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OPINION 8
WORLD 12
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Less-lethal
mob-control
Pak
provokes
India’s
wrath
India calls death sentence to ex-Navy man Kulbhushan Jadhav guns for Valley in offing
‘premeditated murder’ bid , won’t release Pakistani prisoners
PIONEER NEWS SERVICE n
NEW DELHI
n a move that may see furIbetween
ther deterioration in relations
Pakistan and India,
the Pakistan Army on Monday
announced that ex-Indian
Navy officer Kulbhushan
Jadhav has been awarded death
sentence following a court
martial in Rawalpindi for
alleged “espionage and sabotage” activities.
Pakistan Army chief
General Qamar Javed Bajwa on
Monday approved the execution
of Jadhav, triggering outrage in
India as New Delhi sees the
death sentence as a fresh provocation, indicative of the fact that
the Pakistan Government and
the Pakistan Army are not
interested in improving relations
with India.
In an immediate retaliation
to the Pakistani action, there is
a strong possibility that India
may not release about a dozen
Pakistani prisoners who were
to be repatriated on
Wednesday. There is a feeling
in the Government that it is not
the right time for the release of
the prisoners. These prisoners
were to be released as part of
the practice by India and
Pakistan to repatriate nationals
lodged in each other’s jail after
they complete their sentence.
Reacting strongly to the
death penalty and the clandestine trial, Foreign Secretary S
Jaishankar summoned Pakistan
Pak perverting course
of justice
l Pakistan Army chief approved the execution of Jadhav on Monday
l Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar said that the proceedings
leading to the sentence against Jadhav were “farcical in the
absence of any credible evidence against him”
l He said, “Jadhav was kidnapped last year from Iran and his subsequent
presence in Pakistan has never been explained credibly. The Government of
India has repeatedly sought consular access to him. Requests to that effect
were formally made 13 times between March 25, 2016 and March 31,
2017. This was not permitted by the Pakistani authorities”
High Commissioner Abdul
Basit to his office in South Block
and handed him a demarche
saying such a sentence against
an Indian citizen was a case of
premeditated murder, as it was
awarded without observing
basic norms of law.
Jaishankar added that the
proceedings leading to the sentence against Jadhav were “farcical in the absence of any credible evidence against him.”
The Foreign Secretary
reiterated that Jadhav was not
a spy, and he was kidnapped
from Iran and brought
Senior Pakistani figures have themselves cast doubt about
the adequacy of evidence...If this sentence against an Indian
citizen, awarded without observing basic norms of law and
justice, is carried out, the Govt and people of India will
regard it as a case of premeditated murder
FOREIGN SECRETARY S JAISHANKAR
CAPSULE
LIQUOR BAN IN MP IN
PHASES: SHIVRAJ
Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh is
headed towards total prohibition
with Chief Minister Shivraj Singh
Chouhan announcing that all
liquor shops would be closed
across the State in a phased
manner.
OPP PUNCHES HOLES
IN AADHAAR SCHEME
New Delhi: Punching holes in
the Aadhaar scheme, the
Opposition in the Rajya Sabha
on Monday said it was based on
unverified data and violated the
Supreme Court order that it
should not be made mandatory
for schemes which are not linked
to subsidies. They also raised
concern over data integrity and
privacy issues while attacking
the Government for using the
Aadhaar system to “exclude” the
beneficiaries for delivery of
subsidies and claiming to have
made huge Government savings.
However, the Government
asserted that no poor person
would be deprived of the subsidy
benefits by making the Aadhaar
mandatory and that privacy of
individuals will be protected.
GOVT MAPS: AADHAAR
MUST FOR DOWNLOAD
New Delhi: The Government on
Monday launched a dedicated
website allowing the public the
access to download 3,000 maps
prepared by the Survey General
of India but made Aadhaar
mandatory for the purpose.
Using Aadhaar number, a person
can download three maps every
day from the portal
(http://soinakshe.Uk.Gov.In/).
PNS n LUCKNOW
ttarakhand Chief Minister
U
Trivendra Singh Rawat
met his UP counterpart Yogi
Adityanath in Lucknow on
Monday and had detailed discussions on various issues
pending between the two states
over division of assets.
Both the Chief Ministers
are native of Garhwal region of
Uttarakhand, which was carved
out from Uttar Pradesh in
November 2000.
It was decided in the meeting that issues pending for the
last 16 years would be resolved
in a time-bound manner and
both states would prepare a
detailed note about all pending
cases. Later, the chief secretaries
of both states would meet to
settle the issues. If the issues
were not resolved even then,
the matter would be referred to
the Chief Ministers and finally the two states would
approach the Union Home
Ministry for a settlement.
As per the provisions of UP
Just because he is an Indian, he
has been given the death sentence.
This shows the hatred and enmity
Pakistan harbours towards India
DALBIR KAUR, SISTER OF
SARABJIT SINGH
London: By sentencing
Indian national Kulbushan
Jadhav to death, Pakistan’s
military court system has
once again showed how it
“rides roughshod over international standards”, Amnesty
International said on
Monday, questioning the
secretive court’s ability to
dispense justice.
“The death sentence
given to Kulbushan Jadhav
shows yet again how
Pakistan’s military court system rides roughshod over
international standards,” Biraj
Patnaik, South Asia Director,
Amnesty International, said
in response to Pakistan military court sentencing Jadhav
to death for alleged spying.
Continued on Page 7
he Centre is working on a
T
secret “weapon” to disperse
violent crowds in Jammu &
Kashmir as an alternative to
pellet guns used by security personnel in the State at present.
There is no word yet on
what that crowd-dispersing
technique will be. However, the
Centre informed the Supreme
Court on Monday that the
“weapon” is undergoing trial in
a Government laboratory at
Chandigarh.
The disclosure came as
part of the Centre’s submission
defending the use of pellet
guns, which has been challenged in a PIL filed by the
Jammu & Kashmir High Court
4 Pak intruders
killed along LoC
Srinagar: Four terrorists were
on Monday killed as Army
foiled an infiltration bid in
Keran sector in Kupwara district of north Kashmir.
A Defence spokesman said
that a group of terrorists tried
to infiltrate from across the
Line of Control in Keran sector but troops foiled their bid.
“The group was challenged by
the soldiers triggering a gunfight that continued throughout the night.
The gun-battle ended on
Monday,” an Army officer
said.
State Reorganisation Act, 2000,
the Union Home Ministry is
the arbiter in case of dispute
between the states. If the issues
are resolved then, Uttarakhand
will get control over assets
worth over Rs 4,200 crore.
Senior officers of both
states who participated in the
meeting said that the discussions ended on a fruitful note.
The issues that remain
unresolved relate to division of
assets of Irrigation department
— 266 staff quarters, two guest
houses, 36 irrigation canals
and 214 hectares of land in
Haridwar district — that are
still under the control of the UP
government.
The other departments are
Rural Housing, Panchayati Raj,
Home, Transport and Tourism.
After the meeting,
Uttarakhand CM Trivendra
Singh Rawat said the meeting
was quite satisfactory and all
pending issues were likely to be
resolved in the next 5-6
months. Rawat later left for
Dehradun.
Policemen patrol a closed market during a strike in Srinagar on Monday
Bar Association. The Bench of
Chief Justice JS Khehar, Justices
DY Chandrachud and Sanjay
Kishan Kaul asked the association leaders present in the
court to think with an open,
unbiased mind and make suggestions within two weeks for
remedying the situation in the
Valley. The matter will be heard
next on April 28.
The lawyer body had
charged the Army with committing excesses and sought an
end to use of pellet guns by listing the number of lives lost and
the number of those grievously
injured. The Bench even gave the
option of using lazer dazer, a
non-lethal weapon that shines
disorienting, nauseating bursts of
intense green laser light into a
target’s eyes, and foul smelling
water as a non-lethal approach
to dispensing the crowd.
Attorney-General Rohatgi
presented a report of the
Ministry of Home Affairs
informing the Bench how the
situation in J&K is different
from any other part of the
country. He said the options of
chilli spray, lazer dazer, and foul
smelling water were unlikely to
succeed as protesters cover
their face with cloth and sport
sunglasses.
He presented photographs
of recent protests to show how
protesters arm themselves with
stones, grenades, acid bottles,
Molotov Cocktails and petrol
bombs to attack the security
personnel and damage the
armoured vehicles.
Continued on Page 7
See P7: EC defers
Anantnag Lok Sabha bypoll
to May 25; protesters set
Government school on fire
Imposter ‘SC judge’
pushes his luck but
lands in police net
SOUVIK MITRA n NEW DELHI
ausif-Ul-Haque, a 22-yearold second year law student, had a habit of impersonating top Government officials to obtain undue favours.
But this time, he ran out of luck
when he called Uttar Pradesh
Principal Secretary (Law) RN
Pandey after introducing himself as sitting Supreme Court
Judge Justice Kurian Joseph
and asked him to appoint his
college lecturer as a
Government law officer in the
Allahabad High Court.
When the matter got suspicious, Pandey apprised
Registrar of Supreme Court RN
Nijhhawan of the matter. The
Registrar got in touch with
Justice Kurian Joseph. Shocked
to hear, Justice Joseph raised
the matter with the Chief
Justice of India, who directed
Delhi Police Commissioner
Amulya Patnaik to look into
the case. Sensing the gravity of
the charge, Patnaik transferred
the case to the Special Cell of
Delhi Police for investigation.
Tausif was picked up from
Lucknow after Special Cell
sleuths tracked him down on
T
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Australian counterpart Malcolm Turnbull during their visit to Akshardham temple in
New Delhi on Monday
PTI
AP
Portraying himself as
sitting Supreme Court
Judge Justice Kurian
Joseph over phone,
the 22-year-old law
student asked the UP
Principal Secretary
(Law) to appoint his
college lecturer as a
Government law
officer in the
Allahabad High Court
Sunday. Police did not rule out
other persons’ involvement in
the case.
Police said the accused
changed the true caller name of
a mobile number to ‘Kurian
Joseph Supreme Court of
India’ before making the call to
RN Pandey.
Continued on Page 7
When Gandhi stopped over at Patna en route to Champaran
SERVANTS AT RAJENDRA PRASAD’S
HOME REFUSED HIM ENTRY
FAIZAN AHMAD n PATNA
ohandas Karamchand
M
Gandhi, Bar-at-law,
arrived at Patna railway station
ED SUMMONS HP CM IN
MONEY LAUNDERING CASE
on the morning of April 10,
1917 on way to Champaran.
Accompanied by Champaran
farmer Rajkumar Shukla,
Gandhi wearing a long kurta,
dhoti and turban made of
home spun fabric got down
Howrah-Delhi train wondering
where to go since it was his first
visit to Patna and he hardly
knew anybody.
Finding no way out, Shukla
offered him to take to a famous
wakil saheb (advocate). They
hired a tonga, which dropped
them at the entrance of a big
New Delhi: In further trouble for
Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister
Virbhadra Singh, the ED has
summoned him for questioning
in its money laundering probe
against him and others.
We should prepare to take
stringent action against Pakistan.
Today, we should give warning
that consequences would be bad
for Pakistan if Jadhav is executed
BJP MP SUBRAMANIAN SWAMY
over the secrecy of the trial,
given the fact that India was
constantly seeking consular
access to Jadhav.
“It is significant that the
Indian High Commission was
not even informed that Jadhav
was being brought to trial.
Senior Pakistani figures have
themselves cast doubt about
the adequacy of evidence. The
claim in the Pakistan Army’s
Inter-Services Public Relations
(ISPR) release that Jadhav was
provided with a defending officer during the so-called trial is
clearly absurd in the circum-
Amnesty slams
Pakistani court
PNS n NEW DELHI
Rawat, Yogi hold talks
on pending issues
AFTER BOOKING ON AI,
GAIKWAD TAKES TRAIN
Mumbai: After booking himself
on a Pune-Delhi flight, Shiv Sena
MP Ravindra Gaikwad cancelled
his ticket and boarded a train to
the national capital, official
sources said on Monday.
to Pakistan.
“Jadhav was kidnapped last
year from Iran and his subsequent presence in Pakistan has
never been explained credibly.
The Government of India,
through its High Commission
in Islamabad, has repeatedly
sought consular access to him,
as provided for by international
law. Requests to that effect
were formally made 13 times
between March 25, 2016 and
March 31, 2017. This was not
permitted by the Pakistani
authorities,” he said.
He also expressed anguish
stances. If this sentence against
an Indian citizen, awarded without observing basic norms of law
and justice, is carried out, the
Government and people of India
will regard it as a case of premeditated murder,” the Foreign
Secretary said in the demarche.
The ISPR on Monday in a
statement made from
Rawalpindi said, “Indian RAW
Agent/Naval officer 41558Z
Commander Kulbushan Sudhir
Jadhav, alias Hussein Mubarak
Patel, was arrested on March 3,
2016 through a Counter
Intelligence
Operation
from Mashkel, Balochistan, for
his involvement in espionage
and sabotage activities
against Pakistan.
Continued on Page 7
Alternatives to
pellet guns are
undergoing trials,
Govt tells SC
house. It was the house of
Rajendra Prasad but he was not
there and the servant told them
that saheb was out of station.
Prasad’s munshi told them
that wakil saheb was away to
Puri. “I squatted on the veranda outside but the servant did
not allow me to fetch water
from the well. Shukla persisted
that he kindly allowed me to use
the toilet but directed me to use
the toilet outside. It did not hurt
or anger me. The servant was
following own dharma and fulfilling his duty towards his
master,” said Gandhi.
Shukla was highly embarrassed over the treatment to
Gandhi but had no other option.
Gandhi suddenly remembered
SATYAGRAHA CENTENARY
one of his classmates in London
who had told him he lived in
Patna. “It was Mazharul Haque
and I last met him in 1915 in
Bombay. Then he was president
of Muslim League. He had invited me to his house whenever I
visited Patna.”
Remembering Mazharul
Haque, Gandhi scribbled a few
lines on a piece of paper and
asked Shukla to deliver it. As
soon as Haq received the letter
he hurriedly asked his driver to
start the car and reached
Rajendra Prasad’s house and
brought his friend to his palatial house on Fraser Road.
Gandhi told him that he
was on way to Champaran to
study the plight of the farmers
who were coerced to
plant indigo. Haque,
however, was not well
versed about the
legal position but
knew that the
farmers were subjected to great
tyranny. He told
Gandhi that the
indigo planters had
their headquarters at
Muzaffarpur and that
he should first go
there. Gandhi decided
to go to Muzaffarpur and
recalled that one of his
acquaintances Professor JB
Kripalani was teaching in a
college there.
Continued on Page 7
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar with schoolchildren
dressed up as Mahatma Gandhi during a programme
at Gayan Bhawan in Patna on Monday
PTI
city 02
LUCKNOW | TUESDAY | APRIL 11, 2017
Govt to purchase potato Shahi, Raza stress on punctuality in offices
to prevent distress sale T
PNS n LUCKNOW
PNS n LUCKNOW
fter fixing a record 80lakh-ton target for
wheat purchase from
farmers and announcing farm
loan waiver, the Yogi
Adityanath government has
now decided to purchase potatoes directly from farmers to
prevent distress sale.
An order in this regard was
issued on Monday.
In the first phase, the
Agriculture department will
purchase one lakh ton of potatoes at the rate of Rs 487 per
quintal.
]The potato will be purchased through state agencies
like PCF, UP Agro and
NAFED.
Bharatiya Janata Party state
general secretary Vijay Bahadur
Pathak said the party had
promised to potato farmers
that it would provide relief to
A
them.
“This decision is an extension of that promise. This time
there has been a bumper potato crop and this is forcing
farmers to sell their produce for
peanuts. To ensure that farmers get a good remunerative
price for their produce, the government has decided to purchase potato directly from
farmers. The BJP government
is pro-farmers and will do
whatever is required for them,”
Pathak stressed.
The BJP leader alleged that
the previous Samajwadi Party
government did nothing for
potato growers, leading to distress sale by them at throw
away price.
The state government has
already announced to purchase 80 lakh ton of wheat
from farmers this season with
40 lakh ton to be procured in
the first phase.
Similarly, the farm loan
waiver scheme will benefit
around 83 lakh farmers who
had taken loans up to one lakh
rupees. The government will
spend over Rs 36,000 crore on
the loan waiver.
Pathak said that the UP
government was strengthening
the mandis and ensuring a
quick transparent system.
Besides, he said, processing
and packaging units would
also be set up so that farmers
producing fruits like guavas,
mango, banana and aonla get
fair price of their products.
wo ministers of the Yogi
Adityanath government —
Agriculture Minister Surya
Pratap Shahi and Minister of
State for Waqf and Minority
Affairs Mohsin Raza — made
surprise inspections of their
departments on Monday.
After the inspections, the
ministers asked the employees
to come out of their ‘holiday
hangover’ of the previous
Samajwadi Party government.
Shahi visited the Directorate
of Agriculture around 9:30 am
and ordered the locking of the
entry gates of the building. He
rapped the employees and officials over low punctuality and
poor attendance.
At Krishi Bhawan, the minister told the officers that laxity in the office was very high.
“The very low attendance in the
office is totally unjustifiable...
those who have been marked
absent would face the penalty
of one day’s pay cut. Besides,
warning will also be issued to
the defaulting staff,” Shahi said.
Agriculture Minister Surya Pratap Shahi (second from right) inspecting Krishi Bhawan in Lucknow on Monday
After his visit, the minister
said that the work culture at
Krishi Bhawan was indeed disturbing and the government
would act against habitual
offenders.
He said there should be no
AIMPLB to discuss triple talaq in Lucknow meet
PNS n LUCKNOW
n the backdrop of the raging
nation-wide controversy over
Itriple
talaq, the working committee of All-India Muslim
Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) will meet in Lucknow for
two days from April 15.
The AIMPLB has been
facing the ire of Muslim
women who are victims of
triple talaq. Scores of Muslim
women have filed public interest litigation in the Supreme
Court, challenging the provision of triple talaq and halala,
NOTICE
I No 9421337X hav Pravin
Kumar Rai, 11 GRRC Kiranti
Line Depot Coy C/o 56 APO In
my Serving document my wife
date of birth 28.06.1978 has
been Entered which is incorrect, The correct date of Birth
of my wife is 08.06.1978
lwpuk
and other personal laws.
Chief organiser of AIMPLB women’s wing, Asma
Zohra, said that some people
were trying to create an atmosphere that Muslims had a higher rate of divorce.
She claimed that the Board
had received 3.5 crore forms in
favour of Shariyat and triple
talaq from Muslim women
across the country and they
outnumbered women against
Muslim personal law.
The meeting of the AIMPLB working committee is
held every three months and
this meeting was scheduled to
be held in February but was
postponed due to the Uttar
Pradesh Assembly poll.
Former
Additional
Advocate General of UP and
member of AIMPLB, Jafaryaab
Jilani, said, “It is not an emergency meeting to discuss triple
talaq. The last meeting was held
in Kolkata last year and the
next was scheduled to be held
in Lucknow in February but it
was cancelled due to the elections. The Board will discuss
several issues concerning
Muslims.”
terming them regressive.
The Muslim Personal Law
Board on its part has opposed
the PILs and also filed counter
affidavit in the apex court
defending Muslim personal
laws and triple talaq.
The AIMPLB has also criticised judicial intervention in
matters of Muslim personal law
and said that any order against
triple talaq would be an
“infringement” on their rights
to follow and profess their religion as guaranteed by the
Indian Constitution.
The Board has also con-
tended that the petitions in
Supreme Court are based on
incorrect understanding of
Muslim personal law. It has also
argued that any legislative
reform must be sensitive to the
cultural context of India and
reforms in other Islamic
countries cannot be applied to
India.
To counter the nation-wide
campaign against triple talaq
spearheaded by various
Muslim women outfits, the
AIMPLB also organised a
nation-wide signature campaign in favour of triple talaq
BJP to celebrate
birth centenary
of Upadhayay
BJP leader threatens
SHO in Shahjahanpur
Lucknow: Enthused with
the landslide victory in Uttar
Pradesh Assembly elections,
the Bharatiya Janata Party has
drawn up an elaborate programme to celebrate the centenary birth anniversary of party’s
ideologue Deen Dayal
Upadhayay in a big way. The
first programme would span
over a fortnight from May 10 to
25 during which around 20,000
dedicated workers of the party
would camp in 13,000 sectors
of the state to highlight the ideology of the party. They will
also popularise the programmes
of the Central and state governments. The party has constituted an 11-member Deen Dayal
Upadhayay Janma Shatabdi
Committee which includes BJP
state chief and Deputy Chief
Minister Keshav Prasad
Maurya, ministers Rampati
Shastri, Sunil Bansal and two
state general secretaries, Vijay
Bahadur Pathak and Ashok
Katiyar. There is also a subcommittee of six members,
headed by Vijay Bahadur
Pathak, to look into preparations for the programme starting from May 10.
PNS
PNS n LUCKNOW
ith his party in power in
the state, another leader
W
of Bharatiya Janata Party in
Shahjahanpur on Monday
allegedly threatened a police
inspector to follow his diktat or
face the consequences.
An audio recording of the
conversation in which the BJP
leader threatened the inspector
went viral eliciting angry
response on the cyber world.
Ironically, while the leader
denied handing out any threat,
senior leaders of BJP in
Lucknow refrained from taking
any action in the matter.
As per the audio which
went viral, BJP leader Manoj
Kashyap, who unsuccessfully
contested the recent Assembly
poll from Jalalabad constituency of Shahjahanpur, called up the
station house officer of Jalalabad
police station, Amar Singh
Yadav, on his mobile phone
and asked him to take action on
a report that someone else was
harvesting a farmer’s crop in the
area.
Kashyap reportedly said
that now that the BJP was in
power, he would not let the
inspector to work as per his
whims and that he would “finish” him.
In the audio tape, the BJP
leader also levelled serious
charges against the inspector and
even accused him of killing an
11-year-old boy besides
indulging in unlawful practices.
When the SHO sought to
confirm whether Kashyap was
handing out a threat, the BJP
leader immediately changed his
tone and tenor saying that now
that the BJP was in power, he
would not let the cop do whatever he wanted, including helping members of a particular
caste.
This is not the first instance
when BJP leaders have openly
threatened cops or taken law in
their hands in districts. Only a
few days back, BJP MLA
Chetram’s son assaulted a
woman sub-inspector in public
view for her ‘temerity’ to stop
him and check the papers of his
vehicle in Puwaiya locality of
Shahjahanpur.
Similarly, another BJP
leader’s son barged into Nigohi
police station of Shahjahanpur
and not only manhandled cops
but also set a criminal free from
police custody in the presence of
the station house officer.
To protest the action, 21
police personnel posted at the
police station sought transfer.
The matter was, however,
pushed under the carpet and so
far no action has been taken
against any BJP leader taking law
in his hands.
Meanwhile, five persons
died in separate road accidents
in Mathura, during the past 24
hours. Two cousins, Rajesh and
Satish, died after their bike was
hit by a tanker near Bilauthi village on the Delhi-Agra national highway. In a separate incident, Pawan Kumar (25) was hit
by a truck when he was waiting
for a bus. He died during treatment. Roop Singh (50) died after
his bike was hit by a tractor on
the highway here. Raghuveer
Singh was checking his combine
harvester when a truck hit him.
pendency of work and all
works should be completed
within a stipulated deadline.
Meanwhile, Minister of
State for Waqf and Minority
Affairs Mohsin Raza also
rapped officials of Shia Waqf
Pioneer
Board during his inspection of
its office at Indira Bhawan on
Monday.
Ridiculing the work culture, Raza said that it did not
appear to be an office at all as
no officer or staff was found
there during the inspection.
He also asked why the present Shia Waqf Board should
not be dissolved.
“It seems that the Board
officials do not feel the pain of
common man who come from
far flung places with their
grievances. The ministers reach
their offices by 9:30 am but
even at 11 am, the officials are
yet to reach the office. This is
disturbing,” said the disappointed minister.
Raza said that he would
speak to Chief Minister Yogi
Adityanath for dissolving the
Shia Waqf Board as there were
charges of corruption against
employees and Board chairman
Waseem Rizvi.
Earlier, on March 23, Raza
had inspected the office of
State Haj Committee and blew
his top on finding the portraits
of former Minority Affairs
Minister Mohammad Azam
Khan and Samajwadi Party
patron Mulayam Singh Yadav
hanging on the walls of chambers of senior officials of the
Haj Committee.
electrocuted in Deoria
Lover kills girl; Three
Deoria: Three persons, including two brothers, died on
Monday after they came in contact with a live high tension wire
lynched by
in Jalkal Chauraha area. Two brothers, Vivek Singh and Pintu
Singh were fixing a banner of their dance classes when it came
in contact with a high tension wire. Both brothers and a student
villagers
Pradeep who came to their rescue were electrocuted.
PTI
PNS n LUCKNOW
n a sensational incident, the
daughter of gram pradhan of
INaugawa
Raitashi under
Kudebhar police station of
Sultanpur district was brutally
hacked to death by her
lover as her father had settled
her marriage somewhere
else.
The angry villagers of
Naugawa Raitashi later caught
the assailant and battered him
to death before the police could
reach the scene.
The cops completed the
formality of registering a case
and sent both the bodies for
autopsy.
A police force was
deployed in the area in view to
the tension between the two
families over the killings.
As per reports, Shyam
Bahadur Yadav (26) of
Raniganj locality of Kotwali
area fell in love with the daughter of his tenant about 10 years
back.
The girl’s father later
became the gram pradhan of
Naugawa Raitashi under
Kudebhar police station and
the family shifted from Shyam’s
house after learning of the
affair.
However, the two lovers
continued to meet. Recently,
the pradhan fixed his daughter’s marriage and it was to be
solemnised on May 11.
On learning about the
development, Shyam tried
to force the girl to elope with
him but when she refused,
the agitated lover reached
her house on Monday morning
and stabbed her repeatedly
till the girl fell dead.
In the meantime, on hearing the girl’s shrieks, some
locals rushed to the house.
They chased Shyam and
nabbed him. Later, other villagers also joined in and
they battered Shyam with sticks
and rods till he too died on the
spot.
BSP Black Day against EVMs today
PNS n LUCKNOW
vko';drk
ahujan Samaj Party will
observe `Black Day’ across
B
the country on Tuesday to
protest the alleged tampering
with electronic voting
machines (EVMs) during the
recent Assembly elections in
Uttar
Pradesh
and
Uttarakhand.
The protest, the first in the
BSP’s agitation against the
tampering with EVMs, will be
staged at all district headquarters on Tuesday.
The party is also concentrating on celebrating Dr
Bhimrao Ambedkar’s birth
anniversary on Friday in a big
way.
BSP supremo Mayawati
has already dismissed the
Assembly election results, saying that tampering with EVMs
was responsible for her party’s
poor showing in the polls.
“The BSP workers will
stage dharnas and demonstrations in Lucknow and
other district headquarters
on the 11th of every month to
observe March 11, the day UP
election results were
announces, as Black Day,” the
BSP chief had said earlier
while addressing a press conference soon after her party
faced humiliating defeat in the
Assembly polls last month.
Mayawati, who was
expecting her party to get a
substantial share of the votes,
blamed EVMs for the
Bharatiya Janata Party’s unexpected landslide victory in
India’s largest state.
She had filed a complaint
with the Election Commission
asking it to cancel the election
results. The poll panel, however, wrote to BSP’s national
general secretar y Satish
Chandra Mishra that it found
no merit in the allegations,
and the “prayer made in the
letter are not legally tenable”.
Mayawati rejected the
EC’s reply to her demand for
a probe into tampering with
EVMs and said her party
would move the court on this
issue.
“The BJP leaders are
maintaining an ominous
silence on my allegations. The
BJP won the election through
manipulation. The day
Assembly election results were
announced, democracy was
virtually murdered. The
EVMs were tampered with to
transfer the BSP votes to BJP,”
she had said while disclosing
that her party would observe
‘Black Day’ on the 11th of
every month to register her
party’s protest.
She has also accused the
media of biased reporting and
said journalists were virtually writing the obituary of the
BSP and saying the BJP’s victory signified the end of her
party.
“Media persons have seen
huge crowds in my public
meetings. How can they say it
is the end of the road for the
BSP? They should tell the
people how the BJP manipulated the election,” she said.
The BSP chief also condemned post-poll discussions
on election results, saying the
power-brokers were singing
paeans for the BJP in discussions organised by various
channels because of “lure of
the lucre”.
“I want to make it clear to
the media that the BJP did not
manipulate election results in
smaller states like Punjab,
Goa and Manipur as they
would have had to do a lot of
explanation. They tampered
with EVMs in UP and
Uttarakhand. The media
should highlight the Bharatiya
Janata Party’s misdeeds,” the
BSP supremo said.
Printed and Published by Vijay Prakash Singh for and on behalf of CMYK Printech Ltd., 4th Floor, Sahara Shopping Centre, Faizabad Road, Lucknow-226016 and Printed at Tin Tin Printech Pvt Ltd., C-33 Amausi Industrial Area, Nadarganj, Lucknow. Tel: (0522) 2438656 / 9336266608.
Editor: Chandan Mitra. Resident Editor: Vijay Prakash Singh. RNI No. 2016/57. Lucknow Telephones: EPABX: 4036600 Fax: 2345582. Allahabad Office: (95532) 2420818, 2421018, 3290460. Kanpur Office: (95512) 2304006, 2304416. Varanasi Office: (95542) 2414294, 2414295. Delhi
Office: Link House, II Floor, 3 Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi 110 002. Tel: (011) 23755271-274, 41509074.
city 03
LUCKNOW | TUESDAY | APRIL 11, 2017
Gayatri case IO transferred
PIONEER NEWS SERVICE n LUCKNOW
eputy Superintendent of
Police Amita Singh, who
D
was probing the Gayatri
Prajapati gangrape case, was
transferred on Monday. The
DySP was leading the investigating team after an FIR was
lodged against Gayatri
Prajapati and his six aides on
the directions of the Supreme
Court on February 18. Gayatri
Prajapati was arrested on
March 15.
While senior officials
termed the transfer a routine
process, sources said complaints of negligence against
Amita and a recent allegation
of kidnapping of complainant’s
daughter resulted in her transfer.
The sources said on March
2, relatives of the woman had
lodged a complaint at Hauz
Khas police station in New
Delhi against Singh alleging
that the officer was forcing the
victim to speak in Gayatri’s
terms. “On April 5, a case of
kidnapping was registered
against Amita Singh and three
unidentified persons in Karbi
police station of Chitrakoot,”
they said.
Singh had successfully
conducted the investigation of
the Gayatri Prajapati case and
she also had arrested Gayatri.
“She was accused of being
biased in the investigation
and the senior police officials
could not defend her before
top bosses in Police and Home
departments,” they disclosed.
Amita was given the probe
because the case involved
POCSO Act besides rape. At
the time of assigning Amita
the probe, top officers had
claimed that the case needed
a woman officer who had a
knack of investigating crime
cases. “As per standard practice in police parlance, a lady
officer should to be in the
team probing cases involving
Prevention of Children from
Sexual Offences Act,” the
sources said.
DySP Amita Singh said
that she did her best in the
Kin allege custodial death
PIONEER NEWS SERVICE n LUCKNOW
lleging custodial death, the
kin of Ramesh Lodhi,
whose body was found near a
slum in Indira Nagar on
Thursday night, accused the
police of torturing the victim
during his detention at the
police station on the fateful day.
They demanded a judicial
probe into the case and warned
of seeking reprieve from the
court as they failed to get justice from SSP, Lucknow, Manzil
Saini.
Victim’s cousin Kailash
Lodh said that the police
rounded up Ramesh near his
house in Indira Nagar on
Thursday night. “Ramesh was
in an inebriated state and the
cops took him to the police station where he was tortured
allegedly for a theft case which
he never committed,” he
alleged.
Kailash added that the cops
developed cold feet when
Ramesh’s condition deteriorated due to the torture inflicted. “To save their skin, the
police dumped him in a jeep
and dropped the body at a
place near the police station.
Later, on information, a police
A
team from ‘Dial 100’ reached
the scene and rushed the victim to a hospital where he was
declared dead upon arrival,” he
claimed.
The kin alleged that the
police forced the family to cremate the body in their presence.
On April 08, 2017, senior
officials had ordered a probe
into the case asking ASP, Trans
Gomti, to look into allegations being levelled against the
police.
On Friday, sub-inspector
Tribhuvan Singh lodged a case
of culpable homicide. The FIR
said that suspect Ramesh of
Indira Nagar was caught when
he was trying to enter a house
owned by Mohammed Qayum
of Indira Nagar on Thursday
night. As Qayum raised an
alarm, his aides Sakir, Bablu
and Irfan, all engaged in cattle
fodder business, caught
Ramesh and thrashed him
injuring him critically.
The group then reportedly took him to Indira Nagar
police station and handed him
over to the police. During
interrogation, the suspect’s condition deteriorated and cops
rushed him to a hospital where
he was declared dead. After the
news stating police apathy was
highlighted, the cops weaved a
story to cover up their crime.
Deflecting media attention, a police spokesman said
that the police got a call around
Thursday midnight about the
recovery of an unidentified
body and rushed it to a hospital for examination. “It was later
identified and subsequently
the police contacted the family of the suspect. But they
refused to register a case and so
sub-inspector Tribhuwan Singh
lodged a case against the above
named persons. Three of the
accused were arrested while
Irfan was absconding,” he
explained.
Station officer of Indira
Nagar denied allegations of
forced cremation of the
deceased and said that the
police had slip of Trauma
Centre and Bhainsakund cremation ground given by
Lucknow
Municipal
Corporation. He said that the
police had also got the cremation procedure recorded.
Despite several attempts,
SSP, Lucknow, Manzil Saini
could not be contacted for her
comment on the issue.
Gayatri case as an IO and she
was satisfied with her performance.
Defending herself, she said
she had never talked rough
with the woman and her
daughter who also was a victim of rape attempt. She said
the woman and her daughter
were not cooperating in the
investigation. “We went to her
house duly informing the local
police and brought her to present the girl before a magistrate only after a due consent
from the family. You never
know when and where one
will level allegation on you,”
she said. She said she would
take the charge of the new circle on Tuesday.
Commadant, PAC, inspecting the guard of honour at
35 Battalion, Mahanagar, on Monday
Pioneer
Woman harassed
by eve-teasers
3 cops removed for beating up innocent
PIONEER NEWS SERVICE n LUCKNOW
a bizarre case, a sub-inspector and two
thrashed a Good Samaritan
Ifornconstables
helping an injured person in
hree unidentified eveteasers passed lewd comT
ment on a woman and threatened to gang rape her after
abduction if she reported the
matter to the police on
Monday.
As per reports, the woman
lives with her husband who is
employed with Jal Nigam. The
couple lives at a quarter in
Vikas Nagar. The woman
alleged that three youths were
constantly harassing her for the
last couple of days. She had
complained to the local police
about their act but her plea
went unheard.
“On Monday noon the
miscreants reached the house
when my husband had gone for
some work. They passed lewd
comment and when I resisted
they threatened me with dire
consequences. One of them
threatened to gangrape me if I
reported the matter to the
police,” she alleged in her complaint.
Interestingly, the Lucknow
police were asked to form antiRomeo squads to deal with
such cases.
PIONEER NEWS SERVICE n LUCKNOW
Mahanagar on Sunday night. Pushed on
the back foot by public unrest and severe
criticism, the SSP, Lucknow, removed the
S-I and constables to control the damage
done to the police image. But the residents
did not seem satisfied with the police
action and they criticised the state government.
As per reports, Siddharth Singh of
Malhar Apartment was at his flat on the
first floor. His father is a businessman. His
mother saw two cars colliding with each
other near the apartment around 10.30 pm.
As one of the youths suffered serious
injuries, she sent her son Siddharth to rush
the injured youth to a hospital.
After getting the injured youth admitted to a hospital, when Siddharth returned
home, he found S-I Dinesh Singh and constables Izhar Ali and Pankaj Singh on the
spot asking residents about the incident.
