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A s pro-Jallikattu protests intensified across Tamil Nadu and spread to the nation- al Capital, Pondicherry and even Sri Lanka, UK and Australia on Thursday, the Centre suggested a way out to contain the volatile situation. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is believed to have advised Tamil Nadu Chief Minister O Panneerselvam to introduce a new law on Jallikattu adminis- tration in the State Assembly, telling him that the Centre could not bring another Ordinance in this regard when the first one was stayed by the Supreme Court. The State is likely to follow the advice. After Modi’s meeting with Panneerselvam on Thursday morning, the Prime Minister’s Office tweeted, “While appre- ciating the cultural signifi- cance of Jallikattu, the Prime Minister observed that the matter is at present sub-judice. The Centre would be support- ive of the steps taken by the State Government.” Advising a way out on similar lines, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi clarified that the SC judgment on Jallikattu did not preclude the State Government from passing a law regulating the sport since ‘sports’ is a State subject under List III of the Constitution. Sports is covered by Entry 33 of List II (State List). A-G Rohatgi said, “Sports fall with- in the domain of the State, it does not fall within the domain of the Centre. So if the State is desirous of allowing or pro- moting this sport, the State must bring out a law, if it so chooses, and address all con- cerns of cruelty raised by the SC judgment of 2014. That is the only way out of the impasse.” Talking to the media, Tamil Nadu CM said the State Government will soon take steps for holding the banned Jallikattu event. “We will soon take steps with the backing of the Centre for the holding of the sport. You will soon see (the steps). All is well that ends well. Wait, good will hap- pen,” he said, adding that he had requested the Prime Minister to issue an Ordinance to enable the sport to be con- ducted. As protests demanding the lifting of the ban on the sport spread across TN, the CM rushed to New Delhi on Wednesday night to meet the PM with a request for an Ordinance. He was accompa- nied by Chief Secretary Girija Vaidyanathan. Modi was quoted by the Chief Minister as having told him, “I am aware of the feelings of the people of Tamil Nadu on the issue.” Meanwhile, upping the ante on the issue PMK leader Anbumani Ramadoss on Thursday staged a sit-in protest outside the PM’s residence in New Delhi, seeking promulga- tion of the legislation before January 26. As the Jallikattu protests reached Delhi with scores of people including students from TN demonstrating against the ban, the protesters, led by Tamil lawyers in SC took out a march from Mandi House to Jantar Mantar raising slogans against People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and the ban on Jallikattu. The SC however, preferred to stay away from the pro- Jallikattu protests and said the issue of protecting the agitating supporters of the bull-taming sport can be raised before the Madras High Court. Surprisingly, protests demanding lifting of the ban spread to beyond India with the Tamil diaspora in Sri Lanka, Britain and Australia holding demonstrations. Meanwhile, the Jallikattu revolution in TN is set to bring the State to a standstill in the coming days as more and more sections of Tamil society have declared their intentions to strike work and express soli- darity with the young agitators who are on a stand -off with the authorities demanding lifting of the SC ban on the sport. The DMK, the principal Opposition party declared on Thursday that it would disrupt train services “to draw the attention of the Central Government”. Not to be left behind, the Lefts and all fringe parties too declared that they would agitate on Friday to ensure that there is total shut down in TN. Former World Chess champion Viswanathan Anand, and Oscar award win- ning music director AR Rahman and actor Kamal Haasan also expressed their support for Jallikattu and described it as an inherent form of Tamil culture. Rahman would observe a day’s fast on Friday as a mark of solidarity with the youth who are on a peaceful protest while Anand expressed his support to the sport through Twitter. No untoward inci- dents have been reported from anywhere in TN over the issue other than road rokos and picketing. D ashing hopes of a ‘maha gathbandhan’ against the BJP in Uttar Pradesh, the Samajwadi Party on Thursday ruled out any alliance with the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) but asserted that it would have a tie-up with the Congress. RLD will not be part of the SP-Congress alliance as Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav is not interest- ed in taking RLD in the loop because of Muslim anger towards the party’s chief Chaudhary Ajit Singh. Later in the day the Congress kept the hopes of a maha gathbandhan’ alive by not ruling out the inclusion of the RLD in the tie-up for the key Assembly polls in the State. “Contours of the alliance are being worked out. So...It is premature for me to say some- thing on the issue till things are finalised,” Congress chief spokesman Randeep Surjewala told reporters in New Delhi when asked whether the RLD had been kept out of the tie-up. However, senior SP leader Kiranmoy Nanda told The Pioneer that the SP was never in touch with the RLD. “You (media) people have been talk- ing about it. We were clear that Samajwadi Party will have a truck with the Congress only for the forthcoming Assembly election,” he asserted. Nanda said that the blue- print of the alliance was ready. “We have even shortlisted can- didates for the first and second phases. The list will be declared as soon as we make the nitty- gritty of the alliance public,” he said. While SP leaders refused to divulge why the RLD would not be part of the alliance, a source revealed, “A section of the SP leaders are not interest- ed in going with the RLD as it could affect the Muslim vote bank in western UP because of simmering anger among Muslims against Ajit Singh. Besides, Jats too are not much supportive of the RLD as dur- ing the 2013 riots, Ajit Singh had avoided them.” SP leaders said that they had entrusted the Congress to talk to the RLD about the alliance as they do not want to send a signal to the Muslims that Akhilesh was keen to stitch an alliance with the RLD. The Congress tried its best, but- was not able to convince Jayant Chaudhary. K annur, Kerala’s Marxist heartland, remained tense on Thursday following the murder of Santhosh Kumar, the BJP’s booth president late on Wednesday night. Kumar was attacked by a gang of CPI(M) workers when he was alone at home and died of excessive bleeding from hack wounds at a hospital in Thalassery. The BJP observed a shutdown to protest against the murder and police refused to allow the funeral procession to pass through the State Schools Art Festival venue. Detailed report on P6 T he Centre appointed Delhi Police Commissioner Alok Kumar Verma as CBI Director on Thursday. Verma, a 1979- batch IPS officer of Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram and Union Territories (AGMUT) cadre, had taken over as Delhi Police Commissioner on February 29, 2016. “The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the appointment of Alok Kumar Verma as CBI Director. His appointment will be for a period of two years from the date of assumption of charge of his office,” said a release by the DoPT. M ost of them may not cam- paign, but Congress has nevertheless included them in the list of Star Campaigners of the party in Punjab. Party president Sonia Gandhi, vice president Rahul Gandhi, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, ex-cricketer Azharuddin and Bollywood star Sonu Sood, are in the list of 40 star campaigners who will campaign for the party in the Punjab Assembly election. Sood, who recently met Capt Amarinder, hails from Punjab and is expected to play an important role dur- ing canvassing. Among the State leader- ship, Amarinder Singh, the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) president, will be electioneering for the party across the state in the next two weeks, while crick- eter-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu has already announced his intention to give Parkash Singh Badal a thrashing by campaigning on his home turf of Lambi, where Amarinder is pitted against the Akali leader. The list includes several Congress Chief Ministers and former Chief Ministers from various States, as well as a host of senior national-level party leaders, a party release said here. These include Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, former Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot as well as former Punjab Chief Minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal. Among the top AICC lead- ers chosen to give a boost to the Punjab Congress campaign are AICC general secretary Ambika Soni, former Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar and former Union ministers Sushil Kumar Shinde and Pawan Kumar Bansal. AICC in-charge of Punjab affairs Asha Kumari is already camping in Punjab for the past several days to steer the party campaign in the state, while AICC general secretaries Digvijay Singh and Mukul Wasnik will also add their weight to the campaign in the coming days. Continued on Page 4 T urning smart, the Election Commission (EC) is going the “e-way” for not just con- ducting first of its kind “paper- less” polls in the country, but also monitoring the election process throughout the State from its control room. Making the most out of the evolving technological advancements, the poll panel has launched numerous mobile applications to “save time and improve efficiency”. “In this election, we are making the most use of the technology. To remove all the paperwork, and to save time and improving the work effi- ciency, we have launched a mobile app — RO Net — which will be primarily be facilitating our returning officers,” Punjab Chief Electoral Officer VK Singh told The Pioneer. “Earlier, returning officers used to do all the work manu- ally like preparing loads of reports, then sending it was a big job…now, everything would be done via this app. This election is going to be paperless,” he said, adding that this app would leverage IT technology and smart phones for easy access and reporting. He said this app would reduce burden of reporting for each task on both ends of sending and seeking. Singh added the app would be used as a pilot project in Punjab, and may be adopted across country by the Commission if proved suc- cessful. He added another app — ECI360 — which would be of great help not only to the polling staff but to each voter, the media and the candidates. The two apps, which is available both on iOS and Android systems, has been developed by Ludhiana-based IT firm, 01 Synergy, “which is something to be very proud of ”, said Singh. For the benefit of voters, candidates, election staff as well as the Election Commission of India (ECI), the district administration Ludhiana has developed a mobile application named “ECI360”. Continued on Page 4
16

days as more and more in touch with the RLD. “You sections of Tamil society have As pro-Jallikattu protests intensified across Tamil Nadu and …

May 05, 2018

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Page 1: days as more and more in touch with the RLD. “You sections of Tamil society have As pro-Jallikattu protests intensified across Tamil Nadu and …

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As pro-Jallikattu protestsintensified across Tamil

Nadu and spread to the nation-al Capital, Pondicherry andeven Sri Lanka, UK andAustralia on Thursday, theCentre suggested a way out tocontain the volatile situation.Prime Minister Narendra Modiis believed to have advisedTamil Nadu Chief Minister OPanneerselvam to introduce anew law on Jallikattu adminis-tration in the State Assembly,telling him that the Centrecould not bring anotherOrdinance in this regard whenthe first one was stayed by theSupreme Court. The State islikely to follow the advice.

After Modi’s meeting withPanneerselvam on Thursdaymorning, the Prime Minister’sOffice tweeted, “While appre-ciating the cultural signifi-cance of Jallikattu, the PrimeMinister observed that thematter is at present sub-judice.The Centre would be support-ive of the steps taken by theState Government.”

Advising a way out onsimilar lines, Attorney GeneralMukul Rohatgi clarified thatthe SC judgment on Jallikattudid not preclude the StateGovernment from passing alaw regulating the sport since‘sports’ is a State subject underList III of the Constitution.

Sports is covered by Entry33 of List II (State List). A-GRohatgi said, “Sports fall with-in the domain of the State, it

does not fall within the domainof the Centre. So if the State isdesirous of allowing or pro-moting this sport, the Statemust bring out a law, if it sochooses, and address all con-cerns of cruelty raised by theSC judgment of 2014. That isthe only way out of theimpasse.”

Talking to the media, TamilNadu CM said the StateGovernment will soon takesteps for holding the bannedJallikattu event. “We will soontake steps with the backing ofthe Centre for the holding ofthe sport. You will soon see (thesteps). All is well that ends well.Wait, good will hap-

pen,” he said, adding that hehad requested the PrimeMinister to issue an Ordinanceto enable the sport to be con-ducted.

As protests demanding thelifting of the ban on the sportspread across TN, the CMrushed to New Delhi onWednesday night to meet thePM with a request for anOrdinance. He was accompa-

nied by Chief Secretary GirijaVaidyanathan.

Modi was quoted by theChief Minister as having toldhim, “I am aware of the feelingsof the people of Tamil Nadu onthe issue.”

Meanwhile, upping theante on the issue PMK leaderAnbumani Ramadoss onThursday staged a sit-in protestoutside the PM’s residence in

New Delhi, seeking promulga-tion of the legislation beforeJanuary 26.

As the Jallikattu protestsreached Delhi with scores ofpeople including students fromTN demonstrating against theban, the protesters, led byTamil lawyers in SC took out amarch from Mandi House toJantar Mantar raising slogansagainst People for the EthicalTreatment of Animals and theban on Jallikattu.

The SC however, preferredto stay away from the pro-Jallikattu protests and said theissue of protecting the agitatingsupporters of the bull-tamingsport can be raised before the

Madras High Court.Surprisingly, protests

demanding lifting of the banspread to beyond India with theTamil diaspora in Sri Lanka,Britain and Australia holdingdemonstrations.

Meanwhile, the Jallikatturevolution in TN is set to bringthe State to a standstill in thecoming days as more and moresections of Tamil society havedeclared their intentions tostrike work and express soli-darity with the young agitatorswho are on a stand -off with theauthorities demanding lifting ofthe SC ban on the sport.

The DMK, the principalOpposition party declared onThursday that it would disrupttrain services “to draw theattention of the CentralGovernment”.

Not to be left behind, theLefts and all fringe parties toodeclared that they would agitateon Friday to ensure that thereis total shut down in TN.

Former World Chesschampion ViswanathanAnand, and Oscar award win-ning music director ARRahman and actor KamalHaasan also expressed theirsupport for Jallikattu anddescribed it as an inherentform of Tamil culture.

Rahman would observe aday’s fast on Friday as a markof solidarity with the youthwho are on a peaceful protestwhile Anand expressed hissupport to the sport throughTwitter. No untoward inci-dents have been reported fromanywhere in TN over the issueother than road rokos andpicketing.

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Dashing hopes of a ‘mahagathbandhan’ against the

BJP in Uttar Pradesh, theSamajwadi Party on Thursdayruled out any alliance with theRashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) butasserted that it would have atie-up with the Congress.

RLD will not be part of theSP-Congress alliance as UttarPradesh Chief MinisterAkhilesh Yadav is not interest-ed in taking RLD in the loopbecause of Muslim angertowards the party’s chiefChaudhary Ajit Singh.

Later in the day theCongress kept the hopes of a‘maha gathbandhan’ alive bynot ruling out the inclusion ofthe RLD in the tie-up for the key Assembly polls inthe State.

“Contours of the allianceare being worked out. So...It ispremature for me to say some-thing on the issue till things arefinalised,” Congress chiefspokesman Randeep Surjewalatold reporters in New Delhiwhen asked whether the RLDhad been kept out of the tie-up.

However, senior SP leaderKiranmoy Nanda told ThePioneer that the SP was neverin touch with the RLD. “You(media) people have been talk-ing about it. We were clear thatSamajwadi Party will have atruck with the Congress onlyfor the forthcoming Assemblyelection,” he asserted.

Nanda said that the blue-print of the alliance was ready.“We have even shortlisted can-didates for the first and secondphases. The list will be declaredas soon as we make the nitty-gritty of the alliance public,” hesaid.

While SP leaders refused todivulge why the RLD wouldnot be part of the alliance, asource revealed, “A section ofthe SP leaders are not interest-ed in going with the RLD as itcould affect the Muslim votebank in western UP because ofsimmering anger amongMuslims against Ajit Singh.Besides, Jats too are not muchsupportive of the RLD as dur-ing the 2013 riots, Ajit Singhhad avoided them.”

SP leaders said that theyhad entrusted the Congress totalk to the RLD about thealliance as they do not want tosend a signal to the Muslimsthat Akhilesh was keen tostitch an alliance with the RLD.The Congress tried its best, but-was not able to convince JayantChaudhary.

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Kannur, Kerala’s Marxistheartland, remained tense

on Thursday following themurder of Santhosh Kumar, theBJP’s booth president late onWednesday night.

Kumar was attacked by agang of CPI(M) workers whenhe was alone at home anddied of excessive bleeding fromhack wounds at a hospital inThalassery. The BJP observeda shutdown to protest againstthe murder and police refusedto allow the funeral processionto pass through the StateSchools Art Festival venue.

Detailed report on P6

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The Centre appointed DelhiPolice Commissioner Alok

Kumar Verma as CBI Directoron Thursday. Verma, a 1979-batch IPS officer of ArunachalPradesh-Goa-Mizoram andUnion Territories (AGMUT)cadre, had taken over as DelhiPolice Commissioner onFebruary 29, 2016.

“The AppointmentsCommittee of the Cabinet hasapproved the appointment ofAlok Kumar Verma as CBIDirector. His appointment willbe for a period of two yearsfrom the date of assumption ofcharge of his office,” said arelease by the DoPT.

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Most of them may not cam-paign, but Congress has

nevertheless included them inthe list of Star Campaigners ofthe party in Punjab.

Party president SoniaGandhi, vice president RahulGandhi, former Prime MinisterManmohan Singh, ex-cricketerAzharuddin and Bollywoodstar Sonu Sood, are in the list of40 star campaigners who willcampaign for the party in thePunjab Assembly election.

Sood, who recently metCapt Amarinder, hails fromPunjab and is expected to play an important role dur-ing canvassing.

Among the State leader-ship, Amarinder Singh, thePunjab Pradesh CongressCommittee (PPCC) president,will be electioneering for theparty across the state in thenext two weeks, while crick-eter-turned-politician NavjotSingh Sidhu has alreadyannounced his intention togive Parkash Singh Badal athrashing by campaigning onhis home turf of Lambi, whereAmarinder is pitted against

the Akali leader.The list includes several

Congress Chief Ministers andformer Chief Ministers fromvarious States, as well as a hostof senior national-level partyleaders, a party release said here.

These include HimachalPradesh Chief MinisterVirbhadra Singh, formerRajasthan chief minister AshokGehlot as well as former PunjabChief Minister Rajinder KaurBhattal.

Among the top AICC lead-ers chosen to give a boost to thePunjab Congress campaign are

AICC general secretaryAmbika Soni, former LokSabha speaker Meira Kumarand former Union ministersSushil Kumar Shinde andPawan Kumar Bansal.

AICC in-charge of Punjabaffairs Asha Kumari is alreadycamping in Punjab for the pastseveral days to steer the partycampaign in the state, whileAICC general secretariesDigvijay Singh and MukulWasnik will also add theirweight to the campaign in thecoming days.

Continued on Page 4

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Turning smart, the ElectionCommission (EC) is going

the “e-way” for not just con-ducting first of its kind “paper-less” polls in the country, butalso monitoring the electionprocess throughout the Statefrom its control room.

Making the most out of theevolving technologicaladvancements, the poll panelhas launched numerous mobileapplications to “save time andimprove efficiency”.

“In this election, we aremaking the most use of thetechnology. To remove all thepaperwork, and to save timeand improving the work effi-ciency, we have launched amobile app — RO Net — whichwill be primarily be facilitatingour returning officers,” Punjab Chief Electoral OfficerVK Singh told The Pioneer.

“Earlier, returning officersused to do all the work manu-ally like preparing loads ofreports, then sending it was abig job…now, everything

would be done via this app.This election is going to bepaperless,” he said, adding thatthis app would leverage ITtechnology and smart phonesfor easy access and reporting.

He said this app wouldreduce burden of reporting foreach task on both ends ofsending and seeking.

Singh added the app wouldbe used as a pilot project inPunjab, and may be adoptedacross country by theCommission if proved suc-cessful. He added another app— ECI360 — which would beof great help not only to thepolling staff but to each voter,the media and the candidates.

The two apps, which isavailable both on iOS andAndroid systems, has beendeveloped by Ludhiana-basedIT firm, 01 Synergy, “which issomething to be very proud of”,said Singh.

For the benefit of voters,

candidates, election staff aswell as the ElectionCommission of India (ECI),the district administrationLudhiana has developed amobile application named“ECI360”.

Continued on Page 4

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Page 2: days as more and more in touch with the RLD. “You sections of Tamil society have As pro-Jallikattu protests intensified across Tamil Nadu and …

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Himachal Pradesh has com-pleted the work on special

revision of photo electoral rollsin all 68 Assembly constituen-cies of the State which was hasalso been published.

Chief Electoral OfficerNarender Chauhan onThursday said 88,116 new vot-ers had been registered duringthe revision of the voter list,including 33,287 voters of theage group of 18-19 and 54,829in the age group of 19 years andabove. Besides names of 45,594voters had been removed fromthe voter list due to death,change in place or double reg-istration of the voters. Therehad been a total increase of42,522 voters in the voter list.

Chauhan said now therewere 48,11,756 registered votersin the voter lists of all Assemblysegments of Himachal whichincludes 24,58,881 male and23,52,875 female voters. He saidthe highest voters (90,320) werein Sulah Assembly constituen-cy in Kangra district whereas thelowest number (22,686) was inLahaul and Spiti.

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Union Minister of Health JPNadda will soon lay the

foundation stone of tertiarycare cancer centre at AmbalaCantt, for which approval hasbeen granted by the Centre.

The Centre will be con-structed in the premises of CivilHospital, Ambala Cantt. at a

cost of about �45 crore, saidHaryana Health Minister AnilVij, who was presiding over ameeting held in this regard onThursday.

Vij said the Centre hadreleased first instalment of about�7.37 crore for construction ofbuilding and purchase of equip-ment. While the HaryanaGovernment would bear 40 per

cent of the cost, the remainingwould be borne by the CentralGovernment, he said.

The tertiary care cancercentre would comprise 50-bedded hospital, besides offer-ing facilities such as radiology,chemotherapy, diagnostic tests,specialists and private rooms.

This will be the first suchcentre in the area and will pro-

vide easy access to excellent can-cer care facilities to the people,particularly those in districts ofnorthern Haryana, such asYamunanagar, Kurukshetra,Kaithal, Karnal and Panipat.

Similarly, National CancerInstitute will be established atBadhsa in district Jhajjar whichwould facilitate patients in theremaining districts.

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The Haryana Governmenton Thursday announced

that new polytechnics being setup in the state would be run inthe Public Private Partnership(PPP) mode in collaborationwith leading industrial houses.

The intent behind thismove is to give a decisive pushto technical education andbring the courses offered inperfect sync with the industrydemand.

“These polytechnics willturn out industry-ready stu-dents and ensure hundred percent placement,” said HaryanaChief Minister Manohar LalKhattar, who chaired a meetingof the Technical Educationdepartment here.

The State Government hasalso prepared a new scheme forthe meritorious but poor stu-dents desirous of getting edu-cation in private technical insti-tutes of their choice. Under thescheme, 50 per cent fees wouldbe reimbursed by the StateGovernment while the remain-ing 50 per cent would be con-tributed by the institute underthe Corporate SocialResponsibility (CSR).

The government has alsodecided to sanction adequatestaff for the new polytechnics.

During the meeting,Manohar Lal directed officersof the department to invitereputed industrial houses torun these polytechnics byforming societies.

While the State

Government would makeavailable infrastructure andbuilding, the polytechnicswould be run by these societies.

The chairman of the societywould be from the industrialhouse and to ensure participa-tion of the Panchayati Raj

Institutions, chairmen of zilaparishads concerned would bemade members. Grant-in-aidwould also be provided by theState Government to thesepolytechnics as required.

