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R ashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat on Thursday said the word “nationalism” is nowa- days equated with Hilter’s “nazism” or Mussolini’s “fas- cism” and it is better to avoid this word, stressing on using some alternative terms. Bhagwat’s remark came amid continued protests in several cities of the country against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, which is branded by those opposing the CAA as a reflection of “Hindutva nationalism” that is detrimental to Muslims. Besides, analysing the results of this month’s Delhi Assembly polls, the BJP’s ide- ological mentor RSS said in an editorial in its mouthpiece on Thursday that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah cannot always help the BJP win Assembly elections. Recalling an RSS event in the United Kingdom (UK), Bhagwat said, “During my recent visit to the UK, I was advised by an RSS worker not to use the word ‘nationalism’ as English is not our language and it could have a different mean- ing in England. It's okay to say nation, national and national- ity but not nationalism. Because it means (alludes to) Hitler, Nazism and Fascism (in England).” Calling upon RSS mem- bers to connect with people irrespective of their caste, lan- guage, religion or region, Bhagwat said India’s charac- teristic is to bind everyone in one thread following the prin- ciple of “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam” (the world is a family). “We (Indians) live for each other, not for ourselves. We believe that the world has made us and we have to give back to it. We look at the world with gratitude,” he said. Sharing an anecdote, he said, a Muslim intellectual from the country once went for Haj and was sent to jail on blas- phemy charges for wearing a “locket”. The then Foreign Minister, Sushma Swaraj, inter- vened and got him released within eight days, he said, apparently suggesting that everyone from India is con- sidered a Hindu outside the country. “...Because Bharatiya san- skriti (Indian culture) is also known as Hindu sanskriti, reflecting its values, ethos and culture,” he said. The RSS chief also gave a call to make India a super- power. Bhagwat said, “The aim of the Sangh is to unite Hindu society. The Swayamsevaks are dedicated to their aim. By feel- ing proud of the culture of our country we have to work to take the country to new heights. We have to make India a world ‘Guru’. It is time to make India a superpower, but not like other superpowers that misuse their influence.” I n what could be termed as another attempt to buy more time and delay the hanging of the four death-row convicts of the Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case, Vinay Sharma, one of them, moved the court on Thursday and demanded better treatment for his “men- tal illness”. The court has sought response from the Tihar jail authorities on a plea by Vinay, who through his counsel sought remedy for his claimed mental illness, schizophrenia and the injuries suffered in his head and arms. Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Dharmender Rana directed the prison authorities to file its reply on the plea of Vinay on Saturday. “Vinay injured himself by banging his head on his cell wall in Tihar Jail. The incident happened in jail number 3 on Sunday afternoon and he got some minor injuries and was treated inside the prison premises,” said a prison official. During the hearing, the prosecution opposed the plea saying it was not maintainable. Counsel for Vinay told the court that he was refusing to recognise people, including his mother. The plea claimed that when Vinay ’s counsel visited him in the prison on the request of his family members, he found that he had sustained grievous head injury, fractures in his right arm with plaster and was suffering from insan- ity, mental illness and schizo- phrenia. J ogging, cycling or long walk on the roads of the national Capital is fraught with risks as the sheer volume of traffic on the roads poses physical injury threat. In its bid to ensure safe corridors for pedestrians, morning walkers and joggers, the Public Works Department (PWD) is going to create a ‘sep- arate and safe’ lane for the pedestrians and Non- Motorised Vehicles (NMVs) from Ashram to Naraina. Part of the Delhi Government’s dream project ‘Street scaping, beautification and widening’, the stretch will be completely redeveloped on the standards of American Road designs and architecture. The main agenda behind this project is to create a pedes- trian-friendly road by making the people feel happy with green ambience and ‘zero’ traffic hur- dles while traveling on these roads. The total estimated cost of the redevelopment plan for this stretch is Rs 75 crores, said a Government official. “The stretch from Ashram to Naraina barring Moolchand to Moti Bagh will be redevel- oped, beautified and widened. The stretch will be developed on American standards with an aim to provide a pedestrian- friendly as well as disabled- friendly road because if you see, most of the roads in the city are not disabled friendly. Encroachment and narrow roads are also another issue on this stretch, which will also be cleared,” added the official. As per the official, the pro- posal was passed by the Government last year but the project could not start due to the imposition of Model Code of Conduct (MCC) for the Delhi Assembly elections. However, the work on the stretch has started and is expected to be completed by December 2020. From AIIMS to Ashram is one of the identified and select- ed stretches from the 10 most congested roads of Delhi. Currently on this stretch, the bus stops and pedestrian facil- ities such as FOBs and subways are also in un-designated places, for instance far from the bus stop or very close to ramp of the flyover, which becomes one of the main reasons for accidents. “Further, during the study of this stretch, the department found that there is no facility for NMV vehicles and pedes- trians, termination of service lanes at junctions, parking are very close to intersections which hinder the movements. Moreover, due to the poor condition of the street, barrier- free movement becomes impossible,” said the official. “Thus, the PWD has decid- ed to beautify and streetscape the roads by giving an aesthet- ic look and to provide maxi- mum basic facilities to the road users as per the norms of United Traffic and Transportation Infrastructure (Planning and Engineering (UTTIPEC) and pedestrians can walk, jog and cycle without any fear,” said the official. Under the street scaping and beautification of roads, the PWD will redesign and provide good infrastructure such as bus stops, separate lane for pedestrians, stands for auto-rickshaws, cycles and e-rickshaws will be created. The official further added that public toilets, drinking water points, police booths, separate parking for police and emergency vehicles would also be provided. It has been deemed necessary to provide basic amenities to the people and also ensure cleanliness on the stretches. Separate street vending zones, mohalla clinics, public canteens, maps, traffic signages, green carpeting and seating arrangements will also be developed. Once this project is completed, the outcome would be analysed and new such corridors would be devel- oped in other parts of the city as well, the official said. R ahul Gandhi is all set to be back as the Congress chief in the party’s plenary session in April. Rahul had quit the post following the Congress rout in the Lok Sabha polls last year. Congress Working Committee (CWC) had appointed Sonia Gandhi as interim president of the party in August last year. But as the unwell Sonia had to skip the party’s campaign in the recent Assembly polls, the calls for Rahul to head the party have become stronger. The Congress on Thursday said Rahul was a clear choice for the party president’s post. Party sources said Rahul was the only contender, hinting that elections in that case may not even be necessary. “Rahul has acceptability across the country and also the capability to lead the party,” said a senior Congress leader. Several party leaders have called for the appointment of a full-time party president. On Thursday, former Union Minister Shashi Tharoor, who has been advocating elections to the CWC, said, “I renew my appeal to CWC to hold lead- ership elections to energise workers and inspire voters.” “I was referring to my ear- lier call — eight months ago — for elections among the 10,000 party workers who constitute the ‘AICC plus PCC delegates’ list. These should be for the elected seats in the CWC as well as for the party presiden- cy,” said Tharoor. Former MP Sandeep Dikshit has accused senior leaders of failing to find a new president because they are “scared who will bell the cat”. Reacting to the remarks, Tharoor tweeted, “What Sandeep Dikshit said openly is what dozens of party leaders from across the country are saying privately, including many with responsible posi- tions in the party. I renew my appeal to CWC to hold lead- ership elections to energise workers and inspire voters.” Asked about the remarks made by Tharoor and Dikshit, Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said the CWC will decide on the Congress chief post. “If anyone has any doubts about this, he should kindly read the resolution of the CWC before giving any statements in public,” Surjewala said. “Instead of giving state- ments on social media and interviews in the media, if Sandeep Dikshit works hard in his own constituency and polit- ically encash the work initiat- ed during Sheila Dikshit’s rule, the Congress will emerge vic- torious. It is my appeal to every leader like Dikshit that instead of giving knowledge to the entire country, they should first show the benefits of their own work done in their con- stituencies,” he said. T he mediation attempt by Supreme Court-appointed interlocutors advocates Sanjay Hedge and Sadhana Ramachandran to persuade the Shaheen Bagh protesters to lift blockade of the Delhi- Noida main road remained futile for the second day on Thursday. The protesters patiently expressed their anguish but refused to budge from their Day 1 demand that they would end protest only after the CAA is repealed and proposed NRC is shelved. After holding talks with the protesters, Hegde and Ramachandran left for the day. It is understood they are like- ly to visit the sit-in protest which has been going on since December 15 again on Friday to find an amicable solution to end the impasse. Like Wednesday, Hedge and Ramachandran expressed their unwillingness to talk with protesters in the presence of the media. As Ramachandran started addressing the protest- ers reporters surrounding the dais tried to suggest her on how to hold talks. It angered her, and she asked the media per- sons to leave the tent where the talks were to be resumed. Ramachandran began addressing the protestors say- ing, “Aapne bulaya, hum chale aaye (You called us and we are here)”. Hegde said the SC has recognised their right to protest, but added “the rights of others have to be respected”. “When Shaheen Bagh has become an example of protests in India, let us set an example of a protest that does not dis- turb anybody. You all must be rest assured that we are here to fight for you. Don’t think if you change your spot, your fight will die down,” Hegde said. “We have seen many PMs come and go. Whoever comes in power and runs the country, sometimes some could be right and some could be wrong. Whatever you are saying the whole country and the PM are listensing,” he added. Ramchandran said she is waiting for that day when the country’s atmosphere will change. Then an elderly man expressed his fear, “I am very scared... I am very scared for my children. Madam save me,” he said. When Ramchandran asked him more about his fear, the man replied, “I am a single father. I will die but my chil- dren should get to live here fearlessly. My girls go to school where they are being told that you will go out of the country.” P unjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Thursday announced sweeping reforms in the State’s prison administration, ordering sever- al measures, including AI- enabled CCTV system, live wire fencing and creation of a sepa- rate prison intelligence wing, to make the jails secure. Capt Amarinder also gave the go-ahead for a legislation to establish ‘Punjab Prison Development Board’, in the ongoing Budget Session. While accepting the Prison Department’s department pro- posal for Live Wire Fencing (220/440 volts) along the outer walls of the jails, Capt Amarinder approved installation of artificial intelligence-enabled CCTV sys- tem in nine central jails, seven district jails and two special jails. Chairing a high level meet- ing to review the functioning of the Prisons Department, he asked Jails Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa to ensure that the best practices of prison administration are followed in the state’s jails, and also direct- ed the Prisons Department to submit, within four weeks, a comprehensive plan for restruc- turing the jails. He asked ADGP Jails Praveen Kumar Sinha to prepare the plan for restructur- ing, realignment and launch of new schemes encompassing cor- rectional measures for the refor- mation of prisoners, an official spokesperson said after the meet- ing. To minimize the expendi- ture involved in presenting undertrials in courts (to the tune of 40-50 lakh a day), the Chief Minister okayed the department’s proposal for instal- lation of video conferencing sys- tem at all jails of the State. To ensure foolproof securi- ty through adequate staff, Amarinder also gave go ahead for filling up 305 posts of warders, already approved by Officers’ Committee and the state cabinet, in addition to another 448 posts of warders and 28 posts of Matrons lying vacant in the department. He asked the Department to submit a pro- posal to fill these posts expedi- tiously. He also conceded the department’s demand 37 addi- tional vehicles to augment mobil- ity within the prisons. To beef up the security at Central Jail Ludhiana, the Chief Minister approved construction of a double barbed wire inner boundary wall and three addi- tional watch towers. The Chief Minister also accorded approval for replacement of the outer boundary wall of Patiala Central Jail, which is currently in a dilapidated condition.
16

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Apr 27, 2023

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Rashtriya SwayamsevakSangh (RSS) chief Mohan

Bhagwat on Thursday said theword “nationalism” is nowa-days equated with Hilter’s“nazism” or Mussolini’s “fas-cism” and it is better to avoidthis word, stressing on usingsome alternative terms.

Bhagwat’s remark cameamid continued protests inseveral cities of the countryagainst the Citizenship(Amendment) Act, which isbranded by those opposingthe CAA as a reflection of“Hindutva nationalism” thatis detrimental to Muslims.

Besides, analysing theresults of this month’s DelhiAssembly polls, the BJP’s ide-ological mentor RSS said in aneditorial in its mouthpiece onThursday that Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and HomeMinister Amit Shah cannotalways help the BJP winAssembly elections.

Recalling an RSS event inthe United Kingdom (UK),Bhagwat said, “During myrecent visit to the UK, I wasadvised by an RSS worker notto use the word ‘nationalism’ asEnglish is not our language andit could have a different mean-ing in England. It's okay to saynation, national and national-ity but not nationalism.Because it means (alludes to)Hitler, Nazism and Fascism (in

England).” Calling upon RSS mem-

bers to connect with peopleirrespective of their caste, lan-guage, religion or region,Bhagwat said India’s charac-teristic is to bind everyone inone thread following the prin-ciple of “VasudhaivaKutumbakam” (the world is afamily).

“We (Indians) live for eachother, not for ourselves. Webelieve that the world has madeus and we have to give back toit. We look at the world withgratitude,” he said.

Sharing an anecdote, hesaid, a Muslim intellectual fromthe country once went for Hajand was sent to jail on blas-phemy charges for wearing a“locket”. The then ForeignMinister, Sushma Swaraj, inter-vened and got him releasedwithin eight days, he said,apparently suggesting thateveryone from India is con-sidered a Hindu outside thecountry.

“...Because Bharatiya san-skriti (Indian culture) is alsoknown as Hindu sanskriti,reflecting its values, ethos and

culture,” he said.The RSS chief also gave a

call to make India a super-power.

Bhagwat said, “The aim ofthe Sangh is to unite Hindusociety. The Swayamsevaks arededicated to their aim. By feel-ing proud of the culture of ourcountry we have to work totake the country to newheights. We have to make Indiaa world ‘Guru’. It is time tomake India a superpower, butnot like other superpowersthat misuse their influence.”

��!!����������� ."���"2*�

In what could be termed asanother attempt to buy more

time and delay the hanging ofthe four death-row convicts ofthe Nirbhaya gangrape andmurder case, Vinay Sharma,one of them, moved the courton Thursday and demandedbetter treatment for his “men-tal illness”.

The court has soughtresponse from the Tihar jailauthorities on a plea by Vinay,who through his counselsought remedy for his claimedmental illness, schizophreniaand the injuries suffered in hishead and arms.

Additional Sessions Judge(ASJ) Dharmender Ranadirected the prison authoritiesto file its reply on the plea ofVinay on Saturday.

“Vinay injured himself bybanging his head on his cellwall in Tihar Jail. The incidenthappened in jail number 3 onSunday afternoon and he got

some minor injuries and wastreated inside the prisonpremises,” said a prison official.

During the hearing, theprosecution opposed the pleasaying it was not maintainable.Counsel for Vinay told thecourt that he was refusing torecognise people, including hismother.

The plea claimed thatwhen Vinay ’s counsel visitedhim in the prison on therequest of his family members,he found that he had sustainedgrievous head injury, fracturesin his right arm with plasterand was suffering from insan-ity, mental illness and schizo-phrenia.

������ ���� ."���"2*�

Jogging, cycling or long walkon the roads of the national

Capital is fraught with risks asthe sheer volume of traffic onthe roads poses physical injurythreat. In its bid to ensure safe

corridors for pedestrians,morning walkers and joggers,the Public Works Department(PWD) is going to create a ‘sep-arate and safe’ lane for thepedestrians and Non-Motorised Vehicles (NMVs)from Ashram to Naraina.

Part of the DelhiGovernment’s dream project‘Street scaping, beautificationand widening’, the stretch willbe completely redeveloped onthe standards of AmericanRoad designs and architecture.

The main agenda behind

this project is to create a pedes-trian-friendly road by makingthe people feel happy with greenambience and ‘zero’ traffic hur-dles while traveling on theseroads. The total estimated costof the redevelopment plan forthis stretch is Rs 75 crores, saida Government official.

“The stretch from Ashramto Naraina barring Moolchandto Moti Bagh will be redevel-oped, beautified and widened.The stretch will be developedon American standards with anaim to provide a pedestrian-friendly as well as disabled-friendly road because if you see,most of the roads in the city are

not disabled friendly.Encroachment and narrowroads are also another issue onthis stretch, which will also becleared,” added the official.

As per the official, the pro-posal was passed by theGovernment last year but theproject could not start due tothe imposition of Model Codeof Conduct (MCC) for theDelhi Assembly elections.However, the work on thestretch has started and isexpected to be completed byDecember 2020.

From AIIMS to Ashram isone of the identified and select-ed stretches from the 10 most

congested roads of Delhi.Currently on this stretch, thebus stops and pedestrian facil-ities such as FOBs and subwaysare also in un-designated places,for instance far from the busstop or very close to ramp of theflyover, which becomes one ofthe main reasons for accidents.

“Further, during the studyof this stretch, the departmentfound that there is no facilityfor NMV vehicles and pedes-trians, termination of servicelanes at junctions, parking are

very close to intersectionswhich hinder the movements.Moreover, due to the poorcondition of the street, barrier-free movement becomesimpossible,” said the official.

“Thus, the PWD has decid-ed to beautify and streetscapethe roads by giving an aesthet-ic look and to provide maxi-mum basic facilities to theroad users as per the norms ofUnited Traffic andTransportation Infrastructure(Planning and Engineering(UTTIPEC) and pedestrianscan walk, jog and cycle withoutany fear,” said the official.

Under the street scapingand beautification of roads,the PWD will redesign andprovide good infrastructuresuch as bus stops, separate

lane for pedestrians, standsfor auto-rickshaws, cycles ande-rickshaws will be created.

The official further addedthat public toilets, drinkingwater points, police booths,separate parking for police andemergency vehicles would alsobe provided. It has beendeemed necessary to providebasic amenities to the peopleand also ensure cleanliness onthe stretches. Separate streetvending zones, mohalla clinics,public canteens, maps, trafficsignages, green carpeting andseating arrangements will alsobe developed. Once this projectis completed, the outcomewould be analysed and newsuch corridors would be devel-oped in other parts of the cityas well, the official said.

����� ."���"2*�

Rahul Gandhi is all set to beback as the Congress chief

in the party’s plenary session inApril. Rahul had quit the postfollowing the Congress rout inthe Lok Sabha polls last year.

Congress WorkingCommittee (CWC) hadappointed Sonia Gandhi asinterim president of the partyin August last year. But as theunwell Sonia had to skip theparty’s campaign in the recentAssembly polls, the calls forRahul to head the party havebecome stronger.

The Congress on Thursdaysaid Rahul was a clear choicefor the party president’s post.Party sources said Rahul wasthe only contender, hintingthat elections in that case maynot even be necessary.

“Rahul has acceptabilityacross the country and also thecapability to lead the party,”said a senior Congress leader.

Several party leaders havecalled for the appointment of afull-time party president. OnThursday, former UnionMinister Shashi Tharoor, whohas been advocating elections

to the CWC, said, “I renew myappeal to CWC to hold lead-ership elections to energiseworkers and inspire voters.”

“I was referring to my ear-lier call — eight months ago —for elections among the 10,000party workers who constitutethe ‘AICC plus PCC delegates’list. These should be for theelected seats in the CWC aswell as for the party presiden-cy,” said Tharoor.

Former MP SandeepDikshit has accused seniorleaders of failing to find a newpresident because they are“scared who will bell the cat”.

Reacting to the remarks,Tharoor tweeted, “WhatSandeep Dikshit said openly iswhat dozens of party leadersfrom across the country aresaying privately, includingmany with responsible posi-tions in the party. I renew myappeal to CWC to hold lead-ership elections to energise

workers and inspire voters.”Asked about the remarks

made by Tharoor and Dikshit,Congress chief spokespersonRandeep Surjewala said theCWC will decide on theCongress chief post.

“If anyone has any doubtsabout this, he should kindlyread the resolution of the CWCbefore giving any statements inpublic,” Surjewala said.

“Instead of giving state-ments on social media andinterviews in the media, ifSandeep Dikshit works hard inhis own constituency and polit-ically encash the work initiat-ed during Sheila Dikshit’s rule,the Congress will emerge vic-torious.

It is my appeal to everyleader like Dikshit that insteadof giving knowledge to theentire country, they shouldfirst show the benefits of theirown work done in their con-stituencies,” he said.

������������� � �����������������

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The mediation attempt bySupreme Court-appointed

interlocutors advocates SanjayHedge and SadhanaRamachandran to persuadethe Shaheen Bagh protesters tolift blockade of the Delhi-Noida main road remainedfutile for the second day onThursday. The protesterspatiently expressed theiranguish but refused to budgefrom their Day 1 demand thatthey would end protest onlyafter the CAA is repealed andproposed NRC is shelved.

After holding talks with theprotesters, Hegde andRamachandran left for the day.It is understood they are like-ly to visit the sit-in protestwhich has been going on sinceDecember 15 again on Fridayto find an amicable solution toend the impasse.

Like Wednesday, Hedgeand Ramachandran expressedtheir unwillingness to talk withprotesters in the presence of themedia. As Ramachandranstarted addressing the protest-ers reporters surrounding thedais tried to suggest her on howto hold talks. It angered her,and she asked the media per-sons to leave the tent where thetalks were to be resumed.

Ramachandran beganaddressing the protestors say-

ing, “Aapne bulaya, hum chaleaaye (You called us and we arehere)”. Hegde said the SC hasrecognised their right toprotest, but added “the rights ofothers have to be respected”.

“When Shaheen Bagh hasbecome an example of protestsin India, let us set an exampleof a protest that does not dis-turb anybody. You all must berest assured that we are here tofight for you. Don’t think if you

change your spot, your fightwill die down,” Hegde said.

“We have seen many PMscome and go. Whoever comesin power and runs the country,sometimes some could be rightand some could be wrong.Whatever you are saying thewhole country and the PM arelistensing,” he added.

Ramchandran said she iswaiting for that day when thecountry’s atmosphere will

change. Then an elderly manexpressed his fear, “I am veryscared... I am very scared formy children. Madam save me,”he said. When Ramchandranasked him more about his fear,the man replied, “I am a singlefather. I will die but my chil-dren should get to live herefearlessly. My girls go to schoolwhere they are being told thatyou will go out of the country.”

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Punjab Chief Minister CaptAmarinder Singh on

Thursday announced sweepingreforms in the State’s prisonadministration, ordering sever-al measures, including AI-enabled CCTV system, live wirefencing and creation of a sepa-rate prison intelligence wing, tomake the jails secure.

