C M Y K - The Pioneer Aircel-Maxis scam kickbacks, ... 40 minutes and reportedly mis- ... Valley...

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O ne more summer (of unrest),” is what the sepa- ratists have decided, as per Intelligence inputs with the security establishment, which is already bearing the brunt of renewed and intensified protests and attacks, particularly, in four districts of South Kashmir. The issue was discussed at the ongoing Commanders’ Conference here on Monday. Sources said that as per the “one more summer” plan, the sepa- ratists have decided to go all out against the security forces and glimpses of it are already being witnessed, be it during the large scale violence during the recent bypolls or increasing incidents of stone pelting against the forces, particularly when they are engaged in encounters against the terrorists. With mobs coming out on the streets in the districts of Srinagar, Kupwara, Pulwama, Kulgam and Anantnag almost daily to protest against alleged atrocities by the security forces, the local Army Commanders are redrawing their strategy to deal with the unrest, officials said here. Army chief General Bipin Rawat had briefed National Security Adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval on Sunday about the sit- uation in the State against the backdrop of protests against the Army for reportedly using a “human shield” to keep the stone throwers at bay on April 9 in Budgam. The Army chief also met Jammu & Kashmir Governor NN Vohra on Saturday. The Army is con- ducting an in-house investiga- tion to ascertain facts about the video showing the incident. Elaborating upon Intelligence inputs about the anticipated unrest, sources said here on Monday that the sep- aratists and Pakistan-backed terrorist groups are trying to garner support of the local populace, including traders and students to back them by staging large-scale protests dur- ing the coming weeks. The business community suffers heavy losses due to periodic bandhs while stu- dents are unable to attend schools and colleges thereby affecting their studies. However, already, misguided students in uniforms indulging in stone pelting are being seen on the streets. Admitting that the situation in Kashmir Valley was deteri- orating, authorities are appre- hensive that this summer too will be “hot” like last year when mass protests marred life in the State for more than five months following the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist Burhan Wani in an encounter in June. In fact, the State witnessed such unrest after a gap of more than five or six years and it took the security forces much effort over a prolonged period of time to bring down the inci- dents of violence and ensure relative peace. Coupled with the likeli- hood of stone pelting inci- dents going up, the counter- insurgency grid is also gearing up for infiltration bids by Pakistan’s ISI and Army-backed terrorists from across the Line of Control, sources said. It means that the security forces will have to tackle a two-front situation, law and order situa- tion in the Valley on the one hand and infiltration bids and terrorist attacks on strategic tar- gets on the other. The Army has sought the deployment of more women constables and officers of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and the local police to deal with women stone throw- ers and protestors. Of late, they have started converging on the encounter sites along with the men to hamper the opera- tions, officials said. T he Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday issued a show cause notice to former Finance Minister P Chidambaram’s son Karti and slapped Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA) notices for violating currency laws to the tune of 2,262 crore on Vasan Health Care and 45 crore on Karti- linked firm Advantage Strategic Consulting for dubious invest- ments and sale through Mauritius and Singapore. Controversial firm Advantage Strategic Consulting, caught in the Aircel-Maxis scam kickbacks, was a shareholder in Vasan Health Care. The ED has termed Karti as “the controller and ultimate beneficiary” in these transactions violating FEMA. The ED also sum- moned key directors of Vasan and Advantage besides venture capital firms Sequoia Group and West Bridge in connection with dubious money transfers and exaggerated share pricing. “The total amount of con- travention identified on dif- ferent counts and found to have been committed by M/s Advantage Strategic Consulting Private Limited in the sale transaction of shares of Vasan to overseas investors is around 45 crore. A show cause notice has been issued to M/s Advantage Strategic Consulting Private Limited, its directors and also to Karti P Chidambaram who appears to be the controller and ultimate beneficiary in these transac- tions,” said an ED note. The ED also said that its probe in the Aircel-Maxis scam and Chidambaram’s role in dubious Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clear- ance to the deal is underway. This probe is under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) which envisages imprisonment for a term rang- ing from three to seven years. The ED had already served three notices to Karti for allegedly accepting “kickback” of two lakh dollars from Malaysian company Maxis after father Chidambaram’s clearance. Karti has not yet appeared before the ED. “Further investigation under PMLA is going on in respect of FIPB approval given to Aircel-Maxis by the then Finance Minister wherein for- eign inflow was 3,500 crore approximately, whereas as per Government policy and FIPB guidelines the competent authority was the Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs for approving any inflow above 600 crore,” said the ED. The CBI is expected to file a detailed probe status report in Supreme Court on May 2. Continued on Page 4 I n the wake of Shiv Sena MP Ravindra Gaikwad episode, national carrier Air India is planning to act tough against unruly passengers by imposing hefty fines of up to 15 lakh besides immediately registering police complaints. The airline is planning to fine 5 lakh for delaying a flight up to an hour, 10 lakh for delaying between one and two hours and 15 lakh for delay- ing beyond two hours. “Air India is mulling to penalise passengers who delay flights with their unruly behav- iour. This is nothing to do with the Civil Aviation Requirements (CAR) being amended by the Government and Air India is doing it for its self defence and for better safety and security of both passengers and airline staff,” AI sources said about the proposal. The proposal comes with- in a month of Gaikwad assault- ing an Air India staffer inside the aircraft prompting the national carrier and other air- lines to ban him for almost two weeks from their flights on March 23. However, on the day when his flying ban was revoked following his regret let- ter to Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju, another Parliamentarian Dola Sen too held up an Air India flight for 40 minutes and reportedly mis- behaved with the airlines staff. The Gaikwad issue had also rocked Parliament and Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and Home Minister Rajnath Singh had to intervene to sort out the issue. There have been several other incidents earlier too involving the airline staff and passengers, including MPs. Back in 2015, another MP had assaulted an Air India officer at Tirupati airport. Besides the fines, the air- line also plans to provide nec- essary training to the staff for dealing with unruly passengers. Ever since the incidents involv- ing Gaikwad and Sen occurred, the national carrier and the Government have been explor- ing ways to bolster the existing mechanism to rein in unruly passengers. Continued on Page 4 T he Crime Branch of the Delhi Police on Monday registered an FIR against deputy general secretary of the AIADMK (Amma) faction TVV Dinakaran for allegedly trying to bribe an Election Commission official to get the Two Leaves symbol for his fac- tion in the RK Nagar Assembly bypoll in Tamil Nadu. Dinakaran, a leader of the AIADMK faction led by his jailed aunt VK Sasikala, was booked following the arrest of an alleged middleman, Sukesh Chandrasekhar (27), from a five-star hotel in Delhi on Sunday. “It has been learnt that Sukesh had struck a deal for 50 crore for helping the AIADMK faction keep the ‘two leaves’ symbol. Police have recovered 1.30 crore from him. Two cars — a BMW and a Mercedes — have also been seized. One of the cars had Member of Parliament written on it,” Deputy Commissioner of Police, Crime, Madhur Verma said. The Mercedes held a Member of Parliament sticker on the number plate. Sukesh is being interrogated to know about his profile and his connection with any EC official, he said. Continued on Page 4 C ommuters in Delhi-NCR may face hardship in hiring taxis on Tuesday as the drivers of two app-based cab aggrega- tors Ola and Uber have threat- ened to go off roads for a day against “low fares”. This is the second round of strike called by the drivers. They had gone on strike in February too, which had last- ed 13 days, causing inconve- nience to commuters in Delhi, Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon and Faridabad. The strike might hit private transport service in Delhi and other neighbouring cities as some groups of tourist taxi providers, autorickshaw union, as per agitating Sarvodaya Drivers’ Association, have extended their support to it. Continued on Page 4 A lmost a year after he was granted parole, Sahara chief Subrata Roy on Monday faced the prospect of his re-arrest and the auction of his prized Aamby Valley project as the Supreme Court, irked by his fail- ure to make payment of 10,000 crore to SEBI, direct- ed him to remain present in person on April 27. The Bench of Justices Dipak Misra, Ranjan Gogoi and AK Sikri said, “On that day we may consider whether to grant you bail or send you to jail.” To ensure that the money comes in by the next hearing fixed for April 27, the SC simultaneously made arrangements for auction of Sahara’s prime property located at Aamby Valley situated near Lonavla, Mumbai. The court appointed the official liquidator attached with the Bombay High Court to carry out a valuation of the 8,900 acre land and submit a report to the SC within 10 days on the unencumbered land fit for auction sale. According to SEBI’s senior advo- cate Arvind Datar, the property is valued to be above 34,000 crore. Continued on Page 4 U nbelievable it may sound but it is true that a boy whom the fam- ily members claimed to have given a water-burial after he reportedly died of snake bite was found alive after 11 years. The sensational case was report- ed from Bulundshahr district where family members of Padam Singh, res- ident of village Pinninagar area of Mataghat under Khurja Police station are happy to get their son back alive. The news spread like wildfire and vil- lagers from far flung areas thronged the house just to have a glimpse of the boy. Interestingly, the boy has lost memory but the snake charmer, who claimed to have rescued the boy, said that he had some ‘herbs’ which could bring back the boy’s memory and he will recollect entire sequence of events from his death till he was rescued. According to reports, on July 6, 2006, Deepak then 9, son of Padam Singh was playing in his village when he was bitten by a poisonous snake. He was rushed to hospital and was even taken to a ‘vaid’ but all of them pronounced him dead. The family members later gave the body a water- burial in the Holy River Ganga at Avantika Devi Ghat because as per Hindu system a minor who dies of snake bite is not cremated but given water burial. Reports said that mira- cle happened after almost 11 years of Deepak’s alleged “death” when he came along with a snake charmer to his own village to give a performance. Continued on Page 4 New Delhi: Non-penetrative plastic bullets are likely to be used in Jammu & Kashmir for crowd control or stone-pelting mobs to reduce collateral damage during counter-insurgency oper- ations. However, the pellet guns will continue to be used as the last resort in the non-lethal category. Thousands of plastic bullets were produced and sent to the Kashmir Valley for use by the law enforcement agencies, official sources said. The plastic bullets are non-penetrative and can be fired from INSAS rifles, the sources said. Detailed report on P4 W ith the pattern of increas- ing temperatures, the State Capital recorded the highest day temperature of the season at 42.7 degree Celsius on Monday. The trend of increasing day tempera- tures continues to make the weather conditions harsher and has reached immense hot levels. Scorching heat was expe- rienced during the day and night temperatures have also witnessed significant increase in the past 5-6 days making the nights uncomfortable which were earlier providing relief from the harsh day weather conditions. Hoshangabad continues to witness day temperature at extreme levels and recorded day temperature at 45 degree Celsius for the third consecu- tive day and was the hottest place of the State on Monday. Raisen which witnessed day temperature around 40 degree Celsius recorded day temperature at 42.2 degree Celsius. Gwalior recorded the highest day temperature for the third consecutive day among the major cities at 44.6 degree Celsius. In the next 24 hours Shajapur and Ujjain districts are likely to witness hot night conditions. Warning of hot wave con- ditions has been issued for Gwalior, Chambal, Ujjain and Sagar divisions and Hoshangabad, Dhar, Khandwa and Shahdol districts in the next 24 hours. Several places in Gwalior division and Sagar, Hoshangabad divisions wit- nessed hot wave conditions in the past 24 hours. Of the major cities Indore recorded day temperature at 41.6 degree Celsius and night temperature at 22 degree Celsius. Jabalpur recorded day temperature at 42 degree Celsius and night tempera- ture at 22.7 degree Celsius. Among the major cities night temperature was recorded with slight decrease. Nowgong continued to recorded higher day tempera- tures and recorded day temperature at 43.8 degree Celsius on Monday. Sagar recorded day tem- perature at 42.8 degree Celsius. Ratlam recorded day temper- ature at 43.5 degree Celsius and Damoh recorded day temper- ature at 44.2 degree Celsius. Guna recorded day tempera- ture at 43.4 degree Celsius. The State was receiving hot winds which creates heat wave conditions have stopped due to which the heat wave conditions which were witnessed at sev- eral places have shrunk to few places but the day tempera- tures continue to prevail at higher levels around 42 degree Celsius. RNI Regn. No. MPENG/2004/13703, Regd. No. L-2/BPLON/41/2006-2008 C M Y K C M Y K

Transcript of C M Y K - The Pioneer Aircel-Maxis scam kickbacks, ... 40 minutes and reportedly mis- ... Valley...

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One more summer (ofunrest),” is what the sepa-

ratists have decided, as perIntelligence inputs with thesecurity establishment, which isalready bearing the brunt ofrenewed and intensified protestsand attacks, particularly, in fourdistricts of South Kashmir.

The issue was discussed atthe ongoing Commanders’Conference here on Monday.Sources said that as per the “onemore summer” plan, the sepa-ratists have decided to go all outagainst the security forces andglimpses of it are already beingwitnessed, be it during the largescale violence during the recentbypolls or increasing incidentsof stone pelting against the

forces, particularly when theyare engaged in encountersagainst the terrorists.

With mobs coming out onthe streets in the districts ofSrinagar, Kupwara, Pulwama,Kulgam and Anantnag almostdaily to protest against allegedatrocities by the security forces,the local Army Commandersare redrawing their strategy todeal with the unrest, officialssaid here.

Army chief General BipinRawat had briefed NationalSecurity Adviser (NSA) AjitDoval on Sunday about the sit-uation in the State against thebackdrop of protests against theArmy for reportedly using a“human shield” to keep thestone throwers at bay on April9 in Budgam. The Army chief

also met Jammu & KashmirGovernor NN Vohra onSaturday. The Army is con-ducting an in-house investiga-tion to ascertain facts about thevideo showing the incident.

Elaborating uponIntelligence inputs about theanticipated unrest, sources saidhere on Monday that the sep-aratists and Pakistan-backedterrorist groups are trying togarner support of the localpopulace, including tradersand students to back them bystaging large-scale protests dur-ing the coming weeks.

The business communitysuffers heavy losses due toperiodic bandhs while stu-dents are unable to attendschools and colleges therebyaffecting their studies.

However, already, misguidedstudents in uniforms indulgingin stone pelting are being seenon the streets.

Admitting that the situationin Kashmir Valley was deteri-orating, authorities are appre-hensive that this summer too

will be “hot” like last year whenmass protests marred life in theState for more than five monthsfollowing the killing of HizbulMujahideen terrorist BurhanWani in an encounter in June.In fact, the State witnessedsuch unrest after a gap of more

than five or six years and it tookthe security forces much effortover a prolonged period oftime to bring down the inci-dents of violence and ensurerelative peace.

Coupled with the likeli-hood of stone pelting inci-

dents going up, the counter-insurgency grid is also gearingup for infiltration bids byPakistan’s ISI and Army-backedterrorists from across the Lineof Control, sources said. Itmeans that the security forceswill have to tackle a two-frontsituation, law and order situa-tion in the Valley on the onehand and infiltration bids andterrorist attacks on strategic tar-

gets on the other.The Army has sought the

deployment of more womenconstables and officers of theCentral Reserve Police Force(CRPF) and the local police todeal with women stone throw-ers and protestors. Of late, theyhave started converging on theencounter sites along with themen to hamper the opera-tions, officials said.

����������������%� ��� :2�4:,;�

The Enforcement Directorate(ED) on Monday issued a

show cause notice to formerFinance Minister PChidambaram’s son Karti andslapped Foreign ExchangeManagement Act, 1999(FEMA) notices for violatingcurrency laws to the tune of�2,262 crore on Vasan HealthCare and �45 crore on Karti-linked firm Advantage StrategicConsulting for dubious invest-ments and sale throughMauritius and Singapore.

Controversial f irmAdvantage StrategicConsulting, caught in theAircel-Maxis scam kickbacks,was a shareholder in VasanHealth Care. The ED hastermed Karti as “the controllerand ultimate beneficiary” in

these transactions violatingFEMA. The ED also sum-moned key directors of Vasanand Advantage besides venturecapital firms Sequoia Groupand West Bridge in connectionwith dubious money transfersand exaggerated share pricing.

“The total amount of con-travention identified on dif-ferent counts and found tohave been committed by M/sAdvantage Strategic ConsultingPrivate Limited in the saletransaction of shares of Vasanto overseas investors is around�45 crore. A show cause noticehas been issued to M/sAdvantage Strategic ConsultingPrivate Limited, its directorsand also to Karti PChidambaram who appears tobe the controller and ultimatebeneficiary in these transac-tions,” said an ED note.

The ED also said that its

probe in the Aircel-Maxis scamand Chidambaram’s role indubious Foreign InvestmentPromotion Board (FIPB) clear-ance to the deal is underway.This probe is under Preventionof Money Laundering Act(PMLA) which envisagesimprisonment for a term rang-ing from three to seven years.The ED had already servedthree notices to Karti for

allegedly accepting “kickback”of two lakh dollars fromMalaysian company Maxisafter father Chidambaram’sclearance. Karti has not yetappeared before the ED.

“Further investigationunder PMLA is going on inrespect of FIPB approval givento Aircel-Maxis by the thenFinance Minister wherein for-eign inflow was �3,500 crore

approximately, whereas as perGovernment policy and FIPBguidelines the competentauthority was the CabinetCommittee of EconomicAffairs for approving anyinflow above �600 crore,” said the ED.

The CBI is expected to filea detailed probe status report inSupreme Court on May 2.

Continued on Page 4

�������������1��� :2�4:,;�

In the wake of Shiv Sena MPRavindra Gaikwad episode,

national carrier Air India isplanning to act tough againstunruly passengers by imposinghefty fines of up to �15 lakhbesides immediately registeringpolice complaints.

The airline is planning tofine �5 lakh for delaying a flightup to an hour, �10 lakh fordelaying between one and twohours and �15 lakh for delay-ing beyond two hours.

“Air India is mulling topenalise passengers who delayflights with their unruly behav-iour. This is nothing to do withthe Civil Aviation Requirements(CAR) being amended by theGovernment and Air India isdoing it for its self defence andfor better safety and security ofboth passengers and airlinestaff,” AI sources said about theproposal.

The proposal comes with-in a month of Gaikwad assault-

ing an Air India staffer insidethe aircraft prompting thenational carrier and other air-lines to ban him for almost twoweeks from their flights onMarch 23. However, on the daywhen his flying ban wasrevoked following his regret let-ter to Aviation Minister AshokGajapathi Raju, anotherParliamentarian Dola Sen tooheld up an Air India flight for40 minutes and reportedly mis-behaved with the airlines staff.

The Gaikwad issue hadalso rocked Parliament andLok Sabha Speaker SumitraMahajan and Home MinisterRajnath Singh had to intervene

to sort out the issue. There havebeen several other incidentsearlier too involving the airlinestaff and passengers, includingMPs. Back in 2015, another MPhad assaulted an Air Indiaofficer at Tirupati airport.

Besides the fines, the air-line also plans to provide nec-essary training to the staff fordealing with unruly passengers.Ever since the incidents involv-ing Gaikwad and Sen occurred,the national carrier and theGovernment have been explor-ing ways to bolster the existingmechanism to rein in unrulypassengers.

Continued on Page 4

������������2����� ���������� :24:,;�<(;: *�

The Crime Branch of theDelhi Police on Monday

registered an FIR against deputygeneral secretary of theAIADMK (Amma) factionTVV Dinakaran for allegedlytrying to bribe an ElectionCommission official to get theTwo Leaves symbol for his fac-tion in the RK Nagar Assemblybypoll in Tamil Nadu.

Dinakaran, a leader of theAIADMK faction led by hisjailed aunt VK Sasikala, wasbooked following the arrest of

an alleged middleman, SukeshChandrasekhar (27), from afive-star hotel in Delhi onSunday.

“It has been learnt thatSukesh had struck a deal for�50 crore for helping theAIADMK faction keep the ‘twoleaves’ symbol. Police haverecovered �1.30 crore fromhim. Two cars — a BMW anda Mercedes — have also been

seized. One of the cars hadMember of Parliament writtenon it,” Deputy Commissioner ofPolice, Crime, Madhur Vermasaid. The Mercedes held aMember of Parliament stickeron the number plate. Sukesh isbeing interrogated to knowabout his profile and his connection with any ECofficial, he said.

Continued on Page 4

�������������� :2�4:,;�

Commuters in Delhi-NCRmay face hardship in hiring

taxis on Tuesday as the driversof two app-based cab aggrega-tors Ola and Uber have threat-ened to go off roads for a dayagainst “low fares”.

This is the second round ofstrike called by the drivers.They had gone on strike inFebruary too, which had last-ed 13 days, causing inconve-nience to commuters in Delhi,Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurgaonand Faridabad.

The strike might hit privatetransport service in Delhi andother neighbouring cities assome groups of tourist taxiproviders, autorickshaw union,as per agitating SarvodayaDrivers’ Association, haveextended their support to it.

Continued on Page 4

����� :2�4:,;�

Almost a year after he was granted parole, Saharachief Subrata Roy on Monday faced the prospect

of his re-arrest and the auction of his prized AambyValley project as the Supreme Court, irked by his fail-ure to make payment of �10,000 crore to SEBI, direct-ed him to remain present in person on April 27.

The Bench of Justices Dipak Misra, Ranjan Gogoiand AK Sikri said, “On that day we may considerwhether to grant you bail or send you to jail.”

To ensure that the money comes in by the nexthearing fixed for April 27, the SC simultaneouslymade arrangements for auction of Sahara’s primeproperty located at Aamby Valley situated nearLonavla, Mumbai.

The court appointed the official liquidatorattached with the Bombay High Court to carry outa valuation of the 8,900 acre land and submit a reportto the SC within 10 days on the unencumbered landfit for auction sale. According to SEBI’s senior advo-cate Arvind Datar, the property is valued to be above�34,000 crore.

Continued on Page 4

����������%���%��� ,'(1 =2

Unbelievable it may sound but itis true that a boy whom the fam-

ily members claimed to have givena water-burial after he reportedlydied of snake bite was found aliveafter 11 years.

The sensational case was report-ed from Bulundshahr district wherefamily members of Padam Singh, res-ident of village Pinninagar area ofMataghat under Khurja Police stationare happy to get their son back alive.The news spread like wildfire and vil-lagers from far flung areas thronged thehouse just to have a glimpse of the boy.

Interestingly, the boy has lostmemory but the snake charmer, whoclaimed to have rescued the boy, saidthat he had some ‘herbs’ which could

bring back the boy’s memory and hewill recollect entire sequence of eventsfrom his death till he was rescued.

According to reports, on July 6,2006, Deepak then 9, son of PadamSingh was playing in his village whenhe was bitten by a poisonous snake.He was rushed to hospital and waseven taken to a ‘vaid’ but all of thempronounced him dead. The familymembers later gave the body a water-burial in the Holy River Ganga atAvantika Devi Ghat because as perHindu system a minor who dies ofsnake bite is not cremated but givenwater burial. Reports said that mira-cle happened after almost 11 years ofDeepak’s alleged “death” when hecame along with a snake charmer tohis own village to give a performance.

Continued on Page 4

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New Delhi: Non-penetrative plastic bullets are likely to be usedin Jammu & Kashmir for crowd control or stone-pelting mobsto reduce collateral damage during counter-insurgency oper-ations. However, the pellet guns will continue to be used asthe last resort in the non-lethal category.

Thousands of plastic bullets were produced and sent tothe Kashmir Valley for use by the law enforcement agencies,official sources said. The plastic bullets are non-penetrativeand can be fired from INSAS rifles, the sources said.

Detailed report on P4

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With the pattern of increas-ing temperatures, the

State Capital recorded thehighest day temperature ofthe season at 42.7 degreeCelsius on Monday. The trendof increasing day tempera-tures continues to make theweather conditions harsherand has reached immense hotlevels.

Scorching heat was expe-rienced during the day andnight temperatures have alsowitnessed significant increasein the past 5-6 days making thenights uncomfortable whichwere earlier providing relieffrom the harsh day weatherconditions.

Hoshangabad continues towitness day temperature atextreme levels and recordedday temperature at 45 degreeCelsius for the third consecu-tive day and was the hottestplace of the State on Monday.

Raisen which witnessedday temperature around 40degree Celsius recorded daytemperature at 42.2 degreeCelsius.

Gwalior recorded thehighest day temperature for thethird consecutive day amongthe major cities at 44.6 degreeCelsius. In the next 24 hoursShajapur and Ujjain districtsare likely to witness hot nightconditions.

Warning of hot wave con-ditions has been issued forGwalior, Chambal, Ujjain andSagar divisions andHoshangabad, Dhar, Khandwaand Shahdol districts in thenext 24 hours.

Several places in Gwaliordivision and Sagar,Hoshangabad divisions wit-nessed hot wave conditions inthe past 24 hours.

Of the major cities Indorerecorded day temperature at41.6 degree Celsius and nighttemperature at 22 degreeCelsius. Jabalpur recorded daytemperature at 42 degreeCelsius and night tempera-ture at 22.7 degree Celsius.Among the major cities nighttemperature was recorded withslight decrease.

Nowgong continued torecorded higher day tempera-tures and recorded

day temperature at 43.8degree Celsius on Monday.

Sagar recorded day tem-perature at 42.8 degree Celsius.Ratlam recorded day temper-ature at 43.5 degree Celsius andDamoh recorded day temper-ature at 44.2 degree Celsius.Guna recorded day tempera-ture at 43.4 degree Celsius.

The State was receiving hotwinds which creates heat waveconditions have stopped due towhich the heat wave conditionswhich were witnessed at sev-eral places have shrunk to fewplaces but the day tempera-tures continue to prevail athigher levels around 42 degreeCelsius.

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Chasing your dreams is noteasy,” says television actress

Ridheema Tiwari.Better known as Maldawali

in daily soap ‘Ghulaam’ andrecently received fame as‘Amba’ in Begum JaanRidheema was in city of lakes.She was here in Bhopal to talkabout her show Ghulaam.

While having a candid talkwith the media persons onMonday, Ridheema shared herjourney as an actress and howshe bagged the role ofMaldawali.

Ridheema while sharingher journey said, “I gave at leastfour auditions for this role, twoof them were look test. After alot of struggle I bagged this roleand I am really happy that I amplaying such a bold role onIndian television.”