The Chief Minister wasapprised that as many as 13new polytechnics are beingconstructed in the State out ofwhich six will be run by theState Government and theremaining would be managedby such societies. These poly-technics are constructed atIndri and Malab (Nuh),Mandkola in district Palwal,Chhapar (Bhiwani), Nanakpur(Panchkula), Dhamlawas(Rewari) and Sector-26,Panchkula.

Manohar Lal also directedthe Department to prepare a

new scheme for such merito-rious students as intend topursue education in privatetechnical institutions of theirchoice. Officers concerned havebeen told to prepare criteria forthe number of students to befacilitated by the Governmentin getting admission in privatetechnical institutions.

While the governmentwould reimburse 50 per cent feeof such students, the remainingwill be contributed by the pri-vate institutes under CorporateSocial Responsibility.

As many as 28Government polytechnics arerunning in the State. Besides,there are four Governmentaided polytechnics and twonew government engineeringcolleges are being set up.

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Himachal Chief MinisterVirbhadra Singh on

Thursday declared Dharamshala,situated in the snow-cappedmajestic and mighty Dhauladharrange, the second capital ofHimachal Pradesh.

Camping at Dharamshaladuring the second week of hisannual winter sojourn, he saidthe city held a special impor-tance and value to the lowerareas of Himachal Pradeshincluding Kangra, Chamba,Hamirpur and Una districts.

“The people of these areas

would now be benefitted of thisspecial status and they wouldnot have to travel to longer dis-tance for their works,” he said,adding that Dharamshala wasalready marked prominentlynot only in the map of India butof the world due to its signifi-cance owing to many reasonsincluding religious, natural andadventurous tourism.

The Chief Minister saidDharamshala was the home ofthe Dalai Lama and attractedthe people across the world.Prominent personalities of theworld visited this hilly townthroughout the year.

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Tower of Justice would soonbe established over seven

acres in district Gurugram at acost of about �133 crore.

“This would be the largestjudicial complex in north India,and would comprise 55 courtrooms with all modern facili-ties. This project would becompleted in three years,” saidDistricts and Sessions Judge,Gurugram, Harnam SinghThakur on Thursday.

Thakur also informed that65,000 cases are presentlypending in various courts inGurugram. Of these, about20,000 cases were related toSection 138 or dishonour ofcheque, which was maximumin Haryana.

Reiterating that all thecourts in Gurugram are mak-ing concerted efforts to disposeof all cases within five years, hesaid that only 45 cases had beenpending for longer than 10years and about 1,000 caseswere pending for longer thanfive years.

About the construction oflargest judicial complex inGurugram, he said Judges,Punjab and Haryana HighCourt, AK Mittal and SuryaKant Sharma, would participatein the ‘bhoomi pujan’ of theproject on January 21. Theywill later lay the foundationstone of new judicial complexin Sohna.

Thakur said the complexwould have centrally air-con-ditioned two towers, with sevenand eight storeys, respectively.Each floor would comprise tencourts each and public facilities,meeting hall and conferencehall would be provided on thethird floor. The complex wouldalso have facilities of bank, postoffice, district Bar library, can-teen, office of District Attorneyand mediation room, he said.

Chandigarh: In a bid to providequality skill training and profes-sional knowledge to the youth toenhance their employability,Haryana Government will pre-pare an action plan till 2022.

Haryana Chief Secretary DSDhesi on Thursday directed theofficers of Haryana SkillDevelopment Mission to prepareaction plan till 2022 and workaccordingly. Dhesi, while pre-siding over a meeting ofGoverning Council of HaryanaSkill Development Mission alsoasked the officers of variousdepartments to align the skilldevelopment schemes of theirdepartments with the NationalSkill Qualification Framework tobring in uniformity and stan-dardisation of training outcomes,besides enhancing the employ-ability of the youth. PNS

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Aday after Supreme Courtrejected Punjab’s plea for

adjourning the hearing over theSutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL)canal dispute till the NewGovernment assumed officein the State, the SYL issue hasagain raised the the politicaltemperature in Haryana.

The political parties haveengaged in a blame game againwith the Opposition Congressand INLD blaming the BJP-ledHaryana Government forbefooling the people of theState on SYL issue.

The Opposition partieshave asked the Manohar LalKhattar Government toapproach the Centre to ensurecompletion of SYL canal assoon as possible even as theChief Minister has maintainedthat the SYL issue is of primeimportance for the StateGovernment.

Under fire from theOpposition for not taking upthe issue with Prime MinisterNarendra Modi yet and fixingup an all party meeting withhim on SYL canal, ManoharLal while talking to the medi-apersons said that the StateGovernment is committed tobring SYL water to Haryana.

On the query that the SChad asked Haryana as to whyit had not challenged Punjabgovernment’s notificationreturning the farmers land

acquired for the SYL canal, theChief Minister said that thePunjab Government has notyet denotified the land and assuch, there is no need to chal-lenge it.

Amid the political hulla-baloo on SYL issue in Haryanaand neighboring Punjab aswell, Haryana Congress hasurged the Narendra Modi led-NDA Government to constructthe SYL canal after theSupreme Court’s verdict.

Randeep Surjewala,Congress spokesperson andMLA from Haryana said, “Iwould urge Prime Minister toensure that this work must becompleted as it’s his duty to fol-low the orders of SupremeCourt.”

It is the responsibility of theCentre to intervene and get theSYL constructed to ensure thatHaryana gets its water sharefrom Punjab, said he.

Surjewala had recentlycome under attack from INLDand BJP after he accompaniedthe senior party leaders whilereleasing Punjab poll mani-festo, which stated that Punjab’swater is for its people only.

On the other hand,

Haryana’s main oppositionINLD has called on its partyworkers to get ready for thedigging up of SYL on February23 , if the same is not done bythe Centre.

Slamming the BJPGovernment for failing to fightto get SYL water for Haryanaeven after SC’s decision inState’s favour in November,INLD’s senior leader AbhaySingh Chautala said that theINLD will now ensure that thestate gets its SYL water sharefrom Punjab.

During the hearing of SYLissue on Wednesday, the ApexCourt had granted three weeks’time to Punjab for respondingto Haryana’s plea for executingCourt’s 2004 directive for com-pletion of the SYL canal.

The court had posted thehearing for February 15.

The SC Bench also statedthat its November 30, 2016order for maintaining statusquo on the SYL land wouldcontinue and this would beensured by the three courtreceivers — Union HomeSecretary and Punjab’s ChiefSecretary and Director Generalof Police.

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As the loud dhol beats andslogans reverberated the

New Delhi’s IGI Airport, hun-dreds of NRIs, donning AamAadmi Party’s T-shirt travelledfrom across the seas to AAP, inthe Punjab Assembly polls.

The first batch of 180Punjabi NRIs from Canada,donning AAP’s t-shirts arrivedin Punjab on Thursday, withthe second batch from UK allset to land on January 24.

“We have come to Punjabto ensure defeat of SAD-BJPalliance and Congress.Congress is not an alternativebut a substitute of the presentcorrupt regime of Badal fami-ly,” said Surinder Mavi, ChaloPunjab campaign’s convenerin Toronto, who led the firstbatch.

He gave a call to defeatSAD and Congress to savePunjab from mafia rule. “AAPis the only and last hope forpeople of Punjab,” he added.

Delhi Chief MinisterManish Sisodia and party’sOverseas convener KumarVishwas gave a warm welcometo the NRIs at IGI Airport,while AAP’s national generalsecretary Sanjay Singh andKanwar Sandhu welcomedthem at Chandigarh.

Mavi said: “We have seenin Canada how a good gov-ernment can change the lives ofpeople. Presently, there is nodemocracy and rule of law inPunjab. Only one family ofBadals is ruling and commonpeople are suffering in thehands of this family.”

He said unfortunately,Punjab was plagued by many

evils like drugs, corruption,crime, mining and transportmafia during the ten years ruleof Badal family. “The gang warsin Punjab are very disturbingphenomena and present gov-ernment allowed law and orderto go out of hand. One completegeneration of Punjab has beenruined as thousands of Punjabiyouth is addicted to drugs. Iftimely steps were not taken,anarchy would prevail in theState,” he said.

AAP’s youth wing conven-er in Canada Joban Randhawasaid that NRIs would workhard to get rid of the presentSAD-BJP government. “We willspread into constituencies inDoaba and will target Majitha,the constituency of BikramSingh Majithia, who controls thedrug trade,” he said.

Randhawa added that peo-

ple of Punjab had seen CaptAmarinder Singh’s governmentfrom 2002 to 2007 and it wasduring his time, trend of drugsbecame available in Punjab.

He claimed that over

35,000 NRIs have enrolled for‘Chalo Punjab’ movement inCanada and most of themwould reach Punjab andremaining would extend theirsupport from abroad.

Rajesh Sharma from UK,who left his job and family forAAP, said that he wished peo-ple of Punjab enjoy the same facilities as they are avail-ing abroad.

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Punjab Congress PresidentCapt Amarinder Singh,

flanked by the party’s new starcampaigner Navjot Singh Sidhuon Thursday said he will ordera reinvestigation into the drugracket case in which CabinetMinister Bikram Singh Majithiawas given a clean shit by the SITif his party came to power.

“We will order a reinvesti-gation into the drug racket casein which Majithia was given aclean chit by the SIT and throwbehind bars those involved inthe narcotics trade after com-ing to power in the State,” hesaid at a Press conference here.

With Amritsar East candi-date Navjot Singh Sidhu on hisside, Capt Amarinder made itclear that the cricketer-turned-politician had joined Congresssans a precondition and willseek votes as a star campaign-er. “He is a foot soldier of theparty and has joined it withoutany condition. He never putforth any condition,” he said.

On AAP’s charge that hewas going soft on Parkash SinghBadal, an aggressive Amarinderasked if the media wanted himto “thrash” the chief minister. Hesaid he had chosen to contestfrom Lambi Assembly seat tohand Badal a crushing defeatand the public mood was againstthe ruling family.

Asked if AAP posed a

threat to SAD in the polls, hesaid the rival party was in dol-drums and has no connect toPunjab. “So many AAP work-ers, including founding mem-bers, are joining Congress.Many AAP leaders were enter-ing the party fold in Amritsartoday,” he said. With the party’snine candidates from theregion by his side, CaptainAmarinder also exuded confi-dence that his party wouldwin all the nine seats in Majha.

Responding to mediaqueries, Sidhu quashed all spec-ulation on his vying for a postin the next Congress govern-ment, saying “son is son, andfather is father.”

Interjecting in response toa hypothetical question posedto Captain Amarinder if he willaccept Sidhu as the ChiefMinister, the cricketer-turned-politician and newcomer to theCongress ranks quipped, “Ifaunty becomes a man then shewould be called uncle.”

Declaring that he was therebecause of Captain, Sidhuasserted that he would go toLambi as campaigner to giveBadal a bigger thrashing.

Sidhu dismissed AAPleader Arvind Kejriwal as aconfused man who was losinghis mind as he was feeling theheat in the Punjab polls, sayinghe was making all sorts ofsenseless allegations out of sheerbewilderment. To another ques-tion, Captain Amarinder said hehad promised Navjot KaurSidhu that she would beaccommodated in the govern-ment following the elections.“My wife also vacated her seatfor me,” he quipped.

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Challenging SAD presidentSukhbir Badal in his

citadel, AAP’s national con-vener Arvind Kejriwal onThursday maintained that hehas sent his “biggest Punjableader” Bhagwant Mann totake on junior Badal.

Kejriwal, who campaignedhard in Sukhbir’s home con-stituency on Thursday, said:“We have sent our strongestleader to take on Sukhbir SinghBadal.” “Captain and Badal haveagain planned to contest col-lectively by fielding Bittu fromJalalabad and himself fromLambi. Their plan to divide anti-incumbency votes will be failedin the elections and Punjabis

will choose AAP over these cor-rupt parties,” he said.

Delhi Chief Minister liter-

ally invited residents ofJalalabad to defeat “corrupt”Sukhbir Badal and force him to

lose his deposit. “Jalalabadiswill be remembered for risingagainst corruption and misruleby defeating Sukhbir,” he said.

Kejriwal said that Captainand Badal have been contestingelections collectively for longand with the emergence ofAAP in Punjab, they have beenexposed. AAP leader allegedBikram Majithia of being agentof international drug mafiaand he is supplying the drugsin Punjab. He promised thatafter the results on March 11,Majithia will be sent behind thebars before March 15.

Kejriwal criticised Badalgovernment for ignoring theyouth of Punjab and taking no step to generateemployment in State.

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Lambi: Downplaying the claimsmade by Punjab Congress chiefCapt Amarinder Singh thatSAD-BJP alliance would narrowdown to 10-20 seats in theupcoming Assembly elections,Punjab Chief Minister ParkashSingh Badal on Thursday saidthe State has rejected the grandold party numerous times andwill do the same in the polls slat-ed to take place next month.

Dubbing Capt Amarinderand the new CongressmanNavjot Singh Sidhu as “oppor-tunists”, Badal said that the peo-ple of Punjab will not supportsuch people who could not evenremain loyal to the parties whointroduced them in politics.

“He (Amarinder) keepspressing on the fact that hisparty will form a government iswrong. Punjab has rejected hisparty many times,” Badal said.“Both Amarinder Singh andNavjot Singh Sidhu are oppor-tunists. Sidhu could not remainloyal to the party which intro-duced him to politics, gave himposition, made his wife a minis-ter. Even Amarinder Singh wasa part of Akali Dal. And I am surepeople of Punjab will not supportsuch opportunists. We are notscared of Cong,” he added. PNS

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Former Punjab BJP presidentand sitting Pathankot MLA,

Ashwani Sharma is facing atough electoral path to victoryagainst his bete noire and three-time MLA Master Mohan Lal,who has also jumped into thefray as an independent from theconstituency. With BJP’s promi-nent rebel Master Mohan Lalhaving a substantial vote bank inPathankot, Sharma is finding thegoing tough as he makes a pitchfor a second successive term.

Claiming to have brought anumber of development projectsin Pathankot, Sharma hopes tocash in over development plankin the Assembly polls.

“Development of my con-stituency has remained my pri-ority during my term,” says Ashwani while talking toThe Pioneer. Sharma says,“Solving the traffic problem inPathankot would be my priori-ty now.” “I believe in positive pol-itics,” says he while maintainingsilence on the issue MasterMohan Lal contesting as anindependent against him.

Sharma and Mohan Lal had

parted ways in 2012after the former wasgiven the BJP ticketfrom Pathankot seat.After being neglectedby the party again in2017, Mohan Laldecided to contest asan Independent.

Meanwhile, thesitting MLA Sharmahas placed development issueshigh on his election agenda.Excerpts from the interview

One of the most prominentBJP rebel-former MinisterMaster Mohan Lal has filedhis nomination as an inde-pendent from Pathankot con-stituency after the BJP field-ed you from the seat. Do youthink, this will affect yourwinning prospects this time?

Master Mohan Lal is asenior leader and I do not wantto comment on this issue. Inmy constituency, my work andaction speaks for itself.

It has been said that you didnot get along too well withGurdaspur sitting MP VinodKhanna. Will he campaign foryou in the constituency?

There are no dif-ferences between meand the local MP.He has not beenkeeping well and ifhis health permits,he will come forelectioneering.

There have beenallegations from

your rivals that no work hasbeen done to improve thesanitation and health servicesin Pathankot during yourtenure. Your take on that.

This is not true. A lot ofwork has been done to improvehealth services in Pathankot inpast five years. Facilities in thecivil hospital have beenimproved. Though there is nocompetition with private healthservice providers, but we arestill trying to provide best pub-lic health services to the peo-ple in the constituency.

What is the key agenda inyour constituency forAssembly polls?

The main problem here istraffic and I would definitelywork to improve it. I havepromised to provide free wi-fi

at railway station and busstand. Besides, focus would beto improve water supply.

How do you look at yourCongress and AAP opponents?Who do you think will give youa tough electoral fight?

No comments… I believe inpositive politics and do not wantto comment on my opponents.

What would go in your favourin the Assembly polls?

The development works Ihave done in my constituencyin the past five years. I had gotdistrict status for Pathankotearlier and also got Pathankottown the municipal corpora-tion. Besides, I have brought ina number of projects, includinga stadium, a Government col-lege, an auditorium, bridgesand about �110 crore werespent for improving road net-work in my constituency.

What kind of campaigning areyou focusing on and how muchtime do you spend in the fieldfor campaigning in a day?

I have been holding publicmeetings. From last six months,I have done nukkad meetings

and going out door to door tomeet the voters. I spend more

than 12 hours in the field forelectioneering.

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Page 4: days as more and more in touch with the RLD. “You sections of Tamil society have As pro-Jallikattu protests intensified across Tamil Nadu and …

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Haryana Government hasannounced to provide wi-

fi services in 1,000 villages ina phased manner. As many as100 villages have already beencovered under these services.

The Chief MinisterManohar Lal on Thursday saidthat the state is headingtowards digital revolution buta lot more needed to be donein this direction.

We have realised the con-cept of ‘Sarkar Aapke Dwar’ inreal terms through e-gover-nance and IT, said he whileinteracting with mediapersonsafter launching the e-services ofthree departments namelyPrinting and StationaryDepartment, LabourDepartment, and web portalfor online services for gridconnected rooftop solar powerplants of the New andRenewable EnergyDepartment.

In reply to a question, theChief Minister said that cash-less system is being promotedin government departments.Stalls would be set up to imparttraining in cashless system atthe Basant Mela to be organisedat every district headquarter onFebruary 1.

Speaking on this occasion,

the Printing and StationaryMinister, M Manish KumarGrover, said the departmentwould stop physical printing ofthe gazette. It would be madeavailable only in e-mode at thewebsite. With this, the depart-ment would save the cost ofpaper, postage and labour, andthe citizens would get notifi-cations digitally at their door-step, he said.

During the Swarna Jayanti year, the departmentwould upload all old gazettes published since 1966 on the e-gazette website, headded.

The Minister of State forLabour and Employment,Nayab Singh Saini informedthat the new online work sys-tem of the department wouldprovide online delivery of var-ious services to the workers employed in the indus-try besides bringing online internal working of thedepartment.

The new system wouldhelp in ensuring protection ofthe rights of workers and onlinedelivery of benefits of variouswelfare schemes in a simplified manner. It wouldalso provide for online regis-tration, licensing and paymentof fee under various labourlaws, he said.

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Punjab and Haryana contin-ued to reel under intense

cold wave conditions even asdense fog and mist at severalplaces disrupted road, rail andair traffic in the region onThursday.

According to the MetDepartment, several places likeHisar, Amritsar, Ludhiana and Patiala witnessed foggyconditions.

Amritsar in Punjab was thecoldest in the region settling atminimum temperature of 3.6degrees Celsius. Chandigarh,the joint capital of Punjab andHaryana witnessed a low of 4.2degree Celsius, two notchesdown the normal level.

In Haryana, Karnal andNarnaul recorded their respec-tive minimum temperaturesat 4.2 and 4.5 degrees Celsius,three notches below normal.Ambala witnessed a low of 5.1

degrees Celsius while Hisarwitnessed piercing cold at 5.8degrees.

Ludhiana, the industrialhub of Punjab recorded 6.7degree Celsius and Patiala shiv-ered 4.4 degrees Celsius, twonotches below normal.

The maximum tempera-ture at many places in the twostates also settled below normallevels. Amritsar recorded max-imum temperature at 17.8degrees Celsius, Ludhianarecorded 18.8 degree Celsius,Patiala 18.6 degrees,Chandigarh settled at 18.7degrees, Ambala 19 degreesand Karnal settled at maximumtemperature of 18.8 degreeCelsius.

The Met Department hasforecast dense fog at a fewplaces during next 12 hours inHaryana and Punjab whilecold conditions are also likelyto intensify in both states innext two days.

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Following the failure of theState police to handle the Jat

quota agitation in Februarylast, Haryana Government hasconstituted a five-membercommittee to study the rec-ommendations for reforms inPolice Department as given inthe report of retired IPSParkash Singh Committee.

The Manohar Lal KhattarGovernment in Haryana, whichwas accused of going soft on thesenior officials indicted in theParkash Singh Committee’report, has formed the panelunder Additional ChiefSecretary (ACS), Revenue

Department, Keshni AnandArora. The Committee com-prises as members ACS Home,Ram Niwas, ACS Developmentand Panchayats Department,Navraj Singh Sandhu, PrincipalSecretary Higher EducationDepartment, Mahavir Singhand Secretary, Chief SecretaryOffice Neerja Sekhar.

While talking to the medi-apersons, ACS Home, RamNiwas said that the committeeheld its first meeting onThursday, during which dis-cussion was held on severalaspects. It will submit its reportin three months, said he.

Replying to a question aboutaction being taken by the State

Government against erring offi-cers during Jat agitation, hesaid that two officers had beenchargesheeted, and erring offi-cers would not be spared.

All erring officers havefiled their replies, which arebeing analyzed by the govern-ment and action would betaken accordingly, he said.

Notably, retired DGPParkash Singh who wasentrusted with the responsi-bility of probing the causes ofJat agitation and lapses in curb-ing the violence, in his reporthad castigated the officers at thehelm of affairs who wilfully letthe agitation flare up.

In his first report submit-

ted to the HaryanaGovernment on May 13 lastyear, he had indicted about 90police and administrative offi-cers for their “failure to act”.

The State Government hadlater asked Prakash Singh tostop working on his secondreport on police reforms in thestate and had decided to exam-ine the recommendations relat-ed to internal security given inhis first report.

The Jat agitation inFebruary last year had led tothe deaths of 30 people, injuredmore than 300 and resulted inloss of public and governmentproperty amounting to croresof rupees in Haryana.

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From Page 1Rajasthan PCC president

Sachin Pilot and UPCC presi-dent Raj Babbar have also beenshortlisted by the Congress tostrengthen the Congress cam-paign in the State.

The list includes severalCongress MPs and formerMPs, besides All India MahilaCongress president ShobhaOza. Several senior PunjabPCC leaders who are contest-ing the elections are on the listof campaigners whom theparty high command hasdirected to lend their supportto the candidates in other con-stituencies.

From Page 1*!�����(�����������������!���������������������������������!�(������!!�"������ �����!��������������7%������������;���������Q������!���� ���$������� ���������������������������(���$�����Q����� !��"����"��������#�����!�����!��������������������������/�� ��##����������������������� �����!����������� ������(������� ��Q���$����!������ ������������#������� �� �$����!�����$����������B�����������#�������������������������� ��!�������������#����!�������"��/'

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RONet“In the election process,

the returning officers (RO) playa significant role as they areresponsible for not only holdingelections and returning the can-didate but also overseeing theentire election managementprocess in the constituency,” saidSingh. “Moreover, variousthings like ethical voting, facil-itating a smoother, making thevoting experience convenient,this all has increased RO’sresponsibilities. So, this appwould help the ROs to knowwhat exactly they are requiredto do and when, and that toowithout weighing them downwith additional reportingforms,” he added.

