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Published from New Delhi & Hyderabad New Delhi,

Mumbai, Oct 22 (IANS) The Bombay High Court on Tuesday directed former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, former Forward Market Commission Chairman Ramesh Ab-hishek and serving bureaucrat K.P. Krish-nan to respond within eight weeks in the Rs 10,000 crore damages suit filed by 63 moons Technologies Limited. Chidambaram was the Union Finance Minister when the NSEL crisis came to light in 2013 and FMC was then head-ed Abhishek. Krishnan, who currently serves as Secretary for Skill Development and Entre-preneurship, was then the Finance Secretary.

Justice A.K. Menon, during the hearing, said that if the three are not able to file their writ-ten statement within the stipulated time, 63 moons will be able to apply for ‘ex-parte de-cree’. An ‘ex-parte decree’ is a decree passed against a defendant in absentia.

London, Oct 22 (IANS) UK Prime Min-ister Boris Johnson has published his 110-page Brexit Withdrawal Agreement Bill just hours before MPs were scheduled debate it in House of Commons on Tuesday, in an attempt to avoid another delay and take the country out of the European Union (EU) by October 31.

The Withdrawal Agreement Bill was ac-companied by another 124 pages of explana-tory notes.

The Bill details exactly how Parliament is expected to put the deal that the Prime Min-ister agreed with his counterparts around the continent into UK law, reports the BBC.

Ministers have insisted that they have the numbers to get the Withdrawal Agreement Bill approved, despite losing a crunch Com-mons vote on October 19 aimed at ruling out a no-deal Brexit.

If MPs back the bill, they will then vote on the government’s “programme motion”, which sets out the timetable for the legisla-tion’s passage through the Commons.

Bombay HC seeks response from PC in 63 moons damages suit

Johnson publishes his Brexit Withdrawal Bill

Briefs

Showcasing empowered women is inspirational: Ananya Panday on her upcoming movie

New Delhi, Oct 22 (IANS) Saudi Arabia has effected a nearly six-fold increase in visa fee, an order which can make Haj pilgrimage very costly, according to a media report, which said many Muslim coun-tries were angry over this move.

The report said that a single entry visa will now cost $533, up from $93, a multiple entry,

6-month visa would cost $800 and a one-year visa would cost $1,333.

The revised visa fees affect all tourists, religious or busi-ness visitors, but exempts those travelling for the first time to perform the annual Hajj pil-grimage or the lesser, non-mandatory pilgrimage known as the Umrah, said the report in

Quartz Africa. The pilgrimage involves considerable costs for visitors, especially for transpor-tation and lodging.

The plan, which was based on a recommendation from the Saudi Ministries of Finance and Economy, came into effect on October 2 and coincided with the beginning of the new Islam-ic year, the report said.

Karnataka HC directs HAL staff to call off strike

Bengaluru, Oct 22 (IANS) The Kar-nataka High Court on Tuesday di-rected workers of the state-run Hin-dustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) Ltd to call off their indefinite strike, which entered the ninth day.

“The high court has passed an in-terim order restraining the HAL As-sociation, its office-bearers and work-force from continuing their ongoing strike, including go-slow, work-to-rule or any form of agitation or dis-rupting daily activities and its offices in Bengaluru,” said the city-based de-fence major in a statement here.

About 20,000 employees, including 10,000 here, have been on indefinite strike since October 14 for revision of their wages since January 1, 2017.

“It is obligatory for the workforce to call off the strike and resume work, failing which (it) would amount to contempt of the court,” said the state-ment.

The company sought the high court’s intervention for withdraw-ing the strike through a writ petition on October 18, stating that the trade

unions had no legal right to go on strike under the Industrial Disputes Act.

The 55-year-old aerospace ma-jor has six production complexes in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Koraput in Odisha, Korwa and Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh and Nashik in Ma-harashtra and three research and development (R&D) centres across the country.

The unions have sought a wage re-vision given to the executives, a gross salary hike of 35 per cent, including 110-140 per cent hike in perks.

The company’s 8,000 officers and executives and 11,000 contract work-ers, however, were not participating in the strike.

The trade union office-bearers and members were waiting for the court’s order to decide on their next course of the action. “We will discuss the court’s order and explore options, including legal, for ensuring our demands are met by the company’s management,” a union leader told IANS here.

...........................more on page 4

Saudi Arabia effects six-fold increase in visa fee

10 IAS officers transferred in major bureaucratic reshuffle

Ayodhya case: Nirvani Akhara files note on right to manage deity’s worship

New Delhi, Oct 22 (IANS) In a major administrative reshuffle, the Centre on Tuesday transferred and promoted 10 Indian Admin-istrative Service (IAS) of-ficers, while upgrading the ranks of 13 others to the post of Special Secretary. Braj Raj Sharma, a 1984-batch officer

of the Jammu and Kashmir cadre, who is currently Sec-retary, Border Management in the Ministry of Home Af-fairs (MHA), has been trans-ferred to the Staff Selection Commission as Chairman. Sharma will be in the rank and pay of Secretary by tem-porarily upgrading the post and keeping the recruitment rules of the post in abey-ance, said the order issued by the Ministry of Person-nel. Besides Sharma, nine other officials have also been transferred to various other departments. Of them, two are of the 1985 batch, three

of the 1986 batch and four of 1987. The decision was taken by the Appointments Com-mittee of the Cabinet (ACC) chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Special Secretary, Internal Security, in the MHA, Sanjeev Gupta (1985 batch, Himachal Pradesh cadre), has been transferred to the Inter State Council Secretariat of the Ministry as its Secretary.

Sailesh, (1985 batch, Assam Cadre), who holds charge as Secretary in MHA, will now be Secretary, Department of Public Enterprises in the Ministry of Heavy Industries

and Public Enterprises. Alok Tandon, (1986 batch, Uttar Pradesh cadre), who is pres-ently Secretary in the Depart-ment of Administrative Re-forms and Public Grievances, has been given additional charge of the post of Secre-tary, Department of Pensions and Pensioners Welfare.

Sanjeev Nandan Sahai, (1986 batch, Uttarakhand cadre), who holds charge as Special Secretary, Power, has been promoted as Sec-retary, and will succeed in-cumbent Subhash Chandra Garg upon his retirement on October 31.

New Delhi, Oct 22 (IANS) The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed Nirvani Akhara, one of the Hindu parties in Ayodhya title dis-pute, to file a note seeking right to manage the wor-ship of deity as Shebait, a person who takes care of the deity and manages its daily affairs.

The counsel representing Akhara mentioned the mat-ter before a bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Go-goi, as his client erroneous-ly missed the deadline for filing the note on mould-ing of relief. The Akhara’s counsel sought court’s permission to file the docu-ment in the registry. The

court permitted the counsel to file the documentation. Both -- Nirmohi Akhara and Nirvani Akhara -- have con-tested each other’s stand as the Shebait at the birth-place of Lord Ram, which is at the centre of the Ayodhya title dispute. Seeking relief, the Nirvani Akhara said that none of the Hindus parties

has made claims for right of Shebaitship, instead claim-ing to be next “friend” of the deity or the manager of the disputed site. There-fore, the Shebaitship of the Nirvani Akhara remains unchallenged, which was made a defendant in two separate lawsuits - one filed by UP Sunni Central Wakf Board in 1961 and deity ‘Ram Lalla’, through next friend Deoki Nandan Agar-wal, in 1989.

Emergency response drill un-derway at LPG

bottling plant of

the Indian Oil Corpo-ration, at Devana-gonthi in

Bengaluru on Oct 22,

2019.

Kartarpur project a positive development

amid Indo-Pak tension

Smriti in Amethi, Priyanka in Rae Bareli

New Delhi, Oct 22 (IANS) At a time when relations between In-dia and Pakistan are going through extreme chill amid occasional military escalation, the prospec-tive operationalisation of the Kar-tarpur Corridor next month stands out as one positive development.

Despite the tensions, the two countries have been holding talks on opening the corridor for pilgrimage to the Kartar-pur Sahib gurdwara, which is located in Pakistani Punjab’s Narowal area. The corridor is to be thrown open in November to mark the 550th birth anniversa-ry celebrations of Guru Nanak Dev, the founder of Sikhism, who spent his final days there.

The two sides continued with the process of operationalising the corridor even after Pakistan scaled down its diplomatic ties with India after the abolition of

the special status of Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan unilaterally ex-pelled Indian High Commission-er and refused to send its own newly-appointed Envoy to New Delhi as a protest against devel-opments in Jammu and Kashmir.

There had been demands in India for building a corridor to allow pilgrims to cross into Pakistan from India to visit the shrine. An understanding was reached between India and Pakistan last year to build the corridor to allow Sikh pilgrims visa-free travel to the holy shrine. In November 2018, the cabinet headed by Prime Minister Nar-endra Modi cleared a proposal for the corridor after which the ground-breaking ceremony on the Indian side was done by Vice President Venkaiah Naidu, while on the Pakistan side it was done by Prime Minister Imran Khan.

Rae Bareli/ Amethi, Oct 22 (IANS) Congress General Sec-retary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, on Tuesday, inaugurated a two-day workshop of the new-ly-appointed members of the Uttar Pradesh Congress.

Union minister Smriti Irani was next door in Amethi to re-view the progress of develop-mental projects.

UP Governor Anandiben Pa-tel was also in Amethi to review the development of the region.

The Governor and the Union Minister inspected the district hospital, an old age home, a school, a cow shelter and other places in the constituency. They discussed the progress with local officials. The two also met local people and asked

them about their problems. In Rae Bareli, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra began her workshop with the newly appointed of-fice bearers of the state party unit. The media was kept out of the event. Earlier, talking to re-porters, Priyanka slammed the Yogi Adityanath government for the deteriorating law and order in the state.

Citing the report of the Na-tional Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), she said that Uttar Pradesh was on the top regard-ing crime against women.

“This is shameful and the state government should pull up its socks. The BJP talks of ‘Beti Bachao’ but it fails when it comes to providing security to women.

Thirty seven days after a private boat ferrying 77

persons sank in Godavari

river in Andhra Pradesh, a

search team retrieved the

badly-mangled vessel with the highly-decom-posed bodies,

in Andhra Pradesh's Goda-vari district, on

Oct 22, 2019.

City2

Delhi,22,oct,A decision has been taken for A Procession in the memory of Messenger of Peace Prophet Mo-hammed's called Jalsa .e-Eid-ul-milad Nabi by the West Delhi's Masjid Presi-dents and Moulanas . A meeting how to organize and how to proceed A Pro-cession in the memory of Messenger of Peace Prophet Mohammed's called Jalsa .e-Eid-ul-milad Nabi held in Ma-dina Masjid Sevak park uttam Nagar of West Delhi . it was decided by the participant members that Procession Julus Should March with great Pomp

and show in the areaSyed Kamruddin President All India

QomiTanzeem said on this occasion that Present socio-political environ-ment is spreading hatredness and we all the people should come forward to spread the Message of Peace given by Prophet Mohhammad to the world . Prophed Mohammad was not the prophet of any particular Religion or region but to all humanity in the world he added to make the programme suc-cessful and peaceful completion du-ties to volunteers assigned and Road

Map was decided to march on . groups were advised to march via Nazafgarh Road to Uttam Nagar . Moulana Ab-dul Rasheed , Mufti Shakir Raza Hafiz Ansarulhak , Kazi SRakim Ali , Moula Inamul Haq ,Moula Abdul vakeel , Moulana Shahzad , Moula Javed Am-bar , Mohammad Iqbal , Muinuddin Nafees Ahamad , Hafiz Saleem , Hafiz Asgar Ali , Master Anwar ansari , Shou-kat Ali and many other areas dignitar-ies attended the programme and gave their suggestions for the forthcoming Programme.

Messaging of Peace Prophet Mohammed's

Eid-ul-milad Nabi

BJP cries foul over Kejriwal's photo on

DTC ticketsNew Delhi, Oct 22 (IANS) BJP

MLAs led by Leader of Opposi-tion Vijender Gupta on Tuesday submitted a memorandum to the Delhi Lieutenant Governor and filed a petition before the Loka-yukta against Chief Minister Ar-vind Kejriwal over his photograph being carried on tickets meant for free bus rides for women pas-sengers in DTC and cluster buses. The ruling Aam Aadmi Party said the BJP is getting involved in trivi-al matters. Speaking to the media, Gupta said he has submitted a memorandum regarding blatant misuse of power by Kejriwal as he sought intervention of the L-G.

"We demanded the L-G to ensure that CM withdraws his move to print his photograph on the tickets," Gupta said along with MLAs O.P. Sharma and Jag-dish Pradhan and ex-MLAs Kapil Mishra and Anil Baijal. Delhi gov-ernment has announced free DTC bus rides for women passengers from October 29, for which they will be issued a pink ticket with-out paying anything.

He said the LG assured the BJP delegation that he would get the matter examined and take ap-propriate action accordingly. Gupta said they submitted in the memorandum that though Delhi government claimed it to be a move meant for the benefit of fe-male passengers, "the intentions of the AAP government are any-thing but noble as they have once again used the taxpayers' money for their own political benefit. The pink tickets issued to the female passengers are printed with CM

Arvind Kejriwal's face on them." "This has been done bypassing all official channels for a scheme that comes under government's purview," said the memorandum. It further said that the "astonish-ing fact is that despite an estab-lished electronic ticketing system in all DTC buses, these pink tick-ets are being handed over to the passengers manually." Gupta said the "supposedly public welfare scheme" is not a personal scheme of Kejriwal. "It is funded by the hard-earned taxpayers' money and should not be used to further one's own political ambitions. It is not only immoral but also ille-gal." Later in the day, Gupta also said that Lokayukta Reva Khetra-pal will hear the BJP's petition on Wednesday against the misuse of power by Kejriwal and Trans-port Minister Kailash Gehlot in the printing of the photographs on the tickets. Gupta, along with BJP MLAs and ex-MLAs, filed the complaint before Khetrapal on Tuesday. He said the BJP leaders

had urged the Lokayukta to hear their petition on the most urgent basis.

Gupta said Gehlot, with the consent of Kejriwal, has approved the sample of "Women Free Trav-el Single Journey Pass" on Octo-ber 11. "The above said tickets are being printed in huge quantity. The printed tickets are going to be circulated to various depots/of-ficials for circulation. It is impor-tant to stop the government from printing and circulation of tickets to avoid the wasteful expenditure of government exchequer. If the move to forestall the printing of photographs on tickets is not im-mediately taken, the misuse of power for personal glorification will set in motion dismantling democratic process," Gupta said.

The petition highlighted that the printing of Kejriwal's photo-graph on the pink tickets is not a paid advertisement. "The govern-ment has paid no money to the Delhi Transport Corporation for the publication of the same."

Indian HorizonWednesday, October 23, 2019

New Delhi, Oct 22 (IANS) Saudi Ara-bia has effected a nearly six-fold in-crease in visa fee, an order which can make Haj pilgrimage very costly, ac-cording to a media report, which said many Muslim countries were angry over this move. The report said that a single entry visa will now cost $533, up from $93, a multiple entry, 6-month visa would cost $800 and a one-year visa would cost $1,333. The revised visa fees affect all tourists, religious or business visitors, but exempts those travelling for the first time to per-form the annual Hajj pilgrimage or the lesser, non-mandatory pilgrimage known as the Umrah, said the report in Quartz Africa.

The pilgrimage involves consider-able costs for visitors, especially for

transportation and lodging. The plan, which was based on a recommenda-tion from the Saudi Ministries of Fi-nance and Economy, came into effect on October 2 and coincided with the beginning of the new Islamic year, the report said. The new rules are seen as part of a wider campaign to lessen the kingdom's dependence on oil and to increase revenues in other areas, in-cluding immigration fees, it said.

Saudia Arabia, which is the biggest oil producer in the world, has been significantly impacted by the falling oil prices. In September, the Saudi government announced it would cut the wages and allowances of civil ser-vants for the first time. It came against the backdrop of the prolonged war in Yemen that Saudi Arabia has been

engaged in. The move to increase the fees could be very significant for the kingdom, given that millions of Mus-lims undertake the pilgrimage to Mec-ca and Medina every year, the media report said. The move has incensed many Muslim countries or those with a large Muslim population, it said. Moroccan travel agencies agreed to boycott servicing the trips to Mecca until the exorbitant fees were abol-ished, the report said, adding Turkey, Egypt, and Nigeria have all expressed their opposition to the new plan. Mus-lims in South Africa started a petition calling the visa fees "inhumane", and asked the Saudi government to either scrap the payment or to drastically re-duce them. Yusuf Abramjee, the sec-retary general of the council.

Saudi Arabia effects six-fold increase in visa fee

New Delhi, Oct 22 (IANS) With Uber bringing public transport fea-ture on its app for Delhi users, the day is not far when proper Uber buses will ply in the national capital, and later in other cities. The public transport feature launchon Uber app in Delhi on Tuesday may be a test to understand people's prefer-ences, before launching Uber Bus service via the app.

The ride-hailing platform in Oc-tober last year launched Uber Bus in Cairo, Egypt. The Uber Bus app lets people reserve seats on an air-

conditioned bus that frequently run along popular routes so there is always a ride nearby. The Uber Bus app works on all Android de-vices and in all network conditions. "Uber bus service is a new product that we have launched. We are test-ing and learning to understand how the service works. As the product matures, it will be specifically mar-keted for cities like Delhi," Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in New Delhi on Tuesday. Once Uber Bus arrives in Delhi, it will like a shuttle service, picking you up from

designated sport and dropping you off at another designated spot This is how it currently works in other cities. Enter your destination, select the Uber Bus option, review your fare and then tap request.

"Wait up to 5 minutes to see your trip details. We use this time to match you with other riders' on the most suitable route for you, making sure you don't go out of your way," says Uber. You will see the information about your trip in the app: driver information and pickup spot.