Capt Amarinder also gavethe go-ahead for a legislation toestablish ‘Punjab PrisonDevelopment Board’, in theongoing Budget Session. Whileaccepting the PrisonDepartment’s department pro-posal for Live Wire Fencing(220/440 volts) along the outerwalls of the jails, Capt Amarinderapproved installation of artificialintelligence-enabled CCTV sys-tem in nine central jails, sevendistrict jails and two specialjails.

Chairing a high level meet-ing to review the functioning ofthe Prisons Department, heasked Jails Minister SukhjinderSingh Randhawa to ensure thatthe best practices of prisonadministration are followed inthe state’s jails, and also direct-ed the Prisons Department tosubmit, within four weeks, acomprehensive plan for restruc-turing the jails. He asked ADGPJails Praveen Kumar Sinha toprepare the plan for restructur-

ing, realignment and launch ofnew schemes encompassing cor-rectional measures for the refor-mation of prisoners, an officialspokesperson said after the meet-ing.

To minimize the expendi-ture involved in presentingundertrials in courts (to thetune of �40-50 lakh a day), theChief Minister okayed thedepartment’s proposal for instal-lation of video conferencing sys-tem at all jails of the State.

To ensure foolproof securi-ty through adequate staff,Amarinder also gave go aheadfor filling up 305 posts ofwarders, already approved byOfficers’ Committee and thestate cabinet, in addition toanother 448 posts of warders and28 posts of Matrons lying vacantin the department. He asked theDepartment to submit a pro-posal to fill these posts expedi-tiously. He also conceded thedepartment’s demand 37 addi-tional vehicles to augment mobil-ity within the prisons.

To beef up the security atCentral Jail Ludhiana, the ChiefMinister approved constructionof a double barbed wire innerboundary wall and three addi-tional watch towers. The ChiefMinister also accorded approvalfor replacement of the outerboundary wall of Patiala CentralJail, which is currently in adilapidated condition.

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Punjab Vidhan Sabha onThursday paid tributes to

four children who were charredto death in Sangrur van fire,three youth killed in crackerblast during nagar kirtan inTarn Taran, young journalistAman Brar, besides former lead-ers, journalists, literary person-alities, among others on the firstday of the Budget session.

The House also made obit-uary reference to veteran jour-

nalist and writer Dalbir Dingh,who was also a close associate ofKhalistan ideologue JarnailSingh Bhindranwale. His namewas added on the request ofAam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLAKultar Singh Sandhwan.

In all, the House paidhomage to 10 eminent person-alities, including freedom fight-ers, political personalities andjournalists, who had passedaway during the interveningperiod between the two sessions.

Speaking on behalf of the

House, the Speaker Rana KPSingh paid respects to the formerMLA of joint Punjab (prior toreorganization) ChaudharyKhurshid Ahmed, and formerMLA Raj Kumar Gupta, alongwith freedom fighters GurdevSingh and Darbara Singh.

Senior journalist and Editor-in-Chief of Punjab KesariPublications of Delhi, as well asformer MP from Karnal,Ashwini Kumar Chopra, wasalso paid tributes by the House.

The House paid rich trib-

utes to legendary Punjabi writ-ers Dr Dalip Kaur Tiwana andDr Jaswant Singh Kanwal,besides famous Punjabi folkSinger Lachi Bawa.

Extending their condo-lences to the bereaved families,the House also paid tributes tofour children — Simranjit Singh,Sukhjit Kaur, Navjot Kaur, andArudhya Kumari — who werecharred to death in the tragicschool van fire incident atLongowal on Saturday. Thenames of four kids were men-

tioned in the list after the requestby SAD MLA Bikram Majithia.

The Speaker also paidhomage to 23-year-oldChandigarh-based journalistAmandeep Singh Brar, whopassed away on Tuesday at NewDelhi, in the prime of his youth.

On the request ofCooperation MinisterSukhjinder Singh Randhawa,the names of three childrenkilled in Tarn Taran trolleycracker blast were also added tothe obituary list.

Tourism and CulturalAffairs Minister Charajit SinghChanni also requested to add thename of noted Dhadi singer IduSharif, a recipient of the SangeetNatak Akademi and otherawards, which was allowed bythe Speaker.

However, the Speakerrefused to add the names of “27farmers who committed suicide”as proposed by Majithia, andname of teachers’ rights activistGurmel Singh proposed by SADMLA Pawan Kumar Tinu.

The Speaker proposed thathomage be paid to all thosemembers who had passed awaysince the previous session. Atwo-minute silence wasobserved in the memory ofdeparted souls as a mark ofrespect during the obituary ref-erences

After the obituary refer-ences to the eight eminent per-sonalities and the four chil-dren, he passed a resolution forconveying the condolences ofthe House to their respectivefamilies. The resolution waspassed by voice vote.

Shimla: Himachal ChiefMinister Jai Ram Thakur onThursday took up the issue ofincreasing the annual normativeallocation to the state withNABARD from existing �700crore to �1000 crore for thefinancial year 2019-20.

Presiding over a meetingheld here with the officers ofNABARD, Thakur said theincrease in allocation wouldenable the State to create agri-culture related infrastructurein rural areas besides strength-ening road network in theseareas.

He also felt the need to del-egate sanction powers to theRegional Office NABARD so asto expedite the sanctioning andimplementation process of theprojects under RIDF pro-gramme. PNS

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Astate level hockey playerand his friend were shot

dead by their colleague in Patialaon Wednesday night over apetty issue.

The victims, who have beenidentified as Amrik Singh andSimranjit Singh Happy, wereemployed with Punjab StatePower Corporation Ltd. The police said the duo hadan altercation with a personnamed Manoj Kumar and hisson at an eatery. A case has beenregistered under Section 302 ofthe Indian Penal Code (IPC).

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Punjab Government may soon come up witha policy to compensate the farmers for their

land being used for installing towers by the Statetransmission utility.

Announcing this on the floor of the Houseon the first day of the Budget session, the ChiefMinister Capt Amarinder Singh on Thursdaymade it clear that the Government would con-sider compensation only for installation of tow-ers on farmers’ land by the Punjab StateTransmission Corporation Limited (PSTCL), butnot for the land falling under the transmissioncables.

“It is not possible to give compensation tofarmers for their land falling under the trans-mission lines since a substantial chunk of 105acres of agriculture land across the State is underthe wires,” said the Chief Minister whileresponding to the calling attention notice raisedby Aam Aadmi Party’s Talwandi Sabo MLA ProfBaljinder Kaur and AAP MLA Jai Krishan SinghRori. The two AAP MLAs has drew the ChiefMinister’s attention towards the installation of

electricity poles on the farmers’ land fromBalanwali Thermal Plant to Talwandi Sabo refin-ery by PSTCL.

Capt Amarinder informed the House thatthe land under the towers in Bathinda districthad not been acquired as there was no restric-tion on agricultural activity in land located underthe towers and transmission lines, and such landwould not hence be acquired.The farmers werebeing compensated for damage of crops accord-ing to the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885, he added.

The Chief Minister informed the House thatduring stubbing of 23 towers, a compensationof �6,38,087 had been paid to the farmers.Welcoming the decision, Baljinder Kaur request-ed the Chief Minister to install the towers withprior notice to this effect to the farmers.

She had earlier pointed out that while thefarmers were not being compensated, the landrate had also taken dive in the market. “Thereis a lot of anger among the local farmers,” shesaid while demanding compensation of �15 lakhper acre of land acquired by the Government.

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Haryana Governor SatyadeoNarain Arya on Thursday

said the Government wouldcelebrate this year as SushashanSankalp Varsh pointing outthat focus would be given onlaunching several new goodgovernance initiatives and onimproving service delivery.

Delivering his address on thefirst day of the Budget session ofthe Vidhan Sabha, Arya saidincrease in the ease of obtaininggovernment services by usingtechnology and streamliningprocesses will help to improveease of living.

On the occasion of thenext 'Good Governance Day'on December 25, the Statewould submit its report card onsuch initiatives and rewardofficers, employees and depart-ments that would have per-formed exemplary work.

According to the Governor,a record procurement of 6.19

lakh metric tonne mustard wasdone in 2019-20. Besides, 13,156metric tonne of sunflower wasalso procured.

The entire payment at min-imum support price for thesecrops was made directly into theaccounts of the farmers. He saidin this fiscal 93.60 lakh metrictonne of wheat was procured.

He said the vision of theGovernment is complete digi-tisation of the land records sothat owners could access detailsof their properties and theirland records online any time.For this, an Integrated HaryanaLand Records InformationSystem has been developed.

In his speech, the Governorsaid the BJP-JJP Government iscommitted to securing thestate''s legitimate share of sur-plus Ravi-Beas waters throughthe Sutlej Yamuna Link canal.“Every possible effort will bemade to bring to Haryana itslegitimate share of surplus Ravi-Beas waters through the SYL

canal at the earliest,” he said.The Governor concluded-

his speech in about nine min-utes after reading out only apart of the 27-page address andtold the House that the rest ofit be treated as having been read. During his address, Aryatouched upon the governmentvarious welfare initiatives,including those for farmersand women.

He said the Governmenthas undertaken a new initiativeto promote hygiene among

BPL category of adolescentgirls and women in the agegroup of 10 to 45 years underwhich sanitary napkins wouldbe distributed free of cost toapproximately 11 lakh BPLfamilies in the state. It wouldcost the state exchequer �30crore during 2020-21 fiscalyear, he said.

He also said the StateGovernment is committed to

making Haryana more safe forwomen. “The Government willstrive to improve the safety ofwomen at homes and in pub-lic spaces through a mass move-ment in the state," he said..

KHATTAR TO PRESENTBUDGET ON FEB 28

As Finance Minister, theChief Minister will present thefirst budget of the coalition

Government on February 28. This was decided in aBusiness Advisory Committeemeeting ahead of budget sessionon Thursday, chaired by SpeakerGian Chand Gupta in the pres-ence of Khattar, Leader ofOpposition Bhupinder SinghHooda, Deputy Chief MinisterDushyant Singh Chautala,Parliamentary Affairs MinisterKanwar Pal Gurjar and DeputySpeaker Ranbir Singh Gangwa.

The duration of the Budgetsession has been extended byone day. Earlier, the Budget ses-sion was supposed to last tillMarch 3, but now it will con-clude on March 4. The Speakersaid the session will be con-ducted for 14 days with fiveholidays. It was decided thatexcept on February 24(Monday), the assembly pro-ceedings will start at 11 amevery day.

OPPOSITION DEMANDS

EXTENSION OF BUDGETSESSION

Congress MLA fromRadaur, Bishan Lal Sainidemanded extension of Houseproceedings. He said that dur-ing the Budget session, MLAshave to raise the problems oftheir constituencies.

Replying to this, ChiefMinister Khattar said that suf-ficient days have been fixed forlegislators to have a discussionon budget. However, if Housemembers feel that session shouldbe extended by a day or two, itwill be decided on March 3.

OBITUARY RESOLUTIONSPASSED

On the first day of theSession, after Governor’saddress, obituary resolutionswere passed to pay tributes tothose prominent personalitieswho have expired between theperiod from the end of the pre-vious session and the beginningof the current session. Leader

of the House Khattar paid trib-utes and read out the obituary resolutions.

These including formerMinister of State, formerMember of Haryana LegislativeAssembly, Freedom Fightersand martyrs of Haryana andclose relatives of members ofHaryana Vidhan Sabha. Themembers of House alsoobserved silence to pay homageto the departed souls.

Haryana Vidhan SabhaSpeaker Gian Chand Guptaread out the obituary resolu-tions and paid tributes to thedeparted souls. Leader of theOpposition Bhupinder SinghHooda also read out the obit-uary resolutions on behalf ofhis party.

Those paid homage in theHouse included formerMinister, Chaudhary KhurshidAhmed and former Member ofHaryana Legislative Assembly,Chaudhary Ude Singh Dalal.

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The ghost of drugs onThursday came haunting

the Punjab politics with theChief Minister Capt AmarinderSingh assuring the VidhanSabha that a thorough investi-gation would be held into thedrugs nexus of former SSBmember Anwar Masih, whowas recently arrested by theSpecial Task Force in a drugcase, with political leaders.

The assurance came afterthe Congress MLA KulbirSingh Zira flashed some doc-uments and photographs toallege that Anwar Masih,caught by the STF on drugs in�1000 crore drug recoverycase, was a close associate ofSAD MLA Bikram Majithia.

Joining in, the Leader ofOpposition and AAP MLAHarpal Singh Cheema alsodemanded investigations intoMajithia’s alleged role into thecase, besides other politicalbigwigs.

Notably, the Punjab PoliceSTF on drugs, a day before,arrested former SubordinateServices Board (SSB) memberAnwar Masih in connectionwith the massive heroin haul,weighing 197 kgs, from hishouse in Sultanwind village onJanuary 31. He was bookedunder the NDPS Act, and wasremanded to two days’ police

custody.Taking serious note of the

allegations, the Chief Ministermaintained that all the docu-ments or materials, shown ordisplayed by the members,would be forwarded to theSTF for detailed investigationsinto the drugs network,launched in the wake of theseizures made from the houseof Masih, an Akali leader.

The Chief Minister assuredthe House that a detailedinquiry would be conductedand the report in this regardwould be forwarded to thecompetent authority.

At the same time, the ChiefMinister made it clear thatanyone suspected to beinvolved in the drug racketwould be thoroughly probed toascertain their links.

“The entire network wouldbe unraveled to ensure that allthose involved in the drugs

racket were pinned down andaction taken against them asper the law,” he added.

Earlier, Zira demanded anextensive probe to find why hewas made SSB member and onwhose recommendation andappropriate action should betaken.

Demanding to nab the“black sheep” in the politicalcircles, he openly demandedthat Majithia should also be putbehind bars on whose recom-mendation Masih was appoint-ed SSB member.

In sync with Zira’s demand,Cheema too asked theGovernment to investigate“Majithia's role” in Masih drughaul.

Cheema alleged that themulti-crore drug haul, involv-ing the Akali leader AnwarMasih and councilor, had linkswith the political bigwigs.

“Whether the Chief

Minister would give an assur-ance that he would investigatethe role of Bikram SinghMajithia in the drug haul,” heasked after which the ChiefMinister made the statement.

MASIH IS CONG LEADER,INQUIRE INTO CONGLINKS WITH DRUGMAFIA: SAD TO CM

Under attack, SAD MLABikram Majithia furnishedphotographs and documents toclaim that Anwar Masih was a“Congress man”, and the ChiefMinister should take intoaccount detailed evidence ofthe involvement of Congressleaders in Amritsar heroinseizure case as well as drug traf-ficking in the State.

Majithia, at the same time,welcomed the Chief MinisterCapt Amarinder Singh’s state-ment in the Vidhan Sabha thathe would order an inquiryinto the political connections ofChristian Dalit Front leaderAnwar Masih.

“Masih’s close connectionwith the Congress and thesupport extended to the partyby Anwar and Christian FrontPresident Munawar Masih in2017 assembly elections, 2018Gurdaspur Lok Sabha by-elec-tion contested by PradeshCongress president SunilJakhar as well as 2019 parlia-mentary elections were a mat-ter of record. It is a fact that

Munawar Masih was the onlyperson whose term asMinorities Commission chair-man was extended by threeyears by the CongressGovernment after being reap-pointed,” said Majithia whileshowing pictures of Munawarand Anwar Masih with CabinetMinister Sukhjinder Randhawain 2019 and advertisementsalongside senior Congress lead-ers to claim that both of themare Congressmen.

Demanding a detailedinquiry into political connec-tions of those associated withAmritsar heroin seizure case,Majithia said that the kingpinin the case – Simarjit SinghSandhu — was the son ofSarabjit Singh Sandhu whowas appointed Member of theSubordinate Services SelectionBoard in 2006 during CongressGovernment tenure.

“Simarjit Sandhu’s associ-ation with the Congress partyshould be investigated and allCongressmen associated withhim should be exposed andbooked,” he demanded whilespeaking with the media out-side the Assembly.

Majithia also condemnedphoto-dramas being enacted inthe assembly to divert the peo-ple’s attention from the powerhike and power scams, farmersuicides, and the CongressGovernment’s failure to providejobs to the youth.

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Decks are cleared for thePunjab Police to probe

the Behbal Kalan and Bargarisacrilege cases. After theSupreme Court rejected thecentral probe agency’s pleaagainst Punjab Government’snotification to withdraw inves-tigations in the Behbal Kalanand Bargari cases from the CBIon the grounds of delay, theChief Minister Capt AmarinderSingh on Thursday announcedthat the cases will now be“investigated by the PunjabPolice only”.

The Chief Minister, on theonset of Zero Hour, announcedin the House that the CentralBureau of Investigation (CBI)petition before the SupremeCourt, challenging an earlierorder of the Punjab andHaryana High Court that hadupheld the notification of thePunjab Government to with-draw the investigation in theBehbal Kalan and Bargari sac-rilege cases from the centralprobe agency, has been dis-missed.

“Supreme Court hasupheld the Government’s deci-sion and now we would seewhat to be done,” he said whileassuring that the SIT investi-gation into these cases wouldbe taken to its logical conclu-sion.

Intervening, Aam AadmiParty (AAP) MLA AmanArora welcomed the decision,but demanded that the PunjabGovernment should ensuretime-bound investigations intothe cases so that the guiltycould be awarded punishment.

At the same time, hesought clarification from theChief Minister whether theSupreme Court verdict relatedto all the cases — BehbalKalan, Bargari-Kotakpura fir-ing incident — to be precisepointing that all those wereseparate cases.

Going into background,the CBI had challenged thelegality of the StateGovernment’s September 2019notification to withdraw the

three sacrilege-related violencecases from it in the High Courtbut it had ruled that the chainof events showed that the samewere inextricably linked andthus it did not feel the need tointerfere in the decision of theState Government to withdrawinvestigation from the CBI orto set aside the consequentnotifications.

With this, the Apex Coyrthas cleared the legal hurdle forthe State to carry on its inves-tigations into the sacrilegecases and the subsequent policefiring in these cases, whichwere handed over to the CBI bythe erstwhile SAD-BJP regime.

In view of the CBI’s failureto complete the probe in thecases, the Captain Amarindergovernment had announcedin the House earlier that thecases would be taken backfrom the central agency andwould be investigated by thestate government.

During the hearing in theApex Court, a division benchof Justice Rohington Narimanand Ravindra Bhatt dismissedthe CBI case, rejecting thearguments of their advocateAman Lekhi on the groundthat instead of the 90 days givento the agency to file the SLP(special leave petition), it hadtaken 257 days to make itssubmission.

The Judge also rejectedLekhi’s argument that the CBIteam had a problem on thelegal issue as it would formprecedent, and not on theinvestigation being transferred.

The Judge then ordereddismissal of the SLP on theground of delay, while keepingthe question of law open.

“Given this, the act ofreverting the investigation tothe State Police from CBI hasnow attained finality and nofurther fetter remains on theSIT to investigate the same,”said the state Advocate-GeneralAtul Nanda.

He underlined that as perprevious judgments, “onceinvestigation is transferred toCBI, it cannot be withdrawn.Those cases were decided ontheir own facts, but the ques-tion of whether the state legis-lature has the power to takeback an investigation fromCBI, in terms of general claus-es act, was left open”.

The prosecution’s case wasthat the three FIRs in the sac-rilege cases were initially reg-istered by the Punjab Police butthe investigation was laterhanded over by the State ofPunjab to CBI. It was submit-ted that since the CBI had fileda joint Closure Report in theabove said three cases, thestate of Punjab requires the cer-tified copy of joint report alongwith the copies of documentsattached thereto for its officialuse.

It was further submitted bythe prosecution that only theinvestigation was transferredand CBI had been informingthe stage of investigation to theState of Punjab from time totime.

Further, the prosecutionargued that later on, a resolu-tion was passed by the PunjabLegislative Assembly videwhich the investigation wastaken back from the CBI andaccordingly, on September 6,2018, a notification was issuedby the State of Punjab, with-drawing the consent to the CBIto investigate the case.

The said resolution and thenotification were challenged inthe High Court, which, videjudgment reported as 2019(2)RCR Criminal, Page 165,upheld the notification. TheCBI did not file any SLP andthus, after the withdrawal of theconsent, the State had full rightto investigate the cases, it wasargued for the state.

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The Haryana Cabinet onThursday approved the

New Excise Policy for the year2020-2021 in which the totalnumber of liquor vends in theState have been increased from2500 to 2600.

Talking to reporters,Deputy Chief MinisterDushyant Chautala, who alsohas the Excise Department,said that as per the new ExcisePolicy of the State, allotment ofliquor vends for the year 2020-2021 shall be carried out in theunits of zones. The number ofvends per zone has beenreduced from six vends to twovends. It will facilitate newentrepreneurs with modest

means to participate in the bid-ding process and would makethe process more competitive.The practice of allotment byway of e-tenders will continue.

He said that to furtherstreamline the trade and as astep to ensure the quality ofliquor to consumers, it hasbeen decided that retaillicensees shall issue an invoiceof sales. A separate POS themachine will be required to beinstalled for IMFL and countryliquor at the sale counter of allretail vends.

Chautala informed thattemporary one day license forserving of liquor in functionsor parties in form L-12A shallbe made online. The fee struc-

ture has further been rational-ized. Now, the commercialestablishments hosting func-tions and parties shall have tomandatorily get themselvesregistered with the Excise andTaxation Department.

He said that the quota ofIMFL in the State has beenreduced from 650 Lakh ProofLiter to 550 Proof Liter where-as no change has been made inthe quota of country liquorwhich is retained at 1050 LakhProof Liter.

Duties on various cate-gories of low alcoholic drinkbeer have been reduced. Theduty on beer with an alcoholiccontent between 3.5 percentand 5.5 percent has beenreduced from �50 per BL to

�40 per BL. The duty of BLcontaining alcoholic contentmore than 5.5 percent hasbeen reduced from �55 per BLto �45 per BL. A new categoryof super mild beer has beencreated with alcoholic contentup to 3.5 percent. The duty ofsuper mild beer has been fixedat �35 per BL.

The hours of sales for barsoperating in Gurugram,Faridabad, and Panchkula havebeen extended. Now, the barswould be allowed to operate till1:00 A.M. in Gurugram,Faridabad, and Panchkula.These timings in these districtscan be further extended byanother two hours on paymentof an additional license fee of�10 Lakh per hour.

