan,

Madurai

Confrontationist The ruling party’s unclearstance on the controversialCitizenship (Amendment)Act, 2019, and the NationalRegister of Citizens despitethe clamour and uproaracross the country is jarring.A civilised governmentalways pays heed to theneeds of its citizens andensures their welfare. Butthe government’s almostruthless stance against theminority communities isdisappointing and is

about higher ranks (within10) in a few sectors, it shouldalso feel ashamed about theshocking rank for commerceand industries which isresponsible for contributinghigher per capita income,savings and furtherinvestment. This also refl��ectson job generation and highergrowth rate. A low rank inease of doing business —there must be aninvestigation of its reasons —is a prime factor for theobstruction of investmentfl��ows to Tamil Nadu and thediversion of the course ofinvestments to neighbouringStates. Poor performance ofthe secondary sector is amatter of grave concern andwill aff��ect the present andfuture of many educated andtrained youth throughcontinued jobless growth .Rameeza A. Rasheed,

Chennai

spreading an air ofmelancholy everywhere. It isan act that spells India’sretreat from secularism.Secularism, which is deeplyrooted in our Indiannationalism, now hangs on aprecipice. The temporaryabatement of public angershould not be taken as a sealof approval for the CAA.Instead of prolonging theagony, it is necessary that thegovernment puts a lid on thecontroversy and adopts ahumanitarian approach. R.G. Athira,

Coimbatore

The high and the lowThe Tamil Nadu governmentis according wide publicity tothe allIndia ranksannounced and obtained bythe State in social andeconomic indicators (TamilNadu pages, “Tamil Nadutakes the top spot in GoodGovernance Index”,December 27). While thegovernment feels elated

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters emailed to [email protected] must carry the full postal address and the full name or the name with initials.

The government has acted with reasonable alacri

ty to create the post of the Chief of Defence Staff��

(CDS), who will head the Department of Military

Aff��airs (DMA). It was only four months ago, on August

15, that the Prime Minister stressed the importance of

creating this post, whereas two Defence Ministers came

and went after Manohar Parrikar promised that this

move was very much on the government’s agenda. To

be fair, the delay has been more a result of fears in the

minds of the three services — the Indian Army, Indian

Navy and Indian Air Force — of how such a development

could impact on the role and functioning of the three

arms of the armed forces, in terms of curtailing or in

fl��ating their importance. There must have been a paral

lel thought in the bureaucracy how such a shift would

aff��ect them too. This move will install the CDS, in the

rank of a four star general, as Secretary, DMA.

There is no doubt that the job of the CDS will be ex

ceedingly challenging, a task which is easier set than

done. The job calls for total transformation of tradition

al military mindset. The CDS has to restructure the mil

itary commands into appropriate theatre or joint com

mands for which a critical prerequisite is ‘jointness’ — a

term that envisions the various arms of the armed forc

es working in unison towards a goal. This is a very tall

order, considering India’s experience. Since Indepen

dence, the armed forces have been working separately,

with no concept of jointness. The only jointness that

comes into play eff��ectively is when offi��cers of the va

rious services go to courses in, say, Wellington, at the

Defence Services Staff�� College, or at the National De

fence College, Delhi. All that will have to change, and

change quickly, for a variety of reasons, not least the se

curity environment in the region, with the Americans

preparing to move out of Afghanistan and the restive

ness consequent to the dilution of Article 370. Accord

ing to the cabinet release, the new incumbent will have

three years to achieve this. It fl��ows from this urgency

therefore that the name of the next CDS will have to be

soon announced. It is also necessary that the fi��rst in

cumbent is given a term of three years so as to be able to

carry the ambitious vision laid out in the cabinet note

through to its conclusion. The job is strategic, requires

personal supervision, and cannot be left unfi��nished for

the successor to fi��nish. Given the challenges and the li

mited timeframe within which to accomplish it, allo

wances will have to be made for attendant hiccups.

Decisive shiftThe Chief of Defence Staff�� could fi��nally bring

about unison among the armed forces

The Union Cabinet announcement on Tuesday

that the National Population Register (NPR)

would be updated across the country, barring As

sam, at an expense of over ₹��3,941.35 crore, would have

been considered a routine administrative measure but

for the myriad concerns among the public about the go

vernment’s intentions. The announcement on the NPR

came amid continuing protests against the recent Citi

zenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), 2019, in many parts of

the country and lingering uncertainty regarding the Na

tional Register of Indian Citizens (NRIC), on which se

nior government functionaries have given confl��icting

statements. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sun

day that the NRIC had not been discussed in the govern

ment, but that did not mean that it would not be taken

up. His assurance that no Indian of any religion will be

adversely aff��ected by the controversial CAA rings hol

low, when the government has not cleared the air in un

ambiguous terms that it has no plans for an elaborate

plan to tabulate citizens. The NRC, as it was rolled out in

Assam, puts the burden of proof on citizens to establish

that they are indeed citizens. The undocumented and

the poor will bear the brunt of this approach. The pro

posed format for enumerating the NPR only exacer

bates this concern and adds a third axis to the ongoing

confusion and turmoil. It is correct that the NPR is not

about citizenship but only about residency. However,

when additional questions such as “place of birth of

father and mother”, etc are being proposed for the

forthcoming exercise, the concern that this may be a

prelude to the NRIC is logical.

Instead of coming clean and reassuring the public on

its plans, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has

sought to muddle the debate further by pointing out

that the Congressled United Progressive Alliance (UPA)

had prepared the NPR in 2010. It is nobody’s argument

that the state should not enumerate the population or

collect data on the people — which are all essential for

providing good governance. Never in the past, includ

ing when a part of India broke away as Pakistan on the

basis of religion, did the prospects of a religious test for

citizenship appear even remotely in this country. In

2014, the BJP election manifesto explicitly stated that

India was a natural homeland for “persecuted Hindus”,

and Mr. Modi made the nowfamiliar, and extremely

problematic, distinction between “infi��ltrators” and “re

fugees”. With the passage of the CAA, and the announ

cement of the NRIC, there is enough factual basis for

doubting the government’s claim that the NPR has

nothing to do with the NRIC. In the current climate of

panic among a signifi��cant section of the country’s poor

and the Muslim minorities, the government, at the

highest levels must speak up to bolster their confi��dence

in India’s constitutional democracy. Equivocation, and

polarising grandstanding on the CAA, the NRIC, and

now the NPR, may yield political dividends for the go

vernment but at a very high cost to the nation. This is

the time to douse the fi��re, not add fuel to it.

Fuel to the fi��reThe burden of proof must not be on

the people to prove their citizenship

To read more lettersonline, scan the QR code

CMYK

A ND-NDE


THE HINDU DELHI


GROUND ZERO

The Andhra Pradesh (A.P.) government’s threecapital proposal hasstirred a hornet’s nest and rattled

the 25,000odd farmers who partedwith their land, totalling more than33,000 acres, for a worldclass ‘Amaravati capital city’.

Speaking on December 16, the lastday of the Legislative Assembly’s wintersession, Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan MohanReddy said the idea of one fl��amboyantcapital with nine cities, as mooted byhis predecessor N. Chandrababu Naidu,was not fi��nancially viable and the Statecould instead have three capitals, whichcould enable decentralised development. “Visakhapatnam may be the executive capital; Amaravati the legislativecapital; and we may have High Court inKurnool,” he said, adding that a megacapital would require an investment ofover ₹��1 lakh crore which neither theState nor the Central government couldaff��ord. “The past (Telugu Desam Party)government spent ₹��5,800 crore in fi��veyears. The money was sourced throughCentral funding, Amaravati Bonds andother sources and we are paying a₹��7,000crore annual interest on that,”he claimed.

In the last 10 days, many villages inAmaravati have witnessed protests andrallies by farmers over the government’ssuggestion to shift the Secretariat andHigh Court out of Amaravati. On theother hand, the atmosphere in the districts of NorthCoastal Andhra andRayalaseema has been one of jubilation,as the people there feel that they are fi��nally getting their due.

The present insecurities of the Amaravati farmers have their roots in certainunkept promises of the previous government. Owing to multiple issues, theTelugu Desam Party (TDP) government’s ‘capital eff��orts’ did not progressbeyond building temporary structuresof the Assembly, the Secretariat, theHigh Court and permanent residentialapartments for bureaucrats and othergovernment staff��. Further, the TDP’shumiliating loss to Reddy’s YSR Congress Party in the 2019 Assembly elections left the farmers high and dry.

Five years since they parted with thelands after being promised the heaven,the farmers now stare at uncertainty.What was once touted to be a worldclass capital city now presents a disappointing picture.

What went wrong?Multiple factors have contributed toAmaravati’s slow growth. One, the Naidu government went against the Sivaramakrishnan Committee’s Report. Two,it picked multiple partners for planningand made frequent changes to theplans. Three, there was a delay in theWorld Bank loan process. And, four,fi��rms from Singapore did not showenough interest in the ‘Startup Area’project twoandahalf years after theysigned a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the government.

Following the bifurcation in 2014, theA.P. government pooled in over 33,000acres of land from farmers in 29 villages

of the Amaravati region, promising aworldclass mega capital. It wasplanned that Amaravati would havenine other ‘cities’, including a ‘knowledge city’ a ‘government city’ and a‘justice city’. The exercise was initiatedto develop the region and pass on thebenefi��ts to the farmers.

Unkept promisesFarmers were promised a variety of benefi��ts, including rent of up to ₹��50,000per acre for 10 years; jobs for familymembers; reimbursement of children’seducation fees; residential and commercial plots; all major infrastructurefacilities like roads, powerlines anddrains; and free health cards. However,most farmers complain that the promises were not kept.

Sudharani Boyapati, a farmer fromthe Krishnayapalem village, regrets notfollowing her instincts while givingaway her oneacre land for a capital.While most farmers of her village werewilling to part with their land, Boyapatimade news by strongly resisting thelandpooling exercise. Though she ultimately had to yield to pressure from thepolice, revenue and peer groups, she remained sceptical of the government’sdevelopment promises. Speaking to TheHindu, tears in her eyes, she says: “Today, I feel like crying out loud to myheart’s content for my past mistakes.The day I gave away my land was thesaddest day of my life. The doubts Iraised fi��ve years ago have come true today. The undeveloped plots that government gave in return for our land are lessvaluable compared to the price of ourfertile agricultural land.”

Prior to the pooling exercise, Boyapati was cultivating four acres of land, including three acres of leased land, making an income of up to ₹��1.5 lakh, whichshe says was three times the leaseamount paid by the government. “Iwanted to send my daughter for civilservices coaching but had to marry heroff�� as the rent paid by the governmentwas nowhere near the income from ourfertile land. The promised reimbursement of fees was not given for my son,who is pursuing engineering,” she says.The Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA), which undertook thelandpooling exercise, promised farmers that the area would become anotherSingapore, the farmers’ plots appreciatemultiple times and there will be a lot ofimprovement in quality of life, she says.

Financial diffi��culties are only one ofthe several problems faced by Pandu(named changed), a farmer at the Nelapadu village where the temporary HighCourt building came up. Due to lack ofphysical activity following the landpooling exercise, many farmers began

suff��ering from lifestyle diseases, hesays. “My father was administered astent in the heart last year. I’m becoming lazy as well. Earlier, agriculture hadkept us fi��t.”

He adds: “We are also struggling tofend for our children’s school fees. Thiswas not the case earlier. The landpooling exercise has caused us a lot of mental turmoil as there has been no development here.”

On the other side are farmers fromthe Undavalli, Penumaka and Nidamarru villages, where land is consideredmore fertile, who did not want to partwith their land. While some farmers demanded more compensation, the others simply did not want to lose theirprimary source of income.

Penumakabased farmer K.S. Reddywas one of the farmers who refused togive away their land and, as a result,were made to suff��er the state’s highhandedness. “Our names were erasedfrom revenue records. We were pressured by the police and revenue personnel. Ultimately, we approached the HighCourt and got a stay order,” he says. KotiReddy, who belongs to the same village,says the government did not fulfi��l itspromises. “The demand for land hasnow decreased. On top of all these,freeze on cultivation in the 34,000acres is a disappointing sight for allfarmers,” he says.

The TDP government was also accused of major manipulations whileconducting the landpooling exercise. Itwas alleged that political leaders andpeople close to the government boughtland at cheaper prices much before theannouncement of Amaravati as the location of the capital. The present government is planning a probe into such accusations of insider trading. Speaking

about the issue in the Assembly, Finance Minister B. Rajendranath Reddysaid, “People close to Mr. ChandrababuNaidu, other Ministers and their relatives bought over 4,000 acres much before the announcement of Amaravati.These people came from diff��erent partsof the State and bought the land. It issome kind of insider trading worthprobing.”

“What transpired in A.P. was that decisions were taken according to thewhims and fancies of a few infl��uentialpersons ruling the State. There was noconsultation with the other politicalparties. The people of the other regionswere kept in the dark. The voices ofthose who opposed the capital city being located in GunturKrishna regionwere gagged or ignored,” wrote I.Y.RKrishna Rao, former A.P. Chief Secretary, in his book Whose Capital Amara-vathi? back in 2018.

‘Not another Hyderabad’Following A.P.’s bifurcation in 2014, theUnion Home Ministry constituted acommittee to study the alternatives fora new State capital. The committee,headed by former Urban DevelopmentSecretary K.C. Sivaramakrishnan, recommended one major administrativecity and several other cities focused oninvestment, technology and industry.Most importantly, the committeewarned the government against building a capital in the VijayawadaGunturTenaliMangalagiri (VGTM) region. Itstated that the fertile land in the regionwas essential to ensure food securityand agriculture. It instead recommended Donakonda, where ample government land was available, as a suitable location for a new capital.

In contrast to the wishes of the TDPgovernment, which wanted a humongous and worldclass capital city, thecommittee wanted a smaller one toavoid concentration of developmentand wealth. “The committee is stronglyof the view that locating several governmental offi��ces within the VGTM area isboth unfeasible for fi��nancial reasonsand undesirable for decentralised development. It will signifi��cantly add to the“honey pot” character, similar to Hyderabad, which in turn will detract fromthe potential and growth prospects of

other centres in Andhra. It is questionable whether the existing government offi��ces in particular commissionerates, directorates etc. however numerous theyare, will be able to facilitate or generateeconomic development or employmentby themselves.”

The committee further added that itdid not consider a single large capital city a feasible option available to A.P. Theconcentration in Hyderabad of the legislature, the courts and the executive hadhappened over several years and was amajor bone of contention in the bifurcation process, it said.

The committee also spoke of the possible environmental impact of densifying the urban area in the VGTM region.It said there should be least possible dislocation to existing agriculture systemsas the districts of Krishna, Guntur andWest Godavari comprise some of thebest agricultural lands in the country.Also, Guntur and Krishna districts areamong the State’s most populated areas“Any attempt to convert agriculturalland into nonagricultural use will seriously displace this workforce, rendering [it] unemployed; loss of valuableagricultural land and disappearance ofsmall holdings [will] benefi��t only... thereal estate operators,” the committeestated.

Further, the committee also made aspecifi��c mention of the high water tablein the region and the related vulnerabilities. Quoting the reports of the Geological Survey of India (GSI), it stated thatthe high water table and vulnerable soiltypes may together lead to severe problems. “Any invitation to governmentoffi��ces and institutions to locate withinthe VGTM urban area may lead to a construction boom and haphazard development which may, however, seriouslystrain the existing infrastructure and aggravate the vulnerability of the area,”the report pointed out.

Suggesting a decentralised development across the State, the committee indicated that Vizag region in Uttarandhra; the Rayalaseema Arc comprisingKurnool, Anantapur, Tirupathi, Kadapaand Chittoor; and the ‘KalahastiNadikudi spine’ could be considered for distributed development. Expansion of all existing cities was also another option,said the committee.

Naidu’s greenfi��eld capital visionHowever, ignoring the committee’s suggestions, the TDP government wentahead with its plan to build a hugegreenfi��eld capital. As the exercise ofland pooling progressed, a grand ceremony was arranged for laying the foundation of the proposed capital. PrimeMinister Narendra Modi, on October 22,2015, laid the foundation stone for theAmaravati capital city, in the presenceof several other dignitaries, includingJapan State Minister of Economy, Tradeand Industry Yosuke Takagi.