New Delhi, Oct 22 (IANS) The Indian Air Force (IAF) is likely to sign a deal with Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) for ac-quiring 83 Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) as negotiations over the price of the fighter jets are almost done, defence sourc-es said here on Tuesday.

In December 2017, the IAF had issued a single-vendor ten-der to the HAL for procuring 83 LCA. However, the deal is yet to be signed owing to delay in negotiations over the price of the aircraft. In a previous order, the IAF had signed a deal with the HAL for 40 Tejas LCAs. So far, around 18 LCAs have been delivered to the IAF from this order. "The cost negotiating committee is almost finished with the price negotiations of the aircraft. Once it is done, IAF

will enter into a deal with the HAL," a senior IAF official told IANS. As per sources, the deal for 83 Tejas LCA, which are of the Mark 1A variant, is expect-ed to cost the IAF in the range of Rs 45,000 crore. The aircraft will have improved serviceabil-ity, faster weapon-loading time, enhanced survivability, a bet-ter electronic warfare suite and Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar that will significantly enhance its capa-bility. The Centre for Military Airworthiness and Certification (CEMILAC) had provided the Final Operational Clearance to the Tejas LCA earlier this year, certifying it as a multi-role fight-er with capabilities including beyond visual range air-to-air and air-to-ground attack capa-bilities as well as longer endur-

ance through mid-air refuelling.In a previous order, the IAF

had signed a deal with the HAL for 40 Tejas LCAs. So far, around 18 LCAs have been delivered to the IAF from this order.

India, at present, has a short-fall of around 10-12 squadrons of fighter jets in its inventory even as the first four of the 36 Rafale multi-role aircraft are scheduled to arrive into the country by May next year. At the formal receiving ceremony of the first Rafale jet in France on Dussehra this year, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had said that the full consignment of 36 aircraft will arrive in India by the year 2022. "India will receive the first 18 Rafale jets by Febru-ary 2021. By April-May 2022 we will receive all 36 jets," Rajnath Singh had said.

Uber Bus not too far from Delhi roads

Deal with HAL for 83 Tejas Light Combat

Aircraft soon: IAF

Minister of State for Labour and Employment (Independent Charge), Shri Santosh Kumar Gangwar interacting with the media after inaugurating the Eastern Regional Labour Conference, in Bhubaneswar.

New Delhi, Oct 22 (IANS) Accepting Facebook's plea, the Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed transfer of various petitions, related to guidelines for regulation of the social media in India, from different high courts to the top court.

A bench of Justices Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose said the matter will be heard in January after the Centre formulates new guidelines on intermediaries.

The apex court was hear-ing Facebook's plea seeking transfer of various petitions from different high courts to the Supreme Court. Face-book had said that transfer of cases would serve the in-terests of justice by avoiding the possibility of conflict-

ing decisions from the high courts. The social media gi-ant told the apex court that two petitions had been filed in the Madras High Court and one each in the Bombay and Madhya Pradesh High Courts. All the pleas in the High Courts have sought a direction that Aadhaar or any other government-autho-rised identity proof should be made mandatory to authen-ticate social media accounts.

Attorney General K.K. Venugopal told the court that the state of Tamil Nadu had no objection to the matter being transferred to the Su-preme Court. Representing the Centre, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the top court that terrorists cannot claim the privileges.

3City

New Delhi, Oct 22 (IANS) Hiring a cab from a Metro sta-tion in Delhi is set to become a lot more easier as ride hail-ing major Uber on Tuesday announced it has won a com-petitive bid to expand its op-erations across 210 Delhi Metro stations.

Under the partnership to im-prove first and last-mile con-nectivity for users, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) will provide Uber dedicated pick up and drop points. Talking to reporters, DMRC Managing Di-rector Mangu Singh said that a pilot is being run at about four stations and the facility will eventually be made available in 210 of 274 Metro stations.

"Research has shown that in-tegrating on-demand services with public transport is benefi-

cial for riders," Singh said at an even which saw Uber launching its "public transport" service in Delhi, making it the ninth city globally and first in Asia to have such a feature.

"This new initiative integrat-ing public transport with mo-bility operators like Uber will certainly boost first and last

mile connectivity solutions for around six million passenger journeys performed in the sys-tem daily," Singh said.

"DMRC has partnered with on-demand mobility operators like Uber to enhance their com-muting experience with seam-less last mile connectivity," he said. Uber said it launched

the "public transport" journey planning feature for Uber riders across New Delhi to make travel easier with the information rid-ers need to make the smartest possible journey choices. "We want to be the operating system of your everyday life. We want to replace your car with your phone," Uber CEO Dara Khos-rowshahi told reporters here.

"India is core to Uber's growth strategy for the next 5-10 years," he added. Riders will see "Public Transport" as an option alongside UberGo, Premier and Pool after open-ing the Uber app and entering a destination. Upon selecting the public transport feature, riders will be able to see the fastest and cheapest routes, real-time schedules, as well as departure time for public transportation.

New Delhi, Oct 22 (IANS) BJP MLAs led by Leader of Opposition Vijender Gupta on Tuesday submitted a memorandum to the Delhi Lieutenant Governor and filed a petition before the Lokayukta against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal over his photograph being carried on tickets meant for free bus rides for women passengers in DTC and cluster buses.

The ruling Aam Aadmi Party said the BJP is getting involved in trivial matters.

Speaking to the media, Gupta said he has sub-mitted a memorandum regarding blatant misuse of power by Kejriwal as he sought intervention of the L-G. "We demanded the L-G to ensure that CM withdraws his move to print his photograph on the tickets," Gupta said along with MLAs O.P. Sharma and Jagdish Pradhan and ex-MLAs Kapil Mishra and Anil Baijal. Delhi govern-ment has announced free DTC bus rides for women passengers from October 29, for which they will be issued a pink ticket without paying anything.

He said the LG assured the BJP delegation that he would get the matter exam-ined and take appropriate action accordingly. Gupta said they submitted in the memorandum that though Delhi government claimed it to be a move meant for the benefit of female pas-sengers, "the intentions of the AAP government are anything but noble as they have once again used the taxpayers' money for their own political benefit. The pink tickets issued to the female passengers are printed with CM Arvind

Kejriwal's face on them.""This has been done by-

passing all official channels for a scheme that comes under government's pur-view," said the memoran-dum. It further said that the "astonishing fact is that despite an established elec-tronic ticketing system in all DTC buses, these pink tickets are being handed over to the passengers manually." Gupta said the "supposedly public wel-fare scheme" is not a per-sonal scheme of Kejriwal. "It is funded by the hard-earned taxpayers' money

and should not be used to further one's own political ambitions. It is not only immoral but also illegal." Later in the day, Gupta also said that Lokayukta Reva Khetrapal will hear the BJP's petition on Wednes-day against the misuse of power by Kejriwal and Transport Minister Kai-lash Gehlot in the printing of the photographs on the tickets. Gupta, along with BJP MLAs and ex-MLAs, filed the complaint before Khetrapal on Tuesday.

He said the BJP leaders had urged the Lokayukta to hear their petition on the most urgent basis.

Gupta said Gehlot, with the consent of Kejriwal, has approved the sample of "Women Free Travel Single Journey Pass" on October 11. "The above said tickets are being printed in huge quantity. The printed tick-ets are going to be circu-lated to various depots/officials for circulation. It is important to stop the government from printing and circulation of tickets to avoid the wasteful ex-penditure of government exchequer. If the move to

forestall the printing of photographs on tickets is not immediately taken, the misuse of power for personal glorification will set in motion dismantling democratic process," Gup-ta said. The petition high-lighted that the printing of Kejriwal's photograph on the pink tickets is not a paid advertisement. "The government has paid no money to the Delhi Trans-port Corporation for the publication of the same."

Also, the BJP leaders said it has not been announced anywhere that the above matter is an advertisement and no tenders were invited for designing and insertion of the photographs. Gupta also said that in the petition, they prayed to the Loka-yukta that the Delhi govern-ment be asked to withdraw the move to print the pho-tographs. Speaking to the media, AAP MP and leader Sanjay Singh said: "The BJP is getting involved in trivial things. There are photos of the Prime Minister across all petrol pumps in the coun-try. Remove that. There are also photographs of PM on the Ayushman cards."

BJP MLAs led by Leader of Opposition Vijender Gupta on Tuesday submitted a memorandum

to the Delhi Lieutenant Governor

Delhi Metro partners Uber for last-mile connectivity

Indian HorizonWednesday, October 23, 2019

New Delhi, Oct 22 (IANS) The Con-gress has launched a scathing attack on Kartapur Corridor's proposed fee that Pakistan says it will charge ($20) from each pilgrim. The official signing of the corridor is due on October 23. Congress spokesperson Manish Tiwari said: "If Pakistan insists on $20 fee for Kartarpur pilgrims and India signs the agreement, then the NDA/BJP government should undertake to pay that 'jazia' tax in the MoU itself. Paying to visit Kartarpur Sahib goes against the grain of 'Khule darshan' and holy 'ardas'".

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to flag off the first 'jatha' on November 9. Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal has tweeted that the first jatha will consist of 550 pilgrims. The PM is also scheduled to inaugurate an

integrated checkpost. Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh is going to visit the Kartarpur shrine. However, former Prime Minister Man-mohan Singh has declined the Paki-stani invite, and sources say he may be part of an intra-party delegation to Kartarpur.

The Ministry of External Affairs has released an official statement, saying that It is a matter of disappointment that while an understanding has been reached on most of the elements for facilitating the visit of pilgrims from India, Pakistan continues to insist on levying a service fee of $20 per pilgrim per visit. The government has consis-tently urged Pakistan that in deference to the wishes of the pilgrims, it should not levy such a fee.

Ayodhya case: Nirvani Akhara files note on right to manage

deity's worship

Congress says govt should bear Kartarpur 'jazia'

New Delhi, Oct 22 (IANS) The Supreme Court on Tues-day allowed Nirvani Akhara, one of the Hindu parties in Ayodhya title dispute, to file a note seeking right to manage the worship of deity as Shebait, a person who takes care of the deity and manages its daily af-fairs.

The counsel representing Akhara mentioned the mat-ter before a bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Go-goi, as his client erroneously missed the deadline for filing the note on moulding of relief. The Akhara's counsel sought court's permission to file the document in the registry. The court permitted the counsel to

file the documentation.Both -- Nirmohi Akhara and

Nirvani Akhara -- have con-tested each other's stand as the Shebait at the birthplace of Lord Ram, which is at the centre of the Ayodhya title dis-pute. Seeking relief, the Nirvani Akhara said that none of the Hindus parties has made claims for right of Shebaitship, instead claiming to be next "friend" of the deity or the manager of the disputed site. Therefore, the Shebaitship of the Nirvani Akhara remains unchallenged, which was made a defendant in two separate lawsuits - one filed by UP Sunni Central Wakf Board in 1961 and deity 'Ram Lalla', through next friend

Deoki Nandan Agarwal, in 1989. The Nirmohi Akhara had filed the suit seeking Shebait right in 1959. Nirvani, during the hearing, submitted before the court that Mahant Abhi-ram Das, now deceased, was the priest representing it at the site in 1949. He was allegedly named in the FIR for allegedly placing idols below the cen-tral dome in the disputed site. Currently, one of his followers, Dharam Das, is the priest. The five-judge apex court bench re-served the verdict on October 16 after concluding the 40-day-long hearing and directed the parties concerned to file their response on moulding of relief within three days.

Union Minister for Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, Shri Narendra Singh Tomar and the Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers, Shri D.V. Sadananda Gowda lighting the lamp to inaugurate the Fertilizer application awareness program, in New Delhi. on October 22, 2019. The Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Shri Parshottam Rupala, the Secretary (DARE) & Director General

(ICAR), Dr. Trilochan Mohapatra and the Secretary, Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers’ Welfare, Shri Sanjay Agarwal are also seen.

Social media norms: SC allows transfer of

pleas to itselfNew Delhi, Oct 22 (IANS) With

votes polled and results awaited for the Haryana Assembly elec-tion, here is a look at the projec-tions made by the News18-IPSOS exit poll that sheds light on the fate of the biggest stars on results day. Yogeshwar Dutt -- The famous wrestler and Olympic medallist is unlikely to turn the BJP's fortunes in the tough seat of Baroda, where he is contesting against Congress candidate Sri Krishan Hooda who successfully contested in the 2009 and 2014 elections by defeating Kapoor Singh Narwal of INLD each time. An exit poll conducted by News18-IPSOS has projected that Dutt might lose.

Babita Phogat -- Another wres-tle from Haryana, Babita holds two Commonwealth medals and has contested from Dadri seat in Haryana on BJP's ticket, however

like Yogeshwar Dutt, the exit poll has projected her to be on the los-ing side. She is facing Nripendera Sangwan of the Congress and Somveer Sangwan, a former BJP candidate who contested as an independent. Randeep Surjewala -- A close confident of former Congress President Rahul Gan-dhi and party's national spokes-person, Randeep Surjewala is seeking a fifth term as lawmaker, and is contesting from the Kaithal Assembly constituency but the News18-IPSOS exit poll claims that the senior Congress leader is up for a close fight from his Assembly seat. Surjewala is up against Leela Ram Gujjar who had been a former INLD member and has recently joined BJP. The News18-IPSOS exit poll has pre-dicted that the BJP would win 75 seats in Haryana.

Haryana polls: A look at big names that may

fail to shine

SouthIndian Horizon Wednesday - October 23, 2019 4

Banking ops affected due to bankers strikeChennai, Oct 22 (IANS) Nearly 3,00,000 bankers in public

and private sector banks refused work on Tuesday across the nation protesting merger of 10 government banks into four, affecting normal banking operations, claimed All India Bank Employees’ Union (AIBEA). According to AIBEA, clearing of cheques were affected as cheques could not be collected by banks and sent for clearance to the National Payment Corpo-ration. Government treasury transactions were also affected.

The bankers also demand recovery of bad loans and strong action against loan defaulters.

The strike call was given by two unions - All India Bank Employees’ Association (AIBEA) and Bank Employees Fed-eration of India (BEFI). In a statement issued here, the AIBEA announced the large scale protest against the close down of six important nationalized banks i.e. Andhra Bank, Allahabad Bank, Corporation Bank, Syndicate Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce and United Bank of India.

“Merger of banks is totally unwarranted in India as we need more banking services and opening of more branches to serve the people. Merger has so far resulted in closure of branches and hence it is a wrong policy,” C.H. Venkatacha-lam, General Secretary, AIBEA said in the statement.

“Recovery of the huge bad loans is the top priority for the banks and merger of banks will change the priority. Hence merger is a bad idea,” AIBEA said.

Post IT raids godman Kalki claims to be ‘more powerful’

Chennai, Oct 22 (IANS) Refuting some media reports self-styled godman Kalki Bhagavan in a video message to his dev-otees said he has not fled the country but in fact has turned more powerful after the Income Tax raids.

In the video, Kalki Bhagavan, who was born as Vijaykumar, said: “The government or the IT Department has said we have fled the country.” And refuted the claims accusing the media of spreading such information.

According to him, he and his wife are in Nemam in Tamil Nadu. He also assured his devotees that he and his wife would not leave for anywhere. “In fact, we have become more pow-erful,” he asserted. He said, they were not abandoning any-thing and the activities were continuing as usual at the ash-rams. He also said he and his wife, Padmavati, were in good health. The Income Tax Department had carried out search operation at the Kalki Ashram, trust and the business prem-ises of his son, which resulted in the detection of undisclosed income and seizure of gold, diamonds and foreign currencies valued at about Rs 500 crore.

One injured in blast in train in Karnataka

railway stationBengaluru, Oct 22 (IANS) A minor blast in an express train

at Hubbali railway station in Karnataka injured one person, a police official said on Monday.

“The blast occurred when an unclaimed bucket with eight plastic boxes exploded in the Amaravathi Express from Vi-jayawada (Andhra Pradesh) to Hubballi,” Railway sub-divi-sion Deputy Superintendent of Police B.B. Patil told IANS on phone. Hubbali is about 410km northwest of Bengaluru.

“The injured person, Sadik, 25, was told to hand over the unclaimed bucket to the station master. The bucket exploded when he was holding it,” the DSP said.

According to Patil, the exploded bucket, with inscriptions in Tamil and English, was addressed to Prakash Abitkal of Budhargad in Maharashtra’s Kolhapur district.

A case was registered after the railway police filed the first information report (FIR) under sections of the Explosives Act, the Explosive Substance Act and the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Ex-Congress MLA Abdul-lakutty made Kerala BJP

vice-presidentThiruvananthapuram, Oct 22 (IANS) Congress lawmaker

A.P. Abdullakutty who joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in June this year was on Tuesday appointed as the vice-pres-ident of the BJP in Kerala. This was announced here in the state capital by state BJP president P.S. Sreedharan Pillai who said the appointment has been made following a directive from the national party leadership. Abdullakutty, 52, who has also been a former member of the ruling CPI-M, began his political career from the CPI-M’s student wing. He came into prominence by defeating current Kerala Congress chief Mullapally Ramachandran twice - in 1999 and 2004 - from the Kannur Lok Sabha seat. In 2009, the CPI-M sacked him from the party amid mounting differences and also because he praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Gujarat devel-opment model when the latter was the Chief Minister of the state. Abdullakutty won the Kannur Assembly by-election in 2009 as a Congress candidate and repeated his victory in 2011, but in 2016, lost the polls from the Thalassery seat. Since that time, he has been keeping a distance from the Congress, and in June this year, he joined the BJP describing himself as a “nationalist Muslim”.

Karnataka HC directs HAL staff to call off strike

Bengaluru, Oct 22 (IANS) Benga-luru is the most conscious city when it comes to buying eco-friendly and sustainable products as compared to other metro cities in India, a new study revealed on Tuesday.

Mumbai is at the second spot fol-lowed by Delhi, Hyderabad and Chennai respectively.

Based on an analysis of the shop-ping behaviour of over 20,000 respon-dents, across five Indian metros, the

study was conducted by Karnival.com -- an eCommerce platform.