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Amidst demand by the oppositionparties, the Punjab Vidhan Sabha’s

Budget session has been extended tillMarch 4, adding three more workingdays. Now, the session would have nineworking days.The Finance MinisterManpreet Singh Badal will present theBudget proposals for 2020-21 onFebruary 28, which was earlier sched-uled for February 25.

The decision was taken by theVidhan Sabha’s Business AdvisoryCommittee (BAC) with the SpeakerRana Kanwar Pal Singh as its ex-officiochairman. The BAC has ParliamentaryAffairs Minister Brahm Mohindra,Finance Minister Manpreet Badal, ForestMinister Sadhu Singh Dharamsot as itsmembers, besides Leader of Opposition

Harpal Singh Cheema, and CongressMLA Kushaldeep Singh Kiki Dhillon asother members.

Sports Minister Rana GurmeetSingh Sodhi and SAD legislative partywing leader Sharanjit Singh Dhillon werespecial invitees. As per the new pro-gramme, the session, which commencedon Thursday with obituary references,would resume after three holidays fromMonday when the debate on Governor’saddress would be held for next threedays.

Punjab Governor VP Singh Badnorehad addressed the Assembly during thetwo-day special session convened to rat-ify SC/ST Bill to extend reservation inthe Lok Sabha and state assemblies byanother 10 years, on January 16-17.

The reports of Comptroller andAuditor General of India will be tabled

on February 26, along with the supple-mentary grants for 2019-20, and appro-priation bill on supplementary demandfor grants for 2019-20.

After presentation of Budget esti-mates on Friday, the discussion on thesame will be held on March 2 and 3, withthe last day dedicated for the legislativebusiness.

The session was extended after theShiromani Akali Dal and the AamAadmi Party had demanded extensionof the session. While the SAD demand-ed 25-day session, AAP urged theSpeaker to hold at least 15-day session.

Welcoming the move, AAP MLAKultar Singh Sandhwan said that adetailed discussion should be held on theCentre’s proposed move to forego theMSP regime and the agriculture situa-

tion.

SAD PROTEST ON HIGH POWERTARIFF

Irked over the Speaker Rana KPSingh’s decision to reject its adjournmentmotion over the high power tariff, theShiromani Akali Dal on Thursday helda protest inside and outside the PunjabAssembly. During the zero hour, SADMLA and legislative wing leaderSharanjit Singh Dhillon opposed theSpeaker’s order saying that it was notaccepted.

Speaker clarified that the motionwas rejected as the Budget is to be pre-sented, and debate is to be held on theGovernor’s address to the House. “Thehouse is very much functioning and thatis why your adjournment motion can-not be accepted,” said the Speaker.

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The Registering and Licensing Authority(RLA), Chandigarh is all set to launch new

smart cards based driving licence and vehicleregistration certificate in line with the newdesign issued by the Central Government.

For this, the RLA has begun the process ofoutsourcing most of its services involved in issu-ing of driving licenses (DL) and vehicle regis-tration certificate (RC).

“The work on issuance of revised smartcards will be started soon. The new design willconform to the uniform design across the coun-try issued by the Centre,” said a senior RLA offi-cer. He said that the RLA has already floatedtenders to hire a private agency, which will beundertaking the work related to G2C servicedelivery project, a comprehensive scheme for

modernization and computerization of thework of issuance of registration certificates anddriving licences to the citizens, the officer said.

As per the Central Government’s uniformsmart driving licenses format, all new drivinglicenses (DL) issued by RTOs across the coun-try will carry the same uniform look whichmeans, same format, same colour, same designand same security features. All new DLs willalso be embedded with a SIM card likemicrochip and QR codes.

At present, a composite card of 60 percentPET and 40 percent PVC (both types of plas-tics) are used here.

A centralized card personalization centreis also proposed to be set up by the privateagency for printing the new smart card basedDLs and RCs.

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New Delhi: The Supreme Courton Thursday dismissed theCBI’s plea challenging thePunjab and Haryana HighCourt order by which it had lastyear refused to interfere withthe Punjab Government deci-sion to take back all sacrilegecases from the Central probeagency. A Bench of Justices RF Nariman and S RavindraBhat dismissed the CBI’s pleaon the ground of delay.

“...Special Leave Petitionsare dismissed on the ground ofdelay. However, the question oflaw is left open. Pending appli-cation stands disposed of,” theBench said. PTI

New Delhi: Former CongressMP Ashok Tanwar moved theSupreme Court on Thursdayseeking contempt proceedingsagainst the DDA and the DelhiGovernment for allegedly “wil-fully and deliberately disobey-ing” its orders allowing con-struction of a permanent struc-ture for the Guru Ravidas tem-ple at Tughlaqabad. The templewas demolished by the DDA fol-lowing the SC’s August 9 lastyear direction which hadobserved that “serious breach”was committed by Guru RavidasJayanti Samaroh Samiti. PTI

New Delhi: The SupremeCourt in its interim order onThursday allowed theplea of the KarnatakaGovernment forimplementation ofthe final award by atribunal for sharingof water betweenGoa, Karnataka andMaharashtra from theMahadayi river.

The interim order waspassed by a Bench comprisingJustice DY Chandrachud and

Justice Hemant Gupta afterhearing the counsel from

the three States. TheBench said the final

hearing in the mat-ter will take place inJuly.

It also said theinterim order is

subject to the finaloutcome of the peti-

tions filed by the threeStates against the tribunal’saward.

PTI

New Delhi: The SupremeCourt Thursday questionedthe issuance of black warrantsby trial courts for execution ofdeath penalty even before theexpiry of 60-day time periodfor filing of appeals in theapex court by the convicts. Thetop court’s observation cameduring the hearing of an appeal,filed by death row convict AnilSurendra Singh Yadav, allegingthat the black warrant wasissued by a Gujarat sessionscourt just 33 days after his con-viction was upheld by the highcourt. PTI

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With Bihar Assembly pollclosing by, BJP president

JP Nadda will visit Patna onFebruary 22 to discuss hisparty’s strategy with State lead-ers and that of NationalDemocratic Alliance (NDA)there besides to inaugurateBJP’s new offices in 11 districts.

This would be Nadda’s firstvisit to Bihar after taking overparty’s baton this year fromAmit Shah, the Union HomeMinister.

“Nadda would be inaugu-rating the newly-built office ofthe BJP in 11 districts in Bihar,including Samastipur, Siwan,Bhagalpur, Arwal, Naugachhia,Lakhisarai, Gopalganj,Sasaram, Saharsa, Aurangabad,and Sheohar by a remote con-trol at Patna office. These newoffices are equipped with latestequipment, including an e-library that would help partyworkers in advancing BJP ide-ology in their districts,” saidParty’s General Secretary andBihar-in-charge, BhupendraYadav .

Nadda will hold meetingswith members of the core com-mittee to ensure the victory ofNDA with Nitish Kumar being

the Chief Ministerial face of theNDA alliance.

Picking its lessons from theDelhi poll debacle, BJP is keento rein-in its motor mouthsand spoil its campaign in Bihar.Recently Nadda had sum-moned union minister andMP from Begusarai GirirajSingh’s controversial commentsagainst a prominent minorityinstitution.

BJP intends to focus onstate and development issuesrather taking up national agen-da in the forefront of its cam-paigning in the Bihar poll. BJPwants to win to end it series ofreverses in Maharashtra, Delhiand Jharkand by faithfullyaligning with the JDU and notqueering its pitch on aNationalist agenda.

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Amid concerns and criti-cisms, Union Housing and

Urban Affairs MinisterHardeep Singh Puri onThursday said thatGovernment infrastructure,including the North and SouthBlocks, was built more than acentury ago and there is no rea-son why the Centre should notgo for a new-look CentralVista aesthetically while pre-serving the heritage.

Speaking at a function,Puri said that some people aretalking about the Central Vistamakeover without knowingwhat is happening. “Lookevery 100 years somebody hasto take charge and decide whatthe city is going to look like.Delhi in its present from...Thecurrent Delhi Governmentalinfrastructure (including)

Rashtrapati Bhavan, NorthBlock, South Block, were builtin 1910s or 1920s,” Puri added.

The questions are beingraised by experts from variousquarters that what is the needto do so and what’s the objec-tive and why it is being imple-mented. “We are paying thou-sands of crores of rent to houseGovernment buildings. Wehave the land, so there is noreason why we can’t do it in anarchitecturally, aesthetic way,preserve the heritage etc andcreate a New Delhi,” he said.

Sources said that the DelhiDevelopment Authority (DDA)has received nearly 400 objec-tions to the proposed change ofland use for 101 acres in cen-tral Delhi for the Centre’s ambi-tious Central Vista redevelop-ment project. The objectionsrange from questioning theneed for the project to itsimpact on environment andtraffic. Some also stressed onthe need to protect heritage anddemanded a proper assess-ment before going ahead withthe plan.

LokPATH (people forAppropriate Transformationof Habitat), a collective ofurban development experts,which was formed recently,has flagged the lack of trans-parency in the process of landuse change. The Indian Societyof Landscape Architects(ISOLA) has called the projectan “inappropriate planningdecision”. Many have ques-tioned the need for the projectand said it contradicts the pro-visions of the Master Plan ofDelhi 2021.

The redevelopment of theCentral Vista — the nation’spower corridor in Delhi —envisages a triangularParliament building next to theexisting one, a common CentralSecretariat for ministries and therevamping of the three-km-long Rajpath - from RashtrapatiBhavan to India Gate.

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With the discharge of a womanmedico, who was country’s

first novel coronavirus patient beingtreated at the Government MedicalCollege hospital in Kerala onThursday, India may have becomea pathogen-free country for now, butthe pathogen continues to take itstoll in neighbouring nations.

One more Indian aboard aquarantined cruise ship off Japanwas tested positive for the novelcoronavirus and shifted to hospital,taking the number of Indian nation-als infected with the virus on thevessel to eight, the Indian embassysaid on Thursday. China has report-ed 2,118 deaths while the overallconfirmed cases has climbed to74,576.

The Indian embassy said that atotal of 138 Indians, including 132crew and 6 passengers, were among

the 3,711 people on board theDiamond Princess cruise ship. In atweet, the Indian embassy heresaid, “1 Indian crew who tested pos-itive for #COVID19 among 79 newcases on #DiamondPrincess yester-day too has been shifted to hospi-tal for treatment. All 8 Indiansreceiving treatment are respondingwell. Rest all Indians on-board arebraving out the trying circumstances.”

Earlier, seven Indians were test-ed positive for the COVID-19. Themission said that infected Indianswere responding well to the treatment.

Many countries have bannedarrivals from China while major air-lines have suspended flights to thecountry. In India, national carrierAir India has announced that it isextending the suspension of itsflights to the neighbouring countrytill June 30.

The discharge of the women

medico student marked the recov-ery of all three cases of infection inIndia reported from Kerala. Twoother students — one fromAlappuzha and another Kasaragod— had been discharged recently

after they too tested negative for thevirus in fresh tests days after beinginfected by it.

A total of 650 people werebrought back from Wuhan in Chinaon February 1 and 2 in two 747

Boeing Air India aircraft after theoutbreak of coronavirus in thatcountry.

Last month, the Air India hadsuspended its six weekly Delhi-Shanghai flights from January 31 to

February 14. However, it did notrestart the flight operations fromFebruary 15 onwards.

The national carrier had alsosuspended its Delhi-Hong Kongflights due to the coronavirus epi-demic that has killed more than2,000 people in China till date.

“Flight operations on bothroutes— Delhi-Shanghai and Delhi-Hong Kong — have been suspend-ed till June 30,” an Air Indiaspokesperson said on Thursday.

Earlier, IndiGo and SpiceJet hadsuspended their flight operationsbetween India and China.

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Aday after US PresidentDonald Trump said in

Washington that India has nottreated his country “very well,”on issues of bilateral trade, theMinistry of External Affairs onThursday said the context inwhich the remarks were madewas balance of trade and therehave been efforts to address theconcerns. The US President’sremarks came days ahead of hismaiden two-day visit to Indiacommencing February 24.

Looking forward to hisvisit to India, Trump had saidIndia has not treated his coun-try “very well” on the tradefront and indicated that a “verybig” bilateral deal with NewDelhi may not be signed beforethe American presidential elec-tion in November.

Trump, forcefully pursuinghis ‘America first” policy, haspreviously described India as a“tariff king” for imposing“tremendously high” tariffs onAmerican products, also

expressed dissatisfaction overthe US-India trade ties. “Well,we can have a trade deal withIndia, but I’m really saving thebig deal for later on,” Trumptold reporters at the Joint BaseAndrews outside Washingtonon Tuesday when askedwhether he expects a trade dealwith India before the visit.

Asked about his com-ments, the External AffairsMinistry spokesperson RaveeshKumar said here it is importantto understand the context inwhich the remarks were made.The context was balance oftrade and efforts have beenmade to address concerns, hesaid.

India is eagerly awaitingPresident Trump’s visit and itwill strengthen the bilateralglobal strategic ties, Kumarsaid. He also said “we don’twant to create any artificialdeadline” replying to questionon when India-US trade dealwill be signed.

On how many agreementswill be signed during Trump’sIndia visit, Kumar said aroundfive MoUs were under discus-sion. Asked whether the issuesrelating to H1B visa will figurein Modi-Trump talks, Kumarsaid they could come up.

Trump will reachAhemdabad on February 24where a grand event - called“Namaste Trump” - to welcomehim will “showcase India’s richand diverse culture that willhave few parallels in India orelsewhere”.

“US President Trump willland in Ahmedabad aroundnoon, from there he will go tothe Motera Stadium to addressthe ‘Namaste Trump’ event.The route from the airport tothe stadium -- we expect a large

number of people will line-up,”Ravish Kumar said.

Talking of the route fromthe Ahmedabad airport to thestadium, he said, “We expect alarge number of people linedup along the route”. So far, 28stages have been set up whichwill represent various parts ofthe country, on which artisteswill be performing.

The roadshow will featureMahatma Gandhi’s life and theprogramme at the MoteraStadium would be like the“Howdy Modi” event, he saidreferring to the mega pro-gramme at Houston in US,where Trump had shared stagewith Prime Minister NarendraModi and addressed the assem-bled Indians.

The other stop on Trump’sschedule is Agra and the laststop is New Delhi where Modiand Trump will hold talks onthe entire range of bilateralissues including defence andtrade. Incidentally, it will be thefifth meeting between Modiand Trump in the last eightmonths.

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Days after the landmarkSupreme Court judgment

directing the Government togrant permanent commissionand command postings towomen officers, Army ChiefMM Naravane on Thursdaysaid his force has been cham-pioning gender equality and theapex court verdict has given theArmy clarity to move forward.

In a momentous ruling onMonday, the apex court onMonday had called for a“change in mindsets” anddirected that women officers ofthe Army, serving under ShortService Commission(SSC), beconsidered for grant ofPermanent Commission, irre-spective of tenure of service,and also for command posts innon-combat areas since “anabsolute bar on women seekingcriteria or command appoint-ments would not comport withthe guarantee of equality underArticle 14.”

Making the Army’s standclear, the Army Chief said herethe Indian Army does not dis-criminate any soldier based onreligion, caste, creed, or evengender. The outlook of theIndian Army has been through-out like this and “that is why westarted inducting women offi-cers as early as in 1993.”

Outlining steps taken toinduct women in the force, hesaid the Army has taken theinitiative to induct women inrank and file, and the first batchof 100 women soldiers isundergoing training at Corps ofMilitary Police Centre andSchool, he said.

Supreme Court’s decision isa welcome one as it brings outa sense of clarity and purpose togainfully employ officers for bet-ter efficiency of the organisa-tion. I must assure that every-body in the Indian Armyincluding women officers will

be given equal opportunity tocontribute to the nation as alsoprogress in their careers,” he saidhailing the verdict as enabling.Naravane also said letters arebeing sent to women officersasking whether they will preferpermanent commission.

The court has given threemonths’ time to theGovernment to implement itsverdict and Naravane said aroadmap has been prepared forits implementation. He alsosaid there is equal opportuni-ty for everyone and there is nogender discrimination. “We

have drafted a plan” he stated.Same procedure for male

Short Service Commission(SSC) officers will be followedfor women to give permanentcommission, the Army chiefclarified adding “it will besame rule for everyone.”

Observing that the judge-ment is for those who havecrossed a certain point in theircareer in the Army, he saidthose rules for young officerswill not be applied on them. Inthe next batch of women offi-cers trained all these factors willbe discussed, he stated.

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Speaking on the situation inJ a m m u & K a s h m i r ,

Naravane said terror inci-dents have seen a downturnand the Army is maintainingpressure on terror groups.

There is an externaldimension to the decrease incross-border terrorism, hesaid, in oblique reference tothe ongoing Financial ActionTask Force (FATF) plenary.

Pakistan may have torethink strategy as even Chinarealised they cannot back

their all-weather friend all thetime, the Army chief said onthe FATF plenary.

On the health conditionof hardline Hurriyat leaderSyed Ali Shah Geelani, thearmy chief only said securityforces are geared up to takecare of any situation. On theproposed creation of a theatrecommand exclusively forJammu and Kashmir, he saidthere will be detailed discus-sions before anything isfinalised.

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Regarding the new ThalSena Bhawan to be built in

the Delhi Cantonment, forwhich Defence MinisterRajnath Singh will lay the firststone on Friday morning, theArmy Chief said the pro-posed

“Thal Sena Bhawan willbring all Army Headquarteroffices under one roof there-by improving the working

efficiency, while reducing thecarbon footprint and logisticsrequirements.”

However, he clarified thatthe office of the Army Chiefwill not shift to the new build-ing, and will continue to beclose to wherever the DefenceMinister’s office is. The newArmy Headquarters will bespread over 35 acres and willbe built in five years.

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As China on Thursday object-ed to Home Minister Amit

Shah’s visit to ArunachalPradesh, saying the visit had vio-lated its territorial sovereigntyand “sabotaged” mutual trustwith India, New Delhi assertedthe eastern State is an integralpart of the country. Moreover,objection to an Indian Minister’svisit there does not stand to rea-son, it reiterated.

The Home Minister is inArunachal Pradesh to attendfunctions related to the 34thStatehood Day of the north-eastern state and launched pro-jects including industry androad infrastructure. China hasalways claimed the border Stateas part of south Tibet and rou-tinely criticises the visit of anyIndian official to the region.

Objecting to Shah’s visit,Chinese Foreign Ministryspokesperson Geng Shuangsaid “China’s position on theeastern sector of the China-India boundary, or the south-ern part of China’s Tibet region,is consistent and clear.”

Responding to a questionabout Shah’s visit, the

spokesperson said “the ChineseGovernment has never recog-nised the so-called ‘ArunachalPradesh’ and is firmly opposedto the Indian politician’s visit tothe southern part of China’sTibet region as it violatedChina’s territorial sovereignty,undermined stability of theborder area, sabotaged politi-cal mutual trust, and violatedrelevant bilateral agreement,”Geng. The official also saidIndia should stop taking anyaction that may “further com-plicate the border issue.”

Asked about China’s objec-tion to Shah’s visit, Ministry ofExternal Affairs spokespersonRaveesh Kumar said here onThursday India’s consistent posi-

tion has been that the State is itsintegral and inalienable part.Objecting to visit to Arunachalby an Indian leader does notstand to reason, he said.

China last year too raisedsimilar issue when DefenceMinister Rajnath Singh visitedArunachal Pradesh to takestock of the security situationin the frontier border region.

Earlier in 2019, customsauthorities in a northeasternChinese city had destroyednearly 30,000 world mapsshowing Arunachal Pradeshas a part of India and Taiwanas a separate country.

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The Indo Tibetan Border Policeon Thursday honoured its

doctors, paramedics, cooks andsanitation officials who served ina special quarantine centre set uphere housing 406 people suspect-ed to have been exposed to coro-navirus, a spokesperson of theforce said. “Thank you for whatyou did. The country and the forceis proud of you,” ITBP Director

General (DG) S S Deswal told thepersonnel after he held a special‘sainik sammelan’ at the Chhawlacamp of the force. Deswal gaveaway the top award of the forcecalled the ‘DG commendationdisc’ to 28 personnel, appreciationletters to three while 32 stafferswere presented with cash rewards,ITBP spokesperson Vivek KumarPandey said.

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Bengal is mulling enhancedsecurity for election strate-

gist Prashant Kishore, sourcesin the State Government saidadding already the securitydirectorate has reviewed hissecurity status and submittedits recommendations beforethe Government.

Accordingly, Kishore whohas reportedly been hired bythe ruling Trinamool Congressto chalk out its strategy roadmap ahead of the 2021Assembly elections is likely toget ‘Z’ category security coverwhich is provided among oth-ers former Chief MinisterBuddhadeb Bhattacharjee,senior Ministers like ParthoChatterjee, Firhad Hakim,Suvendu Adhikary, BCCI pres-ident Sourav Ganguly andanother 5-6 persons.

Chief Minister MamataBanerjee and his nephew andMP Abhishek Banerjee gets ‘Z

Plus’ security cover.The security personnel will

be drawn from the trainedofficers of Kolkata Police andBengal Police, sources saidadding the decision to providesecurity cover to Kishore wastaken following a meeting ofthe security directorate officials.

Significantly the meetingtook place following two devel-opments. First, Kishore’s expul-sion from the Jantadal UnitedParty of Nitish Kumar andsecond his decision to launch‘Baat Bihar Ki’.

“A meeting was calledwhere his security wasreviewed and its upgradationwas recommended to the StateGovernment,” sources said.

However officials inKishore’s election managementcompany said they did nothave any information about thenew security proposals.

Bengal has seen a lot ofpolitical murders over the pastone decade or so. One such vic-

tim of recent escalated politi-cal hostilities was a TrinamoolCongress MLA from Nadia.

Satyajit Biswas KrishanganjMLA was murdered near housein Nadia. Local BJP MP whowas named among 43 otherswas recently grilled for fourhours by the State CID regard-ing his alleged role in the mur-der.

With TMC’s positionimproving since the losses itsuffered in last year’sParliamentary elections—whenthe party conceded 18 out of 42seats to the BJP —thanksKishore’s reported strategicmanipulations the Bengal rul-ing party wants him secured atany cost, experts said.

