Raipur - The Pioneer

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RNI Regn. No. CHHENG/2012/42718, Postal Reg. No. - RYP DN/34/2013-2015
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U
nion
Environment
Minister
Prakash
Javadekar on Thursday faced
the wrath of his Cabinet colleague Maneka Gandhi after his
Ministry declared the Nilgai as
vermin in Bihar, leading to the
culling of 300 such animals.
Maneka is also furious over the
recent declaration of common
Rhesus monkey a vermin in
Himachal Pradesh and wild
boar in Uttarakhand paving the
way their culling. She accused
the green Ministry of showing
a “lust for killing animals”.
Last week professional
shooters were brought from
Hyderabad to cleanse the Tal
area in Mokama in Bihar from
the menace of Nilgai. Local
MLC from JD(U) Neeraj
Kumar, at whose behest the
culling operation was launched,
defended his actions saying
lakhs of hectares of standing
crops are flattened every year,
for which there is no compensation from the Government.
Kumar’s explanation, however, made little impact on
Maneka, who termed the operation as the “biggest-ever massacre”.
The
Environment
Ministry, on the other hand,
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clarified that the steps have
been taken under the provision
of Wildlife Protection Act.
Accordingly, any animal listed
in Schedule I-IV can be put in
Schedule V for a specific peri-
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od, declared as vermin and
killed. Schedule V includes
animals like the common crow,
fruit bats, mice and rats.
Responding to Maneka”s
charges, Javadekar said,
“Scientific management of animal population and the permissions for killing animals
designated as vermin were
restricted to particular areas
and time period. It is being
done as per the provisions of
law and is not a Central
Government programme.”
“When State Governments
write to us about farmers and
the common man suffering
due to crop damage by such
animals, only then such permissions are given, on the
basis of recommendation of the
State Governments,” said
Javadekar.
Maneka retorted saying
that the Environment Ministry
“is writing to every State
Government, allowing them to
provide a list of animals that
can be killed so that the Centre
can give permission. This is
happening for the first time…”
According to her, the
Centre has allowed killing of
nilgai (blue bull) in Bihar, elephants in West Bengal, monkeys in Himachal Pradesh,
Continued on Page 4
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he Central Board of Film
Certification (CBFC) found
T
itself on the back foot on
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Thursday, as the Bombay High
Court demanded to know from
it if the drug menace had never
been portrayed on Indian celluloid in the past and why it
was insisting on deletion of the
word Punjab from the title of
the film Udta Punjab.
On a day when renowned
filmmaker Shyam Benegal
heaped praise on Udta Punjab
for projecting the drug problem
in Punjab effectively and said
the film had not portrayed the
northern State in a bad light as
was being made out in certain
quarters, the CBFC’s Revising
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Committee insisted that the
changes proposed by it in the
controversial film were “justified” and “proper”.
Hearing a petition filed by
Phantom Films, producer of
Udta Punjab, challenging the
changes proposed in the film,
a HC Bench headed by Justice
Dharmadhikari observed it
was not satisfied with the first
two of the 13 changes proposed
by the Revising Committee
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fter successfully bringing
A
State-run Bharat Sanchar
Nigam Limited (BSNL) into the
profit zone, revival of public
sector telecom firm Mahanagar
Telephone Nigam Limited
(MTNL) is on Government
agenda. The Government has
prepared a clear roadmap for
the revival of the loss-making
State-owned MTNL in the
competitive telecom sector in
the countr y. As per the
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three-year-old girl travelling with her
A
mother and other family members on
Jaipur-Bandra Express to Mumbai was attended promptly by doctors after her cousin sought
help through a tweet to Railway Minister
Suresh Prabhu.
It is understood that during the journey
at Vadodra Junction, victim Nishtha received
burn injuries from a tea that fell on her hand.
The incident happened in the morning
when Nishtha insisted her mother Lalita to get
her tea.
Unable to see his sister in pain, Kunal
sought help from the Railway Minister by
tweeting him the detail. And as the train
reached the next station Surat, several doctors arrived to treat Nishtha. The family said
they were thankful to the Railway Minister for
providing them help immediately.
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about deleting the word Punjab
from the title of the film and all
references to Jalandhar, Punjab,
Chandigarh,
Amritsar,
Tarantaran, Jashanpura,
Ambesar, Ludhiana and Molga
in the movie.
Tearing into the justification offered by the CBFC about
the changes proposed by it,
Justice
Dharmadhikari
demanded to know from the
Continued on Page 4
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he imbroglio over the film
T
Udta Punjab is gaining
ground in Punjab too with
State Congress president
Captain
Amarinder
Singh
threatening to release
the “uncensored” copies
of the movie in Majitha
and the SAD-BJP led
State Government coming out in the open to
clear the air on the issue on
Thursday.
Commenting for the first
time on the flaming row
between the Central Board of
Film Certification (CBFC) and
the makers of Udta Punjab,
Chief Minister Parkash Singh
Badal and his deputy Sukhbir
Badal categorically maintained
that their Government had
“nothing to do” with the clipping of the wings of
the multi-starrer flick
depicting the drug
menace in Punjab.
On the other hand,
taking the controversy
to another level,
Amarinder Singh
declared he would
release the uncut copies of the
movie in Revenue Minister
Bikram Singh Majithia”s
Assembly segment, Majitha, on
June 17, the scheduled release
date of the controversial movie.
Continued on Page 4
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attled by the growing support for India”s bid for
R
Nuclear Supplier Group (NSG)
membership as Pakistan
reached out to the international
community, Mexico backed
India”s entry into the 48-member block whose members are
allowed to trade in and export
nuclear technology. While few
countries have extended support to Pakistan, its ally China
toughened stand on Thursday
on allowing India to join the
elite group even.
Mexican President Enrique
Pena Nieto announced his
country”s support to India”s bid
for membership of the elite
NSG after holding wide-ranging talks with Prime Minister
Narendra Modi here on a range
of bilateral and global issues.
“Mexico supports positively and constructively
India”s membership of the
NSG,” the Mexican President
said at a joint media interaction
with Modi. On his part, the
Prime Minister thanked
Mexico for its support
and called the country an
important partner for India’s
energy security.
“We are looking to move
beyond buyer-seller relationship and into a long-term partnership... We have agreed to
develop a roadmap of concrete
outcomes to upgrade our ties to
a Strategic Partnership,” said
the Prime Minister who arrived
here earlier in the day from
Washington on the last leg of
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his five-nation tour.
In their talks, Modi and
Nieto explored ways to deepen
bilateral cooperation in a number of key areas including in
trade and investment, information technology, climate
change and energy. Mexico is
a key member of the NSG and
its support to India”s bid for
entry into NSG is seen as
important. Modi had visited
Switzerland, another key member of the NSG, before travelling to the US, and the
European countr y —
known to have strong proliferation concerns — had
announced its support to
India”s candidature for the
atomic trading club.
Continued on Page 4
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roadmap, Department of
Telecommunications (DoT)
under the Telecom Ministry
will set a tripartite committee
consisting of members from
both MTNL and BSNL. The
proposed panel will look into
all details regarding financial
and network businesses of the
two state-run telecom firms.
The mega plan of revival mechanism is scheduled to kick off
from April 1, 2017.
The proposal comes at a
time when both the financially-struggling public sector telecom companies need deeper
synergies in revenue sharing
and financial management,
especially to help MTNL.
Continued on Page 4
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fter transportation, it is
sanitation on the top priA
ority
for
the
Delhi
Government. The Arvind
Kejriwal dispensation is now
planning to involve public participation for designing public
toilets through a contest.