On the same day, Singapore’s Minister for Trade and Industry S. Eswaranoff��ered the citystate’s support. Japanese Minister Takagi and Chief MinisterNaidu signed an MoU. Noriko Nasu, Di

rector General of the Japan Bank for International Cooperation, also signed anMoU with the AP government for facilitating foreign investments in the newcapital and region. Later, in 2017, following the Swiss Challenge method, theAscendasSingbridge Pvt Ltd and Sembcorp Development Ltd signed an MoUwith the A.P. government’s AmaravatiDevelopment Corporation to constructthe startup area in about 1,691 acres inthe core capital region, abutting the riverbanks of Krishna in Amaravati.Further, a special purpose vehicle wasfl��oated for the development of a startup area in which the Singapore consortium was expected to invest about ₹��306crore for a 58%equity partnership withthe ADP.

The State government also sentaround 125 farmers, out of the total25,000, to Singapore to give them someexposure on dealing in real estate andother sectors. The idea was to trainfarmers for multiple business opportunities. The farmers were also explainedin detail how Singapore, which wasonce a colony of fi��shing communities,emerged as an economic city.

It also took an inordinately long timeof three years for the past governmentto conceptualise designs for the capital.The government involved multiplefi��rms — like Foster and Partners, a British Architecture fi��rm; Japanese designfi��rm Maki and Associates; the Singaporegovernment owned Surbana Jurong; and China’s Guizhou InternationalInvestment Corporation. In addition,the government also involved fi��lm directors S.S. Rajamouli and Boyapati Srinuadd value to the designs. However, ultimately, there was no offi��cial announcement by the government on whetherany one design had been fi��nalised.

More than fi��ve years since the bifurcation, all structures built in Amaravati— like the secretariat complex, State legislature and the High Court complex—remain temporary. The failure of theAmaravati vision was possibly one ofthe factors that contributed to TDP’smassive loss in the Assembly election.

The YSRCP government decided toentrust two panels with the task of providing proposals on a new capital. Thereport by one of them, the G.N. RaoCommittee, which gave the threecapital idea, is currently being analysed by ahighlevel committee consisting of Ministers and top offi��cials. The secondcommittee, having offi��cials from theBoston Consulting Group, will submitits report in the fi��rst week of January.

A fi��nal call on the threecapital proposal will be taken only after these tworeports are studied.

An under-construction road in Nelapadu village in Amaravati, with the temporary High Court in the backdrop * V. RAJU

A divided State’s capital conundrum After 5 years of planning on using 33,000 acres of pooled land for an unfi��nished mega capital, Andhra Pradesh is now exploring newer options. Appaji Reddemrecounts the promises and realities of Amaravati, and the impact the new government’s threecapital proposal has had on the region’s farmers

High rises abutting an under-construction road at the Nelapadu village. * V. RAJU

<> Visakhapatnam may be the

executive capital; Amaravati

the legislative capital; and we

may have High Court in

Kurnool

Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy,

Chief Minister, Andhra Pradesh

<> I wanted to send my

daughter for civil services

coaching but had to marry

her off�� as the rent paid by

the government was

nowhere near the income

from our fertile land

Sudharani Boyapati,

Farmer at Amaravati

CMYK

A ND-NDE


DELHI THE HINDU


NEWS

FROM PAGE ONE

wish to live in Pakistanshould be allowed to cometo India. In 1950, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru entered into an agreementwith his Pakistan counterpart, Liaqat Ali — known asthe JawaharLiaquat accord— in which both agreed toprotect the rights of minorities in both countries.

People had fl��ed thesecountries to escape religious persecution and seekrefuge in India. Through theCAA, citizenship was beinggiven to them and it wouldnot be snatched away fromanyone in the country, Mr.Shah said.

“I want to tell every citizenof the country that in thisAct there’s no provision totake away the citizenship ofanyone, not even minorities. The Act aims to give citizenship to minorities whohave come from Pakistan,Afghanistan and Bangladeshand not snatch it [citizenship],” he said.

“You [the Congress]please do not mislead people. Don’t try to destroy thecountry’s peace. If you havethe facts, then present thembefore people,” he said.

It was Mahatma Gandhi’sdesire that after Partition,all nonMuslims who did not

Prove allegations onCAA, Shah dares Rahul

The Congress has maintained that the NPR, forwhich the government approved a budget last week,is a precursor to the NRC.More so after key changeswere made in the questionnaire prepared by the HomeMinistry for the NPR. TheCongress had also startedthe NPR but it is claimingthat its NPR was limited toenumerating ‘usual residents’ and didn’t tackle thecitizenship question, whichthe present NPR allegedlywould, with intrusivequestions.

Mr. Gandhi said, “Poorpeople will have to go to offi��cers and show their documents and give bribe. Theywill have to give a bribe ifthere is a slight mistake intheir names. Crores of rupees will be pulled out ofthe pockets of the poor andwill be given to the same 15people. This is the truth. It isan attack on people.”

He also attacked the government for the economicslowdown. The rate ofgrowth had declined fromnine % to nearly four % asper the changed techniqueto assessing the GDP. “But ifwe measure the growth ratethrough the old method,then it will just be 2.50 %.Poor people are asking thatafter robbing them of theirentire money, what havethey got [in return],” hesaid.

Prime Minister NarendraModi had failed to understand the crisis the countrywas going through with theongoing violent protests,crime against women and45year high unemploymentrates, he said. “He is merelywasting the time of thecountry. Apparently, he isnot able to understand what

happened and how it happened.”

“The money of poor people and farmers have beensnatched after demonetisation. Ten to 15 people of thecountry had benefi��ted with₹��3.50 lakh crore...Nobody isbuying anything and factories are getting shut. It’s simple economics. It seems thePrime Minister is not able tounderstand it,” he said.

Celebrating tribesEarlier, speaking at the inaugural function of thethreeday ‘National TribalDance Festival, 2019’ in Raipur, Mr. Gandhi said farmers and tribal people werethe major drivers of the economy, and unless the marginalised and diff��erent religions were heeded andunity weaved around diversity, the economic crisiswould continue and no jobscreated.

“Without taking everyone along, the economycan’t be revived. Everythought and voice must beincluded in the running ofgovernments, and theChhattisgarh government isdoing precisely that. It hasexemplifi��ed unity in diversity,” Mr. Gandhi said.

The threeday festival willsee performances from1,800 dancers from acrossIndia and six nations.

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Bhagel said theState, which had 32% tribalpopulation, had many unique traditions and cultures.“It’s our duty to protecttheir cultures and we havedone that. On the one hand,we have won the confi��denceof farmers and on the other,we have successfully wonthe hearts of tribal people,”he added.

Rahul equates NRC, NPRwith demonetisation

The Congress will take outfl��ag marches under the slogan “Save Constitution, saveIndia” across the country onSaturday to mark its foundation day.

Congress general secretary (organisation) K.C. Venugopal announced on Friday that other than the usualfl��aghoisting ceremonies inCongress offi��ces in the Statecapitals and the Delhi headquarters, the party wouldhold marches and read thepreamble to the Constitutionin various languages at thepublic meetings.

The Youth Congress isplanning to send copies ofthe preamble to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and

the Ministers, asking them toread it and understand thespirit of the Constitution.

Rahul’s itineraryFormer Congress PresidentRahul Gandhi will join theprogramme in Guwahati onSaturday. Guwahati was chosen as the venue for Mr.Gandhi’s speech becauseprotests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act began there.

“In the past few days,there has been widespreadprotests in colleges, universities and prominent institutions across the countryagainst the government’s decision to implement the National Register of Citizensand the CAA. Faced by thismassive backlash, the PrimeMinister and the Home Minister have indulged in characteristic doublespeak, andare now attempting to co

vertly undertake the exercise through the NationalPopulation Register,” Mr. Venugopal said.

He accused the police inBJPruled States such as Uttar Pradesh of attackingprotesters.

“There were cases ofdeaths due to police fi��ring atmany places. The government has put itself in a bindon these issues with the PM,the Home Minister and theDefence Minister makingcontradictory statements ondiff��erent occasions. The CAAproposes to violate the guarantees of Article 14, in contravention of the Constitution of India,” he said,adding that the NPR was only a way to implement theNRC.

Flag marches by Cong. todayParty ties its foundation day celebration with protests against citizenship law


New Delhi

The BJP said here on Fridaythat Congress leader RahulGandhi should be awardedthe title of “liar of the year”for his claim that the National Population Register (NPR)was a “tax” on the poor.

Accusing the Congress oftrying to fan instability inthe country, Informationand Broadcasting MinisterPrakash Javadekar said thepeople were with the government on the new citizenship law and NPR.

“The NPR does not involve any monetary transaction and its data is used toidentify the poor so that government welfare schemescould reach the targeted people,” the BJP leader said ata press conference at theparty headquarters, addingthat a similar exercise hadbeen undertaken in 2010 aswell. “It’s the Congress’s oldgame of allowing illegal immigration into the countryfor political profi��t. Theirown leader Kirip Chalihahad said that former AssamChief Minister HiteshwarSaikia had fostered illegalimmigration to build votebanks,” Mr. Javadekar said.

He called out Chief Ministers Pinarayi Vijayan of Kerala and Mamata Banerjee ofWest Bengal for issuing notifi��cations to suspend work

on the NPR in their States.“West Bengal and Keralaused NPR data collected in2010 to identify the poor topass on benefi��ts. To not doso now refl��ects their antipeople politics. It’s underPrime Minister [Narendra]Modi’s government thatAadhaarplusNPR led to abetter targeting of benefi��tsand disbursal of nearly ₹��9lakh crore in benefi��ts, without leakage of the scale thatwe saw under Congress,” hesaid.

“When Rahul Gandhi wasCongress president, hewould say anything andspeak lies all the time. Nowhe is no longer presidentbut continues to speak lies.If there were a category ofthe liar of the year, he wouldbe its recipient,” Mr. Javadekar said.

Rahul is ‘liar of the year’, says BJPJavadekar picks on his NPR commentSpecial Correspondent

NEW DELHI

<> It’s the Congress’s

old game of

allowing illegal

immigration

Prakash Javadekar

I&B Minister

The Union Home Ministryhas relaxed the provisionsfor Overseas Citizens of India(OCI) card holders that madeit compulsory for those agedabove 50 and below 20 to renew their cards on renewalof their passports.

Several OCI card holderswere not able to travel to India due to this and many

were stopped by airlines andimmigration authorities atvarious airports due to themismatch.

According to a recentHome Ministry order, an OCIcard holder is required to reregister each time a newpassport is issued till 20years of age and once after50 years of age but reissuance of OCI registration isnot mandatory each time a

new passport is issued between the ages of 21 and 50.

“In order to facilitate OCIcard holders, this requirement has been relaxed till30th June 2020 as per MHAinstructions dated December 17. The OCI cardholdershould carry existing OCIcard along with Old and Newpassport,” the Ministry spokesperson tweeted.

OCI cardholders are given

benefi��ts on a par with nonResident Indians in fi��nancial,economic and educationalfi��elds, except in the acquisition of agricultural or plantation properties.

OCI cardholders are givenfree multiple entry and multipurpose lifelong visa to visit India and are also exempted from reporting topolice authorities for anylength of stay in India.

Compulsory renewal of OCI cards goesNo need for a certain age group to do so on renewal of their passports


New Delhi

Age no bar: Supporters of the Bhim Army Sena demanding the release of Chandrasekhar Azad during a protest against the CAA,the NRC and the NPR in New Delhi on Friday. * SUSHIL KUMAR VERMA



All for Azad

In an open letter, several Indianorigin engineers, researchers, analysts, and designers working with globalcompanies such as Googleand Facebook have condemned the Citizenship(Amendment) Act.

The letter, issued “in solidarity with the Indian democracy”, was postedthrough the “TechAgainstFascism” handle onmedium.com.

It called upon technologyleaders like Sundar Pichai(Alphabet), Satya Nadella(Microsoft), Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook), Jack Dorsey (Twitter), Dara Khosrowshahi (Uber), MukeshAmbani ( Jio), Gopal Vittal(Bharti Airtel), Kalyan Krishnamurthy (Flipkart) andShantanu Narayen (Adobe)to take a stance and publiclydenounce the “fascist actsby the Indian government”.

“We call upon the leaders

to use technology as a forcefor good, to refuse to shareuser details with the government, refuse to shut off�� theInternet at the government’swhim, provide tools for citizen mobilization, and ensure that content moderation is not skewingprogovernment,” it said.

The Citizenship Amendment Act, combined withthe National Register for Citizens, is a deeply antiMuslim scheme that will createstatelessness and global disparity for Muslims, growingworse with India’s economic decline and climatechange, said the letter.

The signatories opinedthat the Act was politicaland electoral towards building a “Hindu Rashtra”. Many signatories remainedanonymous “in the face ofrecent retaliation from techcompanies against protesting employees... and fromthe Indian government onfamily and loved ones...”

Techies write to govt.against citizenship lawStatement posted on social media


NEW DELHI

Questions about a person’splace and date of birth, hisparents’ names and theirplace of birth are meant toascertain citizenship, the Supreme Court has held.

The court, in a 2005 judgment on a writ petition fi��ledby present Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal,has clearly held that thesepersonal questions are directly associated with “establishing citizenship”.

“In order to establishone’s citizenship, normallyhe may be required to giveevidence of (i) his date ofbirth (ii) place of birth (iii)name of his parents (iv) theirplace of birth and citizenship,” the judgment, authored by Justice G.P. Mathurfor a threejudge Bench ofthe court, on July 12, 2005held. Moreover, the court explained that these facts fi��gured specially in the context of establishingcitizenship because they“would necessarily be within the personal knowledgeof the person concerned andnot of the authorities of the

State”. In case of doubtsabout a person’s citizenship,the burden of proving thatthese facts were true was onthe person concerned.

The government has sofar denied any link betweenthe National Population Register (NPR), which is to establish usual residency, andthe National Register of Citizens (NRC), meant to establish citizenship. In fact, theNPR takes into account foreign citizens too. However,if the NPR form of 2020 carries these personal questions highlighted in the judgment, apprehensions raisedin the public mind that theNPR is a stepping stone for anationwide NRC becomejustifi��ed.

The 2005 judgment camejust over a year after the Citi

zenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of NationalIdentity Cards) Rules of2003 was notifi��ed in December 2003. The Rules clearlylinked the NPR and the NRC.Rule 4(3) of the CitizenshipRules states that personaldetails collected for the‘Population Register’ wouldbe used in the preparation ofthe National Register of Indian Citizens.

The Citizenship Rules defi��ne ‘Population Register’ asa “register containing detailsof persons usually residingin a village or rural area ortown or ward or demarcatedarea [demarcated by the Registrar General of Citizen Registration] within a ward in atown or urban area”. Rule4(3) mandates that for“preparation and inclusionin the Local Register of Indian Citizens, the particularscollected of every family andindividual in the PopulationRegister shall be verifi��ed andscrutinised by the Local Registrar, who may be assistedby one or more persons asspecifi��ed by the RegistrarGeneral of Citizen Registration”.

It said this in 2005 order on a plea by present Assam CM

Krishnadas Rajagopal

New Delhi

Personal queries directly linkedto establishing citizenship: SC

With protests from peoplein the Jammu region, BJP national general secretaryRam Madhav on Friday saidthe Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir “will begranted statehood in thenear future”.

“The BJP is in favour ofgranting statehood to J&K asearly as the conditions permit. The rights of local people will be preserved in theregion,” said Mr. Madhav.“Delimitation will be startedsoon in the region.”

He said Pakistan couldnot alter the legal status ofoccupied regions. “Our forces are fully equipped on theborder and all the containing activities are being doneas necessary,” the BJP leadersaid.

Mr. Madhav said peoplefrom across the region hadwelcomed the bold step toremove Articles 370 and35(A). “The whole region ofJ&K has remained mostpeaceful in these fi��vemonths, reducing civiliancasualties to almost nil.There also fewer incidentsof stonethrowing this yeargiving an impression of a

modifi��ed mindset amongthe youth,” he said.