Siddharth told police that the S-I asked
residents to park the damaged car inside
the campus when they opposed the same
advising him to tow the car to the police
station. “The S-I lost his cool on residents’
suggestion and hurled choicest of expletives on them. When I opposed his act, he
caught me by my collar while the constables started beating me. My family came
to my rescue but the cops called a police
team from the Mahanagar police station,”
IT official’s car damaged in traffic drive
PIONEER NEWS SERVICE n LUCKNOW
against wrong parking in Hazratganj on
Monday afternoon. The car in question,
however, was not wrongly parked and its
driver was leaving the office for some other
venue.
As per reports, car (UP32HN/0146)
driver Ajay Shukla had gone to the Income
Tax office in Hazratganj as he had to drop
his boss RP Srivastava at his office. He said
he came on the road after dropping
Srivastava at the office. “Soon as I came on
the main road, a crane towing vehicles
parked haphazardly outside the office
moved past the car and hit it from the right
side. Due to the heavy impact, the bonnet
of the car and the casket over it was damaged,” he said. He said crane driver sped off
the scene sensing action.
He said he informed Srivastava about
the incident and later reached the Traffic
booth to ask cops to compensate the damages they had done without any fault. “The
traffic cops, however, washed off their
hands saying the mistake was committed
by Nagar Nigam which was towing the
vehicles,” he alleged. A number of drivers
working at Income Tax department and driving cars of tax officers reached the scene
and they created a ruckus. But no one from
Nagar Nigam and from Traffic department
reached the place to oversee the matter.
he said.
Recalling the nightmarish experience
that he and his family faced at the hand of
the police, he said the cops thrashed his
mother, his wife, his elder brother and
other members of the family. “Are you a
leader that you will dictate your terms on
us?” the S-I asked Siddharth.
“The cops bundled Siddharth and his
family in a police jeep. They were brought
to the Mahanagar police station and put
behind the lockup. The cops taunted,
booed and passed comments on me and
my family,” the victim told.
Due to providence, the news reached
circle officer Vishal Vikram Singh and he
reached the police station. He directed cops
to let off Siddharth and his family.
SSP, Lucknow, Manzil Saini said the
incident was unfortunate and added that
the S-I and two constables had been
removed from their post. She added the
family refused to give any complaint
against the errant cops. “If they lodged any
complaint, a case would be registered
against the errant cops,” she said.
joint team of traffic police and Nagar
A
Nigam hit the official car of Chief
Income Tax Commissioner during a drive
Islamic books see good sale Arbitrary fees: DIOS gets tough
PIONEER NEWS SERVICE n LUCKNOW
slamic books are seeing a
good sale at the ongoing
ILucknow
Book Fair which was
inaugurated recently at the
Moti Mahal Grounds. Azhar
Abbas from the Vilayat
Publications, who had come
from Delhi to set up the stall
for the first time at the fair, said
that the books were being
picked up by both the Hindus
and the Muslims. “The books
that we have got throw light on
Islam. Among the books that
are witnessing good sales is ‘
History of Shias,” ‘Nahjul
Balagha,’ ‘Wahabiyat do raahe
par’ and ‘Akhlate Mohammadi,’
he said.
He further pointed out
that they had books on how to
respect women. On being
asked if they had any books on
triple talaq which was currently the issue in focus, he said
that they had no books on this
because this issue does not
exist amongst Shias.
Meanwhile
Manoj
Chandel, convener of the
Lucknow Book Fair, said that
it attracted a reasonable crowd
on Sunday. He admitted that
the hot weather was hamper-
ing the attendance of the visitors in the afternoom.
“We have a lot of students
who come in the morning
and at the evening time. It is
primarily the book lovers who
come along with their families.
Lucknow has always been a
good destination for the book
lovers in comparison to the
other metros. Book fairs at
Lucknow attract better crowds
than they do at places like
Chandigarh where the literacy
rate is better and even at Jaipur
where the literacy rate is good
the book fairs have been a
flop.” This could possibly be
because they are interested in
so many entertaining events
other than book fairs,” he
added.
He also pointed out that
Lucknow was an educational
hub with more than 10 universities which again made it an
important centre for education.
Chandel said that Book
Fairs were relevant because the
stores of the city were primarily dabbling in what could be
called educational books. “
The Book fair is like a mega
mall where book lovers can get
a variety of books. There is a
new trend which has started
in the book fairs where authors
are promoting one book.
Currently we have authors
from Chandigarh and Gujarat
who are engaged in the promotion of one book,” he said.
On being asked how book
fairs scored over the internet,
Chandel said: “Physical browsing of the book was much easier as compared to the internet
browsing. There are several
book lovers who arrive at the
Book Fair with queries of particular books that they want.
Nowadays there are a lot of
charitable and spiritual organisations which have come forward and want to carry out
their activities and their stalls
attract a lot of readers,” he
added.
He said that the current
book fair was seeing the sales
of a lot of books on literature.
“Literature attracts the maximum attention of the book
readers in Lucknow and there
are several takers for books on
literature,” he added. He further pointed out that they
were getting queries from several people from abroad who
want to participate in the Book
Fair and these included people
from the Gulf countries and
also from Mauritius and Sri
Lanka. “We expect their participation next year in the
Lucknow Book Fair,” he added.
PIONEER NEWS SERVICE n LUCKNOW
a bid to regulate the schools
arbitrary fees from
Ithencharging
students, DIOS Umesh
Tripathi issued a strict warning
to them that raids would be
conducted and FIRs lodged
against them if they did not follow the directives of the
Education Department.
The DIOS said this while
addressing a press conference
organised at the Education
Directorate on Monday on the
implementation of ‘Quality
education development and
good management of education
citizens’ charter.’ He categorically pointed out that if any parent lodged an FIR then he
would personally look into the
matter. He said that they would
conduct the raids soon after this
announcement.
Giving the details of the
manner in which the fees would
be calculated, he said that the
salary given to the teachers
would be added to the maintenance cost and the whole sum
would be divided by the number of students in the school.
Addressing the media, he
said all the schools of Lucknow
district, whether government or
DIOS Umesh Tripathi addressing a
press conference
private, would be covered under
these directives. “These schools
are public institutions and are
registered under the Society Act
and they have no right to
become commercial establishments. They are meant for
public service. The fees should
not be a rupee extra than the
amount which is calculated
after adding the salary of the
teachers to the maintenance
cost and dividing it by the
number of students,” he said.
He added: “The schools
cannot charge for the air conditioners that they install and
they can only charge for the
amount of electricity used.
They cannot tell the parents to
buy books from any particular
shop and they cannot give the
venue for any commercial ven-
ture,” he added. Tripathi said
that teams had been formed to
carry out the raids.
On being asked whether
action would be initiated
against the schools charging
exorbitant fees, he replied in the
affirmative. “No school will be
spared which does not follow
these instructions. In a week’s
time you will know the results
of the action taken,” he added.
When asked why the
department had taken such a
long time in initiating action
against such schools, he said,
“There was a case pending in
the court regarding the matter
and hence we could not take
action earlier,” he said.
The DIOS informed
newspersons that the Lucknow
district had a total of 51 government, 101 aided and 611
unaided schools. He said that
a whatsapp group had been
made of all the schools in
which complaints could be
posted through message audio
and video as well as picture
message. He said there was one
whatsapp group which had
been made of aided and government schools and there
were three other groups which
had been made of the unaided
schools. A group of email ids of
the schools had also been prepared so that any information
could be sent immediately. He
said that the groups had been
made as per the Board to
which these schools had been
affiliated which included ICSE,
CBSE, Madarsa Board and
those being run by the Sanskrit
Shiksha Parishad.
He said that in order to
bring quality and transparency in the education administration the following steps should
be followed. “Workers who
have been stationed at the
same place for a long time
should be shifted. A list should
be made of all the pending
issues which should be resolved
in a week’s time. There should
be two windows made for the
postal receipt and postal
despatch in the clerical sections
and they should be categorised
as ‘urgent,’ ‘today’ and ‘ordinary’ and directed to the official concerned.”
The DIOS said that on the
working days between 10-12
pm meetings should be held
with the general public for
redressing their grievances
and the register should be prepared at the DIOS level.
Mowgli girl drinking from glass, shows improvement
PIONEER NEWS SERVICE n LUCKNOW
owgli girl now named
‘Ehsaas,’ currently staying
M
at the Nirvan Rehabilitation
Centre of the city, has shown a
lot of improvement in the last
two days since she was brought
there from Bahraich. She has
not only learnt how to drink
water from the glass but was
seen sipping juice on Monday
in the manner people usually
do.
Founder chairperson,
Nirvan, SS Dhapola, while giving the routine of the girl for
the day, said that they had
placed her amongst other children of the centre so that she
could learn from them by
watching them as to what they
were doing. “She ate chicken
and she has also learnt how to
drink water from the glass.
Earlier, she used to throw water
and food on the ground. It
appears that her grasping
power is good and she is learning fast,” he said.
He admitted that the
Jungle girl Ehsas at Nirvan Rehabilitation Centre
eleven-year-old girl was not toilet trained. “We are using diapers as of now because she has
no toilet training.”
Talking about her behaviour, he said that she quietly
watched the children playing
and threw away the toys which
she was given. “ We are planning to get her vaccinated for
rabies because it has been said
that she has lived amongst the
animals for a long time. If this
has happened then she needs
the vaccine because when the
animals shower their love they
generally bite too,” he added.
He further said that they were
going in for a psychiatric
check- up of the girl to study
her Intelligent Quotient (IQ).
On being asked whether
the girl appeared as if she had
been living with the monkeys,
Dhapola said, “This is not our
concern whetrher she has lived
with the monkeys or not what
we want is that she should
recover, join the mainstream
and behave like other children. It is strange that the
people are calling her Mowgli
which is not right because this
name will stick to her. We are
calling her Ehsaas and want her
to get familiar with this word.
I named her ‘Ehsaas’ because
we do not know to which religion she belongs and this is a
name which is used both by the
Hindus and Muslims and she
could be from either religion,”
he pointed out.
He said that it seemed that
the girl had been living in isolation for a long time. “It
appears that the girl was living
in isolation for long and she
should be given time wherein
she can learn to communicate
and thus tell on her own where
she had been for so long. This
will solve the general query
about whether she had been
living with the monkeys or
not?” he added.
The founder of Nirvaan
said that two people had
claimed that they were the relatives of Mowgli and visited
her. “These people had come
from Jaunpur and called themselves the grandfather and the
paternal uncle of the girl which
we were not sure about and told
them that they should have
brought a picture which
showed all of them together.
We are not stopping anyone
who is claiming that she
belongs to them because there
is a possibility that her true relatives reach out to her,” he
added.
On being asked whether
they were taking any funding
from the state government for
her care, he said that they
were not taking any money.
“Minister for Women’s
Welfare Rita Bahuguna Joshi,
who had come to the centre,
had asked whether they needed any help,” he added.
Meanwhile, on being asked
chief wildlife warden Umendra
Sharma said that there was no
truth in the fact that the girl
had been living with the monkeys in the forests of Bahraich.
“This is simply a media hype.
There is no truth because if she
had been living with the monkeys she would have been spotted because there are men
patrolling the forests and there
are camera traps which have
been installed here,” he added.
ICAR-INDIAN INSTITUTE OF SUGARCANE RESEARCH
P.O.DILKUSHA, RAE BARELI ROAD, LUCKNOW - 226 002
No.F. 8-264/2016-Adm.l
Dated: April. 07, 2017
Walk-in-Interview
The Walk-in-Interview for the one position of Technical
Assistant under time bound project, at ICAR-Indian Institute of
Sugarcane Research, Lucknow is to be conducted as per details
given below:
Sl. Name of the Date & Time Name of the
Period
Post &
of Interview Project with
of
emoluments
File No.
Project
1. Technical
18.04.2017
"Accredited Testing One
Assistant
at
Laboratory (ATL)
year
(One No.)
11:00 A.M
DBT, New Delhi
Rs. 15,000/& BCIL, New
fixed per
Delhi"
month
(F. No. 2-1 (332)/
2015-Adm.1
For complete details as to Qualifications. Age and other instructions. terms and conditions for applying to the above mentioned
positions. please refer to the Institute Website: www.iisr.nic.in.
Assistant Administrative Officer
& 1/c Adm. 1 Section
city 04
LUYCKNOW | TUESDAY | APRIL 11, 2017
CEE hosts Swachhata fortnight
under Namami Gange project
PIONEER NEWS SERVICE n LUCKNOW
s a part of the Namami
Ganga initiative a ‘Ganga
A
Swachchhata Pakhwada’ (March
16-31, 2017) was observed by
the National Mission for a Clean
Ganga (NMCG) and the
Ministry for Water Resource,
River Development and Ganga
Rejuvenation, Government of
India. The ‘pakhwada’ was conducted as an awareness campaign to invite citizens to come
together and contribute their
mite towards keeping the Ganga
clean and pollution-free.
The
Centre
for
Environment Education (CEE)
was designated as a nodal
agency by the NMCG to conduct this campaign along the
Ganga covering the prime cities
and towns. The aim of this campaign was to create awareness
and ownership among the citizens about cleanliness and san-
itation and to develop a sense of
pride for the city on the banks
of the Ganga and the importance of keeping it clean.
The Senior Project
Coordinator of CEE ,Preeti
Kannaujia, said that the pakhwada was observed along the five
Ganga basin states covering
Uttarakhand, UP, Bihar,
Jharkhand and West Bengal
where around 17 cities and
towns were covered for conducting awareness activities. The
pakhwada began from
Allahabad on March 16, 2017,
and concluded on March 31,
2017, at Haridwar.
“At each location, various
events on different ghats were
organised with the support of
the district administration,
Nagar Nigam, Jal Nigam,
Pollution Control Board, Nagar
Panchayat, local NGOs, university, schools and individuals. The
state agencies like State
Programme Management
Groups (SPMGs), Nehru Yuva
Kendra Sangathan (NYKS) etc
joined the campaign.
Locations of pakhwada
events were cities and towns
along the course of the Ganga in
five states. “ In Uttar Pradesh
these were organised at
Anupshahr,
Narora,
Garhmukteshwar, Bijnore,
Vrindavan, Kanpur, Allahabad
and Varanasi.”
In each location events
were conducted for 4-6 days
focusing on awareness generation and encouraging public
participation for a clean Ganga.
Events like Ganga chaupal,
padyatra, door-to-door campaign, pledge campaign, shramdaan, nukkad natak, competitions, workshops, seminars,
exhibitions, and cultural
evenings were organised on the
ghats and other places in each
location. During the pakhwada
events were held on more than
50 ghats. “More than 50,000
people participated directly in
these events which included
ghat vendors, boatmen, religious priests, Ganga Samiti,
youths from colleges and universities, school children and teachers, local NGOs, individuals,
media etc. Other mediums were
also used to create awareness
among the people of these locations. Public outreach through
newspaper advertisement, SMS
campaign, FM announcement,
hoardings and mobile van was
used to create awareness about
the pakhwada.
Daring house robbery in Indira Nagar Minister reviews
PIONEER NEWS SERVICE n LUCKNOW
n a daring case of house robbery, three unidentified miscreants stormed the house of
Tata Motors employee, attacked
him and his wife while holding
the family hostage and
decamped with household articles, jewellery and cash from
the house on Sunday night. The
police registered a case of
house robbery in this connection. As per reports, Jai Shanker
Maurya, along with his family,
lives in a newly-developed
I
he Enterprise Resource
Planning (ERP) system for
T
the Lucknow Metro Rail
Corporation (LMRC) went live
on Tuesday. The ERP is a business process management software which will allow LMRC to
use a system of applications to
manage the business and automate many back office functions which include finance,
human resource, administration and supply chain management. Senior PRO, LMRC,
Amit Srivastava, said that it
included automation and faster
processing of payments along
with invoice handling.
Automatic transaction recording along with integration of
Automatic Fare Collection
System. project costing and the
wife ran to cover him and she
also was attacked by the miscreants.
The couple was rendered
helpless while the miscreants
collected jewellery, cash and an
LED TV. While leaving the
house, they spotted a gold
chain that Maurya’s wife was
wearing and they snatched it
too. The family waited for miscreants to leave the scene and
later called the police when
they were assured that miscreants had vanished.
As the news came to light,
the police reached the place for
investigation. The police suspected the claim made by the
couple. But as residents got
enraged over the police attempt
to dilute the gravity of the incident, the cops were forced to
register a case for house robbery under section 394 of IPC.
Police spokesman said the cops
were scanning the footages of
CCTV to locate the miscreants.
He said the police had alerted
its network of informers to
trace miscreants involved in the
crime.
‘Film fest entertains and educates too’
PIONEER NEWS SERVICE n LUCKNOW
uresh Khanna, Urban
Development Minister,
Sinaugurated
the 6th day of the
ICFF-2017 by lighting the lamp
of learning in the presence of
Aman Siddiqui (Bhootnath)
and Japtej Singh (Bhaag Milkha
Bhaag) and Roomi Siddiqui (a
TV artiste).
The Films Division of City
Montessori School has organised this nine-day-long
International Children’s Film
Festival from April 5 to 13 at
the CMS Kanpur Road auditorium. In this Film Festival the
best educational children’s films
of 102 countries are being
screened free of charge.
While inaugurating the 6th
day of ICFF-2017, the chief
guest, Suresh Khanna, Urban
Development Minister, UP,
said that this International
Children’s Film Festival was a
great initiative because it taught
as well as entertained. “This
effort of the CMS will create an
educationally-conducive
atmosphere with good human
values. Literate children are just
as much deprived of moral and
spiritual values as their illiterate counterparts and the CMS
must be commended for its
exemplary efforts towards
grooming the younger generation to become world-class citizens by conducting such
events,” he said.
Nearly 10,000 students
enjoyed the entertaining and
educative movies such as
Giraffe, Land of Light, Fun
Dimension, Heaven is Black,
Walking on the Water, The Bird
Life Cycle, Use me Please,
Hello Papa, Let’s Walk
Together, What about Me, A
ERP system for
LMRC goes live
PIONEER NEWS SERVICE n LUCKNOW
colony in Indira Nagar. Around
1.30 am on Thursday, the miscreants scaled the boundary
wall of the house and entered
the premises. They were carrying iron rods in their hands and
entered the house in which the
couple was resting. They held
house inmates hostage at the
gun-point and asked them to
give the keys of the almirah.
When Maurya resisted and
threatened to call police, the
miscreants attacked him with
iron rods on his head and
other parts of the body. His
contract management system
with payment milestones, easy
bank-to-bank transfer and reconciliation of bank statements.
“It will help in assets’
management, depreciation calculation, budget control,
month-wise period closing for
proper control and reconciliation. It will also do on-demand
financial reports’ generation.
An employee’s personal
and professional data, leave
management, payroll generation, reimbursements etc can be
applied and managed though a
computerised
system.
Scheduling of trainings and
policy automation can be done
through it. Purchasing, receiving of material and inventory
management will be automated. Storing and locating material will be easy.
sport facilities
PIONEER NEWS SERVICE n LUCKNOW
P Sport Minister (independent charge) Chetan
U
Chauhan on Monday said a
determined effort would be
made to keep the premises of
the sport complex clean and
neat. He also stressed the total
ban on tobacco, paan and paan
masala, cigarettes and consumption of alcohol in an
around the compound.
He was speaking at the
review meeting of the Sport
department here. The minister
felt that an atmosphere should
be created so that players could
concentrate on improving their
sporting skills and keep them
physically and mentally fit.
He said that the facilities
given to the sportpersons
should be reviewed from to
time and also ensured they
were given best possible facilities so that they could perform
exceptionally good at the
national and international
meet.
He urged officers and those
staffers attending the meeting
to maintain discipline on the
field as well as in offices. They
were advised to come to the
office on time and attend their
routine work.
The minister said that there
would be no shortage of sports
goods and equipment and
advised instructors and trainers not to misuse them and
utilise them for the benefit of
sportpersons may be benefited.
Additional chief secretary
Anita Jain Bhatnagar, director,
Sport, RP Singh, joint director
RN Singh and sport director
SK Sharma attended the meeting.
UPHDB, LDA asked
to streamline working
PIONEER NEWS SERVICE n LUCKNOW
he state government on
Monday directed UP
T
Housing and Development
Urban Development Minister Suresh Khanna inaugurating the 6th day of ICFF
Song of Water, Kudrat, India
Shining, Anokha Pitara, Blue
and the Black, A Million
Things, Life after War etc.
Parents who accompanied their
children to enjoy such enlightening films, accepted wholeheartedly that this is an easier
and more effective way of
teaching values to the children.
These children’s films throw
light on unity of mankind,
devotion to God, triumph of
truth, power of prayer, confidence in one’s self and other
humane qualities.
During the press conference organised in the afternoon
the child actors, Aman Siddiqui
and Japtej Singh, and the TV
artiste, Roomi Siddiqui, interacted with the journalists.
Speaking to the media,
Roomi Siddiqui said that the
Fest would prove to be a milestone in the history of children’s
cinema. “Since children can
relate to the characters on
screen, they easily imbibe good
values. There is an enormous
strength of children participating in the festival which is an
indication enough to prove
the relevance and success of
this Film Festival.”
On the occasion the chief
patron and chairman of the
film festival and renowned
educationist Jagdish Gandhi
stated that the International
Children’s Film Festival was
receiving overwhelming support from the people of
Lucknow and he was highly
obliged to them. Expressing his
deep concern over the modernday films shown on the silver
screen, Dr Gandhi said that
they were polluting the tender
minds of children by showing
inappropriate content, violence
and projecting that self-harm
State govt starts
work on 6 AIIMS
PIONEER NEWS SERVICE n LUCKNOW
he Yogi Adityanath government has started work
on setting up six AIIMS and
25 new medical colleges in the
state, one of the promises the
BJP made in the run-up to the
Assembly polls.
“We promised to open six
AIIMS and 25 new medical
colleges in the state. We have
started working in this direction. Once we shortlist areas
for setting up these institutions, we will send a proposal to the Centre through the
Chief Minister,” Minister for
Technical and Medical
Education Minister Ashutosh
Tandon Gopalji told PTI.
He said AIIMS and medical colleges is the need of the
hour keeping in mind the
state’s population and cater to
their health needs. The institutions will be ready in the
next five years.
Asked about poor quality
of education being imparted
to students in many engineering colleges across the
state, he said: “Our priority is
to improve the quality of education in all institutions. For
this, we are focusing on filling
up vacant teaching posts.”
T
“I have directed to fill up
500 vacant posts of teacher
before the start of new session,” he added.
On students facing problems in finding job opportunities after pursuing courses in
these institutions, Tondon
said,
“Once quality is ensured,
the students will also be able
to get good jobs in the market.”
The government is also
planning to hold ‘rozgar mela’
(job fair). These fairs will be
started in the next three
months to ensure that students of management and
engineering get job, he said.
There are more than 600
private and 13 government
engineering colleges in the
state.
The minister said besides
free WiFi on college campuses, the government will set up
e-libraries to keep students
abreast of the latest developments.
Among other steps to be
taken in the education sector,
he said that infrastructure of
polytechnic institutes will be
bolstered and all their students
will be provided hostel facilities.
was acceptable. The films
shown during the festival strive
to inculcate traits such as selfconfidence and were exemplifying how hard work and
labour could make one touch
the sky. CMS’s International
Children’s Film Festival is gaining popularity and recognition
not only in Lucknow but
throughout the country and
even across the borders famous
film actors and intelligentsia
were delighted to be a part of
the event.
Festival director of ICFF2017 V Kurian said that since
its inception the CMS had
been trying to make its students good human beings by
imparting all three kinds of
education- human, material
and divine. This Children’s
Film Festival was another effort
in the same direction, he
added.
Board
and
Lucknow
Development Authority to
streamline their working so
that the public did not suffer.
It also stressed on digitising the
record room.
It is felt that digitising the
records will help the authorities
in checking duplication and
also unscrupulous deals.
The directive was issued by
Minister of State for Housing
(Independent charge) Suresh
Pasi following review of the
performances of UPHBD and
LDA by Chief Minister Yogi
Adityanath recently.
The minister emphasised
on opening single window system for the convenience of
public. He also said money
transactions should be done
on-line to avoid long queues at
the counters.
These directives were
issued during a joint meeting
attended by officials of both the
housing and development
agencies.
The minister said the government was against conversion of residential areas into
commercial ones. However, he
did not comment on the status
of amended UP Building Rules
and Regulations. The amendment empowers officials to
convert the status of property
with no time.
The Building Rules and
Regulations were amended in
September last year.
On the directive of the
state government, a special
software will be introduced by
July to store and protect documents relating to registration
of sale deeds of properties registered since 1999 to date. This
is being done to check replacement of original sale deeds with
fake ones. There have been several complaints in this regard.
LDA Vice-Chairman
Satyendra Singh said they had
taken initiatives in this regard
during the last three years and
more was being done to bring
in transparency.
Housing Commissioner
RP Singh said that several
steps had been taken at all levels to check this menace.
HC order on NPX commercial project of Noida
PIONEER NEWS SERVICE n ALLAHABAD
he Allahabad High Court
on Monday directed Noida
T
Authority to pull down any
unauthorised construction that
may have come up on the
ground floor of NPX commercial project in Sector 153 of the
city.
The order was given to
ensure that no portion of the
stilt area - which is supposed
to be used for parking - was
sold to any buyer by the
builder.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice D B
Bhosle and Justice Yashwant
Verma passed the order while
disposing of a petition filed by
NPX Unit Owners Welfare
Association.
The Association had
moved the court submitting
that initially the builder HiLead Infotech had put out
advertisements in the year
2009 with regard to the NPX
(Nehru Phase Extension) commercial project for shops on
the ground floor.
However, the company
came up with a revised floor
plan later wherein shops on the
ground floor were showed
“merged” with the first floor.
The petitioners accused
the builder of fraud, alleging
that the shops on the ground
floor were now being sold to
new buyers on a higher price.
However, this was repudiated by the builder’s counsel
who submitted that the entire
stilt area will be used for parking.
The court, while passing
the directions, held that no
construction be allowed on the
stilt area and that the same be
used for no other purpose
than parking.
The court also ordered
that possession of shops on the
first floor be given to respective buyers within eight weeks.
Over 4,50,000 candidates register for BEd JEEs
Online application forms last date over
PIONEER NEWS SERVICE n LUCKNOW
rof Naveen Khare, State
Coordinator, JEE B.Ed.
P
2017-19, said that Monday
was the last date for filling the
online application forms for
JEE B.Ed. 2017–19.
“In all more than 4,50,000
candidates have filled the
complete application forms
till 6 pm on Monday. About
40,000 candidates who are
appearing in their qualifying
examination in 2017 have registered themselves. Monday
being the last date for submitting forms there was a huge
rush for submitting them
which led to some server
problem between the Bank of
Baroda and their payment
gateway provider in updation
of the fees of applicants,” he
said. He said that in the
interest of applicants it was
decided to allow those candidates who had completed their
registration and submitted
their application fee by the last
day (Monday) but due to
some reasons could not complete the final step of the
application process, could
complete their application
form on April 11, 2017
(Tuesday) also. The new registration would close on
Monday only, he added.
‘Writings on tourism should be restructured’
PIONEER NEWS SERVICE n LUCKNOW
ourism writing has
become quite indispensT
able in modern world when it
is taking various dimensions
from print media publications
to electronic media to travelogues, etc. This came out from
the deliberations of a daylong
national
seminar
on
‘Dimensions of travel writing
: Yesterday, today and beyond’
organised at the Institute of
Tourism Studies, University of
Lucknow, to commemorate
the 124th birth anniversary of
Mahapandit
Rahul
Sankrityayan who has been an
epic traveller across the
nations and within India.
Prof Nishith Rai, chief
guest and Vice-Chancellor,
Shankuntala
Mishra
Rehabilitation University,
argued that tourism was taking new dimensions and so the
writings on it should be
restructured.
“It should also include the
physically-challenged people
who may get new-found
opportunities in the hospitality sector provided travel literature is available to them in a
language that they can under-
stand,” he said.
Pankaj Pandey, Director,
News, Doordarshan, explored
the possibilities of the role
travel writing can play if
enhanced through media in
promoting destinations. He
reflected on the different travel channels which draw a large
viewership and how they
require travel writers.
Govind Pant Raju shared
his personal experiences, especially of his trip to Antarctica
and the Everest expedition. He
spoke about how culture was
safeguarded and at the same
time propagated by the resi-
dents of the Valleys situated in
the Himalayas.
Rajendra Prasad, former
director, UP Tourism, was the
keynote speaker on the occasion. He stressed the need for
a clean India which no amount
of travel writing could camouflage. He stressed the need for
travel writers to inculcate a
sense of esteem in keeping our
surroundings clean. This
would inspire an international tourist flow to the country.
Dr Sudheer Mishra gave
an account of the life and
works of Mahapandit Rahul
Sankrityayan. He spoke on
how travel to different places
and first-hand experience
shaped Sankrityayan’s writings. Prof MK Agar wal,
Director of the Institute, spoke
about taking forward the venture of travel writing to new
heights. He ensured that the
important outcomes of the
seminar would soon be published as a book.
The day saw the inaugural session followed by the plenary session and post-lunch
technical sessions which were
well attended by delegates
from many parts of the country.
nation 05
LUCKNOW | TUESDAY | APRIL 11, 2017
IN PARLIAMENT
EASTERN PERIPHERAL EXPRESSWAY
NHAI faces cash crunch Govt uses CBI, ED Forest Min’s absence in RS;
Ansari calls it most unusual
against
non-BJP
as States not supporting CMs: Opp in RS
PNS n NEW DELHI
ABRAHAM THOMAS n
NEW DELHI
asked to ensure that the
135-kilometre Eastern
Peripheral Expressway is put in
place by the scheduled deadline
of July 2018, the National
Highway Authority of India
(NHAI) is facing a severe cash
crunch as the Delhi
Government is not responding
to “several reminders” to
deposit its share of `2,159
crore in the Central pool.
The information about
NHAI's repeated pleas falling
on deaf ears came as part of the
latest status report submitted by
the Monitoring Committee
headed by Secretary, Ministry
of Road Transport and
Highways to the Special Bench
of the apex court hearing
Delhi's pollution matters.
Work on this project, estimated at a cost of `7,558 crore,
is being given to five contractors, who are simultaneously
working on six segments along
the entire 135-km stretch
between Kundli-GhaziabadNoida-Palwal. But on the
money part, the cost-sharing
ratio for the project worked out
between Governments of
Delhi, Haryana and Uttar
Pradesh in the ratio of 50:25:25
has yielded in payment of only
PNS n NEW DELHI
T
`937.92 crore to the NHAI, the
project proponent.
The
Monitoring
Committee's status report said,
"NHAI has an additional fund
requirement of `2,892 crore
from the Central Pool."
Government of Delhi has
deposited `653.50 crore only in
the Central Pool as against their
latest share of `2812.62 crore.
Accordingly, `2159.12 crore
are pending since long on the
part of Delhi Government for
deposit in the Central Pool.
The Government of Delhi has
been requested numerous
times to deposit their pending
share in the Central Pool."
As regards the other two
States, Uttar Pradesh has to
deposit `508.92 crore against its
share of `1406.31 crore while
Haryana Government needs to
utilise the amount from their
own resources to the tune of
`1798.38 crore towards land
acquisition. Haryana can claim
an amount over and above
this amount from the Central
Pool on furnishing utilisation
certificate, the report by the
Committee said.
The other parallel project,
the Western Peripheral
Expressway, looks promising
and ready for completion by
February 2019, the Committee
informed. The project manager - Haryana State Industrial
and
Infrastructure
Development Corporation
(HSIIDC) informed the Court
that the work on the KundliManesar stretch is expected to
complete by February 2019
while work on the remaining
Manesar-Palwal section is complete and was thrown open for
public use from July 15, 2016.
DEEPAK K UPRETI n NEW DELHI
meeting of expanded
National Democratic
A
Alliance (NDA) that included
INBRIEF
MODI TO RELEASE BOOK
WRITTEN BY LS SPEAKER
New Delhi: Prime Minister
Narendra Modi will release a
book authored by Lok Sabha
Speaker Sumitra Mahajan on
Tuesday. The book ‘Matoshree'
covers the life and times of
legendary Devi Ahilyabai Holker
who ruled the Holkar Empire
spread over the Malwa region
from 1767 to 1795. After the
release of the book, a 105-minute
play based on the book to be
directed Rajan Deshmukh will be
staged in Balayogi Auditorium in
Parliament in the evening.
AFTER CBI, ED SUMMONS
HIMACHAL CM
New Delhi: After being
chargesheeted by CBI, the ED
has now summoned Himachal
Pradesh Chief Minister Vir
Bhadra Singh for questioning in
its money laundering probe
against him and others. CBI has
charged Singh and wife for
amassing assets worth around
`10 crore disproportionate to
their known sources of income.
Officials said the agency has
issued fresh summons to Singh
as it wants to record his
statement under the Prevention
of Money Laundering Act
(PMLA).
‘DEATH PENALTY SHOULD BE
SCRAPPED LEGALLY ’
New Delhi: Former Union
Minister Salman Khurshid on
Monday said that death penalty
should be "put to death in
legislation". Speaking at
valedictory function of Youth
Summit at Amity Law School,
Khurshid commended students
for putting in tremendous efforts
in discussing and debating the
topics under various
Committees. The Summit was
inaugurated by former HRD
Minister Kapil Sibal, who shared
his views with the students
regarding the education system
in India and stressed that
budding lawyers should have
courage, conviction and
thorough knowledge of facts to
avoid getting misled.
laiming
that
the
Government
had
"unleashed" the CBI and ED
against non-BJP Chief
Ministers, the Congress-led
Opposition raised a din in the
Rajya Sabha on Monday forcing two adjournments in the
pre-lunch session. The
Opposition also charged the
Government with ignoring
"nepotism, corruption and
money laundering" by some
BJP-ruled States.
The House witnessed pandemonium after Deputy
Chairman PJ Kurien refused to
suspend business for the day to
discuss the issue as demanded
by Anand Sharma (Congress)
who raised the issue soon after
day's proceedings commenced.
Unwilling to accept the ruling,
the Congress members rushed
into the well raising slogans.
Kurien had to adjourn the
house for ten minutes the first
time and then for five minutes
when the house reassembled.
Raising the issue, Sharma
said bonafide decisions are
taken by elected Chief
Ministers and the State
Governments for allotment of
land and there is no State
which is exception to this rule.
Without naming anyone, he
said the Central Government,
in "blatant" abuse of authority,
was using ED to target former
Chief Ministers belonging to
the Opposition parties.
Sharma was obviously referring
to the attachment of properties
belonging to Himachal Pradesh
C
NDA passes resolution to work
together for 2019 under PM
33 allies of the BJP, on Monday
passed a resolution to work
together to succeed in 2019
under the leadership of Prime
Minister Narendra Modi.
Leaders of 33 BJP allies,
including the new friends it has
won over in Goa and North-East
States, attended the meeting at
Pravasi Bharatiya Kendra ahead
of election to the top constitutional posts of the President and
Vice-President due this year. The
meeting was held under the
Chairmanship of Modi, said
Senior BJP leader and Finance
Minister Arun Jaitley.
bsence of Minister of
Environment and Forest
A
Anil Dave during the Question
Chief Minister Virbhadra
Singh and ED summoning
him in connection with an
alleged money-laundering case.
Charging the Government
with protecting the BJP ruled
States, he claimed land was
allotted for newspaper but the
land use was converted to
commercial purpose in Madhya
Pradesh while in Haryana a
commercial organisation was
allotted land. "Government is
protecting the wrong-doings of
its own Chief Ministers" who
face accusations of "money
laundering, nepotism and corruption," Sharma said.