Her character is bold, pow-erful and very different fromother characters. Commentingon the same she says, “The waythe role of Maldawali is pre-sented is like a dream. It’s anextremely powerful role, clad inthe best of sarees. Maldawali isunpredictable in her actions;hence I feel it’s a special role.”

Her character Maldawali isquite bold. Ask her how shemanages to get into her char-

acter and she quips, “When Iwear my clothes as Maldawali,I evolve. I strongly believe thatin order to convince others, oneshould first convince the innercore. The attitude and mannerin which you carry yourself isalso very important. You haveto maintain a great posture, ele-gance and at the same timelook confident. I love the factthat people are enjoying mycharacter on the show.”

Hailing from Gwalior,Ridheema is seen in variousroles on television and recent-ly she impressed her fans withher character ‘Amba in BegumJaan’.

Sharing her experiencewith Vidya Balan, Ridheemasaid, “Vidya is very down-to-earth and a real inspiration. Ilearned a lot from her and itwas a great experience workingwith her.”

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Three brilliant students ofCampion School Arera

Colony Bhopal, from seniorclasses, brought laurels to theInstitution, Bhopal City andMadhya Pradesh again by giv-ing their excellent performanceby being in merit positions inThe Green Olympiad. FromCampion School side. 14 stu-dents from class VI to X tookpart in it.

CBSE in collaborationwith the Energy and ResourcesInstitute (TERI), Ministry ofEnvironment Forest andClimate change conducted TheGreen Olympiad during theyear 2016 in which thousandsof students from differentCBSE schools, Private Schoolsof All over India were partici-pated.

Among those brilliant stu-dents, Rachit Yadav, HarshrajChaudhary and PrabhavBakliwal from IX class achieveddifferent ranks in Merit Listand distinction and wonCertificate of Merit/Distinctionand a Gift respectively. All ofthem gave their Extra-ordinaryperformance in this Nationallevel exam under the Guidanceof the senior most TeacherMahendra Kothari (ComputerLecturer).

The Green Olympiad is anannual written examination onenvironment initiated by TheEnergy and Resources Institute(TERI) in 1999. The exam isconducted by SustainableDevelopment Outreach andYouth Education Division ofTERI and attracts participationfrom lakhs of school studentsacross India and abroad.

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Ihave dreamt to becomepeon in Bank Sector but in

first attempt I was selected tobecome IAS officer”, saidfamous author DoctorPramod Agarwal who wasthe IMS officer of 1976 batchof West Bengal cadre.

Dr. Agarwal shared hisviews and said that he has gotan opportunity to work withfamous Chief Minister ofWest-Bengal Jyoti Basu andChaudhary.

He has also told about hispast experiences during histenure at Puroliya andMursidabad districts wherethe population was one crore.

During his tenure whenhe has worked in Puroliya andMursidabad districts he hasgot an opportunity to workfor schedule caste, LandlessMuslims issues to provide theland etc assignments weresolved by him.

Dr. Agar wal alsoinformed that he has alsoworked with former ElectionCommissioner TN Seshan.Former Chief Minister ofWest Bengal Jyoti Basu dur-

ing his last tenure of 2007 hasasked to permanent his chefin PWD as he has served him for 35years. Dr. Agarwal has also informed about the political life in West Bengal as it the culture for PoliticalLeaders to take Banana and Bread in their office.

They cannot take otherdelicious food like other statesleaders.

During the honour pro-gramme for Dr. PramodAgarwal, Jiwaji Universityformer Vice-Chancel lorProfessor Prakash Singh Bisenhas given the Bundelmatihonour at Gandhi RoadCircuit House.

Former IG Ramlal Verma,Jiwaji University Vice-Chancellor Professor PrakashSingh Bisen, Former ChambalCommissioner Akhilendu,Hari Om Purohit, UdbhavPresident Dr. Keshav PandeyNayeem Qureshi, Dr. Sidqqui,Dr. Sanjay Swarnkar, RamanAgarwal, Dr. Vinod and Hari Singh Chauhan etc have garlanded Dr. Agarwal.

Other guests presentedShawl and honored him.

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A19-year-old youth diedwhile three persons were

injured after a passenger busrammed into a parked loadingauto rickshaw at Shamshabadunder Berasia police stationarea late in the night on Sunday.

According to the policefour injured were rushed to anearby hospital where a youthwas declared dead while threeescaped with injuries.

The deceased was identi-fied as Sanjeev Jatav while theinjured were identified asGopal Singh, Vinayak Singh,Pushpendra Singh who sus-tained injuries and are under-going treatment at Hamidiahospital.

SHO Berasia police H CLadiya said that the busrammed into a parked goodsmini truck resulting into thedeath of Sanjeev Jathav whowas changing deflated tyre ofmini truck.

The three injured escapedwith injuries and are reportedlystable. The circumstantial evi-dences suggest that the mistake

was made bus driver who wasnot able to control the bus andrammed into the parked vehi-cle, he added.

The bus bearing registra-tion number UP83T4543 hit aparked loading auto rickshawbearing registration numberMP04GA0837.

The incident took place ataround 2.30 in the night. Theerrant bus driver escaped thespot leaving the bus and is stillat large. The bus belongs toBalaji travels and ply betweenJhansi to Indore.

The front end of the buswas damaged severely whichsuggests that the bus was trav-elling at high speed.

After the preliminaryinvestigation the body was sentfor the post mortem. The policehave registered a case undersection 304 A of the IPC andhave started further investiga-tion.

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The new Collectorate build-ing is not only the State’s best

but the country’s best building.Industry Minister RajendraShukla said, “I do not say this,the world says so.”

The architecture of the newbuilding is unique in itself. Theconstruction of the building isanother addition to the beautyof Rewa. Chief Minister ShivrajSingh Chouhan dedicated thisbeautiful building of the coun-try to the public recently.

The three-storeyed build-ing constructed with the bestmodern technique on the linesof Karnataka Vidhan SabhaBhavan on 7800 square metre innearly 13,000 square metre plotof the old Collectorate of Rewais completely pollution-free.There are four big and foursmall gardens on nearly 4500square metre in the Bhavanpremises. The Bhavan has beenconstructed at a cost of Rs1362.78 lakh. Apart from this,Rs 2.17 crore has been spent onfurniture and interior decora-tion of the office. The nearly 132year-old Collectorate Bhavanwill be conserved as a heritagebuilding. The new Collectoratebuilding will be a green build-

ing with a 200 kw most modernsolar power plant on its rooftopto ensure free power supply inthe entire premises.

Also, the building has rain-water harvesting system withwhich rainwater will be reused.At least 18 significant depart-ments directly related to the ser-vices of the general public willwork under one roof. TheCollectorate has single windowsystem.

The poorest of poor cannow come to the Collectorate

building, get their work doneand go back smiling.

The entire Bhavan will beunder CCTV surveillance. Pan,gutka, tobacco consumption inthe Bhavan is prohibited and iffound consuming any of these,the concerned person would befined. Special arrangements willbe made for disabled.

A huge statue of Baba SahebBhimrao Ambedkar was beeninstalled at the Bhavan. TheBhavan has been declared ISOcertified.

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Alarge number of peoplefrom Christian communi-

ty and many other religionscame together to celebrateEaster Mahotsav organised atBSSS College ground onMonday.

On this occasion,Archbishop Leo Cornelio SVD,said, “ Easter is all about know-ing, believing, loving and serv-ing the Lord to become servingpeople, loving people, joyfulpeople and living people. Allthose who encountered theResurrected Lord will becometo witness to all, that he taught,did and proclaimed. Easter isnot a one day celebration but aneternal commemoration ofChrist love.

Pastor Biju Varghese saidthat in the present context thereis lot of violence against thebelievers of Christ. He asked allthe believers to encounter therecent Lord in day to day life asthe death is not an end but abeginning towards new life.

The Programme beganwith a prayer by SameerKhimla, CNI followed by light-ing the lamp. Fr Johney PJ wel-

comed all the dignitaries andasked the people to organize thetraditional Mahotsav in thefuture too. There was a welcomedance by St Francis Co-EdSchool, Barrai. The Mahotsavwas highlightened with 20 min-utes dance and drama with thetheme “I am the Resurrection”says the Lord. The school fromSt. Xavier, BHEL, Queen Mary,Ayodhya Nagar and StMontfort, Anand Nagar addedmore colour to the drama withtheir students’ dance. The maincharacters of the drama were thebrothers from SVD VidhyaBhavan.

Bhopal Mayor AlokSharma and cabinet MinisterVishwas Sarang wished theChristians a joyful Easter andasked the Christians to carry onthe good work they do. Fr JosePrakash thanked all the guests,volunteers and Grace MediaWorld for making this megaevent very memorable one.

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For the first time ever, playbased on German drama

‘The Trial of Lucullus’ will bestaged in State capital.

The drama is written by arenowned playwright ofGermany Bertolt Brecht. Theplay will be staged at RangashreeLittle Ballet Troupe premises onTuesday at 7 pm.

Directed by Sanjay

Upadhyay, director of MadhyaPradesh School of Drama(MPSD) the play ‘Lucua kaShahnama’ will be performed bythe students of MPSD 2016-17batch.

Interestingly, this play hasnever been staged before inIndia. While talking about theplay, Director Sanjay Upadhayayinformed that the play will beperformed for the first time everon Indian stage. “This is one of

the interesting facts that the play‘The Trial of Lucullus’ wasnever experimented before. Thistime we have selected the playby Bertold Brecht.”

Elaborating further, heinformed that the play is in dif-ferent form with which the stu-dents have learned a lot. Theplay is called ‘Lucua KaShahnama’. As many as 25MPSD students will be per-forming on stage.

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Condition of a tiger, under-going treatment at the city

based Van Vihar National Parkafter suffering a backbone frac-ture on account of being struckby a hunter's bullet about a fort-night ago, continues to be crit-ical.

Van Vihar National ParkDirector Samita Rajora whiletalking to the media persons onMonday said, “The hind legsare impaired probably due to afall from a hill. Surgery wasconducted. In the wake of theinjury, the carnivore ceasedconsuming food but a couple ofdays back it ate meat.”

Rajora said that the tigerwas not eating and his woundswere not healing properly,when it was brought to Bhopal.“So we decided to conduct itsfull body x-ray to see what waswrong. After X-ray, we found a1.2 cm bullet, probably firedfrom some old country-maderifle, which our veterinarianstook out after surgery. Afterexamining it, it became clearthat the bullet had first hit itsleft thigh and then entered itsabdominal area,” she said.

World Wildlife Fund offi-cials recently toured BetulDistrict's Rathipur jungle wherethe animal was found. Threepersons were taken into cus-tody. Forest Department offi-cials said that the trio wasamong five observed movingabout with a firearm.

The three year old maletiger was found injured andimmobile in Betul’s Rathipurarea, about 155 km fromBhopal on April 7.

After local villagersinformed forest officials, thetiger was rescued by a teamfrom Satpura tiger reserve andshifted it here on April 8 to VanVihar National Park which hasa well-equipped wildlife rescuecentre. An x-ray revealed abullet in its abdomen whichwas surgically removed onApril 10.

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Under the SarvashikshaAbhiyan, free text books

will be distributed in class 1 to8 of Government Primary andMiddle Schools of the state inthe academic session 2017-18.

The State Education Centre

has issued directives to all theDistrict Collectors in thisregard. It has been told that textbooks should be distributedwithin the stipulated time table.The books will be provided bythe Text Book Corporation toall the blocks till April 30.

Information regarding textbooks allotment will be enteredat the education portal as soonas books are received at theblock level. School and Jan-Shiksha Centre wise list forenrolment of children has been

provided at the education por-tal. Also necessary instruc-tions have been issued regard-ing transportation of textbooks. Maharashtra RajyaPustak Nirmit va AbhyaskramSanshodhan Mandal Pune hasbeen authorised for Marathicourse books. Free text books

on Environmental Study andSocial Science in Urdu lan-guage and Hindi, Maths andScience subjects in Hindi lan-guage beside English languagetext books will be provided toMadarsas registered under theMadarsa Board.

A total of 90 percentbooks printed by the Text BookCorporation will be givendirectly to the schools and theremaining 10 percent bookswill be kept at block level instock.

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Bharat Heavy ElectricalsLimited (BHEL) has suc-

cessfully commissioned twounits of 270 MW at Rattan IndiaNasik Power Limited’s 5x270MW thermal power project,located at Sinnar in NasikDistrict of Maharashtra.

Significantly, with the com-missioning of these units, BHELhas commissioned eight sets forRattanIndia in Maharashtra - 3sets at Nasik and 5 sets atAmravati. In addition, two more270 MW units are presently inadvanced stages of completionat Nasik.

BHEL’s scope of work inthe project envisaged design,engineering, manufacture, sup-ply, erection and commission-ing of Steam Turbines,Generators, Boilers, associatedAuxiliaries and Electricals,besides state-of-the-art Controls& Instrumentation (C&I) andElectrostatic Precipitators(ESPs).

The equipment for theproject was supplied by variousmanufacturing units of BHELlocated at Trichy, Ranipet,Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Bhopaland Haridwar while the con-struction work was carried outby BHEL’s Power Sector -

Western Region.Thermal sets of 270 MW

rating are an in-house impro-visation of 210/250 MW setssupplied earlier by BHEL, whichtoday form the backbone of theIndian power sector and havebeen performing much abovethe national average as well asinternational benchmarks.

A large number of similarsets ensures easy availability ofspares and operators’ familiar-ity. 13 sets of 270 MW ratinghave so far been commissionedby BHEL in the country.

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Savita Singh wife ofGhanshyam Singh,

Member (Traction) RailwayBoard the other day visitedvarious centres run by BHELLadies Club.

She was accompanied byPratibha Thakur, PresidentBHEL Ladies Club. Singh vis-ited the Helping Hands,Technical Centre, MasalaCentre, Chapati Centre, VatikaRefreshment Centre,Vocational Centre and othercentres run by the club. Onthis occasion Vice-PresidentKiran Gupta, Mamta Saraswat,Shashi Singh, Diksha Nigam,Nikita Mathur, Pathak andother office-bearers of ladies’club were present.

Singh in her addressappreciating the activities ofthe club said that the club isdoing a good job for the wid-ows. The centres through theirefforts are also extending helpin production work. She fur-ther wished the railways ofstarting similar such centres.

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The Hockey players areshowcasing an impressive

performance at the 7th JuniorNational HockeyChampionship being playedat the State capital.

Here on Monday AssamHockey defeated HockeyGujarat 6-2 in their Pool Hclash marking the fourth day ofthe 7th Junior National HockeyChampionship 2017 (Men) ‘B’Division.

On day 4 of the hockeytournament two hockey match-es were played at DhyanchandStadium from Pool H.

The opening game of theday commenced at 7am.Hockey Gujarat opened scoreat the fifth minute with playerNeeraj Rajput’s goal. Giving atough struggle to team Assam,Parth Salekar of team Gujaratdoubled the lead in the 12thminute.

Hockey Assam pulling upthe socks scored two goalswith player Nazrul Islam scoredin the 23rd minute. LaterMohammad Tanveer, player ofHockey Assam restored theparity at half time i.e. at 30 min-utes.

In the second half of thematch, Hockey Assam turnedout to be stronger and scoredgoals in the start of second half.Sin the 52nd minute of thegame, player Hari Kanta, Sanjuin 53rd minute and RameshSahu in 55th minute were the

goal scorers for Hockey Assamand won the match by 6-2.

In the second game of theday, Punjab and Sindh Bankdefeated Sports Authority ofGujarat by scoring 5-0. In thefirst half of the match Prince(29 minutes) and in the secondhalf of the match GurumukhSingh (46th minute) scoredgoals in all three penalty cor-ners. On the other hand, SportsAuthority of Gujarat could noteven score a single goal.

In the 60th minute Princeand Gurumukh Singh withimpressive goals made the teamwon by 5-0.

Under the championship,three matches will be played onWednesday. In morning thematch will be played betweenwinner Pool A and winnerPool H. Later at 9 am matchwill be played between winnerPool D and Winner Pool E. Thelast match will be playedbetween Winner Pool C andwinner Pool F.

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Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)has alleged that Chief

Minister Shivraj SinghChouhan has once again triedto cheat the people of theState over electricity.

AAP Madhya Pradeshconvener Alok Agarwal in astatement here on Mondaysaid that the State and theCentral Governments havesigned an agreement onMonday with three privatecompanies to construct RewaUltra Mega Solar Project.

“Large advertisements pro-claiming that the electricityproduced through this projectwould cost just � 2.97 per unit, once again theShivraj Singh Chouhan ledBJP Government of the State istrying to confuse the people ofthe State,” Agarwal said.

Agarwal further said thatthe AAP is of the view that theGovernment should madepublic the power purchaseagreement and all the docu-ments related to it so that itbecome clear that what are thefacts and that there is no hid-den cost in it. At present the

total available electricity inthe State is 17500 Mega Wattwhereas its total demand is8000 Mega Watt. Due to overdouble surplus electricity eitherwe have kept our plants closedor we are selling electricity toother States at cheaper rates,hence we question the ChiefMinister that what is the needof this project especially whenafter its construction the elec-tricity produced by it wouldnot be used by MadhyaPradesh, he added.

He said that this year’sMP Electricity RegulatoryCommission’s order states thatno power would be purchasedfrom the plants that sells it over�2.60 per unit due to that thecommon man of the statewould have to pay �1755 crorewithout purchasing a singleunit from JP Bina, JhabuaPower and Singaji Phase 1.Let’s assume that the electric-ity produced through this pro-ject would cost �2.97 per unit,still it would be dearer than�2.60 due to that would not beuseful for MP and on selling itout of State the people wouldhave to bear the loss of 37 paiseper unit, he added.

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Bhopal is very beautiful citybut because of lack of mar-

keting, lesser number oftourists visits here. Revenue,Science and TechnologyMinister Umashankar Guptasaid this in Bhoomi-Pujanprogramme held for beautifi-cation works at Kaliasot dam.

Gupta said that he visit-ed 36 countries and the high-est number of tourists' placesis in Madhya Pradesh, com-

pared to the tourism spots inthese countries.

Revenue Minister Guptasaid that merger cases will belooked into in Sehore andRaisen, nearby places ofBhopal.

Bhopal DevelopmentAuthority Chairman OmYadav said that � 50 lakh willbe given for beautificationworks at Kaliasot. He saidthat Bhopal city is alreadybeautiful, and it needs to bedecorated. Yadav said that

plantation will be carried outin July.

Bhopal TourismPromotion Council Chairmanand Collector NishantWarwade informed thatBhoomi-Pujan for next phasewill be held after six months,after dedicating the works inthe first phase.

MANIT students havemade master developmentplant of Kaliasot. It will be car-ried out in six-phase. He saidthat green area will be devel-

oped in 1080 metre length areain the first phase.

Along with installingMandana stone and develop-ing grass, railing will beinstalled both the sides at theDam. He said that dam adven-ture activities will be started.Like VIP Road, road will bedeveloped here. Theater willbe developed in the last phase.BDA Chief Executive OfficerNeeraj Vashistha and localpublic representatives werepresent there.

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Union Minister VenkaiahNaidu has said that the MP

Government has obtained anew identity for the State.

Union Minister of State forRenewable Energy PiyushGoyal said that Rewa Projecthas been accepted as the idealstandard of solar energy in thecountry. Both the unionMinisters addressed a pro-gramme on Rewa Ultra MegaSolar Project Agreement hereon Monday.

Naidu further said said thatearlier Madhya Pradesh wassuch a special State of thecountry that was abundant inresources but politically‘bimaru’. Now the dynamicGovernment of the State hasobtained a new identity forMadhya Pradesh. The partici-pation of six international orga-nizations including France,Japan, Italy, Singapore in theauction of the Rewa Ultra MegaSolar Project is a significantachievement.

This magical transforma-tion is a result of the govern-ment’s commitment and hon-esty. Lauding the efforts of thestate’s urban development, hesaid that out of 20 chosen forSmart City in the first phase, theselection of seven cities of thestate is proof of the state’s com-mitment for development.

Madhya Pradesh is leadingin Amrut Yojana also. He saidthat the service of Narmada isa must for our life and is a verypious effort.

He also lauded the initiativeof planting 12 crore saplings. Hesaid that a New India is takingshape under the leadership ofPrime Minister Narendra Modi.

Terming the Rewa UltraMega Solar Power Project as anexample for the country, UnionMinister of State (IndependentCharge) for New andRenewable Energy PiyushGoyal said that the project hasbeen accepted as an ideal stan-dard in the country. Despitesurplus availability of power, theinitiative of the state in the fieldof Solar Energy is proof of thefarsightedness of the statetowards new and renewableenergy and its sensitivitytowards the environment.

The availability of renew-able energy has increased more

than 370 percent. Today 12,200MW renewable energy is avail-able in the country compared to2600 in the year 2014. By theend of 2017, the availability willbe 20,000 MW which will befive times the earlier fixed tar-get.

Terming the solar energyas the energy of the future,Chief Minister Shivraj SinghChouhan said that the State willbe the leading state in the fieldof solar energy. Renewableenergy is the energy of thefuture and work is being under-taken in this sector speedily.Rewa Ultra Mega Solar Project

is paving new ways for solarenergy production and use.

He said that road, electric-ity and water are basic necessi-ties for development. State gov-ernment has chosen the road todevelopment with responsibil-ity so that the question of exis-tence does not arise with thefuture generations.

In this direction, theNarmada Seva Yatra has beeninitiated in the state for envi-ronmental awareness.

International FinanceCorporation representativeIsabelle Chatterton informedthat power is must for cleandrinking water, education andemployment.

The Corporation providesassistance for its availability. Shetermed Rewa project as aneffective effort for stable devel-opment.

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The painful journey of a the-atre actor who falls from the

best to the worst circumstancesof his life was portrayed in play‘Natsamrat’.

The play was staged here onMonday at Ravindra Bhavanauditorium. The play markedthe grand opening of a two-daytheatre festival organized on theoccasion of golden jubilee ofRangayaan Theatre Troupe,Bhopal.

Directed by a renownedplaywright and set designer inBollywood Jayant Deshmukh,the play was written by Vi VaShirvadkar in Marathi and istranslated in Hindi bySacchinand Joshi.The play nar-rates the story of GanpatBelwalkar who has seen a gold-en era of his career suddenlyfaces the darkness of failures.

Ganpat Belwalkar is the topactor of Marathi theatre indus-try. He is a Shakespearian actorand has already performed leg-endary characters like KingLear, Ceaser, Othello with gustoand more. He has been award-ed with the highest rank theatreaward ‘Natsamrat’.

Ganpat, an old man hasretired after his one of the

great performances. He hasexperienced the best of hiscareer and now is at home withhis wife, son, daughter anddaughter-in-law.

Once a great drama actorexperiences what he neverexpected. His life kept somemore drama in store for him. Ashe is retired now, he is at homeall the time and so faces trou-bles in connecting with hischildren. His daughter-in-lawcreated ruckus every now andthen. His son supports his wife,daughter is not really happywith his retirement.His childrenturn against him. But, in all thetrials Ganpat’s wife Kaveri standby him. His life takes a tragicturn and all the struggle endswith his death.The play high-lights the complex human char-acteristics and shows that noone can fight destiny.

Alok Chatterjee as GanpatBalwalkar impressed the audi-ence and totally justified thecharacter. The emotional phas-es all through the play madeaudience glued to their seatswatching the play till the end.The set and light design werealso impressively done. Thoughthe play was in Hindi theessence of Mrathi language wasalso seen in play.

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Rozgar Ki Padhai, ChalenITI” campaign will be con-

ducted in all the districts fromApril 20 to June 30.

Minister of State forTechnical Education and SkillDevelopment (IndependentCharge), School Education andLabour Deepak Joshi reviewedthe preparations of the cam-paign through video confer-encing.

Joshi mentioned that thecampaign should be startedwith full preparations. Link

public representatives and socialorganisations with the cam-paign. Also include children ofPrime Minister SkillDevelopment Centres in thecampaign. Joshi while deliber-ating with Divisional JointDirectors individually issuednecessary instructions regardingpreparations of the campaign.

Principal SecretaryTechnical Education KalpanaShrivastava informed that thecampaign is being started toprovide benefits ofCraftsmanship TrainingScheme, Prime Minister Skill

Development Scheme, proposedMukhyamantri KoushalSamvardhan yojana andKoushalya yojana to the schoolstudents/drop outs. Studentswill be encouraged to takeadmissions in I.T.Is. Also sum-mer camp will be organised inITIs for students of class 9th and10th from April 20 to May 26.Students displaying best in thecamp at district level will behonoured in Bhopal on May 30.Moreover, school students/dropouts will be taken for a visit ofdistrict level ITI from June 1 to15. Later on campaign’s public-

ity will be conducted in theschools from June 15 to 30.Shrivastava said that all thePrincipals should prepare anoutline of the programme soonafter deliberations with theDistrict Collectors.

Director TechnicalEducation Sanjeev Singh statedthat lectures by youth who haveestablished self employmentmust be organised after thecamp.

Nodal Principals of Districtlevel ITIs and District EducationOfficers have been made maincoordinators of the campaign.

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Even as Punjab ChiefMinister Amarinder Singh

has dubbed Canadian DefenceMinister Harjit Singh Sajjan as"pro-Khalistani" and has refusedto meet him during his Indiavisit, the Shiromani GurdwaraParbandhak Committee(SGPC) has decided to honourthe visiting dignitary.

"As per traditions, theSGPC will honour CanadianDefence Minister Harjit SinghSajjan when he comes to payobeisance at the GoldenTemple in Amritsar on April20," Kirpal Singh Badungar, thehead of SGPC, said on Monday.

"He (Sajjan) is a high dig-nitary of a sovereign countryand India enjoys good relationswith Canada," he added.

It will be a proud momentfor all the Sikhs in Punjab andacross the globe when theSGPC will honour the

Canadian Minister at theGolden Temple, said Badungar.

Sajjan, a Sikh himself, hasrendered commendable ser-vices to the community inCanada and he deserved to behonoured as per SGPC tradi-tions, he added.

The SGPC has been offi-cially informed about Sajjan'svisit and the Canadian DefenceMinister will be presented witha 'siropa' (robe of honour), shawl,sword, a model of the GoldenTemple and religious books inthe sanctum sanctorum of theGolden Temple, said Badungar.