“The BJP is also in favourof resumption of politicalactivity in the region soon,”he added.

Mr. Madhav also metLieutenantGovernor GirishChandra Murmu at the RajBhavan in Jammu.

J&K will get statehoodsoon, says Ram Madhav‘Rights of locals will be protected’

special correspondent

Srinagar

The Income Tax Department has said that it ‘exchanged’ information regarding “members of theMukesh Ambani family” over alleged “undisclosed foreign income and assets” ina quarterly meet this monthat Ukraine, with seven countries India has pacts with.

Under the Double TaxAvoidance Agreements andAntiMoney Laundering andCountering the Financing ofTerrorism pacts, the tax department can expect a response within 90 days fromits counterparts in sevencountries — Switzerland, St.Lucia, Mauritius, Luxembourg, the U.S., the U.K. andBelgium.

IT Department offi��cialssaid even if the responseshared under the commonreporting system agreedupon by countries as part ofthe recently signed Automatic Exchange of Information(AEOI) pact, it may take along time before a ‘LetterRogatory’ (LR) could be initiated by the department to

approach authorities in oldtax havens.

“We have rarely receiveda response from these sameseven countries in less than90 days as prescribed, andagreed upon under the twopacts. It will take a long timefor us to move ahead in thisparticular case,” said an offi��cial, referring to the overseas accounts linked to theAmbani family.

The department reportedly served a notice onMarch 28, 2019 to the Ambani family under the provisions of the Black Money(Undisclosed Foreign In

come and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act of 2015, regarding holdings in theCapital Investment Trust.

Emailed queries to Mukesh Ambani’s fl��agship fi��rmReliance Industries on the issue, didn’t elicit a responsetill the time of going to press.A RIL source told The Hin-

du, “The company has notreceived any letter.”

A media report hadclaimed the notice also included names of the threechildren of Ambani.

The report had claimedthe Ambanis had failed todisclose details and holdingsin the Cayman IslandsbasedInfrastructure Company Limited, of which they were also “ultimate benefi��ciaries.”

The Swiss Leaks, in 2015,had named 1,195 Indian accounts, including 14 holdings connected to Capital Investment Trust, foundconnected to 628 Indianswho had accounts in HSBCPrivate Bank, including theAmbanis.

The collective worth ofthese accounts was estimated to be ₹��25,000 crore in200607.

Income Tax offi��cials pursuingAmbani money trail overseas‘Notice served on the family over hidden foreign assets’

Sharad Vyas

Piyush Pandey

Mumbai

<> We have rarely

received a

response from

these seven

countries in less

than 90 days

Hundreds of people in theUnion Territory (UT) ofLadakh’s Kargil districtwere able to video call theirrelatives living outside thesnowbound region after 145days of Internet shutdownas the authorities restoredthe service but with riders.

Haji Asgar Ali Karbalai,who had served as chiefexecutive councillor of theLadakh Autonomous HillDevelopment Council,Kargil (LAHDCK), said,“The lack of Internetimpacted students andbusiness communityimmensely.”

Mobile Internetis back in Kargil

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

SRINAGAR

CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC


THE HINDU DELHI


NEWS

Amid suspension of Internetservices in 21 districts andtight security, Friday prayersconcluded “safely” acrossUttar Pradesh, a week afterseveral cities and towns witnessed arson and vandalismduring protests against theCitizenship (Amendment)Act, the police said.

The number of persons arrested across the State sinceDecember 10 in connectionwith the violence touched1,246, with another 5,558persons held in preventivecustody, the police said.More than 370 cases havebeen registered.

Objectionable posts The police have also arrested125 persons and registered95 FIRs for “objectionableposts, rumours, messagesand videos” posted on thesocial media. Action has alsobeen taken in respect of20,950 posts on the socialmedia, including 10,380 onTwitter and 10,389 on Face

book, the police headquarters said in a statement.

So far, the police have admitted to 19 deaths duringthe protests.

In Lucknow, the famousTeele Wali Masjid heldprayers peacefully, amid aheavy presence of police andRapid Action Force personnel outside its gates. After‘namaz’ concluded, people

trickled out of the gate andheaded home, instead ofgathering outside the gate.

DirectorGeneral of PoliceO.P. Singh said the State waspeaceful for the fourth dayrunning and law and orderwas maintained, but therewas a strategic deploymentof forces at sensitive placeswhich witnessed violencelast week.

He said Internet serviceswere temporarily suspendedin 21 districts, including theState capital, to prevent“fake news circulating or rumours fl��ying around”.

Several wellknown activists in Lucknow and Varanasi, including retired IPS offi��cer S.R. Darapuri andsenior advocate MohammadShoaib, have been arrested.

Friday prayers peaceful in U.P.Internet services were suspended in 21 districts and security was tightened


LUCKNOW

Tight security: Policemen on guard on a street in Lucknow on Friday. * AP

Amid continuing protestsagainst the Citizenship(Amendment) Act (CAA),the BJP has set up an informal committee to reachout to the Muslim community and allay theirdoubts about the CAA andthe National Register of Citizens (NRC).

Union Minority Aff��airsMinister Mukhtar AbbasNaqvi held a meeting onFriday, which was attended by National Commissionfor Minorities ChairmanGhayorul Hasan Rizvi andsome key Muslim BJP leaders.

“We will be holdingsome programmes for dialogue with the Muslimcommunity in the fi��rstweek of January,” Mr. Naqvitold The Hindu.

Sources said the party’sminority wing president,Abdul Rasheed Ansari, alsoattended the meeting.“The idea is to demolishthe misinformation campaign being carried out bysome political parties onthe new citizenship law,the NRC and the NationalPopulation Register,” asource said. “The situationis delicate and a dialogue istherefore important,” hesaid.

BJP formspanel to reachout to Muslims


NEW DELHI

Thousands of Mumbaikarsturned up at Azad Maidan insouth Mumbai on Friday toprotest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, theNational Register of Citizens(NRC) and the alleged policebrutalities against protestersin various States.

The protest was organised by the Joint Action Committee ( JAC), which had alsoorganised the protest at theAugust Kranti Maidan on December 19.

While the JAC had earlierplanned a march from Jijamata Udyan in Byculla toAzad Maidan, the plan waschanged because of issueswith police permission.

Recites poem Writer and comedian VarunGrover and social activistUmar Khalid addressed theprotesters.

“The NRC is being madeout to be a Muslim issue. But

it is Indians who are protesting against it, not Muslims,”Mr. Grover said, before goingon to recite his poem HumKaagaz Nahi Dikhaenge (Wewill not show documents).

The title, which Mr. Grover shared on social mediaearlier this week, has goneon to become a slogan by itself. Several protesters wereseen chanting it and display

ing it on placards. Mr. Khalid, who was ar

rested by the Delhi policewhile protesting outside theRed Fort earlier this month,said he was proud to bestanding in a State fromwhere such inspirational fi��gures as Chhatrapati ShivajiMaharaj, Babasaheb Ambedkar and Narendra Dabholkarhailed.

Indians protesting against NRC, not Muslims: Varun Grover


MUMBAI

Vociferous group: Hundreds of people protesting at Azad Maidan in Mumbai on Friday. * PRASHANT NAKWE

Thousands turn up atMumbai’s Azad Maidan

Former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis of the BJPon Friday said those supporting the Citizenship(Amendment) Act wouldtake on those opposing it,until all the protests ended.

“The CAA is the glimpseof many more things tocome. This is the beginning. Till those opposingCAA shut their mouths, wewill continue to clash onthe roads. No one can stopus,” he said at a rally organised by the BJP and the RSSaffi��liates here in support ofthe Act and the NRC.

“Hindus have never attacked anyone ever. But wehave never spared thosewho attacked us,” he said.

Claiming that JawaharlalNehru University studentschanted slogans during theantiCAA protests that Hindus would be buried, hesaid, “The Congress andthe Left stand with thesepeople, and even the ShivSena has changed sides. Noone can dig the grave ofHindus.”

‘CAA is aglimpse ofthings to come’


Mumbai

Two senior Jabalpur policeoffi��cials were transferred bythe Madhya Pradesh Homedepartment in connectionwith the violence that tookplace there on December 20during antiCitizenship(Amendment) Act protests,offi��cials said on Friday.

The State chief of a lesserknown political outfi��t wasalso booked for the violence, police said.

Jabalpur Additional Superintendent of Police (City)Rajesh Kumar Tripathi andCity Superintendent of Pol

ice (Gohalpur) Devesh Kumar Pathak were transferred by the State Homedepartment to the policeheadquarters in capital Bhopal, an offi��cial said.

Areas under four policestations, namely Gohalpur,Hanumantal, Kotwali andAdhartal, witnessed violence during the antiCAAprotests on December 20,after which curfew was imposed for a few days.

In another development,Irfan Ansari, State presidentof Social Democratic Partyof India, was booked for allegedly orchestrating theviolence that took place onDecember 20 in Gohalpurlocality, said Amit Singh, Jabalpur Superintendent ofPolice.

Two senior policementransferred in M.P. They were bookedfor violence duringanti-CAA protests

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Jabalpur (M.P.)

Continuing with her opposition to the Citizenship(Amendment) Act, West Bengal Chief Minister MamataBanerjee on Friday said shewould not allow detentioncentres to be set up in theState.

Ms. Banerjee also said thather government will not allow updation of the NationalPopulation Register (NPR).

“They are saying thatthere will be detentioncamps. We are in government here in Bengal. As longas I am alive, there will be nodetention centre in theState,” Ms. Banerjee saidwhile participating in anevent in North 24 Parganasdistrict.

Giving an assurance thatthe people who came to India during Partition or during the 1971 war of liberationof Bangladesh are all citizens, the Chief Minister saidnobody will have to leaveWest Bengal or the country.

‘NPR process changed’Speaking on the issue ofNPR, Ms. Banerjee said earlier she had agreed to the exercise. “Later, I came toknow that they have changedthe entire process. Anythingfor which the people have tosuff��er, neither I, nor my government will do it,” shesaid. She, however, did notelaborate on what changeshave been brought in theNPR exercise. A communication by the Home and Hill Af

fairs Department of WestBengal government on December 16, 2019 stated that ithas “stayed all activities regarding the preparation/updation of NPR”.

Earlier in the day, Ms. Banerjee released a poem onsocial media composed byher against the CAA and theNational Regidster of Citizens. The poem in Bengalititled ‘Adhikar (right)’, is critical of the current state of affairs in the country.

“Ami to e deshtake chinina/ Ami to eikhane janmai-ni/ Ami jonmechi Bharat-barshe/ Bibhed korte sikhi ni(I do not know this land, Iwas not born here. I wasborn in India, I never learnthow to divide),” the poemstates.

‘No NPR updation in Bengal’Won’t allow any detention centre in State till I am alive: Mamata


Kolkata

A delegation of the Samajwadi Party led by its national president Akhilesh Yadavon Friday met Uttar PradeshGovernor Anandiben Patel,demanding justice for “innocent people framed infake cases” during peacefuland democratic antiCitizenship (Amendment) Actprotests.

“Fake cases were lodgedagainst innocent peopleduring peaceful and democratic antiCAA protests onDecember 19. Two dozenpersons were killed. Womenwere humiliated by policeafter entering their houses.Houses were ransacked and

atrocities are on,” the SP delegation alleged in a memorandum to Patel.

Offi��cially, the toll in violence during protestsagainst the amended citizenship law has been put at19.

SP seeks justice for people‘framed in fake cases’ Party team led by Akhilesh meets Guv.


Lucknow

Akhilesh Yadav. * FILE PHOTO

CMYK

A ND-NDE


DELHI THE HINDU


WORLD

SUDOKU

Solution to puzzle 12817 Solution to yesterday’s Sudoku

DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

The study system of yore was designed to inculcate a comprehensive set of values and life skills in children from diff��erent walks of life. During the period of study, children wereentrusted in the hands of a guru and had to stay in his dwelling away from home. They were taught both Samanya dharma, the universal values and code of conduct applicable toall, and Visesha dharma, or professional ethics and skills,pertaining to the livelihood that each one inherits by birth,as a brahmin, a kshatriya, a vaisya and so on, pointed Swamini Satyavratananda in a discourse.

The focus was on ethical and moral disciplines such as yama, cultivating of moral values such as truthfulness, ahimsaand self control; niyama, acquiring regular habits of studyand worship; asana, sitting quietly in order to achieve tranquillity; pranayama, taking breathing exercises in order togain control of the mind; pratyahara, freeing the mind fromthe thralldom of the senses; dharana, concentrating; dhyana, meditating and Samadhi, rising to the super consciousstate. Side by side, professional training was given to makeeach one competent to pursue one’s livelihood. In God’screation, people are born in specifi��c varnas, based on thegunas or qualities they had developed in their previousbirths, and also the type of activity or work relevant to theirbackground.

For instance, a brahmin is trained in the Vedas, as also inthe method of performance of rituals and yagnas. A kshatriya gets trained in archery and such skills that help him follow the kshatriya dharma, as also a Vaisya, his specifi��c skillsand so on. Moreover, it is shown that learning is a continuous process, and the wise person directs what he has learntto ultimately reach God and get freed from samsara.

FAITH

Education, values & skills 4 Quite nonchalantly, setter

slipped out to chase female

(6)

6 Police cruiser with air

conditioner’s normal to be

seen around (5,3)

7 Spoke of Darius’ organisation

(6)

8 Loud landmark spot (4)

12 Unaware what I would do with

a 5x5 grid? (8)

14 Minarets in Islamabad rising

around — leaning to the left

(8)

16 Store displaying many a set of

crafts (8)

17 This is worn? Right! (15)

18 Long and hot cargo vessel

with prow missing (6)

19 Job of Gates perhaps,

encourage technology

leaders? (6)

20 An immature version of North

Indian boy? (4)

11 When Jesus returned from

undersea stay, mysteriously

(6,6)

13 California politician on

American grounds (6)

15 Trouble as Academy’s place in

draw is taken by University

(6)

18 Home on BigSur’s outskirts

owned by crook — Queen’s

agent (6,6)

21 Wrong to get behind net &

counter in this game? (6)

22 Sick man with enteric disease

starts to be awkward (35)

23 Same problem seen in

misshapen part of house (8)

24 Draft from fl��owing inlets (6)

■ DOWN

1 Tread of pedestrian was loud,

household animals also rose

up (8)

2 Get close to listener please...

(6)

3 Device with silvertip’s hot,

gets more glowing (8)

(set by Bruno)

■ ACROSS

5 Corrupt — owning houses at

residential part of city (6)

7 Tries to join in the middle of

unrestrained leaderless

practice (8)

9 Complete stop by noted

criminal (323)

10 Mistakes made by God starting

to take long time to cover (6)

THE HINDU CROSSWORD 12818Log on to crossword.thehindu.com for more puzzles

Musharraf challengesverdict in treason caseISLAMABAD

Pakistan’s former military

dictator General Pervez

Musharraf (retd.) has filed a

petition against the special

court’s verdict convicting him

of high treason and

sentencing him to death,

according to media reports.

The petition highlighted that

the “judgment contained a

mix of anomalies and

contradictory statements”. PTI

ELSEWHERE

Twelve people were killedand dozens injured when aplane with nearly 100 passengers and crew on boardcrashed soon after takeoff�� inKazakhstan on Friday.

The Bek Air Fokker 100got into trouble shortly afterdeparting from Almaty, theCentral Asian country’s commercial centre, on a predawn fl��ight to the capitalNurSultan.

It lost altitude during takeoff�� and broke through a concrete fence before hitting atwostorey building, Kazakhstan’s Civil Aviation Committee said. It was not immediately clear what caused thecrash.

“The plane tilted to theleft, then to the right, then itstarted shaking while stilltrying to gain altitude,” saidbusinessman Aslan Nazaraliyev, who survived the crash.

Investigators foundscratch marks on therunway.