The winner will be awarded a cash prize of C50,000 and
will be attached with the Delhi
Urban Shelter Improvement
Board (DUSIB) for a six-month
period to work for the project
on monthly remuneration of
C25,000. The Aam Aadmi Party
Government has initiated the
process to set up 10,000 toilets
in the slum clusters of the
national Capital.
“The DUSIB has sought
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designs from firms and individuals for innovative toilets
and decided to pay a reward of
C50,000 to the first winner
and C25,000 to the second one.
The intended firms and individuals have been asked to
submit their proposals along
with detailed architectural
drawings, including specifications and financial parameters
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to the DUSIB by 3 pm till June
15,” said officials of the Delhi
Government on the condition
of anonymity.
As per public notice issued
by DUSIB, design must focus
on robustness against vandalism and rough use, including
identification of low cost solutions for finishes and fitting and
fixtures. The designs should
demonstrate innovations
include efficient use of water,
ventilation and daylight utilisation, ease of maintaining
hygiene and cleanliness, adequate prevention against storm
water and effective surface
drainage.
“Architectural concepts on
modular design for construction
of 30/40-seater toilet complex-
es in two categories of permanent and semi-permanent/prefabricated structures are hereby
called from individuals, organisations, agencies for providing
toilet facilities in slum & JJ Bastis
in Delhi,” it said.
The Government’s decision for setting up toilets comes
in the wake of reports that more
than 675 slum clusters in the
city had been facing a serious
problem of open defecation.
It has now sought architectural concepts on modular
designs for construction of 35
to 40 seat toilet complexes in
two categories of permanent
and semi-permanent pre-fabricated structures.
A senior DUSIB officer
said that those interested in the
design competition should
send a detailed proposal on
method for waste disposal by
use of septic tanks or other
innovations, including prevention of back-flow due to
external flooding.
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Z
oro, the white and brown
Siberian Husky who was dognapped by five car-borne men
from the posh Vasant Kunj
Enclave area of South Delhi last
week was found in the wee hours
of Thursday.
Zoro was reunited with his
elated owner Aftab Khan after
some neighbours spotted the dog
tied to an electricity pole at the
same place from where he was
picked up at the ridge and
informed Aftab, police said.
When Aftab reached the spot
he was in for a shock as Zoro’s
abductors had shaved his beautiful thick fur to mask the dog’s
identity. However, there was no
doubt that the dog was Zoro as the
Husky immediately leaped up and
gave his relieved master a heartwarming welcome.
“We are happy and relieved
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that Zoro is back with us. This past
week was emotionally draining for
the family. Now our focus is on his
well-being” said a beaming Aftab.
Now, even though Zoro is
back home where he belongs, he
is a little subdued after the shock-
ing incident and has not been eating properly. He also has some
minor injuries on his body.
According to Aftab, the mainstream and social media played a
major role in Zoro’s return as it
highlighted the case making it
impossible for the dognappers to
keep the Husky for long and they
freed the dog in the end.
Aftab said, “I am grateful to
the efforts of the media and society without which Zoro would not
have been found”.
However, no headway has
been made in the case by the police
as they have not been able to find
the getaway vehicle or identity the
five car-borne men who dognapped the Husky when Aftab was
giving him a morning walk last
Friday. A shocked Aftab watched
haplessly as Zoro who was not on
the leash at that time and was walking a few feet ahead of his master
was picked up and taken away in
a golden coloured Innova.
A Delhi Police officer told The
Pioneer that an FIR was registered
under Section 379 (for theft) of the
Indian Penal Code. “We scanned
the CCTV footage of the adjoining areas to locate the missing pet
and those behind the disappearance of Zoro, but the culprits have
not been identified as yet.
However, despite the fact that the
dog has been restored to its owner,
the effort to trace the five men is
going on.”
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nion Road Transport
Minister Nitin Gadkari on
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Thursday regretted the fact
that 400 people on an average
die every day in road accidents
in India due to “faulty engineering” in construction of
roads and highways.
Releasing a report on road
accidents in India in 2015,
Gadkari said he is “deeply
pained” at the findings that
show 17 deaths in 57 crashes
per hour and over 54 per cent
of those getting killed being in
the age group of 15-34 years.
“Let people criticise us but
I want to make the report
public. Our two years of dedicated work and sincere efforts
has resulted in not much
change but we are committed
to changing the scenario as I
cannot allow this. My heart fills
with immense pain. This magnitude was not killed in wars,
epidemic and militancy,”
Gadkari said on the occasion.
The road transport minister also said that with overspeeding accounting for over
62 per cent road accident
deaths, cameras will be
installed on National Highways
to check errant drivers who
would face stricter penalties.
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He said though the reports
lists driver’s fault for 77.1 per
cent of the road accidents in
2015, “faulty road engineering”
is one of the major causes.
“Human sacrifices cannot be
allowed. We have taken a slew
of steps in the last two years to
minimise this including launch
of Pradahan Mantri Sadak
Suraksha Yojana and earmark-
ing 1 per cent of the project cost
for road safety that translates to
C 5,000 crore on it,” he added.
Gadkari also sought to
blame the previous government, saying that the steps
taken by the “UPA regime to
economise construction cost
has done away with several
overbridges and underpasses
on many crucial roads leading
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over the Finance and
Telecom Ministries’ slow pace,
Itherked
Public Accounts Committee
(PAC) has summoned the
Telecom and Revenue Secretaries, and the TRAI Chairman
on June 13 over the ‘inaction’ on
the CAG report exposing the C
46,000-crore under-invoicing
by private telecom operators.
The decision was taken by
PAC in its meeting on Monday
after several MPs cutting across
party lines expressed unhappiness over the inaction by the
Government to recover the
huge amount belonging to the
public exchequer.
The CAG had submitted the
report in Parliament in March
and the DoT instead of acting
directly, ordered for a Special
Audit. According to the CAG
report, in between 2006 and
2010, the six telecom companies
had under-invoiced more than
C 46,000 crore in their revenue
figures, resulting a tax loss of
around C 12,500 crore. The six
companies indicted by CAG
for under invoicing and tax
evasion are Airtel, Vodafone,
Idea, Reliance Communications,
Tata and Aircel.
The Parliament panel took
action after hearing the presentation of the CAG officials.
CAG’s tax loss figure C12,500
crore was based on the past
dates and did not include the
penalty for not paying and
hushing up the tax. According
to the presentation given by
auditors, the current tax liability of the six telecom operators
would reach around C 30,000
crore, considering the penalty
and fine for delay in paying tax
and concealing it. Several MP’s
of the PAC opined that the
DoT’s move to appoint a Special
Audit is “just a farce” and the
government would straightway
impose fine notice on the tele-
com operators.
According to PAC members, the process of Special
Audit would take another one
or two years and this move
would provide the telecom
operators to approach courts
again. The MPs also criticised
the lethargy of Finance Ministry
over such an expose of CAG on
“huge tax evasion.” The MPs
urged the PAC Chairman KV
Thomas to summon Telecom
Secretary JS Deepak and
Hasmukh Adihia on June 13 to
explain the “inaction.”
For the past five years all the
telecom operators were challenging CAG’s move to audit the
revenue of telecom companies.
The CAG sensed under-invoicing during their audit in 2G
scam and then CAG Vinod Rai
ordered audit in 2010. At last in
April 2014, Supreme Court
rejected the objections of telecom operators, ratifying the
Delhi High Court verdict.
to high number of accidents at
several places including on
Delhi-Gurgaon stretch”.
Gadkari said apart from
correcting engineering flaws,
one major decision the government had taken two years
ago was to more than double
the length of National
Highways from 96,000 kms to
2 lakh km. It was a historical
a significant development,
CBI on Thursday formed
Ia ntheSpecial
Investigation Team
(SIT) headed by Additional
Director Rakesh Asthana to
exclusively investigate important cases like VVIP chopper
scam and loan fraud by beleaguered businessman Vijay
Mallaya. It is learned that the
PMO was totally unhappy with
the snail pace of investigation
by CBI in several key cases and
working style of CBI Director
Anil Sinha.