One of the major reflec-tions of Kishore’s successeswith the TMC was a remark-able comeback staged by theTrinamool in the recently heldAssembly elections to threeseats in which the BJP sufferedhumiliating defeat.

Kolkata: West Bengal ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjee onThursday wrote a letter toPrime Minister NarendraModi, expressing concern over‘steady reduction’ of centralfunds to the State and ‘inordi-nate delay’ in their release.

The BJP called the letter a“political ploy to befool people”ahead of civic polls in thestate.

In her letter, Banerjeeasserted that despite the declinein central funds the state’sGSDP grew by 10.4 per centagainst the national GDPgrowth of 5 per cent in 2019-20. “I write to you with deepconcern regarding steadyreduction of central funds tothe state and also inordinatedelay in release of funds to usfrom the Government of India,”Banerjee wrote.

She said the state is yet toreceive its share of central

funds totalling �50,000 croretill January, 2020.

This “extradordinary situ-ation” is creating major diffi-culties in meeting obligationsfor the welfare of the state, shesaid.

The letter said, “You will,no doubt, appreciate that boththe central and the StateGovernments are expected tofulfil the constitutional oblig-ations and the commitments tothe people, so that respectivegovernments run smoothly ...However West Bengal is beingdeprived of the huge out-standing dues.”

Banerjee said West Bengal’sindex of industrial production(IIP) in April-November 2019-20 stood at 3.1 per cent againstthe national figure of 0.6 percent, while growth of the ser-vices sector at 16.4 per cent wasmuch higher than the nation-al number of 6.9 percent. PTI

Bengaluru: Leaving the organ-isers of an Event to protestagainst the CAA, NRC andNRP here red-faced, a youngwoman on Thursday raised‘Pakistan Zindabad’ slogan inthe presence of AIMIM chiefAsaduddin Owaisi, whodenounced her action andasserted “we are for India”.

The woman, identified asAmulya, asked people to shoutwith her ‘Pakistan Zindabad’after the organisers of the eventunder the banner of “SaveConstitution” invited her toaddress the gathering soonafter Owaisi came on the stage.

Soon Owaisi rushed tosnatchthe mike from her handsand was joined by others whotried to remove her from thestate.

But the woman wasadamant and raised the sloganagain repeatedly.

Later, the police stepped inand removed her from thedais.

Owaisi then addressedthe gathering, saying he did notagree with the woman.

“Neither me nor my partyhas any link with her. Wedenounce her. The organisersshould not have invited herhere. If I knew this, I would nothave come here. We are forIndia and we no way supportour enemy nation Pakistan.Our entire drive is to saveIndia,” the AIMIM MP said.

JD(S) corporator ImranPasha claimed she was plantedby some rival group to disruptthe event. The woman, he said,was not in the list of speakersand demanded that the policeinvestigate the matterseriously. PTI

Chennai: A road crash inTamil Nadu early Thursday left20 dead and 28 injured as alorry collided with their busreducing it to a mangled heap.

Police said the accidentoccurred on the Salem-Kochihighway at Avinashi in Tirupuraround 4 am as the Kerala StateRoad Transport Corporation(KSRTC) bus was proceedingto Ernakulam from Bengaluru.Tirupur is located about 450km from here.

Most of the passengerswere asleep when the lorrycrashed into the bus.

The lorry driver,Ernakulam native Hemaraj,was arrested later.

The tiles-laden containerlorry’s tyre burst and it enteredthe wrong lane colliding withthe bus, reducing the vehicle toa mangled heap, police said.

The 20, including sixwomen, died at the scene whilethe injured were admitted tohospitals in Tirupur and somereferred to Coimbatore, policesaid.

Palakkad Superintendentof Police Siva Vikram said “Itwas a high speed collision.The container lorry went out of

control.”The accident came as a

shock to many in the state sinceone of such a magnitude hasnot happened in Tamil Nadu inthe recent past.

There were 48 passengerson board the bus.

The lorry suffered a tyreburst before colliding with theKSRTC bus, Tamil Nadu ChiefMinister K Palaniswami said inthe State Assembly, adding, allthe victims were Keralites.

Prime Minister NarendraModi, Tamil Nadu GovernorBanwarilal Purohit,Palaniswami, and Kerala ChiefMinister Pinarayi Vijayan con-doled the deaths.

“Extremely anguished bythe bus accident...In this hourof grief, my thoughts andprayers are with the bereavedfamilies. I hope those who areinjured recover at the earliest,”the PM’s Office said in a tweetquoting Modi.

Though reports initiallysuggested the bus was pro-ceeding towardsThiruvananthapuram inKerala, officials later clarified itsdestination was Ernakulam.

Palaniswami said he has

asked the Tirupur administra-tion to coordinate with theirPalakkad counterparts, to expe-dite activities including send-ing the bodies of the deceasedto Kerala.

Further, 23 people wereseriously injured and wereundergoing treatment while

five others sustained simpleinjuries and were proceeding toKerala, he said.

“I have directed theTirupur collector and policeofficials there to set up a helpcentre to assist the relatives ofthe victims and also expeditethe process of sending the

bodies of the deceased by con-tacting Kerala officials,” hesaid.

In Thiruvananthapuram,Vijayan deputed his cabinetcolleagues—Transport MinisterAK Saseendran andAgriculture Minister VSSunilkumar, to Tirupur to

coordinate relief operations,his office said.

The Kerala delegation laterarrived in Tirupur.

Saseendran, Sunilkumar,Palakkad MP VK Sreekandan,and Alathur MP RamyaHaridas besides MLAs fromKerala are camping at Tirupur.

“The State Governmentwill provide a compensation of�10 lakh to the bereaved fam-ilies, �two lakh will be givenwithin a week. The rest of theamount will be given followingthe procedures,” Saseendransaid.

“The families of theKSRTC employees will be given�30 lakh each under the insur-ance scheme,” he added.

The State Government hasalso declared that it will takecare of the medical expenses ofthe injured passengers.

The Health departmenthas sent ambulances to Tirupurto bring back the bodies. Theaccident left the survivors shell-shocked.

Karishma, on her way toErnakulam, said she was seat-ed on the left side of the busand was sleeping when theaccident occurred.

“When I woke up sudden-ly, I saw many people runningaround and the injured beingtaken in ambulances,” thewoman told the media.

Alan, also from Kerala,said he was still finding it dif-ficult to overcome the shock.

“I have sustained a minorinjury on my leg. But my friendis injured on the nose and I amtaking him to hospital,” hesaid.

Jemin George, an injured

passenger, said he suffered a cuton his lips and an injury to hisforehead that required 10stitches.

“I do not know what exact-ly happened. I was sleeping ina seat behind the driver’s seat,”he said, adding, he was referredto a hospital in Coimbatore.

A weeping woman pas-senger alleged the containerlorry was overloaded and therewere not many vehicles on theroad.

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Aizawl: MizoramGovernor PSSreedharan Pillai hailed the Mizo PeaceAccord, signed in 1986, as a beacon ofhope for enduring peace as the north-eastern state celebrated its 34th statehoodday on Thursday.

Pillai, while addressing a programmehere on the occasion, said, “The signingof the historic Mizo Peace Accord on June30, 1986 remains a beacon of hope for theworld that peace can be attained and sus-tained if the people and leaders choose itover violence.”

Mizoram became the 23rd state ofIndia in 1987 after the Mizo NationalFront (MNF) signed the peace accord withthe Centre, ending a two-decade-longinsurgency.

Before attaining statehood, Mizoramwas union territory.

Observing that Mizoram’s endeavour

since attainingstatehood has

been to attain self-reliance, Pillai urged thestate government and denizens not to sole-ly rely on central funding.

“Mizoram is abundantly blessed withresources in horticulture, handloom,handicrafts, human resource and tourismsectors, which we need to tap. It is our dutyto provide a congenial socio-economic set-ting where our youth can flourish withpride,” he said.

He called upon the state governmentto work towards achieving a welfarestate.Pillai said the Centre has allocated 10per cent of the Union budget for the devel-opment of the Northeast.

He also urged the churches and theNGOs to help the State Government incombating AIDS and cancer. Several pro-grammes were held across the State on theoccasion. PTI

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Students of the AligarhMuslim University (AMU)

took out a protest march underthe banner of Students’Coordination Committee hereon Thursday against UttarPradesh Chief Minister YogiAdityanath, accusing him ofshielding the State police fromallegations of brutalities.

“The Chief Minister isdeliberately twisting facts tofalsely implicate students andthus, shielding the police fromallegations of brutalities,” com-mittee spokesperson FaizulHasan said.

Hasan, a former presidentof the AMU Students’ Union,said, “Either the Chief Ministerhas been grossly misinformedor he is deliberately trying toframe those who were protest-ing against the

Citizenship (Amendment) Act(CAA).”

Adityanath defended theUttar Pradesh police onWednesday over the deaths ofanti-CAA protesters, sayingthey were shot by other riotersand nothing could be done tosave someone with a deathwish.

Wrapping up the discus-sion on the governor’s addressin the State Assembly, he saidthe role of the police in dealingwith rioters during the anti-CAA protests should be appre-ciated.

Meanwhile, in a statement,AMU Employees’ Union pres-ident Professor Ramesh Rawatdescribed Adityanath’s remarksthat 15,000 students of theuniversity had attempted toindulge in arson on December15 last year as “false and fabri-cated”.

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The Public Health Engineering (PHE) workers onThursday extended their ongoing strike by 72 hours in

support of various demands including release of pendingwages and regularisation of services.

The PHE workers had begun their strike on February7. The stir has led to a drinking water crisis in most partsof the Jammu region.

“We have decided to extend the ongoing strike by 72hours and if the Government failed to address our issues,we have no option but to hit the roads,” a leader of the pro-testers said. Police on Wednesday foiled an attempt by thou-sands of PHE workers to stage a rally from the office of thechief engineer to the Raj Bhavan here.

“After the end of the 72-hour deadline, over 22,000workers from across the Jammu region will gather here andcome on the roads to press for their genuine demands,” theleader said. He said the wages of the workers are pendingfor the last 65 months, while they have served the depart-ment for over two decades with a hope that their serviceswill get regularised one day.

“We have only got assurances from time and again andtherefore, we will not budge till our demands are met...Withor without Article 370, our fate remains the same and ourfamilies are suffering due to the failure of the Governmentto address our issues,” he said.

Coimbatore: A Muslim couple entered intowedlock amid protests against theCitizenship Amendment Act here by over1,000 people, including women, onThursday.

The ceremony took place under acanopy erected at the protest venue atAathupalam and was witnessed by the pro-testers, who have been on a sit-in sinceWednesday seeking withdrawal of theCAA, proposed National Register ofCitizens and National Population Register.

The marriage was solemnised by anImam, with the bride Reshma and groomAbdul Kalam exchaging vows amid slogansagainst the new law.

Family members and those present atthe venue blessed the couple.

A Muslim couple, holding an anti-CAAplacard, got married at the venue of theongoing protest against CAA in Chennai onMonday. PTI

Salem/Chennai: Six pilgrimsfrom Nepal, Including twowomen, were killed and 24others injured in a road acci-dent near Salem on Thursday,police said.

The accident happenedon the Salem-Bengaluru high-way after a bus rammed theminibus the pilgrims weretravelling in when its drivertried to swerve to the rightnear Omalur in the district,police said.

Chief Minister KPalaniswami condoled thedeath of the six pilgrims and

said the accident happened inthe early hours of Thursdaywhen they were proceeding toRajasthan from Kaniyakumari.

Speaking in the TamilNadu Assembly, he said thatthe accident happened around1 AM.”Six Nepalis includingtwo women travelling in thebus were killed,” he said andexpressed his condolences.

The injured have beenadmitted to hospital, he said,adding he has directed theSalem Collector to ensure theyreceived the best medical treat-ment. PTI

Lucknow: Social activists S R Darapuriand Sadaf Jafar said Thursday theyintend to move court against the UttarPradesh Government’s recovery noticeson them for damage to public propertyduring anti-CAA protests here last year.

They stated they have not yet receivedany official communication seekingrecovery, but a senior Government offi-cial said the notices have been issued to28 people including them.

Darapuri told PTI on Thursday, “I amhearing news that I’ve been issued recov-ery notices by the district adminstration,though I have not received any suchnotice till now. I will challenge it in theHigh Court if I get any.”

Social activist Jafar, who is also aCongress leader, said if she receives anyrecovery notice she too will move court.

“The State Government is sendingrecovery notices unconstitutionally to

people. There is no proof against me ofinciting violence but instead of arrestingantisocial elements, they arrested and tor-tured me,” she said.

She was arrested on December 19 inconnection with the violence.

Lucknow Additional DistrictMagistrate (East) KP Singh had onMonday issued recovery notices to 28people stating that they have to depositRs 63 lakh by March 20, otherwiseaction will be taken against them.

Besides Darapuri and Sadaf, thenotice also names Mohammad Shoaib ofRihai Manch, and social activists RobinVerma, Deepak Kabir, Pawan RaoAmbedkar, among others. Darapuri, aretired IPS officer, was accused of insti-gating violence during the anti-CAAprotest in the state capital on December19 last year. He was arrested on December20, but later granted bail. PTI

Imphal: The Manipur Stateeducation board cancelled theclass 11 final exams after ques-tion papers of at least five sub-jects were leaked, a senior offi-cial said on Thursday.

Question papers of Physics,Chemistry, Maths, Biology andManipuri were leaked, Councilof Higher Secondary EducationManipur (COHSEM) secre-tary Ch Biren Singh told PTI.

The final examinations,which began on February 17, ofall streams of class 11 have beencancelled as “concrete evidenceregarding the leakage” wasfound, COHSEM chairman LMahendra said.

The council has instructedprincipals of all the affiliatedschools to return the questionspapers “in their original formsas collected” by February 24, headded.

Mahendra assured sternaction against those foundresponsible and said the prin-cipals who do not comply withthe council’s direction will beconsidered as individualsresponsible for the leakage.

“Authorities of private insti-tutions found guilty will havetheir affiliation cancelled,” hesaid, adding that the councilwill announce new dates for theexams soon. PTI

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�����8���!��������"����9��.���.����������1� ���� ����:"Bareilly (UP): A class nine studenthas been detained by the police herefor allegedly threatening to blow uphis school building in a ‘Pulwama-like attack’ if he was not paid �2 lakhas extortion amount, an official saidon Thursday.

Senior SP Shailendra Pandeysaid the boy, who also works as anewspaper hawker, has been sent toa reform home.

The principal of the school hadcomplained to police that someonedropped a letter at his house onFriday threatening to blow it up andalso the school building. OnTuesday, the accused student hand-ed him a letter carrying the“Pulwama-like attack” threat, thepolice officer said.

On receiving the complaint, acase under relevant sections of theIPC was registered and the boy wasquestioned.

After changing his statementfrequently, he confessed to havewritten the letter to make easymoney, the police said. PTI

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Bengaluru: Calling BJPGovernment in Karnataka as“a child born illicitly fromOperation Kamala”, theOpposition Congress onThursday warned the rulingparty that people would pun-ish it, if it doesnt keep thepromise of making the state a‘Rama Rajya.’

Alleging that the BSYediyurappa-led Governmentin the state has not come topower with the mandate of thepeople, but only by engineer-ing the defection of 17Congress-JD(S) legislators, theLeader of Opposition in theassembly Siddaramaiah saidthere was no programme fromthe current dispensation worthmentioning in the last seven toeight months.

“There is no programmeof the BJP Government in thelast 7-8 months that is worthmentioning; all the mentionsmade in the address are of pre-vious Congress and coalitionGovernment, he said.

He accused theGovernment of failing to getthe right share of central fundsto the state on time, despitehaving the same party in powerat the Centre.

Siddaramaiah said therewould be over a �11,000-crore

shortfall in tax devolution toKarnataka during 15th financecommission, while warningthat “We are going to suffer ifthis continues and the admin-istration doesnt act.”

You (BJP) people had saidthat you will make Karnatakaa Rama Rajya if party comes topower both at the state and theCentre...Where is it? Do it,” hesaid.

You (BJP) will constructRam Mandir and bring inUniform Civil Code, because itis your agendabut also makeefforts towards building RamaRajya as you had promised orelse you may haveto eat your own words, and

people will punish you, hesaid.

Participating in the debateon the motion of thanks toGovernors address in theassembly, Siddaramaiah saidthe state government has failedto give any preview through theaddress.

The Governors addressdoesnt have anything fromthis Government, except thestate providing �4,000 crore inaddition to the Central gov-ernments �6,000 crore underthe Pradhan Mantri KisanSamman Nidhi scheme,” hesaid. PTI

Panaji: The Goa Congress hassaid it will Challenge its 10 for-mer MLAs, who joined the BJPlast year, to resign and seekfresh mandate on the saffronparty’s ticket.

State Congress spokesmanUrfan Mulla told PTI onThursday that his party leaderswill visit homes of the 10MLAs and challenge them tore-contest the election.

After the 2017 Goa polls, ahung Assembly had emerged.But, the BJP outsmarted theCongress by cobbling togethera coalition quickly.

In July last year, 10Congress MLAs switched overto the BJP. “The Congress willchallenge them to resign asMLAs and then re-contest onBJP’s ticket from their respec-tive Assembly constituencies. Ifthey think they can get re-elect-ed on BJP’s ticket, they shouldtry their luck,” Mulla said.

These MLAs got elected inthe 2017 polls on Congress’ticket, as the voters had reject-ed the BJP, he claimed.

“But these ten MLAsditched the voters and join theBJP,” he alleged.The stateCongress leaders will start vis-iting these 10 MLAs later thisweek, Mulla said. PTI

Jaipur: The Rajasthan Budgetis based on seven resolutions,including Nirogi Rajasthan andefforts are being made so thatdevelopment is not interrupt-ed in the State despite variouschallenges, Chief MinisterAshok Gehlot said onThursday.

Presenting the Budget forFY2020-21 in the RajasthanAssembly, Gehlot referred tothe public welfare measures inthe last Budget, and said thathis Government has tried topresent a concrete action planin this Budget also.

He levied no new tax pro-posals and announced to fill53,151 new vacancies. He alsoannounced rebate of �130 crorein different kinds of taxes.

This is the second Budgetof the Congress Government,

which came to power in thestate in December 2018.

“For us the entireRajasthan is like a family. Forthis family, I want to makeseven resolutions as prioritiesof this Budget,” Gehlot said.

These resolutions arehealthy Rajasthan, prosperousfarmers, welfare of women,children and elderly, capablelabourers, youth-students, edu-cation, water power and roads,skills and technology, headded.

Chief Minister Gehlotwho also holds finance portfo-lio said the Central govern-ment’s revenue has reduceddue to its wrong economicpolicies and Rajasthan is alsosuffering due to this.

He said that state’s share inthe central taxes has been

reduced by �10,362 crore.Gehlot said the financial

condition of the states in thefederal system depends on thepolicies and decisions of thecentral government to a largeextent and noted that todaymost economic indicators indi-cate that the country’s eco-nomic condition has derailed.

“We have made efforts tomake it an inclusive budget by

keeping in mind theviews and suggestionsof farmers, cattle rearers,women, students, youth,industrial and businessorganisations and civilsociety,” Gehlot said.

He said, it is impor-tant to present the truepicture of the economicsituation of the country

before giving details of far-reaching steps that are likely tobe taken in the coming year bythe state government to achievethe overall development of thestate.

“The reason for mention-ing the financial position of thestates in our federal systemdepends on the policies anddecisions of the Centre to alarge extent. Today, most of theindices of the country’s econ-

omy indicate that the country’seconomy is currently goingthrough a bad phase,” he said.

The World Bank, IMF andADB have slashed growth rateprojections. According to theEconomic Survey 2019-20India’s GDP growth rate isestimated to be 5 per cent, headded.

The Chief Minister saidthe Central Government rais-es funds in many ways such asby taking money from theReserve Bank, disinvesting inAir India and Bharat PetroleumCorporation Limited (BPCL),reducing the stake in LICwhereas the states have nosuch option. He said thatdespite these challenges, wehave tried that the road todevelopment in this budget isnot obstructed. PTI

Jaipur: The Opposition BJP onThursday criticised the Budgetpresented by the Congress-ledRajasthan Government, sayingit was a ‘routine budget’ and an“example of poor financialmanagement”.

The BJP also said the bud-get failed to fulfil the expecta-tions of the people of the state.

Leader of Opposition inRajasthan Assembly, GulabChand Kataria said the AshokGehlot-led government hasburdened electricity consumerswith �12,000 crore annually byincreasing the power tariff. Headded that the state had comeinto surplus in terms of revenuereceipts in the previous dis-pensation led by the BJP.

“Power companies arereeling under losses. Theyhave put an annual burden of�12,000 crore on people byincreasing power tariff. Thereis no relief to people in thebudget. We are not able to seeany development in the bud-get,” Kataria said at a press con-ference.

The Congress govern-ment had recently announcedthe power tariff hike of 11.21per cent.

Replying to a question ondecreasing state share in taxcollection from the Centre,Kataria said the State share inGST has increased concur-rent with the income of theCentre.

He claimed the StateGovernment was earning�21,000 crore through value-added tax (VAT), the highestin any state of the country,and despite that there was noword about development inthe budget.

Rajasthan BJP presidentSatish Poonia said it was a rou-tine Budget of the routinegovernment and did not fulfilthe expectations of the peopleof the State. They will blamethe Centre and will also expectfrom the Centre. It is an exam-ple of their poor financialmanagement. The Budget doesnot seem to be fulfilling theexpectation of the people of thestate. PTI

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ANagpur court on Thursdaygranted bail to

Maharashtra’s former ChiefMinister and leader of theOpposition in the StateAssembly Devendra Fadnavisin a case seeking criminal pro-ceedings against him non-dis-closure of criminal cases reg-istered against him in his 2014election affidavit.

Fadnavis, who had beengranted exemption from per-sonal appearance on four pre-vious occasions, finallyappeared before ChiefMetropolitan Magistrate PSIngle amid tight security, andsought bail in thecase.

After recording Fadnavis’appearance before the court,the CJM granted him bail on apersonal bond of �15,000.

Fadnavis had been given

last chance to appear before thecourt on Thursday. Whilegranting bail to Fadnavis, theCJM observed: “The presenceof the accused (Fadnavis) issecured. The offences are bail-able. There is no apprehensionof him absconding. Hence,bail is granted”.