“Before crashing, the aircraft touched the runwaywith its tail twice, the gearwas retracted,” DeputyPrime Minister Roman

Sklyar told reporters. “Acommission ... will establishwhether this was pilot erroror technical issues. The runway was in an idealcondition.”

A survivor told a newswebsite that she heard a “terrifying sound” before theplane started losing altitude.“The plane was fl��ying at atilt. Everything was like in amovie: screaming, shouting,people crying,” she said.

Authorities initially putthe death toll at 15 or morebut later revised the fi��gure to12. They said 49 people werein hospitals, some of them ina serious condition.

‘Breach of rules’The plane had been carrying93 passengers and fi��ve crew,and the Interior Ministrysaid the captain was amongthose killed.

The Ministry said it was in

vestigating a possible breachof fl��ight operation and safetyrules, a standard legal procedure. Kazakhstan’s aviationcommittee said it was suspending all fl��ights by carrierBek Air and those of Fokker100 aircraft pending the results of the investigation.

Mr. Nazaraliyev said hehad been seated next to anemergency exit in row 15 andall the rows in front of himwere torn off�� when the plane

broke in half on impact.“We got out through the

emergency exit ... I and other men started getting people out and away from theplane. Some were trappedby concrete debris from thebuilding. There were moansand screams and it wasdark,” he said.

At the airport at NurSultan, relatives of the passengers — some of whom weregoing to join their familiesfor the holidays — were beingbriefed on their fate and offered fl��ights to Almaty.

“Those responsible willface tough punishment in accordance with the law,” Kazakh President KassymJomart Tokayev tweeted,expressing condolences tothe victims and their families. He also ordered an auditof all Kazakh airlines.

Mr. Tokayev declared December 28 a national day ofmourning and appointedPrime Minister Askar Maminto head a commission to investigate the crash.

The crashed plane wasbuilt in 1996, the government said, and its most recent fl��ight certifi��cate was issued in May 2019.

12 killed in Kazakhstan plane crashNearly 100 people were on board the aircraft that came down soon after takeoff�� and slammed into a house

Reuters

Almaty

Gone in seconds: Police and rescuers working on the site of the plane crash near AlmatyInternational Airport in Kazakhstan on Friday. * AP

Embattled Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahutold supporters on Fridayhe would win a March general election after scoring alandslide victory in the leadership primary of his rightwing Likud party.

Israel’s longestservingpremier, who faces a corruption indictment as wellas a third general election in12 months, was expected tobeat rival Gideon Saar in theleadership primary.

But the convincing margin of victory — by 72.5% to27.5% — strengthens his position in the party he hasdominated for 20 years.Around 57,000 Likud members voted on Thursday — alittle less than 50% of thoseeligible.

“Now is the time to uniteand bring a tremendous victory for the Likud and theright in the election,” Mr.Netanyahu told a pressconference.

“Most of the people support the right and supportme to lead the government.”

In what appeared to be ageneral election campaignspeech, Mr. Netanyahu didnot mention the defeatedSaar once.

He thanked U.S. President Donald Trump, a closeally, for his support for Israel and said a Likud victoryin the next election wouldbring more “historicachievements.”

Likud and the centristBlue and White party weredeadlocked after electionsin both April and September, with neither able tocommand a parliamentarymajority under Israel’s system of proportionalrepresentation.

Last month, Israel’s Attorney General indicted the

prime minister for fraud,bribery and breach of trustover a series of corruptionallegations he denies.

Blue and White leaderBenny Gantz also used Friday’s primary result as a rallying call for the generalelection.

He said Mr. Netanyahu’svictory showed Likud members had “elected a leaderfacing three indictments,who is seeking to unravelthe rule of law and securepersonal immunity”.

“These elections demandthat we place a mirror infront of ‘the Netanyahu party’ and make the choice forunity, dignity and internalreconciliation.”

Third shotOfer Zalzberg, Israel analystwith the International CrisisGroup think tank, said theresult kickstarted the election campaign.

“Netanyahu is going for athird shot, hoping the nextelection will prove moresuccessful,” he said.

“This strengthens his position within the right wingwho saw he is still able toachieve victories but itdoesn’t fundamentallychange the arithmetic forthe next election.”

Early polls indicate thatthe March 2020 electioncould again result instalemate.

Vows to win March general election

Agence France-Presse

Jerusalem

Benjamin Netanyahu

Israel’s Netanyahu sweeps party poll

Jihadists aligned to the Islamic State group have releaseda video claiming to show theexecution of 11 Christians inrestive northeast Nigeria.

The footage posted onlinelate on Thursday by the ISlinked propaganda armAmaq showed 11 blindfoldedmen being shot and stabbedby jihadists from the IslamicState West African Province

(ISWAP) at an undisclosed location. “This is a message toChristians all over theworld,” said a masked manin the oneminute video.

He claimed the killingswere in reprisal for the deathof IS chief Abu Bakr alBaghdadi and his spokesman.

IS leader Baghdadi committed suicide in October toavoid capture during a U.S.special forces raid on his hideout in northwest Syria.

In recent months, ISWAPhas intensifi��ed its attacks onChristians, security personnel and aid staff��, setting uproadblocks on highways andconducting searches.

Targeting civiliansThe UN had on Tuesday condemned the “increasingpractice by armed groups toset up checkpoints targetingcivilians” in the northeast ofNigeria. On Sunday, the jiha

six soldiers and eight civilians, including two RedCross workers, were amongthose abducted.

Last week, the group released a video showing 11 alleged hostages.

One of the detainees inthe video who identifi��edhimself as a school teachersaid all the 11 hostages wereChristians and appealed tothe Nigerian government tosecure their release.

dists killed six people andabducted fi��ve others, including two aid workers, whenthey intercepted vehicles ona highway on the outskirts ofMaiduguri, the Borno statecapital.

In a similar attack on December 5, ISWAP fi��ghtersdisguised as Nigerian soldiers stopped and searchedvehicles at a checkpoint nearMaiduguri. The groupclaimed in a statement that

‘The killings were in reprisal for the death of former chief Abu Bakr alBaghdadi and his spokesman’


Kano

IS claims it executed 11 Christians in Nigeria

Indonesian Muslims rally for China’s UighursJAKARTA

More than a thousand

Muslims marched to the

heavily guarded Chinese

Embassy in Indonesia’s capital

on Friday to protest China’s

treatment of its Uighur

Muslims. The protesters,

many wearing blue

headbands reading “Save

Uighurs,” unfurled Indonesian

and Uighur flags as they

marched to the Embassy in

downtown Jakarta. AP

S. Korean court dismisses‘comfort women’ pleaSEOUL

South Korea’s Constitutional

Court on Friday rejected a

petition seeking the repeal of

a 2015 deal with Japan,

settling a bitter dispute over

“comfort women” — Korean

women enslaved for sex by

the Japanese military during

the Second World War.

Brazil police probe attackon actors of film on JesusRIO DE JANEIRO

The Rio de Janeiro police said

on Thursday they are

investigating a video by a

farright group that claimed

to have carried out an attack

on a group of actors who had

depicted Jesus as gay. The

attack took place on Tuesday

at the studio of the actors,

whose film Christ’s First

Temptation began streaming

on Netflix on December 3. AFP

Five “important” alQaedaoperatives were arrested ina raid in Pakistan’s Punjabprovince, averting a “major terror attack” on offi��cesof intelligence agenciesand sensitive installationsin the area, offi��cials said onFriday.

The Counter TerrorismDepartment (CTD) of thePunjab police said the operation smashed the mediacell and the terrorism fi��nancing network of the AlQaeda Indian Subcontinent (AQIS). The CTD andthe InterServices Intelligence (ISI) on Thursdaynight arrested the terrorists from Gujranwala city,some 80 km from Lahore.

5 al-Qaedaterrorists heldin Pakistan


Lahore

Forty days after the fi��rst protesters were killed in Iran’sworst unrest in decades, Iranians took their grievancesagainst the government tocemeteries on Thursday,marking both the end of thetraditional mourning periodand their determination notto back down.

Over four days of protestsin November, security forcesshot and killed up to 450 people, human rights organisations estimate, and in theweeks leading up to Thursday, some of their survivorscalled on the public to jointhem in yet another act ofdefi��ance: at the graveyardsof their loved ones.

Iran’s leadership was not

having it. Even before theend of the mourning period,the authorities began cracking down, beefi��ng up security in cities across the country, renewing theirdisruption of the internetand conducting waves ofpreemptive arrests.

Then on Thursday, uniformed security forces andplainclothes militia deployeden masse across the countryto keep people off�� thestreets. They lined up on footin riot gear at squares, andparaded through residentialand commercial neighbour

hoods in platoons of motorcycles and armoured vehicles carrying the Iranian fl��agand waving weapons, videoshared on social mediashowed.

‘Total calm’“Tehran is under total calmand security,” its chief of police Brig. Gen. Hossein Rahimi declared on Thursday.“Our enemies are constantlytrying to instigate chaos andinstability.”

Accounts and videos thatemerged from the countrydespite the informationclampdown suggested, however, that Iranian protesters made their presenceknown, if generally in smallgroups, at cemeteries and inthe streets of several cities,

including Karaj, Isfahan,Mashhad, Behbahan, Malard, Najafabad, YazdanShahr and Shahriar. Therewere unconfi��rmed reports of50 arrests. They gathered tohonour the dead, and asthey did so, some chantedslogans against Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah AliKhamenei, calling him a“murderer”.

The protests, which beganon November 15, broke outhours after the governmentraised gasoline prices by200%.

Already struggling underthe burden of economicsanctions imposed by theU.S., Iranians took to thestreets in what became thebroadest unrest seen in thecountry in decades. NY TIMES

Iranians laud protesters and vow to fi��ght on Many take their grievances against the govt. to cemeteries where the killed protesters are buried

A grim picture: A fi��le photo of people walking near a burnt bank,after protests against increased fuel prices in Tehran * REUTERS

Farnaz Fassihi

At least 15 natural disasterslinked to climate change thisyear caused damage of over$1 billion each and seven ofthem cost at least $10 billion, British charity Christian Aid said on Friday.

This year is set to be thesecond hottest year in history and each of the disastersin the report has a link withclimate change, ChristianAid said. “From SouthernAfrica to North America andfrom Australia and Asia toEurope, fl��oods, storms andfi��res brought chaos and destruction,” it said.

Assembling its reportfrom offi��cial fi��gures, estimates by NGOs and aid bo

dies, scientifi��c studies andmedia reports, the charitysaid the disasters displacedmillions and caused widespread deaths. These included the fl��oods that ravagednorth India, typhoon Lekima in China, Hurricane Dorian in the U.S., fl��oods in China, fl��oods in the Midwestand southern U.S., typhoonHagibis in Japan and the California wildfi��res, the costliest tragedy at $25 billion.

The charity said the majority of deaths were causedby just two events, in Indiaand southern Africa, whichcalled it “a refl��ection of howthe world’s poorest peoplepay the heaviest price forthe consequences of climatechange.

‘Climate change caused15 disasters this year’Calamities cost $1 bn each, says a charity


Paris

CMYK

BUSINESSEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

THE HINDU DELHI


NIFTY 50

PRICE CHANGE

Adani Ports. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363.70. . . . . . . . . 0.05

Asian Paints. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1812.25. . . . . . . . . 2.65

Axis Bank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 760.15. . . . . . . 23.65

Bajaj Auto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3241.95. . . . . . . 11.90

Bajaj Finserv. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9443.15. . . . . . . 93.05

Bajaj Finance . . . . . . . . . .. . . . 4252.65. . . . . . . 65.55

Bharti Airtel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 455.10. . . . . . . . . 7.55

BPCL. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 490.95. . . . . . . 13.75

Britannia Ind . . . . . . . . . .. . . . 3042.10. . . . . . -20.20

Cipla . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 481.10. . . . . . . . . 6.95

Coal India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203.50. . . . . . . . . 6.20

Dr Reddys Lab . . . . . . . .. . . . 2897.60. . . . . . . 32.00

Eicher Motors. . . . . . . . .. 22222.35. . . . . 176.65

GAIL (India). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118.55. . . . . . . . . 0.45

Grasim Ind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 739.75. . . . . . . . . 3.00

HCL Tech. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 567.55. . . . . . . . . 7.05

HDFC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2444.15. . . . . . . 30.05

HDFC Bank. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1275.00. . . . . . . . . 4.55

Hero MotoCorp . . . . . .. . . . 2442.45. . . . . . . . . 3.80

Hindalco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215.45. . . . . . . . . 0.45

Hind Unilever . . . . . . . . .. . . . 1949.90. . . . . . . . . 4.95

ICICI Bank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 549.40. . . . . . . 10.65

IndusInd Bank . . . . . . . .. . . . 1524.90. . . . . . . . . 9.50

Bharti Infratel . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 255.70. . . . . . . . -0.50

Infosys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 736.95. . . . . . . . . 8.00

Indian OilCorp . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 127.30. . . . . . . . . 2.20

ITC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236.90. . . . . . . . . 0.10

JSW Steel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268.90. . . . . . . . -0.25

Kotak Bank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1685.60. . . . . . . . -8.65

L&T . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1299.60. . . . . . . 20.30

M&M . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 530.15. . . . . . . . . 1.80

Maruti Suzuki . . . . . . . . .. . . . 7344.90. . . . . 104.00

Nestle India Ltd. . . . .. 14664.15. . . . . . . 64.90

NTPC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116.85. . . . . . . . . 0.45

ONGC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128.40. . . . . . . . . 0.40

PowerGrid Corp . . . . .. . . . . . 189.05. . . . . . . . . 4.20

Reliance Ind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1542.35. . . . . . . 26.95

State Bank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337.25. . . . . . . . . 7.40

Sun Pharma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 426.00. . . . . . . . . 3.85

Tata Motors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176.15. . . . . . . . . 1.55

Tata Steel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 469.50. . . . . . . . . 1.60

TCS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2198.50. . . . . . . . -3.45

Tech Mahindra . . . . . . .. . . . . . 780.20. . . . . . . . . 9.80

Titan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1191.45. . . . . . . . -1.05

UltraTech Cement. .. . . . 4055.60. . . . . . . . -7.15

UPL. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 580.25. . . . . . . 10.80

Vedanta . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151.75. . . . . . . . . 1.05

Wipro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247.55. . . . . . . . -2.75

YES Bank. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48.00. . . . . . . . -0.65

Zee Entertainment . . . . . . 299.00. . . . . . . . . 1.70

EXCHANGE RATES

Indicative direct rates in rupees a unitexcept yen at 4 p.m. on December 27

CURRENCY TT BUY TT SELL

US Dollar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 71.16. . . . . . . 71.48

Euro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 79.30. . . . . . . 79.66

British Pound. . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 93.02. . . . . . . 93.45

Japanese Yen (100) . .. . 64.98. . . . . . . 65.27

Chinese Yuan . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 10.17. . . . . . . 10.22

Swiss Franc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 72.88. . . . . . . 73.21

Singapore Dollar . . . . . . .. . 52.60. . . . . . . 52.85

Canadian Dollar. . . . . . . . .. . 54.34. . . . . . . 54.60

Malaysian Ringitt . . . . . .. . 17.24. . . . . . . 17.32

Source:Indian Bank

BULLION RATES CHENNAI

December 27 rates in rupees with pre-vious rates in parentheses

Retail Silver (1g) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.2. . . . . . . (50.4)

22 ct gold (1 g) . .. . . . . . . . . . . . 3714. . . . . . (3697)

market watch

27-12-2019 % CHANGE

Sensex dddddddddddddddddddddd 41,575 ddddddddddddddd1.00

US Dollardddddddddddddddddddd 71.35 ddddddddddddd-0.05

Gold ddddddddddddddddddddddddddd 39,731 ddddddddddddddd0.11

Brent oil dddddddddddddddddddddddd67.8 ddddddddddddddd0.35

The gross nonperformingasset (GNPA) ratio of banksmay increase to 9.9% by September 2020 from 9.3% inSeptember 2019, accordingto an RBI report.