Asthana, a 1984-batch IPS
officer belonging to the
Gujarat cadre, was recently
posted in CBI as Additional
Director. He was the head of
the state SIT that went probed
the burning of Sabarmati
Express Train at Godhra in
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February 2002. He was also
associated with the Fodder
Scam probe.
According to sources, the
SIT will initially look into the
cases like the VVIP chopper
scam and bank loan fraud by
Mallya. The probe into the
chopper scam after conviction
of
former
heads
of
Finmeccanica
and
AgustaWestland by an Italian
?8>=44A=4FBB4AE824Q
=4F34;78
he Urban Development
Ministr y has set up
T
‘SmartNet’, a platform to support the development of smart
cities across India aiming to
share and disseminate information among stake holders
including city managers, academia, researchers and technologists for better urban
development.
Prime Minister Narendra
Modi is likely to launch the
SmartNet on the first anniversary of the Smart City Mission
on June 24, said a senior official from the UD Ministry.
SmartNet will be a userfriendly and immersive platform. Users will record their
preferences at the time of registration and the content that is
seen by each user will be driven by their preferences and
needs. The demand-driven
content will be enabled through
an intelligent query based system for retrieval of information, he added.
“The practitioners would
also be able to form smaller
communities of practice on specific subjects or common inter-
ests, such that SmartNet eventually becomes the primary and
preferred mechanism for knowledge sharing between the smart
cities,the AMRUT cities, the
HRIDAY cities and the cities
implementing Swacch Bharat
Abhiyan and the Housing for All
mission,” the official said.
AMRUT( Atal Mission for
Rejuvenation and Urban
Transformation) and HRIDAY
(Heritage
City
Development
and
Augmentation Yojana are the
Governments flagship scheme
aiming to ensure better urban
facilities in the cities selected
under the schemes.
The platform is intended to
become the primary portal for
government to government
(G-to-G) and government to
business (G-to-B) and business
to government (B-to-G) linkages for the urban sector in the
country.
It will encourage more
transparent and structured
interactions between cities,
businesses and institutions by
providing smart city analytics,
geo-tagging of projects and
sharing city level information
about key indicators and spatial data.
43:XcZ]]dGZcSYRUcRW`c(Y`fcdZ_52TRdV
?=BQ =4F34;78
H
imachal Pradesh Chief
Minister Virbhadra Singh
was questioned by CBI on
Thursday for over seven hours in
connection with a case of disproportionate assets allegedly
amassed during his stint as
Union Minister. CBI sources
claimed that he failed to offer any
explanation when confronted
with evidence against him.
However, when asked what kind
of evidence was being referred to,
they declined to elaborate.
“CBI has a fool proof case
against him, his associates and
partners in criminal conspiracy regarding the assets acquired
in the name of his children and
wife,” an official said. They
claimed during questioning
Singh put the onus of explaining the assets of wife and children on them. The sources said
that his son Vikramaditya had
claimed during CBI preliminary enquiry that some of his
assets were from money provided by his father.
CBI sources said the 81year old Chief Minister arrived
&%,IRUPV6,7WRSUREHNH\FDVHV
?=BQ =4F34;78
decision, he said, adding that it
has succeeded in taking the
number to 1.55 lakh km.
He added that a letter is also
being issued to state governments form committees at districts, headed by MPs and comprising local DM, SSP and others to recommend actionable
points to curb accidents locally. A three-member committee
has been asked to come out
with a report on crash barriers
to prevent accidents on hilly terrains like Himachal Pradesh.
“We are hopeful that the
new Motor Vehicle Act is
passed in the upcoming session
of Parliament as a Group of
Ministers, headed by Transport
Minister of Rajasthan is likely
to submit its report on stricter
penalties and after the Cabinet
nod the same would be introduced in Parliament,” Gadkari
said addressing the media here.
The Road Transport and
Highways Minister, who has
been vocal that 30 per cent of
licences in India were “bogus”,
said a study of 2015 accidents
showed that “owners of regular licences were involved in
79 per cent of about 5 lakh
road accidents in which 1.46
lakh people died.” Drivers’
fault accounted for 77 per cent
of total road accidents,
Gadkari said.
³B\Pac=Tc´bTcd_c^bd__^ac
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court changed “the understanding” of the investigating
agency regarding the C 3,600
crore deal which was allegedly clinched after bribing some
Indians, the sources said.
The sources said the
judgement by the Milan Court
of Appeals has “made it clear”
that bribes were paid by UKbased AgustaWestland, a sister concern of Italy’s
Finmeccanica. The SIT will
now probe who were the beneficiaries of the kickbacks and
ascertain the chain of fund
flow. Responses to Letters
Rogatory sent in this regard
are awaited.
Another case the SIT
would probe relates to diversion of loans of thousands of
crores of rupees taken by
Kingfisher Airlines to their
foreign accounts.
7X\P]RWP[?aPSTbW2WXTU<X]XbcTaEXaQWPSaPBX]VW[TPeTbPUcTaP__TPaX]VQTU^aTcWT218X]R^]]TRcX^]fXcWPSXb_a^_^acX^]PcT
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at the agency headquarters in
his black Skoda with tinted
glasses to avoid media glare at
around 10 am and was questioned till 5.30 pm. The agency
had initiated an inquiry which
had allegedly showed that
Singh, while serving as Union
Minister during 2009-2012
(UPA rule), had allegedly accumulated assets worth C 6.03
crore (approx) in his name and
in the name of his family members which were found to be
disproportionate to his known
sources of income, CBI has said.
The FIR filed with a designated court in Delhi under the
Prevention of Corruption Act,
named Singh, his wife Pratibha
Singh, LIC agent Anand
Chauhan and owner of
Universal Apple Associates
Limited Chunni
Lal Chauhan. In a statement, CBI spokesperson had
alleged that Singh had invested his unaccounted income in
LIC policies in his name and in
the name of his wife and other
family members through a private person by showing the
same as agricultural income.
8CbTXiTbPa\STP[Ta³b_Pbb_^ac
?8>=44A=4FBB4AE824Q
=4F34;78
he Income Tax department
on Thursday impounded
T
the passport of the controversial
arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari,
allegedly holding a ‘benami’
property in London for Robert
Vadra. Official sources said the
travel document of Bhandari
has been impounded by the
investigating officer of the case
under relevant sections of the
Passport Act.
They said the action was
taken by tax sleuths as they
“apprehended” he may leave
the country to impede investigation in the case. The department has also summoned
Bhandari for a fresh round of
questioning in the wake of
further leads in the case, they
said. The department is also
mulling booking him under the
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stringent anti-blackmoney law.
The
Enforcement
Directorate also initiated action
against Bhandari under prevention of money laundering
and foreign exchange violations. The IT department,
which conducted searches on
his premises in April, is also
awaiting replies to some of its
queries in this case from overseas locations and a case under
the new law could only be
made post success in this
endeavour, they said.
The IT department has
already approached British
Virgin Islands (BVI), the UK,
UAE, Switzerland and a few
other countries in order to
take its probe forward and
obtain further details about the
transactions and investments
made by Bhandari and some
companies he purportedly
owned and operated.
The tax sleuths claimed to
have recovered certain emails
that talk about renovation of a
costly apartment in London in
2010 which was allegedly
owned by Vadra, son-in-law of
Congress President Sonia
Gandhi. In a related development, Income Tax department
has approached the Defence
Ministry for certain documents
pertaining to the Rs 2,800
crore deal for Pilatus trainer jets
and some other deals in which
Bhandari’s companies were
allegedly involved.