The court was hearing anapplication filed by advocateSatish Uke, seeking criminalproceedings to be initiatedagainst Fadnavis for allegednon-disclosure of criminalcases registered against him inhis election affidavit in the 2014Assembly elections.

The court, while grantingbail, directed Fadnavis toremain present at the nexthearing and also as and whendirected by the court in thematter. The court has sched-uled the next hearing for March30.

Earlier, advocate Satish Uke

opposed Fadnavis’ bail appli-cation on grounds that he hadskipped earlier hearings onvarious grounds and citing theprecedence of a similar caseconcerning Delhi ChiefMinister ArvindKejriwal.

Uke had initially hadmoved a magisterial courtwhich dismissed his complaintagainst Fadnavis on September7, 2015. Subsequently, hemoved a sessions court inNagpur which transferred thematter to the magisterial courtfor a “de novo” (afresh) con-sideration.

Not happy with theSessions court’s order, Fadnavismoved the Bombay HighCourt, which on May 3, 2018set it aside.

Later, in its judgment on

October 1, 2019, the apex courthad set aside the Bombay HighCourt order which gave a cleanchit to Fadnavis and held thathe did not deserve to be triedfor the alleged offence underthe Representation of thePeople (RP) Act.

The SC order had come onan appeal filed by Uke, whohad challenged the high court’sorder.

In its October 1 2019 order,the Supreme Court had direct-ed that a magistrate’s court inNagpur district consider afreshthe complaint filed by Uke,seeking criminal proceedingsto be initiated against MrFadnavis under section 125-Aof the RP Act.

The section 125-A of theRP Act, which deals with thepenalty for “filing false affi-

davit”, says if a candidate or hisproposer fails to furnish orgives false or conceals anyinformation in his nominationpaper on issues like pendingcriminal cases, then the personmay be awarded six months jailterm or fine or both.

Early this week, theSupreme Court reserved itsverdict on Fadnavis’ plea seek-ing review of its 2019 judgmentasking the BJP leader to facetrial for allegedly failing tofurnish details of two pendingcriminal cases against him inhis 2014 poll affidavit.

While representingFadnavis, senior advocateMukul Rohatgi had told a SCbench headed by Justice ArunMishra that the issue wouldhave very far reaching conse-quences for other candidatesfighting elections and the apexcourt needed to re-examine itsOctober 1, 2019 order.

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Maharashtra Chief MinisterUddhav Thackeray will

meet Prime Minister NarendraModi in New Delhi on Friday,in what is being described bythe Shiv Sena as a ‘courtesy call’.

Though Uddhav had metModi briefly on December 6during the latter’s visit to Puneto attend a national conferenceof directors general and inspec-tors general of police, Friday’swill be — for all practical pur-poses — the first formal meet-ing between the two leaders,after the Shiv Sena snapped tieswith the BJP and formed a gov-ernment in Maharashtra inalliance with the NCP andCongress November 28.

Confirming Uddhav’sscheduled meeting with Modi

on Friday, Shiv Sena’s MP andspokesperson Sanjay Raut-- ina tweet posted on Thursdayevening — described the meet-ing as “courtesy call”. He, however, declined to go intofurther details relating to themeeting.

Informed sources in theShiv Sena, meanwhile, saidthat at Friday’s meeting,Uddhav would press for releaseof pending tax dues and alsoseek financial assistance fromthe Centre for the unseasonalrains hit farmers in the State.

It may be recalled that in aletter written to Union FinanceMinister Nirmala Sitharamanon December 11 last year,Thackeray had sought theState’s “legitimate dues” of�15,558 crore from the Uniongovernment by way of GSTcompensation and tax devolu-tion.

“The State is awaiting legit-

imate dues of �15,558.05 crorefrom the Government ofIndia.... Timely release of GSTcompensation and tax devolu-tion amount will help my stateto manage the finances effi-ciently, “ the Chief Minister hadwritten in his letter.

At that time, the pendingdues comprised �6,946.29 croreby way of tax devolution and�8611.76 crore towards GSTcompensation up to November2019.

“As per the Union budget2019-20, the tax devolution toMaharashtra was �46,630.66crore which is 11.15 per centmore than �41,952.65 crorereceived by the state during2018-19.

But, the state has receivedonly �20,254.92 crore tillOctober 2019 which is 25.53per cent less compared to thebudget estimate of 2019-20,”the Chief Minister had said inhis letter to Sitaraman.

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APune-based Special CBIcourt has sentenced

Shaliwahan Solegaonkar, thenBranch Manager, Bank ofMaharashtra, Pune to 10 years’rigorous imprisonment(RI) andlevied a fine of �24 lakh on him,while it has awarded three years’rigorous imprisonment to oneRakesh Yadhav, a private person,along with a fine of �10,000 onhim.

The CBI had registered acase on June 28, 2018 on theallegations that during the peri-od 2009 to 2017, Solegaonkar,a Branch Manager in 5 differ-ent Branches of Bank ofMaharashtra at Pune, hadallegedly entered into criminalconspiracy with Jadhav andother unknown persons andboth the accused fraudulentlymisappropriated an approxi-mate �2,56,15,998 from thebank’s funds.

The modus operandi usedin the alleged crime wasSolegaonkar while working withthe bank in different capacities—as Clerk, Dy. Manager at

Sahakar Nagar Branch, Dy.Manager at Lavale & Lasurnebranches,Manager at HadapsarIndustrial Estate and TalegaonDhamdhere branches—hadtransferred various amountsfrom Bank General Ledger(BGL) account to a SavingsAccount opened in the name ofJadhav which was maintained atSahakar Nagar Branch of Bankof Maharashtra at Pune.

Subsequently, ShaliwahanSolegaonkar transferred thesaid amounts from the accountof Jadhav to his own SavingsBank Accounts maintained atVadgaon Budruk Branch andSahakarnagar Branch of Bank ofMaharashtra, respectively andthereby allegedly misappropri-ated a total amount of�2,56,15,998, which wasentrusted to him as banker.

After investigation, the CBIfiled five charge sheets were filedbefore the Special Judge, BICases, Pune on December 20,2018 and December 26, 2018under sections 120-B of IPC r/w409 and under Section 13(2) r/w13(1)(d) of P.C. Act, 1988against the two accused.

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Aspecial court here onThursday Sentenced a

man to 12 years of rigorousimprisonment for raping a 12-year-old mentally-challengedgirl.

Special judge S P Ponkshefound the accused guilty ofoffence committed under rel-evant sections of the IndianPenal Code and Protection ofChildren from Sexual Offences(POCSO) Act.

As per the minor victim’stestimony, the incident tookplace in November 2016 whenthe accused worked as a sweep-er at a housing society inMulund where she lived.

The accused forcefully tookthe victim to the watchman’sbathroom in the building’scompound and raped her.

He then threatened herwith dire consequences if shecomplained about the assault.

When the incident subse-quently came to light, theminor’s family lodged a com-plaint with the police and anFIR was registered.

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Aspecial court here onThursday convicted a

man for raping his 14-year-old daughter while the grand-father, grandmother anduncle of the victim wereacquitted due to lack of evi-dence.

Protection of Childrenfrom Sexual Offences(POCSO) court judge SanjivKumar Tiwari has fixedFebruary 24 for quantum ofpunishment in the case.

According to speciallawyer for POCSO DineshKumar Sharma, the motherof the girl had filed a com-plaint with the police allegingthat her husband raped thedaughter when she had goneto her parents’ home on July7, 2016.

The woman had alsoalleged that her father-in-law, mother-in-law andbrother-in-law supported theaccused and did not take anystep to prevent him to com-mit rape on his daughter,Sharma said.

Bareilly (UP): A law student was allegedly raped by alawyer and his accomplice inside his chamber in UttarPradesh’s Bareilly district last week, police said onThursday.

The incident happened on February 15 in Bahediarea of the district, Bahedi SHO Pankaj Pant said.

The woman, said to be around 21, had gone to thechamber where the lawyer and his accomplice rapedher, the SHO added. An FIR has been registered onWednesday following a complaint by the victim’s moth-er, he further said. A manhunt is on for the accusedmen who are absconding, Pant said. PTI

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Bhadohi (UP): A day after reg-istration of an FIR againstlocal BJP MLA Ravindra NathTripathi and six others, includ-ing his three sons, for alleged-ly raping a woman repeatedlyfor a month in 2017, policehave beefed up the victim’ssecurity on her claims that shewas getting threats to her life.

“The woman alleged thatshe was getting threats afterwhich her security has beenenhanced. She has been pro-vided three constables,includ-ing two women constables,who will provide her round-

the-clock security,”Superintendent of Police RamBadan Singh said.

The 40-year-old woman,who is a widow, had lodged acomplaint with the police onFebruary 10, following whichan FIR was registered onWednesday, they said.

The woman alleged thatshe was first raped by Tripathi’snephew Sandeep Tiwari, whohas also been named in theFIR, in 2016. She said she didnot lodge a complaint backthen as Tiwari had promised tomarry her.

She also alleged that during

2017 Uttar Pradesh Assemblypolls, she was kept at a hotel fora month by Tiwari. All theseven accused would visit thehotel and repeatedly rape her,the officer said.

She also claimed that shegot pregnant and was forced toundergo abortion, he added.

A probe in this regard washanded over to AssistantSuperintendent of PoliceRavindra Verma. On the basisof his report, an FIR was reg-istered against the seven menat the city police station, the SPsaid. PTI

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Page 8: ?ReZ`_R]Zd^ ]Z\V_VU e` ?RkZd^+ 3YRXhRe - Daily Pioneer

Germany and Japan are final-ly winning a war together.Unfortunately, it is the “waron rationality.” Coal, as every-body knows, is by far the

most damaging source of energy we use,in terms of both the harm to humanbeings and the impact on the climate. It’stwice as bad as natural gas and dozens oftimes worse than solar or nuclear or windpower. Yet both Germany and Japan havebeen building a lot of new coal-firedpower stations. But why are they still bet-ting on coal?

Would it upset you if I said it’sbecause they are, despite their apparentsophistication, superstitious peasants atheart? Well, go ahead and get upset.Germany still gets more than a third ofits energy from burning coal and most ofit is ultra-polluting lignite or “brown”coal. Solar, wind, geo-thermal andhydropower generation provide just 17per cent of the country’s electricity needs.If most of Germany’s 17 nuclear powershad not been shut down after 2012 (thelast are scheduled to close within twoyears), then at least half the coal wouldnot have been needed.

There had been an active anti-nuclearpower movement in Germany for sometime but what triggered the 2012 decisionto shut the entire sector down was theFukushima disaster of the previous year.I am deliberately avoiding the words“calamity”, “disaster” and “catastrophe”because while the Fukushima tsunamikilled 19,000 people, the subsequentproblem with the four nuclear reactors onthe coast killed nobody. Yet, the Germanpeople, or at least a large number ofGerman anti-nuclear activists, insistedthat any nuclear reactor anywhere was amortal danger and the Governmentagreed to shut all nuclear plants down.The country pulled a 180 and decided toembark on ending its use of nuclearpower entirely.

The same thing happened in Japan.The Japanese planners were foolish to putfour reactors on the coast in a regionwhere earthquakes and consequenttsunamis were to be expected from timeto time. What needs to be condemned isthe decision of the planners and notnuclear power. Nevertheless, all 50Japanese nuclear reactors, which account-ed for 30 per cent of the country’s electrical power, were immediately shutdown.

The Japanese are not as blindly dog-matic as the Germans: Two of thosenuclear plants reopened in 2015 andseven more resurfaced recently. A further17 are in the lengthy process of restartapproval. So by 2030, the JapaneseGovernment hopes to be getting 20 percent of its electricity from nuclear poweragain. But that’s only half the amount of

nuclear power that Japan orig-inally planned to make avail-able by 2030. The gap between20 per cent and the planned40 per cent of the country’senergy needs will be made upby burning coal.

Japan recently announcedthat it plans to build 22 newcoal-burning power plants inthe next f ive years. ItsGovernment has argued thatthese coal plants use ultra-supercritical boilers that arevastly more energy-efficientand pollute less per unit ofenergy. But these plants stillemit greenhouse gases and area non-starter for activists whowant the world to zero outcarbon emissions.

This is deeply irresponsi-ble behaviour and the worstthing is that the decision-makers know it. They are justdeferring to public opinion,which in this instance isentirely wrong. The “supersti-tious peasants” should reallybe fr ightened of global warming, for which coal-burning is a major driver, notof relatively harmless nuclearpower.

That’s not to say thatnuclear power is the solutionto all our problems, or evenmost of them. It is generally

the most expensive optionbecause it costs so much tobuild the reactors and theassociated controls and safe-ty devices. Indeed, nuclear isno longer cost-competitivewith other “clean” sources ofpower like wind and solar.

So there is a case for notbuilding any more nuclearpower stations, at least inregions and countries thathave ample resources in termsof sun and wind. But there isno case for shutting downexisting nuclear stations andburning more coal to make upthe difference. That is so stu-pid, it verges on the criminal.

Other countries can beidiotic, too. Due to an admin-istrative glitch, Chineseprovinces are currently building hundreds of unnec-essary coal-fired power sta-tions that may never be used,since the Central Governmentexpects the country’s coal useto peak this year — and mostexisting Chinese coal plantsalready sit idle more thanhalf of the time.

China is using coal powerfinancing as a key element ofits Belt and Road Initiative toexpand its economic andpolitical influence throughoutAsia and Africa. Both Japan

and China are now racing tosecure lucrative constructioncontracts in developing coun-tries to expand their strategicreach.

At least China is alsobuilding nuclear plants as fastas it can. Last year, it account-ed for more than half theworld’s output of solar panels.(On the other hand, it is pro-viding work for the Chineseconstruction industry bybuilding a planned 300 coal-fired power stations inother countries, presumablyon the unspoken assumptionthat carbon dioxide emissionselsewhere won’t affect China’sclimate.)

But nobody is as crazy asthe Germans and theJapanese, who have been shut-ting down nuclear plants andreplacing them with coal-fired plants. France will closeits last coal-fired station in2022 and Britain will do thesame in 2025. But Germanysays 2038 and Japan just says“eventually.” That’s far toolate: By then the die will becast and the world will becommitted to more than 2oCof warming.

(Gwynne Dyer’s new bookis ‘Growing Pains: The Futureof Democracy and Work’).

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Sir — The United NationsEducational, Scientific and CulturalOrganisation (UNESCO) oper-ates with four levels of languageendangerment between “safe” (notendangered) and “extinct” (no liv-ing speakers), based on inter-gen-erational transfer. At a time whennations are talking about thedecline of languages, India stillranks one among those countriesthat have the largest number of liv-ing languages. But it is depressingthat our country has also earnedthe dubious distinction of beingone with the most number ofendangered languages in the world.India has reportedly lost one-fifthof its languages in the past fivedecades.

It’s not surprising that thoselanguages that are at risk are theones spoken by marginal tribes.Mother tongue languages, too,rank at the bottom. When there’sno education in the mothertongue, children drop out whenthey go to high school. The bestway to conserve a language is tocreate livelihood opportunities forthose who speak it.

Dimpy Bhatia New Delhi

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Sir — It wasn’t surprising that aspecial court pulled up theCentral Bureau of Investigation(CBI) for not conducting a lie

detector or psychological test onits former Special Director,Rakesh Asthana, in an allegedbribery case. But it was happythat Special CBI Judge SanjeevAggarwal has asked the probeagency to submit the case diary

for examination. It also enquiredabout the previous investigatingofficer, Ajay Kumar Bassi, whowas taken off the case and hadbeen transferred to Port Blairafter the then agency Chief,Alok Kumar Verma, was shunt-

ed out. People are fully awarethat Asthana is the blue-eyed boyof Prime Minister NarendraModi and Union Home MinisterAmit Shah. How can one forgetthat in 2002, the then HomeMinister and Deputy PrimeMinister LK Advani had intro-duced Asthana to the thenGujarat Chief Minister NarendraModi?

Back then, he was headingthe probe on the Godhra trainburning case and had sent theState into an unprecedented car-nage and helped Modi to getclean chit from the SupremeCourt appointed-SIT, headed byR Raghavan.

To clear the matter, SpecialJudge Aggarwal has directed theinitial investigating officer inthe case, Ajay Kumar Bassi, toappear before it on February 28.Hope the case diary clears therole of Asthana and PrimeMinister Modi’s much hyped nakhaunga, na khane dunga mantraand simultaneously, the skeletonof the country’s highest probeagency’s alleged wrongdoing.

Bidyut Kumar ChatterjeeFaridabad

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Mudapu Yadamma, 38, is fromMallareddipalli village in Nalgonda dis-trict, Telangana. Two years ago, her hus-

band, a farmer, committed suicide by consumingpesticide and left her with a debt of �3.5 lakh.Kamatham Lakshmidevi, 31, is fromDanduvaripalli village in Ananthapur district ofAndhra Pradesh. She, too, was left with a debt of�8 lakh after her husband, also a farmer, killedhimself two years ago.

Vidya More, 38, is from Maharashtra. Whenher husband ended his life in 2012, his suicide wasdeclared not eligible (as a farm suicide) therebydenying her the right to ex-gratia compensation.

They may live in different States but the fateof farm widows across the country is worrying-ly similar. Not only do farm widows suddenlybecome invisible to the State, they are ostracisedby their families and are left to fend for themselves,especially when they are hounded to repay thedebts taken by their farmer husbands. Latest sta-tistics released by the Government show that11,379 farmers killed themselves in India in 2016.In other words, there were 948 suicides everymonth or 31 growers committed suicide daily. Onebig reason for this was mounting debts. While theinability to pay back loans can be attributed to sev-eral reasons, including failed crops, the agrariancrisis and the unavailability of alternative oppor-tunities for earning a livelihood, the burden ofrepaying the debts has fallen on their widows.

At present, there is no programme or policythat frees these farm widows from debts incurredby their husbands. The harrying by banks ormoneylenders begins almost immediately after thehusband’s death, leaving hardly any time for thewidow to mourn her spouse.

The need to survive and look after her chil-dren pushes her to earn a living. But studies haveshown that the woman farmer often adopts thesame kind of farming as the deceased husband.She also resorts to the same practice of chemical-intensive and external-input-driven farmingrequiring investments and borrowing. But withwomen farmers not seen as credit-worthy andaccess to Government schemes and credit beinglimited, the situation can be so hopeless and direthat women farmers are often forced to take thesame path as their husbands and end their lives.Women accounted for 8.6 per cent of farmer sui-cides in the country.

A prime cause has been the inadequate effortsby the Government to prevent farmer suicidescoupled with insufficient and lopsided support tofamilies affected by them, according to theMahila Kisan Adhikaar Manch (MAKAAM), aninformal forum comprising 120 organisations ofwomen farmers and civil society groups in 24States working to secure rights of women grow-ers.

Recent consultations on the “Status of WomenFarmers in Farm Suicide Families” held byMAKAAM and UN Women also revealed that thelack of recognition by the Government of thedeaths as farm suicides in many cases further exac-erbated the conditions of the marginalised wid-ows as the State refused to extend any support tothem.

Korra Shanthi is one such victim of State apa-thy. A resident of Nalgonda district, Telangana,Shanthi and her husband were engaged in culti-

vation on leased land. When her hus-band ended his life in 2018, Shanthi wasleft with a debt of �6 lakh. Although sheapplied for ex-gratia payment with thehelp of local activists, she has notreceived any money yet. Shanthi hasbeen told that she is unlikely to receiveit because her husband did not own anyland in his name, making her ineligiblefor ex-gratia payment.

Since several State Governmentrules specify that only land owners andland title holders are considered as farm-ers while extending support to the sui-cide-affected family, those toiling onleased land fall through the cracks. Withland ownership being the main criteria,tenant farmers and women farmers,especially farm widows who do not haveland in their names, are not recognisedas real farmers. Further, farmers whohave borrowed from moneylendersalso don’t get counted as eligible or gen-uine cases and their widows and fami-lies are denied compensation. “This isone of the biggest problems in Punjab,”contends 40-year-old Veerpal Kaur. Aresident of Mansa district, Punjab, Kaurhas witnessed the despair that led to herhusband, father and father-in-law end-ing their lives. But their families were notconsidered eligible although the suicideswere due to farm distress.

Lack of recognition is a major hur-dle in the relief and rehabilitation ofwidows and their families. This isaccording to a MAKAAM study on thestatus of women in farm suicide-affect-ed families in six States of Maharashtra,Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh,Tamil Nadu and Punjab. One of theimportant findings was that inMaharashtra, Punjab and Karnataka,

only those farmers who had institution-al debt were considered as genuine andeligible for support, not those who endedtheir lives due to pressure from money-lenders.

Moreover, there was a wide varia-tion in the relief and rehabilitation pack-age given by these six States. The studyshowed that the criteria used to deter-mine “farm suicides” were differentacross States and even within the rele-vant agencies like the police, agricultureand revenue departments.

According to MAKAAM’s SeemaKulkarni, even in the States wherecompensation was being paid, it was notuniform. “While Andhra Pradesh pro-vides a compensation of �7 lakh for eachfamily, in Maharashtra, which has thelargest number of farm suicides in thecountry, this is only �2 lakh. In the caseof Telangana, although its policy statesa compensation of �6 lakh, hardly anypayment had been made since subsum-ing farm suicide cases into the FarmerInsurance scheme called Rythu BeemaPadhakam”, says Kulkarni.

Of all the States, only AndhraPradesh had a one-time settlementmechanism, (used in certain cases), tosettle all outstanding institutional as wellas private loans within �1 lakh to liber-ate woman from never-ending debt.However, its use was limited.

The study also found that onlyKarnataka had a policy to supporteducation of children from farm suicidefamilies, including reimbursement of feeof those studying in private institutions.“However, even here, the implementa-tion was poor and lacked coordinationbetween different agencies, states”,Ashalatha Satyam of Rythu Swarajya

Vedika, a MAKAAM partner.She points out that such a policy

does not exist in other States. This is whymany widows in Telangana and AndhraPradesh had to pull out their childrenfrom schools. Although the MaharashtraGovernment had announced a supportpackage related to education fee, noth-ing has been finalised so far.