“Stress tests indicate thatunder the baseline scenario,the GNPA ratios of banksmay increase to 9.9% by September 2020 due to changein macroeconomic scenario,marginal increase in slippages and the denominator effect of declining creditgrowth,” the RBI said in itsFinancial Stability Report.The baseline scenario assumed the continuation ofthe current economic situation in the future.

The report said staterunbanks’ GNPA ratios may increase to 13.2% by Septem

ber 2020 from 12.7% in September 2019, whereas forprivate banks it may climb to4.2% from 3.9%, under thestress scenario. Foreignbanks’ gross bad loans mayincrease to 3.1% from 2.9% inSeptember 2019.

The report said banks’ netnonperforming assets

(NNPA) ratio declined in September 2019 to 3.7%.

The aggregate provisioncoverage ratio (PCR) of allbanks rose to 61.5% in September 2019 from 60.5% inMarch 2019. “Following therecapitalisation of staterunbanks by the government,[all] banks’ capital to risk

weighted assets ratio (CRAR)improved to 15.1% in September 2019 from 14.3% inMarch 2019,” the report said.

The staterun banks’CRAR improved to 13.5%from 12.2% during the sameperiod. Bankwise distribution of asset quality showedwhile 24 banks had GNPA ratios of under 5%, four bankshad GNPA ratios higher than20% in September 2019.

Agriculture, servicesThe asset quality of agriculture and services sectors, asmeasured by their GNPA ratios, deteriorated to 10.1% inSeptember 2019 from about8% in March 2019. For industry, slippages during the period declined to 3.79% fromabout 5% in March 2019.

The report showed thatthe share of large borrowers

in banks’ total loan portfolios and their share in GNPAswas at 51.8% and 79.3%, respectively, in September2019, lower compared to the53% and 82.2%, respectivelyin March 2019. The top 100large borrowers accountedfor 16.4% of banks’ gross advances and 16.3% of GNPAs.

Amid rising macroeconomic worries refl��ected infalling growth numbersacross spectrum, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das fl��aggedcorporate governance concerns across India Inc., including banks, to lift the effi��ciency of the economy to itsfull potential. He also said reviving the twin engines ofconsumption and investment remains the key challenge even while remainingvigilant about spillovers fromglobal fi��nancial markets.

Gross NPAs may rise to 9.9% by next Sept., says RBI reportReviving twin engines of consumption and investment remains the key challenge, according to Governor Shaktikanta Das


MUMBAI

The Reserve Bank on Friday said the country’s fi��nancial system remainsstable despite slowing economic growth. The GDPslowed to a sixyear low of4.5% in the second quarterof FY20, forcing the RBI toslash its growth forecast by240 basis points to 5% forthe fi��scal in its Decembermonetary policy review.

“India’s fi��nancial system remains stable, notwithstanding weakeningdomestic growth,” the RBI

said in the Financial Stability Report.

The report said all major risk groups such as“global risks, risk perceptions on macroeconomicconditions, fi��nancial market risks and institutionalpositions” were perceivedas medium risks aff��ectingthe fi��nancial system. However, the perception ofrisks on various fronts likedomestic growth, fi��scal,corporate sector andbanks’ asset quality increased between April andOctober 2019, it said.

Financial system stabledespite slow growthPress Trust of India

Mumbai

The Centre will infuse freshcapital of ₹��4,360 crore in thelossmaking Indian OverseasBank. This would be the second tranche of fund infusion from the Centre. Withthis, the government stakein IOB is set to cross the 95%mark, said a senior offi��cial.

The Centre now holds94.56% stake. It rose from92.52% after capital infusionof ₹��3,857 crore in October2019. For the second quarter, IOB had reported netloss of ₹��2,253.64 crore, compared with a net loss ₹��487.26crore a year earlier, following a rise in operating ex

penses and provisions.The gross nonperform

ing assets of the bank camedown to ₹��28,673.95 crorecompared with ₹��37,109.96crore, and net NPAs to₹��12,507.97 crore from

₹��18,876.05 crore. KarnamSekar, MD and CEO, had saidthe bank was on track tocome out of the RBI’sprompt corrective actionframework by March 2020.

Another public sector lender, Allahabad Bank, hasraised ₹��1,500 crore throughprivate placement of BaselIIIcompliant tier2 bondswith a 10year tenor.

In an earlier statement,Allahabad Bank had said theCentre had agreed to infuse₹��2,153 crore via preferentialallotment of equity sharesby the bank during fi��nancialyear 201920. The fresh capital would help the bank inregulatory compliance.

IOB to get ₹��4,360 cr. in capital,Allahabad Bank raises ₹��1,500 cr.With second tranche, Centre’s stake in IOB to cross 95%


CHENNAI

Karnam Sekar

Adani Logistics Limited(ALL) has signed defi��nitiveagreements to acquire40.25% stake in SnowmanLogistics Ltd. (SLL) fromGateway Distriparks Ltd.for ₹��296 crore.

“The purchase price of₹��44 per share representsan 8% premium to the market price of December 27,2019. Adani Logistics willmake a mandatory openoff��er for 26% of the publicshareholding in the company,” said a statement.

Karan Adani, CEO andwhole time director of APSEZ, said: “Cold chain is akey product in the customer gate strategy given India’s consumer driven demand. We will double thecapacity in the next 5years. This vertical willhelp further improve returns in the business.”

Adani Logisticsto buy stake in Snowman


Mumbai

To strengthen the conductof investment advisers, Securities and ExchangeBoard of India (SEBI) onFriday asked them to doproper risk profi��ling ofclients and obtain theirconsent on the same before providing any adviceto such investors.

The capital markets regulator also restrained investment advisers fromproviding free trial for anyproduct and service.

The measures, aimed atfurther strengthening theconduct of investment advisers while providing investment advice and toprotect the interests of investors seeking their advice, will come into eff��ectfrom January 1, 2020, SEBIsaid in a circular.

Investmentadvisers mustdo client riskprofi��ling: SEBI


New Delhi

Passengers fl��ying over Indian territory on Vistara willsoon be able to access mobile data services on board.The airlines has become thefi��rst in the country to securenecessary approvals fromthe Department of Telecom(DoT).

Vistara, which has partnered Tata Group companyNelco for infl��ight data services, is likely to be the fi��rstdomestic carrier to providethe service within India.

“Vistara has tied up withNelco and they have takentransponder space from ISRO... they had come to usfor spectrum allocation,which we have done. Andthey will be launching theseservices soon,” Telecom Secretary Anshu Prakash said.

When contacted, a Vistara spokesperson said: “We

have not fi��nalised [any plan]yet.”

Mr. Prakash said for thetime being, Vistara will off��eronly data services. “However, since people will be ableto make Internetbasedvoice calls, it should not bean issue... There can also bevoice but voice is not happening right now.” On tariff��sfor such services, he said,these were not regulated bythe government. “It is forthem to decide what tariff��they will charge,” he added.

(With inputs from Jagriti Chandra)

Vistara fl��iers can soonaccess mobile data Airline has secured DoT approval

Yuthika Bhargava

NEW DELHI

The Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of IndiaLtd. (DFCCIL) on Fridayopened the more than 300km section between Rewari,Haryana to Madar, Rajasthan, for commercial trialruns. This is the fi��rst sectionto be opened on the underconstruction 1,500km western freight corridor.

The newly opened section — covering a total of 664track km — has been constructed at a cost of almost₹��4,000 crore (excludingland charges). “The openingof this stretch will benefi��t various industries in Rewari,Manesar, Narnaul, Phuleraand Kishangarh areas of Rajasthan and Haryana. In addition, Concor’s containerdepot at Kathuwas will also

come on the DFC map andget advantage in terms of faster throughput,” said AnuragSachan, MD, DFCCIL.

Mr. Sachan added that byMarch 2020, over 650 km ofthe section between Rewariand Palanpur in Gujarat willbe opened for commercialoperations. “This will resultin immediate relief for bothfreight and passenger move

ments via Indian Railways.We are on track to open thecorridor from Rewari to Palanpur section by March,2020… this will provide connectivity to three ports inGujarat — Kandla, Mundraand Pipavav.”

Once the section isopened for commercial operations, about 80% of thefreight train movements willbe shifted to the dedicatedcorridor, resulting in a muchfaster movement of goodstrains, vacating track spacefor passenger trains. “Withdedicated corridor and advanced wagons, one trainwill be able to carry a load ofabout 13,000 tonnes, whichis equal to what 1,300 truckswould carry,” he said.

(The writer was inRajasthan at the

invitation of the DFCCIL)

Commercial trial runsbegin on freight corridorGoods movement to be faster once work is completed

Yuthika Bhargava

Ajmer

Anurag Sachan

The Reserve Bank of India(RBI) directed large cooperative banks to report allexposures of ₹��5 crore andmore to the Central Repository of Information onLarge Credits (CRILC), amove aimed at early recognition of fi��nancial distress.

Separately, nonbankingfi��nancial companies sawstress in asset quality in thefi��rst half of the current fi��scal, with gross NPA ratiorising to 6.3% in September 2019 from 6.1% inMarch, RBI’s FSR reportsaid. However, net NPA ratio remained steady at 3.4%between endMarch 2019and endSeptember 2019

Coop banksto report largeexposures


MUMBAI

As the GDP growth hasplunged to an over sixyearlow of 4.5% in the secondquarter of the ongoing fi��scal, credit expansion mayplummet to a sixdecadelow of 6.57% in FY20, saysa report. Credit growth wasa high 13.3% in the previous fi��scal, says ratingagency ICRA in a report.

This could well be thelowest credit growth in 58years. The fi��gure stood at alow 5.4% in FY62, according to RBI’s annual creditgrowth data.

Till endNovember, credit growth had been at under 8%. “Factors such asmuted economic growth,lower working capital requirements and riskaversion among lenders willcompress the incrementalcredit growth in FY20,” thereport said.

‘Credit growthmay plunge to58year low’


Mumbai

The RBI has fl��agged fallinggovernment revenue as athreat to the overall fi��scalnumbers, with tax and nontax revenues way behindtargets. This, along withweaker private consumption and investment, couldprove to be a challenge,RBI’s FSR said.

The warning assumes importance with revenuemopup falling and budgeted expenditure crossing107% as of November, putting a big question mark onthe government’s ability tomeet the 3.3% fi��scal defi��cittarget.

GST collections, the

mainstay of the government, have grown just 2.5%so far this year against abudgeted 14%, while massive corporate tax cuts havegiven away ₹��1.45 lakh croreof budgeted revenue even asadvance tax collectionsfrom corporates slipped5.2% as of the third quarter.

The silver lining was thepersonal income tax collection which grew to ₹��33,000crore from ₹��24,000 crore.Cumulative advance tax collection till the third quarterstood at ₹��2.51 lakh croreagainst ₹��7.96 lakh crore yearon year. Direct tax collections, net of refunds, for thisfi��scal grew a mere 0.7% tillDecember.

Falling revenue risksfi��scal parameters: RBI GST mopup grows by just 2.5%


MumbaiFrauds reported by banksduring the fi��rst half of thecurrent fi��scal touched analltime high of ₹��1.13 lakhcrore, owing to delay in detection by lenders, according to RBI’s FSR report.This involved 4,412 fraudcases of ₹��1 lakh and above,as per the report.

In FY19, banks had reported 6,801 cases of fraudinvolving ₹��71,543 crore.“An analysis of the vintageof frauds reported duringthe FY19 and H1 FY20shows a signifi��cant timelagbetween the date of occurrence of a fraud and its detection,” RBI’s FinancialStability Report said.

In H1, bankfrauds rise to₹��1.13 lakh cr.


Mumbai

CMYK

A ND-NDE


DELHI THE HINDU


SHOWCASE

Kathak danceThis Sunday, IHC is hosting SahebeAalam...

Touching The Soul, a Kathak presentation by

Gurmeet Malhotra Productions. The show seeks

spread the message of faith and togetherness in

society. Performing artistes include Raghav

Monga, Megha Sharma, Sanjam Malhotra,

Archana Diwedi, and Ashish Bharadwaj.

Venue: Stein Auditorium, India Habitat Centre

Time: 7 p.m.

PERFORMANCE

Mixed-mediaAn ongoing exhibition titled Maraasim,

showcases paintings and drawing by Saumya S.

Vaishnav and Vipin Singh Rajput. Saumya's

paintings are related to the elements of nature

and explore the dynamics of landscape. Vipin

creates mixedmedia artworks, which try to

engage with a wide variety of subjects.

Venue: Triveni Kala Sangam, Mandi House

Time: 11 a.m. 8 p.m.

ART

Festive menuFoxtrot, a multicuisine restaurant and bar, has

introduced an exclusive festive menu for New

Year’s. On till 3rd January, the menu, paired with

winter cocktails, offers Liver Pâté, Pot Roast

vegetables, Smoked and Charred Pumpkin

Risotto, Tenderloin Wellington,and Rum and

Raisin Cakes with Berry Ice Cream.

Venue: Khan Market & Cyber Hub outlets

Time: 11 a.m. 12 midnight

FOOD

Education and employmentAawaaz Education Services, a company that

works towards bettering classroom learning, is

hosting an educational event called Aawaaz

Conclave. Organised with the aim to help

students transition into a new phase of their

lives, it will feature sessions on emerging sectors

of employment.

Venue: India International Centre, Lodhi Road

Time: 8:30 a.m. onwards

AWARENESS

Pet showThe sixth edition of the annual pet festival, Pet

Fed Delhi, a carnival for pets and pet lovers

begins today. This twoday festival will feature

petadoption camps, as well as activities like a

Police Dog Show, Cat Show and Fashion Show.

More than 400 products and services from the

pet care sector will also be exhibited.

Venue: NSIC Ground, Okhla

Time: 11 a.m. 8 p.m.

CARNIVAL

5 EVENTS WORTH YOUR WHILE

Indian Women in ScienceHave you heard of Dr Asima

Chatterjee, an organic chemist

whose work resulted in many

antiepileptic drugs? Or Suniti

Solomon, who pioneered

HIVAIDS treatment and

research in India? These

inspiring women in science

feature in a wall calendar with

artwork by Sci Illustrate, a Munichbased scientific design

consultancy, founded by Dr Radhika Patnala. The box set of

postcards has stories of 30 inspiring ‘Women in Science’,

through art.

Approximately ₹��3,900, on Sciillustrate.com.

Save the dayIllustrations, self-care suggestions and DIY pages —

planners and calendars get more personal this year

PRODUCTS

The Ink BucketVidhi Khandelwal’s botanical

illustrations liven up the cover of

this ‘Live your Dream’ planner.

Her artwork makes its presence

felt in between the pages as

well, highlighting spaces for

monthly reflections, weekly

affirmations and daily reminders.

₹��1,799, on Theinkbucket.in.

Contact us at [email protected]

The past decade marked a century inIndian cinema (Dadasaheb Phalke’s RajaHarishchandra, released in 1913). This sliceof history aside, the decade has had severalturning points of its own: theBaahubalisation of Bollywood, with theHindi dubbed version of the TeluguTamilbilingual, Baahubali 2, beating it in itshome turf, Ranveer Singh taking centrestage and the #MeToo movement. We lookat these and other big and small milepostsin this tenyear journey…

Holy Trinity scored half a centuryThe Khans hit the golden jubilee in 2015;Aamir in March, Shah Rukh in November andSalman in December. Aamir didn’t justconsolidate his sway in India with biggies likePK, Dangal, Dhoom 3 and Secret Superstarbut won over China as well. With Dabangg atthe start of the decade, the massy Salmanmanaged to reach out to the multiplexaudiences and even found critical acclaimwith the pacifi��st politics of Bajrangi Bhaijaan.SRK started with a bang with My Name isKhan but has been fl��oundering in the latterhalf of the decade, despite some wellintentioned experiments like Fan and Raees.

Decade’s child

Ranveer Singh made an electric début as thelikeable, endearing Bittoo in Band BaajaBaaraat in 2010 and at the close of the decadehit it out of the park as rapper Murad in GullyBoy. In between there have been Lootera,Goliyon ki Raasleela RamLeela, Dil DhadakneDo, Bajirao Mastani, Padmaavat and much talkof his quirky sense of fashion and styling. Thenext decade is promising to start with a bangwith him becoming Kapil Dev in 83.