According to the study, 55 per cent of the shoppers on Karnival.com are millennials (23-37 age group) and Generation Z (18-22 age group).

“The maiden sustainability index by Karnival.com shows that Indians are working towards creating a culture of conscious consumption and mak-ing sustainability a mainstream way of life,” said Dhimant Parekh - CEO, Karnival.com.

“It’s heartening to know that young shoppers, in metros as well as non-metros, are looking for eco-friendly choices, whether for their own use or for gifting purposes,” Parekh said.

The study also indicated that more women were open to buying these products than men - the percentage was 65 per cent for women and 35 for men. The most popular buys on the

platform include water-saving de-vices for taps, home decor products made with upcycled and recycled materials, natural personal care prod-ucts, organic food products, and eco-friendly home utilities like floor and laundry cleaners.

The study also found that tier 2 and tier 3 Indian cities are warming up to the idea of shopping for sustainable products.

Pune led the growing tribe of ‘green non-metros’, while Coimbatore, Luc-know and Ghaziabad completed the top chart, accounting for nearly 10 per cent of the total sales on Karnival.com during April-September 2019.

“An increasing number of Indians are seeking out green products and we are excited to be a part of this in-spiring narrative on up-and-coming sustainability oriented cities and towns of India,” Parekh said.

Bengaluru tops in buying eco-friendly, sustainable products

Bengaluru: Road rage up, thanks to bad traffic

Bengaluru, Oct 22 (IANS) The Kar-nataka High Court on Tuesday di-rected workers of the state-run Hin-dustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) Ltd to call off their indefinite strike, which entered the ninth day.

“The high court has passed an interim order restraining the HAL Association, its office-bearers and workforce from continuing their ongoing strike, including go-slow, work-to-rule or any form of agita-tion or disrupting daily activities and its offices in Bengaluru,” said the city-based defence major in a statement here.

About 20,000 employees, includ-ing 10,000 here, have been on in-definite strike since October 14 for revision of their wages since Janu-ary 1, 2017.

“It is obligatory for the workforce to call off the strike and resume work, failing which (it) would amount to contempt of the court,” said the statement. The company sought the

high court’s intervention for with-drawing the strike through a writ petition on October 18, stating that the trade unions had no legal right to go on strike under the Industrial Dis-putes Act. The 55-year-old aerospace

major has six production complexes in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Koraput in Odisha, Korwa and Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh and Nashik in Maharashtra and three research and development (R&D) centres across the country.

The unions have sought a wage re-vision given to the executives, a gross salary hike of 35 per cent, including 110-140 per cent hike in perks.

The company’s 8,000 officers and executives and 11,000 contract work-ers, however, were not participating in the strike.“The high court has passed an interim order restraining the HAL Association, its office-bear-ers and workforce from continuing their ongoing strike, including go-slow, work-to-rule or any form of ag-itation or disrupting daily activities and its offices in Bengaluru,” said the city-based defence major in a state-ment here.

The trade union office-bearers and members were waiting for the court’s order to decide on their next course of the action.

“We will discuss the court’s order and explore options, including legal, for ensuring our demands are met by the company’s management,” a union leader told IANS here.

Bengaluru: Oct 22 (IANS) It has long been suspected and now it is confirmed that with life becoming increasingly fast paced in the metro-politan cities of the country, people are suffering from stress during long commutes to work and are becoming prone to road rage.

An ‘Age of Rage’ national survey conducted by Tata Salt Lite in 10 met-ros of the country in August this year reveals that over half the people living in cities are prone to road rage due to commuting in stressful traffic condi-tions. As many as 56 per cent of the 2,500 respondents surveyed admitted they were likely to exhibit road rage if they were held up in traffic and were getting late for work and could over-react in their responses to the traffic police and other drivers. Exhibiting a greater degree of rancour, 16 per cent of those surveyed said they “were more likely” to misbehave with other drivers or traffic police and disobey traffic laws.

While most people think of road rage as violent assault, it also includes tailgating, abrupt lane changes, speed-ing, and verbal threats, according to the survey, which covered Bengaluru, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Chandigarh, Pune, and Luc-know and Hyderabad.

Going by the National Crime Re-cords Bureau (NCRB), around 4,255

incidents of road rage were reported in Bengaluru in 2015 and 50.1 per cent of those involved were injured in such incidents. While the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) – 4 makes no reference to traffic induced stress, it says 10 per cent of men in Bengaluru between the ages of 15 and 49 suffer from hypertension and 5.6 per cent of women in the same group suffer from the disease.An ‘Age of Rage’ national survey conducted by Tata Salt Lite in 10 metros of the country in August this

year reveals that over half the people living in cities are prone to road rage due to commuting in stressful traffic conditions. Emphasising that stress-related disorders due to driving are a serious health concern, the Tata Lite survey laments there isn’t any focused study in India to monitor commuting stress affecting an individual’s physi-ology. “It’s a serious concern, and more people are succumbing to stress brought on by staying in their vehicles for too long in traffic, leading to all

sorts of trouble like depression, hy-pertension, anxiety, rage, diabetes, fa-tigue, and even heart disease,” it adds.

Dr Aviva Pinto Rodrigues, fertility consultant, Nova IVF Fertility, who ac-knowledges that some day to day situ-ations in traffic can be a contributing cause for hypertension, warns that the condition in men can lead to poor semen quality and in women, affect the lining of the uterus, which could potentially affect the healthy implan-tation of the embryo.

Nation5

Jharkhand CM Raghubar Das launches Khadi on wheels

Ranchi, Oct 22 (IANS) Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghu-

bar Das launched Khadi on wheels here on Tuesday.“Khadi is not only a cloth but it is an ideology. It keeps

us connected with our culture. Adopt Khadi and promote Indian product. Mahatma Gandhi had stressed on Khadi clothes and cottage industries”, said the Chief Minister while launching the Khadi on wheels.

He said, “the state and central governments are trying to fulfil the dreams of Mahatma Gandhi. Through Khadi on wheels, Khadi will reach to the people. Put the Khadi on wheels to village markets. By using the Khadi products we can bring cheers to faces of the poor people”.

“Mahatma Gandhi had stressed on cleanliness and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is trying to fulfil his dream. The government has also made the state Open Defecation Free. The previous governments might have used the name of Gandhiji but our govt has done lots of work to fulfil the dreams of Gandhiji”.

The Khadi on wheels will move from one place to another to promote Khadi products in the state. This was launched on 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

IIT student dies after ‘falling’ from hostel roof in Odisha

Bhubaneswar, Oct 22 (IANS) A student of the Indian In-stitute of Technology (IIT)-Bhubaneswar died after alleg-edly falling from the hostel roof, police said on Tuesday.

Chirag Pravin Jain, a second year student of Computer Science, was found dead on Monday evening.

Jain, hailing from Pune in Maharashtra, was admitted to hospital after he reportedly fell from the roof of the hostel. He, however, died at the hospital while undergoing treat-ment. “On Monday evening, a student of IIT-Bhubaneswar fell off from the roof and sustained serious injuries. He was rushed to hospital where he succumbed to the injury. A case of unnatural death has been registered and we are in-vestigating the case,” said Anup Sahu, Bhubaneswar Depu-ty Commissioner of Police.

IIT Bhubaneswar in a statement said the local police is currently investigating the matter and trying to ascertain the exact cause of death.

The parents of the deceased student have been informed about the incident. “This is indeed an irreparable loss to the institute and the family. May his soul rest in peace,” the institution said in the statement.

Andhra boat with trapped bod-ies retrieved from Godavari

Rajahmundry (Andhra Pradesh), Oct 22 (IANS) Thirty seven days after a private boat ferrying 77 persons sank in Godavari river in Andhra Pradesh, a search team on Tues-day retrieved the badly-mangled vessel with the highly-decomposed bodies. A 40-member-strong team including personnel from Kakinada port and scuba divers succeeded in finally pulling out Royal Vasista near Kachuluru village in East Godavari district.

Rescue workers were in the process of retrieving the bod-ies, which have decayed beyond recognition. The number of bodies stuck in the boat could not be ascertained im-mediately. The boat, ferrying 77 persons to tourism spot Papikondalu, capsized near Kachuluru village on Septem-ber 15. While 26 tourists were rescued by villagers, the bodies of 38 others were retrieved later. Another body was found two days ago. A total of 12 people were missing.

It took more than 20 days for the search team to pull out the vessel with the help of cranes. Officials said it was slow-ly breaking as few parts had surfaced last week. A portion of the boat was pulled out on Monday.

The boat was spotted at a depth of 215 feet but rains and heavy flow of water had hampered the salvage operation. Braving the bad weather, the team led by Dharmadi Satyam had been working relentlessly for last few days to retrieve the vessel and bring it to the shore. The team including expert swimmers used heavy machinery including cranes, iron cable, country boats, motor boats and punts.

2 of the 4 girls missing from Bi-har shelter home traced

Motihari, Oct 22 (IANS) The police claimed to have traced two of the four girls who went missing from a state-run shelter home here on Monday. A police officer of the East Champaran district confirmed that four girls had gone missing from the Motihari shelter home on Monday.

“The police got to know about the incident from shelter home caretaker Madhu Kumari. We immediately launched search operations. One girl was recovered from Bariyarpur village and second from Chandrahiya village. The search for the two other girls is on,” police station in-charge Kan-chan Bhaskar told IANS.

Madhu Kumari said both the missing girls were from the West Champaran district. “On Monday, we had gone to the CJM court. Later, I came to know that four girls had fled from the shelter home. One of the missing girls is preg-nant,” she said. This is not the first time that girls have fled from Bihar’s shelter homes. Last year, a shelter home in Muzaffarpur was in the news due to reports of physical abuse and even rape of girls.

4-5 Cong, JMM legislators set to join BJP in Jharkhand

Goa looks to PM’s Varanasi as model for waste management

PMC Bank despositors’ woes mount as RBI Governor abroad

Ranchi, Oct 22 (IANS) The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is set to weaken the opposition parties by ensuring defection of their legislators, just before announce-ment of the Jharkhand Assembly polls, which is likely any day.

The BJP has swung into action and started poll preparations. Chief Minister Raghubar Das has gone on a mass-con-tact programme through the Jan Aasirbad Yatra.

The BJP strategist are eyeing strong seats of the opposition and targeting their legislators.

According to grapevine, former state Congress chief and legislator Sukhdeo

Bhagat and Manoj Yadav are on the BJP radar. Bhagat is unhappy with state party chief Rameshwar Oraon and feel Oraon ensured his defeat in the Lok Sabha polls.

Manoj Yadav too contested the Lok Sabha poll from Chatra and lost to the BJP. Three-four Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) legislators, including Kunal Saran-gi and Deepak Biruwa, are set to join the BJP. J.P. Patel, the suspended JMM legis-lator, too is likely to join the BJP. He had supported the BJP candidate in the LOk Sabha polls.

According to BJP sources, some oppo-sition legislators will join the party here on October 23.

Panaji, Oct 22 (IANS) Grappling with the politically sensitive issue of garbage management in South Goa district, the Goa government wants to seek inspiration from Prime Min-ister Narendra Modi’s Lok Sabha constituency of Varanasi and the Delhi government, in order to to fi-nalise technology to dispose waste in South Goa’s Margao town.

Speaking to reporters after a meet-ing of the high powered committee appointed to address the issue of management of the state’s biggest garbage dump at Sonsoddo in South Goa, which has divided political opinion, Garbage Management Min-ister Michael Lobo said that the Goa government was looking to set up three alternative bio-machination units on the lines of those existing in Delhi and Varanasi to treat the gar-bage collected daily.

“We will send one person to see what is happening in Varanasi or Delhi... their bio-methanation pro-cess. The decision has been taken to start three small plants, until the Sonsoddo problem is resolved,” Lobo said.

The inability of the state govern-ment as well as a private waste man-agement agency to treat garbage at Sonsoddo, in South Goa, has raised health concerns in nearby areas. In

May, the garbage dump had started emitting smoke due to fire triggered by combustible methane gas pockets in the dump.

Lobo and former Deputy Chief Minister Vijai Sardesai are currently at loggerheads over the means pro-posed to be used to treat the hun-dreds of thousands of tons of un-treated waste accumulated at the Sonsoddo garbage dump.

Lobo also said that the government was in the process of finalising the technology which would be used to treat the waste at the state’s largest garbage dump, adding that to ensure discipline in garbage management, police have been instructed to fine and imprison those who litter indis-criminately in large volumes.

“Fines for people dumping garbage will start now. Police will fine and imprison those who litter, especially restaurateurs who dump garbage in public places,” Lobo said.

Waste management has emerged as a key issue in Goa, with the state travel and tourism industry facing flak on account of mismanagement of garbage, which is strewn in public areas, including beaches.

Goa currently has only one solid waste management plant. Goa cur-rently has only one solid waste man-agement plant.

Mumbai, Oct 22 (IANS) The aggrieved depositors of the scam-hit Punjab & Maha-rashtra Cooperative Bank Ltd found no solu-tion at a meeting with Reserve Bank of India (RBI) officials as the apex bank Governor Shaktikanta Das is currently touring abroad, representatives said here on Tuesday.

A delegation of the protesting depositors, which was called by the RBI for a meeting, was reportedly assured of various options to revive the bank “as soon as possible”.

“However, RBI officials informed the del-egation that it was waiting for an internal inquiry report of the PMC Bank which is expected to be submitted by the weekend. That report will be discussed with the Gov-ernor who is likely to return this week before any final decision is taken,” the PMC Bank Depositors’ Association convenor Vishwas Utagi told IANS.

Though RBI officials said they would be making a media announcement in the mat-ter soon, the agitating depositors served an

ultimatum till Oct. 30 to the RBI after which they would intensify their agitation, Utagi said.

Simultaneously pursuing the legal angles, Utagi filed a public interest litigation and a writ petition on behalf of a school in the Bombay High Court today.

In another development, a 73-year-old woman, Bharati Sadrangani, the mother of a depositor living in Solapur, died on Sunday after her daughter reported saving of around Rs 2.25 crore stuck in the PMC Bank.

Her Mulund-based son-in-law Chandan informed the media that she had been anx-iously calling her family in Mumbai regularly enquiring about the status of the money and had collapsed after suffering a heart attack.

This becomes the sixth PMC Bank-related death in the past 10 days, all victims from Mumbai, and many more depositors, espe-cially senior citizens, are under great stress as the crisis continues to drag on, Utagi pointed out.

Kolkata, Oct 22 (IANS) The Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday said that it has at-tached assets worth Rs 2.89 crore of an Assistant Provident Fund Commissioner in connec-tion with its probe into a mon-ey laundering case involving four officers of the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO).

The central probe agency in a release said that the attach-ment was made under sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.

The agency has registered a case on the basis of the FIR filed by the Central Bureau of Inves-tigation (CBI) against Ramesh Chandra Singh, Assistant Prov-ident Fund Commissioner and three others -- namely Samiran Kumar Mondal, Deepak Bhat-tacharya and Sukumar Shaw.

The agency said that during investigation it was found that

Singh was receiving bribes by misusing his official position and thereby acquired assets disproportionate to his income.

“Singh was laundering the il-legal gratification by investing in various properties and park-ing funds in the name of his family members. He also cre-ated false documents to project the bribe money as legal money from tuition income, tailoring income, brokerage, Commod-ity Trading Profit etc. in the name of his wife and other fam-ily members,” it alleged.

The agency said that based on the investigations, a Provi-sional Attachment Order (PAO) has been issued under the PMLA attaching assets totalling Rs 2.89 crores which include deposit certificates of banks and post offices as well as bank and postal accounts balances, immovable properties in the nature of flats in Kolkata.

Bhubaneswar, Oct 22 (IANS) The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Odisha Crime Branch has arrested the managing direc-tor of a chit fund firm on charges of duping investors of over Rs 5 crore, police said on Tuesday.

Manoranjan Ray, the managing director of Inter Occean Videsh Limited, has been arrested from New Delhi on Monday, said po-lice.

Police said he siphoned off in-vestors’ deposits worth Rs 5 crore

after luring them with higher rate of returns and other offers during 2010-13.

The company later closed the offices and its employees left without repaying the investors, the police said.

Acting on a complaint lodged by one Laxmi Narayan Mohapatra of Talcher, the EOW arrested the ac-cused from New Delhi on Monday and presented before the Metro-politan Magistrate, Saket Court in south Delhi.

Panaji, Oct 22 (IANS) Even as sev-eral BJP leaders across India have criticised Nobel laureate Abhijit Ba-nerjee for his ‘left leaning’ econom-ics, Goa’s Environment Minister Nilesh Cabral on Tuesday justified the BJP-led coalition government’s spending on populist welfare schemes by quoting the much laud-ed Indian-origin economist’s work on poverty alleviation.

Cabral, while addressing a press conference on Tuesday at the state Secretariat, said, that he would gift state Congress president Girish Cho-dankar a copy of Banerjee’s book, so that the Opposition party leader un-derstands the merits of expenditure on ‘social capital’.

A day earlier, Chodankar had accused the BJP-led coalition gov-ernment of incessant borrowing of loans to feed social welfare schemes.

“I am going to present him a book written by our Indian Nobel laure-ate, where he (Banerjee) has said, that expenditure on social schemes should be called expenditure on so-cial capital. The schemes which are being given to people, is for people to spend in the market, which also gives a boost to the economy,” Ca-bral said.

The Minister, however, needed to seek assistance from his aides, when

it came to recalling the Nobel lau-reate’s name. Cabral also said, that former Chief Minister late Manohar Parrikar had focussed on expendi-ture on social schemes, when min-ing in Goa was banned by the Su-preme Court in 2012.

Parrikar’s focussed spending on ‘social capital’ instead of capital ex-penditure projects and launching of financial schemes for those sections of society which were linked to min-ing trade, Cabral said, this possibly stopped a spate of suicides in Goa’s hinterland, where the mining sec-tor is a major employer and major source of revenue generation.

