0 ˙ ˆ ˚1.012-34 -/ 5 !˜#$%%!##&’ were returned, Faisal said, adding that she was given an...

16
I n a new twist to the 2008 Malegaon blasts case, a spe- cial National Investigating Agency (NIA) court on Wednesday dropped charges under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) against Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, Lt Col Prasad Purohit and five other key accused in the much-dis- cussed case. However, Additional Sessions Judge SD Tekale rejected the applications of key accused Sadhvi Pragya, Lt Col Purohit, Sameer Kulkarni, Ramesh Upadhyay and Sudhakar Dwivedi for dis- charge from the case. The seven accused against whom MCOCA charges were dropped but continue to face charges under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) are: Sadhvi Pragya, Col Purohit, Dwivedi, Major (Retd) Ramesh Upadhyay, Sameer Kulkarni, Sudhakar Chaturvedi and Ajay Rahirkar. Two other accused Rakesh Dhawde and Jagdish Mhatre will be tried under only under the Arms Act. The Judge, however, dis- charged three accused Pravin Takalki, Shyamlal Sahu and Shivnarayan Kalsangra from the 2008 Malegaon blasts case. While dropping MCOCA charges against seven key accused, the special court also dropped some UAPA charges against them. “The UAPA sec- tions 17 (raising funds for a ter- rorist organisation or a terror- ist attack), 20 (being part of a terrorist organisation) and 23 (aiding somebody who is part of a terrorist organisation) have been dropped against all accused,” the court ruled. The seven key accused will now be tried under Sections 16 (committing a terror act) and 18 (criminal conspiracy) of the UAPA, and sections 120(b) (punishment of criminal con- spiracy), 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder) and 326 (intentionally causing harm to others) of the IPC. The special court sched- uled the next hearing for January 15, when UAPA charges would be framed against the seven key accused, and two other accused under the Arms Act. The court observed that it could not exonerate Sadhvi Pragya from the case as her motorbike was used in the blast. The NIA court ruled that since most of the accused were out on bail, all previous bonds and sureties will continue. Sadhvi Pragya and Lt Col Prasad Purohit were two of the 11 persons chargesheeted by the ATS on January 20, 2009, in connection with 2008 Malegaon blasts. It may be recalled that an improvised explosive kept under the seat of a LML Freedom motorcycle had exploded between Bhikku Chowk and Anjuman Chowk, near Noorani Masjid on the night of September 29, 2008, leaving six persons dead and injuring 101 others. The Bombay High Court had on April 25 this year grant- ed bail to Sadhvi Pragya, after holding that “it cannot be said there are reasonable grounds for believing that accusations made against her are prima facie true” and that the benefit of bail could not be withheld to her if the ATS’ charges against were not “grave and serious”. Continued on Page 4 P akistani authorities have sent the shoes worn by Kulbhushan Jadhav’s wife Chetana for forensic examina- tion to determine the nature of the suspected presence of a foreign object, a media report said on Wednesday. The authorities were ascer- taining whether the “metallic object” in the shoes was a camera or a recording chip, Pakistan Today quoted Foreign Office spokesperson Mohammad Faisal as saying. A separate report in Dawn reported that the Foreign Office confirmed a “metallic substance” had been detected in Chetana’s shoes that were retained by security officials prior to the meeting with the Indian death-row prisoner at the Foreign Office in Islamabad. The shoes of Jadhav’s wife were kept for inspection, while all other belongings, including jewellery, were returned, Faisal said, adding that she was given an alternative pair of shoes to wear after her shoes were removed. In a statement issued last night, the Pakistan Foreign Office made no mention of the “metallic substance” and had said that there was “some- thing” in the shoes. In the statement, Pakistan rejected as “baseless” India’s contentions that Jadhav’s wife and mother were harassed and claimed that his wife’s shoes were confiscated on security grounds as there was “some- thing” in it. “There was something in the shoe. It is being investigat- ed. We gave her a pair of replacement shoes. All her jew- ellery, etc, were returned after the meeting,” Faisal said. The Indian External Affairs Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday that Pakistan went so far as to have the mangalsutra, bangles and bindi of Jadhav’s mother and wife removed before they could meet him. India also accused Pakistan of disregarding cultural and religious sensibilities of family members under the pretext of security. “This included removal of mangalsutra, ban- gles and bindi as well as a change in attire that was not warranted by security,” it said. The Pakistan Foreign Office said that Pakistan does not wish to indulge in a “mean- ingless battle of words” and cat- egorically rejects India’s base- less “allegations and twists” about attitude of authorities during Jadhav’s meeting with his wife and mother. Continued on Page 4 T he plight of cotton farmers might have cost the BJP quite a few seats in the just- concluded Gujarat Assembly polls. The issue may return to haunt the Congress Government in Karnataka in the Assembly polls in May. Plummeting prices of cotton in international markets and destruction of crops in sev- eral parts of the country have given nightmares to cot- ton growers. The cotton price in Gujarat came down by 60-70 per cent from the maximum support price fixed by the Centre ahead of the Assembly polls. It’s believed that cotton (kapas) cost the BJP more than PAAS (Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti ) in Gujarat. In the Saurashtra-Kutch region of Gujarat, farmers destroyed their crops due to crash in prices. The plight of cotton farm- ers is set to be a big issue in poll-bound Karnataka, where 35 out of 224 Assembly seats fall in the cotton belt. Karnataka stands fourth in cotton-growing States in the country. Farmers are already up in the arms against the Mahadayi water share dispute between Karnataka and Goa. The cotton growers are distressed due to crashing prices, poor quality of seeds, and uneven climatic condi- tion. Many of the farmers shift- ed to this high income-orient- ed crop, but now they are forced to destroy their standing crops, which are hit by pink bollworms. As per reports, cotton growers of Raichur, Yadgir, Bellary and Bagalkot districts have destroyed their crops due to crash in price and poor qual- ity of seeds that damaged the crops. Cotton growers have been demanding compensation from the State Government. The issue has already taken a political colour. As per the Agriculture Ministry data, cotton growing districts are Haveri, Davanagere, Bijapur, Bagalkot, Dharwar, Kamrajnagar, Shimoga, Koppal, Chitradurga, Belgaum, Bellary, Gadag, Mysore, Raichur and Gulbarga. Farms distress will impact at least 35-40 Assembly seats in the State. Cotton has been sown in 4.170 lakh hectare in 2017 as compared to 4.640 lakh hectare last year. Binod Kumar Pandey, who is a member-secretary of Rashtriya Kisan Mahasangh, told The Pioneer that the prices offered to cotton is far below the support price. He also said that the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) has not purchased cotton from farmers, claiming that their yield has about 12 per cent of moisture. Continued on Page 4 T he CBI on Wednesday arrested its own Assistant software programmer and anoth- er person for developing an illegal railway tick- eting software that could book “tatkal” tickets through IRCTC website. The CBI also conducted raids at 14 places across the country, including Delhi, Mumbai and Jaunpur, and seized 89 lakh in cash and jew- ellery worth 69 lakh. Taking note of fraud, Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal has ordered an enquiry into the matter. The software developer has been identified as Ajay Garg. He connived with one Anit Gupta to use the software for duping the tatkal book- ing system run by the IRCTC and booked tick- ets in bulk. He also sold the software to other persons for similar misuse. Continued on Page 4 O n a day the Government bought peace with the Opposition by clarifying Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent Pakistan-related remarks against his predeces- sor Manmohan Singh, the Opposition disrupted pro- ceedings in both the Houses protesting another controver- sial comment. This time by Union Minister Anant Kumar Hegde, who questioned the parentage of secularists and claimed that the Modi Government was all set to change the Constitution to drop the “secular” word. The Government distanced itself from the issue saying it did not subscribe to the views expressed by Hegde. Taking steps to end the week-long deadlock over Modi’s remarks made during the Gujarat Assembly campaign, Leader of the House Arun Jaitley said in the Rajya Sabha that the PM in his statements or speeches “did not question the commitment to this nation either by Dr Manmohan Singh, the former Prime Minister, or Hamid Ansari, the former Vice-President”. “Any such perception is completely erroneous. We hold these leaders in high esteem, as also their commitment to this nation,” Jaitley said. He said many statements had been made on all sides during the elections, and added that the Government “does not want the stalemate as a result of this to continue”. Responding to Jaitley’s statement, Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad said, “I want to thank the Leader of the House that he issued a clarifi- cation on the issue which was causing the deadlock for the last one week.” Continued on Page 4 T he Army and paramilitary forces are bracing for counter attacks by Pakistan following the cross-border raid across the Line of Control (LoC) by India earlier this week to avenge the killings of Indian jawans. Officials here apprehend that under public pressure, the Pakistan Army will try to take revenge mea- sures by stepping up ceasefire violations and directing “fiday- een” attacks on the Indian Army and Border Security Force (BSF) posts. While local commanders in Jammu & Kashmir have taken adequate precautions after a team of the Indian Army carried out raid at a Pakistan post in Rawlakot in Poonch on Monday evening killing three enemy soldiers, officials admitted here on Wednesday that the next one month will test their pre- paredness to meet this threat. Important events like New Year, Army Day on January 15, and Republic Day take place in this period. It’s feared that the Pakistan Army might try to make a point by trying to carry out audacious attacks on high-value targets. Explaining the reasons for heightened alert, officials said, “Pakistan Army is the most powerful institution in its coun- try and will not take lying down this raid by India. In order to prove its mettle to the masses there, the Pakistan Army will make all efforts to increase lev- els of violence on the LoC and Kashmir hinterland.” While ceasefire violations are continuing in Poonch and Rajouri sectors for the last two days since the Indian action, officials said the that LoC is expected to become “hot” again. Continued on Page 4 Shimla: Remembering his early years spent on Shimla’s Mall Road and at the Indian Coffee House with his journalist friends, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday didn’t miss an opportunity to sip a cup of coffee. As he was on his way to the airstrip, Modi’s cavalcade stopped out- side the popular cafe Indian Coffee House on The Mall. Modi spent more than 10 minutes outside the Coffee House and enjoyed a cup of coffee. Soon hundreds of BJP workers and others assem- bled there. Armed with mobiles, fans mobbed Modi and tried to take selfies with him. The Prime Minister was here along with his Cabinet col- leagues and BJP president Amit Shah to attend the oath-taking ceremony of Jai Ram Thakur as the Chief Minister and his 11 Cabinet colleagues. Continued on Page 4

Transcript of 0 ˙ ˆ ˚1.012-34 -/ 5 !˜#$%%!##&’ were returned, Faisal said, adding that she was given an...

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In a new twist to the 2008Malegaon blasts case, a spe-

cial National InvestigatingAgency (NIA) court onWednesday dropped chargesunder the stringentMaharashtra Control ofOrganised Crime Act(MCOCA) against SadhviPragya Singh Thakur, Lt ColPrasad Purohit and five otherkey accused in the much-dis-cussed case.

However, AdditionalSessions Judge SD Tekalerejected the applications of keyaccused Sadhvi Pragya, Lt ColPurohit, Sameer Kulkarni,Ramesh Upadhyay andSudhakar Dwivedi for dis-charge from the case.

The seven accused againstwhom MCOCA charges weredropped but continue to facecharges under the UnlawfulActivities Prevention Act(UAPA) are: Sadhvi Pragya, ColPurohit, Dwivedi, Major (Retd)Ramesh Upadhyay, SameerKulkarni, Sudhakar Chaturvediand Ajay Rahirkar.

Two other accused Rakesh

Dhawde and Jagdish Mhatrewill be tried under only underthe Arms Act.

The Judge, however, dis-charged three accused PravinTakalki, Shyamlal Sahu andShivnarayan Kalsangra fromthe 2008 Malegaon blasts case.

While dropping MCOCAcharges against seven keyaccused, the special court alsodropped some UAPA chargesagainst them. “The UAPA sec-tions 17 (raising funds for a ter-rorist organisation or a terror-ist attack), 20 (being part of aterrorist organisation) and 23(aiding somebody who is part

of a terrorist organisation) havebeen dropped against allaccused,” the court ruled.

The seven key accused willnow be tried under Sections 16(committing a terror act) and

18 (criminal conspiracy) ofthe UAPA, and sections 120(b)(punishment of criminal con-spiracy), 302 (murder), 307(attempt to murder) and 326(intentionally causing harm toothers) of the IPC.

The special court sched-uled the next hearing forJanuary 15, when UAPAcharges would be framedagainst the seven key accused,and two other accused underthe Arms Act.

The court observed that it could not exonerateSadhvi Pragya from the case asher motorbike was used

in the blast.The NIA court ruled that

since most of the accused wereout on bail, all previous bondsand sureties will continue.

Sadhvi Pragya and Lt ColPrasad Purohit were two of the11 persons chargesheeted bythe ATS on January 20, 2009,in connection with 2008Malegaon blasts.

It may be recalled that animprovised explosive keptunder the seat of a LMLFreedom motorcycle hadexploded between BhikkuChowk and Anjuman Chowk,near Noorani Masjid on thenight of September 29, 2008,leaving six persons dead andinjuring 101 others.

The Bombay High Courthad on April 25 this year grant-ed bail to Sadhvi Pragya, afterholding that “it cannot be saidthere are reasonable groundsfor believing that accusationsmade against her are primafacie true” and that the benefit of bail could not bewithheld to her if the ATS’charges against were not “graveand serious”.

Continued on Page 4

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Pakistani authorities havesent the shoes worn by

Kulbhushan Jadhav’s wifeChetana for forensic examina-tion to determine the nature ofthe suspected presence of a foreign object, a media reportsaid on Wednesday.

The authorities were ascer-taining whether the “metallicobject” in the shoes was acamera or a recording chip,Pakistan Today quoted Foreign Office spokespersonMohammad Faisal as saying.

A separate report in Dawnreported that the ForeignOffice confirmed a “metallicsubstance” had been detectedin Chetana’s shoes that wereretained by security officialsprior to the meeting with the Indian death-row prisoner at the Foreign Officein Islamabad.

The shoes of Jadhav’s wifewere kept for inspection, whileall other belongings, includingjewellery, were returned, Faisalsaid, adding that she was given an alternative pair ofshoes to wear after her shoeswere removed.

In a statement issued lastnight, the Pakistan ForeignOffice made no mention of the “metallic substance” andhad said that there was “some-thing” in the shoes.

In the statement, Pakistan

rejected as “baseless” India’scontentions that Jadhav’s wifeand mother were harassed andclaimed that his wife’s shoeswere confiscated on securitygrounds as there was “some-thing” in it.

“There was something inthe shoe. It is being investigat-ed. We gave her a pair ofreplacement shoes. All her jew-ellery, etc, were returned afterthe meeting,” Faisal said.

The Indian External AffairsMinistry said in a statement onTuesday that Pakistan went sofar as to have the mangalsutra,bangles and bindi of Jadhav’smother and wife removedbefore they could meet him.

India also accused Pakistanof disregarding cultural andreligious sensibilities of familymembers under the pretext ofsecurity. “This includedremoval of mangalsutra, ban-gles and bindi as well as achange in attire that was notwarranted by security,” it said.

The Pakistan ForeignOffice said that Pakistan doesnot wish to indulge in a “mean-ingless battle of words” and cat-egorically rejects India’s base-less “allegations and twists”about attitude of authoritiesduring Jadhav’s meeting withhis wife and mother.

Continued on Page 4

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The plight of cotton farmersmight have cost the BJP

quite a few seats in the just-concluded Gujarat Assemblypolls. The issue may return tohaunt the CongressGovernment in Karnataka inthe Assembly polls in May.Plummeting prices of cotton in international marketsand destruction of crops in sev-eral parts of the country have given nightmares to cot-ton growers.

The cotton price in Gujaratcame down by 60-70 per centfrom the maximum support

price fixed by the Centre aheadof the Assembly polls. It’sbelieved that cotton (kapas)cost the BJP more than PAAS(Patidar Anamat AndolanSamiti ) in Gujarat. In theSaurashtra-Kutch region ofGujarat, farmers destroyed theircrops due to crash in prices.

The plight of cotton farm-ers is set to be a big issue inpoll-bound Karnataka, where35 out of 224 Assembly seatsfall in the cotton belt.Karnataka stands fourth incotton-growing States in thecountry. Farmers are already upin the arms against theMahadayi water share dispute

between Karnataka and Goa.The cotton growers are

distressed due to crashingprices, poor quality of seeds,and uneven climatic condi-tion. Many of the farmers shift-ed to this high income-orient-ed crop, but now they areforced to destroy their standingcrops, which are hit by pinkbollworms.

As per reports, cottongrowers of Raichur, Yadgir,Bellary and Bagalkot districtshave destroyed their crops dueto crash in price and poor qual-ity of seeds that damaged thecrops. Cotton growers havebeen demanding compensationfrom the State Government.The issue has already taken apolitical colour.

As per the AgricultureMinistry data, cotton growing

districts are Haveri,Davanagere, Bijapur, Bagalkot,Dharwar, Kamrajnagar,Shimoga, Koppal, Chitradurga,Belgaum, Bellary, Gadag,Mysore, Raichur and Gulbarga.Farms distress will impact atleast 35-40 Assembly seats inthe State. Cotton has beensown in 4.170 lakh hectare in2017 as compared to 4.640lakh hectare last year.

Binod Kumar Pandey, whois a member-secretary ofRashtriya Kisan Mahasangh,told The Pioneer that the pricesoffered to cotton is far belowthe support price. He also saidthat the Cotton Corporation ofIndia (CCI) has not purchasedcotton from farmers, claimingthat their yield has about 12 percent of moisture.

Continued on Page 4

����� 45���5�0(

The CBI on Wednesday arrested its ownAssistant software programmer and anoth-

er person for developing an illegal railway tick-eting software that could book “tatkal” ticketsthrough IRCTC website.

The CBI also conducted raids at 14 placesacross the country, including Delhi, Mumbai andJaunpur, and seized �89 lakh in cash and jew-ellery worth �69 lakh. Taking note of fraud,Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal hasordered an enquiry into the matter.

The software developer has been identifiedas Ajay Garg. He connived with one Anit Guptato use the software for duping the tatkal book-ing system run by the IRCTC and booked tick-ets in bulk. He also sold the software to otherpersons for similar misuse.

Continued on Page 4

����� 45���5�0(

On a day the Governmentbought peace with the

Opposition by clarifying PrimeMinister Narendra Modi’srecent Pakistan-related remarks against his predeces-sor Manmohan Singh, theOpposition disrupted pro-ceedings in both the Housesprotesting another controver-sial comment. This time byUnion Minister Anant KumarHegde, who questioned theparentage of secularists andclaimed that the ModiGovernment was all set tochange the Constitution todrop the “secular” word. TheGovernment distanced itselffrom the issue saying it did notsubscribe to the viewsexpressed by Hegde.

Taking steps to end theweek-long deadlock over Modi’s

remarks made during theGujarat Assembly campaign,Leader of the House ArunJaitley said in the Rajya Sabhathat the PM in his statements orspeeches “did not question thecommitment to this nationeither by Dr Manmohan Singh, the former PrimeMinister, or Hamid Ansari, theformer Vice-President”.

“Any such perception iscompletely erroneous. We holdthese leaders in high esteem, asalso their commitment to thisnation,” Jaitley said. He saidmany statements had beenmade on all sides during theelections, and added that theGovernment “does not wantthe stalemate as a result of thisto continue”.

Responding to Jaitley’sstatement, Leader ofOpposition in the Rajya SabhaGhulam Nabi Azad said, “Iwant to thank the Leader of theHouse that he issued a clarifi-cation on the issue which wascausing the deadlock for thelast one week.”

Continued on Page 4

����������� 45���5�0(

The Army and paramilitaryforces are bracing for

counter attacks by Pakistanfollowing the cross-border raidacross the Line of Control(LoC) by India earlier thisweek to avenge the killings ofIndian jawans. Officials hereapprehend that under publicpressure, the Pakistan Armywill try to take revenge mea-sures by stepping up ceasefireviolations and directing “fiday-een” attacks on the IndianArmy and Border SecurityForce (BSF) posts.

While local commanders inJammu & Kashmir have taken

adequate precautions after ateam of the Indian Army carriedout raid at a Pakistan post inRawlakot in Poonch on Mondayevening killing three enemysoldiers, officials admitted hereon Wednesday that the nextone month will test their pre-paredness to meet this threat.

Important events like NewYear, Army Day on January 15,and Republic Day take place inthis period. It’s feared thatthe Pakistan Army mighttry to make a point by trying

to carry out audacious attackson high-value targets.

Explaining the reasons forheightened alert, officials said,“Pakistan Army is the mostpowerful institution in its coun-try and will not take lying downthis raid by India. In order toprove its mettle to the massesthere, the Pakistan Army willmake all efforts to increase lev-els of violence on the LoC andKashmir hinterland.”

While ceasefire violationsare continuing in Poonch andRajouri sectors for the last twodays since the Indian action,officials said the that LoC isexpected to become “hot” again.

Continued on Page 4

Shimla: Remembering his earlyyears spent on Shimla’s MallRoad and at the Indian CoffeeHouse with his journalistfriends, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi on Wednesdaydidn’t miss an opportunity tosip a cup of coffee. As he wason his way to the airstrip,Modi’s cavalcade stopped out-side the popular cafe IndianCoffee House on The Mall.

Modi spent more than 10minutes outside the CoffeeHouse and enjoyed a cup ofcoffee. Soon hundreds of BJP workers and others assem-bled there.

Armed with mobiles, fansmobbed Modi and tried to takeselfies with him.

The Prime Minister washere along with his Cabinet col-leagues and BJP president AmitShah to attend the oath-takingceremony of Jai Ram Thakur as

the Chief Minister and his 11Cabinet colleagues.

Continued on Page 4

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South Delhi MunicipalCorporation (SDMC) has

sealed 30 marble shops inChattarpur Bhati Road. Theaction was taken by buildingdepartment of South zone.Officials said that the sealingaction was taken against thetraders for misusing ‘agriculturalland for the commercial use’.

A senior SDMC officialsaid that as per instructions ofthe Supreme Court-appointedmonitoring committee, thebuilding department of theSouth Zone under SDMCsealed the units. “All the threemembers of the committeevisited the site in an early hourand directed the officials tocarry out sealing action.During this drive, 30 com-mercial outlets were sealed.Majority of those sealed weremarble trading showrooms,”said a senior SDMC official.

South Delhi MunicipalCorporation (SDMC) had alsosealed ‘Ramaya’ farmhouse forextending its boundary on

Tuesday. “The sealing actionwas stopped on Tuesday asimmediately on the arrival ofthe SDMC’s team, a large num-ber of people gathered andprotested against the action,forcing officials to call thePolice,” said the official.

Earlier this week in a sim-ilar drive, the civic body sealedsome famous shops and restau-rants in South Delhi’s poshDefence Colony market forviolating the provisions of“Master Plan-2021”.

However, the civic bodyhas identified many shops,restaurants which are being runin other plush markets of SouthExtension, Green Park, HauzKhas and Greater Kailash ingross violation of the laid downrules and regulations. “Adetailed list has been drawnand action will be initiatedagainst the shop and restaurantowners of these markets whohave not paid taxes to theSDMC despite repeatedreminders,” said the official.

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In order to motivate people forkeeping their surrounding

clean, South Delhi MunicipalCorporation (SDMC) onWednesday presented awardto the hotels, hospitals, ResidentWelfare Association (RWA’s),schools and market associationsfor adopting Swachchhta aci-tivities.

SDMC brand ambassadorGautam Gambhir presentedaward to the first prize winners.Among those entities whoreceived the award are LodhiHotel, Holy Family Hospital,RWA Giri Nagar, Kalkaji,SDMC primary girls schoolSriniwas Puri and market asso-ciation Defence Colony receivethe awards.

Speaking on the occasion,Gambhir requested people todownload ‘Swachhta MoUHAApp’, a fourth generation com-plaint redressal mobile App.While referring to the damagesof E-Waste to the environ-ment, Gambhir also launchedan E-Waste collection/man-agement system at Nehru Place

which is the largest market ofcomputers and other electron-ic goods in Asia.

“The App can pinpointthe location of the complaintwith accuracy using the Jio-location of the picture. Thecomplaints are to be redressedwithin 12 working hours by theconcerned municipalCorporation,” he said.

SDMC Mayor KamaljeetSehrawat said that the civicbody has been undertakingswachhta activities with a

commitment to make entire itsarea clean and safe for every cit-izen. She exhorted citizen torender their constructive co-operation in SwachhtaSarvekshan 2018 which beginson 4th January. “We are work-ing hard to improve our rank-ing in the SwachhSurvekshan-2018,” she said.

It may be noted that in theSwachh Bharat reckoning of434 cities for 2016-17, areasfalling under the SDMC wereranked 202.

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A48-year-old cloth traderwas reportedly robbed of

his Swift car, cash bag, andmobile phone at gunpoint bythree men near Pratap NagarMetro Station in North Delhion Saturday night. To add to hiswoes, the businessman, whohad sustained a fracture on hisright leg was given �30 by thethree men who dropped himnear the NSP Metro Station,asking him to take a rickshawfor his home.

Naresh Gambhir, who runsa shop in Pratap Nagar washeading home in Rohini in hiswhite Swift car on Saturdaynight when he “got down to peeon a road side near the railwaycolony red light”.

As per the written state-ment given by Gambhir to theGulabi Bagh police station, “Iclosed down my wholesaleshop of shawls and was head-ing home. I had to urgently uri-nate therefore I stopped my carnear the red light. Within aminute or two, when I cameback to my car, I saw three men

outside the car. In a jiffy, theypushed me inside the car. Oneof them hit my head on thedashboard and pointed a pistolat my head while the otherpointed a pistol at my stomach.They slapped me three to fourtimes and asked me to handthem all my cash and belong-ings. They drove me to theNetaji Subhash Place metro sta-tion where they threatened methat they had orders to kill me.But they pitied me and gave me�30 and asked me to go homewith the cash,”

The complainant, in hiscomplaint had mentioned thatthe accused- all three menwere in the age group of 28-34.The accused made away withthe Swift car, cash worth �53,000, driving license ofNaresh Gambhir among othervaluables.