Badass ladies

They may not have been dealing in as manymultiples of crores as their male colleagues, butthey had a better spread of fi��lms and roles. Inthe largely maleskewed universe, this decadesaw a far bigger chunk of womenled andfocussed fi��lms than ever before, be it VidyaBalan in The Dirty Picture and Kahaani, Srideviin English Vinglish, Kangana Ranaut in Queenand Tanu Weds Manu, Rani Mukherji inMardaani 1 and 2, Deepika Padukone in Piku,Priyanka Chopra in Mary Kom or Alia Bhatt inRaazi. Most of these fi��lms grew steadilysuccessful, through word of mouth, thanbringing all the bums to the seats on the fi��rstweekend itself.

Director’s chair

Women fi��lmmakers like Meghna Gulzarand Zoya Akhtar breached the muchcoveted ₹��100 crore tag at the turnstiles.Vikramaditya Motwane debuted withUdaan in 2010 and has kept the viewerssatiated with an eclectic set of fi��lms:Lootera, Trapped, Bhavesh JoshiSuperhero. Nitesh Tiwari kicked off��with Chillar Party in 2011 and now hastwo of the biggest blockbusters of thedecade to his credit — Dangal andChhichhore.

BMKJ (BharatMata Ki Jai)cinema

From vigilante dramas tostory lines that take off�� ongovernment schemes(‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’became the theme forToilet: Ek Prem Katha) tothe rise of the new,aggressive, nationalist herowho wears his patriotismon his sleeve, as portrayedby Akshay Kumar, AjayDevgn, John Abraham andVicky Kaushal, the onscreen notion of patriotismtook on a life of its own andpeaked with thecompelling propagandaand celebration of the“surgical strikes” and “NewIndia” in Uri. The Modimakeover was completebefore the elections withVivek Oberoi playing himin PM Narendra Modi.

Embracing the rainbow…

Has only just begun in the mainstream, uneasily and gingerly at that,with Ek Ladki Ko Dekha To Aisa Laga, Kapoor and Sons and KaranJohar’s short in Bombay Talkies. And we are not even talking aboutthe relatively off��beat I Am and Margarita with a Straw here… DelhiSultanate ruler Alauddin Khilji (Ranveer Singh) in the bathtub withhis ghulam (slave) Malik Kafur ( Jim Sarbh) in Padmaavat and TigerShroff�� looking longingly at Hrithik Roshan in War. Male bonding gota homoerotic touch. There was pathbreaking bromance in Sonu KeTitu Ki Sweety with the grandfather (Alok Nath) almost joined at thehip with his bachelor buddy (Virendra Saxena) while thegrandmother just couldn’t be bothered. A same sex love story withAyushmann Khurrana — Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan — early in2020 might hopefully push the envelope further in the rightdirection.

#MeToo

As the #MeToo movement swept the nation in2018, 10 men from the Hindi fi��lm industrywere accused by women of sexualmisconduct. Even as Bollywood women tooka lead — it started with Tanushree Dutta’s10yearold sexual harassment claims againstNana Patekar — a misogynistic hero in KabirSingh became the favourite of the masses.Others who made headlines for all the wrongreasons included Sajid Khan, Vikas Bahl, AlokNath, Subhash Ghai, Rajat Kapoor, Anu Malik,Kailash Kher, Soumik Sen and Raj KumarHirani.

BOLLYWOOD:

20102020

The ₹��100 crore club, womenled fi��lms and the rise of OTT.We track cinematic milestonesover the last decade

Akshay Kumar’s

patriot actFrom Padman to Mission Mangal via Kesari

and not to forget the omniscient NoSmoking ad, Kumar emerged as shining

India’s Neo Mr Bharat. The long interview —about mangoes and little else — withNarendra Modi, in the run up to the

elections, also showcased him as the onewith the mightiest political clout in

Bollywood, his Canadian visanotwithstanding.

Getting noticedShowstoppers who

rocked on the side included PankajTripathi, Mohd Zeeshan Ayyub,

Vineet Singh, Neena Gupta, GajrajRao, Surekha Sikri, Manoj andSeema Pahwa, Vikrant Massey,

Ratna Pathak Shah, Swara Bhaskar,Vijay Varma… Right casting became

the buzzword and casting directors came into

their own.

The newtriumvirateThe turn of the decade hasthrown a new set ofcontenders, albeit not starryin the traditional way. VickyKaushal with Uri, Sanju,Manmarziyan and Raazi;Ayushmann Khurrana withVicky Donor, Dum Laga KeHaisha, Badhaai Ho,Andhadhun, Article 15 andBala; and Rajkummar Raowith Kai Po Che, Aligarh,Shahid, Trapped and Streehave formed the new boynextdoor brigade of stars.Khurrana seems ahead inthe race for now with hisunique genre of lighthearted, taboobreakingfi��lms defi��ning the 2010s.

Flag bearer ofNepotismKangana Ranaut may have riledKaran Johar with the term butthen he did endow the industrywith two gifted star kids — AliaBhatt and Varun Dhawan — inStudent of the Year in 2012. Othernotable star entrants this decade:Sonakshi Sinha, Shraddha Kapoor,Tiger Shroff��, Jahnvi Kapoor andSara Ali Khan.

Muslim representationWhile Phantom and Batla House pointed

fi��ngers at the community, Gully Boy,Kahaani and Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara wereinteresting in the way the characters woretheir Muslim identity lightly. Then you hada Commando 3 righteously playing on thegood Muslim and bad Muslim binary while

being seemingly inclusive.

Polarisation and spirit of resistance

As with the rest of the world, Bollywood has been heavilypolarised when it comes to politics. As we close the decadethe industry is divided on the politics of protest. WhileAnubhav Sinha, Anurag Kashyap, Sushant Singh, RichaChaddha and Huma Qureshi are vehemently opposing CAANRC, even joining the rallies, Vivek Agnihotri and AshokPandit have been expectedly favouring it. The royalty hasmaintained an uneasy silence and others like Ayushmann andVicky are being diplomatic in their templated statements.

Namrata Joshi

In a year of ‘designer’ anniversaries,Péro has kept it simple. To celebrate10 years of her label, Aneeth Arorarecently showcased 50 limitededition jackets from their past 20 seasons. However, what has capturedhearts is their Instagram recap,which details how the individualityof their garments is mirrored evenin the tiniest of details — from pinsand tassels to detailed trims.

The young label has been meticulously documenting and sharing theways they’ve built their fun vocabulary, and this includes their 1,043varieties of buttons. “I think we’vecrossed 2,000 now,” says Delhibased Arora, 36, over a phone call,counting the ones that will be displayed next year. Each post is ac

dering hearts into their clothes.“We realised not everybody likes a[prominent] heart on their garments. So, with this, we ensurethere’s a subtle variation present,”she explains.

■ Crochet buttons: “We madecrochet buttons in collaborationwith Afghan refugees,” she shares,

adding that the story behind the designs makes them special to thebrand. “The women made bordersand laces for us. For [a particular]season we didn’t use it, but theywere dependent on us for work. Sowe developed these buttons.”

■ Enamel buttons: For their2015 Autumn/Winter collection, Péro was inspired by military uniforms. “We tried to simulate the insignia of military badges onbuttons, and used meenakari techniques,” says Arora, “The enamelstyle buttons are very impactful because of their graphic quality.”

■ Millefi��ori: The brand is currently crafting buttons out of polymer using millefi��ori (meaning “athousand fl��owers” in Italian), atechnique also used to embellishluxury watches. “You inlay a pattern using polymer clay and cut it”,and then arrange the slices togetherto multiply the pattern. These buttons are being designed for the upcoming season, where the clothesare inspired by fl��orals. “We’ve useda variety of fl��owers, such as wovenfl��owers from Banaras, and printedand embroidered fl��owers of variouskinds,” she concludes.

regularlyshaped, handbeatendrops of silver. Since then, she’s begun using white metal — “becausesilver is costly and turns black withtime” — and has also developed“brass buttons to use against warmer colours”.

■ Heart buttons: These are rooted in the label’s tradition of embroi

companied by engaging details andanecdotes, like why Péro has horizontal buttonholes.

Turns out, their fi��rst handcraftedbuttons were so tiny they’d slip outof a vertical buttonhole. Maker videos — of Afghani women crocheting buttons, for instance — have themost engagement, often raking upover 26,000 views. Looking back atthe journey, Arora picks fi��ve handmade buttons that stand out.

■ The basic Péro button: “Withtwo holes, and [the word] Péro debossed on the surface, this silverbutton was developed for our fi��rstseason [2010]. The garments wereall white with red stitching, and thebuttons were a humble colour[against the fabric],” says Arora,who sought out a jeweller in Udaipur’s Old City to make the tiny, ir

Buttons upPéro takes a deepdive into its decadelonghistory, with this humble detail that holds itall together

Anahita Panicker

There’s this thing about eventhe most mediocre of animation fi��lms: the story might besimple, the arc entirely foreseeable, and you know forsure that all will eventuallyturn out well; but the bunchof animated characters, theirinner compulsions, quirksand relationships, somehowmanage to strike a chord.Then there are the myriadlifelessons, which can easily

lapse into cheesiness butturn out exalting. Spies inDisguise is one such fi��lm —simple rather than spectacular — that, despite the predictability, sports a goodhearted gentleness, and anoldfashioned cheer.

It is about the young misfi��tgenius Walter Beckett (TomHolland) who could edit thehuman genome while still inmiddle school, and graduated from MIT at the tenderage of 15. Walter is into de

signing gadgets to keep theworld safe. No one understands him better than hiscop mom, who knows thatthe, “world needs weird”,like him. Pitched against thegeekiness of Beckett is thecool quotient of the world’s

greatest spy, Lance Sterling.It’s a clash of principles — kitty glitter against grenades;one believes in fi��ghting fi��rewith fi��re, other is all for in extinguishing it with glitter;one thinks of blowing upevil, other is for bringing eve

ryone together. And they arethrown together as a team —Sterling’s Bond to Beckett’s Q— to save the world from theformshifting villain, Killian,who is armed with a bionic

hand as well as an army ofweaponised drones to endthe world.

There are nice action setpieces, fi��ghts, and chases.But the real fun lies in Beckett’s “biodynamic concealment” experiment whichmisfi��res and turns Sterlinginto a pigeon, or “fl��yingmouse” as he hatefully callsthem. “Unbird me,” hebooms and you can’t helpbut laugh out loud. The character and the voice meld togreat eff��ect with Will Smithas Sterling, and Holland asBeckett. Ultimately it’s nonviolence and the device of a“hug” that wins the day, something the world needs ingood measure today.

The fi��lm “Walterises” themost cynical of souls andmakes us see that weird is indeed beautiful.

A family fi��lm for the holiday season,Spies in Disguise is a fun mashup ofcomedy and action complete with aemotional wallop

Namrata Joshi

What the world needs A still from the fi��lm * SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Weird is beautiful Spies in Disguise

Director: Troy Quane, Nick

Bruno

Starring: Computer

animation with voices of

Will Smith, Tom Holland,

Rashida Jones, Ben

Mendelsohn

Run time: 102 minutes

Storyline: Cool superspy

Lance Sterling forms an odd

team with young, bumbling,

gadgetmaking genius

Walter Beckett, to take on

the villain Killian, who, with

a left bionic arm and an

army of weaponised drones,

is threatening to destroy

the world

■ Across

1 Checker of accounts

(7)

8 Corsican capital (7)

9 Perils (7)

10 Type of cigar (7)

11 Keep out (5)

13 Obtained

dishonestly (36)

15 Photographers who

pursue celebrities (9)

18 Annoyed (5)

21 Device for

producing a tan (7)

22 Capacious bag (7)

23 Vivid written or

oral descriptions (7)

24 Traditional name

for a fox (7)

■ Down

1 Extra (5)

2 Star in Cygnus (5)

3 Personifi��cation of

death (3,4,6)

4 Scamp (6)

5 Flatly (13)

6 Address aggressively

(6)

7 Liquefi��ed by heat (6)

12 Old Testament

book and rabbi (4)

14 Greek equivalent of

Cupid (4)

15 Female organ of a

fl��ower (6)

16 American friend via

correspondence (6)

17 Gentle breeze (6)

19 US 1944 DDay

landing beach (5)

20 Substantial (5)

THE GUARDIAN QUICK CROSSWORD-13262

6

Solution will appear onDecember 30, 2019.

Solution No. 13261

POOCH CAFE

HAGAR THE HORRIBLE

TIGER

PEANUTS

CALVIN AND HOBBES

PEARLS BEFORE SWINE

WUMO

CMYK

A ND-NDE


THE HINDU DELHI


SHOWCASE

Akshay Kumar has had an interesting funny bone.Wicked, keeling towards therude, the bawdy and the incorrect; and distinctly hisown. His brand of humourhas been harnessed well inthe past in a Hera Pheri orBhagam Bhaag and more recently in Jolly LLB2. However, over the last few years, ithas largely fallen victim toKumar’s own insistence onplaying the selfrighteousconscience keeper of the nation — be it Padman, Kesari,or Mission Mangal — or opting to do the brain deadHousefull series.

The good thing aboutGood Newwz then is that thefi��lm gives Kumar a muchneeded opportunity to shedthe boring nobility, let hishair down, and play a normal mannextdoor, one whocan be despicable and off��ensive but not irredeemably so.

Kumar is the Mumbai cityslicker Varun Batra, whohas it all in life but for a child.While he doesn’t have an

ounce of paternal instinct,his wife Deepti aka Deepu(Kareena Kapoor Khan) andhis family are bent on himtasting the joys of parenthood. When nothing works,in vitro fertilisation is soughtas the way out. All is well; except for a couple from Chandigarh — Honey and Monika(Diljit Dosanjh and Kiara Ad

vani) — with the same surname, who also decide touse the same fertility clinic.Inevitably, all hell breaksloose when the two sets ofsperms get interchanged. Kumar goes about his role witha good mix of pokerfacedzing and rakish bluster. Kapoor Khan is a perfect foil tohim with her refi��nement,

cussedness, and a very defi��ned sense of purpose. Dosanjh and Advani amplify theboisterous, kitschy Punjabistereotype but they play itwith an infectious cheer. Thedisparate worlds collide buteventually come to coexist.And then there is the thirdcouple, the doctors, underplayed with great relish by

Adil Hussain and Tisca Chopra. The sharp lines, cleverwordplay and repartee (writers Jyoti Kapoor, Raj Mehtaand Rishabh Sharma) and actors’ onpoint comic timing,all feed off�� each other, andkeep things playful for themost part.

It’s the soppy sentimentality towards the end that’s awet blanket. Also, the fi��lmtries hard to balance itselfbetween the progressive andthe conservative and is notable to be either. On the onehand is the easy and unapo

logetic way of dealing withthe unconventional fulcrumof the story — sperm — asVicky Donor had done earlier. On the other is the inability to take a clear standon issues — it almost walksinto a minefi��eld when itcomes to ideas of motherhood, abortion, and adoption. Are women incompleteif they have chosen not to become moms? Is the birth of achild always a joyous thingfor a woman? What aboutthe postpartum blues?

You have Kapoor Khangiving an impassioned, powerful speech on what motherhood does to a woman —physically and psychologically — but the overarchingvirtues and romanticisationof it, all stay, rather stronglyunderlined, ironically, by agynecologist. Then there’sthe “apna toh apna hota hai(one’s own)” angle: the perpetuation of one’s genes,name and family above allelse. It’s a damper of morality and manipulation after anuninhibited and irrepressibly refreshing start.

Merriment with a dollop of manipulationAkshay Kumar reclaims his sense of humour even as the sprightly Good Newwz turns sentimental

Namrata Joshi

Barely balanced The cast at a promotion of the fi��lm in Mumbai * SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

FILM REVIEWS

Good Newwz

Director: Raj Mehta

Cast: Akshay Kumar,

Kareena Kapoor Khan,

Diljit Dosanjh, Kiara

Advani, Adil Hussain,

Tisca Chopra

Run time: 133.53 minutes

Storyline: All hell breaks

loose for two couples

with the same surname,

Batra, trying hard to have

children through in vitro

fertilisation, when the

sperms get interchanged

Rangbaaz Phirse is a showinspired by true events andmarks the second season ofZEE5’s original series Rang-baaz. The series, which released last week, stars GulPanag who plays the “righthand woman”, the “secondin command” to JimmySheirgill’s Amarpal Singh.