Reacting to Amarinder'sstatement describing Sajjan as"pro-Khalistani", the SGPCchief said, "It's a political view."

SGPC is a religious body andit will stick to its tradition of hon-ouring dignitaries who visit theGolden Temple, he added.

Meanwhile, radical outfitDamdami Taksal has alsodecided to honour the

Canadian Minister during hisvisit. Taksal chief HarnamSingh Dhumma will be presentat the Golden Temple to wel-come Sajjan on behalf of theTaksal and Sant Samaj.

CONGRESS HITS OUTAT THOSE IN SUPPORTOF SAJJAN

Hitting out at those stand-ing up in support of CanadianDefence Minister Harjit SinghSajjan, Punjab Congress onMonday said that there wasenough “documentary and cir-cumstantial evidence on record”to prove Indo-Canadian’s“Khalistani leanings”.

Those criticising ChiefMinister Capt AmarinderSingh were playing into thehands of “anti-Indian forces”,which were "out to destroy thesecular fabric of the country",said Congress MPs RavneetBittu and Gurjeet Aujla in a

joint statement. They urged all the organi-

sations, including political par-ties, not to indulge in "pettypolitics" over such a seriousissue, which had "grave impli-cations for the future of Punjaband its people".

The "pro-Khalistani lean-ings" of Sajjan, whose India visitbegins on Monday, had beenendorsed by several leaders ofhis own Liberal Party, many ofwhom had quit the party inprotest against his candidatureas a Liberal, the Congress lead-ers pointed out.

“Sajjan's brazenly pro-Khalistani stance had also notgone down well with the IndianGovernment when the Liberalcandidate, at a Surrey templeremembrance day event in2011, had warned his colleaguesnot to allow themselves to bephotographed near the postersof Khalistani martyrs.

“So much so that Ottawa

was forced to apologise to Indiaover the issue,” they added.

As per information in thepublic domain, the apologyfollowed complaints from somePunjabi-Canadians that reli-gious fundamentalists wouldhijack a solemn day to honourthe sacrifices of Canadian sol-diers, they said.

By choosing to ignore theseand many other “documentedfacts", political and religiousorganisations in India wereextending their subtle supportto Sajjan and "other pro-Khalistani elements like him",the Congress leaders said,warning that this would proveto be "highly damaging to theinterests of India, particularlyPunjab, in the long run".

The recent statements ofseveral religious and politicalleaders, dubbing CaptAmarinder's refusal to meetSajjan during his India visit asa "conspiracy", were a cause for

concern as they had "chosen toindulge in needless criticism,without even bothering tocheck Sajjan's background",the Congress leaders added.

Their dismissal of CaptAmarinder's principled standas "frivolous" showed that theseleaders were "least concernedabout the gravity of the issue"and were "merely interested inpromoting their vested inter-ests", they alleged.

It is "shameful" that certainelements within India were"choosing to ignore hard factsthat many in Canada had takena serious note of ", they said.

The Congress leadersadded that having been scarredby militancy in the past, Punjabcould not afford to ignore such"blatant signs of efforts torevive the Khalistani forces",which were waiting to draw outtheir fangs at the slightestopportunity.

SAJJAN ARRIVES AMIDROW OVER AMARINDER’SKHALISTANI REMARK

Amidst a controversy trig-gered by Punjab Chief MinisterCapt Amarinder Singh who hasdubbed Canadian DefenceMinister Harjit Singh Sajjan a“Khalistani sympathiser” andrefused to meet him, the Indo-Canadian arrived in New Delhion Monday for a seven-dayvisit to India.

During his trip from April17 to 23, Sajjan will be visitingChandigarh and Amritsarbesides Mumbai.

In Punjab, Sajjan will visitthe Golden Temple and civilsociety organisations, and inChandigarh, he will inauguratethe new office of the con-sulate-general of Canada.

His itinerary does notinclude a stopover at his nativevillage of Bambeni inHoshiarpur district, which his

parents and sister are visiting. Before heading for India,

Sajjan posted a video on Twittersaying, “I look forward to myfirst trip to India since becom-ing Canada’s minister ofnational defence. This visitwill further strengthen Canadaand India’s bilateral defencecooperation, and expand ourpartnership in the security anddefence sectors.”

Sajjan steered clear of com-menting on Capt Amarinder’sremarks. The Canadian media,particularly those with a Punjabconnection, toed the same line,playing it safe and not com-menting on the controversy.

Capt Amarinder, in a tele-vision interview, had describedSajjan “a Khalistani sympa-thiser” and added that therewere four other ministers in theJustin Trudeau governmentwith Khalistani links. He hadsaid that he would not haveanything to do with them.

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Batting for the holy city ofAmritsar, former cricketer

and Punjab Tourism andCultural Affairs Minister NavjotSingh Sidhu on Monday hit theBJP-led Centre for a six forallegedly discriminating againstAmritsar’s Sri Guru Ram Das JiInternational Airport and push-ing it into losses.

Sidhu bowled a googly byaccusing the Centre for favour-ing Delhi airport overAmritsar’s which resulted in aloss of over �50 crore duringprevious fiscal.

To cut down the losses ofAmritsar airport, Sidhu askedthe Central Government tostart direct international flights.

“Amritsar, guru ki nagri, isthe spiritual and cultural cen-tre of the Sikh religion and apreferred destination not justfor the Punjabi diaspora, butforeign tourists as well whocome here to pay obeisance atthe Golden Temple,” he said.

Sidhu added, “Since thestart of Delhi-Amritsar-Birmingham-Toronto flight inMay 2005, occupancy wasapproximately 92 percent fromAmritsar. In fact, it was thehighest occupancy comparedwith the overall 60 percentaverage occupancy of otherinternational flights by AirIndia when it was operational.”

“With privatization ofDelhi airport in 2010, for rea-sons best known to theGovernment, these flights werere-routed from Delhi. Due tothis, international traffic that

was approximately 75 percent ofthe total traffic till 2009 took abig hit and became 75 percentdomestic and only 25 percentdirect international passen-gers,” he added.

Sidhu highlighted thatDelhi is the only airport in thecountry that is charging doubleUser Development Fee (UDF)per passenger both for landingand departure, but still AirIndia and other internationalcarriers are paying this fee andoperating maximum flightsfrom Delhi.

As per statistics, DelhiAirport is earning UDF to thetune of �20 crore approxi-mately per year for theAmritsar-Delhi-Birminghamflight but if the same flight orig-inates from Amritsar, the UDFwill be only �5 crores.

“Amritsar Airport is beingdevoid of this UDF apart fromother landing, fuel and miscel-laneous fees which could fetchapproximately �10 crore for asingle flight and substantiallyreduce the losses of AmritsarAirport. This would also bringAir India to profit as they willhave to pay substantially lowamount of UDF,” he pointed.

I had raised this issue as

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The CBI on Monday booked12 senior Trinamool

Congress leaders, including MPsand Ministers in the MamataBanerjee Government besides aserving IPS officer, for allegedcriminal conspiracy and cor-ruption in the Narada sting casewherein they were purportedlyfilmed while taking money.

Irked by the CBI move,TMC supremo and West BengalChief Minister Mamata Banerjeesaid, “It is a political game; wewill fight it politically.”

The CBI registered the FIRunder charges of criminal con-spiracy and provisions ofPrevention of corruption Actdealing with bribery and crim-inal misconduct against theTMC leaders, including sittingMPs and West Bengal ministersbesides one IPS officer, the CBIspokesperson said. The maxi-mum sentence for these crimesranges from five to seven yearsof imprisonment.The TMC lead-ers booked by the CBI are RajyaSabha MP Mukul Roy, LokSabha MPs Saugata Roy,Aparupa Poddar, Sultan Ahmed,Prasun Banerjee and KakoliGhosh Dastidar, CBI officerssaid.State Urban DevelopmentMinister Firhad Hakim,Transport Minister Suvendu

Adhikari, Environment MinisterSovan Chatterjee, Panchayat Rajand Rural Development MinisterSubrata Mukherjee have alsobeen named in the FIR, they said.Former Minister Madan Mitra,MLA Iqbal Ahmed and IPSofficer Saiyaad Mustafa HussainMirza have also been madeaccused by the CBI for thealleged crime, the spokespersonadded. The sting operation per-tains to the secret filming of theTMC leaders while they alleged-ly accepted money from the rep-resentatives of a fictitious com-pany for extending favours toit.The tapes, broadcast on a por-tal naradanews.com just beforethe Assembly elections last year,prompted the BJP to launch ascathing attack on the MamataBanerjee-led Government dur-ing the polls.The Calcutta HighCourt had ordered the CBI tocarry out a preliminary enquiryinto the tapes.The order waschallenged by the West BengalGovernment in the SupremeCourt which refused to providerelief in the order on March 17and gave the CBI one month tofile an FIR, if required. The stingoperation was purportedly car-ried out for nearly two years andwas supposed to be published ina magazine where MathewSamuel, the CEO of Narada, wasworking.

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Upset with azaan beingplayed in the early morning

hours on loudspeakers from aplace of worship in the vicinityof his Mumbai residence,Bollywood singer Sonu Nigamon Monday struck a wrongchord by putting out a series oftweets in which he wondered asto when there would be an end“forced religiousness” in India.

Making no bones about hisdispleasure on being woken bythe “cacophony” of Azaan,Nigam came out with a series oftweets: “God bless everyone. I’mnot a Muslim and I have to bewoken up by the Azaan in themorning. When will this forcedreligiousness end in India”.

“And by the wayMohammed did not have elec-tricity when he made Islam...Why do I have to have thiscacophony after Edison?” hetweeted. In yet another tweet,Nigam said, “I don’t believe inany temple or gurudwara usingelectricity To wake up peoplewho don’t follow the religion.Why then..? Honest?True?”Apparently unable to bearthe noise emanating from thenearby place of worship, anexasperated singer concluded:“Gundagardi hai bus...”

Before long, netizenspounced on him trolled him ina big way, with some one of thecritics demanding to know fromhim if he felt the same way when“we blare loudspeakers forNavratri n Ganesh proces-sions?”

“As per ur own logic, therewas no electricity even in ourEpics. So, why r we Hindususing loudspeakers for our fes-tivities now?” one Maya Sharmatweeted.

“@sonunigam The screech-ing loudspeakers hurt Oldpatients, disturb students study-ing for exams n scarebabies…Am a Hindu but isn’tsame “inconvenience” faced byNon Hindus too when we blareloudspeakers for Navratri nGanesh processions?” Mayatweeted.Another tweet read:“Dear @sonunigam ji, It’s justthe noise of prayers which iswaking you up, there are manycountries where bullets &bombs will do the same.ActivistTehseen Poonawala tweeted:“Yes Sonu Nigam ban every-thing that disturbs ppl. FromAzaan to ghantis & jagrans tocelebrations on roads. Comewith me to@CMOMaharashtra”.“@sonunigam I am a fan of urs but thiswas definitely a bullshit state-ment. U gotta respect other reli-gions beliefs. It’s a democraticcountry,” tweeted MadhurChandna.“Azaan should bestopped in India, where millionsof Muslims live, because desh kalaadla Sonu Nigam can’t sleep.Where is the tolerance?...,” Sherutweeted with a touch of irony.

Coming to the support ofNigam, Vivek Agnihotri said: “Iam willing to sponsor a cam-paign against illegal blaring ofAzaan and other prayers onloudspeakers. Suggest a cre-ative hashtag”.

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From Page 1Under the new procedure proposed to be followed in such

cases, the airline wants the flight staff to report such mattersimmediately to the CMD (Chairman and Managing Director)office or other top officials and avoid any direct interaction withthe media. Besides, an FIR or police complaint has to be filedimmediately and any property damage to be assessed and claimedat the earliest.

The Centre is already in the process of establishing a “nation-al no-fly list” for unruly passengers in the aftermath ofGaikwad’s episode. The Civil Aviation Requirements (CARs) arebeing amended by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation(DGCA) to facilitate such a list.

According to the global aviation body, International AirTransport Association (IATA), “unruly passengers” are one ofthe top three safety issues that concern cabin crew. As per theIATA, in 2015, there were 10,854 reported cases of unruly behav-iour by the passengers across airlines worldwide, which trans-late into one incident for every 1,205 flights.

From Page 1The association, which claims to represent around 1.25 lakh app-based taxis in the Delhi-

NCR, demands that fares be increased from existing Rs 6 per km to around 20 per km.It also demands abolition of 25 per cent commission the drivers are charged by companies.Ravi Rathore, vice-president of the Sarvodaya Drivers’ Association, said drivers will take out

a protest march against the Delhi Government which, he alleged, is not intervening to resolvethe issue.

“The protest march will be taken out from Majnu-ka-Tila to the CM’s residence in North Delhi’sCivil Lines area. There is anger among drivers that the Government is not intervening in raisingtheir issues with Ola and Uber,” Rathore said.

He said the association has called for the one-day strike in favour of the demands and if com-panies and the Government do not pay heed, they will go on an indefinite strike.

According to the association, app-based cab companies made “tall promises” to drivers —like they would earn as much as Rs 1.5 lakh every month.

“But the situation is different. They are making us run taxis at Rs 6 per km while they charge25 per cent from us,” Rathore also said.

Contrary to the association’s claim that most autorickshaw and tourists associations have decid-ed to lend their support to the strike, Delhi Autorickshaw Sangh and Delhi Pradesh Taxi Union(yellow-black taxis) said they will not participate in it.

“We will not support the strike in Delhi,” Rajendra Soni, general secretary of both the asso-ciations, said.

During the February strike, the Delhi-NCR commuters faced hardship as the companies hadresorted to surge pricing during morning and evening peak hours.

Meanwhile, Uber in a statement said, “The Delhi High Court has issued a perpetual injunc-tion restraining unions, their leaders, members and their followers from preventing Uber driverpartners from going about their work. We welcome the court’s order and hope that it will enabledrivers to stay behind the wheel, without fear or harassment henceforth. We are hopeful that theorder will be effectively enforced and that action is taken against any person who attempts to blockcars, confiscate devices or harass riders and drivers and that the safety of everyone using the UberApp in Delhi is ensured. We are committed to keeping Delhi moving and ensuring a reliable expe-rience for riders and drivers.”

From Page 1Khurshid informed the court that Roy only holds certain por-

tion of shares in Aamby Valley. Roy, who was put in Tihar Jail on March 4, 2014 by orders

of the apex court, had courted trouble after he failed to disclosethe list of depositors to the Securities Exchange Board of India(SEBI) under one of his debenture schemes. In May 2016, hismother passed away following which the court allowed him afour-week parole. Since then, h e was getting regular extensionson the promise that he will pay the remaining sum of the totalbail amount of Rs 10,000 crore.

Appearing for Roy, senior advocate Salman Khurshid, soughttime till May 24 for settling his dues with the sale of his over-seas hotels --- Plaza in New York and Grosvenor House in theUK. But the SC refused to grant him such a long rope. “This isnot a story telling court where you promise something today andresile tomorrow….enough is enough.”

From Page 1The total amount of contravention identified by the ED, under

the provisions of FEMA, by Vasan Health Care and its overseas investors on different counts in

the investments received from overseas is to the tune of Rs 2,262crore, the central probe agency said.

“A show cause notice has been issued to M/s Vasan Health CarePrivate Limited, its promoter-director Arun, his wife, the director’sfather-in-law Dwarakanathan and also to the overseas investors forthe alleged contraventions,” the ED said.

Reacting to news reports on the issue, P Chidambaram said ina statement, “The ED has the habit of recycling allegations from timeto time. Today’s Press release by the ED is another example.Allegations in the release are baseless, totally false and ridiculous.”

“No notice has been served upon Karti Chidambaram so far.If a notice is received, a suitable reply will be sent. By targeting KartiChidambaram with baseless notices, the Government cannot silencemy voice or stop my writing,” he added.

Significantly, a show cause notice under FEMA is issued afterinvestigation concludes and the person or entity found guilty of thecontravention after the due adjudication process of the case, can befined up to 300 per cent of the amount contravened.

The ED probe in this case, that went on for over two years per-tains to foreign investments received by Vasan Health Care fromthe “funds of Sequoia and WestBridge, based in Mauritius and alsothrough the investment arm of M/s GIC, Singapore” and subsequentalleged irregularities in the issuance of shares.

During the investigation, the agency said, it was found that var-ious agreements were entered into from time to time between thecompany (Vasan Health Care), promoters, investors and sellers ofshares among others.

Vasan Health Care is considered a company that boomed inthe eye care and hospital services sectors in 2008 and was believedto have got the patronage of the Chidambaram family.

From Page 1A Delhi Police team will visit Chennai on Tuesday to question Dinakaran for his alleged involve-

ment, he added.Reacting to the charges made by Chandrasekhar, a beleaguered TTV Dinakaran, who is the

candidate of the Sasikala faction in RK Nagar bypoll, said the allegations were baseless and total-ly false and he does not know anybody by name Sukesh Chandrasekhar and he has not spokento him.

“I do not know anybody by name Sukesh Chandrasekhar and I have not spoken to him atany point of time. I’ll face these allegations legally and will cooperate with the police,” said Dinakaranwhile speaking to reporters at Chennai on Monday.

However, Chandrasekhar told police that Dhinakaran had entrusted him to lobby with theElection Commission of India officials for getting the Two Leaves symbol for his faction of theparty.

Chandrasekhar was picked up from room number 263 of Hyatt Regency Hotel in Delhi around1.30 pm on Sunday.

Police said Chandrasekhar has a history of conning people. “There is one more person, whois a lawyer, linked to Sukesh Chandrasekhar and Dinakaran. We also have a phone conversationbetween Dinakaran and Sukesh Chandrasekhar. Accused Sukesh used to pose as politicians,” saidthe police official.

The official further said the police was probing Chandrasekhar’s links with Election Commissionofficials. “The FIR was registered under Sections 170 and 120B of the Indian Penal Code andSection 8 of the Prevention of Corruption Act,” added the official.

Joint Commissioner of Police, Crime Praveer Ranjan formed a special team comprising sleuthsof the inter-State cell of Crime Branch to probe the high profile case.

Till now, Chandrasekhar has received Rs 10 crore of the deal, said the official, adding theyhave also identified the money trail. He got money through a Chandni Chowk hawala operatorand some money was also paid in Kochi, said the official.

Monday was the deadline set by the ECI to both the factions of the AIADMK to submit doc-uments to substantiate their claim of a majority within the party organisational structure and thelegality of the election of VK Sasikala as the general secretary of the AIADMK on December 29,2016. While the Panneerselvam faction submitted all relevant documents, the AIADMK (Amma)faction led by Sasikala sought an extension of eight weeks for the same.

In an interesting turn of development, Thambi Durai, deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha, whois also the national face of the AIADMK (Amma), feigned ignorance about the allegations lev-elled by Chandrasekhar against Dinakaran.

Speaking to reporters at Chennai after a two-hour long with Chief Minister EdappadiPalaniswamy at the Secretariat, Thambi Durai said there was no split the party. “The Two Leavessymbol has been frozen by the ECI for the RK Nagar bypoll and I am confident the AIADMKwould get the symbol back. There is no split in the AIADMK though there may be some differ-ences of opinion,” said Thambi Durai.

Responding to the statement made by Panneerselvam that both the factions of the AIADMKshould come together, to preserve the legacy of MGR and Jayalalithaa, he said that unity shouldbe preserved at any cost. The comments by Thambi Durai has come at a time when there arereports that leaders of both the factions are engaged in backroom manoeuvres to bring a patchup. A local eveninger, which has strong AIADMK leanings has reported on Monday that Dinakaranhas been asked to move out from his position to facilitate the coming together of both the fac-tions.

Tamilissai Sounderarajan, Tamil Nadu BJP president and S Ramadoss, the PMK founderdemanded a thorough investigation into the allegations made by Chandrasekhar against Dinakaran,The recent developments like the rescinding of the RK Nagar bypoll, the raids on the residencesand business establishments owned by health minister Vijayabaskar, the document featuring thenames of chief minister Palaniswamy and ot her ministers who played crucial role in the distri-bution of Rs 89 crore in R K Nagar and the police complaint filed by IT officials against minis-ters who assaulted them when they went to the residence of Vijayabaskar have put the AIADMK(Amma) in a tight spot.

From Page 1Deepak’s brother Raju and his uncle Khema, also went to snake charmer’s show were shocked

to see Deepak with the snake charmer. They immediately identified him. They rushed back homeand informed about it to Padam Singh. He along with other family members reached the spotand was excited to see their ‘dead’ son very much `alive’ before their own eyes. The villagers, whoalso identified Deepak, were also shocked but happy to see the boy alive.

When villagers enquired as how Deepak, whom they have given water-burial is alive and iswith this snake charmer, identified as Shyamnath, he admitted that Deepak was not his son butfound him at the banks of river Ganga almost 11 years back.

He said that he was taking a bath in the Ganga near Avantika Devi Ghat on the fateful daywhen he found the boy lying on the banks of the river. Shyamnath claimed that when he checkedhe found that boy was bitten by a snake and still had some life in him.

“I took the boy to my house where I treated him of poison with herbs. The boy survived buthe lost his memory. This created problem as he failed to reveal anything about himself,” Shyamnathsaid and added that since then he brought-up the boy as his son and had taught him snake charm-ing skills.

Surprisingly, Shyamnath claims that he has some herbs which can help in reviving Deepak’smemory but could not explain as why he has not used it till date.

United with his son Padam Singh is waiting for another miracle to see whether snake charmercan weave another magic and bring back Deepak’s lost memory.

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Member of Parliament thatDGCA is discriminating againstthe Amritsar internationalAirport and that the policiesand decision are being made insuch a way that private airportscan grow at the cost of the StateAirport and the results arenow in front of the public, heargued.

In 2010, after the start ofnew Airport at Delhi, I opposedthe diversion of Amritsar-London-Toronto flight asAmritsar-Delhi-London andAmritsar-Delhi-Toronto butthe Government did not payany heed.

Sidhu added that manyforeign carriers like Emirates,

Etihad, Oman Air, Air Asia,Lufthansa, British Airways,Turkish etc have already showninterest to fly from Amritsar butbilateral agreements of seatsharing and other policies ofGovernment are hindrance instarting of these flights, whichthe Government should lookinto and try bringing theseairlines to Amritsar Airport byany means. “As Tourism andCulture Minister of Punjab,State Government will providefull support to the Airport andit will also approach all theIndian and foreign airlines tostart direct international flightsto and from the holy city ofAmritsar,” he said.

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The Supreme Court onMonday directed Home

Secretaries of six States havingthe highest number of policevacancies to appear before it onFriday and explain the delay infilling up the posts, despite a PILpending in the Court since 2013.

With over a total of 4.42lakh vacancies existing in thepolice forces of all States andUnion Territories with theexception of Andhra Pradesh,Arunachal Pradesh, Kerala,Gujarat and Mizoram, whosefigures were not made avail-able to the PIL petitioner, thebench headed by Chief JusticeJS Khehar found vacanciesacross all ranks of police forceto be the highest in UttarPradesh at 1,51,679. This isalmost half the state’s sanc-

tioned force strength of3,50,317.

In the same league were thestates of West Bengal with 37,325vacancies, Bihar (34,521),Jharkhand (26,303), Karnataka(24,399) and Tamil Nadu(19,803). The bench, also com-prising of Justices DY Chandr-achud and Sanjay Kishan Kaulsaid, “Even though we shall dealwith the other states havinglarge number of vacancies, at themoment we will monitor fillingup vacancies of six states wherethe vacancies are the largest.”

The Court directed theHome Secretaries to assist withthe information and be presentin Court to explain the stepstaken to bridge the gap betweenthe sanctioned posts and actu-al workforce. The Court alsoprovided the option to theHome Secretaries of the sixstates to nominate an officernot below the rank of JointSecretary to propose a definiteroadmap on filling up of exist-

ing vacancies. The matter willbe taken up on Friday, thebench directed.

During the hearing of thePIL, the bench enquired from thecounsels appearing for the sixstates to explain the reason foraccumulating so many arrears inappointment of police personnel.The lawyer appearing for TamilNadu said that the advertise-ments for filling up the posts hadalready been issued. The benchreplied, “Is this all you have donesince 2013 when notice wasissued to you on this PIL.”

When the turn of UttarPradesh came, advocate RPMehrotra submitted that thestate was in the process of fillingup 37,000 posts. He blamed thepending litigation with regard toappointment orders issued by theState Recruitment Board to be amajor hindrance for filling upthese posts. The bench said,“We have tried our best to per-suade you but you do not listenso we will act.”

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India and Canada will discussways to further enhance

bilateral defence and securityties during talks betweenDefence Minister Arun Jaitleyand his Canadian counterpartHarjit Singh Sajjan on Tuesday.The visiting Minister arrivedon Monday for a seven-dayofficial tour.

Sajjan will have wide-ranging talks with Jaitley andExternal Affairs MinisterSushma Swaraj on a range ofbilateral issues, particularly onscaling up defence and secu-rity ties. “I look forward tomy first trip to India sincebecoming Canada’s Minister

of National Defence. This visitwil l further strengthenCanada and India’s bilateraldefence cooperation, andexpand our partnership inthe security and defence sec-tors,” he said, before leavingfor India. He will lay a wreathat Amar Jawan Jyoti beforeproceeding for talks withJaitley at South Block housingthe Defence Ministry onTuesday, officials said.

Sajjan, a Sikh, will alsotravel to Amritsar, Chandigarhand Mumbai. In Punjab, Sajjanwill visit the Golden Templeand civil society organisations,while in Chandigarh, he willinaugurate the new office

of the Consulate-General

of Canada. Incidentally, PunjabChief Minister CaptainAmarinder Singh has refusedto meet him alleging the

Canadian minister is a“Khalistani sympathizer.”Canada had termed the alle-gation as “disappointing and

inaccurate.”In Mumbai, Minister Sajjan

will visit the Mumbai Port, andmeet several business andindustry leaders.

Canadian HighCommissioner Nadir Patel saidthere is untapped potential infurther strengthen ties betweenIndia and Canada and Sajjan’svisit provide the opportunity todelve on them.

