ˇ ’ ( ˜ · 2019. 10. 25. · Home Minister, BJP president Amit Shah announced that the Chief...

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T he BJP joined hands with Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) led by Dushyant Chautala on Friday night to form a “stable” coalition Government in Haryana conceding to the JJP’s demand for the post of Deputy Chief Minister. The BJP’s decision to win over Chautala underlines its quest to placate Jats, a domi- nant community in the State who are believed to have voted mostly against the saffron party in the recent polls, to ensure a smooth run of its Government. After a long meeting with Chautala, who called on the Home Minister, BJP president Amit Shah announced that the Chief Minister will be from his party and the Deputy Chief Minister from the JJP. The meeting came after the JJP leader during the day main- tained that neither the BJP or the Congress was an “untouch- able” and he would stress for the acceptance of a common minimum programme for gov- ernance. However, Chautala later said, “It was important for the BJP and JJP to come together to give a stable Government to Haryana. I would like to thank Amit Shah ji and Nadda ji.” On his part, Shah said, “Accepting the mandate by the people of Haryana, leaders of both parties (BJP-JJP) have decided to form the Govt together in Haryana. CM will be from the BJP & Deputy CM will be from the JJP.” Chautala, who emerged as a kingmaker after a fractured mandate in the Haryana Assembly elections, was on elected floor leader of the JJP with 10 MLAs on Friday. He is likely to be Deputy CM. Addressing the media on the occasion, he said his party would offer support to whoso- ever commits support to JJP’s poll plank of reserving 75 per cent jobs to “Haryanavis”, ensures old age pension in the State and agrees to a common minimum programme. To a question, he said nei- ther the BJP nor the Congress was untouchable for him and he would be ready to work with anyone to install a Stable Government in the State. This was seen as a clear hint that he would be ready to embrace the saffron camp sooner than later. Five hours later, he was at the residence of the BJP chief. Chautala met his father Ajay Chautala, who is cur- rently lodged in Tihar Jail, before taking a final decision on the future course of action. Earlier in the day, five Independent legislators — Dharampal Gondan, Nayanpal Rawat, Sombir Sangwan, Rakesh Daulatabad and Randheer Golan — met BJP working president Nadda and extended their support to the saffron party, BJP leader Jawahar Yadav said. “These Independent MLAs reached JP Nadda’s house with an intention to extend support to the BJP to form a Government,” he said. After meeting Nadda, showing his letter of support to the BJP, Sangwan said he had extended his unconditional support to the saffron party. Besides these five Independent MLAs, Ranjeet Chautala also extended his support to the BJP. He met both Khattar and Nadda. BJP leaders are confident that seven Independent MLAs and INLD leader Abhay Chautala will back the party’s claim to form Government. Besides, Haryana Lokhit Party’s Gopal Kanda has also extend- ed “unconditional support” to the BJP. Khattar is likely to be elect- ed the BJP legislative party leader in a meeting on Saturday and will then stake claim before the Governor to form the Government. E mboldened by the feelers of support received from the Opposition Congress and NCP, the Shiv Sena on Friday strengthened its bargaining position ahead of its power- sharing negotiations with the BJP, through a calibrated attack on its senior saffron ally in a Sena mouth-piece editorial with effective use of a telling cartoon. On a day when Maharashtra Congress presi- dent Balasaheb Thorat went to town saying that his party would consider seriously any proposal received from the Shiv Sena for the formation of a new Government in the State, the Sena — in an editorial pub- lished in Saamana — indirect- ly distanced itself from the BJP’s “arrogance of power” and the manner in which it “broke the NCP” through poaching of its leaders. In the same editorial, the Sena heaped praise on the NCP for the manner in which it bounced back and reaped maximum electoral benefit in Maharashtra, by winning more than 50 seats in the State Assembly polls. The Sena also indirectly complimented the Congress for winning 44 seats even without a leader. Interestingly, the Sena dubbed the Assembly results as Janadesh” (mandate) and not Maha Janadesh” (grand man- date), an indirect dig at Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis who had taken out a Statewide Maha Janadesh Yatra” ahead of the polls, in which the strength of the BJP had fallen from the 2014 figure of 122 to 105 (not 102 as mentioned in the editorial) and the Sena’s fig- ures had down from 63 to 54. “In effect, the poll outcome has shown that political parties can ill-afford to be over-smart and do unbecoming things using power. Using arrogance of power, you cannot finish anyone permanently in poli- tics,” the Saamana editorial said, taking a dig at the BJP. A maverick that he is, Shiv Sena MP and spokesperson Sanjay Raut took to twitter to give a new spin to the political situation in the State. On his twitter handle, he posted a cartoon that showed a tiger (as the Shiv Sena is known) wear- ing a clock locket (NCP’s party symbol) and sniffing a lotus (BJP’s party symbol) from its hand with a terse comment: “This is cartoonist’s marvel. Bura na maano Diwali hai”. Though he claimed that he had posted the cartoon in jest, Raut indirectly sent a message across to the BJP that it indeed had more suitors than its long- term ally. Through digs at the BJP and efforts to cosy up to both the NCP and the Congress in its editorial and the telling cartoon, the Sena made it clear to the BJP that it would not set- tle down for breadcrumbs as it did after the 2014 Assembly polls. This time around it want- ed its pound of flesh in the form of 50:50 power-sharing arrangement. Though it has so far not made it clear in public what is 50:50 power sharing arrange- ment, the Sena is seeking the Chief Minister’s post on a rota- tional basis and it is seeking plum portfolios like Home, Revenue and PWD which the BJP had kept with itself during the last five years. Incidentally, when the Sena-BJP alliance ruled the State between 1995 and 1999, late BJP leader Gopinath Munde was the State Home Minister, while the Shiv Sena’s Manohar Joshi and (briefly) Narayan Rane were the Chief Ministers. In a related development, Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray has called a meeting of newly elected MLAs at his Matoshri residence on Saturday at noon. Continued on Page 4 A s Delhi recorded season’s worst air quality with Air Quality Index (AQI) 315 μgm- 3 on Friday, the Supreme Court-mandated Environment Pollution Control Authority (EPCA) said construction activities in Delhi and NCR will be banned between 6 pm and 6 am from October 26 to October 30. System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR) said air may deteriorate further with values -688 μgm-3 (PM10) and 382 (PM 2.5) μgm-3 on Sunday. In a letter to Chief Secretaries of Delhi, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh, EPCA chairman Bhure Lal also issued directions to close down coal- based industries, barring power plants, in satellite towns of Faridabad, Gurugram, Ghaziabad, Noida, Greater Noida, Sonepat and Bahadurgarh during the period. The ban follows a slew of recommendations from a 10- member anti-pollution task force led by Central Pollution Control Board’s Member Secretary Prashant Gargava. Bhurelal asked agencies to take strict action to check stub- ble burning in Punjab and Haryana, and ensure enforce- ment of the Supreme Court’s directions regarding firecrack- ers and impound visibly pol- luting vehicles. “Hot mix plants, stone crushers and construction activities, such as earthwork, be banned between 6 pm and 6 am from October 26 to 30 in Delhi and NCR,” the order said. Continued on Page 4 A hmedabad-based firm HCP Design, Planning and Management Private Limited has won the contract for con- sultancy and designing of the Parliament building, common Central Secretariat building and the Central Vista — a three-kilometre stretch from India Gate to Rajpath. The same architect firm designed BJP’s new headquar- ters in the national Capital, IIM campus in Ahmedabad, the Sabarmati Riverfront Development Project, State Secretariat and Central Vista in Gandhinagar, and executed the redevelopment of temple com- plex in Varanasi. Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri has made it clear that the icon- ic buildings — President House (Rashtrapati Bhawan), South Block, North Block and the Parliament building will not be pulled down but will be redesigned. The firm, which will be paid 229.75 crore for consul- tancy services, much below the estimated 448 crore, will prepare the master plan of the project, including designs, cost estimation, landscape and traf- fic integration plans, and park- ing facilities among others, of redevelopment of the Parliament building, common Central Secretariat and Central Vista. In other words, HCP Design is the project manage- ment consultant of the mega project. “The final awarded price is 40 per cent below what we had expected,” Puri added. Continued on Page 4 R ailways has decided to con- vert 200 saloons into 10 luxury tourist trains to be run by the IRCTC in a bid to reg- ulate the use of the colonial era- style carriages and generate additional revenue for the national transporter, sources said on Friday. Conceived initially as inspection cars to be exclusively used by railway officials to visit far-flung areas, these saloons comprise two bed- rooms, a lounge, a pantry, a toi- let and a kitchen which are built to facilitate stay for up to five days. “While a designated num- ber of saloons will be kept for use of railway officials for inspection, 200 of them will be turned over to IRCTC and will be operated as tourist trains. Upon conversion, around ten such trains can be put into service for public use,” the source said. Last year, amid concerns over misuse of these saloons by officials, Railway minister Piyush Goyal had given up the use of his own personal ones, calling them “trappings of a colonial mindset”. He had also urged zones to give up saloons for public use. Sources said the Railway Board has prepared a set of instructions for its zones to “strictly regulate” the number and use of such saloons. It also said that these should be used primarily for inspection purposes with focus on safety. Besides, the saloons and observation car for zonal general managers, each zone will have two additional car- riages for inspection purposes only, the Board is learnt to have decided. Each railway division will have a self-propelled inspection car with windows at both ends. As per the instructions, the remaining should be used for “premium tourist traffic” to earn “additional revenue” for the railways. Railways has a total of 336 saloon cars across railway zones, among which many have already been condemned. Around 62 are air-conditioned. IRCTC ran the first pri- vately-occupied saloon coach, complete with air-conditioned rooms, valet service and attached bathroom in March last year. The cost of chartering the saloon was around 2 lakh. A s the offer of support by controversial politician Gopal Kanda, who is facing nine criminal cases, including a case of abetment to suicide, triggered widespread criticism from the Opposition and with- in the saffron party, the BJP on Friday distanced itself from Kanda. Before the BJP and the Dushyant Chautala-led JJP inked a deal to form a coalition Government in Haryana, Kanda had emerged as a pos- sible kingmaker for the BJP. However, the BJP-JJP’s deal appears to have made his “unconditional support” offer redundant. The BJP won only 40 seats in the 90-member Haryana Assembly, short of at least six legislators to form the next Government. The businessman-turned- politician and the lone elected MLA from his Haryana Lokhit Party Kanda, who played a key role in the formation of Bhupinder Singh Hooda-led Congress Government in Haryana in 2009, on Thursday evening extended his support to the BJP after a meeting with the party leadership in New Delhi. Reports that the BJP had deputed its Sirsa MP Sunita Duggal to escort Kanda to Delhi on Thursday for talks triggered an outrage with many accusing the party of “hypocrisy”. Apparently on the defen- sive, senior BJP leaders on Friday ensured that they were not seen with Kanda even as other Independent MLAs were seen moving in and out of Nadda's residence after announcing their support to the saffron party. Kanda has won from the Sirsa Assembly constituency defeating Independent candi- date Gokul Setia, while his brother Govind was defeated by INLD chief Om Prakash Chautala’s estranged brother Ranjit Singh. Kanda’s statement of extending support to the BJP along with other seven Independents attracted sharp reactions on Friday with the leaders from BJP itself, Congress, Shiv Sena and other parties criticising the saffron party to join hands with a tainted figure. Kanda’s controversial past includes allegations that a car owned by him was used in committing a rape, that his security guards beat up a national-level cricketer and that he harassed a young woman to the point of suicide. Continued on Page 4 E xpenditure Secretary Girish Chandra Murmu, who served Narendra Modi as his Secretary when he was Gujarat Chief Minister, and former Defence Secretary RK Mathur have been appointed as the new Lt Governors of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh respectively. The Centre on Friday transferred current J&K Governor Satyapal Malik to Goa and appointed Kerala BJP president PS Sreedharan Pillai as Governor of Mizoram. Former chief of Intelligence Bureau and interlocutor of J&K Dineshwar Sharma has been appointed Lakshadweep Administrator. While Murmu, a 1985- batch Gujarat cadre officer, is serving as the Expenditure Secretary in the Union Finance Ministry, Mathur, a 1977-batch officer, has served as the Defence Secretary and is a for- mer Chief Information Commissioner (CIC). Murmu is scheduled to retire from service on November 21. Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh, the two Union Territories will come into existence on October 31, 2019.

Transcript of ˇ ’ ( ˜ · 2019. 10. 25. · Home Minister, BJP president Amit Shah announced that the Chief...

Page 1: ˇ ’ ( ˜ · 2019. 10. 25. · Home Minister, BJP president Amit Shah announced that the Chief Minister will be from his party and the Deputy Chief Minister from the JJP. The …

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The BJP joined hands withJannayak Janata Party (JJP)

led by Dushyant Chautala onFriday night to form a “stable”coalition Government inHaryana conceding to the JJP’sdemand for the post of DeputyChief Minister.

The BJP’s decision to winover Chautala underlines itsquest to placate Jats, a domi-nant community in the Statewho are believed to have votedmostly against the saffron partyin the recent polls, to ensure asmooth run of its Government.

After a long meeting withChautala, who called on theHome Minister, BJP presidentAmit Shah announced that theChief Minister will be from hisparty and the Deputy ChiefMinister from the JJP.

The meeting came after theJJP leader during the day main-tained that neither the BJP orthe Congress was an “untouch-able” and he would stress forthe acceptance of a commonminimum programme for gov-ernance.

However, Chautala latersaid, “It was important for theBJP and JJP to come togetherto give a stable Government toHaryana. I would like to thankAmit Shah ji and Nadda ji.”

On his part, Shah said,“Accepting the mandate by thepeople of Haryana, leaders ofboth parties (BJP-JJP) havedecided to form the Govttogether in Haryana. CM willbe from the BJP & Deputy CM

will be from the JJP.” Chautala, who emerged as

a kingmaker after a fracturedmandate in the HaryanaAssembly elections, was onelected floor leader of the JJPwith 10 MLAs on Friday. Heis likely to be Deputy CM.

Addressing the media onthe occasion, he said his partywould offer support to whoso-ever commits support to JJP’spoll plank of reserving 75 percent jobs to “Haryanavis”,ensures old age pension in theState and agrees to a commonminimum programme.

To a question, he said nei-ther the BJP nor the Congresswas untouchable for him andhe would be ready to work with

anyone to install a StableGovernment in the State. Thiswas seen as a clear hint that hewould be ready to embrace thesaffron camp sooner than later.Five hours later, he was at theresidence of the BJP chief.

Chautala met his fatherAjay Chautala, who is cur-

rently lodged in Tihar Jail,before taking a final decisionon the future course of action.

Earlier in the day, fiveIndependent legislators —Dharampal Gondan, NayanpalRawat, Sombir Sangwan,Rakesh Daulatabad andRandheer Golan — met BJP

working president Nadda andextended their support to thesaffron party, BJP leaderJawahar Yadav said.

“These Independent MLAsreached JP Nadda’s house withan intention to extend supportto the BJP to form aGovernment,” he said.

After meeting Nadda,showing his letter of support tothe BJP, Sangwan said he hadextended his unconditionalsupport to the saffron party.

Besides these fiveIndependent MLAs, RanjeetChautala also extended hissupport to the BJP. He met bothKhattar and Nadda.

BJP leaders are confidentthat seven Independent MLAsand INLD leader AbhayChautala will back the party’sclaim to form Government.Besides, Haryana Lokhit Party’sGopal Kanda has also extend-ed “unconditional support” tothe BJP.

Khattar is likely to be elect-ed the BJP legislative partyleader in a meeting on Saturdayand will then stake claim beforethe Governor to form theGovernment.

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Emboldened by the feelers ofsupport received from the

Opposition Congress and NCP,the Shiv Sena on Fridaystrengthened its bargainingposition ahead of its power-sharing negotiations with theBJP, through a calibrated attackon its senior saffron ally in aSena mouth-piece editorialwith effective use of a tellingcartoon.

On a day whenMaharashtra Congress presi-dent Balasaheb Thorat went totown saying that his partywould consider seriously anyproposal received from theShiv Sena for the formation ofa new Government in the State,the Sena — in an editorial pub-lished in Saamana — indirect-ly distanced itself from theBJP’s “arrogance of power” andthe manner in which it “brokethe NCP” through poaching ofits leaders.

In the same editorial, theSena heaped praise on theNCP for the manner in whichit bounced back and reapedmaximum electoral benefit inMaharashtra, by winning morethan 50 seats in the StateAssembly polls. The Sena alsoindirectly complimented theCongress for winning 44 seatseven without a leader.

Interestingly, the Senadubbed the Assembly results as“Janadesh” (mandate) and not“Maha Janadesh” (grand man-date), an indirect dig at ChiefMinister Devendra Fadnaviswho had taken out a Statewide“Maha Janadesh Yatra” aheadof the polls, in which thestrength of the BJP had fallenfrom the 2014 figure of 122 to105 (not 102 as mentioned inthe editorial) and the Sena’s fig-ures had down from 63 to 54.

“In effect, the poll outcomehas shown that political partiescan ill-afford to be over-smartand do unbecoming thingsusing power. Using arroganceof power, you cannot finishanyone permanently in poli-tics,” the Saamana editorialsaid, taking a dig at the BJP.

A maverick that he is, ShivSena MP and spokespersonSanjay Raut took to twitter togive a new spin to the politicalsituation in the State. On histwitter handle, he posted acartoon that showed a tiger (asthe Shiv Sena is known) wear-ing a clock locket (NCP’s partysymbol) and sniffing a lotus(BJP’s party symbol) from itshand with a terse comment:“This is cartoonist’s marvel.“Bura na maano Diwali hai”.

Though he claimed that hehad posted the cartoon in jest,Raut indirectly sent a message

across to the BJP that it indeedhad more suitors than its long-term ally.

Through digs at the BJPand efforts to cosy up to boththe NCP and the Congress inits editorial and the tellingcartoon, the Sena made it clearto the BJP that it would not set-tle down for breadcrumbs as itdid after the 2014 Assemblypolls. This time around it want-ed its pound of flesh in theform of 50:50 power-sharingarrangement.

Though it has so far notmade it clear in public what is50:50 power sharing arrange-ment, the Sena is seeking theChief Minister’s post on a rota-

tional basis and it is seekingplum portfolios like Home,Revenue and PWD which theBJP had kept with itself duringthe last five years. Incidentally,when the Sena-BJP allianceruled the State between 1995and 1999, late BJP leaderGopinath Munde was the StateHome Minister, while the ShivSena’s Manohar Joshi and(briefly) Narayan Rane werethe Chief Ministers.

In a related development,Shiv Sena president UddhavThackeray has called a meetingof newly elected MLAs at hisMatoshri residence on Saturdayat noon.

Continued on Page 4

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As Delhi recorded season’sworst air quality with Air

Quality Index (AQI) 315 μgm-3 on Friday, the SupremeCourt-mandated EnvironmentPollution Control Authority(EPCA) said constructionactivities in Delhi and NCR willbe banned between 6 pm and6 am from October 26 toOctober 30.

System of Air Quality andWeather Forecasting AndResearch (SAFAR) said air maydeteriorate further with values-688 μgm-3 (PM10) and 382(PM 2.5) μgm-3 on Sunday.

In a letter to ChiefSecretaries of Delhi, Haryana,and Uttar Pradesh, EPCAchairman Bhure Lal also issueddirections to close down coal-based industries, barring powerplants, in satellite towns ofFaridabad, Gurugram,Ghaziabad, Noida, GreaterNoida, Sonepat andBahadurgarh during the period.

The ban follows a slew of

recommendations from a 10-member anti-pollution taskforce led by Central PollutionControl Board’s MemberSecretary Prashant Gargava.

Bhurelal asked agencies totake strict action to check stub-ble burning in Punjab andHaryana, and ensure enforce-ment of the Supreme Court’sdirections regarding firecrack-ers and impound visibly pol-luting vehicles.

“Hot mix plants, stonecrushers and constructionactivities, such as earthwork, bebanned between 6 pm and 6am from October 26 to 30 inDelhi and NCR,” the order said.

Continued on Page 4

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Ahmedabad-based firmHCP Design, Planning and

Management Private Limitedhas won the contract for con-sultancy and designing of theParliament building, commonCentral Secretariat buildingand the Central Vista — athree-kilometre stretch fromIndia Gate to Rajpath.

The same architect firmdesigned BJP’s new headquar-ters in the national Capital, IIMcampus in Ahmedabad, theSabarmati RiverfrontDevelopment Project, StateSecretariat and Central Vista inGandhinagar, and executed theredevelopment of temple com-plex in Varanasi.

Housing and Urban AffairsMinister Hardeep Singh Purihas made it clear that the icon-ic buildings — President House(Rashtrapati Bhawan), SouthBlock, North Block and theParliament building will not bepulled down but will beredesigned.