In a short telephonicconversation, Gul says thatwhile she knew of the fi��rstseason’s popularity, it wasthe prospect of playing a lady don that turned out tobe the real draw for her.

“I hadn’t played a partwhere I operate on the other side of the law,” she said.

Character-driven

Gul’s character in the series, Anupriya Tiwari, hailsfrom a broken background.She is a stockbroker whofi��nds herself in a sticky situation and is forced toreach out to gangster Amarpal Singh for protection.From then on, she slowlygets involved in his operations and soon begins tochange the waythe business functions,bringingher ownpast experienceinto themix. A

methodical, intelligent andlevelheaded woman, Gul’scharacter lends shrewdness to a process that haduntil then been dictatedprimarily by violence.

Challenging roles

Gul recently appeared inAmazon Prime Video’s spyseries The Family Man.Looking back on her experiences working in the newmedium, she observed thatfor actors, the approach remains largely unchangedacross cinema, televisionand the digital format. Thenew medium, she feels,poses a challenge, especially for writers and directorswho compete with anabundance of impressiveweb content while strivingto keep audiences engagedover several episodes.

“It is a great time to be anactor,” she admits. Refl��ecting on the choices she hasmade in a career where shehas juggled various interests, Gul points that she hasmanaged to play diversecharacters in a variety ofgenres over the years.

“Acting has been one ofthe things that I have pur

sued in my life, and tothat end, I cannot complain either about thequality or quantity ofwork. I am very contentwith the kind of work I

am doing,” she asserted.

Rangbaaz Phirse iscurrently airing onZEE5

Gul Panag on playing a character onthe wrong side of the law, and beingcontent with work

‘It is a great timeto be an actor’

Law and orderGul Panag * AFP

Sucheta Chakraborty

CMYK

A ND-NDE


DELHI THE HINDU


WEEKEND SPORT

CMYK

A ND-NDE


THE HINDU DELHI


SPORT

Australia snatched two earlywickets on Friday to leaveNew Zealand facing an uphillbattle to stay in the secondTest as it chased the hometeam's 467, built on the backof a gritty 114 from TravisHead.

At the close on day two,the Black Caps were 44 fortwo with Tom Latham notout nine and Ross Taylor ontwo as a series defeat looms.

Quick blowsCaptain Kane Williamsonlasted only 14 balls, skying aJames Pattinson delivery towicketkeeper Tim Paine onnine, while Tom Blundell,called up for the outofformJeet Raval, was out to PatCummins for 15.

The visitors need to win tosquare the threematch series after crashing by 296runs in the opening daynight clash in Perth.

Australia looked in complete control at tea on 431 forfi��ve, but then collapsed to467 all out within nine oversof the restart.

Skipper Paine departed

for 79 seven balls after tea,with Mitchell Starc gonesoon after for one. Head,Cummins and Nathan Lyonrapidly followed with NeilWagner and Tim Southee doing the damage.

Australia started the day at

257 for four with Steve Smithon 77 and Head 25.

Head came into the matchunder pressure after a leanspell, but silenced his criticswith his second Test century,reaching three fi��gures off�� 222balls.

“It's very nice to contribute. It's pretty cool to scorea Boxing Day hundred, niceto get my opportunity,” saidHead, adding that Painecounterattacking when hecame in helped.

It was a patient innings

from the 25yearold, whoscored his only other century(161) against Sri Lanka in Canberra.

After reaching his ton hebegan hitting out and fi��nallyfell to a Wagner full toss, slicing it to Mitchell Santner.

He was ably supported bythe impressive Paine, whoplayed an array of shots tonotch up his seventh Testhalfcentury off�� just 72 balls.

The 35yearold had a golden opportunity to score amaiden ton, but he blew it,out lbw to Wagner after areview.

That brought Starc to thecrease, but he lasted justthree balls before spooning aSouthee delivery to Williamson at midoff��. Cummins andLyon managed just one runbetween them with Pattinson left not out 14.

Head’s century puts Australia in command New Zealand in a spot of bother after losing two wickets


Melbourne

Patient knock: Travis Head silenced critics with his second Test century. * AFP

NZ IN AUSTRALIA

Australia — 1st innings: D.Warner c Southee b Wagner 41,J. Burns b Boult 0, M.Labuschagne b de Grandhomme63, S. Smith c Nicholls b Wagner85, M. Wade c Watling b deGrandhomme 38, T. Head c Santner b Wagner 114, T. Paine lbw bWagner 79, M. Starc c Williamson b Southee 1, J. Pattinson(not out) 14, P. Cummins cLatham b Southee 0, N. Lyon cWagner b Southee 1; Extras(lb22, b5, w4): 31. Total (in155.1 overs): 467.

Fall of wickets: 11, 261, 3144,4216, 5284, 6434, 7435, 8

458, 9463.

New Zealand bowling: Boult 313911, Southee 33.161033, deGrandhomme 305682, Wagner 3811834, Santner 201820, Blundell 30130.

New Zealand — 1st innings: T.Latham (batting) 9, T. Blundell cPaine b Cummins 15, K. Williamson c Paine b Pattinson 9, R.Taylor (batting) 2; Extras (lb3,b4, w1, nb1): 9. Total (for twowkts. in 18 overs): 44.

Fall of wickets: 123, 239.

Australia bowling: Starc 40180, Cummins 7381, Pattinson 5191, Lyon 2020.

SCOREBOARD

After New Zealand’s RossTaylor was handed alifeline by the decisionreview system (DRS) in theBoxing Day Test, Australiaskipper Tim Paine cameup with the best possibleway to sledge the batsman.

“Maybe, he knows thebloke (person in charge ofballtracking),” was Paine’s

comment. In the 14th overof the Kiwi innings, JamesPattinson had Tayloradjudged lbw by the onfi��eld umpire, but Taylorchose to review the call,and balltracking showedthe delivery missing legstump.

Cricket.com.au’s offi��cialhandle tweeted the videoof the incident andcaptioned the post as “He

knows the bloke in thetruck”.

“That’s twice I haveseen him out plumb infront, but not given.

“I saw him being struckon the pad in NewZealand, that wasabsolutely hitting thestumps, he knows thebloke in the truck,” Painesays from behind thestumps.

It pays to know the ‘bloke in the truck’ ANI

Melbourne

Liverpool stretched its Premier League lead to 13 pointsby outclassing secondplaced Leicester in a 40 winon Boxing Day while Manchester United overturned apoor start to thrash Newcastle 41.

Liverpool’s trip to its closest challenger was the topbilling of a busy Thursdaycard and the newlycrownedWorld club championshowed its class.

Scant reward

Roberto Firmino’s headerwas scant reward for a dominant fi��rst half display as Sa

dio Mane and Mohamed Salah wasted big chances.

However, three goals in seven minutes in the fi��nal quarter ensured the scoreline refl��ected Liverpool’s control.

James Milner doubled thevisitors’ lead before Firmino’s classy fi��nish made it 30.Trent AlexanderArnold,who helped set up all thefi��rst three goals, rounded off��a stunning individual displayby drilling home the fourth.

United had been beaten20 at Watford on Sundayand another frustratingevening seemingly beckonedwhen Newcastle’s MattyLongstaff�� scored his secondPremier League goal — bothof which have come againstthe Red Devils.

However, unlike when theMagpies beat Ole GunnarSolskajer’s men 10 in October, the response from Unitedwas emphatic.

Martial fi��red in at the nearpost with the help of Newcastle ‘keeper Martin Dubravka before a thunderingfi��nish from Mason Greenwood and Marcus Rashford’sheader made it 31 before thebreak.

Another defensive errorthen teed up Martial to dinkover Dubravka for the fourthearly in the second half.The results: Leicester 0 lost toLiverpool 4 (Firmino 31, 74;Milner 71pen, AlexanderArnold 78); Manchester United 4(Martial 24, 51, Greenwood 36,Rashford 41) bt Newcastle 1 (MLongstaff�� 17).

Liverpool embarrasses Leicester Manchester United runs riot against Newcastle

PREMIER LEAGUE


LONDON

Opening strike: Roberto Firmino, second from left, heads in the fi��rst of his two goals againstLeicester City. * GETTY IMAGES

India under19 team produced an impressive allround performance to begin its tour of South Africawith a comfortable ninewicket win in the fi��rstYouth ODI at the Buff��aloPark here on Thursday.

Batting fi��rst, South Africa under19 team folded for187 in 48.3 overs. In reply,India overhauled the targetin 42.3 overs.

For India, Ravi Bishnoiscalped three wickets,while Kartik Tyagi, Shubhang Hegde and AtharvaAnkolekar picked up twowickets each.

Chasing the target,openers Divyaansh Saxenaand N. Tilak Varma shareda 127run stand to take thegame away from SouthAfrica. Once Varma wasdismissed by AchilleCloete, Saxena, and KumarKushagra took India home.

The scores: South Africa U19187 in 48.3 overs (Luke Beaufort 64, Jack Lees 27, RaviBishnoi 3/36) lost to IndiaU19 190/1 in 42.3 overs (Divyaansh Saxena 86, N. TilakVarma 59).

Big win forIndia U-19 Press Trust of India

East London

Vernon Philander led a relentless South African bowling performance before England fought back on thesecond day of the fi��rst Test atCenturion’s SuperSport Parkon Friday.

Philander took four for 16in 14.2 overs as South Africaappeared to have taken control by bowling out England

for 181, a fi��rst innings lead of103.

But England struck hard atthe start of the second innings. South Africa was 72for four at the close, an overall lead of 175 on a pitchwhich has proved diffi��cultfor batsmen throughout.

Master class

Philander, 34, who has announced he will retire frominternational cricket at theend of the fourTest series,

produced a master class ofcontrol to complement thestrike power of fast bowlersKagiso Rabada (three for 68)and Anrich Nortje (two for47).

Wicketkeeper Quinton deKock equalled the South African Test record by holdingsix catches, a feat which hadbeen accomplished six timesbefore — on four occasionsby new head coach MarkBoucher.

Joe Denly hit a halfcentu

ry for England after a shakystart. Denly was dropped onnought and took 28 balls toscore his fi��rst run as Philander had an opening spell ofone wicket for no runs in fi��veovers.

Maiden wicket

England collapsed, however,after Denly was caught behind off�� an inside edge togive allrounder Dwaine Pretorius his fi��rst Test wicket.

Fast bowler Anrich Nortje

bowled Jonny Bairstow forone in the next over and thenclaimed the key wicket ofStokes when he switched tobowling around the wicketand induced a loose drivewhich presented de Kockwith his fi��fth catch of theinnings.

From a promising positionat 142 for three, England lostits last seven wickets for 39runs.

But wickets continued tofall when South Africa batted

again. James Anderson, whodismissed Dean Elgar withthe fi��rst ball of the match onThursday, again claimed awicket in his fi��rst over whenAiden Markram playedaround his pads and was legbefore wicket.

Zubayr Hamza was caughtby wicketkeeper Jos Buttlerdown the leg side before Elgar was caught behind for 22off�� Jofra Archer’s second ballto reduce South Africa to 29for three.

Former India captain K.Srikkanth will be conferredthe Life Time AchievementAward during the BCCIAwards Nite in Mumbai onJanuary 12.

The Life Time Award2019 for women will bebestowed on Anjum Chopra, also a former captain.

The award function willbe held ahead of the fi��rstODI against Australia on January 14.

BCCI honourfor Srikkanth and Anjum

K. Srikkanth. * FILE PHOTO


New Delhi

South Africa — 1st innings: D.Elgar c Buttler b Anderson 0, A.Markram c Bairstow b Curran20, Z. Hamza c Stokes b Broad39, F. du Plessis c Root b Broad29, H. van der Dussen c Root bCurran 6, Q. de Kock c Buttler bCurran 95, D. Pretorius c Root bCurran 33, V. Philander c Buttlerb Broad 35, K. Maharaj c Stokesb Archer 6, K. Rabada b Broad12, A. Nortje (not out) 0; Extras(lb4, nb2, w3): 9; Total (in84.3 overs): 284. Fall of wickets: 10, 232, 371,497, 5111, 6198, 7245, 8252, 9277.England bowling: Anderson204691, Broad 18.34584,Curran 205584, Archer 194

651, Root 40260, Denly 3040. England — 1st innings: R. Burnsc de Kock b Philander 9, D. Sibley c de Kock b Rabada 4, J.Denly c de Kock b Pretorius 50,J. Root c de Kock b Philander29, B. Stokes c de Kock b Nortje35, J. Bairstow b Nortje 1, J. Buttler c de Kock b Philander 12, S.Curran c Hamza b Rabada 20, J.Archer b Philander 3, S. Broad cElgar b Rabada 2, J. Anderson(not out) 0; Extras (b4, lb5,nb2, w5): 16; Total (in 53.2overs): 181. Fall of wickets: 111, 215, 370,4142, 5143, 6150, 7176, 8176, 9181.South Africa bowling: Rabada

151683, Philander 14.28164, Pretorius 82231, Nortje122472, Maharaj 41180.

South Africa — 2nd innings: A.Markram lbw b Anderson 2, D.Elgar c Buttler b Archer 22, Z.Hamza c Buttler b Broad 4, F. duPlessis c Curran b Archer 20, H.van der Dussen (batting) 17; A.Nortje (batting) 4; Extras (b1,lb1, nb1): 3; Total (for fourwkts. in 20 overs): 72.

Fall of wickets: 12, 225, 329,462.

England bowling: Anderson 40191, Broad 5261, Archer 61372, Curran 4280, Stokes1100.

SCOREBOARD

England fi��ghts back after Philander and Rabada restrict the visitors de Kock equals South African Test record by holding six catches as the home team takes a 103run fi��rst innings lead

ENGLAND IN SA


Centurion

On the ball: An acrobatic Quinton de Kock pouches the off��ering from Jos Buttler off�� VernonPhilander. * REUTERS

M.C. Mary Kom and NikhatZareen stayed on course fora showdown and a ticket tothe Olympic Qualifi��ers onFriday, winning their respective bouts during the selection trials at the IndiraGandhi Indoor Stadium.

While Nikhat won againstJyoti Gulia, Mary outpunched Ritu Grewal in theopening bouts of the 51kg,both registering unanimousvictories from the huge 10judge panel.

The fi��nal bout will decidewho will represent India atthe Olympic Qualifi��ers inWuhan, China, in February.

These were two of thefi��ve bouts that were unanimously awarded to the winner with the other fi��ve boutsregistering split decisions.

Big surprises

The big surprises wereformer World Championships medallist SaweetyBoora, expected to give atough fi��ght to Pooja Rani inthe fi��nal trials but goingdown 19 to Nupur in the75kg and youth Worldchampion Sakshi Chaudhary getting past AsianChampionships bronze medallist Manisha Moun in the

57kg 73.The 2016 World Cham

pionships silver medallistSonia Lather got the betterof her namesake and runnerup at the 2018 edition,Sonia Chahal by an identicalmargin.

“There is no pressure towin or anything. For a longtime I have been fi��ghting tohave this bout and now itwill happen tomorrow so Iam just waiting for it andlooking forward to givingmy 100 percent to it,” Nikhat said after her bout.

“There is no plan but Iwill try not to repeat mistakes from the India Open.Whatever the decision is tomorrow, I am wellpreparedfor it.

“I will only try to avoidtoo much of clinching like ithappened in Mary didi’sbout today and there isclean, fair and beautifulboxing,” the 23year oldadded.The results: 52kg: Nikhat zareen bt Jyoti Gulia 100, MaryKom bt Ritu Grewal 100;57kg: Sakshi Chaudhary btManisha Moun 73, Sonia Lather bt Sonia Chahal 73.