“When Manohar Parrikar was CM and mining was shut down, he start-ed so many social schemes. This is not capital expenditure. He was pro-viding social security. It was because of those schemes, we did not have problems of suicides in the min-ing sector. See what is happening to farmers in neighbouring states. There was no support the way it was given (in Goa),” Cabral said.

“Nobel prize winner Abhijiet Ba-nerjee has said that social security schemes can be called social capi-tal. It is a new definition,” Cabral also said, adding that Goa govern-ment’s total outlay on social welfare schemes was about Rs 1000 crore.

Agartala, Oct 22 (IANS) The Communist Party of In-dia-Marxist (CPI-M), which controls the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC), here on Tuesday accused the rul-ing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of trying to “grab the autonomous body through backdoor”.

The accusation comes after two elected TTAADC members -- Patiram Tripura and Jaikishore Jamatia --

met the Governor on Mon-day and claimed of the 28 elected members, 15 mem-bers belonging to CPI-M led Left Front had moved a no-confidence motion against the executive council headed by Radha Charan Debbarma.

Tripura is a senior CPI-M leader and Jamatia an expelled leader of the Left party.

The BJP, however, denied the charges. “The CPI-M’s organisational base in the ru-

ral and tribal areas has been wrecked. If the Left members are ideologically strong, how they could be lured by the BJP,” BJP spokesman Naben-du Bhattacharjee said.

Debbarma said the BJP had been trying to lure the CPI-M’s TTAADC members to capture the council.

“Before the 2018 Assem-bly polls, the BJP had made 299 promises, but could not implement a single promise. It’s a reign of terror in the

state. Lawlessness has been prevailing in Tripura since the BJP came to power in March 2018,” he said.

Terming the local rural and urban bodies polls as farcical, he said, the BJP was trying to capture the elected bodies like TTAADC. “To destabilise the consti-tutional body, the BJP-led state government was not providing funds to imple-ment development works as well as welfare measures,”

Debbarma said. Debbarma was addressing the media after the TTAADC members had a meeting with top CPI-M leaders, led by state party Secretary Gautam Das.

The TTAADC holds sway over two-thirds of Tripura’s 10,491 sq km area, home to over 12,16,000 people, 90 per cent of whom are tribals. The TTAADC was first consti-tuted in January 1982 under the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution.

ED attaches assets worth Rs 2.89 cr of EPFO officer

Chit fund firm MD arrested for duping investors in Odisha

BJP to gift Goa Congress prez Abhijit Banerjee’s book

BJP trying to usurp Tripura tribal body: CPI-M

Short Takes

Indian HorizonWednesday, October 23, 2019

6 EDIT Indian HorizonWednesday, October 23, 2019

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Readers Response and contribution Welcome

Indian Horizon

The crisis of Western values has many aspects,

many faces. There is a decline in faith in liberal

democracy, a loss of confi dence in universal hu-

man rights, a collapse in support for all kinds of

transnational projects. There is a constitutional

crisis brewing in London. Democratic norms are

sometimes being defi ed in Washington. There

are challenges to the free press and indepen-

dent judges in democracies everywhere, from

Budapest to Manila.But this same crisis, this

same loss of Western self-confi dence, this same

collapse of faith in ideals also has a bloodier,

more violent face. That face is the ongoing war

in Syria or rather the slow, grinding, murderous

endgame of the war in Syria. Right now, the Syr-

ian government army, aided by its Russian allies,

is fi ghting the last pockets of resistance in Idlib,

the only remaining rebel province in northwest

Syria. As these forces advance, they shred what

remains of humanitarianism and the law of war.

Against the Geneva convention, they are hitting

civilians. Worse, they are targeting the sick and

injured. As a precaution, the United Nations gave

the government the location and coordinates of

hospitals in Idlib. But instead of protecting them,

those locations and coordinates were shared. As

a result, many on the ground, including the med-

ical teams of Medecins Sans Frontieres, have

now stopped sharing such information with the

UN. This is a war in which the locations of sick

people have to be kept secret from the interna-

tional community. This is also a war in which no

Western country wants to invest diplomatic ef-

fort or political time. In another era, at this stage

of a civil war, think of Bosnia or East Timor, there

would have been a high-profi le American envoy,

perhaps a secretary of state, or a similarly ambi-

tious European negotiator, or perhaps a UN team

with the full backing of a US administration, on

the ground. But all such efforts have failed in Syr-

ia. As Europe turns its back on the Middle East,

and as the Trump administration turns its back

on the world, no new ones stand much chance

of success.Instead, almost every day, far off the

headlines, small groups are surrendering, or

agreeing to “ceasefi res” that mean surrender in

practice. But this doesn’t mean that fi ghting will

stop. A friend based nearby in Turkey points out

that Syrian President Bashar Assad’s control of

the rest of the country remains tenuous, and new

fl are-ups could occur at any time. More impor-

tant, even if all of the rebel leaders surrender in

Idlib, that doesn’t mean that the 11 million Syr-

ian refugees scattered around Europe and the

Middle East will be able to return home. Assad

might not want them to come home: Syria will

be easier for him to rule without those 11 mil-

lion people, many of whom loathe him for de-

stroying their families and their lives. And if they

cannot go home, no warm welcome awaits them

anywhere else. Thanks to their sheer numbers,

the Syrian refugees have already helped fuel an

anti-refugee backlash across the Western world.

Even Western-born children, brought to former

Islamic State areas by their parents, have been

abandoned in refugee camps.

October 22, 1947, is perhaps the most critical date in J&K’s his-tory. It was on this date that

Pakistan-sponsored tribal ‘raiders’ invaded the state to forcibly annex it to the newly created country.

The Maharaja of Kashmir had en-tered into a standstill agreement with Pakistan on August 12, 1947, under which Pakistan had undertaken not to unilaterally disturb the status quo i.e. continue to treat J&K as an inde-pendent state. Pakistan deliberately broke the agreement and invaded an independent state.

The raiders, as is well known, in-dulged in an orgy of looting and vio-lence and were ultimately repulsed by the Indian Army.While Pakistan failed to forcibly annex the state, it did suc-ceed in appropriating the entire nar-rative on Kashmir.

On the one hand, it managed to mask its violation of the agreement and its 1947 invasion, and on the other, it succeeded in diverting the narrative by claiming that the acces-sion of J&K to India was bogus and the entry of Indian troops in Kashmir on October 27, 1947, was illegal. Such a narrative has been bolstered by Paki-stan observing for decades this day as ‘black day’.

Unfortunately, India has conceded this space and the narrative to Paki-stan by not contesting it. There is a need to make a substantive push for observing the anniversary of the Oc-tober 22 invasion as the real ‘black day’ in the history of Kashmir.

This will sensitise people, especially the Kashmiri youth, who may not be aware of the history of the event and of the brutality their forefathers were subjected to at the hands of Pakistan.

They need to be educated, if not re-minded, that this was the day when the entire history of Kashmir was irrevers-ibly distorted, how the princely state became an ‘issue’ and a ‘question’ and how historical facts were twisted to advance the Pakistani agenda. PoK author Mohammad Saeed Asad in his

book Yaadon ke Zakhm (wounded memories) has collated a series of eyewitness accounts of the tribal in-vasion, especially in Muzaffarabad and its environs. These accounts are a brutal revelation for those who have forgotten the events or view Kashmir through tinted glasses.

The accounts underline the tolerant and peaceful nature of society in J&K before the tribesmen were unleashed upon the unsuspecting populace. Muzaffarabad had all three religious communities — Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs, with the Muslims being in a majority.

All communities lived in harmony and interaction among them was of a very high order. The communi-ties were not just friends, but their contact extended to all aspects of existence, including festivals, mar-riages and funerals. As one eyewit-ness put it, the interaction was far more amicable than the relation-ship among Muslims these days.

The ransacking of Muzaffarabad by the raiders was comprehensive and devastating. The properties of Hin-dus and Sikhs were burnt and they were slaughtered. Their bodies lay in their homes or on the street for days. Many were thrown into the river. While they looted, the raiders hardly distinguished between Mus-lim and non-Muslim property.

Thus, Muslim shops were equally ransacked and no Muslim home was spared from this tribal plunder. In places, even the holy Quran was dese-crated. All the looted stuff was loaded onto trucks and sent to the Frontier.

According to an eyewitness, there wasn’t a village or hamlet on the way that the raiders didn’t plunder and ravage. While men were slaughtered, they would grab the jewellery belong-ing to women, irrespective of religion. If any woman dared protest, they would either yank the jewellery off or chop the body part with the jewellery. Many women read the kalma and

pleaded for their lives but the raid-ers took no heed. Many women were taken back to the Frontier and sold to the highest bidder.

In India, Jehangir’s couplet about Kashmir being paradise is famous. Across the border, there is a some-what comparable saying. When-ever poets, writers and intellectuals crossed the Kohala bridge over the Jhelum and entered J&K, they would instinctively exclaim in Farsi, ‘Man khuda rah deedum aah jabey hijab’ (I have witnessed God here in his full glory, uncovered).

That paradise was ripped apart on October 22, 1947. For the wounds to heal, those Pakistanis responsible for the original sin of the tribal invasion would have to be publicly identifi ed, shamed and tried in the court of time. They are the real enemies of the Kash-miri people. Their action destroyed the unity of Kashmir and permanently damaged its social, religious, cultural and civilisational characteristics.

It is a tragedy of colossal propor-tions that Pakistan has gone un-punished for its crimes in Kashmir. Worse, it has managed to cloak its evil deeds from public gaze and in a sleight of hand, transferred the blame on to India.

It is only when events are organised about what really happened then that the full extent of Pakistan’s culpabil-ity for the situation in Kashmir will be known to the people of Kashmir themselves. Silence and apathy are no longer options.

Pakistan had signed a similar standstill agreement with the Khan of Kalat on August 4, 1947, assur-ing that it would be an independent country. Like in the case of Kashmir, Pakistan broke that agreement, too, in March 1948 and forcibly annexed Kalat. Pakistan’s subsequent history shows a continued disdain for its in-ternational commitments, embold-ened, no doubt, because it has never been held accountable.

IANS

THE DAY PARADISE WAS LOST

How the Syrian war desensitised the world

BY LT GEN NPS HIRA (RETD), FORMER DEPUTY CHIEF OF ARMY STAFF

There are a number of reports about Pakistan trying to re-vive militancy in Punjab, be-

sides dropping weapons for use by militants in Kashmir. Given the past diabolic history of the ISI in Punjab, such incidents are no surprise. In-dia is soon to permit 5,000 pilgrims to visit Kartarpur Sahib every day. To avoid any trouble in future, it is important to look at our experience with Pakistan so far.

There were perhaps more players responsible for Punjab militancy within the country than outside. The political parties of the day had their equitable share in the prob-lem. The Punjab police, silent spec-tators at one stage, later rose to the occasion to get the state out of the dire mess. There is one dimension of the conflict which was not un-masked in its entirety: the role of Pakistan’s ISI.

Intelligence operations being co-vert in nature, escape attention. The only agencies which get to know about their designs are the security forces or the adversary agencies.

A first-hand authentic account of the ISI, which indeed was an eye-opener to the world about its ca-pability, was narrated by Brigadier Mohammad Yousaf of the Pakistan army who was in charge of the ISI’s Afghanistan operations.

The revealed magnitude of the operation and the audacity of the ISI shook everyone. Around the same time, the ISI had a parallel op-eration going on in Punjab, equally notorious.

The major intelligence agencies of Pakistan are the ISI, IB and mili-tary intelligence. It was the poor performance of Pakistan’s IB in 1947-48 war against India that led to the raising of the ISI. It was an external intelligence agency with a major focus on India. General Ayub Khan was distrustful of Bengali po-lice officers in East Pakistan IB.

Therefore, he decided to assign the task of internal intelligence of East Pakistan to the ISI. As time went by, there was an increase in the mandate of the ISI in the in-ternal matters to include West Pakistan. When India began to have problems in Nagaland and Mizoram, a separate cell was added in the ISI to exploit trouble in the

North-East. Thereafter, a separate cell was raised to assist Sikh Home Rule movement which was in its nascent stage at that time. It was General Zia-ul-Haq who assigned the entire internal intelligence of Pakistan to the ISI. His prime mo-tive was to keep surveillance on his main adversary Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and the Pakistan People’s Party. Since then, there have been occa-sional efforts by the Pakistan gov-ernment to cut down the ISI man-date, with little success.

To begin with, the Khalistan movement was majorly an expatri-ate venture. It was a master stroke of General Zia-ul-Haq, who shifted the centre of gravity of the Kha-listan movement to Pakistan. Zia’s problem was the existing antipathy between the Sikhs and the Mus-lims, arising out of India-Pakistan partition violence. To mitigate that, he got the Sikh shrines in Pakistan restored and encouraged Sikh pil-grimage.

He provided logistics and inter-national propaganda to the move-ment through Pakistani press. The hypothesis was that keeping Punjab destabilised through militancy was equivalent to Pakistan having an extra army division in war against India at no cost, which holds good even today.Add to that, the internal politics of Punjab at that time had made the state vulnerable. The evi-dence of the ISI support to the Kha-

listan movement can be assessed from the fact that after Operation Bluestar in 1984, the Army recov-ered 560 rifles, 40 light-machine guns, 90 carbines, 150 pistols and two anti-tank rocket launchers from the temple complex.

The ammunition recovered was enough to last a sustained battle for days. The recovery of machine guns and anti-tank rocket launch-ers in such numbers is a clear evi-dence of the support from across the border. Had it not been for the support, guidance and training im-parted by Pakistan, a state-level law and order problem could not have reached a crescendo. The problem had to be dealt with a fierce war-level action. The Indian Army suf-fered more than 300 casualties and injuries in one night.

The ISI is a bad word not only in India, but across the globe. It is the largest intelligence agency in the world. It is assessed to be around 10,000 officers and staff, in addi-tion to its informers and assets. Its methods include lobbying and in-fluencing opinions about Pakistan through think tanks in important cities the world over.

Some studies have assessed it to be among the highest rated intel-ligence agencies. The BBC rated it at number two in the world, next only to Mossad of Israel. The Guantanamo Bay file leaks show that the US considers the ISI to be

a terrorist organisation as danger-ous as the Al-Qaeda.

During the Punjab militancy, the ISI modus operandi was to fuel the local issues between Sikhs and Hin-dus by engineering acts of desecra-tion and propaganda. Unaware of ulterior designs, Punjab militants played into the ISI’s hands.

Punjab, at present, is peaceful but some local issues can be fomented. Pakistan has been constantly pur-suing the policy of ‘death by thou-sand cuts’ against India. The ISI is very pathological about its work, always on the lookout to create and exploit dissensions.

Our experience so far with the Line of Control (LoC) and border crossings established between In-dia and Pakistan is that the ISI has been constantly at work to trickle in fake currency, drugs, weapons besides subversion. There are many reasons to rejoice at the opening of the Kartarpur corridor, but we will need to watch out against subver-sion in particular.

Pakistan has ulterior motives to waive visa to encourage the num-ber of visitors. It is India which needs to be on the guard. As I saw it happen when trade was opened be-tween Srinagar and Muzaffarabad in 2008, politicos tend to downplay the security perspective for their own reasons. The trade was opened without even installing full-body truck scanners. The trade route has become an additional avenue for the ISI to smuggle in currency and weapons.

Any mass crossing of the border or LoC, on whatever account, has been seen to serve as a coordination place for the ISI’s sources and mili-tant organisations. Such meeting points obviate the need for using radio or mobile communications, which are susceptible to intercep-tion by security forces.

Therefore, there must be no com-placency and short-cuts in moni-toring the visitors and installing the biometric equipment, including face recognition software, at the ICP. Given the past experience and desperation of Pakistan, seen after the revocation of Article 370, it may be naive to think the ISI will let go of any such opportunity. Our intel-ligence agencies are up against one more challenge.

IANS

ISI machinations can’t be brushed aside

It is vital to sensitise people, especially the Kashmiri youth, who may not be aware of the history of the event and of the brutality their forefathers were subjected to at the hands of

Pakistan. Silence is no longer an option. BY TILAK DEVASHER

There are many reasons to rejoice at the opening of the Kartarpur corridor, but we will need to watch out against subversion in particular. Pakistan has ulterior motives to waive visa to encourage the number of visi-

tors. It is India which needs to be on its guard. Politicos underplay security perspective for own reasons.

7OP-ED

The views expressed in these columns are the writers’ own and do not necessarily refl ect the views of Indian Horizon or its management.-Editor

US withdrawal from Syria is a grave mistake

Palestinians have a right to demand freedom from torture

Why Britain�s Johnson Þ nds himself in a bind on Brexit?

Withdrawing US forces from Syria is a grave strategic mistake. It will

leave the American people and homeland less safe, embolden our enemies, and weaken important alliances. Sadly, the recently an-nounced pullout risks repeating the Obama administration’s reck-less withdrawal from Iraq, which facilitated the rise of Daesh in the fi rst place.

Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, I have worked with three presi-dential administrations to fi ght terrorism. I have distilled three principal lessons about combat-ing this complex threat.

Lesson No. 1 is that the threat is real and cannot be wished away. These fanatics threaten American interests and American lives. If permitted to regroup and estab-lish havens, they will bring terror to our shores.

Second, there is no substitute for American leadership. No other nation can match our ca-pability to spearhead multina-tional campaigns that can defeat terrorists and help stabilise the region. Libya and Syria both tes-tify to the bloody results of the Obama administration’s “lead-ing from behind.”

This truth extends well beyond counterterrorism. If we Americans care at all about the post-Second World War international system that has sustained an unprec-edented era of peace, prosperity and technological development, we must recognise that we are its indispensable nation. We built this system, we sustained it and we have benefi ted from it most of

all.When the United States threw off the comforting blanket of iso-lationism in the 1940s and took the mantle of global leadership, we made the whole world better, but we specifi cally made it much better for the United States. If we abandon that mantle today, we can be sure that a new world order will be made — and not on terms favourable to us.