The firm, which will bepaid �229.75 crore for consul-

tancy services, much belowthe estimated �448 crore, willprepare the master plan of theproject, including designs, costestimation, landscape and traf-fic integration plans, and park-ing facilities among others, ofredevelopment of theParliament building, commonCentral Secretariat and CentralVista. In other words, HCPDesign is the project manage-ment consultant of the megaproject.

“The final awarded price is40 per cent below what we hadexpected,” Puri added.

Continued on Page 4

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Railways has decided to con-vert 200 saloons into 10

luxury tourist trains to be runby the IRCTC in a bid to reg-ulate the use of the colonial era-style carriages and generateadditional revenue for thenational transporter, sourcessaid on Friday.

Conceived initially asinspection cars to be exclusivelyused by railway officials tovisit far-flung areas, thesesaloons comprise two bed-rooms, a lounge, a pantry, a toi-let and a kitchen which are built to facilitate stay for up tofive days.

“While a designated num-ber of saloons will be kept foruse of railway officials forinspection, 200 of them will beturned over to IRCTC andwill be operated as touristtrains. Upon conversion,around ten such trains can beput into service for public use,”the source said.

Last year, amid concernsover misuse of these saloons byofficials, Railway ministerPiyush Goyal had given up theuse of his own personal ones,calling them “trappings of a

colonial mindset”. He had alsourged zones to give up saloonsfor public use.

Sources said the RailwayBoard has prepared a set ofinstructions for its zones to“strictly regulate” the numberand use of such saloons.

It also said that theseshould be used primarily forinspection purposes with focuson safety. Besides, the saloonsand observation car for zonalgeneral managers, each zonewill have two additional car-riages for inspection purposesonly, the Board is learnt to havedecided.

Each railway division will

have a self-propelled inspectioncar with windows at both ends.

As per the instructions,the remaining should be usedfor “premium tourist traffic” toearn “additional revenue” forthe railways.

Railways has a total of 336saloon cars across railwayzones, among which manyhave already been condemned.Around 62 are air-conditioned.

IRCTC ran the first pri-vately-occupied saloon coach,complete with air-conditionedrooms, valet service andattached bathroom in Marchlast year. The cost of charteringthe saloon was around �2 lakh.

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As the offer of support bycontroversial politician

Gopal Kanda, who is facingnine criminal cases, includinga case of abetment to suicide,triggered widespread criticismfrom the Opposition and with-in the saffron party, the BJP onFriday distanced itself fromKanda.

Before the BJP and theDushyant Chautala-led JJPinked a deal to form a coalitionGovernment in Haryana,Kanda had emerged as a pos-sible kingmaker for the BJP.However, the BJP-JJP’s dealappears to have made his“unconditional support” offerredundant.

The BJP won only 40 seatsin the 90-member HaryanaAssembly, short of at least sixlegislators to form the nextGovernment.

The businessman-turned-politician and the lone electedMLA from his Haryana LokhitParty Kanda, who played a keyrole in the formation ofBhupinder Singh Hooda-ledCongress Government inHaryana in 2009, on Thursdayevening extended his supportto the BJP after a meeting

with the party leadership inNew Delhi.

Reports that the BJP haddeputed its Sirsa MP SunitaDuggal to escort Kanda toDelhi on Thursday for talkstriggered an outrage with manyaccusing the party of

“hypocrisy”.Apparently on the defen-

sive, senior BJP leaders onFriday ensured that they werenot seen with Kanda even asother Independent MLAs wereseen moving in and out ofNadda's residence afterannouncing their support tothe saffron party.

Kanda has won from theSirsa Assembly constituencydefeating Independent candi-date Gokul Setia, while hisbrother Govind was defeatedby INLD chief Om PrakashChautala’s estranged brotherRanjit Singh.

Kanda’s statement ofextending support to the BJPalong with other sevenIndependents attracted sharpreactions on Friday with theleaders from BJP itself,Congress, Shiv Sena and otherparties criticising the saffronparty to join hands with atainted figure.

Kanda’s controversial pastincludes allegations that a carowned by him was used incommitting a rape, that hissecurity guards beat up anational-level cricketer andthat he harassed a youngwoman to the point of suicide.

Continued on Page 4

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Expenditure Secretary GirishChandra Murmu, who

served Narendra Modi as hisSecretary when he was GujaratChief Minister, and formerDefence Secretary RK Mathurhave been appointed as the newLt Governors of Jammu &Kashmir and Ladakh respectively.

The Centre on Fridaytransferred current J&KGovernor Satyapal Malik toGoa and appointed Kerala BJPpresident PS Sreedharan Pillaias Governor of Mizoram.Former chief of IntelligenceBureau and interlocutor ofJ&K Dineshwar Sharma hasbeen appointed LakshadweepAdministrator.

While Murmu, a 1985-

batch Gujarat cadre officer, isserving as the ExpenditureSecretary in the Union FinanceMinistry, Mathur, a 1977-batchofficer, has served as theDefence Secretary and is a for-mer Chief InformationCommissioner (CIC).

Murmu is scheduled toretire from service onNovember 21. Jammu &Kashmir and Ladakh, the twoUnion Territories will come into existence on October31, 2019.

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Delhi Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal, along with

Transport Minister KailashGahlot, flagged off 104 newstandard floor buses fitted withhydraulic lifts under 'ClusterScheme' at Dwarka depot.

These buses are equippedwith panic buttons, CCTVcameras and are especiallydesigned with lifts for divyangs.The target of the Governmentis to launch 1,000 buses by endof this month.

Also, these buses will befirst of its kind and are fittedthree doors along with uniquefeatures. Out of these, twogates will be for the 'entry andexit' while remaining one willbe completely dedicated forpersons with disability andsenior citizens and are fittedwith hydraulic lifts.

"Flagged off 104 new busestoday, fitted with CCTV cam-eras, panic buttons, hydrauliclifts for the differently-abledand other modern tech Delhi'sbus procurement was delayedfor some years, but the good

news is that thedelivery of thou-sands of buses haspicked up pace," saidKejriwal in a tweet.

It may be notedthat the 25 busesthat were rolled outin the first phasewith hydraulic liftswere manufacturedby Ashoka Leyland.These buses werealso procured underthe same scheme butthese have two gatesand hydraulic liftswere fitted in theback door.

"Along with CMflagged off 100 new Standardfloor buses. Somebody toldme that on 'Dhanteras' a beau-tiful gift for Delhiites. NewDwarka Depot also inaugurat-ed Delhi Government underleadership of dynamic standscommitted to strengthen pub-lic transport system," Gahlottweeted.

The new buses will run onnine routes from Nangloi toMehrauli, Najafgarh to

Safdarjung Terminal, Nangloito Badarpur Extension,Qutubgarh Border to OldDelhi, Uttam Nagar to KapasHera Border, Qutubgarh toOld Delhi Fatehpuri, Najafgarhto Azadpur, Kanjhawala toAzadpur and Najagfarh toNarela.

Apart from hydraulic lifts,the buses are fitted with CCTVCameras, panic buttons withhooter, GPS units for tracking

of bus, Anti-vandalism seats forsafety and security of the pas-sengers especially for women.

Besides, the Governmenthas also begun the procure-ment of 1,000 Low floor ACbuses under cluster schemeand tender for 650 Low Floorbuses has already been award-ed for three clusters and thesebuses will start coming fromJanuary 2020. The tender forthe remaining 350 buses will be

floated soon andthese buses areexpected to arriveby May 2020.

Further, tenderfor 300 ElectricBuses (Low Floor,12 meter) has beenfloated ron 15thOctober. The finan-cial bid for 1,000low-floor, air-condi-tioned, CNG-runcluster buses has alsobeen opened.

Further, thetransport depart-ment has createddepot space at RewlaKhanpur, Dwarka

Sector-22, Kharkhari Nahar,Bawana Sector-1 and RaniKhera -I, II and III, from wherethese 1000 new buses will beoperated. Currently, there are5500 buses in the NationalCapital out which 1679 busescome under Cluster Scheme.

Moreover, the free ridescheme will also start in DTCand cluster buses from from theoccasion of Bhai Dooj on 29thOctober, Monday.

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In two separate incidents, theDelhi Police has arrested two

notorious snatchers and appre-hended a juvenile from West andCentral Delhi areas.

In the first incident, twomen were arrested for allegedlyrobbing Amazon delivery boy inDelhi’s Punjabi Bagh area.

The accused have beenidentified as Shashank Aggarwal(32), a resident of Shastri Nagarand Amar Singh (29), a residentof Shakurbasti area.

According to DeepakPurohit, the DeputyCommissioner of Police (DCP),West district, on October 24, adelivery boy Pramod Kumar,working with Amazon, came atPunjabi Bagh area to deliver aparcel.

"The victim contacted thecustomer telephonically to knowabout where to deliver the par-cel. After sometime three boyscame and snatched the parcel hewas carrying. The parcel con-tained several gift items includ-

ing mobile phones," said theDCP.

"A case under section379/356/34 of Indian PenalCode (IPC) was registered atPunjabi Bagh Police Station andinvestigation was taken up.

During investigation, one ofthe accused Amar disclosedthat they had earlier worked atonline e-shopping portals asdelivery boys and they knew thatprior to Diwali, people orderseveral gift items and they werewell aware of the process ofdelivery," said the DCP.

"The accused told policethat he along with his two otheraccomplices planned to rob adelivery boy in order to impresstheir girlfriends by gifting themexpensive gifts. The snatchedparcel bag has also been recov-ered and on his instance hisaccomplice Shashank was alsonabbed," said the DCP addingthat manhunt has been initiat-ed to nab the remaining accused.

In another incident, thePolice Control Room (PCR)unit of Delhi Police has apre-

handed a juvenile who used tosnatch mobile phones and pursein Delhi's Paharganj area.

According to Sharat Sinha,the Deputy Commissioner ofPolice (DCP), PCR unit, onOctober 24, a PCR call wasreceived around 11.46 pmregarding snatching of mobilephone and a wallet from a man.

"The Multi-Purpose vehicle(MPV) in the area immediate-ly contacted the victim andreached the spot at NDRS fly-over. The victim told policeteam that two to three boys, agedaround15-16 year-old, snatchedhis phone and wallet containing�4,000 and fled," said the DCP.

"The culprits were on footfollowing which the MPV teammade intensive search operationin the nearby areas along withthe complainant. When theMPV team reached near NDRSParking, the caller identifiedone of the culprits and imme-diately PCR staff managed tooverpower him while his accom-plices managed to flee," said theDCP.

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Terming the announce-ment to regularise the

unauthorised colonies aselection 'gimmick', DelhiCongress attacked both theAAP led Delhi Governmentand the Centre, saying thatthey are misleading the peo-ple of these colonies to getadvantages in upcomingAssembly election.

"It will take a minimumof three to four months tocomplete the process of reg-ularization of the unautho-rized colonies and by thenthe Assembly electionswould be over in Delhi.These parties will do nothingover the issue after the elec-tion," Delhi Congress presi-dent Subhash Chopra andChairman of the CampaignCommittee Kirti said in ajoint statement.

They cautioned those

living in unauthorizedcolonies of Delhi not to betaken in by the hollowpromises of BJP and AAP asthese parties have no inten-tion to actualize the regular-ization of the unauthorizedcolonies once the DelhiAssembly elections get over.

Chopra said that if thegovernment is serious aboutthe issue then it should startthe process of regulariza-tion on a war-footing so thatit is completed before theDelhi Assembly elections.

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Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) onFriday slammed the BJP

for seeking support of contro-versial MLA Gopal Kanda toform the Government inHaryana, saying the saffronparty is aligning with a rapeaccused in a State where itlaunched the 'Beti Bachao BetiPadhao' scheme.

Senior AAP senior leaderand Rajya Sabha MP SanjaySingh said, "In a State where'Beti Bachao Beti Padhao(BBBP) andolan' was launched,the BJP is seeking supportfrom a rape accused.

If the BJP does not give anexplanation, then his partywill hold protests and "knockevery door and tell people inDelhi how their mothers anddaughters are unsafe" under theBJP rule."

His remark came a dayafter the election results for theAssembly polls in Haryanawere declared.

Kanda, who won the Sirsa seat, on Friday, claimedthat he and the Independentshave "decided to extend uncon-ditional support to the BJP".

Singh also accused the BJPof doing all kinds of immoral

acts including horse- trading toform the Government inHaryana.

AAP spokesperson and leader Atishi said while on one hand, Delhi ChiefMinister Arvind Kejriwal isensuring safety of women byinstalling CCTVs camerasacross the city; the BJP is seek-ing the support of a rape-accused.

Atishi and Singh bothclaimed that BJP leaders,including Vijender Gupta andParvesh Rana, had supportedthe victim and rallied in hersupport.

"Now seeing power, theirstand has changed. I want toask the Delhi BJP what theyhave to say now on the issue,"Singh said.

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Ahead of af o u r - d a y

laser showbeing organisedby the DelhiGovernment,traders inC o n n a u g h tPlace haveapproached LtGovernor AnilBaijal, askinghim to restrictpermission for assembly ofcrowds in open places likeCentral Park and provide ade-quate security arrangementsin the area.

The Delhi Governmentwill organise a laser show from26 October to encourage peo-ple not to burst crackers onDiwali, Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal had said on Monday.

From 6 to 10 PM, theinner circle will be made vehi-cle free and parking lots will beused for food stalls.

"We are apprehensiveabout the security aspect ofConnaught Place as entireDelhi is being invited by Delhigovernment to come and enjoythe Diwali celebrations.

"As huge crowd is expect-ed, there is a strong possibili-ty of miscreants, eve teasers,

pickpockets, chain snatchersand other anti-social elementstaking advantage of the situa-tion," the New Delhi TradersAssociation (NDTA) said in aletter to Baijal.

The letter said there hasbeen a shootout in CP onThursday morning and alsothere is a heightened terroristthreat in Delhi. The traders saideven on December 31 when CPis made out of bounds forgeneral public for security rea-sons, the area almost becomeslike a fortress.

"We request that permis-sion for assembly of crowd inopen areas like Central Park berestricted. Tight security mustbe provided in the entire com-plex as we fear the slightest ofincidents will bring a very badimage to Delhi police and gov-

ernment," the letter said. The traders have been

objecting the move to closesome roads and parkingsfor the show saying it willaffect their business.

The NDTA had earlierthis week approachedDelhi government andNew Delhi MunicipalCouncil (NDMC) officialsto not allow pedestrianisa-tion of inner circle.

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CBI on Friday filed reviewpetition against the bail

granted to former FinanceMinister P Chidambaram. EDalso filed appeal in SupremeCourt against the Delhi HighCourt’s bail granted toCongress leader DKShivakumar. “In the order ofdismissal some errors apparenton record have crept in, whichif considered, would have material change in the outcomeof the SLP,” said the review peti-tion filed by CBI through advo-cate Rajat Nair.

The CBI said the reviewpetition has been filed as thefindings rendered in theOctober 22 verdict are contraryto record, which is required tobe corrected and suitable order

are required to be passed. “It issubmitted that the findingrecorded by the High Courtwas on record of the SLP whichhas completely escaped theattention of this Court thoughspecifically invited on behalf ofthe CBI during the course ofhearing.

“This has resulted into anerror apparent on the face ofthe record resulting into seri-ous miscarriage of justice. ThisCourt,being the Court ofrecord should clarify this posi-tion and review its order,” theCBI’s review plea said.

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The electors in Haryana havesent 84 crorepatis to the 90-

member State Assembly, resultsfor which were declared onThursday.

“Out of the 90 newly elect-ed MLAs in Haryana, 84 ofthem (93%) are crorepatis”stated an analytical report bythe Haryana Election Watchand Association forDemocratic Reforms (ADR).

In 2014, 75 out of 90 MLAswere crorepatis in the StateAssembly.

The average assets perMLA in the new StateAssembly is �18.29 crores.Among political parties thecrorepati legislators included 37(93%) out of 40 MLAs fromBJP, 29 out of 31 MLAs from

Congress, 10 out of 10 electedMLAs from Jannayak JantaParty, 6 out of 7 IndependentMLAs and 1 (100%) eachMLAs from INLD andHaryana Lokhit Party, havingdeclared assets valued morethan �1 crore.

Independent legislatorBalraj Kundu from Meham inRohtak district is richest legis-lator elected to State Assembly.

With assets worth �141crore, Balraj is followed by

Congress’ Kuldeep Bishnoi,Adampur MLA with totalassets worth �105 cr andHaryana Lokhit Party’s GopalKanda, Sirsa MLA with �95crore assets.

As far as criminal cases areconcerned, 12(13%) MLAshave declared criminal casesagainst themselves. Five ofthem have declared seriouscriminal cases against them-selves.

Four Congress MLAs, twoBJP MLAs, one JJP MLA , oneINLD MLA, once HLP MLAand three independents havedeclared criminal cases againstthemselves.

Notably, out of elected 90MLAs in previous HaryanaAssembly (2014), 9 MLAs haddeclared criminal cases againstthemselves.

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The Congress on Fridayopposed India signing the

Regional ComprehensiveEconomic Partnership (RCEP)agreement, saying it will be the“third big jolt” to the Indianeconomy after demonetizationand GST and will result in lib-eralising Chinese imports tothe Indian market.

Addressing a press confer-ence, Congress leader JairamRamesh said that there was apossibility of India signing theRCEP agreement. “Afterdemonetisation and GST, itwill be the third big jolt to oureconomy when the PrimeMinister goes to Bangkok thenext month and expressesIndia`s agreement to RegionalComprehensive EconomicPartnership,” said the formerUnion Minister.

He said the Governmentwas not talking about ‘Made in

India’ now and the agreementwill encourage ‘Made in China’.Ramesh said the balance oftrade was heavily in favour ofChina.

“RCEP will result in the lib-eralisation of imports fromChina. We do not know whatwas discussed in Wuhan orMahabalipuram but we cansee the results, there will be lib-eralisation in imports fromChina. ‘Made in India’ is notmentioned now. It`ll encourage‘Made in China’,” he said.

He said that managingdirector of Amul has written aletter to Union CommerceMinister Piyush Goyal in whichhe has expressed concern andsaid that Indian dairy cooper-ative will be ruined if India pro-ceeds with RCEP.

Managing Director ofAmul has written to MinisterPiyush Goyal stating that Indiashould not do RCEP, else dairycooperative would be ruined.

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The exhibition-cum-e-auctioning of mementosreceived by Prime Minister Narendra Modi ended

on Friday, with the highest bid of �25 lakh for a paint-ing of the PM and Mahatma Gandhi.

The proceeds from the e-auction will be donated towards funding the Namami GangeMission.

The Union culture Ministry organised the e-auc-tion from September 14 to sell 2,772 mementos giftedto the Prime Minister.

The materials for exhibition and auction displayedat National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) includedmemorabilia, paintings, sculptures, shawls, jackets andtraditional musical instruments.

The lowest base price was kept at �500 for itemslike a small statue of Lord Ganesha and decorativewooden box in lotus shape.

The highest base price of �2.5 lakh was reservedfor an acrylic painting with a tri-colour background ofthe Prime Minister and Mahatma Gandhi, which hasreceived a final bid of �25 lakh.

A framed photograph of the Prime Ministerreceiving blessings from his mother, with a base priceof �1,000, has received a bid of �20 lakh.

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From Page 1The EPCA ordered the

Delhi Traffic Police and adja-cent NCR towns to deployadditional manpower to ensuresmooth movement of vehiclesin all areas, especially the iden-tified high-traffic corridors inthe national Capital.

It also directed that the dis-trict administrations of Delhi-NCR ensure zero-tolerancetowards operation of illegalindustries and use of unautho-rised fuel.

All these measures are partof the CPCB-formulatedGraded Response Action Plan,

which lists stricter anti-pollu-tion measures to be followedaccording to the severity of thesituation.

“According to the taskforce’s assessment, the air qual-ity situation during the next fewdays due to festival, meteorol-ogy, stubble burning is expect-ed to be challenging,” the EPCAchairman said.

Two days before Diwali,the national Capital’s air qual-ity dropped to season’s worst onFriday, with the decreased windspeed leading to accumula-tion of pollutants and affectingdispersion.

Meanwhile in Diwali airquality forecast, SAFAR saidthe highest impact of fire crack-er emissions is expected in theearly morning of October 28.

In a normal course, thestubble burning inducedimpact is expected to be mod-erate and if no additional emis-sions due to firecrackers areadded then air quality willremain in middle range ofvery poor duringDiwali period October 27-28,2019.

“However, if 50 per cent ofthe total load of fire crackers (as

compared to average of diwali-2017 and 18 is added, the AQImay plunge into severe cate-gory for a short period but withrelatively much less magnitude (half) than2018 Diwali period,” saidSAFAR.