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?8>=44A=4FBB4AE824Q
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?=BQ =4F34;78
A
s the BJP gears up for
politically crucial poll battle in Uttar Pradesh and seeks
to expand and charge-up its
campaign in all six zones
using its influential leaders in
the State from the coming
month, BJP MP Varun
Gandhi on Thursday categorically denied a report that
claimed that he had been
asked by the party “to restrict
his activities to his Sultanpur
constituency”.
A report in a section of
Press claimed that MP’s visit to
Allahabad where the party is to
hold its National Executive
meet on June 12 and June 13,
“did not go down well with the
top party leadership” which
allegedly asked the former “ to
inform before leaving his con-
stituency”.
In a tweet, Varun
denounced the report saying
“What a laughably fictitious
story. Please don’t invent your
own narrative,” the MP added.
While Central leadership
did not make any comment on
the issue, the State BJP president reportedly maintained
that “ there is nothing like that”.
However, some in the BJP
do foresee that there could be
a possible move” to clip MP’s
wings” when the poll campaign in the State goes full
steam. It is known that the
Sultanpur MP has been systematically touring different
constituencies for some time
as also pro-actively interacting
with farmers and the youth,
particularly students , and
evoking positive response
from the pollsters.
His presence in the party’s
officials rallies and functions
has come down to a minimum
in last one year.
Interestingly, the surveys
carried out by different agencies in recent months seem to
be backing up the young MP.
An ETV poll had Varun ahead
vis-à-vis other candidates for
CM face with 51 per cent and
another survey for India Today
reportedly showed him with 45
per cent against others.
Varun who is not known
to be in the best of terms with
BJP president Amit Shah, has
been increasingly touring the
State on his own independent
of party’s programmes “and
connecting with people”.
Appointed general secretary
during Rajnath Singh’s tenure,
he was moved out of the post
after the ascendency of Shah.
ndia, US and Japan on
Thursday began a nine-day
long Malabar series of annual
joint naval exercises off Japan.
The exercise will enable the
navies of three countries to
familiarise themselves with the
operating ethos of respective
forces and enhance interoperatbility. They will practice surface and anti-submarine warfare, maritime patrol, helicopter
operations and visit, board,
search and seizure operations.
Termed as one of the
biggest naval exercises from
India’s point view in recent
years, the harbour phase of the
drill started on Thursday at
Sasebo in Japan. The off shore
exercises will begin off
Okinawa Island in western
Pacific from June 14 to 17.
Incidentally, the off-shore exercise setting is close to a group
of uninhabited islands in East
China Sea called Senkakau by
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Japan. However, China also aircraft carrier USS John C.
lays claim on these islands and Stennis, guided-missile cruiser
USS Mobile Bay, guided-missile
call them Diaoyu Islands.
India has deployed three destroyers USS Stockdal, USS
warships and one tanker for the William P. Lawrence and USS
20th edition of Malabar series Chung-Hoon, a P-8A Poseidon
of exercises. The Indian fleet aircraft and a Los Angelesled by Eastern Fleet comman- class fast-attack submarine.
The Japanese contingent
der Rear Admiral S V Bokare
includes two new multi-role comprises destroyer -cum-helistealth frigates INS Sahyadri copter carrier JS Hyuga besides
and INS Satpura, missile P-3C Orion anti-submarine aircorvette INS Kirch and tanker craft and the US-21 ShinMaywa
INS Shakti. These ships are amphibious aircraft. Japan and
also euipped with Sea King- India have held talks for the
42B and Chetak helicopters as amphibious aircraft for the
well as marine commandos Indian Navy. However, no
and explosives disposal teams, decision has been taken so far
officials said here on Thursday. to ink the deal. Officais also said
Participants from the U.S. nine more Japanese warships
Navy include the Nimitz-class will join the exercise towards the
fag end of the exercise for practising tactical move.
The off-shore exercises will
see the three navies engaging in
submarine familiarization,
high-value unit defense, air
defense exercises, medical evacuation drills, surface warfare
exercises, communications
exercises, search and rescue
exercises, helicopter cross-deck
evolutions, underway replenishments, gunnery exercises
and anti-submarine warfare.
Malabar series of exercises
are held annually and to begin
with it was a bilateral event
involving the navies of US and
India. These exercises are held
off India followed by exercises in
US the next year. Australia and
Japan used to take part in these
exercises as guests and Japan was
part of these exercises last year in
the Bay of Bengal. The NDA
government gave the go-ahead to
include Japan as the third country in the Malabar series and that
country for the first time is
involved as a permanent partner.
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JP president Amit Shah on
B
Thursday asserted that
Prime Minister Narendra
Modi’s five-nation tour together with other diplomatic breakthroughs abroad in last two
years has earned the country
“unprecedented” strategic and
diplomatic achievements which
had not come to the country in
decades of previous regimes.
He said it is the outcome of
Modi’s diplomacy that nuclear
countries like USA, Mexico and
Switzerland “are openly supporting” Indian on its entry to
the exclusive club of Nuclear
Supply Group (NSG).
On the US’ support to
India’s bid to enter Missile
Technology Control Regime
and Nuclear Suppliers Group,
Shah said it will pave way to for
the country to become an
important arms exporter.
“It is a result of the Modiled BJP Government’s diplomatic success that what could
not be done for many decades
has been done in two years...
Unprecedented strategic and
diplomatic successes have been
achieved during Modi’s fivenation tour.
“It is due to the Prime
Minister’s diplomatic skills that
countries like the US, Mexico
and Switzerland are supporting
India’s bid to enter the NSG,”
Shah said in a statement.
The US support to India
underlines a new chapter in the
friendship between the two
countries, he said.
He also referred to the
highest civilian honour
bestowed on Modi by the
Afghanistan Government and
said it showed the stronger ties
between the two countries.
Modi’s call to isolate the
countries sponsoring terrorism
is also receiving support across
the world, Shah said.
The investment commitment made by the US companies will help generate jobs and
boost projects like ‘Make in
India’ once these promises are
realised, he said.
Lauding Modi’s leadership,
he said the “despondency” prevalent two years ago, a reference to
the UPA Government, has been
replaced by “enthusiasm”. “Even
in troubled times India has left
imprint of its strong leadership
and carved an amazing place
for itself in the world,” he said.
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I
n wake of two girls’ deaths
recently in Bijapur district
after they consumed flavoured
milk
provided
under
Mukhyamantri Amrut Yojana,
the State Government has
issued instructions on Thursday
about ‘safe storage and use of
sweetened flavoured milk’.
State Government’s Women
and Child Development Department is distributing sweetened
flavoured milk to children of age
group 3-6 years, enrolled at
Aanganbadi centres of State
under Mukhyamantri Amrut
Yojana. Under this scheme, each
child is provided 100ml of milk
on Monday every week.
A State-level training programme was also organized by
Red Cross Society at
Collectorate premise in order
to provide training to
Departmental team about safe
storage and use of sweetened
flavoured milk. In the training
programme, detailed information about ‘dos and don’ts for
storage, distribution and use of
this milk was given’.
In the training programme,
Experts told that packets of
flavoured milk should be kept
at normal temperature at dry
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and clean place, away from
insects and mice. Use clean
utensils and glasses for serving
milk to children.
Aanganbadi assistants and
workers will themselves taste
and check the quality of milk
before serving it to children. In
case, children complaint of
vomit, headache, stomach pain
and dysentery after consuming
milk, they should be rushed to
nearby primary health centre
immediately.
It was informed during the
training that milk should not be
served from the packets with
leakage or spilt milk. Milk
should not be served to the children allergic to milk. Milk
should be consumed within 12 hours of opening the packet.