The third lesson is that we are not in this fi ght alone. In recent years, the campaigns against Dae-sh and the Taliban, in Iraq or Syria or Afghanistan, have been waged primarily by local forces. The United States has mainly contrib-uted limited, specialised capabili-ties that enable our local partners to succeed. Ironically, Syria had been a model for this increasingly

successful approach.Unfortunately, the administra-

tion’s recent steps in Syria do not refl ect crucial lessons.

Strategic nightmareThe combination of a US pull-

back and the escalating Turkish-Kurdish hostilities is creating a strategic nightmare for our coun-try. Even if the fi ve-day ceasefi re holds, events of the past week have set back the United States’ campaign against Daesh and other terrorists. Unless halted, our retreat will invite the Al Assad re-gime in Syria and its Iranian back-ers to expand their infl uence.

Predictably, our adversaries seem to be relishing these devel-opments. The resulting geopo-litical chain reaction appears to have been perfectly distilled by

an online video which, according to reports, shows a smiling Rus-sian “journalist” strolling around a just-abandoned US military base in northern Syria. A strategic calamity neatly captured in one Facebook post.

As we seek to pick up the pieces, we must remain guided by our na-tional interests and not emotions. While Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s offensive into northeastern Syria is misguided, is it really the case that the United States would prefer that Russian, Syrian and Iranian forces control the region rather than Turkey, our Nato ally?

We need to use both sticks and carrots to bring Turkey back in line while respecting its own le-gitimate security concerns. In addition to limiting Turkey’s in-cursion and encouraging an en-during ceasefi re, we should create conditions for the reintroduction of US troops and move Turkey away from Russia and back into the Nato fold.

“The United States has sacri-fi ced much in years-long cam-paigns to defeat Al Qaida and Daesh and stabilise the confl icts that foster extremism. But while the political will to continue this hard work may wax and wane, the threats to our nation aren’t going anywhere.”

To keep pressure on Daesh, deter Iranian aggression and buy our local partners more leverage to negotiate with Bashar Al Assad to end the underlying confl ict, we

should retain a limited military presence in Syria and maintain our presence in Iraq and else-where in the region.

We must also work closely with allies threatened by this chaos and redouble international efforts to pressure the Al Assad regime. Fi-nally, whatever happens in Syria, this situation must chasten the United States against withdraw-ing from Afghanistan before the job is done. We must recommit to our Afghan partners as they do the heavy lifting to defend their country and their freedoms from Al Qaida and the Taliban.

As neo-isolationism rears its head on both the left and the right, we can expect to hear more talk of “endless wars.” But rhetoric cannot change the fact that wars do not just end; wars are won or lost.

The United States has sacrifi ced much in years-long campaigns to defeat Al Qaida and Daesh and stabilise the confl icts that foster extremism. But while the politi-cal will to continue this hard work may wax and wane, the threats to our nation aren’t going anywhere.

We saw humanitarian disaster and a terrorist free-for-all after we abandoned Afghanistan in the 1990s, laying the groundwork for 9/11. We saw Daesh fl ourish in Iraq after Obama’s retreat. We will see these things anew in Syria and Afghanistan if we abandon our partners and retreat from these confl icts before they are won.

COURTESY : AL-JAZEERA

America�s worst constitutional crisis

in !"# yearsBY KEITH E. WHITTINGTON

The Trump administration has now set the stage for a constitutional cri-sis, one that the United States hasn’t

seen in this form since the battles between Andrew Johnson and the Reconstruction Congress more than 150 years ago.

Johnson, like President Trump, also thought that Congress was engaging in unconstitutional and illegitimate presi-dential harassment. As tensions ratcheted up, the branches of government in 1868 grew increasingly fearful of one another. Conspiracy theories ran rampant, and the prospect of violence seemed to be just around the corner. Presidential impeach-ment, and the refusal of either political party to nominate Johnson for another term in the White House, fi nally brought the battle to a close.

Since the 2018 midterm election, the Trump White House has been increasingly bold in declaring its authority to stone-wall, impede and ignore congressional in-vestigations. The recent letter from White House Counsel Pat Cipollone to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi goes even further.

It labels the House impeachment effort “constitutionally invalid” and “illegiti-mate,” attempts to dictate the terms of the impeachment process to the House and announces the administration’s refusal to cooperate in any way with the congres-sional committees seeking to review its actions.Simply declaring that congres-sional investigations are illegitimate and are to be ignored threatens to destabilise and dramatically alter the constitutional system itself. Impeachment is the means for addressing such a frontal challenge to congressional authority.

The White House’s claim that the con-gressional investigation is an attempt to “overturn” an election through an “inval-id” and “illegitimate” process may signal the even more alarming possibility that the president might declare the results of an impeachment trial equally illegitimate and invalid and refuse to accept the authority of Congress to remove him from offi ce.

Pundits and politicians have in recent years been quick to declare a constitu-tional crisis for political purposes.Trump himself has played this card, telling voters in the fi nal days of the 2016 presidential campaign that a Hillary Clinton presiden-cy would be immediately consumed by a constitutional crisis as the president faced criminal investigation and possible im-peachment. The only way America could avoid that fate, he said, was to vote for him.

Real constitutional crises involve situa-tions in which the constitutional system it-self breaks down. Such episodes have been exceedingly rare in American history, but they have sometimes happened.

When the Federalists who gathered in Philadelphia in 1787 decided to ignore the constitutional rules about how to amend the Articles of Confederation and Congress and the state legislatures went along with them _ that was a constitutional crisis, one that led to the creation of an entirely new constitutional system.

When the slaveholding states of the South proclaimed that they were seceding from the United States, that was a consti-tutional crisis, one that had to be resolved through a war. Still, even using the rhetoric of constitutional crisis to justify political actions can be dangerous. Cipollone’s let-ter, for instance, sets up a claim that Con-gress has precipitated a constitutional cri-sis and that the president should respond for the good of the nation by defying Con-gress and refusing to cooperate.

Despite what Trump and Cipollone ar-gue, Congress following the constitutional rules to impeach a president for alleged high crimes and misdemeanours is not a consti-tutional crisis. The framers provided that mechanism expecting that its use would be unusual but sometimes necessary.If the House misuses its impeachment power, then that argument can be made to senators in an impeachment trial and to voters at the next congressional election. Asserting a con-tested claim of executive privilege might be mistaken, but such disputes can be resolved within the political and judicial process.

However, simply declaring that congres-sional investigations are illegitimate and are to be ignored threatens to destabilise and dramatically alter the constitutional system itself. Impeachment is the means for addressing such a frontal challenge to congressional authority. Congress can reassert and vindicate its own powers by holding the president to account.

Republicans in Congress would do well to emphasise to the president that it is not for him to decide whether an impeachment is invalid and whether congressional investi-gations are worthy of cooperation.If Trump has a case to make that he should not be impeached and removed from offi ce, then he should make that case and try to per-suade Republican senators to stick by him.

COURTESY : GULF NEWS

Indian HorizonWednesday, October 23, 2019

American retreat will invite Al Assad regime and its Iranian backers to expand infl uence.

By Mitch McConnell

BY YARA HAWARI

Samer Arbeed, a 44-year-old Palestinian man, was vio-lently arrested on September

25 by plain-clothed Israeli soldiers on suspicion of organising a dead-ly bombing in the occupied West Bank. After initially being beaten, he was taken to the infamous Mas-kobiyeh Interrogation centre in Je-rusalem, where he endured torture so severe he had to be hospitalised.Arbeed remains in a critical condi-tion and has been denied proper access to medical care and his law-yers. The Israeli media reported that a judicial body had authorised the Israeli Secret Service, Shin Bet, to use “exceptional methods” to extract information for this case, leading Amnesty International to condemn what happened to Arbeed as “legally-sanctioned torture”.Meanwhile, another prisoner, 24-year-old Palestinian woman Heba al-Labadi, has been on a hunger strike for well over two weeks after being sentenced

to administrative detention for fi ve months and being subjected to physical torture, including ex-cruciating stress positions. Such stress positions can involve shack-ling the hands to the ankles, forc-ing the prisoner to lean forward, for lengthy periods of time.Arbeed and al-Labadi’s situations are un-fortunately not exceptional and Israeli interrogators frequently use torture on Palestinian politi-cal prisoners of which there are approximately 5,000. The prohibi-tion of torture is clearly enshrined in customary international law and the United Nations Conven-tion Against Torture (which was ratifi ed by Israel in 1991) reiter-ates this. The convention defi nes torture as an “act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally infl icted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third per-son information or a confession”. Israel is thus bound by the interna-tional legal regime to not commit

acts of torture against anyone in-cluding Palestinians. Yet, Palestin-ian Prisoner Support and Human Rights organisation, Addameer, has documented extensively that Israel has for decades violated this convention. “Israel’s ill-treatment and abuse of Palestinian detain-ees is widespread and systematic and typically starts from the mo-ment of arrest,” it has said.Israel’s torture of Palestinians is made particularly easy by its occupying military regime which is ruling over the West Bank. This regime allows Palestinians to be interro-gated for 90 days without a lawyer. This initial period of interrogation can then be indefi nitely renewed. During interrogation, Palestinian prisoners are routinely subject to various forms of mental and physi-cal torture including beatings, stress positions, sleep deprivation and solitary confi nement. Their lack of communication with the outside world often allows for this treatment to continue unchecked.

Since the establishment of this military regime over the West bank in 1967, the Palestinian Prisoner’s Club (an NGO) has reported the deaths of 73 detainees as a result of torture.Following the news of the arrest and torture of Arbeed, Pal-estinians in Ramallah and Jerusa-lem protested against not only his inhumane treatment at the hands of the Israelis but also the failure of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to uphold its mandate to protect detainees and prisoners from harm. A few days after Arbeed was transferred to a hospital in critical condition, ac-tivists conducted a peaceful sit-in at the offi ces of ICRC in Ramallah, demanding they put pressure on Israel to allow for a proper medical visit to assess his condition. Pris-oners’ family and friends have long been active in sit-ins and protests at the ICRC offi ces as such protests are their only tool in the face of a complete lack of accountability for the violations conducted by the Is-

raeli regime. Eventually, an ICRC doctor was able to visit Arbeed in hospital and share medical infor-mation with the family as per the request of the activists. The ICRC subsequently released a state-ment, not in condemnation of Is-rael’s treatment of Arbeed as one might expect, but rather in con-demnation of activists whom they accused of “insulting” their staff by questioning their commitment to Palestinian detainees. This mis-placed condemnation completely ignores the fact that Palestinians are entirely entitled to question whether an international organ-isation is fulfi lling its mandate. Particularly, as their daily condi-tions continue to worsen and the international aid and humanitar-ian business continues to thrive. The demand for humane treat-ment and freedom from torture is a bare minimum ask and thus calls and actions for such must be respected.

COURTESY : AL-JAZEERA

BY RICK NOACK

When British Prime Minis-ter Boris Johnson urged members of Parliament

to back his Brexit deal, he framed the looming vote as a chance to “heal the rift in British politics” and “bring the country together.” But in the end, Saturday mainly proved how diffi cult overcoming the deep Brexit divides will be: Parliament postponed Johnson’s moment of reckoning by voting to withhold approval.

The delay increases the likeli-hood of parliamentary manoeu-vres that could derail or alter Johnson’s plans, but Johnson isn’t heading toward certain defeat. He could still secure approval for his deal, perhaps without having to make use of the Brexit extension beyond October 31, which John-son was forced to request.

After more than three years of uncertainty, there might be a tight majority for his agreement.In case his deal is approved, Johnson is likely to celebrate himself as the man who got “Brexit done” — a phrase he has frequently used in the past. But in reality, the United Kingdom’s Brexit woes are here to stay. Many of the Brexit concerns that have been on Britons’ minds in recent years — a break-up of the United Kingdom or the possibility of severe economic ramifi cations, for instance — would remain a risk, even if Johnson’s deal is approved.Northern Ireland is expected to remain at the Centre of the Brexit debate one way or another. So far,

concerns have mostly focused on a “no deal” outcome, which would trigger the introduction of border controls and could disrupt the Good Friday Agreement.

That agreement ushered in a more peaceful era for Northern Ireland in the late 1990s, after a bloody conflict between Nation-alists, who favoured unifying with the Republic of Ireland, and Unionists, who backed remain-ing part of the United Kingdom.Johnson’s proposed deal would avoid the reintroduction of bor-der checks between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ire-land, but only because it would, in practice, move the customs border into the Irish Sea, which separates the islands of Great Britain and Ireland.Even though

Northern Ireland would leave the EU customs union with the rest of the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland would — at least initially — in some aspects remain aligned with the Euro-pean Union.

That’s a major headache for Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist party (DUP), which has so far backed the Conservative Party in Parliament but won’t support Johnson’s deal. The party fears that his plans would drive Great Britain and North-ern Ireland apart and could lead to Northern Ireland eventu-ally unifying with the Republic of Ireland.“Even though Northern Ireland would leave the EU cus-toms union with the rest of the United Kingdom, Northern Ire-

land would — at least initially — in some aspects remain aligned with the European Union”

The Irish issue“Paradoxically Johnson and

Brexit may have done more for a united Ireland than the [Irish Re-publican Army] ever did,” Jona-than Powell, a former adviser to prime minister and Labour party leader Tony Blair, wrote in the Fi-nancial Times over the weekend. Poll numbers indicate that sup-port for unifi cation is on the rise in Northern Ireland.

Those advocating a break with the United Kingdom could see a similar rise in support in Scotland, where First Minister and Scottish National Party leader Nicola Stur-geon has been rallying support for a second independence refer-endum. Five years ago, Scotland voted to remain part of the United Kingdom, but — like Northern Irish voters — Scots predomi-nantly backed remaining in the EU in 2016.

Last week, Sturgeon reiterated that “it is clearer than ever that the best future for Scotland is one as an equal, independent Euro-pean nation.”There is no indica-tion that the approval of a Brexit deal would hurt Johnson’s critics in Northern Ireland and Scotland. In fact, the opposite might be true.

If Parliament passes his deal, the basics of the United King-dom’s current relationship with the EU would remain unchanged until at least the end of next year, giving negotiators time to prepare

a potential free-trade deal and settle other aspects related to fu-ture EU-British ties.

Ironically, all of this — includ-ing Johnson’s deal itself — would constitute a more radical break with the EU than even some Brex-iteers proposed back in 2016.

Since 2016, however, the British electorate appears to have moved in the exact opposite direction. Whereas few “leave” or “remain” voters appear to have changed their minds on Brexit, polls have still started to show a consistent preference for remaining in the EU for at least a year.

Pollsters argue that the grow-ing support for remaining in the EU is mostly due to demographic change. Younger Britons who have reached the voting age since 2016 are predominantly in favour of staying in the European Union.

As the idea of a confi rmatory referendum on Johnson’s deal ap-pears to be gaining momentum among the opposition Labour Party, there is a theoretical chance that British voters’ increasingly pro-remain attitude could still derail Johnson’s plans, even if Parliament passes the deal. The emphasis here, of course, should be on “theoretical.”

Brexit has consistently proved to be unpredictable. After more than three years, there does ap-pear to be one certainty, how-ever: Whatever happens, Brexit won’t just be “done,” as Johnson is suggesting.

COURTESY : GULF NEWS

International 8WORLD SNIPPETS

Turkish airstrikes kill two PKK officials

Baghdad, Oct 22 (IANS) Turkish airstrikes on Tuesday killed

two senior officials of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) on Azmar mountain in Slemani governorate region.

According to sources, the PKK condemned the incident. It also called on the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) party and Kurdistan Region’s Parliament to reveal details of the operation.

Ready to visit Riyadh to settle differences: Zarif

Tehran, Oct 22 (IANS) Iranian Foreign Minister Moham-mad Javad Zarif said that he was ready to visit Saudi Arabia to help reduce the ongoing tensions between Riyadh and Tehran if suitable conditions existed, a media report said on Tuesday.

Iran’s top diplomat made the remarks while answering a question posed by Yemen’s Arabic-language al-Masirah news agency on the sidelines of a conference held in Teh-ran on Monday, Press TV said in the report.

“If suitable conditions are provided, I would be ready to travel to Riyadh to settle differences” between the two countries, Zarif said.

“Tehran welcomes any initiative that aims to ease ten-sions in the region...,” he added.

Zarif also said that he was in constant contact with Paki-stani Prime Minister Imran Khan who made an official visit to Tehran earlier this month and held talks with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rou-hani. In his meeting with Khan, Khamenei said a proper end to the ongoing war waged by Saudi Arabia and its allies on Yemen can have “positive” effects on the region, high-lighting Iran’s plan as a suitable solution to this crisis.

Tensions have been high between Iran and Saudi Arabia since the September 14 attacks that caused fires and dam-age to an oil processing facility and a production facility, The Express Tribune reported.

Saudi Arabia temporarily halted production at two Ar-amco oil facilities, interrupting about half of the company’s total output - shutting down 5.7 million barrels per day of production - more than 5 per cent of global oil supply.

The attack was claimed by the Yemeni Houthi rebels, al-though the US and Saudi Arabia blamed Iran for it, an al-legation which has been strongly denied by Tehran.

Imran inaugurates China Hub power plant

Islamabad, Oct 22 (IANS) Pakistan Prime Minister Im-ran Khan has inaugurated the 1,320 megawatt China Hub power plant, which is one of the primary projects of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

Addressed a ceremony on the occasion on Monday, Khan said the joint projects under the CPEC were a positive sign, recommending that more coal would be be brought from Thar to be utilised for this power plant, reports The News International. “There are 6,000 Pakistani workers associ-ated with the project,” said the prime minister.

He further said electricity is being produced from coal in Thar, adding that due to CPEC the country is progressing.