He said that this would bean “aid to the ROs and otherfunctionaries”. “In RoNET, alltasks are time-defined, thesupervisory functionaries, rightup to the ECI, will not only getthe details of all tasks per-

formed but also exactly howthey were performed. It will alsoenable them to intervene inplaces where tasks were not per-formed, or on checking foundto be incorrectly performed,”said the election official.

ECI 360ECI 360 would help bring

transparency, accountability andempower the citizens regardingthe elections and voting. Theuser-friendly app would be usedby the ECI, CEO, DEO, ROs,candidates, political parties,supervisors, PROs, SSPs orCOPs, election teams and themedia. The app has been divid-ed into different sections suchas voter, candidate, SVEEP,admin, besides others.

EC’s THIRD EYEA third eye will keep a

watch on all 117 constituencies.It has introduced a mobile carfor each assembly constituen-cy to monitor different areas.

“A total of 117 units havebeen operationalized, one ineach constituency. There isone camera fitted mobile vehi-cle which will be on move forthe entire day and the directvideo feed can be monitored inthe CEO’s office inChandigarh,” said Singh.

He added, “The picturequality is good, and this wouldhelo us monitoring and super-vising from the head office.Right now, it is being moni-tored the entire day…we havea team for it…and in the lasttwo days, it will work 24X7.”

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Page 5: days as more and more in touch with the RLD. “You sections of Tamil society have As pro-Jallikattu protests intensified across Tamil Nadu and …

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Latching on to former PrimeMinister Manmohan Singh’s

defence of RBI Governor UrijitPatel in the ParliamentaryStanding Committee meeting,the Congress on Thursday tar-geted Narendra Modi.

“In the PAC ManmohanSingh protected RBI in publicinterest. Modi is diminishing itsindependence and actedagainst public interest,” seniorleader Kapil Sibal tweeted.

Another Congress leaderDigvijaya Singh, who is alsomember of the StandingCommittee on Finance, hit outat Patel, a day after the centralbank’s Governor escaped pos-sible grilling by the parlia-mentary committee over thenotes ban issue following theintervention of Singh.

“I had the privilege to hearthe earlier Governor RBI andthe present one also. What acontrast!,” Digvijaya tweeted.

Digvijaya’s apparent refer-ence was to Raghuram Rajan,the predecessor of Patel, whowas not given a second term bythe Modi dispensation.

On Wednesday, Patel, whoalong with other RBI andFinance Ministry officialsappeared before theParliamentary StandingCommittee on Finance, wasput to some tough questions bymembers.

Singh, who had made aforceful speech against notesban in Rajya Sabha calling it a“monumental failure andorganised loot”, intervened tosay that the central bank andthe Governor’s position as aninstitution should be respected.

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Indigenously designed andmanufactured Tejas light

combat aircraft (LCA) willmake its maiden appearance atthe Republic Day parade thisyear. Tejas will lead the fly pastand 35 aircraft, including SU-30 frontline fighter jet andJaguars besides giant trans-port plane C-17, will enthrallthe spectators with thrillingaerial display. Formation flyingby MI-17 helicopters will markthe commencement of theparade when the helicopters flyover the saluting dais.

Incidentally, it will be aftera gap of more than 20 years thatan indigenously manufacturedplane will take part in the fly-past. Marut, a trainer aircraftmanufactured in India, wasthe last plane to fly in theRepublic Day in the 1980s and90s.

Tejas was showcased inBahrain air show last year andmade its debut on the AirForce Day in October last year

as it roared through the skiesover the Hindon air base inGhaziabad. However, the fight-er jet designed and developedby Aeronautical DevelopmentAgency and manufactured byHindustan AeronauticsLimited (HAL) will take part inthe Republic Day this year forthe first time, officials saidhere on Thursday.

IAF has raised onesquadron of Tejas and currently

operates from Bengaluru aftergetting inducted in July lastyear. With plans afoot to haveat least 100 such aircraft in thecoming years, IAF wants toreplace the ageing MIG-21swith Tejas.

The IAF tableau in theRepublic Day parade this yearwill focus on induction ofwomen officers as fighter pilotsand transformation of the forcefrom platform-centric to net-

work-centric operations. Real-time transfer of data andimages between air craft, UAVs,satellite and ground stationfor network operations willalso be showcased.

The marching contingentwill comprise four officers and144 warriors. Squadron LeaderAttal Singh and the other threeofficers are Tripti Chaturvedi,SS Mythraye and Drisya Nath.

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India on Thursday told Chinathat it was not seeking

Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG)membership as a gift from theUS or for that, from any coun-try, but on the basis of its non-proliferation track record.

Responding to China’sstatement to the US that NSGmembership should not be afarewell gift by the outgoingObama administrations,Ministry of External Affairsspokesperson Vikas Swarupsaid: “Our views on India’smembership of the NSG areclear and I have been stated onmany occasions before. India isnot seeking NSG membershipas a gift. India is seeking it onits non-proliferation record. Iof course cannot speak for

other applicants.”China has been rooting for

NSG membership for Pakistanwhose application is pendingbefore the NSG committee.Signing NuclearNonproliferation Treaty (NPT)is one of the essentials for NSGmembership and both Indiaand Pakistan are not signatoriesof the agreement. However,India has an edge over Pakistandue to a 2008 waiver that it hasfrom the NSG.

US Assistant Secretary ofState for South and CentralAsia, Nisha Desai Biswal, hadrecently termed China as theonly country opposing India’smembership application in the48-member grouping. “Clearlythere is one outlier that needsto be addressed and that isChina,” Biswal had said.

In reaction to Biswal’s state-ment, Chinese ForeignMinistry Spokesperson HuaChunying said, “I just want topoint out that NSG member-

ship shall not be some kind of(a) farewell gift for countries togive to each other.”

China claims it is advocat-

ing a two-step approach foradmission of countries whohave not signed the NPT andit first wants to find a solution

that is applicable to the admis-sion of all non-NPT countriesfollowed by discussions onadmitting specific nations.

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New Delhi: Amid reports of British Parliamentdebating Jammu & Kashmir issue, India onThursday categorically asserted that Jammu-Kashmir was a bilateral issue and there was noroom for a third party role in the matter. “I amaware of these reports. All issues between Indiaand Pakistan will be resolved bilaterally, andthere is no room for a third party,” said MEAspokesperson Vikas Swarup while respondingto a proposal by the Backbench BusinessCommittee of the House of Commons fol-lowing an application from British MP DavidNuttall to have a debate on Jammu-Kashmir.This is not the first time that the British MPshave proposed such a motion. However, theBritish Parliament had on previous instancesstruck down these maintaining that theKashmir was a bilateral issue between Indiaand Pakistan.

New Delhi: Days after External Affairs MinisterSushma Swaraj asked Amazon Canada to pulldown door mats having Indian flag, the e-com-merce group has now also withdrawn slippershaving Mahatma Gandhi’s photo. “OurAmbassador in Washington had been instruct-ed to convey to Amazon that while providing aplatform for third party vendors, they shouldrespect Indian sensitivities and sentiments. Wehave been in touch with Amazon both inWashington as well as in Delhi and we have hadconstructive conversations. I am happy to reportthat the offending item (Gandhi flip flops) hassince been pulled by Amazon and we hope thatour engagement will continue to be fruitful,”MEA spokesperson Vikas Swarup said onThursday.

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The Ministry of WaterResources constituted a

negotiation committee onThursday to assess availabilityand utilisation of waters ofMahanadi and its tributariesfollowing the water-sharingdispute between Odisha andChhattisgarh.

The committee was set upfollowing complaint fromOdisha under section 3 of theInter-State River Water DisputesAct, 1956 on utilization ofwaters of Mahanadi Basin. Thecommittee will be chaired byMember Water Planning &Project, Central WaterCommission and will have 11other members comprising rep-resentatives from the States ofOdisha, Chhattisgarh, MadhyaPradesh, Maharashtra andJharkhand. It will also haverepresentatives from Ministriesof Agriculture, EnvironmentForest and Climate Change,Water Resources besides theIndia Meteorological

Department and Central WaterCommission. The committeehas been asked to submit itsreport within three months.

Chhattisgarh wants tobuild six dams and inter-linksome Mahanadi tributaries forbetter irrigation and storage ofwater for the lean months in itsstate. But ODisha said it willdeplete water in its main reser-voir, the Hirakud dam.

In a meeting held with theMinistry of Water Resourceslast year, Chhattisgarh con-tended that the under-con-struction barrages will have atotal capacity of 274 MillionCubic Meter (MCM), muchless than the amount of water

lost from the Hirakud dam dueto siltation.

The State had further ham-mered in the point that live-stor-age capacity of its dams havealso gone down due to siltationand storage capacity of new bar-rages would be less than that.However, the differencesbetween the two states over theMahanadi water sharing issuepersisted.

Sources said Odisha wantsa cumulative impact study of allprojects developed byChhattisgarh on the flow ofwater to the Hirakud dam,rather than individual, on thegrounds that these projects dra-matically reduce the water flow.

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The Election Commissionhas directed the electoral

officers and observers ofPunjab, Goa, UP, Manipur andUttarakhand to keep theirmobile phones switched offduring official meetings andconferences.

“The use of mobilesphones during the EC meetingis strictly prohibited and allofficers must ensure that theirmobiles are kept in switch offmode silent mode to preventany disturbance to the pro-ceedings,” the EC said.

The EC decision is aimed atpreventing leak of any sensitiveinformation about the decisionsand matters related to election.It also issued various directionstowards “enhancement of over-all efficiency and effectivenessof election administration.”

The panel also directed theobservers and officers to down-load and install Whatsapp ontheir mobile phones.

“All observers must fre-quently access the Whatsappgroup and convey all urgentelection related informationthrough this platform also,besides submission of detailedreports through ObserverPortal and email and fax,” stat-ed the two page directives to allthe chief election officers andobservers stated.

It further stated that the

information regarding anyimportant incident of issue hav-ing election related implicationmust immediately be brought tothe notice of the commissionthrough the Whatsapp group.

The election body alsostated that the facility of nearinstant and faithful transmis-sion of data through whatsappmust be used “intelligently andconstructively” to keep an alertand vigilant eye on the electionprocess in the field.The com-mission also issued strict warn-ing not to use the platform forexchanging “trivia or frivolouspleasantries”.

It also warned that “no topsecret or sensitive informationwill be shared on the whatsapp”.“In case of such information,the matter will be briefed toChief Election Officer orDirector General over phone,”the panel stated.

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Not satisfied with Centre’sreply on the advancement

of Union Budget, the ElectionCommission of India (ECI) hassought fresh details, includingthe procedure followed by theerstwhile UPA Government todelay the presentation of theBudget in 2012, from theCabinet Secretariat.

According to sources, theEC has written another letter tothe Cabinet Secretariat onWednesday, asking for aresponse by Friday morning.The Commission has alsosought details on the processinvolved in preparing and pre-senting the Union Budget.

On January 10, the CabinetSecretary PK Sinha had repliedto the Commission on theopposition complaint againstpresenting the Union Budgetbefore Assembly elections,defending its decision toadvance the budget session forthe purpose. The CabinetSecretary is learnt to havedescribed the Union Budget asan annual constitutional exer-cise covering the entire coun-try and not just a few States, anapparent rebuttal of the oppo-sition charge that the budgetwill be used to woo voters inthe poll-bound States. It hadalso said that the advancing ofbudget presentation was nec-essary as it would ensure thatall budgetary provisions areallocated to different sectorsfrom April 1, the beginning ofthe new fiscal.

The Union Budget is usu-ally presented around last weekof February and, as a result, theapproval of the budget spillsover to the next financial year,delaying the start of new pro-grammes. The Budget sessionhas already been convenedfrom January 31 when thePresident will address the jointsitting of the two Houses. TheUnion Budget and theEconomic Survey are slated tobe presented the next day.

The Commission hadasked the Cabinet Secretariat to

respond to a representation byopposition parties urging thepoll panel to make theGovernment postpone thebudget till assembly polls areover. In their petition, theOpposition parties led byCongress have demanded theCommission to direct theCentre to postpone the pre-sentation of union budget onFebruary 1 in view of assemblypolls in five states.

The opposition parties saidthat when the opposition hadobjected in 2012 during the

Assembly polls to UttarPradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab,Manipur, Goa, the then UPAgovernment had accepted theirstand and postponed presen-tation of the Union Budgetfrom February 28 to March 16.The opposition parties hadwritten to the President and theCommission objecting to thepresentation of the UnionBudget on February 1 ahead ofthe Assembly elections in fivestates and demanded that thegovernment be asked to deferthe annual exercise.

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The Congress on Thursdayfiled a complaint against

Prime Minister NarendraModi and the Bharatiya JanataParty (BJP) alleging violationof Model Code of Conduct.The party has demanded sternaction against the PrimeMinister and has quoted theircase as an appropriate one forcancelling or withdrawing thesymbol of the BJP.

In a complaint filed withthe Election Commission,Congress leader KC Mittalhas quoted the example of thePrime Minister’s video con-ferencing address atRamayana DarshnamExhibition on the occasion ofSwami Vivekananda’s birthday.Mittal says that by invokingand making statementsregarding “Bhagwan ShriRam”, “Ayodhya”, “Ram Rajya”,“Hanumanji” & Bharat repeat-edly, the PM has violated thecode of conduct. BhagwanShri Ram, “Ayodhya”, “RamRajya”, “Hanumanji” & Bharatrepeatedly the PM has violat-ed the code of conduct.

Congress claimed that the

Prime Minister wanted to“invoke religion to further theelection prospects of BJP” inthe poll-bound States, espe-cially Uttar Pradesh. It said“repeated” violations of themodel code makes it a fit casefor the poll watchdog to with-draw the election symbol ofBJP. The Congress termed themodus operandi of the PrimeMinister as a way to arose reli-gious feelings and sentimentsof the voters in the name ofreligion, especially in the poll-bound Uttar Pradesh, since theissue originated from Ayodhya.

The Congress, along withthe letter, has also submittedthe complete text of the PM’sspeech, along with pho-tographs and a thumbnailimage, describing them astools used for electoral gain byarousing religious sentiments.

Earlier on 13 January, theBJP had filed a complaintwith the poll panel againstCongress vice president RahulGandhi for hurting religioussentiments, by co-relating thesymbol of Congress with reli-gious gods such as Shiv, GuruNanak, Buddha, Islam andMahavir.

New Delhi: While tighteningnorms for sending migrantworkers abroad, theGovernment has set up an inter-net platform to verify recruitingagents and foreign employers toprevent cheating and traffickingof Indian workers.

It will now be mandatoryfor the blue collared workers toapply for immigration throughthe ‘e-migrate’ website of theMinistry of External Affairsbefore going abroad for jobs.There are 89,993 foreignemployers and around 1300recruiting agents registeredwith the `e-migrate’.

Besides giving timelyimmigration clearance to work-ers travelling largely to Gulfcountries for contractual jobs,the portal also provides themthe safety net of insurance of Rs10 lakh in case of any mishap.

According to M.C. Luther,Protector General of Emigrantsin MEA, the recruiting agentswill now be held accountable in

case any of the Indian workersend by them is in trouble onforeign soil and the onus will beon these agencies to rescue theperson else it will attract penalaction.

Most of the Indian workerstravel to Kuwait, Saudi Arabiaand United Arab Emirates insearch of well paying blue-col-lared jobs. Interestingly, Keralaand Karnataka that once usedto send highest number ofmigrant workers have now beovertaken by Uttar Pradeshand Bihar. ���

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As India goes digital in a bigway, cyber experts on

Thursday stressed the need toput in place secure systems thatdo not cause financial or secu-rity concerns for its users andoutlined the need for greatercountry-to-country coopera-tion to cope with basic threatslike phishing and cyber ter-rorism. “Unless countries co-operate with each other on thisit will be difficult for individ-ual nations to handle it alone,”they said.

Speaking on the topic of‘Cyber Security: The Internet ofrisks’ at the Raisina Dialogue,National Cyber Security Co-ordinator Gulshan Rai saidwhile it is easy to shut downphishing or terror websites, itis very difficult to track the cul-prits and bring them to justice.

According to a recent studyby ASSOCHAM and PriceWater Coopers, cyber securityincidents have seen a sharp risein India, with a total of 39,730incidents reported in the first10 months of 2016, as against

44,679 and 49,455 observedduring the years 2014 and2015 respectively.

“It is easy to shut downsuch accounts promotingphishing or terrorism usingsocial media platform. Thereare issues while scanning dataas about 70 per cent traffic onthe internet is encrypted. Sincemost of such activities aredone through encrypted trafficlocating them is a very difficult.Tackling cyber crime andthreat is a challenging taskand very complex,” Rai saidwhile adding India has to fastfind technological solutions to

such threats as attackers areconstantly evolving themselves.

Encryption keeps the con-tent of digital communicationshidden. Phishing is a form offraud in which the cyber crim-inals try to steal informationsuch as login details or accountinformation. This is done bysending message or email thatappears to have been sent by aknown contact and carriesattachment or links that installmalware on the user’s device ordirect them to a maliciouswebsite. The receiver of mail istricked into giving out both per-sonal and financial information.

Rai added that the threatshave moved from the ̀ intrusive(virus threats) to disruptive anddestructive and deceptive’.“Data is there everywhere andthe owners of it do not knowwhere all it is being used. I seesome important trends emerg-ing in cyber space that are amajor cause of concern. Cyberoffenses are now being com-mitted by state and non-stateactors. Complexity of attackswill be on rise as attackers areadapting themselves muchfaster in technology,” Rai said.

Incidentally,, InformationTechnology Minister Ravi

Shankar Prasad said earlier inthe day at the same event thatthe NDA Government is tryingto change the digital ecosystemof the country while high-lighting digital initiatives takenby the Government.

However, cyber securityexperts said that the cyberconflict will only increase in thefuture as the rogues createcomplex malwares that caneasily penetrate into systems. Inthis regard the experts felt itwas important for countries toco-operate with each otherand have domestic laws that arcompatible to internationalsnorms so that data can bekept safe and threats can bethwarted.

“The more we will shareinformation regarding anycyber breach or theft withcooperating countries or dif-ferent stakeholders, the morewe will be prepared andequipped with dealing suchthreats in the age of informationtechnology and fast-increas-ing internet connectivity. Wehave to be transparent in shar-ing information,” Rai said.

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Page 6: days as more and more in touch with the RLD. “You sections of Tamil society have As pro-Jallikattu protests intensified across Tamil Nadu and …

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In a major defeat to liquorbaron Vijay Mallya, who is

staying in London, aBengaluru Debt RecoveryTribunal on Thursday orderedSBI-led consortium of banksto start the process of recov-ering �6,203 crore, at anannual interest rate of 11.5 percent, from tormented VijayMallya and his companies in the Kingfisher Airlinescase.

This order will bring thecurtains down on the nearlythree-year long legal battle inthe tribunal by the consortiumof banks, comprising 17 banks,to recover the money owed bydefunct airlines.

SBI, leading the consor-tium of banks, had filed threeother applicat ions a lso,including one seeking Mallya’sarrest and impounding hispassport, for “defaulting” onloans.

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Taking a strong stand on theinstruction “forcing” the

schoolchildren to participate inthe human chain on Saturdayin support of total prohibition,the Patna High Court has sum-moned Director General ofPolice and Chief Secretary toappear in person on Friday inconnection with the hearing ofa PIL filed by an NGO.

A division Bench com-prising of acting Chief JusticeHemant Gupta and JusticeSudhir Singh asked the StateGovernment the logic behindtraffic restrictions and forcedparticipation of school kids.

The PIL was filed byForum for Public InterestLitigations which referred tothe Chief Secretary’s order onbanning vehicular movementon January 21 on the Stateand National Highways forthe formation of a 11,000 km

long human chain to createawareness about the dangersof alcohol.

When additional advo-cate general Lalit Kishoreassured that the emergencyser vices would remainexempted from the restriction,the bench pointed out that themovement of media vehicleshave also been allowed. “Itseems a publicity stunt of theGovernment by treatingmedia as emergency serviceand giving them exemptionfor coverage,” the benchobserved tersely.

Advocate Shashi BhushanKumar told the court that theDistrict Education Officers(DEO) have issued directive toall the Government schools intheir jurisdiction to ensure theparticipation of the children inthe human chain with warningof withdrawing facilities andcancellation of their admissionof the children staying away.

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All Indian Student Federation (AISF) leaderfrom JNU, Kanhaiya Kumar said in

Bengaluru on Thursday that there was a suffo-cating atmosphere in the country which cur-tailing freedom of expression. Kumar was inBengaluru to address a meet the press pro-gramme organised by Bengaluru Press Club andBengaluru Reporters guild.

He said “There is a suffocating atmospherein the country, seriously curtailing the freedomof expression, a basic right. Students are beingpunished, gagged for expressing their opinions.Even though it’s many months since NajeebAhmed, a first year bio-tech student in JNU,went missing no action has been taken yet,” Headded that no action had been initiated againstthe three ABVP students who had a fight withhim last.

He also said how the autonomy of institu-

tions is being compromised in the country.Kumar said “I and other student union lead-

ers want student union elections to be allowedin every educational institution in the country.Even the Lyngdoh Committee, appointed by theSupreme Court, recommended the same” .

Kanhaiya Kumar a research scholar fromJNU says he wants to teach and won’t join anypolitical party.

“I will not join any political party or start anew one. I am a research scholar and I want toteach. But, I will strive hard to build an organ-ic link between social and political movementfor which a vibrant students’ union election ineducational institutions is a prerequisite,” saidKanhaiya Kumar.

“I and other student union leaders want stu-dent union elections to be allowed in every edu-cational institution in the country. Even theLyngdoh Committee, appointed by the SupremeCourt, recommended the same,” he said.

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In wake of upcomingAssembly polls in Gujarat to

be held in the second half ofcurrent year, Hardik Patel-ledpro-quota organisation PatidarAnamat Andolan Samiti(PAAS) has decided to initiatedoor-to-door campaign acrossthe State to unite Patidar overreservation issue.

‘The campaign would beinitiated from January 27thfrom North Gujarat townPatan. PAAS workers will try toapproach every individual inthe Patidar community to gen-erate support for the quotamovement,’’ said a senior PAASleader, adding that moreemphasis would be given in therural parts of Gujarat.

The PAAS workers wouldroam around all the villages of

Gujarat in next six months andawareness would be created

over plight of jobless Patidaryouth as well as issues relatedto agriculture sector and farm-ers, he added.