“Minister Sajjan’s visit is anideal opportunity to highlightstrong links between Canadaand India, and to boost ourpeople-to-people ties. Therecontinues to be enormouspotential for more cooperationin all areas of the bilateralrelationship,” Patel said.

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HRD Minister PrakashJavadekar on Monday

launched 17 projects related tothe higher education sectorand spread across 14 States.Among others the projectsincluded a cluster university inJammu & Kashmir, languagelaboratories in Jharkhand’sGhatsila College, a portal withall details of resources facili-tated under the RashtriyaUchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan(RUSA) and a “Fund and Reform Tracker”mobile application.

Speaking on the occasionJavadekar said the Centre’sfirst priority is to improve thequality of primary as well ashigher education. “Unless weimprove the quality of educa-tion we will not be able to cre-ate capable people and goodcitizen and therefore improve-ment of quality is the thrust forall our efforts in the educa-tional fields. Today this is aunique event as well as exper-iment wherein we have inau-gurated 17 facilities createdunder RUSA in one go in 14states,” Javadekar said.

The projects have beencompleted under the RUSA, aCentrally Sponsored Scheme(CSS) of HRD Ministry aimedat providing Central fundingto State higher educationdepartments and institutionsto achieve the broad objectivesof access, equity and excel-lence.

The launch was followedby a meeting of the HRDMinister with EducationMinisters from 12 States, sec-retaries and RUSA Nodal offi-cers regarding implementa-tion of the scheme. Accordingto a senior HRD official, over2,000 state universities andcolleges have been supportedunder the scheme so far.

“Given the commitmentsmade by the States underRUSA on removal of ban onrecruitment and filling up ofvacant positions, many stateshave started the process of fill-ing faculty positions,” headded.

Conceptualized and initi-ated in the year 2013, theambitious RUSA was designedwith an aim to enhance high-er education through bettercoordination between the

Centre and States. It was draft-ed and prepared by the thenHRD Joint Secretary (HigherEducation) R P Sisodia.

Under the concept ofRUSA the quality of educationcan go up by improving theresearch labs infrastructureand creating smart class roomsand various other programmesby which the quality enhance-ment and value addition to thestudents happen.

The HRD Minister saidRUSA is a success and duringthe last three years Modi

Government has increased theexpenditure to the tune of Rs.2800 crore for this. He said thegovernment have createdinfrastructure in many uni-versities, colleges and modelcolleges and simultaneouslyprovided Rs. 1300 crore in thisyear’s budget.

The portal announced onthe occasion is a one-stop forStates’ Higher EducationPlans, decision of the States’Higher Education Councilsand details of the resourcesunder this scheme. Javadekar

also released the Booklet“Digital Launch of Projects;Rashtriya Uchchatar ShikshaAbhiyan (RUSA)” on thisoccasion.

While a separate Fundand Reform Tracker developedby RUSA will monitor RUSAprojects from the minute theyare sanctioned and track theirprogress till their final com-pletion, a separate smartphone based App launched onthe day would capture thefund allocation as per theRUSA Project Approval Board.

New Delhi: Chief Justice ofIndia (CJI) JS Khehar onMonday said that he will take acall on forming a ConstitutionBench to decide who holdsexecutive control over Delhionly after the summer break.

With several constitutional-ly important cases including thetriple talaq cases listed for hear-ing during the vacation, the CJIwas unable to give an assuranceto the Delhi government, whichmentioned the matter for anearly hearing before a benchheaded by Justice Khehar. Senioradvocate Gopal Subramaniamappeared for the Arvind KejriwalGovernment to request a five-

judge bench to be formed at theearliest to settle the law onwhether the LieutenantGovernor has the right underConstitution to interfere withlegislative business of a democ-ratically elected Delhi govern-ment in matters other than land,law and order and police.

CJI sitting with Justices DYChandrachud and SK Kaul saidthat a decision in this regard waspossible only in July after Courtreopens following summer vaca-tion. The Delhi HC in Augustlast year decided that Delhi notbeing a full state, the adminis-trative head of the NationalCapital Territory is L-G. PNS

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New Delhi: Army chief Gen-eral Bipin Rawat on Mondayreminded top Army comma-nders about the ‘strong image’of the force and called for effo-rts to reinforce it further, com-ments that came amid outragein Kashmir over the contr-oversial “human shield” video.

Gen Rawat was speakingat the army commanders’ con-ference, which deliberated onan array of issues including theevolving security situation,modernisation of the force andlogistical difficulties for troopsin conflict zones. In his addresson the opening day of thethree-day conference, DefenceMinister Arun Jaitley hailed

the Army for tackling chal-lenging situations, and saidmodernisation of weaponsand other crtical systems for itis the Government’s “top-most” priority.

He complimented thecommanders, saying “When-ever the challenges multiply ortheir nature changes, IndianArmy has always outper-formed itself”, the DefenceMinistry said in a statement.The conference will deliberatein detail on the prevailingsecurity scenario, particularlyin Jammu & Kashmir, besides‘strategic’ and ‘actionable’issues to ensure effective com-bat edge over adversaries. PTI

New Delhi: The Centre om Mo-nday launched a training pro-gramme for women panchayatleaders to skill them inGovernance and administrationwith a special emphasis on effi-cient usage of funds to achieveoverall development.

Union Ministers ManekaGandhi and Narendra Singh To-mar interacted with select womenvillage heads from Jhakhandthrough video conferencing dur-ing the programme, urging themto take keen interest in learningabout various developmentschemes of the government.“Inspite of 33 per cent reservationfor women in panchayat bodies,

the elected women representatives(EWRs) do not have appropriateknowledge and skill to administerthe village and the show continuesto be run by their husbands,”Gandhi, the Women and ChildDevelopment Minister said.

“Apart from this, the trainingprogramme will help to raise thesewomen to the next level of leader-ship,” she added.

Gandhi stressed on the needfor them to learn how funds areallocated for various developmentprogrammes and how to spend itto ensure the budget released fora particular panchayat is effi-ciently utilised and the quality ofthe assets ensured. PTI

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On the World HemophiliaDay on Monday, persons

with the genetic blood disor-der in the country rued thatdue to the absence of adequatecoagulation laboratories andhemophilia treatment centres,many in the sector haveremained undiagnosed anduntreated.

The Centre is yet to comeout with a standard protocol toprocure the life saving drug,Anti-Hemophilia Factor asper the international safetyand efficacy of products tomaintain quality, they said.

Manoj Jhalani, JointSecretary, Health Ministry,admitted that as of now inter-ventions in the sector are hap-pening in an adhoc manner

and there is a need to formu-late a plan for strengtheningfacilities at the grass roots

level instead of leaving themon the market forces. He wasspeaking at an event organized

by the Hemophilia Federation(India) here.

“Setting up coagulationlaboratories will actuallyimprove management ofbleeding which will not onlyprovide succor to the personswith hemophilia (PwH) butalso help prevent maternalmortality in the country,” saidVikash Goel, President of theFederation while giving briefdetails on the work done so farby his organization. Goel’sson, who was suffering fromthe disorder, died a few yearsago.

On the occasion, PrasarBharti Chairman A SuryaPrakash stressed on sensitiza-tion of the public, medical fra-ternity as well as those suffer-ing with the disorder andassured all help in this regard

through AIR and DD to reachout to the society in the coun-try.

“So far we have identifiedover 19,000 children and PwH.However, actually, this couldbe closer to 1.2 lakh given thatone in every 10,000 is suffer-ing from the bleeding disorder,said Mukesh Garodia, VicePresident (development) ofthe Federation with most of itsoffice bearers afflicted with thebleeding disorder.

Garodia, who is oneamong the PwH, also listedout various interventionsneeded to support the patientssuch as a dedicated hemo-philia programme along witha national policy on the sectorunder National HealthMission besides setting uphemophilia treatment centres

and coagulation labs in allmedical colleges.

Access to pediatric pro-phylaxis wherein children tillcertain age are given factors sothat they do not become dis-abled in their adulthood andadequate rehabi l itat ion of the disabled PwH are someof the other demands of thesector.

“Awareness amongpatients as well as doctors isneeded. Self-infusing pro-gramme has been launchedour hospitals to make the chil-dren suffering with the disor-der to be self dependent as faras medication is concerned,”Dr Naresh Gupta, Director,Maulana Azad MedicalCollege and associated withthe Lok Nayak Hospital, toldThe Pioneer.

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The Supreme Court hassought the response of the

Centre and Central Board ofFilm Certification (CBFC) onthe need of pre-censorship forscreening movies in cinemahalls, a question posed to thecourt in a fresh petition filedby actor Amol Palekar.

Taking up the cudgelsagainst the Censor Board’sarbitrary decisions to chop offportions from movies in thename of granting it clearancefor public screening, Palekar’spetition raised several flaws inthe Cinematograph Act andquestioned its efficacy intoday’s internet age when amovie is watched without anycuts on the internet and eventelevision.

Challenging the logicthat goes into the decision toimpose cuts, Palekar saidthat the CBFC does not havea person with a legal mindwhich proves to the disad-vantage of the filmmakerswhose fundamental right tofree speech and expressionunder Article 19(1)(a) getsviolated.

The bench of JusticesAK Sikri and Ashok Bhushanissued notice as it was prima

facie convinced that the issuerequired consideration.Palekar’s lawyers submittedthat the Censor Board was ill-equipped to weigh between afilmmaker’s freedom ofexpression and issues of pub-lic morality ending up witharbitrary orders to chop por-tions from the film, virtuallyaltering with the artisticthought sought to be con-veyed through the film.

Making an argument infavour of scrapping pre-cen-sorship, the petition said,“When content on televisionand internet is free of cen-sorship, the same contentbeing altered, cut or deletedbefore being shown in acinema hall is an attack onthe filmmaker’s right toequality protected underArticle 14.” Palekar arguedthat in today’s day and age,blocking information is nearto impossible with a varietyof medium open for flow ofinformation in real time.Such mediums are free fromcensorship, it added.

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Surat: Prime MinisterNarendra Modi on Mondaybroke his security protocoland stopped his convoy mid-way to meet a four-year-oldgirl during his Gujarat tour.

Nancy Gondaliya rushedtowards the Prime Minister’scar when thousands of peoplewere waiting on both sides of theroad to catch his glimpse on hisway to Kiran Hospital fromCircuit House. Seeing the littlegirl rushing towards the car, SPGcommandos accompanying thePrime Minister tried to stop her.But to the surprise of everyone,Modi promptly have his convoystopped and asked the com-mandos to allow her to come tohim. Modi exchanged a few

words with the little girl, who wasthen taken back to her father.

The entire episode was cap-tured on camera and its footagewent viral on social media.

Nancy, daughter of dia-mond-cutting worker PrakashGondaliya, resides in Vedroadarea of the city. “She is a big fanof the Prime Minister andwhenever he comes on televi-sion she addresses him as ‘ModiDada’,” Prakash said.

“Today morning she insist-ed on meeting Modi. So I tookher to one of the streets fromwhere Modi’s convoy was to pass.I told her if she wants to meethim she should run towards hiscar and waive at him,” he added.

PTI

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Plans to move Sports fromthe State List to theConcurrent List to boostthe development ofsports across the country

have not come a day too soon, asIndian youth show attractiontowards diverse sports — wrestling,badminton, tennis, football, shoot-ing, athletics, and others.Notwithstanding the spectacularmoney power associated withcricket, other sports have fought fortheir place in the sun. The Mumbaifilm industry has unconsciouslysupported this effort with biopicson the lives on Milkha Singh,Mary Kom, and the Phogat sisters.

In recent years, sports haveemerged as an important careeroption for youth, and deserveattention and investment by thestate. The Union Ministry ofYouth Affairs and Sports has,therefore, discussed bringingSports into the Concurrent Listwith Drona Award awardees inthe States; all public sector under-takings are on board.

Interestingly, sportspersonswith disabilities showed theirmettle at the summer ParalympicGames at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil,in 2016, where they recordedIndia’s best ever performancewith four medals (two gold, onesilver, one bronze). DevendraJhajharia broke the world recordin javelin throw. However, mostsportspersons with disabilitieshave struggled to achieve theirown triumphs; a more inclusivesports policy is in order.

With Prime MinisterNarendra Modi taking personalinterest in promoting sports (hemet the athletes representingIndia at Rio), Minister for YouthAffairs and Sports, Vijay Goel, hasmade ‘Target Olympic Podium’ amajor goal of his ministry.Probably for the first time, anOlympics Task Force has been setup to prepare a blueprint forambitious performance goals forthe Olympics in 2020 and 2024.

Olympics require long-terminvestment in players, with besttraining and facilities. The oldpractice of preparing only twoyears before the Games needs tobe scrapped. There must be sci-entific selection and nurturing ofplayers in the under-14 andunder-16 categories.

The process of ad hoc selec-tion of foreign coaches and train-ing of elite athletes must be over-hauled. So far, a player wouldselect an academy or coachknown to him, and ask theGovernment to pay for the same.A far better approach is to scru-

tinise all academies and employa competent coach to come toIndia and train more players. Thiscould also help Indian coaches toenhance their skills. In this regard,the ministry has done well to asksports federations to suggestnames of coaches for each sport.

The ministry’s best initia-tive, however, is setting up a high-level committee to look intogrievances and complaints ofwomen sports persons. Meetingthem on the occasion ofInternational Women’s Day, Goelwas shocked to discover that allclaimed sexual harassment asthe major cause of stress in theircareers and impediment in girls’participating in events.Immediately announcing a zerotolerance policy on sexual harass-ment, he directed all sports fed-erations to appoint anti-sexualharassment committees andensure adequate numbers ofwomen on the Board and in thegame, failing which their recog-nition could be in jeopardy.

The need for safe spaces for girlathletes is non-negotiable. Theirdemand for female coaches, wher-ever possible, should be met, along

with female doctors for check-ups, female physiotherapists andfemale psychologists. It is shockingthat such basic issues have not beenaddressed till now. For a meaning-ful career in sports, girls mustbegin training at a tender age(around nine years), but Indian girlscome forward at a much later ageand families hesitate to send themfor events with male coaches. Thereis no reason why the Governmentshould not provide for a familymember to accompany girls tosports events.

The flip side of the growingnational interest in sports is therise of doping in schools, as aresult of which the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) hasbeen taken down to the schoollevel. Urine samples have beenmade mandatory for all juniorplayers in tournaments. An asso-ciated menace is age fraud, andparents are culpable in both. Agefraud enables 18-year olds toplay in the under-16 category,where they do well, but lose outwhen they have to play in theirown age group. Parents getinvolved because sports quotasare the gateway to college admis-

sions, scholarships, corporatesponsorships and eventualemployment. There is need forcareful scrutiny in this area.

It is notable that parliamentar-ians across party lines joined theMass Awareness Programme forSports Culture in the country,especially football, on March 29,2017, where Lok Sabha SpeakerSumitra Mahajan presented foot-balls to MPs as part of Mission XIMillion, to popularise footballacross India in the run-up to theFIFA U-17 Football World Cup(Kolkata, October 2017). The pro-gramme aims to take football to 11million children through 15,000schools and mass contact pro-grammes, and ensure that everychild has the opportunity to playthe world's most popular sport.

FIFA U-17 figured in PrimeMinister Modi’s popular Mann KiBaat (March 26, 2017) wherein hedescribed it a great opportunity fora revolution in sports throughoutthe country. The Sports Authorityof India and MPs will now organ-ise football tournaments at village,block and district level.

But the major hurdle in devel-oping a sports culture in India is theabsence of sports grounds in manyurban schools. Admitting this,Vijay Goel says the priority now isto save village playfields in rightearnest. At the same time, plans areafoot to develop ten universities asSports Hubs on a pilot basis, as alluniversities play, have grounds andhostels and sports quota. Selectionwould be on the basis of infrastruc-ture, interest, and available players.A long overdue remedy is to ensurefull utilisation of all stadiums,beginning with Delhi.

But a Government trulyinvested in Sports Culture mustensure the dignity of every sportsperson. To cite just one case, SitaSahu, a double bronze medallistat the 2011 Special Olympics(for the intellectually challenged),had to sell street food (golgappas)in Rewa, Madhya Pradesh, due tocallous neglect by state officialsand members of the athletics fra-ternity. It was only in 2014 thatthe State Government finally ful-filled its promises and she couldreturn to her training. But she hadto miss out on the 2015 LosAngeles World Games.

Over the decades, manysportspersons have sold theirmedals to meet expenses. Anation with a Sports Culturewould ensure that this neverhappens again.

(The writer is a political ana-lyst and an independentresearcher)+

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Sir — This refers to the article,“Of higher literacy and plungingstandards” (April 17) by JSRajput. The writer rightly talksabout the state of education inIndia. Yet, he ignores the mainreason why Indian students areat great disadvantage when com-pared to most students acrossthe world: The students areeither pushed into a foreignlanguage (English) right fromnursery schools or they have toswitch to it at a later stage.

It seems that a relativelyfew Indians, who are fluent inEnglish and have created a sep-arate system for themselves,cannot see how huge the burdenon kids is and how many fall bythe wayside in spite of great talent and intelligence.

From a European perspec-tive, more of English mediumschools is not the solution, buteducation in the mother-tonguetill the highest level, plus learn-ing Sanskrit and English as sub-jects. English is far from perfect.

Why must we assume it willremain the world language wheneven today it is doubtful whetherit deserves this label?

Maria WirthVia email

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Sir — This refers to the article,“Giving Hindi the due itdeserves” (April 17) by MJWarsi. On being asked about hisviews on Hindi being the com-mon language of India, SriAurobindo said, “English will beall right and even necessary ifIndia is to be an internationalstate. In that case, English has tobe the medium of expression,especially as English is nowreplacing French as a worldlanguage” (‘Evening Talks withSri Aurobindo’, page 587).

Had we paid heed to the prag-matic views of Sri Aurobindo,India could have taken a big stepforward towards national unity.The need of the hour is to reviewour language policy to giveEnglish the due it deserves.

Sujit DeKolkata

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Sir — This refers to the report,“T gives Muslims 12% reserva-tion, defies SC limit” (April 17).It is ironical that the TelanganaLegislative Assembly passed theState Reservation Act 2017, toincrease reservations upto 62 per

cent, exceeding the limit of 50per cent reservation set for theentire segment of BackwardClasses, Scheduled Castes andScheduled Tribes.

One is amused that ChiefMinister K Chandrashekhar Raomoved the reservation Bill andsought the Opposition’s sup-port for a ‘constructive’ move,despite vociferous protests fromthe BJP. When there are rich andpoor people in every sphereand community, how will thisproposal, which is meant for aparticular religion alone (ignor-ing their financial status) workas a constructive step?

In fact, what we need isinclusive growth, besides enact-ment/amendment of laws andpolicies that ensures impartialupliftment of the poor and thedown-trodden, in a fair and jus-tified manner, irrespective of thereligion and caste they belong to.

Hence, the decision of theTelangana Government will onlyharm the people and the nationin the long-run. It will also leadto a wrong trend of supersedingcourt orders, as seen in the caseof many issues these days.

TT Sakaria Delhi

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Growing bad loans inbanks indicate that all isnot well in our economy.

If entrepreneurship does notgenerate surplus after repaymentof bank loans, there is somethingwrong at both the micro and themacro levels. The bank alone isnot responsible for the growingbad loan. Political, economic,social, cultural and environ-mental factors are equallyresponsible for it. How to under-stand the various factors whichare responsible for bad loan, isthe biggest challenge.

Politicians want banks toflow credit to poor people in thepriority sector. Though credit isan important ingredient forgrowth and development, itneeds the right environment toproduce results. In the 70s,Pattnaik Sahi of Sakhigopalblock in Odisha was a flourish-ing village. The families ownedagricultural land, fish pondsand coconut gardens. They had

a decent income and allied eco-nomic activities. Every familyhad surplus food grain as well assurplus income to educate theirchildren and spend during fes-tivals. The villagers had less dis-eases, less stress and more hap-piness. They were disciplined,god-fearing people. During the80s, the educated people left vil-lages for jobs in urban areas.Some got good jobs and othersended up in small vocations.The village had lost its charmand the happiness of peoplewithered away. In the 90s, therewas large-scale migration tourban centres. Only old andhelpless people were left in theirhouses. In the beginning of the21st century, it was a desertedvillage. The young people whowere left behind in the villagebecame politicians or worked fortheir political boss. Ninety percent of labour had already shift-ed to the cities and other non-agricultural activities.

Agriculture without labour wastoo difficult for those who hadland. If the Governmentinstructs bank to flow credit inthis village, the credit will notgenerate surplus. This is the sit-uation in a majority of villagesacross the country. The promiseof loan-waivers and subsidisedfood grains has killed the entre-preneurship of the hardworkingvillagers in the country.

The majority of villages inKerala are underperformingdue to labour shortage, high costof labour and water scarcity dueto wanton destruction of waterbodies. A farm labour charges�800 per day in Kerala. How cansmall and medium farmers takeup agriculture as a profession?The majority of the coffee, teaand spice farms are owned bybig corporates in Kerala. Smalland medium farmers lease-outtheir land to the big corporates.A few farmers pluck coconut, ascoconut farmers cannot afford

to pay labour charge. This is thereason why many Keralites leavehome for big and small jobsacross the world.

Migration to cities hasalready crumbled many urbancentres. India’s 50 crore urban-ites, is too huge a population towork for manufacturing and ser-vices sectors. Any attempt topush the rest 78 crore people tourban centres in manufacturingor services sector will be disas-trous for the economy. Smallnations in the West have limit-ed economic sectors and theyhave no other option; India hasmultiple economic sectorswhich can be nurtured.

Let people understand theirvillages better. The children inthe villages, while learningcomputers, should know howto earn from a fish pond, howto maintain a coconut gardenand how to develop a nurseryas well. They should learn howto grow two crops in a year and

how to build a water-harvest-ing structure. The role of theGovernment is not to give riceat almost free but to ensuretransparency in supply chain.

The Government has toensure that the farmers are notcheated by the traders and themiddlemen. No spurious seed orfertiliser should be sold. Buildingschools, hospitals and playgrounds is the job of theGovernment. Let villagers lovetheir village again. TheGovernment should protect therivers and ponds fromencroachment. The villagerswill have surplus from theirentrepreneurship. The bank’scredit cycle will then be healthy.

We can’t overlook cropdiversity to produce a few com-mercial crops the way the devel-oped nations do. It will lead tofood shortage. There will be aloss of income from export asmany exotic crops will disap-pear due to mono-cropping

and hybridisation. The mantrashould be to save the exoticnative crops and animals tocommand a premium price inthe global bazaar. We haveneglected Ongole cow breedand the breed has revolutionisedanimal husbandry sector inBrazil and the US. Jallikattu fes-tival is nothing but a search forthe best breed of bull to boostanimal husbandry sector. But itshould be celebrated withoutinflicting cruelty. Every villagefestival increases the enthusiasmlevel which contributes to pro-ductivity. Over decades, wehave neglected our own poten-tial due to an obsession with thWest. A change in attitude willhelp millions to earn surplusincome. Public sector banks willdo business well, have a betternetwork to achieve the objec-tives of improve the people’s living condition.

(The writer is a freelancecommentator)

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The separatists as well as theirhandlers in Pakistan are wor-ried, because now, securityforces are getting actionableintelligence about the terrorists

and encircling the area, exterminating theterrorists; reducing their numbes signif-icantly. The Special Operations Group(SOG) of Jammu & Kashmir police,Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), allare working as a cohesive unit against theterrorists in the State along with the intel-ligence organisations which provideactionable intelligence on whose basis,security forces launch combing opera-tions. Then they eliminate terrorists,recover arms and ammunition and eitherarrest or exterminate support agents.

In view of the stringent operations ofsecurity forces against hardcore terrorists,the Pakistan-sponsored ones are mobil-ising the youth to stand against securityforces, when they are involved in opera-tions.The separatists eulogise the stone-pelters and paint them as heroes. Theytactfully use young people for stone-pelt-ing and hurling abuses against securityforces and when the security forces retal-iate and in the process two or three youngKashmiris die the anti-Indian forcesmake a big issue and resort to processions,strikes and attacks to propagate concoct-ed stories of the oppression

On March 28, security forces sur-rounded a house in Chadoora in Budgamdistrict, where one terrorist was hiding.The separatists who are vigorously usingsocial media, immediately flashed theinformation about the encircled house andin no time a stone-pelting and abuse hurl-ing crowd gathered with the ulteriormotive to distract the security forces sothat the hidden terrorist could escape. Thesecurity forces controlled the crowdwhile exchanging fire with the holed-up

terrorist. The encounter killed one terror-ist; however, the stone-pelting killedabout 60 security personnel, which ishighest in an encounter in 2017.

Before the Chadoora encounter,security forces eliminated two terroristsof Hizbul Mujahideen, when theyattempted to ambush three police officersin Pulwama district. One terrorist of Jaish-e-Mohammed at Tral area and twoLashkar-e-Tayyeba terrorists were alsoneutralised by security forces inPadgampora a few days back. Small suc-cesses are being achieved because ofactionable intelligence as well as the polit-ical leadership’s resolve to handle the issue

Director General of Police (DGP),Jammu & Kashmir Police, SP Vaid, alsowarned Kashmiri youths, in a Press con-ference on March 30, that they should notgather at the encounter site as it equatesto commiting suicide. He stated that “Inthe encounter, even security forces andpolice take cover of a bulletproof vehicleor a house”, while the stone pelting mis-guided youths remained in the open.

The stone-pelters are not innocentchildren; they are hired by the ISI agentsand are paid between �5,000 to �7,000 permonth. The payment depends on theirstrength of throwing stones. However, theorganisers are paid about �20,000 permonth as they organise the crowd throughinternet and social sights. The DGP ofJammu and Kashmir reiterated that “themoment an encounter starts; they activatearound 300 WhatsApp groups, eachhaving more than 250 members, andother social sites like Facebook; instigat-ing young boys to reach the encounter siteand throw stones so that terrorists escapefrom the spot”. He also mentioned that fewsites are operated from across the borders.