The premier added that Pakistan’s biggest issue is cor-ruption which kept investors at bay from financing any projects in the country, adding that the country has been deprived of billions of dollars due to corruption.

The $60 billion CPEC is a key project of Beijing’s Belt and Road initiative that aims to connect Asia, Africa and Europe through a vast network of highways, rail lines and sea lanes. The multi-billion dollar corridor connects the Chinese city of Kashgar with Pakistan’s Gwadar port on the Arabian Sea.

Ailing Sharif rushed to hospital for check-up

Lahore, Oct 22 (IANS) Former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was rushed to a hospital here after his health condition deteriorated, a media report said on Tuesday.

The National Accounta bility Bureau, Lahore, took the decision to shift him to the Services Hospital on Monday night for a medical check-up, reports Dawn news.

Adnan Khan, a personal physician of Sharif, earlier on Monday had raised an alarm about his deteriorating health, urging the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) govern-ment to immediately shift him to hospital for treatment.

Following Khan’s warning, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shahbaz Sharif also issued a statement, demanding the Punjab government shift his brother to hospital without further delay.

“The medical reports of Nawaz Sharif by the government show that his condition is very serious. It is a callous at-titude of the PTI government that despite his worsening health condition he is not being shifted to hospital,” Shah-baz said, warning Prime Minister Imran Khan of conse-quences if anything happened to his brother.

Japan’s Emperor Naruhito proclaims enthronement

Putin, Erdogan discuss Syria ahead of ceasefire deadline

Trudeau’s Liberals win Canadian general elections

Kurds throw rotten fruits at US troops leaving Syria

Brexit is waste of time and energy: Juncker

Tokyo, Oct 22 (IANS) Japan’s Emperor Naruhito proclaimed his ascension to the Chrysanthemum Throne on Tuesday in a ceremony held at the Imperial Palace here, of-fering an unusual glimpse into the rites of the country’s ancient royal lineage.

The new Japanese Emperor started the day by participating in a ceremo-ny lasting about 30 minutes, com-pleting the main intricacies of his enthronement, reports Efe news.

A day after his father Akihito ab-dicated in April, Naruhito was pro-claimed emperor on May 1 in an event restricted to a small number of people, but public celebrations were carried out on Tuesday.

The central moment of the cer-emony took place when the cham-berlains drew the curtains of the

Takamikura throne, revealing Na-ruhito dressed in the ceremonial dark orange robe worn exclusively by Japanese emperors on special occa-sions, while the assistants performed deep bows.

This octagonal throne, used since the eighth century in enthrone-ment ceremonies and decorated with a 6.5-metre-high canopy bear-ing mythological animal motifs, was situated at the centre of the Matsu-no-Ma (Pine Chamber) state room, where only members of the impe-rial family could watch the ceremony from close quarters.

On another throne lower than that of the emperor appeared Empress Masako, dressed in a 12-layer kimo-no with pale and reddish tones that evoked the sun at its peak, and also sported an elaborate hairstyle.

Ottawa, Oct 22 (IANS) Incum-bent Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party has emerged victorious in the tightly contested general elections, and will return to power as a minority government, me-dia reports said on Tuesday.

Speaking to cheering party leaders and followers at the Liberals’ head-quarters in Montreal, Trudeau, 47, said early Tuesday that he would al-ways put “this country and its people first”, reports CBC News.

“From coast to coast to coast, to-night Canadians rejected division and negativity. They rejected cuts and austerity. They voted in favour of a progressive agenda and strong action on climate change,” he said.

“We will make life more afford-able, we will continue to fight cli-mate change, we will get guns off our streets.

“We seek hardship for none and

prosperity for all,” he added.The Liberals were expected to claim

156 seats, 14 short of a majority. His centre-right Conservative rivals are heading for 122 seats, a marked in-crease from the 95 it held before.

Despite some early losses in Can-ada’s eastern provinces, the Liberals won in Atlantic Canada, Quebec and Ontario, giving them a second term in office. The party won a majority (184 seats) in the 2015 polls

Monday’s polls, which took place for 338 ridings or seats, were the country’s 43rd general elections to elect members of the House of Com-mons.

This federal election was seen as a referendum on Trudeau, who had to apologize not just for wearing black-face during a school event nearly two decades ago, but admitting that he had no idea how many times he had chosen to do so in his life.

Damascus, Oct 22 (IANS) As US troops started withdrawing from the Turkey-Syrian border, Kurds from both the countries threw rotten fruits and stones at the 500-strong convoy.

About 500 US personnel crossed over into Iraq from Syria early Monday morning in hundreds of ar-moured vehicles, reports news website Vox.

In Qamishli, a northern Syria town near the Turk-ish border, Kurds could be seen throwing rotten fruit and stones at the convoy.

The development comes after US Defence Secre-tary Mark Esper told reporters that the 1,000 Ameri-can service members in Syria would go into western Iraq to “help defend” the country and “perform a counter-IS mission as we sort through the next steps”.

The withdrawal, though, will take weeks to com-plete as the Pentagon aims to ensure the safety of the force as they leave Syria - leaving many other US personnel in the country for now.

Brussels, Oct 22 (IANS) The outgoing European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on Tuesday lamented how much of his mandate had been taken up by Brexit, which he described as a “waste of time and a waste of energy.”

Juncker addressed the Euro-pean Parliament for perhaps the last time, as did his counterpart at the European Council, Donald Tusk, as MEPs took stock of the conclusions in a Council meeting last week in which the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson secured tweaks to the Brexit deal, reports Efe news.

“In truth, it has pained me to spend so much of this mandate dealing with Brexit when I have

thought of nothing less than how this union could do better for its citizens,” the Luxembourgish pol-itician said.

“A waste of time and a waste of energy.”

“I will always regret the UK’s decision to leave the European Union but at least we can look at ourselves in the eye and say that we have done all in our power that we make sure that this departure is orderly.”

“It’s not possible, not imagin-able, that this Parliament will have ratified the agreement be-fore Westminster will have rati-fied the agreement. First London, then Brussels and Strasbourg,” he concluded, to applause from the chamber. Johnson has submitted

his Brexit Withdrawal Agreement Bill which the House of Commons will debated on later Tuesday.

In an extraordinary sitting on October 19, the government pulled the deal from voting at the last minute after MPs passed an amendment meaning the Com-mons would only support John-son’s deal once the Brexit legisla-tion had been approved.

Having shelved the vote, John-son sent two letters, one unsigned asking for an extension, and an-other one signed arguing against it. On Monday, the government came back with a bid to hold a clean “yes/no” vote on the deal. Opposition MPs argued that they had not had time to scrutinize the deal properly.

Kuala Lumpur, Oct 22 (IANS) Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Moha-mad on Tuesday said that he stood firm over his re-marks on the Kashmir is-sue during his address at the UN General Assembly (UNGA) last month, say-ing “we speak our minds” and “don’t retract and change”.

“We felt that the people of Kashmir had benefited from the resolution of the UN, and all we are saying is that we should all abide, not just India and Paki-stan, but even the US and other countries,” Malay-sia’s The Star newspaper quoted the Prime Minister as saying at a press confer-ence in Parliament.

“Otherwise, what’s the good of having the UN?” he queried. In his UNGA

address on September 27, Mahathir had said: “Now, despite the UN resolution on Jammu and Kashmir, the country has been in-vaded and occupied... There may be reasons for this action but it is still wrong. India should work with Pakistan to resolve this problem. Ignoring the UN would lead to other forms of disregard for the UN and the Rule of Law.”

Acknowledging the strained diplomatic re-lations between Malay-sia and India over his remarks, Mahathir on Tuesday said that it was necessary to speak out on issues, even though such remarks could be disliked by some.

“Sometimes, we have to have strained relation-ships but we want to be

friendly with people. Ma-laysia is a trading nation, we need markets and so, we are nice to people.

“But, also, we have to speak up for people. So, sometimes what we say is liked by some and disliked by others,” he said.

His remark comes after the Solvent Extractors’ Association of India ask-ing its members to refrain from buying palm oil from Malaysian, the world’s second-largest producer.

Reacting to the develop-ment, the Prime Minister said: “This is not the In-dian government, so we will have to find out how we can deal and commu-nicate with these people, because we are a trading nation and it’s bad having what amounts to a trade war.”

Moscow, Oct 22 (IANS) Rus-sian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Re-cep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday began negotiations on the situa-tion in northeastern Syria hours before the expiry of a ceasefire between Turkey’s armed forces and Kurdish militias.

The five-day ceasefire, which was agreed on October 17, ends at 10.00 pm local time (7.00 pm GMT), Efe news reported.

After receiving Erdogan at the Black Sea Sochi resort, Putin said “the situation in the region is very tense”.

“We all understand it. I think that our meeting today, our consultations, are very neces-sary,” Putin added in an en-counter streamed on Russian public television.

Putin said he was confident the current level of Russian-

Turkish relations would play a part in the settlement of all cur-rent issues affecting the region paving the way for answers to even the most complex of ques-tions. “There are many issues.

The negotiations will be very complex, it is evident,” Dmitri Peskov, Russian presidential spokesman, said shortly before the start of the bilateral meet-ing. When asked about how

long talks between Putin and Erdogan were expected to last, Peskov replied: “They will not be brief.” The Turkish govern-ment has vowed to resume its military offensive on the

Turkey-Syria border the min-utes the ceasefire expires if the Kurdish-led People’s Protection Units (YPG) and Democratic Union Party (PYD) continue to have a presence in the area.

The Turkish government, which considers the Kurdish-led People’s Protection Units (YPG) and Democratic Union Party (PYD) as terrorists, has vowed to resume its military of-fensive at 10:01 pm if one single Kurdish fighter was left in the region. The YPG was a key US ally in the fight against the Is-lamic State terror organisation. The US announced the with-drawal of its troops on October 14 and Turkey announced its offensive into northern Syria shortly after. The ceasefire was agreed between the Turkish PM and US Vice President Mike Pence on October 17.

Damascus, Oct 22 (IANS) Syria’s President Bashar-al-Assad on Tuesday visited troops deployed along the front line of Idlib province, in western Syria, for the first time since the be-ginning of the conflict in 2011.

“President Al Assad (is) accompanied by Syrian Arab Army in the village of al Habit on the front line in the Idlib camp,” Syrian Presi-dency’s official Twitter account tweeted.

Assad stressed that, although all parts of Syr-ia have the same impor-tance, the military situ-

ation in the province of Idlib is a priority as his regime seeks to regain control of the country, Efe news reported.

“The fight in Idlib is the key to end chaos and terrorism in all Syrian areas,” Assad said in a statement.

The Syrian President added that all political and military forces on the ground were con-tacted to offer support for those who resist, according to the state-ment.

“We are prepared to support any resistance group,” Assad under-scored.

“This is not a political decision; it is a consti-tutional and a national duty.”

Assad’s visit to north-western Syria is in-tended to show Syrian military progress in that area, which is under the control of Islamist groups, as well as the rebels supporting the Ankara offensive in northeastern Syria.

Idlib is the last strong-hold of the armed oppo-sition in northern Syria.

The Syrian govern-ment and its ally Rus-sia have been trying for months to conquer this territory.

Syria’s Assad visits Idlib front line

We speak our minds: Malaysian PM on Kashmir remark

Indian HorizonWednesday, October 23, 2019

BusinessIndian HorizonWednesday - October 23, 2019 9

DoT prepares Rs 74,000 cr revival plan for BSNL, MTNL

Panaji, Oct 22 (IANS) Even as several BJP lead-ers across India have criti-cised Nobel laureate Ab-hijit Banerjee for his ‘left leaning’ economics, Goa’s Environment Minister Nilesh Cabral on Tuesday justified the BJP-led coali-tion government’s spend-ing on populist welfare schemes by quoting the much lauded Indian-ori-gin economist’s work on poverty alleviation.

Cabral, while address-ing a press conference on Tuesday at the state Secre-

tariat, said, that he would gift state Congress presi-dent Girish Chodankar a copy of Banerjee’s book, so that the Opposition party leader understands the merits of expenditure on ‘social capital’.

A day earlier, Chodan-kar had accused the BJP-led coalition government of incessant borrowing of loans to feed social wel-fare schemes.

“I am going to present him a book written by our Indian Nobel laureate, where he (Banerjee) has

said, that expenditure on social schemes should be called expenditure on so-cial capital. The schemes which are being given to people, is for people to spend in the market, which also gives a boost to the economy,” Cabral said.

The Minister, however, needed to seek assistance from his aides, when it came to recalling the No-bel laureate’s name.

Cabral also said, that former Chief Minister late Manohar Parrikar

had focussed on expen-diture on social schemes, when mining in Goa was banned by the Supreme Court in 2012.

Parrikar’s focussed spending on ‘social capi-tal’ instead of capital ex-penditure projects and launching of financial schemes for those sec-tions of society which were linked to mining trade, Cabral said, this possibly stopped a spate of suicides in Goa’s hin-terland, where the mining sector is a major employer

and major source of reve-nue generation.

“When Manohar Par-rikar was CM and mining was shut down, he started so many social schemes. This is not capital expen-diture. He was providing social security. It was be-cause of those schemes, we did not have prob-lems of suicides in the mining sector. See what is happening to farmers in neighbouring states. There was no support the way it was given (in Goa),” Cabral said.

BJP to gift Goa Congress prez Abhijit Banerjee’s book

Panaji, Oct 22 (IANS) As many as 110 international buyers are ex-pected to attend the third edition of the Goa International Travel Mart, which is scheduled to kick-off in the state capital on Wednesday, a Goa Tourism spokesperson said on Tuesday.

The mart is a B2B event which serves as a platform for face-to-face networking among travel trade, ho-teliers and other stakeholders from Goa, with leading travel agents and operators from India and abroad.

“This year’s GITM is on a larger scale than the previous year as 110 international buyers from USA, UK, France, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Scandinavia, Baltics, CIS, Australia,

New Zealand, Croatia, Bulgaria, Is-rael, Jordan, UAE, Middle East, Italy, Czech Republic, Russia, Poland, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Swe-den, and Malaysia are taking part in the event,” the tourism department spokesperson said.

The organisers of the GITM have also reached out to several trade as-sociations across the country, as well as stakeholders in the airlines, hotel, and adventure tourism sectors.

Apart from showcasing the tour-ism investment opportunities and potential in Goa, the event will also serve as a platform to promote vari-ous segments of Goa that reflect the multi-dimensional facets of the state.

110 international buyers to attend Goa travel mart

New York, Oct 22 (IANS) As In-fosys (NYSE: INFY) reels from the onslaught of a whistleblower com-plaint alleging “unethical prac-tices” by the companys Chief Ex-ecutive Officer (CEO) Salil Parekh and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Nilanjan Roy, crisis communica-tions experts are recommending the firm must act with a “sense of urgency” with respect to at least two critical audiences -- inves-tors and employees -- for effective damage control at a time when Infosys reputation is on the line in full view of its global stakeholders.

Infosys ADRs have dropped 12 per cent to $9.26 after the whistle-blower complaint hit the market, alleging “unethical practices” by the company’s executives.

Headlines like these are flood-ing the Wall Street Journal’s stock pages hours before Asian markets open on October 22: “The Schall Law Firm Announces it is Inves-tigating Claims Against Infosys Limited and Encourages Investors with Losses in Excess of $100,000 to Contact the Firm”

“Parekh and Roy have been re-sorting to unethical practices for

many quarters, as evident from their e-mails and voice record-ings of their conversations,” the whistleblowers, who go by the signature ‘Ethical Employees’, wrote in a two-page letter to the Bengaluru-based IT firm’s board of directors on September 20.

IANS has accessed a copy of this letter. Infosys Chief Execu-tive Officer Salil Parekh allegedly referred to independent directors D. Sundaram and D.N. Prahlad as “Madrasis”, a term commonly used in North India to take a swipe at South Indians.

“Whistleblower complaints are complex. There’s a lot that you (the firm) don’t know immediately and will have to find out. But while you do that, it’s important for the company to act on the complaint with a sense of urgency”, crisis communications expert and man-aging partner at Beacon Advisors Hud Englehart told IANS.

“It’s nearly impossible to know how accurate the claims are, but Wall Street usually sells first and asks questions later. One of the things we like to do is look at a stock’s valuation to get a sense of

whether the risk is priced in. In the case of Infosys, it might not be,” Baird analyst David Koning is quoted as saying, in Barron’s.

Englehart said Infosys must first “calm the street” and make sure investors “know everything that the firm is doing to address the complaint.” It’s equally important that the firm be clear about what information is still in the process of being found out. “The other key audience is the workforce because that is likely the same community where the whistleblowers come from”. “They will certainly have questions and the company must

deal with that on priority,” Engle-hart said.

Michelle Wucker echoes a simi-lar sentiment of urgency in her book The Gray Rhino. Wucker uses the metaphor in the title to flesh out “highly probable, high impact yet neglected threats”.

“The sooner we deal with them, the lower the cost. The challenge, after a trampling, is to avoid over-reacting and keep from under-reacting. It all comes down to how leaders and communities asses risk and value security and wheth-er leaders are willing to risk po-litical capital to do the right thing

when they know they are more than likely not to benefit.”

“But in the end,” Englehart writes in The Handbook of Stra-tegic Public Relations, “crisis out-comes are determined by how companies behaveeby what they do, how they do it and when they do it. When behaviour doesn’t line up with the story (message), com-panies have to be prepared to suf-fer the consequences.”

In multiple corporate crisis case studies that IANS has reviewed, internal investigations have been a far second to bringing in exter-nal parties. Internal investiga-tions, crisis experts told IANS, of-ten smack of “nepotism”.

An Infosys spokesperson told IANS New York that the whistle-blower complaint “will be dealt with in accordance with the com-pany’s whistleblower policy.” IANS is awaiting a reply from Info-sys on whether “the investigation” referred to in the whistleblower policy will be an internal one or external people will be involved.