Just a couple of days back,Hardik Patel openly blownbugle against the BJP ruledstate government and indicat-ed during a public rally inHimmatnagar that he mightnot directly involved in politicsbut support the political outfitwhich would back demands ofPatidar community.

Over the past couple ofyears, PAAS is demandingreservation for Patidar com-munity under OBC category ingovernment jobs and educa-tional institutions. In fact, theagitation has made 23-year-oldHardik, a mass leader overnightpost mega rally at GMDCground in Ahmedabad onAugust 25, 2015.

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Security forces on Thursdayshot dead a top-ranking mil-

itant of banned Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT) outfit in Kashmir.The slain militant is reportedlynephew of LeT leader Zaki-ur-Rahman Lakhvi, the master-mind of Mumbai terror attacks.

Police said an encountertriggered off between securityforces and militants after alocality was cordoned off inHajin Village of NorthKashmir’s Bandipora Districtfollowing information that agroup of militants was hidingthere. During the gunfight AbuMusaib, “district commander”of LeT outfit was killed. Amember of the police specialoperations group (SOG) iden-tified as Vikas Sharma wasinjured during the gunfight.Sources said another militantholed up in the area, managedto break the cordon to escape.

Eyewitnesses said that hun-dreds of local people marchedtowards the encounter amid bit-ing cold to help the militantsescape. However, the securityforces kept the agitating peopleat a distance despite being hit bystones and bricks. The securityforces fired automatic weaponsin air to disperse the protesters.

The security forces refusedto hand over the body of the slainmilitant to the people. The localslater organised funeral prayers inabsentia. The authorities haveordered not to hand-over bod-ies of foreign militants to localsfor burial. The bodies are takento border town of Uri for burialin an abandoned graveyard.

At least five encountershave taken place in Hajin areaduring the past two monthsresulting into death of threemilitants including AbuMusaib. At three occasions,militants managed to escapefrom the cordoned area.

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The Mamata BanerjeeGovernment on Friday will

host country’s biggest businessmeet albeit with a bad taste inmouth after a violent land agi-tation at Bhangore near Kolkataculminated in police firing,deaths and humiliating capitu-lation by the State before ademand to shift a mega powergrid — a development thatcould hurt investment no end.

The mega yearly show, thirdin a row would be inauguratedby President Pranab Mukherjeeand is expected to be joined by25 countries including Russia,China, South Korea, Norway,Germany, the UAE, Bangladesh,Malaysia Bangladesh etc, StateFinance Minister Amit Mitrainformed adding about 3,000delegates would attend the ple-nary session.

The Summit is going to beheld against the backdrop ofSupreme Court verdict restoring900 acres of land — on whichonce stood Tata Nano plant —to the farmers, demonetizationand of course the Bhangoremovement. The BGBS summittakes places also against thebackdrop of some strong andaggressive marketing by the CM.

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The National InvestigationAgency (NIA) on Thursday

told the Bombay High Courtthat it had no objection to bailbeing granted to incarceratedaccused Sadhvi Pragya in the2008 Malegaon blasts case.

In a submission madebefore a HC division, Bench ofJustices RV More and ShaliniPhansalkar-Joshi hearingSadhvi’s petition challengingthe trial court’s order rejectingher bail, Additional SolicitorGeneral Anil Singh, appearingfor NIA, said the agency hadalready held that the provisionsof stringent MaharashtraControl of Organised CrimeAct (MCOCA) were notapplicable in the case.

“Maharashtra’s AntiTerrorism Squad (ATS), whichhad investigated the case ear-lier, had invoked MCOCAagainst those accused on theground of being involved inother blasts also and hencewere part of an organised crimesyndicate. However, the NIAprobe has revealed that theaccused persons were onlyinvolved in Malegaon blastand hence MCOCA is notapplicable,” Singh said.

“Even before NIA took

over the investigations in thecase, several prime witnesseshad retracted their statementsand complained that they wereforced by ATS to say falsethings in their statements.Considering all this, we (NIA)have no objection to the courtgranting bail to applicant(Sadhvi),” the ASG said.

In her bail plea, Sadhvi toldthe High Court that she hadbeen languishing in jail for oversix years and that with twoinvestigating agencies havingsubmitted contradictory find-ings to the court, it would notbe correct to keep her in jail.

“The trial will take a longtime to commence and con-clude. The charges are yet to beframed in the case. The appli-cant is a woman, who is suf-fering from a terminal disease.Hence, it would be proper forthe court to grant her bail withwhatever conditions it wishes toimpose on her,” said the plea.

Sadhvi alleged that theATS probe was a tainted one,considering that several wit-nesses had already retractingtheir statements.

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Jammu & Kashmir AssemblyThursday unanimously

passed a resolution for creatinga conducive atmosphere for thereturn of Kashmiri Pandits andother migrants to the Valley.

On the same day majorityof displaced Kashmiri migrantswere attending series of eventscommemorating the exodusof the Kashmiri Pandit com-munity from Kashmir.

Panun Kashmir, an organ-isation of Kashmiri Pandits alsoreiterated its demand for a sep-arate Homeland to preserve andprotect its ethnic culture, as perMargdarshan resolution of 1991.

In the State Assembly it wasformer Chief Minister OmarAbdullah, who first raised the

issue, saying the Assemblyshould raise above party politicsand pass a resolution for theirreturn. The working president ofNational Conference (NC) said27 years ago “unfortunate” cir-cumstances in Kashmir hadforced the migration of KashmiriPandits, members of Sikh com-munity and some Muslims.

Speaker Kavinder Guptamoved the resolution, whichwas passed by voice vote. Theonly MLA to vote against theresolution was independentMLA Engineer Rashid.

Meanwhile, addressing theaugust gathering of KashmiriPandits at Abhinav theatreChairman of the PanunKashmir, Dr Ajay Chrungoosaid in the wake of the contin-ued neglect and denial of the

successive Governments bothat State as well as national level,Panun Kashmir has embarkedon a nation-wide campaignon the theme “Ek BharatAbhiyan - Kashmir Ki Aur”.

He said it is high timePanun Kashmir as a solution toKashmir problem be recog-nized as a national imperative

Sushil Pandit, a veteranand seasoned political analystand founder of Roots inKashmir lambasted the insin-cerity of the ruling dispensa-tions over these years towardsthe hounded Kashmiri Hindusand claimed that it is mere lipservice and nothing tangiblehas been done on ground toimpact any change in the Stateof hapless affairs surroundingthis exiled community.

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In a game of one-upmanship that has begun between the saf-fron alliance partners ahead of the Brihanmumbai Muncipal

Corporation (BMC) polls scheduled for February 21, the rulingShiv Sena on Thursday promised Mumbaikars that if re-elect-ed to power, it would not levy property tax for homes up to 500sq ft carpet and would “massively” reduce the tax on flats hav-ing carpet area from 500 sq ft to 700 sq ft.

Listing what he called his party’s “salient promises” toMumbaikars ahead of the release of the party’s manifest6o forthe BMC polls, Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray alsoannounced that his party would give “massive discounts in prop-erty tax for housing societies and buildings having renewable ener-gy, rain water harvesting and other schemes that were eco friend-ly and benefit the city’s environment and upkeep.

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Opposing the cashless payment system, the teagarden labourers in Assam today rocked the

streets in different parts of the state demandingimmediate rollback of the cash payment systemin tea gardens to pay the wages of the labourersand continuation of subsidized ration to them.

Thousands of tea garden labourers inDibrugarh, Sivsagar, Tinsukia, Charaideo,Golaghat and Sonitopur districts under the ban-ner of Assam Chah Mazdoor Sangh (ACMS)took to the streets today morning and blockedhighways for sometimes to press the governmentto fulfill their demands.

Union Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreyahad recently announced here that the Centre is

planning to directly transfer the wages of theaccounts of tea garden labourers, including theamount they receive in cash and in kinds.

As per the Plantation Labour Act of 1951, theworker’s wages is divided into cash and kind com-prising ration, healthcare and education services.While in Assam a plantation worker’s daily wageis �137, he or she is also entitled to a monthly quotaof 35 kg or rice and wheat at a subsidised rate of54 paise per kg.

“We are not going to accept this. The sub-sidized ration must continue as it is a part of ourwages. The government has been making a con-spiracy to stop this subsidy which we have beenreceiving since ages,” said Ramesh Mura, a work-er of Dikarai tea estate in Sonitpur District whoalso took part in the protest on Thursday.

Srinagar: Union Minister forSkill Development andEntrepreneurship Rajiv PratapRudy on Thursday inaugurat-ed the maiden skill develop-ment institute of Jammu andKashmir near here.

Inaugurating the ArshInstitute of Health Sciencesand Technology at Khonmoh,on the outskirts of Srinagar,the Union Minister told thestudents that giving preferenceto formal education alonemay not help them get jobs.

Encouraging them to takepart in skill developmentcourses, Rudy said the Centre’sSkill India programme wasaimed at creating opportuni-ties, space and scope for thedevelopment of talentedyouths and upgrading sec-tors. PTI

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Kochi: The CBI on Thursday registered an FIRin a Kochi court in the case related to the larg-er conspiracy behind the 2003 massacre atMarad, a fishing hamlet in Kozhikode district,in which eight Hindus were killed. The agencyhad taken up the investigation into the con-spiracy behind the May 2, 2003 incident, inwhich a Muslim also had died, as per a direc-tive of the Kerala High Court.

The CBI has named Muslim League leaderMC Mayin Haji and PP Moideen Koya, fourmembers of a mosque committee, certain lead-ers of Islamist outfit NDF (presently Popular

Front of India) whose names have not been men-tioned, etc as accused. In effect, the CBI has re-registered the FIR prepared by the KeralaPolice’s Crime Branch which had held probe inthe case earlier.

The FIR has been registered in accordancewith the finding of the Justice Thomas PJoseph Judicial Commission which had lookedinto the Marad massacre that a conspiracy thatcould affect national security had gone intothe incident. The investigation is being car-ried out by the Thiruvananthapuram unit ofthe CBI. PNS

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Kannur, remained tense onThursday as emotions ran

high when the police disal-lowed a procession of the BJPcarrying the body of BJP-RSSworker E Santhosh Kumar(52) of Andalur, Thalassery,who was hacked to deathallegedly by CPI(M) activistslate on Wednesday night, topass along the main venue of

the ongoing State Schools ArtFestival.

The tension ebbed awaytowards Thursday evening afterthe Kannur District Collector,top police officials and seniorBJP-RSS leaders arrived at aconsensus on the manner inwhich the procession was to betaken ahead.

Meanwhile, the police onThursday took five CPI(M)activists from Andalur forquestioning in connectionwith the murder of SanthoshKumar but officials said theywere yet to ascertain whether

they had any role in thekilling. Earlier protests againstthe murder erupted in sever-al parts of the State. BJPactivists blocked the nationalhighway at Vadakara,Kozhikode.

Andalur is within the lim-its of the DharmadomAssembly constituency repre-sented by Marxist ChiefMinister Pinarayi Vijayan.This was the third politicalmurder to take place inPinarayi’s constituency with-in a span of less than fourmonths.

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The Assam Rifles have nabbed 13 cadres of the ceasefire mil-itant outfit NSCN (Isak-Muivah) faction and recovered huge

cache of arms and ammunition from their possession, an AssamRifles Spokesman said today.

The AR spokesman said that the incident took place dur-ing a regular frisking of vehicles at Mon-Tizit road onWednesday. “The insurgents were travelling from Dimapur toNamsa in two Maruti Gypsies. We have recovered four AK-56rifles, two HK-32 rifles, one MA-MK4 rifle, four pistols and ahuge quantity of live cartridges,” he said adding.

“We are not sure as to where they are carrying the arms andammunition. All the cadres were handed over to the Nagalandpolice,” said the AR spokesman.

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Gujarat High Court admitteda PIL seeking a review of list

of OBCs drawn up as per therecommendations of differentOBC commissions. PetitionerPrashant Patel demanded thatthe authorities be directed toundertake the periodic revisionof lists of OBCs by the State andCentral governments in order toexcluding those classes fromlists who have advanced social-ly and educationally by bene-fitting from the quota system.

Besides, he demanded toidentify new backward castesfor inclusion in these lists.

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Page 7: days as more and more in touch with the RLD. “You sections of Tamil society have As pro-Jallikattu protests intensified across Tamil Nadu and …

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With the Party cadre inUttar Pradesh already

demoralised after the highcommand decided to go inalliance with Samajwadi Partyin the coming Assembly elec-tions, now sitting MLAs andsenior leaders received a shockafter learning PriyankaGandhi’s decision not to cam-paign for the Party in the com-ing Assembly polls.

Interestingly the MLAs,who forced the leadership to goin alliance instead of fightingalone, were looking forward tosail smoothly to the Assemblyafter riding on popularity ofGandhi family particularlyPriyanka Gandhi and supportof SP vote bank.

“Priyanka Gandhi hadmade it very clear to State lead-ership including State presidentRaj Babbar that she will be notgoing to address any meeting inUttar Prdesh in the comingAssembly polls”, confirmed aleader of the Party who attend-ed meeting recently in NewDelhi in which PriyankaGandhi was also present.

“Priyanka even instructedthe co-ordinators of her broth-er Rahul Gandhi’s constituen-cy in Amethi and mother SoniaGandhi’s constituency in Rae

Bareli that this time, in thesetwo Parliament constituenciesalso, she will hold just onemeeting in each ParliamentConstituency”, the leader fur-ther revealed adding that theleaders of two high profileconstituencies have beendirected to chalk out placefrom where the Party couldmake maximum gain byPriyanka’s meeting.

During last Assembly elec-tions in 2012, Priyanka Gandhihad addressed public meetingin almost of all blocks of RaeBareli and Amethi but couldmanage to win only 2 of the 10seats falling in the two VVIPconstituencies. Sources in theParty confirmed that after par-ticipating seriously in all themeetings held in New Delhi todraw strategy for the UPAssembly polls, Priyankadecided to remain away in thiselection as she did not wantedto lose her ̀ attraction’ amongstthe public so that she could useher charm and capabilities todraw solid ground for grandvictory in the 2019 Parliament

polls and to pave way for herbrother Rahul Gandhi tobecome prime Minister of thecountry.

It may be mentioned thatright from AICC general sec-retary Gulam Nabi Azad (alsoincharge of Party affairs here inUP) to State president RajBabbar, all the senior leadersconfirmed that after Party’svice-president Rahul Gandhi’smonth-long ‘Deoria Se DilliKisan Yatra’ and “27 Saal-UPBehal” campaign, it was his sis-ter, Priyanka Gandhi, who is allset to hit the campaign trailahead of next year’s Assemblypolls in the State.

Interestingly senior leaderseven went on to claim thatPriyanka will hold meetingsacross UP, and will begin witha event in Allahabad onNovember 19 to mark the birthanniversary of former PrimeMinister Indira Gandhi.

However, no such publicmeeting held during the birthanniversary celebration inAllahabad except for Priyanka’svisit to the Sangam City.

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Election Commission of India has decided togive special passes to 6.89 lakh divyang or

physical challenged voters after identifyingtheir booths so that they can cast their votes.

The highest number of divyang voters26,771 are in Azamgarh district while the low-est 692 are in Balrampur district.

State Chief Electoral officer (CEO) TVekatesh said that altogether there are 6,89,029physically challenged voters in the State.

Vekatesh said that all the district returningofficers have been directed to prepare ramps inall the booths where the divyang could cast theirvotes. All these booths should be in the groundfloor, he said.

“Commission would be providing specialpasses to all the divyang voters so that they canreach the booth without any problem. The phys-ically challenged persons, who cannot move bythemselves would be permitted an adult assis-tance at the booth,” he said.

CEO said that all the booth employeeswould be trained for being cordial to the phys-ically challenged voters and they would be givenpriority in the voting. Besides there would bespecial parking facilities for the divyang at thepolling booths.

UP will hold a seven phase assembly pollsin 403 assembly seats between February 11 toMarch 8 next. There are around 47,700 pollingbooths in the State where over 14 crores vot-ers will exercise their franchise.

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Election Commission (EC) islikely to replace the

Director General of Police(DGP) and some others offi-cials to ensure free and fairAssembly polls in the State.

The process has been ini-tiated in the wake of complaintsmade by Opposition parties inthe State. BJP had already com-plained against DGP JaveedAhmed while social activistNutan Thakur has given a listof state officials who couldwork as a cadre worker of theruling Samajwadi Party. SPpatriarch Mulayam SinghYadav too made the situationmore complicated after hemade a comment recently say-ing that his son and ChiefMinister Akhilesh Yadav wasnot ready to make a Muslim theState DGP and that Ahmed’swas posted just on his initiative.

According to sources, theEC has sought a panel of threesenior IPS officers who could bereplaced by Ahmed. He wasmade the DGP of UP supersed-ing many senior IPS officers. Thedecision is likely to be takenwithin this week. The StateGovernment has sent threenames— DG training SulkhanSingh, DG Fire Praveen Singhand DG Rail Gopal Gupta forthe replacement of Ahmed.However, the Government didnot send the name of the thirdsenior most officer, Surya KumarShukla in the panel. Sources saidthat Sulkhan Singh had alsowrote to Election Commissionthat he was not interested tobecame DGP.

Similarly, the Governmenthas sent three names for thereplacement of ADG( Law andOrder) Daljeet Choudhury.ADG (L&O) is the most impor-tant post during the elections,

as he deploys the forces includ-ing the central forces. The threenames sent for the ADG(L&O)are R K Vishwkarma, AdityaMishra and Chandra Prakash.

It has now become a ritualin UP politics that DGP andPrincipal Secretary (Home) arechanged during the Assemblyelections. In 2007, the thenDGP Bua Singh was replaced byG L Sharma while in 2012,Brijlal was replaced by AtulKumar. Similarly, for the post ofprincipal secretary (Home), in2007, S K Agarwal was removedand K Chandramauli wasappointed in his place by the ECand in 2012, Kunwar FatehBahadur was replaced by ManjitSingh. But surprisingly, in theLok Sabha elections of 2009 andin 2014, the EC did not take thepain to change the DGPs. In2014, AL Banerjee was theDGP of the State while in 2009,Vikram Singh was the DGP.

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Amid protests in Bhangar inthe State over land acqui-

sition and over Jallikattu inTamil Nadu, President PranabMukherjee today raised con-cern about "growing conflictand difference of opinion" inthe society and said there wasa stronger need to enhancemutual respect.

"These days whenever yousee newspaper and watch TV,

there are news of regular vio-lence. I am not talking aboutinternational violence, but it isalso about violence in ourminds, our conscious and con-flict in our souls," Mukherjeesaid after inaugurating the 28thDantan Gramin Mela here.

"I am talking about day today small incidents, not aboutinternational violence. Therewere conflicts and difference ofopinion earlier also. But nowthis kind of situation is increas-

ing day by day," he said with-out directly referring to theongoing protests in Bhangar inWest Bengal and over Jallikattuin Tamil Nadu.

Mukherjee said that earlier,such conflicts used to be pre-vented at a local level but now"it is spreading like anything".

Expressing concern that"the world is becoming moreviolent", the President said: "It isnot the general trend of humansociety. People used to love

each other, accept each other,and not reject. The human psy-chology is to love each other andnot spread hatred."

In the present scenario,there is a stronger need forenhancing mutual respect, heexhorted.

He also mentioned thatearlier people never used to getknow incidents of violence,but now they are aware thanksto key role being played by themedia.

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The notification for the sec-ond phase of polling in 67

Assembly segments of UttarPradesh would be issued onFriday where polling would beheld on February 15.

Already the nominationprocess of the first phase ofpolling is underway in 73Assembly segments in 15 dis-tricts of western UP andJanuary 24 is the last date forthe filing of the nominations.

State Chief ElectoralOfficer (CEO) T Venkateshsaid here o Thursday that thenotification for the start of theelection process in 67 Assemblysegments in 11 districts wouldcommence at 1100 hours.

The nominations for thesecond phase of polling willcontinue till January 27 whilescrutiny would take place onJanuary 30. Candidates canwithdraw their nominationstill February 1.

Counting of votes of all theseven phases polling would beheld together on March 11.

Venkatesh said in the sec-ond phase there are a total of2,28,57,081 voters comprising1.23-crore male, 1.04-crorefemale and 1,068 from thethird gender. There are 23,693polling booths for the secondphase of polling.

The notification for thethird phase polling in 69 con-stituencies would be issued onJanuary 24, for fourth phase in53 segments on January 30,fifth phase in 53 segments onFebruary 2, sixth phase in 49

segments on February 8 and forseventh and last phase in 40segments on February 11.

The second phase ofpolling would be held in theAssembly segments of Behat,Nakur, Saharnapur Nagar,Saharanpur, Deoband, RampurManiharan (SC), Gangoh,Najibabad, Nagina (SC),Barhapur, Dhampur, Nehtaur(SC), Bijnoir, Chandpur,Noorpur, Kanth,Thakurdwada, MoradabadRural, Moradabad Nagar,Kundarki, Bilari, Chandausi(SC), Asmoli, Sambhal,Gunnaur, Suar, Chamraua,Bilaspur, Rampur, Milak (SC),Baheri, Meerganj, Bhojipura,Nawabganj, Faridpur (SC),Bithari Chainpur, Bareilly,Bareilly Cantt, Aonla,Dhanaura (SC), NaugawanSadat, Amroha, Hasanpur,Pilibhit, Barkhera, Puranpur(SC), Bisalpur, Palia, Nighasan,Gola Gokarannath, Sri Naragar(SC), Dhaurahra (SC),Lakhimpur, Kasta (SC),Mohammdi, Katra, Jalalabad,Tilhar, Powayan (SC),Shahjahanpur, Dadraul, Bisauli(SC), Shahaswan, Bilsi, Badaun,Shekhupur and Dataganj.

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Tragedy hit Etah when 12children along with driver

of a school bus were killed and35 children were injured whentheir vehicle collided with atruck amid dense fog onAliganj-Paliyali road on earlyThursday morning.

The bus was carrying stu-dents to JS Vidyaniketan schoolwhich had opened despite thedistrict magistrate’s orders tokeep all schools closed in viewof intense cold, officials said.

The mishap occurred nearAsadnagar village underAliganj Kotwali police stationarea in Etah. DistrictMagistrate, Etah, ShambhuNath put the toll at 13 includ-ing driver and said 8 of themdied on the spot. The injuredstudents were rushed to near-by primary health centre fromwhere 10 were referred toMedial College in Aligarh.