Milk should not be boiled and
it should not be consumed
after ninety days from date of
manufacturing. The milk distributed under the scheme is
UHT milk that is completely
sterilised.
BcPcTTbcPQ[XbWTb! UP\X[hR^dacb
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BC055A4?>AC4AQ A08?DA
F
or immediate redressal of
cases related to family disputes, 21 family courts have
been established, which
includes three in Raipur, four
in Durg, and one court each in
Bilaspur, Korba, Ambikapur,
Raigarh, Manendragarh,
Koriya, Janjgir, Rajnandgaon,
Jagdalpur, Kawardha, Kanker,
Mahasamund, Dhamtari and
Jashpur. Law and Legal Affairs
Minister Mahesh Gagda
informed that establishment of
family courts in other districts
and tehsils of State is also in
progress.
He further added that budget provision for family courts
has been increased from Rs
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13.98 crore to Rs 18.20 crore in
current fiscal year 2016-17.
State Government is also
working hard to provide videoconferencing facility at courts in
all the districts. Presently, 28 jails
and 28 courts of state have the
facility of video conferencing
“Law and Legal Affairs Minister
Mahesh Gagda informed that
under e-court project, installa-
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he biggest negative a degree
gives is ‘ego’ due to which
T
a person loses several oppor-
R
ecently renovated and
upgraded Labour Room of
Sector-9 Hospital was inaugurated by S Chandrasekaran,
CEO, Bhilai Steel Plant in presence of PS Bhaduaria, ED
(MM), M. Ravi, ED (Works) &
I/c Projects and Ms Madhuri
Menon, GM I/c (P&A) along
with Advisor & Former
Director I/c, Dr. Subodh Hiran
and all the Directors of Medical
department.
The renovation work of
Labour Room had commenced
on Jan 15, 2016 and was completed in the record time of five
and a half months, i.e. by May
30, 2016 by the dedicated team
of civil and electrical wing of
Hospital Maintenance department under the leadership of
Rakesh Kumar, DGM.
This was the second largest
individual unit after Burn Unit
whose renovation was taken up
and completed as per the
requirements of Doctors and
Nurses of Obstetrics &
Gynaecology department.
On the occasion, CEO
Chandrasekaran and other
senior officers were taken
around the renovated Labour
Room by Dr. Meena Jain,
HOD and Dr. Mala Biswas,
Unit In-charge of Obstetrics
& Gynaecology Department
who apprised them about the
many features that have been
added in the renovated
Labour Room taking into
account Infection Control,
Ergonomics, Patient/ Patient’s
Attendants/Staff comfort and
Aesthetic requirements, making it a complete motherfriendly unit for the would-be
mothers.
He informed that in year 201516, one crore fifty four lakh was sanctioned for expansion of Video
Conferencing System (Web) in
Central Jail and District Court
Jagdalpur, with which 100 unit video
confererencing
CWTQXVVTbc]TVPcXeTPSTVaTTVXeTbXb³TV^´)0VPafP[
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tion of devices is underway in 87
court premises and 28 jails of
state, so as to provide video conferencing facility.
tunities, said Purushottam
Agarwal, -founder Chairman
of Agrawal Group and Author
of ‘Learn by Fun’ book- at the
inauguration of Agarwal Public
School’s Raipur city campus
here on Thursday.
The Naya Raipur campus
of the school will be inaugurated by Junapithadhishwar
Swami Awdheshananadji on
Friday. Raipur Mayor Pramod
Dubey will also participate in
the function.
“Today people are having
degrees but degrees are not
really helping them to live a
good life. There is a need for
the combination of theory and
practical that we try to develop in our students at our
school,” Agarwal told reporters
?dadbW^ccP\0VPafP[U^d]STa2WPXa\P]^U0VPafP[6a^d_P]S0dcW^a^U³;TPa]Qh5d]´PSSaTbbX]VP?aTbbR^]UTaT]RT
while addressing a press conference.
He stated that “schools are
not my means to achieve bread
and butter. By the grace of god
my businesses are running on
zero liability. So we try to
develop students in a responsible way while focusing on
basic skills like Mathematical
abilities, language and respecting parents along with the love
for country,”.
According to Agarwal, students of Chhattisgarh will now
have access to International
level education with the minimum fee.
Notably, Agarwal Public
school is completing its 20
years of success and is celebrating this achievement in
the form of a festival. Various
programs will be organized
on this occasion.
The celebrations scheduled on June 10, 11 and 12,
many glittering events will be
organised. The celebration
will start through a thoughtprovoking play Vande
Mataram. Another play
devoted to Simhasth Kumbh
at Ujjain will be staged on 11
June at Naya Raipur-based
campus.
On June 12 another play,
“Chanakya” featuring noted
Bollywood actor Manoj Joshi
will be staged at the same
venue.
At Shankar Nagar campus,
admissions are open from
nursery to class 3, while the
Naya Raipur campus sprawling
over 10 acres will hold classes
up to class 6th.
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hief Minister Raman Singh
on Thursday took serious
C
note to the filling-up of a
sprawling pond land at village
Budera (Development block
Tilda) in Raipur district and
selling it illegally for C 50 lakh
and occupying water exit
(Nistari) land by a group of
local citizens.
He was attending the weekly 'Jan-Darshan' programme
at his official residence. A delegation of the villagers submitted a memorandum complaining that few people in village Budera have occupied the
land. Singh issued strict orders
to the District Collector to
conduct an inquiry into the
matter as soon as possible.
Large number of people
attended the 'Jan-Darshan' programme. Chief Minister
patiently heard the grievances of
masses for at least three hours.
About 1,200 citizens from various remote areas of the State
attended the programme.
A delegation of farmers
from Dongargarh and Rajadera
Seenchai Baandh Kisan
Sangharsh Samiti of Magarlod
in a memorandum requested
the Chief Minister to sanction
the repair works of Naaru Tank
gates and Rajadera Dam.
Singh instructed the
District Collectors to carry out
the repair works before the
onset of monsoon. He ordered
the Department officials to
carry out the repair works at all
dams soon.
Chief Minister also sanctioned financial assistance to 48
chronically ill patients to be
treated at the Raipur hospital.
He sanctioned development
works worth C 10 lakh on the
requests of the villagers. About
40 patients got their blood tested for Diabetes and Sickle cell
at the health camp organized at
the 'Jan-Darshan' programme.
A delegation of villagers
from Khujji, Darri, Baghmar,
Kareti, Bhatguna complained
to Raman Singh that two small
gates on Naaru dam had broken and water seeps through
them. They had submitted
requests for repair works many
a time to the top District officials but to no avail.
The farmers will be able to
grow two crops and animals
can quench their thirst if the
gates of the dam are repaired
soon. Chief Minister directed
the District Collector to carry
out the repair works early and
submit a report.
Rajadera Sinchaai Jalashay
Kisan Sangharsh Samiti of
(Magarlod Development block)
Dhamtari district lamented
that the gates of the dam are
destroyed and the farmers are
unable to utilize the water
source for irrigation purposes.
About 1700 hectare land in 20
villages can be irrigated with
the aid of the dam water. Chief
Minister gave instructions to
Dhamtari District Collector to
carry out the repair works
early and submit a report.
A farmer of village Amlidih
(Magarlod Development block)
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a major action Central
of Investigation
InBureau
(CBI) Bhilai carried out raids
in eight locations of Food
Corporation of India (FCI)
and uncovered financial
wrongdoing to the tune of C3
crore on Thursday.
Raids were carried out in
Raipur,
Mahasamund,
Mumbai, Kolkata and Pune,
informed a highly placed
source in CBI.
At Raipur two premises
and at Mahasamund three
premises of FCI were covered
during the concurrent raids,
while one office each in
Mumbai, Kolkata and Pune
were the part of raids.
