7MMIXED IXED BBAGAGCHENNAISUNDAY

23 DECEMBER

Guwahati, Dec 23:

Bhaskar Gogoi was 18 when then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee inaugurated the construc-tion work for the Bogibeel bridge in 2002. Its foundation stone was laid by former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda in 1997.

Sixteen years after work on the bridge started, Gogoi has come to the site to see the completed bridge. Spanning 4.94 km in length, the Bogibeel bridge, India’s longest rail-road bridge, will be thrown open for traffi c by Prime Minister Narendra

Modi on Tuesday. For 21 years, residents of Assam

and Arunachal Pradesh have been waiting for the completion of the double decker rail and road bridge, on the Bramhaputra river, which would will cut down the train-travel time between Tinsukia in Assam to Naharlagun town of Arunachal Pradesh by more than 10 hours.

Built by the Indian Railways, the double-decker bridge has two rail-way lines on the lower deck and a three-lane road on the upper, strong enough to withstand movement of heavy defence tanks.

The Bogibeel bridge will connect the south bank of the Brahmaputra river in Assam’s Dibrugarh district with Silapathar in Dhemaji district, bordering Arunachal Pradesh. The railways have reduced the distance between Dhemaji and Dibrugarh from 500 kms to 100 kms with the completion of the project.

The project has been completed at a cost of Rs. 5,920 crore.

Modi will fl ag off the train after inaugurating the Bogibeel bridge on 25 December, the birth anniversary of late prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and observed as the ‘Good Governance Day’ by the Centre.

Islamabad, Dec 23 (PTI):

An anti-corruption court in Paki-stan will deliver its judgment on Monday in two remaining corrup-tion cases against ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif.

Judge Muhammad Ar-shad Malik of Islama-bad-based accountability court last week reserved the judgment after com-pletion of hearing in the Flagship Investment and Al-Azizia cases against 68-year-old Sharif.

The verdict will be announced on 24 December, which is the revised deadline set by the Supreme Court

to wrap up the remaining two cor-ruption cases against the three-time former Prime Minister.

If found guilty, Sharif can be sen-tenced up to 14 years in jail.

The accountability court had indicted Sharif for holding assets beyond his known sources of income in August 2017.

Last week, the judge rejected ap-plication by Sharif’s lawyer Khawaja

Harris to provide one week time to submit more documents but al-lowed him to provide any document by Friday last.

The judge also observed that the court was bound to follow 24 December fi nal deadline set by the Supreme Court.

Three cases - Avenfi eld properties case, Flagship Investment case and Al-Azizia steel mills case - were launched by the National Account-ability Bureau on 8 September, 2017 following a judgment by the apex court that disqualifi ed Sharif.

The apex court initially set six month deadline to conclude the cases but it was subsequently in-crease around eight times on the request of the accountability court.

Sharif was disqualifi ed by the Su-preme Court in the Panama Papers case in July, 2017.

Patna, Dec 23 (PTI):

Amid speculation that he may be denied a BJP ticket for Lok Sabha polls and join the RJD, actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha has kept all sides guessing by saying that people should instead speculate whether he would contest on a BJP ticket or not.

Sinha, who has represented his native Patna Sahib as a BJP MP for two consecutive terms, said his remarks on various issues which have not been liked by some party leaders, were meant to ‘show the mirror’ to the BJP and cannot be termed as ‘anti-party.’

‘Instead of guessing whether they (BJP leaders) will give me ticket or not speculation should be whether I will take the ticket or not,’ Sinha told PTI.

The actor-turned BJP leader met jailed RJD president Lalu Prasad in Ranchi on Saturday.

Though he said the meeting with Prasad at the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences was personal, the timing of the meeting assumes signifi cance.

Speculation is rife that Sinha, whose attack on his party has sharpened in recent times, may enter into fray from Patna Sahib from Prasad’s party if he is denied a BJP ticket for the Lok Sabha polls.

He said loss of power in three states of Madhya Pradesh, Rajas-than and Chhattisgarh is enough to show that the situation is not good in the NDA.

World Tamil Organisation celebrates

NHS’ 70th year|NT Bureau|

Chennai, Dec 23:

The World Tamil Organisa-tion (WTO-UK) in recognition of achievers from the world of medicine, celebrated the 70th anniversary of Britain’s National Health System (NHS) recently.

WTO-UK, representing the Indo-UK Community took the op-portunity to recognise healthcare professionals from various insti-tutions in India and the United Kingdom for their exemplary service.

The event kicked-off with the UK-Global Medical Excellence awards ceremony that saw 11 top doctors, consultants and surgeons awarded. It was conducted at the Houses of Parliament, Westmin-ster. Dr Arokiaswamy Velumani, founder, MD and CEO of Thyro-care, won the lifetime achieve-ment award for his contribution to the world of medicine.

Seven other doctors from various specialities of medicine including Diabetologist, Cosmetic Surgeon, Peri-natal Psychiatrist, Ophthal-mologist and Max Fax Surgeon were also felicitated during the summit, a press release said.

New Delhi, Dec 23:

In a joint press conference, lead-ers of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) announced the seat-sharing arrangement in Bihar for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

As per the arrangement, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Janata Dal United (JDU) will contest on 17 seats each while the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) will fi ght on 6 seats.