As Kurien said the notice on
the issue was not permitted,
Leader of Opposition Ghulam
Nabi Azad also alleged that the
CBI and the ED were
"unleashed" against non-BJP
Chief Ministers. Maintaining
that the "wrong-doings" of BJP
Chief Ministers were ignored,
he said enforcement agencies
were "let loose against
Opposition Chief Ministers."
The Chair, however, said the
wrong doings of Chief Ministers
can only be discussed in the
respective State Assemblies and
not in the Parliament.
Hour in the Rajya Sabha on
Monday drew the ire of
Chairman Hamid Ansari who
remarked he had not seen such
"an extraordinary situation in
"the last 10 years" and termed
it was "most unusual." Several
Congress MPs also said the
Government was taking the
Rajya Sabha for granted.
HRD Minister Prakash
Javadekar, who was present to
field the questions on behalf of
Dave, and his colleague Uma
Bharti, apologised. Incidentally,
this is the second time in this session that Ministers were not present to answer questions. Ansari
had last time also expressed his
unhappiness over it.
The latest situation arose
when Congress member
Mahendra Singh Mahra raised
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP president Amit Shah, TDP president N
Chandrababu Naidu, Home Minister Rajnath Sigh and SAD president Parkash
Singh Badal at a meeting of National Democratic Alliance at Pravasi Baratiya
Kendra in New Delhi on Monday
PTI
Shiv Sena chief Uddhav
Thackeray (with whom BJP
has not been in the best of
terms), Jammu & Kashmir
Chief Minister Mehbooba
Mufti, Andhra Pradesh Chief
Minister Chandrababu Naidu
and Former Punjab Chief
Minister and Shrimoni Akali
Dal head Prakash Singh Badal
attended the meeting.
Seen as a show of strength
after BJP's major victories in four
States — Uttar Pradesh,
Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur
— where it installed its
Governments, the dinner was an
exercise to consolidate backing
of all its allies in the Presidential
poll. While President Pranab
Mukherjee would demit his
office in July, Vice-President
Hamid Ansari, elected twice,
would retire in August, this year.
The NDA gathering, the
second such comprehensive
meeting since 2014 election
win of the BJP-led-alliance,
also assessed political scenario
in the country ahead of 2019
polls. BJP President Amit Shah
and several Cabinet Ministers
attended the meet.
The allies who attended the
meet also included Union
Ministers Ramvilas Paswan and
Upendra Kushwaha besides
Jitan Ram Manjhi from Bihar,
Union Minister Anupriya Patel
and Om Rajbhar from UP,
besides a host of allies from
Kerala, Tamil Nadu and other
States attended the meeting.
These apart, Sajjad Lone
from Kashmir, Ramdas
Athavale, Raju Shetty and
Mahadev Jankar from
Maharashtra, Vijai Sardesai and
Sudhir Dhavalikar from Goa,
PC Thomas and Vellappally
from Kerala and Sikkim Chief
Minister Pawan Chamling also
made their presence in the meet.
Total number of votes in
electoral college for President's
election stand at 10.98 lakh with
the majority mark to be around
5.49 lakh votes. (The total value
of MLA votes is 5,49,474 and the
total MP votes is 5,49,408.) The
NDA is estimated to be running
short of around 17,000 votes.
EC to soon convene
all-party meet to discuss
reliability of EVMs
PNS n NEW DELHI
he Election Commission
will soon convene an allparty meet to discuss the issue
of reliability of electronic voting machines (EVM). The
assurance came after a delegation of 16 opposition parties on
Monday urged the EC to revert
to the paper ballot system,
claiming the faith of the people in the EVMs has “eroded”.
Earlier, the Commission
also discussed the unprecedented election-day violence
and poor voter turnout in the
bypoll to the Srinagar Lok
Sabha seat. It is learnt that the
Commission had ignored the
advice of the Home Ministry
which had said atmosphere
was not conducive to hold the
polls. Immediately after the
announcement of schedule for
the byelections on March 10,
the Home Ministry had sent a
strongly-worded letter to the
Commission saying there was
T
SC to hear plea
challenging use of
EVMs on April 13
New Delhi: The Supreme
Court on Monday said it will
hear on April 13 the pleas challenging the use of EVMs in
elections without equipping
the machines with voter verified paper audit trail (VVPAT).
A bench headed by Chief
Justice JS Khehar refused to
give separate hearing to a plea
filed by former SP lawmaker
Ataur Rehman who sought
elections with EVMs equipped
with VVPAT.
no prior consultation with it
regarding the bypolls in
Srinagar and Anantnag constituencies. While polling in
Srinagar was held on Sunday,
byelection in Anantnag will be
held on Wednesday.
vociferous Opposition on
Monday demanded in the
Lok Sabha an FIR against BJP
MP Tarun Vijay for his purported racial remarks, even as
the Government asserted that
there was no discrimination in
the country on the basis of
colour, creed and religion.
The house was repeatedly
adjourned on the issue with
Congress leader Mallikarjun
Kharge demanding strict action
against Vijay as Union
Parliamentary Affairs Minister
Ananth Kumar asked the former
"not to create a divide". Kumar
said the BJP leader has already
apologised for his mistake.
In his response, Union
Home Minister Rajnath Singh
said India is a secular country
and there is no discrimination
allowed on the basis of colour,
creed and religion. "The individual has already said that his
remarks are indefensible," the
Home Minister said quoting
A
Vijay. He (Tarun Vijay) has
already apologised, there is no
need to raise any more questions about it, said Rajnath.
This, however, did not
sooth frayed tempers in the
Opposition bench with the
House proceedings adjourned
thrice — once during the
Question Hour and twice during the Zero Hour. Not satisfied
with the Government response,
Congress staged a walk out
from the house.
Kharge wondered whether
the people from South India
were not Indian citizens. "I
want to know whether we are
Indians or not... Are we not cit-
was a state-condoned massacre
of innocent Sikhs." Congress
member Anand Sharma objected to the statement and demanded that it should be expunged. In
the Lok Sabha, Akali Dal member Prem Singh Chandumajra
raised the issue and criticised the
External Affairs Ministry for
rejecting the motion.
Narendra
Budania
(Congress) expressed concern
over an Indian jawan, who
had raised the issue of quality
of food served to the forces,
being shown as dead in social
media in Pakistan and other
foreign countries and said "this
is a serious issue. Our country
is being defamed."
Tapan Kumar Sen
(CPM)claimed
the
Government was trying to privatise public sector steel plants
and drew the attention of the
House to strike call by the
employees of these factories on
Tuesday as a mark of protest.
Average level of noise pollution exceeds
permissible limits in 7 big cities: Dave
PNS n NEW DELHI
he average level of noise
pollution generally exceeds
T
the permissible limits in seven
cities of the country, including
Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata,
Chennai,
Environment
Minister Anil Madhav Dave
said on Monday in a written
reply in Rajya Sabha.
He said the Central Pollution
Control Board (CPCB) in association with its counterparts in
every State carries out monitoring of noise pollution in seven
Opp in LS demands FIR against
Tarun Vijay over his racial slur
PNS n NEW DELHI
the listed question on air and
noise pollution in Delhi and
NCR. His party colleague
Jairam Ramesh objected to the
Minister's absence and said "it
has happened for the second
time."
Ansari said it is the responsibility of the concerned
Minister to be present in the
House when a question relating to his or her Ministry is
taken up. "This is an extraordinary situation and I am sure
the Minister of Parliamentary
Affairs will look into this and
respond," he said.
Among other issues raised
in the house, ruling NDA ally
Akali Dal demanded that the
External Affairs Ministry withdraw its statement rejecting a
motion adopted by the
Legislative Assembly of Ontario
in Canada last week terming
the 1984 riots "genocide."
Raising the issue, Akali Dal
MP Naresh Gujral said, "There
izens (of India)," Kharge said
during Zero Hour.
Wanting to know what
action would be taken against
Vijay who is "not an ordinary
person", Kharge said he was a
former Rajya Sabha member
and has also written many
books on BJP philosophy. He
said the BJP leader's remark
could "divide" the country with
States asserting for their independence.
"FIR should be lodged
against him (Tarun Vijay). He
has talked about breaking the
nation. It is anti-national,"
Kharge said.
Kumar said BJP is of the
view that "we all are Indians.
There is no difference on the
basis of colour. We all are one.
Congress should not create
differences. We are all together". Kumar went on quoting
Vijay saying he is an adopted
son of a Tamil woman and in
2015 was seen holding a placard showing great Tamil poet
Thiruvalluvar.
metropolitan cities — Mumbai,
Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai,
Bangalore, Lucknow and
Hyderabad — through a network of 70 noise-monitoring stations under National Ambient
Noise Monitoring Programme
(NANMP).
"The data from these monitoring stations indicate that
average noise pollution levels
generally exceed the permissible limits. The data includes
noise due to horns of vehicles,"
Dave said.
Replying to another ques-
tion, he said while in fiscal
2014-15, 6,161 trees were cut in
Delhi, in 2015-16, 4,689 trees
were felled. The number of
trees cut in 2016-17 was 4,759.
The total number of trees
cut in these three financial
years was 15,609, he said,
adding that Section 10 of Delhi
Preservation of Trees Act, 1994
(DPTA), prescribes that every
person, who is granted permission under this Act to fell
or dispose of any tree, will be
bound to plant such number
and kind of trees in the area.
Aadhaar scheme violates
SC order, alleges Opp
PNS n NEW DELHI
he Opposition in the Rajya
Sabha on Monday attacked
T
the Government on the
Aadhaar scheme, saying it was
based on unverified data and
violated the Supreme Court
order that it should not be made
mandatory for schemes which
are not linked to subsidies.
The members also raised
concern over data integrity
and privacy issues while attacking the Government for using
the Aadhaar system to
"exclude" the beneficiaries for
delivery of subsidies and claiming to have made huge
Government savings.
Congress leader Jairam
Ramesh
attacked
the
Government for violating
Supreme Court orders which
clearly outlined where to use
Aadhaar. Making it mandatory beyond subsidies is in gross
violation of the SC orders, he
said.
Just before a short duration
debate on Aadhaar started in
the House, IT and Law Minister
Ravi Shankar Prasad said the
Government saved about
`50,000 crore LPG subsidy due
to the linking of Aadhaar card
with Jhan Dhan accounts.
Initiating the debate,
Rajeev Chandrashekar (Ind)
expressed concern over fake
aadhaar cards, data integrity
and privacy issues and also
exclusion of subsidies by making it mandatory. He said he
was not against the Aadhaar
system but the risks and problems need to be addressed by
the Government. The
Government should not take a
"rigid position".
Two Bills passed, two tabled in Lower House
PNS n NEW DELHI
ok Sabha on Monday passed
the Bill on amendments to
L
Motor Vehicle Act with stringent
provisions to ensure safety and
traffic besides a legislation to
accord constitutional status to
the National Commission for
Backward Classes. HRD
Minister Prakash Javdekar introduced Bill to permit 15 IIITs
award degrees and another Bill
seeking to amend the Right to
Education Act to allow elementary teachers time till 2019 to get
acquire minimum qualifications
as mandated under the 2010 law.
The bill to amend Motor
Vehicles Act introduced by
Transport Minister Nitin
Gadkari received support from
opposition parties and passed by
voice vote. All efforts would be
made to eliminate corruption in
the sector, Gadkari said while
replying to a discussion on the
Motor Vehicle (Amendment)
Bill 2016, claiming that "no
bogus driving lincenses would
be made and there would be no
theft of the vehicles once there
is e-governance."
"Once we (BJP) complete
five years, we would be able to
save 50 per cent lives lost due
to road accidents. We are working towards it," Gadkari said.
The bill to accord constitutional status to the National
Commission for Backward
Classes was approved by the Lok
Sabha even as the Opposition
expressed apprehensions that it
would impair the power of
states. The Constitution
Amendment bill, which requires
two-thirds majority for passage,
was approved by the House
with 360 members voting in
favour and two against. Terming
it as "historic" bill, Social Justice
and Empowerment Minister
Thawar Chand Gehlot said it
would promote the welfare of
the OBCs. The Minister assured
the House that the bill, which
has similar provisions as in case
of SC and ST commissions, will
not curtail the powers of states
in any way.
Javadekar introduced the
IIIT
(Public-Private
Partnership) Bill, 2017, which
seeks to declare 15 functional
IIITs, set up under public-private partnership mode, as institutions of national importance.
He also introduced the bill
seeking to amend the Right to
Education Act to allow elementary teachers time till 2019
to get acquire minimum qualifications as mandated under
the 2010 law. As per the existing Act which came into effect
from April 1, 2010, these teachers were to acquire minimum
qualifications within five years
by March 31, 2015.
DRAFT RULES OF RIGHTS OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES ACT, 2016
Activists expresses concern over gaping loopholes
ARCHANA JYOTI n NEW DELHI
ctivists fighting for disability rights have pointed
A
out “gaping loopholes” in the
draft Rules of the Rights of
Persons with Disabilities Act,
2016 alleging that the two contravene each other and
expressed apprehension that
the sector will continue to
remain neglected despite tall
promises by the Government
for its empowerment.
For instance, said disability rights advocate SC Vasistha,
while many sections of the
Act that are applicable to establishments (both Government
and private), the Rules render
them inapplicable to private
establishments. "Why private
sector has been left out," he
questioned.
Vasistha also alleged that
the draft Rules are silent on
protection from 'misuse' of
Section 3(3) which states that
"no person with disability shall
be discriminated on the ground
of disability, unless it is shown
that the impugned act or omission is a proportionate means
of achieving a legitimate aim."
Agreeing with Vasistha, Dr
Satendra Singh, Associate
Professor of Physiology at GTB
Hospital, said that this clause
gives unfettered power to the
implementing agencies to discriminate against persons with
disabilities, on the pretext of
serving a "legitimate aim".
Singh, who is afflicted with
polio knows better. He had to
face discrimination on the
same interpretation and it was
only after four-year struggle,
the government had to unlock
1700 posts for doctors with disabilities in the CGHS.
The 3.3 clause leaves "legitimate aim" open to the subjective interpretation of the
bureaucracy, pitched in
Vasistha adding that it is like
providing escape route to justify the subjective action of a
bureaucrat against a differently-abled person.
The activists have also
expressed unhappiness at the
way the power of the Chief
Commissioner of Persons with
Disability has been reduced to
a recommendatory body, leaving the persons of disability
completely unprotected.
Vasistha also felt that the
Rules if approved in the present
form would lead to inter-sectoral fight among the disabled
people given that while number of category of disabled has
increased from seven to 21, the
percentage of post for reservation has not increased correspondingly.
The Civilian Welfare
Foundation, an NGO working
for rights of disabled sportsperson has rued that there is no
mention in the Rules to ensure
participation of the persons
with disabilities in sporting
activities. The activists have
sought immediate correction in
the Rules before they are
finalised and notified.
nation 06
LUCKNOW | TUESDAY | APRIL 11, 2017
Drought forces
Karnataka Govt
to ration water
Four infiltrators killed in
Kashmir’s Keran sector
KHURSHEED WANI n SRINAGAR
our unidentified infiltrators were killed in north
F
Kashmir’s Keran sector as the
Army foiled first infiltration bid
from across the Line of Control
(LoC) after a prolonged winter
pause. The slain infiltrators are
suspected to be Pakistani
nationals who carried automatic weapons to augment
militants operating in the
Valley.
Defence sources said the
infiltrators were killed in
Tilapathra forest in Dudniyal
area of Keran sector in north
Kashmir’s Kupwara district,
around 150 kilometres from
Srinagar. They said the group
of Ultras was sneaking into this
side of LoC during the night
hours when their movement
was noticed by the troops
guarding the fence that divides
two parts of Kashmir Kashmir.
“The group was challenged
by the soldiers triggering a gunfight that continued throughout the night. The gun-battle
ended Monday morning with
the killing of four infiltrators,”
an army officer said.
The security forces
launched a massive combing
operation in the area to find out
if there were some surviving
infiltrators in the area.
The infiltration bid had
minimised in the north
Kashmir region, home to a vast
stretch along the LoC in
Bandipora, Kupwara and
Baramulla districts during the
harsh winter season. The LoC
area is mostly forested and the
traditional passes remain
blocked in winter due to accumulation of snow.
The militants operating in
Kashmir are desperately looking for replenishment of their
arsenal as they face dearth of
weapons and logistics. The
militants have increased attacks
on security forces with an aim
to snatch rifles.
However, the Army says
that the counter-infiltration
grind has been robust to thwart
the infiltration bids. Army
Commander Lt Gen D Anbu
and commander of Srinagar
based XV corps have frequently
visited the forward areas to take
stock of the situation.
Estimates say that around
112 infiltrators managed to
sneak into Kashmir during
last year during the bids double in number. Though most of
the bids were foiled, the year
recorded the highest number of
infiltrations since 2012.
KESTUR VASUKI n BENGALURU
he failure of monsoon and
severe drought for three
T
consecutive years has resulted
Union Minister Harsh Vardhan along with Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and his wife Amruta during the
Bhagwan Mahavir Birth-Kalyanak Mahostsav celebration at August Kranti Maidan in Mumbai on Sunday
PTI
Didi using Teesta as handle to control Narada-Sharada probes: LF, Cong
SAUGAR SENGUPTA N KOLKATA
uestioning the contents of
talks between Narendra
Q
Modi and Mamata Banerjee the
Left Front and Congress on
Monday wondered whether
Teesta would be used to water
down investigation into the
Narada and Sharada scams.
While the Trinamool leaders said during her talks with
the Prime Minister, the Chief
Minister put forth a number of
issues including her demand of
`10,000 crore for the State.
CPI(M)’s Md Salim said
there was an attempt to use
Teesta water to dilute the
Narada probe.
“The meeting gives rise to
questions whether attempt is
made to barter away Teesta
water with Narada probe,”
Salim an MP from Raiganj said.
Congress MP and its
Bengal unit president Adhir
Chowdhury echoed his views
saying “It is Trinamool
Congress’ ploy to delay the
Teesta treaty” so that the Centre
can be pressurised to dilute the
investigation process into
Narada and chit fund scams.
However
Trinamool
Congress MP Sukhendushekhar Roy wondered, whether
these leaders were present
when Mamata spoke to the
Prime Minister, or else how
could they come to know about
the contents of the meeting.
Mamata Banerjee had been
constantly resisting the signing
of Teesta-water-sharing pact
with Bangladesh, a key diplomatic issue between the two
friendly nations and an internal political issue for visiting
Bangla Prime Minister Sheikh
Hasina.
A senior BJP leader in
Bengal said the people of the
State should rest assured of the
Prime Minister’s strong intent
to fight out corruption.
“Once he has taken it up,
he will take it to its logical conclusion,” he said adding ModiMamata talks will have no
bearing in CBI action in
Narada or Sharada cases.
Echoing party MP Kailash
Vijaybargiya he said, “Soon
half of Mamata Banerjee’s
Cabinet will be in jail for their
involvement in the various
scams.”
After its landslide victory
in Uttar Pradesh elections, the
BJP in Bengal has seen a
tremendous surge which is
seen by the swelling numbers
in the saffron rallies including
the ones being organised by the
RSS and the Hindu Jagaran
Manch during Ramnavami
Day.
in Karnataka rationing water
for drinking and irrigation
purposes. Having just 4 tmc of
water left in the Cauvery basin
reservoirs, the Government
has taken a very harsh measure
of water rationing which will
create hardship to the people
here. The IT city of Bengaluru
has to bear the brunt of the
water rationing.
Speaking to media in
Bengaluru on Monday,
Karnataka Water Resources
Minister MB Patil said that
with optimum utilisation and
judicious use of water, along
with proper planning and coordination, the Department will
ensure that water is supplied to
all. He also said that if water
is rationed, it will be availabile
till June.
The Minister said “We
have severe drought in
Karnataka and this is for
the third consecutive year. Our
priority is that the cities or
the multi village schemes or
towns where we are supplying
water from our dam is not
affected.”
Appealing to farmers to
stop using pumpsets, he
advised them to use water
judiciously as the water levels
in almost all the reservoirs is
just enough to meet the drinking needs.
However, he said that with
optimum utilisation of water
along with proper planning and
coordination, the department
will ensure that water is supplied to all.
According to the data,
there is a total of 7.748 tmc in
Cauvery reservoirs - Krishna
Raja Sagar, Kabini, Harangi
and Hemavathi.
The Minister said combining Krishna Raja Sagar and
Kabini, water availability is 4.7
tmc, and the water requirement
of Bengaluru city is 800 cusecs
per day.
“For the next 60 days, we
have to give 800 cusecs per day.
BWSSB requires 6,000 cusecs,
but we have calculated transmission losses and in between
multi village schemes. Hence
for giving 800 cusecs for 60
days upto June 15, we require
4.1 to 4.5 tmc and what we have
is 4.7 tmc. So we can manage
until then,” he said.
On rationing of water, he
said the Water Resources
Department would coordinate
with all the departments and
district administration and as
a team effort they will try to
ensure that there is efficient use
of water.
‘Mumbai can tap 1,720 MW Two more held in Ayesha Meera case: Acquitted
Kerala blast case youth seeks Govt’s assistance
from rooftop solar plants’
PNS n KOCHI
TN RAGHUNATHA n MUMBAI
umbai has a potential of
generating of 1,720 MW
M
of solar energy across rooftops
on residences, educational institutions, commercial buildings,
Government buildings and
industry, according to a study
report prepared by the National
Centre for Photovoltaic
Research and Education
(NCPRE) at IIT Bombay and
four other organisations.
The five organisations —
NCPRE, the Centre for Urban
Science and Engineering (CUSE) at IIT Bombay, the
Observer Research Foundation
(ORF), Bridge to India and
Institute of Electric and
Electronic Engineers (IEEE)
Bombay section — have come
up with this assessment in
their report on “Estimating
the Rooftop Solar Potential of
Greater Mumbai".
Secretary of the Ministry of
New and Renewable Energy
(MNRE) Rajeev Kapoor
released the report at the IITBombay on Monday.
In an effort to assess the
solar rooftop potential of Greater
Mumbai, and to simultaneously develop a methodology that
could be used anywhere in the
country, the five organisations
had come together.
The team employed a variety of inputs and techniques,
including GIS mapping of all
structures in Mumbai, wardby-ward division, existing land
use (ELU) maps of BMC and
3D mapping to discount areas
covered by shadowing. The
computer-based analysis was
supported and verified by site
visits to some locations (conducted by student volunteers),
and discounting of 'weak' structures which would not support
solar panels.
During its study, the team
used only open-source software. The methodology adopted by the study team is applic-
‘Gandhian ideology can
counter hatred, intolerance’
FAIZAN AHMAD n PATNA
rominent Gandhians have expressed concern over the present
overall situation in India and said only the Gandhian ideology
P
and philosophy could effectively counter the hatred, intolerance and
violence. They were huddled here on Monday to mark the beginning of the centenary of Gandhi’s Champaran Satyagraha.
Setting the tone of the three-hour long discussion at the newly
constructed Gyan Bhavan in Patna, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said
the Gandhians should work out an agenda for strengthening the secular and social fabric of the nation and to remove the fear and hatred
created in the society. “In such a vitiated atmosphere only the
Gandhian values and thoughts can bring positive change,” he said
and added that those having no faith in Gandhi and his ideologies
were chanting name of Gandhi because his name sells. The CM also
vowed to begin movement against social evils like child marriage
and dowry after a successful campaign against liquor. Former West
Bengal Governor and Mahtma’s grandson Gopal Krishna Gandhi
said Bihar had been showing light in the darkness but now there was
darkness in the light and hoped that once again Bihar would show
the light. He was highly critical of the forcible compulsion of Aadhaar
number and warned that it might turn a dangerous weapon and could
be misused. He was equally critical of the acquisition of land for industrial houses by bringing ordinances. “A real Gandhian is one who
follows his ideas without taking his name,” he said.
able to all urban places in Indian
and can provide a framework for
assessing the locations required
for the proposed 40 GW rooftop
target. "Given the detailed
methodology presented in the
report, a similar study could be
replicated in urban and semiurban areas across the country,
an IIT spokesperson said.
The 40 GW solar power
generation forms a part of the
National Solar Mission of the
Government of India envisages
an ambitious target of 100 GW
of solar energy to be installed
in the country by 2022. This
would not only provide a green
and clean source of energy for
the country and provide access
to electricity in remote areas but
also enable India to meet its
commitments made at COP-21
in Paris.
In this study, the entire work
was done by 120 students from
12 engineering colleges under
the mentorship of research scholars from IIT-Bombay.
he Kerala Police have
arrested two more operaT
tives of Base Movement, considered as an Al Qaedainspired outfit, in connection
with the low-intensity explosion that took place at the district collectorate complex in
Malappuram on November 1
last.
N Abu Backer, said to be
the chief of the Base
Movement, and his aide A
Abdu Rahman were taken into
custody from their rented
house in Madurai, Tamil Nadu
on Sunday evening and were
brought to Malappuram early
Monday morning, according to
the police. They were arrested
on the basis of information
extracted by the NIA during
the interrogation of five members of the outfit it had
detained earlier in connection
with the blasts at Malappuram
and Chittoor, Andhra Pradesh.
It is said that it was Abu Backer
and Rahman who had formed
the Base Movement in association with Abbas Ali, who was
nabbed earlier by the NIA.
A low-intensity improvised
explosive device fitted to the
rear of a car parked at the district collectorate compound in
Malappuram had exploded on
November 1 last. Nobody was
injured in the explosion.
The agencies had learned
that the same group was behind
the blasts that had occurred in
2016 at Malappuram on
November 1, Chittoor on April
7 and Mysore on August 1.
According to the police,
Abu Backer had been involved
in several disruptive operations in Madurai and Theni in
TN. A pamphlet, titled ‘In the
Name of Allah / The Base
Movement,’ recovered from
the Malappuram blast site had
references to alleged human
rights violations including the
killing of Mohammad Akhlaq
over the beef controversy in
Dadri. The pamphlet also contained harsh criticisms against
the Indian State and courts.
Guj Cong MLA calls for ban on
cow slaughter in entire country
PNS n AHEMADABAD
ongress legislator from
Ahmedabad Gyasuddin
C
Shaikh on Monday sought declaration of cow a national animal and a national law banning
cow slaughter.
“A law banning cow slaughter was brought in by Chimanbhai Patel-led Congress Government in the State and implemented strictly. However, the
BJP in last 22 years of its rule has
failed to bring in an effective law
banning cow slaughter. It has
only brought about two amendments and failed to effectively
implement the law,” Shaikh said
in his Press statement.
The statement by Shaikh
comes soon after the ruling BJP
Government in Gujarat
amended the Gujarat Animal
Preservation Act on March 31,
that makes cow slaughter punishable with life imprisonment.
The Bill, passed in the
Assembly without the presence of Opposition, also makes
cow slaughter, transportation of
cow a non-bailable offence.
He hit out at the BJP, stating that it was merely trying to
polarise the electorate in view
of forthcoming Assembly polls
in the State. “I support the ban
on cow slaughter and my
demand is that the ban should
be extended nationally… With
the BJP Government at the
Centre and many States, who is
stopping the BJP from declaring cow as national animal and
bringing in a stricter law against
cow slaughter?” Shaikh said.
He also called for initiating
strict action against what he calls
‘anti-social’ elements involved
with smuggling of cows. “This
has caused tremendous economic loss to several poor communities as cowherds… The
police too need to be careful as
at times it announces of having
caught cow meat without waiting for FSL report. This also
hurts sentiments of majority
community,” he added.
Shaikh claimed that he had
already issued a public appeal
to Muslim community to desist
from getting involved with
cow slaughter or its consumption. “I have been rearing four
cows and serving them for last
eight years. Cow is a pious animal and should be above politics,” he added.
Andhra Govt
mulling to reopen
case to bring real
culprits to justice in
rape-murder case
OMER FAROOQ n HYDERABAD
Satyam Babu
Babu, who spent
eight years in prison, met
Stheatyam
Krishna District Collector
rules,” he assured Satyam Babu.
Meanwhile, the State
Government is considering
reopening of the Ayesha Meera
case in which the High Court
has passed stringent remarks
against the State police for
falsely implicating a Dalit youth
while the real culprits remained
at large. A decision in this
regard is expected soon after
State police chief K Sambasiva
Rao returns from Israel. After
his return, the Chief Minister
N Chandrababu Naidu was
expected to take a decision in
consultation with the Advocate
General.
Already the Dalit organisations along with other
activists are holding protest
demonstrations demanding
on Monday and sought succour
for his poor family. Satyam
Babu was acquitted by the
Hyderabad High Court in
Ayesha Meera rape and murder
case. He met the official along
with the representatives of
Dalit organisation to seek
Government assistance. He
detailed how his family had to
suffer immensely while he was
imprisoned.
District Collector Ahmad
Babu directed the officials to
allot a house to the family and
provide a job on contract basis
to Satyam’s brother. “We will
provide all the possible assistance under the Government
action in the matter and arrest
of the real culprits. The student
community has also taken to
the street on the issue.
Meanwhile, State Minister
D Umamaheshwar Rao, who
hails from Vijayawada, said
that his party always held the
view that Satyam Babu was
innocent. “The then Congress
Government had tried to shield
the politically connected culprits and our party had fought
against it,” said Umamaheshwar
Rao, assuring that the
Government will take all the
possible measures to bring the
culprits to the book.
“Now that the High Court
has given its verdict, it is the
responsibility of the Government to take action,” he said.
This was in sharp contrast
to the stand taken by the
Vijaywada Police Commissioner Gutam Sawang that the
police might file an appeal
against the High Court verdict
acquitting Satyam Babu.
Other police officials
said that they are still studying
the judgment and will take
a decision on the basis of
legal advice.
Firemen in action to douse fire in Handicraft Factory at Tanavra village near Jodhpur on Monday
NGT issues notices to big All sides confident as campaigning for Malappuram ends
waste generators of Delhi K
VR JAYARAJ n KOCHI
New Delhi: The National Green Tribunal has
issued notices to major waste generators in the
city including five-star hotels, malls, hospitals,
educational institutions with hostels and housing societies which have not complied with Solid
Waste Management Rules, 2016.
A Bench headed by NGT Chairperson
Justice Swatanter Kumar asked these defaulters
to reply within two weeks on why they should
not be asked to pay environment compensation
of `5 lakh for failing to properly manage and
treat sewage.
The NGT issued notices to eight defaulting
hotels and two hospitals in New Delhi Municipal
Council, seven hotels, four malls, five hospitals,
railway and bus stations in East Delhi Municipal
Corporation besides many such institutions in
North and South Delhi Municipal Corporation.
The NGT’s order came after perusing an
interim report submitted by a committee
formed by it which has recommended action
against defaulting bodies for improper management and treatment of sewage and lack of
mechanism for recycling of waste. The tribunal
had constituted a committee comprising representatives of the ministries of Environment
and Urban Development, Director General of
Health Services, Medical Council of India,
DDA, municipal corporations, the Delhi government, Central Pollution Control Board,
Railways and Delhi Pollution Control
Committee.
The committee also comprises of four
independent experts.
erala’s Malappuram Lok
Sabha Constituency, where
former Union Minister late E
Ahamed won in both the elections held since its formation
after delimitation in 2009, is
known as Kerala’s Muslim
League country and not many
expect Wednesday’s by-election
to produce any big change.
However, the CPI(M)-led LDF
and the BJP were confident that
'Malappuram has changed' with
the campaigning came to an
end on Monday evening.
For the Muslim League,
second biggest constituent of
the Congress-led UDF, the
bypoll is a battle of prestige. For
the Left, it is an opportunity to
prove that its popularity has not
waned due to the failures of its
ten-month-old Government.
The BJP, which had scored
merely 5.61 per cent of the total
votes polled in 2014, wants to
‘surprise’ everyone.
“You will see the BJP working wonder this time. The
League fortress will crumble.
Our vote-share will soar,”
claims BJP candidate N Sreeprakash. “Everybody says the
Muslim League is unbeatable in
Malappuram. But the truth is
that Malappuram is changing,”
Sreeprakash, who was the BJP
candidate here in 2014 also, says.
Not less confident is young
LDF candidate MB Faisal of the
CPI(M). He is also banking on
the theory that Malappuram is
changing and the Muslim
League is ‘no more the big
choice’ of the voters in the
Constituency. He goes further
to claim that the choice in
Malappuram is ‘between secularism and communalism,
between corrupt UDF and
LDF’s good governance.’
But such claims do not
worry Muslim League candidate and former State Minister
PK Kunhalikutty at all. The
concern of Kunhalikutty, currently MLA from the Vengara
Assembly segment falling with-
in Malappuram Constituency is
not victory - he does not have
any doubt about it - but it is
about how immensely he could
increase the winning margin
compared to the 2014 election.
Ahamed, whose death
necessitated the bypoll, had
won the seat in 2014 by beating CPI(M)’s PK Sainaba by a
margin of 1,94,739 votes and by
bagging 51.29 per cent of the
total polled votes. He himself
had won the 2009 election by
beating CPI(M)’s TK Hamza
and his winning margin then
was 1,15,597. In 2009, the BJP’s
vote-share was a mere 4.61 percent but this climbed to 64,705
in 2014. But Hamza, who had
PTI
scored a surprise win in the
Manjeri LS seat, which later
became Malappuram, in 2004
for the Left, believes that surprises does happen — like in
his own case — in elections.
“Malappuram is set to see a
repeat of 2004. Cracks have
already appeared in the Muslim
League fortress,” he says.
The outcome of the bypoll
does not have any crucial political significance in the national or State level though State CPI
(M) secretary Kodiyeri
Balakrishnan had at the very
beginning of the campaign said
it would effectively be a review
of the performance of the LDF
Government.
nation 07
LUCKNOW | TUESDAY | APRIL 11, 2017
India, Oz for action Political uncertainty stares at TN
PDP candidate appeals to
against terror havens
EC to defer Anantnag bypoll
VINEETA PANDEY n NEW DELHI
n a bid to keep their territories safe, India and Australia
on Monday signed an agreement to boost cooperation in
counter-terrorism
and
transnational organised crime
and called for strong action
against those financing and
providing sanctuary to terror
groups. Pacts to strengthen
cooperation in space, health,
and sports were also among the
six agreements signed between
the two countries following
talks between Prime Minister
Narendra Modi and Australian
Premier Malcolm Turnbull.
Modi thanked Australia
for joining the solar alliance
and welcomed the passage of
the Civil Nuclear Transfers to
India Act through the
Australian Parliament which
paves way for commercial
exports of Australian uranium
to India. Turnbull said he was
looking forward to starting
the supply at the earliest.
The two PMs jointly inaugurated
TERI-DEAKIN
Research Centre on Nano and
Bio-Technology that will see
collaboration between 100
researchers of both countries in
developing biofuels, and early
detection of crop diseases to
improve
productivity.
Following their talks, Modi
took Turnbull for a ride in
Delhi Metro and showed him
the Akshardham Temple, after
some talk about cricket.
“Just last month, we witnessed a thrilling conclusion to
the Border-Gavaskar trophy. In
my speech at the Australian
Parliament in 2014 I had spoken of legendary Bradman and
Tendulkar. Today, Virat Kohli
in India and Steven Smith in
Australia are shaping the young
I
brigades of cricket. I hope your
visit to India is as productive as
it has been for Steven Smith’s
batting, the other Australian
Captain,” Modi said during
the media statement.
Later, Modi again used the
cricket analogy and said, “We
took a number of forwardlooking decisions to further
strengthen our partnership,
including the decision to soon
hold the next round of negotiations on our Comprehensive
Economic
Cooperation
Agreement (CECA). In a
lighter vein I am, of course,
glad that our decisions are not
subject to the DRS review system.”
In cricketing terms DRS
(Decision Review System) is a
technology-based mechanism
to review controversial umpiring decisions.
The agreement on cooperation in counter-terrorism and
transnational organised crime
is an overarching security
understanding which will allow
links between Australian and
Indian law enforcement, border
and intelligence agencies and
allow improving both countries’ ability to address global
and regional security threats.