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The CBI office at Bhilai
was continuously receiving
information about certain
financial malpractices happening at FCI accordingly the
raids were planned and carried
out, sources revealed.
During the raids cash C 10
lakh was seized from one of the
offices while so far embezzlements of C 3 crore has been
detected.
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aoist militants fired rockets and opened heavy
M
gunfire at a camp of paramilitary Indo-Tibetan Border
Police in a forested patch of
Kondagaon district on
Thursday wee hours.
Officials said the attack
was launched at the company
base of the 41st battalion of the
Indo-Tibetan Border Police
Force in Ranapal area after a
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in Dhamtari district, Yogendra
Kumar Bojo requested the Chief
Minister to sanction 2,000 plantations on the vacant land adjacent to the village High School.
Singh forwarded the memo-
randum to Dhamtari District
Collector for necessary action.
Durg District Bus- MiniBus Owners' Union met Chief
Minister at the Jandarshan and
requested him to allow the
operation of city buses only up
to a distance of 15 kms from
the Municipal Corporation.
At present the city buses are
travelling up to neighbouring
districts. Chief Minister imme-
3ROLFHDSSHDOWRWKH-DW
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aryana Police on Thursday
appealed to Jat protesters
H
to end their agitation, saying it
will only cause inconvenience
to the public and lead to confrontations.
Har yana
Additional
Director General of Police,
Law and Order, Muhammad
Akil said efforts were being
made to convince Jat community members not to participate
in the sit-ins as “it will cause
inconvenience to the public
and lead to confrontations”.
While talking to the mediapersons, he said that we appeal
to the protesters to maintain
peace and end their agitation.
The Jat protesters are
demanding reservation in gov-
ernment jobs and education
institutions under the OBC
category.
“At present, Jats are staging
sit-ins during the daytime in 12
districts. However, their number has reduced since the start
of the second leg of the quota
agitation on June 5,” said the
ADGP.
“Similarly, the number of
sit-ins during night has come
down to seven and their
strength has also reduced significantly,” he said.
No incident of violence,
road or rail blockade has been
reported from anywhere in the
state so far. The law and order
situation is “proper”, he said.
With regard to the
restoration of internet facilities in some districts, he said
that police is assessing the situation and would decide
accordingly.
When asked about preparedness of the Police
administration in view of
National Yoga Day programme at Chandigarh where
Prime Minister Narendra
Modi would be chief guest, he
said that police is fully geared
up and foolproof arrangements for maximum security
would be made for the same.
Besides heavy deployment
of state police, paramilitary
personnel drawn from CRPF,
ITBP and BSF have been
mobilised in sensitive districts of the state following a
call given for holding protests
for Jat reser vation from
June 5.
0H[LFRWRREDFNV,QGLD¶V
From Page 1
Support of Mexico and
Switzerland is seen as important in the wake of China
opposing India”s NSG membership arguing that it was
not a signatory to the Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty
(NPT). The issue had figured
prominently during talks
between Modi and US
President Barack Obama in
Washington on Tuesday.
The US and many other
NSG member countries have
supported India”s inclusion
based on its non-proliferation
track record. The NSG works
under the principle of unanimity and even one country”s
vote against India will scuttle
its bid.
India has been pushing
for membership of the bloc for
last few years and had formally moved its application on
May 12. The NSG looks after
critical issues relating to the
nuclear sector and its members
µ/XVWIRUNLOOLQJ
DQLPDOV¶
From Page 1
peacocks in Goa and wild
boars in Chandrapur even
when the Wildlife Departments
of the States say that they do
not wish to kill animals. She
pointed out that 53 wild boars
have been killed in Chandrapur
in Maharashtra and the
Environment Ministry has
allowed killing of 50 more.
The latest notification of
Environment Ministry in this
regard came on May 31 to
Himachal Pradesh. It read,
“The State of Himachal
are allowed to trade in and
export nuclear technology. Its
membership will help India significantly expand its atomic
energy sector. The NSG had
granted an exclusive waiver
for India in 2008 to access civil
nuclear technology after China
reluctantly backed India”s case
based on the Indo-US nuclear
deal.
Meanwhile, Pakistan on
Thursday expressed concern
over the growing strategic ties
between India and the US and
accused that Washington
approaches Islamabad whenever it needs it and abandons
it when it does not.”Pakistan
will convey its concerns to the
US over the latest issues in the
bilateral ties,” Pakistan Prime
Minister”s Adviser on Foreign
Affairs Sartaj Aziz said, adding
a high-level meeting is planned
here between the two nations
on Friday.
“The US approaches
Pakistan whenever it needs it,
and abandons it when it
doesn”t need Pakistan,” Dawn
newspaper quoted Aziz as saying.
Pakistan is upset that
President Barack Obama has
backed India”s bid for membership in the Nuclear
Suppliers Group.”We firmly
conveyed it to the US that
maintaining effective nuclear
deterrence is critical for
Pakistan”s security and only
Pakistan itself can determine
how it should respond to growing strategic imbalance in
South Asia,” Aziz said.
Meanwhile, a report from
Vinenna said China was leading opposition to a push by the
United States and other major
powers for India to join the
NSG.
Other countries opposing
Indian membership of the
Nuclear Suppliers Group
(NSG) include New Zealand,
Ireland, Turkey, South Africa
and Austria, diplomats said.
Pradesh has reported damage
to life and property including
large scale destruction of agriculture by Rhesus Macaque
monkeys in areas outside
forests.
The
Central
Government has considered it
necessary to mitigate the damage to human life, crops and
other properties of the State for
ensuring conservation of
wildlife in forests.”
Monkeys are a protected
species under Schedule II of the
Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972.
The experts in the Ministry,
however, explained that if any
wild animal poses danger to
human life or property (including standing crops), or is disabled or diseased beyond
recovery, the law allows for its
killing. Accordingly, monkey
has been declared a vermin in
10 out of 12 districts including
Chamba, Kangra, Una,
Bilaspur, Shimla, Sirmour,
Kullu, Hamirpur, Solan and
Mandi. Earlier in March 2016,
the Ministry had used similar
notification just for the capital
city of Shimla. “The notification
by the Ministry came after
repeated requests from the
Himachal Pradesh authorities,
which cited rising cases of monkeys destroying property,
including crops, and biting people,” pointed out the sources.
The animal welfare organisations have, however, come in
support of Maneka.
diately forwarded the memorandum to Secretary Transport
Department. Sanjeevni 108 and
Mahatari Express 102
Employees' Welfare Union delegation also called on Raman
FX[[bRaTT]
From Page 1
“Since Majitha, like Mexico,
is the epicentre of the drug trade
in Punjab, it is decided to release
the movie there,” he said.
The former Chief Minister
has written to the producers of
the movie, Anurag Kashyap and
Ekta Kapoor, urging them to
provide him the uncensored
CDs of the film so that he can
release it on the scheduled date
to coincide with the worldwide
premier of the movie.
“The purpose of releasing
the movie in Majitha is to tell the
Akalis and the BJP that no matter what extent they try to go to
gag the truth, it will be exposed
at any cost,” he said.
“Not only do we want to
highlight the harsh reality of
Punjab, but also assert the right
to freedom of speech and
expression guaranteed by our
Constitution which is being
infringed upon by the BJP at the
behest of the Akalis, using the
Censor Board,” said Capt
Amarinder, in his letter to the
producers.
Capt Amarinder also clarified to the producers that all the
legal onus of releasing the
uncensored CDs of the movie
will be on him only as he wanted the “truth to be told no matter at what price”.