Ironically, the robbery tookplace 800 meters away from theGulabi Bagh police station.Despite being robbed at gun-point, police registered a caseunder non -heinous section379 (theft) of the Indian PenalCode (IPC) at the Gulabi Bagh

police station.A senior police officer

said, “We are scanning theCCTV cameras of the area toascertain the identity of theaccused. As per the complaint,the complainant said that hecan identify them. We arealso suspecting the role of thestaff of the shop. Further probeis on”.

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Two minor girls aged fiveand nine were allegedly

raped by a 60-year-old manwho offered them chocolates inSouthwest Delhi’s Palam area.Police said that the incidentcame to light on Sundayevening when one of the vic-tims — a five year-old girlstarted crying at her residence.

On being asked by hermother, she narrated her ordealhow the elderly man touchedher inappropriately. The moth-er checked and found rednessin the private parts of the child.

It was only when the five-year-old girl narrated aboutthe assault that police got toknow that the nine-year-old girlwas also sexually assaulted.

Based on the medicalexamination and statement ofthe mother of the five-year-oldgirl, police arrested MohammadJainul (60). He was arrestedunder the POCSO Act andlater, produced in court onMonday. Thereafter, he wassent to judicial custody.

Following the incident,both the victims are in a stateof shock. A senior police offi-

cer said, “The incident tookplace on Sunday evening. Thetwo kids were playing outside the house of the nineyear old girl when the accusedcame, offered them chocolates and took them to hisrented accommodation wherehe committed the barbaric act.”

While the nine year-old girlstudies in a nearby school, thefive year old used to live nearher house.

Jainul started touchingthem inappropriately and later,sexually assaulted them foralmost an hour. He gave themRs 5 and later, dropped them totheir houses. After reachinghome, the younger girl startedcrying due to unbearable pain.Once her mother removed herclothes to check, she saw thatthe girl had got certain markson her private part,” said theofficer.

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A19-year-old aspiring modelhas alleged that she was

gang-raped by three men onthe pretext of offering her amodel assignment in SouthDelhi’s Sarojini Nagar area.

A senior police officer said,“As per the written statement ofthe victim, she alleged that shemet one of the three accused inMumbai some days ago. The

man promised to introduce herto a TV/film director in Delhi.On 24th December, she met thethree in Vasant Kunj mall, hada party, they lured her to a flatunder Sarojini Nagar police sta-tion jurisdiction, had drinksand then took turns to rape her.She made the PCR call on late25th night

In this matter, two men,Satish and Jaggi have beenarrested while the third accusedHarender is absconding.”

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SDMC Mayor, KamaljeetSehrawat, the Chairman

Standing Committee BhupenderGupta and the Leader of HouseShikha Rai on Wednesday metthe Members of the SupremeCourt appointed MonitoringCommittee and apprised themabout the hardship being facedby the trader community. It hasalso been requested to give timeof some weeks to the shop own-ers for depositing the conversioncharges in instalments and tillthen the ongoing sealing driveshould be put on hold.

The Mayor requested themembers to allow the owners todeposit initially 25 per cent ofthe outstanding charges andtake up the sealing drive after theexpiry of the granted time.

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To improve connectivitybetween Delhi and

Gurugram, the HaryanaGovernment had decided tobuild multiple routes to easetraffic volume between the twoStates. But commuters of bothStates will have to wait for somemore time as the contractedworks on the proposed routesare yet to be completed.

To resolve Gurugram'sproblem related to traffic con-gestion, a year ago HaryanaChief Minister Manohar LalKhattar had stressed on multi-ple routes connecting Delhiand announced work on theproject of underpasses and fly-overs at Iffco Chowk, SignatureTower and Rajiv Chowk on theDelhi-Gurugram expressway.

The work on the nationalhighway-48 busy junctions atIffco Chowk, Signature Towerand Rajiv Chowk is nearing

completion and is likely to beopened for public by the end ofthis month. Also, the underpasson Hero Honda Chowk willsurely open by the next month.

So far, the flyover at HeroHonda Chowk, an underpassnear Tau Devi Lal Stadium, fly-overs at Maharana PratapChowk and an elevated U-turnat Iffco Chowk have alreadyopened to traffic.

Also, work on the 18 kmstretch of Dwarka Expresswayalso known as NorthernPeripheral Road (NPR) hasalso been resumed. Its 14 kmlength of stretch is inGurugram while 4 km stretchis in Delhi. Also the work onthe Southern Peripheral Road(SPR) has also been resumed.Both the stretches meet nearKheri Daula toll plaza on NH-48.

Similarly, construction ona stretch between Vasant Kunjin Delhi and Mehrauli-Gurugram Road in Gurugram

is yet to be started. However,the administration assured thatonce these two stretches (NPR-SPR) are fully functional, theload on NH-48 will reduce sig-nificantly.

Haryana UrbanDevelopment Authority(HUDA) administrator YashpalYadav told The Pioneer, “Theprojects are being built todecongest Gurugram and thatincludes NPR, SPR and otherlink roads. These projects havefaced hiccups but they wouldbe completed soon”.

The benefits of these tworoutes will surely bring relief tothe commuters who are trav-elling from IGI airport andother parts of Delhi theseroutes will allow Manesar-bound vehicles from Delhi andFaridabad to bypass Gurugramand reduce the load on NH-48,Yadav said.

Besides work on theManesar flyover is under con-struction and work on anoth-

er flyover at Bilaspur on NH-48 still not started.

Also, work on the worldshortest 3 -km NationalHighway to decongest twomajor roads that link the twocities National Highway No-48and MG road in Gurugram isyet to start.

At present, Gurugram hasone National Highway- 48which connects Delhi and thetraffic volume on this stretchsees bumper-to-bumper heavytraffic during the peak hoursLakhs of commuters end upseveral hours travelling on thestretch during the morningand evening rush hour.

Besides, work on theremaining part of Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP)expressway also known asWestern Peripheral Expresswayhas also been resumed. The135-km expressway is expect-ed to be operational by March2018.

The Super Expressway

passes through Gurugram,Palwal, Mewat and Sonepat dis-tricts. Around 83 kilometres ofthe road is yet to be complet-ed. Once the Super expresswayis opened to the public the 135-km stretch will connectNational Highway 1 at Kundliin Sonepat district with Palwaldistrict on NH-2, an officialsaid.

The expressway will alsoreduce the commuting timefrom Delhi to the towns ofKundli, Manesar and Palwalconsiderably.

Also, expansion of theMetro route is under the con-sideration and major progressis expected in the implementa-tion of the HUDA City Centreto Dwarka sector-21 line thatwill stop at 23 stations coveringa distance of 27.5 km.

The route would provide abig relief to those travellingfrom Dwarka and South Zonesof Delhi and Gurugram resi-dents as well.

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The father of two teenage sis-ters, who were found hang-

ing from a tree here, onWednesday lodged a policecomplaint against three relatives,accusing them of killing them,police said on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, the bodies ofLaxmi (18) and Nisha (14)were found outside theirhouse in Sector 49. Theirfather Kulbhushan onWednesday, lodged a policecomplaint against three of hisrelatives, accusing them ofkilling his daughters, Sector 49Police Station In-chargePankaj Pant said.

According to the post-mortem report, the cause ofdeath was hanging, he added.

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Delhi Police on Wednesdayarrested three persons

and rescued a three-year-oldchild within five hours whowas kidnapped for ransomfrom East Delhi’s Mandawaliarea. Sixteen teams worked torescue the child.

Omvir Singh said, “Thearrested accused has been iden-tified as Rahul Mishra (24),Gaurav alias Gurdeep (22), bothare from Mandawali andShubham Mishra (19), residentof Sangam Vihar.

The officer said, “On Fridayevening, at around 5:30 pm, oneperson Satender Ravi regis-tered a case at Mandawali policestation that his three-year-old

son Ayush is missing and he hadreceived a ransom call demand-ing �10 lakh.”

Satender owns a comput-er hardware store in Mandawaliand his son Ayush hadreturned from school in theafternoon, after which he wasplaying in the lane outside thehouse and was taken for juiceby one employee Rahul Mishra.Rahul had dropped Ayush atthe juice stall and left for somework with Satender's wife.Family of Ayush realized thatthe child was missing onlywhen the kidnapper made theransom call in the eveningafter which the family alongwith Rahul and some friendsstarted searching for the childin the nearby areas.

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Water supply will be affect-ed in the parts of the city

due to annual flushing programof underground reservoir andbooster pumping station.

The areas where supplywill be affected on Thursdayare- Sector B-1 Vasant Kunj,Vasant Village, Malviya Nagar,Chattarpur, Qutab, Meharuliarea, Janta House Pkt.6 Plotno.6 Plot No. 4and 5 Nasirpur,

Shiv Chowk BPS New RanjeetNagar, C4/D Block Janakpuri,DG-III Block Vikaspuri,Karampura, Sector 24 Rohini,Sector-11 Rohini , RithalaVillage, Rithala DJB staff quar-ter, C-8 Sector-B Rohini, BapaNagar, Tank Road, Dev Nagar,Regharpura, Mayur ViharPhase-I, Pocket-V, DDA FlatsLIG Jhilmil, Geeta Colony,Kailash Nagar, Gandhi Nagar,Jheel, Raghubarpuri, OldSeelampur, Mahila Colony,

Kailash Nagar, Shiv Puri,Khureji and Chander Nagarand adjoining areas.

Further, due to annualprogram for flushing of under-ground reservoir and boosterpumping station, water supplywill be affected on Friday. Theaffected areas are -Vasant Kunj,Chattarpur, Qutab, Mehrauli,Malviya Nagar, and adjoiningareas, F Block Vikaspuri, C5/AJanakpuri, New Moti Nagar,Punjabi Bagh, D-1 Sector -15

Rohini, Sangam Park areas,Geeta Colony, Kailash Nagar,Gandhi Nagar, Jheel,Raghubarpuri, Old Seelampur,Mahila Colony, Kailash Nagar,Shiv Puri, Khureji andChander Nagar and adjoiningareas,

Delhi Jal Board hasadvised residents to store sufficient quantity of water in advance as per their requirement to avoid anyinconvenience.

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Aminor girl alleged that shewas repeatedly raped by a

man in her neighbourhood inNorthwest Delh’s Netaji SubhashPlace area. Police said that theaccused, Asharam raped theminor girl for 13 days in a roomin Budh Vihar after which hedropped her at Pitampura.

The matter came to lightwhen the minor girl somehowmanaged to reach her house. Onseeing her in tattered clothes,

her family asked her followingwhich she opened up about herordeal.

“In the first week ofDecember, the minor girl hadreportedly left her house to buygroceries from a nearby shopwhen Asharam allegedly kid-napped her by putting a druglaced hankerchief in front of hermouth.

Once the minor girl becameconscious, he took her to hisfriend's place in Budh Viharwhere he raped her.

As per the statement givenby the minor girl, Asharamused to live in the same neigh-bourhood in Netaji SubhashPlace where she lived and usedto work as a carpenter,” said asenior investigating officer.

Police on Wednesday saidthat a team under SHO NetajiSubhash Place police station wasformed and raided the nativeplace of Asharam. The accusedhad changed his appearance toavoid getting caught by thepolice.

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Visibly unhappy with theLieutenant Governor Anil

Baijal after he had returnedAam Aadmi Party (AAP)Government’s move to homedeliver public services onTuesday, Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal on Wednesday ques-tioned his move and said, “whoshould have the final say”. Hisdeputy Manish Sisodialaunched a scathing attack onBaijal’s move. Sisodia said,“whether the LG was trying toprotect the corrupt system”.

“LG says digitisationenough. Elected Governmentsays digitisation needs to becoupled with doorstep delivery.LG does not agree. So, thequestion is - in a democracy, insuch a situation, who shouldhave final say - LG or electedGovernment?”

Kejriwal said this in atweet, attaching a news reporttitled ‘Doorstep delivery:Government says Baijal ‘reject-ed’ plan, L-G says digitise it’.

However Baijal’s office hadsaid on Tuesday that the LG has

only “advised to reconsiderthe proposal in its presentform and suggested alternativemodel to eliminate corruptionand improve public servicedelivery”. LG’s office has alsosaid that the proposal hasimplications on safety andsecurity of women, and seniorcitizens.

Baijal also said that digitaldelivery of services could be the“most effective” tool to elimi-nate corruption as it removedhuman interface, minimiseddelays and discretion.

On Tuesday, Delhi’sDeputy Chief Minister Sisodiaalso attacked the LG’s decision,saying: “Huge setback in DelhiGovernment’s efforts to providegood and corruption free gov-ernance...

“LG has taken decisionwithout knowing field reality.”He said most of these serviceswere already digital, yet therewere long queues in offices.

The Delhi Governmenthad, under the scheme, decid-ed to offer over 40 governmentservices ranging from the grantof water connection to mar-

riage certificates at people'sdoorstep.

Sisodia renewed his attackon Baijal on Wednesday, askingwhether he was “trying to pro-tect a corrupt system” byreturning the AAPGovernment’s proposal fordoorstep delivery of publicservices.

The proposal envisagesdelivery of 40 public services -like driving licences, caste cer-tificates and new water con-nections - at the doorstep of cit-izens. Attacking the LG, thedeputy chief minister won-

dered whether the L-G shouldhave the power to turn downthe decisions of an electedGovernment.

“I was pained after readinghis note. Is he doing this to tryto protect a corrupt system...What is his interest in protect-ing this corrupt system?”Sisodia said at a press confer-ence.

Terming the proposal a“super digital delivery system”,the deputy chief minister alsosaid that the move wouldensure that citizens won’t haveto visit a department’s office.

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The Supreme Court-man-dated Environment

Pollution Control Agency(EPCA) said the latest mea-sures announced by theNational Green Tribunal(NGT) to clean the city’s toxicair may dilute the Centre-noti-fied Graded Response ActionPlan (GRAP) and create con-fusion among the implement-ing agencies.

Sunita Narain, a memberof the Environment Pollution(Prevention and Control)Authority or the EPCA, saidthe GRAP, which it is autho-rised to enforce, was muchmore stringent.

According to the categori-sation of the NGT’s actionplan, measures such as ban onconstruction activities, dieselgenerator sets, thermal powerplants and closure of schoolswill kick in when levels ofPM2.5 and PM10 cross 600and 1000 microgram per cubicmetre (ug/m3) respectively.

The green tribunal defines

the aforementioned category as‘emergency’. It says odd-evenroad rationing scheme is to berolled out when ultrafine par-ticulates PM2.5 and PM10range between 400-600 and700-1000 ug/m3, a leveldefined as ‘critical’ by it.

In contrast, under theGRAP, which was notified bythe Centre on January 12 thisyear, a pollution emergency isdeclared when PM2.5 crosses300 ug/m3 and PM10 breach-es 500 ug/m3, the level whensteps such as odd-even andconstruction ban are to beimplemented.

Apart from the Badarpurplant, the EPCA does not rec-ommend closure of thermalpower plants in the region.However, it suggests that stepsbe taken to ensure the gradualshift to gas-based power gen-eration from coal-based plants.

“They (NGT) have dilutedit. The GRAP is much morestringent. And the GRAP isnotified, it is law. No one canafford to not implement it. Thiswas unnecessary and will onlylead to more confusion,” Narain

said.Chances of 24-hour aver-

age of pollutants in Delhicrossing the emergencythreshold fixed by the NGTare not very high at this point,which also means that toughactions will remain largelyon abeyance.

For example, inNovember this year, when apollution emergency wasdeclared under the GRAP, themaximum average value ofPM2.5 was 589 ug/m3. Therewere individual stations wherelevels of PM2.5 and PM10crossed the 600 and 1000marks, especial ly onNovember 8, but the valuescome below these limits uponrounding up the average of allthe stations across the city.

Anumita Roychowdhuryof the Centre for Science andEnvironment (CSE), whichworks closely with the EPCA,also observed that the NGTplan was unclear.

“If you are changing thebasic architecture, it is going tobe confusing for the imple-menting agencies,” she said.

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In its quest to find out ‘latestspotting connection to the

historical settlement’, theArchaeological survey of India(ASI) carried out its fourthconsecutive excavation inPurana Quila on Wednesday.

The fourth excavation isprogressing well in the ram-parts of the site. Earlier, ASIhad carried out three excava-tions at purana qila in 1954-55,1969 to 1973 and its findingsand artifacts are exhibited at theArchaeological Museum,Purana Qila.

Taking to The Pioneer, SiteSuperintending Engineer,Vasant kumar Swarnkar said“We are doing this excavationto find some historical evidencewhich are important in archae-ology point of view, adding,“The work will be moving onfor two or three months. Thepublic will be allowed to view

the site. Some precious coinsand antiquities had discoveredduring the excavations,” ASIofficer said.

Explaining about findings,the officials said that Paintedgrey ware, dating 1500 BC, andvarious objects and potterysignifying continuous habitation from Maurya toShunga, Kushana, Gupta,

Rajput, Sultanates and Mughal periods were the major findings from the three exca-vations.” said, “A ring well of 4.4meters below the earth was alsodiscovered in the last excava-tion, he added.

The engineer also said thatsince quila is one of the oldestthere is still unrevealed talesbehind it.

Its present form was builtby Sher Shah Suri, the founderof the Sur Empire. Sher Shahraised the citadel of Purana Quila with an

extensive city-area sprawlingaround it.

According to historians, itis believed that the PuranaQuila was still incomplete atSher Shah's death in 1545, andwas perhaps completed by hisIslam Shah although it is notcertain which parts were builtby whom.

“It may be noted thatPurana Quila attracts thousands of visitor everyday. Number of visitors are increasing day by day in thisbeautiful place, the excavationtaking now wil l surely increase the heartfelt con-nection to this place, thathistor y st i l l a l ive” saidShivnath Yadav, the in chargeof sound and light show conducted by India Tourism DevelopmentCooperation (ITDC). PuranaQuila is the venue for thespectacular sound and lightshow held every evening incapital, Yadav said.

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Leader of Opposition inDelhi assembly, Vijender

Gupta on Wednesday said thatthe Delhi Government’s pro-posal of doorstep delivery of40 services is archaic in pre-sent digital age.

Reacting on door to doorstep delivery, BJP leader said,“Presently the universal effortis to eliminate human elementin delivery of Government ser-vices, whereas the proposal ofthe Government entails visit ofGovernment representatives tocitizens. This defeats the pur-pose of online services.”

He further said that at atime when majority of DelhiGovernment services are avail-able through online system, itis illogical and immature tointroduce the concept of ser-vices at door step.

“It will cause financial bur-den on citizens as well as theGovernment. Deputy ChiefMinister Manish Sisodia pro-

jected that delivery of serviceswill cost less than �50 while theIncome Tax Return Preparer(ITRP) gets up to three percentgovernment incentive and a feeof �250 from each client,” LOPsaid.

Gupta in a statement saidthat he is agreed with LieutenantGovernor Anil Baijal that theproposal has implications forsafety and security of vulnera-ble people, corruption, badbehavior and breech of privacy.

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With Jawaharlal NehruUniversity (JNU) admin-

istration making attendancemandatory for all studentsfrom the next semester the leftruled JNU Students’ Union(JNUSU) has vehementlyopposed the move.

Let controlled JNUSU hascriticised the move in the nameof safeguarding the student’sinterest. Right wing studentswing Akhil Bharatiya VidyarthiParishad (ABVP) is also notbehind in politicising the issue.ABVP has expressed its ‘disso-nance’ against mandatoryattendance and planned theeffigy burning of JNU admin-istration and JNUSU. However,the common students exceptthose of MPhil and PhD seemsto be mostly indifferenttowards it.

Attendance is not com-pulsory in JNU though someteachers maintain it for theirpersonal references.

The Academic Council(AC) of the University in itsmeeting held at the beginning

of this month had resolved toapprove to make “attendancecompulsory for all regular reg-istered students”. The JNUVice-Chancellor (VC) MJagadesh Kumar has approvedthe AC resolution regardingattendance for implementa-tion from the winter session2018.

The JNUSU alleged thatthe ‘random’ proposal of com-pulsory attendance which theVice-Chancellor just raised ina 'passing-by' manner and onwhich JNUSU instantlyopposed in the meeting isbeing termed as decision of AC.

A circular to the Deans ofSchools/ Chairpersons of theSpecial Centres / Chairpersonsof the Centres says that atten-dance is mandatory for all stu-dents registered in all pro-grammes including M.Phil andPh.D of the university. It alsoadvised all centres and schoolsto maintain an attendancerecord of all students.

As usual, the JNUSU hastermed the VC decision ‘arbitrary’ and an onslaught on inclusive nature of JNU.

“The idea of not having anattendance system was toencourage both teacher andstudents to evolve methodsfor effective teaching and participation of students inthe class,” said JNUSU in astatement. It also says thatJNU being a research university where both profes-sors and students majorlyinvolve themselves in research it's not logical for stu-dents of MPhil and PhD to signattendance register on dailybasis.

ABVP’s popular face ofJNU Saurabh Sharma said thatJNUSU and JNU Teachers’Association (JNUTA) havefailed to inform JNU commu-nity about such a ‘regressive &coercive’ change though theyknew about it from the verybeginning.

“By their own account,they had known about such amove on December 1, why theyfailed to initiate debate anddeliberation with studentcommunity on such an impor-tant issue?” asks SaurabhSharma of ABVP.

��������������� 45���5�0(

The Delhi Congress onWednesday slammed Delhi

Government for hiking thewater tariff by 20 per cent,Delhi Congress president AjayMaken said that the govern-ment is making false propa-ganda to mislead the people,and sought an apology fromthe Government.

Maken also said that forthe second time in three years,the Delhi Jal Board hasincreased the water tariff butthe AAP Government was stillclaiming that free water wasbeing distributed to the peopleof Delhi, though such catego-ry of people only account forjust eight per cent of the totalhouses in the Capital. He saidif the Kejriwal Governmentdoes not apologise to the peo-ple of Delhi for telling them lieson water subsidy.

Maken said he has alsowritten a letter to the UnionMinister of State for Housingand Urban Affairs ShriHardeep Singh Puri regardingthe ongoing sealing and demo-

lition drive in the Capital,requesting him to considerreducing the conversioncharges from residential tocommercial to 10 per centfrom 100 per cent as business-es have suffered. He said thepeople of Delhi have beencaught in the grip of a sealingand demolition drive.

Maken said in the outcomebudget of the DelhiGovernment for 2016-17, theDelhi Government had admit-ted that only 4 lakh 28,000households were getting waterat subsidised rates from theDelhi Jal Board for consump-tion of up to 20,000 litres ofwater.

����������� 45���5�0(�

After anti smog gun to mit-igate the effect of pollutants

in the city air, the DelhiGovernment has deployedhome guards as environmentmarshals in its bid to combatair pollution related problems.

“In the coming days, theDepartment of Environmentplans to increase the number ofmarshals to 100 who will bedeployed in 50 wards of MCD,”the Government said in a state-ment. These marshals havebeen trained to act as the eyesand ears of the Government.They have been mandated toreport incidents of open burn-ing of leaves, garbage or plas-tic, or open dumping of con-struction waste and spillage of

solid waste at landfill sites.According to a Delhi gov-

ernment decision, some 14home Guards have alreadybeen posted in seven wards ofthree municipal corporationswho are covering high pollut-ing areas including AnandVihar, IP Extension, Jhilmil,Daryaganj, Okhla, SanjayGandhi Transport Nagar-Samaypur Badli and ShahbadDaulatpur-Pooth Khurd.“Delhi government is plan-ning to increase the number ofmarshals to 100 ,and they willbe deployed in different 50wards of MCD,” an officialstatement issued onWednesday read.

These marshals will reportto supervisory officers fromDPCC on a daily basis and will

be paid a lump sum monthlyamount of Rs 5,000 for trans-portation and Rs 1,500 formobile phone usage.

The volunteers have beeninstructed to act as eyes andears of the Delhi PollutionControl Committee (DPCC)and report the instances aboutburning of leaves, garbage andplastic in open. They will alsoreport on dumping of con-struction material in openwithout covering, another fac-tor contributing to rise in val-ues of PM 10 and 2.5 and dustpollution caused due to con-struction activity without tak-ing adequate pollution controlmeasures such as covers andsprinkling of water on mater-ial stored and spillage of solidwaste at dhalaos of MCD.

��������������� 45���5�0(

The Delhi Government onWednesday signed a pact

with Maruti Suzuki India Ltd.For developing 12 automateddriving test tracks in thenational capital.

A memorandum of under-standing (MoU) was signedwith the automobile manufac-turer in presence of LtGovernor Anil Baijal, ChiefMinister Arvind Kejriwal andTransport Minister KailashGahlot at the L-G Secretariathere.

Baijal later tweeted a photograph of the signing ofthe MoU and wished the transport department for theinitiative.

��������������� 45���5�0(

New Year is approachingwhich is awaited eagerly

not just by the public at large,but even by criminals, who usethe festive opportunity for traf-ficking illicit liquor into thenational Capital. Peopleinvolved in trade of illicit liquorhave also tried to smuggle inalcohol during this time and tocatch hold of them the DelhiPolice is patrolling all over thecity and the border areas. It wasa field day for the Delhi policeas on Monday in a major suc-cess the police has crackeddown gangs of illicit liquor inDelhi NCR area. The policeteam has arrested two separategangs of bootlegger, said onWednesday.

On Monday during onesuch patrolling in Jaitpur thepolice received information thata bootlegger carrying illicit

liquor in a vehicle will be pass-ing through near toll tax, Jaitpur.