“I hope that our new MoU
on Combatting Transnational
Organised Crime, including
International Terrorism, will
continue to strengthen this
strategic partnership. It will
facilitate closer collaboration on
counter-terrorism, cyber-security, people smuggling and
human trafficking, money
laundering and a tax on critical infrastructure,” Turnbull
said.
The two PMs in their joint
statement reiterated commitment to combat terrorism
while stressing that there can be
no justification for acts of terror on any grounds whatsoever.
“They asserted that the
fight against terrorists, terror
organisations and networks
should also identify, hold
accountable and take strong
measures again stall those who
encourage, support and finance
terrorism, provide sanctuary to
terrorists and terror groups,
and falsely extol their virtues.
They emphasised the need for
urgent measures to counter
and prevent the spread of terrorism and violent extremism
and radicalisation and
expressed their determination
to take concrete measures to
step up cooperation and coordination among the law
enforcement, intelligence and
security organizations,” the
joint statement said.
Modi and Turnbull welcomed the significant progress
achieved through the bilateral
Framework for Security
Cooperation agreed in 2014
and agreed that the bilateral
maritime exercise first held in
the Bay of Bengal in 2015
(AUSINDEX) will be repeated
off Western Australia in the
first half of 2018.
Modi and Turnbull also
underscored India and
Australia’s joint commitment to
enhancing regional cooperation in promoting maritime
safety and security and welcomed the important role of
the bilateral White Shipping
Agreement. Referring to maritime issues, both leaders recognised the importance of freedom of navigation and over
flight, unimpeded lawful commerce, as well as resolving
maritime disputes by peaceful
means, in accordance with the
international law.
Vijender Gupta demands EC action against AAP, Kejriwal
New Delhi: The poster war has
started in Delhi with just a few
days left for the civic polls.
Leader of the Opposition in
Delhi Assembly, Vijender
Gupta on Monday met the
State Election Commissioner
and demanded strict action
against the Aam Aadmi Party
(AAP) and its convener Arvind
Kejriwal, for putting objectionable posters, banners and
hoardings throughout Delhi,
showing smiling face of
Kejriwal and a frowning photo
of Gupta.
“These posters, banners and
hoardings say ‘MCD ki bagdor
kisko? Kejriwal or Vijender
Gupta (BJP)’ he said.
Describing his photo in the
poster as a degrading move to
defame him, Gupta demanded
an immediate strict legal action
against the AAP. “Lakhs of such
posters installed all over Delhi
must be removed forthwith as
this openly violates the Model
Code of Conduct,” he said.
Taking cognisance on the
matter, the State Election
Commission has promised to
issue a notice to the AAP and
Kejriwal. Gupta also added
that Kejriwal was deliberately
trying to hatch a conspiracy by
repeatedly questioning the
credibility and fairness of the
Commission, a constitutional
authority, to defame it in India
and abroad.
SR
EC cancels bypoll
based on findings
of spl observers,
details provided by
Income Tax dept
PNS n CHENNAI
olitical and administrative
uncertainty stares at Tamil
P
Nadu following the late Sunday
night decision by the Election
Commission of India to countermand the by-election to the
RK Nagar Assembly seat
scheduled for April 12.
The commission’s decision
to countermand the bypoll was
based on reports submitted by
the special observers deputed
by the commission and details
furnished by the Income Tax
Department on the raids and
seizure of money and documents pointing to large scale
distribution of cash to bribe the
voters.
The local media is full of
reports about a document
allegedly leaked from the
Income Tax officials which
states that an amount of `89
crore meant for distribution in
the constituency was routed
through Chief Minister
Edappadi Palaniswamy and
members of his Council of
Ministers.
“Though
AIADMK
(Amma) presidium chairman
KA Sengottaiyan has issued a
statement refuting the charges,
it is not convincing,” said N
Kalyanasundaram, political
commentator.
The ECI decision to cancel
the by-election has come as a
major setback for the AIADMK
(Amma) Government ruling
the State. In a 29-page order it
issued on late Sunday night, the
commission stated that the
search and seizure by the
Income Tax authorities at the
residences of Health Minister
C Vijayabhaskar and others had
resulted in unravelling a huge
and systematic design to distribute money to voters in
order to bribe them to influence their voting behaviour.
The commission has said
in its order that the decision to
rescind the bypoll was necessitated after the findings of various observers deputed by the
commission and the details
furnished by the Income Tax
Department about the kind of
money and documents seized
during the raids.
“The Income Tax authorities have also informed that
recently several complaints
were received indicating that
Dr C Vijaya Baskar is the main
person involved in bribing the
voters in RK Nagar Assembly
constituency. Some loose sheets
were found with his accountant
Srinivasan indicating distribution of `89 crore to a number
of politicians for further distribution among the voters.
The premises of Rajendran
were also searched after receiving information from a Central
agency that a huge amount of
cash was brought there in a
particular vehicle for distribution in RK Nagar Constituency,” said the ECI order.
Kalyanasundaram said the
current situation reminded
him about the chaotic days
immediately after the death of
AIADMK founder MG
Ramachandran which ultimately led to the imposition of
President’s rule in Tamil Nadu.
“The Election Commission’s
statement that it could not
prevent the flow of money
despite deploying 61 surveillance teams instead of the routine six teams is proof that the
law and order in Tamil Nadu
has broken completely,” he
said.
While the ECI report is as
good as a chargesheet against
the AIADMK(Amma), it is by
and large silent about
AIADMK (PTA) and the
DMK.
KHURSHEED WANI n SRINAGAR
mid a complete shutdown
in Kashmir valley against
the killing of eight anti-election
protesters during bypoll for the
Srinagar-Budgam Lok Sabha
constituency, the uncertainty
looms large over the conduct of
polls in Anantnag scheduled on
April 12 besides possibility of
re-poll for violence-hit polling
stations of Srinagar. On
Monday, the ruling Peoples
Democratic Party candidate
and Chief Minister Mehbooba
Mufti’s brother Tasaduq Mufti
appealed to the Election
Commission of India (ECI) to
postpone the elections in the
backdrop of the large scale
violence.
The Chief Electoral Officer
(CEO) Shantmanu held a
detailed meeting with the representatives of political parties
for their feedback on holding
or deferment of Anantnag
bypoll. He said that the opinion was divided amongst the
political parties with ruling
PDP seeking postponement
while the opposition National
Conference-Congress combine
adamant to hold the election as
per the schedule.
Shatmanu said that he has
submitted a report to the ECI
and final call would be taken in
New Delhi.
Sources said that Chief
Secretary Bhir Raj Sharma has
separately sent the Government’s feedback on the ground
situation to the ECI. The State
administration, sources said, is
not in favour of holding the
elections in the backdrop of
happenings on April 9.
Earlier, in the day, ruling
PDP candidate for Anantnag
Tasaduq Mufti appealed to the
A
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
PAK PROVOKES INDIA’S WRATH
The spy has been tried through Field
General Court Martial (FGCM) under Pakistan
Army Act (PAA) and awarded death sentence.
Today General Qamar Javed Bajwa has confirmed the death sentence awarded by FGCM.”
The statement added that Jadhav was tried
by FGCM under Section 59 of PAA 1952 and
Section 3 of Official Secrets Act of 1923.
“FGCM found Kulbushan Sudhir Jadhav guilty
of all the charges. He confessed before a
Magistrate and the court that he was tasked by
RAW to plan, coordinate and organize espionage/sabotage activities aiming to destabilise
and wage war against Pakistan by impeding the
efforts of Law Enforcement Agencies for restoring peace in Balochistan and Karachi.
The accused was provided with defending
officer as per legal provisions,” the statement
added.
The Indian Government had intensified its
efforts to seek consular access to Jadhav in the
last four months and sent eight requests between
December 2016 to March 2017 after Adviser to
Pakistan Prime Minister Sartaj Aziz said before
the Pakistani Senate that there was not enough
evidence against Jadhav. Aziz later did a U-turn
and said that Jadhav had been booked for espionage.
India sent 13 Notes Verbale to Pakistan
Foreign Office seeking consular access to
Jadhav. While one Demarche and nine Notes
Verbale were sent by the Political Wing of Indian
High Commission in Islamabad between 25
March 2016 to March 31, 2017, three Notes
Verbale were sent by the Consular Wing of the
Indian High Commission in Islamabad during
the same period.
WHEN GANDHI STOPPED...
Gandhi with Shukla boarded a steamer to
reach Sonepur and caught a train to Muzaffarpur.
Kripalani saw the cable at 9 in the night when he
returned from the club and had little time to make
arrangements for his welcome.
“How this distinguished guest should be
received and where should I put him up,” wonders Kripalani, warden of a hostel attached to the
college and living in a couple of rooms. He spoke
to his colleague Professor Malkani to make some
arrangement for Gandhi’s stay. When Kripalani
told some of his students that he was going to
receive Gandhi and informed who he was they
persisted to accompany him and gave the distinguished guest a fitting reception by performing
an aarti.
The train arrived after midnight. Kripalani
and his students ran towards the first class compartment. But he was nowhere to be found.
Gandhi who got down from third class compartment was also looking for Kripalani. He asked
Shukla to enquire from the young boys who they
were looking for and they said Mr Gandhi was
coming. When they met students performed aarti
much to his embarrassment. Now the question
was how to take Gandhi to his place of stay.
A zamindar friend of Kripalani was travelling
in the same train. He asked him to spare his private carriage to which he agreed. “The students
persisted they would pull the carriage. An unhappy Gandhi said he would not use carriage if pulled
by students. I asked them not to persist and went
inside the closed carriage with very Gandhi who
told me about his experience in Patna at the house
of Rajendra Prasad. When we reached hostel and
came out Gandhi was angry and said students
deceived him by pulling he carriage.”
This was Gandhi’s first experience of dis-
obedience by Biharis.
AMNESTY SLAMS...
“Stripping defendants of their rights and
operating in notorious secrecy, military courts
do not dispense justice but travesty it. They are
an inherently abusive system that is best left to
deal with issues of military discipline, not any
other crimes,” Patnaik said in a statement.
Amnesty opposes the death penalty at all
times and in all circumstances, regardless of who
is accused, the crime, guilt or innocence, or the
method of execution, he said.
A Pakistan military court sentenced Jadhav
to death after he was convicted of “espionage and
sabotage activities”.
The prominent rights group also noted that
over 87 executions were recorded in Pakistan in
2016 and over 360 death sentences were recorded in the country last year.
It said over 6,000 people are known to be
under death sentence at the end of 2016 in
Pakistan, which is among the world’s top 5 executioners.
PTI
IMPOSTER ‘SC JUDGE’
“Tausif had impersonated several higher
Government officials by using the same modus
operandi and got undue favours,” said a senior
police official, adding, “The SIM card used in
making call to Pandey was not registered in
Tausif name. The person, in whose name the
mobile number was registered, has been summoned for interrogation.”
“Tausif is a second year student of City Law
Academy in Lucknow and his father Farhad-UlHaque is a judge. Tausif became a close friend
of Ravi Shrivastav, a lecturer in his college.
Shrivastav asked Tausif to get him appointed as
a law officer with the Uttar Pradesh Government
through his father as he is a judge and has contacts with top Government officials,” said the
police official. The official added Tausif posing
as Justice Kurian Joseph called RN Pandey and
recommended Shrivastava’s name for post of
Government law officer in the Allahabad High
Court. “Investigations are on to find out
involvements of other persons,” said the official.
LESS-LETHAL MOB-CONTROL...
“If a crowd is upon you, a pellet gun is used
as a last resort which is fired below the knee,”
the A-G said.
As per the Standard Operating Procedure
the pellet gun is the sixth tier of defence and least
lethal. However, the A-G pointed out that a new
weapon was being devised, but he withheld
details. Going through the material placed before
it, the Bench told the petitioner, “You can’t take
sides, as being a lawyer body you are in the middle, neither being part of the administration nor
the mob. If you are sincere, you can help us as
we feel we can play a very important role. The
question is, will you scuttle it or use this historic
opportunity for the benefit of the people and the
State. Pool your thoughts and give suggestions
to us on an affidavit in two weeks.”
The bar leaders had a different take on the
photographs of protestors shown by the A-G and
claimed it was the security forces who charge
first on the protestors. The Bench pointed out
that the protestors are mostly children or
youths aged up to 28 years while there is nobody
in the 40s, 50s, or 60s. “Why should children of
such tender age be there,” the Bench remarked,
adding it was for the bar leaders to propose a
solution in the interest of law, instead of taking
sides on such a sensitive issue.
Chief Election Officer said the
opinion was divided amongst the
political parties with ruling PDP
seeking postponement while the
opposition National ConferenceCongress combine adamant to hold
the election as per the schedule
ECI to defer the polls. “I appeal
ECI to postpone the elections.
There is no favourable atmosphere for the elections,” he
said at a press conference.
“The situation is continuously
changing and we must make
amendments accordingly,” he
said.
He however said that he
would contest the polls if the
ECI decides on continuing
with the poll schedule. Mufti
said the State Government has
also communicated to the ECI
to postpone the elections.
On the unprecedented
boycott in Srinagar Constituency, Mufti conceded that
democracy has not functioned
properly in Jammu and
Kashmir. “You cannot force
people to vote or not to vote,”
he said.
The NC Working President
and former Chief Minister
Omar Abdullah described
Mufti’s statement as indictment of Chief Minister
Mehbooba
Mufti.
“@MehboobaMufti Tassaduq’s
statement is an indictment of
his sister @MehboobaMufti'’s
Government & its abject failure. How can the BJP not see
this?” Omar tweeted shortly
after Tasaduq’s press conference.
He said in case the polls are
deferred, Mehbooba Mufti
must resign and Governor’s
rule must be imposed in
Jammu and Kashmir.
“EC is well within its powers to postpone or countermand Anantnag election but if
so @MehboobaMufti must
resign & Governor should take
charge,” Omar said.
Sources said that the CEO
discussed postponement of elections and re-poll in Srinagar
Constituency at various polling
stations. Dozens of EVMs
remained unaccounted as they
have been looted by the antielection mob, who ruled the
roost in most of the poll-bound
areas in Budgam district.
Eight youngsters were
killed and scores of others
were injured in a campaign by
the security forces against the
anti-election protesters.
Meanwhile, the Valley
observed complete shutdown
against the killings as shops,
business establishments,
schools and offices remained
closed while the public transport was off the roads.
Following the killings, the
Joint Resistance Forum led by
separatist leaders Syed Ali
Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq
and Yasin Malik called for two
day shutdown.
Sources said clashes erupted between youth and security forces in Natipora area of
Srinagar, south Kashmir’s
Kulgam and Ganderbal.
‘Call off all elections,
declare BJP winner’
PNS n NEW DELHI
continuing fight against
Election Commission,
IthentheitsDelhi
Chief Minister on
Monday lashed out at the independent body saying that it
should rather “stop” conducting elections and declare the
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as
the “winner” right away.
“The EC should simply
stop conducting this farce of an
election if its sole purpose has
become to ensure the BJP’s victory. They should call off all
elections and declare the BJP
the winner. The people of this
country will not accept this
and begin a struggle against
this stealing of elections. The
people will not tolerate the way
in which the BJP is making a
mockery of democracy in
India,” Arvind Kejriwal said.
Kejriwal said that the EC is
adamant on conducting the
MCD elections using low security Generation 1 machines,
brought in from Rajasthan.
“ The
Election
Commission has found several faults in EVMs during a
bypoll conducted at Dhoulpur,
Rajasthan. 18 EVMs were registering votes only for the
Bhartiya Janata Party, which
means that that like the Bhind
bypoll EVM, these machines
also have been tampered with.
Their software, programming
has been changed by someone
to ensure votes only for the BJP.
The Election Commission is
unwilling to even investigate
the cause of this manipulation.
Who is influencing these
EVMs on a regular basis? The
EC does not seem to be bothered,” he alleged.
He questioned that
because the EC was “unwilling” to examine this issue, it
was raising suspicion. “The
EC’s unwillingness to examine
this fault raises the suspicion
that the EC might be complicit in this manipulation. Is all of
this being done at the behest of
the EC? In the Bhind incident
no matter which button was
pressed, the BJP slips were displayed by the VVPAT
machines. Despite this accident
taking place in the presence of
several senior officials of the
EC, as well as journalists, the
EC conducted an investigation
into this case and gave a clean
chit to the EVMs, declaring
that there was no fault in the
machines,” Kejriwal said
Accusing that the 18
EVMs were manipulated in
Dhoulpur, the AAP Convener
said this indicates that
“approximately 10 percent” of
the machines deployed had
been “tampered” with. “What
if even the rest of them were
also manipulated? The EC
continues to maintain that
the machines were ‘faulty’, but
that cannot be the case, since
all of them are only polling in
favour of one party. “Had
there been a genuine fault, the
machines would have malfunctioned to record votes for
different parties, and not uniformly just for one. This suggests that the machines were
not faulty, their program had
been altered,” EC said.
Kejriwal had earlier written to the EC demanding the
paper ballot voting system in
the upcoming Delhi civic polls
rather than the current EVMs.
However, this was rejected.
Kejriwal pressed for an
investigation into the tampering saying, “Earlier a tampered machine could be
caught based on which light lit
up after pressing a button. In
this new form of tampering,
the voter will not realise that
his vote has not been recorded for his choice of candidate,
unless the VVPAT machine is
attached to the EVM.” While
accusing the EC of “favouring”
the BJP, Kejriwal said that the
EC is “behaving like
Dhritarashtra, wherein its
only aim seems to be to ensure
victory for its Duryodhana,
the BJP, by hook or by crook.”
The most alarming part of this
tampering is that the
machines being used in
Rajasthan are going to be
used for conducting the MCD
elections in Delhi on 23rd
April, he added.
“They have found a ruse
to ask for machines from
Rajasthan. There are 3 generations of EVMs manufactured
thus far ; Generation 1
machines — manufactured
before 2006, Generation 2
machines — manufactured
between 2006 and 2013,
Generation 3 or post 2013
manufacture machines are
not being used on a large scale
yet. The Generation 1
machines have been discarded and are not in use in Delhi.
However, Delhi's SEC wrote to
the EC saying that they want
to conduct Delhi’s MCD elections using Generation 1
machines, manufactured
before 2006. These machines
came with no security features, and are perhaps most
vulnerable to tampering. "
opinion 08
LUCKNOW | TUESDAY | APRIL 11, 2017
www.dailypioneer.com
paper with passion
Assault on democracy
Now, deal sternly with anti-national elements
t is unfortunate that many people lost their lives in the violence that erupted
during the Lok Sabha by-elections in Kashmir valley on Sunday, and that Srinagar
constituency recorded a two-decade low of just over seven per cent polling.
The blame for the sad state of affairs lies squarely with the separatists who had
called for a boycott of the elections and the violent protesters who attacked polling
booths and pelted stones. It's understandable that the voters, in the wake of this
unrest, preferred to stay indoors than risk their lives, even though they must
have wanted to exercise their franchise in a democratic way. It is clear that neither the separatists nor the disrupters of the election process are interested in
democratic functioning, nor do they believe in the prosperity of the valley. Their
secessionist agenda, and the now less hidden goal of Islamist hegemony, is evident to all. Both the Centre and the State Government of Mehbooba Mufti have
to take the bull by the horns. There is no point in hoping for sense from these
elements. The more they are dealt softly with, the more they get emboldened.
A crackdown not seen before must be initiated. The separatists must be made
accountable and the various state benefits they enjoy should be withdrawn. While
the Army has already decided to deal sternly with stone-pelters, it too cannot
retaliate to an extent that endangers
the lives of innocent civilians. The sadder part is that mainstream valley
politicians, such as National
Conference president Farooq Abdullah,
have been contributing to the unrest
by their misplaced remarks. Only
recently, Abdullah had justified stonepelting incidents as being for a
‘national cause'. For him to now
lament that the violence happened
because the Government had failed to
create a peaceful environment for elections, is farcical. Statements from people like him are also responsible for
the crisis. He must ask himself as to
what contribution he made, as a senior
political leader in the valley, to ensure
that the right atmosphere was created for the elections to be held. The
National Conference leader must understand that every Indian, including him,
is a loser as a result of such disruption.
The scale of violence was such that it could not have been spontaneous. There
was clear planning to disrupt the democratic process and simultaneously to discredit it as well. More than 200 incidents of stone-pelting and hurling of petrol
bombs at polling booths were reported. Electronic voting machines had been
targeted. More than a hundred security personnel suffered injuries, some serious. The protesters were ready with their insidious agenda from the wee hours
of the polling day; even as officials on election duty reached polling stations,
they faced resistance and violence. EVMs were snatched from them and then
set on fire. Given that this magnitude of electoral violence had not been witnessed
in the valley since 1989, it is evident that a grand design to ‘go for the kill' is
being worked out by anti-India elements both within the country and outside.
The separatists are gloating, just as their handlers in Pakistan are celebrating.
India cannot allow this tamasha to go on. Frequent unrest and shutdowns in
the valley have sapped every right-thinking Indian’s patience.
I
Electoral fraud exposed
Uncertainty looms large over Amma’s bastion
he Election Commission of India's (ECI) decision to cancel the April 12 byelection to the RK Nagar Assembly constituency in Tamil Nadu does not come
as a surprise. The ECI had been flooded with complaints that money power
was freely being used to influence the voters of the sensitive constituency, once
represented by AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa and now being fought for not
just by the AIADMK and the DMK but also by the two factions of the AIADMK
that are contesting on separate symbols. Tamil Nadu Chief Electoral Officer's report,
submitted to the ECI clinched the issue. The commission said that the by-poll
would be held in due course of time “when the vitiating effect created by the
distribution of money and gift items to allure the electors…gets removed with
the passage of time and the atmosphere in the constituency becomes conducive
to the holding of free and fair election”. The two AIADMK factions led respectively by O Panneerselvan and VK Sasikala have been engaged in a bitter, noholds-barred tussle to claim Jayalalithaa's legacy, and the by-election has become
a prestige issue for them. Neither side has stopped at ethical barriers — one
camp even created an artificial coffin
complete with Jayalalithaa's image
and took it in a procession in the constituency. A few days ago, the Income
Tax department raided the State's
Minister for Health and his associate.
The tax sleuths findings revealed the
routing of nearly `90 crore for ‘distribution to voters' of RK Nagar. With
so much money already circulating
among the voters, there was no way
the election could be held in a free and
fair manner. Tax documents leaked to
the media showed that the Sasikala
faction had given the money to seven
Ministers for distribution in the constituency to ensure that the people
voted for its candidate, TTV Dinakaran.
There is talk that even Chief Minister
EK Palaniswami was given a target in
the funds distribution. While these accusations are based on preliminary findings of the tax authorities, including the Central Board of Direct Taxes, a thorough probe is needed to arrive at the truth and those involved must be brought
to book. Now that the by-poll has been cancelled and the tax authorities are probing the case, one must await the outcome. Meanwhile, there is no clarity on when
the poll panel will deem the situation conducive to conduct the election.
Besides the cash-for-votes issue, there were allegations that the rival AIADMK
factions were misleading the voters over their party symbols. It may be recalled
that the ECI had frozen the ‘Two Leaves' symbol of the AIADMK after both groups
claimed to be the real AIADMK but none could establish their contention.
Apparently, leaders of both camps had been going around in the constituency,
claiming ownership of the Two Leaves symbol. Meanwhile, it will be interesting
to watch the political fallout of the tax raids and the impact it will have on the
rival DMK's fortunes.
T
When the people vote
you out, blame EVMs
A SURYA PRAKASH
We need to ask as to why there was no ruckus about the deployment of voting machines after the election
to the Delhi Assembly in February 2015. Kejriwal's AAP had won a mind-boggling 67 of the 70 seats
he controversy raised
by Bahujan Samaj
Party leader Mayawati
and Delhi Chief
Minister Ar vind
Kejriwal about the credibility of
electronic voting machines
(EVMs) following the massive
victory of the Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP) in the recently held
Uttar Pradesh Assembly election
has once again raised the question as to whether these
machines are tamper-proof.
These doubts and accusations
are not new. They had been
raised over the last decade by
many political parties including
the BJP, but some significant
developments in recent years
have weakened the arguments
against the deployment of these
voting machines.
Among them are: Successful
deployment of these machines in
several national elections during
this period without any serious
challenge to their efficacy and
credibility; the remarkable end to
booth-capturing after these
machines were introduced; judicial pronouncements that do not
support a return to paper ballots,
but encourage introduction of
Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail
(VVPAT) to put an end to all controversies; and the Election
Commission of India’s (ECI)
determined efforts to introduce
the paper trail in national elections at the earliest.
But, before we address the
substantive issues vis-à-vis voting
machines, we also need to ask
why there was no ruckus about
deployment of voting machines
after the election to the Delhi
Assembly in February 2015. In
that election, Kejriwal’s Aam
Aadmi Party won a mind-boggling 67 of the 70 seats in the
Assembly. The BJP bagged the
remaining three. Kejriwal’s party
secured 54.34 per cent of the
votes, but 95.71 per cent of the
seats, whereas the BJP secured
32.19 per cent of the votes but just
four per cent of the seats. These
results showed a complete disjunction between vote-share and
seat-share and would surely have
merited a protest, because one
rarely sees such a one-sided election. But, strangely, there were no
Doubting Thomases at that time!
Therefore, those who feel nothing was amiss in Delhi in 2015
have a rather weak case vis-à-vis
Uttar Pradesh 2017.
The ECI thought of a more
efficient method of voting via
EVMs way back in the 1980s
because of rampant booth-cap-
T
turing, violence and destruction
of ballot papers etc in elections.
The commission first thought of
this revolutionary idea when SL
Shakdhar was the Chief Election
Commissioner and KGanesan,
the Secretary of the ECI. They
decided to take the risk of introducing the machines on an
experimental basis, even though
the election law did not provide
for the use of machines to record
votes. Some polling booths in
Parur Assembly constituency
in Kerala were chosen for the
experiment in 1982.
This legal infirmity was corrected with an amendment to
the Representation of the People
Act, 1951, in March 1989. Prior
to this amendment, the election
law only spoke of ballot papers.
Consequent to this amendment,
Section 61A incorporated the
idea of a voting machine and
explained that “voting machine”
means any machine or apparatus, whether operated electronically or otherwise, used for
giving or recording of votes; and
any reference to a ballot box or
ballot paper in this Act or the
rules made there under shall,
We were told
demonetisation has
put an end to black
money. Was money
distributed in RK
Nagar constituency
white money?
Congress leader
—P Chidambaram
THE PAPER TRAIL IN
ELECTRONIC VOTING
MACHINES WILL
BRING IN MUCH
NEEDED
TRANSPARENCY
AND ALSO OFFER A
FALL-BACK IN CASE
OF DISPUTES. LET
US NOT GO BACK TO
THE ERA OF PAPER
BALLOTS AND
BOOTH-CAPTURING!
save as otherwise provided, be
construed as including a reference to such voting machine
wherever such voting machine is
used at any election.
Following controversies and
accusations that EVMs could be
manipulated, the election
Commission agreed in principle
in 2010 to introduce the Voter
Verifiable Paper Audit Trail
(VVPAT). This results in the
generation of a paper slip bearing
the name and symbol of the candidate for whom the vote is cast,
apart from the recording of the
vote in the control unit in the
machine. This system ensures
greater transparency in that it
enables the voter to see that his
or her vote has gone to the candidate of his or her choice.
It also provides an alternate
system to count the votes polled,
in case of a dispute. In other
words, one need not rely wholly
on the numbers dished out by the
control unit in the machine. A
printer is attached to the balloting unit and kept in the voting
compartment. It is visible to the
voter for seven seconds through
a transparent window. The
SOUNDBITE
It doesn't work like that
in films. My father (Clint
Eastwood) can't just
pick up the phone and
say: ‘Cast my son’.
Election Commission used
VVPAT for the first time in a byelection in Nagaland in 2013.
The use of EVMs has been
challenged before many High
Courts and even before the
Supreme Court in recent years.
But the judiciary is not convinced that the machines can be
manipulated. On the other hand,
many High Courts have given
the EVMs the thumbs-up. The
ECI has summed up some of the
judiciary observations on its
website. For example, the
Karnataka High Court has said
this invention was undoubtedly “a great achievement... and a
national pride”. The Madras
High Court ruled out any possibility of tampering of the
machines. It said the EVMs
cannot be compared to personal computers. The programming of computers had no bearing with the EVMs. The Delhi
High Court asked the ECI to
consult all parties and develop
a VVPAT system that would put
a final end to all doubt.
The Supreme Court has also
directed ECI to introduce
VVPAT in phases and asked the
Government to provide funds
for the purpose. The commission is keen to introduce the
paper trail in all constituencies
during the next Lok Sabha election in 2019. It has asked the
Government to allocate `3,174
crore for the purpose. The commission told the Supreme Court
recently that it could get the
required number of VVPAT
units manufactured in 30
months from the date of sanction of funds.
While the ECI has reaffirmed its complete faith in the
“infallibility” of the EVMs, it has
also initiated steps to introduce
the paper trail as directed by the
apex court. In the last round of
elections to five State Assemblies
in February-March 2017, the
ECI deployed 52,000 VVPATs.
In Goa, for instance, it deployed
the paper trail in all the 40 State
Assembly constituencies.
Given these firm judicial pronouncements and the move
towards full deployment of VVPAT
— which will ensure that the
machine is credible — the arguments against EVMs must end. The
paper trail will bring in much needed transparency and also offer a
fall-back in case of disputes. Let us
not go back to the era of paper ballots and booth-capturing!
(The writer is Chairman,
Prasar Bharati. Views expressed
here are personal)
Raheel Sharif was
made larger than life
and that's the reason
that when he is allotted a piece of land it
raises eyebrows.
Sindh Governor
—Muhammad Zubair
Actor
—Scott Eastwood
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Mixing matters
Sir — This refers to the article,
“Court judgment that’s whimsical, impractical” (April 10) by
Balbir Punj. We must welcome
the Supreme Court’s decision to
ban the sale of spirits from all
vends, bars and hotels situated
within 500 metres of a National
Highway. The argument that
the Government will lose a good
sum of tax revenues does not
hold water as Government
expenditure, to deal with alcohol-infused accidents and highway centric crimes, far outweighs the excise on liquor
duties. Judicial over-reach is
one thing. And to criticise a
judgement as “whimsical” and
“impractical” is quite the other.
We must not mix it up.
Sujit De
Kolkata
Unjust action
Sir — This refers to the report,
“CPM justifies assault on grieving mom” (April 8). Though a
number of heinous crimes and
massive agitations took place in
Kerala ever since the
Communist Party of India
(Marxist), led by Chief Minister
India’s VIP culture must
end, once and forever
T
his refers to the report, “TMC MP Dola does a Gaikwad in flight” (April 9).
It is not only a matter of shame but also of concern that even after 69 years
of independence, India has not developed. Such arrogant behaviour, on
the part of our VIPs, is indicative of our slavish mentality that has been ingrained
in us due to long periods of slavery and subjugation. More worrisome is the
fact that instead of ending such a regressive attitude, we are continuing to add
more Vs to the already crowd of Vs in VIPs and VVIPs.
Little introspection into our past will reveal that our leaders, faltered at the
time of independence, took a wrong cue from the British in this matter. They,
thus, lost the opportunity of ending this slavish mentality. Instead, we continued with the British style in India — a style which they had copied from the
Mughals. Little did we realise that British did not follow such a style in their
own country. It is hoped that the present Government will strive to end this
culture and pave the way for India migrating into the league of developed nations.
BP Srivastava
Noida
Pinarayi Vijayan came to power
last year, the Government could
not solve even the sensational
cases or appease the affected
people by adopting a justified
role. The ruthless act of the
police against Mahija, the mother of the deceased engineering
student, has drawn flak from
every quarter.
Moreover, confrontation
between the supporters of the
CPI(M) and BJP/United
Democratic Front has become a
regular feature in the State and
the police are either lethargic or
discriminatory in their action.
The main cause for the turmoil
is the unfair and arrogant attitude of the Vijayan, despite a differing stance of many senior
leaders in his own party. It seems
that Vijayan is just concerned
about his position and authority. The BJP is right is asking him
to give up the Home portfolio.
TT Sakaria
Delhi
Hold accountable
Sir — Chief Justice of India JS
Kehar’s opinion about making
political parties accountable for
poll promises is welcome. Since
political parties make gimmick
assurances for votes, their elec-
tion manifestoes must be given
a legal status. The Election
Commission of India must be
empowered with the power to
de-recognise parties who go
against the aspects as mentioned in their manifestoes.
Also, there must be a total ban
on freebies promised at public
expense in poll manifestoes.
SC Agrawal
Delhi
Wrong pattern
Sir — VIP culture in our country has reached an alarming position. It is a bane for our country.
The lifting of ban on Shiv Sena
MP, Ravindra Gaikwad, will set a
wrong precedent. Already, we
have lost faith in our laws as they
bend heavily on the rich and
become more strict for the poor
and the marginalised. The lifting
of flight ban in Gaikwad is a clear
expression of the VIP arrogance
at its peak. At the very least, the
Supreme Court should have taken
cognizance of the incident where
Gaikwad turned violent on an Air
India staff.
NR Ramachandran
Chennai
Send your feedback to:
[email protected]
3rdeye 09
LUCKNOW | TUESDAY | APRIL 11, 2017
POINTCOUNTERPOINT
The allegations of soil scam by the BJP
against my family members are meant to
target the coalition Government in Bihar.
—RJD leader
LALU PRASAD
Loan waiver is not only solution
FIRST
COLUMN
By not refuting the allegation, Lalu Prasad
has accepted whatever I said. A film can be
made on this rags-to-riches story.
—Goa Chief Minister
SUSHIL KUMAR MODI
UTTAM GUPTA
The Uttar Pradesh Government has made a good beginning to elevate the misery of the farming community. Other States too
may follow suit. But this may not be enough. A long-term solution to the farmers' financing and marketing is needed
Raising issues with
gas pricing policy
The Government needs to re-look at the current pricing
scheme for CBM production as it is not reaping returns.
It must, instead, stick to extant formula-based guidelines
he Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has
approved marketing and pricing freedom to contractors/producers of coal-bed methane (CBM), or natural gas from coal
seams, to sell it at arms length price in the domestic market. To
discover arms length price, a contractor has to now follow a fully
transparent and competitive bidding process from amongst users
“with the objective that the best possible price is realised for the
gas without any restrictive commercial practices”.
This decision has come in response to a scenario, whereby
producers such as, Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) and Oil and
Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) etc, do not find CBM production
to be viable under the existing pricing guidelines. Of the 33 CBM
bearing blocks awarded so far, gas is being produced from only
from four blocks, with a combined output of 1.17 million standard
cubic metres per day (mmscmd). The producers exude confidence
that freedom of pricing and marketing under the new policy will
reverse this trend and help quickly ramp-up CBM gas production
to targeted 5.77 mmscmd within a year.
A few months back, the Government had allowed pricing and
marketing freedom in respect of gas produced from small and marginal discovered oil and gas fields (a total of 67 earlier given to ONGC
and Oil India Ltd, on nomination basis in the 90s, which they surrendered to the Government). The fields were recently auctioned to
promising investors. This too was rationalised on the basis that under
extant pricing dispensation, production from these won't be viable.
Earlier, in March 2016, the Government had given an “incentive” price for gas produced from deep water and ultra-deep water
and high pressure-high temperature (HPHT) areas (for example, KG-DWN-98/2 of ONGC), using a formula-based on price
of alternate fuels viz, fuel oil, naphtha and imported liquefied
natural gas (LNG). That price was almost double of the price
determined under extant guidelines.
So, what is wrong with the existing formula, which prompted the Government to grant differential policy dispensations for
gas coming from different sources/fields? Or, is it the case that
the Modi regime is being bullied by interest groups to somehow
get away with price higher than under formula-based pricing?
Under the extant guidelines for pricing of domestic gas in
vogue from November 1, 2014, the price is based on a weighted average of prices at four global locations viz, Henry Hub (the
US), National Balancing Point (the UK), Alberta Gas Reference
(Canada) and Russian price for a full year, three months prior
to the effective date for revision. The price is revised bi-annually (once in every six months).