Both Union Minister for HomeAffairs Rajnath Singh and Chief Minister

Mehbooba Mufti, in separate statementscriticised Pakistan for assisting terrorismin the State. The Home Minster also men-tioned the vigorous use of social mediain inciting youths of neighbouring villagesfor gathering crowd for stone-pelting.These young stone-pelters are gathered atthe encounter site with the ulteriormotive to assist the terrorists to escape.They did not adhere to the instructionsgiven by the security forces. Hence, thereshould not be any compassion towardsthem and must be punished under the law.Although the death of civilians at Budgamencounter is unfortunate, the securityforces cannot be blamed for it, as they wereperforming their duty while the peoplekilled were obstructing them, knowingwell the consequences.

The resistance from stone-peltinghelped a few terrorists escape which isregrettable, but their families should seetheir moral growth as well, so they do notindulge in this high-risk adventures. Ifthey are allowed from their homes thenonly they can be blamed for their misfor-tune.There are about three lakh registeredand unemployed people in Kashmir;hence it will not be difficult to employyouths including children to throw stoneson the security forces.

Employment opportunities may alsobe created for young Kashmiris as sepa-ratists yearn for developing a generationof anti-India and anti-nationals.Involvement of young childrenin stone-pelting is a dangerous trend asthey would become felonious and wouldbecome anti-social, which would betreacherous in the long run.

The young stone-pelters are clearlyworking for money. After demonetisation,as ready cash was not available to distrib-ute to the stone-pelters the, action hadreduced significantly.

The security forces must deal withstone-pelters stringently, and if the latterare not controlled by ordinary laws, thenthey must be charged under the PublicSafety Act (PSA) under which the culpritcan be imprisoned without a trial for upto two years.

The Army and the Border SecurityForce should enhance the vigil at the bor-der because with the advent of summer,Pakistani troops have already started theviolations of ceasefire and incessantlyshelling mortar bombs to facilitate theinfiltration of terrorists in India. Politicalleaders should refrain from criticisingsecurity forces and should stop sheddingcrocodile tears on the death of stone-pel-ters just for show. Unfortunately, FarooqAbdullah, president of Jammu & KashmirNational Conference; glorified stone-pelters and mentioned that they arefighting for their nation. These type ofstatements are severely counterproductive.

Nonetheless, the Government shouldalso chalk out a long-term strategy to han-dle the Kashmir problem as the alienationis increasing in the State, which would bedangerous in the long run. TheGovernment should also identifyFacebook and WhatsApp accounts whichare spreading separatism, and they shouldbe closed and people operating theseaccounts must be punished severely.

The Sufi culture of Jammu & Kashmirmust be restored and Kashmiri Panditsshould be persuaded to return to theirhomes. An open minded debate onArticle 370 should help. The StateGovernment and the Centre, well inten-tioned intellectuals and NGOs shouldwork together to reduce the hostility ofthe masses and take them into confidence.

(The writer is member, United ServicesInstitute of India, and associated with theInstitute for Defence Studiesand Analyses)

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Aday after both the Housesof Telangana Legislature

passed the Backward Classes,Scheduled Castes andScheduled Tribes Act 2017increasing reservation for back-ward Muslims to 12 per centand Scheduled Tribes to 10 percent, Chief Minister KChandrasekhar Rao expressedconfidence that the Centre willensure the clearane of theTelangana Reservation Bill.

However, the BJP launchedits agitation against the Bill bylaying siege to offices of the col-lectors in all the districts ofTelangana.

Replying to the debate onthe Bill late on Sunday eveningin the Legislative Council, theCM welcomed the statement ofPrime Minister Narendra Modion the need for an inclusiveapproach towards the back-ward sections of Muslim com-munity.

KCR read out the parts ofModi’s speech at the BJP Natio-nal Executive meeting atBhubaneshwar and said thatthis had given him the confi-dence that the Centre will passthe Telangana Reservation Bill.

Rao also announced thathe will meet the PM in NewDelhi on April 23 during themeeting of Niti Ayog and urgehim to approve the TelanganaAct and include it in the Ninth

Schedule of the Constitution onthe lines of Tamil Nadu.

He also announced thatthe reservation for the SCs inTelangana will be increased by1 per cent and there was also aneed for increasing the quota ofthe Backward Classes and theMost Backward Classes.“Scheduled Castes constitute 9per cent of the State’s popula-tion, but the State Governmentis giving them 10 per centreservation considering theirplight,” he said. He alsodemanded that the States shouldbe given the power to decidetheir own quota structures.

As the BJP does not haveany presence in the Council, theBill was passed unanimously.Earlier all the five MLAs weresuspended from the Assemblybefore stalling the proceedingsin protest against the reserva-tion to the Backward Muslims.

In Hyderabad, the BJPprotest was marred by scufflewith the policemen as theytried to take the protestersinto custody.

Speaking on the occasion,party national general secretaryMurlidhar Rao said that theparty will not rest till the Actwas quashed as such a movewas struck down by the StateHigh Court twice in the past.He alleged that the TRSGovernment was trying tointroduce religion-based reser-vation.

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An official function to markthe centenary of Gandhi’s

Champaran Satyagraha andhonouring the freedom fight-ers here on Monday was cloud-ed by politics in spite of thepresence of the President andBihar Governor with speakerslashing out at the elementsopposed to the ideologies ofMahatma.

It all started with the lastminute cancellation of hisscheduled programme byUnion Home Minister RajnathSingh and leaders of otherNDA parties boycotting thefunction. The BJP sources saidSingh decided to skip wheninformed about the presence ofRJD supremo Lalu Prasad onthe dais.

President Pranab Mukhe-rjee, who honoured 15 freedomfighters, said, “We have to fightcommunalism and sectarian-ism to keep India and its 130crore people united. We mustfeel proud to be Indian and theyounger generation must takea pledge that we must remainunited and help India moveforward.”

In his brief speech,Mukherjee said 190 years ofBritish rule was a dark chapter.He asked people to read histo-

ry and know about the strug-gle and sacrifices made bytheir forefathers for the free-dom of the country.

The President lauded theefforts of Bihar to celebrate thecentenary and facilitate thefreedom fighters.

Chief Minister NitishKumar in his welcome speechlamented that the HomeMinister cancelled his pro-gramme at the last moment for‘no reason’ despite giving hisconsent. “This function hasnothing to do with politics andnot organised by any politicalparty. Our intention is to spreadthe views of Gandhiji.Everybody has heard the nameof Gandhiji but only a few peo-ple are left who follow his prin-ciples and ideologies,” he said.

Nitish said, “We have nocomplaint against those whohave no agreement with theGandhian views and absolute-ly no complaint with those whodid not participate despite ourinvitation. We invited every-body and leaders of all the par-ties.” He said there was anatmosphere of clash and con-frontation in the country and inthis background it is pertinentto follow Gandhiji’s ideologies.

AICC vice president RahulGandhi said Gandhi triedthroughout his life to keep

people of different faith unitedand removed misunderstand-ings among them. “If peoplesitting in power try to fomenthatred and discrimination thenation will not accept it,” hesaid and added that there wasdifference between power andtruth which, he said, Gandhihad realised during hisChamparan Satyagraha. WhenGandhi came face to face withtruth he realised that the coun-try should attain freedom fromslavery.

Lalu Prasad was blunt inhis tirade against the BJP.“Everybody knows who elim-inated Bapu and who areagainst his ideologies. We willfrustrate all moves to spread theideologies of Gandhi’s killerNathuram Godse. Those whohad no role in the freedomstruggle are now chantingMahatma’s name for politicalgains,” he said.

He said this programmewas neither his nor Nitish’s. Stillattempts were made to politiciseit. He said if Home Minister didnot want to come he should nothave given his consent. “Whenhe saw that Rahul Gandhi andLalu are there, he skipped it. Hemight have recalled who defeat-ed him in Bihar polls andshowed him mirror.” said LaluPrasad.

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Aday after receiving hero’swelcome at a mega road-

show in Surat, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi’s charm con-tinued during his two-daywhirlwind visit to Gujarat aslakhs of people thronged hisseries of functions, includingpublic meetings in SouthGujarat, Saurashtra and UnionTerritory (UT) Dadra & NagarHaveli on Monday.

Modi started his day earlyin the morning despite thefact that his meetings contin-ued till late in the night posttwo-hour long roadshow fromairport to Surat circuit house.In his poll-bound home State,

Modi made it a point to reachout to the powerful Patidars,farmers and tribals throughseries of events.

His hectic schedule beganwith inauguration of a �400crore hospital project in Surat.The hospital was built by aninstitution led by powerfulPatidar community. PraisingPatidars for philanthropicactivities, Modi said that he wasin dilemma whether he shouldspeak in Hindi or Gujarati. Hefinally started in Hindi sayingthat he would like to address inHindi so that whole nationwould come to know about thegood work done by the peopleof Surat.

Subsequently he inaugu-rated a diamond polishing unit

situated on the outskirts of thecity. Addressing a gatheringthere, Modi said that he would

visit Israel in July and he wouldbe the first Indian PrimeMinister to visit that country.

“I know you have trade rela-tions with Israel. Rest assuredI am visiting there on behalf ofyou,” he said, adding that Indiais a leader in diamond polish-ing industry and it had thepotential to be number one ingems and jewellery sector.

Before addressing a hugepublic meeting at Bhaijipura intribal dominated Tapi district,Modi inaugurated a cattle-feedand an ice-cream plant man-aged by Sumul Dairy. He struckthe chord with large number offarmers and tribals there dur-ing his speech saying that hisGovernment has extended pro-curement period for pulses bya week. He suggested the farm-ers to grow pulses in their fieldto reap good prices.

At Silvassa, the capital townof UT Dadra & Nagar Haveli,Modi said that he was the firstPrime Minister to visit Silvassain the last 37 years. It was for-mer PM Moraraji Desai, whovisited the place in late seven-ties. He distributed equipmentto around 500 physically chal-lenged people there. Nearly1.50 lakh people thronged thevenue of Modi’s public meetingat Silvassa.

In the evening, after inau-gurating �16,000 crore irriga-tion project at Botad inSaurashtra region, Modiaddressed yet another megarally where he said that suchprojects were for the prosper-ity of villages and not to winelections.

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Congress-led OppositionUDF has retained the

Malappuram Lok Sabha seatwith former State minister PKKunhalikutty of the IndianUnion Muslim League emerg-ing as victor in a furiouslyfought by-election for whichpolling was held on April 12.The by-poll was necessitated bythe death of former Unionminister E Ahamed who hadwon the seat for the MuslimLeague in 2014.

At the end of counting ofvotes late Monday morning,Kunhalikutty bagged the seatby defeating his nearest LDFrival, MB Faisal of the CPI(M),by a margin of 1,71,023 votes.Both the UDF and LDF

increased their number of votesas well as vote-share consider-ably but the BJP, which hadpromised a big surprise in theby-poll, failed to make anygain.

The UDF polled 5,15,330votes while its score in 2014was 4,37,723 votes. Faisalbagged 3,44,307 votes, up by1,01,323from its 2014 score of2,42,984 votes.

“I have won but it is reallythe victory of secularism.Literate Kerala has voted forsecularism… There would nowbe efforts to bring together sec-ular forces in the nationallevel,” said Kunhalikutty.

Though Kunhalikutty hasscored a spectacular win,observers remind that he hasnot been able to achieve thewinning margin of Ahamed(1,94,739 votes)and that theLeft also has reason for somerelief as it improved its vote-share despite the defeat. Theoutcome bears clear messagesfor the BJP which aims to bag11 of the 20 seats in the Statein 2019 polls, say observers.

Despite its massive cam-

paign and the claims to regis-ter a six-fold increase in votes,BJP's candidate N Sreeprakashpolled only 65,675 votes, show-ing a negligible increase of970 votes from what he himselfhad polled in the last generalelection.

“We will have to analysethe situation. We will be doingthat,” said State BJP vice-pres-ident George Kurien.

“The BJP failed to getmuch support from the 83,000new voters in Malappuram.Also, it could not snatch Hinduvotes from the UDF or LDF.They will have to do some seri-ous thinking if they really wantto make a dent in 2019. First,they will have to realise that theKerala situation is differentfrom other states,” said a Kochi-based poll analyst.

Election experts had notexpected Malappuram tospring any big surprise.Though the Left had beenspeaking of the possibility of astunning outcome, its maingoal was to keep Kunhalikutty’swinning margin low. “Also, Idon't think many BJP leaders

had seriously sharedSreeprakash's dream of achiev-ing a six-fold vote-rise,” said theanalyst.

Though Kunhalikuttycould not improve upon themargin by which Ahamed had won in 2014, the Left didsuffer a huge setback as theUDF got clear winning marginsin all the seven Assembly seg-ments in the Lok Sabha con-stituency. The Left did increaseits number of votes but the totalscore was far less than what ithad got in the 2016 Assemblyelection.

The Congress and theMuslim league described theby-poll's outcome as people'sresponse to the 11-month-oldLDF rule in the State and thepolicies of the BJP and itsGovernment in the Centre.

“It is a slap on the face ofthe LDF Government,” saidOpposition Leader RameshChennithala while Kunha-likutty said, “It is a reply to the BJP Government in theCentre.”

However, CPI(M) ChiefMinister Pinarayi Vijayan

claimed that the by-poll was inno way an evaluation of hisGovernment’s performance.

“The LDF’s votes and vote-share have gone up consider-ably but the UDF has not beenable to make such a gain. At the same time, the BJP’s vote-share has gone down,” he point-ed out.

Pollsters are of the opinionthat the result has proved thatthere has been a consolidationof Muslim votes and the BJP'smassive campaign had con-tributed to this process in a bigway. Also, the votes of PopularFront’s SDPI and Welfare Partyof the Jama’at-e-Islami couldhave gone into the MuslimLeague’s kitty as they had notfielded own candidates thistime.

The SDPI and WelfareParty together had polled77,069 votes in 2014.

Observers point out thatthere is nothing wrong inassuming that most of thesevotes could have gone intoKunhalikutty’s kitty but theMuslim League does not agreewith that theory.

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Questioning silence of polit-ical parties and intellectu-

als on the issue of triple talaqChief Minister Aditya NathYogi said that the people whoare mum on this issue areequally guilty and also advo-cated uniform civil code saying“Why a country should havedifferent laws”.

“Triple talaq is a curse fora developed society. Thosewho are silent on this issue areequally guilty as those advo-cating it. People should speakout against this evil because oursisters are suffering,” Yogi saidduring a function held here onMonday.

The statement came a dayafter Prime Minister NarendraModi spoke about sufferings ofMuslim women in Bhubane-shwar and All India MuslimPersonal Law Board (AIM-PLB) in its meeting in Lucknowcalled for social boycott of

people who do not followIslamic law while practicingtriple talaq.

Lambasting political par-ties and intellectuals for keep-ing mum on the triple talaqissue Yogi said “Those whokeep quite on this sensitiveissue are equally responsible forthe harassment of Muslimwomen”.

Giving an example, theCM said after Draupudi’s cheer-haran (disrobing) incident in

Mahabharat she asked whowas responsible for this andVidur replied one-third werethose who did it, one-third arethose who supported it and restone-third remained mum andall of them — who did it andtheir accomplice or those keptmum are responsible for it.

Calling to put an end totriple talaq he demandedimplementation of UniformCivil Code. “When we advo-cate one nation theory whyshould there be different codes.Nation is most important for usrather than other issues,” hesaid adding that even formerPrime Minister ChandraShekhar also supported theissue of common civil code.

This is probably the firsttime that any BJP leader hold-ing a Constitutional post hassupported Common CivilCode in public.

The CM, who released abook ‘Sansad me Do Tuk’ onthe speeches of Chandra

Shekhar in the central hall ofthe Vidhan Bhawan after pay-ing tributes to him on his 91stbirth anniversary said thatevery institution should thinkof nation first and should workfor its betterment.” We shouldleave negativity and go forpositive thinking. Media alongwith other institutions shouldhelp the country to become onenation,” he said.

Highlighting the life ofChandra Shekhar, Yogi said“He was above vote politics anda true socialist, who never pro-moted his family during hispolitical career. ChandraShekhar had to go to jail duringemergency for opposing IndiraGandhi and always supportedthe ‘Swadheshi Movement.’

“He was a real nationalistleader who always said thatKashmir is an integral part ofthe country. He never hesitat-ed to speak the truth whetherin the public life or inParliament,” he said.

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Chief Minister Aditya NathYogi has given an ultima-

tum of three days to his Cabinetcolleagues to furnish theirproperty details within threedays or action could be takenagainst them.

After taking charge onMarch 19 Chief Minister YogiAditya Nath held an introduc-tory meeting of his council of

Ministers and asked them tosubmit their asset details to theGovernment as well as partyoffice. The announcementregarding this was made byGovernment spokesmanSidharthanath Singh in a pressconference.

A senior Government offi-cial said that majority of theMinisters have not given theirproperty detail to theGovernment.

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Samajwadi party leader Azam Khan on Monday said thatChief Minister Aditya Nath Yogi should refrain from med-

dling in the religious affairs of the Muslims and should notmake comments on the Muslim Personal Law and triple talaq.Azam Khan also criticised the comments of noted singer SonuNigam on social media on the use of loudspeakers for themorning prayers in mosques.

“Many changes were made in the Hindu dharma. Muslimulmas never commented on that because it was beyond ourjurisdiction. Sati was abolished and other changes were intro-duced in their personal laws. How they perform their marriage,recite mantra and take ‘saat phere’ it is not our business to com-ment on those issues,” said Azam Khan adding “How theMuslims offer prayers and practice triple talaq should be leftto the wisdom of Muslims and none should interfere in that.”

In his response to the critical comments by noted singeron the use of loudspeakers for Azaan (prayers) Azam Khansaid “Dancers and singers like Sonu Nigam should stay at alonely place where Bhajan, Guruvani and Azaan is not audi-ble. He should change his place of residence so he could peace-fully practice the art of singing.”

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Chief Minister Aditya NathYogi held his routine Janata

darshan at his official resi-dence on Monday and listenedto the problems of the peoplewho had come to meet him. Hedirected officials to disposethe applications at the earliest.He also asked officials to besensitive to the people andshould expeditiously work tosolve their problems.

A resident of ManishKumar Pandey sought financialassistance from Chief Ministerfor his mother’s treatment whois suffering from cancer whileKamlesh from Bahraichrequested for scholarship.Leelawati from Pilibhit request-ed for a house while Nasreenfrom Sitapur asked the CM tointervene and help her in amatter related to land grabbing.Others also met the ChiefMinister.

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Tension mounted on sever-al forward villages of

Nowshera sector in frontierRajouri district early Mondaymorning after Pakistani armyinitiated ‘indiscriminate’ fir-ing and targeted several for-ward civilian areas. In response,the Indian Army too reactedstrongly to the ‘unprovoked’incident of ceasefire violation.

Unconfirmed groundreports suggested that Indianarmy inflicted heavy damageson the other side of the Line ofControl.

According to officialsources, Pakistan Army wastrying to provide cover fire toa small group of infiltrators butalert Indian troops preventedtheir entry inside the Indianterritory from across the LoC.

Continuous exchange ofheavy firing triggered unrestamong villagers across for-ward areas of Kalsian, Lam,Jhanger and Baba Khori.

As a precautionary mea-sure, the district administrationordered closure of education-al institutions to prevent anyloss of life. Local villagers in thearea claimed that PakistanArmy was shelling their for-ward villages since morningusing long range mortars. Thevillagers remained huddledinside their houses and avoid-ed unwanted movement. Thevillagers were in touch with

local police and civil authori-ties to organise safe evacuationin the event of fresh flare up oftensions in the area.

SSP Rajouri SulemanChoudhary told reporters, “Weare keeping a close watch on thesecurity situation in the forwardvillages. He said we are in touchwith the local villagers throughformer sarpanches and in casethey require any assistance dur-ing safe evacuation we willensure their safety and securi-ty. He said the district authori-ties had already identified cer-tain locations in need of someemergency evacuation.

Defence PRO Lt-ColMunish Mehta said, “The fir-ing from the Pak side startedaround 8.00 am and continuedintermittently for several hours.He said the Indian army postsretaliated ‘strongly’ and ‘effec-tively’. Pak Army had earlierviolated ceasefire agreementin Nowshera on April 8, 2017.

Following latest assessmentof the various intelligence agen-cies, the jawans of the IndianArmy have been maintaininghigh alert in the forward areasto foil any fresh infiltration bidand BAT attack on the forwardIndian army posts.

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Hundreds of students stagedprotest demonstrations in

Kashmir Valley on Mondayagainst the alleged highhand-edness of security personnel ina South Kashmir college lastweekend that led to injuries toscores of students. The author-ities have re-imposed ban onmobile internet to restrict pro-liferation of controversial videoclips. While the degree collegein Pulwama, where the mainincident took place has beenclosed for two days, theKashmir University postponedexaminations scheduled forTuesday, apparently to avoidassembling of students at thecampus.

Several student groups hadcalled for demonstrationsagainst the incidents of violencetaking place at Degree Collegein Pulwama on April 15. Thestudents alleged that securitypersonnel swooped on scoresof students, who were protest-ing against establishing achecking point in the vicinityof the college, where severalthousand students are on rolls.

The college authorities said

the security forces’ responsewas disproportionate. Morethan forty students wereinjured in the security forces’action, who used pellet gunsand fired tear smoke shells todisperse students. The streetbattles later spread to otherparts of the volatile town.

On Monday, hundreds ofstudents took to streets in var-ious parts of Kashmir to stagedemonstrations against thePulwama incident. Studentsfrom two main colleges inSrinagar held demonstrationson Maulana Azad Road. They

clashed with police when theirmarch towards Lal Chowk, thenerve centre of Srinagar, wasblocked. Several students wereinjured in scuffle with police.Reports of protests also pouredin from dozens of colleges andsecondary schools located innorth, south and centralKashmir. The students of

Central University of Kashmirand Islamic University ofScience and Technology alsoheld peaceful demonstrations.

An official spokesman onSunday stated that ChiefMinister Mehbooba Mufti hastaken note of the Pulwamaincident and asked securityforces to exercise maximumrestraint while dealing with‘provocative situations’.

The Kashmir Universitypostponed examinationsscheduled for April 18.

In the wake of widespreadprotests, the authorities late onMonday announced to closedown colleges and universitiesfor a day on Tuesday. Accor-ding to the divisional com-missioner, Kashmir, all theuniversities, colleges and high-er secondary schools ofKashmir division shall remainclosed for one day on April 14,as a precautionary measure, anofficial spokesman said.

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Amid a series of attacks onthe residences of police

personnel and activists of pro-India political parties, theauthorities have issued an advi-sory to the police personnel toavoid visiting their homes forthe next few months. This is forthe first time since the armedinsurgency broke out in Jammuand Kashmir in 1989 whensuch an advisory has beenissued with a special mentionof south Kashmir where mili-tant activities have increasedsince last year.

The advisory came at atime when unknown gunmenshot dead a ruling PDP work-er and a former prosecutor affil-iated with opposition NationalConference in Shopian andPulwama districts while a for-mer pro-government militiacommander Abdur RashidBilla was shot dead at his resi-dence in north Kashmir.

Sources said the policeadvisory have been issued fol-lowing several incidents ofharassment of the families ofpolice officers and personnelin south Kashmir areas.Prominent militant outfitHizbul Mujahideen issuedthreats to the families ofpolicemen in a bid to stop theireffective perusal of the mili-tants.

The militants threatenedtheir families and directedthem to ask children in policeto quit the job.

Perturbed at the growingtrend, the Director General ofPolice Dr SP Vaid advised hismen to avoid visiting homesespecially in south Kashmir fornext few months.

“There have been fewrecent incidents in Valleywhere terrorists, anti-nationaland anti-social elements havetried to cause damage to lifeand property of police per-sonnel,” the police advisoryissued on Sunday said.

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Senior Telugu Desam Partyleader and former Minister

Devineni Rajasekhar, aliasDevineni Nehru, passed awayafter suffering a heart attack inthe wee hours of Monday. Hewas 63 and survived by a sonand a daughter.

Nehru, once a powerfulfaction leader in Vijayawadapolitics, who was elected to theState Assembly five times fromKankipadu constituency was akey figure in politics of Krishnadistrict. Nehru, who had recent-ly returned to TDP fold fromCongress was grooming hisson Avinash as his political heir.Of late he was not keeping wellas he had developed kidney ail-ment and had returned homefrom Care Hospital only two

days ago. He suffered heartattack on Monday morning athis home in Hyderabad and wasrushed back to Care Hospitalwhere he breathed his last.

Nehru, who had started hispolitical career as a studentleader when he along withVangaveeti Mohan Rangalaunched their own partyUnited Independence. Butsoon the two developed differ-ences as they hailed from tworival powerful castes of Kammaand Kapus, Nehru launched hisown organisation. After NTRama Rao launched TDP,Nehru joined the new party.

Andhra Pradesh CM NChandrababu Naidu visitedNehru's home in Vijaywadawhere the body was kept. “Hisdeath has caused an irrepara-ble loss to the TDP”, Naidu said.

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Labelling J&K Chief Minister'power hungry' former

Chief Minister and workingpresident of NationalConference Omar AbdullahMonday said even after failingto control the law and order sit-uation and holding peacefulby-elections Mehbooba is notstepping down and ‘shame-lessly’ holding on to her chair.Omar also claimed as long asPDP-BJP will remain in power,the State of Jammu andKashmir will only see ‘destruc-tion’.

“The present dispensationhas failed to control the situa-tion and till they (PDP-BJP)remain in power, the state willwitness only destruction,”Abdullah told reporters in theState Assembly.

Omar earlier arrived herefrom Srinagar to cast his votein the Legislative council polls.

Referring to the recentadvisory issued by the policeheadquarters cautioningpolicemen to avoid visitingtheir homes for some timeOmar told reporters, “In thelast 27 years for the first timeit has happened that police hadto issue such an advisory, ask-ing cops not to go to theirhomes. Policemen cannot go

home to meet their families. So,what more proof is requiredthat situation is out of control?”

“This Government hasfailed to hold peacefulParliamentary polls. The LokSabha seat itself left by CMMehbooba Mufti is still vacant,”he added.