60kg: Simranjit Kaur bt Pavitra100, Sarita Devi bt ShashiChopra 91. 69kg: Lalita btMeena Rani 91, Lovlina Borgohain bt Anjali 100.

75kg: Pooja Rani bt Indraja100, Nupur bt Saweety Boora91.

Nikhat Zareen totake on Mary Kom

BOXING

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

New Delhi


DELHI THE HINDU


SPORT

GROUP A

Kolkata: Bengal 289 vs Andhra110/7 in 46 overs (C.R. Gna-neshwar 45 batting).

New Delhi: Delhi 284 & 24/0 in7 overs vs Hyderabad 69 & 298in 70.2 overs (Tanmay Agarwal103, Mehdi Hasan 71 n.o., IshantSharma 4/89).

Surat: Gujarat 127 & 210 bt Ker-ala 70 & 177 in 50.3 overs (SanjuSamson 78, Axar Patel 4/50).Points: Gujarat 6, Kerala 0.

Nagpur: Vidarbha 338 in 118.2overs (Ganesh Satish 145, Adi-tya Sarwate 48) vs Punjab 132/0in 40.1 overs (Sanvir Singh 56batting, Shubman Gill 70batting).

GROUP B

Mysore: Karnataka 166 & 191/3in 67 overs (Devdutt Padikkal69 batting, Karun Nair 62 bat-ting) vs Himachal 280 in 107.4

overs (Priyanshu Khanduri 69,Nikhil Gangta 46, Rishi Dhawan93, V. Koushik 4/59).

Indore: Tamil Nadu 149 & 177/4in 67 overs (N. Jagadeesan 54,J. Kousik 66 batting) vs MadhyaPradesh 333 in 97.3 overs (Ra-meez Khan 87, Venkatesh Iyer88, Mihir Hirwani 71, T. Natara-jan 5/106).

Mumbai: Mumbai 114 & 198 in63 overs (Suryakumar Yadav 65,Himanshu Sangwan 5/60) lostto Railways 266 & 47/0 in 11.4overs. Railways 7, Mumbai 0.

Rajkot: Saurashtra 331 vs UttarPradesh 523 in 167.2 overs(Aryan Juyal 52, Akshdeep Nath95, Mohammad Saif 165, RinkuSingh 71).

GROUP C

Jammu: Jammu & Kashmir460/5 decl. in 94 overs (Su-ryansh Raina 73, Shubham Kha-

PLATE

Dibrugarh: Manipur 196 & 215in 75 overs (Sagatpam Singh 60,K. Priyojit 60 n.o., Techi Neri 5/28, incl. a hat-trick) vs Aruna-chal Pradesh 143 & 137/7 in 49.5overs (Rahul Dalal 45 batting,Rex Singh 5/36).

Patna: Bihar 326 vs Goa 386/6in 110 overs (Aditya Kaushik 73,Amulya Pandrekar 42, Amit Ver-ma 89, Suyash Prabhudessai108 batting).

Kolkata: Mizoram 73 & 30/4 in11 overs vs Pondicherry 458/5decl.

Bhubaneswar: Sikkim 269 vsNagaland 71/3 in 21 overs.

Mangaldoi (Assam): Day 2:Chandigarh 455/9 decl. in 121.1overs (Manan Vohra 90, RamanBishnoi 126, Ankit Kaushik 148n.o.) vs Meghalaya 15/1 in 11 ov-ers.

juria 138, Henan Nazir 66, AbdulSamad 103 n.o.) vs Assam 22/0in 8 overs.

Jamshedpur: Haryana 371 in113.4 overs (Ankit Kumar 53,Chaitanya Bishnoi 107, ShivamChauhan 53, Harshal Patel 65,Ashish Kumar 4/69) vs Jhark-hand 194/2 in 57 overs (KumarDeobrat 97 batting, UtkarshSingh 48).

Pune: Maharashtra 289 & 39/1in 13 overs vs Chhattisgarh 286in 111 overs (Harpreet Singh 90,Amandeep Khare 40).

Cuttack: Uttarakhand 117 &54/4 in 22 overs vs Odisha 253in 83.5 overs (Shantanu Mishra110).

New Delhi: Tripura 126 & 84 in43.5 overs (Poonam Poonia 5/26, incl. a hat-trick) lost to Ser-vices 173 & 41/2 in 11.1 overs.Services 6, Tripura 0.

RANJI TROPHY SCORES: ROUND 3, DAY 3

Skipper Tanmay Agarwaland Mehdi Hasan led Hyderabad’s fi��ghtback to restoresome pride and make Delhibat again. However, the result of the visitor’s Ranji Trophy match remains tilted infavour of the host.

Tanmay scored a centuryand Mehdi, coming in at No.8 contributed a fi��ghting unbeaten 71, as Hyderabad lifted itself from 97 for six to298 on Friday. This left Delhia target of 84 for its fi��rst winof the season.

Bad light stops playWhen bad light stopped play76 minutes before the scheduled close, Delhi was 24 forno loss and stayed in thehunt for a bonus point.

The story of the third daywas how Hyderabad’s lastfour wickets added 201 runsand ensured the team livedto fi��ght another day.

Delhi, ahead by 215 runson the fi��rst innings, was eyeing an innings victory afterreducing Hyderabad to 97for six. But what followedwas Hyderabad’s fi��nestphase in the match.

Tanmay batted much likehis opposite number andopener Shikhar Dhawan didin Delhi’s fi��rst innings. He instilled confi��dence in the incoming batsmen en route toa century.

His patient knock, including a six and 13 boundaries,frustrated Delhi no end.

Useful partnershipsWith Tanay Thyagarajan,Tanmay added 93 runs forthe seventh wicket, andanother 60 with Mehdi forthe eighth, before being runout.

Mehdi, a handy lateorderbatsman, was far more fl��amboyant in his approach. His

unbeaten knock was studded with four sixes, sevenboundaries and came off��just 62 deliveries.

Tanmay and Mehdi exposed the inadequacy of theDelhi attack that had the services of just two specialistfast bowlers — Ishant Sharma and Simarjeet Singh.

Groininjury to PawanSuyal, who left the fi��eld during Hyderabad’s fi��rst innings, further exposed Delhi’s limited bowling options.

Ishant scalps four

Like in the fi��rst innings, Ishant took four wickets and Simarjeet scalped three.

The host needs to win by10 wickets to get sevenpoints, including the bonuspoint.The scores:

Delhi — 1st innings: 284.

Hyderabad — 1st innings: 69.

Hyderabad — 2nd innings: Tan-may Agarwal run out 103,Akshath Reddy c Rawat b Bid-huri 2, Chaitanya Reddy b Bid-huri 0. Himalay Agarwal lbw bIshant 11, B. Sandeep b Ishant8, K. Sumanth c Lalit b Simar-jeet 32, C.V. Milind lbw b Si-marjeet 0, Tanay Thyagarajanlbw b Ishant 34, Mehdi Hasan(not out) 71, Ravi Kiran lbw bIshant 12, Mohammed Siraj cLalit b Simarjeet 10; Extras(b-5, lb-10): 15; Total (in 70.2overs): 298.

Fall of wickets: 1-10, 2-12, 3-29, 4-43, 5-97, 6-97, 7-190, 8-250, 9-284.

Delhi bowling: Ishant 19-1-89-4, Simarjeet 19.2-2-80-3,Bidhuri 14-3-48-2, Rana 10-3-24-0, Lalit Yadav 8-1-42-0.

Delhi — 2nd innings: KunalChandela (batting) 6, ShikharDhawan (batting) 15; Extras(lb-3): 3; Total (for no loss inseven overs): 24.

Hyderabad bowling: Siraj 4-1-12-0, Ravi Kiran 3-0-9-0.

Tanmay, Mehdi leadHyderabad’s fi��ghtback Delhi requires another 60 runs to complete an outright win

RAKESH RAONEW DELHI

Captain’s knock: Tanmay Agarwal’s century helped Hyderabadavoid an innings defeat against Delhi. * SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR

BENGALURU: Attorney General,who maintains form, may scorean encore in the Stewards Cup(1,200m), the feature event of theraces to be held here on Saturday(Dec. 28). False rails (width about8.5m from 1,600m to the winningpost) will be in position.

1 BUGS BUNNY PLATE (1,200m),maiden 2yo only, (Terms), 1

45 p.m.: 1. Al Buraaq (4) A. Vishwanath 55, 2. Gallic (6) Srinath55, 3. Golden Oaks (3) NathanEvans 55, 4. Stone House (1)Vaibhav 55, 5. Capital Gain (8)Darshan 53.5, 6. Drusilla (5) I.Chisty 53.5, 7. Forest Flame (7)David Egan 53.5 and 8. Livisilla (2)T.S. Jodha 53.5.1. FOREST FLAME,

2. GALLIC, 3. GOLDEN OAKS

2 AMATHOS PLATE (DIV. II),(1,100m), rated 15 to 35, 215: 1.

Smile Around (5) M. Naveen 60,2. Cadillac Sky (9) A. Velu 59.5, 3.Anakin (12) Bhanu Singh 58.5, 4.Bella Mamma (11) A. Vishwanath58.5, 5. Country’s Spirit (7)Nazerul 58.5, 6. Orogenesis (10)Chetan K 58.5, 7. Radiant Beauty(6) Chetan G 58.5, 8. Temple Dancer (3) Nathan Evans 58.5, 9. UpFront (4) S. Shareef 58.5, 10. Santorini Secret (1) Khurshan Alam58, 11. Zafrina (2) Irvan 57.5 and12. Mayurana (8) R. Manish 55.1. TEMPLE DANCER,

2. ANAKIN, 3. OROGENESIS

3 AGUMBE PLATE (1,200m),rated 00 to 20, 245: 1. Daring

Sweetheart (7) Chetan K 60, 2.Desert Gilt (8) K. Raghu 60, 3.Above The Rest (6)Chandrashekar 59, 4. Bazinga (9)I. Chisty 58.5, 5. Rancho (4) Ar

shad 57, 6. Kanthaka (1) Sai Kiran55, 7. Show Girl (3) Vaibhav 55, 8.Emerald Green (5) Rayan 54, 9.Turf Prospector (10) Darshan 52.5and 10. High Tide (2) Irvan 50.1. DARING SWEETHEART,2. TURF PROSPECTOR,3. BAZINGA

4 KUNIGAL STUD PLATE(1,400m), rated 45 to 65, 4yo

&over, 315: 1. Blue Moon (4) I.Chisty 60, 2. Bernardini (8) C.Umesh 59.5, 3. Sahara (7) A. Imran 59.5, 4. Excellent Sorrento (11)Chetan K 58.5, 5. Allsettogo (6)Arvind Kumar 57, 6. Sun Power(5) T.S. Jodha 57, 7. Constantinople (1) R. Marshall 55.5, 8.Angels Kiss (9) Ankit Yadav 54.5,9. Colonel Harty (12) R. Anand54.5, 10. Gypsy (10) Rayan 54.5,11. Poseidon (2) Jagadeesh 54 and12. Reczai (3) Arshad 54.1. BLUE MOON,2. SAHARA,3. BERNARDINI

5 S. RANGARAJAN MEMORIALTROPHY (2,000m), rated 30 to

50, 345: 1. Game Changer (4) A.Imran 60, 2. Crack Of Dawn (1)Nathan Evans 59.5, 3. Ozark (3)David Egan 57.5, 4. Flirting Eyes(2) I. Chisty 56.5 and 5. MightyRed (5) Donoghue 55.5.1. CRACK OF DAWN, 2. OZARK

6 STEWARDS CUP (1,200m),rated 60 & above, 415: 1.

Louisiana (1) S. Shareef 60, 2. LifeAwaits (6) Rayan 58.5, 3. RegalMusic (8) R. Manish 58.5, 4.Cerise Noir (2) Indrajeet Singh 57,5. Side Winder (7) Arvind Kumar57, 6. Attorney General (4)Srinath 56.5, 7. Depth Charge (5)Sai Kiran 54 and 8. Mulholland (3)

Chetan K 54.

1. ATTORNEY GENERAL,

2. CERISE NOIR, 3. LOUISIANA

7 NATIVE CHIEFTAN PLATE(1,400m), rated 15 to 35, 4yo

& over, 445: 1. Zhu Zhu Zest (2)J.H. Arul 60, 2. Dreams United (9)Rayan 59, 3. Whizzo (7) C. Umesh58, 4. Amazing Angel (1) Chetan K56, 5. Azeemki Princess (8)Arvind Kumar 55.5, 6. HiddenSoldier (3) R. Anand 55.5, 7. Unifier (10) S. Shareef 55, 8. Smile OfPeace (5) Naveen Kumar 53.5, 9.Turf Spirit (4) Nazerul 53.5 and10. Fierce Fighter (6) Arshad 53.

1. ZHU ZHU ZEST,

2. WHIZZO,

3. UNIFIER

8 AMATHOS PLATE (DIV. I),(1,100m), rated 15 to 35, 515:

1. Dragon Mountain (5) M. Naveen60, 2. Dallas (8) Arvind Kumar 59,3. Sadaqat (10) Vinod Shinde 57.5,4. Altair (1) Irvan 57, 5.Bahurupah (6) S.K. Paswan 57, 6.Flt Captain (7) C. Umesh 57, 7. It’sMy Country (4) Darshan 57, 8.Sandarina (2) J.H. Arul 57, 9. StarCitizen (9) Chetan G 57, 10.Tazamour (12) I. Chisty 57, 11. ThePreacher (3) R. Pradeep 57 and12. Bold Runner (11) A. Ramu 56.5.

1. SANDARINA,

2. DRAGON MOUNTAIN,

3. SADAQAT

Day’s best: CRACK OF DAWN

Double: FOREST FLAME —TEMPLE DANCER

Jkt: 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8; Tr (i): 3, 4 and5; (ii): 6, 7 and 8.

Attorney General looksgood for a repeat

Some key members of theDelhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) Apex Council have sought immediate intervention from OmbudsmanJustice (Retd.) Badar DurrezAhmed on the “autocratic”decisions taken in recenttimes. In fact, one of the directors, Sudhir Kumar Agarwal, has shot off�� a mail to theOmbudsman and the Boardof Control for Cricket in India(BCCI) highlighting the irregularities related to the AnnualGeneral Meeting (AGM) scheduled for December 29.

No notice

“As per Section 101 (3) ofCompanies Act, 2013, Noticeshould have been given to every Director of the Company.I must have received the Notice of the AGM 21 days before(the AGM) but there was nointimation of the same.

“In absence of proper compliance of the law the forthcoming AGM should be postponed,” Agarwal wrote in hiscomplaint, which has beenmarked to the Registrar ofCompanies and BCCI.

According to a member ofthe Apex Council, “Thingshave gone out of control atthe DDCA where the left handdoesn't know what the right isdoing. Selectors and coachesare being appointed in an arbitrary manner. Support staff��is being increased withoutany justifi��cation and properprocess of appointment.

“Strange things are happening. A leftarm spinnerhas been handed the responsibility of an openingbatsman.”

DDCA jointsecretary Rajan Manchanda conceded allwas not well with Delhi cricket. “I have made repeatedcomplaints to the Ombudsman on the functioning ofthe DDCA,” he said.

In another unpleasant development, connected withthe Delhi (under23) team,two players were sent backfrom Kolkata on disciplinarygrounds ahead of the CK Nayudu Trophy match againstBengal that commenced onFriday. “We were neither informed of the incident northe process followed for picking the replacements,” said anApex Council member.

DDCA members objectto ‘autocratic’ functioning Vijay Lokapally

NEW DELHI

Defending champion Railways will take on Kerala inthe women's fi��nal of the70th National senior basketball championship hereon Sunday.

In Saturday's semifi��nalsRailways eased past Madhya Pradesh 10637, whileKerala fought hard to downPunjab 7362.

Meanwhile Punjab defeated Uttarakhand 7967and entered the men'sfi��nal.

Later, Tamil Nadu defeated Railways 6563 andentered the men's fi��nal.

Railways,Kerala in fi��nal Sports Bureau Ludhiana

Army respects rights of adversaries: Rawat - SPLessons

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