The clamour for market-driven pricing now may sound attractive to producers as this will give them an opportunity to charge
more than under the formula-based pricing. But this will be seriously detrimental to users, especially sensitive sectors like fertiliser and power, which consume bulk of gas supplies and cannot afford
to pay high price (their end users being poor farmers and households). Any attempt to gain at the cost of major consumers will
be counter-productive.
A caveat that the producer will need to go through a transparent and competitive bidding process, to discover the so-called
‘arms length price' is of no help. This is because, in a scenario of
acute shortage of gas and demand being much higher than the
supply, the bidding process will inevitably lead to an exploitative
price. Even the alternative of import won't be of any help as the
infrastructure for handling at port, transportation and distribution,
is with a handful of public sector undertakings.
The CoS was well aware of this when it rejected this approach
and, instead, recommended a formula-based pricing. Nothing has
changed since then to warrant a re-look at the pricing methodology. In fact, the supply scenario has only worsened with several
fields in the Krishna Godavari basin, off the Andhra coast, showing much lower reserves than the quantum initially estimated.
The Government should stick to extant formula-based guidelines of November 2014, which was robust enough to help them
reap handsome return even from difficult fields.
(The writer is a policy analyst)
T
SHIVAJI SARKAR
The Modi
Government has an
advantage — it has
the consensus of
political parties.
The farmers’ issue
must be taken up
for discussion in
Parliament. The
farmers need
support and the
society has to
evolve a
sustainable
method.
Benevolent farm
policy is accepted
as the best way to
spur demand and
industrial growth
ndian farmers are in distress.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister
Yogi Adityanath’s `36,359 crore
farm loan-waiver is the beginning
of a new thought process. It can
neither be dismissed as a mere scoring
of political brownie point nor bad economics, as many bankers and critics are
saying. It is the beginning of a new
debate to put the farm sector at the centre of the new Indian economy. The
loan-waiver is likely to cause a rethink
on the World Bank-International
Monetary Fund slur on farm subsidy.
The so-called 1991 economic
reform and the 1995 World Trade
Organisation’s (WTO) rules of the
agreement on agriculture, targeted
ending farm subsidies. It caused enormous misery for the farm sector and
abated innumerable suicides. The
National Crime Records Bureau says
256,913 farmers committee suicide
between 1995 and 2011.
The BJP’s Uttar Pradesh election
‘sankalp patra’ (manifesto) can possibly re-orient the economy and the bad
word ‘subsidy’ has to be integrated into
the economic theory for the growth of
the farm sector, rural sector, elimination of poverty and what is often touted as “inclusive growth”.
However, the distress of the rural
and farm sector is not restricted to Uttar
Pradesh. It is obvious from Maharashtra
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’s
statement that he is studying the Uttar
Pradesh model to waive off `30,000
crore loans for Maharashtra farmers.
Even the newly installed Congress
Government in Punjab is trying to
emulate the Uttar Pradesh model.
Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi
made a remarkable statement. He twitted, “A partial relief for Uttar Pradesh
I
farmers, but a step in the right direction. Congress has always supported
loan-waivers for farmers in distress”.
Does that show a political consensus?
Is it a repentance for 1991
Manmohanomics?
The recent agitation by Tamil Nadu
farmers only stress the fact that distress
is widespread. In an order on April 4, the
day Adityanath announced his waiver,
the Madras High Court directed the
Tamil Nadu Government to expand its
farm loan-waiver scheme to include
farmers who own more than five acres
of land. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and
other States may follow the suit.
At the human level, non-sustainability of the current agricultural system was symbolised in the suicide by
Lee Kyung-hae, a Korean farmer,
who took his life at the barricades of
the peoples protest against the fifth
ministerial meeting at WTO headquarters in Geneva on September 10,
2003. As he stabbed himself, he carried a banner stating, “WTO kills
farmers.” Lee’s suicide was symbolic of
the suicides of thousands of farmers.
The decision of the Uttar Pradesh
Government will give relief to 94 lakh
farmers owing upto one lakh rupees
each to banks. It would also benefit
seven lakh farmers who had defaulted
in repaying. This amounts to `5,630
crore. Many of these farmers were being
harassed by the banks. There are about
2.15 crore small farmers with holdings
of less than two hectares in the State,
according to Uttar Pradesh Minister
Siddharth Nath Singh.
As much as 67 per cent of India’s
farmland is held by marginal farmers,
with holdings below one hectare, against
less than one per cent in large holdings
of 10 hectares and above, the latest agri-
culture census shows. The average size
of the holding has been estimated as 1.15
hectare. There is a steady declining trend
as the size of these holdings denotes various agriculture censuses since 1970-71.
There is a financial fall-out too. The
waiver is to be funded by the State
Government, without a direct central aid.
The loan waiver will increase the debt to
gross domestic product (GDP) ratio for
Uttar Pradesh by nearly three percentage points, taking it to about six percent
of the State GDP. Officially, Uttar Pradesh
is stated to be bankrupt, though its revenue is around `3.40 lakh crore. Would
that lead to undesirable higher taxation?
This is likely to happen to many
States, which are reeling from successive droughts and similar loan-waivers
will lead to State fiscal deficits going out
of whack. The overall fiscal deficit of
the Centre plus the States may increase
to about three lakh crore rupees.
The Uttar Pradesh Government
says that it might launch a farm waiver bond for such re-financing. The
bonds need guarantee. The Centre ultimately may have to be the guarantor.
The banks apprehend that such
waivers might see a spurt in their nonperforming assets as even those, who
have been making regular repayments,
would stop paying their dues, hoping
for another waiver. In Uttar Pradesh,
banks have an exposure of `86,241
crore to small farmers with average loan
of `1.34 lakh each. It also entails enormous clerical job and add to the cost
of the banks.
So, despite previous history of
loan-waivers, by many Governments in
the past, even at the Centre, this
should not become the pattern.
The nation has to start rethinking.
From the point of view of farmers, they
Hold public schools accountable
Much of the problems Government schools face today are due to their misendeavours. They have been selfregulatory by acting as the regulator, financier and provider of education. A uniform policy is the need of hour
ealthy competition’ is
the magic word that all
of us look for in all
walks of life — be it in public
service or private production.
No doubt, devoid of healthy
competition, we cannot be
assured of quality and transparency in any enterprise.
That clearly calls for benchmarking ‘quality’ and ‘transparency’ along with ‘competition’. Of late, it has been a trend,
that whenever the issue of quality education comes up for discussion, one tends to drive the
dialogue towards Government
versus private schools. In fact,
this has become the norm.
This is nothing but dodging
the issue. The question is not, and
neither should it be, Government
versus private schools. It is a question about quality of education
and ensuring its continuous evaluation which, of course, must be
transparent. Interaction must be
focused on the policy of evalua-
H
tion and as a rule it should apply
on all schools, uniformly.
Yardstick must be the same
for all Government schools, private budget schools and high-end
public schools. But it is sheer failure of an interaction that conveniently shifts the focus on the
‘Government vs private schools’
debate. In fact, even the subject
of ‘transparent uniform evaluation’ doesn’t make up for the
minutes of the meetings.
Now, the question is: Do we
have any rationale for this fixation? What does it mean when
we say that we want better
Government school education,
without having a thought for
quality and competition? Why
can’t we, for a change, try and get
Government schools on equal
footing in this fight with those of
private schools? Why can’t we
make the Government schools
pull up their socks?
Ensuring that every child,
below the age of 14, gets free
and compulsory education, is an
obligation for the Government
under the Right to Education
Act. However, the term ‘free’ is
practically an eyewash. After all,
someone (the taxpayers) is paying for the same.
But despite being free for
others, the option (or compulsion) to enroll children in
Government schools, for primary education, is on the
wane. And, if at all, enrollments
have increased, attendance is
abysmally low.
On the contrary, private
schools (without giving any freebies) attract parents in drove.
Now, there are people, who
blame private schools for the failure of Government schools. But
there is no running away from
the fact that migration towards
private schools is due to the lack
of quality education in
Government schools.
For Government schools,
to perform better, it is imperative
to evaluate them on the same
benchmark, and by the same
yardstick as private schools.
This calls for an independent
body which capable of evaluating Government as well as private schools, by applying same
uniform policy for each of the
school so that performance,
quality and learning outcomes
are evaluated equally.
But scenario, as exists
today, show a tilt towards the
Government schools. Rather,
Government schools work
beyond scrutiny. If at all there
is some evaluation, it is the
Government itself that controls
the schools. It acts as the regulator, financier and provider
of education.
Given the facts, how can one
expect impartiality in an otherwise heavily competitive sector
like education? Say, for instance,
if we talk about the Telecom
Regulatory Authority of India
(Trai), one knows that it is not a
market player in itself. It is just a
monitoring body. So, you can
expect transparency from Trai.
However, in the education
sector, it is the Government all
the way. The schools, teachers,
buildings, power to make legislations, funding and the
power to investigate irregularities; everything is governed by
the Government. In this case,
can we expect any fairness
and impartiality when there is
competition between public
and private schools?
The Government, at any
cost, would be lenient towards its
own baby — Government
schools. Any strictness it wants
to be implemented, will be on the
private schools. And that explains
the existence of a number of permissions and licenses to open
and run a private school.
My question is whether the
Government itself goes by the
same rules? The answer is no. To
start with, it opens schools, takes
are the worst sufferer. Farm input costs
have gone up, but not the prices. It is a
double-edged political sword. If prices of
crops are increased, it has cascading effect
on the economy. As costs rise, credit dries
up. Farm debts goes out of control.
Finally, it leads to political upheaval.
The Narendra Modi Government
wants a farm-centric economy. The
NITI Ayog says till 2022, the promised
rise in income of farmers may not happen. But it cannot be delayed too.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has
to initiate a discussion on looking at the
farm economy in a new manner.
Should loans be replaced by some other
mechanism? Should that be called
subsidy or subsistence? The direct
benefit transfer has an administrative
cost. Subsidies, despite problems, benefit many others. It is a complex issue
and needs thorough discussion.
Indian farmers, particularly those
who are into cash crops, have complicated problems. The corporate and multinational corporation’s ingress into the
farm sector has aggravated it.
A long-term solution to the farmers’
financing and marketing is needed.
Across political spectrum, this is the consensus. Modi has this advantage. If he can
initiate a process of discussion in
Parliament and in the society, a possible
path may be found out.
The farmers need support and the
society has to evolve a sustainable
method. It should keep prices and wages
in check and also spur economic growth.
Benevolent farm policy is accepted as the
best way to spur demand and industrial growth. Uttar Pradesh has made a
beginning. India has to make the move
to turn the golden leaf, make or break
policies, churn the world and yes, WTO.
(The writer is a senior journalist)
think
now
SHIWANAND DWIVEDI
licenses and performs the formality of registration itself. But, for
a private school, one has to meet
several conditions like the prerequisite number of teachers, building area stipulations, etc.
In this scenario, the only
way to improve the standard of
Government schools is a paradigm shift to open competition that will do well even for
private schools. What is needed today is a level-playing Act
on part of the Government.
Transparency in the system
and equal rights to be in the
business will make small budget schools shoulder more burden of education and that too
quite efficiently. But it all
depends on an independent
uniform evaluation policy that
we need so earnestly.
(The writer is a research fellow at Dr Syama Prasad
Mookerjee
Research
Foundation, and editor of The
Nationalist Online)
eligion is an attempt to get
control over the sensory
world, in which we are
placed, by means of the wishworld, which we have developed
inside us as a result of biological
and psychological necessities.
But it cannot achieve its end. Its
doctrines carry with them the
stamp of the times in which they
originated, the ignorant childhood
days of the human race. Its
consolations deserve no trust.
The ethical commands, to which
religion seeks to lend its weight,
require some other foundations
instead, for human society cannot
do without them.
R
—Sigmund Freud
money 10
LUCKNOW | TUESDAY | APRIL 11, 2017
BMW Motorrad is an inherent and
highly emotional part of the BMW
brand. Our products stand for
passion, innovation and safety on
two wheels. We want our existing
and prospective customers to forge
new paths and make BMW
Motorrad a part of their aspirational
lifestyle and pursue joy through
riding
BMW GROUP INDIA PRESIDENT
VIKRAM PAWAH
{usp}
PM NOMINATES ONGC CMD DINESH K SARRAF TO GOVERNING BODY OF CSIR
The Prime Minister of India, in his capacity as ex-officio President of CSIR, has nominated ONGC
Chairman and Managing Director Dinesh K Sarraf as member of the prestigious governing body of Council
of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). Sarraf has been nominated to the governing body of CSIR for
a period of3 years. The governing body is the apex body of CSIR for all decision-making processes. CSIR
is a leading scientific R&D organisation set up with a mandate to promote guide and coordinate scientific
and industrial research in the country with its 38 R&D laboratories and Institutes. Eminent and learned
personalities from various fields are nominated to the governing body as members. Dinesh K Sarraf, 59, is
CMD of ONGC, India’s most valuable Maharatna public sector enterprise. Sarraf is also the Chairman of
ONGC Videsh Ltd, operating across 17 countries, Chairman of Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals Ltd
(MRPL) and 4 other ONGC Group companies (OPaL- ONGC Petro-additions Ltd, OMPL -ONGC Mangalore Petrochemicals Ltd,
MSEZ- Mangalore SEZ Ltd, and OTPC- ONGC Tripura Power Company Ltd). Sarraf graduated in Commerce from Ram College
of Commerce of Delhi University and did his post-graduation from the same University. He is an associate member of the
Institute of Cost and Works Accountants of India and the Institute of Company Secretaries of India. He has experience of over
three and half decades in the oil and gas industry, having started his oil and gas career in Oil India Ltd. He joined ONGC in
1991 and handled various key assignments at corporate offices. He was elevated to the post of Director (Finance) in ONGC
Videsh in 2005 where he served till 2007. During this period, ONGC Videsh made significant acquisitions in Syria, Brazil,
Colombia, Venezuela, Cuba, Egypt and Myanmar. In December 2007, he joined back ONGC as Director (Finance).
Farhat Jamshed, one of South Asia’s most visceral experimental artists is holding her Solo Exhibition Installations-17. The End of History at
the Visual Arts Gallery, Indian Habitat Centre, New Delhi. The 3-day Event was inaugurated by Sonal Mansingh, Padma Vibhushan, Iconic
Cultural Personality of India and Muzaffar Ali, Padma Shri, the Eminent Film Maker, on the last Sunday in the presence of many prominent
dignitaries and artists. The exhibition is on from 9th-11th April, 2017. Farhat Jamshed has over two decades of work in pushing the
boundaries of wood, metal, clay and paint, through her installations, furniture and paintings. Her latest Solo Exhibition comes after a hiatus
during which she perfected working with wood in its natural form and it comes in response to the artistic demand of an age influx.
ESIC LAUNCHES MOBILE APP ‘ASKANAPPOINTMENT’ (AAA+) FOR SEEKING PRIOR APPOINTMENT
ESIC launches a Mobile Application
‘AskAnAppointment’ (AAA+) for the ESI
patients with the support of its System
Integrator. The Secretary, Ministry of Labour
& Employment, Govt of India, M
Sathiyavathy, IAS launched the Application at
ESIC Dispensary, Sarojini Nagar, New Delhi
on Monday. Now, beneficiaries can seek
prior appointment for OPD Registration in
their stipulated dispensary through this App
and avail priority services avoiding long
queue. Use of ‘AAA+’ shall not only save time
but also prevent hardship faced by patients. This facility shall be available in all 32 ESIC dispensaries in Delhi and shall be gradually
extended to other dispensaries. Appointments up to 7 days can be booked in advance. The Application is made available through
Google Play Store free of cost to the beneficiaries and has user interface both in English and Hindi. Deepak Kumar, IAS, Director
General, Sandhya Shukla, IA & AS Financial Commissioner, Dr RK Kataria, Medical Commissioner, Dr Kajal Goldar, Director
(Medical) Delhi, Dr Abhimanyu Panda, Dy Medical Commissioner, ESIC and other Senior Officers were present on this occasion.
KVIC SPINS THE MINDS OF YOUTH IN POACHING-INFESTED ASSAM, CHAIRMAN KICKS OFF NEW
TRAINING-CUM-PRODUCTION CENTRE AT SILIMKHOWA (ASSAM)
Following the old saying ‘Idle mind is devil’s workshop’, the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) has derived a novel way to cut
out illegal poaching and maintain flora and fauna in and around Kaziranga National Park. Amid much fervor and gaiety, the KVIC Chairman,
Vinai Kumar Saxena on Monday inaugurated the new training-cum-production centre set-up in association with Assam forest department.
KVIC has given 25 charkhas, five looms and other accessories to the village artisans on Monday at Silimkhowa village under Karbi-Anglong
district in Kaziranga forest area. Later, while addressing the gathering there after the inaugural function where spinning and weaving
project have been given, Saxena said that it is historic day because for the first time in Assam Cotton Khadi work has started that too with
10 spindle charkhas. Out of 80 women selected for the project, 35 have been given training. This unit would provide job opportunities to
nearly 50 rural families of this area. Saxena further said that weaving had been a part of culture in Assam. “It is famous for its glorious
fabrics like Muga and Endi. KVI program in Assam is being implemented through 20 directly aided institutions of KVIC, covering about
5,000 artisans and production of approximately ` 11 cr,” he said, adding, “The sale of Khadi and Polyvastra is around `14 cr here and
marketing assistance is being provided through departmental Khadi Bhawans of Assam Khadi and Village Industries Board as well as nondepartmental Bhawans of KVI institutions. Not only that, the artisans are being benefited through several social welfare schemes of KVIC including Aam Admi Bima Yojana, Workshed Scheme for Khadi Artisan and Artisan Welfare and Pension Trust.” The KVIC Chairman
further hoped that on the similar lines, many other production centres would be started to enhance Khadi activities in Assam.
SYNDICATE BANK CUTS BASE RATE IN LINE WITH MCLR
Manipal-based public sector lender Syndicate Bank has reduced its base rate by 10 bps (100 basis points = 1
percentage point) from 9.60 per cent to 9.50 per cent effective from April 10, 2017. However, the bank made no
changes in the marginal cost based lending rate (MCLR) and benchmark prime lending rate (BPLR). The bench
mark one year lending MCLR stands at 8.75 per cent and BPLR at 13.85 per cent, a release said.
The Union Minister for
Water Resources, River
Development and Ganga
Rejuvenation, Uma Bharti
releasing a booklet, at a
press conference about
the recently concluded
Swachhata Pakhwada,
observed by Ministry of
Water Resources, in New
Delhi on Monday. The
Secretary, Ministry of
Drinking Water and
Sanitation,
Parameswaran Iyer is
also seen.
BUZZ
FROM
CORPORATES
Panasonic India, with its
Japanese reputation of
technology and innovation, is an
important partnership for us, and
together with technologies like
IoT (Internet of Things), we aim to
drive the next generation of home
appliances from India to the
global market
TATA ELXSI CEO & MD
MADHUKAR DEV
Flipkart raises $1.4 bn from Microsoft,
Tencent and eBay, acquires eBay India
PNS n NEW DELHI
ountry’s largest e-commerce company Flipkart
C
on Monday announced it has
raised $1.4 billion from
Tencent Holdings, Microsoft
Corp and eBay Inc amid speculation that the online marketplace is in talks to take over
smaller rival Snapdeal.
The biggest-ever fund raising by an Indian Internet firm
values Flipkart at $11.6 billion,
the company said in a statement on Monday. The valuation was a decline from
Flipkart’s $15 billion reported
worth in 2015.
Prior to the latest round of
funding, it had raised more
than $3 billion, mostly from
international investors.
EBay will invest $500 million in Flipkart as the two
firms will merge their operations in the country. As part of
the deal, Flipkart will own and
operate eBay’s business in
India when the deal closes
later this year.
Besides giving Flipkart
capital to fight competition
from US Internet giant
Amazon, the fund raising
comes amid speculation that
the homegrown e-commerce
firm is in talks to buy out
Snapdeal, which is backed by
Japan’s Softbank Group.
Launched by two former
Amazon employees in 2007,
THIS IS A LANDMARK
DEAL FOR FLIPKART
AND FOR INDIA AS IT
ENDORSES OUR TECH
PROWESS, OUR
INNOVATIVE MINDSET
AND THE POTENTIAL
WE HAVE TO DISRUPT
TRADITIONAL
MARKETS
FLIPKART FOUNDERS
SACHIN BANSAL AND
BINNY BANSAL
Flipkart’s biggest investor is US
hedge fund Tiger Global. Its
other investors include Accel
Partners, DST Global and
Baillie Gifford.
Earlier this year, Tiger
Global appointed Kalyan
Krishnamurthy as the chief
executive of the 10-year old
online marketplace to replace
the position held by one of the
company’s founders.
As per industry watchers,
the fresh funding may have
come at a lower valuation but
it is giving an indication of a
turnaround
under
Krishnamurthy.
“This is a landmark deal
for Flipkart and for India as it
endorses our tech prowess, our
innovative mindset and the
Bengaluru likely base for
Qatar Airways’ India subsidiary
MUMBAI: Gulf carrier Qatar
Airways’ proposed full service
airline in India is likely to set
up its base in Bengaluru and
provide connectivity from
there to other parts of the
country.
At present, budget carrier AirAsia India, which is a
joint venture between
Malaysia’s AirAsia group and
India’s Tata Sons, is the only
local carrier which has its
operational
base
in
Bengaluru.
Akbar Al Baker, Chief
Executive Officer of the
Doha-based full service carrier, had last month
announced in Berlin that
Qatar Airways was going to
join hands with the investment arm of State of Qatar to
start a domestic airline in
India with a 100 per cent
investment.
“Qatar Airways proposed
Indian subsidiary is likely to
make Bengaluru as its base
instead of Delhi or Mumbai,”
an industry source said.
Qatar Airways, which is
among the top three Gulf
carriers, has been exploring
investment opportunities in
India.
The source also said that
the new airline is expected
provide connectivity first
from the southern India cities
to other parts of the country
and then expand to other
regions.
Significantly, six cities of
the total 13 that Qatar
Airways flies to in India are in
the South.
A
Qatar
Air ways
spokesperson, in an e-mail
response to PTI queries,
declined to comment on the
issue.
“We cannot comment
anything at this stage,” the
spokesperson said.
Though Qatar Airways is
yet to apply for government’s
permission for setting up a
domestic airline here, it has
already started giving shape to
its plans with the appointment
of a local headhunter to hire
fresh talent as well as professionals from the existing
domestic carriers.
Significantly, the Persian
Gulf carrier has been eyeing
the fast growing domestic air
passenger market, which
became the third largest, beating Japan, after the US and
China in 2016.
“We are doing this (setting up
a domestic airline in India)
because Indian government has
opened up the foreign direct
investment in (setting up) an airline in India,” Al-baker had said on
March 8.
On several occasions earlier,
the Qatar Airways -- which operates a significant number of flights
from India to Qatar’s capital city
Doha -- had explored the possibility of buying stake in Indian
budget carrier IndiGo.
PTI
potential we have to disrupt
traditional markets,” Flipkart
founders Sachin Bansal and
Binny Bansal said.
The latest funding round
is the largest in Flipkart’s 10year history as well as in the
country’s Internet sector,
Flipkart said in a statement.
China’s Tencent -- which
has also participated in this
round -- owns social messaging app WeChat and has
investment in various Indian
online companies like Practo
and Ibibo.
For eBay, the deal would
see Flipkart acquiring its buyers in India after the close of
the transaction. Flipkart will
continue to operate eBay.In as
an independent entity.
BMW Motorrad
starts operations
in India with three
dealerships
PNS n NEW DELHI
MW Motorrad, the twowheeler arm of luxury
German carmaker, has officially
started its operations as a part of
the Indian subsidiary of BMW
Group. Earlier, the entity was
operating in India with importers
who had sales outlets in Mumbai
and New Delhi.
“We see a tremendous
potential in this country and we
are pleased to introduce BMW
Motorrad as a part of the Indian
subsidiary of BMW Group,”
BMW Motorrad Head of Region
Asia, China, Pacific, South Africa
DimitrisRaptissaidinastatement.
Currently, BMW Motorrad
is in the process of setting-up the
team and dealer network in
India with Shivapada Ray having
been appointed already as head
of the organisation. In the initial
phase, it will set up dealerships in
Ahmedabad, Bengaluru,
Mumbai and Pune.
“BMW Motorrad is an
inherent and highly emotional
part of the BMW brand. Our
products stand for passion, innovation and safety on two wheels.
Wewantourexistingandprospective customers to forge new paths
andmakeBMWMotorradapart
of their aspirational lifestyle and
pursuejoythroughriding,”BMW
Group India President Vikram
Pawah said.
B
“eBay and Flipkart have
also entered into an exclusive
agreement in which they will
jointly pursue cross-border
trade opportunities to make
eBay’s global inventory accessible to more India consumers,” eBay said in a statement.
With over 100 million
customers, Flipkart owns fashion retailers Myntra and
Jabong, logistics firm Ekart
and payments app PhonePe.
The announcement comes
at a time when Indian Internet
companies have seen funding
dry-up over the last few
months as investors focus
extensively on profitability
and rationalisation of expenses.
Coupled with intense
competition from deep-pocketed global rivals such as
Amazon, companies like
Flipkart and Snapdeal could
face more heat in the coming
days.
Flipkart and Snapdeal, like
many other players, continue
to report substantial losses as
they pump in funds for building logistics infrastructure and
marketing blitz.
Flipkart is also believed to
be in talks to buy out Snapdeal
that has SoftBank as a prominent shareholder.
The deal, if materialises,
would mark the biggest acquisition in the Indian e-commerce space.
Gartner Research Director
Sandy Shen said although
India’s e-commerce market is
still at an early stage, the market is seeing signs of consolidation as scale is a key success
factor in the business.
Flipkart has been and will
continue to make acquisitions
to increase scale and the next
challenge is to strategise the
path to a sustainable business
model within a set timeframe,
Shen said.
“Hopefully with the funding and expertise it is getting
from the investors, it will be
able to establish itself as a true
market leader from both the
technology and operational
perspectives,” Shen added.
RPower to invest around $1 bn
for power project and
LNG terminal in Bangladesh
PNS n NEW DELHI
eliance Power on Monday
said it has signed agreeR
ments with Bangladesh Power
Development Board (BPDP)
for phase I of 750 MW LNG
power project at Meghnaghat
near Dhaka entailing an investment of around $1 billion.
“Reliance Power today executed project agreements with
Bangladesh
Power
Development Board (BPDB)
for phase I of 750 MW LNG
power project at Meghnaghat,
near Dhaka in Bangladesh,”
Reliance Power said in statement.
According to statement,
these agreements include Power
Purchase Agreement (PPA) and
Implementation Agreement
(IA) for the proposed integrated combined cycle power project.
These agreements were
exchanged in the presence of
Prime Minister of Bangladesh,
Sheikh Hasina at a business
summit organised by the CII
here on Monday, it said.
Reliance Power has also
signed an MoU with
PetroBangla to set up 500
mmscfd LNG terminal at
Kutubdia
Island
near
Chittagong in Bangladesh, it
added.
The company said that the
definitive agreements for setting
up the LNG terminal will be
executed with PetroBangla
shortly.
The full LNG terminal
capacity will be used by
PetroBangla to meet huge
demand for power and other
industries and replace costly and
highly polluting fuels.
It said, “Reliance Power
will install world-class equipment procured from internationally reputed original equipment manufacturers previously for its 2,250 MW combined
cycle power project at Samalkot
in Andhra Pradesh, India,
which will be relocated to
Bangladesh in a phased manner.”
Reliance Power had signed
an MoU on June 6, 2015 with the
the BPDB to set up the integrated
project, during Prime Minister
Narendra Modi’s visit to Dhaka.
The phase-I will have an
investment outlay of nearly $1 billion which is the largest foreign
direct investment in Bangladesh,
the company claimed.
Financing of the project is
under consideration of Asian
Development Bank (ADB) and
a consortium of lenders, it said.
Reliance project will give a
tremendous boost to the economic and industrial growth of
Bangladesh and help to
enhance the energy security
with clean, green and reliable
LNG based power.
No formal pact with GM to take over Halol plant: SAIC
The President, Pranab Mukherjee, releasing the India Rankings 2017 (National Institutional Ranking Framework - 2017), at
Rashtrapati Bhavan, in New Delhi on Monday. The Union Minister for Human Resource Development, Prakash Javadekar, the
Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Dr Mahendra Nath Pandey and other dignitaries are also seen.
The Union Minister
for Science &
Technology and
Earth Sciences, Dr
Harsh Vardhan
addressing the
gathering, on the
occasion of the
250th Anniversary
of Survey of India,
in New Delhi on
Monday.
NEW DELHI: China’s SAIC Motor
Corporation on Monday said it
hasn’t entered into any formal
agreement with General Motors to
take over the latter’s Indian plant
at Halol in Gujarat.
The company had earlier
signed a term sheet few months
back to evaluate buying the Halol
plant but a final takeover would be
subject to government approvals,
settlement of labour and all other
pending issues by the American
auto major.
General Motors had
announced last month that it
would stop production at the
Halol plant from April 28 as part
of consolidation of its manufacturing operations in India.
“SAIC has not signed any formal agreement with GM for the
Halol plant. Few months back,
SAIC signed a term sheet to evaluate the Halol plant...,” SAIC
Tesla overtakes GM in mkt value
AFP n NEW YORK
tion on Monday following an
upbeat report by an investment analyst citing the electric carmaker’s “captivating”
ability to stir investor and
consumer enthusiasm.
Near 1430 GMT, Tesla
shares were up 3.1 per cent at
$311.93 for a market capitalisation of $51.53 billion, more
than $1 billion above GM.
“More so than any stock
we’ve covered, Tesla engenders optimism, freedom, defi-
ance, and a host of other emotions that, in our view, other
companies cannot replicate,”
Piper Jaffray said in a report
moving Tesla to “overweight”
in their recommendation.
“As they scramble to catch
up, we think Tesla’s competitors only make themselves
appear more desperate,” the
report said.
Tesla’s share price surge
came on the heels of that positive analyst comment, but the
landmark crossed on Monday
only concerns stock valuation.
The story for revenue
and real-world auto footprint
is very different.
Motor Corporation Chief India
Representative P Balendran said in
a statement.
He further said SAIC’s Halol
plant deal is subject to GM’s submission of all Government
esla Motors overtook top
US automaker General
T
Motors in market capitalisa-
approvals, settlement of labour and
all other pending issues by GM.
GM is yet to reach an agreement with workers of Halol plant
over its closure with many of them
reportedly not accepting the company’s voluntary separation
scheme.
When contacted, a GM India
spokesperson said, “As has been
widely reported many times, we
continue to progress towards the
sale of the Halol plant as we consolidate manufacturing at our
Talegaon plant.”
In 2015, the US auto major
had announced that it would
cease production at the plant, a
move that would affect 1,100
employees. The company stated
that it planned to consolidate
manufacturing operations at its
Talegaon plant in Maharashtra.
The Halol unit, which had a
total annual manufacturing capac-
ity of 1.1 lakh units annually, was
originally planned to be shut by
mid-2016.
GM had announced plans to
invest $1 billion to enhance manufacturing operations and roll
out 10 locally produced models in
India.
However, struggling to make
a turnaround in India, GM has put
on hold its investments on new
models for the country as the US
auto major undertakes a full
review of its future product portfolio here.
It hasn’t put any timeline for
lifting freeze on investments on the
new products.
Balendran, however, said
SAIC’s decision to enter into the
Indian market remains unchanged
and the company continues to
evaluate various options to set up
a car manufacturing plant in
India as early as possible.
PTI
money 11
LUCKNOW | TUESDAY | APRIL 11, 2017
RBI may go for 25 bps rate
cut in August: Report
90% Indian travellers’ book via
credit, debit card: Survey
PTI n MUMBAI
fter demonetisation, the
travel sector witnessed over
A
90 per cent Indians using plastic money to book their holidays,
according to a survey.
“It is heartening to note
that demonetisation did not
have a major impact on the peak
travel season. The surge in international travel highlights that
things are back to normal and
also underlines that millennials
are relatively intrepid and unlikely to be phased by economic
problems or political unrest,”
Yatra.com President Sharat Dhall
said quoting the survey.
“Post demonetisation, 90
per cent of Indian travellers
book by debit or credit card,”
Dhall added.
The survey was conducted
via email amongst 5,000 Yatra
customers.
It revealed that as an alternate solution to minimise the
impact of demonetisation on
vacations over 80 per cent
Indians have opted to reduce the
number of days to travel and
compromise on accommodation. It said, while nearly 80 per
cent Indians are looking to stay
in hotels this summer, only 4 per
cent prefer staying with friends
or relatives.
Homestays has seen an
increase in preference by over
100 per cent this summer, said
the report. Helped by relatively
low airfares, Dhall said, there has
been a shift in the passengers
from rail to air.
“This is on account of the
continued low oil prices and an
increase in the capacity by both
new entrants and the incumbent
players,” he added.
“We continue to expect the
RBI MPC to cut policy rates 25
bps on August 3 on weak
growth, benign inflation and
the need to recoup forex
reserves by attracting FPI
equity flows by supporting
growth,” it said.
At the April 6 policy
review meet, the RBI kept
repurchase or repo rate — at
which it lends to banks —
unchanged at 6.25 per cent but
increased reverse repo rate to
6 per cent from 5.75 per cent.
RBI said given the upside
risks to inflation and excess
liquidity in the system, the
repo rate has been retained at
6.25 per cent.
According to the global
brokerage firm lending rate
cuts are the key indicator for
recovery. “As lending rates
come off, they will revive
demand, close the output gap,
exhaust capacity and spur
investment,” it said.
PTI n NEW DELHI
Further, the survey said,
while desktops and laptops continue to be the preferred medium of booking, about 40 per cent
prefer booking via mobile indicating the increased smart phone
and internet penetration across
the country.
The survey also showed that
more than 50 per cent Indian
travellers read online reviews
before planning their vacations
followed by 30 per cent seeking
recommendation from friends.
Meanwhile, it said, hill stations are the most popular summer holiday destination this
year followed by Kerala and
Goa.
While 24 per cent believed
that relaxation during holidays is
the key reason to travel, 72 per
cent of the respondents said that
they do not switch off from work
even during vacation.
he monetary policy committee of the Reserve Bank
T
of India is expected to cut policy rates by 25 bps in August
on weak growth and benign
inflation, says a Bank of
America Merrill Lynch
(BofAML) report.
“We estimate that old
series GDP growth, at 4.5-5
per cent, well below our estimated
7
per
cent
potential/trend. Not surprisingly, core CPI inflation has
slipped to 4.2 per cent from 4.8
per cent in October. It is statistically difficult to work out
potential growth in the new
GDP series without past data,”
BofAML said in a research
note.
Moreover, all related metrics - industrial production,
credit growth, earnings - are
running well below their
medium-term averages.
The Oberoi Group on Monday announced the opening of The Oberoi Beach Resort, Al Zorah, a joint venture with the Ajman
goverernment in the UAE. “I am confident that The Oberoi Beach Resort, Al Zorah with its location and aesthetic design will
offer distinctive Oberoi service to travellers from around the world,” The Oberoi Group executive chairman PRS Oberoi said
in a release. Nestled within 247 acres, The Oberoi Beach Resort, Al Zorah offers private meeting rooms and a 4,600 square
feet banqueting space, which can host up to 200 guests for weddings and social events. The Oberoi Group, which was founded
in 1934, presently operates 32 hotels, two Nile cruisers and a motor vessel in the backwaters of Kerala. The Group is also
engaged in flight catering, managing airport restaurants, travel and tour services, car rentals and corporate air charters
PTI
Net office space absorption to be lower in 2018: JLL BMW Motorrad starts operations in India
Mumbai (PTI): Owing to a
decline in supply of good quality office space, the net absorption in 2018 is likely to be much
lower as compared to 2017 and
2016, a recent survey by Jones
Lang LaSalle said.