According to the police, avehicle was seen coming fromBasantpur border ,Faridabadtowards Jaitpur. It was asked tostop for a checking but the dri-ver instead of stopping, spedaway towards Arpan Vihar.The team immediately startedchasing the fleeing car sus-pected of carrying illicit liquor.After a chase of nearly two km,the fleeing car was overtaken

and stopped said the police.The driver namely Aasif (23)alias Khurshid was appre-hended along with the car andduring search 42 cartons con-taining 2016 quarters of coun-try made liquor were recoveredfrom the alleged's possession.In a similar case the DelhiPolice in R K Puram, arrestedof one bootlegger and recov-ered 60 Cartons of illicit liquorcontaining 3000 Quarters andone Car used for transportation

of Illicit Liquor. The arrestedperson was identified as AmitHooda (27) from Rohatak,Haryana.

Police said that on Mondayduring vehicle checking at R.KPuram, the team spotted oneAccent Car driver who afteranalysing the movement andchecking of vehicles by policestaff, started reversing his vehi-cle to flew away.The team inswift action apprehended himand during checking from thecar, 30 Cartons of illicit liquorcontaining 3000 Quarters ofillicit Liquor were recovered.”To avoid the detection of policeaccused used to park his car atParking's, near Parks andother segregated places wherenobody suspect him and as perthe demand he transportedthe cartons of liquor in JhuggiClusters areas,” said MilindMahadeo Dumbere, DCPSouth-West District.

���������������45���5�0(

After Lieutenant-Governorof Delhi Anil Baija l

allegedly returned the DelhiGovernment’s proposal fordoor-step delivery of servicesfor reconsideration, an infu-riated AAP leadership lashedout at its arch rival BJP ledcentral Government and LG,holding the duo responsiblefor ‘deliberately’ objecting onthe proposal and sending thefile back.

AAP said that “AAP KISARKAR., AAP KE DWAR”was to facilitate the citizens ofDelhi in availing the servicesprovided by the Governmentat their door-steps. “Peoplehave to wait for hours stand-ing in long queues outsideGovernment offices for avail-

ing these services, consideringthe problem faced by common people AAPGovernment has planned tomake available about 40Services including makingRashion card, licence, certifi-cate, etc. at the door-step. Butit’s unfortunate that LG has putobjection and has send the fileback,” said Gopal Rai thesenior AAP leader.

Rai said that the objec-tions put forth by LG are ‘irra-tional’ and the LG is not awarethat despite of digitizationthere are still long queues out-side the Government offices.“Digital Delhi is among thepriority of AAP Governmentbut LG is not aware that despiteof it people fall in long queuewaiting for hours outsideGovernment offices for verifi-cation etc.,” he added.

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The nursery admissionprocess for approximately

1,600 private schools in thenational Capital began onWednesday with the DelhiGovernment deciding not to impose any upper age limitthis year.

Parents have time tillJanuary 17 to fill the applicationforms. The Delhi Government’sproposed upper age limit of lessthan four years to be eligible fornursery, less than five years forkindergarten and less than sixyears for admission to Class 1,was challenged in court.

Though a Delhi HighCourt order earlier this yearhad allowed the imposition ofthe upper age limit, theDirectorate of Education (DoE)has decided that the order willbe applicable only from thenext academic year. “Schoolswere given time till December26 to upload the criteria thatthey are adopting to conductthe admission and wereinstructed to stay clear of of the62 criteria abolished by theDelhi High Court in a 2016order,” a senior DoE officialsaid. Apart from the abolished

criteria, the schools have beengiven autonomy to come upwith their own points system,the official said.

Those schools which havestill not uploaded it yet havebeen asked to do it immediate-ly, the official added. The abol-ished criteria include, parents’education, their profession, age,oral test and interview. The first

list of selected students withpoints allotted to them will bedisplayed by February 15.Queries raised by parents will beresolved between February 16-20, and a second list will be dis-played by February 28.

Subsequent lists will bereleased, if seats remain vacant,before the admission processcloses on March 31.

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India will “leapfrog” Britainand France to become the

world’s fifth largest economy in2018, ahead of an oncomingmajor global economic shifttowards Asia, according to aBritish research organisation.

The World EconomicLeague Table (WELT) 2018released on Monday by Centrefor Economics and BusinessResearch (CEBR) said that indollar terms India will risefrom its seventh rank to over-take those European economiesnext year despite the stumble ofdemonetisation and the intro-duction of Goods and ServicesTax (GST).

“The World EconomicLeague Table shows that despitetemporary setbacks fromdemonetisation and the intro-duction of the new GST tax,India’s economy has still catchup with that of France and theUK and in 2018 will haveovertaken them both tobecome the world’s fifth largesteconomy in dollar terms,” saidCEBR Deputy ChairmanDouglas McWilliams.

The CEBR projections giveIndia the fifth spot a yearahead of the InternationalMonetary Fund estimates,

which move it up in 2019.According to the IMF, the

size of India’s economy is cur-rently $2.439 trillion. With anannual growth rate of 6.7 percent in 2017 and 7.4 in 2018, itexpects the size of India’s econ-omy to be $2.926 trillion in2019, when it will pull ahead ofFrance and Britain according toits projections.

The world’s largesteconomies now are the US($19.362 trillion), China($11.937 trillion), Japan ($4.884trillion), Germany ($3.652 tril-lion), France ($2.575 trillion),Britain ($2.565 trillion) andIndia, according to the IMF.

CEBR charts a trend ofglobal economic shift to Asia.

“The interesting trendemerging is that by 2032, fiveof the 10 largest economies will

be in Asia, while Europeaneconomies will be falling downthe ranking and the US willlose its top spot,” CEBR SeniorEconomist Oliver Kolodseikesaid.

According to WELT esti-mate, by 2032 three out of theworld’s four largest economieswill be Asian - China, India andJapan.

Korea and Indonesia areexpected to join list of theworld’s top 10 economies, withTaiwan, Thailand, Philippinesand Pakistan making the top 25list.

Construction activities areexpected to get a tremendousboost, mainly because of Indiaand China, according to CEBR.

“Construction’s share ofworld GDP is to reach its high-est level ever, driven by ultralarge global transformationalprojects,” Graham Robinson,director of Global ConstructionPerspectives, said.

“The Chinese Belt andRoad Initiative and the Indianinfrastructural project willboost construction’s share ofworld GDP to 15 per cent by2032, probably the highestshare of world GDP construc-tion has seen since the pyra-mids or Great Wall of Chinawere built.”

From Page 1According to CBI, a post-

graduate in computer applica-tions, Garg had worked withIRCTC for four years between2007 and 2011, where he learntthe vulnerabilities of the rail-way ticketing. CBI sources saidthat 10 of Garg’s agents —seven in Jaunpur and three inMumbai — have also beenidentified.

During the raids, Rs 89.42lakh cash, Rs 61.29 lakhs jew-ellery, 2 gold bars of one kgeach, 15 laptops, 15 hard disks,52 mobile phones, 24 SIMs, 10Notebooks, 06 Routers; 04dongles; 19 pen drives havebeen seized. The illegal tradewas carried out throughBitcoins and Hawala networks.Proxy servers were used byGarg to use the software tobook the tickets. Anil Guptahad made a fortune for himselffrom this illegal business andhad two houses in Mumbai andtwo in Jaunpur.

The CBI has also allegedthat Garg and Gupta werereceiving money from the deal-ers for the use of the softwarethrough Bitcoins and hawalanetwork.

From Page 1Shimla’s famous outlet has

seen many prominent cus-tomers — late Prime MinisterIndira Gandhi and formerDeputy Prime Minister LKAdvani, who was also here onWednesday to attend theswearing in ceremony.

When he studied in India,former Afghan PresidentHamid Karzai was a frequentvisitor, too.

Modi, during his earliervisit here in April, recalledthat he used to spend hours atthe Coffee House with his

journalist friends to keep a tabon the state’s political develop-ments.

Many from Shimla’s acad-emic, legal, art and journalis-tic circles were regular clientstoo.

In March 2000, then HomeMinister Advani spent time atthe Coffee House with hisparty colleagues over coffee. Heagain visited it in August 2009along with then Gujarat ChiefMinister Modi.

Modi had said at a publicrally here, “Sitting at the IndianCoffee House along with myjournalist friends, I used to getan insight into the State’s polit-ical developments.”

Modi, who was the BJP’sin-charge of Himachal Pradeshfrom 1994 and 2002, added ina lighter vein that he never paidfor the coffee he had. His jour-nalist friends used to foot thebill. IANS

From Page 1A team of five to six

Ghatak commandos of theIndian Army sneaked intoPakistan Occupied Kashmir(POK) in Rawlakot, Poonchand targeted a temporary postof Pakistan Army on Mondayevening. This cross-border raidabout 300 metres inside POKcame days after four IndianArmy personnel including oneofficer and three soldiers ofSikh Regiment were killed in anambush by a Border ActionTeam (BAT) of Pakistan com-prising commandos and mili-tants. The BAT team came inat least 400 metres for theambush in Keri sector ofRajouri.

The officials said that thejawans located beyond the anti-infiltration fence on the LoCare directed to maintain a lowprofile and not to expose them-selves to enemy fire.

In the hinterland, move-ment of troops and convoys are

now restricted. In case of exi-gency such movements mustbe undertaken under cover.Elaborating upon this aspect,officials said the objective ofminimal movement is to avoidpresenting “bigger and fre-quent targets” to fidayeens toattack.

The perimeter security ofArmy and paramilitary campshas been enhanced and patrolsinstructed to carry out areadomination drills around thecamps to deter militants fromfree movement. Similarly, theArmy installations along theJammu-Pathankot highway areon full alert as in the past ter-rorists have sneaked into fromacross the border to attack thecamps.

Also, the roads along theborder connecting the strate-gically important highway arenow getting special attention aslocal police stations on theseroads were also targeted by mil-itants in the past.

From Page 1“The Indian baseless alle-

gations and twists, that come 24hrs later, about the visit of thewife and mother ofCommander Jadhav, a con-victed terrorist and spy, whohas confessed to his crimes, arecategorically rejected,” thestatement said.

If Indian concerns wereserious, the guests or the IndianDHC (Deputy HighCommissioner) should haveraised them during the visitwith the media which wasreadily available, but at a safe distance as requested byIndia, it said.

During the December 25meeting, whose pictures werereleased by Pakistan, Jadhav

was seen sitting behind a glassscreen while his mother andwife sat on the other side.They spoke through intercomand the entire 40-minute pro-ceedings appeared to have beenrecorded on video.

Jadhav, who was capturedin March last year, was sen-tenced to death by a Pakistanimilitary court for alleged spy-ing, an accusation that Indiahas dismissed as concocted.New Delhi says Jadhav waskidnapped in Iran where hehad legitimate business interests, and brought toPakistan. To save Jadhav, Indiamoved the International Courtof Justice, which orderedPakistan in May to stay his execution.

From Page 1Subsequently on August

21 this year, the Supreme Courtgranted bail to Lt Col Purohit,after noting that there were con-tradictions in the chargesheetsfiled by the Maharashtra AntiTerrorism Squad (ATS) and theNational Investigation Agency(NIA).

While granting bail toSadhvi Pragya, the HC Benchhad taken cognizance of the factthat Sadhvi Pragya was suffer-ing from breast cancer andthat she had become infirm andcould even walk without sup-port. The court, however, notedthat an Ayurvedic hospital, inwhich she was being treated,could not give a proper treat-ment for her cancer.

After Sadhvi Pragya’s arrestin the Malegaon blasts case onOctober 23, 2008, Maharashtra’sAnti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) —

which had investigated the caseinitially — had charged her withhaving provided motorcycle toabsconding one of the accusedRamji, which motorcycle wasused for planting bombs andcausing bomb blast. The ATShad also charged her with hav-ing participated in meetingsheld in Bhopal, where the con-spiracy to strike terror byexploding bomb in Malegaonwas hatched.

In observations that putthings in perspective vis-a-visATS’ first charge against SadhviPragya, the HC Bench observedwhile granting her bail, “Thestatements of four prosecutionwitnesses do show that theAppellant was not in possessionof the said motorcycle sincemuch prior to the incident. Thetrial Court in this regardobserved that the motorcyclewas being used by accused

Ramji much prior to the date ofincident is the defence of theAppellant which can be provedduring trial. However, we findthat this is not the defence of theAppellant but these facts areborne out from the materialcollected by the ATS itself ”.

Alluding to the ATS’ sec-ond charge against SadhviPragya, the HC Judges hadobserved, “Though there issome material on record thatAppellant was present at theBhopal meeting, this material,however, shows that apart fromthe Appellant several otherpersons were also present at thesaid meeting. In our view, thesame cannot be considered ascircumstance against theAppellant alone, excluding theother participants, especially,now in the absence of anyobjectionable and incriminatingmaterial attributed to her”.

From Page 1After both the leaders’

statements, the Upper Housealso passed the Indian Forest(Amendment) Bill, which wasadopted by the Lok Sabha onDecember 20.

Azad sought to assure theGovernment on behalf of theCongress that the party disso-ciates itself from any statementmade against the personality ofthe Prime Minister, apparentlyin reference to those made byits MP Mani Shankar Aiyar.The Congress had suspendedAiyar from its primary mem-bership and slapped a show-cause notice on him for callingPrime Minister Modi a “neechaadmi” or a lowly person.

“If during the elections(recent Assembly polls inGujarat and HimachalPradesh), any member of our

party gave such a statementthat was against the stature ofthe Prime Minister, then ourparty dissociates itself fromany such statement and wewould not want any word to besaid against the stature of thePrime Minister,” Azad said.

Reacting to Jaitley’s clarifi-cation, Rahul Gandhi tweeted,“Dear Mr Jaitlie - thank you forreminding India that our PMnever means what he says orsays what he means.”

It was obvious that theboth sides had reached anunderstanding on this issuebefore start of the proceedings.Aware of that the Congressused Hegde’s controversialremarks to keep the heat on theGovernment.

In the Rajya Sabha, theOpposition forced twoadjournments, protestingHedge’s remark, as theGovernment distanced itselffrom the issue.

Chairman M VenkaiahNaidu sought to take up theQuestion Hour, but CPI leaderD Raja beseeched him sayingthat as the Vice-President hewas custodian of theConstitution which was given

to the country by Ambedkarand Hegde had made “veryobjectionable comments”.

Another Opposition mem-ber asserted that someone whohad taken oath on theConstitution and then abusedit had no right to continuebeing a Minister.

In an attempt to defuse thesituation, the Government dis-tanced itself from the Hegde’scontroversial remarks.

“Members have expressedconcerns to which we wouldlike to emphasise that theGovernment is committed tothe Constitution. The Ministerhas given a statement but we donot subscribe to those views,”Minister of State forParliamentary Affairs VijayGoel said during the QuestionHour in the Rajya Sabha in abid to assuage the Opposition.The House was adjourned till12 pm.

Angry Opposition mem-bers, many of whom were inthe Well, continued to raise slo-gans after the House resumed.They demanded that Hegde besacked, forcing Chairman MVenkaiah Naidu to adjournproceedings till 2 pm.

Hegde who was present inthe House placed his papers onthe table during the protest andsoon left as protest continuedunabated.

At a function in Karnatakaon Sunday, Hegde, the Ministerof State for Skill Development,had reportedly said peopleshould identify themselves bytheir religions and “those who,without knowing about theirparental blood, call themselvessecular, they don’t have theirown identity...They don’t knowabout their parentage”. He hadalso said “we are here to changethe Constitution and we’llchange it”.

Similar scenes were wit-nessed in the Lok Sabha aroundUnion Minister’s remarks withthe Opposition questioningthe Government’s attitudetowards the Constitution.

Leader of Congress in theLok Sabha Mallikarjun Khargeraised the issue of remarks byHegde, following which hisparty members rushed intothe Well raising slogans such as‘Ambedkar ka apman nahinchalega’ (We will not toleratethe insult of BR Ambedkar --framer of the Constitution).

From Page 1“Private traders are paying

farmers anything between Rs1,500 and Rs3,000 against theminimum support price (MSP)of Rs 4,320 per quintal, know-ing that the latter is left with nochoice,” he said.

Pandey further stated thatfarmers who shifted from puls-es and edible oilseeds to sowcotton for better realisationwould certainly get disap-pointed with a possible declinein their income this year due tothe price crash.

“Hundreds of farmers havecommitted suicides in cotton

growing areas in Maharashtra,Gujarat, Karnataka andTelangana due to high debtcaused by crop failure despitethe bumper harvesting ofkharif crops this year,” Pandeysaid. He also demanded thatsteps must be taken to put anend on the sale of spurious cot-ton seeds in the country.

A Congress leader said onthe condition of anonymitythat Congress will have to faceseveral bottleneck ahead ofAssembly polls next year. TheState Government shouldresolve the farmers’ issue at ear-liest; otherwise it would harmthe Congress.

There have been somecases of pest attacks (pink boll-worms) in several parts includ-ing Karnataka and Telanganawhich saw less output by about20 per cent.

According to AgricultureMinistry data, the cotton pro-

duction is estimated at 375 lakhbales of 170 kg each for the year2017-18 as compared to 337.25lakh bales last year. The area ofacreage under cotton has alsoregistered over 120 lakh hectarein 2017-18 as compared to101 lakh hectare in 2016-17.The increase in crop estimatedfor 2017-18 is on account of thehigher acreage under cottonthan compared to the previousyear. The acreage under cottonduring 2017-18 is estimated tobe more by about 19 per centthan that of the previous sea-son. The cotton production hadtouched a record of over fourcrore bales in 2013-14, fell to386 lakh bales in 2014-15 anddeclined further to 338 lakhbales in 2015-16, the lowest inlast five years. The domesticconsumption is estimated at320 lakh bales while the exportsare expected to be about 63lakh bales.

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China on Wednesday saidthat its ambitious China-

Pakistan Economic Corridor(CPEC) is not directed againstIndia and the project should notbe influenced or disturbed byany third country, a day afterBeijing offered to extend the $50billion project to Afghanistan.

At the first trilateral meet-ing of Foreign Ministers ofChina, Pakistan andAfghanistan here yesterday,China offered to extend CPECto Afghanistan as the threesides pledged to step-up counterterrorism cooperation and notto allow any country, group orindividual to use their soils forterrorism.

Besides Chinese ForeignMinister Wang Yi, his counter-parts from Pakistan andAfghanistan Khawaja Asif andSalahuddin Rabbani respec-tively attended the meeting.

When asked about reportsthat China’s plans to extend theCPEC to Afghanistan sparkedconcerns in India, ChineseForeign Ministry spokesper-son Hua Chunying said the pro-ject extension is not directed atany third country. She said the

project serves the commoninterests of the three counties.

“This cooperation is notdirected at any country and anyparty. The dialogue and coop-eration should not be influencedor disturbed by any country,”she said. Though Hua did notdirectly name India, she was responding to a question onreports about India’s concernsabout CPEC, which passesthrough Pakistan-occupiedKashmir.

“We stressed many times,CPEC is not directed at anythird party and we hope it canbring benefits for third country,”Hua said, referring to India’sconcerns. The CPEC, a flagshipproject of China’s prestigiousOne Belt One Road, links itsrestive Xinjiang region withPakistan’s Balochistan province.“It is an economic cooperationprogramme and it should not bepoliticised and has nothing todo with territorial dispute,” shesaid, adding that the project willbring the benefit to the thirdparty and the whole region.

“Afghanistan is a commonneighbour of China andPakistan. They have strongdesire to develop economy andimprove livelihood.

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Former MLA and senior dalitleader of Delhi Congress, Jai

Kishan on Wednesday criti-cised the BJP MP Udit Raj andother so called Dalit organisa-tions for organising a rally atRamlila maidan and termed itan eye-wash. Jai Kishan hasappealed dalit leaders to resignfrom the NDA Governmentand come forward under oneumbrella to protect Dalits.“Otherwise there is no use toorganised such type of rallies inthe name of Dalits,” he said.

Jai Kishan said that BJPand other so called dalit organisations have no con-cerned for the Dalit problemsand their social and economicupliftment. There are severalDalit leaders in the NDAGovernment at present butnone of them is serious about upliftment of dalit com-munity.

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The Indian MedicalAssociation on Wednesday

flagged objection to SouthDelhi Municipal Corporation’sproposal prohibiting open dis-play of meat by restaurants,and said the move was notrational and if hygiene was theconcern why keep vegetarianfood out of the order. IMAPresident Dr KK Aggarwalsaid if contamination of foodwas the reason behind thedecision, saying the move wasnot justified as vegetarian foodand snacks which are sold atkiosks and carts by vendors onthe street are equally at risk ofgetting contaminated.

“We do not find any ratio-nal behind the move that pro-hibits display of only non-vegetarian food outside shops,restaurants. If contaminationof food is the concern then

why keep out vegetarian foodand snacks out of this order,”Dr Aggarwal said.

“Vegetarian food andsnacks like veg rolls, aloo-tikki,golgappe which are sold atkiosks and thelas by vendors onthe street are equally at risk ofgetting contaminated,” he said

Similar reservations wereflagged by doctors of AIIMS,who had described the move as“baseless” considering it wassuggested to keep food hygien-ic. “Any food, be it vegetarian ornon vegetarian, prepared alongroadside can become contami-nated and cause food poisoning,typhoid, dysentery, etc.

“Bacterial pathogenswhich are found in roadsideeateries may cause vomitingand diarrhoea along with typhoid, food poisoningand inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract,” a seniordoctor said.

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Facebook has begun testing afeature with a set of new

users in India where they arebeing asked to enter names asper their Aadhaar details.

The social media giant,however, is not asking newusers to give their Aadhaarnumber but just the name aswritten on their Aadhaar cards.

“This is a small test wherewe provide additional languagewhen people sign up for anaccount to say that using thename on their Aadhaar cardmakes it easier for friends torecognise them,” a Facebookspokesperson said in a state-ment on Wednesday. Currently,

only a small percentage of peo-ple who use Facebook onmobile in the country are ableto see this feature. “This is anoptional prompt which we aretesting,” the spokespersonadded.

The move is aimed atencouraging users to put theirreal names as they enter thesocial network for the firsttime. “We want to make surepeople can use the namesthey’re known by on Facebook,and can easily connect withfriends and family,” Facebooksaid.

Facebook has over 217 mil-lion monthly active users inIndia and 212 million of themare active on smartphones.

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I, Kripa Charya Sharma andTilak Ram S/o Shri Bal KishanR/o Village Hoshiarpur,Sector-51, Noida (U.P.) havechanged my name to KirpaCharya Sharma Tilak Ram forall purposes.

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The Lok Sabha onWednesday passed a Bill to

protect slums and unauthorisedcolonies in the national Capitalregion from punitive action tilla framework for orderlyarrangements are in place. TheNational Capital Territory ofDelhi Laws (Special Provisions)Second (Amendment) Billgives immunity to slums andsome unauthorised construc-tions till December 31, 2020.The immunity under the exist-ing Bill ends on December 31.

Urban DevelopmentMinister Hardeep Singh Purisaid if the Bill is not passed, itwill lead to “unprecedentedchaos” in the national Capital.The legislation will give coveragainst punitive action on ‘as iswhere is basis’ until December2020, he said. Puri also attackedthe Sheila Dikshit Governmentfor not coming out with aproper policy on the matter andsaid “it was the failure of gov-ernance of a very high order".

Singh said the legislationprovides that no action will be

taken by any local authority tillDecember 31, 2017 withrespect to encroachments orunauthorised developments asof January 1, 2006, unautho-rised, village abadi areas thatexisted on March 31, 2002 andwhere constructions took placetill February 8, 2007.

The sealing exercise by theSupreme Court-appointedmonitoring committee had cre-ated panic among the slum-dwellers and traders in part ofthe city, with the legislationexpected to allay their appre-hensions to a large extent.

Participating in the debateon the bill, BJP MP ParveshVarma attacked the AAPGovernment in Delhi, accusingit of not coming out with a pol-icy on unauthorised colonies or

slums.Ramesh Bidhuri, BJP MP

from South Delhi, referred tothe hike in water tariffs andalleged that the ArvindKejriwal Government haddeceived the people. He alsoblamed the Congress for itsfailure to come up with a pol-icy on the unauthorised con-struction issue.

TMC MP Saugata Roy wasto speak on the Bill but did not.He said it has become a prac-tise to pass the Bill in the din,referring to the uproar byCongress members over con-troversial remarks made byunion Minister Anant KumarHegde. CPI(M)'s MohammadSalim also emphasised that aBill cannot be passed amid din.

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As the continued incarcera-tion of Kulbhushan Jadhav

and ‘insult’ to his family mem-bers visiting Pakistan rockedthe Lok Sabha on Wednesday,the Government said it willmake a statement in the LokSabha on Thursday.

During the Zero Hour,members of various politicalparties, including the Congress,Shiv Sena, Trinamool Congressand AIADMK, stronglyprotested the way Jadhav’s fam-ily members were treated byPakistan authorities when theyhad gone there to meet Jadhav,who is languishing in aPakistani prison.

External Affairs MinisterSushma Swaraj, who was pre-sent in the House, said a state-ment on the issue would bemade Thursday.

While strongly criticisingthe happenings, Congress leaderin the Lok Sabha MallikarjunKharge demanded that Jadhavshould be brought back.

Shiv Sena's Arvind Sawantalso raised the issue and saidIndia should not keep silent inthe matter.

Describing Pakistan as‘hypocritical’, TrinamoolCongress leader Saugata Roysaid the incident should becriticised and demanded thatSwaraj should speak on theissue.

Condemning theincident, AIADMK MThambidurai said ask-ing a woman to removeher ‘mangal sutra’ is aninsult to the country.

The meetingbetween Jadhav and hismother and wife tookplace on December 25at the Pakistani foreignaffairs ministry inIslamabad after repeat-ed requests by India forfamily access.

Jadhav, who wasarrested in March, wassentenced to death by aPakistani military courtfor alleged spying, anaccusation that Indiahas dismissed as con-cocted.

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Ahigh-level task force tocombat air pollution in

the Delhi-NCR region haschalked out a 12-point draftplan encompassing a string ofmeasures including coordinat-ed action to combat stubbleburning, commissioning stud-ies and launch of a hotline andan app to report violations.