This is the operative paragraph in the Infosys whistleblower pol-icy which related the “investiga-

tion” of the complaint: “All reports under this Policy will be promptly and appropriately investigated, and all information disclosed dur-ing the course of the investigation will remain confidential, except as necessary to conduct the in-vestigation and take any remedial action, in accordance with appli-cable law.

“Everyone working for or with the Company has a duty to co-operate in the investigation of reports of violations. Failure to cooperate in an investigation, or deliberately providing false infor-mation during an investigation, can be the basis for disciplinary action, including termination of employment. “If, at the conclu-sion of its investigation, the Com-pany determines that a violation has occurred, the Company will take effective remedial action commensurate with the nature of the offence. This action may in-clude disciplinary action against the accused party, up to and in-cluding termination. Reasonable and necessary steps will also be taken to prevent any further viola-tions of Company policy.”

Infosys must act with urgency: Experts as stock

New Delhi, Oct 22 (IANS) The DoT will send a proposal to the cabinet for a revival plan worth Rs 74,000 crore for the ailing state-run telecom firms - BSNL and MTNL - where Rs 22,000 crore would be in the way of capi-tal infusion for acquiring 4G spec-trum, and for a voluntary retirement scheme (VRS), part of the expendi-ture for which will be borne by both companies. The Department of Tele-com (DoT) move comes following the appointment of a high-level commit-tee to look into the revival of MTNL and BSNL, an official source said on Tuesday

“The Telecom Ministry’s decision to send the revival proposals of BSNL and MTNL will go to the cabinet this month along with opinions given by all ministries, including the Finance Min-istriy. It will also contain the response of the nodal ministry to the queries,

responses and comments given by several other ministries,” the source said. “The cabinet had earlier asked DoT to relook and respond to the is-sues raised by Finance Ministry, now we have done that. We will send the proposal when the Cabinet Secretariat places it on its agenda, it’s their call.

“The total package is Rs 74,000 crore. The 4G spectrum allocation funds of Rs 22,000 crore (Rs 16,000 crore for BSNL and Rs 6,000 crore for MTNL) will be the capital infusion. The rest of the funds will for their VRS, which they will also bear in part”, he added.

Queried on objections of the Fi-

nance Ministry to any capital infu-sion in the telecom firms owing to their continuous losses over the last 10 years, the sources said that as per the procedure for cabinet notes, the draft is circulated for the opinion of other ministries and the nodal minis-try responds to these. All the minutes are then placed before the cabinet for a collective decision.

BSNL, which is yet to pay employee salaries, has a monthly bill of Rs 850 crore on this count, and has a staff 1.76 lakh on its rolls. On Monday, the BSNL Chairman said the revival package would be out in a month. While the company generates monthly revenues of Rs 1,600 crore, a major chunk of this is used for operational and statutory payments, which has caused the delay in paying salaries. The company also posted a net loss of Rs 13,804 crore in fiscal 2018-19.

New Delhi, Oct 22 (IANS) Tuhin Kanta Pandey, a 1987 batch IAS of the Odisha cadre has been appointed as the new Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (Di-pam)Secretary, an official or-der said on Tuesday.

Pandey replaces Anil Kumar Khachi who goes back on repa-triation to his parent cadre of Himachal Pradesh on personal grounds with i m m e d i a t e effect, a statement on Appoint-ments Committee of the Cabi-net (ACC) said.

The ACC last week had as-signed Department of Eco-nomic Affairs Secretary Ata-nu Chakraborty additional responsibility as the Dipam Secretary after Khachi went on leave from October 19, 2019 to November 6, 2019.

For the current fiscal, the government has an ambitious target of Rs 1.05 lakh crore.

The Union Cabinet has recently approved the new policy under which the Di-pam has been made the nodal department for the govern-ment’s stake sale programme. This was done with a view to streamlining and speeding up the process, reducing the role of administrative ministries which often used to place hur-dles in the path of major stake sales.

This year, the big ticket sales could include Air India and Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) privatisations, among a number of initial public of-fers (IPOs) and strategic sales whereby the government would surrender its majority ownership of the concerned companies.

As part of an economic stim-ulus package, the government has recently doled out Rs 1.45 lakh crore by way of a cut in the corporate tax rate.

Disinvestment proceeds will be critical for the government to stick to its current year fiscal deficit target of 3.3 per cent of the GDP.

The Dipam and the Niti Aayog will now jointly iden-tify state-run companies for strategic disinvestment. The Dipam Secretary will co-chair the inter-ministerial group on disinvestment, along with the Secretaries of the concerned administrative ministries, ac-cording to an official source.

The change at the helm of Dipam comes within a week of a group of Secretaries agreeing to the sale of the government’s entire stake of 53.29 per cent in BPCL, its 63.75 per cent stake in the Shipping Corporation of India (SCI), 30 per cent in Con-cor, 100 per cent in NEEPCO, and 75 per cent in THDC.

Tuhin Kanta Pandey appointed new DIPAM

Secretary

New York, Oct 22 (IANS) US stocks closed higher as optimism around China-US trade talks lifted investors’ sentiment.

The Dow Jones Industrial Av-erage rose 57.44 points, or 0.21 per cent, to 26,827.64. The S&P 500 went up 20.52 points, or 0.69 per cent, to 3,006.72. The Nasdaq Composite Index increased 73.44 points, or 0.91 per cent, to 8,162.99, Xinhua news agency reported on

Monday.Chinese Vice Premier Liu He said

over the weekend that China and the United States have achieved substantial progress in the latest economic and trade consultations, building a key foundation for sign-ing a phased agreement.

He said that preventing the trade war from escalating is beneficial to China, the United States and the world at large, which is a shared

expectation of producers and con-sumers. The two sides should prop-erly address each other’s key con-cerns on the basis of equality and mutual respect, create favorable environment and achieve common goals, said Liu.

On earnings front, third quarter earnings are expected to decrease 3.1 per cent from the same period last year, according to the latest data from Refinitiv.

Of the 73 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported earnings to date, 83.6 per cent have reported earnings above analyst expecta-tions. This compares to a long-term average of 65 per cent and prior four quarter average of 74 per cent.

Third-quarter revenue is ex-pected to increase 3.1 per cent from a year ago. Excluding the en-ergy sector, the growth estimate is 4.3 per cent.

US stocks close higher amid trade optimism

BusinessBusiness 10

Mumbai, Oct 22 (IANS) The benchmark Sensex closed 334 points lower on Tuesday, dragged down by IT major In-fosys. But gains by banks and other financial stocks arrested the slide to some extent.

During the day, the Sensex swung between the intra-day high of 39,426.47 and a low of 38,924.85. The Nifty closed 71.95 points down at 11,589.90.

Infosys saw its worst day on the bourses in over 6 years as investors pulled out following a whistleblower allegations. Its scrips settled nearly 17 per cent lower, despite assurances

from the company top brass.The impact was felt far and

wide. The Life Insurance Cor-poration (LIC), which holds

5.85 per cent stake in the com-pany, fell over 3 per cent dur-ing the day.

“The risk-taking ability is gradually improving and in-vestors are shifting focus from defensive to growth-oriented ideas, owing to the recent de-velopments in global macros and expectation of domestic earnings revival in H2FY20,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Re-search, Geojit Financial Ser-vices Slide in the IT sector might have an impact, but the overall market trend would re-main healthy, led by marginal-ly better results in Q2 till now, Niar added.

Infosys plunges 17%, Sensex ends 334 pts lower

After IRCTC, DIPAM sets sight on IPOs of IRFC,

RailTelNew Delhi, Oct 22 (IANS) The dis-

investment department is hopeful of completing the listing of two rail PSUs, including the Indian Railway Finance Corporation (IRFC), in the current fiscal after the successful listing of IRCTC.

It has issued request for proposal (RFP) for appointing a registrar for the listing of Railways broadband and VPN arm RailTel by offloading 25 per cent of the government stake.

The plan is to list IRFC, the financ-ing arm of the Indian Railways for mobilising funds from domestic as well as overseas capital markets, be-fore March 31, as currently market condition is also favourable, official sources said.

“But the amount would not be much as the plan could be to offload 10 per cent which may give Rs 1,000 crore,” sources said.

Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) has got the online ticketing, tourism and the catering arm of railways, the Indian Railway Catering and Tour-

ism Corporation, listed recently and is looking to raise up to Rs 645 crore through an IPO.

A total of 10 PSUs were lined up for IPOs this year to achieve the disin-vestment target of Rs 1.05 lakh crore in the current fiscal.

The Cabinet Committee on Eco-nomic Affairs had approved listing of five railway companies - IRCON International, RITES, RVNL, IRFC and IRCTC - in April 2017. Out of these five, IRCON International and RITES, were listed in 2018-19.

The government had raised about Rs 466 crore through another rail-ways arm, the Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd (RVNL), in the first IPO of the fis-cal year, by divesting 12.12 per cent stake. The current year’s disinvest-ment target is Rs 1.05 lakh crore. Ear-lier this month, the fourth tranche of Bharat 22 ETF, managed by ICICI Prudential, was subscribed 12 times, drawing bids worth Rs 23,500 crore and and the Government will retain Rs 4,368 crore from the offer, DIPAM said.

New Delhi, Oct 22 (IANS) India is at the core of Uber’s growth strate-gy for the next five to ten years, the company’s CEO Dara Khosrow-shahi said here on Tuesday.

“India is a fundamental part of Uber’s growth going forward... India is among top 10 markets for us and we continue to believe in and invest in India,” Khosrow-shahi told reporters after launch-ing Uber’s new journey planning feature “Public Transport” in New Delhi.

“India also serves as an innova-tions gateway for Uber,” Khosrow-shahi said, adding that the com-pany’s business in the country has seen improvement.

The Uber CEO said that the com-pany is investing in talent in India to develop products that can be launched in other markets as well.

Uber also announced that it has won a competitive bid to expand its operations across 210 Delhi Metro stations.

Under the partnership which aims to improve first and last-mile connectivity for users, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) will pro-vide Uber dedicated pick up and drop points.

The DMRC will charge a fee from Uber for the space it is providing to the company.

Uber, which cut 350 employees across several teams in its latest round of layoffs this year, said it plans to double its headcount in India to 1,000 people.

DMRC Managing Director Mangu Singh told reporters that it plans to redesign its Metro smart cards so that users can make pay-ments for the Uber rides with the same card.

“It will take two to three years to bring the new technology,” Singh told IANS on the sidelines of the event. Manik Gupta, Chief Product Officer, Uber, said that the com-pany is currently on an aggressive hiring spree in India.

“Our hope is that we will go to about 1,000 people. We will almost double the size of our Uber in-vestment both in the engineering

and product side over the coming years,” Gupta told IANS.

The Uber CEO said that the com-pany is investing in talent in India

to develop products that can be launched in other markets as well. Uber also announced that it has won a competitive bid to expand

its operations across 210 Delhi Metro stations.

Under the partnership which aims to improve first and last-mile connectivity for users, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) will pro-vide Uber dedicated pick up and drop points.

With the launch of Uber’s new feature in New Delhi, riders will see “Public Transport” as an op-tion alongside UberGo, Premier and Pool after opening the Uber app and entering a destination.

Upon selecting the public trans-port feature, riders will be able to see the fastest and cheapest routes, real-time schedules, as well as departure time for public transportation, including Metro and buses and walking directions, to and from nearby Metro stations and bus stops. “We want to be the operating system of your everyday life... We want to replace your car with your phone,” Khosrowshahi said.

India core to our growth strategy for next 5-10 yrs: Uber CEO

New Delhi, Oct 22 (IANS) With Uber bringing public transport feature on its app for Delhi us-ers, the day is not far when proper Uber buses will ply in the national capital, and later in other cities.

The public transport feature launched on Uber app in Delhi on Tuesday may be a test to under-stand people’s preferences, before launching Uber Bus service via the app. The ride-hailing platform in October last year launched Uber Bus in Cairo, Egypt.

The Uber Bus app lets people re-serve seats on an air-conditioned bus that frequently run along popular routes so there is always a ride nearby.

The Uber Bus app works on all Android devices and in all net-work conditions.

“Uber bus service is a new prod-uct that we have launched. We are testing and learning to un-derstand how the service works. As the product matures, it will be specifically marketed for cities like Delhi,” Uber CEO Dara Khos-rowshahi said in New Delhi on Tuesday.

Once Uber Bus arrives in Delhi, it will like a shuttle service, pick-ing you up from designated sport and dropping you off at another designated spot

This is how it currently works in other cities.

Enter your destination, select the Uber Bus option, review your fare and then tap request.

“Wait up to 5 minutes to see your trip details. We use this time to match you with other riders’ on the most suitable route for you, making sure you don’t go out of your way,” says Uber.

You will see the information about your trip in the app: driver information and pickup spot.

You can track the Bus on the way to your pick-up spot.

“Walk to the pickup spot you see on the map and make sure you arrive before your bus gets to the pickup spot. The bus will only wait 2 minutes at the pickup spot so don’t be late,” the ride hail-ing app said in a blog post. Scan the barcode, show your ticket to your driver, pay your driver with cash or through the app as you get in the bus, and enjoy your ride. When you get closer to your des-tination, Uber will find the best drop-off spot that is close to your final destination and works for the route you are on. You will receive a notification letting you know when to get off the Uber Bus and you can see walking directions to your final destination in the app.

Uber Bus not too far from Delhi roads

Indian Horizon Wednesday - October 23, 2019

New Delhi, Oct 22 (IANS) Zomato Founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal on Tuesday said the online food delivery platform aims to serve 20 crore people in India over the next few years who will order food at least five times a month.

Admitting that his thoughts may be “labelled as stupid for saying out loud,” Goyal said that out of the 20 crore future Zomato users, nearly 2 crore will order food once a day, 24X7. “These 20 crore people (and in some time, many more than that) are the real India. And that India is coming of age. Domestic consump-tion in India is what it is - and it is going to grow as it is,” Goyal said in a blog post. Zomato is delivering 1.3 million orders a day from 150,000 restaurants across India at more than 10 orders per restaurant per day. Stressing upon Cloud kitchens, Goyal said the food aggregator plat-form is committed to develop cloud kitchens to bridge the supply gap.

“I want to re-emphasise that we will never compete with our restau-rateur partners - we will only build the kitchens - but they will be op-erated by restaurant brands,” said

Goyal. Zomato’s kitchens are opera-tional in 50 cities across India, with 110 kitchen hubs (either completed or under construction). In total, there are 663 kitchen units and ki-

osks. Zomato’s revenue for the first half of the financial year 2019-20 saw a massive three-fold jump - from $63 million in the same period in 2018-2019 to $205 million. The Zom-ato CEO also touched upon how the company is helping users under-stand what food delivery means and how they can use the Zomato app for their family in over 400 cities in India. Zomato is currently present in 556 cities. Trivandrum was Zoma-to’s 50th city in November 2018 and Leh was the 500th in July this year. Zomato is also uninterruptedly ac-tive in 10 cities (Guwahati, Nagaon, Jorhat, Agartala, Silchar, Dibrugarh, Tezpur, Shillong, Tinsukia and Aiza-wl) in the North East region. “Tier 3 and 4 cities now contribute 35 per cent of the monthly order volume. These cities are relatively small but are growing at a frenetic pace,” said Goyal. Out of the total delivery part-ner network in non-metro cities, 20 per cent are on bicycles.

Zomato eyes 20 crore users in India: Deepinder Goyal

New Delhi, Oct 22 (IANS) A Fi-nance Ministry review of compli-ance behaviour of GST assessees has shown states outperforming the Centre. In a review this month, the Ministry found considerable gap in filing of returns in case of Centre-administered assessees as compared to the states.

The conclusion is based on the analysis of returns filed in respect of

GSTR1 and Form GSTR 3B.While GSTR-1 is a monthly return

that summarises all outward sup-plies of a taxpayer, the GSTR 3B is summary monthly returns recording filed by the registered dealers.

"CBIC (Central Board of Indirect Tax and Customs) has asked field of-ficers to ensure no gaps are there in filing of tax returns," said an official.

A GST Commissioner said that the

Centre had wanted the administra-tion to go soft in the initial phase of the new indirect tax regime. As a re-sult, compliance level by businesses have been impacted.

"The state tax officers at times blame the central tax administration for poor compliance and low rev-enue collection," he said.

The GST collection has indeed been much below the expectations with

September revenue mop-up falling to a 19-months low. It has raised alarm bells in the Revenue Department as lower collection could have serious impact on fiscal deficit of the Centre. The GST collection fell 2.67 per cent to Rs 91,916 crore in September on a year-on-year basis. The total number of GSTR 3B returns filed for the month of August up to 30th September, 2019 was 75.94 lakh.

States beat Centre in ensuring GST returns compliance

Sports Indian HorizonWednesday, October 23, 201911

India thrash SA in Ranchi, clinch Test series !-"

Ranchi, Oct 22 (IANS) India registered an emphatic victory over South Africa by an innings and 202 runs in the third and final Test at the JSCA Stadium on Tuesday to clinch their first-ever series whitewash over the Proteas.Needing just two wickets to maintain their supremacy on Day 4, the Indian team completed the formalities within the first 12 balls giving away just one run and

concluded what has been a highly dominant show by the No.1 ranked team over South Africa.Overnight batsman Theunis de Bruyn -- who came in as concussion substitute for Dean Elgar -- was the first to go as he became Shahbaz Nadeem’s first victim in the second innings. He was caught brilliantly by wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha at his individual score of 30.The very next ball,

Nadeem took a rebound catch to dismiss Lungi Ngidi. Ngidi seeing the tossed up delivery went for a hoick straight down the ground and it was struck so hard that Anrich Nortje at the non-striker’s end had no time to react and the ball popped up. Nadeem was alert to the possibility of a rebound and took an easy catch to bring an end to the South Africa second innings at 132.