Pan-India office vacancy in
2016, at 15 per cent, was the
lowest in eight years, which was
mainly on the back of positive
office space demand from sectors like manufacturing, logistics, FMCG, consulting firms,
among others, the property
consultant said in a statement.
The sharpest reduction in
pan-India office vacancy was
seen between 2013 and 2016
when it went from 18.5 per cent
to 15 per cent.
“The net absorption in
NIFTY 50
SCRIP
OPEN HIGH LOW
LTP CHANGE
IOC
405 413.8 402.35 411.45
14.1
BPCL
680 704.85
680 697.05
21.7
GRASIM
1,062.00 1,093.20 1,060.40 1,090.25 33.15
YESBANK
1,562.00 1,605.00 1,559.10 1,603.00 46.45
INFRATEL
348.5 360.9
348
356
8.4
TATAMTRDVR
284.5
292 282.3
290.1
5.75
ADANIPORTS 348.05 353.85 346.05
352.9
5.75
TATAMOTORS 471.65 478.3 467.55
475.8
7.5
BANKBARODA 169.75 172.15 168.2 171.25
2.6
INDUSINDBK 1,412.50 1,431.00 1,409.05 1,430.00
17.8
AXISBANK
504.65
513 503.35
510.2
6
HINDALCO
194.1 195.5 192.6
195.1
1.6
COALINDIA
284.9 288.6 284.75
286.2
2.3
ZEEL
545.65
555 543.9 551.05
3.45
AMBUJACEM 244.25 245.6
242 243.55
1.1
TATASTEEL
497 498.8 490.4
495.3
2.1
KOTAKBANK
877.7 879.9 867.5 876.35
3.25
LUPIN
1,405.00 1,419.50 1,397.00 1,415.30
5.25
SUNPHARMA
667 669.9 661.2
668
2.05
SBIN
289.8 290.35 286.55
290
0.55
BAJAJ-AUTO 2,855.00 2,857.45 2,822.00 2,835.00
4.55
BHARTIARTL
348.3 348.4 342.05
345.2
0.5
ACC
1,471.50 1,478.00 1,465.55 1,470.15
2.05
ICICIBANK
278.4
279 276.1
277.7
0.35
ITC
275
275 272.1
273
0.35
M&M
1,280.00 1,282.85 1,267.50 1,277.25
1.7
MARUTI
6,282.00 6,307.80 6,245.05 6,265.00
5.65
CIPLA
591 594.2 588.25
590.3
0.3
ONGC
187.3 187.75 186.2
186.5
0.1
HINDUNILVR
922.8 929.7
916
924
-0.5
POWERGRID
195.05 195.65 194.35 194.75
-0.25
TECHM
445 448.7 441.5
442
-1.2
HDFCBANK 1,443.00 1,443.00 1,432.65 1,435.00
-3.85
AUROPHARMA
663 663.85 653.5 655.35
-2.7
GAIL
387.1
389 383.4
385
-1.65
HEROMOTOCO 3,236.00 3,236.00 3,185.00 3,200.00
-15.3
LT
1,688.00 1,709.10 1,663.00 1,676.95
-8.55
TATAPOWER
87.8 87.85 86.85
87
-0.5
BOSCHLTD 22,872.2023,038.0522,649.0022,681.05 -145.75
ULTRACEMCO 4,065.00 4,107.65 4,021.00 4,049.70
-31.3
NTPC
168.05 168.95 165.25
166.8
-1.45
TCS
2,432.00 2,449.00 2,405.00 2,408.00 -21.05
DRREDDY
2,655.00 2,670.75 2,632.45 2,637.10 -24.25
EICHERMOT 25,800.0025,800.0025,526.0025,526.00 -280.85
HDFC
1,484.00 1,484.00 1,465.05 1,465.85
-18.9
RELIANCE
1,410.00 1,424.90 1,377.30 1,384.75 -21.85
WIPRO
514.95 517.8 502.5 503.85
-8.05
HCLTECH
849 857.5
831 833.25 -16.05
IBULHSGFIN
956.35 957.85 924.2 935.85
-20
ASIANPAINT 1,078.40 1,080.45 1,057.05 1,059.00 -23.95
INFY
984.9 989.5 950.1 951.05
-30.5
NIFTY NEXT 50
SCRIP
OPEN HIGH LOW
LTP CHANGE
INDIGO
1,037.90 1,098.50 1,030.00 1,095.95 57.15
DIVISLAB
656
661 642.2
655.5 33.45
BAJFINANCE 1,201.70 1,252.00 1,190.00 1,246.00
44.4
BAJAJFINSV 4,241.00 4,390.00 4,233.35 4,358.00 131.8
BEL
167.6 173.4 166.15
172.6
4.95
JSWSTEEL
199.75
205 198.75
204.5
4.65
PNB
149.4
153 148.55
152.9
3.45
ABB
1,374.20 1,459.00 1,356.65 1,409.95
30.1
BRITANNIA 3,355.00 3,425.00 3,350.00 3,416.90 59.45
PEL
1,928.00 1,978.00 1,912.35 1,955.00 32.65
VEDL
269 273.6 267.95
273.3
4.5
DABUR
285.1 290.55 283.4
287
4.6
PETRONET
408
415
408 414.75
6.15
DLF
153.35 157.65 153.2
156.4
2.15
HINDPETRO
539.8 546.8
538
543
7.2
HINDZINC
283.95
289 282.75
287.5
3.55
SIEMENS
1,315.00 1,326.80 1,299.20 1,314.50 15.05
GLENMARK
865
874
862 872.05
9.15
CONCOR
1,139.95 1,146.00 1,102.55 1,133.00 11.75
OIL
334.3 339.8 334.3
338.5
3.5
UPL
728.65 735.8 725.4
733.3
6.45
CUMMINSIND
961.5 987.8 960.25
975.1
8.25
TORNTPHARM 1,450.00 1,482.00 1,450.00 1,465.50
10.3
COLPAL
997.15 1,030.45 997.15 1,015.20
6.95
LICHSGFIN
626 633.55 624.15 629.45
4.2
IDEA
88.15
88.4 87.05
88.15
0.55
PGHH
7,301.00 7,420.00 7,301.00 7,400.00
45.3
SAIL
66.8
67.4
66.2
66.7
0.4
MOTHERSUMI 378.25 382.05 377.6 379.25
1.25
NHPC
32
32.2
31.6
32
0.1
HAVELLS
475 475.75
466
472.2
0.85
EMAMILTD
1,039.85 1,042.00 1,027.25 1,035.00
0.9
PFC
152.8 153.75 149.7 152.45
0.1
BHEL
174.9 177.65 173.55
174.5
-0.3
SRTRANSFIN 1,100.00 1,110.00 1,077.65 1,086.15
-2
TITAN
484.75
490 483.05
484.5
-0.9
MARICO
301.05 303.4 298.75
299.2
-0.85
NMDC
135 136.3 134.1
134.7
-0.5
RECLTD
185.5 185.85 182.05
183.3
-0.7
GSKCONS
5,229.95 5,229.95 5,112.30 5,170.00
-29.4
PIDILITIND
712 712.3 701.5 703.25
-4.95
GLAXO
2,735.40 2,735.40 2,709.00 2,715.00
-20.4
CADILAHC
460
463 448.7
451.5
-3.95
SHREECEM 17,639.0017,888.0017,561.1017,650.00 -176.25
GODREJCP 1,692.50 1,698.50 1,675.00 1,682.40
-17.3
ICICIPRULI
400 401.15
393
395
-5
ASHOKLEY
84.2 84.35
82
82.4
-1.2
UBL
767.95
770 733.5
750
-20
OFSS
3,850.95 3,865.90 3,713.00 3,715.00
-113
MCDOWELL-N 2,030.00 2,035.00 1,871.80 1,887.00 -137.05
Bse 500
Script
Traded
3MINDIA
8KMILES
AARTIIND
ABAN
ABB
ABBOTINDIA
ABFRL
ABIRLANUVO
ACC
ADANIENT
ADANIPORTS
ADANIPOWER
ADANITRANS
ADVENZYMES
AEGISLOG
AIAENG
AJANTPHARM
AKZOINDIA
ALBK
ALKEM
ALLCARGO
AMARAJABAT
AMBUJACEM
AMTEKAUTO
ANDHRABANK
APLAPOLLO
APLLTD
APOLLOHOSP
APOLLOTYRE
ARVIND
ASAHIINDIA
ASHOKA
ASHOKLEY
ASIANPAINT
ASTRAL
ASTRAMICRO
ASTRAZEN
ATUL
AUROPHARMA
AVANTI
Last
Price
11933.25
601.7
778.7
232.7
1407.95
4750
166.8
1560.65
1471.85
119.9
351.25
44.35
93.75
2061
191.5
1543.9
1736.25
1870.25
73.9
2142.2
175.85
887.2
244.4
33.55
58.9
1219
619
1174.6
216.8
398
223.1
209.45
82.6
1060.05
558.6
117.4
964
2458.25
656.85
818.9
2018 is forecast to be lower
than this year due to scarce
supply,” JLL India CEO and
Country Head Ramesh Nair
said.
He said though the country’s office real estate is set to
be the biggest gainer among
asset classes due to steady
demand, rising GDP and
launching of REITs in the next
Abs Change
Change
%
-70.6 -0.59
2.8
0.47
-5.25 -0.67
1.5
0.65
27.4
1.98
-20.2 -0.42
7.5
4.71
35.8
2.35
5.05
0.34
2.55
2.17
3.7
1.06
0.75
1.72
12.4 15.24
-27.75 -1.33
-0.4 -0.21
0.65
0.04
16.5
0.96
2.65
0.14
1.5
2.07
-58.75 -2.67
1.25
0.72
-3.4 -0.38
2.05
0.85
-0.05 -0.15
0.85
1.46
13
1.08
-2.05 -0.33
13.9
1.2
4.05
1.9
2.55
0.64
-2 -0.89
4.2
2.05
-1
-1.2
-20.6 -1.91
4.35
0.78
2
1.73
21.5
2.28
34.25
1.41
-2.2 -0.33
10.8
1.34
CENTURYTEX
CERA
CESC
CGPOWER
CHAMBLFERT
CHENNPETRO
CHOLAFIN
CIPLA
COALINDIA
COFFEEDAY
COLPAL
CONCOR
COROMANDEL
CORPBANK
COX&KINGS
CRISIL
CROMPTON
CUB
CUMMINSIND
CYIENT
DABUR
DALMIABHA
DBCORP
DBL
DCBBANK
DCMSHRIRAM
DEEPAKFERT
DELTACORP
DEN
DENABANK
DHANUKA
DHFL
DISHMAN
DISHTV
DIVISLAB
DLF
DRREDDY
DYNAMATECH
ECLERX
EDELWEISS
EICHERMOT
EIDPARRY
1064.95
2849.4
841.9
79.9
86.95
373.65
1050.85
588.55
287.25
233.1
1016.15
1131.65
327.2
58.95
214.55
1990.95
211
152.5
978.95
472.7
286.7
2120.25
377.5
362.95
171.3
327.8
258.7
179.25
89.95
39.6
783.4
384.6
325.55
102.05
657.15
156.75
2636.2
2853
1382
179.2
25449.35
276.45
-2.15
-10.05
-1.05
1.05
0.65
1
49.95
-0.2
3.3
1.5
4.25
11.5
4.7
4.1
2.35
21.45
-4.25
0.1
14.7
-7.05
5.25
-39.1
-12
7.3
3.55
4.45
3.5
-2.55
0.6
0.4
6.9
1.5
-1.3
2.35
34.7
2.75
-21.5
-47.7
-10.3
-2.35
-328.95
-1.15
-0.2
-0.35
-0.12
1.33
0.75
0.27
4.99
-0.03
1.16
0.65
0.42
1.03
1.46
7.47
1.11
1.09
-1.97
0.07
1.52
-1.47
1.87
-1.81
-3.08
2.05
2.12
1.38
1.37
-1.4
0.67
1.02
0.89
0.39
-0.4
2.36
5.57
1.79
-0.81
-1.64
-0.74
-1.29
-1.28
-0.41
NSE: GAINERS
BSE: GAINERS
Current (Chng %)
Current (Chng %)
93.75 (15.24)
IOC
411.45 (3.55)
CORPBANK
58.95 (7.47)
BPCL
697.05 (3.21)
MARKSANS
56.00 (7.38)
GRASIM
1,090.25 (3.14)
ORIENTBANK
151.05 (5.85)
YESBANK
1,603.00 (2.98)
DIVISLAB
657.15 (5.57)
INFRATEL
356.00 (2.42)
6.95
5
4.4
5.45
159.5
0.37
8.2
44.25
2.25
0.15
4.85
2.2
5.25
45.6
9.2
29.1
-6.65
4.55
23.35
-2.9
-7.5
-12.1
17.05
0.5
-0.1
6.2
-8.35
4.6
-9.35
7.65
-1.7
-93.9
24.3
64.95
-3.8
4
2.35
17.4
-2.6
4.5
-32.15
9.45
-0.7
6.9
0.45
2.85
EIHOTEL
ELGIEQUIP
EMAMILTD
ENDURANCE
ENGINERSIN
ENIL
EQUITAS
EROSMEDIA
ESCORTS
ESSELPRO
EVEREADY
EXIDEIND
FAGBEARING
FCONSUMER
FDC
FEDERALBNK
FINCABLES
FINOLEXIND
FORCEMOT
FORTIS
FRETAIL
FSL
GAIL
GATI
GAYAPROJ
GDL
GEPIL
GESHIP
GET&D
GHCL*
GICHSGFIN
GILLETTE
GLAXO
GLENMARK
GMDCLTD
GMRINFRA
GNFC
GODFRYPHLP
GODREJCP
GODREJIND
GODREJPROP
GPPL
GRANULES
GRASIM
GREAVESCOT
GREENPLY
ADANITRANS
AXISBANK
BAJAJ-AUTO
BAJAJCORP
BAJAJELEC
BAJAJFINSV
BAJAJHIND
BAJAJHLDNG
BAJFINANCE
BALKRISIND
BALMLAWRIE
BALRAMCHIN
BANKBARODA
BANKINDIA
BASF
BATAINDIA
BAYERCROP
BBTC
BEL
BEML
BERGEPAINT
BFUTILITIE
BHARATFIN
BHARATFORG
BHARTIARTL
BHEL
BIOCON
BIRLACORPN
BLISSGVS
BLUEDART
BLUESTARCO
BOMDYEING
BOSCHLTD
BPCL
BRITANNIA
CADILAHC
CANBK
CANFINHOME
CAPF
CAPPL
CARBORUNIV
CARERATING
CASTROLIND
CCL
CEATLTD
CENTRALBK
CENTURYPLY
510.75
2837.7
411.2
349
4372.75
14.01
2136.4
1243
1395.5
243.9
153.85
170.9
145.7
1327.45
567.35
3815
823.15
172.05
1386
235.15
453.45
777.35
1083.85
345
174.75
1104.1
741.4
171.05
5079.95
668.95
80.1
22651
699.5
3413.75
451.05
308.55
2334
777.95
387.5
301.85
1550.1
433.5
347.3
1382.3
102.9
262.8
1.38
0.18
1.08
1.59
3.79
2.71
0.39
3.69
0.16
0.06
3.26
1.3
3.74
3.56
1.65
0.77
-0.8
2.72
1.71
-1.22
-1.63
-1.53
1.6
0.15
-0.06
0.56
-1.11
2.76
-0.18
1.16
-2.08
-0.41
3.6
1.94
-0.84
1.31
0.1
2.29
-0.67
1.51
-2.03
2.23
-0.2
0.5
0.44
1.1
Assets poorer in quality or at
inferior locations, have a much
higher vacancy, except in the IT
cities like Bengaluru, Pune,
Hyderabad and Chennai,” Nair
said.
According to JLL, due to
scarcity in supply of office
space, rents, will grow even in
Grade-B buildings too and
certain micro-markets.
1-2 quarters, the availability of
right space at right location
remains a challenge for many
occupiers looking for grade-A
offices.
“As vacancy reduces across
key cities, the supply of good
quality assets continues to
diminish. Vacancy in higher
quality assets is far lower than
the average city-level vacancies.
121.3
217.35
1035
829.8
150.15
832
162.45
255.25
544.9
238.9
279
227.25
4575
35.3
201.5
89.8
528.45
571.15
4622.3
185.1
287.1
40.8
384.9
139
145
261.75
605.3
437.9
345.25
271
497.35
4170.5
2721
871.4
125.85
15.75
273.65
1140.25
1683
538
429.05
160.35
138
1087.7
166
282.2
0.15
-1.55
-0.1
28.85
0
15.95
-3
6.2
24.65
5.6
-2.35
2.3
17.45
0.9
-4
1.95
12
2.1
-24.95
-0.9
5.2
-0.4
-1.65
-1.8
0.35
-0.9
13.4
15
5.3
1.2
47.4
20.15
-4.8
8.6
1.25
-0.2
4.55
-2.65
-15.05
6.5
-8.7
-5.4
-0.8
32.25
-0.7
4.15
0.12
-0.71
-0.01
3.6
0
1.95
-1.81
2.49
4.74
2.4
-0.84
1.02
0.38
2.62
-1.95
2.22
2.32
0.37
-0.54
-0.48
1.84
-0.97
-0.43
-1.28
0.24
-0.34
2.26
3.55
1.56
0.44
10.53
0.49
-0.18
1
1
-1.25
1.69
-0.23
-0.89
1.22
-1.99
-3.26
-0.58
3.06
-0.42
1.49
SENSEX
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JETAIRWAYS
JINDALPOLY
JINDALSTEL
JISLJALEQS
364
386.05
118.1
5165
158.9
741.2
771.85
720
35.65
531.8
471.25
41.25
55.85
832.8
1465
1435
82.85
126.45
3199.45
210.6
13.93
339.45
194.75
67.6
542.6
925
286.95
289.8
10990.25
354.1
86.3
89.5
934.8
277.65
394.75
196.45
4148
75.1
87.75
58.55
60.4
29.85
1004.5
468.15
113.15
129.15
163.9
270.25
1086.55
233.05
1425.9
971.85
357
952.95
820.5
295
188.3
120
27.75
411.45
634.65
237.15
6299
273.5
169.9
80.15
186.55
77.95
340.45
273.85
1844.1
510.75
423.3
127.75
101.55
8
5.5
-1.65
-36.6
-0.2
13.75
-0.25
0.65
0
-1.6
-0.3
0.45
0.55
-16.2
-19
-3.75
0.4
-0.3
-17.15
-1.4
0.05
-0.5
1.25
0.25
7.8
1.85
3.1
1.8
256.95
1.4
0.9
0.65
-20.65
0.65
-4.95
0.45
23.6
-0.2
0.45
1.35
0
0.15
10.55
12.4
2.35
-0.8
1.15
-0.3
50.75
-4.45
14.3
0.15
9.4
-28.3
9.25
-1.85
2.9
-1.35
0.55
14.25
-3.4
-1.5
57.85
0.75
1.3
1.35
-0.2
-0.25
-11.75
1.2
60
13.4
4.3
-1.3
1.05
NIFTY
2.25
1.45
-1.38
-0.7
-0.13
1.89
-0.03
0.09
0
-0.3
-0.06
1.1
0.99
-1.91
-1.28
-0.26
0.49
-0.24
-0.53
-0.66
0.36
-0.15
0.65
0.37
1.46
0.2
1.09
0.63
2.39
0.4
1.05
0.73
-2.16
0.23
-1.24
0.23
0.57
-0.27
0.52
2.36
0
0.51
1.06
2.72
2.12
-0.62
0.71
-0.11
4.9
-1.87
1.01
0.02
2.7
-2.88
1.14
-0.62
1.56
-1.11
2.02
3.59
-0.53
-0.63
0.93
0.27
0.77
1.71
-0.11
-0.32
-3.34
0.44
3.36
2.69
1.03
-1.01
1.04
JKCEMENT
JKIL
JKLAKSHMI
JKTYRE
JMFINANCIL
JPASSOCIAT
JSWENERGY
JSWSTEEL
JUBILANT
JUBLFOOD
JUSTDIAL
JYOTHYLAB
KAJARIACER
KALPATPOWR
KANSAINER
KEC
KESORAMIND
KIRLOSENG
KITEX
KOTAKBANK
KPIT
KPRMILL
KRBL
KSCL
KTKBANK
KWALITY
L&TFH
LAKSHVILAS
LALPATHLAB
LAOPALA
LAURUSLABS
LAXMIMACH
LICHSGFIN
LINDEINDIA
LT
LTI
LTTS
LUPIN
M&M
M&MFIN
MAGMA
MAHABANK
MAHINDCIE
MAHLIFE
MANAPPURAM
MANPASAND
MARICO
MARKSANS
MARUTI
MCLEODRUSS
MCX
MFSL
MGL
MHRIL
MINDAIND
MINDTREE
MJCO
MMTC
MOIL
MONSANTO
MOTHERSUMI
MOTILALOFS
MPHASIS
MRF
MRPL
MTNL
MUTHOOTFIN
NATCOPHARM
NATIONALUM
NAUKRI
NAVINFLUOR
NAVKARCORP
NAVNETEDUL
NBCC
NBVENTURES
BSE: SENSEX
Open
New Delhi: BMW
Motorrad, the two-wheeler arm
of luxury German carmaker, has
officially started operations in
India. Earlier, the entity was
operating in India with
importers who had sales outlets
in Mumbai and New Delhi.
“We see a tremendous
potential in this country and we
are pleased to introduce BMW
29831.32
Low
29553.04
Current value
29575.74
Previous close
29706.61
Change (Pts)
-130.87
Change (%)
-0.44
11.85
0.15
-2.25
2.65
5.35
-0.06
-0.9
4.25
-1.3
-11.45
4
1.45
11.2
4.15
-0.6
-0.3
-1.4
-1.75
-15.15
3.55
-0.9
10.75
1.75
7.5
2.1
-0.75
1.25
-0.25
3.2
-8.2
2.55
5.75
3
38.6
-11.8
9.2
-3
6.5
4.55
1.55
1.15
0.25
6.15
-3.45
-0.6
-9.25
0.25
3.85
-4.85
6.4
19.3
20.35
11.55
0.65
1.7
-1.35
8.35
-0.1
7.85
16.4
1.65
31.4
-0.55
-257.5
3.85
0.15
-2.55
-4.15
0.5
9.05
-97
-2.95
-1.55
3.1
-0.45
1.28
0.06
-0.5
1.93
5.75
-0.46
-1.36
2.13
-0.16
-1.1
0.77
0.43
1.82
1.28
-0.15
-0.14
-0.94
-0.44
-3.47
0.41
-0.69
1.57
0.43
1.37
1.46
-0.46
1.04
-0.15
0.33
-1.51
0.5
0.13
0.48
8.87
-0.7
1.3
-0.38
0.46
0.36
0.46
0.95
0.72
2.82
-0.85
-0.62
-1.3
0.08
7.38
-0.08
3.6
1.59
3.21
1.3
0.15
0.39
-0.3
2.17
-0.16
2.4
0.66
0.44
4.1
-0.1
-0.42
3.59
0.6
-0.67
-0.48
0.68
1.08
-3.11
-1.4
-0.95
1.75
-0.35
VITAL STATS
29752.62
High
939.1
247.25
449
139.65
98.35
12.87
65.5
203.8
814
1027.5
523.9
342.4
626.1
328.35
387
213.85
148.2
393.55
421.7
878
129.35
693.3
409
556.45
146.15
162.05
121.95
166.6
965.65
534.4
512.55
4300
627.6
473.75
1674.7
718.9
788.6
1416.85
1280.6
337.05
122.7
34.85
224
403.95
95.5
700.35
299.35
56
6259.1
184.2
1236.7
653.75
897.55
437
439
445.55
393.55
63.5
335.35
2499
380.2
796.8
555.1
60752.55
111
25.1
375.3
858.4
74.3
850
3026.3
207.5
161
179.9
128.8
Mumbai
Delhi
Kolkata
GOLD
30363
29893
30278
SILVER
42544
42544
42544
64.44
68.25
79.85
0.58
Motorrad as a part of the Indian
subsidiary of BMW Group,”
BMW Motorrad Head of
Region Asia, China, Pacific,
South Africa Dimitris Raptis
said in a statement. Currently,
BMW Motorrad is in the
process of setting-up the team
and dealer network in India with
Shivapada Ray having been
appointed already as head of the
NCC
NESTLEIND
NETWORK18
NH
NHPC
NIITLTD
NIITTECH
NILKAMAL
NLCINDIA
NMDC
NOVARTIND
NTPC
OBEROIRLTY
OFSS
OIL
OMAXE
ONGC
ONMOBILE
ORIENTBANK
ORIENTCEM
PAGEIND
PARAGMILK
PCJEWELLER
PEL
PERSISTENT
PETRONET
PFC
PFIZER
PFS
PGHH
PHOENIXLTD
PIDILITIND
PIIND
PNB
PNBHOUSING
PNCINFRA
POLARIS
POWERGRID
PRAJIND
PRESTIGE
PRISMCEM
PTC
85.9
6581
39.35
324.7
31.75
78.1
427.1
1987.1
106.1
134.55
716.3
166.6
399
3724
338.85
176.5
186.4
90.5
151.05
143.95
14072
249.45
426.9
1963.7
565.25
414.35
152.4
1861.55
46.7
7370
417.65
704.05
830.3
152.2
1190.8
130.25
180.15
194.85
81.7
208.2
104.4
95.45
1.3
-26.5
0.35
2.6
-0.2
-4.75
-12.35
-13.65
-0.15
-0.6
3.95
-1.1
20.1
-110.5
5.25
2.75
0.05
2.2
8.35
1.45
-273.2
4.75
0.45
45.9
-5.5
6.45
0.15
22
3.3
40.3
-1.2
-3.3
1.3
3.3
7.7
2.8
-1.6
-0.4
0.65
-13.15
0.35
0.3
1.54
-0.4
0.9
0.81
-0.63
-5.73
-2.81
-0.68
-0.14
-0.44
0.55
-0.66
5.3
-2.88
1.57
1.58
0.03
2.49
5.85
1.02
-1.9
1.94
0.11
2.39
-0.96
1.58
0.1
1.2
7.6
0.55
-0.29
-0.47
0.16
2.22
0.65
2.2
-0.88
-0.2
0.8
-5.94
0.34
0.32
organisation. In the initial phase,
it will set up dealerships in
Ahmedabad, Bengaluru,
Mumbai and Pune. “BMW
Motorrad is an inherent and
highly emotional part of the
BMW brand. Our products
stand for passion, innovation
and safety on two wheels,”
BMW Group India president
Vikram Pawah said.
SONATSOFTW
SOUTHBANK
SPARC
SPICEJET
SREINFRA
SRF
SRTRANSFIN
STAR
STRTECH
SUNDRMFAST
SUNPHARMA
SUNTECK
SUNTV
SUPREMEIND
SUVEN
SUZLON
SWANENERGY
SYMPHONY
SYNDIBANK
SYNGENE
TAKE
TATACHEM
TATACOFFEE
TATACOMM
TATAELXSI
TATAGLOBAL
TATAINVEST
TATAMOTORS
TATAMTRDVR
TATAPOWER
TATASPONGE
TATASTEEL
TCS
TECHM
TECHNO
TEXRAIL
THERMAX
THOMASCOOK
THYROCARE
TIMKEN
TITAN
TNPL
UNITDSPR
PRESTIGE
0.2
0.23
-1.38
4.64
1.33
-0.22
-0.28
-0.87
0.27
-0.62
0.23
0.57
1.77
-0.82
-0.72
2.38
-0.32
0.07
1.64
-1.13
-0.88
1.86
0.32
-1.03
1.88
-0.03
3.22
1.51
2.09
-0.11
13.31
0.52
-0.7
0.01
-1.82
-1.13
0.43
-1.19
-0.9
3.05
0.1
-0.17
Current (Chng %)
Current (Chng %)
375.25 (9.70)
0.35
0.05
-4.7
4.3
1.1
-3.6
-3.05
-9.65
0.35
-2.5
1.55
2.3
13.7
-8.9
-1.3
0.45
-0.45
1.05
1.15
-6.15
-1.2
11.25
0.4
-7.3
28.8
-0.05
20.8
7.05
5.95
-0.1
97
2.55
-17.1
0.05
-7.2
-1.1
4.2
-2.65
-6.75
20.5
0.5
-0.55
NSE: LOSERS
BSE: LOSERS
SOBHA
171.3
21.7
336.85
97
83.55
1632.6
1085.75
1096.15
131.75
398.8
667.2
405.35
787.3
1074.85
179.9
19.35
141.15
1504.85
71.1
537.65
135.45
615.35
126
704.25
1563.55
150.9
665.85
475.05
290
87.1
826
495.45
2410
443.25
388
96.05
978.4
220
746.15
693.15
486.25
320.35
INFY
951.05 (3.11)
1888.65 (6.59)
ASIANPAINT
1,059.00 (2.21)
208.20 (5.94)
IBULHSGFIN
935.85 (2.09)
RCOM
37.50 (4.34)
HCLTECH
833.25 (1.89)
GPPL
160.35 (3.26)
WIPRO
503.85 (1.57)
0.5
-2.55
-9.05
2.6
-6.45
-2.35
6.9
-3.25
4.2
30.75
1.9
-1.7
1.7
-0.95
0.5
0.05
-1.75
-24.5
-1.85
-0.4
-0.26
-8.4
-0.45
0.1
-0.03
5.9
0.4
-32.05
-0.4
1.05
0.45
0.8
-5.55
-7.8
1.3
4.1
-160.45
-56.25
9
2.15
-0.15
0.2
13.3
24.55
-40.3
25.8
TORNTPHARM
TORNTPOWER
TRENT
TRIDENT
TRITURBINE
TTKPRESTIG
TUBEINVEST
TV18BRDCST
TVSMOTOR
TVSSRICHAK
TVTODAY
TWL
UBL
UCOBANK
UFLEX
UJJIVAN
ULTRACEMCO
UNICHEMLAB
UNIONBANK
UNITDSPR
UNITECH
UPL
VAKRANGEE
VEDL
VGUARD
VIDEOIND
VIJAYABANK
VINATIORGA
VIPIND
VOLTAS
VRLLOG
VSTIND
VTL
WABAG
WABCOINDIA
WELCORP
WELSPUNIND
WESTLIFE
WHIRLPOOL
WIPRO
WOCKPHARMA
WONDERLA
YAMNINV
YESBANK
ZEEL
ZENSARTECH
ZYDUSWELL
PUNJLLOYD
PVR
RADICO
RAIN
RAJESHEXPO
RALLIS
RAMCOCEM*
RAMCOSYS
RAYMOND
RBLBANK
RCF
RCOM
RDEL
RECLTD
REDINGTON
RELAXO
RELCAPITAL
RELIANCE
RELIGARE
RELINFRA
RENUKA
REPCOHOME
ROLTA
RPOWER
RTNPOWER
SADBHAV
SAIL
SANOFI
SBIN
SCHNEIDER
SCI
SEQUENT
SHARDACROP
SHILPAMED
SHK
SHOPERSTOP
SHREECEM
SHRIRAMCIT
SIEMENS
SINTEX
SITINET
SJVN
SKFINDIA
SMLISUZU
SOBHA
SOLARINDS
21.85
1530.5
114.95
106.45
598.1
247.95
677.5
402.5
647.8
587.5
84.35
37.5
68
182.75
113.95
492.95
604.6
1381.05
216.5
563.7
14.77
686.75
60.4
48.95
8.29
320
66.8
4600
289
146.05
76.55
128
486.8
666.4
308.5
377.85
17541.35
2218.7
1307.55
109.45
37.75
35.15
1560
1328.05
375.25
852
2.34
-0.17
-7.3
2.5
-1.07
-0.94
1.03
-0.8
0.65
5.52
2.3
-4.34
2.56
-0.52
0.44
0.01
-0.29
-1.74
-0.85
-0.07
-1.73
-1.21
-0.74
0.2
-0.36
1.88
0.6
-0.69
-0.14
0.72
0.59
0.63
-1.13
-1.16
0.42
1.1
-0.91
-2.47
0.69
2
-0.4
0.57
0.86
1.88
-9.7
3.12
1470.45
221.6
271.4
82.3
139.7
6225
634.9
43.55
475.15
3610
282.95
121.75
745.2
37.75
310.65
386.8
4058.1
276.4
155.5
1888.65
5.63
731.05
336.7
272.4
184.25
103.45
69.7
741.05
200.7
411.65
346.1
2906
1332
688.35
5921.5
84.15
86.9
247.1
1221.8
501
762.45
391.1
31.75
1600.15
551.95
927
867.75
14.95
-7.35
3.95
0.9
0.2
-27.35
0.85
0.5
6.65
-35.45
4.9
3.3
-21.95
0.5
15.3
-7.75
-26.45
0.3
3.8
-133.35
-0.05
4.95
7.75
3.75
2.45
-0.2
2.3
16.3
-0.15
1.8
2.65
-36.15
-2.25
9.7
140.95
0.75
2.7
0.05
1.75
-10.75
-0.6
5.25
-0.6
47.1
4.5
2
-0.05
1.03
-3.21
1.48
1.11
0.14
-0.44
0.13
1.16
1.42
-0.97
1.76
2.79
-2.86
1.34
5.18
-1.96
-0.65
0.11
2.5
-6.59
-0.88
0.68
2.36
1.4
1.35
-0.19
3.41
2.25
-0.07
0.44
0.77
-1.23
-0.17
1.43
2.44
0.9
3.21
0.02
0.14
-2.1
-0.08
1.36
-1.85
3.03
0.82
0.22
-0.01
world 12
LUCKNOW | TUESDAY | APRIL 11, 2017
Egypt imposes 3-month emergency
PTI n CAIRO
gypt on Monday imposed a
three-month state of emerE
gency and ordered the military
to protect vital infrastructure
after the Islamic State terror
group targeted two minority
Coptic Christian churches in
powerfull bombings, killing at
least 45 people and wounding
more than 100 others.
As Egyptians bid tearful
farewell to the those who died
in the terror attacks on Palm
Sunday, the Egyptian government declared that the state of
emergency across the country
will be effective from today.
Egypt's Cabinet approved
the measure - which allows
authorities to make arrests
without warrants and search
people's homes - and explained
the reasons for the imposition
of emergency.
The Cabinet said in a statement that the state of emergency "allows both the armed
forces and the police to execute
those procedures necessary to
combat the threats of terrorism
and its financing, maintain
security around the country
and protect public and private
property, as well as preserving
Military soldiers guard a street near a church in downtown Cairo Egypt on Monday.
the lives of citizens," Egyptian
media reported.
The Cabinet's approval
came after President AbdelFattah al-Sisi in a brief television appearance last night
announced the state of emergency for three months.
Sisi said a top-level council for fighting terrorism and
extremism will also be set up.
Before making the announce-
ment, he had called a National
Defence Council meet.
Following the bombings
at churches in Tanta and
Alexandria cities, the government in its initial response
ordered the military special
forces to assist police in securing important state facilities
across the country. The security
forces have been put on alert in
anticipation of more attacks,
the media reported.The Islamic
State has claimed responsibility for the attacks in which the
number of people killed has
reached 45 after a person
injured in the bombing at
Tanta died. More than 100
people remained injured,
according to Egyptian authorities.The first blast took place
in the Coptic church of Mar
Girgis, also known as St
George, in the Nile delta city of
Tanta, about 120 kilometres
from Cairo, and killed 27 people and injured 78, according to
the Egyptian Health Ministry.
Hours later, a suicide
bomber struck the Saint Mark's
Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in
Alexandria's Manshyia district.
Citing Health Minister
Ahmed Emad, ON TV news
channel reported at least 18
people, including police personnel, were killed and 41
injured in the suicide attack in
Alexandria. The blasts have
come ahead of the visit of
Pope Francis to Egypt on April
28-29, and prompted international condemnation.