The draft action plan alsocalls for formulating a journeyplanner app which integratesthe Metro, the DIMTS and theDTC services and integratedticketing across the DTC, clus-ter and metro within sixmonths.

The high-level task force,headed by the principal secre-tary to Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, has formulat-ed the draft ‘Air Action Plan -Abatement of Air Pollution inthe Delhi NCR’ and has invit-ed suggestions in 15 days tomake it more “effective andpractical”.

“The action plan lists keyactions that the task force willmonitor. It is recognised thatthe agencies responsible for thevarious determinants of airquality will take a number ofother steps based on theirassessment of need.

“The secretary, MoEF willbe responsible for overall coor-dination of the action agenda,”said the draft which has beenput up on the EnvironmentMinistry's website.

The draft proposes coor-dinated action to combat stub-ble burning in Punjab, Haryanaand Uttar Pradesh and also

monitor enforcement measuresto reduce stubble burning.

It also calls for imple-menting rollout of a plan forproperly disposing of cropstubble and ensuring that inde-pendent data on stubble burn-ing is available in real time incollaboration with departmentof science and technologyamong others.

“Set up an anti-pollutionhelpline in the NCR districts toregister complaints of specificviolations”.

“A pollution app shouldalso be prepared wherein citi-zens can take a picture of theviolation and upload it forquick remedial action,” theplan said.

For power plants in theNCR region, it calls for NOxcurtailment measures in atime-bound manner by the

NTPC and other operatorsand asks the EnvironmentMinistry to develop a‘Dashboard’ of all the ‘RedCategory’ polluting units in theNCR.

The draft also calls forsteps to be taken to ensure thatno fires break out at sanitarylandfills among others.

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Instead of treating patients inclinics or hospitals, current-

ly, majority of the MBBS doc-tors in the country are choos-ing to dedicate most or all oftheir time pursuing highereducation. However, this is allset to change with a newundergraduate competency-based MBBS curriculum to belaunched from the next acad-emic session. The new cur-riculum will also aim to makethem more ‘patient-friendly,competitive, ethical and skilled’.

A senior official in theUnion Health Ministry saidthat the Medical Council ofIndia (MCI) has prepared thenew revised syllabus and it isnow before the OversightCommittee for final approval.

“The new course laysemphasis on skills and will havecompetency-based tests. Thestudents will be provided withearly clinical exposure rightfrom the first year of the 4.5years course plus internship.The aim is to provide problembased learning and developskill based competencies ofmedical students," he saidadding the new curriculumwill also lay emphasis on ethics.

The official said that theneed for revisiting the cur-

riculum had been regularly feltgiven that a significant numberof qualified MBBS doctors arenot practising until they haveachieved higher qualifications.

“This will be a competen-cy-based curriculum. We findthat a lot of students focusmore on their postgraduatestudies rather than their intern-ships, leaving them unable toperform practically,” he said.

This is not only makingthem incompetent but alsocreating shortage in thehealthcare sector, the officialsaid, adding that presently theMBBS course is that of seg-mented curriculum.

The new syllabus“Competency based integrat-ed curriculum for UG MedicalEducation” will make itmandatory on the students to

pass “must know" tests atevery semester. This is aimedto enhance their basic skillsand the students will be givenclinical exposure within thefirst year of the course.

So far, the first year studentslearn only subject-oriented top-ics, and there was a need tomodify the course according topracticability. The change isbeing made after a gap of 17years and will be implementedby all the 343 medical collegesin the country in private andGovernment sector.

New modules like mentalhealth and sexual health issues,radiology, surgery, handling ofmedico-legal cases and ethicsand communication to helpthem better interaction withthe patients are part of the newMBBS syllabus.

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Following a complaint fromRSS affiliate Swadesh Jagran

Manch, the Prime Minister'sOffice (PMO) on Wednesdayasked the Union HealthMinistry to look into the alle-gations that the HumanPapilloma Virus (HPV) vaccinefor cervical cancer that it plansto introduce countrywide soonhas adverse health effects.

HPV is associated withmore than 80 per cent cervicalcancers. Data from the nation-al cancer registry shows that in2013, 92,731 cases of cervicalcancer were reported in India,a figure that is projected to goup to 1,00,479 in 2020.

According to the sources inthe Ministry, the country'shighest decision making bodyon vaccines was soon to meetto take a call on the introduc-tion of the vaccine in theUniversal ImmunisationProgramme (UIP).

In a letter to the PrimeMinister, SJM's national co-convener Ashwani Mahajansaid, “It is our concern that thisprogramme will divert scarceresources from more worth-while health initiatives divert-ing it to this vaccine of doubt-ful utility and that its adverseeffects will erode confidence inthe national immunization pro-gramme and thereby expose

children unnecessarily to therisk of more serious vaccine-preventable disease.”

“Swadeshi Jagran Manchrequests you to stop this moveto introduce HumanPapilloma Virus (HPV) vac-cine in India and we recom-mend the strongest actionagainst groups that pervert sci-ence, which brings ignominyto the scientific community inthe country and sells the coun-try to vested interests,” the let-ter said.

It also cited the 72nd reportby the Parliamentary StandingCommittee which hasslammed the Indian CouncilMedical Research, DrugController General of India,Ethics Committee members,and PATH for the unethicalmanner in which the clinicaltrial of the HPV vaccine wasconducted.

SJM claimed that the vac-cine was used in an unethicaltrial by PATH, ICMR andGlaxo Smith Kline (GSK),which was associated with thedeath of many tribal childrenin Andhra Pradesh.

Alleging unfair promotionof the vaccine, Mahajan said,“The journal 'Cancer' describedhow authors from PGIChandigarh falsified sciencepublished by others, in anattempt to show that $14/childfor the vaccine is cost-effective.”

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To forewarn those dealingwith livestock about the dis-

eases that could affect their farmanimals, the Indian Council ofAgricultural Research (ICAR)and National Institute ofVeterinary Epidemiology andDisease Informatics (NIVEDI),have developed a mobile appli-cation to send out early warn-ings. The app will also provideinformation about clinical sam-ples for the diagnosis in case ofthe epidemic. Earlier, the Centrehas come out with an applicationto help farmers on crop damages.

Launching the app, UnionAgriculture Minister RadhaMohan Singh on Wednesdaysaid that dreaded Rinderpest dis-ease has been eradicated fromIndia and stressed that similarefforts are needed to control anderadicate diseases like foot andmouth diseases, PPR (peste despetits ruminants ), Brucellosis,CSF (Classical swine fever),Bluetongue disease,Haemorrhagic septicaemiawhich cause huge economic lossannually to the livestock rearersand livestock industry as a whole.

He said that ICAR-NIVE-DI has identified 13 prioritydiseases based on their pastincidence patterns and hasbuilt a strong database of thesediseases and has been provid-ing monthly livestock diseasealerts to the State and Centralanimal husbandry depart-ments. The app will also pro-vide information about clini-cal samples for the diagnosis incase of the epidemic.

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In a major policy decision,Railway Minister Piyush

Goyal has done away with thecategorisation of railway sta-tions effected by his predeces-sor Suresh Prabhu and ordereda recategorisation to make itmore “practical and rational”.

Goyal has directed to re-categorise railway stations tak-ing into account earnings, pas-senger footfall and strategicimportance with a view toplan various passenger ser-vices and passenger amenitiesat stations in a more effectiveand focused manner.

While Prabhu’s criteria forstation categorisation was basedon the annual passenger earn-ings only and it were cate-gorised into seven blocks - A-1,A, B, C, D, E and F, Goyal’s re-categorisation of railway stationshave been revised to includeeven footfalls at the station.

This is not the first time thatPrabhu’s decision has beenreviewed - categorization of sta-tions for the appointment ofStation Directors from the IRTScadre was one of them. Last

week, Goyal, who was appoint-ed after Prabhu faced lot of crit-icism, also appointed a high levelcommittee to review the con-troversial flexi fare in the pas-senger services of Indian rail-ways. A few departments toohave been either dismantled orclubbed to facilitate a combinedeffort towards holistic develop-ment of the national transporter.

“The new format will alsohelp the passenger to have a bet-ter experience in relation to trav-el amenities at stations. In the oldcriteria, the number of stationswith high passenger footfalls(handling high number of

commuter and MST pass hold-ers etc.) could not be covered inthe higher category of stationwhich led to these stations beingeligible for lower level ofamenities. As per the new cri-teria the number of footfalls hasalso been given equal weigh-tage and is taken into accountas criteria for categorisation ofstations,” explained a railwaysenior official.

Goyal's team has furthersegregated stations based onthe type and clubbed into threegroups i.e. non-suburban (NSG),suburban group (SG) and Halts(H). These groups have been put

in grades ranging from NSG 1-6, SG 1-3 and HG 1-3 respec-tively. Presently, there are 5976Non-Suburban Railway Station,484 Suburban Railway Stationsand 2153 Halts, which makestotal number of stations as 8613.This categorization of stationshas been done for the period2017-18 to 2022-23.

Several stations ofMaharashtra like Kalyan,Panvel, Tambaram and Thanehave qualified into the highercategory and become eligiblefor higher level of passengeramenities. The Zonal GeneralManagers have been empow-ered to categorize a station asNSG-4 category if it is a placeof Tourist importance and/or is

an important junction station. In another significant deci-

sion, Railways has mandatedamenities to be provided at allthe stations irrespective of theircategory for safe performance ofjourney by passengers. Thesefacilities include foot over bridge(FOB), high level platform, trol-ley path for movement of wheelchair while for further forimproving upon the stations atlower category of stations, thewaiting halls, platform shelters,lifts and escalators and digitalcharts display has been ordered."In view of the new criteria eventhe small station will get thehigher level of amenities whichwill lead to better passenger sat-isfaction," said the official.

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Parliament on Wednesdaypassed a Bill to exclude

bamboo from the definition oftree under the Indian ForestAct, claiming it would improvethe earnings of tribals anddwellers living around forests.The Indian Forest(Amendment) Bill, which wasadopted by the Lok Sabha onDecember 20, was passed by avoice vote in the Rajya Sabha,amid a walk-out by member ofthe Congress, Biju Janta Daland the Samajwadi Party.

The opposition partiesprotested its passage sayingthe bill was being passed in ahurry without proper consul-tations with stakeholders andthe states. Besides, they allegedit would favour the industrial-ists. Replying to a short debate,Environment, Forest andClimate Change MinisterHarsh Vardhan said the bill toamend the 1927 Indian ForestAct would benefit the tribals,forest dweller and farmers astheir income would increase.

The bill permits fellingand transit of bamboo grownin non-forest areas. However,bamboo grown on forest landswould continue to be classifiedas tree and would be guided bythe existing legal restrictions.

"I am really shocked to seethat you (opposition ) can't seethe benefit of tribals and poorfarmers who are going to ben-efit after the bill is passed," hetold the House amid protest

from the opposition members.Attacking the opposition

which repeatedly questionedthe government taking ordi-nance route, Vardhan said theprocess to make the bill a real-ity was going on for a long timeand the government could nolonger see tribals suffer in thecountry. "It took us 90 years todo it. It was long awaited inIndia. We cannot allow tribalsand poor farmers of the coun-try to suffer," he said.

Participating in the debate,Congress leader JairamRamesh had opposed the billterming it as "very misleading"and one which would workagainst the interests of tribalsin the long run. Ramesh ques-tioned the "urgency" of pro-mulgating the ordinance whenParliament was in session,alleging that the governmentwas bringing the amendmentto benefit private players andtaking away the control of theforest areas from the GramSabhas.

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Tuesday’s announcement bysuperstar Rajinikanth that

he would make known hispolitical plans on the NewYear’s Eve has eclipsed the sig-nificance of the surprising vic-tory in the RK Nagar by-pollscored by TTV Dinakaran, theAIADMK rebel. All Tamil TVnews channels are seized of thematter which could be under-stood from the duration oflengthy evening discussionsthey have set apart for the topic.

On Wednesday, day two ofhis interaction and photo-opswith fans from various districtsin Tamil Nadu, Rajinikanthsaid though he has a lot to talkto them, he was reserving thesame for another occasion. “Ihave a request to you all. Myhumble request to you all is totake care of your families andtreat them well. Respect yourparents and love your children.Children are your assets. Makesure that they get good educa-tion and are well taken care of,”said Rajinikanth in an emo-tionally choked voice.

While established politi-cians, especially those belong-ing to the pro-Dravidian andsecessionist parties have ques-tioned the logic behindRajinikanth’s political ambi-tions at this age (he turned 67on December 12) and his polit-ical ideology, national partieslike the BJP and the Congressare of the view that they do nothave any issue in Thalaiva

(Tamil for leader, asRajinikanth is addressed byfans) switching over to theworld of real life from reel life.

“We in the Congress do nothave any issue in Rajinikanthjoining politics or launching hisown party. But I cannot saywhether he would be a successin politics,” said EVKSElangovan, former TNCC pres-ident and a long time friend ofRajnikanth.

Till date Rajinikanth hasmade only one political state-ment. It was during the 1996Tamil Nadu Assembly elec-tion when public resentmentagainst J Jayalalithaa was at itspeak because of the opulentmarriage she held for TTVSudhakaran, nephew of VKSasikala and a host of corrup-tion charges. “If Jayalalithaawins this election even Godmay not be able to save Tamil

Nadu,” Rajnikanth had said ina video clip which was repeat-edly beamed by the TV chan-nel owned by the DMK. TamilNadu has been waiting in antic-ipation for Rajinikanth’s real lifecharacter as a politician since1996.

Some of the Tamil chau-vinist organisations, especiallythe VCK and Naam Tamilar,are vehemently opposed toRajinikanth’s political inningsbecause of his non-Tamil back-drop. The actor was born SivajiGaekwad in a Maratha familybut it was people in Tamil Naduwhich accorded him a cultstatus.

“Rajinikanth considers pol-itics is something like a film.But what is his political com-mitment? What are his viewson social inequalities andissues?” asked D Ravi Kumar,a trusted aide of TholThirumavalavan of the VCK.

Tamilaruvi Manian, a closeassociate to Rajinikanth, askedmedia persons to wait tillDecember 31 to know what thesuperstar has in store for thepeople. “It has to be announcedby him only. But those whoquestion the political creden-tials of Rajinikanth stand tolose. He knows Tamil Naduwell and he is aware of theissues haunting the nation aswell as Tamil Nadu. You can sitin an air-conditioned roomand question Rajinikanth bouthis political commitment. Buthe has more awareness thanconventional politicians onthese topics,” said Manian.

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MK Alagiri, Madurai basedelder son of DMK patri-

arch M Karunanidhi, has comeout in the open questioning thelegality of MK Stalin, hisyounger brother, continuingas the working president of theparty. “So long as Stalin con-tinues as the leader of theparty, DMK will not win anyelection in Tamil Nadu,” Alagiritold reporters on Wednesday.

Referring to the DMK can-didate losing deposit in therecently held RK Nagar by-poll,Alagiri said this was furtherproof of Stalin’s inefficiency andincapacity. “I heard DuraiMurugan, DMK leader, tellingthat the party votes were eatenup by money. Does this meanthat the DMK voters could bebought over by money?” askeda visibly upset Alagiri.

In the by-election held atthe RK Nagar Assembly con-stituency which was repre-sented in the Assembly by lateJ Jayalalithaa, the DMK fin-ished a poor third and forfeit-ed deposit. While the DMKcandidate ShimlaMuthuchozhan had polled57,673 votes in the 2016Assembly election from this

constituency, Maruthu Ganesh,the candidate fielded by theDMK for the by-election failedto poll even half of it .

Alagiri’s outburst comes ata time when political com-mentators have observed thatthe DMK votes have beentransferred en-masse to TTVDinakaran, the AIADMK rebelwho emerged victorious sur-prising the pundits.

Alagiri said there was noth-ing surprising in Dinakaran’svictory. “It is the result of hishard work and the anger of thepeople towards the AIADMKand the DMK,” said Alagiriwho has been keeping a lowprofile since he was expelledfrom the party in early 2014.Taking potshots at his brother,Alagiri stated that by cam-paigning in an open van, onecan never get votes from thepublic.

Madurai based Alagiri hasbeen side-lined by the DMKleadership since the 2011 TamilNadu Assembly elections. Sincethen the DMK has not won asingle election. Alagiri,

addressed by fans asAnjanenchan (Tamil for brave-heart) is credited with the vic-tories registered by the DMK inmost of the elections. TheDMK which won the 1999Lok Sabha election sidelinedAlagiri when it was time for the2001 Assembly election andpaid a big price by losing theelection because of Alagiri’snon-cooperation.

Karunanidhi who wasupset by the defeat broughtback Alagiri to the party lead-ership and he ensured that theDMK got a big mandate in the2004 Lok Sabha polls. He wasrewarded for the same byKarunanidhi who elevatedAlagiri as the south zone chiefof the DMK.

Alagiri played the role of astrategist in the ensuingAssembly election in 2006which was won by the DMK.He also played a significant rolein leading the DMK-led frontto victory in the 2009 LokSabha polls. But Karunanidhipromoting Stalin as the deputyChief Minister upset Alagiriwho questioned the proprietyof the action openly. Sincethen he had maintained a dis-tance from the party leadershipwhich has affected the DMK’spoll prospects.

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After meeting dozens of del-egations and individuals

during his third visit toKashmir, the Center’s specialrepresentative on Jammu &Kashmir Dineshwar Sharma onWednesday flew to winter cap-ital Jammu on the second leg ofhis visit. Sharma, a formerdirector of Intelligence Bureau(IB), traveled to northKashmir’s Kupwara andBaramulla districts to meetvarious delegations.

Officials said that duringhis two day stay in northKashmir, Sharma met over 60delegations in Kupwara andBaramulla districts. Sharmadescribed the meetings withthe people in north Kashmir asvery positive and encouraging.He said he got feedback aboutall kinds of issues that will helphim to understand all facets ofKashmir situation and proba-ble solution to the issues.

Official sources saidSharma met 32 delegationsfrom various areas ofBaramulla district. Sources saidduring meeting the delega-tions took up wide rangingissues from unemployment toalleged harassment of youth bylaw enforcing agencies as wellas lack of basic amenities anddevelopment. During the meet-ings the prevailing situation inKashmir also came up for dis-cussion.

Around 29 delegations metDineshwar Sharma during

Kupwara visit. According tosources most of the visiting del-egations registered complaintsabout the civic and other gov-ernance issues against the rul-ing dispensation.

Representatives from main-stream political parties includ-ing PDP, Awami Ittehad Partyand Congress as well as collegestudents from Baramulla dis-trict, youth representatives andmembers of minority commu-nities of Sikh and KashmiriHindus held interaction withCentre’s interlocutor.

Earlier, Bar AssociationBaramulla and trade federationsabstained from meetingDineshwar Sharma claimingthe interlocutor’s meet withcivil society was a ‘futile exer-cise’.

Dinsehwar Sharma, wasappointed as SpecialRepresentative by Governmentof India in October 2017 tohold sustained dialogue with allstakeholders in Jammu &Kashmir. However, the sepa-ratist amalgamation HurriyatConference, main trading bod-ies and Kashmir BarAssociation have so farrefrained from meeting him.

There were reports thatsenior Hurriyat leader and for-mer Chairman Prof AbdulGhani Bhat held a secret meet-ing with Sharma at hisWazirbagh residence but bothBhat and Sharma denied thereports. Mirwaiz Umar Farooqsought clarification from Bhaton the news reports.

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In a relief to nearly 37 lakhstudents studying in private

schools in the State, GujaratHigh Court on Wednesdaytermed the State Government’slaw to regulate school feesconstitutionally valid.

Acting on nearly 40 peti-tions of private school ownerswho challenged constitution-ality of the Gujarat Self-Financed Schools (Regulationof Fees) Act, 2017, a divisionbench of Chief Justice RSubhash Reddy and JusticeVM Pancholi upheld the Actpassed in the State Assembly inMarch this year.

Terming the legislaturecompetent, the division benchsaid that it has authority toform laws for school fees forState board, central board andICSE. The Act passed in theState Assembly came into force

from mid-April this year afterGujarat Governor OP Kohliapproved it.

As per the law fee limits forsecondary and higher sec-ondary school is �15,000,�25,000 and �27,000 per year,respectively. In case of keepingthe fees higher than the pre-scribed fee structure, privateschools are required to submittheir proposal with valid rea-sons before the fee regulatorycommittees spread across fourzones in Ahmedabad,Vadodara, Rajkot and Surat.

Terming the HC verdict ashistorical senior GujaratMinister BhupendrasinhChudasama said that the order

of Gujarat HC would havelong term positive impact notonly in Gujarat but other Statesonly.

According to Chudasamanearly 37 lakh students study-ing in private schools would bebenefitted. After the introduc-tion of the Act already 1015schools in the State reducedfees up to �2000, he said addingthat 1276 school reduced feesranging from �2000 to �10,000and 77 schools reduced feesmore than �10,000.

Sunaiana Tomar, PrincipalSecretary, Primary &Secondary Education said thatif a school would breach thelaw for the first time there wasa provision of �5 lakh fine. If itwould breach it for the secondtime, a provision of fine rang-ing from �5 lakh to �10 lakhwas kept as per the act and incase of third time, the school’sapproval would be cancelled.

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Taking a swipe at SamajwadiParty (SP) chief Akhilesh

Yadav's recent statement per-taining to the use of ballotpaper in the Phulpur andGorakhpur parliamentarybypolls, the BJP said todaythat repeated losses at the hus-tings had dented the morale ofthe former Chief Minister.

In an statement releasedhere, UP BJP spokesman RakeshTripathi said, “SP chief AkhileshYadav’s confidence has beenseverely dented by the repeatedelectoral losses suffered by hisparty in different elections.

Hence, anticipating a possibleloss in the bypolls for Gorakhpurand Phulpur parliamentary con-stituencies, Yadav has started cry-ing foul over EVMs (inadvance).” He added that hold-ing the EVMs responsible for theelectoral defeats showed Yadav'simmaturity.

Tripathi said that ‘tech-friendly’ Akhilesh raising ques-tions on the EVMs, showed hisfrustration. “Days of casteist-communal politics practised bySP have gone. The public wantsdevelopment,” Tripathi said, andexuded confidence that BJP willimprove its winning margin inthe Lok Sabha bypolls.

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The Yogi AdityanathGovernment has ordered

the withdrawal of a caseagainst the Chief Minister anda dozen others for holding ameeting in alleged violation ofprohibitory orders over 22years ago.

The move promptedSamajwadi Party (SP) chiefAkhilesh Yadav to take potshots as to whether Adityanathwould himself sign the orderwithdrawing the case againsthimself.

“Will the Chief Ministerhimself order withdrawal ofthe case against him?” Yadav,a former Chief Minister, won-dered.

Apart from Adityanath,who holds the home portfolio,Union Minister of State forFinance Shiv Pratap Shukla,BJP MLA Sheetal Pandey andten others were respondents in

the case. The case was filed atGorakhpur's Pipiganj policestation on May 27, 1995.

The Yogi Government’sorder to withdraw the caseagainst the Chief Minister wasissued last week, just a daybefore the Uttar PradeshCriminal Law (Compositionof Offences and Abatement ofTrials) (Amendment) Bill, 2017was tabled in the StateAssembly.

Before the bill was tabled,Adityanath told the Housethat 20,000 “politically-moti-vated” cases were filed acrossthe State over protest demon-strations.

The amendment wouldbring to an end all such casesthat were pending before mag-istrates till December 31, 2015,he said. Gorakhpur AdditionalDistrict Magistrate, City,Rajneesh Chandra told thatthe order for filing an appli-cation seeking withdrawal of

the case from the court hadalready been received.

The prosecutor has beeninstructed to file the applica-tion before the court con-cerned, he said.

Gorakhpur is Adityanath'shome turf, and he represent-ed the Lok Sabha constituen-cy five terms before beingappointed the Chief Ministerearlier this year.

The case was pending in aGorakhpur court which hadearlier directed that non-bail-able warrants (NBWs) beissued against the accused fornon-appearance.

In May this year, shortlyafter Adityanath took overthe reins of the state, his gov-ernment told the AllahabadHigh Court that he cannot beprosecuted in another casefor allegedly making a hatespeech that was alleged tohave triggered communal riotsin Gorakhpur in 2007.

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In the run up to the proposed‘Investment Meet’ slated for

the end of February, the UttarPradesh Government has askedDistrict Magistrates to identi-fy land banks in their jurisdic-tion and report to theGovernment by January 8. Thedirective was issued byIndustrial DevelopmentCommissioner Anup ChandraPandey in Lucknow onWednesday. The InvestmentMeet is proposed in Lucknowon February 21 and 22.

Pandey said that the detailof land bank sent by DMs is notclear. District officials shouldidentify land that could beused for industrial develop-ment and it should be sent tothe Government.

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In a statement which expos-es the widening rift in the

alliance Government in Goa,the State’s Water ResourcesMinister Vinod Palienkar onWednesday said that Goa willnot share a drop of water withKarnataka, while claiming thatthe letter written by ChiefMinister Manohar Parrikar toKarnataka BJP leader BSYeddyurappa last week was apolitical drama, ahead of theupcoming polls in theSouthern State.

Parrikar’s letter offering toconsider the Southern State’sdemand for ‘drinking water’ on‘humanitarian grounds’ lastweek to the Karnataka partycolleague, following a meetingwith BJP president Amit Shahhad stoked a series of protes-tations in both States, with now

farmers also joining theprotests accusing the BJP oftrying to politicise the watershortage issue in the northernregions of Karnataka.

“As Water ResourcesMinister I have made my standclear. Whatever he (Parrikar)has written (in the letter) he hasnot sent me. You ask him. If hehas sent it to Karnataka, I canonly comment, that it must bea political stunt, therefore hesent the letter. I do not want tosay anything more about that,”Palienkar told reporters inPanaji.