“In the present situation,there is only 'darkness' around,nothing else. Despite such a sit-uation in Kashmir valley, Muftiis holding the chief ministeri-al chair and it is 'shameless' forher. “Soon after Srinagar LokSabha polls results wereannounced, Farooq Abdullahdemanded that either Mehbo-oba should resign or her Gover-nment should be dismissed.TheGovernor should intervene.Governor’s Rule must beimposed to normalise the sit-uation as the Governm-

ent has failed on all fronts,”Abdullah further alleged.

On a question that Gove-rnment has blamed the Natio-nal Conference for the pre-vailing turmoil, Abdullah said,“Had any NC worker beenarrested or booked so far in anyof the cases for these allega-tions?” The constituenciesdominated by the NationalConference like Chadoora orCharar-e-Sharief…we got smallnumber votes there.We will notstart throwing stones in ourown houses. “From Eidgah-wegot less than 400 votes. If wehad created disturbance, wewould have done it in PDPdominated areas, not thosewhere NC has its hold,” saidAbdullah. He said these alle-gations are only excuses. Thetruth is that situation has goneout of Government’s control.

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In a relief to Bollywood actorSanjay Dutt, a city court on

Monday cancelled arrest war-rant issued against him lastweek in a threat case filedagainst him by producerShakeel Noorani for his failureto attend four earlier hearings,after he made a personalappearance before an AndheriMetropolitan Magistrate.

Though it was a “bailablewarrant”, the actor made anappearance before the Andherimetropolitan magistrate'scourt. He completed the bailformalities himself, after he wasreleased on bail.

Noorani has filed a privatecomplaint with the courtdemanding registration of acase against Dutt for criminalintimidation.

In his complaint, Nooranihad alleged that he receivedthreats from the underworld atthe actor’s behest.

Noorani's allegation wasthat Dutt had abandoned theshooting of 'Jaan ki Baazi,'which he was producing in2002, after taking initial sign-ing amount of Rs 50 lakh, shotfor only two days and then didnot appear.

Noorani's lawyer NeerajGupta had earlier made a casefor issuance of “arrest warrant”against Dutt on the groundthat the actor, after beingreleased from Pune Yerwadaprison on Febnruary 25, 2016,did not appear on the last fourdates. On his part, the magis-trate, however, had last weekissued a bailable warrant andposted the matter next onAugust 29.

Mumbai: Making the most ofthe “azaan” controversy involv-ing Bollywood singer SonuNigam, leading environmen-talist and founder of AwaazFoundation Sumaira Abdulalion Monday urged theMaharashtra Pollution ControlBoard (MPCB), the Mumbaipolice and BrihanmumbaiMunicipal Corporation (BMC)to enforce noise pollutionnorms.

Hours after Nigam went totown expressing his displeasureover azaan being played in theearly morning hours, Sumairastated, “While I do not supportSonu Nigam’s comments, Iurge all concerned Depart-ments to strictly enforce thenoise pollution rules in accor-dance with the Bombay HighCourt Order of August 2016across all religious, culturaland social denominations andfor all religious places.” PNS

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Even as Samajwadi partypatron Mulayam Singh

Yadav has opposed to alliancewith the Bahujan Samaj Partyand other like minded forces,the Samajwadi Party has decid-ed to move ahead and forgealliance to take on the BJP afterits land slide victory in recentState Assembly elections. TheSP, however, would contest theby-elections to two Assemblyand two Lok Sabha seats on itsown strength. The bypolls arelikely to be held by the August-end.

On April 14, BahujanSamaj Party chief Mayawatihad offered to join hands withany anti-BJP front. Next day,Akhilesh Yadav had welcomedthe offer and expressed his will-ingness to join the front againstthe BJP.

SP sources said attempt toveto the idea of alliance byMulayam Singh Yadav is only

for ‘public consumption’ andholds ‘no significance’ neitherfor the party nor presidentAkhilesh Yadav. “MulayamSingh had also opposed thealliance with the Congress. Itwas ignored by the party andsame fate will meet the recentopposition to alliance with theBSP’’, said a SP leader.

The SP has, however,decided to go slow on theissue of alliance. The party willcontest the coming election ofthe urban local bodies and by-elections to the two Assemblyand two Lok Sabha seats on itsstrength. Though the SP hadentered into an alliance for theState Assembly elections andofficially the alliance stillstands, the party is reluctant tocontinue the alliance for the2019 Lok Sabha elections.

“The SP will contest thecoming by-elections toAssembly and Lok Sabha seatson its own strength. It’s goingto be futile exercise to invest

much resources in the by-elec-tions as the BJP will easily winboth the Gorakhpur andPhulpur seats. If we enter theelectoral contest in alliancewith the BSP and lose both theseats, it will be very demoral-ising for the alliance for thefuture elections,” said a SPleader.

Uttar Pradesh ChiefMinister Aditya Nath Yogi andhis deputy Keshav PrasadMaurya are both MPs fromGorakhpur and Phulpurrespectively. Both have toresign from the membership ofLok Sabha and obtain themembership of the either of thehouse of UP Legislature beforeSeptember 19 next.

In 2014 Lok Sabha elec-tions Yogi Adityanath waselected for the Lok Sabha fromthe Gorakhpur Lok Sabha seatfor the fifth consecutive term.He had polled over 4 lakh votesof the SP and the BSP candi-dates were 2.65 lakh.

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���� ������ Kick-starting theprocess of selling minoritystake in 7 PSUs includingbluechips like IOC, SAIL andNTPC, which have the poten-tial to collectively raise over�34,000 crore, the Governmenthas begun scouting for mer-chant bankers.

The Department ofInvestment and Public AssetManagement (DIPAM) hascome out with RFPs forappointing merchant bankersand legal advisers for stake salein these state-owned compa-nies.

The other companies onthe radar are hydro-power firmNHPC, Power FinanceCorporation (PFC), REC andNLC India Ltd.

DIPAM Secretary NeerajGupta said no timeframe hasbeen fixed for these disinvest-ments and the request for pro-posal (RFP) is merely a deci-sion to appoint merchantbankers.

“The process is routinelydone to explore the possibilityof disinvestment. There is noimminent disinvestment in any

of these PSUs,” Gupta said.An official source said that

these stake sales will take sometime to happen as there arealready 12 PSUs for which theGovernment has securedapproval from the Cabinet togo ahead with disinvestment.

As per the RFP, theGovernment plans to sell 3 percent stake in Indian OilCorporation (IOC), 10 percent each in steel major SAIL,thermal power major NTPC,NHPC and PFC.

Besides, a 15 per cent stakein NLC India (formerly NeyveliLignite Corporation) and 5 percent in REC is proposed to beput on the block.

At the current marketprices, the stake sale couldfetch the exchequer about�34,000 crore, including

�13,000 crore from NTPC,�6,000 crore from IOC and�2,500 crore from steel majorSAIL.

Besides, a minority stakesale in PFC could fetch �4,000crore, that in NHPC could gar-ner �3,000 crore, NLC (�2,000crore) and REC (�1,000 crore).

Government holds 58.28per cent in IOC, 69.74 per centin NTPC, 75 per cent in SAILand 74.50 per cent in NHPC.

Besides, it holds 90 per centin NLC India, 67.80 per cent inPFC and 60.64 per cent inRural ElectrificationCorporation.

In the Budget 2017-18, theGovernment set a target of�46,500 crore to be mobilisedthrough minority stake saleand �15,000 crore from strate-gic disinvestment. ��

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Shareholders of TataConsultancy Ser vices’

(TCS) on Monday approved a�16,000-crore share buybackplan, the biggest in the Indiancapital market, as the IT majorlooks to distribute surpluscash.

The buyback programme,which was passed through aspecial resolution, saw 99.81per cent of the total numberof valid votes being cast infavour of the proposal, thecompany said in a regulatoryfiling.

The nod comes ahead ofTCS’ fourth quarter and fullfiscal (2016-17) results, sched-uled to be announced tomor-row.

The share buyback, if suc-cessful, will be India’s biggest,surpassing RelianceIndustries’ 2012 share repur-chase of �10,400 crore.

Share buybacks typicallyimprove earnings per shareand return surplus cash toshareholders while also sup-porting share price duringperiods of sluggish market

condition.The Indian IT companies

have been under pressure toreturn excess cash on theirbooks to shareholders throughgenerous dividends and buy-backs.

TCS had earlier said that itreceived suggestions frominvestors over the need for cer-tainty on dividend policy alongwith share buyback to distrib-ute the cash.

The Mumbai-based com-pany has a cash pile of �43,169crore, which is nearly 10 percent of the company’s marketcapitalisation.

Last week, Infosysannounced its capital alloca-tion policy to return up to�13,000 crore this financialyear through dividend and/orbuyback.

Earlier this year, Cognizantannounced a $3.4 billion sharebuyback, bowing to pressurefrom activist investor ElliottManagement Corp.

Smaller peer HCLTechnologies has alsoapproved a buyback of up to3.50 crore shares worth �3,500crore.

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The Institute of CharteredAccountants of India’s atten-

tion has been drawn to the mediareports regarding the raids con-ducted by the EnforcementDirectorate on the offices of theChartered Accountants in NewDelhi, who were alleged to beinvolved in the money launderingand hawala like transactionsthrough shell companies.

The Disciplinary Directorateof the ICAI is already seized of thematter and has initiated the pro-ceedings as per the CharteredAccountants (Procedure ofInvestigations of Professional andOther Misconduct and Conductof Cases) Rules, 2007, against suchChartered Accountants who werealleged to be involved in themoney laundering through dubi-ous and suspicious companies,said a release from the the nation-al professional accounting body ofIndia

The ICAI would like toinform that the matter will be dealtseriously to look into all the vio-lations in these cases as per theCode of Conduct of the Instituteand necessary action will be takenin accordance with the laws of theland, the accounting body added.

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Having increased their salesdespite the market for lux-

ury cars declining in 2016,Volvo India is looking to boosttheir marketshare in India evenfurther according to Tom vanBornsdoff, Volvo IndiaManaging Director. Salestouched 1600 units last year,even though overall luxurymarket sales declined to 34,000units from 36,000 units. “Wemanaged to grow 11 per centin 2016 despite demonetisation,which was quite challenging tosay the least”, von Bornsdofftold The Pioneer at the launchof the S60 Polestar, the com-pany’s first ‘performance’ vari-ant in India.

The company has firmedup plans to launch the the V90Cross Country within the nextfew months and has plans topossibly launch the second-generation XC60 late this year.“I have big hopes for the XC60because that segment of themarket is very important andit will play a big role in ourgrowth plans.” The company isalso looking to expand reachthis year, having opened a newdealership in Jaipur and isadding Lucknow, Ludhianaand Pune to their network inthe next few months and vonBornsdoff expects sales totouch 2000 units by the end ofthe year. “We have 17 show-rooms across India right now,and by the end of the year I

expect us to be around 25showrooms across the country.”

Volvo India is one of thefew luxury brands with a sig-nificant presence across Indiathat does not have any assem-bly unit in India. Luxury man-ufacturers such as Audi, BMW,Mercedes and Jaguar LandRover all do limited assemblyof popular models in India asassembled units attract a lowerincidence of tax. “It is a ques-tion of when and not if we willestablish an assembly plant inIndia”, von Bornsdoff added.

Volvo India launched theirS60 Polestar at the KariInternational Speedway in thissouthern city. The Polestarwhich is Volvo’s foray into theperformance market offers 367horsepower and is priced at Rs52.5 lakh ex-showroom Delhi.However, initially only 30 suchvehicles will be brought toIndia. “We can look at expand-ing that quota if the sales dowell”, von Bornsdoff said butadded that products like thePolestar appeal to enthusiastsand is usually not the primarycar of a buyer.

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Tata Sons on Monday wel-comed the ruling by the

National Company LawTribunal (NCLT) dismissingthe waiver application and theCompany Petition, which wasfiled against Tata Sons by share-holders linked to its formerChairman, Cyrus P. Mistry andsaid it vindicates the position ofthe group.

“The ruling today by theNational Company LawTribunal (NCLT) dismissingthe waiver application of theShapoorji Pallonji Group com-panies, on behalf of CyrusMistry, represents a vindicationof our position.

“We hope this brings to anend a vexatious campaignagainst the company, the TataTrusts and Ratan N Tata. TataSons will continue its focus onits future development underthe stewardship of our chairmanN Chandrasekaran,” F NSubedar, chief operating officerof Tata Sons said in a statementlate this evening.

“We are pleased thatMistry’s claims have been dis-missed by the NCLT,” he addedand welcomed the NCLT ruling.

Earlier in the day, the NCLTdismissed the waiver applicationby the Mistry camp filed againstTata Sons. The petitions werefiled by two firms belonging to

Cyrus Mistry’s family, andsought waiver of an eligibilitycondition for moving the forumagainst Tata Sons.

Dismissing the petitions,NCLT bench led by BSVPrakashKumar and VNallasenapathy said, “The waiv-er is dismissed, the companypetition dismissed.” The reasonsfor the order will be given outlater in the week.

“We interpret the NCLTruling as demonstrating that thepetitioners failed to make aconvincing or compelling casethat warranted a hearing onalleged mismanagement,oppression or other actions,”Subedar said.

Today’s was the fifth suchruling by the company law tri-bunals, rejecting reliefs request-ed by the Shapoorji PallonjiGroup companies and Mistry.

“Mistry has made manyill-advised and groundless alle-gations intended to besmirchthe name of the Tata Group,”Subedar, said, adding, “Today’sruling makes clear that there isno case to be heard.”

“Over the past six months,Mistry has failed demonstrablyto build a case. We trust thatthe NCLT’s decision bringsthis matter to a close,” he con-cluded.

The two firms-- CyrusInvestments and SterlingInvestments- wanted NCLT to

waive the requirement thatshareholders hold at least 10per cent of a firm to file a peti-tion alleging mismanagementand oppression.

While the Pallonji Groupowns 18.4 per cent of ordinaryshares in Tata Sons, their own-ership comes down to onlyabout 2.17 per cent when pref-erence shares are counted.

Together, Pallonji Group isthe single largest shareholder inthe $105 billlion group with18.4 per cent stakes in TataTrusts, which collectively own64 per cent in the group.

Aryama Sundaram, coun-sel for the Mistry family firms,had argued for the waiver cit-ing concerns on voting andveto rights accorded to Tatatrustees on the board of TataSons.

Mistry, after being oustedfrom the group as chairman onOctober 24 last, had allegedthat there was mismanage-ment and oppression of minor-ity shareholders and urgedNCLT to use its discretion andwaive an eligibility conditionfor filing such a petition.

The NCLT had on March6, 2017 held last month that theplea was not maintainable,because the petitioner firms didnot meet one of the eligibilitycriteria prescribed by Section244 of the Companies Act of2013. (With PTI input)

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With the fall of fuel prices,wholesale inflation fell to

5.7 per cent in March from 6.55per cent in February. Despitehardening of the food prices, fuelprices saw a decline of 18.16 percent from 21.02 per cent inFebruary, while manufactureditems witnessed some softeningin the rate of price rise with infla-tion at 2.99 per cent in March asagainst 3.66 per cent in the pre-vious month.

Based on the WholesalePrice Index or WPI inflation wasat 6.55 per cent in February, whilein March last year it was at (-)0.45 per cent, according to theofficial data released on Monday.

The data, however, said thatfood prices saw a sharp rise of3.12 per cent last month com-pared to 2.69 per cent inFebruary. “This was primarilybecause of a big jump in vegetableprices where inflation stood at5.70 per cent. As for fruits, the fig-ure was also high at 7.62 per cent,while for eggs, meat and fish, itwas 3.12 per cent,” it said.

On the other hand, expertssaid that the rupee had been onan appreciating trend againstthe US dollar since February, cutin fuel prices in March pusheddown fuel and manufacturedproduct prices. “A stronger rupeelowers import costs and cutsdown the cost of manufacturing.While global oil prices dipped ina month’s time to $49 per barrel

from $55, reflecting in a Rs 3.77per litre cut in petrol price andRs 2.91 in diesel. Rates have sinceclimbed to $54 per barrel. Therupee which was at 66.7 to a dol-lar in February end strengthenedto 64.85 to a dollar,” they said.

“We believe there is anupside risk to the inflation withthe increasing global commod-ity prices and expectation ofpossible below-normal mon-soons. Food prices could see amoderation in the comingmonths with the Rabi harvestcoming into the markets,” CARERatings said in a statement.However, ICRA, however, pro-jected food inflation to inch upin April, led by perishables, in linewith rising temperatures. “Goingforward, monsoon dynamicswould dictate the trend in foodinflation, particularly for kharifcrops,” it said.

“The continued apprecia-tion of the rupee relative to thedollar may weaken the trend ofresetting of prices at the begin-ning of the fiscal year, furtherdampening core inflation inApril 2017,” ICRA PrincipalEconomist Aditi Nayar said. “Alikely reversal of the rupee move-ment in subsequent months, aswell as prices changes related tothe introduction of GST, wouldcrucially affect the trend for coreinflation,” she added.

Inflation for January wasrevised upwards to 5.53 per centfrom the provisional estimate of5.25 per cent.

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��������: Insurance sectorregulator Irdai onMondayreduced motor insur-ance premium rates in mostof the segments like two-wheelers, cars and trucks bymodifying the rates for 2017-18 issued three-weeks ago.

The modified ‘premiumrates for motor third party lia-bility insurance cover’ willapply retrospectively fromApri l 1, the InsuranceRegulatory and DevelopmentAuthority of India (Irdai) saidin an order.

However, the premiumrates for the current fiscal arehigher than those of the pre-vious year.

As per the revised list,premium on mid-segmentcars (1,000cc - 1,500 cc) hasbeen reduced to �2,863 from�3,132 announced on March28.

Similarly, premium forcars with engine capacity ofmore than 1,500 cc has beenbrought down to �7,890 fromearlier �8,630.

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Washington: Once soft onRussia and hard on China,President Donald Trumprapidly reversed course in thelast weeks, concluding there’smore business to be done withBeijing than with Moscow.

Trump’s evolving views onthose two world powers havebrought the U.S. back into align-ment with former PresidentBarack Obama’s pattern of “greatpower” politics. Though Russiacritics welcomed Trump’s newlyhardened tone, there’s less enthu-siasm from America’s allies inAsia, who fear the US couldoverlook China’s more aggressiveposture toward its neighbors.

It may be that Trump, thebusinessman-turned-world

leader, is discovering China’stransactional approach to for-eign relations is better suited toachieving his own goals.Chinese leaders have sought aUS relationship based on thetwo powers respecting eachother’s spheres of influenceand not intervening in oneanother’s internal affairs.

Such a balance-of-powersapproach had been Russia’straditional stance. Moscow stillwants Washington out of itsbackyard, but Russia’s allegedcampaigns to influence the USpresidential election andupcoming votes in the heart ofWestern Europe have made itharder for American officials totake the offer seriously. AP

Islamabad: The US onMonday asked Pakistan to“confront” terrorism in all itsforms as America’s NationalSecurity Adviser held talkswith the top civilian and mili-tary leadership here during anunannounced visit, the first bya top Trump administrationofficial to this country.

US National SecurityAdviser HR McMaster, whoarrived here earlier in the day,held talks with Prime MinisterNawaz Sharif, Prime Minister’sAdviser on Foreign AffairsSartaj Aziz, army chief GeneralQamar Javed Bajwa, PakistanNSA Lt Gen (retd) NasserJanjua and Special Assistant tothe Prime Minister on ForeignAffairs Syed Tariq Fatemi.

“McMaster expressedappreciation for Pakistan’sdemocratic and economicdevelopment, and stressed theneed to confront terrorism in allits forms,” said a US Embassystatement on McMaster’s meet-ing with the top civilian andmilitary leadership here.

The two sides discussed arange of bilateral and regionalissues, it said. DuringMcMaster’s call on, Sharif,while talking about Indo-Pakties, reiterated his “firm con-viction” to sustained dialogueand meaningful engagement asthe only way forward to resolveall outstanding issues. PTI

Seoul: Ousted South KoreanPresident Park Geun-Hye wason Monday charged withbribery involving millions ofdollars over the massive cor-ruption and influence-peddlingscandal that brought her down.

Park, whose impeachmentwas confirmed by Seoul’s topcourt last month, is at the cen-tre of a sprawling graft inves-tigation, which has also impli-cated top businessmen andbrought millions of peopleonto the streets.

The former leader, alreadydetained at a centre near Seoul,also faces charges of abusing herpowers and leaking state secrets,Seoul prosecutors probing thescandal said in a statement.

“We have formally chargedPark... With multiple offencesincluding abuse of power, coer-cion, bribery and leaking statesecrets,” they said after wrap-ping up the months-long inves-tigation. Park is accused of col-luding with her confidante atthe heart of the scandal, ChoiSoon-sil, who is already on trialfor coercing local conglomer-ates into donating a total of 77.4billion won ($68 million) totwo non-profit foundations.

Prosecutors on Mondayalso charged Shin Dong-Bin,the chairman of the retail giantLotte Group, with bribing Choiand Park. AFP

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The clouds of war, it mightseem, are gathering around

the Korean Peninsula.The North Korean

Government flaunts an increas-ingly sophisticated arsenal ofintercontinental missiles andlaunches a midrange version,which apparently fails secondsafter takeoff. The US moves animmense warship to the watersoff the peninsula in a display ofmilitary might. PresidentDonald Trump warns he’sready to “solve North Korea,”while North Korea’s deputyforeign minister says his coun-try will conduct its next nucleartest whenever it sees fit.

And in Pyongyang, wherewar would mean untold hor-rors, where neighborhoodscould be reduced to rubble andtens of thousands of civilianscould be killed, few peopleseem to care much at all.

On Sunday, the city’s zoowas crowded, playgroundswere full of children and fam-ilies strolled along downtownsidewalks speckled with thefalling blossoms of apricottrees. At the city’s annualKimilsungia flower show —held to celebrate Saturday’s105th anniversary of the birthof North Korea’s founding ruler,

Kim Il Sung, and the purpleorchid named for him — thou-sands crowded around the displays, many using cell-phones to take photos offriends and family.

In a country where the pro-paganda is all-encompassing,and where the same family hasheld power for three genera-tions, every display mixedbright flowers with remindersof Kim Il Sung or the nationthat his grandson, Kim JongUn, now rules. So there weredioramas of Kim Il Sung’sbirthplace, photos of him meet-ing foreign leaders, paintings ofnew housing developments —and models of missiles.

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Turkey’s main Oppositionparty on Monday prepared

to contest the results of a land-mark referendum that gave anarrow victory to PresidentRecep Tayyip Erdogan’s long-time plans to greatly expandthe powers of his office.

Turkey’s electoral boardconfirmed the “yes” victory inSunday’s referendum and saidthe final results would bedeclared in 11-12 days. Thestate-run Anadolu Agency saidthe “yes” vote stood at 51.41 percent, while the “no” vote was48.59 per cent.

The margin fell short of thesweeping victory Erdogan hadsought in the referendum.Nevertheless, it could cementhis hold on power in Turkeyand is expected to have a hugeeffect on the country’s long-term political future and its

international relations.“I suspect the result was

narrower than what Erdoganexpected,” said HowardEissenstat, associate professorof Middle East History at StLawrence University in theUnited States. “Erdogan hasruled with a narrow victory

before. He does not see a nar-row victory as anything lessthan a mandate. His tendencyhas been to not to co-opt theOpposition but to crush it.”

The 18 constitutionalamendments that will comeinto effect after the next elec-tion, scheduled for 2019, will

abolish the office of the Prime Minister and handsweeping executive powers tothe President.

Opponents had argued theconstitutional changes wouldgive too much power to a man who they say has shown increasingly autocratic

tendencies.The referendum campaign

was highly divisive and heavi-ly one-sided, with the “yes” sidedominating the airwaves andbillboards. Supporters of the“no” vote have complained ofintimidation, including beat-ings, detentions and threats.

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Istanbul: Turkey is set toextend a nearly nine-monthstate of emergency afterPresident Recep TayyipErdogan won a key referendumboosting his powers.

The decision to extend theemergency, first imposed in thewake of the July 15 failed coup,was to be made at a meeting ofTurkey’s top security council atthe presidential palace onMonday. AFP

Istanbul: Turkish PresidentRecep Tayyip Erdogan is set torejoin his ruling Justice andDevelopment Party (AKP) aftera key referendum win expand-ing his powers, a party officialsaid on Monday. “We will offermembership to Erdogan afterApril 27-28,” Mustafa Elitas, par-liamentary faction chief of theAKP, which Erdogan co-found-ed, was quoted as saying by theprivate NTV television. AFP

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London: At least 12 people suf-fered burns after a man sprayeda corrosive substance inside apacked club in east London onEaster evening, promptingauthorities to launch an inves-tigation into the incident.

Scotland Yard officersbelieve a man threw acid at twomen after a dispute betweentwo groups inside the venue,from where hundreds of par-tygoers were evacuated.

“A total of 12 people attend-

ed hospital suffering burns. Tenpeople were taken by ambulanceand two people presented them-selves at an east London hospi-tal,” Metropolitan Police said ina statement on Monday.

Two of those injured remainin a serious but stable conditionand others were treated forminor injuries. “Officers believea dispute between two groups ofpeople developed inside thevenue, resulting in a noxious sub-stance being sprayed by a male

suspect directly at Victims 1 and2. Other people inside the venuesuffered the effects of the sub-stance. The substance is yet to beidentified, but it is believed tohave been acidic,” the Met Policesaid. An investigation is under-way and no arrest has been madeyet. “There is nothing to suggestthat this is gang related,” the Metsaid. It is understood about 600people were at an event in theclub on Easter Sunday when theincident took place. PTI

Islamabad: A 20-year-old medical student, who visited Syria inFebruary to join the ISIS and receive weapons training, has saidthat she was to be used as a suicide bomber to attack a churchon Easter in Pakistan’s Lahore city. Naureen Leghari, a second-year student of the Liaquat University of Medical and HealthSciences in Jamshoro, Sindh, said she left her house to go toLahore on her own. In a video confession played during a pressconference by Pakistan’s Military spokesman Maj Gen AsifGhafoor here, Naureen said that she was to be used by the IslamicState as a suicide bomber on an attack to be conducted on a churchon Easter Sunday. The woman said they were given two suicidejackets, four grenade and some bullets by the ISIS to carry outthe mission. PTI

Ramallah: Hundreds ofPalestinians in Israeli jailslaunched a hunger strike todayfollowing a call from leader andprominent prisoner MarwanBarghouti, a PalestinianAuthority official said.