In cases where land is in the nameof the husband, wives have the oppor-tunity to eke out a living once they areable to get it transferred in their name.But even here it is usually a long anduphill battle as relatives don’t want togive her the rightful share in the prop-erty. Lack of land ownership has forcedmost of the women to either becomelabourers or seek other means ofemployment, often at the cost of theirsafety. So, Mudapu Yadamma is depen-dent on wage labour to keep her threechildren in school since her in-laws arenot prepared to give her a share in thefamily land. Kamatham Laxmidevi,too, was denied her share in the familyland cultivated by her husband and doesany work that helps her earn a living.Vidya More has taken up sewing andwage labour to make ends meet. But allthis isn’t enough to repay the huge debtsincurred by their husbands.

They are not the only ones strug-gling for survival and their rights.Hundreds of farm widows have fallenoff the Government’s radar. Governmentapathy and hopelessness have led manyto take their lives. This is not unknownto the political masters. Then what is theGovernment waiting for? Just howmany more suicides will it take for it totake action?

(The writer is a senior journalist)

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To promote awareness of lin-guistic and cultural diversityand bolster social and multilin-

gual identity, the InternationalMother Tongue Day is celebratedevery year on this day (February 21).

Mother tongue refers to a per-son’s native language, that is, a lan-guage learned from birth. The firstInternational Mother Tongue Daywas observed in 1990 after the dec-laration by the United Nations (UN)to recognise the sacrifices of peoplewho lost their lives for the sake oftheir mother tongue in Bangladesh.

Language is one of the most pre-cious gifts that we have and eachtongue represents a unique and dis-tinct cultural heritage. Language is a

means of communicating values,beliefs and customs and has animportant social function as it fos-ters feelings of group identity and sol-idarity. It is the means by which cul-ture, traditions and shared valuesmay be conveyed and preserved.

About 50 per cent of the world’sout-of-school children live in com-munities where the medium ofinstruction is different from thelanguage used at home. This is per-haps one of the most astounding factsabout second language education.Schools have tried to tackle theproblem by going to the families ofthese children for assistance in help-ing students gain confidence in theuse of the second language. They askthe parents to use the second lan-guage at home so that the studentsbecome more comfortable with itand are able to cope with it in school.This does more harm than good forreasons other than that of a secondlanguage being much harder to learnregardless of copious levels of effortput in to achieve fluency.

In developing areas, usually therearen’t resources enough to prepare

students at this level, so the effortsmade by the parents and the studentsare futile in that sense.

This second language educa-tion also causes a rift between fam-ilies and their native languages in awholly unnecessary way. Families feelalienated from their mother tonguesimply because the school gives theimpression that they should feelthis way. By propagating this attitude,these education systems are essential-ly destroying diverse cultures andbackgrounds that make our speciesso great.

The different languages anddialects spoken throughout the globereflect how history and culture haveshaped the way in which peoplespeak, think and reflect. Our moth-er tongue helps to link new genera-tions to the past, which is part of ourcultural and plurilingual heritage. Itis a well-known fact that everyonehad a language that they grew upspeaking and a good proportion ofthe world spoke more than onetongue. However, the idea that some-one would regularly have to betaught in a language that wasn’t

native to them had never occurredpreviously. “This was, undoubtedly,exacerbated by the fact that I nevermade significant strides towardsbecoming fluent in another lan-guage. The closest I had ever comewas a working proficiency in Spanishduring my junior year of high school.When I think back on my perspec-tive on this subject in the context ofmy parents, their accents neverbothered me because I had justalways been so used to them”, says a21-year-old former student Tej, whois pursuing higher studies atWashington University in St Louis,USA.

Leanne Hinton, a Professor oflinguistics at the University ofCalifornia in Berkeley, says in MotherTongue-Based MultilingualEducation, “More broadly, the loss oflanguage is part of the loss of wholecultures and knowledge systems,including philosophical systems,oral literary and musical traditions,environmental knowledge systems,medical knowledge and importantcultural practices and artistic skills.The world stands to lose an impor-

tant part of the sum of humanknowledge whenever a languagestops being used. Just as the humanspecies is putting itself in dangerthrough the destruction of speciesdiversity, so might we be in dangerfrom the destruction of the diversi-ty of knowledge systems”.

These problems are hard to fix.If one were to approach educatorsand tell them to fix the issue, theywould undoubtedly point to a lack ofresources. Nevertheless, an effortmust be made by educators to haverespect for the mother tongue of theirstudents, even if it is different fromtheir own.

The beauty of academic educa-tion is that the majority of it comesfrom books that can be more easilyproduced in areas with greaterresources. It is for the educators inthese parts of the world — who aremultilingual — to produce ortho-graphical and instructional materi-als for use in developing areas.Given the resource crisis in thedeveloping world, this is likely to beone of the most practical solutions.Children in developing areas have the

thirst for knowledge, we must dowhat we can to satiate it.

Language is the essence andidentity of culture and is a major toolof communication and for exchangeof ideas and emotions. To know yourlanguage is the simplest and mostimportant way to keep and preserveyour culture. In recent times, the ideaof linguistic and cultural awarenesshas increased; thus allowing themother tongue to be more cultural-ly accepted.

It is clear, that we must strive toreform the systems that educate theyouth, in order to further the qual-ity of learning in the first languageor mother tongue and to inspire sol-idarity based on understanding, tol-erance and dialogue.

Maintaining and retaining thelanguages of ethnic and culturalgroups is critical for the preservationof cultural heritage and identity.Using one’s mother tongue at homewill make it easier for speakers to bemore comfortable with their own lin-guistic and cultural identity.

(The writer is Chairperson,Department of Linguistics, AMU)

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With the telecom sectorreeling under severe

financial stress and VodafoneIdea staring at bankruptcy incase it is made to pay its adjust-ed gross revenue (AGR) dues,the Government is consideringoptions to stick to the SupremeCourt’s directive but with leastpossible impact on the finan-cials of the stressed operators.

According to people in theknow, the Government willtry to ensure that its actionregarding AGR dues takes careof all the perspectives, firstly,compliance with the SupremeCourt’s order, then, ensuringminimum impact on the healthof the telcos along with mak-ing sure that the consumers arenot impacted adversely.

The Government, amongother options, is considering toset up a fund to facilitate oper-

ations of telcos post the pay-ment of their AGR dues,sources said.

According to sources in theknow, the dues which have tobe paid to the Department ofTelecommunications (DoT)would have to be put in thetelecom fund, and can then belent to the companies at lower interest.

This will allow companiesto maintain their going concernstatus and continue operationswithout running to banks toraise funds.

With the sector in trouble,none of the banks would beready to lend to telcos, so thefund would act as critical fund-ing support. The telecom fund islikely to help telcos managetheir cash flows and would be fis-cally neutral for the Government.

The sources also said thattwo other options are beinglooked at — waiver of penalties

or staggered payments withinterest. The Prime Minister’sOffice (PMO) and the Law andFinance Ministries would takethe final call.

The DoT has maintainedthat it will execute the topcourt’s directive and stick to thespirit of the order.

In the last couple of days,chiefs of telecom majors, BhartiAirtel and Vodafone Idea havemet Government officials andMinisters in a bid to get some relief.

On Wednesday, Mittal andVodafone Idea ChairmanKumar Mangalam Birla metFinance Minister NirmalaSitharaman to apprise her thecurrent stressed state of affairsin the telecom sector due tohuge AGR payment and arelearnt to have sought relief forsustenance. Both the telco boss-es have also met TelecomSecretary Anshu Prakash.

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Bharti Airtel chairman SunilMittal on Thursday met

Telecom Minister Ravi ShankarPrasad in the wake of the cur-rent AGR payment to be madeby the telcos, saying he sug-gested that for the overallhealth of the industry, taxesneeded to be brought down.

Mittal, however, said theissue of AGR payment per sedid not figure in the talks. Thediscussion was on the overallindustry, he said.

“Adjusted Gross Revenuehas been an unprecedentedcrisis for the telecom industry.I made certain suggestions onthe overall health of the indus-try. Industry has been heavilytaxed and taxes need to be

looked at. The issue of very lowrevenues left in the kitty of theindustry needs to be addressedand the AGR also need to bedealt with”, he said after themeeting with Prasad.

He said Airtel will makethe balance payment expedi-tiously .”The demand forreduction in taxation for thetelecom sector has been for along time. The regulator hasbeen supporting it”, he said inresponse to a query if he hassought any cut in levies.

Mittal met the ministeramid reports that said govern-ment was looking at someform of relief for the sector inview of huge AGR dues to bepaid by telcos.

The telcos, particularlyVodafone Idea, which is severe-

ly hit by the AGR payment, hassought a bailout. The optionshere before the government arelimited. There could be a cut inlicence fee and spectrum usagecharges, staggered payment ofAGR over long years withinterests, a waiver of interestand penalties on AGR dues.

So far the Government hasneither stated nor indicated anyrelief for the telcos. OnWednesday, Mittal met FinanceMinister Nirmala Sitharamanand sought sustainability fortelcos in the stressful times. Hehad said Indian telecom indus-try has been under stress forthe last three-and-a-half yearsand the Government shouldensure sustainability of thesector.

“The only thing

Government needs to do is tofocus on how to ensure sus-tainability of the sector,” he saidafter meeting the FM.

Airtel faces �35,500 croreAGR dues. The company hasalready announced its plans topay the dues that arose fromthe Supreme Court ruling.

Earlier this week, BhartiAirtel had paid �10,000 croreto the telecom department aspart of its AGR dues. Thecompany plans to pay the bal-ance amount before the nextdate of Supreme Court’s hear-ing which is on March 17.

Former Finance SecretarySubhash Chandra Garg hassaid in a blog that telecom cri-sis is not limited to AGR andthat the problems are muchdeeper.

New Delhi: The Department ofTelecom will bar telecom ven-dors of those countries thatwould disallow or excludeIndian suppliers from providingnetwork gears used for wifi,fixed line and cellular networks,including 5G services, in theirrespective local markets, accord-ing to an official order.

The order is part ofGovernment’s PublicProcurement (Preference toMake in India) order 2017 which

envisages to source domestical-ly manufactured products toencourage ‘Make in India’.

“Any foreign Governmentwhich is not allowing Indian sup-pliers to participate and/or com-pete in procurement of telecomequipment, provision of clause10 (d) of Public Procurement(Preference to Make in India)order 2017 be invoked in relationto the aforesaid telecom items,”the order sent by the DoT to allCentral Government depart-

ments and public sector units onFebruary 19 said.

This include wifi accesspoints, routers, optical fibrecable, enterprise routers andrelated technology, integratedbroadband systems, broadbandtransmission equipments,modems etc. Section 10 (d) ofthe order states that if nodal min-istry finds that Indian suppliersof an item are not allowed to par-ticipate or compete in procure-ment by any foreign government

then it may restrict or excludebidders from that country fromeligibility for procurement of thatitem and other items relating thatnodal ministry.

The Department forPromotion of Industry andInternal Trade identifies DoTas the nodal department forimplementing the provisionsrelated to procurement ofgoods, services or works relat-ed to the telecommunicationsector. PTI

New Delhi: The telecom department will ver-ify telcos’ claims of lesser AGR dues by ini-tiating random ‘test checks’ before March 17,sources said. The ‘test check’ will happen forall telcom firms but will start with those claim-ing they have already made full and final set-tlement towards their statutory liabilities. Theexercise will help the department assess thegap between telcos’ claim of what theiradjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues are andits own estimates. PTI

New Delhi: Vodafone Idea on Thursdaypaid �1,000 crore to Department ofTelecom towards its AGR dues, officialsources said.

Earlier this week, the telecom com-pany had paid �2,500 crore and had saidit would pay �1,000 crore more on week-ends. But Friday is a holiday, so the com-pany has made the payment onThursday, however, Vodafone Idea didnot comment on it.

The DoT seeks �53,000 crore AGR

payments from Vodafone Idea as it hasbeen hit maximum by the AGR duesdemand. On Wednesday, VIL chairmanKM Birla and his Airtel counterpartSunil Mittal individually met Financeminister Nirmala Sitharaman and learntto have sought relief from the government.

While the Government has so far nottaken any decision on a bail out, Birla andMittal have also met Telecom secretaryAnshu Prakash to press for supportingthe industry for sustainability. IANS

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The rupee on Thursdaydeclined by 10 paise to

settle at a more than one-month low of 71.64 against theUS dollar amid heavy selling indomestic equities and strength-ening of the American curren-cy in the overseas market.

Forex traders said investorsentiments remained fragileamid coronavirus fears andsustained foreign fund out-flows. The death toll from thecoronavirus epidemic in Chinahas climbed to 2,118, while theoverall confirmed casesincreased to 74,576, Chineseofficials said on Thursday.

At the interbank foreignexchange market, the local cur-rency opened at 71.75. Duringthe day, it lost ground andtouched a low of 71.80 and final-ly settled 10 paise lower at 71.64against the US currency, a levelnot seen since January 8. The

rupee had settled at 71.54 againstthe US dollar on Tuesday. Forexmarket was shut on February 19,on account of ChhatrapatiShivaji Maharaj Jayanti.

“Indian rupee recoveredearly morning losses followingAsian peers. Foreign fundinflows, dollar selling by stateowned banks and stable crudeoil prices also supported therupee,” said V K Sharma, HeadPCG and Capital MarketsStrategy, HDFC Securities.

Sharma added the near-term bias for rupee is bearishamid stronger dollar vis-a-vismajor trading currencies. On aweekly basis, the rupee lost 33paise. “Despite a lacklusterweek, we saw an appreciationin USD/INR spot trackingsome uncertainty over coron-avirus along with sharp surgein dollar index and crude oilprices,” said Rahul Gupta, Headof Research- Currency, EmkayGlobal Financial Services.

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The Ministry of New andRenewable Energy has pro-

posed a draft policy for the sup-ply of round-the-clock (RTC)power to distributors througha mix of renewable energy andelectricity generated in coal-based plants.

Addressing the issues ofintermittency, limited hoursof supply and low capacityutilisation of transmissioninfrastructure, the draft policyprovides for reverse bundling,wherein high-cost thermalpower is being allowed to bebundled with cheaper renew-able energy.

Accordingly, a power gen-erating firm will have to sup-ply electricity such that at least51 per cent of the annual ener-gy supplied corresponds torenewable energy and the bal-ance is drawn from thermalsources.

The generator will supplyRE power complemented withthermal power, in RTC man-

ner, keeping at least 80 per centavailability on an annual basis,the draft said.

“The main objective of thescheme is to provide RTC powerto the discoms throughbundling of RE power withthermal power and to scale uprenewable capacity additions. Itwill also facilitate fulfilment ofrenewable purchase obligation(RPO) requirement of the oblig-ated entities,” the ministry saidinviting comments from stake-holders on the new policy.

While India is committedto installing 175 GW of renew-able energy (RE) sources by2022 and 450 GW by 2030,intermittent power generatedthrough such sources and itsimplication on the grid safetyhas been a concern. Parallelly,there is around 26 GW ofstranded thermal power assetslying unutilised which can pro-vide firm power to the grid.

To bridge the gap, theMNRE has come out with thedraft RE-based round the clock(RTC) power.

New Delhi: Union MinisterHardeep Singh Puri onThursday said the ministry ofhousing and urban affairs(MoHUA) will soon come outwith a rental policy.

The policy would help alle-viate housing shortage in urbanareas by encouraging renting ofhomes as millions of houses lievacant across the country.

“Very soon you will see arental policy out,” he said hereat a function. The Minister saidthat a lot of people do not wantto give their properties on rentbecause they think that “if youhave a weak legal system, youmight not get your propertyback”. He expressed hope thatthe new policy will overcomethis concern. “You have got thetemplate etc (of the policy).States can tweak it to the extentthey like. You will have a situ-ation where large amounts ofresidential accommodationwhich is not being utilised willthen be released into the mar-ket,” the Minister said. PTI

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New Delhi: Mean downloadspeeds on fixed broadband net-work in India slipped to 38.84megabit per second (Mbps), butthe the same on mobile networkimproved slightly to 11.58 Mbpsin January, a report released byOokla said on Thursday.

“India’s performance inmean download speeds onfixed broadband has gonedown from 40.11 Mbps inDecember 2019 to 38.84 inJanuary 2020. Mean downloadspeeds on mobile broadbandhave gone up from 11.46 Mbpsto 11.58 Mbps in January 2020,”

the broadband speed analysisfirm said in its report.

The index placed UAE onfirst position for mobile broad-band speed with a mean down-load speed of 87.01 Mbps.Singapore still holds the topspot for fixed broadband speedwith a significant increase inmean download speeds at202.21 Mbps. Ookla’s SpeedtestGlobal Index compares inter-net speed data from round theworld each month, and the datafor same comes from teststaken by people using Speedtestapplication. PTI

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Mumbai: Economic activityremains weak and high fre-quency indicators do not pointto “bottoming out” of thedownturn, the RBI MonetaryPolicy Committee noted whilekeeping the key interest rateunchanged earlier this month.

According to the minutesof the MPC released by thecentral bank on Thursday,member and RBI DeputyGovernor Michael DebabrataPatra observed that economic

activity remains weak.“... There are indications of

the momentum of growth sta-bilising, with sector-specificupticks underlying this guardedoptimism, but they are far fromgaining economy-wide traction.In some sectors, the slowdownis deep, and activity is stalled bysizable slack in demand.

“High frequency indica-tors are not offering definitiveevidence yet that the downturnis bottoming out,” he said dur-

ing the meeting of the MPCthat concluded on February 6.

RBI Governor ShaktikantaDas, who heads the six-memberpanel, said “some green shootsare, however, visible”. India’s eco-nomic growth is estimated tohave slowed down to 11-year lowof 5 per cent during the currentfinancial year ending March2020. High frequency indicatorslike automobile sales and capitalgoods output are moderatingsince last several months. PTI

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The Central Government has released �19,950crore as GST compensation to states, taking

the total amount released to them to over �1.2 lakh crore.

In a statement, the finance ministry said�19,950 crore was released to states and unionterritories on last Monday.

When the Goods and Services Tax (GST)

came into force in July 2017, states, which lostpowers to levy taxes such as VAT, were guar-anteed to be compensated for any loss of rev-enue in the first five years of GST implementa-tion. This compensation was to come out of apool that is to be created by levy of cess on cer-tain sin and luxury goods over and above theGST tax rate. The shortfall is calculated assum-ing a 14 per cent annual growth in GST collec-tions by states over the base year of 2015-16.

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A43-year-old German manshot and killed nine peo-

ple at several locations in aFrankfurt suburb overnight inattacks that appear to havebeen motivated by far-rightbeliefs , of f icials saidThursday.

The gunman f irstattacked a hookah bar in cen-tral Hanau at about 10 p.M.Wednesday, killing severalpeople before heading about2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles)west and opening fire again,claiming more victims.

Witnesses and surveil-lance videos of the suspect’sgetaway car led authoritiesquickly to his home, near thescene of the second attack,where he was found deadnear his 72-year-old mother,said Peter Beuth, the interiorminister for the state of Hesse.

A website believed to bethe suspect’s is being evaluat-ed, Beuth said.

“Initial analysis of thewebpage of the suspect indi-cate a xenophobic motiva-tion,” he said. He said feder-al prosecutors have takenover the investigation of thecrime and are treating it as anact of domestic terrorism.

“This is an attack on ourfree and peaceful society,” hesaid. Some of the victims arebelieved to be Turkish, andTurkey’s Foreign MinisterMevlut Cavusoglu said theconsulate in Frankfurt andthe embassy in Berlin weretrying to obtain informationon the attack.

“According to the initialinformation, it was an attackwith a racist motive, but wewould need to wait for the(official) statement,” he toldstate television TRT.

German news agency dpareported that police are exam-ining a video the suspect mayhave posted online several

days earlier in which hedetails a conspiracy theoryabout child abuse in theUnited States. The authentic-ity of the video couldn’timmediately be verified.

On a website registered bysomeone with the same nameas the man in the video,Tobias R., the owner says hewas born in Hanau in 1977and grew up in the city, latertraining with a bank andcompleting a business degreein 2007.

The attack comes amidgrowing concerns about far-

right violence in Germany.Chancellor Angela Merkel

called off a planned visitThursday to a university inHalle.

Her spokesman, SteffenSeibert, said she was “beingconstantly kept abreast of thestate of the investigations inHanau.” Halle was the site ofa deadly anti-Semitic attacklast year. A man expressinganti-Jewish views tried toshoot his way into a syna-gogue, failed and killed twopassers-by before beingarrested.

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Hanau (Germany): ChancellorAngela Merkel condemned the“poison” of racism on Thursdayafter a shooter with suspectedfar-right beliefs killed ninepeople at a shisha bar and a cafein the German city of Hanau.

The suspect, identified as43-year-old German Tobias R.,was found dead at his home fol-lowing an hours-long man-hunt.

The body of his 72-year-old mother was also found atthe flat in what appeared to bea murder-suicide.

Federal counter-terror

prosecutors investigating thecase said they saw “a xeno-phobic motive” behind theshootings, the latest deadlyattack blamed on the far rightin Germany.

“Racism is a poison, hatredis a poison and this poisonexists in our society and it isalready to blame for far toomany crimes,” Merkel said inBerlin.

The suspect left behindonline a “manifesto” and videomaterial that suggested a terrorattack motivated by “a hostileattitude to foreigners”, said

Peter Beuth, the interior min-ister of the state of Hesse.

Among the dead were “sev-eral victims of Kurdish origin”,the Kon-Med association ofKurds in Germany said in astatement, adding that it was“furious” that authoritiesweren’t doing more to combatrising extremism.

The rampage started ataround 10:00 pm (2100 GMT)on Wednesday at a shisha barin the Heumarkt area of centralHanau, a city some 20 kilome-tres (12 miles) east ofFrankfurt. AFP

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Beijing: The death toll from thecoronavirus epidemic in Chinahas climbed to 2,118 with thedeath of 114 more people,while the overall confirmedcases increased to 74,576,Chinese officials said onThursday.

China’s National HealthCommission (NHC) said thenew confirmed cases declinedto 394, registering the biggestdrop since December when thefirst case was reported inWuhan city in the centralHubei Province.

The NHC said onThursday that it receivedreports of 114 deaths onWednesday from 31 provincial-level regions. The overall con-firmed cases on the Chinesemainland reached 74,576 and2,118 people died of the dead-ly disease.

The commission addedthat 4,922 people were still sus-pected of being infected withthe virus.

Among the deaths, 108were in Hubei Province, theepicentre of the virus and oneeach from Hebei, Shanghai,Fujian, Shandong, Yunnan andShaanxi, it said.