On directions of the

District Magistrate, local policeregistered case against theschool owners Sudhir Kumarand Ajit Kumar along with thecollege principal GovindSrivastava. Orders were alsoissued to cancel the recognitionof the school. Those who diedin the mishap were identifiedas Himanshu (9), Vikas (5),Lavish (11), Sunny (14), Anuj(10), Shivani (11), Kishen (6),Pankaj (13), Radhika (15),Nikki (12), Diksha (9), Rishabh(6) and driver Akash (40).

Soon after getting thenews, senior officials rushed tothe accident spot and super-vised rescue and relief opera-tions. Prime Minister Narendra

Modi, Governor Ram Naikand chief Minister AkhileshYadav both condole the deathof children in the mishap.“Anguished by the tragic acci-dent in UP’s Etah district. Ishare the pain of the bereavedfamilies & condole passingaway of young children,” Modisaid in a tweet. “I pray thatthose injured in the accident inEtah recover at the earliest,” hesaid. Akhilesh Yadav directedthe officials to extend bestmedical care to the victims.

Meanwhile in one moremishap reported fromFatehgarh, 9 children wereinjured when their school vancollided with a tanker onThursday morning. Reportssaid that a Tata Magic (UP76K-3399) was carrying children ofBHL Public School when it col-lided with Tata Tanker(UP38T-2313) at Eklehra ham-let of Kamphil in which 9 chil-dren and the driver wasinjured.

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The change of guards in theruling Samajwadi Party on

Thursday took its first casual-ty when former MP and mafiadon Atiq Ahmed said quits anddeclared that he will not con-test the Uttar Pradesh assem-bly polls.

“I have been termed asmafia and goonda by media. IfI contest election fromSamajwadi Party I don’t wantpeople should target AkhileshYadav. Hence I have decidednot to contest the elections thistime but will support theSamajwadi Party candidate,”he told reporters here onThursday.

Atiq said that AkhileshYadav is a leader of clean imageand I do not want people ques-tioning him over his candida-ture. So, I have decided not tocontest the polls so that no onequestions SP and its leader, hesaid adding: “I don’t want divi-sion in the secular votes and

will work to ensure victory forthe SP candidates.”

Earlier it was reported thatAtiq could contest as anIndependent from Kanpur orAllahabad seat but now theannouncement puts to restabout the political aspiration ofthe mafia turned politician ofAllahabad.

The Mulayam camp hadgiven ticket to Atiq fromKanpur Cantonment seat butthe Akhilesh camp was not toeager to give him the ticket. Butwhen Election Commissiongave its ruling in favour ofAkhilesh, all the hopes of Atiqshattered and now he took adecision not to contest theelections.

Atiq too met Akhilesh cou-ple of times in the recent pastbut could not convince him togive him ticket from the party.

Atiq, had won assemblyelections as an independent fivetimes from Allahabad (west )seat and even won the PhulpurLok Sabha seat once.

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Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)chief Mayawati attacked

Smriti Irani claiming that itwas the “moral duty” of theUnion Minister to make pub-lic details of her educationalqualification.

Taking on Irani over therecent controversy over hereducational certificates, BSPchief Mayawati in a press state-ment released here onThursday alleged that by ask-ing the Delhi University not todisclose the details, she hadonly proved that there wassomething wrong in it.

“By asking the DelhiUniversity not to make herdetails public, Irani has onlybolstered the doubts thatthere is something wrong,”she said.

“She should have allowedthe School of Open Learning ofthe DU to make the detailspublic after the order of theCIC,” Mayawati added.

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Page 8: days as more and more in touch with the RLD. “You sections of Tamil society have As pro-Jallikattu protests intensified across Tamil Nadu and …

India has been ranked 60thamong 79 developingeconomies, below neigh-bouring China and Pakistan,in the ‘Inclusive Growth and

Development Report 2017’ of theWorld Economic Forum (WEF). Itsaid that most countries weremissing important opportunities toraise economic growth and reduceinequality at the same time becausethe growth model and measure-ment tools that have guided poli-cymakers for decades require sig-nificant readjustment.

The Inclusive DevelopmentIndex (IDI) is based on 12 perfor-mance indicators. In order to pro-vide a more complete measure ofeconomic development than GDPgrowth alone, the index has threepillars — Growth & Development,Inclusion & IntergenerationalEquity, and Inclusiveness &Sustainability. Lithuania tops thelist of 79 developing economiesthat also features Azerbaijan andHungary at second and third posi-tions, respectively.

While India is placed at the60th spot, many of the neighbour-ing nations are ahead in the rank-ings. China is ranked at the 15thposition, Nepal (27th), Bangladesh(36th) and Pakistan (52nd). TwoBrics (Brazil, Russia, India, Chinaand South Africa) nations, Russiaand Brazil, are at 13th and 30thplaces, respectively. Others in thetop 10 are Poland (4th), Romania(5th), Uruguay (6th), Latvia (7th),Panama (8th), Costa Rica (9th)and Chile (10th).

IDI scores are based on ascale of 1-7. India, with a score ofonly 3.38, ranks 60th among the79 developing economies on theIDI index, despite the fact that itsgrowth in GDP per capita isamong the top 10 and labour pro-ductivity growth has been strong.“Poverty has also been falling,albeit from a high level”, thereport said. However, it noted thatthe country’s debt-to-GDP ratiois high, raising some questionsabout the sustainability ofGovernment spending.

Among the advancedeconomies, Norway is at thetop, followed by Luxembourg(2nd), Switzerland (3th), Iceland(4th) and Denmark (5th). Othernations in the top 10 advancedeconomies are Sweden (6th),Netherlands (7th), Australia(8th), New Zealand (9th) andAustria (10th). Advanced anddeveloping economy IDI scoresare not strictly comparable dueto different definitions of poverty.

According to the report, annu-

al median incomes declined by 2.4per cent or $284 per capita across26 advanced economies between2008 and 2013. Developing coun-tries fared much better, with medi-an incomes rising by an average of10.7 per cent or $165.

“However, 23 per cent of themexperienced a decline in medianper capita income of nine per cent,as compared to 54 per cent ofadvanced countries experiencinga decline of an average eight percent or $1,044 per person, equiv-alent to $2,505 per average household”, it said.

Richard Samans, member ofthe WEF’s Managing Board, saidthere was a global consensus oninclusive growth, but it has beenfar more directional than practi-cal. To respond more effectively tosocial concerns, economic policyneeds a new compass setting,broad-based progress in livingstandards, and a new mental mapin which structural reform is re-imagined and re-applied to thistask, he added.

As per the report, while unem-ployment in India is not as high asin some other countries, the labourforce participation rate is low, the

informal economy is large, andmany workers are in vulnerableemployment situations with littleroom for social mobility.

The report also noted that amore progressive tax system inIndia would help raise capital forexpenditure on infrastructure,healthcare, basic services and edu-cation. India scores well in termsof access to finance for businessdevelopment and real economyinvestment. However, new busi-ness creation continues to be heldback by corruption, underdevel-oped infrastructure, and the largeadministrative burden involvedin starting and running companies.

In signs of rising incomeinequality, India’s richest one percent now holds a huge 58 per centof the country’s total wealth —higher than the global figure ofabout 50 per cent, a new study hasshowed recently.

The study informed that just57 billionaires in India now havesame wealth ($216 billion) as thatof the bottom 70 per cent popula-tion of the country. Globally, justeight billionaires have the sameamount of wealth as the poorest 50per cent of the world population.

The study said there are 84 bil-lionaires in India, with a collectivewealth of $248 billion, led byMukesh Ambani ($19.3 billion),Dilip Shanghvi ($16.7 billion) andAzim Premji ($15 billion).However, the total Indian wealthin the country stood at $3.1 trillion.

The total global wealth in theyear was $255.7 trillion, of whichabout $6.5 trillion was held by bil-lionaires, led by Bill Gates ($75billion), Amancio Ortega ($67billion) and Warren Buffett ($60.8 billion).

The study’s findings showedthat the poorest half of the worldhas less wealth than had been pre-viously thought while over the lasttwo decades, the richest 10 per centof the population in China,Indonesia, Laos, India, Bangladeshand Sri Lanka have seen their shareof income increase by more than15 per cent. On the other hand, thepoorest 10 per cent have seen theirshare of income fall by more than15 per cent.

In India, women form 60 percent of the lowest paid wage labour,but only 15 per cent of the highestwage earners. It means that in India,women are not only poorly repre-sented in the top bracket of wageearners, but the also experiencewide gender pay gap at the bottom.

It also said that more than 40per cent of the 400 millionwomen who live in rural India areinvolved in agriculture and relat-ed activities. However, as womenare not recognised as farmers anddo not own land, they have lim-ited access to Governmentschemes and credit, restrictingtheir agricultural productivity.

It asked the Government to endthe extreme concentration of wealthto tackle poverty, introduce inher-itance tax and increase the wealthtax, as the proportion of this tax inthe total tax revenue is among thelowest in India.

The Indian Government musteliminate tax exemptions and notfurther reduce corporate tax rates.The Government must supportcompanies that benefit their work-ers and society rather than justtheir shareholders.

The Government must crackdown on tax-dodging by corpo-rates and rich individuals to endthe era of tax havens. It should gen-erate funds needed to invest inhealthcare and education. Thegovernment must increase its pub-lic expenditure on health from 1per cent GDP to three per cent ofGDP and on education from threeper cent of GDP to six per cent.

(The writer is a retired profes-sor of international trade)�

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Sir — This refers to the editorial,“Samajwad’s Big Boss” (January18). Whether the ‘churning feud’in the Samajwadi Party was gen-uine or staged by the father-sonduo, to flush out the family bur-den, will remain a mystery. But theSamajwadi Party’s allianceprospect with the Congress hasheightened the two parties’ excite-ment, given their pre-poll com-pulsions. The alliance now has thebig mission of stopping the BJP’sentry in Uttar Pradesh. But theflipside is the anti-incumbencyburden the Samajwadi Partyregime faces, besides the prospectsof a division in Muslim votes

KS PadmanabhanChennai

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Sir — This refers to the editorial,“Samajwad’s Big Boss” (January 18).The 2017 Uttar Pradesh electionmay turn out to be a blockbuster.Indian elections in triangular con-tests have remained an enigma andbeyond predictions given our first— past the post system.

Margins of victory stay narrowand in Uttar Pradesh, with itscomplex vote-banks, they will be

thinner. What is more fascinatingis that the Samajwadi Party seemsto have scripted a plot more surre-al than a movie. A hero beset withintrigue within and a sliding appeal,transforms himself overnight to arighteous underdog in the last reel!

Then all villains in his courtgo out of their way to resurrecttheir discredited hero in inexplic-able way, to raise him to highpedestal. Adversaries are trans-fixed. The war scene is left to theaudience to democratically scriptand decide the winner.

R NarayananGhaziabad

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Sir — This refers to the editorial,“Resolving GST deadlock” (January18). Though it is disappointing thatthe deadline to the implementationof the Goods Services Tax has beenpushed to July 1, but it is apprecia-ble that differences between Statesand the Union Government overthe key issues have been settled.

That many States have comeout in support of GST, despite ide-ological differences with the rulingBJP, is a sign of mature politics. Onthe other hand, the Centre hasadopted a very pragmatic approach— it has agreed to give exclusivepower to the States for 90 per cent

of small companies with a turnoverof �1.5 crore. Now that differenceshave been sorted out, it is crucialthat we have a robust infrastructureso that there are minimal teethingissues once GST is rolled out.

Bal GovindNoida

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Sir — Congress veteran ND Tiwari,who hoped to become the PrimeMinister, has backed the BJP at theage of 91 after perceived snubs fromCongress president Sonia Gandhiand vice president Rahul Gandhi.Tiwari’s surprise move comes afterdecades of being a Congressman,Minister, Governor and squeezingin a short but scintillating intervalof heading his own party.

Unfortunately, he had anunceremonious exit from RajBhavan of Andhra Pradesh after atape featuring him in a compromis-ing position was aired by a localtelevision channel. We might feelexhausted just watching Tiwari’shectic record. But clearly, for theBJP’s recruit, age is just a number.It may fetch the party dividend.

JS AcharyaHyderabad

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Page 9: days as more and more in touch with the RLD. “You sections of Tamil society have As pro-Jallikattu protests intensified across Tamil Nadu and …

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What are the similaritiesbetween the Taj Mahaland Virat Kohli? Weirdenough question, isn’t it?To begin with, both are

grand: Taj in structure, Virat in stature.Both symbolise love in its purest form:The Mughal-era monument to romantics,the young captain of Men in Blue to crick-et fans across the globe. Both are truewonders of the world: The former literallyand the latter almost literally.

Unlike in other sports, where theanswer to an assessment of who is better —Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo; NovakDjokovic or Andy Murray; Sebastian Vettelor Lewis Hamilton; LeBron James orStephen Curry — can lead to a full-blown

fight, Kohli has made the lives of expertsand fans simple by progressively movingpast each option available.

Scoring runs across all formats atan unprecedented consistency has putto rest apprehensions about the impactan added burden of leading the sidecan have on the individual perfor-mance of the Delhi boy. His record inTest cricket since taking over reinsfrom MS Dhoni during the tourdown under in late 2014, will intim-idate his opponents. Kohli’s recordin the limited-overs cricket makesothers look like muggles.

A true victory of any person, beit any walk of life, is when he/sheearns adulation from other stal-warts in the profession. Here too,Kohli emerges triumphant handsdown. Not to overlook the factthat leading the most populargroup of men in a cricket-crazynation is arguably the most signifi-cant yet challenging task in theworld of sports. It can be nerve-wrecking with the endless scrutiny

and judgement one has to suffer:sometimes bouquets, sometimes

brickbats. Kohli, however, has shown thathe is a born leader who knows only oneway — to lead from the front.

If the age-old phrase, ‘Morningshows the day’, is still in fashion, then theday of Indian cricket certainly appearsbright and shiny. A more than a glimpseof the same was at display in Pune lastSunday, when Kohli in his very firstgame as ODI skipper, amassed 122 runsoff just 105 deliveries in a chase of adaunting 351-run target set by EoinMorgan-led England side. This innings,like all other of his in the past, immedi-ately took social media by storm.Comparisons were drawn again, butunlike previously, this time it was withan extra-terrestrial object, an ‘alien’.Popular Indian commentator HarshaBhogle summed up Kohli’s innings inabout the best possible way in a tweet:“Just another day at work for @ImKohli.

Brushed his teeth, had a shower, breakfast,century in a chase. Just another day really!”

There is another side to Kohli, his life offthe field, and almost as popular as his on-fieldrecognitions — the side where he is fun-lov-ing, funny, smart, and possessing all the quali-ties one looks for in a youth icon, a rolemodel. He keeps a nice balance between hispersonal and professional lives.

In an interview to former English skip-per Nasser Hussain recently, Kohli said hedid not have too many friends outside ofcricket, and counted it as one of the reasonshis focus remains undivided. He doesn’t shyaway from speaking on subjects of publicconcern, to the media. The latest example ofthis was his strong message of disgust to theonlookers of alleged mass molestation inBangalore on the New Year’s eve.

It was not a bed of roses all along for the28-year-old. The 2014 tour of England comesautomatically to mind, where he had a torridtime facing the swinging deliveries. That tour— where the English fast bowlers, spearhead-ed by James Anderson, kept him in guessingwith late swings and enforced a 5-0 whitewashon India, and with Kohli's scores reading 1, 8,25, 0, 39, 28, 0, 7, 6, 20 in 10 innings —remains till date the only blot in his otherwisemarvellous career.

His on-field aggression today is more con-fined to his one weapon of destruction: Hisbat, which has taken over the role of doing thebulk of the talking. A recent episode whereEnglish pacer Anderson during a Press con-ference had said that Kohli’s batting wasn’texposed to home conditions, drew brickbatsfrom all corners. The jibe irked both Kohli’steammates and fans and what followed wasanother glimpse of maturity of the Indianskipper. He played the role of a pacifierbetween James Anderson and bowlerRavichandran Ashwin, who escorted theEnglish cricketer almost to the batting creaseand gave him a taste of his own medicine.

In the initial phase of his career, Kohliwas branded ‘arrogant’ and ‘brash’ by a sec-tion of media and a few experts due to hison-field aggression. Comparisons weredrawn with the likes of Sachin Tendulkarwho, throughout his career, was regarded asthe brand ambassador of ‘sportsmanship’.

Two great moments from the last decade ofIndian cricket comes to mind to brush asideany such parallel. First, during the finals of theCB series Down Under, when the man-on-a-mission Tendulkar, who was just a shot awayfrom scoring his maiden ton on Australian soilin an ODI, was hit on his shoulder by a nastyBrett Lee beamer, only for the Aussie pacemachine to apologise to the Little Master andsee his team lose the bilateral series for the firsttime against a team from the sub-continent.

Fast forward six years. A brand-new TeamIndia with all members of the fab-five(Tendulkar, Sehwag, Dravid, Ganguly andLaxman) having already passed on the batonto the next generation, while facing a fiercechallenge from the new-look Australian teamat Adelaide, was battling to save some pride.Kohli, batting a batsman’s dream, was hit on afollow-up by Mitchell Johnson in a moment ofbelligerence. Unlike Tendulkar, Kohli didn’tshy away from speaking his mind to theAussie bowler. Indian cricket had changed.

It was a moment that established thebeginning of the Virat Kohli era. �

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THE ULTIMATEDESTROYERMahendra Singh Dhoni stepped in to bat

with his usual long stride, face turningback to the sun, eyes closed and his bat in

shadow practice for a copybook straight drive. Dhonialways wanted to play straight in the initial two overs

before he angled hisbat for big hits. Thecrowd cheered andgave him a standingovation as the hero ofIndian cricket tookstance in the famousBrabourne stadiumin Mumbai in the

first one day warm-up match against England. Dhonihad the pressure on him to perform. The chant of“Dhoni! Dhoni! Dhoni” hardly had any impact on hiscalm. In the initial two overs, Dhoni played withstraight bat to judge the bowlers and the behaviour ofthe pitch. Then came the deluge of runs as the destroy-er of bowlers cut, pulled, flicked, square drove, liftedand steered to build a memorable captain's innings of68 off 40 balls, to take India’s total to 304 runs.

Dhoni’s last innings as the captain of India’s one-day team had both grace and thunder. Though he maynot have the raw energy and the reflex when he was inhis20s, he compensates it with his ability to find thegap, with better timing and a more mature battingstrategy. He entertained the crowd with sixes and fours.

Captain Dhoni picked up the right moment to stepdown as captain of ODI and T20 team when he is in fullform. He sets an example of leader ship. He has steppeddown to let youngsters flourish which will serve theinterest of the game. This is an example before the Indiapolitical class to emulate. An inclusive politics alwaysgrooms quality leadership in ever field. No sapling cangrow if a tree caste its shadow over others.

The good thing is that Dhoni is still around to serveTeam India as a player. The three formats, Test match,ODI and T20, are tough to juggle as they need totallydifferent strategies, approaches and energy-levels to per-form well. Cool Dhoni has mastered the three formatswith three World Cup wins.

Being a wicket-keeper, Dhoni always studies thebatsman’s footwork, how much he stretches, his reflex,his weak spots, his temptation, his strength and judge-ment. The man knows what irritates the batsman.

Accordingly, he used his bowlers and set the fieldingto trap the batsman. He has made the best use of hisbowlers in all formats of the game. People enjoy his deci-sion in the field, which unfolds like a good cine script withall its unpredictability. One can remember Dhoni usingthe rookie, Joginder Singh, to lure Misbah ul Haq in thelast over of the 2007 T20 World Cup. India won the WorldCup with Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s clever tactics.

Dhoni let many world big hit-ters, namely Shahid Afridi, ChrisGayle, Brian Lara, Ricky Ponting,Jacques Kallis, AB de Villiers,Kumar Sangakara and others fum-ble with his experience as well aswith the deployment of rookiebowlers. Dhoni constantly tried for abreakthrough and achieved it withthe available resources. Big hittersmany have demolished many aworld-class bowling attack but fum-bled when Dhoni shuffled hisbowlers. Dhoni’s ability to remaincool at critical moments has been hisreal strength which helped himsnatch victory from the jaws of defeat

many times. Dhoni has given scopeto many young players to perform inthe top order while pushing himself tofifth or sixth down to build the team’stotal or to chase a big score. He isone of the greatest finishers of thegame the world has ever produced.

Dhoni at 35 is still a game-changer. Yuvraj Singh once askedDhoni, “Will you hit more sixes?”

Dhoni answered that he would ifthe situation demanded. Dhoni has

hit 197 ODI sixes, the highest amongIndians, and ranks fourth in the world’s top

six-hitters. With nine centuries and 61 fiftiesin ODIs, he has had many victory moments.His desire to hit more boundaries will serveIndia’s interest in the years to come. Relievedof captainship, Dhoni will be free to reach forthe rope, or go over it, even more often. �

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The Modi Government“owed” deonetisation to

the nation and it had to do itto eradicate black money men-ace and to bring hoarded cashback into the banking system,Union Minister NirmalaSitharaman said on Thursday.

Speaking at a panel deci-sion at WEF on India’s Time toTransform, she said it maysound ‘propagandist’ but oneneeds a strong and courageousleadership to take such a boldstep.

On why Government felt itwas necessary to do the demon-etisation, Sitharaman said it waspart of the “electoral promise wemade to check the black moneymenace”.

“Right after coming topower, we started with settingup the special investigationteam, came out with scheme fordeclaration of undisclosedmoney, tightened tax treatieswith different countries tocheck round tripping of money.We took all these steps.

“This step of demonetisa-tion was absolutely necessary....87 per cent of our economy wasinformal and only in cash-dri-ven segments where moneywould not go to banks ...Onlyabout 50 lakh people pay taxand all others who file thereturns do not file any tax,” shesaid.

“Can we survive if thiskind of tax to GDP ratio con-tinues .... We had to do it, weowed it to the country and wedo not regret it,” Sitharamansaid.

“Even if it sounds propa-gandist ... You need a strong andcourageous leadership to takesuch a bold step,” she said.

The panel discussion, ontheme of India’s turn to trans-form, also discussed the fightagainst corruption and blackmoney including through therecent demonetisation move.

In the same panel,Kenneth Rogoff said the samestep could have been done ina more systematic manner.

On why it could not havebeen done with more publicplanning, Sitharaman said it

could have been done butIndians are “smart” and theywould have “sensed” it andpeople could have stashed themoney somewhere.

SBI Chief ArundhatiBhattacharya said what wasamazing that there were hugecrowds outside banks but stillthere was no riot or any loss oflife and the fact is nobody tooklaw and order into his handsis amazing.

“I receive complaints ofmisbehaviour otherwise every-day but this was one periodwhen there was no singlecomplaint. This was a differ-ent feeling and I don’t knowhow it came around,”Bhattacharya said.