Issa Qaraqe, head of pris-oners affairs for the PalestinianAuthority, said that “around1,300 Palestinian prisoners”were participating in thehunger strike and the numbercould rise.

The Palestinian PrisonersClub NGO put the number at1,500. Israeli prison servicespokesman Assaf Librati saidthat 700 prisoners hadannounced on Sunday theirintention to begin a hunger

strike. “We are checking thismorning to see the number ofprisoners actually striking assome of them said they wouldonly observe a symbolic proteststrike and then resume eatingafterwards,” he said.

“There will be an updatelater.” Barghouti is serving a lifesentence over his role in theviolent second Palestinianintifada. He is a popular figure,with polls suggesting he couldwin the Palestinian presidency.

The strike was called inconnection with PalestinianPrisoners Day, which isobserved annually.

Some 6,500 Palestiniansare currently detained by Israel.

AFP

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Viewing his adversaries inthe distance, US Vice-

President Mike Pence trav-elled to the tense zone dividingNorth and South Korea andwarned Pyongyang that afteryears of testing the US andSouth Korea with its nuclearambitions, “the era of strategicpatience is over.”

Pence made an unan-nounced visit to theDemilitarized Zone onMonday at the start of his 10-day trip to Asia in a US showof force that allowed the Vice-President to gaze at NorthKorean soldiers from afar andstare directly across a bordermarked by razor wire.

As the brown bomber jack-et-clad vice president wasbriefed near the militarydemarcation line, two NorthKorean soldiers watched froma short distance away, one tak-ing multiple photographs of theAmerican visitor.

Pence told reporters nearthe DMZ that PresidentDonald Trump was hopeful

China would use its “extraor-dinary levers” to pressure theNorth to abandon its weaponsprogram, a day after the North’s failed missile test launch.

But Pence expressed impa-tience with the unwillingness ofthe regime to move toward rid-ding itself of nuclear weaponsand ballistic missiles.

Pointing to the quarter-century since the United Statesfirst confronted North Koreaover its attempts to buildnuclear weapons, the vice pres-ident said a period of patiencehad followed.

“But the era of strategicpatience is over,” he declared.“President Trump has made itclear that the patience of theUnited States and our allies inthis region has run out and wewant to see change. We want tosee North Korea abandon itsreckless path of the develop-ment of nuclear weapons, andalso its continual use and test-ing of ballistic missiles is unac-ceptable.”

Pence said the Americancommitment to South Korea is“iron- clad and immutable.”

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London: A three-month-old baby was summoned to the USembassy in the UK after his grandfather accidentally ticked a boxclaiming the child was a terrorist. Factory owner Paul Kenyon,62, had planned to fly his family to Florida, US, for a holiday tohis villa in Orlando, but made the mistake on the ElectronicSystem for Travel Authorisation form his grandson HarveyKenyon-Cairn needed to get into the country.

Rather than ticking no when asked, “Do you seek to engage inor have you ever engaged in terrorist activities, espionage, sabotage,or genocide?” Kenyon ticked yes, The Telegraph reported. HarveyKenyon-Cairns’s application was refused and he was asked to attenda grilling from US officials in London. Kenyon travelled down withhis daughter and Harvey’s mother, Faye to the Embassy just threedays before their flight, but the visa failed to arrive in time. PTI

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In an enthralling contest which see-sawed between the two teams,Manish Pandey proved to be the

difference in the end as he sealed animpressive four-wicket victory forKolkata Knight Riders against DelhiDaredevils in a nail-biting finish hereon Monday.

Kolkata seemed to have the gamein the bag needing 34 runs in the lastfive overs with six wickets in hand.This was due to a brilliant rearguardaction from Yusuf Pathan (59 off 39balls) and Manish (69 off 49 balls)who rescued their team from a mis-erable position of 21/3 through a part-nership of 110 runs in 72 balls.

Knight Riders weren't able to getenough boundaries in the last fiveovers and required 16 in the last two.On the second ball of the penultimateover, Sanju Samson pulled off a mag-nificent save at wide long-on, divingfull length to catch a lofted shot fromPandey and, while still being airborne,threw it inside the boundary line tosave 4 runs for his team.

Nine runs were needed in the lastover. Delhi captain Zaheer Khan gavethe ball to Amit Mishra who hadn'tbowled in a long while. The first twodeliveries were dot balls, of which thesecond got Delhi a wicket as ChrisWoakes was out stumped.

New man at the crease SunilNarine took a single to bring Pandeyback on strike with eight runs need-ed off three deliveries. It was up toPandey to win the match for his teamand he delivered by smashing Mishraover deep long-on for a six. He thendeftly placed the fifth ball of the overfor a couple of runs to take his teamhome.

Earlier in the day, Delhi won thetoss and elected to bat first.

Delhi were off to a great start,thanks to the opening pair of SanjuSamson and Sam Billings. The pitchseemed to have true bounce andlooked perfect for stroke play andboth openers were making use of it.

Samson, especially, looked in royaltouch, timing the ball superbly.

In the third over bowled byUmesh Yadav, four boundaries werestruck including two delightful coverdrives by Samson.

Visiting team captain GautamGambhir had to bring Sunil Narineinto the attack as early as the fourthover. Narine, as usual, bowled a verytidy line and length to restrict thebatsmen.

Coulter-Nile got the first break-through when he bowled Billings onthe first ball of the seventh overthrough a low full toss which Billingscharged at and missed.

Samson was looking good at theother end but his innings was cutshort by Umesh Yadav when he gotthe Kerala youngster to edge a backof a length delivery outside off stumpto the wicketkeeper on the penulti-mate ball of the eighth over. He

scored 39 off 25 balls.This brought together Shreyas

Iyer and Karun Nair. Iyer playedsome good shots to keep the score-board ticking and Delhi were 83/2 atthe halfway mark of their innings.

Nair then started to try and up theante by attempting some big shots asDelhi reached their hundred in 12.5overs.

In the fourteenth over, a strongthrow from midwicket by Colin deGrandhomme resulted in the run outof Iyer and Nair also perished look-ing for boundaries.

Delhi were looking for big hitsand Pant succeeded in lofting KuldeepYadav over long-off for six in the six-teenth over.

The next over bowled by Yadavwas a big one. Pant lofted Yadav overmid-wicket for six, then played a fiercecut shot for four followed by two bighits into the stands over the leg sidein an over that produced 26 runs. Pantscored 38 runs in just 16 balls.

The lower order couldn't push thescore much further as Coulter-Nilewas mixing his length and line nice-ly to keep the batsmen guessing.Eventually, Delhi ended up with ascore of 165/7. Coulter-Nile finishedwith impressive figures of 3/22 in fourovers.

In reply, KKR, on this occasiondecided to promote de Grandhommeto open the innings with Gambhir.The experiment fai led as deGrandhomme was out in the very firstover mistiming a lofted flick offZaheer. Robin Uthappa came in andwas undone by Pat Cummins througha delivery that swung away a little andgot the edge which keeper Pant caughtbrilliantly by diving tohis right.

All this while,Gambhir was lookingin splendid touch buthe was soon dismissed,thanks to a top-edge offZaheer's bowling in the thirdover.

However, Yusuf and Manishstabilised the innings. WhilePandey stood firmly at one end,Yusuf played some aggressive shots.Pathan reached his fifty in 34 ballswhile Pandey needed 37.

Delhi's attack seemed too one-paced. Surprisingly, there was hardlyany use of the bouncer even thoughone such delivery reared up at Pandeyand took the glove to fly over wick-etkeeper for four.

Yusuf got out in the 15th over,top-edging a short delivery fromMorris, it gave Delhi hope but Pandeymanaged to steer his team through.

���� ;)4:3*-*4

Skipper David Warner top-scored with a 54-ball 70 as Sunrisers Hyderabad reached 159

for six in their Indian Premier League (IPL)match against Kings XI Punjab here on Mondaynight.

Warner added 60 valuable runs with NamanOjha (34), giving the innings some momentumafter a slow start, which saw the home side scoreonly 25 runs in the first five overs.

This was Warner's 34th fifty, the most by anybatsman in the tournament, and his fifthstraight against Kings XI Punjab.

Opting to field, Kings XI Punjab bowlerswere disciplined in their approach on a pitchwhere shot-making was not the easiest thing inthe world. Warner, however, was equal to thetask on a day when Afghanistan's MohammadNabi made his IPL debut.

Warner got to his half century off 45 ballswhen he tucked one past the keeper for a bound-ary in the innings' 17th over.

Earlier, Sunrisers Hyderabad wereoff to a slow start, and it was not till

the second ball of the third over theygot their first boundary.

Kings XI Punjab continued to bowl a tightline and length and the reward came in the formof Dhawan's wicket, caught behind off a MohitSharma bouncer in the fifth over.

Dhawan positioned himself for the hookearly as the ball slowly climbed at his rightshoulder.

Having swiftly switched his stance, Warner'sreverse-ramp six past short third man broke theshackles in the seventh over, KC Cariappa beingthe bowler.

A couple of wickets by spinner Axar Patel,including Yuvraj Singh's first-ball duck, andSunrisers were struggling at 50 for three in the10th over.

The hat-trick ball was negotiated by NamanOjha, before the batsman scored a few usefulruns, using the long handle to good effect.

Rashid Khan finished the innings in style,pulling Sandeep Sharma over long on for a six.

For Kings XI Punjab, Mohit Sharma and AxarPatel were the most successful bowlers, return-ing figures of 2/25 and 2/33 respectively.

BRIEF SCORESHYDERABAD: 159/6 (David Warner 70 not out,Naman Ojha 33; Mohit Sharma 2/25, Axar Patel2/33) vs Punjab.

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Struggling to find formafter three losses in

four matches, GujaratLions would look to makethe home advantagecount when they take onRoyal ChallengersBangalore in their IPLmatch on Tuesday.

The Lions had adream debut last seasonby finishing third. But,they are struggling thisyear, losing back to backgames, against KolkataKnight Riders at homeand Sunrisers Hyderabadaway, before registeringtheir first win of IPL-10by beating Rising PuneSupergiant at home.

The Suresh Raina-led side suffered a six-wicket loss to MumbaiIndians and they are now at seventh spot, just above bot-tom-placed RCB, at the league table.

Lions' top order batsmen like Brendon McCullum,Aaron Finch, Raina and Dinesh Karthik have been ingood touch but the problem has been that they have not

been firing in unison.Bowling has been a matter of concern for

Lions in the first two matches where theypicked up just one wicket, but the inclusionof Andrew Tye has added sting to the bowl-

ing attack. Tye made a dream debut againstPune by taking five wickets, including a

hat-trick. He also picked up two wick-ets against Mumbai.

Meanwhile, last year's run-ners-up RCB have also been

struggling, having lost fourmatches and won only

one — againstD e l h iDaredevi ls .They are now

at the bottomof the eight-team table with twopoints from five matches.

Skipper Virat Kohli, who missedRCB's first two matches due to shoul-der injury, showed his class as hescored 62 in his first game of thetournament against KXIP.

Swashbuckling West Indian bats-man Chris Gayle has scored just 60runs from the three matches he hasplayed so far and was dropped twice,

including in the match againstMumbai.

In the bowling department, RCBlooked much better than the Lions, withseamers like Tymal Mills, Billy Stanlake,Yuzvendra Chahal, Sreenath Arvind and

Samuel Badree. Badree took a hat-trick against

Mumbai though his splendid bowlingeffort went in vain as RCB lost that

game.

���������������?����������� �A dejected RCB skipper Virat Kohli said that they

have to find a "winning formula" soon as they don'tdeserve to win with this kind of performance.

RCB has now lost four out of their five games."If we play like this, we don't deserve to win. The

last game, we fought hard. Today we let the game go awayright in front of our eyes. We have a few things to address.We can't think we can sweep sides away at home," saidKohli at the post-match ceremony.

Kohli reminded his team that they have a respon-sibility towards franchise and the fans.

"Last year, we had to win four out of four to quali-fy but that can't happen every time. As professional crick-eters, you're playing for a franchise, you are playing infront of a lot of people, we can't keep doing this.Hopefully, we can turn things around and the playerscan take the responsibility."

���� -: /*,'3'

Rising Pune Supergiantbatsman Manoj Tiwary

described his 27-run cameoas one of the turning pointsof his side's IPL match

against Royal ChallengersBangalore here and

expressed happinessat the role he playedin the win.

Tiwary struck27 from just 11 ballsafter RPS suffered amiddle order col-lapse to take theteam score to 161 for8. RPS then restrict-ed RCB to 134 for 9to notch up a 27-run

win."There were lot of turn-

ing points. My innings at theend was important, thatmade 20-odd runs differ-ence. Obviously we had a col-lapse in the middle order. Welost the momentum fromthere, Tiwary said.

"It was not easy for bats-man to rotate the strike.Obviously my innings provedimportant to the team andalso the contributions of oth-ers. It was a team effort," hetold reporters after thematch.

Tiwary said he was notsurprised with his side's161/8 after being sent intobat because he knew the

wicket was very difficult toplay on. He said the bowlersdid a fantastic job to restrictRCB to 134 for nine.

"To be honest, I am notsurprised because theamount of runs we put onwas just enough. Rest was leftfor the bowlers to execute,and they executed the planvery well by bowling a lot ofslow deliveries and slow cut-ters," he said.

Tiwary said readingbowlers' mind was veryimportant for him in thelast phase of his side'sinnings. He said before com-ing into this IPL season, hehad made up his mind tobuild innings and go for

aggressive strokes at the sametime to have good strikerate, which is very importantfor a batsman in shorter ver-sions of the game.

"Strike rate is obviously atthe back of my mind. Indomestic matches, I had avery high strike rate becauseit is the demand of this for-mat. Before I came here, Ihad a plan to build myinnings if the situationdemanded and be aggressiveat the same time," he said.

On Ben Stokes andShardul Thakur, Tiwary saidboth bowled exceptionallywell because it is not easy tobowl to Virat Kohli, AB deVilliers and others.

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Royal Challengers Bangalorehead coach Daniel Vettori has

defended the dropping of ChrisGayle to bring in Shane Watson inhis side's IPL match against RisingPune Supergiant, saying he felt histeam was a bowler short in the ear-lier matches.

"After the Mumbai Indiansgame, we thought we had a bowlershort and Watson gives us theopportunity as he is a proven per-former with both bat and ball. Hehas been a wonderful Twenty20 all-rounder and we decided to backWatson for his all-round skills,"Vettori said after RCB lost to RPSby 27 runs here on Sunday night.

Watson failed miserably both

with the bat and ball. He conceded44 runs in his four overs and made14 while batting as he fell to BenStokes at a crucial stage of thematch.

Vettori said conceding far toomany runs in the final couple of

overs after bowling tightly in theearlier 18 overs brought a lot ofpressure on the team.

"We bowled tightly in the first18 overs but went away with theplan in the last two overs which costus 30 runs. It was 15 runs too manyand that put us under immensepressure," Vettori said.

On low-scoring nature ofChinnaswamy wicket so far, Vettorisaid it, however, made for enter-taining cricket. "The Chinnaswamywicket has not been a bad one forT20s. It has been exciting for thebowlers. All the matches here havebeen entertaining. It is different andwe need to adapt. We have not beenable to mirror the performance wehad against Delhi Daredevils,"Vettori said.

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In today's busy world, we'repulled in many directions atonce. We have responsibilities

at home and at work, and some-times it all just becomes too much.Our bodies start to let us know thatwe're feeling the stress of our dailylives. Feelings of stress are causedby your body's instinct to defendit. This instinct is good in emer-gencies, such as when you need toget out of the way of a speeding car.But stress can cause unhealthyphysical symptoms if it isn't man-aged properly.

Your body is working overtimeas it deals with daily challenges.You're just not equipped to dealwith all the extra energy. You maystart to feel anxious, afraid, wor-ried, and uptight. If your stress isn'tkept under control, it can lead toserious health issues such as highblood pressure, heart disease, anddiabetes

We have blurred the boundarybetween what is Important andwhat is Essential. For example,noisy neighbours, poor communi-cation skills, relationship anxiety,getting cut off in traffic, aren'tessential problems even if theyseem important for a short time.These short time irritants add toour stress levels, which results inan over-active brain and anextremely taxed nervous system.

The most important thing toremember is if you keep seekinghappiness on a minute-to-minutebasis, you' l l lose balance.Remember that the brain wants to

feel normal, not eternally happy.The main focus should be on

how to prevent getting stressed inthe first place.

There are a whole bunch ofeffective habits for dealing with astressful situation when you areright in the middle of it.

You'll feel better and lessstressed if you just do one thing ata time. No matter if it is at work,in school or in your private life.This will make it easier to focusand to do a job of higher qualityright away. Instead of having to goback several times and polish andrearrange to get the result youwant.

Without smart habits for deal-ing with situations that could bestressful life can be a whole lotmore burdensome that it needs tobe. You may feel tired before theweek has barely begun. Be over-whelmed on a daily basis.

To survive and thrive we needto find ways to deal with pressureand uncertainty. There are anynumber of scientific studies outthere that show the deep connec-tion between staying calm and pro-ductivity.

'Keep calm and carry on' is asignificant message to embracetough and stressful times. Whenthe global economy collapsed thismessage seemed to become themotto to millions of people.

Being calm in the daily face ofstress is not as easy thought. Whentime is ticking and you need to fin-ish your project the stress buildsup. When your boss has orderedyou to multitask and you messedit all, staying calm is not an option.When the daily routine is going notas planned and your personal lifeis turning sour facing stress feelslike giving up.

Having a plan for daily taskscan help make your life simple andless stressful.

Sometimes even for separatesituations you should have twoplans, just in case one doesn'twork.

Whatever you have to donotice which is your priority thingthat needs to get done first. Thencarry on with less important stuff.In the end if something didn't fin-ish there is not worries as they canwait until next day.

We can't plan everything sim-ply because there are things thathappen out of our control. If youfind yourself in one of these sce-narios best thing to do is leave thesituation. When stress is bulidingup stop interacting with the stres-sor.

Get outside in the fresh air andtake some deep breaths. Even if it'sfor five minutes, it would do yougood.

No matter how carefully we

plan, there's always a chance thata situation will pop up that takesprecedence over everything we'veplanned. When this happens takea moment to regroup and prepareto methodically deal with the newissue.

Not all tasks are equally impor-tant. Some of them can remainundone for later with no majorconsequences. Setting prioritieshelps me to maintain a sense ofcontrol.

Multitasking more often leadsto chaos. So do one thing at a time.Pay attention until is done to itsbest. Then start a new task.

Quite often we have to deviatefrom our plan as situations evolve.In that case we change our prior-ity and deal with new issue…

We are humans. Rememberthat. When situations change wetake a moment to think, thencarry on.

Scolding ourselves for all we

didn't get done does not help.Instead, we are far better off beinggrateful for all that we did do. Themore we practice looking on thebright side of things, the lessfrightening and grim a stressful sit-uation seems.

There are sometimes goodreasons to change our plans, suchas a new set of circumstancesarising or receiving new informa-tion about a situation. In theabsence of a compelling reason,however, stick to the plans we haveoutlined for ourselves. Randomchanges will only confuse us andput us behind schedule.

Meditation is all about sittingquiet and accepting the presenttime. Just be there in a mindfulnessmoment. It's proven scientificallythe benefits of meditation.Whenever we are anxious, wetend to take quick, shallow breaths.This is called hyperventilating,and it can make us feel dizzy, light-headed, and panicky.

It can also interfere with ourjudgment. If you catch yourselfhyperventilating, try inhaling adeep breath through your nose,holding it a second, and releasingit from your mouth. Repeat thisexercise until you feel calmer. Thisis a form of meditation.

At hard times might nothingwork. If you notice the stress iskeeping you down and seriouslyinterfering with your life thenreach out for help. Don't sufferalone in silence. Talk to friends andprofessionals.

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Be it with his charismatic character inHip Hip Hurray or his true-to-life per-

formance in films like Rock On and MyBrother Nikhil or even dancing his way towin hearts on Jhalak Dikhlaja, Purab hasdone it all; and that too with complete fer-vour and perseverance. But there is moreto this charmer. Purab Kohli is all set toreturn to big screen with his forthcomingfilm, Noor, in which he plays a young jour-nalist Ayan alongside Sonakshi Sinha.

“The story encompasses the incidentof Saddam Hussain’s statue being toppledover and young Ayan gaining fame forphotographing the event. He happens tobe in Bombay when he bumps into Noorand she aspires to be like him. She isattracted to his character,” he told us.

Purab is not the central character ofthe film but he doesn’t mind. “For me,

every once in a while, if one is offereda film with tremendous potential inwhich you are just a pivotal charac-

ter affecting the entire film, I find it as agreat opportunity and do not involveinsecurities.” When asked about hisprevious works like Airlift and Rock On,Purab said that the producers of Airlifthave come together again for Noor andhe is just glad to be part of the team again.

Intrigued by the director, Sunil Sippy,Purab said, “I was very excited towork with him. He is anextremely talented director ashe is involved in writing aswell as directing.”

Comparing Noor toother films which aimat breaking stereo-types of the com-mercial cinema,like Neerja orDangal , Purabsaid he has highexpectations withNoor as it appeals tothe intelligent audi-ence. With the storyline ofa common Mumbaikar girlaiming for success or look-ing for Mr. Right, peoplemight be able to connectwith the film on theirown individual level.”

Talking about his ownexperience of becoming anactor at a very young age,he said, “Aspirants should decide reason-ably about choosing acting as a career asthe climb can be really difficult. I wantedto have fun earlier in my life. That’s thereason I did a Channel-V show. Then Iworked for a show called Hip Hip Hurraybut it was later when I decided that I want-ed to focus solely on my acting that Irebuilt myself from 2005. Since then Ihaven’t looked back. You can’t be havingfun forever,” he signed off.

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Champaner, with the impressive nat-ural setting, encompasses vestiges of pre-historic times, a hill fortress of an earlyHindu capital and remains of the 15thcentury. The impressive archaeologicalremains are located about 50 km fromVadodara in Gujarat. A temple atop thehill is dedicated to Kalika mata. The siteoffers a variety of built heritage compo-nents like armoury, barracks, catapults,gates, fortifications, pavilions, religiousstructures and civic structures like wells,water storage system, bridges, roads, res-idential and commercial precincts.

�� ���������Velha Goa is famous for the spectac-

ular group of churches and cathedralsbuilt during the 16th and 17th centuries.These include Se’ Cathedral Church andConvent of St Francis of Assisi, Chapelof St Catherine, Basilica of Bom Jesus andmany others. The Church of Bom Jesusis decorated with ionic Doric andCorinthian pilasters. There are delicate-ly carved painted wooden statues at theChurch of St Francis of Assisi, besides afew in stone to adorn the altars, depict-ing mostly the saints, Mother Mary andJesus on the Cross. The paintings in thechurches were done on wooden bordersand fixed between panels having floraldesigns as in the chapels housing thetomb of St Xavier. This style is also seenin the arches above the altars in thetransept of the Se’ Cathedral and in thenave on either side of the main altar inthe Church of St Francis of Assisi.

��������I������������JThe rock shelters at Bhimbetka are

in the foothills of the VindhyanMountains on the southern edge of theCentral Indian plateau. Within massivesandstone outcrops and above compar-atively dense forest, are clusters of nat-ural rock shelters, displaying paintingsthat appear to date from the Mesolithicperiod right through the historical times.Excavations from time to time haveshown that the site had continuous cul-tural remains from Paleolithic to historicperiod. The site of Bhimbetka, spreadover 10 km, has more than 700 rock shel-ters, of which 400 are painted. The nat-ural setting with geological formationswith which human culture was associat-ed is noteworthy.

�����������I���������JThe celebrated Shaiva temple, appro-

priately called Brihadisvara orDakshinameru, is the grandest creationof the Chola emperor Rajaraja atThanjavur. It was inaugurated by the kinghimself in his 19th year and named afterhim as Rajesvara Peruvudaiyar.Architecturally, it is the most ambitious

structural temple built of granite. It islocated within a spacious inner prakaraof 240.90 m long (east-west) and 122 mbroad (north-south), with a gopuram inthe east and three other ordinary toranaentrances on the sides and the rear.

����������I��1����JThe fort of Kumbhalgarh was built in

the 15th century. The fort takes its namefrom Kumbha, an extraordinary kingwhose empire, known as Mewar,stretched from Rajasthan into parts ofMadhya Pradesh, with his capital atChittor. It is home to another hero ofIndian history Rana Pratap who was bornhere. This Rajput warrior is immortalisedin Indian ethos and culture as the onewho stood against the might of theMughals and suffered valiantly forupholding the principle of sovereigntyand independence. The fort has had aninvincible reputation but succumbedonce to the combined strength of theforces of the Mughal emperor Akbar, theruler of Amber and the ruler of Marwar.

�� ��I�����JSituated on the banks of River Indus

in Leh, the ASI-protected Alchi Gompais easily accessible since it is the only onein Ladakh which is located on flatground. Founded by Ringchen Zangpo,the great translator, the Alchi Gompa dis-plays Kashmiri influence in its art and

architecture. Within the monastery arethousands of miniature-sized paintingsdepicting the Buddha. It has also beennominated to be included in UNESCO’stentative list of world heritage properties.

�����I��1���JOne of the most prominent cities of

the Indus Valley Civilisation, it was dis-covered in 1954. Lothal was excavatedfrom February 13, 1955 to May 19, 1960and is important as it has the world’s ear-liest known dock yard. It connected thecity to an ancient course of the Sabarmatiriver on the trade route betweenHarappan cities in Sindh and the penin-sula of Saurashtra and to the Middle East,when the surrounding Rann of Kutch oftoday was a part of the Arabian Sea. Withits trade of beads, gems and valuableornaments reaching the far corners ofWest Asia and Africa, Lothal was animportant trading centre.