The worst-hit HubeiProvince and its provincialcapital Wuhan which were theground zero of the virusreported 349 new confirmedcases and 108 new deaths onWednesday. PTI

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Bangkok: Thailand’sGovernment is scrambling tocope with new travel restric-tions after Israel banned the cit-izens of Thailand and threeother Asian countries and ter-ritories from entering overconcerns about a new virus.

Israel on Mondayannounced it was refusingentry to all foreign nationalswho travelled to Thailand,Singapore, Hong Kong andMacau during the past 14 days.

Israeli citizens and resi-dents will be isolated at homefor 14 days after their returnfrom areas at risk. AP

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Seoul: South Korea reportedits first death from a new viruson Thursday while the mayorof a southeastern city urgedhis 2.5 million people torefrain from going outside asviral infections, linked to achurch congregation, spiked.

The death of a previous-ly confirmed patient in SouthKorea marked the world’sninth virus fatality outsidemainland China.

Other deaths haveoccurred in Hong Kong,Japan, Taiwan, the Philippinesand France. AFP

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Brussels: The EU on Thursdayvoiced concern about China’sdecision to expel three WallStreet Journal reporters, sayingthe move was a fresh attack onfreedom of expression.

Beijing ordered the Journal’sdeputy bureau chief and tworeporters to leave the country,saying the headline of a com-ment piece — titled “China is theReal Sick Man of Asia” — was“racially discriminatory” and“sensational”. EU Spokesperson

for Foreign Affairs and SecurityPolicy Virginie Battu-Henriksson said it was the lat-est example of Beijing using visasto hamper the work of foreignjournalists in China.

“The denial of visas and therevocation of credential in retal-iation for the publication of anopinion piece are of concern andamount to further restrictionson freedom of expression andopinion,” Battu-Henriksson saidin a statement. AFP

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Tehran: Iran said onThursday that three morepeople have been infectedwith the new coronavirus thatoriginated in central China,following an announcementthe day before that two peo-ple had died of the illnesscaused by the virus in theIranian city of Qom.

All schools and universi-ties, including religious Shiiteseminaries, were shut down inthe holy city of Qom, accord-ing to the official IRNA newsagency. Other news reportssaid Iran had recently evacu-ated 60 Iranian students fromWuhan, the Chinese city at theepicentre of the epidemic.

Qom, located around 140kilometers south of the capi-tal, Tehran, is a popular reli-gious destination and a centreof learning and religious stud-ies for Shiite Muslims frominside Iran, as well as Iraq,Pakistan and Afghanistan andAzerbaijan. AP

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Beijing: China on Thursdaydefended expelling three for-eign journalists of the WallStreet Journal, saying thatmedia which insults, smearsthe country and supportracial discrimination “mustpay the price”.

China on Wednesdayexpelled three journalists ofthe Wall Street Journal (WSJ)following an article in thenewspaper titled “China Is theReal Sick Man of Asia” byWalter Russell Mead pub-lished on February 3 as thecountry was fighting an all-out war against the coron-avirus outbreak that has killedover 2,000 people.

China’s Foreign Ministryrevoked the press cards ofthree WSJ journalists (twoAmericans and oneAustralian) and asked themto leave the country withinfive days. PTI

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Washington: PresidentDonald Trump has ousted thePentagon’s top policy officialwho had certified last year thatUkraine had made enoughanti-corruption progress tojustify the Trump administra-tion’s release of congressional-ly authorised aid to Kyiv in itsconflict against Russian-backed separatists.

John Rood resignedWednesday, saying he wasleaving at Trump’s request.

The Trump administra-tion’s delay in releasing the aidto Ukraine was central to thepresident’s impeachment by

the House on charges of abuseof power and obstruction ofCongress.

The Senate voted to acquitthe president. But in the wakeof the Senate trial, an embold-ened Trump has gone afterofficials he has perceived asbeing disloyal.

Rood is the latest official tobe purged. His forced resigna-tion comes as Democrats onthe Hill express concerns thatTrump is on a vendetta in thewake of his acquittal.

Just days after the Senatevote, the White House reas-signed an Army officer, Lt. Col.

Alex Vindman, a key witnessin the impeachment inquiry,from the National SecurityCouncil, and pushed his twinbrother, an NSC lawyer, outwith him.

Gordon Sondland, Trump’sambassador to the EuropeanUnion who also was a key wit-ness before House investigators,was recalled from his post.

Trump tweeted Wednesdaythat he wanted to “thank JohnRood for his service to ourCountry, and wish him well inhis future endeavors!” Rood, inhis letter to Trump, did notmention Ukraine.

It’s my understandingfrom Secretary (Mark) Esperthat you requested my resig-nation,” Rood said. Rood saidhe will step down as ofFebruary 28.

Rood wrote in a May 23letter to Congress that thePentagon had made a thor-ough assessment of Ukraine’santi-corruption actions andother reforms.

And he said that, “I havecertified that the governmentof Ukraine has taken sub-stantial actions to makedefense institutional reformsfor the purpose of decreasingcorruption” and making otherimprovements.” AP

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Las Vegas: From the openingbell, Democrats unleashed anaggressive verbal assault on NewYork billionaire Mike Bloombergand raised new questions aboutBernie Sanders’ take-no-pris-oners politics in a contentiousdebate Wednesday night thatthreatened to scramble evenfurther the party’s urgent questto defeat President DonaldTrump.

The former New York Citymayor was forced to defend hisdivisive record on race, genderand Wall Street in his debate-stage debut, while Sanders,appearing in his ninth of the2020 primary season, tried tobeat back pointed questionsabout his healthand his embraceof democratic socialism.

Fierce exchanges through-out the two-hour affair markedthe most aggressive sustainedperiod of infighting in theDemocrats’ yearlong search fora presidential nominee, reflect-ing rising urgency in a 2020 pri-mary season that is alreadydeep into its voting phase.

Nevada votes Saturday.South Carolina the week after.And more than a dozen stateshost a series of Super Tuesday

contests in less than two weeks.In a fight for her political life,

Massachusetts Sen. ElizabethWarren was a leading aggressoragainst Bloomberg. She was onthe attack throughout the nightfollowinga sharp slide in thepolls, calling Bloomberg “a bil-lionaire who calls people fatbroads and horse-faced lesbians.”She wasn’t alone.

Sanders lashed out atBloomberg’s policing policiesas New York City mayor that hesaid targeted “African-Americanand Latinos in an outrageousway.” And former Vice PresidentJoe Biden charged thatBloomberg’s “stop-and-frisk”policy ended up “throwing 5million black men up against thewall.” Bloomberg defended him-self on all counts and took a shotat Sanders’ electability: “I don’tthink there’s any chance of thesenator beating Donald Trump.”Bloomberg later seized onSanders’ rising wealth: “Thebest known socialist in thecountry happens to be a mil-lionaire with three houses!”Sanders defended owning mul-tiple houses, noting he has onein Washington, where he works,and two in Vermont. AP

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Kuala Lumpur: Nearly 900,000pangolins are believed to havebeen trafficked acrossSoutheast Asia in the past twodecades, a wildlife watchdogsaid Thursday, highlighting thechallenge in tackling the illic-it trade.

As the world’s most heav-ily trafficked mammal, thecreatures are targeted for theirbody parts which are highlyvalued in traditional medicinein countries including Chinaand Vietnam, and their meat isseen as a delicacy.

Also known as the scalyanteater, the shy, primarilynocturnal animals have beenheavily poached for years inbiodiverse Southeast Asia andare being increasingly targetedin Africa. AFP

)� ���:�''�'''� �������� ����+����$���� ����� �� ����� Sanaa: Nineteen children were

among at least 31 civilianskilled in air strikes on rebel-heldnorthern Yemen last week, theUnited Nations said onThursday.

“UNICEF is sad to confirmthat the recent attack in Al-Jawf,north of Yemen, on February15, took the lives of 19 children(eight boys and 11 girls) andinjured another 18 (nine boysand another nine girls),” the UNchildren’s agency said in a state-ment.

“It was an attack on a civil-ian populated area where chil-dren were in the vicinity,”UNICEF regional communi-cations chief Juliette Touma toldAFP. Saturday’s air strikes cameafter the Iran-aligned rebelsclaimed to have shot down anaircraft of the Saudi-led coali-tion supporting the govern-ment. The rebels reported mul-

tiple coalition air strikes wherethe plane went down, while thecoalition conceded the “possi-bility of collateral damage” dur-ing a “search and rescue oper-ation” at the site of the jet crash,which left the fate of its crewuncertain.

UNICEF urged the war-ring sides to put an end to theconflict, adding that the “wor-rying escalation of violenceover the past few weeks is aharsh reminder that children inYemen continue to carry theheaviest burden of the conflict”.

The Saudi-led coalitionintervened in the war in 2015,shortly after the rebels seizedcontrol of the capital Sanaa.

Since then, tens of thou-sands of people — mostly civil-ians — have been killed andmany more displaced in whatthe UN has called the worsthumanitarian crisis. AFP

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Addis Ababa: Ethiopia’s gov-ernment on Thursdayassumed custody of a price-less 18th-century crown thata former refugee had kepthidden in his apartment inthe Netherlands for twodecades.

The handover took placeat a ceremony in the capital,Addis Ababa, attended byPrime Minister Abiy Ahmedand Sigrid Kaag, the Dutchminister for foreign tradeand development coopera-tion.

Sirak Asfaw, the one-timerefugee who is now a Dutch

citizen, fled Ethiopia duringthe late 1970s during the so-called “Red Terror” purges.

He found the gilded crown— which features images ofChrist and the Twelve Apostles— in 1998 in a suitcase leftbehind by a visitor.

It had “disappeared” fromthe Holy Trinity Church inCheleqot, a village in north-ern Ethiopia, the Dutch gov-ernment said in a statementThursday.

Sirak assumed the crownhad been stolen but worriedit would “just disappearagain” if he returned it to

Ethiopia’s leaders, so he keptit in his apartment in theDutch port city of Rotterdam,he told AFP last year.

Only after PrimeMinister Abiy Ahmed tookoffice in 2018 did Sirak feelcomfortable handing it over.

He then contacted ArthurBrand, a renowned Dutchart detective, who brought thestory to the Dutch govern-ment’s attention. “We’re hon-oured and delighted to havebeen able to facilitate therightful return,” Kaag, theDutch minister, said in astatement Thursday. AFP

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When organic skincare productscame into India, it was assumedthat they would be another

elitist fad, which would eventually fadeaway with each passing day. However, asthe benefit of natural, plant-based cos-metics spread, the bigger brands spurredan interest in our native traditions andbirthed home brands as well.

One of the major reasons why thedemand kept on growing in India is dueto the country’s constantly increasingdigital literacy rate, shares VedikaSharma, Director at Mantra Herbal. Shefeels that people are now becoming moreconscious of and familiar about the ben-efits of organic products and trying toavoid the harmful effects of chemicalsand fertilisers used during farming.“The personal care space has mostlybeen defined by three terms — ayurve-da, wellness and organic. From a mar-keting standpoint, ayurveda is more ofa mass play. On the other hand, organ-ic has emerged as an alternative toayurveda with a more premium posi-tioning,” says she.

While the Director at The ImperialSpa and Salon, Jacqualine Tara Herron,who recently announced associationwith French luxury skincare brand,Olivier Claire, tells us that from thegrowers to the market place and on tothe consumer, the economy is greatlyinfluenced by these intelligent choices.Director at O3plus, Vidur Kapur,believes that even though the future oforganic products is bright, the degree ofresult may vary if you compare it to adermatological product.

IMPACT OF ORGANIC PRODUCTSCertified organic products are

derived from plants and other natural-ly occurring ingredients. More impor-tantly, those ingredients are grownwithout the use of pesticides, herbicides,synthetic fertilisers, genetically modifiedorganisms (GMOs), and other additivesor chemicals. Tara says, “More andmore of us are seeking ways to redressthe balance of pollution that can dam-age the skin and destroy the skins abil-ity to regenerate. The synthetic ingredi-ents found in non-organic products maybe fast acting, but they are also invasive,causing harm that cannot be seen.Olivier Claire products and treatmentshave an integral protective and preser-vative nature that combats the effects ofnegative stress on the skin caused byenvironmental hazards.”

Vedika tells us that the use of toxicchemicals worsens the skin’s natural bar-rier and accelerates the damage by dis-rupting pH balance and can even causeskin cancer in the long run. “GivenDelhi’s air pollution level and atmos-phere, it causes many skin problemsbrown spots, wrinkles, redness, enlargedpores and dry patches. Even though theresults may be slower, organic skin careproducts are gentle on your skin and

won’t harm you in the long run,” saysshe.

NEWER NATURAL INGREDIENTSOn the surface of the skin, there is some-thing known as microbiome, which ismade up of bacteria, fungi and viruses. Thismakes certain chemicals that keep the skinhealthy and help your skin’s barrier stayintact. Skincare experts note that this is setto go mainstream this year.

The trends also points towards ‘less-but-better’ attitude. Experts say that brandsneed to evolve with this concept under-standing that consumers are looking topurchase fewer items that still deliver allof the results they want.

Vedika feels the concept of “bluebeauty,” is on the rise, which will push peo-

ple to use marine-friendly products. Thesay if it is bad for marine life, why do youthink it is good for your skin? “Waterlessbeauty is the next thing in the industry,which means that brands will reducewater consumption in making the prod-ucts,” says she. Keeping in mind the cur-rent air pollution situation, anti-pollutionskincare will become synonymous with sunprotection, she adds.

Also, the biggest shift in Vidur’s opin-ion is going to be towards mens skincarerange of products. “While the mainstreammedia has historically targetted womenwhen it comes to grooming products, moreoptions for men’s personal care are emerg-ing,” she says and adds that the star ingre-dient of the products is going to be caffeine.

PERCEPTION OF BEAUTY MAY VARYA good state of health isn’t a process

that you can master overnight, it takes alot of baby steps and determination. Thedefinition of beauty keeps on changing butsomething that stays constant is the factthat internal beauty really does matter overthe external charm. And skincare brandsmust prioritise internal intangibles —like being comfortable in one’s own skinand feeling confident — over external fea-tures.

The good news is that focussing on a

few, simple things can make a massive dif-ference to how you look and feel. InVedika’s opinion, healthy skin comes froma combination of a good diet and use ofnatural skincare products. She says, “Goodnutrition implies what to avoid. Veggiesand water can only hydrate your organs.Skin is also an organ of the body and wateralso evaporates from it easily. Hence,moisturisers seal moisture in skin. Skincarehave ingredients that penetrate and workon the problem area directly. For instance,dark circles won’t just fade away with aneye cream. A healthy diet and sound sleepwill work together along with a good skin-care product.”

Tara believes that inner beauty is longlasting. You don’t need costly cosmetics orexpensive surgeries to keep it intact. Thereare many brands that cater to this concept.One such example is Dove. Olivier Clairefocus on it too. The products have beenharmlessly harvested from natural sources.Key ingredients such as native stem cellsfrom sunflower pollen, wakame seaweedand sea fennel are scientifically tested toachieve the best results.

Inner beauty enhances your externalcharm. It gives you the confidence to facethe world and its problems, which is some-thing far greater than the standards that hadbeen set by the society, feels Vidur.

First things first. We have to keep inmind that we live in a country where

the people who are in power believe thatcars are a luxury item. That was madeclear by Prime Minister NarendraModi the other day when he said that1.5 crore luxury cars have been sold inIndia over the past five years. Now,while I believe WagonR and Santro arefairly nice cars, BMW is not, becauseas much as the i3 tries to be basic, it real-ly isn’t.

Luxury or premium cars in mybook are cars that cost upwards of �30lakh, which would include the higher-end of mass-market brands. Thatmeans cars like the Hyundai Santa Feand, of course, all the German premi-um brands as well as Lexus, Volvo andthe like. The figure for sales of such carswould at best be around 250,000 overthe past five years. Because the total saleof cars in India is 1.5 crore. So now weknow, according to the government carsare a symbol of bourgeoise, the momentyou move to four wheels, whether it isa Maruti Alto or an Audi, you are amember of the entitled classes. Not forpoliticians and bureaucrats, of course,because they need cars to tell us howbad we are for not paying taxes.

Anyway, back to the topic. Whichagain involves excise duties, Customsand taxes again. The fact is that electriccars are far too expensive for mass adop-tion in a country like India. The twoelectric SUVs that have been launchedso far, the Hyundai Kona and the MGZS EV, are both cars that can definite-ly be lived with on a daily basis with-out any worry about range. If you livein a city like Delhi where you have park-ing, and if you can afford a �25 lakh caryou possibly do have parking, chargingis not a problem. With ranges of 300kilometres, and the average daily com-mute being 25-30 kilometres, you willeasily survive a week on a singlecharge. As for long-distance driving,well, Delhi-Lucknow may be a bit of astretch but Agra, Chandigarh,Dehradun and Jaipur should be easily

achievable as long as you have plannedfor a charging point at your destination.There are few, if any, public chargersoutside Delhi and even those in Delhiare often not compatible with all carsas I have discovered in the past. But oneassumes that will change going forward.

But until it changes and until carslike the Kona and ZE EV will make nosense whatsoever. Cars with more lim-ited ranges such as the Tata Nexon EVand the Mahindra e-Verito are enter-ing governmental and taxi fleets inDelhi, the latter being a bit bizarre giventhe usage of taxis over long distancesand without any fast-charging infra-structure. That is because decent rangecosts money and battery costs make upthe bulk of the cost of an electric car.Without any battery manufacturing inIndia, all batteries are imported fromChina and as the last couple of weekshave shown, our neighbour is integralto the global supply chain. As China getsthe flu, even India’s automotive indus-try will sneeze. That is just for somesmall components. Can you imaginewhat will happen if unrestricted importsof batteries are allowed from China?Indian manufacturing and jobs will behollowed out. India needs to securelithium resources and establish batteryfactories and work towards reducingcosts of electric cars.

There is little doubt that electric

vehicles are the future of mobilityacross the world but we should notmake the assumption that the world isequal. In the United States, a $50,000car is a standard family car and the TeslaModel 3 serves that purpose but theoptics of a �35 lakh car in India, pos-sibly �70 lakh after Customs duties par-ticularly with politicians railing againstthe rich, won’t work, right? India has totake smaller, more sustainable stepstowards electrification. Even for pub-lic transport, forcing electrificationdown the throats of transport bod-ies when they do not have enoughbuses to transport the people theyneed to now, is counter-productive.There is far too much misinformation

about the benefits of electrification ofvehicles out there. The plain and sim-ple fact is that electric vehicles areexpensive, and it does not make sensefor India at the current time and thecurrent economic environment tomove to electric cars and buses.Hybrids, where smaller engines arecoupled with small batteries, makemuch more sense in the next decadein India. And in that time we shouldwork towards improving affordabil-ity and growing our economy so asto afford electric cars and makethem in India.

In the rush towards electric vehi-cles, we should really not lose sightof the bigger picture.

Actor Vicky Kaushal returns to the screens for thefirst time since his National Award-winning

blockbuster Uri: The Surgical Strike with his newrelease, Bhoot Part One: The Haunted Ship. At thebox-office the film clashes with Shubh Mangal ZyadaSaavdhan, starring Ayushmann Khurrana, withwhom he shared the National Award. Ayushmannreceived the honour for his role in Andhadhun.

“I think Ayushmann and I are connectedsomewhere. We weretogether on KoffeeWith Karan and wehave hosted anawards show togeth-er as well. After that,we shared theNational Award(Best Actor) andnow, our films arereleasing on the sameday!” said Vicky.

About the clash,he added, “It isimpractical that youwill get a solo releasebecause we make alot more film thanthe Fridays that wehave, so clashes (offilms) are bound tohappen.” Vicky’s nextafter this is the KaranJohar-directorialTakht. He will startshooting for the his-torical drama in March.

Takht is a big-budget period drama that castsRanveer Singh as Dara Shukoh and Vicky asMughal emperor Aurangzeb. The film is scheduledfor a Christmas weekend release in 2021 and it alsostars Kareena Kapoor Khan, Alia Bhatt, AnilKapoor, Janhvi Kapoor and Bhumi Pednekar.

Asked if he feels the pressure being a part of sucha big-budget film, Vicky said, “I don’t feel much pres-sure but I am excited because it was on my bucketlist to do a period film. I will start preparing for itimmediately after release of Bhoot Part One: TheHaunted Ship.”

The recent Filmfare Awards in Guwahati ignit-ed widespread fan ire over Zoya Akhtar’s Gully Boybagging the maximum number of awards. Talkingabout the controversy, Vicky said, “It’s not the firstyear where this kind of a controversy has taken place.They (award ceremonies) have their jury to decidewinners. I don’t know what goes behind it. We(actors) are also like the audience who go there toenjoy the award ceremonies. If we are announcedwinners then we receive it (the award) otherwise wejust enjoy the night. So, I don’t know anything aboutit, but I believe there is jury who takes that decision.So, we should leave it to them.”

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Sharing food and wine withfamily and friends is veryimportant for her. Brushing

past scented leaves in a garden, pick-ing parsley outside the back door,pulling a cork from a bottle of wine,setting out a picnic on a bush table— all these things push her to liveanother day and eat another meal.Stephanie Alexander, an Australianfood educator, believes that there isno greater joy than sharing food,conversation and laughter around atable.

�You emphasise more on joyfuland healthy cooking. Do you thinkpeople nowadays are more awareof fresh and organic ways of cook-ing?

Yes, I think it is very importantto concentrate on the enjoyableaspect of cooking. We alsoneed to make sure thatyoung people, who are inthe process of learningthe skills of cooking,not only get efficientin that but alsounderstand howimportant it is toenjoy the process.For me, cooking isone of the most won-derful things to bring afamily or group of peopletogether. So I spend a lot oftime trying to encourage people toenjoy their food choices.

I choose organic food only. The

organic movement is growing every-where, as more and more people arebecoming aware of their food choic-es. We have great emphasis on fish

too.

�Melbourne is known asAustralia’s food capital.What reasons would youattribute that to?

I am very proud ofMelbourne as it is a great

food destination. Though weare a country of just three mil-

lion, there are a lot of things wecan do. We have a range of cafes

and restaurants catering to everyneed. Some of the reasons for itspopularity are: The Queen VictoriaMarket, fish food, Wagyu beef tar-

tars and chilli baked mussels.