“As higher boundary layerwinds are likely to flush out theexpected high impact of fire-cracker emissions, AQI will be soon return backto very poor within a day andthen descent to higher range ofvery poor on October 29 unlike2018 when it persisted for sev-eral days,” it said.

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From Page 1He is an accused in two

cases related to abetment of sui-cide and is on a criminal trial,currently out on bail. In his affi-davit, he had declared ninecriminal cases against himself.The cases included abetment ofsuicide (Sec 306), forgery forpurpose of cheating (Sec 468),criminal breach of trust by pub-lic servant or by banker, mer-chant or agent (Sec 409), crim-inal intimidation (Sec 506),causing disappearance of evi-dence of offence (Sec 201), forgery of record ofCourt or of public register(Sec 466), forgery of valuablesecurity, will etc (Sec 467)among others.

Also, Kanda is the thirdrichest legislator elected to the90-member Haryana Assemblythis time. The controversial leg-islator had declared assetsworth Rs 95 crore. He is also anMLA with highest liabilities i.e.78 crore.

In the CongressGovernment he had bagged thecoveted Home portfolio forfavouring Hooda.

Among the controversiesthat haunted Kanda during histenure included a car owned byhim allegedly used in a rape in2010, his security men alleged-ly beat up national-level crick-eter Atul Wassan in 2011 forovertaking the Minister’s con-voy.

While he continued withhis coveted portfolio and man-aged to escape these contro-versies unscathed, Kanda wasfinally arrested in August 2012after a former air-hostess withhis MDLR airlines committed

suicide accusing him of harass-ment. In 2013, the air hostess’mother too committed suicideand left a suicide note.

Kanda is still facing a trialin the case. He, however,claimed of being framed in thecase.

In 2007, he had launchedthe MDLR airlines, namedafter father Murli Dhar LakhRam. But the MDLR had ashort flight and was groundedwithin two years.

Currently, Kanda’s GoldenGlobe Hotels Private Limited isinto Casino business in Goa.

Talking to the mediaper-sons, Kanda on Friday said hewas framed in the abetment tosuicide case and has donenothing wrong.

On his support to the BJP,he said he along with otherseven Independents haveextended support to the BJP,considering the developmentworks undertaken by the party under the leadershipof Prime Minister NarendraModi.

The development, howev-er, did not go down well withsenior leaders in BJP and oppo-sition.

Former Union Ministerand senior BJP leader UmaBharti, through her Twitteraccount made an appeal to herparty to not forget its moralgoals

“I have learnt that BJP canget support of Gopal Kandawho is an Independent MLA.If he is the same person whosename had come up in the sui-cide of a girl then the case isbefore the court and the MLAis out on bail. It is for the court

to decide whether he is inno-cent or not but his election vic-tory does not make him inno-cent. I would request BJP thatwe should not forget our corebeliefs. We should form government in Haryanabut we should take support ofclean image,” tweetedBharati.

The Congress was alsoquick to respond with partyleader Randeep Surjewala say-ing the Congress had removedKanda when he was a Ministerin the previous HoodaGovernment and how the BJPis now roping him in now tostay in power.

Congress leader SushmitaDev has written a letteraddressed to Union HomeMinister Amit Shah askingwhat happened to BJP’s ‘BetiBachao, Beti Padhao’ cam-paign.

The BJP’s ally inMaharashtra, Shiv Sena alsoattacked the former for seekingKanda’s support. Shiv Senaspokesperson PriyankaChaturvedi took to Twitterand said, “Women are near 50per cent of India’s population,they have been coming out inlarge numbers to vote, womenare stakeholders in parties thatcome to power. If we disregard their senti-ments & sacrifice it at the altarof politics & power, there’s aprice that will have to be paidin due course.”

In fact, Twitterati pointedout the irony of a “rapeaccused” emerging kingmakerfor a party that started the ‘BetiBachao, Beti Padhao’ cam-paign.

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From Page 1Sources in the Sena said at

that meeting, Uddhav will seekthe opinion of his party’s newlegislators whether the partyshould pitch strongly for theChief Minister’s post and whatit should do if the BJP’s refus-es to yield.

“There is strong moodamong the newly elected ShivSena MLAs that the partyshould go whole-hog for theChief Minister’s post. In theevent of the BJP refusing toyield, the Sena should look atother avenues before it toachieve its objectives,” a seniorSena leader said.

Meanwhile, in its editorial,the Sena mouth-piece said thepeople had rejected the BJP’sthinking that elections could bewon by engineering defectionsand splitting Opposition par-ties. “People have also taught alesson to the political turn-coats,” the editorial said, allud-ing to large-scale desertions

from the NCP-Congress to theruling camp.

On the shocking bypolldefeat of Udayanraje Bhosale,who had switched over to theBJP after winning the SataraLok Sabha seat on NCP ticketin May, the Saamana editorialsaid, “The Satara “gaddi” (seatof power) has respect becauseof Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. The people of Satarahave shown they will not allow political opportunismin the name of Shivaji Maharaj.”

“This is a personal defeat ofBhosale, a direct descendant ofthe legendary 17th centuryMaratha warrior king,” theSena said.

The editorial wonderedhow the NCP-Congress got somany seats despite the BJPand the Shiv Sena firming upa pre-poll alliance. “PrimeMinister Narendra Modi andUnion Home Minister AmitShah addressed several rallieson Article 370. Modi addresseda rally in Satara for Udayanraje.Chief Minister Fadnavis

declared that since Udayanrajeis now in the BJP, ChhatrapatiShivaji’s blessings are with theBJP. Still Satara defeatedUdayanraje,” it said.

Holding that Pawar provedmore powerful than the BJPChief Minister, the Senamouth-piece said: “There is alesson to be learnt from thisdefeat (in Satara, where theNCP won). Fadnavis said hewas a powerful wrestler butSharad Pawar proved he wasmore powerful”.

“Maharashtra doesn’taccept arrogance of power.Our feet were always on theground and will remain so.Now that the elections areover, we are back to serve thepeople of Maharashtra. Let’s doanalysis of poll outcome later.The election results haveproved that no party can moveahead by hurting the senti-ments of the people.Chhatrapati Shivaji was knownfor keeping the promises hemade. Maharashtra will run onthe inspiration of Shivaji,” theeditorial said.

From Page 1The consulting cost is usually 3

to 5 per cent of the total cost of aproject. But the Minister declinedto give the figure for the entire rede-velopment.

Puri said this construction ishappening with a target to fulfil theneeds of at least 250 years. “Facilitiesin Parliament House also need to beaugmented to provide sufficientspace to members of

Parliament. This initiative fordevelopment and redevelopment ofthe Parliament building, CentralSecretariat and the Central Vistawill enable new India to keep pacewith the journey into the future,” hesaid.

“To select a reputed consultant,a system of Quality Cum CostBased System (QCBS) (80:20) hasbeen adopted. As per the RequestFor Proposal, a pre-bid conferencemeeting was also held on September12 where 24 bidders participated. The Technical Bidswere opened on September 30,

2019. A total of six bids werereceived.

After examining the initial eli-gibility and technical parameters, allbidders were asked to make theirpresentation on October 11 onApproach and Methodology beforea jury consisting of reputed archi-tects and landscape designers underthe chairmanship of PSN Rao,director, School of Planning &Architecture (SPA), Delhi and chair-man Delhi Urban Art Commission(DUAC),” Puri added.

Besides HCP Design, bids werealso received from CP KukrejaArchitects, Sikka AssociatesArchitects, INI Design Studio,Arcop Associates Pvt Ltd andHafeez Contractor.

“The award was given on 18October. The entity will now haveextensive public consultations withall stakeholders. These will be donein the public domain. Those whohave not been awarded, their ideasare also being taken on board,” Puriadded.

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Page 5: ˇ ’ ( ˜ · 2019. 10. 25. · Home Minister, BJP president Amit Shah announced that the Chief Minister will be from his party and the Deputy Chief Minister from the JJP. The …

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As Pakistan continues to rake up atvarious international fora, the issue

of abrogation of Article 370 giving spe-cial status to Jammu & Kashmir, ArmyChief General Bipin Rawat said here onFriday Pakistan OccupiedKashmir(POK) is controlled by ter-rorists. He also said Gilgit-Baltistanand POK are under illegal occupationof Pakistan.

Making these assertions, the ArmyChief said “when we say Jammu &Kashmir, the complete State of Jammu& Kashmir includes PoK and GilgitBaltistan. Therefore, PoK and GilgitBaltistan become an occupied territory — a territory which has beenillegally occupied by our westernneighbour.”

Moreover, that part of Jammu &Kashmir occupied by Pakistan, is actu-ally controlled by terrorists, he said.

On the issue of abrogation ofArticle 370 by the government onAugust 5, Rawat said it was brought inas a temporary provision. “WhenArticle 370 was introduced with theword temporary there was no objec-tion... therefore why is it that Pakistanhas suddenly raised the ante on the

Article 370,” he said while delivering theCariappa memorial lecture to mark theInfantry Day.

Hitting out at Pakistan for objecting to the latest move by India,he reasoned Islamabad was raking it“because the territory which has beenillegally occupied by Pakistan is notcontrolled by the Pakistani establish-ment, it is controlled by terrorists. PoKis actually a terrorist-controlled country or a terrorist-controlled partof Pakistan.” He also said Pakistan ismaking desperate attempts to disruptnormalcy in Kashmir.

His observations came at a timewhen India scaled up its narrative onthe abrogation of Article 370 and sta-tus of POK in various world platformswith External Affairs Minister S

Jaishankar recently stating “we expectone day we will have physical juris-diction” over PoK and Defence MinisterRajnath Singh saying any talks withPakistan, if they are held, would be overPoK and not Jammu & Kashmir.

On Sunday, when the Indian Armycarried out punitive strikes in sectorsin POK opposite Tangdhar to flattenterrorist launch pads, Rawat had saidpeople “working behind the scenes,” atthe instance of terrorists, were makingattempts at disrupting peace in Jammu& Kashmir. He also said intelligencereports of terrorists crossing the bor-der had increased since the centrescrapped special status to the state.

More than 2,450 ceasefire viola-tions have taken place since January thisyear including 850 since August 5.Moreover, 15 terrorists were killed inencounters in the last two months whileeight civilians were also killed. At least35 terrorist initiated actions were alsorecorded in the same period.

Pakistan is violating ceasefire in aneffort to gain moral ascendancy overthe Indian army posts guarding theLine of Control(LOC)on the one handand give covering fire to enable the mil-itants to sneak into Kashmir on theother hand.

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The CBI on Friday took over investi-gation of five cases from Mumbai

police involving gangster Chhota Rajanin crimes relating to extortion, abduction and attempt to murder. Thecases were originally registered byMumbai police between 1980 and 2000.

While the case relating to wrongfulrestraint and abduction was registeredon February 7, 1998, the chargehseetfiled by Mumbai police mentionedRajan and two others as abscondingaccused.

Two cases against him were regis-tered in March 6, 1983 and November21, 1980 for alleged firing on a policeparty during raids against bootlegging.

Another case of extortion was reg-istered against Rajan on August 18,2000

for making calls to oneHaresh Matani who wasaged 53 then anddemanded money forconstruction of a buildingby the complainant.

The accused personsthreatened Matani to killhim and his family if theextortion amount was notpaid. The cases weretaken over by the CBIafter the StateGovernment referred itfor probe by the federalanti-corruption probeagency. The Departmentof Personnel and Trainingwhich is the administra-tive agency for CBIreferred the cases forprobe by Central agency.

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The recent monsoon fury andfloods have taken a toll on

2,155 people and affected morethan 26 lakh people in 22 States,including missing of 45 persons.According to Union HomeMinistry, the maximum numberof 430 people died inMaharashtra, followed by 227 inWest Bengal in rain, floods andlandslides that hit as many as 361districts in the country.

According to the HomeMinistry officials, 803 peoplewere injured and nearly 20,000animals lost across the countryin the heavy rain and floods,which fully damaged 2.23 lakhhouses, partially damaged 2.06lakh houses and destroyed 14.09

lakh hectares of crops. A total of2,155 people had died due to rainand floods so far this year, anofficial said. Though monsoonremains active in a few parts ofthe country, the season official-ly ended on September 30.During the four-month period,the country recorded the high-est rainfall since 1994, accordingto the India MeteorologicalDepartment (IMD).

In Maharashtra, where 22districts were hit by floods, 430people died, 398 were injuredand 7.19 lakh people forced toseek shelter in 305 relief camps.The monsoon rain and floods hit22 districts in West Bengal,where 227 people lost their lives,37 were injured, four reportedmissing and 43,433 took shelter

in 280 relief camps. In Bihar,which was hit by floods till thismonth, 166 people lost their livesand 1.96 lakh took shelter in 282relief camps, following the del-uge that hit 28 districts in thestate.

A total of 189 people werekilled, 39 injured and sevenwent missing in Madhya

Pradesh, where 32,996 peopletook shelter in the 98 reliefcamps set up in 38 districts. InKerala, heavy rains and floodsclaimed 181 lives and injured 72.Fifteen people were reportedmissing in 13 districts. As manyas 4.46 lakh people took shelterin 2,227 relief camps in thesouthern State.

Twenty-two districts inGujarat were hit by rain andfloods during the monsoon sea-son, where 192 people lost theirlives, 17 were injured, while17,783 people took shelter in 102relief camps. In Karnataka, 285people lost their lives, 49 wereinjured and six went missing dueto rains and floods in 16 districts.As many as 2.48 lakh people tookshelter in 3,261 relief camps.

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The CBI has arrested a top official of the publicsector National Buildings Construction

Corporation (NBCC) for allegedly receiving a bribeof �4 lakh for clearing bills worth over �24 crore. Thearrested accused Utpal Paul, Deputy GeneralManager (DGM), NBCC, had initially demanded abribe of �50 lakh from a businessman, about two percent of the total pending bills, sources said. As firstinstallment, he had sought �10 lakh but the busi-nessman negotiated and brought the amount downto �4 lakh. Paul was arrested on Thursday night bythe CBI in Guwahati, Assam, while receiving the pay-ment, they said, adding other senior officers of theNBCC, Guwahati, are also under the scanner of theagency.

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The Supreme Court on Friday asked the KeralaGovernment to give �25 lakh each as interim com-

pensation to the owners of Maradu flats, being demol-ished on the court’s orders for violation of environ-ment norms by builders, after it was informed thatthey have been given a lower amount.

A bench of justices Arun Mishra and S RavindraBhat asked the builders of Maradu flats to deposit�20 crore within one month with the court-appoint-ed committee in the matter.

The top court said the attached bank account ofthe builders will be detached for depositing theamount.

The bench also asked builders to submit theirbanking details on affidavit with the court.

It also rejected a prayer of the Confederation ofReal Estate Developers Association of India(CREDAI) that the flats should not be demolishedand put to some other use. “We are not going backfrom our demolition orders. This matter can’t be agi-tated afresh. Our order is final,” the bench said whilerejecting the plea of CREDAI.

The court also asked the one-member commit-tee to assess the documentary proof of paymentsmade by flat owners to builders after some homebuyers told the bench that they had paid morethan �25 lakh to the developers.

A counsel for homebuyers told the bench that theyhad paid more than �25 lakh each for their flats tothe builder but the court-appointed committee hasassessed the compensation amount to be less thanwhat has been paid.

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New Delhi: The Supreme Court onFriday sought the Centre’s response byNovember 5 on a plea seeking entry ofMuslim women in mosques across thecountry and claiming that such restrictionwas “unconstitutional” and violative offundamental rights to life, equality andgender justice.

A bench headed by Chief JusticeRanjan Gogoi took note of the fact thatit had issued notices to parties, whichincluded Union Ministries of Women andChild Welfare and Law and Justice andMinority Affairs and the NationalCommission for Women, in April andthree respondents (parties) have notbeen served with its notices.

The bench, also comprising justices SA Bobde and S A Nazeer, ordered that thenotices along with copies of the petitionbe served on the Maharashtra State Boardof Wakf, Central Wakf Council and AllIndia Muslim Personal Law Board.

The bench then fixed the plea filed byYasmeen Zuber Ahmad Peerzade andZuber Ahmad Nazir Ahmad Peerzade, aPune-based couple, for further hearing onNovember 5. The Central Government,represented by lawyer Rajat Nair, onFriday accepted the notice. The pleasought issuance of a direction to theGovernment authorities and Muslimbodies to allow entry of Muslim womeninto mosques to offer namaz there. PTI

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The legal challenge to the disqualifica-tion of 17 Karnataka MLAs from the

Assembly before the trust vote by the thenH D Kumaraswamy Government needsto be referred to the Constitution Bench,the Supreme Court was told on Friday.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appear-ing for the Karnataka Congress, con-tended that the then Speaker K R RameshKumar, who was the Master of theHouse, exercised his jurisdiction to dis-qualify the MLAs and his decision can-not be questioned.

Sibal, who also appeared for StateCongress chief Dinesh Gundu Rao, sub-mitted however that “the matter needs tobe referred to a Constitution Bench as itraises matters of grave Constitutionalimportance”. He made his submissionbefore a 3-judge bench, comprisingJustices N V Ramana, Sanjeev Khannaand Krishna Murari, which reserved itsjudgement on the petition filed by the 17rebel Congress-JD (S) MLAs challengingRamesh Kumar’s decision. Kumaraswamyhad resigned after losing a trust vote,which paved the way for the BJP-ledGovernment in the State under B SYediyurappa.

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Page 6: ˇ ’ ( ˜ · 2019. 10. 25. · Home Minister, BJP president Amit Shah announced that the Chief Minister will be from his party and the Deputy Chief Minister from the JJP. The …

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Gandhinagar: Union HomeMinister Amit Shah on Fridaysaid the country would auto-matically improve if allMembers of Parliament (MPs)focus on their constituencies.

Shah, on a two-day visit ofhis home State Gujarat,attacked the Congress over theissue of poverty eradication andsaid the country's oldest partypaid only lip service and hard-ly did anything to improve thecondition of the poor.

Addressing a gathering inMahatma Mandir here, theBJP president said, "If all MPsfocus on their constituencies,the condition of entire countrywould improve automatically.

"I am lucky...Past MPs ofthis seat (his Lok Sabha seatGandhinagar), be it Atal BihariVajpayee or L K Advani, havealready built a strong founda-tion here. This has made mywork as an MP easier," he said.

He added, "My prioritywill always be Gandhinagarseat and its people. My aim isto make it the best constituen-cy in the country. I will try tomake sure to be with youwhenever you need me," Shahsaid in his address.

Shah was here to lay foun-dation stones and inauguratevarious projects worth over�400 crore, including a shelterhome, an integrated commandand control facility, three newlydeveloped gardens as well aswater supply and road widen-

ing schemes.At the event, Shah also

handed over keys of houses tothe beneficiaries ofMukhyamantri Awas Yojna inGandhinagar, besides handingout Ayushman Bharat healthscheme cards.Heaping praiseon Prime Minister NarendraModi, he said only a leader likehim could think of a healthcarescheme (like AyushmanBharat) which benefits 50 crorecitizens.

"Under Ayushman Bharat,around 50 crore people will getfree treatment up to �5 lakh.Only someone who took birthin a poor family can think ofstarting such a scheme.Narendra Modiji always thinksabout the poor as he belongedto a poor family," said Shah.

Taking a swipe at theCongress, the BJP chief said,"For many years, the Congressonly did lip service by saying'garibi hatao (remove poverty).But they only removed thepoor. If they had really donesomething, we may not havebeen launching these schemestoday." PTI

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Lucknow: The decision byOpposition parties to go solo inthe Uttar Pradesh bypollshelped expose the BJP’s “dark-er side” and effectively con-veyed message of their “failure”,Samajwadi Party presidentAkhilesh Yadav said.

Fresh from the SP's victo-ry in bypolls, Yadav also saidthat he will revamp the partysoon.

The SP turned out to be amajor gainer in the UPAssembly bypolls for 11 seats,wresting a seat each from theruling BJP and the BSP, whilethe NDA got eight, one lessthan it held.

Hitting out at the BJP,Yadav said the people votedagainst the saffron party andthe politics of hatred, casteismand corruption.

"The BJP used to shielditself from its failure on issuesrelated to the common man bymaking allegations wheneverwe formed an alliance to take

on the saffron party jointly."They used to say that all

political parties have ganged upagainst the BJP and the mes-sage of their failure could notbe properly conveyed," Yadavtold PTI in his first interviewafter the bypoll outcome.

"Now the same thing isbeing said by opposition par-ties separately and people havegot to know the darker side ofthe BJP as it could not counterthe opposition onslaught. Themore people know the reality

of the BJP, the more they willget disenchanted with it," hesaid.

About the SP's role in thefuture, Yadav said, "The mes-sage is clear. Those who workon the ground will gain andemerge victorious. We willcontinue to raise issues of peo-ple's interest and will stand withthem."