He also clarified to the producers that in order to ensure
that their commercial interests
were not hurt, the movie will be
shown only on the day of release
at Majitha, as a protest and defiance against the dictatorial attitude of the Censor Board, and
also in border areas as people
there rarely get a chance to watch
the movies in theatres.
Singh and submitted a memorandum listing their demands.
Chief Minister forwarded the
memorandum to the Director
of Health Services for necessary
action.
large number of Maoists surrounded it from three sides.
“The attack was launched
at about 1 am and ended at 3
am on Thursday. Four rockets
were fired inside the camp.
Both the sides exchanged about
600 rounds of bullets,” sources
said.
Naxals later retreated in the
jungles and no casualties were
reported on the forces’ side. ``It
is estimated that about 100
armed Naxals launched the
attack,” they said. Chhattisghar
Chief Minister Raman Singh
has condemned the attack.
9V7_7_Q
7_^U_[Qi
From Page 1
Censor Board, “Has drug
menace never been portrayed
on celluloid? Some of it may be
crude, while some may be
artistic. How does this signboard insult anyone?”
Drawing comparison
between Udta Punjab with the
film Go, Goa, Gone, Justice
Dharmadhikari said that in
the latter film, Goa had been
shown as a place where people
go to party and also take
banned drugs.
“If Goa can be shown as a
place of drug abuse in that film,
what is wrong if Punjab is
shown in Udta Punjab?” he
asked.
Alluding to the CBFC’s
argument that it projected the
State in a bad light, the judge
asked the CBFC’s lawyer, “Are
you saying that Punjab is
known only for drugs?”
“There was a film on Moga
(a district in Punjab) being a
town full of cancer patients. It
was not to degrade the town,
but to talk about the seriousness of the issue,” he added.
Earlier, the CBFC lawyer
contended that the Revising
Committee’s order suggesting
13 changes in the film was not
arbitrary, as was being made
out by the filmmakers, and had
been proposed after due application of mind.
“We are objecting to the
reference to Punjab and its peo-
ple and the base language used
in the film”, the lawyer told the
court. On its part, the HC
Bench made it clear to the
CBFC that it was not satisfied
with the first two changes proposed by it, namely, deletion of
the word Punjab from the title
and removal of references to
Punjab and various cities in the
State from the film.
The CBFC’s lawyer told the
court that he would make submissions about other proposed
changes in the film on Friday,
following which the court
deferred the matter.
In his arguments opposing
the changes proposed by the
CBFC, counsel for Phantom
Films, Anurag Kashyap’s production company Ravi Kadam
said: “Punjab is an integral part
of the concept and cannot be
deleted from the film”.
Kadam went on to argue
that references to Punjab in the
film were in the context of the
theme and did not form a
substantial part of the dialogues and the script.
Kadam wondered how the
sovereignty and integrity of
the country in general and the
State in particular has been
questioned, through references
to Punjab. Phantom Films’
lawyer also took exception to
the proposal that cuss words be
removed from a song of the
film. “These (cuss) words relate
to drug abuse,” Kadam said.
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P
rime Minister Narendra
Modi during his over fourhour visit to the US Capitol
established personal rapport
with top lawmakers and seems
to have won over his critics.
“With your sense of
humour and the way you delivered that speech, I think really identifies why we have such
close ties,” Senator Bob Corker,
Chairman of the powerful
Senate Foreign Relations committee said as he welcomed
Modi during a congressional
reception hosted in his honour.
“The fact is that our political, strategic and economic ties
is better than they have ever
been. We know that these are
going to be even greater. While
our ties are with the people of
India, we know that with you
as their leader the possibilities
are an all-time high,”
Corker said.
Less than a month ago,
Corker during a Congressional
hearing was highly critical over
the pace of economic reforms,
human rights situation and
religious freedom, and slamming Obama Administration
of not being “brutally honest”
in its conversation with his
Government.
Senator Ben Cardin,
Ranking Member of the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee,
who for the past two weeks
have been raising the issue of
human rights and slavery in
India, said that Modi on
Wednesday “gained a lot of
friends” in the Congress.
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E
thiopia has said that its
soldiers deployed in
Somalia killed 101 Shabaab
fighters who on Thursday
attacked an Army base used by
the African Union force fighting the al-Qaeda linked group.
The Shabaab movement
earlier announced a major
assault on the base in Halgan
in the central Hiran region of
the arid Horn of Africa nation,
via its Telegram messaging
platform.
Ethiopian Government
spokesman Getachew Reda
dismissed a claim by the
Shabaab that they had killed
dozens of soldiers, while losing
just 16 of their own fighters.
“There was an attempt by
al-Shabaab to attack our forces
in central Somalia but... Our
forces killed 101 militants and
destroyed heavy weaponry,”
Getachew said.
“We are still assessing how
many people got hurt on our
side but their claim that they
have killed 43 Ethiopian soldiers is an absolute lie. This is
a figment of their imagination,”
he added.
“The Mujahideen fighters
stormed the base and massacred many of the Ethiopians,”
the Shabaab claimed on
Telegram, putting the death toll
among the troops at 60.
Casualty figures from this
type of attack are impossible to
verify independently. The
Shabaab generally exaggerates,
while the African Union
Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) usually gives no details
of losses among its ranks.
On its Twitter account,
AMISOM - comprising troops
from Burundi, Djibouti,
Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda confirmed “an attempted
Shabaab attack” but gave
no figures.
“The enemy was successfully repulsed,” AMISOM said,
claiming also to be “in pursuit”
of the attackers.
Referring to Modi’s call
for India and the US working
together for the benefit of the
world, Cardin said this was a
very powerful message.
“His presence, the amount of
time he spent and his own personality is very helpful in getting friends here in America,”
he told PTI.
Modi on Wednesday spent
more than four hours at the
Hill. The Speaker of the US
House of Representative Paul
Ryan and several top
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ver 150 members of a
splinter Maoists group
O
were arrested on Thursday in
Nepal after they vandalised
vehicles and hurled patrol
bombs while trying to enforce
a strike to press for the release
of their cadres arrested during
previous protests, paralysing
normal life.
The CPN-Maoist faction
led by Netra Bikram Chand
enforced the strike.
The protesters vandalised
nine public buses and taxis in
different parts of the capital for
defying their call for the strike.
A truck driver was injured
when Maoist cadres hurled a
petrol bomb on moving vehicle in Rautahat district.
There was very thin movement of public and private
transport services. Schools and
colleges were closed due to the
strike.
However,
markets
remained open in most of the
places in the capital despite the
strike.
The police arrested 62 protesters from Kathmandu,
Bhaktapur and Lalitpur,
according to the Kathmandu
Metropolitan Police Circle.
Nearly 90 agitators were
arrested from Sarlahi, Kaski,
Kalikot, Sunsari, Banke and
Chitawan districts as they were
trying to enforce the shut
down. A large number of security personnel have been
deployed on the streets of the
capital to prevent any untoward
incident.
CPN-Maoist, which is a
splinter group of the main
Maoist party, that is part of the
Government.
Washington: The two years of
Modi Government have
resulted in deterioration in
human rights and religious
freedom in India, according
to rights activists, who called
for making the issue as part of
the US’ regular dialogue
with India.
“Progress on human rights
in India will continue to falter
unless the Modi administration
takes better steps to ensure justice and accountability for all
citizens, protect vulnerable
communities, and protect the
free exchange of ideas and dissent,” said John Sifton, Asia
Advocacy Director, Human
Rights Watch.
PTI
Congressional
leaders
received him.
He received standing ovations as many as nine times according to unofficial count and was applauded by scores of
times by the members of the
Congress.
“He (Modi) spoke eloquently about the importance
of a strong US-India relationship to promoting peace and
freedom around the globe,”
Ryan said in a statement.