“Our stand is very clearand simple. My party has alsothe same stand. Mahadayi isour mother. Keeping this inmind, we will not compromiseon the Mahadayi issue. For usthere is only one source (ofwater) Mahadayi. and if thatsource goes, we will be in trou-

ble, therefore every drop ofMahadayi is of importance,”Palienkar also said.

On Wednesday, Karnatakawitnessed a series of protestsorganised by the two nationalparties accusing each other ofmishandling the Mahadayi dis-pute. Farmers also stagedprotests of their own accusingthe parties of trying to hijack theissue and turning it political.

Protesters in Karnatakaalso blocked roads leading toGoa from morning through

afternoon on Wednesday. Goa, Karnataka and

Maharashtra are currently bat-tling a dispute over the con-troversial Kalsa-Bhandura damproject across the waters of theMahadayi river at a central tri-bunal.

Mahadayi also known asthe Mandovi river, is known asa lifeline in the northern partsof the State. It originates inKarnataka and meets theArabian Sea in Panaji in Goa,while briefly flowing through

the territory of Maharashtra.While the river runs 28.8

km in Karnataka, it is 81.2 kmin length in the State Goa.

Karnataka also aims tobuild seven dams at variouspoints along the river, aimedwith an objective to divert theflow into what it claims is thewater-starved Malaprabhabasin in north Karnataka. TheState has demanded that Goashould allow the transfer ofover seven TMC water to tideover its irrigation and drinkingwater needs.

Governments across partylines, over the last decade andmore have stated as a matter ofpolicy, that diversion of theMahadayi or the Mandovi riverwould sound a death knell tothe northern areas of the State,which are dependent on theriver for fishing, irrigation andpotable water supply.

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As it became very muchpolitical ahead of Assembly

polls in Karnataka, the agitat-ing farmers who are protestingto get drinking water fromKalasa and Banduri, two trib-utaries of river Mahadayi(Mandovi) for north Karnatakadistricts have set a deadline ofa month till January 2018 to thepolitical parties to resolve theissue. The farmers who wereagitating in front of BJP officefor the past five days have sub-mitted a memorandum to theGovernor Vajubhai Vala seek-ing his intervention to resolvethe issue asking for water toflow into the parched Bombay-Karnataka region before theend of January 2018.

The IT city Bengaluru wit-nessed protest rallies onWednesday which threw traf-fic out of gear putting normallife into jeopardy. The BJPtook to protest in front of theCongress party office againstpoliticising Mahadayi issue.The BJP leaders blamed ChiefMinister Siddaramaiah and hisGovernment for politicisingwater sharing issue fromMahadayi with neighbouringGoa instead of resolving theissue. A large number of BJPworkers led by former DeputyChief Minister R Ashok and

BJP MP Shoba Karandlajecourted arrest in front ofKarnataka Pradesh CongressCommittee office in Bengaluruwhen they protested againstwhat they termed the antifarmer attitude of theSiddaramaiah Government.Police prevented the BJP work-ers from storming into theCongress office by removingthe barricades.

At the same venue policebaton charged members of theNational Students Union ofIndia (NSUI) who were hold-ing a counter agitatation to theone held by the BJP. Speakingto media Mahadayi HorataSamithi President VireshSobaradmath said “we have setJanuary as deadline for all the

three Political parties —Congress, BJP and JD(S) toarrive at a solution and take usto Prime Minister NarendraModi to hold talks with him onthe issue.” “We have alsowarned that agitation will bestaged in front of ChiefMinister’s residence if the issuewas not taken seriously and nostep is coming forward to solvethe issue,” Sobaradmath added.

Meanwhile most parts ofparts of Northern Karnataka onWednesday observed a peace-ful yet total bandh as farmersset January 2018 deadline forpolitical parties to resolve thevexed Mahadayi river watersharing row with Goa. Officesand educational institutions inNorthern Karnataka districtswere closed even as transportservices were off the road.Roads were blocked at severalpoints and protesters had setfire to tyres to prevent anymovement. No untoward inci-dent was reported, police said.

The three decade oldMahadayi row was now beingheard before a river water dis-pute Tribunal which haddirected the States ofKarnataka, Maharashtra andGoa to arrive at an amicablesolution to the demand ofKarnataka to draw 7.56 tmc ftof water from the river fordrinking water purposes of

three parched districts. Goahad not positively respondedfor a meeting of ChiefMinisters to find a solution.Recently the issue came up ata meeting held by BJPPresident Amit Shah with himKarnataka BJP had sought todirect Goa Chief MinisterManohar Parrikar to meet thedrinking water requirement.Parrikar in a letter toYeddyurappa had stated thathis State might consider releaseof water, but had not given anyspecific approval. KarnatakaChief Minister Siddaramaiahhad written a letter to his Goacounterpart to immediatelyconvene a meeting of ChiefMinisters of Mahadayi ripari-an States to resolve the issue asdirected by the Tribunal.

Meanwhile dismissing theBJP’s charge Siddaramaiah saidthat the congress will not seekany political gain out ofMahadayi issue. He said “Thefarmers are agitating as BJPState President BSYeddyurappa failed to keep uphis promise and myGovernment is doing its best toresolve the issue. “The BJPState chief has failed to con-vince Prime Minister NarendraModi, BJP National PresidentAmit Shah and Goa ChiefMinister Manohar Parrikarand resolve the issue, he added.”

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Assam’s jailed RTI activistand prominent farmers’

leader Akhil Gogoi onWednesday walked free out ofa jail in Goalpara district inAssam and said that he wouldintensify agitation against theBJP-led Government in Assamand at the Centre against theproposed move to grant citi-zenship to Hindu Bangladeshisthrough the Citizenship Act.

Gogoi was arrested by theAssam Police in the month ofSeptember after he spoke at apublic rally in Moran. Thepolice accused him of instigat-ing people to take up arms andlater booked him under theNational Security Act (NSA).

Gogoi, however, challengedthe detention order under theNSA and last week the GauhatiHigh Court while hearing onGogoi’s petition quashed thedetention order.

The police, however, gothim re arrested in another oldcase and sent him to furtherjudicial custody. The court ofChief Judicial Magistrate ofGoalpara district on Tuesdaygranted bail to the RTI activistand farmers’ leader, who leadsthe Krishak Mukti SangramSamiti (KMSS)—an organisa-tion of the farmers.

“They (the Government)booked me under the NationalSecurity Act. However, there isno merit in the case. They saidthat I had links with Ulfa,NSCN and the Maoists.However, they failed to proveit in the court and the HighCourt quashed the detentionorder under NSA,” said Gogoi.

The activist further

slammed the BJP-ledGovernment at the Centre andthe State for not followingdemocratic values and sayingthat the BJP and RSS are run-ning the Governments as dic-tators. “There is no democra-cy and it’s a dictatorship. TheGovernment wants to grant cit-izenship to HinduBangladeshis. However, we aregoing to oppose this tooth andnail,” said Gogoi.

“The quashing of mydetention under the NSA by

the High Court is an achieve-ment for us. The credit goes tothe farmers of Assam, the peo-ple of Assam and members ofthe KMSS. It is a big achieve-ment for us,” he said.

He also appealed the peo-ple of Assam to cooperate pub-lication of the National Registerof Citizens (NRC) and said thateveryone must wait withpatience till the final NRC ispublished, which is expected tohelp identify and deport theillegal Bangladeshis.

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In a technological surprisemove, President of India,

Ram Nath Kovind, had toexperience the VirtualInspection of Multi Purposeand National Project,Polavaram, through Droneson Chief Minister Dash Boardas a part of Real TimeGovernance. The First Citizenof the Country, on Wednesday,had practically witnessed theusage of the latest technologiesin Governance for the benefitand betterment of citizens life.

After inaugurating APFibernet, the President appreci-ated the Chief Minister ofAndhra Pradesh, Chandra BabuNaidu’s vision and forwardapproach in usage of VirtualInspection, Real TimeGovernance Technologies fortimely and transparent gover-nance. “I visualise and believestrongly Andhra Pradesh hasthe best future withTechnologies and Fibernet”, thePresident said in his address.

“I am sure civic life certain-ly will improve with Fibergrid,Data Connectivity. Using elec-tric poles for 24000 KM of opti-cal fiber in 13 Districts is a

novel idea which reducedProject cost from �4700 Cr to�333 Cr. This is one and Project

in the Country. Apart fromentertainment, providing edu-cation, health, agriculture,

telemedicine etc. services witha �149/-per month charges for15 MBPS data, TV and tele-phone is a wonder”, he appre-ciated.

While explaining StateGovernment’s plans, ChandraBabu said, “soon we will pro-vide wireless network to theremote areas like Paderu,Araku agency areas with thesupport of Google X”. State ITMinister Nara Lokesh,Principle Secretary Ajay Jain,Fibernet MD Babu explained indetail about Fibergrid usages.Governor NSL Narasimhan,Supreme Court Judge JusticeNV Ramana, Speaker KodelaSiva Prasad, Union Minister forState YS Chowdary also partic-ipated in the meeting.

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Hardaspur village inSamastipur district was

the last of the total 39,073 vil-lages in Bihar which saw andrejoiced the electricity onWednesday. The drive by theBihar State Power HoldingCompany Limited (BSPHCL)to electrify all the revenue vil-lages was completed a weekahead of its target. Not satisfiedwith this gigantic task whichwas hailed by the Centre, theBSPHCL has fixed a target tofully electrify 1,06,249 habita-tion and total of which 84,359have already been electrifiedand in the remaining 21,890electric would reach by Maynext.

To mark the historic occa-sion Chief Minister NitishKumar on Monday congratu-lated the engineers, technocratsand workers of BSPHCL and itssubsidiaries and said that underthe Seven Resolves of hisGovernment electric has to beprovided to each household.Bihar’s ‘Har Ghar Bijli’ schemewas incorporated by the Centreunder its ‘Saubhagya scheme’.“We have a target to providepower connection to eachhousehold by December 2018,”the CM declared at a function

here which was also witnessedby the top officials of theMinistry of Power in Delhithrough video conferencing.But the Energy MinisterBijendra Prasad Yadavannounced that December2018 deadline has beenadvanced to May 2018 in viewof the speedy progress of thework.

The CM also laid founda-tion stones and inauguratedvarious energy schemes worth�3030.52 crore under southBihar and north Bihar powerdistribution companies, BiharState Power TransmissionCompany and Bihar GridCompany Limited spread overentire rural Bihar.

An upbeat PrincipalSecretary of energy depart-ment and CMD of BSPHCLPratyaya Amrit said the ruralelectrification scheme is divid-ed in three stages: electrifyingvillages, then to every habita-tion and finally to each house-hold. “Now Bihar has findplace in the Centre’s list of fullyelectrified States. Now our tar-get is to electrify all the habi-tations and take electricity toeach household,” he added.

The Centre was soimpressed with the rural elec-trification work in the State,

once known as the darkestspot of the country, that PrimeMinister Narendra Modi pub-licly praised Bihar. Recently theCentre appealed to all theStates at the Energy Ministersconference to adopt Biharmodel for rural electrification.The Centre also appreciatedBihar’s ‘Har Ghar Bijli’ schemeand incorporated it in the PM’s‘Saubhagya scheme’.

The pioneering work in thepower sector in Bihar duringthe past 12 years and particu-larly last three years, surprisedone and all keeping in thepoorest work record of thepower company Bihar StateElectricity Board which wasbifurcated in four companies afew years back.

Till twelve years ago, or2005, Bihar’s 80 per cent vil-lages were not electrified and96 per cent households weredark. There were thousands ofvillages which had never seenlight. CM Nitish said, “Peopleof Bihar had lost the hope to getelectricity. The power situationwas appalling when we startedin 2005 but with our sustainedand genuine efforts we haveachieved remarkable success.We have executed and imple-mented schemes without publicity.”

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Rachakonda Police hassolved the mystery behind

the murder of a software engi-neer Yamjala Chander outsidea court in Hyderabad with thearrest of seven accused includ-ing an operator of Metro Trainand an engineering student.

Prime accused G Vinay, thebrother in law of the victim wasalso among the arrested.

A group of assailants hadattacked Chandar and killedhim when he was coming outof family court in Malkajgiriarea last week.

Chandar had appeared inthe court in connection with acase of domestic violence filedby his estranged wife Suhasini.She had filied the case afterChandar had filed a petition inthe court seeking divorce fromhis wife.

According to the policeVinay hatched a conspiracyalong with other relatives to killChandar to avenge ill treatmentof his sister Suhasini.

“The motive was to takethe possession of the propertyof Chandar”, said police inspec-tor M Jagdeesh. Those arrest-ed include 27 year old Vinay, anengineering student, 26 yearold M Chaitanya Kumar.

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Though the Central Bureauof Investigation has denied

having issued summons toBengal Director General ofPolice Surajit Karpurakayasthasources said the Agency hasindeed demanded documentsrelated to investigations con-ducted by the Bengal Policeinto the multi-crore Sharadachit fund case.

The CBI is known to haveasked the DGP to submit at theearliest all the documents relat-ed to investigations conductedby the State Police before theCentral agency took over theprobe.

Apparently in a bid to clearthe air the CBI denied onWednesday having issued anynotice of summons to the DGPin connection with the Sharadachit fund scam. Agencyspokesperson A Dayal deniedreports that the Bengal PoliceDGP had been summoned forappearance in Delhi.

Though there was no offi-cial response from the policeheadquarters sources said thatthe CBI has sent two notices to

the police not summoning theDGP but asking for “a numberof materials including the doc-umentary evidences seized ear-lier by the police, the mobilecall records of Sudipto Sen (theSharada boss) and DebjaniMukherjee.

“Similar letters had beensent earlier also but no responsehas come,” sources said addingthat CBI has also sent twonotices Kolkata PoliceCommissioner Rajiv Kumarwho was the first senior officerto investigate the case as the thenCommissioner of Bidhan NagarPolice asking him to hand overmaterials seized by him.

Soon after the chit fundscam burst in the face of rul-ing Trinamool Congress withallegations flying thick andfast in 2014 that a number ofsenior Ministers and MPs wereinvolved in ponzi deals ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjee hadformed a Special InvestigationTeam comprising Bengalpolice officers to probe the

fraud. The State Opposition had

however promptly dismissedthe order as an exercise to hushup the scam.

Subsequently while theopposition moved the courtdemanding CBI investigationthe State police hurriedlyswung into action seizing anumber of documents, areported “red diary” belongingto Sen.

It also managed to beat theEnforcement Directorate ingetting control over a locker ofa nationalised bank atUltadanga in North Kolkata.The CBI later learnt that therewere vital clues in the lockerwhich had gone into the handsof the State Police.

Meanwhile, theEnforcement Directoratewhich is also investigating thechit fund fraud on Wednesday raided a number of locationsincluding jewelry outletsowned by another botchedchit fund company RoseValley. The company outletswere raided at Howrah,Baguiati, Rashbehari, sources said.

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Osmania UniversityCampus rocked by the

students’ protest against thedecision to shift the IndianScience Congress (ISC) toManipur on Wednesday.

As soon as the news of ISCAssociation’s decision to shiftthe venue from OsmaniaUniversity to ManipurUniversity spread onWednesday, angry studentscame out and held a noisyprotest.

They blamed the ineffi-ciency of the Vice Chancellorand the Registrar for theUniversity losing the prestigious event to Manipur.

105th Indian ScienceCongress was to be held fromJanuary 3 to 7 at the OsmaniaUniversity but the programmewas cancelled at the lastminute after the Vice-Chancellor expressed hisinability to host the event onthe grounds of security problems.

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India’s vote at the United Nations infavour of a resolution which criticisedthe US’ decision to shift its embassy

in Israel to Jerusalem took a lot of peo-ple by surprise, especially those who sup-port the current dispensation.

This was so because traditionally, theBharatiya Janata Party-RashtriyaSwayamsevak Sangh (BJP-RSS) ecosystemhas been favouring Israel — as has been evi-denced by open praise of the Israeli modelof nation-building by the RSS chief himself.Israel too looked down upon comparison ofthe RSS with the Nazis.

Therefore, the only explanation to India’svote is the act of diplomatic establishment.India’s external affairs are run by a mere 930diplomats, compared to 20,000 of the US and6,000 of the United Kingdom.

This establishment, because of tradition-ally being catered by a very few people, isaverse to change. It also creates a pressure onthe Government, irrespective of the politicalparty ruling, to follow status quo. The initialposition it seeks to conserve is determinedby the Nehruvian approach to India’s foreignpolicy. Idealistic policies like the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), which bore nopragmatic results, are still entrenched in theminds of the foreign services establishment.This can also be seen in a recent book writ-ten by a former Foreign Secretary, ShyamSaran, where he dedicates a considerablenumber of pages, defending NAM.

Not surprisingly, India’s foreign poli-cy has not been up to the mark in its entirehistory. If one were to analyse objective-ly, it has fared worse than Pakistan’s for-eign policy. Pakistan has nurtured an all-weather ally in the form of China; Indiahasn’t been able to do that.

Even otherwise, Pakistan very tactful-ly engaged with the US, China, Arab coun-tries and Iran all at the same time, toextract favourable deals from these coun-tries. India couldn’t do that simply becausethere is too much idealism and too lesspragmatism in policy-making.

This development also makes a potentcase for the reform of the Indian ForeignServices (IFS), as has already been recom-mend by the Parliamentary StandingCommittee on External Affairs. Its recom-mendations include a separate examinationfor the IFS and provisions for lateral entriesinto the service. This makes sense because theIFS requires special knowledge of internation-al affairs, which can’t be tested through ageneric examination, like the one UnionPublic Service Commission conducts rightnow. The requisite skill for an IFS officer isessentially required through knowledge of aparticular domain and not through training,which may be true for Indian AdministrativeService and Indian Police Service.

The vote at the UN is a result of the sameidealism and a tendency to ‘play safe’. When

128 countries voted against the US, Indiandiplomats must have thought that it is nat-urally safe to vote for that resolution, espe-cially when it included strong allies of the US,like UK and Germany. It must be borne inmind that what the US is doing for India inthe international arena is exemplary and tak-ing strong exceptions for it. For instance, back-ing India’s claim to a permanent seat at theUnited Nations Security Council, backingIndia’s claim to join the Nuclear SuppliersGroup and the Wassenaar Arrangement.

It is interesting to recall, US’ military aidto India at the time of China War in 1962 anda possible direct intimidation to China by theUS in favour of India, which probably madeChina to declare an unconditional cease fire.Bruce Riedel, in his book makes a case thatJohn F Kennedy in fact threatened to usenuclear weapons against China, which actu-ally made China withdraw.

Israel too has been an important friendto India, being the fifth largest source of arms.It also aided India in the 1962 war with China,in 1965, 1971 and 1999 in wars with Pakistan.

This was, therefore, not a moment toplay it safe, but to back the US and Israelwhen they were being singled out. India alsoneeds to create strong exceptions for the USat a time when the US is doing the same. Itmay be pertinent to mention that the cur-rent political will is there, it is the diplomat-ic establishment which needs to be put inplace by the political class.

If one were to legally analyse the meritsof the US decision, one would certainly arriveat a decision that the act of the US was per-fectly within the legal domain and was per-

formed under its sovereign function. Thedecision of shifting the embassy rests with thesovereign, which is acted as per the US Law.

It is pertinent to mention that the USderived the legal validity of its action froma 1995 law, The Jerusalem Embassy Act of1995, which was passed by the US Congress.This law made it mandatory for the USGovernment to shift its Embassy toJerusalem. The law includes a power to thePresident to waive the enactment of the lawfor six months. Subsequent US Presidents— Bill Clinton, George W Bush andBarack Obama didn’t execute the law byexercising this power waiver.

The Trump Administration is basical-ly doing a legal duty which he is mandat-ed to do, when he ordered the StateDepartment to shift the embassy.Interestingly, US President Donald Trumptoo has signed the waiver, contending thatit may take years to actually shift theembassy. Hence, the UN condemning alegal act of a sovereign country is in itselfvery problematic.

It is certainly the right time for Indiato shed the false mantle of idealism in itsforeign policy which has served no goodtill now. It is important that Indiabecomes a friend to its friends. The cur-rent dispensation has the political man-date to take decisive decisions in terms offoreign policy as well as reform of theIndian Foreign Service. It can be hopedthat this is taken up soon.

(The writer is Research Fellow with theDepartment of Humanities and SocialSciences, IIT Bombay, Mumbai)

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Sir — This refers to the editorial,“Fake emotion” (December 27).The only solace in KulbhushanJadhav’s mother and wife meetinghim in Pakistan was to see him alive.One was hopeful that this meetingwould be fruitful in restoring nor-malcy between the two neighboursbut that did not happen. The imper-vious glass partition which separat-ed the two sides, coupled with thecellotaped phones on either sidecompounded the precarious situa-tion. One thing is sure that Pakistanhas been exposed in the internation-al form as this meeting was held afterit was upbraided by the InternationalCourt of Justice (ICJ) and not priorto it. India should take this oppor-tunity by horns and denude Pakistanbefore the ICJ with a video of thisimpudent episode and also break offall diplomatic relations with it.

Sagar Singh Delhi

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Sir — This refers to the editorial,“Fake emotion” (December 27).The way the wife and mother ofKulbhushan Jadhav were treated inPakistan went beyond the bound-aries of decency and met with ascathing attack from India. Forcingladies to change attire, erase the bindiand remove their ornaments, stop-ping them from speaking in theirmother tongue, strip-searching andheckling them and subjecting themto a biometric examination were notworthy of a civilised country.

The choreographed meetingwas far from a humanitarian gestureand a confidence-building measure.

It was used for propaganda purposeand was nothing short of a PR stuntthat backfired. At the same time, therhetoric that Pakistan will have topay a heavy price for ‘defilement’ of‘two Hindu women’ won’t be help-ful for resumption of peace talks.

Continued hostility does nogood to either India or Pakistan.Looking at the deplorable incidentthrough communal prism is emi-nently avoidable. India cannotclaim high moral ground — itdenied Afzal Guru’s kin an oppor-tunity to meet him before he wassent to the gallows on flimsygrounds. It is wrong to seize theoutrageous Pakistani behaviour toaccentuate religious fault-linesand the divide between commu-nities in the sub-continent.

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Sir — The entry of two big starsof the Tamil movie world,Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan,into politics is no surprise. Filmstars entering Tamil Nadu politicsis not new. The State has seen fiveChief Ministers from the cinemaworld. But the need of the hour forTamil Nadu is a righteous no-non-sense person. With fingerscrossed, one wonders if in theirnew political avatar, can theyessay the character of a politicianwithout being coerced to compro-mise their values and also directpeople to perform their respectiveroles to the best of their abilities.

TS KarthikChennai

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As the year 2017 draws to a close,some aspects of our daily lifehave changed for the better

while some have become worse. Oneaspect of our lives that is deterioratingbeyond human control is increasinglevels of e-waste and inadequate han-dling of the same. According to a lat-est report released by the UnitedNations’ InternationalTelecommunication Union, The GlobalE-Waste Monitor 2017, India generat-ed nearly two million tonnes of elec-tronic waste in 2016 of the 44.7 milliontonnes produced globally.

For a country that is becomingincreasingly digital, this quantum ofe-waste generation was probablyexpected. However, the inability of agrowing economy like India to not

have a sound disposal strategy is notonly concerning but also embarrass-ing on a global forum.

Electronic waste poses growingrisk to the environment and humanhealth. The Global E-Waste Monitor2017 highlighted increasing levels ofe-waste and its improper, unsafe treat-ment and disposal through burning orat dumpsites. Growing volumes ofelectronic waste, including discardedproducts with a battery or plug, suchas mobile phones, laptops, televi-sions, refrigerators and electrical toys,pose a major threat to the environmentand human health. They also presentseveral challenges to sustainable devel-opment and to the achievement of theSustainable Development Goals(SDGs). It is critical to have a betterstrategy for e-waste management andeven better implementation of the samein order to achieve goals of the 2030agenda for sustainable development.

Growing amounts of e-waste are aresult of several trends. The globalinformation society is growing at abreakneck speed and the same is truefor India as well. It is characterised by

an increasing number of users andrapid technological advances that aredriving innovation and efficiency andsocial and economic development.

The year 2017 saw close to half theworld’s population using the Internet,with now most people in the world hav-ing access to mobile networks and ser-vices. The lifespan of electronic devicesis increasing and so is their affordabil-ity amid the fact that many people ownmore than one information and com-

munication technology device.Additionally, disposable incomes in

many developing countries are increas-ing and the growing global middle classis able to spend more on electrical andelectronic equipment, consequentlygenerating more e-waste. Currenttrends suggest that the amount of e-waste generated will increase substan-tially over the next decade.

For instance, all the countries inthe world combined generated a stag-

gering 44.7 million metric tonnes (Mt)or an equivalent of 6.1 kilogram perinhabitant (kg/inh) of e-waste annu-ally in 2016, compared to the 5.8kg/inh generated in 2014. This is closeto 4,500 Eiffel Towers each year. Theamount of e-waste is expected toincrease to 52.2 million metric tonnesor 6.8 kg/inh by 2021.

In Asia, India is only second toChina in e-waste generation. Waste isa combined result of consumption ofa large and ever growing population,besides electronic imports from coun-tries across the world to India makingthe country one of the fastest electron-ics consumer in the world.

However, though India has a for-mal e-waste recycling mechanism inplace, the country is plagued by theinformal sector that handles a majorquantum of e-waste. The informal sec-tor employs nearly one million peoplewho sift with bare hands through thee-waste, burn it and inhale the fumes,causing dangerous carcinogenic dam-age to their health and irreversibledestruction for the environment.

Most of the people working in the

informal waste-recycling sector havevery low literacy levels with littleawareness of the dangers of the oper-ations. Severe health impacts and envi-ronmental damage are widespread inIndia due to the final step of the e-wasteprocessing by the informal sector.