�What do you have to say aboutthe current food culture ofMelbourne? What does it have instore for Indians specifically?

There are no special food trendsthere. You can have good foodeverywhere in Melbourne, not onlyin the city but even in the vineyardor sea side. Wherever you go, youwill find one commonality fish.

One in every third person inMelbourne is born elsewhere orthere parents were. So we have allkinds of ethnic foods you can imag-ine. The population there has a hugechoice. So any visitor, Indian or oth-erwise, can choose what they wouldlike to eat. There is nothing specif-ic.

�What is your signature dish andhow did you come up with it?

I don’t think I have a signaturedish. I only have certain thingswhich I cook all the time. One ofthem is roast chicken, my childrenare very fond of it. My speciality isgarlic chicken and potatoes andlemon garlic chicken. It tastes deli-cious. I always like to serve a dishwith green salads. Even choosing afavourite dish is very hard for me.I really like lamb cutlet and freshfish.

�What are the new global foodmovements?

Now more and more restaurantsare interested in using indigenousingredients. If you go into a goodrestaurant in Melbourne, you willfind ingredients that you have neverheard of such as fingerlions. As thename suggests, it is the size of yourfinger and are grown on very smalltrees in the rain forest.

�You are the author of 17 cook-books. Are there any more on theirway? If so, what will you focus on?

Yes, I am writing a book onhome cooking. It will cater to thefamily cooking basically. However,it will take a year for it to come out.

Do you have a kid in your lifewho loves a good baking ses-

sion? Who really wants to use yourchef ’s knife? Who is addicted tothe TV show MasterChef Junior,and who uses words like “umami”in regular conversation?

There are many terrific gifts toencourage the fledgling cooks inour lives.

������ �����An all-inclusive cooking kit

(besides the ingredients) is oftena great catalyst for getting kids intothe kitchen.

Handstand Kitchen makes aslew of them, including aRainbows and Unicorns UltimateBaking set, with cookies cutters,unicorn-shaped cupcake tray, spat-ula, frosting bag with three tips,and a recipe leaflet and stickersheet. Other offerings here includethe Out of This World space-themed baking kit; a 17-pieceIntro to Baking kit; and severalmatching adult and child apronsets.

Curious chef ’s kits include a17-piece prep set with bowls,measuring cups and spoons, anda timer. Made for Me has kits forparticular foods, such as a begin-ner’s pasta and pizza making set forkids, as well as a macaron, sushiand pancake party set.

�������������Here’s a gift that leaves some-

thing to look forward to after theholidays are over. Options include:

Young chef ’s club: From thefolks at America’s Test Kitchen,these monthly kits are also themat-ic. Kids ages 5 and up receive a boxfilled with family-friendly recipes,hands-on activities, and extrasranging from board games to tor-tilla warmers to special sprinkles.

Culinary adventure society:For kids who already know theirway around a kitchen and are crav-ing new ingredients and flavoursto play with. Up to four times ayear, Zingerman’s specialty foodstore in Ann Arbor, Michigan, willsend a big box of eight to 10 inter-esting and on-trend food surpris-es. A box might contain maffe, apeanut simmer sauce from WestAfrica; Lisbon lemon marmalade;or a tamarind date sauce inspiredby Somali cuisine, for example. Acollection of writing on the foods’history and culture is included.

�E��� ���A new smart kitchen tool is

exciting, even empowering.Examples:

Immersion blender: For aslightly older kid, it can be used toblend things like soups and saucesright in the pot. That save you fromhaving to transfer hot liquids into

a regular blender or food proces-sor, so it can be a safer way to pureethings. Breville makes an All inOne Immersion Blender that alsotransforms into a food processor,so kids can take on different lev-els of chopping as they get moreskilled.

Cutting boards: Giving kidstheir own cutting board makesthem feel as though they’ve arrived.You can support Unicef.com byordering one of many hand-carvedboards, such as the teakwoodDaily Grain from Guatemala, orthe Beautiful Meal board fromThailand. Or memorialise a fam-ily recipe for a child on a cuttingboard: Carver’s Ridge lets you sendin a recipe, choose a font and boardsize, and have your recipe engravedinto a fully functional work board.

�� ��������!�� ����It’s fun to play around with a

single ingredient in many forms.Olive Oil and Vinegar: The

worlds of olive oil and vinegar areboth vast. For starters, you canmake new and different saladdressings all week long. O-Med, asmall company from Grenada,makes lots of varieties, includingsmoked olive oil, yuzu olive oil andolive oil from Arbequina olives.Encourage the kids to mix andmatch those with cabernet vinegar,rose vinegar and cava vinegar. Yourfamily’s vinaigrettes with never bethe same.

Honey: Bee Raw Honey has abeautiful nine-vial assortment ofhoneys ranging from floral andsweet to buttery to “barnyard.” Thehoney comes from different flowersources across the country, andsales help support artisanal bee-keepers.

�����Lots of kid-friendly cookbooksand food books out there, for allages. A few to check out thisholiday season:

From America’s Test Kitchen,The Complete Cookbook for YoungChefs and The Complete BakingBook for Young Chefs. All recipesare kid-tested. The little chef hatsymbols let you know how muchexperience is needed for eachrecipe.

Notes from a Young BlackChef (Knopf, 2019): Award-win-ning, 29-year old executive chefKwame Onwuachi was raised inNew York City, Nigeria andLouisiana. He started cooking at ayoung age under his mother’sdirection, and tells an intensestory of moving up throughkitchens both gritty and elite. Thismemoir centers on the experienceof being a minority in the culinaryworld, and finding a place in thesphere of fine dining. %+"

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India’s battle-hardenedcricketers are ready fortheir toughest challenge of

the World Test Championshiptill date as they face formida-ble hosts New Zealand on aspicy Basin Reserve track inthe series-opener beginninghere today.

Virat Kohli’s top-rankedteam, with 360 points in itskitty, is certainly the favouriteon paper but the Black Capsunder Kane Williamson areexperts at wearing downopposition with their patienceon pitches which turn flat asthe game progresses.

The last time New Zealandlost a series at home was backin March 2017 and since thenhave won five (10 Tests) infamiliar conditions.

For New Zealand, it istime to pick up pieces aftertheir 0-3 drubbing in Australiawhile the current Indian teamwould love to reassert that theyare the best when it comes towinning in adverse conditionslike they did in Australia lastyear.

The open Basin Reserveground has always been chal-lenging for both batsmen andbowlers due to cross winds.

And the new opening pairof Prithvi Shaw and MayankAgarwal will have its task cutout against a top class seamattack comprising Trent Boult,Tim Southee, and KyleJamieson, who in all likelihoodwill make his debut.

However, the absence ofleft arm speedster NeilWagner, who could have cre-ated awkward angles with hisshort balls, will provide some

respite for the Indian middle-order. Wagner is on a break towelcome his first child.

New Zealand named their12 on the day and it will be achoice between seamer all-rounder Daryl Mitchell orslow left-arm orthodox AjazPatel.

In an open ground withovercast conditions expected,captain Kohli will not mindwinning the toss and unleashJasprit Bumrah, Ishant Sharmaand Mohammed Shami onthe home team.

Even Kohli admitted thathis men would need to havetons of patience once the trackeases out as Williamson’s teamis known to the play waitinggame.

“It doesn’t matter howmuch patience opposition has,we have to show morepatience. We can’t really pre-pare in a manner where NewZealand show more patienceand put pressure on us,” skip-per Kohli made his intentionsclear during a media interac-tion.

While New Zealand areexpected to go with four front-line pacers and may be a fifthseamer in all-rounder Colinde Grandhomme, the Indianteam management might betempted to tr y outRavichandran Ashwin, whopurely as a spinner, has morevariety compared to left-armorthodox of Ravindra Jadeja.

The wind factor inWellington is an issue thatcaptains need to deal with andKohli is no different as he willhave to judiciously chooseends for his bowlers.

“If breeze is blowing acrossthe ground, who is more effec-tive with inswinger oroutswingers, these things youthink as a captain,” said Kohli.

The return of Trent Boultfor New Zealand and Ishant forIndia, from their respectiveinjuries will certainly bolsterboth the sides.

For India, CheteshwarPujara, Kohli and AjinkyaRahane will have to be the foilaround Shaw, Agarwal andVihari with their techniques

match of the season, led aturnaround with an unbeaten136 (20 fours), a composedinnings that came undertremendous pressure.

Majumdar, who will turn36 next month, had scored 99in a similar situation in theirrain-affected drawn encounteragainst Delhi earlier this sea-son.

Rookie al l-rounderShahbaz Ahmed also showeda lot of maturity at No. 7, theleft-hander slamming anunbeaten 82 to help Bengaltake control in a fruitful finalsession

K’TAKA IN TROUBLE� �� Karnataka were wob-bling at 14 for 2 at stumpsafter only six overs were pos-sible due to bad light on theopening day against Jammuand Kashmir.

Overcast skies meant thelight alternated between poorto border-line for most part ofthe day.

Play started after tea andonly six overs were possibleduring which Karnatakastruggled against Jammu andKashmir new ball pair ofAquib Nabi (1/6) and MujtabaYousuf (1/5).

Karnataka lost both theiropeners -- RavikumarSamarth (5) and DevduttPadikkal (2).

At the close of play, skip-per Karun Nair was batting onfour in the company of

Krishnamurthy Siddharth,who is yet to open his account.

PATEL SCORES HUNDRED�����Skipper Parthiv Patelled from the front with his 27thfirst-class century and helpedGujarat reach 330 for fouragainst Goa. The left-handed batsmanscored an unbeaten 118 off 156balls at the Sardar PatelStadium, hitting 15 boundariesoff the Goa bowlers.

In the process, Patel alsocompleted 11,000 first-classruns.

For Goa, Verma was thepick of the bowlers, whileDarshan Misal and VijeshPrabhudesai (1-60) took awicket each.

This is Patel’s second hun-dred in Ranji knock-outs, thefirst being against Mumbai inthe 2016-17 final.

SAURASHTRA POST 226/6�� ����� Fighting half-cen-turies by Vishvarajsingh Jadeja(73, 179 balls, 10 fours), ChiragJani (53, 128 balls, 5 fours) andSheldon Jackson (50) helpedSaurashtra make 226 for 6 in79 overs against Andhra.

For the home team, left-arm medium-pacer YarraPrithvi Raj was impressive,picking up three wickets in 20overs conceding 51 runs. K VSashikanth picked up twowickets.

A lot will now depend onJani and the lower-orderincluding captain JaydevUnadkat if Saurashtra has topost a fighting total in the last-eight match.

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being tested.“As a batsman, you need to

think that ball might not trav-el in the air a lot more whenyou are hitting against thewind. So you need to be pre-pared to run a lot more whichwe experienced last time andif you have a light bat, you arein trouble.

“You need to be firm withyour stance and where your batis as it can really swingaround,” added Kohli, who is

India’s best batsman by a mile.TEAMS

India (First 12): Virat Kohli(captain), Mayank Agarwal,Prithvi Shaw, CheteshwarPujara, Ajnkya Rahane,Hanuma Vihari, WriddhimanSaha (wk), Ishant Sharma,Mohammed Shami, JaspritBumrah, RavichandranAshwin, Ravindra Jadeja.New Zealand (12): KaneWilliamson (c), Tom Blundell,Trent Boult, Colin deGrandhomme, Kyle Jamieson,Tom Latham, Daryl Mitchell,Henry Nicholls, Ajaz Patel,Tim Southee, Ross Taylor, BJWatling.

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Anustup Majumdar’s grittycentury rescued Bengal

from a hopeless 46 for five ina dramatic turnaround forthem on the opening day oftheir Ranji Trophy quarterfi-nal against Odisha here onThursday.

At stumps, Bengal were308 for six.

Put in by a pace-heavyOdisha, Bengal found them-selves in all sorts of trouble inthe first session.

Suryakant Pradhan (2/96),Preet Singh Chohan (2/52)and Basant Mohanty (1/48)used the early moisture toadvantage and blew away theBengal top order.

But old warhorseMajumdar, playing in his sixth

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London Olympics bronzemedallist Saina Nehwal

secured a straight game winover Ukraine’s Maria Ulitina tostorm into the women’s singlesquarterfinals of the USD170,000 Barcelona SpainMasters here on Thursday.

Saina, who is facing a raceagainst time to qualify for herfourth Olympics, brushedaside Maria 21-10 ,21-19 in thesecond round to set up a last-eight clash with Thailand’sthird seed BusananOngbamrungphan, who hasbeaten the Indian twice in thelast two encounters.

Sameer Verma also madeit to the last eight with a hard-fought 21-14, 16-21, 21-15win over Germany’s KaiSchaefer. He will face eitherThailand's Kunlavut Vitidsarnor Ireland's Nhat Nguyen in

the men's singles quarterfinals.However, former world

No 1 Kidambi Srikanth’swretched run continued as hewent down 6-21, 17-21 to fel-low Indian Ajay Jayaram, dash-ing his hopes of qualifying forthe Tokyo Games.

Srikanth, who had lost inthe first round in Malaysia,Indonesia and Thailand, des-perately needs to win a tourna-ment or make it to the quartersand semifinals consistently toqualify for the Olympics.

N Sikki Reddy alsoendured a difficult day as shelost both the mixed doublesand women’s doubles to bowout of the competition.

Sikki and her women’sdoubles pair of AshwiniPonnappa, who is coming backfrom an injury, lost 18-21, 14-21 to Bulgaria’s Gabriela Stoevaand Stefani Stoeva, seededthird.

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On a fruitful day for India inwomen’s competition of AsianWrestling Championship at

Indira Gandhi stadium here onThursday, three female wrestlers— Pinki Rani (55 kg), SaritaMor (59 kg) and Divya Kakran(68 kg) won Gold medals in thefreestyle event. While NirmalaDevi (50kg) settles for Silver in the50kg category after losing final againstJapan’s Migo Igarashi.

2018 Commonwealth and AsianGames Bronze medallist Divya wasthe star performer for the hosts onthe opening day of freestyle eventas she produced a strong perfor-mance by winning all her bouts,including against reigning juniorworld champion NaruhaMatsuyuki in the fourth round.

She started the day by routingKazakhstan’s Albina Kairgelinova andthen knocked out Mongolia’s DelgermaaEnkkhsaikhan.

In the third round, againstUzbekistan’s Azoda Esbergenova, she led4-0 with consecutive rolls and then

pinned her opponent to finish it offin just 27 seconds.

Against the Japanese juniorworld champion, with her strong

left-leg attacks, Divya led 4-0with a takedown and anexpose move.

The Japanese made asolid start in the secondperiod as she attacked theIndian’s left leg initially but

scored points with a right legmove to make it 4-4.

The Japanese almost pinnedher but Divya wriggled out ofthe difficult position. She sooneffected a move which led toher victory by fall.

“I had to win by fall to getfive points from all my bouts

because the Japanese was winningall her bouts by big margins, so I

took a risk for big wins. My coachhad said that I don’t have to go forbig throws all the time, but I went forit,” said Divya.

“It did become tricky after I led 4-0 (in final). I was not in a great posi-tion (Naruha’s lock) and it could havebeen very dangerous. But I took a risk

and it paid off by God’s grace.”Asked if the absence of Chinese

wrestler helped, she replied in the affir-mative.

“Yes, it did benefit. But if you have afive-wrestler group it becomes even

tougher, you have to fight everyone andwin big. I won 4 bouts within 2 hours. Itwas tough on the body but the good thingis I have improved on my range, I madeall kinds of attacks, Irani, Kheme, single-led, double leg attacks.”

Sarita, competing in her first Asianevent since winning a Silver in 2017 in58kg, won her first two bouts by techni-cal superiority against MadinaBakbergenova (Kazakhstan) and NaziraMarsbekKyzy (Kyrgyzstan) before win-ning 10-3 against Japan’s Yuumi Kon.

She edged out Mongolia’s BattsetegAtlantsetseg 3-2 in the final. Sarita man-aged a push-out point to win her first Goldat this event after the scores were tied.

Pinki, competing at senior Asian forthe first time, began by beatingUzbekistan’s Shokida Akhmedova by fallbut lost the next bout to Japan’s KanaHigashikawa.

She won her semifinal againstMarina Zuyeva 6-0 and beat Mongolia’sDulguun Bolormaa 2-1 to grab theGold. All the points scored in the finalwere on passivity.

“I was a bit careful because I hadinjured my elbow. I did not want to aggra-vate since important events are lined up,”said Pinki.

Nirmala beat Mongolia’s MunkhnarByambasuren 6-4 and Uzbeskitan’sDauletbike Yakhshimuratova by techni-cal superiority but lost the final 2-3 toJapan’s Miho Igarashi.

LFC WORLD HEADS TO DELHINew Delhi: 2�������� 8,� ���� ������� � ������ ��� �����#��������������������������� ���� �28,���� '�������K��������#��������������������������������,������%!�������!����E'�2������������� ��"�����*��%����� ?�����!�$���������&���������'�1� ������������������������ ����� ���������� ����� �"8$� ,��������� 2������������� ����������������������������$����� ����������������%���-���� �������-������ ������� �����������B ������� ���'� 8��������� �� ��� ��� ���� 28,/����� ���������� ����������&������������.�� �������������������?�������&����P ��������� ����1� �� �������/-���(����( ����(0 ����� P �� � ����� ���� �����/ ������������ ��� �� �������� ����� ��� ���� ����� ��%��� ��(����������������������2������&��%����$����� '�

FEDERER WILL MISS FRENCH OPENBasel: 1����8� ��������� �������������������%����� � ����� ����� ���� 8����� >���� �� � ������� ��������������'� ������� ��� ���� 1���%��� ����� ������ �� � ����D</�����-�� ������������������ ����%���� �����&����&����������� ����� �������������������� ��� � � ��� ����� ����������� ������ ��� ����C���� ����� ���H�� ��� ��I'���������������������� ������������������� ��8� ������ �&������� �������������&��������������������������������������R���������������������������&�� ��'�8� ���������%������������������&�� � �� ���� ����� � (������ �� � !����� ���� ��� ���8�����>��� ����������������!���DF'

SHARATH ENTER MEN'S & MIXED DOUBLES Q/FBudapest: �� ������&��������������� �$�������������6����� ��� ���� ��� ����� � ���� K����������� ��� &������B�� ��&���� �� � ��#� � ��&���� ��� ���� ���8� ��� ���� *�������� >���'� ���� ����� ,�����������-����� -�� � �� ������� ����� � ����� ���� ���� �� ������������������� �!���%��(�����������������::/J �5/:: �G/:: �::/5 �::/E����������������������$ ���C� ���� ��C�� ������'�2��� ��������6��������� ��������-������%����������������������������������� /������� ::/G � ::/J � J/:: � 5/:: � ::/5� ���� �������?����B������������ �������%����������� �9�%����� �������B�� ��&���'

MUGURUZA SHOCKED BY QUALIFIER IN DUBAIChennai: S�������� ?������� (� �� ������ � �� ����� ��� � � ������� ��� ���� �� � ��������� -�&���!����C��G/E�H;4EI �G/@ �G/F���������������&���,+���������/������'� ����$����������� ��%�� )��������� �� ������� ;<� ������� � ��� ��� ��� ����/��� � ������ ��� ��� ��� � �� � ���/����� ��������� "����� ���������� ��� ���$��������,��&'���������&��������� ������ �������B������������&��� ��(� ����� ��������������������������/��� � ������ '� �!��&�� �� � �B�� ����� ��� &���� ������ � &��� ������ �������� �������� ��� ����������������'�

BARCA SIGNS DANISH FORWARD BRAITHWAITEBarcelona: (������������� ������%����� �!����(���������� ��� ����� ����� ���� ��)��/ ������ � �����%� ������ ��'�(������������ ������������:J�������������HT�:5'F��������I�&����������������(���������B�������������� �������� ������� ����� 2����U�'� (�������� �������� ������������������������������������������������������������������2������V�C��� �>����������&������ ����� ���� �� ��� ��� ��)����� ��� &���� �����%���������'�(��������������������������������������������������������� ��������&���� '� +�2��#2�

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Jose Mourinho fears his side’s seasonis running out of gas after an injury-

hit Spurs slumped to a 1-0 defeat athome to RB Leipzig in the first leg oftheir Champions League last 16 tie.

Spurs could be without the talis-manic duo of Harry Kane and SonHeung-min for the rest of the seasonthrough injury and looked toothlessagainst the Bundesliga contenders.

“We are in a very difficult situation,”said Mourinho. “What worries me isthis is going to be the situation until theend of the season.”

Tottenham captain Hugo Lloriskept his side in the tie with a string ofimportant saves, but he could not pre-vent Timo Werner from the penaltyspot as the German international’s 26thgoal of the season gave Leipzig a leadto defend on home soil on March 10.

“Over the 90 minutes we deserved

the win and could have won bymore,” said Leipzig boss JulianNagelsmann.

“It’s only the first game today. Youhave to perform at the same level inboth games.”

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Atalanta coach GianPiero Gasperini

hailed a performancehis club will “rememberforever” after the Italianside crushed Valencia4-1 on Wednesday totake a giant step closer to reach-ing the Champions League quar-ter-finals for the first time.

Dutch wing-back HansHateboer scored twice on 16 and62 minutes, sandwiching goalsfrom Josip Ilicic and RemoFreuler.

“This is an evening that we’llremember forever,” saidGasperini. “It’s an amazingresult, full of emotion.”

It was an extraordinarynight for the side from Bergamowho travelled to the San Siro

with over 40,000 of their fans astheir home stadium 55km awaydoes not meet UEFA regula-tions. Denis Cheryshev pulledone back for Valencia in the first

leg of the last-16 tie at the SanSiro, the same stadium where theSpanish side lost the 2001 finalto Bayern Munich on penalties.

Valencia, seventh in La Liga,

had finished top of their groupafter away wins over Ajax andChelsea but were missing sever-al key players through injury andsuspension.

“It certainly complicatesthings a bit, it’s a pretty over-whelming result, this 4-1,” saidValencia coach Albert Celades.

“In the end it doesn’t reflectmuch what we saw on the pitch.”

Atalanta’s run comes despitelosing their opening threeChampions League groupgames, before finishing secondbehind Manchester City.

“Three goals ahead is a nicereward,” added Gasperini. “Butthere were a lot of dangerous sit-uations, these are things we’llneed to improve in Valencia.

“We are satisfied with thisvictory and above all with thisadvantage.

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