She agreed that psycho-logically people agreed with

the move. Bhattacharya said queues

are a thing of past in urbanareas though a few are stillthere in some rural areas.

“What the problem reallyis, there were many small andmedium businesses that wereearning profit but were notpaying tax. They feel theirmargins would not give themability to carry out businesspost this and they are worried”.

“This is one India wherewe will need to convince themthat they come into the tax netif they are earning enough forpaying taxes,” she said.

From 2006 and 2016, theportion of high value noteswent up considerably to 86 percent, she added.

Sitharaman said no part ofthe country faced any problembecause the ministers and offi-cials were moving around thecountry to take stock of situ-ation and to take necessarymeasures throughout this 50-day period.

“I am absolutely shockedand I pay my respect to my fel-low citizens for going throughthe hardship and be part ofthis exercise,” she added.

Argentina’s central bankgovernor Sturzenegger saidthey have been thinking aboutsuch a step for quite some time,that is to phase out high valuenotes, and he admires India fortaking this bold step.

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Government hopes to havefirst flight under UDAN

scheme as early as Februaryand cities such as Jaisalmerand Bikaner in Rajasthan,Jalgaon in Maharashtra,Ludhiana in Punjab, andShimla in Himachal may seeflights soon with fares cappedat �2,500 for one-hour flights.

“Government hopes tohave the first flight underUDAN in February as sever-al airports like in Jaisalmerand Bikaner in Rajasthan,Cooch Behar in West Bengal,Ludhiana in Punjab, Shimla inHimachal Pradesh, Pantnagarin Uttarakhand are ready tofly, to name a few,” saidMinister of State for CivilAviation Jayant Sinha whiletaking about bids under RCSroutes.

Terming UDAN as a gamechanger and a step change inIndian aviation, Sinha saidAAI has received 43 initialproposals from 11 bidders for190 routes under the scheme.

“We have 75 operationalairports currently in the coun-try. Through the bids that wehave received for UDAN, itappears that we will now have43 new airports that will bejoining our aviation network.So now 118 airports are goingto be operational once UDANgets implemented next monthor so,” Sinha added.

UDAN schemer is main-ly aimed at connectingunserved and under-servedairports. Unserved airportsare the one where there is no

flight operations whereas theunderserved airports havebeen catagorised as the oneswhich have three or less flightper week.

According to the CivilAviation Ministr y,Maharashtra has the highestnumber of unserved airportsat 19, followed by Gujaratand Uttar Pradesh at 11 each.

Similarly, West Bengal andKarnataka have seven suchairports each which do nothave one single flight opera-tions.

The bids for the routeswould be f inalised byFebruary 3, he informed.

When asked to name bid-ders, Sinha refused namingthem saying we are invitingcounter bids at this stage andonce the counter bids come,the bidders may change, theroutes may change as well.

But he added that UDANwill massively expand coun-try’s aviation network as it willconnect mostly TIER II citiesand large national airlineswill get benefitted as theywould have more traffic com-ing into important hub air-ports.

He also said that this is thefirst round of biddings andGovernment has seenenouraging response fromparticipants and as the UDANscheme gets matured therewill be further biddings andmore flights.

UDAN will be based onmarket mechanism as well asbidding for a minimum of 50per cent seats in the participat-ing airline’s flight and the restwould be market-based pricing.

While the deadline for sub-

mitting initial proposals endedon January 16, the counterbids for them can be submittedtill February 1. After that, theroutes would be awarded tobidders who quote the lowestViability Gap Funding (VGF)requirement against the routes.

Under UDAN, the partic-ipating airlines would beextended VGF -- that would bejointly funded by the Centreand the State Government con-cerned.

Towards VGF, theGovernment has started charg-ing �8,500 levy per departure offlights on major routes.However, airlines have chal-lenged the charging of levy inthe court.

He said the Governmenthas already received “some ofthe funds” in the RCS and thatGovernment is expecting coop-eration from other airlines toparticipate in that.

Sinha also said the Ministryis in discussions with the air-lines over levy issue, addingthat, “we have sought theirsupport as it (UDAN) is in theinterest of all, including the con-sumers and airlines.

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��� ������� To make GSTregime less onerous, theCentre and states have decid-ed to water down the penalprovisions to ensure a tradergets immediate bail if thealleged tax evasion is up to �2crore.

The GST Council, at itslast meeting, has decided thatthe provision of arrest will berestricted to forgery and non-deposit of collected taxes withthe exchequer within the stip-ulated timeframe.

“In case of offences wherethe amount does not exceed �2crore, the person arrested forviolation of GST laws will beentitled to bail,” an official said,adding that the penal provi-sions in the GST will be lessonerous than the provision inthe Indian Penal Code (IPC)for the same type of offences.

Under the IPC 1860,forgery and cheating are non-bailable offence, which meansthat bail can only be grantedby a court.

Most other offences likeavailing of wrong input taxcredit or refund and failure tofurnish documents, which

were earlier listed in therevised draft GST law forprosecution, will not lead toarrest but may attract onlyfinancial penalty.

While in the case of ser-vice tax, there is a provisionof arrest for non-deposit ofthe tax beyond �50 lakh withthe government, the exciselaw gives the Commissionerdiscretion to invoke arrestprovision in the case ofdefault.

PwC Leader (indirect tax)Pratik Jain said the arrestprovisions as per the revisedmodel GST law may lead toundue harassment for traders.

“To start with, thereshould be lighter penal pro-vision for offences for at leasttwo years as GST is a new taxregime and traders wouldneed time to understand thelaw,” Jain said.

Though anti-profiteer-ing and prosecution provi-sions may act as a deterrentfor tax evasion, these arelikely to do more harm thangood under GST, KPMG(India) Partner Indirect TaxHarpreet Singh said. ���

����������The tax departmenthas asked banks to report depositsin any account aggregating �10lakh in a year, as well as cash pay-ments of �1 lakh or more on cred-it card bills.

In a January 17 notification,the Central Board of Direct Taxes(CBDT) listed cash transactionswhich need to be reported to taxauthorities and set up an e-plat-form for doing so.

It reiterated its November2016 instruction asking banks toreport all cash deposits of �2.5 lakhor more made in one or moreaccounts of a person duringNovember 9 to December 30,2016.

Post demonetisation of old500 and 1,000 rupee notes, thegovernment had allowed thejunked currency to be depositedin bank accounts during a 50-daywindow ending December 30,2016.

“Cash deposits during theperiod November 9, 2016 toDecember 30, 2016 aggregating toRs 12.50 lakh or more in one ormore current account of a person

(and) �2.5 lakh or more in one ormore account (other than a cur-rent account) of a person” will haveto be reported to tax authorities,it said.

Also, cash deposits duringApril 1, 2016 to November 9, 2016in any account that are reportableshould also be intimated to the thetax authorities by January 31,2017, the notification said.

It made it mandatory fora banking company or acooperative bank to reportcash deposits aggregating to�10 lakh or more in a finan-cial year, in one or moreaccounts (other than a currentaccount and time deposit) ofa person.

Payments made by anyperson of an amount aggre-gating to �one lakh or morein cash towards credit carddues will have to be reported.

Also to be reported are�10 lakh or more of paymentsmade by any mode (includingcheque or wire transfer) tosettle credit card dues in afinancial year, CBDT said.���

�����1��3*�8

In yet another blow to ‘wilfuldefaulter’ Vijay Mallya, Debt

Recovery Tribunal on Thursdayordered the SBI-led consortium ofbanks to start the process of recov-ering over �6,203 crore, at 11.5 percent annual interest rate, from theembattled tycoon and his companiesin the Kingfisher Airlines case.

“I hereby ask the bankers to startthe process of recovery of�6203,35,03,879 crore and 42 paiseat the interest rate of 11.5 per cent perannum from Mallya and his com-panies, including UBHL, KingfisherFinvest and Kingfisher Airlines,”DRT Presiding Officer K Sreenivasansaid in his order here.

At the jam-packed, newly rent-ed space of DRT which was inau-gurated only this morning, thePresiding Officer disposed of 20Interlocutory Applications (IAs),including several by Mallya and hisfirms.

The lenders had moved DRT in2013 to recover dues from thedefunct airline.

SBI had filed three other appli-cations, including one seekingMallya’s arrest and impounding of hispassport, for ‘defaulting’ on loans.

Sreenivasan decreed that if, inspite of the sale of the properties men-tioned in schedules, the OA (theOriginal Application) amount wasnot fully realised, then the applicant

bank was at liberty to proceedagainst the person and other prop-erties of the defendants as requiredunder law and also as advised.

In the event of failure of defen-dants to pay the OA amount, theapplicant bank was at liberty to sellthe hypothecated, mortgaged, mov-ables and immovable propertiesdescribed in schedule of the mainpetition, according to law as soughtby the applicant bank, he said.

The PO also said: “The appli-cant bank shall file latest memo of cal-culation of OA amount together withinterest, costs etc, to be paid by defen-dants duly taking into account theamounts, if any, paid by the defen-dants and or amount realised by saleof assets, etc, during the interveningperiod after filing the OA, toenable the office to prepareRecovery Certificate for theamount to be paid by the defen-dants to the applicant bank.”

Sreenivasan said that theoffice is directed to issue RecoveryCertificate as sought by the appli-

cant bank in the OA and “do theneedful as required under lawforthwith”.

The order brings an end tothe nearly three-year legal battlein the Tribunal by the consortium,comprising 17 banks, to recoverthe money owed to them by thedefunct airlines.

Mallya had been declared aswilful defaulter by several banks.

On ‘lifting of corporate veil’,Sreenivasan said it was intriguingas to why Kingfisher Finvestshould worry about its veil beinglifted when according to themthey are so independently doingtheir own business and sale of theshares was only a part of theirwhole business.

The bankers had filed IAseeking lifting of corporate veil topierce the protection against per-sonal liability enjoyed by indi-viduals controlling KingfisherFinvest.

The doctrine of Lifting ofCorporate Veil means disregard-ing the corporate personalityand looking behind at the personscontrolling the company.

Sreenivasan further said ifonly what they have stated wastrue, Kingfisher Finvest shouldnot be complaining on this aspectand should have lifted the veilthemselves voluntarily andproved their innocence/inde-pendence as contended.

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The Income TaxDepartment has written

to the RBI informing it aboutalleged illegal malpracticesbeing deployed by a numberof cooperative banks after itsprobe found “serious” dif-ference in accounts, to thetune of multi-crore rupees,in the aftermath of the notesban.

In an analysis report pre-pared by the department,also accessed by PTI, twospecific instances in Mumbaiand Pune have been report-ed where it was found thatover �113 crore “excessamount” of old demonetisednotes was reported by twobanks to the banking regu-lator in order to generateblack funds.

“In the Pune bank case,the reported amount (to the

RBI) was �242 crore whilephysical stock was of �141crore, showing clearly thatthe cooperative bank hadreported to the RBI excessSpecified Bank Notes (oldcurrency) as on December23, 2016 to the tune of�101.07 crore. In the case ofa similar bank in Mumbai,the excess amount of suchnotes was �11.89 crore,” itsaid.

The department hadconducted surveys on thesetwo banks last year, post thenotes ban, and it “detectedserious unexplained differ-ence between the old notesreported to the RBI and thephysical stock” available inthe bank during the saidoperation.

Off icials said it hadinformed the RBI aboutthese alleged malpracticesearl ier and is regularly

up dat ing i t about suchmo dus op erandi b e ingdeployed by a number ofsuch banks as it apprehendsthat the “excess reporting ofold notes had serious poten-tial for large scale conversionof old notes for new noteseven after December 30,2016 (the last date for thevalidity of the old notes)”.

In this backdrop, theReserve Bank of India (RBI)had issued a circular onDecemb er 30 las t yearrequiring all banks to depositall old notes received tillDecember 30, 2016 with RBIchests by the next day, ie,December 31, 2016 and alsostating that old notes cannotform part of the closing cash

balance of banks as onDecember 31, 2016.

“A big possible windowthat would have allowed con-version of black money intowhite, post demonetisation,by the cooperative bank sys-tem was plugged to a largerextent after the I-T depart-ment detec ted theseinstances. In cases wheresuch an activity has alreadytaken place, the investigationis ongoing and notices havebeen issued,” officials said.

The Income Tax depart-ment has earlier raised seri-ous concerns over the work-ing of a number of coopera-tive banks across the coun-try in a earlier report whereit had claimed that they usedthe “opportunity” of demon-etisation to make a quickbuck and indulge in moneylaundering worth severalcrores.

An analysis report pre-pared by the department hadsaid tax sleuths found thesebanks have been involved ingenerating and routing of blackmoney at an “unprecedented”scale post November 8 whenthe currency scrap wasannounced by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi.

I-T probe had found thatin the case of such a bankbased in the small town ofAlwar in Rajasthan, the direc-tors of the bank cheated it of�8 crore “by fraudulentlyobtaining loans in the namesof 90 persons of doubtful iden-tities” even as it was used tolaunder personal “unaccount-ed cash” of �2 crore by themanagement.

Several such instances werechronicled by the departmentin its report submitted to theFinance Ministry and sharedwith the RBI for action. ���

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The new BHIM app, thataims to make digital pay-

ments through mobiles fast andsimple for people, has logged 1.1crore downloads within 20 daysof launch, IT Minister RaviShankar Prasad said. TheMinister further said that theproposed Aadhaar-linked pay-ment system -which PrimeMinister had alluded to in hisDecember 30 speech, would belaunched ‘very soon’ and fourbanks, including State Bank ofIndia, are already on board forthe new system.

“The download of BHIMapp has touched at 1.1 crore.This enormous popularity ofBHIM app is indicative of peo-ple’ passion for digital paymentsthrough new instruments,”Prasad told PTI. The BHIM appdownloads which have shot upin a matter of a few days ‘showshow India is changing’ with

regard to adoption of digital pay-ments and cashless transac-tions, the Minister pointed out.

Prime Minister NarendraModi, on December 30, hadlaunched an indigenous digitalpayments app BHIM for fast andsecure cashless transactionsusing mobiles. BHIM is a pay-ment platform designed to makeUPI and USSD payment modessimpler and usable across featurephones and smartphones.

On the new Aadhaar-basedpayment system which is in theoffing, the Minister said that itsarchitecture is being finalised,and it will be launched ‘verysoon’. “There were certainissues which we have alreadyclarified with the Reserve Bankof India and other banks, andabout four banks includingState Bank of India (SBI) havecome on board and we arefinalising the entire architectureas a flawless one, and we willlaunch very soon,” he said.

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NEW DELHI: Amid widespreadconcerns over impending policiesof Donald Trump, who is set totake charge as US President onFriday, Nasscom is planning a visitto the US in the next few weeks toreach out to American policy-makers and lawmakers. “We willbe taking the earliest possibleopportunity to meet lawmakers,policymakers and administrationin the US. While specific dates areyet to worked out, we are lookingat February-March timeframe forthe visit,” Nasscom President RChandrashekhar told PTI. He

said the IT industry body hopes tohighlight and share informationwith the new US administrationon direct jobs created by Indian ITcompanies in the US, and contri-bution of Indian IT firms in mak-ing the US economy competitive.He said that according to dataavailable, Indian IT companieshave created 4.11 lakh jobs in theUS of which 1.5 lakh are directemployment. Besides job cre-ation, Indian IT industry has alsocontributed to the US economy interms of tax payment, social secu-rity outgo and CSR activities.PTI

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PARIS: Steeper cuts in OPEC oilproduction are likely this monthas producers increasingly imple-ment a recent landmark dealaimed at stabilising oil prices, theIEA said on Thursday. “Initial indi-cations are that a steeper (month-on-month) decline may be on theway in January,” said theInternational Energy Agency,which analyses energy markets formajor oil consuming nations.

Under a landmark deal onNovember 30, aimed at reducinga global supply glut that depressedoil prices, the Organisation ofPetroleum Exporting Countries ismeant to slash its output ceiling by1.2 million barrels per day (bpd)to 32.5 million bpd, effectiveJanuary 1. On Wednesday, the car-tel had said that its oil productionfell in December but remains wellabove levels envisaged the deal.However, steeper cuts would

come this month as Saudi Arabiaand nearby producers move toimplement the agreed reductions,the IEA said. “OPEC's elevatedsupply during 2016 helped pushglobal oil stocks to record levelsand the explicit aim. Of the dealis to speed the market’s return tobalance by working off the excess,”the IEA said.

“Coordinated action withnon-OPEC countries. Could has-ten the process.” The IEA said theoutput cuts “have entered theirprobation period and it is far toosoon to see what level of compli-ance has been achieved.” “Thecoming weeks will provide moreclarity.” In the meantime, theIEA said it had revised upwardsits estimate for global oil demandgrowth in 2016 and now sawgrowth at 1.5 mbd, “with most ofthe revision contributed bystronger European demand.” PTI

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As he prepares to hand overthe baton to Donald Trump,

outgoing President BarackObama has sought to reassure apolarised nation that America is“going to be okay” in the wakeof this democratic transfer ofpower.

“At my core, I think we’regoing to be okay. We just have tofight for it. We have to work forit, and not take it for granted,”Obama said at his final WhiteHouse news conference, mark-ing the end of his eight years atthe helm.

With members and sup-porters of his Democratic Partystill unreconciled to Trump’sstunning victory, Obama said:“What I’m saying really is whatI think. I believe in this country.I believe in the American peo-ple.”

He, however, declined tocomment on the proposed boy-cott of Trump’s inauguration bymore than 60 Democratic law-makers, remarking: “All I knowis I’m going to be there. So isMichelle.” Obama used the occa-sion to once again caution Trumpon US ties with Russia and anyunilateral move he may be con-

templating in the West Asia.Even while conceding that

Trump, having won the presi-dential race, was entitled to goforward with his vision and val-ues, Obama voiced his opposi-tion to any lifting of the US sanc-tions against Russia over itsinvasion of Ukraine in 2014.

Making the commentagainst the backdrop of reportsthat Trump may lift the sanctionsif he can reach a deal withRussia over reduction of nuclearstockpile, Obama said: “It isimportant for the United Statesto stand up for the basic princi-ple that big countries don’t goaround and invade and bullysmall countries.”

In the West Asia, Obamasought to caution the incomingTrump administration that anybig policy shift would comewith its own consequences,explicitly commenting that mov-

ing the US Embassy from TelAviv to Jerusalem could have“explosive” results.

In a clear reference toTrump’s campaign talk that hewould shift the embassy toJerusalem, Obama said: “Whensudden unilateral moves aremade that speak to some of thecore issues and sensitivities ofeither side, that can be explosive.”

Stressing that the possibili-ty of a two-state solution must bepreserved, he commented: “Idon’t see how this issue getsresolved in a way that maintainsIsrael as both Jewish and ademocracy because if you do nothave two states.”

Asked about the discussionshe has had with the President-elect on different issues, Obamasaid these have been cordialand have been fairly lengthy andsubstantive. Without going intodetails, he said: “I have offered

my best advice, counsel aboutcertain issues both foreign anddomestic.”

When asked if the UnitedStates would have another blackpresident, he commented: “Ithink we’re going to see peopleof merit rise up from everyrace, faith, corner of this coun-try…We’re going to have awoman president, a Latino pres-ident, a Jewish president, aHindu president.”

He voiced concern at thepersisting gaps in America andmade a pointed mention aboutrights issues. “I worry aboutinequality because I think that ifwe’re not investing in makingsure everybody plays a role inthis economy, the economy willnot grow as fast, I also think itwill lead to further and furtherseparation between as

Americans,” he said.In a clear dig at Trump’s state

of relationship with the main-stream media, which has beenharshly critical of him before andafter the election, Obamaremarked: “You (media outlets)are not supposed to be syco-phants, you’re supposed to beskeptical.”

“My hope is that you willcontinue with the same tenacitythat you showed us, to do the hardwork of getting to the bottom ofstories and getting them right andto push those of us in power tobe the best version of ourselvesand to push this country to be thebest version of itself,” he said

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US President Barack Obama, who hadstruck up a close rapport with Prime

Minister Narendra Modi ever since thelatter’s electoral victory in May 2014, madea farewell telephone call on Wednesday,thanking him for partnership in expand-ing bilateral relations.

The two leaders reviewed the “jointefforts of cooperation including defense,civil nuclear energy, and enhanced peo-

ple-to-people ties,” the White House saidin a statement.

“Both leaders discussed the progressthey have made on shared economic andsecurity priorities, including recognition ofIndia as a Major Defence Partner of theUnited States and addressing the global chal-lenge of climate change,” the statementnoted.

During the conversation, Obamaalso recalled the invitation that Modi hadextended to him to be the chief guest atthe Republic Day celebrations in 2015 andwished the Prime Minister warm con-gratulations ahead of the upcoming 68thRepublic Day anniversary.

Obama was among the first worldleaders to greet Modi upon his electoralvictory as leader of the BJP-led NDA inMay 2014, inviting him to visit the UnitedStates – an invitation that made quickamends for the manner in which Modi hadbeen denied a visa to the US back in 2005.

Modi visited Washington inSeptember 2014 and met with PresidentObama in what was the first of eight meet-ings between the two over the next cou-ple of years.

One of these meetings was in Paris inNovember 2015 that proved to be criti-cal to the success of the efforts to ham-mer out the accord on climate change.

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Senegal has asked the UNSecurity Council to autho-

rise the West African ECOW-AS bloc to take "all necessarymeasures" to ensure a transferof power in The Gambia.

The EconomicCommunity Of West AfricanStates has repeatedly called onleader Yahya Jammeh torespect the result of theDecember 1 election and stepdown after 22 years in power.

Senegal presented a draftresolution yesterday that wouldprovide Security Councilapproval to any ECOWAS mil-itary action in The Gambia toforce Jammeh to cede power toPresident-elect Adama Barrow.

The text, seen by AFP, callson the council to give its "fullsupport to the ECOWAS in itscommitment to take all neces-sary measures to ensure therespect of the will of the peo-ple of The Gambia."

The council met behindclosed doors to discuss the cri-sis over Jammeh's refusal tostep down and renewed itsdemand that the leader handover power on Thursday.

"As we speak, there aredevelopments and last-ditchefforts to try to resolve this sit-uation in a peaceful way," saidSweden's Ambassador OlofSkoog, who holds the councilpresidency.The ambassador

said a vote on the draft resolu-tion "could happen quite soon"if those efforts fail.

Jammeh has declared astate of emergency as Barrow,who is currently in Senegal,maintained his inaugurationwill go ahead as planned onThursday on Gambian soil.

UN envoy for West AfricaMohamed Ibn Chambas lastweek told the council thatECOWAS was prepared to askthe council to approve militaryaction to force Jammeh to cedepower. The draft resolutionstates that "instability in TheGambia could pose a threat tointernational peace and secu-rity in the region".