Though India has had the e-wasterules in effect since 2011, they mandateproducers to be responsible for the col-lection and financing of systems, inaccordance to the Extended ProducerResponsibility (EPR) concept. Furtheramendment to this rule came in 2015,which resulted in the implementationof E-waste Rule in 2016. The main fea-ture of this rule is EPR. The amendedrule has provisions for ProducerResponsibility Organisations andDeposit Refund Scheme under EPR.

India’s ambition to be a digitaleconomy cannot be complete withoutaccounting for the consequences in theform of e-waste generation. Economicdevelopment that compromises humanhealth and the environment is a self-goal for India and cannot be allowed.

(The writer is an environmentaljournalist)

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Everyone has dreams. Somepeople dream of achieving animportant position in their

career, some dream of a house,some a sports car... But have you evermet someone who dreams of milk?Or a bowl of hot food? In many partsof the world, sometimes, a mother’sbiggest dream is to be able to take herchild to the hospital. Even though itsounds unusual, these are the dreamsof the Yemeni people. Does thismake you wonder why?

According to the Food andAgriculture Organisation of theUnited Nations, one of the mostsevere hunger crises in the world iscurrently happening in Yemen.

According to the United Nations’March 2017 analysis, hunger rateshave increased by 20 per cent, com-pared to the last nine months.Currently, it is estimated that about17 million people suffer from hungerin Yemen. Two-third of the popula-tion does not have any food to eatand people are desperate for help.

The ongoing conflicts in thecountry have caused a seriousdecline in livestock and agricultur-al production. Out of the 2.2 millionchildren, 460,000 are now sufferingfrom severe malnutrition.

“A child in Yemen is 10 timesmore at risk of death if not treatedon time than a healthy child ofhis/her age,” said Meritxell Relaño,UN Children’s Fund Representativein Yemen.

Jamie McGoldrick, the UNhumanitarian aid coordinator inYemen, describes the situation inYemen as “catastrophic and rapidlyworsening.” The following words ofFatima, who takes care of two grand-children, both suffering from thalas-saemia, one four and the other 11-year-old, reveals the terrible scale ofthis disaster:

“We have no money to treat mygrandsons or to feed ourselves.These days, we sell brooms and buyourselves some flour and then eat itwith water. Either we die from thebombing or from the hunger. Mygrandson needs treatment and on thetop of al l that he needs to eat healthy food. My grandson does-n’t know what the milk tastes like.The whole world watches us dyingand stays silent against [the] coali-tion.”

Norwegian Refugee CouncilSecretary General Jan Egeland, wide-ly regarded as one of the most expe-rienced diplomats in Europe,describes the situation he witnessedin Yemen as “shocking to the bones”and added:

“Men with guns and powerinside Yemen as well as in regionaland international capitals are under-mining every effort to avert an

entirely preventable famine, as well as the collapse of health andeducation services for millions ofchildren.”

The number of people losingtheir lives is still climbing in spite ofall the food aid initiatives of inter-national organisations due toresource shortage or delayed ship-ments. Most of the aid cannot reachthose who require it.

To top it all, the biggest concernof the UN officials is that the currentsupply lines being used for aid ship-ments will be closed in the not-too-distant future. If this happens, foodaid to the country will come to a halt and millions of people will beopenly left to die.

Despite the current food assis-tance, one child under the age of fivedies every 10 minutes in the coun-try. The current level of food aid cannot satisfy the needs due to bothlogistic and financial reasons.According to figures released at theGeneva meeting of the UN, theamount needed to prevent hunger inYemen is $2.2 billion.

However, this amount cannot beraised among the powerful countriesof the world. Considering that theUN estimates ending world hunger,each year would cost $30 billion, itis not difficult to see how easily theproblem could have been solved.

Indeed, agricultural policies ofthe country must also be adjusted to

raise the welfare level of Yemen sothat the economy can be reinvigorat-ed and the country can begin to sup-ply enough food to its people.

One of the reasons for the foodshortage in the country right now isthe ineffective use of agriculturalland. The country is using a largepart of its land to grow ‘khat’, whichis also used as an addictive drug.

For quite some time, the occu-piers of the country have consideredgrowing and selling ‘khat’ to be moreprofitable than growing food. Withheavy consumption of this addictiveplant, people have been dragged intohunger even further.

Difficulty in transporting rela-tively small amounts of agriculturalproducts, due to an increase ingasoline prices, is another majorproblem in Yemen.

The increase in gasoline prices isan issue plaguing the country's econ-omy. Yemen was once a country thatproduced 450,000 barrels of oil perday. However, in the last six years, theamount of oil produced per day hasdropped to 180,000 barrels.

Furthermore, the financial costof the conflict between the Shiitesand the Sunnis has also worsened theeconomic situation. Resulting high-er oil prices have made the trans-portation of food a big problem. Amajor rise in the prices of gasolinehas affected the food logistics.

While transportation is becom-

ing increasingly expensive, Yemenisno longer have access to clean water,health care and even education.With diseases such as cholerabecoming widespread, this easilycurable disease can lead to loss ofhundreds of lives.

Raising greater awareness aboutthe disaster in Yemen, where eventhe most basic human rights areinaccessible, and making more wide-ly known to the world the troublesplaguing the country, will pave theway for a solution.

Keeping the tragedy in Yemen,which has been under blockade, top-ical and reminding people of theurgency of humanitarian aid willsurely urge the global public to takeaction. In this sense, the UN’s call for“an emergency aid fund” and manysimilar other calls are of great importance, albeit insufficient aswe have all seen.

There are urgent matters thatneed to be addressed in order toensure stability in Yemen; immedi-ately negotiating an agreementbetween the parties, securing amutual commitment by the partiesfor laying down their arms andabove all, facilitating the efforts ofhumanitarian aid organisations.

Yemen deserves to be remem-bered for its captivating naturalwonders, not for war, blockades,hunger and cholera.

(The writer is a Turkish author)

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The Lok Sabha on Wednesdayapproved a bill to hike cess

on luxury vehicles from 15 percent to 25 per cent with a viewto enhance funds to compen-sate states for revenue loss fol-lowing the rollout of GST.

The GST (Compensationto States) Amendment Bill,2017, was passed by the LowerHouse amid uproar by theopposition over controversialcomments made by UnionMinister Anant Kumar Hegdeon secularism and theConstitution.

The Bill seeks to replace theOrdinance which was issued inSeptember to give effect to thedecision of the GST Council.

The Ordinance providedfor a hike in the GST cess on arange of cars from mid-size tohybrid variants and the luxuryones to 25 per cent.

In reply to a short debate,Finance Minister Arun Jaitleysaid the funds collected fol-lowing hike in cess on luxu-ry vehicles will be used tocompensate states for rev-enue loss on account ofimplementation of the Goodsand Services Tax (GST).

He said the GST Council,which comprises state financeministers, meets every monthand takes decision on ratio-nalisation of taxes in the back-drop of revenue collection.

Participating in the dis-cussion, members demandedthat the GST rate should bereduced on a variety of itemsincluding sanitary napkins,agriculture equipments, hand-icrafts, handloom items andsports goods.

Some members even sug-gested that there should be sin-

gle tax slab instead of four.The debate over the GST

compensation bill continuedamid slogan-shouting by

Congress and TMC mem-bers who demanded resigna-tion of Hegde for his contro-versial comments.

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NEW DELHI: The governmenton Wednesday said it has decid-ed to make additional borrow-ing of �50,000 crore this fiscalthrough dated securities, a movethat may put burden on the fis-cal deficit target of 3.2 per centof GDP. However, there will beno change in the net borrowingas envisaged in the Budget for2017-18, a Finance Ministrystatement said.

After the review of the bor-rowing programme with theRBI, it was decided that “thegovernment will raise addition-al market borrowings of �50,000crore only in fiscal FY'18through dated Governmentsecurities.”

Besides, it will trim downthe T-Bills from present collec-tions of �86,203 crore to �25,006crore by March 2018. T-Bills aresecurities with short-term dura-tion of less than one year whiledated securities have maturity of

over five years.“The government will

thus, between now and March2018, not be raising any netadditional borrowing (T-Billswill be run down by �61,203crore and additional G-Secborrowing will be �50,000crore),” it said.

In the Budget for 2017-18,gross and net market borrowingwere pegged at �5.80 lakh croreand �4.23 lakh crore respectivelywith �3.48 lakh crore beingraised (net) from datedGovernment securities and�2,002 crore from T-bills, aFinance Ministry statement said.

Noting that borrowings tillDecember 26, 2017 have beenconducted in line with the bor-rowing calendar fixed for the fis-cal, it said, gross and net marketborrowings are �5,21,000 croreand �3,81,281 crore, excludingbuyback/switches, respectivelyas on December. PNS

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Markets regulatorSecurities andExchange Board of

India (Sebi) is likely to relaxentry norms for foreign port-folio investors (FPIs) willing toinvest in the Indian markets,senior officials said.

It may ease some rules,including expanding the eligi-ble jurisdictions for registrationby including countries withdiplomatic tie-ups with India.

Besides, the regulator mayrationalise “fit and proper” cri-teria for FPIs as well as simpli-fy broad-based requirementsfor such investors.

The move is aimed at eas-ing direct registration forFPIs and avoiding participa-tory notes (P-notes). In addi-tion, Sebi may allow listing ofsecurity receipts issued by anasset reconstruction compa-ny (ARC) on the exchangeplatform.

Security receipt, in marketparlance, means a receipt orother security issued by a secu-ritisation company or recon-struction company.

This will enhance capitalflows into the securitisationindustry and particularly behelpful to deal with bank non-performing assets (NPAs).

These proposals would bediscussed at the board meetingof Sebi today. According to thenew proposal, more jurisdic-tions such as Canada would beable to access the market dueto change in FPI Regulations.

Category I and II FPIs,

which areessentially gov-ernment andregulated enti-ties, should notneed any addi-tional docu-mentation andp r o c e d u r a lrequirements.H o w e v e r ,Category III FPIs should con-tinue to be subject to suchrequirements.

In a major revamp, Sebi in2014 had released norms that

had clubbed dif-ferent categoriesof foreigninvestors into anew class calledFPIs.

Under theregime, FPIshave been divid-ed into threecategories as per

their risk profile and the KYC(know your client) require-ments, while other registrationprocedures have been madesimpler for them.

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NEW DELHI: The TelecomDepartment has suggested theFinance Ministry that GST fortelecom services be lowered to12 per cent against the existing18 per cent, Parliament wasinformed on Wednesday.

The recommendation wasmade during the process of theBudget exercise, and the mat-ter is with the Department ofRevenue under Ministry ofFinance for necessary action,Telecom Minister Manoj Sinhasaid in a written reply to LokSabha. “The Department ofTelecom dated 1st December2017 had recommended tothe Department of Revenueduring the process of theBudget exercise that a standardrate of GST at 12 per cent fortelecom service should be fixedin place of existing 18 per cent,”the minister said.

Sinha noted that theTelecom Regulatory Authorityof India (TRAI) had favouredreduction of licence fee and

Universal Service Obligationlevy, cut in Spectrum UsageCharges and relaxation in spec-trum pay-out terms, in view ofthe debt burden on telecomcompanies.

TRAI felt that a favourableconsideration of the matterwould help reduce financialstress of telecom players andenable them to offer affordableand quality services to con-sumers. “The issues are underexamination,” Sinha said.

TRAI also found merit indemand of telcos pertaining toreduction in GST rate as wellas treating telecom sector ascore infrastructure. To a sep-arate but related question onthe debt of telcos, Sinha saidInterministerial Group taskedto review the financial diffi-culties of the sector was of theview that while there werepockets of financial stress,the entire sector could not bedescribed as being in financialdifficulty. PNS

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NEW DELHI: To make REITsand InvITs more attractive toinvestors, markets regulatorSebi has notified relaxed normsto allow these trusts to raisefunds by issuing debt securities.This would be allowed forREITs (Real Estate InvestmentTrusts) and InvITs(Infrastructure InvestmentTrusts) which are listed onstock exchanges.

Further, Sebi has amendedREITs and InvITs regulations inorder to facilitate growth of suchtrusts, Sebi said in notificationsposted on its website onWednesday.

According to the regulator,REITs and InvITs, “whose unitsare listed on a recognised stockexchange, may issue debt secu-rities in the manner specified bythe board provided that suchdebt securities shall be listed on

recognised stock exchange(s)”.It said debt securities means

non-convertible debt securi-ties which create or acknowl-edge indebtedness andinclude debentures, bondsand such other securities of acorporate or a Trust registeredwith Sebi as InvIT and REIT.However, it excludes bondsissued by the government,security receipts and securi-tised debt instruments.

The Securities andExchange Board of India(Sebi) has also amended thedefinition of valuer for bothREITs and InvITs.

Regarding REITs, Sebi hasallowed strategic investors likeregistered NBFC, scheduledcommercial bank and interna-tional multilateral financial insti-tutions to participate in the pub-lic issues of such trusts. PNS

HYDERABAD: Big Indian infor-mation technology companies haveformed a cartel to keep salary ofentry-level engineers low, alleged ITindustry veteran TV Mohandas Pai,raising a strong pitch for a betterdeal for freshers.

He agreed with Infosys Co-founder NR Narayana Murthy, whosaid that in the last seven years, thesalaries of freshers in the softwareindustry have stayed stagnant, whilethe same for senior-level employeeshave grown multi-fold.

Pai, a former CFO of Infosys,said these companies are takingadvantage of “over-supply” of engi-neers and seeking to command themarket, terming this trend “totallywrong”.

“There is a cartel. There hasbeen a cartel, there is no doubt. Thebig IT companies talk to each other,sometimes tell each other not toincrease, that's been there for a longtime,” said Pai.

“I know that people of big ITcompanies used to get togetherand tell each other not to raiseentry-level salary. If one took intoeffect inflation, the remuneration offreshers in the IT industry has infact come down by 50 per cent inthe last seven years,” he said.

“That's why attrition in the firstfive years is very high”.

Stagnant entry-level salary has

led to bright minds not joining theIT industry, according to him.

“The big IT companies canafford to pay better salary. Theyhave to make sure they don't paymore at the top, and they pay moreat the bottom. They have to learn toadjust,” Pai said.

“To me, it's an ethical, fairnessissue; they can afford to pay more.Not raising entry-level salary is eth-

ically and morally wrong,” Pai said.He said biggies such as TCS and

Infosys should take the lead in giv-ing a better deal for freshers.

“People who are paid low shouldget more. Best guys don't want tocome and join the industry. It'simportant for them to raise thesalary, make sure people at the bot-tom feel much more comfortable”,Pai said.

“It's very depressing that thefreshers not getting good salary.What to do? Supply is more,” Paisaid. “Also, education that they getis not good enough to get them jobstraight away. They have to betrained.”

The IT companies' stand thatthey spend lakhs of rupees ontraining freshers is valid, he said, butadded that such a scenario hasbeen there for about 20 years now,and it's not a recent phenomenon.

“They should pay more becausepeople need to live properly, theydon't get enough money to live,” hesaid.

Unless this is done, Pai warned,big IT companies will end upbecoming training ground for othercompanies, who will not hire fresh-ers and recruit only trained people,so that they can save on trainingcosts.

“It's bad for big IT companiesthemselves,” he said. PTI

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Flagship stock indices onWednesday were short on

luck as they fell off recordhighs after oil showed signs ofheating up amid outflow offoreign capital.

Crude oil surged to the high-est level since mid-2015 after apipeline blast in Libya restrict-ed Opec (Organisation of thePetroleum Exporting Countries)output, reigniting worries oninflation and the spectre of fis-cal slippage.

The BSE Sensex closed at33,911.81, falling from an all-time intra-day high. It wasdown 98.80 points, or 0.29 percent, from its previous close.

The gauge had gained254.33 points in the previoustwo sessions. The NSE Niftyslid 40.75 points, or 0.39 percent, to 10,490.75 after scalinga fresh peak of 10,552.40.

“Domestic indices failed tosustain near all-time high as adepreciating rupee and surge inoil price influenced investors to

book profit and pushed themarket on to a negative note,”said Vinod Nair, Head ofResearch, Geojit FinancialServices.

Tensions on the Koreanpeninsula resurfaced, makinginvestors nervous. Ahead ofthis year's last expiry in deriv-ative contracts today, the par-ticipants were seen liquidatingtheir bets at a record level.

The drop in GST collection

in November only added to thenervousness.

While foreign portfolioinvestors (FPIs) sold sharesworth a net �44.07 crore,domestic institutional investors(DIIs) purchased equities of�544.50 crore on Tuesday,

according to provisional data.Bharti Airtel hit the skids,

losing the most by 1.62 percent. ICICI Bank, L&T, SBI,Bajaj Auto and TCS slumpedby up to 1.53 per cent. Loss forsectoral indices went up to0.81 per cent.

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The Government onWednesday slashed interest

rates on small savings schemes,including NSC and PPF, by 0.2percentage point for theJanuary-March period from therates applicable in the previousquarter, a move that will promptbanks to lower deposit rates.

At the same time, invest-ments in the five-year SeniorCitizens Savings Scheme hasbeen retained at 8.3 per cent. Theinterest rate on the senior citizens’scheme is paid quarterly.

A Finance Ministry notifi-cation said rates have beenreduced across the board forschemes such as NationalSavings Certificate (NSC),Sukanya Samriddhi Account,Kisan Vikas Patra (KVP) andPublic Provident Fund (PPF).However, interest on savingsdeposits has been retained at 4per cent annually.

Since April last year, interestrates on all small savings schemeshave been recalibrated on a quar-terly basis.

As per the notification, PPFand NSC will fetch a lowerannual rate of 7.6 per cent whileKVP will yield 7.3 per cent andmature in 11 months.

The girl child savings schemeSukanya Samriddhi Account willoffer 8.1 per cent from existing8.3 per cent annually.

Term deposits of 1-5 yearswill fetch a lower interest rate of6.6-7.4 per cent, to be paid quar-terly, while the five-year recurringdeposit is pegged at 6.9 per cent.

“On the basis of the deci-sion of the government, inter-est rates for small savingsschemes are to be notified ona quarterly basis,” the ministrysaid, while notifying the ratesfor fourth quarter of financialyear 2017-18.

While announcing thequarterly setting of interestrates, the ministry had saidthat rates of small savingsschemes would be linked togovernment bond yields. Themove is expected to see bankslowering their deposit rates inline with the small savings rateoffered by the government.

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Sectoral regulator Irdai hasissued regulations for insur-

ance firms to carry out offshorebusiness from Gujarat-basedGIFT International FinancialServices Centre (IFSC). Insuranceoperations will get a major boostwith Insurance Regulatory andDevelopment Authority of India(IRDAI) issuing enabling regula-tions for undertaking offshoreinsurance business from IFSC,Gujarat International FinanceTec-City (GIFT) IFSC said in astatement on Wednesday.

“Under the regulations, forthe first time in the country, for-eign insurers are permitted toopen IFSC Insurance Office (IIO)at GIFT IFSC,” it said. Companieswould also be allowed to under-take domestic insurance andreinsurance business in line withthe provisions of Irdai regulation,it said further.

Those firms opening office atGIFT IFSC are permitted a 10-year tax holiday, complete tax hol-

iday in first five years and a taxreduction of 50 per cent for theremaining five years. For exportof services, insurance compa-nies operating from IFSC areexempted from GST.

GIFT IFSC, being a foreignterritory mainly conducts offshorebusiness, so the restriction onshareholding does not apply inIFSC and thereby a foreign directinsurer has option to set up oper-ations directly without any localpartner.

The IRDAI regulationswould help Indian insurers to setup their offshore office in GIFTSEZ IFSC to undertake dollarbusiness which otherwise wasrestricted in India, GIFT IFSCsaid. This would become a bigenabler for Indian direct and re-insurance players as it providesthem a foreign branch in closeproximity which would be oper-ationally cost effective.

“With the business guidelinesin place, we are now hopeful thatforeign and domestic insurancecompanies would participate inmaking GIFT IFSC a hub forInternational Insurance business,”said Ajay Pandey, MD & GroupCEO, GIFT City. GIFT IFSCalready hosts three major insur-ance players, GIC Re, New Indiaand ECGC, besides five insurancebroking entities, he said.

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Finance Minister Arun Jaitleyon Wednesday sought views

of members of the consultativecommittee attached to thefinance and corporate affairsministries as part of the pre-budget consultation process,an official statement said. Thiswas the 3rd meeting of thecommittee.

“The meeting was called toascertain pre-budget consulta-tion suggestions from themembers,” the statement said.

Members of the committeefrom the Lok Sabha who par-ticipated in the meeting includeDilip Kumar MansukhlalGandhi, Ram Charitra Nishad,Subhash Chandra Baheria,Suresh Chanabassappa Angadiand Yerram VenkataSubbareddy.

While from the RajyaSabha, Anil Desai, RanvijaySingh Judev, Satish ChandraMisra and Sukhendu Sekharattended the meeting. Thefinance minister is expected topresent the Union Budgetfor2018-19 on February 1. Thiswould be the last full-flegedbudget of the current NarendraModi-led Government.

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As many as 938 complaintscovering 65,991 mobile con-

nections have been received inthe last five years with regard tosale of SIMs on fake identityproofs and disconnection wascarried out in all such cases, theRajya Sabha wasinformed.

“Licence ServiceAreas of Department ofTelecom (LSAs) havereceived complaints thatSIM cards for mobilephones are being sold onthe basis of fake identityproofs,” Telecom MinisterManoj Sinha said in awritten reply last week.

Providing an update, theminister said that LSAs hadreceived a total of 938 complaints(from various sources) covering65,991 mobile connectionsregarding sale of SIM cards onbasis of fake identity proofs in thelast five years.

These sources included pub-lic grievances portal, law enforce-ment agencies, state police

authorities, banks such as ICICI,postal letters, e-mails and non-governmental organisation.

“All the mobile connectionswhich were found to be issued onthe basis of fake identity proofshave been disconnected andFIR/complains have been lodgedwith the police by the concerned

telecom serviceproviders,” Sinha added.

Strict guidelines formobile subscriber veri-fication by telcos arealready in place andthe rules detail out pro-visions for lodging ofcomplaint in case ofSIMs issued on fakedocuments, disconnec-

tion, and imposition of financialpenalties against defaulting tele-com players.

Moreover, the Aadhaar-based eKYC process does notrequire submission of separatedocuments for address andidentity and “therefore the pos-sibility of forgery/misuse ofdocuments submitted by thesubscribers can be avoided”,the Minister noted.

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The country’s largest lenderSBI on Wednesday said its

board has approved raising�8,000 crore through varioussources, including masalabonds, to meet Basel-III cap-ital norms.

“The Central Board at itsmeeting held on Wednesdayaccorded approval to raiseadditional tier 1 (AT 1) capi-tal by way of issuance of BaselIII compliant debt instrumentsin $ and/or INR to the tune of�8,000 crore fromdomestic/international mar-ket including masala bonds,”the bank said in a regulatoryfiling.

Masala bonds are rupeedenominated specialised debtinstruments that can be float-ed in overseas markets only toraise capital. State Bank ofIndia (SBI) said it has timelimit till March 2018 to raisethe funds. Banks in India haveto comply with the global cap-ital norms under Basel-III byMarch 2019, three monthslater than the internationallyagreed time frame by January

2019. Basel-III reforms arethe response of BaselCommittee on BankingSupervision (BCBS) toimprove the banking sectorsability to absorb shocks arisingfrom financial and economicstress, whatever the source,thus reducing the risk of spillover from the financial sectorto the real economy.

Following the globalfinancial crisis of 2007-08,during the Pittsburgh summitin September 2009, the G20leaders committed to strength-ening the regulatory system forbanks and other financialfirms.

They aimed at imple-menting strong internationalcompensation standardsaimed at ending practices thatlead to excessive risk-taking,to improve the over-the-counter derivatives marketand to create more powerfultools to hold large globalfirms to account for the risksthey take. As a result of thisBasel-II replaced Basel-IIIreforms on capital regulation.Stock of SBI closed 0.85 percent lower at �314.15 on BSE.

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NEW DELHI: Rabobank-spon-sored private equity (PE) fund haspicked up about 40 per centstake in Olive Bar & KitchenPrivate Ltd for a consideration of�100 crore. India Agri BusinessFund II became significantinvestor in Olive by buying stakefrom Aditya Birla Private Equityalong with a few other sellingshareholders.

“We have invested about�100 crore for the 40 per centstake in the company,” RaboEquity Advisors Chairman RajeshSrivastava told PTI. The invest-ment is entirely secondary as theOlive group's growth plans arefunded by its strong accruals, thefund house said in a statement.

The deal offers an opportu-nity for Rabo Fund to acquirestake in food services companyOlive Bar & Kitchen Private with33 outlets and revenues around Rs200 crore. “The company isknown to be backed by a robustback-end infrastructure, goodinternal controls and rigorouscorporate governance practices. Wesee Olive as a great opportunity forscaling up our exposure in food ser-vices,” he said. This happens to bethe first investment in the food ser-vices sector by Rabo Fund in eightyears. Rabobank is based out of theNetherlands. PTI

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Tax payers can now view thestatus of the returns filed by

them on the GST Network por-tal, the company handling thetechnology backbone of the newindirect tax system said onWednesday. “All users logging onthe GST portal can now see thestatus of their returns filed for allthe returns like GSTR-1 or GSTR-3B at one place,” GSTN CEOPrakash Kumar said.

While GSTR-3B is in the ini-tial sales returns filed by the 20thday of the succeeding month,GSTR-1 is the final sales return.Businesses with turnover of up to�1.5 crore have been allowedquarterly filing of GSTR-3B andthe same for July- Septemberperiod will have to be filed byDecember 31. Those withturnover exceeding �1.5 crorewill have to file GSTR-1 for July-October by December 31.

GSTN has already provided totax payers the functionality toclaim refund of exports of serviceswith payment of tax, ITC accu-mulated due to inverted tax struc-ture and on account of suppliesmade to SEZ unit/SEZ Developer.