����������������I����������J

Bishnupur in Bankura district isrenowned for a large number of brick-built/terracotta temples, representing a

variety of structural forms of medievalBengali temple architecture. Though manyof the temples were in a state of ruin, con-tinuous conservation and preservationefforts have retrieved some of their ancientglory. There are, at present, approximate-ly 30 temples of which 20 have been takenup by the organisation for protection.

%��������I��1���JWhile tourists head to nearby popu-

lar places of Modhera and Patan inGujarat, timeless Vadnagar chooses toremain anonymous. But times are aboutto change, again. The ASI continues to digeven more layers, putting Vadnagar backin spotlight. The town’s associations goback to Mahabharata when its armiesfought on both sides in the war, and toAlexander’s retreating Greek army whensome personnel decided to settle downhere.

The town was important enoughcompelling Chinese traveller Hsuan Tsangto visit it twice. It enjoyed its golden runduring the Solanki era when the strongwalled city, magnificent gateways, impos-ing temples and kunds were constructed.Then there is the folklore of Tana-Riri sis-ters and Akbar and Tansen. The mostprominent and defining feature of the townis the large Sharmistha Lake. The originsof Vadnagar and this lake are closely linked.Along the western banks of SharmisthaLake, majestic gateways or torans soarabove the town with exquisite sculpture.

��������I������JUnakoti (one less then a crore) is home

to ancient marvelous rock cut carvings andstone imagery, elaborated and well main-tained. According to Hindu myths, whenLord Shiva was traveling to Kashi alongwith one crore gods and goddesses hemade a night stay at this hilly location. Heasked all the gods and goddesses to wakeup before sun rise and continued their jour-ney for Kashi, but in the morning, apartfrom Lord Shiva himself, no one else couldget up so Lord Shiva set out for Kashi alone.In anger, he cursed the other gods and god-desses to become stone sculptures andabandoned there forever. As a result, wehave one less than a crore stone imageryand monuments at Unakoti.

The two met on the sets of StarOne’s show Miley Jab Hum Tum,

where they fell for each other. MohitSehgal and Sanaya Irani, who tied theknot in Goa last year, are now trying

to woo hearts of viewers with theirdancing skills in Nach Baliye sea-

son 8. “We were offered the showfour years back but we were caughtup with one thing or the other then,”says model turned actress Sanaya. “Iam not a good dancer, Sanaya pushedme for the dance show,” Mohit chipsin. More than a bonding exercise, itis also about acquirig team perfor-mance skills for them.

Along with perfecting their dancemoves, the celebrity couple is also try-ing to improve their social mediahabits. “It is not just because publicvoting is an important part of reali-ty shows, but also because we feel asocial platform is the best way to con-nect with all our fans,” smiles Sanaya.

Sanaya, who has been an ardentfollower of shows like So You ThinkYou Can Dance, feels the dance real-ity shows in India are way too dra-matic. “I understand that the formatof Nach Baliye is different - it is forthe audience to see their favouriteactors do something unique. Even thejudges keep in mind that they are not

judging trained dancers and eventu-ally land guiding you. But when I seemost dance reality shows here, I feelwe do a little more drama.”

The couple wants to attemptevery dance form on the realityshow. “I want to grab every opportu-nity and give my best,” says Mohit.

While Mohit’s current focus is onthe dance reality show, Sanaya is wait-ing for her forthcoming show’s pro-mos to be on air. “After Nach Baliye,I will continue with my acting careeras acting is my identity and I love todo that,” she concludes.

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BHOPAL | TUESDAY | APRIL 18, 2017vivacity {art} 15

Step into the world of the most popular painters of 19thand 20th Century with the Drifting Canvas, a

multimedia art exposition that is coming to India for thefirst time.The exhibit showcases the iconic works with a swirl ofdigital art, colours and music on larger than life highdefinition walls and interactive 3D screens. The visitorscan engage with creations of Vincent Van Gogh, ClaudeMonet, Edgar Degas, Kazimir Malevich, WassilyKandinsky, Paul Gauguin, Henri Rousseau, Gustav Klimt,Paul Signac, Amedeo Modigliant and Henri de Toulouse -Lautrec.WHEN: April 21 to June 15WHERE: Select Citywalk

This summer, eminent artist and curator PriyankaBanerjee brings soul-food for all art-lovers and

connoisseurs. This visual extravaganza can be witnessedin the form of an exhibition. Travels are a crucialcomponent of Priyanka's life and art. WHEN: April 20 to April 23WHERE: Convention Foyer, India Habitat Centre, LodhiRoad, New Delhi

Dehradun is all set to host the second edition of itsliterature festival.The four-day festival will feature

renowned authors like Devdutt Pattanaik, NanditaHaksar, Kavita Kane, Durjoy Dutta,William McKayAitkin, Jatin Das, Sudha Menon, Gurcharan Das, SanilSachhar, Ranjit Lal and Santhini Govindan amongmany others.WHEN: April 19 to April 22WHERE: World Integrity Center India, 111/2, RajpurRoad, Dehradun

WATCH OUT

Sailesh Kumar Sanghvi will be showcasing his solodual-themed titled art exhibition of The Dance of

India and Elan. Besides engaging the viewer’saesthetic eye, these make us pause to stop and thinkmeditatively. WHEN: April 21 to April 30WHERE: Bikaner House, Pandara Road, New Delhi.

Videography as an art form is going through a rev-olution with new talent coming up and we ought

to make the best of the opportunity that is being pre-sented,” says Naresh Kapuria, the recipient of theChevalier de L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, one of thehighest honours in the world of arts given by the Frenchgovernment.

But at the same time, he discourages the over-depen-dence on digital tools. “Today’s visual arts is drivensolely by technology. It requires minimal hard work andgives immediate results. There is need for the real artto have some space in this field,” he said. “It is true thattechnological revolution was late to arrive in our coun-try but the talent pos-sessed by the artists isunmatched. One just needsto channelise it. Theamount of untapped talentin India surpasses the tal-ent buffer of any othercountry,” he shared.

For him, the changesthat have taken place overthe years in expressionistart are not all positive. “Itis artificial and is hard toconnect to on an emo-tional level,” he told us.Reminiscing about the pasttimes, he rued the dyingart of calligraphy and howeconomics had driven awedge between artists as acommunity and a collec-tive. “The biggest chal-lenge we artists face is alack of cohesiveness. Wetry to diminish the worksof other artists instead of collectively promoting the art.Art and culture have taken different paths because ofsuch changes,” he explained.

About how the artists need to team up and worktogether, the 65-year-old artist said, “The next gener-ation should focus more on their content rather thanappeasing the audience. Hard work and persistence arethe only ways to improve your work. With the adventof technology, one should not forget the value of thehuman brain. There is a dire need for working togeth-er to build a healthy artist buffer that focusses on qual-ity and not on quantity.”

The Chaman Lal foundation awarded Kapuria forhis work in the field of stage craft.

For R.K. Dhingra, the present-dayaudience, already attuned to thesurfeit of visual images in a graph-

ic, multimedia world, is taking tostage lighting and sound as a key propof the entire theatre-watching experi-ence. “The lighting and sound effectswork magic on the senses and help inpresenting a captivating performance.Such an art is always in danger of fallingflat and hence this is emerging to be amore challenging arena of the perfor-mance arts. The talent showcasedmust be relevant to the videography orelse there is no point in working on theproject,” he told us on the sidelines ofthe Chaman Lal Memorial awards forexcellence in backstage artistry.

It was in the 1950s while watchinga performance of Russian ballet thatboth Dhingra and Chaman Lal triedtheir hand at playing with light rays.The two friends would often carrylights to the venue to create some dra-matic effect. And though backgroundlighting and surround spins became apart of performace arts over the years,stage lighting never got its due.Dhingra, too, took to many commer-cial shows though designinglightscapes for the acting powerhous-es was his most serious challenge.

He is glad though that the visualarts have been taken over by a tech-nological storm and is birthing new tal-ent. “Even the classical field benefitsfrom it. It all depends on the budget inorder to bring about a sensational artform. Technology has given a newtouch with lighting and sounds. Evenin films, such effects highlight theessence of the performance,” he told us.Dhingra mentioned that he is a hugefan of Sanjay Leela Bhansali. “I am a bigfan of Bhansali’s work as he has takenvisual arts to a new height by using aperfect blend of creativity and tech-nology,” he shared.

According to Dhingra, the Indianaudience, be it live or the film-goer, isyet to realise the hard work that goesinto setting up the background and itis only after one learns to appreciate itthat the structure of the visual arts asa whole can improve.

For him, the awards in memory ofhis friend are important to appreciatethe backstage people, people who donot get enough credit for their hard

work and dedication. It is a chance forthem to shine. “When someone appre-ciates the work that goes into makingsuch a venture, one feels complete as

an artist,” he added. Dhingra has had many experiences

but believes the Indian audience is themost difficult to cater to as it alwaysneeds something new and interesting.Given the population, the managementof the dynamics is truly difficult. “Anartist should always be given his duerespect irrespective of his field ofchoice, be it background or lights or setdesign because without even one ofthem, the whole production fails. So weshould learn to appreciate the art as awhole rather than only focussing onelements that are highlighted in frontof the audience” he adds.

This time Dhingra chose love inthe time of religious polarisation for hislight and sound spectacle. The strug-gle of two lovers, belonging to two dif-ferent religions, was reflected with thehelp of 3D lighting and intense soundvibrations.

Love in its most abstract form wasdepicted with each emotion enhancedby visual art techniques and a play ofshadows and dimness. The dancers’moves, meanwhile, were precise andquick, giving the performers theurgency required to take the storylineahead with the same energy as thebackground streaks.

Some years ago, Dhingra had useda “gauze curtain” to provide a 3D effectof the jungle scenes in his mammothproduction Samson and Delilah. Thefront transparency enabled the forestcreatures to be seen both in front andbehind, alongside the moves of thehuman characters. The second was thesynchronised movement of actions,properties and music. For instance, thelast scene had complete synchronisa-tion of the fall of pillars and destruc-tion of palace by Samson with com-puterised music.

Third, when a lightning on stagehappened, its clap engulfed the audi-torium from all sides. Fourth, the Dolbysound was made to surround the lis-teners as though they were sitting in awell. Fifth, there was a web of imagesenveloping one and all. Finally,Samson’s cage for imprisonment wasvisualised with laser beams.

Being an immaculate pho-tographer, Madhu Pandit

started following her passionafter completing her diploma injournalism. She was not sureabout becoming a freelancephotographer but was certainshe did not want to do back-to-back journalistic assignmentswhich would add the numbersbut not her expression.“Pursuing mainstream journal-ism would be time-consumingand it had very few areas thatcould grasp my interest andattention,” she said.

She realised early on thatshe would be a storytellerthrough the lens. She is now pre-senting Mehnaaz-The Moon, athematic spread expressing herromance with the moon overone year, capturing all its 28phases at various locations inChandigarh. It’s an ode to herlove for the moon that in itselfis mystical, spiritual and poet-ic. “I looked back at my rela-

tionship with the moon when Iwas a child and memoriesrushed to my mind. Those dayswhen we had no TV and gizmosto play with, gazing at the beau-ty and serenity of the moon andstars was the only thing thatchildren could enjoy.” For herevery night was a different expe-rience, in terms of views, emo-tions and perceptions.

In a way, she is obliquelyreferring to the fact that in ourheadrush of daily living, we tendto forget and acknowledge

nature that has been the onlysource of knowledge and inspi-ration. Said she, “I really want toconvince people that nature isthe best friend one can ever haveand it helps you heal, solve yourproblems and relaxes you to thecore of your mind.”

She hopes visitors can inter-pret their own feelings and rela-tionship with the moon throughher pictures.

Asked whether she usespicture editing software, shesaid, “I completely believe in my

own creativity. If a photograph-er wants, he/she can create thepicture that he/she had imag-ined without any software.”

Her experience as a pho-tographer has been a roller-coaster ride, filled with variouslearning instances. She also got

a chance to teach photography,one that helped her hone hercraft even more. Being an artist,she also faced many creativeblocks but she negotiated themwith elan. “These blocks maysure indicate lack of knowledgeand feel like a downfall but theseactually indicate the vast sky thatis open for us to soar high andexplore more.”

She advised budding pho-tographers to be patient in whatthey do and not to expect animmediate gratification.

In one of her pictures, TheEnlightenment, she has posited

the moon and the Buddha inone frame, which according toher resemble the fullness andcircle of life. The SpiritualGlimpse shows a moon skirtingthe silhouette of a gurdwara, ametaphor for the absoluteness ofdivinity. The child-like percep-tion that the moon follows useverywhere is articulated inTravelling Together. Panningand slow shutter speed shots areMadhu’s favourite techniques.One such example is The MoonyStreaks that represents the res-urrection of the moon after adark spell of amavasya.

Light on the shadow zoneStage lights veteran R K DHINGRA believes that the backdrop is as important a character asany in a play and without it, theatre is incomplete. He speaks to TEAM VIVA

MoonscapesMADHU PANDIT remains rooted to herself through her metaphysical exhibit onnature images. By TEAM VIVA

Renowned painter NARESHKAPURIA sounds a word of caution

‘Don’t loseheart to tech’

‘An artist shouldalways be given his

due respectirrespective of his

field of choice, be itbackground or lights

or set design’

When a professor from the School of Planning andArchitecture Delhi decides to hang up her boots

and probe hidden embers of fire, glazes and clayconstructions, it becomes more than a mere pilgrim'sjourney. The solo sculpture exhibition titled Sculptourby Manjari Sharma will feature a series of sculpturalheads, bowls, platters, jars, curious human figuresand a few teapots. WHEN: April 17 to April 23WHERE: Lalit Kala Akedmi , Rabindra Bhavan, 35,Ferozeshah Road, New Delhi

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For the second time in a week, a high-level football match on French soil was

marred by crowd violence.The latest incidents on Sunday in

Corsica during a domestic league gamebetween Bastia and Lyon — which wasabandoned at halftime — raised questionsabout security in French venues.

The game was stopped for good afterfans from the Corsican side twice invad-ed the pitch to attack opposition players.After kickoff was delayed by 55 minutes,the match was abandoned when moretrouble erupted at the interval with thescore at 0-0.

Lyon goalkeeper Anthony Lopes wascalmly walking off the field — after ref-eree Amaury Delerue whistled the end ofthe first half — when he was confrontedby a man. Lopes pushed him back asclashes erupted between home fans andLyon players.

Lyon striker Alexandre Lacazette,who was rested for the game, took to

Twitter to express his anger. "Pfff, shame-ful!!" Lacazette wrote. "Nonsense!!!!"

Speaking to L'Equipe TV, juniorminister for sports Thierry Braillardcondemned "unacceptable actions thatwill need to be sanctioned equally to theirseriousness" and lamented a "bad day forFrench sports."

The first pitch invasion took placeabout 15 minutes before the end of thewarmup at Armand Cesari stadium whensupporters from the Bastia 1905 group offans came on the field and jostled withLyon players, including Memphis Depayand Mathieu Gorgelin. Players from bothteams went back to their changing roomsbefore calm was restored.

None of the players involved in thetwo brawls appeared to be injured.

The game was abandoned in accor-dance with French authorities' guidancefollowing the urgent meeting that tookplace before the start. The French leaguesaid in a statement that, after the firsttrouble, it had been decided that thematch could go ahead but would be

stopped if another incident happened.It was the second time this week that

a Lyon game was marred by violence.Lyon is facing likely sanctions fromUEFA after crowd disorder delayed itsEuropa League home quarterfinal against

Besiktas midweek. Incidents inside Lyon'sstadium — which will host the Final ofthe tournament next season — followedfighting among French and Turkish fansearlier in the city on Thursday. About 20minutes before the scheduled kickoff,

Lyon fans spilled onto the field for theirown safety after fireworks were set off andmissiles thrown from an upper section ofthe stadium housing Besiktas supporters.The game finally began 45 minutes lateafter police intervened in the stands.

The French league said it wouldinvestigate the Bastia incidents and urgedthe club to ban the fans responsible.

"The French league is asking Bastiato take all necessary measures in order toissue stadium bans against those respon-sible for these acts," the league said. "Andmore generally to take all measuresrequired to guarantee the security ofmatches played in its stadium."

In a statement issued a couple of hoursafter the match was abandoned, Bastia"firmly condemned" the violence and saidit would attend a disciplinary committeeat the French league on Thursday.

Last-placed Bastia, which has strug-gled the whole season, risks seeing its slimhopes of staying in the top flight hit byheavy sanctions, possibly including pointsdeduction.

���� :2�4:,;�

The Supreme Court on Monday said for-mer BCCI President N Srinivasan can-

not represent the board in the April 24 ICCmeeting as he has been held guilty of "con-flict of interest" and "abuse of authority".

The apex court allowed acting secre-tary of the Board of Control for Cricket inIndia (BCCI), Amitabh Chaudhary, to rep-resent the board in International CricketCouncil (ICC) meeting and asked BCCI'sCEO Rahul Johri to accompany him.

The court was informed that Srinivasanand Niranjan Shah, who were renderedineligible to become office-bearers in theBCCI and state cricket associations byvirtue of the apex court's verdict, could par-ticipate in Tuesday's special general bodymeeting of BCCI and may be nominatedto take part in the ICC meeting.

"N Srinivasan cannot go (for ICCmeeting)," a bench headed by Justice DipakMisra said.

"This person (Srinivasan) was heldguilty by this court for conflict of interestand abuse of authority. He cannot go," thebench, also comprising Justices A MKhanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, said,adding "a man, once having a conflict ofinterest, cannot go".

"Regard being had to the significanceof representation of the BCCI in the saidinternational body, ie ICC, it is directedthat Amitabh Chaudhary shall represent

the BCCI before ICC and Rahul Johri shallaccompany him and also attend the meet-ing of the chief executive officers," thebench said.

The top court, on January 22, 2015,had barred Srinivasan from contesting anyBCCI polls unless he forsakes ownershipof an IPL team.

The court had also assailed the amend-ment in BCCI rules permitting cricketadministrators like Srinivasan to have com-mercial interest by owing teams in IPL andChampions League and had said it was badon grounds of conflict of interest.

During the hearing on Monday, senioradvocate Kapil Sibal and advocates repre-senting the parties in the matter said that

Chaudhary was a qualified person and waswell-versed with all the facts. So he couldbe nominated to attend the ICC meeting.

Senior advocate P Chidambaram,appearing for the apex court-appointedCommittee of Administrators (CoA), saidthe issue was whether a person who hasbeen disqualified by virtue of the court'sverdict, could be nominated to representthe BCCI in ICC meeting in which rev-enue-sharing between the members of theapex cricket body would be discussed,apart from other issues.

Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi,who was appearing for the cricket associ-ations of the armed forces, association ofuniversities and Railways, told the courtthat a person having the know-how andexperience of at least 15-20 years in theaffairs of cricket body should go to attendthe ICC meeting.

To this, the bench said, "we agree onthis. We can send this second man(Niranjan Shah) who is 74 years old buthaving an experience of 40 years."

"We have names of two persons in ourmind, Shah and Chaudhary," the benchsaid, after which Chidambaram said thecourt can appoint anyone to attend the ICCmeeting but Johri should be allowed toaccompany him.

"We will zero in on AmitabhChaudhary, who is the acting secretary ofBCCI," the bench said and posted the mat-ter for further hearing on July 14.

���� ;='�+= �

Steve Johnson fought through latecramps to win the U.S. Men's Clay

Court Championship, beating Brazil'sThomaz Bellucci 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (5) onSunday at River Oaks Country Club.

The 27-year-old Johnson won his sec-ond ATP Tour title, and became the sev-enth American to win the event since itmoved to Houston in 2001. He also wona grass-court title last summer inNottingham, England.

Johnson was hobbled by cramps serv-ing at the end of the third set, but - coax-ing a backhand return error from Belluccion a serve he barely hit - was able to getoff the court and receive a brisk right-thigh massage from an ATP trainer.Players aren't allowed timeouts forcramps. Johnson appeared fine in thetiebreaker, the first to decide the cham-pionship in tournament history.

"I was in deep trouble. 'This stinks.'But sometimes you get lucky," saidJohnson, seeded fourth. "My body hasphysically run out of gas this week.Coming in from Australia (where theU.S. lost a Davis Cup quarterfinal lastweekend), dealing with all the ups anddowns, I was kind of behind the 8-ball.

"A lot goes into cramping. For me

today, it was the nerves of trying to closeout the title. I haven't been thereenough to feel very comfortable."

Johnson beat two former champi-ons, Fernando Verdasco (2014) in thequarterfinals and American Davis Cupteammate Jack Sock (2015) in thesemifinals, to reach his third career final.

The 29-year-old Bellucci, seededeighth, had won four three-set match-es in four days before falling in the final.He was trying to win his fifth Tour title.The previous four had also come on clay.

"Both players were very tired in thethird set and we were missing moreshots than before," Bellucci said.

���� *43�4

If Bayern Munich is to have any chanceof a sixth straight semifinal appearancein the Champions League it will have

to do something that only one team hasachieved this season - defeat Real Madridat the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium.

Winning in Madrid is no easy task andeven a 1-0 victory on Tuesday will not beenough after a 2-1 first-leg, quarterfinal lossin Munich.

Celta Vigo's 2-1 win in the Copa delRey in January gave Madrid it's only lossin 23 games at the Santiago Bernabeu thisseason, where Zinedine Zidane's team haswon 15 times and drawn five.

In the Champions League, the defend-ing European champions haven't lost athome in 12 consecutive matches, winningnine of the last 10.

"The fans will be more importantthan ever," Zidane said on Monday. "Ourfans always give us a plus, especially ingames like this one."

Bayern has only managed two wins in12 matches against Madrid at the Bernabeu.

"We'll go there and try to turn the tide,"Bayern defender Philipp Lahm said. "Itwon't be easy, we're the underdogs. But we'llhave a chance to win in Madrid."

Madrid had most of its regular startersavailable for the loss to Celta in the Copadel Rey quarterfinals, when it couldn'tcome back after conceding two goals oncounterattacks in the second half. Madridwas eventually eliminated 4-3 on aggregateafter a 2-2 draw in Vigo.

"We will need to have a great game andbe very strong," Zidane said. "We will goout to win the game and we'll not gamble.The first leg is already in the past and weknow the difficulties Bayern can cre-ate."

Madrid is trying to become thefirst team to defend the title since thecompetition's new format was createdin 1992-93. Madrid defeated cityrival Atletico Madrid in the finalboth in 2014 and 2016.

"It'll be a great game," saidBayern coach Carlo Ancelotti, wholed Madrid to the 2014 title. "We believein ourselves and we'll give it everything."

Only two teams have reversed a first-leg home loss in Champions League his-tory — when Inter Milan eliminatedBayern in 2010-11 and Ajax got pastPanathinaikos in 1995-96.

Bayern had been the dominant hometeam in the Champions League until lastweek's loss ended its run of 16 consecutive

home wins in the competition.Cristiano Ronaldo scored both

goals for Madrid in the come-from-behind win in the first leg, becom-ing the first player to reach 100 goalsin European competition. He isthree short of the 100th-goal markin the Champions League.

The Portuguese forwardwas among the Madrid play-

ers rested by Zidane inSaturday's 3-2 win at Sporting

Gijon in the Spanish league, a result thatkept Los Blancos ahead of Barcelona in thestandings.

Defenders Pepe and Raphael Varanealso have been ruled out because ofinjuries.

Forward Robert Lewandowski, who isrecovering from a right shoulder injury thatruled him out of the first leg, should beavailable for Bayern. The Poland striker has

scored 38 goals across all competitions thisseason. "I'm doing well," said Lewandowski,who trained with the rest of the squad onSunday.

Bayern teammates Mats Hummelsand Jerome Boateng also have been nurs-ing injuries, while Javi Martinez is sus-pended.

������������������������ ���Real Madrid will be without Gareth

Bale in its Champions League quarterfinalagainst Bayern Munich on Tuesday.

Coach Zinedine Zidane said the for-ward has not fully recovered from a mus-cle injury in his right leg and will miss thesecond leg match at the Santiago BernabeuStadium. Defending champion Madriddefeated Bayern 2-1 last week in Munich.

"He will not play because we don't wantto take any risks," Zidane said on Monday."He wants to come back, he has been work-

ing hard. Hopefully he will be back for the'clasico' (against Barcelona) but it's not cer-tain yet. We will see how he progresses dayby day."

Madrid hosts Barcelona in the Spanishleague on Sunday in a key game for the titlerace. Madrid, seeking its first league titlesince 2012, has a three-point lead and agame in hand.

Bale had to be substituted in the sec-ond half of the match against Bayern andmissed the team's Spanish league match atSporting Gijon on Saturday.

The Wales forward was out for nearlythree months earlier this season after a rightankle injury.

Zidane did not say who will replaceBale, but Francisco "Isco" Alarcon — whoscored twice to lead Madrid to a late 3-2win over Sporting — is expected to start.Among Zidane's other options are MarcoAsensio and Alvaro Morata.

"We'll see how we will play, if we willchange our scheme or not," Zidane said."I'm glad that everyone is prepared to play."

Cristiano Ronaldo, who scored bothfirst-leg goals for Madrid in Munich, is setto start on Tuesday along with KarimBenzema.

If Isco or Asensio play, Ronaldo andBenzema would be more isolated up front,while Morata would allow Zidane to keepthree true forwards in the attack.

Robert Lewandowski, who hasn'tplayed since injuring his right shoulderagainst Borussia Dortmund on April 8, isexpected to start for Bayern.

"Without a doubt he is a great player,"Madrid defensive midfielder Casemirosaid of the Poland striker. But he added:"Bayern has a lot of quality players and agreat squad, we can't worry only aboutLewandowski."

��� ������� ������ �Leicester City had to overturn a one-

goal first-leg deficit against a Spanishteam in the last 16, and achieved the featat the expense of Sevilla.

This time, the English championsdon't have an away goal to aid their cause,losing the first leg 1-0, and they will alsobe up against last year's much more expe-rienced finalist on Tuesday.

For possibly the biggest game in its his-tory, Leicester has issues at center back withRobert Huth suspended and Wes Morganinjured.

Antoine Griezmann, who scored thefirst leg's only goal from a penalty, sat outAtletico's 3-0 win over Osasuna onSaturday.

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