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Ahead of his inauguration asUS President, a new wax

figurines of President-electDonald Trump have beenunveiled at world famous waxmuseum Madame Tussaudslocations around the globe.

A wax likeness of the 70-year-old New York City bil-lionaire is being introduced atits Manhattan location, as wellas branches in Washington,Orlando and London.

The finished figure took 20artists six months to create. Thehairstyle alone took five weeks,with each hair — made fromyak hair — being individuallyinserted by hand, according toMadame TussaudsWashington.

Museum officials say hishair was a particularly demand-ing task, taking five weeks toperfect.

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Amid a divisive environ-ment in the US ahead of

his inauguration, President-elect Donald Trump has quot-ed an American Christianevangelist to say he is not theone to have divided the coun-try and pledged to work hardfor the American people.

"'It wasn't Donald Trumpthat divided this country, thiscountry has been divided for along time!' Stated today byReverend Franklin Graham,"Trump tweeted this morningquoting American Christianevangelist and missionary.Trump said in another tweetthat he was getting ready toleave for Washington, where hewill take Oath of Office tomor-row as the 45th President of theUS, after registering a stunningvictory against Hillary Clintonin one of the lost unprecedent-ed elections in US history.

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Vietnamese police today scuffled with activists marking the 1974Chinese invasion of a disputed island chain as they arrested

several people and dispersed journalists.About 100 people gathered in central Hanoi for the 43rd

anniversary of the Chinese takeover of the Paracel islands in theSouth China Sea — territory claimed by both nations that remainsa diplomatic flashpoint.

In a rare act of public defiance in the communist nation,activists chanted "Down with the invaders!" and held bannersagainst the "age-old enemy" near the capital's Hoan Kiem Lake.

Plainclothes police swiftly swooped in, snatching banners awayand hauling at least a dozen people into a nearby bus.

Journalists were unceremoniously ordered to leave thescene and turn off cameras. Though Hanoi and Beijing routine-ly trade barbs over contested territory in the South China Sea,Vietnam often breaks up anti-China protests to avoid stoking angerfrom regional powerhouse China.

The Paracels remain a bitter bone of contention between theneighbours. China has controlled the islands since invading themshortly after US-backed Vietnamese soldiers withdrew in 1974.

The attack left 70 Vietnamese soldiers dead.Activists called on Vietnam to take a tougher stance with

China. "I think Vietnam must be determined towards China... To

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get back Hoang Sa and TruongSa Islands," said activist PhamVan Troi, 46, using Vietnamesenames for the Paracels and thenearby Spratly islands, whichare also disputed.

Page 13: days as more and more in touch with the RLD. “You sections of Tamil society have As pro-Jallikattu protests intensified across Tamil Nadu and …

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The next line of this famousGeorge Michael song goes,I gotta get inside you. And

while I’m pretty sure that thesinging Greek, as he referred tohimself did not not mean a car (ora woman apparently) the headlinejust suits this car. This is a funkycar, design elements inside andoutside are all about making thiscar stand out from the teemingcrowd of small cars in India, mostof them Maruti’s. It is a car thatyou want to get inside thanks toits outside.

Maruti management went togreat lengths to convince us thatthey’ve designed this car for mil-lennials. Now, let me get onething straight, I’m not a millenni-al. And in case you didn’t knowwho millennials are, they are theyounger audience and dependingon who you ask, the age groupranges between 20 and 35. But forcar buying purposes, these areyounger first-time car buyersbetween the ages of 25 and 35. Butas one of my marketing mavenfriends explained to me, ‘millen-nials’ are actually a convenient tocategorise buyers you really can’tcategorise too well.

But we do know certain thingsabout younger car buyers, suremany of them aspire towardsowning a German luxury brand,but they want all the toys. And,they do want their cars and bikesto stand out. And Maruti seems tohave realised this, you wouldexpect India’s biggest car compa-ny to be a bit fuddy-duddy andslow off the mark, but Maruti wasthe first carmaker to get AppleCarPlay into India. And with thiscar they have made the small carcool again.

Again, let me get one thing outof the way, the Ignis is no ‘perfor-mance’ car. Sure, like mostSuzuki small cars since the ‘new’

Swift came out in 2004, it handlesand rides very well. The steeringis sharp and ride fairly smooth;this car ticks all the boxes. It hasthe standard 1.2MPI petrol enginetuned to 82 horsepower and the

1.3DDiS diesel engine tuned to74 horsepower; the same

engine options as the Swift. It comes with an

optional AutomatedManual Transmission, or

‘Auto Gear Shift’ (AGS)as Maruti calls it.

Driving both thepetrol and diesel

AGS, you can see that Maruti hasworked on improving this technol-ogy ever since they brought it inwith the Celerio. The Ignis is thefirst hatchback in the Maruti fam-ily that has the AGS, althoughMaruti had mated the DDiS to anAGS transmission on the Dzireearlier. On the petrol variant youcan’t make out gear changes at cityspeeds, sure there is a palpableshift shock when you want to gofast and really mash the accelera-tor. But treat the accelerator gen-tly, and the Ignis is surprisinglysmooth and efficient. On thediesel AGS, things are not thatsmooth, there is a bit of jerkinessduring shifts but still, the Ignisdiesel AMT is a very good imple-mentation of the gearbox.

So that is the mechanical andperformance part of the Ignisdone because this car is all aboutthe design and features. Just lookat the outside, the first thing younotice when you see the car is theheadlights popping out of thegrille and on the top-end Alphavariant you get the headlightsintegrated with daytime runningLED lights, a first at this pricerange. The clamshell insert on thebonnet’s side is inspired by the

Vitara SUV and the high tall-boysort of stance of the Ignis does givea sort of SUV feel.

The most noticeable featureshowever involve the rear C-pillar.The first is the 45-degree kinks onthe roof, most hatchbacks endabruptly, this kink which reallydoesn’t compromise rear head-room does give this car a ratherunique ending. Coupled with thesharply raked window line, whichdoes in my opinion reduce glassarea a bit in the car, the rear doesstand out on the Ignis. But if it dis-n’t stand out already, there are thethree stripes stamped onto the pil-lar. The three stripes aren’t as someof you will suspect inspired by aGerman sportswear company butfrom the Suzuki Fronte coupe, aGuigiaro designed car from the1960’s. There is one thing aboutthe outside that I’m not terriblyfond off, and that involves the rearend as well, the sides of the cartaper a bit towards the end, thusthe wheel arches flare out a fair bit.It really gives the Ignis the impres-sion of having a large butt.Specifically a small waist and alarge butt. I’m just saying. Andwell, the taillights could have car-ried the funky theme as well withLED clusters, but for now they justlook ordinary.

But then the insides, the carshave coloured accents for thefront door handles and the centralconsole and the rear-window kink(on the higher variants) with theTinsel Blue and Uptown Redcolours (I don’t think up colournames, and yes, they’re weird)coming with body-colouredoptions, other colour choices comewith silver inserts. But everythingelse is cool too. The Black andIvory dual-tone finish, the designof the air-conditioning vents, theswitches for the a/c controls on thetop-end Alpha variant and the waythe infotainment system juts outlike a tablet.

On the top-end Alpha variant,the touchscreen system, which isthe same as on the Ciaz, S-Cross,Baleno and Vitara Brezza, looksdifferent here because of the wayit has been placed. And the Ignisis the first variant which comeswith the option for Android Auto,Google’s plug-and-play option forAndroid devices. Unlike AppleCarPlay in India, the AndroidAuto variant licensed by Marutiincludes Google Maps navigationsupport (over and above the in-built navigation in Maruti’s sys-tem) with live maps data (if yourAndroid smartphone is runningon a data network).

Maruti, which will sell theIgnis using the Nexa network ofshowrooms also offers customisa-tion options, starting with roofwraps in geometric designs, whichmight seem weird, but Marutimanagement feel that millennialslike customisation. The Ignis hasbeen priced starting from Rs 4.59lakh for the base Sigma variantpetrol to Rs 7.80 lakh for the Alphavariant diesel. The Alphas variantpetrol engined option which willprobably sell the most costs Rs6.69 lakh. Both petrol and dieselAGS options come in the middleDelta and Zeta specification lev-els (lacking the colour touch-screen sadly). The Ignis is very wellpriced, although Maruti will haveto take some interesting pricingdecisions when the third-genera-tion Swift comes later this year.

As for ‘None of a Kind’Maruti’s tagline for the Ignis, I’mnot so sure. As for the car, I’m pret-ty sure it will attract the buyersMaruti wants but also their par-ents. After all, funky is just a stateof mind.

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One would imagine themto be feminine chauf-feurs. But they are all

tough ladies hardened by strug-gle and poverty. Yet, when yousee them behind the wheelsmanoeuvring the unrulycacophonic traffic on Jaipur’sunsympathetic and noisy roadsmade even more dangerouswith potholes and backbreakingspeed breakers, you spot noth-ing but a smile.

In 2009, it was just a distantdream for Chand when shedecided to become a chauffeur.Now few years down the line,she has beaten all odds tobecome a professional cab dri-ver. “It was not difficult to con-vince my family. The difficultpart was to convince the soci-ety. They said things like this ismen’s job and it’s not safe todrive and all. But I was deter-mined to do what I wanted todo,” says Chand.

She is not just a profession-al driver but also the first ladytrainer at the Maruti’s drivingschool. For Chand, holding thesteering wheel is akin toempowerment.

This, precisely, is the prima-ry goal of Azad Foundation.The NGO makes self-sufficientprofessionals out of youngwomen. Their job is to prepareand empower young women sothat they can live with dignityand independence.

Later, Chand found outabout the NGO and begantraining under it. She nowworks as a professional chauf-feur with Sakha ConsultingWings, a placement agency thatprovides employment to womendrivers.

“I lost my husband in 2009in a road accident. I was terri-fied of driving then but I had totake care of my family, mykids. So I came over with myfear and decided to hold thesteering wheel,” says proudChand.

Chand is not alone. In fact,hundreds of women havetrained with the NGO undertheir programme ‘Women onWheels’.

Sakshi, who also works as aprivate chauffeur and her jour-ney wasn't a bed of roses either.She was a victim of women

abuse and was left to survivealone. Soon she took hold of herlife and decided to learning dri-ving and earn a living throughthat.

“When I started training, alot of people ridiculed andharassed me, saying I couldnever be a driver. They evenharassed me,” Sakshi says.

When asked if she is notic-ing any positive changes inherself after joining the NGO,she says, “Earlier, I was shy. NowI can talk to people. I go out andvisit places. Being a driver givesa different sense of pride.”

The Azad Foundation start-ed the ‘Women on Wheels’programme in 2008 for helpingthe women in India to livewith pride. The NGO hastrained as many as 700 womenso far, out of whom more than400 are working as profession-al drivers across the nation.

The director of the NGO,Meenu Vadera was in conversa-tion with publisher UrvashiButalia at the Jaipur LiteratureFestival to discuss and bringfore the stories of such sur-vivors.

Priyanka Chopra pipped‘Grey’s Anatomy’ star EllenPompeo and Viola Davis

to win the favourite dramaticTV actress trophy for her role inQuantico at the 2017 People’sChoice Awards. This is the 34-year-old actress’ second People’sChoice win, having been namedthe favourite actress in a new TVseries last year.

After being announced asthe winner in the favourite dra-matic TV actress category,which also had KerryWashington and Taraji PHenson as nominees, Priyankahugged her mother, MadhuChopra, who accompanied herat the award show, before head-ing to the stage.

Priyanka wore an under-stated but flirty peach ensemblefor her red carpet turn at thePeople’s Choice Awards, held atthe Microsoft Theatre in LosAngeles. The two-piece numberhad a strapless top with a sweep-

ing asymmetrical hem, teamedwith a mid-length skirt that hada tasseled fringe. Strappy metal-lic sandals and minimal jew-ellery completed her look. An“overwhelmed” Priyanka saidshe is honoured to have beennominated alongside the likes ofPompeo, Davis and others.“Thank you to the people. Thishas been an incredible journey.Every single woman that werenominated with me today, allthese incredible actresses are thereason that I joined television,”the actress said as her Baywatchco-star Dwayne Johnsoncheered her from the audience.

“Being in the same catego-ry as them is so overwhelming.Thank you to all of you whohave accepted me and loved myshow, my wonderful cast... Thismeans the world to me,” saidPriyanka, who chose a SallyLaPointe skirt and top for theceremony. Joking about herconcussion, she said, “I am

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really excited. Can Ido a little wiggle?Sorry its the concus-sion talking.” Priyankawas not the onlyIndian-origin star to be fetedat the ceremony. Lilly Singh was namedfavourite YouTube star.

Earlier on the red carpet, Priyanka openedup about her minor accident which happenedduring the TV show’s shoot in New York onJanuary 12.

She had slipped and fell, hitting her headand was hospitalised. She was released soonafter being examined by a doctor.

When asked if she was fit enough toattend the award show, she said, “I wasa little nervous. I didn’t know if I wouldmake it, but I got so bored sitting onmy couch for three days. As long asI don’t do any action and stuff,I’m supposed to be fine. I’venever got hurt before on-setwhile I do stunts, I alwaysdo them myself. Thiswas just a one-off.”

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The décor has been done up toreplicate Indian streets. One

wall is sprawled with two largeautos made out of saris. There’s ahand cart too but it has been sus-pended from the ceiling alongwith a life-size effigy of a vendor.An old scooter that’s quirkilyanchored to the ceiling will takeyou down the nostalgia lane.

The restaurant is opened up inthe place of Shiv Sagar by the sameowner. Though we hoped for a fill-ing food evening, the place was bitof a downer. There were certaindishes which stole the show, whilethere were some that disappoint-ed us. The menu at The MasalaTrail spreads through lengths andbreathes of the country. In a bidto incorporate the street foodfrom the all around India, therestaurant missed out on the tasteof some of their dishes.

We started with Pao Bhaji,Banarasi Kachori Subzi andKanpuria Gadbad Chat. The bhajiwas more watery and I think itshould have been better as oneexpects street style food only.Banarasi Kachori Subzi were ministuffed dough balls served withpotato curry. The potato currytasted fine, the kachoris were softand the flavours of the stuffing andthe curry were like the ones youcan have at the street sides ofVaranasi. The next dish was theGadbad Chat. True to its name,the chat had fried potato tikkis,potato curry and all kinds ofchutneys. The amalgamation of allthe chutneys with potato curryand tikkis was perfect. And it wasthe first dish from the restaurantthat surprised us in a good sense.

We safely moved on to try theDal Baati and Churma. The peastuffed baatis failed to impress us

again. So did the daal. Therajasthani spices and flavourswere absent in the dish. The chur-ma however was fine. With lev-elled sweetness, the churma didsave the daal baati. The one dishwhich impressed us completelywas the masala dosa. The mashedpotato stuffing was light on spicesand the dosa covering was crispfrom the corners and thick in themiddle. Just the way we like it. Thesambhar with the dosa was alsoproperly spiced and had promi-nent taste of garam masala. It willnot be an exaggeration to say thatit was worth a tough fight to theSouth Indian restaurant in thevicinity.

We ended our meal with HajiAli Fruit Cream. Unfortunately,just like the beginning, our end ofthe meal was also disappointing.The fruits in the fruit cream werefrozen. Chilled our teeth. And thewhole sweet dish was unusuallycold, because of which the sweet-ness of it could not be judged. Atthe end, we would say that theplace do have few outstandingdishes but still needs to get better.

Enjoy the lip-smacking tricolorsalad and feel more Indian!

Indulge yourself with this super-healthy dish infused with national fer-vour with its tri color ingredients —beans, prawns and carrots.

WHAT WE NEEDVinaigrette● 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar● 1 teaspoon honey Dijon mustard● 1/8 teaspoon salt● 1/8 teaspoon black pepper● 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil● 2 tablespoons snipped fresh chives

Salad● 1 pound green beans, trimmed● 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil● 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped● 1 and 1/2 pounds large shrimp,

shelled and deveined● 1/4 teaspoon salt● 1/4 teaspoon black pepper● Snipped chives for garnish

(optional)

HOW TO MAKEIn a small bowl, whisk vinegar,

mustard, salt and pepper. Graduallydrizzle in the olive oil, whisking con-tinuously until dressing is emulsified.Add chives; set aside

Green beans and shrimp: 1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted

water to a boil. Add beans andsimmer for 5 minutes or until

crisp-tender. Drain and place in alarge bowl. Toss with dressing; setaside

2. Heat the 2 tablespoons oil in alarge skillet over medium-highheat. Add garlic and shrimp.Season with salt and pepper andcook for about 2 minutes per sideor until cooked through

3. To serve, toss with the beans. Placeon a serving platter. Scatter shrimpover the top. Garnish with snippedchives, if desired

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Shalgam, Gobhi aur Gajar ka achar is amixed pickle made with turnip, carrots

and cauliflower. It is usually made in win-ters when these vegetables are readilyavailable, fresh and taste their best.

WHAT WE NEED● 250 grams Turnip● 250 grams Cauliflower● 250 grams Carrots● 2 teaspoon mustard seeds, coarsely

ground● 2 teaspoons chilli powder● 2 teaspoons salt● 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder● 1/2 litre mustard oil

HOW TO MAKE1. Begin with washing the vegetables well2. Now, peel the turnips and carrot and

cut into thin slices3. Wash the cauliflower and cut into

small florets4. Boil two litres of water in a large pot5. Add vegetables to the boiling water6. Cook the vegetables for 3 - 4 minutes

and then drain the water7. Spread the vegetables on a cotton cloth

and let them dry completely for 3-4hours. There should be absolutely nomoisture in the vegetables.

8. Mix mustard seeds, chili powder,turmeric powder, salt and vegetablesin a bowl and keep aside

9. Heat mustard oil in a pan till it startsto fume. Turn off the heat and let theoil cool slightly

10. Now, pour oil over the vegetables andgive it a good stir. Transfer the pick-le into a clean sterilised jar along withthe oil. Cover the jar with a muslincloth tied with a string around andkeep the jar in the sun for 2-3 days.The process of keeping it in the sunhelps in getting rid of the excess mois-ture and also helps the pickle to mar-inate

11. This achaar once marinated can beserved along with your favoriteparathas, mathris or chawal. You canstore the pickle for about three months

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If you’re scouting around for a perfectSunday brunch, Fatty Bao is the place tobe. The brunch menu is slightly different

from the standard menu but still offers a vari-ety of cooked meal and raw seafood options.Not only was the food good, but there was alsoplenty of booze to go with the food whichmade it a really fun way to spend Sunday after-noon.

To get the bounce back in the weekend,we started the brunch with Kim-Back-Too,perfect for adventurous drinkers (millenials,we’re talking to you). The drink pairs a kim-chi back with a shot of vodka. The fiery brinedefinitely calls for repeat. If you’re the kind whoalways votes for shots, this one is for you. Gaveus a serious weekend kick!

We have always liked dim sums but a bitefilled with exotic vegetables at Fatty Bao turnedto love. It was spot-on. The skin was translu-cent and the right thickness held the juiceswell. Rolled up juicy vegetables inside, someseasoning and a dabble in chilli garlic saucemade it nearly perfect.

We then tried their signature item, thebaos. Baos of course are steamed buns whichoriginated in Korea but are now found acrossthe city. Here they came in with a large vari-ety of fillings. It may be a good idea to go inand try every single one on a hungry day, ourrecommendations — Teriyaki glaze chicken,fried fish and cottage cheese. With lattice,cucumber and mustard cream, the baos wereabsolutely divine. The crispiness of the lattice,the softness of the bao, the way the sweet andspicy flavours chased each other on ourtongue, added up to one superb experience.

Next came Mickey Ninja with greenmango and papaya salad. The cocktail wasvodka shaken with muddled fresh orange slicesand cucumber and a dash of whisky. Not muchto write about it. But the salad impressed usto the core.

Our absolute favourite turned out to bethe crispy calamari which got us addicted pret-ty quick. Lightly battered fried squid servedwith peppers and onions won us over. Thesquid was puffy and crunchy, so delicious thatone order is not enough.

Malay spicy coconut lamb skewer wasnext. Served in a skewer with coriander andpeanut sauce, it had the perfect blend offlavours which complimented the meat giv-ing a satisfactory meal.

With no appetite left for dessert, an inter-nal struggle between temptation and practi-cality ensued. Temptation won and we orderedDorayaki, Japanese matcha pancakes sand-wiched with dark chocolate and sea salt toppedwith vanilla bean ice cream. We loved it andso will you.

Sunday brunch at this Asian gastro barwas a relaxed and chilled out experience. Wewere really impressed by the care and quali-ty behind the preparation of the food. Themenu was solid and calls for more visits.

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Yuvraj Singh and Mahendra SinghDhoni turned the clock back with abatting masterclass as the old

warhorses' twin tons powered India to a15-run win over England in the secondOne-day International and take an unas-sailable 2-0 lead in the three-match serieshere on Thursday.

Coming into bat with India strugglingat 25 for three, Yuvraj and Dhoni broughtinto play their years of experience to notonly bail the team out of trouble, but alsopropel them to a formidable 381 for six inthe stipulated 50 overs.

In reply, England fought to the endwith captain Eoin Morgan leading thechase with a swashbuckling century, onlyfor his side to fall short narrowly at thepacked Barabati Stadium.

Needing 22 off the final over, seamerBhuvneshwar Kumar kept his nerves andconceded a mere six runs, even as tri-umphant skipper Virat Kohli punched his

fist in the air in jubilation.Despite being set a mammoth target,

England were in the game as long asMorgan was in the middle, but bowlerJasprit Bumrah put paid to the visitingside's hopes when he calmly ran out theEngland skipper in the non-striker's endafter he backed up too far.

Invited to bat, Yuvraj (150 off 127balls) and Dhoni (134 off 122) forged arecord 256-run partnership to put theirteam in a position of strength from a pre-carious one.

Yuvraj was on fire from ballone and hammered 21 fours andthree sixes in his career-best knockin ODIs. The southpaw, broughtback into the national team, couldnot have silenced his detractors ina better way as got to his 14th ODIhundred, which was his first sincethe 2011 World Cup.

It was a typical innings fromDhoni, who took his time initiallybefore cutting loose to tear theopposition bowlers apart.

Dhoni too crossed thethree-figure mark after awhile with his last hun-dred coming way back in2013 when he struck anunbeaten 139 againstAustralia at Mohali.

He ended up hammer-ing 10 fours and half adozen sixes, scoring his 10thODI hundred in the process

and first since handingover captaincy to Kohli.

It was raining sixesand fours especiallyin the last 10 overs

with India plundering120 runs.