Yadav charged that in thepresent BJP regime, corruptionis at its peak and 'sarkarigoondagardi' (hooliganism ofthe Government) is ruling theroost.

The party's victory inRampur, he said, is enough togauge the anger of peopleagainst the administration,which has lodged a number of"fake" cases including goat andbuffalo theft charges againstsenior SP leader and Lok Sabhamember Azam Khan.

Terming the victory ofSamajwadi Party candidates inUttar Pradesh and Maharashtra

as people's mandate to savedemocracy, he said it was anindication of people's angeragainst the faulty, "anti-peoplepolicies" of the BJP.

About possibility of the SPforming an alliance in thefuture, he said, "I have takenpolitical risks. Arithmetic isdone in elections...But all fail in front of those whoremain with the people andraise their voice."

Citing the victory of SPcandidates in Jalalpur andGhosi Assembly seats, he said,"In Jalalpur our candidateSubhash Rai won as he gotvotes of all sections. He did nothave any arithmetic in hisfavour but he won as he wasthere with the people."

"In Ghosi, Sudhakar Singhfought in adverse conditions.He contested as an Independentas he could not get the partysymbol timely while filing nominations. He lost by a narrow margin," he said. PTI

Patna: Terming the victoryAIMIM in the KishanganjAssembly by-poll as "danger-ous" for Bihar, Union ministerGiriraj Singh on Friday accusedAsaduddin Owaisi's party ofadhering to the ideology ofPakistan founder Mohd AliJinnah.

The BJP leader, known forhis hardline stance onHindutva and nationalism, saidthe maiden victory of the AllIndia Majlis-e-IttehadulMuslimeen (AIMIM) in Biharcould imperil "social harmony"in the State.

"In the Bihar by-elections,the most dangerous outcome isthe result of Kishanganj.Owaisi's party AIMIM adheresto Jinnah's ideology. They hate(national song) VandeMataram. Bihar's social har-mony faces a threat from them.The people of Bihar must thinkabout their future," Singh wroteon his official Twitter handle.

The AIMIM which hadunsuccessfully tried to find atoehold in Bihar politics in thegeneral elections earlier thisyear and the Assembly pollsfour years ago, pulled off a sur-prise victory in the by-electionnecessitated by sitting CongressMLA Mohd Javed getting elect-ed to the Lok Sabha.

Qamrul Hoda clinched theseat, defeating his nearest BJPrival Sweety Singh by a marginof over 10,000 votes whileJaved's mother Sayeeda Banu,

who made her debut in elec-toral politics at the age of 72 as

a Congress candidate, fin-ished third and lost her deposit.

Chief Minister NitishKumar's JD(U), known not toshare the BJP leader's hardlineviews, reacted with vexation.

"We would like to knowwhat Mr Singh has done to fos-ter harmony in Bihar. If he is soconcerned about the state, whydoesn't he resign from thepost he holds in Delhi and ded-icates himself full-time toimproving the situation inBihar," JD(U) national generalsecretary and State MinisterShyam Rajak remarked sarcas-tically.Congress MLC PremChandra Mishra attacked theUnion minister for his state-ment and accused the BJP ofhaving a "tacit understanding"with AIMIM.

"Giriraj Singh is trying tofool the people. The BJP andthe AIMIM have a tacit under-standing. Both thrive on com-munal polarization and needeach other to sustain them-selves," Mishra said. PTI

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Prime Minister NarendraModi is likely to visit

Kolkata in the first half of nextmonth when he will attendKolkata Press Trust programme, sources said not ruling out a meeting betweenhim and Bengal Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee.

Being one among very fewcompanies in the world theKPT is celebratingits 150thyear from October 2019onwards.

Though the PrimeMinister’s Office is yet to giveits confirmation about hisattending the programmesources said in all likelihood hewould come to Kolkata in thefirst week of next month dur-ing when he will also attendsome other programmes.

If his visit materialises thenit will be Modi’s first tour ofKolkata after BJP’s resoundingsuccess parliamentary elec-tions when his partywon 18 outof 42 seats from Bengal.

“As the Chief Minister willalso be invited in the pro-gramme the twoleaders mayhold brief talks during thePrime Minister’s stayinKolkata,” sources in the BJPsaid. The ruling TrinamoolCongressleadership howeverremained non-committal on apossible meetingbetween thetwo leaders saying “it alldepends upon her scheduled

engagements.”Apart from the KPT pro-

gramme the two leaders mayalso get each other to meetinformally at the Eden Gardens—when India playagainstBangladesh cricket team—where Bangla Prime MinisterSK Hasina will come as a spe-cial invitee besides Modi andBanerjee.Known for her bluntcriticism of Modi — whichmakes her one of thestaunchest and most visiblecritics of the Prime Minister inthe country — occasionalmeetings between the two leaders tend to become nation-

al news. Banerjee who hadavoided meeting the PrimeMinister despite repeatedinvites from Delhi for the pastcouple of years suddenly wentto the Capital in September tomeet him reportedly with along list of demands.

Her political opponentslike the Left and the Congresshowever questioned the timingand suddenness of her visit toDelhi saying she had gone toCapital to save former KolkataPolice Commissioner RajivKumar facing CBI investigationfor his role as the chief of theSpecial Investigation Team inSharada and Rose Valley chitfund cases.

“It is nothing new for aChief Minister to meet thePrime Minister. And we hopethe meetings take place inKolkata in the sidelines ofother events so that the peopleof the State get benefited fromsuchparleys,” a senior TMCleader and Minister said “looking forward to the meeting.”

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Patna: Newly elected LokSabha MP from Samastipur—Prince Raj — was on Fridayappointed as the LJP's newchief in Bihar, replacing hisuncle Pashupati Kuma Paras,also a member of Parliament.

The appointment wasmade by Lok Janshakti Partypresident and Union ministerRamvilas Paswan, which party'scentral parliamentary boardchairman and MP— ChiragPaswan— announced at a pressconference here.

Prince Raj, son of RamChandra Paswan, trouncedsenior Bihar Congress leaderAshok Kumar in the by-poll atSamastipur reserved seat, resultof which was declared onThursday. The by-election wasnecessitated due to death ofRam Chandra Paswan.

Chirag Paswan was takingcare of the LJP's Bihar unit afterelection of Paras from family'spocket borough Hajipurreserved parliamentary con-stituency in the general elec-tion.

With a view to strengthenparty's organisational struc-ture keeping in mind the 2020Bihar assembly election, theLJP president has also appoint-ed several others especiallyyouths to head various cells inthe state unit, Chirag Paswantold reporters.

Party MPs- Veena Devi(Vaishali) and Chandan Kumar(Nawada)— will be heading

LJP women's cell and youthwing in Bihar respectively, hesaid.

Party's spokesman AshrafAnsari has been chosen asState minorities' cell chief whileSanjay Paswan will head DalitSena, an organisation floated byPaswan.

Notwithstanding NDA'spoor showing in the by-poll onfive assembly seats which sawonly one JD(U) nominee win-ning, Chirag Paswan, an MPfrom Jamui (SC) Lok Sabhaseat, asserted that the rulingcoalition would win 225 assem-bly seats in the 243-memberBihar assembly in the nextelection.

"The party's organisationwill be strengthened furtherwith youths heading party'svarious frontal organisations inBihar unit. We will prepare forparty's organisational struc-ture keeping in mind the 2020assembly polls.

"We will be able to registervictory in assembly poll just onthe lines of Lok Sabha electionwhen the NDA won 39 out of40 seats. We will be aiming towin more than 225 seats,"Chirag Paswan said. PTI

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!��� �� � �()�2 �%����� %��������������� �&����%�*�����������%��� ����� �Patna: Bihar Chief MinisterNitish Kumar has put a braveface on JD(U)'s drubbing in theby-polls, saying his party isreplete with by-election deba-cles followed by spectacularperformance in the state pollsshortly afterwards.

He accepted the mandatesaying voters are "maalik"(masters).In the by-polls on fiveassembly seats in Bihar, JD(U)could win only at Nathnagar. Itheld four of the five seats,before its legislators winninggeneral election and moving toLok Sabha.

Main opposition RJDbagged two assembly seats-Simri Bakhtiarpur and Belhar-Hyderabad MP AsaduddinOwaisi's AIMIM gained a toe-hold in the state clinchingKishanganj, while theDaraundha assembly segmentwent to an Independent.

BJP lost the Kishanganj, theonly seat where it had fieldedits candidate.

The NDA, however, scoredan easy victory in Samastipur(SC) Lok Sabha constituencywhere Union minister RamVilas Paswan's nephew PrinceRaj defeated Ashok Kumar ofthe Congress by over 1 lakhvotes.

The seat had fallen vacantfollowing the death ofPaswan's younger brother andtwo-term MP Ram ChandraPaswan.

"The electorate are our

maalik (masters). What moreshould I say? Moreover, ourhistory is replete with by-polldebacles followed by a spec-tacular performance in assem-bly elections shortly after-wards", Kumar said lateThursday wearing a broadsmile.

His terse comment camewhen he was approached by agroup of journalists seeking hisreaction on the by-poll results.

On Friday, the JD(U) cameup with the comment that itsuspected faulty selection ofcandidates and complacence onpart of the cadre was respon-sible for the partys debacle inthe by-elections, results ofwhich were announced on theprevious day.

JDs Bihar unit chiefVashishtha Narayan Singh saidhere that a report has beensought on the partys perfor-mance in the by-election,which saw the JD(U) losingthree of its four sitting seats andwinning one by a slender mar-gin.

He asserted that "actionwill be taken" on the basis ofthe inputs.Singh echoedKumar's view while asserting"our track record has beensuch that we have bouncedback after every by-poll deba-cle. So we see no need toworry on account of what happened yesterday thoughthere is no room for complacence. PTI

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India can now boast of havingits own genetic database

which can be used in a number of areas including predictive and preventive medicine with faster and efficient diagnosis of raregenetic diseases such as thalassemia, sickle cell anemia and cancer.

For the first time, theCouncil of Scientific andIndustrial Research (CSIR) hascollected genome sequence of1,008 Indians, representingover 55 different ethnic popu-lations and age groups, creat-ing a bank of genetic data.Genome sequencing is theprocess of figuring out theorder of DNA nucleotides, orbases, in a genome.

Globally, many countrieslike the US, China, Japan haveundertaken genome sequenc-ing of a sample of their citizens

to determine unique genetictraits, susceptibility (andresilience) to disease. This is thefirst time that a database ofIndians have been compiled,representating the country'spopulation diversity, saidUnion Minister for Science &Technology, Dr HarshVardhan, giving details of theIndiGen Genome project.

He said that the wholegenome data will be importantfor building the knowhow,

baseline data and indigenouscapacity in the emerging areaof precision medicine.

"The outcomes of theIndiGen will have applicationsin a number of areas includingpredictive and preventive med-icine with faster and efficientdiagnosis of rare genetic dis-eases," he added.

The IndiGen initiative wasundertaken by the CSIR inApril this year and was imple-mented by the CSIR-Institute ofGenomics and IntegrativeBiology (IGIB), Delhi andCSIR-Centre for Cellular andMolecular Biology (CCMB),Hyderabad.

Dr Harsh Vardhan saidthat the benefits of this initia-tive include epidemiology ofgenetic diseases to enable costeffective genetic tests, carrierscreening applications forexpectant couples, enablingefficient diagnosis of heritablecancers and pharmacogenetic

tests to prevent adverse drugreactions.

CSIR Director ShekharMande said the outcomes ofthe IndiGen will be utilisedtowards understanding thegenetic diversity of a population scale, making avail-able genetic variant frequenciesfor clinical applications andenabling genetic epidemiology of the diseases.

He pointed out that thereare millions of people in thecountry with genetic diseasesand this exercise will greatlybenefit in identifying thesedisorders.

The genome bank specificto the Indian population willalso help cut down costs ofgenetic screenings and thera-pies, said Ishaan Khanna, CEOof LifeCell Diagnostics whichis among the seven firms having acquired the licensefor the technology.

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Kolkata: A TMC leader, who isthe chief patron of a club atBarasat in North 24 Parganasdistrict, stepped down from thepost on Friday after it invitedWest Bengal Governor JagdeepDhankhar to inaugurate KaliPuja.

Sunil Mukherjee, who isalso the chairman of BarasatMunicipality, stepped downafter he came to know that theclub officials had invitedDhankhar as the as the chief

guest to inaugurate Kali Pujaorganised by it.

"I should have beeninformed as I am the chiefpatron of the club. I havestrong reservations as I feel thatthe governor is biased againstour state government. So Idecided to step down on myown," Mukherjee said.

A senior club official saidthat according to the club'srules and regulations it is notnecessary to inform the chief

patron about the guest list.Kali Puja will be

celebrated in Bengal onOctober 27 across the State.

Dhankhar, who took oathas the governor of West Bengalon July 30, has been at logger-heads with the StateGovernment over several issues— ranging from his seating atthe Durga Puja carnival tocomments on his security andthe State Government. PTI

Bengaluru: AttackingCongress leader Siddaramaiahand holding him responsiblefor the collapse of the coalitionGovernment in Karnataka,JD(S) leader H DKumaraswamy has asked himto "honestly" respond to ques-tions about "damage" in thealliance between the two par-ties.

Kumaraswamy, who head-ed the coalition then, told hisformer alliance partner that hisparty did not want any truckwith him.

"What kind of support you

(Siddaramaiah) gave duringLok Sabha polls? Who was inthe heart of MLAs who wereresponsible for the collapse ofthe government? Will you hon-estly answer this question"who"?

I'm indebted for yourcooperation and support.Iwon't forget in this life. We toodon't want your company,"Kumaraswamy tweeted.

Asked about once againjoining hands with the JD(S),if the BJP Government fellafter the December 5 bypolls to15 constituencies,

Siddaramaiah on Thursdayhad said, "We have got anexperience from that (joiningwith JD(S)), and instead will gofor polls."

Kumaraswamy in anothertweet asked "who askedSiddaramaiah to join handswith us?

Who had gone to hisdoors?" as he cited commentsreportedly made by theCongress leader raising doubtsabout the longevity of thecoalition government, whilegetting treated at a nature curecentre last year.

A video of Siddaramaiahpurportedly stating that thecoalition Government will notlast long after the Lok Sabhapolls had gone viral a few daysafter the Kumaraswamy-ledgovernment came topower.The Congress and JD(S),considered arch rivals in the oldMysuru region, joined hands toform the government underKumaraswamy's leadership asthe 2018 assembly polls threwup a hung verdict.With its fallin July following rebellion by 17disgruntled MLAs from bothparties, Kumaraswamy and

Siddaramaiah had held eachother responsible for the col-lapse of the alliance adminis-tration.Kumaraswamy's fatherand JD(S) patriarch had alsotargeted Siddaramaiah in thepast for the collapse.Coming toKumaraswamy's defence,Gowda on Friday said what hisson has said, is a "fact."The for-mer Prime Minister saidSiddaramaiah had agreed foralliance and for Kumaraswamyto be Chief Minister followingthe decision from Congresshigh command, "but, at the endpunished us." PTI

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The shock defeats of theparty candidate as well as

the Congress candidate supported by it in the Assemblybypolls at Vikravandi andNaguneri has shocked theDMK leadership. The DMK’sreversal of fortunes come hardly six months after it sweptthe Lok Sabha election deci-mating the AIADMK-led fronthas come as a surprise to the political commentators also.

“This was somethingwhich was waiting to happenafter the decision of the lead-ership to field sons, daughterand grand children of partyveterans. The cadre who havebeen with the party for decadesand senior leaders were ignoredduring the selection of candi-dates for the Lok Sabha elec-tions. The coronation ofUdhayanidhi, son of partypresident M K Stalin, as thesecond in command has not

gone well with party’s leadersand cadre,” said a senior DMKleader who did not want to benamed.

He described it as theCongressisation of the DMK.“Stalin’s appointment as partypresident itself was not a cor-rect decision. It was a coteriesurrounding Stalin whichdecided to appoint him asparty chief. They were reward-ed at the time of Lok Sabhaelections by Stalin who field-ed their sons, daughter andclose relations as candidates,”said the leader who was aclose confidante of formerparty president and former

chief minister MuthuvelKarunanidhi.

Referring to the peoplewielding power in the districtunits of the DMK, he saidmany of them were from theAIADMK who crossed over tothe party after the demise ofJayalalithaa in search of green-er pasture. “There are otherslike KKSSR Ramachandran,Selva Ganapathy who areknown as the AIADMK dias-poras,” he said.

The leader also said theinclusion of the Vaiko-ledMDMK and the VCK led byThirumavalavan too hasboomeranged on the party.“Both Vaiko andThirumavalavan do not fit wellwith the kind of politics practiced by the DMK . WhileVaiko was spitting venom atthe DMK and Stalin some twomonths before his inclusion inthe front, Thirumavaalavanspeaks, breaths and consumescaste. His speeches against oneparticular community has mis-fired and the DMK had to pay

the price,” he said. Vaiko alleged that the

AAIADMK misused the entiregovernment machinery inNanguneri and Vikravandi.“The results of these by-pollsalone cannot considered to bea reflection of the mood inTamil Nadu,” said Vaiko

reacting to the loss of the constituencies to the AIADMK.

Raveendran Doraisamy, akeen observer of the DMK, saidthat the bout was between twolacklustre leaders (Stalin andEdappadi Palaniswami) inwhich the man with powerromped home. “Stalin has beenweakened because of theAIADMK wresting the twoseats. We have to wait for theresults of the election to thelocal bodies before makingany assessment about what thefuture holds for the DMK. Thealliance partners like theCongress, the Lefts and VCKare certain to exert pressure onStalin to part with more seats,”said Doraisamy.

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Page 7: ˇ ’ ( ˜ · 2019. 10. 25. · Home Minister, BJP president Amit Shah announced that the Chief Minister will be from his party and the Deputy Chief Minister from the JJP. The …

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The Opposition Congressand NCP are working hard

towards isolating the ruling BJPfrom the Shiv Sena and rest ofthe political parties in the State.

A day after former ChiefMinister and senior Congressleader Prithviraj Chavan saidhe foresaw some "interestingpossibilities" about the chang-ing political equations in theduring the next 15 days andNCP leader Chhagan Bhujbalsaid that the "Sena can get CM'spost", Maharashtra PradeshCongress Committee presi-dent Balasaheb Thorat said onFriday that his party wouldseriously consider any propos-al received from the Shiv Senafor the formation of a newGovernment in the State.

Talking to media persons,

Thorat said that the Congresswas not averse to forming agovernment with the Shiv Sena."Our request to the Shiv Senais to make up its mind to forma Government without oursupport. If we receive any pro-posal in this regard, we willconsider it seriously," Thoratsaid.

On Thursday, PrithvirajChavan had set the catamong the pigeons by saying:"The BJP has got lesser num-ber of seats than it hadexpected. They were saying all

things that they would getmore 220/250 seats etc. They(BJP leaders) were even talk-ing about forming the gov-ernment on their ownstrength. If they want to forma Government now, they willhave to give the Shiv Sena itspound of flesh. After the lastelections, the NCP hadoffered unconditional sup-port from the outside. Asresult, the Shiv Sena had nobargaining power at that time.That won't happen now".

"I do not rule out someinteresting possibilities. Waitfor 15 days. You will get now,"he said. "We are talking to ourallies. We know as to what areall the possibilities before us.We all will sit across whether toproceed in the matter or not,"Chavan said, indirectly hintingat the exploring the possibili-

ty of extending support to theShiv Sena from outside.

Another former ChiefMinister Ashok Chavan hadalso said: "The Assembly pollresults have shown that the BJPcan be kept out of power".

It is only NCP presidentSharad Pawar who has not yetcome around to extending sup-port to the Shiv Sena eitherfrom outside and inside toform a new Government in thestate.

"People have asked us to sitin the opposition. The thoughtof trying to get into powerdoesn't even cross our minds.We will work to expand ourbase," Pawar had said.

To another query, Pawarsaid: "We will not go with ShivSena. NCP-Congress and otherallies will decide together, thefuture course of action."

Mumbai: The NCP on Fridayalleged that the ED case againstits supremo Sharad Pawar is aconspiracy of the NarendraModi government to brandopposition leaders as thievesand corrupt, a charge rub-bished by the BJP.

The allegation came in thewake of the EnforcementDirectorate naming Pawar in amoney laundering case andquestioning NCP leader PrafulPatel for alleged business dealswith late Iqbal Mirchi, aDawood Ibrahim aide.

"The ED filed a case againstPawar. It is a conspiracy of theBJP, Modi and (home ministerAmit) Shah to remove opposi-tion leaders by painting themas thieves and corrupt," allegedNCP chief spokespersonNawab Malik.

"They said Patel is linked toDawood and Mirchi to defameus during polls through elec-tronic media," he added.