Al-Azhar, the world's highest seat of Sunni Islam, called
the attacks an "outrageous
crime" against all Egyptians.
"This terrorist attack is devoid
of all the principles of humanity and civilisation," it said in a
statement. The US Embassy in
Egypt condemned "the
heinous, reprehensible terrorist attack against peaceful worshippers."
"The US stands firmly with
the Egyptian government and
people to defeat terrorism,"
the Embassy said in a statement.
Coptic Christians make up
about 10 per cent of Egypt's
population of 85 million.
Egypt's Christian minority
has often been targeted by
Islamist militants. In
December, a suicide bombing
claimed by an IS affiliate killed
29 people during Sunday mass
in Cairo.
Egypt has seen a wave of
attacks by militants since 2013
when the military toppled president Mohammed Morsi, an
elected leader who hailed from
the Muslim Brotherhood, and
launched a crackdown against
Islamists.Palm Sunday falls on
the Sunday before the Easter.
The feast commemorates Jesus'
triumphal entry into Jerusalem,
an event mentioned in each of
the four canonical Gospels.
Pak PM bars his partymen from
commenting on Raheel Sharif
PTI n ISLAMABAD
akistan Prime Minister
Nawaz Sharif has barred
P
his party leaders from making "anycontroversial statements" about former army
chief Gen Raheel Sharif over
his appointment as the head
of a Saudi-led 41-nation military alliance of Muslim
countries.
The former army chief 's
appointment had been criticisedby some Pakistani
politicians, retired army officers, journalists, intellectuals, who had questioned the
decision of the retired general to join a foreign military
alliance. The prime minister
found contradictory statements beingmade by senior
l e a d e r s of h i s Pa k i s t an
Mu s l i m L e a g u e - Naw a z
(PML-N) party.
"Nawaz Sharif has prohibited PML-N leaders from
g iv i ng any c ont rove rs i a l
statements about General
(retired) Raheel Sharif,"
Radio Pakistan quoted the
prime minister as saying.
He said the entire nation
hailed the former army chief
for his "meritorious services".Sharif 's directions to
leaders of his party came
daysafter Sindh Governor
Muhammad Zubair called
Gen Sharif "justanother general" and said he should not
be made "larger thanlife".
"Raheel Sharif was made
larger than life and that's the
reason that when he is allotted a piece of land — which
S African President brands G7 energy ministers fail to reach
anti-govt protests ‘racist' agreement on climate change
Johannesburg: South African
President Jacob Zuma on
Monday described last week's
protests demanding that he
resign as racist, as he fought
back against the criticism
thathas threatened to split the
ruling ANC party.
Tens of thousands of
demonstrators marched
through South African cities on
Friday, angered by years of corruption scandals, record unemployment and slowing economic growthunder Zuma's
rule.
Zuma's recent sacking of
respected Indian-origin finance
minister Pravin Gordhan
unleashed a fresh bout of public frustration -- as well as
unprecedented complaints
from senior ANC figures,
including the deputy president.
The largely peaceful
protests
in
Pretoria,
Johannesburg, Durban and
Cape Town appeared to attract
a diverse mix of South Africans,
but Zuma railed against those
who participated."The marches that took place last week
demonstrated that racism is
AFP n ROME
7 energy ministers on
Monday failed to reach
G
agreement on a joint state-
real and exists in our country,"
he said. "Many placards and
posters displayed beliefs that
wethought had been buried...
with some posters depicting
black people as baboons."
The president said some
South Africans regarded "black
people as being lesser human
beings", but he gave no further
details about the alleged placards and posters or where they
had been seen.
The
protest
in
Johannesburg was organised by
the
main
opposition
Democratic Alliance party,
which many ANC supporters
accuse of harbouring white
GLOBE
TROTTING
Irina Shayk and
Cooper welcome
their first child
and relaxed." Shayk received
"adorable" baby gifts, including "many designer outfits
and toys, all with an expensive
price point, the insider continued. Another source had
said last December that the
two hope to have more kids
after their baby is born.
Miranda Lambert
thanks 'supportive'
boyfriend
Los Angeles: The two have
welcomed their first child, E!
News has learned. "They are
both extremely thrilled and
feel so blessed," an insider
shared. A source told People
magazine, who was first to
report the news, Shayk gave
birth two weeks ago. No other
details were made available.
Agencies had confirmed
about Shayk's pregnancy in
November, after she showcased a baby bump while
walking the runway at the
2016 Victoria's Secret Fashion
Show. The 42-year-old actor
and the 31-year-old model
were first romantically linked
back in May of 2015 when
they were spotted kissing in
New York City Last month,
Shayk had a "beautiful baby
shower" in Los Angeles, a
source had told E! News.
Cooper also attended and was
"hanging with his mother,
making sure everything went
smoothly," the source said,
adding, "He is always very chill
Los Angeles: Singer Miranda
Lambert has thanked her
boyfriend Anderson East for
being supportive and kind.
The 33-year-old country
music star and the "What
Would It Take" musician have
been dating for over a year,
and the blonde beauty has
taken to Instagram to thank
him for always being there for
her throughout their relationship. Sharing a photo of
the pair from the Academy of
Country Music Awards which
took place earlier this week,
the "Vice" hitmaker wrote,
"My sweet handsome date.
racists.Further demonstrations
are planned on Wednesday
ahead of a parliamentary
motion of no confidence in the
president on April 18.
Zuma has easily survived
previous such votes against
him. The president was speaking at an annual memorial
service for anti-apartheid hero
Chris Hani, who was shot dead
by a white suprematist in 1993.
The African National
Congress (ANC) led the
decades-long struggle against
apartheid, and carried Nelson
Mandela to power in the 1994
elections that ended whiteminority rule.
ment on climate change after
the United States expressed
reservations, an Italian minister said.
The United States
"reserved its position" on the
text about commitments
made by G7 countries under
the 2015 Paris climate accord,
said Carlo Calenda, the Italian
minister for economic development, who chaired the
meeting in Rome.
Lacking unanimity, Italy,
which currently presides the
Group of Seven, decided
against proposing the joint
statement, Calenda said.
The Paris Agreement,
endorsed by members of the
UN Framework Convention
on Climate Change (UNFCCC), is a bedrock of international action against manmade global warming.
It vows to cap warming to
"well below" two degrees
Celsius compared to late
19th-century levels -- an
effort that scientists say will
‘Pak likely to appoint
Sohail Mahmood as
new envoy to India'
PTI n ISLAMABAD
akistan is likely to appoint
career diplomat Sohail
P
Mahmood as its new High
Commissioner to India in place
of Abdul Basit, diplomatic
sources said hereon Monday.
Mahmood is currently posted
as ambassador to Turkey and is
expected to arrive in Islamabad
next week. "His appointment to
India will be announced once
it is formally approved by
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif
who has also the additional
charge of foreign minister,"
sources in the Foreign Office
said.
Mahmood would take
responsibilities as High
Commissioner from early next
month if all went according to
the plan, according to the
sources.
Mahmood will replace
Basit who has already completed his three-year tenure in
New Delhi. Basit is likely to be
appointed as head of Foreign
Service Academy (FSA) in
Islamabad.
Basit had earlier threatened
to resign after he was over-
looked and his junior Tehmina
Janjua was appointed as
Foreign Secretary but the situation has cooled down. Initially,
it was expected that Basit might
go on a long leave after he was
called back from New Delhi but
now he is expected to join as
chief of FSA.
In a related development,
Javed Nasarullah, current
ambassador to South Korea, is
likely to be appointed as new
ambassador to Afghanistan.
He will replace incumbent
Syed Ibrar Hussain who is
being appointed as Special
Secretary in the Foreign Office.
From left, Energy ministers, France's Segolene Royal, Britain's Nick Hurd, Japan's
Yosuke Takagi of Japan and International Energy Agency Executive Director Faith
Birol pose for a photo during a G7 Energy meeting, in Rome on Monday.
AP
vehicle pollution standards,
almost guarantees that the
United States will fail to meet
its commitments under the
Paris Agreement.
Trump has also said he
does not intend to honour
promises made by the administration of his predecessor,
Barack Obama,to provide
financial aid under the Paris
accord.
However, Trump's team is
also deeply divided on
whether to withdraw from the
pact, according to US media
reports. On March 30, the
White House said a decision
on whether to withdraw
would be made ahead of the
G7 summit in Italy in late
May.
Under Obama, the United
States, the second biggest carbon polluter, provided critical
impetus for the Paris deal by
concluding a precursor deal
with China, the number one
emitter.
The Group of Seven,
gathering the biggest western
democracies, comprises
Britain, Canada, France,
Germany, Italy, Japan and the
United States.
he deserves — it raises eyebrows," Zubair said."He is a
normal general like any
other generals and it'shis
right to acquire the piece of
land he was given. Let's
befair with him — let's not
make him larger than life.
This will only create more
problems for him," he said.
Zubair was referring to the
news that Gen Sharif has
been awarded agricultural
land for his services. "His
[Sharif 's] job as chief of the
Saudi-led alliance is also
being seen as something
extraordinar y – when it
should behis prerogative as a
normal person," the Sindh
governor added.
Minister for States and
Frontier Regions (Safron) Lt
G e n ( re td ) Ab du l Q a d i r
Baloch said last month that
General Sharif should not
accept the controversial position.
Gen Sharif, who
retired as Pakistan's army
chief last November, is likely to assume command of the
4 1 - n at i on ant i - t e r ror i s m
alliance, being dubbed the
'Muslim NATO', thismonth.
Suicide bomber
explodes in
military academy,
killing five people
Mogadishu: A Somali military
officer says a suicide bomber
blew himself up at a military
academy west of Somalia's capital, killing at least five soldiers.
Col. Abdi Hassan said the
bomber dressed in a military
uniform walked into the
Somali military training camp
on Monday morning and detonated explosives strapped to
his waist near soldiers and
officers.
He said the bomber, posing
as a military trainee, had
crossed the gate checkpoint and
targeted soldiers and officersresting after their daily military exercises. Somalia's Islamic
extremist rebels, al-Shabab,
have claimed responsibility for
the attack.
require massive cuts in carbon
emissions
from coal and other fossil fuels. It also pledges to provide hundreds of billions of
dollars in aid for poor countries badly exp osed to
drought, flood, rising seas
and other climate impacts.
In March, President
Donald Trump signed an
executive order rolling back
some of the previous
Democratic administration's
policies on carbon emissions
and climate change.
Experts have said his plan,
which eases emissions limits
for coal-fired power plants
and scraps more stringent
Sabri's family
wants to leave
Pakistan
Hong Kong protester jailed
over anti-China clashes
Karachi: The family of
Pakistan's renowned Sufi
Qawwal Amjad Sabri, who was
killed by Taliban militants last
year, wants to leave the country as they feel "unsafe". "We are
not comfortable with the security provided and we feel we are
being watched. That is why we
are trying to leave the country,"
said Sabri's brother Azmat."We
are trying to settle in London,
we have a brother there," he
told Dawn, adding that the
family "would be ready to leave
tomorrow" if they get the visas.
Earlier, speaking to a TV
channel, Azmat said: "We feel
unsafe here now, even though
we have lived here all our lives
and love Liaquatabad (in
Karachi)." He, however, clarified that the family has received
no threats to their life. Sabri, 40,
and an associate were travelling
in a car in Liaquatabad area,
when Taliban militants fired at
their vehicle, critically injuring
him on June 23 last year. The
two were shifted to Abbasi
Shaheed hospitalimmediately,
where Sabri succumbed to his
injuries. Hakimullah Mehsud
faction, a splinter group of the
Taliban, had claimed responsibility for the attack.
Hong Kong: A Hong Kong
technician was jailed for four
years and nine months today
for rioting and arson during
anti-China protests last year, in
the harshest punishment yet
over the unrest.The case is the
latest in a slew of legal action
against demonstrators and
comes soon after new proBeijing leader Carrie Lam was
selected as leader of the semiautonomous city.
Yeung Ka-lun, 32, was pictured in news footage torching
a taxi during the February
2016 unrest, which tapped into
fears that Beijing is tightening
its grip on Hong Kong.During
clashes dubbed the "fishball
revolution", police fired warning shots in the air, while
demonstrators hurled bricks
torn up from pavements,
charged police lines with
homemade shields and set rubbish on fire.
"The court must send a
message that these acts cannot
be tolerated," said a judge at the
Hong Kong court, in justifying
the sentencing. He said protesters shared a goal to disrupt
social order and had threatened
public safety. While Yeung had
no previous criminal records,
he was "extremely reckless" in
setting fire to the car in a
crowdedurban area, the judge
added.
Outside the court, the acting superintendent of the organized crime bureau said, "police
believe that the sentence has
sufficiently reflected the seriousness and gravity of theoffences." A small number of supporters sat in on the hearing
and expressed outrage over
the sentence. Last month three
activists were jailed for three
years on "riot" charges for their
role in the same protests. Like
Yeung, they were not wellknown campaigners.
The riot's alleged ringleaders from "localist" campaign group Hong Kong
Indigenous, which advocates
more autonomy for the city,
face trial next year.
Nine pro-democracy
activists including students,
professors and lawmakers were
separately accused of causing a
public nuisance or inciting
others to do so during the
2014mass Umbrella Movement
rallies, in a case they have criticised as political persecution.
Freshwater pearls threatened by pollution in UK
PTI n LONDON
reshwater pearls - which once
lured Roman Emperor Julius
F
Caesar to invade Britain - are facing extinction, say scientists who
found that pollution has causedmussels that produce these prized
gems to stop breeding for more
than 60 years in parts of England.
Almost double the size of their
common ocean cousinsfreshwater
mussels are much slower growing
and f ar m ore s u s c e pt i bl e t o
changes in water quality. Their life
cycle also involves clinging to the
gills of salmon or trout for the first
year of their lives, so dwindling
fish stocks may affect
There are only nine rivers in
the north of England where the
freshwater mussel survives, and
two in the south of England, both
in Devon. "The whole southern
populations have nearly been
wiped out. It's amazing there are
still any here," Izzy Moser, from
the Devon Wildlife Trust in the
UK, was quoted as saying by 'The
Times'.
None of the mussel populations in England is classed assustainable, because pollutants like
chemical run-off from farmers'
fields, soil erosion and sewage
have stopped them reproducing,
according to Freshwater Biological
Association (FBA).
In 55 BC, when Julius Caesar
invaded Britain, freshwater pearls
were a mainstay of the island's
mineral wealth. Pearls seem to
have been the lure that prompted
Julius Caesar's invasion of Britain,
researchers said. "Where there
used to be vast mussel beds there
are just shells and a handful of old
mussels.
The youngsters are not coming through the process. They are
not surviving to adulthood," said
Roger Sweeting.
world 13
LUCKNOW | TUESDAY | APRIL 11, 2017
Britain urges Putin to end support for ‘toxic' Assad
PTI n WASHINGTON
ussia should end its support
for"toxic" Syrian President
R
Bashar al-Assad, British
Foreign Secretar y Boris
Johnson said today ahead of a
meeting of G7 foreign ministers in Italy."It's time for
(Russian President) Vladimir
Putin to face the truth about
the tyrant he is propping up,"
Johnson said, according to a
foreign ministry spokeswoman.
"We need to make it clear
to Putin that the time to back
Assad has gone," he said, warning
that
Putin
was
"damagingRussia" by supporting Assad. "He must understand that Assad is now toxic
in every sense. He is poisoning
the innocent people of Syria
with weapons that were banned
100 years ago -- and he is poisoning the reputation of
China and South
Korea vow strong
measures against
North Korea
Seoul: China has agreed to
"strong" new measures to punish North Korea if it carries out
a nucleartest, Seoul said today
after the US signalled it may act
to shut down Pyongyang's
weapons programme. South
Korea's top nuclear envoy made
the comment after talks with
his Chinese counterpart Wu
Dawei, as the US sent a naval
strike group to the region in a
show of force.
"We agreed that there
should be strong additionalmeasures based on UN
Security Council resolutions if
the North pushes ahead with a
nuclear test or an ICBM launch
despite warnings from the
international community," Kim
Hong-Kyun told reporters. The
North may stage a "strategic
provocation" to mark key political dates this month, Kim
said, adding that Wu's visit
would serve as a "strong warning" against Pyongyang. Wu
did not speak to the media after
the talks. China is the isolated
country's sole major ally and
economic lifeline, and Beijing
in February suspended all coal
imports from the North in
punishment for Pyongyang's
latest missile test.
Speculation of an imminent nuclear test is brewing as
the North marks anniversaries
including the 105th birthday of
its founding leader on Saturday
-- sometimes celebrated with a
demonstration of military
might. President Donald
Trump, fresh from a missile
strike on Syria that was widely interpreted as a warning to
North Korea, has asked his
advisors for a range of options
to rein in its ambitions, a top
US official said on Sunday.
In these pictures taken on Tuesday, April 4, 2017, victims of the suspected chemical weapons attack lie on the ground, in Khan Sheikhoun, in the northern province of Idlib
and (2)Abdul-Hamid Alyousef, 29, cries as he holds his twin babies who were killed during a suspected chemical weapons attack, in Khan Sheikhoun town, in the northern
province of Idlib, Syria. Alyousef also lost his wife, two brothers, nephews and many other family members in the attack that claimed scores of his relatives.
Monday.
Russia's foreign ministry
earlier condemned Johnson's
decision not to come to
Moscow, saying it showed that
Britain had "no real influence
on the course of international
affairs". Moscow has sought to
deflect blame from its longtime ally Assad over the suspected gas incident and says
Syrian jets struck a rebel arms
depot where "toxic substances"
were being put inside bombs.
More than 320,000 people
have been killed in Syria since
the conflict erupted in March
2011 with anti-government
demonstrations. Poison gas
was extensively used in the
Western Front in the 1914-18
World War I from 1915.
It was outlawed internationally by the 1925 Geneva
Protocol, which entered into
force in 1928.
China ignores India's role
in rescuing hijacked ship
PTI n BEIJING
hina on Monday claimed
full credit for rescuing a
C
cargo ship hijacked by Somali
pirates in the strategic Gulf of
Aden, ignoring Indian Navy's
role in the operation. While a
Chinese navy statement last
night omitted any reference to
the Indian Navy in providing
helicopter cover to the Chinese
vessel whose special forces
boarded the Tuvaluan ship
under hijack, Chinese Foreign
Ministry spokesperson Hua
Chunying said the operation
demonstrated "effectiveness of
the Chinese naval force in the
field of fighting against pirates".
When questioned about
the absence of any mention of
the Indian Navy's role in the
operation, Hua said China's
Ministry of Defence should be
approached for details.
"According to what we
have learnt from the military
on April 8 at 5 PM the 25th
convoy of Chinese navy which
was conducting the escort mission in the Gulf of Aden in
Somali waters received reports
from the UKMTO (United
Kingdom
MarineTrade
Operation) about the hijack of
Tuvalaun ship OS35," she said.
"The fleet vessel Yulin set out
for the area immediately and
rescue operation started early
morning on April 9. Under the
cover of helicopters, special
force members of the navy
boarded the ship and rescued
19 (Filipino) crew members on
broad. Both the ship and the
crew members are safe now,"
she told reporters.
Hua did not mention the
assistance the Indian Navy
provided to the Chinese navy
in the operation. Her comments came a day after the
People's Liberation Army Navy
(PLAN) said in a statement that
it rescued the ship.
When asked about the
Chinese navy's statement,
Indian Navy spokesperson in
New Delhi referred to his
tweet, "Indian Navy Chetak
Helicopter on top of PLA Navy
boats carrying boarding party
to MV OS35 in coordinated
anti-piracy ops He also posted
a picture with th tweet which
showed an Indian helicopter
flying over a Chinese navy
vessel.
The surprise omission of
the Indian Navy's role in the
operation comes as the Indian
Navy in New Delhi said that
the navies of the two countries
worked in a well-coordinated
operation to rescue the vessel.
Man shoots, kills son in argument
over who would walk family dog
PTI n WASHINGTON
man shot and killed his 22year-old son in the US
A
after an argument between the
two over who would walk the
family dog escalated into a
shootout.
Police responded to a call
of a person shot at a home in
Chicago's Burnside neighborhood yesterday. There they
found two men, aged 43 and
22, who had shot each other
after a "verbal altercation,"
Russia," he said. Johnson on
Saturday cancelled a scheduled
visit to Moscow over its support
for the Syrian regime. The
move came after a suspected
chemical weapons attack on the
rebel-held town of Khan
Seikhun last week in which at
least 87 people were killed.
The United States launched
a missile strike on a Syrian airfield on Friday in its first military action against Assadin
retaliation for the attack.
Foreign ministers from the
Group of Seven main industrialised countries are meeting
in the Italian town ofLucca later
on Monday before US
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson
flies to Moscow tomorrow.
"There's no doubt the US action
is a game-changer in Syria. We
need to make it clear to Putin
that the time to back Assad has
gone," Johnson said on
authorities were quoted as saying by the Chicago Sun-Times.
Chicago Police spokesman
Anthony Guglielmi tweeted
that the fight between the
father and son was over "who
was going to walk the dog" and
both men opened fire. They
sustained multiple gunshot
wounds and were taken to
Advocate Christ Medical
Center, where the 22-year-old
man was pronounced dead.
The father was listed in
critical condition, authorities
said. Two weapons were recovered from the scene, according
to police.
British DJ to perform world's
highest gig on Mount Everest
AFP n WASHINGTON
nfluential British DJ Paul Oakenfold has
reached Mount Everest's base camp where he
Iplans
to host the "highest party on earth", performing a set at 5,380 metres.
As climbing season in Nepal kicks into gear,
few of the mountaineers heading to the world's
highest peak were likely expecting to be joined
by the three-time Grammy nominatedartist and
his dance beats. Oakenfold -- whose threedecade long career has includedcollaborations
with Madonna and U2 -- is due to perform a
set at base camp on Tuesday morning.
"We are here now doing sound checks. We
are really looking forward to the show tomorrow. Everyone is reallyexcited here," Oakenfold
told AFP by phone from base camp on
Monday.
The 53-year-old artist said he had no
trekking experience before he set out on the 10day walk to Everest with a team of yaks and
porters hauling the audio equipment needed
for the event. Oakenfold trained for four
months before arriving in Nepal in between a
hectic schedule of late night gigs, he said. "I'm
not going to pretend it was easy to get here...
but it has been a wonderful trek. If you could
see the view I'm looking at, it is very inspiring," he said. The world's highest peak will provide a very different kind of high to Oakenfold's
usual shows, which often draw thousands of
revellers.
"The audience will probably be sitting
mostly. The air is so thin here, you will run out
of breath quite quickly," said Ranzen Jha, a
Nepali DJ accompanying Oakenfold. The gig
is the first in the record producer's
SoundTrekseries, aimed at drawing attention
to the effects of globalwarming and raising
money for charities.
Oakenfold is also raising funds to help survivors of Nepal's devastating 2015 earthquake,
which killed nearly 9,000 people and left thousands homeless, many of whom are still living
in temporary shelters. "I want to support in the
rebuilding and to shed light on the environment... I would like to do my bit," he said.
But not everyone is keen on the idea, with
some complaining that the renowned DJ is disturbing the peace and tranquility of the
Himalayas.
However, Hua, without detailing what cooperation she
referred to, said, "We always
remain positive towards international cooperation in combating pirates. We are ready for
more cooperation in this
regard."
Asked about the Indian
Navy's role, she said "I have
already given what I have learnt
to you.
The Chinese convoy
received a report from the
UKMTO and conducted rescue
operation. With regards to
details I point you to the
Chinese defence ministry." The
Indian Navy yesterday said it
sent its frontline warships, INS
Mumbai and INS Tarkash, to
coordinate with the Chinese
navy. The two Indian ships
were in the region as part of an
overseas deployment.
At the end of the operation,
the Chinese navy thanked the
Indian Navy for its role in the
operation.
"In a show of international maritime cooperation against
piracy, a boarding party from
the nearby Chinese navy ship
went on board the merchant
ship, while the Indian naval
helicopter provided air cover
for the operation.
It has been established that
all 19 Filipino crew members
are safe," Indian Navy
spokesperson Capt D K
Sharma said on Monday.
The reported coordination
among the navies came amid a
strain in ties between the two
countries over a range of issues
including the Dalai Lama's
visit to Tawang in Arunachal
Pradesh, China's opposition
to India's NSG membership
and Beijing blocking India's
effort to declare JeM chief
Masood Azhar as global terrorist by the UN.
Members of an honor guard march in formation after the welcome ceremony for Myanmar's President Htin Kyaw outside the Great
Hall of the People in Beijing, China on Monday.
Tehran: Iran's President
Hassan Rouhani defended his
economic
record in
a press
conference on
Monday
b u t
stopped
short of
formally
announcing his
candidacy for next month's
presidential election.
Rouhani pushed back
against criticism from conservatives over his economic performance, saying there had
been measurable improvements in agriculture, healthcare, energy and internet coverage, especially in villages and
poor suburbs.
He also focused on his key
achievement, a nuclear deal
with world powers that ended
some sanctions in return for
limits to Iran's atomic programme.
"In every aspect that you
consider, figures tell us that
after the (nuclear deal), there is
more space for movement and
progress," he said.
Rouhani is expected to run
for a second term on May 19,
but said this press conference
was "not about elections". "We
need to wait two or three more
days," he said.
Registration for the elections begins tomorrow and
will continue until Saturday.
Sitting presidents in Iran are
expected to be modest about
their ambitions, and to refrain
from using state television as a
campaigning platform.
Sweden holds minute's silence for attack victims
AFP n STOOCKHOLM
shocked Sweden was to
hold a minute of silence
A
on Monday to honour the
victims of last week's truck
attack by a Uzbek man whom
police believe was a jihadist
sympathiser.
Swedish Prime Minister
Stefan Lofven, most of the
royal family, and Stockholm
Mayor Karin Wanngard were
among those due to attend a
ceremony outside Stockholm's
City Hall at 1000 GMT alongside members of the diplomatic corps.
Smaller ceremonies were
planned in other towns across
the country. In Friday's attack,
the suspect is alleged to have
ploughed a stolen beer truck
down a bustling pedestrian
street in the heart of
Stockholm before crashing it
into the facade of the busy
Ahlens department store. Four
people were killed and 15
were wounded. The motive
was not known, but the
method resembled previous
attacks using vehicles in Nice,
Berlin and London,all of them
claimed by the Islamic State
(IS) group.
Meanwhile, police were
continuing their investigation
into the main suspect, identified as a 39-year-old Uzbek
who went underground when
he received a deportation
order after his permanent residency application was rejected. Swedish media have identified the suspect as Rakhmat
Akilov, a construction worker
and father of four. The farright Sweden Democratic
party, which until now has
refrained from comment on
the attack, on Monday blasted
the authorities' failure to
deport the suspect as a "scandal".
"It's a huge scandal if it's
true," party leader Jimmie
Akesson told the Aftonbladet
daily. His party won 12.8 percent of votes in the 2014 legislative election. "We need to
Exercising on empty stomach
may be better for health
PTI n WASHINGTON
itness enthusiasts, take
note! Exercising on an
F
empty stomach may help burn
more body fat and fuel your
metabolism, boosting your
health in the long run, anew
study has found.
Researchers
from
University of Bath in the UK
studied a group of overweight
males. The volunteers walked
for 60 minutes at 60 per cent
maximum oxygen consumption on an empty stomach, and
on another occasion for two
hours after consuming a highcalorie carbohydrate-rich
breakfast.
The team took multiple
blood samples after eating
orfasting and after exercising.
They also collected adipose tissue samples immediately
before and one hour after
walking.
Gene expression in the
adipose tissue differed significantly in the two trials,
researchers said. They found
that the expression of two
genes, PDK4 and HSL,
increased when the men fasted and exercised, and
decreased when they ate before
exercising.
The rise in PDK4 likely
indicates that stored fat was
used to fuel metabolism during exercise instead of carbohydrates from the recent meal,
researchers said.
HSL typically increases
when adipose tissue uses
stored energy to support
Rouhani defends
economic record
ahead of election
A woman writes a message on a wooden board at the department store Ahlens in
Stockholm, Sweden on Monday,
detain people when there is a
risk they will go underground,
and there appear to be around
10,000 to 15,000cases,"
Akesson said. Sweden, a country of 10 million people, took
in 244,000 asylum seekers in
2014 and 2015, the highest per
capita number in Europe.
On Sunday, the prime
minister, who has beefed up
border controls, also expressed
"frustration". "If someone has
been rejected, they have to
leave the country," Lofven told
reporters. The Social
Democratic leader received a
condolence call from US
President Donald Trump this
evening, the government said.
Canada snow slide kills 5
Montreal: Five climbers from
South Korea fell to their deaths
from a snow ledge that gave
way near Vancouver, police
said. Weather conditions in the
area, north of Vancouver, have
been harsh and unstable since
Friday.
On Saturday afternoon a
hiker contacted authorities
concerned because of the collapse of the cornice on the
peak of Mount Harvey, the
Royal Canadian Mounted
Police in Squamish said in a
statement. "The hiker stated
there were footprints leading
to the summit and was concerned for the safety (of) anyone who was in the area.
Squamish RCMP immediate-
ly notified the Squamish
Search and Rescue and attended the scene," the statement
said. "A multi-jurisdictional
search and rescue mission
beganbut due to the instability of the snowpack search
efforts were hampered last
night," it added.
"It was determined that
there were five hikers unaccounted for and believed to be
in the area where the
avalanche had occurred."
On Sunday, the bodies
were found about 500 meters
from the 1,600-meter Mount
Harvey. The Vancouver Sun
reported that the dead were
experienced climbers and
South Korean nationals. AFP
‘More than 200 people
from Germany fighting IS'
increased activity, such as during exercise, said Dylan
Thompson of University of
Bath.
These results reinforce the
view that "adipose tissue often
faces competing challenges,"
Thompson said.
After eating, adipose tissue
is busy responding to the meal
and a bout of exercise at this
time will not stimulate the
same beneficial changes in
adipose tissue, he said.
This means that exercise in
an empty stomach might provoke more favourable changes
in adipose tissue, and this
could be beneficial for health
in the long term, he added. The
study was published in the
American
Journal
of
Physiology-Endocrinology and
Metabolism.
Berlin: More than 200 people
have travelled from Germany
to fight with Kurdish militias
against the Islamic State group
in Syria and Iraq, the interior
ministr y reported on
Monday.Sixty-nine of the 204
fighters are German nationals,
theministry added in a statement on the issue which is particularly delicate for GermanTurkish relations. The official
data did not include fighters for
the peshmerga, the armed
forces of Iraq's autonomous
Kurdish region. Among the
volunteers who have travelled
from Germany since 2013, 102
have returned including 43
German citizens. Three have
been killed including one fighter in a Turkish air strike on a
Syrian village last November.
The ministry said the exact circumstances of the raid were
unclear: "There was no occasion to discuss his death withthe Turkish government." The
information was released following a formal query by an
MP from the far-left opposition
party Die Linke. The MP, Ulla
Jelpke, criticised the findings,
calling it "scandalous" that
Berlin had failed to investigate
the death in the Turkish
raid.The German government
warns against travel to the
areas of heavy fighting in Iraq
and Syria. But it does not
actively dissuade the fighters
with the Kurdish forces or
consider them to be a security
risk upon their return "as
opposed to those who return
from areas under IS's control.
sport 14
LUCKNOW | TUESDAY | APRIL 11, 2017
NEYMAR SEEKS REDEMPTION IN EUROPE
Brazilian will be keen to make up for his weekend sending-off when Barca face Juve
Dortmund anxiously
awaits Reus' return
AP n BERLIN
arco Reus can't return
soon enough for Borussia
M
Dortmund.
AP n BARCELONA
ne month after leading the
most improbable of comebacks,
Neymar earned himself the
scorn of Barcelona's fans with a pair of
senseless bookings.
He'll get a chance to redeem himself on Tuesday when his team faces
Juventus in the first leg of the
Champions League quarterfinals.
Neymar picked up a pair of senseless yellow cards on Saturday and got
sent off with 25 minutes left and his
team trailing by a goal at Malaga.
Without him, the undermanned side
lost 2-0 and squandered an opportunity
to close in on Spanish league leader Real
Madrid, which was held to a 1-1 draw
by Atletico Madrid.
Neymar's infractions bordered on
the absurd. Or tragicomic.
O
The Brazilian got his first yellow
card for bending over to tie his boot
laces and not giving space for a Malaga
player to cleanly take a free kick. Then,
knowing he was one false step from
leaving his team with 10 men,
Neymar charged into a Malaga
player with no real chance to win
back the ball.
As if he hadn't hurt his team
enough already, Neymar
may have made matters
worse by sarcastically
applauding the assistant
referee as he exited the field.
The sending-off meant Neymar
will be suspended for the next match
against Real Sociedad, but his added
dose of bad attitude could earn him an
extended suspension, putting in danger his availability for the match at
Madrid on April 23 that will go a long
S I N G L E S
COA SEEKS CLARIFICATION FROM SC
NEW DELHI: The Committee of Administrators
(CoA) on Monday moved the Supreme Court
seeking clarification on whether persons, rendered ineligible to hold posts in BCCI and state
cricket associations, can be nominated to take
part in the ICC meeting scheduled on April 24. A
bench comprising justices Dipak Misra, A M
Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud fixed the plea
of the apex court-appointed CoA, headed by former Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG)
Vinod Rai, for hearing on April 17. Senior advocate C U Singh, appearing for the CoA, asked
whether persons like N Srinivasan and Niranjan
Shah, who have been rendered ineligible by virtue
of the apex court judgement, be nominated by
their respective state associations to take part in
the ICC meeting as nominees of BCCI. The court,
which fixed the issue for hearing on April 17, said
how a person, who is ineligible for contesting
polls in the BCCI and the state associations, can
represent the BCCI in the ICC meeting.
JOSHNA IN Q/F OF WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
EL GOUNA (EGYPT): India's highest ranked
squash player Joshna Chinappa on Monday made
the quarterfinals of the PSA World Championship,
beating World No 9 Alison Waters of England
here. World No 14 Joshna prevailed 11-5, 7-11,
9-11, 11-8, 11-9 over a higher ranked opponent
in 66 minutes. Joshna, seeded 12, had made a
cautious start to the tournament when she got
past Japan's Misaki Kobayashi in straight games
13-11, 11-8, 12-10 earlier. The eighth seeded
Waters, who has never lost to Joshna in their five
earlier meetings, failed to overcome the challenge
from the Indian on Monday.
ARMAAN GRABS THIRD PLACE
SEPANG (MALAYSIA): Indian racer Armaan
Ebrahim overcame rain and technical problems to
grab a commendable third-place finish in the
Super Trofeo Asia Series here over the weekend.
Armaan, spearheading Team FFF Racing, began in
the sixth position in the first race after struggling
with the balance of the car in qualifying, but he
showed his skill and speed once again to climb
his way up to the third position. Armaan faced
problems when the overhead conditions changed
suddenly and he was caught racing on slicks while
the rain pelted and made the track slippery. In the
crucial main race, by the time Armaan got into
action again, it looked like he had no chance. But
the young Indian made the most of the out lap
and the first flying to jump to fifth during the pit
stop cycle. He gained two more positions in the
rest of the race to finish third overall.
SAKSHI, SANDEEP BREAK INTO TOP 10
NEW DELHI: Rio Olympics bronze medallist
Sakshi Malik on Monday climbed up to World No
5 in women's 58kg freestyle in the latest world
rankings released by the United World Wrestling.
In the men's freestyle category, Sandeep Tomar
also broke into the top-10, reaching the seventh
position in men's 57kg. In Sakshi's weight category, Kaori Icho of Japan heads the points table.
Georgia's Vladimir Khinchegashvili, who has been
an integral part of the Pro Wrestling League, tops
Agencies
the chart in men's 57kg.
way to deciding the domestic title.