Beleaguered Englandwere required to bat out oftheir skins to overcome theimposing target, which theycould not.

Even a target of 382 didnot look safe enough as England almostscripted a brilliant chase with Morgan'svaliant century.

With Morgan in full flow on a benignpitch and the heavy dew working to theiradvantage, England needed 28 from 10balls, but Bumrah's presence of mind savedthe day for India. Morgan finished with102 from 81 balls with six fours and fivesixes. Liam Plunkett straight drove onewith an anxious Morgan out of the creaseas Bumrah gathered the ball and disturbedthe stumps with a cool-headed display. Itwas all over for England who ended at 366for five.

Bumrah returned with 2/81, whileRavichandran Ashwin was also amongwickets with 3/65. Left-arm spinnerRavindra Jadeja played his part, conced-ing just 45 runs for one wicket in his fullquota of 10 overs.

Earlier, in a vintage display, Yuvraj andDhoni put on 256 from 230 balls, the sec-ond highest for the fourth wicket behindMohammad Azharuddin and Ajay Jadeja's275 against Zimbabwe, incidentally at thesame venue in April 1998.

In the process, Yuvraj lived upto hisword of playing freely alongside his for-mer skipper Dhoni with the burden of cap-taincy being take away. In his comebackseries after more than three years, India's2011 World Cup hero smashed a career-best knock, his first century since the vic-torious campaign six years ago.

This was also a record score at thevenue, bettering the 363/5 against SriLanka in 2014, as the packed 43,000-capac-ity crowd forgot the disappointment of see-ing India all out for 79 in a T20I in 2015.

The Indian duo overtook HashimAmla and AB de Villiers' 172 as the bestfor the fourth wicket.

���� &�8��

Captain Steve Smith notched an unbeat-en century and debutante Peter

Handscomb scored 82 in Australia's emphat-ic seven-wicket victory in the third one-dayinternational against Pakistan on Thursday.

Smith made 108 off 104 balls whileHandscomb - caught off a no-ball before hehad scored and then dropped on 10 - wenton to make 82 off 84 balls in Australian pow-erful run-chase of 265-3 with five overs tospare.

Half centuries by Babar Azam (84) andSharjeel Khan (50) had lifted Pakistan to263-7 after Smith won the toss and putPakistan into bat at the WACA.

"I love batting and scoring runs, it wasnice to get another big one. When you getyourself in, this is one of the best places tobat," said Smith, who hit 11 fours and a sixin his eighth ODI century.

"We bowled pretty well in the afternoonto restrict them to 260 odd when it was a320 wicket."

Left-arm fast bowlers Junaid Khanand Mohammad Amir removed openersDavid Warner (35) and Usman Khawaja (9)in successive overs to make it 45-2. A runwas added before Junaid found the outsideedge of Handscomb's bat only to see he had

overstepped.Junaid came close to removing

Handscomb again but substitute fielderMohammad Nawaz missed a sitter at point.

Handscomb, who had scored prolificallyin Australia's 3-0 rout of Pakistan in the pre-ceding test series, combined in a better thana run-a-ball 183-run stand with Smith togive Australia a 2-1 lead in the five-matchseries.

"Had some luck but I was happy to grabthe opportunity," Handscomb said.

"I was just trying to use my feet to tryand go forward or back to unsettle thebowlers ... we were confident of chasing thistotal down."

Smith raised his hundred when hepulled Hasan Ali to the midwicket bound-ary before the right-arm seamer broke thestand by having Handscomb glove a pullshot to diving wicketkeeper MohammadRizwan.

Earlier, Pakistan couldn't keep up thescoring pace set up by Azam and Sharjeel.

"There was a platform for us to make300 plus, but we missed our opportunity,"Hafeez said.

"No-balls are all part of the game, butthe effort was there from the bowlers. Onceyou miss those chances, the pressure willalways be on you. Everyone has to lift them-selves. The next two venues will suit us."

Opener Sharjeel made a sprightly halfcentury from 46 balls to give Pakistan anassertive beginning.

Babar had support from ShoaibMalik and Umar Akmal, who bothscored 39, but Pakistan squandered itssolid start by scoring a modest 50 runsfrom the last 10 overs while losing three wickets.

����� 551*

Young Karnataka batsman Karun Nair,who stole a big march by scoring a triple

hundred in only his third Test againstEngland in Chennai, said on Thursday thatthings are the same with him except that hegets recognised on the streets after his stu-pendous feat.

"Nothing has changed for me person-ally. I am still the same. It is just that I getmore recognition in the streets," said the 25-year-old Jodhpur-born batsman todayahead of playing for Rest of India underCheteshwar Pujara against newly crownedRanji Trophy champions Gujarat in the IraniCup game here from tomorrow.

"I am more focused on what I have todo. I am working hard to do better. This isbeginning of my career. (Am) waiting foropportunities to do better," said Nair whomade an unbeaten 303 in only his third Testinnings in the fifth and final Test againstEngland after making his debut in the thirdgame of the series in Mohali.

Nair, who has become only the secondIndian player after swashbuckling batsmanVirender Sehwag to score a triple ton in

Tests, said although he has been part of thedressing room for nearly a year he has nowstarted to believe he belongs to it on his own.

"I have been part of that dressing roomfor almost of a year and most of us playtogether in the IPL. So, it is not somethingnew. When you get to the Indian team, itis a different ballgame altogether. I wasreally happy to do well in my third Testmatch.

"I have played a whole series (was inreserves in the first two Tests againstEngland) and I kind of feel that I ammore than in the team on my own. It isjust the beginning and I am looking for-ward to the future."

����� 551*

Akeen battle awaits the fanswhen newly crowned Ranji

Trophy champions Gujarat clashwith the Rest of India in the five-day Irani Cup match, to beplayed at the Brabourne Stadiumhere from Friday.

The match, with five morehome Test matches coming up,will serve as another platform forthe fringe and performing play-ers from both the teams to catchthe selectors' attention.

There may not be manyvacancies currently in the high-flying Indian Test team, but a topdrawer show in an importantmatch like the Irani will certainlygo a long way in enhancing theparticular player's chances in thenear future.

After leading Gujarat totheir maiden Ranji Trophy titlewith the bat and his glovework,Parthiv Patel has a great chanceto score brownie points againstWridhiman Saha of the Restwhom he had replaced, when thelatter got injured, in the IndianTest team against England.

Parthiv did not see it as amini-battle between himself andthe Bengal stumper.

"It's a game between Gujaratand the Rest and not betweentwo players. We all know he's

very talented, but it's a gamebetween two teams not individ-ual players," Parthiv said today.

The game also offers a finespringboard for players likeAbhinav Mukund, who guidedTamil Nadu into the RanjiTrophy semi-finals, to show hisworth as an opener alongwithMumbai's Akhil Herwadkar andGujarat opener Priyank Panchal,who has scored over 1,300 runsin 10 games this first class sea-son, embellished with a tripleand a double hundred.

The Rest, captained by pro-lific one-down Test batsmanCheteshwar Pujara, appearstrong on paper with the pres-ence of Karun Nair, who scoreda triple hundred for a winningcause against England in the fifthand final Test at Chennai,shoring up the middle orderwith the experienced ManojTiwary and Saha.

The Rest have included 22-year-old Hyderabad pace bowlerMohd Siraj in the team in placeof Mumbai's Shardul Thakur,who has complained of anklepain and dropped out.

Senior pacer Pankaj Singh,Siddharth Kaul, Siraj and KVignesh are the new ball optionswhile chinaman exponentKuldeep Yadav and left armorthodox slow Shahbaz Nadeem

are spin options. Parthiv saw the game as a

good platform for his team'splayers to show their worthagain after their glorious Ranjiseason.

"They are a strong side. It'sa great opportunity for a lot ofour young players. I have playedfor Rest (in Irani games), but forthe first time will be playing forGujarat which is something bigfor all of us."

The team has made twochanges, said the Gujarat skip-per. "We have dropped BhargavMerai and brought in MohitThadani while Mehul Patel metwith an accident and fracturedhis leg. We had to bring in HetPatel who was in the Junior AsiaCup junior team."

"We have been getting a lotof runs this season. That's some-thing we have banked on. Evenin the Ranji Trophy final (againstMumbai), we backed ourselveson the fifth day, because weknew we had the batting to doit," the Gujarat stumper said.

"It's an exciting game. Wehave so many young players whowant to prove themselves. Wehave five Test matches comingup and young players want tomake their mark. It's a very goodopportunity for them," said Restskipper Pujara.

"Gujarat have won the RanjiTrophy. They have played verygood cricket. The way theyplayed in the final, they deservedto win. I was following it," headded.

Teams (from):Rest of India: Abhinav

Mukund, Akhil Herwadkar,Cheteshwar Pujara (captain),Karun Nair, Manoj Tiwary,Wriddhiman Saha, KuldeepYadav, Shahbaz Nadeem, PankajSingh, K Vignesh, Siddarth Kaul,Mohd Siraj, Akshay Wakhare,Ishan Kishan and PrashantChopra.

Gujarat: Samit Gohil,Priyank Panchal, Parthiv Patel(capt), Het Patel, Rahul Bhatt,Manprit Juneja, Chirag Gandhi,Rush Kalaria, Mohit Thadani,Karan Patel, Hardik Patel,Chintan Gaja, Dhruv Raval, R PSingh and Ishwar Chaudhary.

Any battle for assertingsupremacy has some intriguingsub plots and the upcomingIrani Cup match between Ranjichampions Gujarat and Rest ofIndia has one.

It will be the battle to decide,who will be the "keeper of India'sfortune' between in-form ParthivPatel and a fit again WriddhimanSaha in the next five Test match-es at home, starting withBangladesh rubber.

����� 551*

Sounding a warning to Bangladesh andAustralia, prolific Indian no. 3 Test

batsman Cheteshwar Pujara said today hehad been working out a few new things inhis game which he could try out in the IraniCup game for Rest of India against Gujaratstarting here on Friday.

"I have worked on a few things in mygame. Probably I'll try and execute them inthis game. I can't disclose much about mybatting. I like to score big runs but that isone thing that is on the cards," said Pujara,who will lead the Rest against the newly-crowned Ranji Trophy champions at theBrabourne Stadium.

"Obviously, I have played enough crick-et at CCI (Cricket Club of India) and inMumbai, so I know how the conditions willbe. Obviously, I would firs think that wewant to win the games, so I would want toscore runs. If I score some and get set, thenI would like to try a few things," theSaurashtra batsman added.

India are to play a one-off Test againstBangladesh in Hyderabad later this monthfollowed by a four-Test series againstAustralia, a team that got whipped 4-0 onits last visit to this country.

Pujara has a splendid record against theAussies at home, having scored 495 runs infive Tests at a robust average of over 70.

He has been in very good touch in thetwo Test rubbers that India have alreadyplayed this season at home - against NewZealand (373 runs in 3 Tests) and England(401 runs in 5 Tests).

The 28-year-old Rajkot-born crick-eter, who averages a shade under 50 after43 Test matches under his belt, said the Iranigame offers him a good opportunity to getinto the groove ahead of the remainder ofthe Test season at home.

"I think it will be good for me to havesome practice before the Test series starts.I always love playing first-class cricket. Itgives you the experience, the exposure, ithelps you keep in touch."

Saying the year that went by was a huge-ly successful one for India, Pujara creditedteam work for the result.

"The last year was very good for theIndian team. We played very good cricket,especially in Test matches, where we haven'tlost a match. Most of the matches we dom-inated and we played as a team.

"All the players performed, that was thereason for our success."

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It started badly for Novak Djokovic, who needed 24serves, six break-point saves and 15 minutes just tohold his first game in the second round.This was not the close-to-invincible Djokovic that

fans were used to seeing at the Australian Open, wherehe has won a record-equaling six titles, including fivein the previous six years.

In his earliest loss at a Grand Slam tournament since2008, Djokovic lost 7-6 (8), 5-7, 2-6, 7-6 (5), 6-4 onThursday to No 117-ranked Denis Istomin, a 30-year-old wild-card entry from Uzbekistan.

"All the credit to Denis for playing amazing. Hedeserves to win," Djokovic said of their four-hour, 48-minute match. "He was the better player in the clutchmoments.

"Obviously, I was not pleased with my performanceoverall, but I have to congratulate my opponent.Whenever he needed, he came up with a big serve, bigplay."

Djokovic hadn't dropped a set to Istomin in six pre-vious matches. But he lost the 85-minute first set in atiebreaker and then seemed to get the momentum back,only for Istomin to finish stronger.

Istomin's only previous win in 33 matches againsttop-10 players was in 2012 versus then-No 5 DavidFerrer.

"It is the biggest win for me. It means so much,"Istomin said. "Now I feel I can play with these guys, andto be with them on the same level."

Serena Williams, who like Djokovic was ranked No2 and is a six-time Australian Open champion, kept herchase for an Open-era record 23rd major title on trackwith a 6-3, 6-4 win over Lucie Safarova.

After winning a rematch of the 2015 French Openfinal against Safarova, Williams will play fellowAmerican Nicole Gibbs in the third round. "It's nevereasy to play in the second round someone you've seenin the final of the biggest stage in tennis," Williams said."I'm happy to have gotten through it."

Third-ranked Agnieszka Radwanska didn't lastmuch longer than Djokovic, losing her second-roundmatch to Mirjana Lucic-Baroni 6-3, 6-2. Radwanskareached the semifinals in Melbourne last year; Lucic-Baroni hadn't won an Australian Open match since 1998until her first-round win this week.

No 28 Alize Cornet and No 31 Yulia Putintseva werethe only other seeded women to lose on Day 4.

Among those advancing were US Open finalistKarolina Pliskova, WTA Finals champion DominikaCibulkova, 2016 Australian Open semifinalist JohannaKonta, No 14 Elena Vesnina, No 16 Barbora Strycova,former No 1 Caroline Wozniacki and No 22 DariaGavrilova, representing Australia's last hope in thewomen's draw.

Djokovic was the only one of the men's seeded play-ers to lose on a long day capped by ninth-seeded RafaelNadal's 6-3, 6-1, 6-3 win over 2006 finalist MarcosBaghdatis.

Both players have had famously late nights atMelbourne Park - Nadal losing the latest-finishing finalin Grand Slam history; Baghdatis losing to LleytonHewitt in third-round match in 2008 that finished at4:34 a.m.

Returning from an extended injury layoff, 14-timemajor champion Nadal didn't let this one get out of hand- finishing at 12:08 a.m.

He'll play No 24 Alexander Zverev next. Othersadvancing included No 3 Milos Raonic, No 6 GaelMonfils, No 8 Dominic Thiem, No 11 David Goffin, No13 Roberto Bautista Agut, No 15 Grigor Dimitrov andNo 18 Richard Gasquet.

No 20 Ivo Karlovic followed up his tournamentrecord 84-game first-round win with a straight-set vic-tory over wild-card entry Andrew Whittington, whileNo 30 Pablo Carreno Busta went through to an unlike-ly third-round match against Istomin.

Djokovic held all four majors simultaneously afterwinning his first French Open last year. Now the Frenchis the only one he can defend in 2017.

He had reached the fourth round or better inAustralia every year since 2007, and held the No. 1 rank-ing for 122 consecutive weeks until he was overhauledby Andy Murray last November.

"I'm not used to losing Australian Open secondround," Djokovic said. "I've done so well here."

That didn't matter to Istomin, nor seemingly to theRod Laver Arena crowd.

The center court wasn't at capacity as the match

extended into the scheduled night session, andDjokovic's usually vocal Serbian fans were also not a bigpresence.

Much of the crowd, sensing an upset, was behindIstomin in the fifth set. When the Uzbek made a back-hand winner for the decisive break in the fifth game ofthe last set, he let out a roar and the audience roared,too.

When Djokovic's last service return floated long, thecrowd leapt up and cheered.

"First of all, I feel sorry for Novak," Istomin said,thanking his mother and coach, Klaudiya Istomina, inthe crowd. "I was playing so good today. I surprisedmyself, as well."

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Top Indian shuttlers Saina Nehwal andAjay Jayaram continued their good run

and reached the quarterfinals of the season-opening Malaysia Masters Grand Prix Goldhere on Thursday.

London Olympics bronze-medallistand former World No. 1 Saina brushed asideIndonesia's Hanna Ramadini 21-17, 21-12in a 42-minute contest. The top-seededIndian will next face eighth seed IndonesianFitriani Fitriani.

Sixth seed Jayaram, meanwhile, stavedoff a challenge from Chinese Taipei's HsuehHsuan Yi 21-12, 15-21, 21-15 at the SibuIndoor Stadium. The 29-year-old Indian willnext face Indonesia's Anthony SinisukaGinting.

However, it was end of the road forwomen's doubles pair of Aparna Balan andPrajakta Sawant as they suffered a 18-21, 14-21 loss against the second-seeded ChineseTaipei combo of Chiang Kai Hsin and HungShih Han.

In men's doubles, Rio Olympians ManuAttri and B Sumeeth Reddy, seeded third,also bowed out of the tournament after los-ing 17-21, 21-18, 12-21 to the Indonesian

combo of Hendra Aprida Gunawan andMarkis Kido.

Arjun M R and Ramchandran Shlokalso lost 14-21, 17-21 to Hong Kong's LawCheuk Him and Lee Chun Hei Reginald inanother men's doubles match.

The Indo-Malaysian mixed doublespair of Prajakta Sawant and YogendranKhrishnan also suffered a 17-21, 17-21 defeatto eighth seed Yong Kai Terry Hee and WeiHan Tan of Singapore to end their campaign.

Newly-formed pair of Jwala Gutta andManu Attri too couldn't get past the sixthseeded Indonesian combo of TontowiAhmad and Gloria Emanuelle Widjaja 18-21 10-21 to crash out of the event.

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It all went down to the wire before Jitendrathrashed Sumit Sehrawat in the decider

which enabled Punjab Royals to bag the ProWrestling League season 2 title by prevail-ing 5-4 over Haryana Hammers in akeenly contested summit clash here onThursday.

Haryana, who remained undefeated sofar in the tournament, failed to cross thelast hurdle, even as Punjab reigned supremewith their foreign imports VladimirKhinchegashvili, Vasilisa Marzaliuk andIlias Bekbukatov, besides India's Nirmla andJitendra doing the damage in the crucial tiesof the day.

With no blocking, it was a keenly-con-tested match with both teams putting their

best foot forward in front of a packed sta-dium with 5000 plus spectators watchingthe action.

The encounter of the evening was thefight between two stalwarts — SofiaMattsson of Haryana and OdunayoFolasade Adekuoroye of Punjab — in whichthe former prevailed by a solitary point towin it 4-3 in women's 53kg but that couldgive Haryana the trophy.

Odunayo lost her first bout in the his-tory of the Pro Wrestling League in a keen-ly-fought match. With determination andresolve, Rio Olympics bronze medalist Sofiakept her nerves to eke out a narrow winover the strong Nigerian wrestler.

Both wrestlers were engaged in a bat-tle of superior offence and defence, delight-ing the spectators with their maneuversbefore Sofia gained the last point to giveHaryana an upper hand in a controversialdecision.

But Punjab scored the equaliser 4-4through Nirmla Devi, who beat InduChaudhary 5-2 in women's 48kg to take itto the last match the decising tie.

As it came down to the last encounter, it was expectedly a neck-and-neck battlebetween Sumit and Jitendra in men's 74kgbut Punjab's Jitendra made it a one-sidedaffair as he maintained a healthy leadthroughout the bout, and ultimately

claimed it easily with a 10-1 victory.Earlier, Haryana's Abdusalam Gadisov

set the tone for the evening, making his andhis team's intentions clear from the verybeginning.

Gadisov showed ominous signs, tak-ing down Punjab's Krishan Kumar androlling him over before stepping up hisgame further to finish off the bout in 2 min-utes and 26 seconds in men's 97kg catego-ry. Attacking aggressively. A sight unchar-acteristic in heavyweight wrestling, Gadisovwon 15-0 via technical superiority.

Marwa Amri stamped her authority onthe mat, overpowering Punjab's ManjuKumari 12-0 in the 58 kg Women's cate-gory. Rio Olympics bronze medalist fromTunisia overwhelmed her rival by sheerexperience and pedigree and made shortwork of the Indian to give Haryana a 2-0lead. Punjab Captain and 2016 OlympicsGold medalist Vladimir Khinchegashviliavenged his group stage defeat to SandeepTomar by getting the better of the Indian0-3 in men's 57kg and gave Punjab theirfirst points of the evening.

Vladimir displayed exemplary defencein a both the rounds and took Sandeep bysurprise in the first round with a takedown.Sandeep retaliated by attempting to pushKhicnhegashvili out of the protected zone,but was out-muscled by the Georgian grap-

pler. Magomed Kurbanaliev, WorldChampionship gold medallist, howeverextended Haryana's lead by thrashingPankaj Rana 9-4 in men's 70kg.

Kurbanaliev employed the single leghold to good effect, taking down Pankajrepeatedly to coast to a commanding vic-tory in the end.

One firm takedown that resulted in aPin Fall almost handed him the win in 5seconds of the tie but since he did it out themat, so the move was over-ruled. But even-tually the Russian bagged the bout prettyeasily. Vasilisa Marzaliuk and IliasBekbukatov then won back-to-back boutsfor Punjab rather comfortably to tie thematch 3-3.

Haryana's Kiran had her task cut outagainst the experienced Vasilisa, whoopened her account by pushing the Indianout of the mat before taking her down, tolead 3-0 at the break.

In the second round also, Vasilisa man-aged to take down the Indian once to winit 5-0 in women's 75kg.

Haryana's Rajneesh faced an uphill taskas his more accomplished opponent,Bekbukatov effected takedowns and rolledhim over and over again in the first 57 sec-onds of the tie to clinch the bout 13-0 inmen's 65kg. Rajneesh also got injured in theprocess.

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MELBOURNE: It was a bad day for theIndians at the Australian Open with LeanderPaes and the rising team of Purav Raja andDivij Sharan making first round exits from themen's doubles event, here.

Paes and his Brazilian partner Andre Sahad a one-set advantage but lost 6-4, 6-7(3),4-6 to 10th seeded pair of Treat Huey and MaxMirnyi.

It was the same team that Paes and Andrehad beaten in the Auckland Classic opener.

In another first round match, Raja and

Sharan, who ended runners-upat season-opener ChennaiOpen, fought their hearts outbefore suffering a narrow 6-7(9), 6-7(4) defeat against theFrench team of JonathanEysseric and Fabrice Martin.

Rohan Bopanna is now the only Indian leftin the men's doubles. Along with Uruguyay'sPablo Cuevas, he is up against local team ofAlex Bolt and Bradley Mousley in the secondround. PTI

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