Malik also called DevendraFadnavis the "most corruptand dishonest Chief Minister"in the Maharashtra's history.

"All MMRDA (MumbaiMetropolitan Region

Development Authority) con-tracts were given at 42 per centexcess rates. Contracts weregiven to cartels.

The Government gave con-tracts to blacklisted compa-nies," he alleged.

The BJP dismissed Malik'stirade, saying he was levellingbaseless allegations to divertattention as the links betweenDawood and the NCP wascoming to light.MaharashtraBJP's chief spokespersonMadhav Bhandari also saidthe documents related to awardof contracts by the FadnavisGovernment were in publicdomain.

"NCP leaders who did notdo anything besides corruptionshould not try to tarnish theclean image of the ChiefMinister," he added. PTI

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Mumbai: BJP leaderUdayanraje Bhosale, who faceda shock defeat in the Satara LokSabha bypoll in Maharashtra,on Friday said he has lost theelection, but is not "finished"yet.

Bhosale, a direct descen-dant of the 17th centuryMaratha king ChhatrapatiShivaji, tasted defeat at thehands of NCP leader ShriniwasPatil in the WesternMaharashtra seat.

"Have lost today, buthaven't stopped. Haven't won,but also not finished," Bhosaletweeted in Marathi.

Bhosale thanked his work-ers and the people who votedfor him in the October 21 elec-tion.

A multiple-time formerMember of Parliament fromthe Sharad Pawar-led NCP,Bhosale secured 5,48,903 votes,while Patil garnered 6,36,620votes.

The bypoll was necessitated after sitting MPBhosale quit the NCP andresigned from the post to jointhe ruling BJP last month. PTI

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Kolkata: Two persons werekilled in rain-related incidents inBankura district of West Bengalas heavy rain continued to lashthe State since Thursday, officialssaid on Friday.

The Met department fore-cast more downpour in the Stateowing to a low pressure area in

south Odisha and West CentralBay of Bengal.

The weatherman, however,held out a ray of hope for goodweather on Kali Puja and Diwalito be celebrated in the weekend,forecasting a clear sky fromSaturday afternoon.

In Indpur block of Bankura

district, an elderly man and awoman died because of drown-ing and wall collapse respectivelyon Thursday, District MagistrateUmashankar S said.The Metdepartment forecast heavy tovery heavy rain in East and WestMidnapore, South 24 Parganasdistricts of Gangetic West

Bengal.Heavy rain is likely at oneor two places over districts ofSub-Himalayan West Bengaland in Howrah, North 24Parganas, Murshidabad, Nadia,Birbhum, Hooghly and EastBurdwan districts of GangeticWest Bengal, the weathermansaid. PTI

Muzaffarnagar (UP):Hundreds of lawyers staged ademonstration outside the dis-trict magistrate's office here onFriday in protest against aspate of killings of lawyers inwestern Uttar Pradesh in thepast two weeks.

Muzaffarnagar district barassociation president NaseerHaider Kazmi and secretaryPradeep Malik told the mediathat they had sent a six-pointmemorandum to Chief Minister YogiAdityanath. PTI

Lucknow: After drawing ablank in the Uttar PradeshAssembly bypolls, the BSPblamed the ruling BJP for itsdebacle, saying it helped theSamajwadi Party win someseats.

In the bypolls to 11 assem-bly segments, the BJP and itsally Apna Dal (S) bagged 8 seatsand the SP three.

The SP, which emerged asthe biggest gainer, wrestedZaidpur seat from the rulingBJP and Jalalpur from the BSP,while retaining Rampur.

"As part of a conspiracy tobring the morale of the BSPmen down before the UPVidhan Sabha elections, theBJP in these bypolls made theSamajwadi Party win someseats and not allow the BSP towin a single seat," BSP president Mayawati tweetedafter the loss in the elections.

"Partymen understand thiswell. They will definitely workwholeheartedly to fail their

conspiracy," she added.The Uttar Pradesh bypoll

results have come as a setbackfor the BSP which had soughtto project itself as the mainopposition party in the State.

It not only failed to retainits Jalalpur seat but also pushedto the fourth spot in six of the11 assembly segments.

BSP's Chaya Verma lost theJalalpur seat to SamajwadiParty's Subhash Rai by a slen-der margin of 790 votes.

Chaya Verma is the daugh-ter of senior BSP leader LaljiVerma and Jalalpur was a BSP

stronghold from where its itscandidate Ritesh Pandey hadwon the Lok Sabha electionsearlier this year.

The party candidates faredbelow Congress nominees andalso lost deposits at many of theseats.

On six seats-Gangoh,Rampur, Lucknow Cantt,Govindnagar, Pratapgarh andZaidpur-its candidates fared apoor fourth.

On three others-Manikpur,Balha and Ghosi-it took thethird spot and on two-Iglas andJalapur-it finished the runnersup.

The party got the lowest2.14 per cent votes in Rampurand the highest 33.96 per centand 31.25 per cent in Iglas andJalalpur, respectively.

The BSP, which was themajor gainer in this year's LokSabha polls, winning 10 seats inalliance with the SamajwadiParty, had decided to contestthe bypolls after almost 12years. PTI

Kolkata: President Ram NathKovind is scheduled to inau-gurate the fifth edition of theIndia International ScienceFestival (IISC) 2019 to be heldin the city from November 5,one of the organisers said onFriday.

Prime Minister NarendraModi will also be present at theinauguration programme, asenior official of the NationalAtlas and Thematic MappingOrganisation (NATMO) said.

"This festival is held since2015 to celebrate Indias scien-tific and technological advance-ments with scientists, studentsand innovators.

"It is an attempt to encour-age young minds towards sci-ence and promote networkingof stakeholders working forpropagation of science," hesaid.

The festival will be inau-gurated at Biswa BanglaConvention Centre, he said.

Around 12,000 participantsfrom the country and abroadare expected to turn up at thefour-day programme.

The theme for this yearsfestival is `Research,Innovation, and ScienceEmpowering the Nation(`RISEN- India), he said.

"Students from theNATMO and other prestigiousinstitutions surrounding thecity are expected to participatein the outreach programme, hesaid.Over 2,500 school stu-dents from different parts of thecountry will be housed at aStudents Science Village, to beset up during the festival.

Events such as conferencefor young scientists, a scienceexpo, a science literature festi-val will also be held.

Special role of women sci-entists and entrepreneurs inshaping the scientific growthinjectors will be highlighted atthe festival, the officer said.PTI

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Kolkata: Thirteen Bangladeshinationals have been arrestedfrom different areas in WestBengal while trying to illegal-ly cross the Indo-Bangla bor-der since Wednesday, a BSFstatement said.

The immigrants wereeither trying to cross overfrom Bangladesh to India orvice versa with the help oftouts, the statement said.

Four Bangladeshis werearrested from Basirhat,Gaighata on Thursday whiletrying to illegally sneak intothe country from Bangladesh,the statement said.

Four others were alsoarrested from Hakimpur areawhile trying to cross the bor-der illegally from India.

On Wednesday night, fiveBangladeshi nationals wereapprehended from Jayantipur,Petrapole, Gaighata andHingalganj while trying tocross the border from the

neighbouring country.So far in 2019, BSF troops

of South Bengal Frontierapprehended 305 Indian and1,364 Bangladeshi nationalsfor trying to illegally cross theinternational boundary. PTI

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Page 8: ˇ ’ ( ˜ · 2019. 10. 25. · Home Minister, BJP president Amit Shah announced that the Chief Minister will be from his party and the Deputy Chief Minister from the JJP. The …

There is an open shadow-boxing ofa considerable bitterness that isensuing between New Delhi andAnkara as each seeks to hit theother where it hurts. While

Turkey has always had fraternal relationswith Pakistan — the former has stood by thelatter during the 1965 and 1971 Indo-Pakwars — the sheer distance and limited strate-gic overlap between New Delhi and Ankaraensured a modicum of agnosticism in thebilateral relationship between themselves.The advent of Turkey’s autocratic strongmanRecep Tayyip Erdogan in 2003 has revivedthe nationalistic impulse and ambitions thatare instinctively revisionist and reimaginingthe lost glory of the Ottoman Empire.

Today Erdogan’s imperious grandstand-ing in the international affairs is in stark con-trast to that of other Middle Eastern pow-ers. Turkey does not shy away from break-ing ranks with its ostensible allies like theUS to assert its own voice and relevance inglobal geopolitics. Recognising the desper-ation and isolation of the Pakistani diplo-matic fate, with most members of theOrganisation of Islamic (OIC) embarrass-ingly distancing themselves from thePakistani position on Kashmir, Afghanistanand terror — Erdogan (along withIslamabad’s “all-weather-friend” China) hasstepped in to fill the void and supportIslamabad in most multilateral forums.

While Turkey “fully supported” thePakistani position on the recent Kashmir-related concerns, India hit back deliberate-ly, visibly and cuttingly by cosying up to thethree nations that are known to have anti-Turkey stands ie, Greece, Armenia andCyprus. India further retaliated by freezingthe export of dual-usage materials like explo-sives and detonators to Turkey as also byputting the $2.3 billion deal to construct sup-port vessels for the Indian Navy in aTurkish shipyard on the backburner.

The Turkish outreach to endear itself tothe Pakistanis has been a project in the mak-ing with it incredulously withdrawing itsenvoy from Bangladesh in 2016 after Dhakahad executed the head of Jamaat-e-Islami,Motiur Rahman Nizami. That Nizami washeld responsible for at least 480 deaths in thePakistani pogrom preceding the indepen-dence of Bangladesh mattered little. Turkey’sposition on the 1971 war trials has beendecidedly pro-Pakistani and it noted thatNizami had not committed any “earthly sins.”

Today, this ensures that despite incon-trovertible evidence to prove Pakistan’scomplicity in the terror industry, Turkey hasprovided yeoman service to it by routinelybailing it out from getting “black-listed” bythe Financial Action Task Force (FATF).Pursuant to such reciprocal gratification,Pakistan offered the rare succour to Turkeyin its offensive in northern Syria against theKurdish forces, with Pakistan Prime MinisterImran Khan unequivocally telling Erdogan:“Pakistan stands in full support and solidar-

ity with Turkey.” India noted thatit was “deeply concerned” overthe “unilateral military offen-sive” by Turkey. In many ways,the Turkish and Pakistani nar-rative are eerily similar withtheir restive, uneasy and inter-dependent moorings with theUS. The “nationalistic” leadersin both Ankara and Islamabadare not wary of flexing their cir-cumstantial muscle to extracttheir respective pounds of flesh.

While Imran Khan hascried himself hoarse with the“nuclear” threat in the Indo-Pakimbroglio, the Turks are mud-dying the waters with the pres-ence of 50 B61 nuclear gravitybombs at Incirlik airbase, whichcomplicates the situation for theUS as it plays out as a utility-lever for Erdogan.

Turkey is too committed inits path to retract from thedefinitive track in the Indo-Pakdimension. The recent moveswill only strengthen the “divide”between New Delhi and Ankara.Pakistan’s ability to unilaterallyappropriate, invoke and posturethe historical Khilafat move-ment as an exclusive Pakistaniinitiative has also helped feed theromance associated with the col-lapse of the Ottoman Empireand its powerful sense of hurt inmodern Turkey.

The Turkish bid to reclaimthe times of the Caliph hasnecessitated that it is seen to beespousing the cause of the

Ummah (even if it does notapply to co-religionist Kurds)across the world and postureitself as the leader of the Islamicworld. Turkey has tied up withPakistan and Malaysia (who,too, is toeing the Turkish line onPakistan) to jointly start aEnglish language channel “ded-icated to confronting the chal-lenges posed by Islamophobiaand setting the record straight on our great religion —Islam.”

Erdogan’s quest for carvingout an important role for itselfin the global sweepstakes hasseen it do reckless realpolitik,even if it amounts to renegingon previously-held positions orquestioning its own commit-ment and sincerity in furtheringthe cause of the Ummah.

Erdogan, who had earliercalled the Chinese treatment ofits beleaguered Uighurs a “greatembarrassment for humanity”,did a quick flip-flop and thenstated that “Turkey firmly sup-ports the ‘One China’ policy. It’sa fact that residents of all ethnic-ities in China’s Xinjiang are liv-ing happily amid China’s devel-opment and prosperity.”

Both Turkey and Pakistanhave been routinely called outfor their strong-arm, illiberaland unilateral actions — with“nationalistic” leaders in bothcountries short-selling and way-laying the dreams of theirfounding fathers — the secular

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk andMohammed Ali Jinnah. Thehurry to stich its aspired destinyhas led Turkey to convenientalliances with communist Chinaor even Russia’s Vladimir Putinto spite the US.

If Pakistani dalliances withterror organisations have beenwell documented, questionsabout Erdogan’s dubious com-mitment in taking on the mostdangerous terror organisation inthe world ie, the Islamic State(IS), have raised many eye-brows. On the contrary, theKurds, who have been at theforefront of fighting the IS, aregetting bombed by the Turkishforces. Wikileaks published upto 58,000 mails documentingErdogan’s son-in-law, BeratAlbayrak, buying oil from thecash-strapped IS.

There is a certain com-monality of governance instinctsbetween Pakistan and Turkeythat is amoral, transactionaland churlish. It binds the twonations, who believe they canbluster, blackmail and intimidatetheir way on to the global stage.India needs to recognise theinevitability of the fractiousrelationships with both coun-tries as pacifism is a logicalanathema to the chosen path byAnkara and Islamabad.

(The writer, a military veteran, is a former Lt Governorof Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Puducherry)

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Sir — The new policy directionof the Government to reviveBharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd(BSNL) and MahanagarTelephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL)should not come as a surprise.Considering the Government hasgone in for an amalgamated pub-lic telecom, it must be taken as anacid test for the acumen of theGovernment and its bureaucracy.This might set a new tone anddirection in the emancipatedgovernance of public sectorundertakings in future.

The entire exercise forinstalling a model commercialentity, with differing compo-nents of finance, HR and mar-keting, would need a lead min-ister and a capable team toshape a competitive and progres-sive company. This team shouldnot only be able to win back the lost clientele but also leveragechanging technology to attractnew adherents. There has to bean independent and profession-al board at the helm with tech-nology and marketing as itsmain remit.

R Narayanan Mumbai

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Sir — This refers to the editor-ial, “Wake-up calls” (October26). The Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP)-Shiv Sena alliance is onthe road to power inMaharashtra while Haryanaemerged a cliffhanger with noclear majority for either the BJP

or the Congress. It looks after giving the BJP

a phenomenal victory in the LokSabha elections, the electoratehas voted differently in theAssembly elections. The under-par performances inMaharashtra and Haryana are awarning sign that the saffronparty must not ignore otherState elections on their way.

There seems to be an under-current against local BJP leaders,going by how the Opposition hasperformed better than what theexit polls were willing to grant it.Meanwhile, the Opposition willhave to work harder to negate theBJP’s advantage in terms ofresources and visibility.

J AkshayBengaluru

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Sir — This is with respect to therecent move by the Governmentto conduct a preliminary test forindependent directors. The needto address the candidate’s pre-paredness for the role in terms ofexpertise, experience and integri-ty may not be achievable througha one-time preliminary assess-ment. Independent directors aregenerally appointed because ofthe specific expertise they bringin and, thus, add value to theboard. Therefore, the need to holda preliminary assessment test inorder to be recognised as an inde-pendent director appears to be anaive move by the Government.

The Government can insteadplan innovative learning andtraining programmes so thataspirants are accustomed to thenuances of corporate governance,including company laws. Thepreliminary test can be replacedeither with a short term or long-term Board familiarisation pro-gramme.

Varun DambalBengaluru

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One of the most difficult battles thatSabita Sethi had to fight when she decid-ed to stand for ward elections in Odisha’s

Khurda district was getting her husband’s con-sent. But although she won over her husband andemerged victorious in the polls at Balianta block,Sethi had to pay a heavy price for success. Shewas forced to put up the youngest of her threedaughters for adoption after objections wereraised on the number of children she had. If shehad not done so, Sethi would have been disqual-ified for violating the two-child eligibility cri-teria for contesting local Government polls inOdisha.

Sethi is not the only one forced to take suchheartbreaking decisions. The political participa-tion of women, primarily from marginalisedcommunities, has been adversely affected by thetwo-child norm, introduced in India for localGovernment elections or panchayats in 1992.Brought in to “control” the population by pro-hibiting people with more than two childrenfrom holding any post in panchayats and urbanlocal bodies, the policy has violated the repro-ductive and human rights of women. If they arecandidates, they have to abort or give up a childif they want to continue in their post or else theyface disqualification. As spouses, they facedesertion or forced abortion so that their hus-bands can contest. In both situations, it is thewomen who suffer.

With the minimum age for contestingthese elections lowered from 26 to 21 years, manymore women in the reproductive age brackethave been negatively impacted in States likeGujarat, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar,Maharashtra and Rajasthan which follow thetwo-child norm.

With the Assam Government announcingthat those having more than two children willnot be considered for Government jobs witheffect from January 1, 2021, women in Assamcan expect to meet a similar fate. Paradoxicallythis has been called the ‘Population and WomenEmpowerment Policy of Assam’ and the exist-ing Government staff also has to follow it.

Does Assam really need to follow this pol-icy? According to Chief Minister SarbanandaSonowal, this was necessary as the State regis-tered a 16.93 per cent population growth in thelast 10 years. A look at the official statistics showsthe official birth rate of Assam came down to22 in 2015 and to 21.7 in 2016. It is slightly high-er than the national birth rate which was 20.4in 2016. The birth rate is defined as the num-ber of live births per 1,000 total population eachyear.

The Total Fertility Rate (TFR) in Assam is2.2 children per woman. TFR indicates the aver-age number of children expected to be born toa woman during her reproductive span of 15-49 years. Interestingly, the State is almost atreplacement level fertility of 2.1, that is the num-ber of children needed to replace the parents,after accounting for fatalities, skewed sex ratio,infant mortality and so on. The population startsfalling below this level.

Fertility has been on the decline in Assam.According to National Family Health Survey 4(NFHS-4), in Assam, fertility decreased by 0.2children in the 10 years between NFHS-3 andNFHS-4. In fact, fertility in urban areas, at 1.4

children per woman, is well below thereplacement level and even in ruralareas it is close to replacement levelsat 2.3 children per woman.

Just like in the rest of the country,in Assam also there is a strong prefer-ence for sons and this has been under-scored by the NFHS-4, which foundthat 18 per cent couples want moresons than daughters and only three tofour per cent of women and men pre-fer to have daughters. In such a sce-nario, once the two-child policy comesinto existence, Assam is most likely togo the Odisha way.

In Odisha, the deeply entrenchedpreference for sons led to increased dis-crimination against the girl child afterthe enforcement of the two-child normon panchayat representatives. Thisreflected in worsening of the alreadydeclining child sex ratio in the State.From 953 girls for 1,000 boys in the agegroup of 0-6 years in the 2001 census,it dropped to 941 in the 2011 census.

The discrimination was evident inSethi’s district Khurda, which inciden-tally has the lowest child sex ratio inOdisha. From 926 girls for 1,000 boysin 2001, it went down to 916 girls inthe 2011 census. Women activistscontend that the two-child norm hasplayed a critical role in this decline.

Instead of implementing a coercivetwo-child policy, Assam should focuson improving its high MaternalMortality Rate (MMR), InfantMortality Rate (IMR) and Under FiveMortality Rate (U5MR). In all thesecrucial areas, Assam fares worse thanthe national average. In 2016, it had thehighest MMR in the country at 237 perlakh live births. The State’s IMR at 44and U5MR at 52 are far higher than the

national average of 33 and 37 respec-tively. It can also focus on evidence thatshows that the proportion of womenwho start bearing children increasessharply to 21 per cent among womenwho are 18 years of age and to 32 percent among women who are 19.Further, research has shown thatwomen, who have had no schooling,are more than eight times as likely tostart a family than women with 12 ormore years of schooling. In otherwords, at the current fertility rates,women with no schooling will have 1.2children more than women who stud-ied till high school or beyond. Thismeans that uneducated women willhave a TFR of 2.9 as compared to a TFRof 1.7 for those who studied till highschool at least.

According to data, the IMR is 63per 1,000 live births for teenage moth-ers. Also, children of uneducatedmothers are more than twice as likelyto die before their first birthday as com-pared to children whose mothers havecompleted 10 or more years of school-ing (NFHS 4).

So then, isn’t reaching out toyoung women and improving theireducational prospects a better way tocontrol the population and empowerwomen, than putting them in a situa-tion where they are forced to give uptheir reproductive rights?

Further, nearly 39 per cent of thebirths in the State occur within threeyears of the previous birth. Studies haveshown that waiting at least three yearsbetween children reduces the risk ofinfant mortality.