Referee Gil Manzano included
Neymar's sarcastic applause in his
report to the Spanish federation's
competition committee, which
will meet on Wednesday to
decide the length of his suspension.
The front page of
Barcelona-based sports daily
Sport on Sunday summed
up the incredulity of
Barcelona's supporters
by splashing the headline
"UNFORGIVABLE" over a
photo of Manzano showing Neymar his
well-deserved red card.
Barcelona coach Luis Enrique tried
to deflect criticism of Neymar by
pointing at Manzano's decisions.
"There were nasty tackles from
behind that didn't earn bookings,
while other fouls committed by us
were," Luis Enrique said. "The rules are
to be interpreted, but they should be the
same for all."
Excuses aside, what a month is has
been for the Brazil striker.
His two goals and last-gasp pass for
the winner in the dying minutes of
Barcelona's historic 6-1 win over Paris
Saint-Germain on March 8 earned him
praise. The result sent Barcelona
through 6-5 on aggregate, making it the
first team to overturn a 4-0 first-leg loss
in the competition.
Neymar's performance, which he
rightly called the "best of my career,"
appeared to mark a watershed moment
for the 25-year-old Brazilian.
Suddenly, he wasn't just Lionel
Messi's flashy sidekick; he had willed
Barcelona to victory as only a true
leader can.
I’M NOT NEW MESSI: DYBALA
MILAN: There's Paulo Dybala, and
there's Lionel Messi. Both play for
Argentina and both are crucial for their
club teams, but that's where Dybala
wants the comparisons to stop.
"People should know that I am
Dybala and I want to continue to be so,"
the Juventus forward told Italian daily
La Repubblica. "I understand the comparisons and expectations on me from
the Argentines, but I don't want to be
the new Messi or the Messi of the
future.
“There is only one Messi, like
(Diego) Maradona. No one has ever
told me that I am his heir."
"I really admire him. I respect
him," Dybala said.
"He has won many Champions
Leagues. I haven't won any and I'm
dreaming about the first."
The speedy forward's
absence was painfully evident in
Saturday's 4-1 loss at Bayern
Munich and his presence would
significantly boost Dortmund's
chances of getting past Monaco
in the Champions League quarterfinals.
Dortmund hosts the French
league leaders in the first leg on
Tuesday, with Reus again unlikely to play as he struggles to make
his way back from a hamstring
injury.
Reus' importance to
Dortmund has been highlighted by the team's patchy form in
the Bundesliga in the five weeks
since he injured his right thigh
against Bayer Leverkusen.
Two losses, a draw against
Schalke in the Ruhr derby and
only two wins over relegationthreatened clubs have seen the
side slip from third place with a
two-point lead over Hoffenheim
to fourth, one point behind.
Third guarantees Champions
League participation, fourth
only a playoff.
"No one can imagine what
it means for us to do without
him for so long," Dortmund
coach Thomas Tuchel said of
Reus last week. "He makes all
the players around him better.
We miss his influence and his
intensity. But we're worried
about how we get him back.
We're optimistic but we're also
concerned about follow-up
injuries."
Reus, who returned to
Dortmund from league rival
Borussia Moenchengladbach
in 2012, has been plagued by
injury in his time at the club. He
has only played in 11 of the
team's 28 Bundesliga games
this season, alongside three
Champions League appearances
‘Mahesh should have shown respect to Paes’
PTI n NEW DELHI
avis Cup captain Mahesh
Bhupathi should have
D
shown "respect" to Leander Paes
by clearly telling him that he was
not going to be a part of the
playing squad before his arrival
for the tie against Uzbekistan,
the AITA said on Monday.
In the midst of an ugly public spat over team selection,
Paes said that Bhupathi was
being disrespectful to him by not
categorically telling him that
he would not be in the playing
squad, while the new captain
asserted that he had never
promised a certain spot to Paes.
AITA Secretary General
Hironmoy Chatterjee told PTI
that the non-playing captain
should have kept in mind Paes'
stature in Indian tennis.
"We would have appreciated
if Mahesh had told Leander
before he arrived that he is not
going to be in the final four. I
think he (Paes) deserves that
respect after serving the country for 27 years," Chatterjee
said.
The senior AITA official
also said that they expect the
veteran players to behave in a
mature manner.
Bhupathi made public his
chat with Paes to counter accusations that he used his position
to exclude the Olympic medallist from the playing squad.
"We expect these senior pros
to be more mature. The way they
are going about it, we are not
appreciating it. We have to talk
to them and make sure they
behave in a much more mature
manner," Chetterjee said.
The
B engal
Tennis
Association President also said
that Paes should have avoided
making comments on his exclusion during the tie.
"Leander should not have
spoken when the tie was on.
Mahesh did the right thing by
speaking after the tie was over,"
Chatterjee felt.
The AITA official said he
has seen the whatsapp chat
between Paes and Bhupathi and
its aim now is to bring them
together and sort out the issues.
"I have also seen it and discussed it with Leander. I am
going to sit and talk to both of
them when I get time since they
are both travelling.
"I do intend to bring them
together. They will settle it out.
They are mature people but the
reactions they have given could
have been much better," he said.
Bhupathi, in his Facebook
Post, had mentioned that he the
the backing of the establishment
in implementing his ideas as he
strives to get the team back to
World Group. Chatterjee
endorsed the non-playing captain's view.
"Well whatever he wants to
do and whatever he has said,
definitely he has been interacting with the federation and
there is no doubt about that. He
has discussed everything with
us. There are no issues with
that," he said.
After Bhupathi claimed that
personal agenda was not behind
Paes' exclusion, the latter issued a
statement that he was never categorically told that he would not be
in the playing four, which he
found disrespectful.
The Lee-Hesh saga goes back
to the late 1990s and their acrimonious relationship has been a
talking point in Indian tennis.
and one in the German Cup.
Reus' frequent ailments
have seen him being dubbed a
"Pechvogel" among German
media — literally a bad luck bird
— as one setback has followed
another.
An ankle injury just before
the 2014 World Cup ruled Reus
out of Germany's triumph in
Brazil, while a groin injury
ruled him out of the European
Championship in France.
But Dortmund's problems
have been exacerbated by
injuries to others. Mario Goetze
is out indefinitely with metabolic disturbances causing his
recurring muscular problems,
while Andre Schuerrle, Sven
Bender, Julian Weigl, Shinji
Kagawa, Erik Durm and Lukasz
Piszczek all missed Saturday's
game against Bayern. Gonzalo
Castro went off with a knock.
"We have hopes for Julian
Weigl and Shinji Kagawa. And
I think that Lukasz Piszczek,
who we rested today, can play.
There's little point in counting
on any of the others," Tuchel
said Saturday.
Garcia’s wait
for major title
finally over
AP n AUGUSTA
ergio Garcia tugged the lapel
of his green jacket with both
Shands,
proud of his prize and
how he earned it.
His hopes were fading
Sunday in the Masters — two
shots behind with six holes to
play — when his tee shot
bounced off a tree and into an
azalea bush, the kind of bad luck
he had come to expect in the
majors. Instead of pouting, he figured out how to make par.
Five feet away from winning,
his birdie putt peeled off to the
right. Usually resigned to fail,
Garcia proved to be more
resilient than ever.
He was a new man with a
new title: Masters champion.
Major champion.
India triumph over Sindhu eyes better show
pulls out
Chile in HWL rnd 2 Saina
of Singapore
PNS n NEW DELHI
t was a super Sunday for the Indian
senior women's team as they triumphed over Chile in the Final of the
Women's Hockey World League Round
2 in West Vancouver. The teams were
locked in a 1-1 stalemate at the end of
regulation time, but in the shootout, the
experienced Savita came up with a stunning display of goalkeeping to ensure
India emerged victorious.
Savita, who was adjudged the
Goalkeeper of The Tournament, was
outstanding under the bar as she
denied scoring chances to Kim Jacob
and Josefa Villalabeitia which gave India
a head start in the shootout. Skipper
Rani and Monika took India's score to
2-0 with two successive goals in
shootout. Though Carolina Garcia
scored in Chile's third attempt, India's
Deepika converted India's third goal to
win the match.
Despite conceding an early goal in
the 5th minute to Maria Maldonado,
the Indian women stayed upbeat in
their pursuit. They came up with good
defensive structure to keep Chile from
scoring again. Though India earned
Super Series
I
PTI n SINGAPORE
ondon Olympic bronze
medallist Saina Nehwal
L
on Monday pulled out of the
their first PC in the 22nd minute, the
effort was saved by keeper Claudia
Schuler. Chile continued to stay in lead
until the third quarter when Anupa
Barla successfully converted a penalty
corner in the 41st minute to equalise.
The fourth quarter saw both teams
push for a goal and Rani came close to
scoring but her strong backhand shot
was saved by Claudia to end the regulation time with the score 1-1.
$350,000 Singapore Super
Series to spend more time in
training to improve her game
ahead of the hectic international circuit.
Olympic silver medallist
PV Sindhu, meanwhile, will
look to put behind her disappointing first-round exit at
Malaysia when she leads the
Indian challenge here.
The 27-year-old Saina
said she will next play at the
Asian
Badminton
Championship to be held at
Wuhan, China later this
month.
"Yes, I withdrew from
the tournament as I feel I
need some more time training to get better. There is
improvement in the knee but
I think some more training
will help at this point," Saina
told PTI.
"I will play Asia
Badminton Championship
next. I will also play the
Indonesia Super Series and
the Sudirman Cup," said the
2010 Commonwealth Games
champion.
Saina, who had won the
Malaysia Masters Grand Prix
Gold in January after recovering from a career-threatening knee injury, had bowed
out of the opening round at
Malaysia Open last week after
losing narrowly to Japan's
Akane Yamaguchi.
While Saina will be miss-
ing in action, Sindhu, who
clinched her maiden India
Open at New Delhi to achieve
a career-best World No. 2
ranking, will have to get over
the heart-break at Kuching,
where she was stunned by
upcoming Chinese shuttler
Chen Yufei.
However, a tough draw
awaits Sindhu as she is slated
to face Japan's Nozomi
Okuhara, 2016 All England
Open champion and Rio
Olympic bronze medallist.
Meanwhile, National
champion Rituparna Das
made into the main draw of
women's singles and she will
take on Chinese Taipei's Hsu
Ya Ching.
After nearly two decades of
heartache in the tournaments
that define careers, Garcia finally showed the mettle to win a
major.
He overcame a two-shot
deficit against Justin Rose and
won on the first hole of a suddendeath playoff.
No one ever played more
majors as a pro (70) before winning one for the first time.
Garcia had two big moments
on the par 5s — one a par, the
other an eagle — in closing with
a 3-under 69. Rose sent his drive
into the trees on the 18th hole in
the playoff, punched out and
failed to save par from 15 feet.
That gave the Spaniard two
putts from 12 feet for the victory, and his putt swirled into the
cup for a birdie.
I will never ever try a reverse flick
off a fast bowler. Any shot that
you want to try out in the match
requires lots of practice. When I
come to practice, I come with my
specific set of plans
— Hashim Amla
boundarymeter
4s
6s
204
109
15
LUCKNOW | TUESDAY | APRIL 11, 2017
HALFTIME
Kings XI has the last laugh
Q U O T E U N Q U O T E
After early struggle, AB’s 46-ball 89 takes visitors to respectable total
PTI n INDORE
ings XI Punjab continued their
winning run in the Indian
Premier League, defeating Royal
Challengers Bangalore by 8 wickets at
the Holkar Cricket Stadium here on
Monday.
AB de Villiers smashed a 46-ball
89-run unconquered innings laced
with as many as nine sixes and three
fours to single-handedly take RCB to
148-4 after they were reduced to 223 in 5 overs.
de Villiers shared 46 runs off 49
balls with Mandeep Singh (28) for the
4th wicket to steady the innings. He
then added 80 off 41 balls with Stuart
Binny (18) as RCB amassed 68 in last
four overs.
Chasing the target, Manan
Vohra (34) and Amla (58) shared 62
runs off 35 balls for the opening
wicket to lay the foundation for the
runchase.
Amla and skipp er Glenn
Maxwell (43) then forged 72 runs for
the third wicket to take Kings XI
home in 14.3 overs. For Punjab,
Varun Aaron (2/21) picked up two
wickets, while Sandeep Sharma
(1/26) and Axar Patel (1/12) picked
one wicket each.
Tymal Mills (1/22) and Yuzvendra
Chahal (1/29) took one wicket each for
Bangalore.
Ealrier, playing his first match of
the season after regaining his fitness,
de Villiers slammed a 46-ball 89-run
unconquered innings laced with as
many as nine sixes and three fours to
single-handedly take RCB close to the
150-mark.
With de Villiers going hammer
and tongs, RCB amassed 68 runs off
the last four overs to post a good
score after being precariously placed
at 22-3 in 5 overs.
Electing to bat, RCB found themselves in a spot of bother early in the
innings but de Villiers shared 46 runs
off 49 balls with Mandeep Singh (28)
for the 4th wicket to steady the
innings.
For Punjab, Varun Aaron (2/21)
picked up two wickets, while Sandeep
Sharma (1/26) and Axar Patel (1/12)
mulate 13 runs off young left-arm
seamer T Natarajan in the ninth over
to help RCB reach 47 for 3.
De Villiers and Mandeep kept
dealing in ones and twos to keep the
scoreboard ticking before Aaron dismissed the Jalandhar batsman in the
14th over with wicket-keeper
Wriddhiman Saha taking a brilliant
catch.
In the 16th over, de Villiers
slammed Aaron over mid-off to pick
up his second six off the innings.
The South African then smashed
Marcus Stoinis over deep midwicket twice in the next over to bring up
his fifty.
Stuart Binny then got into the act
and clobbered a six and a four off
Mohit before de Villiers blasted
another six between the long-on
and deep midwicket area.
De Villiers then smashed a four
and successive sixes off Sandeep to
amass 19 runs.
Mohit then bowled four good
balls in the last over before the
South African ended the innings with
two lusty blows which allowed his
team to post a competitive total.
K
SCOREBOARD
Royal Challengers Bangalore’s AB de Villiers in action against Knigs XI Punjab in Indore on Monday
picked one wicket each.
Earlier, left-arm spinner Patel
started the bowling attack for Punjab
and he struck the first blow, dismissing opener Shane Watson (1) in
the last ball of the first over itself.
Looking to play a cut shot,
Watson ended up dragging the ball
on to his stumps.
De Villiers, who replaced West
Indies' destructive batsman Chris
Gayle in the team, produced the first
six of the match in the third over
when he blasted Mohit Sharma over
extra cover.
However, other opener Vishnu
Vinod (7) also tried to get into the act
in the next over off Sandeep Sharma
IPL
but he was cramped for room and
ended up giving a simple catch to
Maxwell at the long-on boundary.
In the next over, Aaron trapped
Kedar Jadhav (1) infront of wicket as
Bangalore were reduced to 22-3 in
five overs.
After a few quiet overs, de Villiers
plundered a six and a four to accu-
Royal Challengers Bangalore
innings: Shane Watson b Patel 1,
Vishnu Vinod c Maxwell b Sandeep
Sharma 7, AB de Villiers not out 89,
KM Jadhav lbw b Aaron 1, Mandeep
Singh c Saha b Aaron 28, Stuart
Binny not out 18, Extras(LB-1, W-3)
4. Total (For 4 wickets in 20 overs) 148.
Fall of wickets: 1-2, 2-18, 3-22, 4-68.
Bowling: Axar Patel 4-0-12-1, Sandeep
Sharma 4-0-26-1, Mohit Sharma 4-047-0, Varun Aaron 4-0-21-2,
Thangarasu Natarajan 1-0-13-0,
Marcus Stoinis 3-0-28-0.
Kings XI Punjab innings: M Vohra
lbw b Mills 34, HM Amla not out 58,
AR Patel b Chahal 9, Glenn Maxwell
not out 43, Extras (LB-4, W-2) 6, Total
(For 2 wicket in 14.3 overs) 150. Fall
of wickets: 1-62, 2-78. Bowling: B
Stanlake 4-0-41-0, Iqbal Abdulla 2-019-0, Shane Watson 2-0-28-0, Tymal
Mills 2-0-22-1, Yuzvendra Chahal
3.3-0-29-1, Pawan Negi 1-0-7-0.
T O D A Y I N A C T I O N
S T A T P I C K
batting-heavy Rising Pune Supergiant would
look to return to winning ways when they take
A
on Delhi Daredevils in an Indian Premier League
match here on Tuesday.
It is still early days in the 10th edition of IPL
and Rising Pune Supergiant had a mixed outing so
far with a win and loss from two games they have
played so far. While Pune got off their campaign
on a rousing note by defeating Mumbai Indians by
seven wickets at home, they slumped to a 6-wicket defeat against Kings XI Punjab in their next outing in Indore.
With the likes of in-form Steven Smith,
Ajinkya Rahane, costliest player of IPL Ben Stokes,
Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Manoj Tiwary in its rank,
batting is considered the strongest aspect for the
Pune side. Rahane, Smith and Stokes have been
among runs but Pune would be
HEAD worried about the form of openLive on Sony Six
TO
er Mayank Agarwal and Dhoni in
HEAD particular.
M2
While Rahane made 66 and 19
RPS vs DD
in the first two games, Smith wast
RPS 2
PUNE
the architect of Pune's win in their
DD 0
TUESDAY | 8:00 PM
tournament
Delhi Daredevils’ batsman Rishabh Pant in action
Pollard slams Manjrekar
umbai Indians batsman Kieron
Pollard has slammed Sanjay
M
Manjrekar for his on-air comments about
his batting during an IPL match against
Kolkata Knight Riders here, saying that the
former India player suffers from "verbal
diarrhoea".
Pollard was dismissed for a run-a-ball
17, leaving MI at a precarious 119/5 with
less than four overs to go in his team's chase
of 179. In the commentary box, Manjrekar
had criticised Pollard, saying that he was
only good enough to bat for the last six or
seven overs of an innings.
Manjrekar was responding to a fellow
commentator's query about what Pollard's
ideal position in the batting order should
umbai Indians coach Mahela Jayawardene said he has
seen enough T20 cricket not to be surprised by the
M
manner in which his side pulled off a sensational four-wicket victory in an IPL game against Kolkata Knight Riders here.
"It's a funny game. I have seen enough T20 cricket, it
happens. A bit of pressure and a few good shots created this
opportunity for us," Jayawardene said.
MI snatched victory from the jaws of defeat, overhauling KKR's challenging score of 178 with one ball to spare
at the Wankhede Stadium Sunday night.
"You always need to have that belief, happy that players had that belief. It was brilliant," said the stylish former
Sri Lanka batsman and captain.
He also praised the display of the side's two young Indian
players — Nitish Rana of Delhi and Hardik Pandya of Baroda
— who pulled off the memorable win.
"I am pretty pleased and I am glad two young players
carried us through. Nitish anchored the innings and took
the game deep and Hardik came in and finished the job,"
said Jayawardene.
Rana made 50 in 29 balls to put MI well in sight of victory before departing in the penultimate over. Pandya finished the job with a four to long leg off the fifth ball of the
last over to remain unbeaten on a 11-ball 29.
"It was important to get points on board. Boys played
well. After losing the first game, to come back that way
showed character and quality. Even in the last game we did
not give up and took it deep. I am happy, it was brilliant,"
said Jayawardene, referring to his side's opening game loss
to Rising Pune Supergiant on April 6.
Meanwhile, Rohit remonstrated with the umpire and has
been reprimanded by the match referee for the Level 1
offence, under the IPL's Code of Conduct.
Rohit pleased with
Nitish’s performance
umbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma on Sunday heaped
praise on the young Nitish Rana and Hardik Pandya
M
for securing the team's first win of the Indian Premier League.
AMIT MISHRA NEEDS JUST ONE
WICKET TO BECOME ONLY THE
SECOND BOWLER TO TAKE 125 OR
MORE WICKETS IN IPL. MISHRA HAS
124 WICKETS AT 23.79 IN 113 MATCHES
SO FAR. MUMBAI INDIANS' LASITH
MALINGA HOLDS THE RECORD WITH
145 WICKETS AT 17.80 IN 99 IPL
MATCHES
FAISEL FEATURES
1
opener with an 86-run knock. The Australia captain, however, failed to sizzle in the next game scoring just 26.
Stokes, who made 21 in the first game, rescued
the Pune side against Kings XI in th company of
Manoj Tiwary. While Stokes made a valuable 50,
Tiwary scored a quickfire unbeaten 40.
But it is Pune's bowling attack which lacks bite.
Ashok Dinda, Daniel Christian and Stokes looked
ordinary with the new ball and if they are to make
a mark in the tournament, the trio need to fire in
unison with the ball.
The stand-out performer for Pune with the ball
has been South African leg-spinner Imran Tahir,
who picked up three and two wickets respectively in the first two games.
But Tahir desperately need support from the
other end. The Daredevils, on the other hand, lost
by 15 runs against Royal Challengers Bangalore in
the only game they had played in the tournament so far.
Despite restricting RCB to 157 for eight,
Daredevils batting line-up failed to chase down
th target, managing 142 for nine wickets in their
alloted 20 overs. Led by experienced Zaheer
Khan, Daredevils bowlers were right on their
money against RCB. Both Zaheer (2/31), Chris
Morris (3/21) and Pat Cummins (1/29) were
impressive with the new ball, while domestic season's highest wicket taker, left-arm spinner
Shahbaz Nadeem (1/13) shone in the middle overs.
The 158-run target should have been an easy
chase for Daredevils but their top-order — Aditya
Tare, Sam Billings, Karun Nair and Sanju
Samson — fumbled. Young Risabh Pant, who
showed nerves of steel, top-scored for
Daredevils with a 36-ball 57 days after losing his father.
Rana smashed 50 off 29 balls before Pandya came up
with a 29-run cameo off 11 balls to seal a thrilling four wicket win over Kolkata Knight Riders.
"Winning the game was important. We're known for this
— we keep people on their toes. Very happy with
this win," said Rohit. "Here at Wankhede, we
back our players to get the runs with the dew
coming in and the flat pitch. We were hoping Rana and Hardik would finish it off and
they did. It's important for any team
to have young players come in like
that and finish the job. I hope they
repeat it. "There's still room for
improvement. We don't want
to be in the back seat. We
know the things we didn't do
well today and we'll go back to
the drawing board before our
next game," he added.
KKR captain Gautam
Gambhir was frank in his assessment, saying his players could not
handle the pressure. "We back
our bowlers to do the job. It's just
a matter of keeping our nerves
calm. We panicked a little in the
end with the misfield and the
dropped catch (cost us). It's a good
chasing ground — you could
chase anything," said Gambhir.
PTI
V E R B A L S P A T
PTI n MUMBAI
PTI n MUMBAI
PTI n MUMBAI
Daredevils keen to open IPL 10 account
PTI n PUNE
IT HAPPENS IN T20:
MAHELA ON MI'S WIN
be.
Pollard responded
angrily to Manjrekar's
criticism in a series of
tweets.
"@sanjaymanjrekar
u feel any positive can
come out of your mouth
bcuz u get pay to talk u
can continue with your
verbal diarrhea (diarrhoea)..," Pollard said in his
first tweet.
"Do you know how I get big
so.. About BRAINLESS.. Words
are very powerful .. Once it
leaves u can't take it back.. sins of
parents fall on...," he said in
another tweet.
‘Dravid helped me become better batsman’
PTI n PUNE
wicketkeeperbatsman Sam Billings
Esaysngland
working with greats
like Rahul Dravid in the
IPL has made him a
much improved player of spin bowling.
Billings, who is
into his second
season at Delhi
Daredevils, went to
the extent of saying that
past year has seen him
improve like never before.
"There is no doubt that
in the last one year, the
improvement (I have felt in
my game) has been the biggest
of my career. Getting to know
your game in different conditions is always a learning experience.
"Playing quality spin for six
weeks (in the IPL), you learn
a lot out of that. Anyway you
are always looking to try to
improve and perform. Of
course, the schedule is hectic,"
said Billings, referring to
national duty and time he
spends playing leagues across
the globe.
Asked how much he has
learnt from the likes of team
mentor Dravid and head coach
Paddy Upton, Billings
replied:"He (Dravid) is one of
the best to have played the
game. So their is lots to learn
from him and even from
Paddy. It is always a great
experience to pick their brains.
It is a huge honour actually.
You are always learning from
people of that stature," he said.
Talking about the team
composition,
he
said
Daredevils have a well-bal-
anced squad and it was disappointing to lose the tournament opener against Royal
Challengers Bangalore.
"Yeah, very disappointed
with the result. Real shame to
not get over the line. We are
focused on the next game now.
There are lots of positives to
take from the previous game.
"Every team is strong in
this competition, all have
power hitters and quality spinners. But if we turn up to play
to our potential, we can beat
any team."
Billings added that team
not only has a good pace
attack, it also has quality spinners in Jayant Yadav and
Shahbaz Nadeem.
vivacity 16
LUCKNOW | TUESDAY | APRIL 11, 2017
TRAVELLER’S TREAT
‘People don't
want to marry’
Actress SHRADDHA KAPOOR, who
is playing the lead role in Mohit
Suri's forthcoming film
Half Girlfriend, says these
days while parents are
quite open about the idea
of love marriages and livein relationships.
Asked about her
opinion on becoming a ‘half girlfriend', she said,
“There are relationships in all our
lives that you cannot name. You have
someone who is
more than just a
friend but not
exactly a
boyfriend...”
“I have seen people
who do not want to
commit in a relationship. At times do not
want to settle down... On
the other hand, our parents — are becoming
more accepting towards
our choice, even if it is a
live-in relation. “I talk to
my parents about it
openly,” she added.
‘For the first
time, I finally
understand
the concept
of self-love
and self-care.
I'm single
and happy,
and busy. I
haven't been
single for a long time.
It's like being born
again. You can be with
someone and it can be
really good for your
growth. That's what
Dev was for me. The
seven years I was with
him were so impactful.’
— FREIDA PINTO
Singer MARIAH
CAREY has
reportedly split from
her boyfriend Bryan
Tanaka, who earlier
worked as a backup
dancer for her.
According to
sources, Carey and
Tanaka have parted
ways over his “insane jealousy”
and her “shutting the cash
register drawer” on Tanaka's
fingers.
‘Covered her
bruises for years’
Singer MEL B's make-up artist has
come forward to support her and
claims he knew about her
estranged husband Stephen
Belafonte's violent behaviour
as he has been concealing
her bruises for years.
The artist said he often
overheard Belafonte
being “aggressive and
verbally abusive” to
the former Spice
Girl backstage.
The artist has even
offered to draft a
sworn declaration
of all the marks he
has seen over the
years for Mel B's
lawyers to help
with divorce
proceedings.
Mel B and
Belafonte are
currently in a
bitter divorce battle
after 10 years of their
marriage.
The make-up artist said
Belafonte had been
“controlling” her and
often called Mel B and
their children “ugly” or
“disgusting”.
Need some inspiration to plan your next trip? Plan the ultimate vacation at these top spots around the world
o Indian city features in
the top ten destinations of
the world, according to a
travel survey. In fact, Siem Reap
from neighbouring Cambodia
has broken through the elite
club.
With the summer season
approaching, tourists are facing
the age old dilemma of deciding
their vacation destination. It is
places like Goa and Mumbai that
make their mark to attract the
travellers. With the new sense
of exploration that the
young tourists are filled
with, there are many off
beat destinations like,
Tiruchirappalli that
have made their mark
on the most frequent destinations. Although on the world
forum, there are not much
changes as people still prefer to
spend their vacation at the regular places such as Bali or
London but there are many new
destinations such as Cambodia
or Crete that have caught the
tourists attention.
A travel based portal recognised Indian and world’s top
destinations with Travellers’
Choice Awards.
“The Travellers’ Choice
Destinations awards this year
includes a great mix of popular
destinations as well as lesser
known cities which I am sure will
stimulate the Indian traveller to
experience fabulous places within our country” said Nikhil
Ganju, C ountr y Manager,
TripAdvisor India.
of India delicately balances its
rich past along with the modernity. The city offers a wide variety of options to fill up your time
from shopping to savouring local
dishes to experiencing the culture and heritage. Those looking
to make the most of their time
can take a guided day tour.
N
BEACH READY?
Goa is popular across the
world for its stunning beaches,
natural beauty, abundant green-
PAINT IT PINK
‘The Pink City’ is a travellers’
delight. From the stunning forts
and palaces to old charming
markets that offer not just lipsmacking food but intricate jewellery, Jaipur has everything that
one would want from a great holiday destination. Travellers can
learn all about the royal life
with a guided tour.
A PINCH OF SOUL
While Agra is known primarily for the monument of
‘love’, The Taj Mahal, there is a lot
more that it offers to the holiday
goers. From visiting a number of
historical monuments to shopping for the marble showpieces
and savouring local food, it’s an
absolute must visit on a traveller’s
itinerary. One can indulge in private tours to see some of the
architectural marvels during the
stay.
WANDERLUST GOALS
nBali, Indonesia
nWanderlust goals
nLondon, United Kingdom
nParis, France
nRome, Italy
nNew York City, U.S.
nCrete, Greece
nBarcelona, Spain
nSiem Reap, Cambodia
nPrague, Czech Republic
nPhuket, Thailand
DREAM GAME
ery and beautiful churches.
Travellers looking for the old
world Portuguese charm can opt
for a heritage tour covering Se
Locked in traditions
After seven months of hard work,
TARUN TAHILIANI’s quest
for an Indian modernity has
found him a new address
outurier, Tarun Tahiliani has long championed the concept of India Modern. His quest
C
for the modern Indian has found an elegant
utterance with his new store at Qutab Garden
in historic Mehrauli area.
The space marries essentially Indian elements with a contemporary feel that doesn’t feel
contrived or oppressively ethnic. “When you
walk into my space, I want you to know you’re
entering my mind,” he says. And it’s true. Here,
rare blood-red carnelian from Chennai has been
fashioned into tabletops, and the floor is a symphony of earthy-ochre sandstone from
Rajasthan, strewn with Tarun Tahiliani
carpets.
Custom-designed Zoffany wallpapers
for the backdrops of display vitrines, and
all these are reflected in vintage,
hand-etched mirrors. In short, the
space is pure Tarun Tahiliani:
luxurious without being ostentatious, and rich without being
offensive.
It took Tahiliani over seven
months-from design to execution-to design the space to his
exacting specifications. As you
enter, the foyer opens onto a
short, bifurcated stairway that
leads up to the ready-to-wear
sections featuring displays of
his women’s and men’s collections. Behind them, an 18thcentury, hand-carved wood
facade from Gujarat dominates the stairwell that leads
down to the haute couture
section replete with wellappointed private
rooms for trials
and lengthy
shopping
sessions,
all illuminated with
antique chandeliers.
The centerpiece is a filigreed
lamp that throws soft, dappled shadows on the ceiling punctuated with
hand-carved rosettes
that could have
adorned a palace a century ago. Even the stairs
are studded with flowers
hand-crafted out of cabochon mother-of-pearl.
Photo: Pankaj Kumar
Cathedral, Basilica of Bom Jesus
as well as Dona Paula Beach.
Those looking for a homely
retreat to stay can go for the fam-
ily owned and managed resorts.
SIMPLY BOLD
New Delhi, the capital city
Mumbai is what the Indians
affectionately call - the city of
dreams. The financial capital of
India, Mumbai, is also known as
the city that never sleeps. It is
also the centre of the Indian Film
Industry and sees millions setting
their foot on its soil to try their
luck in ‘Bollywood’. Travellers
can savour the local food by taking a street food tour.
‘A woman in
a man’s world’
ALISON WRIGHT, best known for her role as Martha Hanson on
The Americans, reflects on how little progress Hollywood has
actually made when it comes to opportunities for women
nWhat did you think about the position of women
in terms of acting and what the industry was like
for them at that time?
Alison Wright: I read a lot of books about
Hollywood. I read biographies of Davis along with
Garbo and all the other actresses of the time, so I was
certainly familiar enough through other movies and
television to know that it’s definitely a world I would
enjoy living in. The richness of it alone, the glamour, it’s phenomenal to spend time in that world.
nDo you feel that age-wise things have gotten better for women?
Alison Wright: I don’t know about that. But Susan
Sarandon said that when she started, forty was the
hard cutoff, and that’s certainly been pushed and people like Ryan are pushing that line literally themselves.
Ryan’s created so much work for Jessica and so much
work for older actresses. So that’s part of the fun story
of looking at Bette and Joan is what a tragedy those
last fifteen, twenty years of their lives were when they
deserved so much more and they were massive legends. Yet they were chewed up and spit out by the men
in suits running the show; and Jack Warner, the way
they portray him in the show, you know, Tucci just
gets better and better, as you can imagine, just what
people had to put up with.
nIn terms of preparing for Pauline, what sort of
preparation did you do? Did you talk to women
on that side of the industry?
Alison Wright: I read as much as I could about
women who worked in the Hollywood era in the studio system in every capacity. Lot of them moved
around different departments and that’s what I had
built for Pauline and I also built a story of her past
from there because we got a bit of freedom. I watched
all of the Joan and Bette movies. And just the facts
that I learned staggered me, you know, that it wasn’t
until 1974 in this country (California) that a woman
could get a credit card on her own without her husband.
nWere there things that you connected with or that
you felt you could really associate with?
Alison Wright: Yes, I think we all can, being a
woman in a man’s world. And, it was more heightened because we’re talking about what it was in the
sixties, the casual sexism, the casual misogynist remark
that you just have to let slide. We’ve all had to do that
still sixty years later. So there’s lots of ways to be able
to relate and, of course, there’s Pauline, she's very competent and holds her own with Joan Crawford and
Bette Davis. I can only hope that maybe I do the same
with Jessica Lange and Susan Sarandon.
nWas Pauline a real person or was she created?
Alison Wright: No, she’s a composite character,
perhaps the only one actually in the show and she is
a mix of uber competent young girls that went out
to Hollywood dreaming of their future in the business. All the challenges that they faced are honestly
not that dissimilar from sixty years later where we are
today. Still the challenges are same so it’s even more
heightened to see these women trying to pave a way
for a future that was something more than being a wife
or a mother. These girls had much more ambition
than that and wanted to have a career at a time when
no institutions in the country were encouraging
women to get out of the home and have a career for
themselves. Some of these girls just managed to forge
their own way and do it as best as they could.
nSo about working with holding your own with
Susan Sarandon and Jessica Lange, what was it like
working with them? They’re such titans of the
industry.
Alison Wright: Yes I am aware of that. I didn’t
really know what to expect. I’d like to say wholeheartedly it was a wonderful, marvelous and perfect experience. It’s great to sit and to watch them work so
closely. So, Pauline gets to just be with Bob a lot
behind the camera while watching their performances.
What a great way to spend my day just watching these
ladies, live in all these different characters. It’s fantastic. They were wonderful.
nAnd what do you think it was about your perfor-
mance in The Americans?
Alison Wright: Well, something that Ryan said was
that they weren’t really sure as they were developing
this character because she is a composite character
and they weren’t sure what it might turn out to be.
They knew they wanted her to be important but she’s
not a front and center role. So I know that they both
thought that I would make her a fully realised character even if she was just a smaller part.
nBut do you think television does offer better roles
than films or at least more complex roles for
women?
Alison Wright: Yes, at the moment it is.
nIn terms of Feud, do you think Hollywood’s a bit
too safe these days; that people aren’t outspoken
enough, because everyone’s so worried about their
reputation and jobs...
Alison Wright: Yes. It’s really dull. Fred Molina
was telling the story that some famous actor had told
him about how amazing the Oscars used to be.
Everyone used to get really drunk and would dance
on tables. You don’t see an ounce of that joy or fun
anymore because everyone is so concerned because
you’re crucified and vilified so easily these days. You
do the tiniest of things and all of these people are
jumping down your throat about it. It’s certainly different in the studio system.
Watch the legendary rivalry between Bette Davin
and Joan Crawford exclusively on Star World Premiere
HD every Sunday 9 PM