NEW DELHI: Mining billion-aire Anil Agarwal- led VedantaLtd on Wednesday announcedacquisition of a controlling stakein Japanese glass substrate man-ufacturer AvanStrate Inc fromglobal private equity firm CarlyleGroup. Its wholly owned sub-sidiary Cairn India HoldingsLtd (CIHL) will invest $158 mil-lion in AvanStrate as part of thetransaction which also includestaking over debt and extendinga loan, the company said.

It will take over AvanStrate’sdebt of $151 million from thefirm’s lenders and extend $7 mil-lion as a loan. The face value ofAvanStrate’s debt is $299 million,which means its lenders are tak-ing a haircut. In return, CIHL willget a little over 51 per cent stakein AvanStrate “for a nominal con-sideration from Carlyle Group”,the statement said. AvanStrate ismajority-owned by Carlyle. Itsother major shareholder is opti-cal products maker HoyaCorporation.

“Through a combination ofthese elements, this transactionprovides both strategic control

and attractive returns to CIHL,”it said, adding the acquisition issubject to consents beingobtained from AvanStrate’slenders by end of the month.Agarwal has been keen on enter-ing LCD manufacturing businessand had in February last yearannounced setting up India’s firstintegrated LCD module manu-facturing facility in Nagpur at aninvestment of $10 billion in fivephases.

The investment in AvanStratemay give a fillip to the project.AvanStrate, the statement said,makes glass substrates for smalland medium-sized high resolutionthin film transistor liquid crystaldisplay (LCD) panels, which areused in screens for devices includ-ing smartphones, cameras, flatscreen televisions and tablets. PTI

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In its first order in theWhatsApp leak case, regula-

tor Sebi on Wednesday orderedAxis Bank to strengthen its sys-tems and conduct an internalprobe to fix responsibility asthe initial investigation showedthe leakage due to ‘inadequa-cy’ of processes at the bank.

Axis Bank has to completethe inquiry within three monthsand file a report to Sebi withinseven days thereafter, the regula-tor said, after it found that thecompany's results for the April-June 2017 quarter were ‘eitheridentical or matched closely withthe figures’ that were in circula-tion on WhatsApp prior to anofficial announcement.

Sebi began a probe lastmonth after a media report sur-faced with respect to circulationof Unpublished Price SensitiveInformation (UPSI) in variousprivate WhatsApp groups aboutcertain companies, includingAxis Bank, ahead of their offi-cial announcements.

The regulator also con-ducted search and seizure oper-

ations in this regard at variousplaces, including on the premis-es of various market entities.This is the first order from Sebiin this case and several othersmay follow soon.

During the preliminaryexamination, it was observed thatthe messages circulated inWhatsApp groups almostmatched the quarterly financialresults of Axis Bank for the Junequarter, which were published sub-sequently. The results were offi-cially announced on July 25 at 1623hours but the message was in cir-culation on July 25, 2017 since0912 hours.

“It was observed that the fig-ures that were in circulation inWhatsApp groups about AxisBank were either matching intotality or were close to the actu-al announcements except figuresfor slippage,” Sebi said. The regu-lator subsequently sought infor-mation from Axis Bank andasked it to submit information

regarding the processes and con-trols it has in place regarding UPSIhandling. In response, Axis Banksubmitted that it has ensuredadherence to the applicable lawsand adopted adequate processesand controls to maintain confi-dentiality of price sensitive infor-mation relating to the bank.

It also submitted that access orcommunication of such informationis made or done on a need to knowbasis. It also provided particulars of

the processes and controls in thatregard. Axis Bank also provided thechronology of events relating topreparation and finalisation of itsfinancials relating to the quarter -- sub-mitting that the process started fromJuly 1, 2017 and the financial resultswere formally disclosed on July 25,2017. Since July 1, various rounds ofmeetings and discussions were con-ducted among the officials andauditors of Axis bank in the processof finalisation of quarterly results.

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AUS federal court has sen-tenced an Indian-American

businessman to 28 months inprison, to be followed by depor-tation to India, for running a H-1B visa fraud operation thatused shell companies to applyfor more than 800 work visasover several years, netting himover $20 million.

Apart from Raju Kosuri, the45-year-old Virginia-based busi-nessman who had pleadedguilty last year to visa fraud andmaking false statements, thecourt has ordered that his wife,Smriti Jharia, 46, and their US-born son be deported alongwith him once he completes hisprison term in the United States.

Judge Leonie M Brinkemaof the US federal court inAlexandria, Virginia said thatproblems with the prosecutionof the case led to a more lenientsentence, but that she had tosend a message to anyone con-sidering similar malfeasance,The Washington Post reported.

A federal grand jury had

indicted Kosuri, his wife andfour others in April last year inthe case, saying they had fraud-ulently applied for more than800 H-1B visas over the years,generating gross proceeds of atleast $20 million.

“Since 2008, and at muchgreater scale since 2011, Kosurihas built a staffing business thatamounts to a visa-for-sale sys-tem, in violation of federallaw,” the indictment had stated,alleging that Kosuri had set upa network of shell companies,presenting them as indepen-dent businesses in need ofIndian workers, but which he

in fact owned and controlled.Kosuri and his co-conspir-

ators, the indictment said, usedthe shell entities to file petitionsfor non-existent job vacancies atKosuri’s data center in Danville.It said the visa fraud schemeinvolved the forgery of numer-ous individuals’ signatures onvisa petitions and exhibits with-out their knowledge.

The indictment had alsoalleged that Kosuri and Jhariaconspired with a consultantnamed Raimondo Piluso todefraud the Small BusinessAdministration, by submitting fraudulent

HUBZone applications, gener-ating $150,000 in loan proceedsand five contract awards.

Kosuri, who had immi-grated from India in 1999 andwas a lawful permanent resi-dent, was paid millions by thecompanies where those visarecipients worked, the Postreport said, adding he obtainedmillions in bank financing bymisrepresenting his businessand a $500,000 grant from theVirginia Tobacco Commission.

Jharia, Kosuri’s wife, wassaid to be one of the immi-grants he illegally sponsored.She pleaded guilty to falselyobtaining naturalization andagreed to give up her Americancitizenship and move back toIndia, along with the couple’sUS-born son.

The judge dismissedcharges against three of the six defendants since pros-ecutors failed to produce rele-vant evidence, according tocourt records.

A sixth defendant, whowas allowed to withdraw herguilty plea and went to trial ear-lier this month, awaits a verdict.

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Syria’s peace efforts cannotinclude President Bashar

Assad, Turkey’s leader said onWednesday, calling him a “ter-rorist.” President Recep TayyipErdogan spoke during a visit toTunisia at the end of a four-dayAfrica trip focusing on eco-nomic issues.

At a joint news conferencewith Tunisian President BejiCaid Essebsi, Erdogan calledAssad a “terrorist who engagedin state terrorism” and shouldnot be part of Syria’s post-con-flict future.

“How can we embrace afuture with a Syrian leaderwho has killed close to a mil-lion of his citizens?” said theTurkish leader, whose countryhas seen a flood of refugeesfrom neighbouring Syria dur-ing the fighting.

Turning to another highlysensitive Middle East issue,Erdogan and Essebsi said theirnations would never acceptchanges to Jerusalem’s historicstatus after President DonaldTrump’s recognition of the cityas Israel’s capital.

“Jerusalem is our red line.Any steps against Jerusalem’shistoric status and holiness areunacceptable,” Erdogan said,adding that his country willwork toward internationalrecognition of the Palestinianstate and seek the support ofthe European Union.

The Turkish leader alsovowed to help support Tunisiaovercome economic hardshipsand combat extremism.Erdogan, who also was attend-ing a Turkish-Tunisian eco-nomic forum, was accompaniedby a delegation of nine Ministersand 200 businessmen.

Kutupalong, Bangladesh:Abdul Hasan can spend hourswatching old videos he shot onhis cellphone. “My heart achesfor my village, my home,” the16-year-old Rohingya refugeefrom Myanmar said in a campin neighbouring Bangladesh.“That’s why we have broughtthese memories, this video,from Myanmar.”

Since late August, hundredsof thousands of RohingyaMuslims have fled to Bangladeshto escape attacks by Myanmarsecurity forces. But before flee-ing from advancing soldiers, fewRohingya had time to grabmany of their belongings.Instead, they poured across theborder into Bangladesh bringingwith them little more than hor-ror stories of marauding forcesand memories of terrifying treksthrough the forests. Their oldlives — homes, cattle, villages,everything — are gone. All theyhave left is their memories.

But if they’re lucky, some ofthose memories are stored on thecellphones many refugees man-aged to bring with them. AP

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London: Former PresidentBarack Obama told PrinceHarry in an interview broad-cast on Wednesday that peoplein leadership roles must becareful in their use of socialmedia and warned againstspending too much timeimmersed in the internet at theexpense of the world outside.

Obama did not, however,directly mention his successor,President Donald Trump, whohas made the use of Twitter acenterpiece of his presidency.

“All of us in leadershiphave to find ways to recreate acommon space on the internet,”he said. “One of the dangers of

the internet is people can haveentirely different realities. Theycan be just cocooned in infor-mation that reinforces theircurrent biases.”

He spoke with Harry in the

prince’s capacity as guest editorof the BBC Radio 4 news pro-gram. Both men said the inter-view, recorded in Canada inSeptember, was Obama’s firstsince leaving the presidency inJanuary.

Obama said he felt serenethe day he left the White Houseat the end of his second four-year term despite the vastamount of work that remainedunfinished. He said it was“hugely liberating” to be able toset his own agenda in themorning to have the time totalk with his wife, Michelle, nowthat he is no longer President.

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Dubai: Saudi Arabia and theUnited Arab Emirates, whichhave long lured foreign work-ers with the promise of a tax-free lifestyle, plan to impose a5 per cent tax next year on mostgoods and services to boostrevenue after oil prices col-lapsed three years ago.

The value-added tax, orVAT, will apply to a range ofitems like food, clothes, elec-tronics and gasoline, as well asphone, water and electricitybills, and hotel reservations.

There will be some exemp-tions for big-ticket costs like rent,real estate sales, certain medica-tions, airline tickets and schooltuition. Higher education, how-ever, will be taxed in the UAE.Extra costs parents pay to schoolsfor uniforms, books, school busfees and lunch will also be taxed,as will real estate brokerage costsfor renters and buyers.

Other Gulf countries areexpected to implement theirown VAT scheme in the comingyears. Even with a five per centjump in prices, the tax rate is stillsignificantly less than the aver-age VAT rate of 20 per cent insome European countries. AP

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Islamabad: Osama bin Ladenwas supervising the plot toassassinate two-time PrimeMinister and PPP leaderBenazir Bhutto and for this theformer al-Qaeda chief hadshifted to Afghanistan, accord-ing to intelligence gathered byPakistan’s Inter ServicesIntelligence, a media reportsaid on her 10th death anniver-sary on Wednesday.

According to a report inThe News International, theexplosives to execute the assas-sination were provided by thecourier of Osama bin Laden.

This information was pro-vided to the Interior Ministryin December 2007 by thePakistan Army and the ISI inthree reports as well as in let-ters obtained from the formerAl Qaeda chief ’s residence.

In the secret Intelligencereports, the Interior Ministrywas warned that bin Laden hadissued orders to kill then-President Pervez Musharraf,Pakistan People’s Party’s formerchairperson Benazir Bhuttoand Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl(JUI-F) chief Fazlur Rehman.

Bhutto was killed along with21 people in a gun-and-bombattack outside Rawalpindi’sLiaquat Bagh during an electioncampaign rally on December 27,

2007. According to the docu-ments received by The NewsInternational correspondent, themost important letter by the ISIto the Ministry of Interior waswritten on December 19, 2007.

The letter was directed to theInterior Ministry’s then-directorcoordination of the CrisisManagement Cell ColonelMuhammad Imran Yaqub.

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Pakistan Peoples Party(PPP) Chairman Bilawal

Bhutto on Wednesday brand-ed former President PervezMusharraf as the “killer” of hismother Benazir Bhutto as thecountry observed her 10thdeath anniversary.

Reiterating that he holdsthe man who pulled her secu-rity rather than the man whopulled the trigger responsiblefor his mother’s death, BilawalBhutto raised the “Musharraf ’sa murderer!” slogan in front ofthe charged crowd of PPP sup-porters in Garhi Khuda Bakhsh,Dawn online reported.

Bhutto, the PPP chief anda two-time Prime Minister,was killed along with 21 peo-

ple in a gun-and-bomb attackoutside Rawalpindi’s LiaqatBagh during an election rallyon December 27, 2007.

Earlier, Bilawal Bhuttotold the BBC in an interviewthat crucial details about theassassination of his motherwere being held back in orderto protect the former armychief. He said, “Musharrafexploited this entire situationto assassinate my mother. He purposely sabotaged hersecurity so that she would be assassinated andtaken off the scene.”

Bilawal Bhutto said thatMusharraf, who is in self-imposed exile in Dubai, haddirectly threatened Bhuttoand told her that her securi-ty was based on the state ofher relationship with him.

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Creative finishing, innovative fabrics and treat-ments — bright splashes and metallic accentsdominated runway in 2017.

After hopping from one entry to theother over the course of an hour,

where the management tried to decidethe gate from where media personswould enter, we were finally usheredinto the green room with the promiseof a quick note by actor PriyankaChopra. While we sat waiting for theentrance of the diva, the one who hasnot only taken cinema in India andHollywood by a storm, the organisersdrilled us while dividing us into threegroups to capture the perfect picture andcreate space for all to interact. What fol-lowed was a quick photo session and shehad vanished within the proverbial batof an eyelid. Our struggle didn’t endthere, we were herded and asked to fol-low the organisers to the space reservedfor the media. But just like the actor, thattoo had vanished.

Slipping away from the herd, Imanaged to find a seat at the rear. Well,the disappointment continued asChopra started her speech with the rea-son as to why she chose to speak on“Breaking the Glass Ceiling, Chasing aDream” for the Penguin AnnualLecture though she revealed that shedoesn’t like the phrase. “It puts all myhardwork, my ambitions and success

in a box. I never started my life with theambition to find a glass ceiling andbreak it. All I wanted was to chase mydream and become the best version ofme — breaking all the obstacles,” sheelaborated. However, she does not denythat it does exist, especially in the livesof countless women – in their person-al or professional life. “Through my lec-ture, I want to present the tools to liveand not let the glass ceiling define you.”

She presented PC’s 12 ways ofbecoming the best version of oneself.“Who am I? One must try and under-stand who he or she is, what are theflaws or the strengths. All of us are afraidto change or are too rigid to let thedreams evolve,” said Chopra who

initially wanted to be an aeronauticalengineer. But at some point, she madeher choices and is now counted amongIndia’s top-earning film celebrities.However, that was something we allknow.

As she went on with the speech, thenumbers increased beyond the stated 12and the interest of the audience startedwavering.

What many found interesting dur-ing the course of her talk was her admis-sion of having faced “abuse of power”in her professional life. “There weretimes when I was replaced by a girl-friend of the director or the hero, evenafter signing the contract. And I couldn’t do anything about it. Manymore situations came because I nevercatered to the whims and fancies ofpowerful men. I only cater to my col-leagues and friends who give merespect,” said the 35-year-oldactress,who made sure that she wastreated in a different way because “Icommanded that as I had the strengthand support of my family.”

This year some of the best known

actresses and celebrit ies fromHollywood came out and talked abouttheir experiences of being abused whilecarving out a niche for themselves.Producer Harvey Weinstein became aprominent name in the list of abusers.While Bollywood in general condemnedthe prevalence of abuse but has shunnedfrom naming anyone. Chopra feels thatthis is because of a cultural difference.“I think it has struck a chord with everyone in the world. You have all seenwhat happened with the Me Too hashtag. It was not just restricted to theUS... It went all over the world. Differentcountries have different cultural boundaries. Meryl Streep can stand upand talk against the President over there (in US). They can sell anti-Trumpmemorabilia outside his house.

It’s just a different the way we live in our nation and we need to respect it.”

Chopra is optimistic that the situa-tion will change in India when the nextgeneration is taught to respect a woman.“I wouldn’t call women victims, I wouldcall them survivors. But there should-n’t be a world where women have to sur-vive, there should be a world wherewomen thrive.”

When the anchor pointed out thatauthor Shobhaa De commented that“look at how many (Weinsteins) thereare in Bollywood,” the actress wasquick with a repartee, “She seems toknow a lot about it more... Why are youasking me?”

TV personality Sonia Singh whowas moderating the session pointed outthat while Chopra was vocal when herfilm Bajirao Mastani was dragged intocontroversy, she has been silent overPadmavati. She said: “When you as amedia house put my name or any public person on to your ticker, peoplewatch it. You use us. Rather than ask-ing me about my life you want me tocomment on someone else’s film...And why with the evident polarisation,hasn’t this question been asked to apolitician. What can an actor or a filmmaker do to change the scenario. Iam as much a part of the society as youor anyone else in this room. So, I canhave an opinion but I can’t be pushedinto a corner and made into a scapegoat.”

Having car ved her space inHollywood with a lead role in AmericanTV show Quantico, Chopra feels thatit is the culture that’s different inBollywood and Hollywood. But it is thevalue of time that she admires when itcomes to the Western countries. “If theshooting starts at 7:18, that is wheneveryone is there, everything else is thesame.”

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Connecting with locals,discovering fasci-

nating locales, explor-ing culinary gemsand holistic wellnessare some of the keymotivations for trav-ellers. While for oth-ers, it ranges from alavish stay to anadrenaline-chargedadventure. With the NewYear inching closer, GoogleIndia has unveiled the top traveltrends observed from September toNovember this year, highlighting thesearch behaviour transformations ofthe audience, compared with trav-ellers’ data documented during thesame period in 2016.

With 27 per cent increase in hol-iday-related queries where most peo-ple searched for — luxury, honey-moon and safari destinations. Bothinternational and domestic luxurysearches have increased by 34 per cent,amid online hunts for royal stayca-tions, that has spiked 12 times.

The quest for warmer topogra-phies and related activities becomewidespread during winters, which canbe gauged through a 32 per cent risein safari destination explorations.Searches for desert safari in Dubai,night safari in Singapore, Bali safariand marine Park as well as SafariWorld in Bangkok have surged.

Other than aspiring for a warmerpanorama, winter also marks thedawn of the wedding season and withit honeymoon plans. Seychelles,Maldives, and Bali turned out to beamong the most-preferred interna-tional destinations for honeymooners’this season as the trends show a 40 percent rise in these queries.

The search perusal for exoticlocales such as The Vatican hasgrown almost eight times, followed byMyanmar by three times andHungary two times.The key words for

the search include —private tours of theSistine Chapel after-hours, what to seeat the VaticanM u s e u m ? ,Myanmar tourism,Burma tourist map

and things to do inBudapest.

Travel trends-wise,it is amusing to find out that

Dubai has retained the top spotas the most searched destination, fol-lowed by Bangkok, Thailand, andDisneyland USA. Apart from thequeries for destination activities suchas safaris, cricket as an internationalexcursion has observed a rise of 456per cent, fuelled by matches held atMelbourne, Australia and Lords,UK.

God’s own country — Keralahas retained its popularity as themost crowd-pleasing destinationfor domestic travellers. Weekendgetaways, specifically near Delhi, hasbecome an extremely popular searchterm, culminating in a 361 per centincrease. Hence, places l ikeRajasthan and Srinagar known forits fervent tourism, are beingfavoured amongst domestic travelpursuits in comparison to otherlocations.

The trends also cite that sight-seers are planning their travel inadvance, as last-minute bookingshas reduced by 17 per cent fordomestic travel and 20 per cent forinternational trips. The proliferationof smartphones has further made itpossible for travellers to research,plan their itinerary and single outtheir travel prospects real-time.The search data indicates two outof three holiday-related searches arenow happening on mobile devices

and searches ondesktops havereduced.

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Taparia tools, an ISO-9001-2000accredited company started man-

ufacturing hand tools in India since1969 in technical collaboration witha reputed company by the name of AB Bahco of Sweden. Taparia tools hadorganised a ‘Get Together Meet’ at theHotel Ananth Residency, Hubli,Karnataka on December 21 whereTaparia tools had displayed their newand old product range. B Pillai andManoj Singhala from Taparia toolslimited, Mumbai were present at themeet to answer the technical aspectsof the products. During the meet, oneon one interaction as well as queries ofthe retailers was cleared. Taparia toolsbelieve that hand tools are an extensionto human hand. Though human handperforms many remarkable activitiesbut there comes a limitation. For

example, some nut or a screw has to betightened; the human hand alone willnot be able to do it. In recent years,Taparia tools have come up with lots ofnew innovative products. The compa-ny is quite confident about their prod-ucts going to be well appreciatedamong the users as all of them are aes-

thetically good looking and function-ally superb.

Their newly launched productslike plastic tool box, steel files, non-sparking tools, diamond cutting bladeand cut off wheel were also displayed.Taparia tools lasts a lifetime as they aresafe, sure, efficient and economical.

The leading causes ofdeath in India and the

rest of the world are nolonger infectious diseasessuch as tuberculosis.Cardiovascular disease(CVD) — heart attack andstroke now kills more peoplein India than any othercause.

More than 200 millionadults in India have hyper-tension (high blood pres-sure), which is the leadingrisk factor for CVD. Despitethe high prevalence of highblood pressure in India, nomore than about 1 in 7 peo-ple have this potentiallydeadly condition under con-trol.

Today, India is taking amajor step for ward toaddress CVD by launchingthe Indian HypertensionM a n a g e m e n tInitiative.Improved treat-ment of high blood pressurerapidly and substantiallyreduces risks of stroke, heartattack, kidney damage, andother health problems.Improving hypertensiontreatment can be done byexisting health systems.

More effective hyper-tension control may savemore lives than any otherclinical intervention. Thebest medicines in the worldto treat high blood pressureare generic, safe, effective,inexpensive and once-a-day,but most patients aroundthe world and in India areuntreated or under-treated.Some health systems haveachieved control ratesapproaching 70 per cent - farhigher than the global andIndian average of under 15per cent and programmes insome countries show that itis possible to increase controlrates rapidly.

One of the most impor-tant ways to improve bloodpressure control is by estab-lishing specific and practicalprotocols. This approach,which allows care to be pro-vided by health workers clos-est to the patient andreserves specialists for morecomplicated cases, was crit-ical to improving treatmentfor tuberculosis and HIV.Patient-centered servicesthat are readily available,such as free or low-costmedical visits and quality-assured care, reduce barriers

to adherence.India’s current hyper-

tension control rate of 10 to15 per cent can be doubledor tripled in the comingyears by implementing pre-cise and specific protocols inboth the public and privatehealth sectors, ensuring thatservices are patient-centeredand medications are avail-able, and by adopting astructured, accountable sys-tem to accurately track out-comes and improve themrapidly. Programs in Kerala,Madhya Pradesh, Punjab,and Telangana have alreadytaken important first steps toimprove patient outcomesand prevent heart attacks,strokes, dialysis, and deathfrom uncontrolled hyper-tension.

Reducing the sodiumcontent of food will alsoreduce blood pressure andsave lives. Most people con-sume far more salt than isneeded, which leads to highblood pressure and increas-es risk for heart disease andstroke. One province ofChina, Shandong, with apopulation of about 100 mil-lion was able to reduce sodi-um consumption by 25 percent in just 5 years througheffective education and col-laboration with the food,salt, and restaurant indus-tries. Combining reducedsodium intake withimproved hypertensiontreatment will provide max-imum health benefits —fewer people will need treat-ment and those on treatment

will have a better response tomedications.

Artificial trans-fat (par-tially hydrogenated vegetableoil), a chemical added tomany foods, increases therisk of heart attack. In India,it is found in high levels inpopular snack foods andother fried foods, as well asin cooking staples such assome vanaspati. More peoplein India are killed by theeffects of consuming artifi-cial trans-fat than in anyother country, and this does-n't need to happen.Artificialtrans-fat can be replacedwith healthier alternativeswithout altering taste orincreasing cost, and doing sowill prevent heart attacksand save lives, as occurred inDenmark and New YorkCity. India is to be com-mended for taking impor-tant steps to require labellingand reduction of artificialtrans-fat in some foods; fur-ther progress will save morelives.

There has already beensome progress preventingCVD, but more is needed,including involvement of theprivate sector. Resolve tosave lives is honoured towork with India and othercountries to help accelerateand scale up implementationof proven tools and strategiesthat will save 100 millionlives worldwide in the next30 years.

(The author is MBBS,MD (India) and Master ofScience in Public Health andMD, Vital Strategies India.)

�It has been a few months since youhave taken charge of NIFTEM as theVice Chancellor. How is it going on?

So far, so good. It is challengingbecause being a vice-chancellor is a newfacet to my earlier profession where I wasdealing with more of a production sys-tem like agriculture, horticulture, animalhusbandry, fishery and dairy. Now I’minto the post-harvest phase which is allabout processing, value addition and cre-ating provisions for incubation, start-ups,issues related to business management.

�Tell us about the recent developmentsat NIFTEM?

We’ve introduced NIFTEM guide-lines approved by the board of manage-ment which will help us in the develop-ment of the institution and planning ofvarious activities. We have signed vari-ous MoUs with various countries like theUS, UK and Canada for the research anddevelopment projects. Recently we hada big training programme with GroceryManufacture Association and McGillUniversity, Canada. We will be collab-orating with Global Food SafetyPartnership (GFSP). Danfoss, which areknown for value addition and cold chaindevelopment, will help us in establish-ing a cold chain development school inNIFTEM soon.

�There were talks about the launch ofnew incubation centre, what has beenthe progress so far?