But family planning in Assam isnot popular and unplanned pregnan-cies are relatively common. However,

if all women were to have only thenumber of children they wanted, theTFR would be considerably below thereplacement level. It would be at 1.8children per woman, instead of the cur-rent level of 2.2 children per woman.Moreover, by giving women the repro-ductive choice, the State could helpIndia keep its promise as a signatoryto the International Conference onPopulation and Development’sProgramme of Action to enable cou-ples and individuals to decide freelyand responsibly the number and spac-ing of their children.

But the contraceptive prevalencerate among the married women in theState in the age group 15-49 has comedown from 57 per cent (NFHS-3) to 52per cent (NFHS-4). Ironically, theunmet need for family planning hasgone up to 14 per cent in 2015-16(NFHS-4) from 11 per cent in 2005-06(NFHS-3). So women who want toplan their families either don’t haveaccess or the information to do so.

Statistics disaggregated by gender,play an important role in developingpolicies to achieve gender equality andfoster inclusive development. It informspolicies and interventions in areas likehealth, education and participation indecision making, politics and labourforce. Already the national workforceparticipation rate for women is 25.51per cent compared to 53.26 per cent formen. So how can there be women-leddevelopment when there is enough evi-dence to show that the two-childnorm will only benefit and strength-en traditional structures of patriarchythat have always restricted women’sentry into public space?

(The writer is a senior journalist)

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Going by the Constitution, pub-lic health is a State subject,which implies that access to

adequate and affordable health ser-vices is a citizen’s right and hence, theGovernment needs to ensure that.However, the growth of medical carein India has been largely restricted tobig cities where both public and pri-vate healthcare providers are battlingto care for an increasing number ofpatients, many of whom are residentsof smaller cities and villages.

The abysmal State-level doctor-patient ratio remains at 1:1,700, farbelow the international norm of1:1,000 as directed by the WorldHealth Organisation (WHO).

In spite of being the fifth-largesteconomy in the world, India’s health-

care industry has been ranked a poor145th globally in terms of quality andaccessibility. This is because a largeportion of the rural population lacksadequate healthcare due to a shortageof drugs and the prohibitive cost ofprescribed medicines in their areas.

Many specialised, experiencedand newly-qualified doctors in thecountry, especially in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities, do not have a platform to pro-vide and share knowledge due to lackof opportunities or enough support interms of financial capabilities to deliv-er their expertise and knowledge.

The significant gap in existinginfrastructure for healthcare in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities is the biggest rea-son why people are forced to come tourban hubs for treatment.

However, most of these people arenot insured, and even if they are, insur-ance does not pay for other necessaryspending such as lodging, transport,and food. It is no wonder that health-care constitutes a large share of theannual out-of-pocket expense Indianshave to bear.

According to a FICCI report

released last month, at 65 per cent,healthcare is the top reason forovernight domestic travel in the coun-try as a whopping 80 per cent of sec-ondary and tertiary care beds are locat-ed in urban areas and there is a needfor nine lakh beds in the next 10 years.

The Herculean task of providinghealth cover to the entire country willcertainly need more than public hos-pitals only. As Ayushman Bharatopens the doors to private medical careproviders and encourages them toserve the people in smaller cities, thehealthcare industry increasingly realis-es the challenges that lie in the modal-ities — developing and managing thefacilities and attracting and retainingtalent being the main areas of concern.

A Public-Private Partnership(PPP) model helps to address many ofthe challenges faced by private health-care providers who want to set up newfacilities — land acquisition, finance,and permits to name a few. WithGovernment support, many of theseissues ease out.

However, that may not be enoughto make operations a win-win for all.

The crux lies in managing financesand optimum use of resources — thecost-per-bed of setting up a privatehospital in a metropolitan city can goas high as a whopping �1.30 crore.

Relocating a reputed specialistfrom a big city to a Tier-2 or Tier-3 cityis another financial and operationalchallenge. Retaining his/her interest isanother. Since most of the smallercities have a miniscule pool of med-ical institutions, the staff that can besourced locally may be less than ade-quate. Filling vacancies puts an addi-tional cost burden, a major cause ofconcern for private medical servicesproviders.

Recently, the MunicipalCorporation of Greater Mumbai(MCGM) introduced two PPP mod-els — private funding and public ser-vices, and private funding-privateservices with public monitoring.

In April 2018, the Government ofHaryana announced its intention toestablish a 500-bed multi-specialityhospital in Gurugram under the PPPmode to provide treatment at a min-imal cost. The new hospital will have

advanced facilities such as electroen-cephalography (EEG), cochlear labo-ratory, dialysis centre, ventilators,advanced Operation Theaters, and CTscan unit, among others, addressingthe enormous unmet need for spe-cialised healthcare at an affordableprice in a metropolitan city area. Itshows that increasingly, StateGovernments are realising that thebest way to deal with these concernsis by enabling a PPP mode where theGovernment and the private operatoract as collaborators.

There is no national frameworkright now that guides the StateGovernments on how to engage pri-vate players in healthcare. Besides,health is a State subject and there is alack of clarity on institutional arrange-ments to implement and managePPP projects. Implementing the ideaof impact bonds, as per the UnitedNations Development Programme(UNDP), may provide a solution.Impact bonds are PPPs that allow pri-vate impact investors to provideupfront capital for public projects thatcan deliver social and environmental

outcomes. For a successful project, theinvestors are repaid by theGovernment through social impactbonds or an aid agency or other phil-anthropic funders through develop-ment impact bonds. For a PPP pro-ject approved to operate independent-ly, the Government must keep an eyeon things, as any such project withoutmonitoring may fail to gain the trustof the people. The fact that theGovernment is watching reassuresthem.

It is heartening to see that the con-tribution of private players in health-care has become dependable. Realisingthe importance of the role of privatepartners in the wellness sector, theNational Health Policy of 2017 empha-sises it can help achieve India’s aim ofuniversal health coverage. TheGovernment intends to attract carefrom private facilities and clinicsstrategically to improve access andaffordability of quality healthcare andPPP can help the country take a majorstep towards achieving that goal.

(The writer is chairman of a digital healthcare platform)

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Telecom regulator TRAI hasrecommended allocating 5

MHz spectrum in the prime700 MHz band to IndianRailways for its captive use inareas such as passenger infor-mation display system and livefeed of video surveillance andother public safety and securi-ty services needs.

“Spectrum may beassigned to Indian Railways onadministrative basis for captiveuse only and not to offer anycommercial services such asWiFi onboard,” TelecomRegulatory Authority of India(TRAI) said in a statement out-lining its latest recommenda-tions on the issue.

TRAI suggested that spec-trum charges be levied on for-mula basis as prescribed by

Telecom Department forRoyalty Charges and LicenceFee for captive use.

“Out of the 35 MHz(paired) spectrum available in700 MHz band, 5 MHz(paired) spectrum may be allo-cated to Indian Railways forimplementing ...MC PTT(Mission Critical Push ToTalk), Voice, Internet of Thingsbased asset monitoring ser-vices, passenger informationdisplay system and live feed ofVideo Surveillance of fewcoaches at a time,” TRAI said.

The remaining 30 MHz in700 MHz band may be put upfor bidding in the forthcomingauction, TRAI said.

Releasing its recommen-dations on allotment of spec-trum to Indian Railways forPublic Safety and Security ser-vices, TRAI noted that the

Telecom Department inFebruary 2019 had informedthat Railways has proposed toinstall an Ultra-high-speedLong Term Evolution (LTE)based corridor along their net-work for “train-ground” and

“train-train” communication.Indian Railways had urged

Telecom Department to reserve15 MHz of spectrum in 700MHz band for the purpose, andto start with 10 MHz to be allo-cated free of cost; Railways had

emphasised that the proposalwas devoid of any commercialgain, and instead aimed atenhancing security and pas-senger amenities.

The government thenrequested TRAI to provide itsrecommendations on admin-istrative allotment of spectrumto Indian Railways and thequantum, price, appropriatefrequency band for the same.

“To implement the VideoSurveillance System for allcoaches of the Train (Securityservices), Indian Railways mayexplore other communicationsmeans such as- dumping theVideo Surveillance data to thesystem using high capacityWiFi when the train reaches astation....Using PublicTelecommunication Network(TSPs network) for sendingcontinuous video surveillance

data streams to its control cen-ter,” TRAI said.

The regulator further saidthat efficient and timely uti-lization of spectrum should beensured through a process ofperiodical monitoring. Further,the 1.6 MHz spectrum alreadyassigned to Indian Railways in900 MHz band may be takenback upon migration to LTEbased network, it added.

“As Indian Railways wouldbe using the assigned spectrumalong its railway track net-work and stations only, DoTmay explore the possibility ofassigning the same spectrum inother areas for area-specificlimited use to other entities forcaptive use,” TRAI said addingit should be ensured that thereis no interference to theRailways’ network from such use.

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US market regulator SECwill be seeking coopera-

tion from its Indian counter-part Sebi in its probe intoInfosys, which has been rockedby whistleblower complaints ofseveral alleged irregularities,sources said on Friday.

They said the Indian cap-ital markets watchdog will pro-vide all possible help to the USSecurities and ExchangeCommission (SEC).

Infosys is listed in India aswell as in the US, where a classaction suit has also been filedagainst the Indian IT major torecover what has been termedby the litigants as losses suf-fered by investors there.

Queries sent to the SECwith regard to cooperationsought from Sebi remain unan-swered. The SEC has initiateda probe on whistleblower com-plaints that alleged “unethicalpractices” by top managementof Infosys and Bengaluru-basedIT major has said it will coop-erate with the investigation.

The Securities andExchange Board of India (Sebi)has also sought additional infor-mation from the company,while the National FinancialReporting Authority (NFRA) —which is part of the corporateaffairs ministry — has beenasked to look into the matter.

“The company has been intouch with the SEC regardingthe anonymous whistleblowercomplaints (anonymous com-plaints) and has learnt that theSEC has initiated an investiga-tion into this matter. The com-pany

will cooperate with the

SEC’s investigation,” Infosyssaid on Thursday. Also, Sebirequested additional informa-tion from the company con-cerning the anonymous com-plaints, and Infosys will providethe information as per itsrequest, the company said.

Infosys said it is also “awareof a securities class action law-suit” that has been filed againstthe company in federal court inthe US, based on the gener-alised allegations in the anony-mous complaints. The compa-ny intends to defend itself vig-orously in such a lawsuit.”

US-based Rosen Law Firmhad previously said it waspreparing a class action lawsuitto recover losses suffered byInfosys investors in the US.

Following reports ofwhistleblower allegations onMonday, Infosys had informedstock exchanges of havingreceived anonymous whistle-blower complaints alleging cer-tain unethical practices.

Infosys, which is India’ssecond largest IT services firmafter Tata ConsultancyServices, had said these hadbeen placed before the auditcommittee.

On Tuesday, in a moredetailed statement, InfosysChairman Nandan Nilekanisaid the whistleblower com-plaint dated September 20 aswell as an undated complainthad been received by one of theboard members on September30. These were placed beforethe audit committee onOctober 10, and the company’snon-executive board memberson October 11 (also the daywhen Infosys announced itssecond quarter results).

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Gold prices rallied �220 to�39,240 per 10 gram

in the national capital onDhanteras, according to HDFCSecurities.

The yellow metal hadclosed at �39,020 per 10 gramhere on Thursday.

Silver also witnessed buy-ing as it rose Rs 670 to Rs47,680 per kg from Rs 47,010per kg in the previous trade.

“Spot gold for 24 Karat inDelhi cheered the festival sea-son by gaining Rs 220 on theauspicious day of ‘Dhanteras’,”HDFC Securities, senior ana-lyst — commodities, TapanPatel said.

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Amazon founder and CEOJeff Bezos has lost the title

as the world’s richest man,paving the way for tenaciousBill Gates to grab the top spotafter Amazon’s lacklustre Q3results resulted in Bezos losingnearly $7 billion in stock value.

Amazon shares fell 7 percent in after-hours trading onThursday, leaving Bezos downto $103.9 billion. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is currentlyworth $105.7 billion. Bezosended Gates’ 24-year run as therichest man in 2018 andbecame the first man on earthwith a net worth of $160 billion.

Amazon reported a 26 percent drop in net income in itsthird quarter, its first profitdecline since 2017, reportsForbes.

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The heir to the Samsungempire arrived at court

Friday for a retrial over asprawling corruption scandalthat threatens to disrupt man-agement at the world’s biggestsmartphone and memory chipmaker.

Lee Jae-yong is vice-chair-man of Samsung Electronics —where profits have been fallingfor months — and was jailedfor five years in 2017 forbribery, embezzlement andother offences in connectionwith the scandal that broughtdown South Korean presidentPark Geun-hye.

The 51-year-old wasreleased a year later after anappeals court dismissed most ofhis bribery convictions and gavehim a suspended sentence, butthat decision was set aside by theSupreme Court in August,

which ordered a retrial.Accompanied by his

lawyers, Lee walked stony-faced into the Seoul HighCourt for the new proceedings,only telling reporters: “I’msorry for causing many peopleconcern. I apologise.” The casecentres on millions of dollarsthe Samsung group paid Park’ssecret confidante Choi Soon-sil, allegedly for governmentfavours such as ensuring asmooth transition for Lee tosucceed his ailing father.

The scandal highlightedshady links between big busi-ness and politics in SouthKorea, with the ousted presi-dent and her friend accused oftaking bribes from corporatebigwigs in exchange for pref-erential treatment. The twowomen were both convictedand given decades-long jailsentences, and are due to faceseparate retrials of their own.

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Shares of Vodafone Idea fur-ther declined 5 per cent on

Friday after the Supreme Courtallowed the Centre’s plea torecover adjusted gross revenue(AGR) of about �92,000 crorefrom telecom service providers.

Vodafone Idea’s scrip tum-bled 5.08 per cent to close at�4.11 on the BSE. During theday, it plummeted 15.47 percent to �3.66 — its 52-weeklow. The company’s scrip hadplunged 23.36 per cent onThursday after the apex court’sverdict.

Bharti Airtel also fell by2.59 per cent to �362.80 duringthe day but later closed at�375.80, up 0.90 per cent.

In a setback to telecom ser-vice providers, the SupremeCourt on Thursday allowed theCentre’s plea to recover AGR of about �92,000 crorefrom them.

The decision will have a bigimpact on the sector as it isalready in huge financial dis-tress, said Prashant Singhal,Emerging Markets TMTLeader, EY.

Bharti Airtel on Thursdaysaid the Supreme Court’s ver-dict on AGR will weaken via-bility of the telecom sector, andthe government must review itsimpact and find ways to miti-gate financial burden on thealready stressed industry.

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Facing over �21,000 croreliability in interest and

penalty alone after a SupremeCourt ruling on the definitionof telecom revenues, VodafoneIdea on Friday said it willapproach the government forrelief, including a waiver ofinterest and penalties.

Vodafone-Idea, BhartiAirtel and other telecom oper-ators may have to pay the gov-ernment a whopping �1.4lakh crore following theSupreme Court order onThursday that sent shockwaves through an industryalready grappling with bil-lions of dollars in debt and anintense tariff war to retain cus-tomers.

In a filing on Friday,Vodafone Idea Ltd (VIL) saidthe apex court’s verdict on theAdjusted Gross Revenue case,represents a “significant event”,and has financial implica-tions, which the company isreviewing.

VIL board met onThursday evening to discussthe issue, it said.

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Jewellery stocks came underselling pressure and tum-

bled up to 6.6 per cent onDhanteras. Shares ofTribhovandas Bhimji Zaveridropped 6.65 per cent,Thangamayil Jewellery 4.81per cent, PC Jeweller fell 4.07per cent and Titan Company2.94 per cent on the BSE onFriday. Dhanteras, celebrated innorthern and western parts ofIndia, is considered an auspi-cious day for buying gold, sil-ver and other valuables.

Gold and jewellery saleswere muted till afternoon onthe occasion of Dhanteras aspeople preferred silver coinsand utentils for token buyingamid sluggish consumerspending and high rates of theprecious metal, according toindustry players.

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Homegrown auto majorTata Motors on Friday

reported a consolidated netloss of �187.7 crore for thequarter ended September 30,hit by subdued demand forits vehicles in the domesticmarket. The company hadposted a loss of �1,009.49crore in the same period of2018-19.

Total revenue during theperiod under review stood at�65,431.95 crore as against�71,981.08 crore in the year-agoperiod, Tata Motors said in a reg-ulatory filing. British arm JaguarLand Rover (JLR) reported a pre-tax profit of 156 million pounds,246 million pounds better year-on-year, it added. The Britishbrand’s wholesales during thesecond quarter were up 2.9 percent at 1,34,489 units.

“JLR has returned to prof-itability and revenue growth.This is testament to the funda-mental strength of our business,our award-winning products,new technologies and operatingefficiencies,” JLR Chief ExecutiveRalf Speth said. Looking forward,the company would continue itsproduct offensive, broadening itsrange of electrified vehicles, headded.

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Domestic equity benchmarks eked out modest gainsafter a see-saw session on Friday as investors stuckto select banking and IT stocks following encourag-

ing results.The 30-share BSE Sensex swung over 523 points before

settling 37.67 points, or 0.10 per cent, higher at 39,058.06.The broader NSE Nifty closed at 11,583.90, up by just 1.30points or 0.01 per cent.

Both the key indices closed Hindu calendar yearSamvat 2075 with smart gains. The Sensex rallied 4,066.15points or 11.62 per cent, while the Nifty soared 1,053.90points or 10 per cent in Samvat 2075.

During the holiday-shortened week, the Sensex lost240.32 points or 0.61 per cent, and the Nifty slipped 77.95points or 0.66 per cent.

Yes Bank was the top gainer in the Sensex pack on Friday,followed by SBI which rallied 7.19 per cent after the lenderreported a nearly six-fold jump in consolidated net profitfor the second quarter ended September.

ICICI Bank, Sun Pharma, TCS, HCL Tech, Maruti, BhartiAirtel and Infosys too rose up to 3.18 per cent.

On the other hand, Tata Motors, Vedanta, HDFC, KotakBank, Hero MotoCorp and NTPC tumbled up to 4.87 percent.

“As the result season has started so the market may waitfor any significant change in the overall outlook and so isexpected to trade within a broad range of 11,000 to 11,700for the coming days.

“The impact of results will be seen on individual stocksand as a sector, auto, realty and big private banks are expect-ed to perform better than the rest of the market as they arelikely to see recovery in sales from this quarter.

“For the start of Samvat 2076, the stock market sceneis more uncertain than it was in the last few years. I expectthe market to be a lot more volatile in Samvat 2076 and thatwill filter out weaker and fragile businesses from the mar-ket,” said Romesh Tiwari, head of research at CapitalAim.

Sectorally, BSE bankex, IT, teck, realty, oil and gas, financeand healthcare indices ended up to 1.07 per cent higher.

On the other hand, consumer durables, telecom, indus-trials, power, utilities and capital goods declined up to 1.78per cent.

Broader BSE midcap index ended on a flat note, whileBSE smallcap index slipped 0.39 per cent.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) remained net sell-ers in the capital markets, pulling out �72.87 crore onThursday, provisional exchange data showed.

Globally, equities were held back by mixed corporateearnings and fresh uncertainties on the Brexit front.

In Asia, bourses in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Tokyo andSeoul ended on a mixed note.

Markets in Europe were trading in the red in their respec-tive early deals.

Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, slipped0.18 per cent to USD 61.56 per barrel.

�����������/4�����)�%)� Meanwhile, the Indian rupee appreciated 12 paise to set-

tle at 70.90 against the US dollar on Friday.At the interbank foreign exchange market, the rupee

opened lower at 71.06 against the US dollar.During the day, the domestic unit fluctuated between

a high of 70.87 and a low of 71.06. On a weekly basis, thelocal unit gained 24 paise.

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The country’s largest lenderSBI on Friday reported a

nearly six-fold jump in itsSeptember quarter consolidat-ed net profit at �3,375.40 crore,prominently aided by a partialstake sale in its life insuranceventure.

The bank’s net profit was�576.46 crore in the July-September period of the pre-vious fiscal.

The State Bank of India’s(SBI) total income on a con-solidated basis rose to�89,347.91 crore in the quarterunder review, compared to�79,302.72 crore in the year-ago period, the bank said in aregulatory filing.

“Exceptional items repre-sent net profit of �3,190.97crore on sale of partial invest-ment in SBI Life InsuranceCompany. Consequently, theholding of SBI in the subsidiaryhas reduced to 57.60% from62.10%,” it said.

The SBI sold 4.5% stake inSBI Life Insurance inSeptember as part of its effortto increase public float as perthe regulation.