The announcement was made by BJP president Amit Shah, JDU chief and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan. The discussions over seat sharing between the allies had been underway for over months.

The decision was fi nalised after LJP chief and Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan along with his son Chirag Paswan held a series of discussions with Amit Shah and Union Minister Arun Jaitley. Jait-ley is an old Bihar hand in the party

with friendly relations with leaders of different parties. His interven-tion to resolve the differences with the LJP was a clear indication of the importance the BJP gives to Paswan’s party which enjoys strong infl uence among Dalits.

Shah had earlier also said that his party and its key ally JDU will

be contesting an equal number of seats in the politically crucial state where the BJP-led NDA had won 31 seats in 2014.

The LJP had been insisting that they should get seven seats, the same number on which they con-tested in 2014, along with seats in Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand, too.

NDA seat sharing in Bihar done

� BJP, JDU to fight on 17 seats each, LJP gets 6 for LS polls

Mumbai, Dec 23 (PTI):

In an incredible feat for any Indian, 20-year-old Pune woman Vedangi Kulkarni has become the fastest Asian to cycle the globe.

Vedangi, who hails from a suburb of Pune, cycled into Kolkata in the wee hours of Sunday, completing the 29,000 km distance required to qualify as bicycling across the globe.

She started off from Perth in July and will now be fl ying back to the Australian city to complete

the record.Talking to PTI over the phone,

Vedangi said the 159 days spent peddling up to 300 km a day in 14 countries has shown her the ‘best and worst’ of both herself and also the world.

Her father Vivek Kulkarni said very few people undertake this gruelling campaign and his daugh-ter has become the fastest Asian to cycle the globe.

British adventurer Jenny Gra-ham (38) is the fastest woman to

have cycled the globe in 124 days in 2018, which was three weeks faster than the previous record. Elements, both human and natu-ral, tested the Indian cyclist. This included being chased by a Grizzly bear in Canada or camping alone for multiple nights in the snow in Russia or being robbed at a knife-point in Spain.

Vedangi, a student of the Uni-versity of Bournemouth in the UK pursuing a degree in sports man-agement, said preparations for the ride began about two years ago with

long cycle rises, getting the equip-ment including a specially crafted cycle and planning the route and time window.

She did not have anyone accom-panying her for over 80 per cent of the route, and lugged the cycle with the heavy luggage that includes cycle tools, camping equipment and clothing in desolate stretches all alone.

The ride was funded majorly by her parents.

Starting off from Perth, she cycled

Pak a land of atrocities against minorities: Naqvi

New Delhi, Dec 23 (PTI):

The BJP today lashed out at Pakistan Prime Minster Imran Khan over his barb at India on treatment of minorities, terming his country ‘a land of atrocities against minorities’ who have been ‘persecuted’ there since its birth in 1947.

Minorities Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi in hard-hitting remarks against Pakistan, said that number of minorities like Hindus, Sikhs and Christians have fallen by almost 90 per cent in that country since its birth in 1947 as they were hounded by Islamic fundamentalists in collu-sion with its government.

‘RBI Governor highly corrupt’

Hyderabad, Dec 23:

BJP leader Subramanian Swamy alleged that Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das was involved in corruption and termed his recent appoint-ment to the top post a surprise. Swamy, however, did not give any specifi c details about the “corrup-tion”, an allegation he had made in the past as well.

The new governor of (RBI) is highly corrupt. I got him removed from the (Finance Ministry). I am calling Shaktikanta Das as a corrupt person. I am surprised that the man I got removed from the Finance Ministry for corrup-tion was brought in as governor, Swamy said at an interactive session at the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad.

Later, when reporters asked Swamy who he thinks should head the RBI, the Rajya Sabha member named Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, pro-fessor R Vaidyanathan. ‘Professor R Vaidyanathan, former professor of finance (IIM-B), would have been much better. He is also (an) old Sangh man. He is our man,’ he said.

India’s longest railroad bridge ready after 21yrs

� It will be thrown open for traffic by Modi on Tuesday

Former V-C Aravanan

passes away|NT Bureau |

Chennai, Dec 23:

Former Vice-Chancellor of Manonmaniam Sundaranar Uni-versity, K P Aravanan, passed away today, here. He was 77.

Born in 1941, Aravanan majored in Tamil language and went on to work as the head of Tamil depart-ment at the Pondicherry Central University. Later, he held various positions at Loyola College, before taking up the Vice-Chancellor post at Tirunelveli’s Manonma-niam Sundaranar University.

DMK president M K Stalin, PMK founder Ramadoss and lyricist Vairamuthu condoled the death of Aravanan. Tamil scholars paid their tribute at his home at Ayanavaram.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi interacting with BJP workers of Central Chennai Parliamentary constituency through video con-ferencing today.

Indian woman becomes fastest Asian to cycle the globe

Will Shatrughan Sinha get BJP ticket for

next year election ?� Keeps all sides guessing

� Meets jailed Lalu in Ranchi

Pak court to deliver judgment against Sharif tomorrow

Built by the Indian Railways, the double-decker

bridge has two railway lines on the lower deck

and a three-lane road on the upper

across Australia, through the outback, to reach Brisbane from where she fl ew over to Welling-ton, New Zealand, for doing the entire country north to south.