It is getting ready for the inaugura-tion in January or February 2018. Thiswill be one of the biggest centres in theworld that will have incubation for readyto eat, ready to cook products, incuba-tion for food and vegetable processing,incubation for milk and dairy productprocessing, meat and chicken process-ing. This centre will support the entre-preneurs in their start-up programmeand R&D projects. Next month, we aregoing to have industry forum where allthe industry people will be visiting thecentre and we would like to bring themon board to see how they can contributeto its functioning. We have already col-laborated with more than 100 industriesfor this. We want to further enhance andcreate an awareness about the incubationfacility.

�What is the current status of FoodAuthentic Centre and Food TestingLaboratory?

Food Testing Laboratory is all set to

get launched in February. Another �5crore is sanctioned by the Governmentof India for equipping it. This will be anational facility which can be used forthe authentication of the tests and qual-ity parameters. I want to make it moreSME commercial so that more studentscan use it.

The Food Authentic Centre, whichis first-of-its-kind in India and fourth orfifth in the world, is all about food adul-teration, food mixing and commoditiesquality that will make people aware aboutthe importance of quality food. This toowill see its launch in 2018.

�Are there any additions to the courselist?

We already have many courses likeBTech, MTech, PhD and MBA with var-ious specialisation. We want to launchdiploma and certificate programme.We need to look at the staff requirement.Unless we don’t have sufficient trainedstaff, we will not be able to take it for-ward. We have to outsource the staff.MBA is going on self-financing mode asindustry experts are coming and teach-ing the students. Since it is an expensiveprogramme, we need to build a healthyand competitive atmosphere and makepeople feel more responsible.

�What changes would you like to bringin the outreach programme?

Earlier we had a week-long villageadoption programme where batches ofstudents go to stay in particular regionsand experience the ground-reality. But

since it had a little impact on the stu-dents, we have decided to increase it to35 days which will commence from nextyear. We are concentrating on fourstates — UP, Haryana, Punjab, Bihar forthe coming two years. We are trying toinvolve Indian Council for Agricultureand Research (ICAR). Students caninteract and work with the villagers,teach them new methods that can bevalue creating and at the end, organisean exhibition to showcase various devel-opment projects, also small-scale equip-ments that can be used by the farmersand much more.

�Where do students go after graduat-ing from NIFTEM?

More than 45 per cent of the grad-uates of NIFTEM go for higher studieswithin India or abroad and we are notdependent on Government jobs. Theywork in the industry and develop theirexpertise. A lot of labs and processingplants are coming up which is giving thestudents a lot of opportunities. NIFTEMis providing qualified people to run theselabs and processing plants.

�What is the biggest challenge?In India, 800 million tons of food

is produced through agriculture, hus-bandry, dairy, poultry and fishery, outof which only 15 to 20 per cent of it isnot converted into real food. Rest istreated as waste. Our challenge is howto reduce this wastage. We want to seeit as zero wastage industry whereeverything is processed and made it into

an edible product or byproduct whichcan be used by subsidiary industrieslike dairy and poultry. And how we canmake real food out of the waste is themandate of NIFTEM which we areworking on.

�But single NIFTEM is not sufficientto bring the change. How do youchoose to solve this problem?

That is why we need to createawareness amongst not only the pro-ducers but consumers and industry aswell about the benefits of processedfoods, zero wastage and much more.People think that processed foods arenot good for health which is wrong.Processing of foods maintains the qual-ity of the product for six months to years.We need to promote processed foodswhich are healthy. We need to make theindustry pulsate the need of the con-sumers by making processed food at areasonably good cost, while quality andsafety are maintained rather than mak-ing it a commercial venture. We need tobring quality consciousness amongststreet vendors who sell food on the road-side. In the years to come, people will begoing towards processed food. InPhilippines, the processed food con-sumption is 60 to 70 per cent per daywhereas, in India, it is only less than 10to 5 per cent. So this has to go up to morethan 20 per cent. Then only the farm-ers’ efforts in producing the food willget valued and get them sufficientmoney.

�What is the long-term plan?In the years to come, we are look-

ing at developing hi-tech horticulturefacility, generate high-value productswhich can be taught to the farmers andentrepreneurs and make them aware ofprocessing. We want to develop asmall-scale demo of an integratedfarming system where we want to inte-grate agriculture, horticulture, dairy,fishery, animal husbandry and poultrythat can be managed to produce moreuse for processing. We want to increasethe hostel facility, conducting trainingprogrammes, hands-on operationalexperience and much more. NIFTEMhas to depend on its resources in theyears to come. We are earning around�15 crore from the fees and otherthings, another �15 crore I have to findthat means around �30-35 per year. Thatis my target towards making NIFTEMself-sustaining.

With the success mantra of corporate giants ‘Givethe best to get the best’, Khadi and Village

Industries Commission (KVIC) has taken a historicdecision after its inception in 1956. Talking on seri-ous note of the low profitability of the KhadiInstitutions (KIs) due to the low remuneration of itsoffice bearers, the KVIC has decided to increase theirsalary linking with the sales performance of each KIfrom January 1. It would not only make them econom-ically strengthened, it would also inspire them to yieldthe best to get the best.

Giving this information, KVIC Chairman V KSaxena said, except a few Khadi Institutions, most ofthem pay very meager amount of remuneration to itsoffice bearers – ranging from �5,000 to �10,000 permonth. “It was the need of the hour to connect theirsalary with the sales performance of their respectiveKIs. It will act as a morale booster for them to workhard for an overall improvement of the institutions.Most of the profitability is blocked in the form of largeinventories and sundry debtors. Low remuneration alsoopens up ways for the office bearers to use unfair meansto earn extra money from the KIs, to meet out theirhouse hold expenditure” he further added. Not onlythat, it would also encourage everyone from artisanto office bearers to give their best to increase theirincome and consequently increasing the employmentopportunities.

The KVIC Chairman further informed that thisissue was discussed on many occasions at various formsincluding with the Minister of MSME, Giriraj Singhand it was unanimously proposed to give properincrease in their monthly remuneration of Secretariesand Chairmen of KIs.

It may be noted that in a recent meeting of Khadifederation on December 16 at Gandhi Darshan in NewDelhi, their representatives hailed the suggestion of theKVIC Chairman and admitted that Chairman'sapproach would certainly boost the morale of the officebearers and subsequently increase the profitability andproductivity of the institutions.

“The monthly remuneration proposed variesfrom �15,000 to �90,000 per month with respect to theturnover of the Khadi Institutions ranging from �50lakh to �5 crores and above. The institutions with lowerturnover will now enthusiastically approach to makeit doubled or tripled as it would directly be propor-tional to their performance. Similarly, the federationmembers agreed that value addition in the productswill not affect the pricing in any manner,” Saxena added.Similarly members of the board of Khadi institutionswill also get �1000 per sitting, which has been start-ed for the very first time.

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Every living thing, every leaf, every bird is only alive becauseit contains the secret word of life. On a gloomy day, the best

way to get over the bluesy mood is to cuddle up with a book.With immense gusto and high spirits, the New DelhiWorld Book Fair 2018 will be held from January 6 to14. The central theme this year is preservation and pro-tection of our environment and climate. The themeattempts to highlight that environment is our basic lifesupport system. During the Fair, discussions, conver-sation with the authors, environmentalists and bookrelease functions would be organised where expertswould discuss various ways through which environmentcan be saved from further deterioration. Over twentycountries from across the European Union will partic-ipate with a delegation of publishers, editors and authors.800 publishers will attend the event with popular Indianwriters like Ruskin Bond, Narendra Kohli, Jerry Pintoand Paro Anand. “With13 lakh individuals ushered in last year,we have greater expectations this year,” said the chairman of theNational Book Trust, Baldeo Bhai Sharma. With an effort topreach Har Haath Ek Kitaab to the youth, “We have roped inAkashvani and Doordarshan as our broadcast partners. All FMchannels will publicise the event. Even autos and billboardswill carry the ad.” To spread awareness among the masses, atheme calendar has been designed for distribution on impor-

tant aspects like cleanliness and safeguarding animals, birds,water, air and trees. To strengthen Prime Minister’s Beti Bachao,Beti Padhao initiative, publishing courses and Mahila Lekhan

Protsahan Yojna have been introduced exclusive-ly for women. “Our traditions respect womanand their opinions. To help them move ahead,we need to create an atmosphere with positiveperceptions. Only through their writings can weunderstand her struggles better and improve theliving conditions”, said he.

Every day there will be special performancesshowcasing India’s traditional as well as classi-cal art forms. Sonal Mansingh, first Indianwoman dancer to be awarded Padma Bhushanwill choreograph a classical fusion piece on con-servation of our natural resources. MaliniAwasthi will sing folksongs in Hindi dialects like

Awadhi and Budelkhand spreading sacred messages of ourancestors. Anupam Mishra, the author of the bestseller AajBhi Khare hain Taalab was an environmentalist, water con-servationist, Gandhian and journalist who recently passed away.As a tribute to his incredible work, a documentary will bescreened and a seminar on his life will also be unveiled. Fromthe time of Rigveda, our age old sages have been chantingmantras that have helped trees grow and flourish.

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Spending is the reason ManchesterCity is speeding clear of ManchesterUnited in the English Premier

League race, according to JoseMourinho.

After salvaging a 2-2 draw againstBurnley on Tuesday, second-placedUnited trails City by 12 points and PepGuardiola's side can extend that advan-tage when it faces Newcastle onWednesday.

"Manchester City buy the full backsfor the price of the strikers," United man-ager Mourinho said, referring to thesummer purchases of Kyle Walker andBenjamin Mendy for a combined figureof more than 100 million pounds ($133million). "Is not enough, is not enough,"Mourinho said of his own expenditureat United, about 300 million pounds inthe last 19 months.

"And the price for the big clubs, theprice for the big clubs is different fromthe other clubs, so the big, historical clubs

are normally punished in the market forthat history."

It could have been worse for United.Jesse Lingard came off the bench at half-time to score twice and cancel out first-half strikes from Burnley's Ashley Barnesand Steven Defour.

United was at least on the right sideof a stoppage-time equalizer this time,having conceded in the final momentslast Saturday to give up the lead atLeicester.

United was just one point ahead ofthird-placed Chelsea, which continuedits strong home form by beatingBrighton 2-0.

������B����������After netting three times at Burnley

on Saturday, Kane delivered another tre-ble at Wembley Stadium to take hisleague tally for 2017 to 39.

Each goal broke new ground forKane; his first took him clear of AlanShearer's 36 Premier League goals in1995; the second saw him overtake

Lionel Messi as the player from Europe'sfive major leagues to have the most goals(56) for club and country in 2017; andthe third gave him a record sixthPremier League hat trick in a calendaryear.

"It's been amazing, it's been a fan-tastic year — one I'm very proud of,"Kane said. "When you get compared tothem players, the Messis, the Shearers,that's what it's all about."

��&���������������Liverpool displayed the ruthlessness

it has often lacked in recent weeks todispatch struggling Swansea.

Philippe Coutinho, the Reds cap-tain for the day, scored early to give hisside a narrow halftime lead. ButLiverpool's superiority showed after thebreak.

Roberto Firmino scored twice andTrent Alexander-Arnold and AlexOxlade-Chamberlain also found thenet. Swansea is on the bottom with just11 goals, and 13 points from 20 games.

��������������Chelsea's Spanish contingent was

largely responsible for a sixth consecu-tive home win in the league.

For the sixth time this season,Morata was assisted by Spain teammateCesar Azpilicueta. The defender pro-duced an inch-perfect cross, allowingMorata to head home. The victory wassealed as two more Spaniards combined.Cesc Fabregas picked out Marcos Alonsowith his corner and the wing back head-ed in at the near post.

���������������� West Bromwich Albion's winless run

was extended to 18 games after going 0-0 with Everton. Alan Pardew has failedto change the Baggies' fortunes since tak-ing over as manager in late November,with the club one short of equaling AstonVilla's record for the most league gameswithout a win. Everton was undefeatedin six games under its new coach SamAllardyce and remained in the top halfof the table.

�����������Bournemouth's Callum Wilson

scored a heavily disputed stoppage-time equalizer against West Ham tocap a thrilling 3-3 draw.

After the goal was initially disal-lowed, referee Bobby Madley over-ruled the decision.

It looked as though MarkoArnautovic won it for the Hammersafter scoring twice in the last 10 min-utes to give West Ham the lead.

Also, Tom Ince's first league goalsince February 2014 was canceled outby Ramadan Sobhi's second in fourdays as Huddersfield and Stoke drew1-1.

Watford ended a six-game winlessrun as it came from behind to defeatLeicester 2-1 at Vicarage Road.

A tap-in from Molla Wague in hisfirst league start, and against his for-mer club, plus an own goal fromLeicester goalkeeper KasperSchmeichel canceled out RiyadMahrez's opener.

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2017 may well turn out tobe the year when the'prince of cricket' repre-

sented India for the very lasttime. Though the year startedwell for him - he struck a mem-orable hundred againstEngland in January - but as theyear went on, Yuvraj startedlooking like a liability for theIndian team rather thanstrength. No longer useful as aspin bowler, Yuvraj's fieldingprowess has also disappearedowing to fitness issues. Underthe Kohli-Shastri regime whichemphasizes the fitness of play-ers, Yuvraj could not survive

for long and while he contin-ues to fight for a return, itseems unlikely.

Once considered among the bestmidfielders in the hockey world,

Sardar ended the year being out ofthe national side. Ironically, thiswas also the year when Sardarreceived the prestigious RajeevGandhi Khel Ratna award.Concerns were raised aboutSardar's role in the teamwhen former coachRoelant Oltmans publical-ly said that he is slowingthe game down for histeam. Oltmans' successorSjoerd Marijne decidedto shift Sardar to thedefence from the mid-field and he looked out ofhis depth playing thisrole in the Asia Cup.Consequently, he wasdropped from the sidefor the Hockey WorldLeague Final. While theauthorities still claim thathe is among the plans andhe was rested, not dropped,this year certainly was not anideal one for him. With uncer-tainty over his position, manyfeel that we may have seen thelast of Sardar in Indian jersey.

The poster boy ofIndian Kabaddi had

to endure a miserable runboth as an individual and as the

captain of the Telugu Titans team infifth season of the Pro Kabaddi League.He finished the season with less than200 raid points and had to watch 20-year old Pardeep Narwal shatter hisrecords one after another. His team fin-ished second from the bottom intheir group to add to the misery. Hisseason was encapsulated in one des-perate and hopeless solo tackle he

attempted against Pardeep Narwal.With Narwal attacking the leftflank, Chaudhari suddenly brokefrom his team’s formation andtried single-handedly to eliminateNarwal. Not surprisingly, hefailed and had to return to thebench and, as he did for the rest

of the season, watch as a helplessspectator his rival capture more

points. This tackle was probablythe result of his wounded pride as

Narwal walked away with glory andrecords along with the adulation of thewhole country, while Rahul was left

wondering what went wrong forhim and his team.

���+5� �3245

Alastair Cook broke out of hisrecent form slump in dramatic

fashion on Wednesday when heposted his first century at theMelbourne Cricket Ground, reach-ing the milestone in the final overbefore stumps as England enjoyed itsbest day of the Ashes series againstAustralia.

After surrendering the old urnby losing the first three tests of thefive-match series, England finallyturned the tables on the Australians,demolishing their batting lineupthen making a strong reply with thebat on the second day of the fourthtest.

Cook, who had struggled badlyin the first three tests, promptingspeculation about his future in theteam, was at his imperious best. Heregistered the 32nd test hundred ofhis distinguished career to helpEngland reach 192-2 at the close ofplay in reply to Australia's 327, still135 in arrears but with momentumon its side.

"We know that we'll need threemore fantastic days to win thistest," England fast bowler StuartBroad told a news conference. "It'snot going to be easy to go and take20 wickets here but we've put our-selves in a position where we could.

"We've still got a huge amountto play for."

The Australians looked set fora much bigger total before crumblingin a heap and losing their last sevenwickets for just 67 runs as England'sembattled fast bowlers bent theirbacks and dug deep on a pitch thatoffered little real assistance to theseamers.

While England's old guard rev-eled in the conditions, it was a dayto forget for the Australian captainSteve Smith, who has been thestandout player of the series afterscoring a hundred in the first test inBrisbane and a double century in thethird match in Perth.

Smith squandered his chance ofanother century when he choppeda wide delivery from England debu-tant Tom Curran onto his stumpswhen he was on 76, then dropped asharp catch off Cook at slip when hewas on 66. Smith then gave up 11runs in the last over of the day toallow England's all-time leadingscorer to get his hundred beforestumps were drawn.

"You always want to take yourcatches. We know how importantthey are," Australian spinner Nathan

Lyon said."It was unlucky it popped out at

the last minute but hat's off toAlastair Cook, he batted extremelywell and we all know how much ofa talent he is."

The 33-year-old Cook batted formore than four hours and hit 15boundaries off 166 balls to finish theday unbeaten on 104 with his skip-per Joe Root alongside him on 49not out. The pair had shared anunbroken partnership of 112 on abaking hot day that sapped the ener-gy of all the players.

The Australians did pick up twoearly wickets when Lyon took a div-ing one-handed catch off his ownbowling to remove Mark Stonemanfor 15 and Josh Hazlewood trappedVince James lbw for 17 but struggledin the absence of injured pacemanMitchell Starc and an out-of-sortsPat Cummins, who was restricted tojust 11 overs because of a stomachbug.

England's quicks avoided theworst of the heat by ripping throughthe Australian middle and lowerorder in the cooler morning session,with Broad (4-51), James Anderson(3-61), Chris Woakes (2-72) andCurran (1-65) all taking wickets.

"We should have pushed on to400-plus but we lost wickets early.We definitely left runs out there,"Hazlewood told Australian radio.

"A few of the boys know thatthey need to be better."

Curran, a late call-up to the teamwhen Craig Overton broke a rib andwas ruled out, justified his inclusionby triggering the Australian collapsewhen he snared the prized wicket ofSmith to belatedly capture his firsttest victim.

A jubilant Curran wildly cele-brated what he thought was his firstwicket on day one when he hadDavid Warner caught on 99, but hisjoy was short-lived when televisionreplays showed he had oversteppedthe crease and bowled a no ball.

Given a reprieve, Warnerbrought up his century off the verynext ball to add further insult toCurran's rookie error. But the 22-year-old made amends early onWednesday morning by removingthe dangerous Smith for 76 andchanging England's fortunes.

Shaun Marsh, who made a cen-tury in the second test in Adelaide,chipped in with a fine 61 but fourbatsmen were dismissed in singlefigures.

Anderson's three wickets sawhim move past West IndianCourtney Walsh into outright fifthplace on the all-time test list with 521wickets.

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Winning Test matches outside the sub-conti-nent has been an 'Achilles Heel' for the Indian

teams over the years but skipper Virat Kohli madeit clear that they have "nothing to prove to anyone"during the upcoming South Africa series, startingJanuary 5.

India have not won a single Test series in the'Rainbow Nation' for the past 25 years, starting backfrom the inaugural one in 1992.

"We have got rid of all the mental pressures oftouring abroad and wanting to prove to people. Weare not wanting to prove anything to anyone andour duty is to go out there, give our 100 per centeffort for the country and get the result that we wantto," Kohli said at the pre-departure press confer-ence of the Indian team.

The skipper said that one needs to be realis-tic that "sometimes the team will get results andsometimes it won't". "We need to be realistic withwhat we are doing and that the only way we willbe staying in the present and execute the things wewant to. We are going there to just play cricket andit does not matter whether we are in South Africa,Australia, England or India," straight-talking Indiacaptain said. "When you do things in conditionsthat are more challenging, that gives you more jobsatisfaction, that is for sure," the skipper spoke aboutthe biggest incentive.

Indian teams over the years have struggled withthe bounce that South African pitches offer, hav-ing won only two Test matches over the years. Thebest result came during the 2010-11 series, which

India drew 1-1. "It all depends on the kind of mind-set you get into as batsman. Any place, even Indianconditions can be very difficult if you are not in agood frame of mind, so cricket is played with balland bat and if you are not there mentally, it doesnot matter the conditions you are playing in.

"You need to take up challenges mentally andthen every conditions seem like home conditions.If you get accustomed to where you are going andyou start feeling comfortable embracing the cul-ture, people, it becomes easier," he explained.

He had scored a century in Johannesburg dur-ing the 2013- 14 tour and he attributed it to his urgefor embracing the achallenge.

"I only played Test cricket once in South Africabut I was looking forward to it. (Cheteshwar) Pujara

was as well, so was Jinks (Ajinkya Rahane). So weended up doing well because we were excited aboutwhat we were going to do and that excitement isvery important to maintain."

Kohli agreed that they haven't played a lot out-side sub- continent of late but the current crop isconfident of a good show. "We are talking about awholely different prospect over here, which weunderstand as a team and we are looking forwardto it. Every tour is a chance, if you look at the teamswhich have gone to South Africa in the past, I meanyou are talking about some of the biggest namesin Indian cricket, it's not like that was not like achance," Kohli sounded cautiously optimistic.

"You need to play really good cricket for a verylong period of time to win series and that is some-thing that we are pretty excited about and we wantto go out there and express ourselves. The mostimportant thing is that we are enjoying each other'scompany and that's exactly what we are looking todo," Kohli added.

The skipper did admit that the bowling attackof South Africa in 2013-14 with a much youngerDale Steyn and Morne Morkel was more experi-enced. "The bowling attack back then comparedto now what South Africa has was more experi-enced and we did really well against them. Wealmost won the Test in Jo'burg (Johannesburg), itwas a close game, we lost in Durban, but we playedsome really good Test cricket. The bowling and thebatting has come a long way, all the guys are muchmore experienced now, but the hunger remains thesame, we still want to go back and try to do whatwe couldn't do last time around," he concluded.

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After dishing out dominating per-formances during the long-

stretched home series, the Indianplayers are set to be challenged inoverseas conditions in 2018 andchief coach Ravi Shastri says the next18 months will define "this Indiancricket team".

Shastri said the team is awarewhat lies ahead for them on the toursof South Africa, England andAustralia.

The coach reckons that the nucle-us of the team has remained the samein the last few years and that will helpplayers in embracing the challengesahead.

"The fact that they have beentogether for the last four five years,that experience will stand them ingood stead, that's for sure. The con-ditions will be testing, but like I havesaid before, this one and half years willdefine this Indian cricket team andthe whole team is aware of that,"

Shastri said."With the tours of South Africa,

Australia and England coming up, allI can say this will be better cricketteam after those 18 months," Shastrisaid at the pre-departure press con-ference along with newly-wed captainVirat Kohli.

The Indian team pummelled SriLanka in the just-concluded series andbefore that enjoyed success againstAustralia, England, New Zealandand Bangladesh at home.

The ability of the Indian batsmenin pace and bounce friendly pitchesbecomes talking point during theabroad tours and Shastri said Indianpacers too have a job at hand.

"If it is going to be tough for ourbatsmen, our job is to make it toughfor their batsmen as well."

The chief coach also urged theplayers to embrace the challenges withaplomb and insisted that the team'spreparation has been good.

"It's going to be a challenge. Weall know how tough a tour South

Africa is but that's the beauty abouttheir profession. Wanting challengesand embracing and that's what we arelooking for.

"We toured Australia three yearsago and we did a pretty good job. Wedid well in England, Sri Lanka in 2015had some great tracks, specially thelast two Test matches where thebowl seamed and swung, so thepreparation has been good and theseboys have been on the road togetherfor the last four- five years, the sameteam pretty much, the nucleus hasbeen the same, so that should help along way," Shastri said.

Asked if Jasprit Bumrah, who hasproved his utility in limited-overs for-mats, could be successful in Tests aswell, Shastri seemed very optimistic."

"In 50-over and 20-20 he hasshown how good he is. He is one ofthe best in the world and it isacknowledged by his opponents. Hehas also shown he is a quick learner.When he has played for Gujarat, hehas done well. He has taken five-wick-et hauls, six-wicket hauls and runthrough oppositions. His confidencelevel is high and is a good time to gethim in," Shastri said.

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The legend of Indian chess ViswanathanAnand had to endure a tumultuous year

which further suggested a terminal declinefor the former world champion. While he stillhasn't given up the hope of reclaiming theworld title, the year saw him losing in the sec-ond round of the Chess World Cup and fin-ishing last in the Chess Grand Prix.Consequently he is out of the 2018 champi-onship cycle which means he has no chanceof getting a shot at Magnus Carlsen's worldtitle. With the 22-year old Vidith Gujrathishowing encouraging performances, it'spossible that he may be the player to watchout for in the coming days. But then again,writing off a great like Anand is perilous.

In an otherwise glorious year for Indian badminton,Parupalli Kashyap was the exception who had no great suc-

cess to boast of. The Commonwealth Games champion hadto restart after an injury kept him out of the game for sometime. But as other and younger male players like B SaiPraneeth, Kidambi Srikanth and HS Prannoy made waves,Kashyap receded into the background with no major titlesto his name. He did reach the Final of the US Open but lostto HS Prannoy. Whether he can regain the form which oncesaw him become the pre-eminent men's singles player inIndian remains to be seen.

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The 19-year old went into the javelin event at theWorld Athletics Championship as the world

junior record-holder but ended up failing to evenqualify for the Finals. Instead, it was anotherIndian, Davinder Singh Kang, who overshadowedhis more fancied compatriot and finished 12th aftermaking it into the Final od the event. With age onhis side, a lot can be expected from Chopra in thefuture but for now he is left with questions about histechnique and the difficulty of carrying success fromthe junior level to the senior one. He also spoke aboutthe disadvantage of not having a personal coach. Thisissues need to be sorted out if he wants to achieve

his potential.

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With two massive Bollywoodblockbusters centered on

wrestling released last year, fansexpected real-life stars to makethe country proud in 2017 butthere was disappointment onthat count. The Indian contingentat the World Championshipreturned home empty handedand the biggest disappointmentwas in the form of Bajrang Punia,the reigning Asian Champion,who bowed out of the event inthe pre-quarterfinals itself. Hisvictory in the Asian champi-onship came in front of the home crowd in Delhi in May but all the hopes heraised were undone by his Georgian opponent in the world event.

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