On standalone basis, thebank’s net profit for theSeptember quarter rose nearly

three-fold to �3,011.73 crore asagainst �944.87 crore in the cor-responding three months a yearago. Standalone income came inat �72,850.78 crore during July-September, against �66,607.98crore a year ago. Net interestincome, or the core income, rose17% year-on-year to �24,600crore, surpassing the �23,075-crore estimate.

The asset quality of thebank improved with gross non-performing assets (NPAs)declining to 7.19% of grossadvances as on September 30,2019, from 9.95% a year ago.Net NPAs or bad loans toodeclined to 2.79% of advancesfrom 4.84% in the year-agoperiod. As a result, gross NPAsin absolute terms reduced to�1.61 lakh crore from �2.05lakh crore in the year-ago quar-ter. Similarly, provision for badloans declined to �11,396.87crore as compared to�10,381.31 crore in the samequarter a year ago. With regardto gross slippage, the banksaid, it declined to �8,805 croreduring the quarter from�10,725 crore in the year-agoperiod. Provision coverage ratiowas 81.23% as on September 30,2019. Net interest marginimproved to 3.22% from 2.78%at the end of the second quar-

ter of the previous fiscal.

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Textile major Arvind Ltd onFriday reported a consolidatednet profit of �49.68 crore for theSeptember quarter. The compa-ny had posted a net profit of�56.10 crore in the July-September quarter a year ago, thecompany said in a BSE filing.

Net sales during the quar-ter stood at �1,962.19 crore asagainst �1,792.91 crore in theyear-ago quarter.

The results are not com-parable with the previous year’speriod because of demerger ofits branded apparel to ArvindFashions Ltd with effect fromNovember 30, 2018.

Arvind’s total expensesstood at �1,900.40 crore.Revenue from the textile seg-ment was at �1,647.86 croreand �182.54 crore from theadvanced material segment.

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Bharti Airtel’s African armAirtel Africa on Friday report-ed a 78% jump in net profit toUSD 96 million for the secondquarter ended on September 30,2019, driven by growth in cus-tomer base. The company had

recorded a net profit of USD 54million in the same period ayear ago. The profit growth ofthe company, which providestelecom services in 14 Africancountries, was 83.6% during theperiod under review in constantcurrency terms.

“The constant currencyrevenue growth of 11.4% wasdriven by double-digit growthin Nigeria and East Africa, par-tially offset by a slight decreasein Rest of Africa,” Airtel Africasaid in a statement.

The revenue of Airtel Africagrew 9.8% to USD 844 millionduring the reported quarterfrom USD 769 million in thecorresponding quarter of 2018-19. The average revenue peruser almost remained flat atUSD 2.8 in the second quarter.However, it grew by 2.4% onconstant currency basis.

Total customer base ofAirtel Africa grew by 10.4% to103.9 million from 94.1 millionduring the period under review.Data users on the company’snetwork grew by 17.7% to 31.9million in July-September 2019from 27.1 million a year ago.The net debt on the companyalmost halved to USD 3,191million at the end of September30, 2019, from USD 6,439 mil-lion a year ago.

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Reliance Industries Ltd on Friday said its board hasapproved the formation of a wholly-owned subsidiary

for digital platform initiatives and investment of Rs 1.08 lakhcrore in the unit. The subsidiary will also acquire RIL's equi-ty investment of Rs 65,000 crore in Reliance Jio InfocommLtd (RJIL), it said in a regulatory filing.

RIL said that RJIL board has approved a scheme ofarrangement between the company and certain classes ofits creditors including debenture holders for transfer of iden-tified liabilities of up to Rs 1.08 lakh crore to RIL.

"Rights Issue of Optionally Convertible Preference Shares(‘OCPS') aggregating up to Rs. 1,08,000 crore for the pur-pose of payment of consideration for transfer of identifiedliabilities - WOS (wholly owned subsidiary) to subscribe tothis issue," it added.

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US President Donald Trumphas cancelled the sub-

scription of leading Americandailies The Washington Postand The New York Times, call-ing them "fake" and askedother federal agencies to do thesame, according to a mediareport.

Trump's unusual movecame days after he hinted of thesame in an interview with theFox News.

Trump on Monday termedThe New York Times “a fakenewspaper,” saying that “wedon't even want it in the WhiteHouse anymore.”

“We're going to probablyterminate that (The Times)and The Washington Post,” he

said. “They're fake,” The NewYork Times quoted him say-ing in the interview.

Officials in the West Wing on Thursdayannounced that copies of thetwo newspapers would nolonger be delivered to the White Houseand the administration ismoving to force other feder-al agencies to end their sub-scriptions to the papers, aswell, the NYT report said.

According to a report,Trump called members of the press “enemies of the peo-ple,” deemed critical coverage“fake,” accused news organ-isations of treason and threat-ened to make it easier to suejournalists for libel.

“Not renewing subscrip-tions across all federal agen-cies will be a significant costsaving — hundreds of thou-sands of taxpayer dollars willbe saved,” White House presssecretary, Stephanie Grisham,said in a statement.

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President Donald Trump isconfronting the limits of

his main impeachment defense.As the probe hits the one-

month mark, Trump and hisaides have largely ignored thedetails of the Ukraine allegationsagainst him.

Instead, they're loudlyobjecting to the HouseDemocrats' investigationprocess, using that as justifica-tion for ordering administrationofficials not to cooperate andcomplaining about what theydeem prejudicial, even uncon-stitutional, secrecy.

But as a near-daily drip ofderogatory evidence emergesfrom closed-door testimony onCapitol Hill, the White Houseassertion that the proceedingsare unfair is proving to be a less-than-compelling counter to themounting threat to Trump'spresidency.

Some senior officials havecomplied with congressional

subpoenas to assist HouseDemocratic investigators,defying White House orders.

Asked about criticismthat the White House lacks acoordinated pushback effortand could do a better jobdelivering its message, spokes-woman Stephanie Grishamsaid, "It's hard to message any-thing that's going on behindclosed doors and in secret."

"It's like you're fighting aghost, you're fighting againstthe air. So we're doing the bestwe can," she said on FoxNews.

It was a rare public admission from the WhiteHouse that despite the presi-dent's bravado, real risksremain.

White House officials,who have been treating uni-fied Republican support forTrump as a given, have grownincreasingly fearful of GOPdefections in a Houseimpeachment vote and apotential Senate trial.

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EU members delayed a deci-sion on Friday on how long

to postpone next week's Brexitdeadline, giving British PrimeMinister Boris Johnson space topush for an early general elec-tion.

Senior diplomats told AFPthey would reconvene onMonday or Tuesday next week,thus perhaps fewer than 72hours before Britain is set tobreak away from the bloc.

Johnson is struggling tocall an election he hopes willgive him a majority to pass thedivorce deal he struck with EUleaders last week.

But the British oppositionwants to know whether Europewill agree to delay departurebefore agreeing to a snap poll -- and October 31 remains the

official deadline. After whatEU negotiator Michel Barniersaid were "excellent discus-sions", European Commissionspokeswoman MinaAndreeva said work amongmember states "will continuein coming days".

Two diplomats told AFPthe ambassadors set an infor-mal deadline of late Mondayor early Tuesday to decide --just two days before the cur-rent Brexit deadline. SeniorEuropean diplomats whoattended the meeting con-firmed the 27 non-Britishmembers had agreed in prin-ciple that some kind of delayis in order.

They also agreed thattheir capitals could decide onits length by written proce-dure, rather than by holdinga leaders' crisis summit inBrussels next week.

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Turkey on Friday warnedWashington that any meet-

ing with the leader of a US-backed Syrian Kurdish-ledforce risked "legitimising ter-rorists".

US President Donald

Trump on Thursday said hehad talked with Mazlum Abdi,commander of the SyrianDemocratic Forces (SDF) which fought againstextremists in Syria, and that hehad "really enjoyed" the con-versation.

In a tweet on Wednesday,

Trump thanked Mazlum andsaid: "I look forward to seeingyou soon", raising fears inTurkey of a possible face-to-face meeting between the twomen in the United States.

"If you start legitimisingterrorists like this, tomorrowyou will end up meeting with

Baghdadi as well," TurkishForeign Minister MevlutCavusoglu said in televisedremarks. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadiis the head of the Islamic Stateextremist group.

"It is not acceptable for ourallies to meet with a terroristwanted under a red notice,"

Cavusoglu told reporters inBaku. "We have informed theUS of all of this in a writtennote," the minister added.

Turkey says there is anInterpol red notice for Abdi,which Turkish NTV broad-caster reported had been issuedin 2011.

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North Korea on Friday toldSeoul to come and demol-

ish buildings at a tourist resortthat were constructed by SouthKorean companies, days afterleader Kim Jong Un calledthem "unpleasant-looking" andordered their replacement.

The f lagship MountKumgang complex, on one ofthe peninsula's most scenicmountains, was once a symbolof economic cooperationbetween the two Koreas that

drew hundreds of thousandsof Southern visitors.

However, tours came toan abrupt end in 2008 after aNorth Korean soldier shotdead a Southern tourist whostrayed off the approved path,and Seoul suspended travel.

Pyongyang has longwanted to resume the lucra-tive visits, but they would nowviolate international sanc-tions imposed on NorthKorea over its nuclear andballistic weapons pro-grammes.

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It was rightly said, ‘The moon is a loyalcompanion.’ And it turns out to be

true especially with the Loi KrathongFestival in Thailand. It is believed thatthe festival originated in Sukhothai, thefirst Thai capital. The event is held ona full-moon night of the 12th lunarmonth as it makes the rivers appearclearer.

It is probably the most picturesqueand beautiful of all Thai celebrations.

‘Loi’ literally means ‘to float,’ while‘Krathong’ refers to the lotus-shapedreceptacle, which can float on thewater. It is believed that a full moonnight is auspicious and suitable for float-ing the Krathongs amid the breathtak-ing ruins of the ancient city.

Other activities during the festivalinclude a fireworks display, cultural per-formances and a light and sound shows.

Although celebrated nationwide,

the festival is particularly delightful inthe provinces of Sukhothai, Chiang Mai,Ayutthaya and Bangkok. Many riversidehotels and restaurants also hold specialcelebrations for their guests in Bangkok.For a more stunning night of LoiKrathong, tourists are invited to takepart in this yearly festival and join thecrowds along the Chao Phraya River.

In the northern and north-easternparts of Chiang Mai, the villagers oftenfloat lanterns. They are made ofcoloured sheets. Smoke is used for float-ing lanterns during the day while a torchis used to smoke lanterns during thenight. One can view the lights fromlanterns in the sky in the backdrop ofmoonshine and the beautiful stars’glitter at night.

There are certain legends of the LoiKrathong as well. As per Brahma, thefestival aims at worshipping the god ofriver. It welcomes Buddha as it was thetime when he came back to the worldand stayed at the temple during therainy season at the second heavenruler to teach his mother.

It is also celebrated to fly away mis-fortune and bad things in the floatingceremony. It is celebrated to worship thefootprints of the Buddha onNammathanati River beach in India.

On the day, Thais from all walks oflife gather at their nearest rivers withkrathongs in hands. They light candles,put some coins in the krathong andsilently make a wish.

So what makes the timing right? �Grab FIT Offers (till April, 2020valid for 10 to 100 people)�Enjoy Free visa on arrival fee waiver(till April, 2020)�Celebrate Loi Krathong Festival onNovember 11

If you ask someone what a support-ing character is, chances are theywouldn’t say, “They are the ones

who guide and help the protagonist.”The more likely answer would prob-ably be, “They are the main character’ssidekick.” While these answers aren’tnecessarily wrong, they are indeedunworthy and, moreover, disregard thevital part that character actors play intheir respective stories. Sadly, toooften we misunderstand what it meansto be cast in such a role. There havebeen times when character roles werenot even considered as a category. Buttoday, there is a wave of change somuch so that very often, it is these char-acters that determine whether the audi-ence would queue up for a film or not.

What has fuelled this change issomething that I want actor BomanIrani to delve into. I point out that ofcourse, the way to steal the thunder isnot by being over-the-top but nuancedto drive the plot but even before I cancomplete the thought, he interruptsand says, “You’re confusing, you know.They could be over-the-top too! Theyare very important. I think, some of thefinest and most memorable roles havebeen done by character actors. Forinstance, Balraj Sahni, Motilal(Rajvansh), Naseeruddin Shah, AmrishPuri, Paresh Rawal, Anupam Kher...just look at these people. You are goingto remember them for ever and ever.They are traditionally called support-ing actors. But why? Because they sup-port the lead! If there is no support-ing actor, the lead cannot do it on hisown. They are the base of any story.They are in the background, doingwhat they can to make things turn outwell.”

The actor, voice artist and a pho-tographer started his Bollywood jour-ney quite late when most would saythat it is the time to fade out in anactor’s career. Boman is a film indus-try outsider but the way he earned hisacting spurs is a perfect example thatage is just a number. Maybe, startingout late which enabled him to observelife and its players at close quarter forlong is what made him one of the mostversatile actors. This, in turn, has sethim apart from the rest. So does start-ing late in his career adds a responsi-bility on his shoulders? Well, he says,

“I don’t think films are meant for youto suddenly take a 180 degrees turn andsay I have changed. It takes time. If youwant to follow a film closely, it shouldresonate with you. In 3 Idiots, we werenot trying to say that everybody mustdo creative engineering. Even today,students are trying to get perfectscores just to get into a good univer-sity. But to tell that little story, it has toconnect with you. There has to be ahigher thought, otherwise you’ll say it’ssome film about college. How excitingis that? But if you relate to it, you auto-matically feel uplifted. You will followa character and even if it doesn’t per-tain to you, you would want that char-acter to win.”

For him, films are not meant tochange society. They are made forentertainment. However, he genuine-ly feels that as a human being, we havea responsibility towards society andentertainment too is a part of it. “If afilm conveys a message, it can help tobring a small change in the society. Buteven if it is just meant for entertain-ment, people will be happy,” says heand asks whether I can imagine a soci-ety without entertainment? He pointsout that when in one of the states, filmswere shut down for a couple of months

for some reason, the crime went up byan alarming rate. “Films are made forthe sole purpose of calming peopledown. You vent out feelings. Either youfeel uplifted or happy, maybe cry inbetween those two hours,” says he,emoting each just with the tone of hisvoice. In fact, his pitch changes withevery second word he speaks. Bomanis one such person who understandsthe importance of tone while convers-ing really well. He knows when to usea soothing tone or a hushed or a harshone to convey the meaning fully.

“People from other countries saythat Bollywood films are full of danceand music. So what? At least peopleenjoy that. What about them? Theyhave only dark clouds. There’s nothingbad in it. But people can see how in ourcountry, there are so many colours,family is important, our love formother occupies a special space as doesfriendship. It’s all a part of our valuesystem and we try to depict that. Kyunpicture me dikhao ki evil person is vic-torious,” he says while I nod in agree-ment thinking of Thanos in Avengers:Endgame as he continues to speak, “Anevil person will always be vanquished.Our films always have been a part ofour values. And isn’t that right?”

It was Munna Bhai MBBS whenBoman caught attention of the audi-ence. His role in the comedy earnedhim his first Filmfare nomination forthe Best Actor in a Comic Role. Hewent on to win the IIFA award for hisperformance. His role in RajkumarHirani’s 3 Idiots won him accoladesfrom all corners of the film industryas well as the Filmfare and IIFAAward for the Best Actor in a NegativeRole. Since then he has appeared inseveral hits like Houseful, Cocktail, JollyLLB and Main Hoon Na. Now, he is setto display his acting chops with anoth-er powerhouse performance in Madein China, directed by Mikhil Musale.His role of a sexologist could make onethink about all the social taboosaround discussing sex problems inIndia. Boman says he’s a doctor at theend of the day. That’s his speciality. Andthat’s how he wanted to play the char-acter. “The moment I say I am play-ing a sexologist, I got to be different andquirky... I am making it a greater taboothan it already is. He’s a doctor, please

treat him like one,” he insists. For instance, If you have a prob-

lem with your head, you’ll go to a neu-rologist or a psychologist. “Not you, mydear,” he guffaws while I get to see hisclassic humour live and adds,“Somebody who has! The people whogo to sex clinics don’t think thatthere’s a taboo because they treat it asa problem. If you have a problem withyour heart, (not you) won’t they go toa cardiologist? The crux of the film isnot sex at all. It’s got to do with thehero’s journey. Sex is just a backdrop.Films always have a back story. It’s likesaying Lagaan is a film about cricket.It’s not. It’s about oppression. Peoplemay say Munna Bhai MBBS is aboutmedicine. No! It’s about how even agunda can find redemption. Similarly,here, it’s about the lead character’s(played by Rajkummar Rao) desire forself-worth in life. He wants to be anentrepreneur. It’s not that he has a puremotive of earning money. He justwants to be accepted in the family. It’sabout someone who tried 50 otherideas and did not succeed. And it’severy young man’s issue in this coun-try. Everybody wants to be someone.He has a little formula soup. Hecomes to me to endorse it so we cansell and make millions. I ask him tohold it right there. I am not going toendorse it for no reason. There is aprice that comes with it. I ask him tohelp me spread awareness. He agreesto the suggestion and gets himself adeal. We have something to moveahead. That’s what the film is about.”

Boman feels that awareness aboutsex is a huge step because there is somuch ignorance on the subject. He wasshocked to learn that even the medicalfraternity is confused about certainissues related to it. He says, “Therecould be various reasons for simple sexrelated problem like impotency but it’salways piled on the woman. It can alsobe the man’s problem. They just refuseto accept that there can be somethingwrong with the ‘male’ clan. It couldsimply be because people do notknow how to copulate. Believe it or notbut it’s true. Where do you go for allthese things? To a doctor, right?”

Well, there are as many doctors asthere are voices of Boman.

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After a successful seriesagainst South Africa cul-

minating in a 3-0 rout in theTest series, Virat Kohli was vis-ibly relaxed at the launch of thenew Audi A6 in FamousStudios, Mumbai on Thursday.He hinted that he may upgradeto a new Audi in January 2020but which car is a secret.

When asked about wherehe would like to go for longdrives, Virat said, “Times havebeen hectic and when we getthe time, we go away for a hol-iday mostly. When I spendmore time in the city at home,

the highway is a good place tojust get on for a long drive andsee how long you want to go.You don’t really think whereyou want to go when it’s a longdrive. Just get into the car, finda long stretch, which seemsnever-ending and just keepgoing. Usually, it’s at nightwhen there is less traffic. So Ijust put on some music. Greatweather is a plus. In the future,when I am more in the city andat home, we will be going formore drives than we are at themoment,” he said.

When asked who will be

his companion, Virat said,“My wife, of course.”

He said that Audi R8 washis favourite sportscar andspoke about how he had takenChris Gayle out for a drive. Headded, “I had taken the caronto the racetrack and it wasa wonderful experience withno traffic.”

Virat commented that hewas waiting for electric cars as“whatever helps the environ-ment is good.” He said,“Whenever the shift happens,everyone will see me in anelectric car.”

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�Why did you choose Rani Laxmibai’sstory for your direction?

It is the story of a strong woman,which should be told to the world. Shewas an iconic figure and a story of vic-tory at a young age like hers is a perfecttale to tell the world. She is an inspira-tion to especially all the young womenand I think there is not much thinkingas to why I would chose only her storybecause it is so amazing. She is a won-der woman except that she is real.

�What were the onground challengeswhile shooting?

We had to face challenges in threedifferent countries and weather condi-tions. It transitioned from extremely hotto damp to cold to freezing cold. Whiledeserts like Rajasthan and Morocco hadextreme weather conditions, both hotand cold, England was extremely coldand damp. We shot in extreme temper-atures, with three different currencies,exchange rates and three line producers.All these were challenging. Then thecrew and actors came from all parts ofthe world, which also turned out to bechallenging as putting so many peoplefrom different cultures together is nat-urally tough. We had an eight-weekshoot, which had to be completed with-in the turn around time schedules of sixdays and 13 hours. So definitely, it wasquite tough. In some ways, it is also goodto start a project and finish it rather thanextend it for a long duration as it bringsout the best in actors and the crew.

Well, despite the challenges, wewere able to finish the project as plannedand successfully.

�What was the research work involved?Where did you source your informationfrom?

The research is from history booksand journals from British Libraries.There was also research in Marathi doneby Vishnubhat Godse, a contemporary of

Rani Laxmibai. He has documented thebattle, the letters which were sent backand forth and his observations. Alongwith the Indian and the British history, Ihad innumerable sources of literature toread in Marathi on Rani Laxmibai’s life.

�A number of films have been made onthe queen of Jhansi, the recent one beingManikarnika... What is different aboutthis one? Does it bring out a new,unheard angle in her story?