Need to get a lot stronger as a

team mentally: Faf du Plessis

Ranchi, Oct 22 (IANS) After being whitewashed by India in the three-match Test rubber, South Africa skipper Faf du Plessis feels lack of planning resulted in their heavy loss in every game in the longest format. The skipper also admitted that his team’s batting line-up was mentally weak throughout the series.

“They were spot-on. I thought the way the Indian seamers showed us how to bowl. The pace that they bowled, the consistency that they bowled, the skill that they showed, outclassed us as a fast bowling attack. There is learning for us in that when we playing the subcontinent that our style of bowling is not successful,” he said.

Du Plessis also said the tour exposed the lack of planning as Cricket South Africa didn’t think of the future after greats like Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers retired.

“It shows that our structures are not where they need to be. The gap between domestic cricket and international cricket. If you look back three or four years and if someone had the vision of saying, in three or four years’ time there will be a lot of inexperienced guys. A lot of 34, 35, 36 year olds could possible retire. So what do you do to make sure you get yourself ready for when that time comes?

ISL: NorthEast snatch a point from Bengaluru

Bengaluru, Oct 22 (IANS) Defending champions Bengaluru FC were held to a goalless draw by a spirited NorthEast United FC in their opening game of the Indian Super League (ISL) Season 6 at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium here on Monday.Debuts were handed out

to several new signings, including Ghanaian World Cupper Asamoah Gyan, Raphael Augusto and Ashique Kuruniyan, but the teams couldn’t be separated at the end of 90 minutes in what was a riveting contest.Bengaluru got off the blocks quickly and

pressed NorthEast high up the field.Kuruniyan announced his arrival with a great solo run from the left-back position in the 15th minute. The former FC Pune City player beat three players on his way into the box but shot wide of the mark.

NorthEast United were pinned to their own half in the early stages but were the first to have a shot on target. Collecting a layoff from Gyan, Uruguayan Martin Chaves dribbled past Juanan and forced a diving save from Gurpreet Singh Sandhu in the 21st minute.

A few minutes later, Augusto split the Highlanders’ defence with an exquisite pass that released Udanta into the box but the Indian winger failed to test the goalkeeper with a wayward shot from a promising position.

The intensity dropped as the first half wore on. The Bengaluru defence failed to clear a loose ball inside the box after the half-hour mark and Rahul Bheke’s header back to Gurpreet ended up with Chaves, who slashed wide in front of an open goal.

Lahore, Oct 22 (IANS) A petition has been filed in the Lahore High Court praying to immediately stop former captain Misbah-ul-Haq from working on different posts including that of Pakistan head coach.

According to a report in The Dawn, a lawyer named Syed Ali Zahid Bokhari has filed the application in his pending main petition against the appointment of Misbah as head coach, batting coach and chief selector in the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).

In his application, the petitioner has stated that the performance of the current team -- which recently lost the T20I series against Sri Lanka -- will get worse if Misbah is allowed to work as Pakistan head coach.He further asked the court to pass a stay order and immediately restrain the respondent from working.

However, the court said that it was not supposed to decide who should play in the team or not. But the judge issued a notice to the PCB and has sought for a reply by next week.In his main petition, the lawyer had contended that Misbah lacked required experience to coach the team. He said the appointment of Misbah -- who replaced Mickey Arthur -- had been made in a secret manner and without merit.

Plea Þled in Lahore HC

against Misbah�s appointment as

head coach

Madrid, Oct 22 (IANS) Rafael Nadal, Roberto Bautista, Pablo Carreno, Feliciano Lopez and Marcel Granollers have been called up by captain Sergi Bruguera to represent Spain in the Davis Cup Finals to be held in Madrid on November 18-24.Bruguera repeated the list he announced for the 2018 Davis Cup semis against France, although Nadal was a last-minute change and was replaced by Albert Ramos then, reported Efe news.Nadal will play Davis Cup as world No. 1, a position he will claim as of November 4, while Bautista will be ranked

No. 10, Carreno (35), Lopez (62) and Granollers (113).

Before the Davis Cup Finals, Nadal will take part in the

Paris Masters and then the ATP Finals, which comes to an end on November 17.In the new format, the captains can make up to three changes to the list a day before the competition gets underway, given the possible injuries and being held just after the ATP Finals.The clashes feature two singles matches followed by a doubles encounter, with the duels being best-of-three sets.The competition will be played at Madrid’s Caja Magica on November 18-24.Spain was drawn in Group B alongside Croatia, the defending champion and Russia.

Nadal to lead Spain�s Davis Cup team

New Delhi, Oct 22 (IANS) Pony-tailed Divya Deshmukh provided the lone bright spot after most seventh round results proved disappointing for the host in the World junior chess championship here on Monday.

On a day when fifth seed R. Vaishali, Rakshitta Ravi, Arpita Mukherjee and Sakshi Chitlange lost, Divya’s citymate from Nagpur Srishti Pandey upstaged Vantika Agarwal.

In the open section, M. Karthikeyan, Aravindh Chithambaram and R. Praggnanandhaa, seeded two, three and eight, drew their games before Ukraine’s Evgeny Shtembuliak emerged the sole leader with six points.Divya, seeded ninth, completely outfoxed Mongolian Boldbaatar Altantuya, the leader after four rounds. Facing French Defence, Divya opted for a variation she never played before and that set the

Mongolian girl thinking.Soon it became apparent that Altantuya was caught unawares. She committed a series of mistakes and Divya came up with fitting responses to tighten her grip. Eventually, Divya

won in 43 moves.K. Priyanka (4) was the other notable Indian performer, managing to hold a struggling Chinese top seed Zhu Jiner in 60 moves, with only the kings left on the board.

World junior chess | Divya outwits Altantuya

Federer celebrates match No. 1500 with a win

Basel (Switzerland), Oct 22 (IANS) Roger Federer registered a commanding straight sets victory over German qualifier Peter Gojowczyk in what was the Swiss legend’s 1500th career match in the opening round of the ATP Swiss indoors in Basel.

On Monday evening, Federer defeated Gojowczyk 6-2, 6-1 in only 53 minutes and went on to win his 21st consecutive match at the Swiss Indoors Basel.“I thought the match was good. I felt like I had a good spring in my step and was

quick onto the ball. Didn’t take me long to get used to the conditions. That was positive,” the ATP Tour website quoted Federer as saying.“(I) knew of the danger playing Peter, especially indoors.

He had a great couple of qualifying matches, so I knew he’d be tough, especially (because) he beat Karlovic easy, who serves great.”The World No. 3, who is bidding for his 10th Basel title and 103rd overall, will next meet Moldovan Radu Albot or Dusan Lajovic of Serbia.

Rugby World Cup #"$%: England handed double boost ahead of All Blacks semiÞnal

New Delhi, Oct 22 (IANS) England expects Jonny May and Jack Nowell to be fit for their Rugby World Cup semifinal against New Zealand, according to assistant coach Neal Hatley.

May scored two tries in England's dominant 40-16 victory over Australia on Saturday, helping Eddie Jones' side set up a last-four tie with the All Blacks, who thrashed Ireland.However, England had cause for concern

over May when the wing suffered a hamstring injury, while Nowell has also been dealing with a similar problem. But Hatley has revealed both players are expected to be available for selection for Saturday's contest in Yokohama.

“It’s fantastic where we are, all 31 being available for selection at the end of the week,” said Hatley in a news c o n f e r e n c e . “ J o n n y ’ s bouncing around this morning. He has a small

twinge and we’ll assess where he is a little bit later today. He’s in really good spirits, moving well, and we expect Jack to be fit for selection as well.”England last met reigning world champion New Zealand at Twickenham in November 2018, with the All Blacks edging out a 16-15 victory. Hatley, though, insists neither side should read too much into that previous meeting.

French Open: India's Subhankar Dey beats Tommy Sugiarto

in three games

PARIS, Oct 22 (IANS) India’s Subhankar Dey beat Indonesia's Tommy Sugiarto in the first round (round of 32) of the BWF French Open Super 750 tournament in Paris on Tuesday.

Subhankar dropped the first game 15-21 but won the second game 21-14 and wrapped up the match by winning the third 21-17, prevailing in a match that lasted 78 minutes.

Among Indians, Sameer Verma, Parupalli Kashyap, Kidambi Srikanth will be

in men’s singles action on Wednesday.

P.V. Sindhu will play Canada’s Michelli Li in the women’s singles first round later today, while Saina Nehwal will get her campaign underway on Wednesday.

Despite bagging the World Championships title in August, Sindhu has been out-of-form as she has failed to cross the second round in three tournaments -- China Open, Korea Open and Denmark Open.

Subhankar Dey prevailed in a 78-minute match that went the distance, with the Indian coming from behind to beat his Indonesian opponent.

Wednesday - October 23, 2019

EntertainmentIndian Horizon

12

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Housefull 4 FIRST posters: Akshay Kumar introduces ''1419 ke Bala and 2019 ke Harry' and it' will make you impatient for the trailer

And the first poster of Akshay Kumar's Housefull 4 is out and it was worth the wait! The comic ca-per which features the ensemble cast of Riteish Deshmukh, Bobby Deol, Kriti Sanon, Pooja Hegde and Kriti Kharbanda promises to be a rib-tickling comedy and if the first glimpse(s) is any sign, we are in for a ride! Yes, there are two of those and we are not complaining. Akshay Kumar himself took to In-stagram to share the posters and dropped the date on which tghe trailer will be out. He wrote, "Miliye 1419 ke Rajkumar Bala aur 2019 ke London return Harry se! Witness how they embark upon this jour-ney of ultimate chaos, confusion

and madness in the #Housefull4 Trailer. Out on 27th September."

Also ReadHousefull 4: Chunky Panday

drops a MAJOR hint about his character name from 1419 era (EXCheck out the first posters of Housefull 4 shared by Akshay Ku-mar here:

See, told ya! Now, we don't know about you but we can't wait for the trailer now!

Directed by Farhad Samji, Housefull 4 is the fourth instal-ment from the comedy franchise. It is is also expected to release in a 3D format. The film has been shot in Mumbai, London and Rajast-han and is based on the concept

of reincarnation. It is set to hit the screens in 2019 during the festive weekend of Diwali.

The film found itself amidst a controversy after former direc-tor Sajid Khan was named in the #MeToo movement. Sajid stepped down as the director of the film and was replaced by Farhad Samji who penned the story and the screen-play. The shooting of Housefull 4 was halted for a few days and re-sumed later after Farhad took over the responsibilities.

After performing daredevil stunts in the recent action-thriller Saaho, rebel star Prabhas will soon start the shoot-ing of his upcoming romantic venture Jaan, which also stars Pooja Hegde in a key role. It was officially launched in Hyderabad last year and was supposed to start in November 2018 but due to Saaho, it got delayed. While the film will be predominantly shot in abroad, the latest buzz suggests that the Baa-hubali star will play palm reader in the film. Director of the film Radha Krish-na earlier told to Mumbai Mirror in an interview, “At the moment, all I can say is that it’s going to be a love story, which will be shot on a lavish scale. We’ve finalised Europe where most of the shooting will happen. The regular shoot will begin very soon.” Actress Pooja Hegde also told the tabloid that she will do a workshop before starting the shooting of the film. "I have not been told what the prep is about but both Prabhas and I will be attempt-ing some unique action and musical sequences for the first time.” Prabhas has dropped 10 kilos to look leaner for Jaan which is supposed to have some steamy sequences between Pooja and him. The actor will go shirtless as well.

It is produced by Gopikrishna Mov-ies and UV Creations and is expected to hit the screens in 2020. Talking about his last release Saaho.

it was made on the massive bud-get of Rs 350 crore, Saaho is directed by Sujeeth, who previously helmed Run Bhola Run. It is produced under the banner of UV Creations and also features Mahesh Manjrekar, Jackie Shroff, Neil Nitin Mukesh, Mandira Bedi, Arun Vijay, Chunky Panday and Murli Sharma in key roles. Anyway, are you excited for Jaan? Tweet to us @bollywood_life

Housefull 4 POSTERS: Meet Rajkumaris from 1419 Kriti Sanon aka Madhu, Pooja aka

Mala and Kriti aka MeenaToday marks a big day for the

makers of Housefull 4. The ensem-ble cast time-traveling comic caper is all set to release in Diwali this year. However, today, the first looks of the lead actors were revealed one by one. We must say, it has in-trigued one and all. The plot has a reincarnation twist with the looka-likes of the actors. After dropping the looks of Akshay Kumar, Riteish Deshmukh and Bobby Deol, the

makers have revealed the beautiful ladies and their previous birth ava-tars. Talking about the poster, We see Kriti Sanon as 1419's Rajkumari Madhu and 2019's Kriti (Yes, her character's name is same as hers), Pooja Hedge as Rajkumari Mala and Pooja (the same name again) and Kriti Kharbanda as Rajkumari Meena and Neha. The ladies look ravishing in their ethnic ensembles and heavy yet elegant accessories.

Ever since the posters and trailer of Saand Ki Aankh have released, Ta-apsee Pannu and Bhumi Pednekar are being heavily criticized for play-ing 60-year-old grandmothers in the film. Till date, people are of the opinion that the maker should have cast senior actresses for the char-acters. Neena Gupta, best known for her stint in Badhaai Ho, also expressed her displeasure over the same. She tweeted, "Hamari umar ke role toe kamsekam humse kara

lo bhai (At least cast us for the role that suit our age)." In order to put an end to everybody's questions and accusations, Taapsee Pannu finally broke her silence on Twitter. In a long note to everyone, the Badla actress mentioned as to why people never questioned Aamir Khan when he played college boy in 3 Idiots, Nargis Dutt when she played Sunil Dutt's mother and for that matter, even John Travolta when he played a woman in Hairspray.

Saand Ki Aankh: 'Did we question when Nargis Dutt

played mother to Sunil Dutt?,' Taapsee Pannu

responds to criticism

Paris Fashion Week 2019: Deepika Padukone

attends the Dior show and kills it without walking

the ramp

Paris fashion Week 2019Bollywood actress Deepika

Padukone is as fashionable as they come. The diva who began her journey with Om Shanti Om has only gone from strength to strength since her initial and today, she is a force to reckon with. And honestly nothing came easy, DP, as they fondly call her, climbed the ladder of success on her will and merit. That and the hotness quotient of the sun! Which BTW was on full display when the actress at-tended the Paris Fashion Week 2019.

D for not Deepika but DiorImage credit: Instagram/

DeepikapadukoneD for not Deepika but DiorIf you haven't seen already,

Deepika Padukone brought back the 70s in her strapless printed gown by Dior for their Spring/Summer 2020 haute-couture show.

Style game strongImage credit: Instagram/

DeepikapadukoneStyle game strongNot only did she wear the en-

semble with panache but she also complemented it with gold accessories on the neck and a

matching hairband on the head. A brown overcoat and tinted over-sized shades were also in-volved and boy, did they make a statement.

Chic yet timelessImage credit: Instagram/

DeepikapadukoneChic yet timelessThe actress channeled her

inner enchantress and topped it with the high-end Parisian glamour we have heard so much about. In a way, Deepika man-aged to look chic and timeless at the same time and we can't say that for everyone.

On the work frontImage credit: Instagram/

DeepikapadukoneOn the work frontDeepika will next be seen with

Ranveer Singh in Kabir Khan's '83 which is a biopic on legend-ary cricketer Kapil Dev. Inter-estingly, #DeepVeer are playing husband and wife and coming together for the first time af-ter their wedding. Apart from '83, Deepika will also be seen Chhapaak. The Meghna Gulzar directorial is a biopic on acid at-tack survivor Laxmi Agarwal. In the film, Deepika will be seen romancing Vikrant Massey.

BollywoodLife was the first to report that Hina Khan will no longer play Komolika in Kasautii Zindagii Kay, a reboot of the 2000s' show with the same name. Last

evening, show producer Ekta Kapoor in a cryp-tic tweet confirmed that indeed there is a new Komolika entering the show. Even Hina Khan jumped into the band

and confirmed that she will longer play the char-acter, which was played by Urvashi Dholakia in the original version. Ekta Kapoor, last night tweet-ed, 'New komo!!!?????? But whooooooooooo;)' To this, earlier in the day, Hina Khan, replied, Best wishes'. And while the fans were busy speculat-ing who the new Komo-lika is, the cat is out of the bag. TV actress Aam-na Shariff, who is best known for Kahiin Toh Hoga, has been finalized as the new Komolika. Aamna who is till date remembered as Kashish from 'Kahiin Toh Hoga' (2003-2007), was last seen in the TV show, 'Ek Thhi Naayika' (2013). And with Kasautii Zinda-gii Kay, she will make a

comeback on TV. Talking on playing the character, Aamna in an interview with Bombay Times said, "The reason for the break was the need to reinvent my personal life. It would have been easy to stay in my comfort zone and come back with a love story, but that wouldn’t have satiated me as an actor. It’s always a dif-ferent kind of rush to surprise your audience. So, when I was offered the role of Komolika, I instinctively knew that this is what will challenge me the most as an actor." Meanwhile, Ekta Kapoor in an interview with Spotboye spoke on her association with Hina Khan. She said, "Hina Khan is busy with her life and she is doing a couple

of other things too, so we couldn't adjust her dates. It was an amicable deci-sion. Even Hina Khan jumped into the band and confirmed that she will longer play the char-acter, which was played by Urvashi Dholakia in the original version. Ekta Kapoor, last night tweet-ed, 'New komo!!!?????? But whooooooooooo;)' To this, earlier in the day, Hina Khan, replied, Best wishes'. Hina is a thor-ough professional. We will definitely collabo-rate with her on some other projects- be it TV or digital or a film. She has been a revelation and this is not the end of our association."

Are you happy with Aamna Shariff as the new Komolika?

Kasautii Zindagii Kay 2: Aamna Shariff to replace Hina Khan as new Komolika

Kahiin Toh Hoga actress Aamna Shariff has been roped to play the new Komolika by Ekta Kapoor. Shariff will step into the shoes of Hina Khan.

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