I do not agree that a number of filmshave been made on the queen of Jhansi.There has only been one in 1952 bySohrab Modi in English. Post that, therewere only a few serials and but no films.I know about the recent Bollywood filmManikarnika... However, when we wereshooting for our film, it hadn’t released.It came out only this year. I have notwatched the film but I will definitely tryto do so after my film is out. Currently,my single-minded focus is to watch orread nothing on the queen except myresearch and go with the flow. I just want

to keep my focus clear on my project,which is very singular as our film is notinfluenced by any past work done toshowcase the Rani’s story so far.

As far as different angles are con-cerned, I believe that Manikarnika... is aBollywood film and they wouldn’t havetalked about Queen Victoria, which wehave. I am sure the angle is different. Wealso have Sir Hugh Rose, Elis, which donot exist in any other film. I am sure thatthe angle would be different as no twominds could work in a similar way orthink the same. Our story is more aboutBritish history and these characters, hadtheir own thoughts on attacking Jhansi.It has a different angle on how the EastIndia Company dealt with the queen.Every storyteller has his/her own narra-tive. I am excited and eager to differen-tiate between the story angles in our filmand in Manikarnika.

�What do you think is the relevance ofher story today?

Well, it’s pretty obvious that the

story is relevant today because everywomen has to look at the spirit of the Raniwithin them. Women play various rolesas a mother, daughter, sister, friend butabove all, they are a Virangana — a war-rior. And a warrior is not necessarilysomeone who goes into war but is the onewho fights on the battlefield of life andis able to deal with the ups and downs,having the strength to deal with, especial-ly the lows, efficiently. It is very easy todeal with the ups because they sustain youthrough life.

It is really important that we have theRani’s story to look at and be inspiredfrom when the world is in turmoil. Wewant to inspire women to look at them-selves like the Rani. She was not born witha silver spoon. Hence, there are noexcuses on to why could she do it sofiercely while we cannot. I believe that isa lesson which most women should read,absorb. If we emulate even one percentof her then we would all be survivors.

I think it was important to be told forall the above reasons because the morestories of strong women we share, themore we celebrate their spirits. They haveplayed traditional roles yet have been thebackbones of society, family, and coun-try. They stand as role models. Womenfor years to come can look back at theirstories and learn that anything is possi-ble if we support each other.

�How have you conceptualised thefilm in a way that it is more understand-able for the international audience? Doyou think they will be able to connectwith something that is coming from thepages of Indian history?

I hope that the global audiencerelates to the film and understands it.People who like history and inspiring sto-ries, question gender issues, look ataction films as a beautiful production,would definitely enjoy it. And as far as theWestern audience’s reaction is concerned,I think we have told the story in a lan-guage that the West would understandwell and shown it in a manner that wouldmake it palatable and easy to follow his-

tory. A lot has been explained which isisn’t obvious for the Indian audience too.

�Your previous film, too, The Man WhoKnew Infinity, was inspired by a real life.Do you have an affinity towards suchsubjects?

Yes. I do actually have an affinity toanything which is historical or is leaningtowards heritage because the story ofRamanujan also is from South India. I amvery familiar with the culture because ofBharatanatyam, which is from TamilNadu. I could visualise Ramanujan andhis Iyengar background, his culture,music and the kind of lifestyle he was usedto, including his food, culture, the man-ner of speaking and Janaki. Tamil Naduhas retained its pristine culture over theyears and they value tradition very much.I follow it because they are very seepedin arts and culture and literature, poetryand temples.

�How would you describe your transi-tion from being a choreographer,Bharatnatyam expert to being a film-maker?

I would not really call it a transitionbecause I continue to go back and forthand each one has so many layers. Whetheryou’re a choreographer, a Bharatanatyamdancer, a storyteller, a scriptwriter or adirector, it is your vision of what angle youwant to bring in your story or whichaspect you want to highlight. I do agreethough that a historical piece is far morechallenging than a contemporary storybecause of the precision of the time frameand the facts. Even the sets are supposedto take the audience to that era. It is anexciting new phase and I would love todo something new within filmmaking.

At this point, I have many such sto-ries based on history and I have just fin-ished a script to one such story called,Servants of Gods, which is based on theDevadasis and I hope I get to finish thatfilm as well.

(The film releases across the US onNovember 15 and in India on November29.)

In the Indian art circle, DAG isknown for its enviable collec-tion of artworks, which have

been added bit by bit since thegallery started in 1993. However,over a period of time, its locationat Hauz Khas Market, a placewhich is more popular for thoselooking for a night of pub crawlas opposed to picking up a seri-ous piece of artwork, was nolonger in sync with the nature oftheir business. A switch wasimminent, which was effectedrecently when it shifted to TheClaridges and the galleryannounced the move by TheSixties Show, which is dotted withthe brightest stars in the Indian artgalaxy.

So FN Souza is just a little dis-tance away from SH Raza, who isacross the aisle from MF Husain.“For this show, we have achieveda form of equilibrium amongst allthese names. This show is a wayto bring all of these artists on oneplatform, where they are lookedat equally today because they areso significant,” says FardeenKamal, senior manager, art advi-sory, DAG. He goes on to explainthat in general, exhibitions inIndia focus on a particular groupwhether it is the BombayProgressives or the Art of Bengalor North Indian artists like RamKumar and Sailos Mukherjee orit could be KCS Paniker and DPRoy Chowdhury from the South.But what sets this one apart is thatit covers the entire sweep ofartists in the decade.

“Sixties was a momentoustime because so many thingswere happening politically with-in the Indian fabric. All of the con-flict and issues, which were preva-lent at that time, including eco-nomic, impacted art. It was arough decade and a lot of artistsborrowed from what was happen-ing in the society and expressedthemselves,” adds Kamal.Interestingly, all these painterswere at different phases of theirlives. While Raza and Souza werewell-established, Husain waspainting prolifically. “There wereartists like Ambadas Khobragadeor AA Raiba who were significantwithin the context of Indian artbut they were not at that level ofrecognition in the 60s. They werejust coming into their own,” heexplains.

About 55 artworks are on dis-play by 50 artists and the criteriais not that the painting should bethe artist’s most important paint-ing from the era, rather “it has tobe a work that somehow embod-ies the artist’s technical expertise

and his/her chosen subject mat-ter up to that point of time as bestas possible,” he says.

The painting that immediate-ly catches attention, especiallyafter Kamal announces that thepainter is Raza, is La Milne,because it is a work that has notraces of The Bindu, the series withwhich most people even with apassing interest in art are familiarwith. “This is Raza’s second phasecalled gestural abstraction. Amongall of his paintings, this is animportant piece of work which isin high demand commercially andis also significant in the historicaldevelopment of Indian modernart. Before Raza came into thisvocabulary, his style of paintingwas impressionistic, particularlywhile making water colour land-scapes and cityscapes. If one is notfamiliar with Raza, one would notknow because this is stylisticallyso different,” says Kamal helpful-ly as we look at unpeeling the lay-ers of art. Raza, by this time, hadgone to Paris, completed his edu-cation, risen to incredible fame

and won the critics prize.Kamal points out that the

works of some artists like Raza aresuch that if you look at differentphases, it is difficult to say that itis the same artist. “In others, thereis no drastic change in the visualvocabulary of art though there isgrowth,” he says.

Moving on, there are threestill-life paintings that have beenplaced side by side but are strik-ingly different in style and subjectmatter. The one in the middle ishard to miss for with its sharpedges and a slightly unnervingsubject matter, it cannot be por-traying anything but Souza’sextreme expressionism. A sharpknife is what is placed closest tothe viewer and there is a jaggedfork, which further heightens thedrama of the painting. But the ele-ment which has a shock value isa crow that is perched on the din-ing table and the viewer is leftwondering the purpose and thereason for the same. What makesit different is that traditionally, ifwe think of still-life, it is painted

in a classical manner and looksperfect. “But Souza doesn’t care ashe has his own style and wants toexpress it. One can see the conflictthrough the angular, sharp lines,”says Kamal.

In complete contrast is anoth-er still-life, which is three-dimen-sional due to the layering in parts.KG Subramanyam’s work exudesan indigenous spirit thanks to themangoes that occupy centrestage.“The painter might not be at thesame level of international acclaimthat Souza had reached but thiswork is extremely important toIndian art,” says Kamal.

The third still-life is by AARaibaa, which is equally importantin the international circuit as heuses charcoal in his signaturestyle to sketch the work. “It is veryrare that you would see the threeof them together. A viewer needsto examine how the same subjectmatter can be viewed by differentartists. You can really see the tech-nical differences and signaturestyle of each of the artists. Thethree together help you to com-

pare them,” says he. Across the room, is another

by Souza, from the Head serieswhich is disturbing to look at. “Webelieve that he may have been por-traying sins and priests. The artistoften portrayed the hypocrisyand greed of these patriarchal fig-ures. He doesn’t like men inauthoritative positions and that iswhat he is depicting,” says Kamal.

Next up are two works byAvinash Chandra — Mountain ofGold and an untitled one —which are a study in his gradualshift from human forms to focuson buildings. “However, sincethe shift has just started, one canperceive human figures that arepainted like building blocks,” headds.

There is also Sakti Burman’sLady with Flowers, which has avery European flavour due to itscolour scheme and the dress thatshe is wearing. “At this point, theartist was living in Paris and hiswork is influenced by the mastersthere and displays a classicalflourish,” says Kamal and adds,

“The painting dates before thetime he started experimentingwith his marble technique, whichused both water and oil colours tocreate the effect that he is knownfor.”

Another attractive work isKrishen Khanna’s Rider with itsbright orange hues. But what iseye-catching is the intense move-ment that one can almost feel asthe nude figure that sits astride thebike and seems to speed across theterrain.

Satish Gujral’s Unitled work isa big three-dimensional wheel likestructure, which reminds one ofthe chakra in the Indian flag dueto its blue shades. But that is wherethe similarity ends. Though thework is made in the 60s, it is theartist’s expression of Partitionwhere the refugees are trying toput together the remaining bits oftheir scattered lives. With thesmattering of languages that havebeen written on it, the feeling ofpeople having come from differ-ent parts and migrating to alto-gether different settings is furtherenhanced.

Of course, when the luminar-ies of art world are around, onecannot help but display an MFHusain. Two figures with cactus,featured against a blue backdrop,has a two-faced man who seemsto be hiding the plant behind himso that the woman does not see it.Whether the artist indicates theman’s prickly past or his propen-sity to hurt her, of course, dependson the viewer and his/her percep-tion.

Another work by the sameartist called Devi has a blurred fig-ure at the centre while two othersare looking up towards it.However, whether it is in awe, fearor wonder, is anyone’s guess.

Coming back, one feels over-whelmed by the expanse of theIndian art which covered styles,themes and artistic concerns dur-ing the 60s. But all one can say isthat we look forward to anotherdecade being put up on displaysoon.

(The show is on till November 23.)

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Though the digital wave has taken over theworld but the charm of having tangible tick-

ets, overpriced popcorn, and most of all, the bigscreen is still unparalleled as it offers a form ofescapism and entertainment that cannot beachieved at home or on mobile phones. Thisenhances the equation of cine-goers with cin-ema and is evolving and growing stronger withtime.

When we talk about cinema, several namescome to our mind and one without fail is PVRbecause of its refined cinema-viewing. Tokeep pace with the modern times, it will ren-ovate its very first multiplex in India, PVRAnupam in Saket. Ajay Bijli, chairman and man-aging director, PVR Ltd said, “We want torevamp it to make it more relevant for the youth.It will remain a young cinema with all the avail-able technologies, dolby atmos, 4k laser but wewill keep it only for the youth.” The property,introduced in 1997, was the epitome of a mod-ern cinema theatre in its era and has receivedopulent love from its viewers for over twodecades.

Since it commenced with the screening ofYes Boss (1997), there wouldn’t have been a bet-ter guest than Shahrukh Khan for this occasion.As he shared his past experiences, he went nos-talgic recalling the times when we couldn’tafford a ticket. The actor said, “Two decades ofthe theatre, spreading love, laughter and enter-tainment among the cine-goers. It is a great feel-ing to witness this love and enthusiasm.Cinema has been an integral part of India’sentertainment ecosystem, and as actors, produc-ers, directors or exhibitors it is the love for filmswhich strives us to keep performing and live upto the expectations of the audience.” He furtherapprised the audience with his early life expe-riences and desires. “It was my life’s dream toown a film theatre. I could not buy a film the-atre but I believe all PVR’s are my own.” As hesaid this the hall echoed with claps from everycorner.

Khan instilled confidence among the peo-ple and made them believe in the power ofdreams as despite being a rank outsider, he wenton to rule the film world as the Badshah. Hesaid, “The unexpected moments of life are thebest. You don’t understand its purpose then andthere but eventually you do. I don’t want to showoff but I am genuinely a dream come true.”

When asked about how he felt when he sawhimself the first time on the screen, the actorsaid it was during the shoot of Raju Ban GayaGentleman (1992). “When I saw myself for thefirst time on the screen in RK studio I foundmyself very ugly, my hair was so bad and I wasacting badly as compared with Juhi Chawla,Nana Patekar and Amrita Singh. They consoledme saying the final cut would be better. But theylied, I never looked better. I was always thesame,” said he.

The actor also blamed some of the stars forrising ticket prices. He said, “This blame for therising ticket prices on the because we keep ourticket prices high when we release them onweekends. Films have become expensive.”

Khan added that though there are manyplatforms to showcase talent but film theatre isthe real romance and the real celebration (of cin-ema.) In fact, theatres are a place where a com-munity gets together. He said, “There are twothings I always tell when someone asks me ifcinema/theatre is going to prosper. ‘Hum akelero nahi sakte, hum akele hass nahi sakte.’ Andas long as that is true about humanity, cinematheatres will prosper. The day we can cry orlaugh all alone that is the day when theatre busi-ness will shut down. We do need a lot more the-atres in the country. Instead of having three tofour crore people watching cinema, I want thescenario to reach a place when 20-22 millionpeople watch the film when it releases.”

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Afighting Saina Nehwal wasknocked out of the $700,000

French Open after going downin straight games to Korea’s ANse Young in the women’s singlesquarterfinals here on Friday.

The 29-year-old Indian, whohad claimed the IndonesiaMasters in January this year, lost20-22, 21-23 to world no 16Young after a 49-minute thrillingcontest.

It was her first quarterfinalappearance since making it to thefinal eight at the Badminton AsiaChampionship in April this year.Saina had lost in the first roundin the last three tournaments atChina, Korea and Denmark.

Saina, who had reached thefinal of the French Open in2012, will next play at theSaarlorlux Open startingOctober 29.

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The BCCI president SouravGanguly on Friday saidthat Indian skipper Virat

Kohli is open to the idea of play-ing day-night Tests and it couldbe a reality in near future.

He had a meeting withKohli in Mumbai on Thursdaywhere the idea was floated.

“I must say that Virat Kohliis agreeable to it. There arereports that he does not want toplay day-night Tests which is notthe fact. So once the captain ofIndia is agreeable to it, lifebecomes a lot easier. We will seehow we can push it. The gameneeds to go forward,” Gangulysaid during the sidelines of hisfelicitation by the CAB at theEden Gardens.

The former India captainhad been a vocal advocate ofpink ball Test in order to bringback the spectators to the stadi-um.

“We all are thinking aboutthis and we will do somethingabout it. I am a firm believer inDay Night Tests. I don’t knowwhen will that happen. But tillthe time I am around, I will bepushing for it,” Ganguly said.

However it must be men-tioned that if Ganguly’s tenure isnot extended beyond July, theDay-Night Test might not bereality as India next play five-day

games at home only inDecember 2020-January, 2021.The home Tests againstBangladesh are last for this sea-son.

As a technical committeechairman, Ganguly in the pastwas a part of the decision to haveDuleep Trophy under lightswith pink ball. However the

domestic bowlers had com-plaints about the quality of theSG Test pink balls which wereused. Also dew became a factorin the northern part of India tak-ing spinners completely out ofequation.

From 2016-17 season, itwas played under lights beforebeing scrapped during the ongo-ing season by the domesticcricket operations team of theboard.

At this point, even theIndian team is not too keen onplaying Day-Night Test match-es and they had rejected CricketAustralia’s offer during the lastaway series.

Ganguly also highlightedthat India have not won a worldtournament for a long time.

“A cricket nation is knownby the number of Tests andworld tournaments won. It’spretty simple as sometime wecomplicate the game too much.We try to do things which don’texist.

“The team has played wellover the last three years as youcan see we have not a worldtournament for last seven-eightseasons. But I’m sure there’senough talent in the team to do

that.”Ganguly also spoke about

the IPL and how it has grabbedthe eyeball.

“The IPL is probably isbiggest league in the world.That two and half months is noway inferior to the EnglishPremier League. In terms of TVrating and eyeballs. For me, it’simportant to bring the systemback in plan all levels.”

Former India captainMohammed Azharuddin andVVS Laxman, both of whomhad played some incredibleknocks at the Eden Gardens,felicitated its favourite son, pre-senting him with bouquets.

Ganguly was welcomed atthe Eden Gardens with giantplacards of ‘Dadagiri beginsonce again’ and SachinTendulkar’s iconic statement“When people throw stones atyou, you turn them into mile-stones”.

AZHAR SUPPORTS BIDFormer India captain

Mohammed Azharuddin hassupported BCCI presidentSourav Ganguly’s claims to holdDay/Night Tests.

The Hyderabad Cricket

A����� ��������������)B!��� � 4�1�����Association president is happythat skipper Virat Kohli is alsoon the same page with the BCCIpresident.

“It is good if captain isagreeable like Dada. It is a goodexperiment. You will get toknow if public will like it or not.It should be implemented,”Azharuddin said during thefelicitation ceremony.

Azhar, who was Ganguly’sfirst international captain, ishappy to see him grow in his roleas an administrator.

“I am very happy Gangulyhas become the BCCI president.He’s one of the finest persons andan outstanding human being.One of the best players we wonso many tournaments. He playedcricket in his terms and as BCCIpresident too I hope he will playthat on his term also,” he said.

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KL Rahul presentedhimself as a potentk e e p e r - b a t s m a n

option with a strong showwhile birthday-boyAbhimanyu Mithunsavoured a rare hat-trick asKarnataka lifted the VijayHazare Trophy title with a60-run win over Tamil Naduin the rain-hit final at MChinnaswamy on Friday.

Rahul remained in thethick of things after hostselected to field under over-cast conditions, contributingin dismissal of four TamilNadu batsmen.

Mithun returned withhis first ever five-wicket haulin List A games, whichincluded a hat-trick in thefinal of the innings. Hecleaned up M ShahrukhKhan, M Mohammed andMurugan Ashwin as TamilNadu folded for 252 in 49.5overs.

The MSK Prasad-ledselection panel on Thursdaypicked Rahul in India’sTwenty20 squad for theBangladesh series along withRishabh Pant and SanjuSamson.

Prasad said they are will-ing to give Pant a long ropedespite his below-par show oflate but Rahul by keeping thewickets in the semi-final andfinal has made a case forhimself, looking at the future.

His batting talent hasnever been doubted and inthe final, which had to becalled off due to rain, Rahulscored an unbeaten 52 off 72balls in Karnataka’s total of146 for one in 23 overs.

He lost his opening part-ner Devdutt Paddikal (11)but added 112 runs withMayank Agarwal for the sec-ond wicket, keepingKarnataka ahead all the time

in the contest.It will be interesting to

see if KL Rahul can go theRahul Dravid way as the lat-ter emerged a wicket-keeperbatsman after the 1999World Cup, where had tokeep wickets because of aninjury to Nayan Mongia butfrom 2002 became a regularkeeper-batsman, givingmuch needed balance toIndia’s ODI side underSourav Ganguly.

Eventually, Karnatakawere declared winner in thefinal on VJD method (usedin domestic cricket in rain-affected games), giving thehosts their fourth title ondomestic ODI tournament.They had won in 2013-14,2014-15 and 2017-18.

Tamil Nadu, who havebecome champions fivetimes in the past, struggled toput a fighting total with onlyAbhuinav Mukund (86) andyoung Baba Aparajith (66)managing fighting half-cen-turies.

Vijay Shankar (38) andShahrukh (27) got starts butcould not convert them intobog knocks as Mithun ranthrough the middle andlower-order.

Karnataka captainManish Pandey was natural-ly delighted.

“We are very happy withthe results. The mindset ofthe boys is they want to winevery match they play.Hopefully we will continuedoing well,” he said.

Tamil Nadu skipperDinesh Karthik tooexpressed happiness for theway they played throughoutthe tournament.

“I think we played terrif-ic cricket, one bad day does-n’t make a bad team. Thisshould give confidence goinginto the T20s and the RanjiTrophy,” he said.

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I, Mohd. Zaeem Sheikh S/o.Zahirul Hasan, R/o. F-13/14,Jogabai Extn., Jamia Nagar,New Delhi-110025 declare thatmy correct name is Mohd.Zaeem Sheikh instead of Mohd.Zaeem Shaikh.

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