“We understand that India
is in a tough neighbourhood,
but we also understand that
with your words here today,
that you have, with that symphony that you spoke of, set a
new note,” said Congressman
Ed Royce, Chairman of the
House Foreign Affairs
Committee. “The IndianAmerican community has
brought such incredible energy to this relationship. It’s the
secret weapon for both countries, driving stronger
engagement and helping keep
things on track during challenging times.
Washington: Two top US lawmakers have introduced a legislation in the House of
Representatives to designate
India as a Special Global Partner
of America and take steps to
ramp up engagement and deepen bilateral collaboration on a
host of issues including Defence.
Introduced
by
Congressman Eliot Engel,
Ranking Member of the House
Foreign Affairs Committee, and
Vice Chair of the House
Democratic Caucus Joe
Crowley, the “Special Global
Partnership with India Act
2016” aims to enhance ties
between India and the US by elevating bilateral relationship.
The Special Global
Partnership with India Act of
2016 calls for Congress to elevate
the US-India relationship by
designating India as a Special
Global Partner of the US, lead-
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I
srael on Thursday suspended entry permits for 83,000
Palestinians granted during
Ramzan following a major terror attack at an upscale market
in Tel Aviv, the deadliest in the
recent spate of violence that
killed four Israelis and injured
16 others.
The decision to suspend
the entry permits, most of
them for Palestinians to visit
their family in Israel, was taken
overnight during a meeting of
Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu, Defence Minister
Avigdor Lieberman and Israel
Defence Forces (IDF) Chief of
Staff Lt Gen Gadi Eisenkot
soon after the attack.
Permits for Gaza residents
to pray at the Temple Mount in
Jerusalem, described by
Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif
(the Noble Sanctuary) that
houses the al-Aqsa mosque,
have also been suspended.
Netanyahu, who visited
the scene of the terror attack
late last night, called the attack
“a savage crime of murder and
terrorism” and convened a
meeting of the security-diplomatic cabinet at the defence
headquarters to discuss possible further steps in response to
the terror attack.
“There was a very difficult
event here, of cold-blooded
murder by heinous terrorists,”
the Israeli Prime Minister said
adding, “We held a discussion
on a string of offensive and
defensive measures that we
will take to act against this phenomenon, the grave phenom-
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Washington: Barack Obama
expressed hope that Bernie
Sanders in “the next couple of
weeks” will finally concede
having lost the Democratic
presidential nomination to
Hillary Clinton, despite having
vowed to fight on through the
party’s convention next month.
Speaking to late night talk
show host Jimmy Fallon,
Obama said that on balance,
Sanders’s candidacy in the
hardfought Democratic campaign was a positive.
“It was a healthy thing for
the Democratic Party to have
a contested primary,” Obama
told Fallon during recording of
an episode of The Tonight
Show.
“I thought that Bernie
Sanders brought enormous
energy and new ideas. And he
pushed the party and challenged them. I thought it made
Hillary a better candidate.”
He added: “My hope is, is
that over the next couple of
weeks, we’re able to pull things
together.”
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London: A new restaurant
offering customers the promise
of a ‘completely natural’ dining
experience is all set to open as
‘The Buniyadi’.
Based on the Hindi word
meaning fundamental, the
restaurant will operate on a
clothing-optional basis.
“We believe people should
get the chance to enjoy and
experience a night out without
any impurities: no chemicals,
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no artificial colours, no electricity, no gas, no phone and
even no clothes if they wish to.
The idea is to experience true
liberation,” said Seb Lyall,
founder of Lollipop, the company behind the restaurant.
“We have worked hard to
design a space where everything patrons interact with is
bare and naked. The use of natural bamboo partitions and candlelight has enabled to us to
make restaurant discreet,” he
said. The food will be served on
clay plates with edible cutlery
and diners would have to leave
phones and other gadgets at the
door and will be given to the
option to even take off their
gowns provided on arrival.
The restaurant, which will
open on Saturday, does have a
“clothes” section for those who
wish to remain dressed
while dining.
PTI
ing to cooperation across sectors
ranging from Defense and space
to entrepreneurship.
It (HR. 5387) would also
amend the Arms Export Control
Act, allowing the President to
include India among our closest
allies. This bill would also authorise the US President to give
India an exception to allow for
strategic trade authority, and
codify assistance in all areas that
would support key priorities,
such as education, growth in the
digital sector, and environmental protection.
“This bill would give our
relationship the status it deserves
by naming India a Special Global
Partner and ensuring that our
close collaboration continues
for years to come,” Engel said
after he introduced the Act after
listening to the PM addressing
the joint session of the US
Congress.
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enon of shooting. It is definitely
challenging us and we will
respond to it.”
“There will be firm action
by other security elements, not
only to locate anyone who
cooperated with this murder,
but also to prevent further
actions. We will act firmly and
intelligently,” he stressed.
Major General Yoav
Mordechai, the coordinator of
Government activities in the
territories ordered overnight to
also suspend 204 entry permits
given to the families of the perpetrators of Wednesday’s
terror attack.
According to Palestinian
reports, the IDF surrounded
the South Hebron Hills town of
Yatta, the hometown of the
assailants, and has declared
the area a closed military zone.
urkey’s Prime Minister has
ruled out talks with the
banned Kurdistan Workers’
Party (PKK) after a spate of
attacks blamed on the militants
killed at least 17 people this week.
Prime Minister Binali
Yildirim said the outlawed
group had made a bid for dialogue after almost a year of
renewed violence that ended a
two-and-a-half year truce,
adding that the Government
had no interest in responding.
“These days news comes,
directly or indirectly, from the
terrorist organisation saying
‘we can negotiate, we can lay
down arms, we should talk’,”
Yildirim said.
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Tokyo: A Chinese naval ship
sailed into waters surrounding
disputed East China Sea islands
for the first time early on
Thursday, prompting Tokyo
to summon the Chinese
ambassador to protest, the
Japanese Government said.
Russian naval ships were
also seen in the area around the
same time, according to local
media. “Around 00:50 am (local
time), a Chinese naval vessel
entered our nation’s contiguous
waters surrounding the
Senkaku Islands,” the Japanese
foreign ministry said in a statement. Japan administers the
uninhabited isles under that
name while China also claims
them and calls them the
Diaoyu islands.
AFP
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hina has asked the
Philippine President-elect
Rodrigo Duterte to withdraw
the arbitration at a UN tribunal
and return to bilateral dialogue to settle the territorial
disputes over the strategic
South China Sea.
The Philippines should
stop its arbitral proceedings
and return to the right track of
settling relevant disputes in
the South China Sea (SCS)
through bilateral negotiation
with China, Foreign Ministry
spokesman Hong Lei said yesterday.
The Ministry also issued a
statement saying the dispute
over the SCS should be settled
through negotiations.
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The door is always open to
bilateral negotiation, the statement said and asked Manila to
stop turning its back on its
agreement to settle disputes
through negotiation and end
the arbitral proceedings it had
initiated against China.
The Chinese comments
came as the Philippines has
brought a case at an international tribunal constituted
under the UN Convention on
Law of Seas (UNCLOS) at The
Hague contesting China’s
claims over almost all of the
South China Sea.
China boycotted the tribunal, likely to deliver verdict
this month, saying it will not
recognise the judgement.
Beijing expects the verdict to go
against it.
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H
illary Clinton’s victory
as the Democratic
presidential candidate
is huge — and not just
for the reasons you
think. For the first time in history,
America could have a male First
Lady. Just picture it: While the
leader of the free world is navigating international politics, her husband could be throwing banquets,
choosing crockery and measuring
curtains for the White House.
He could be the best flotus the
US has ever seen. Forget Michelle
Obama’s flawless rapping, vegetable
growing and passion about women’s
education — as America’s first ever
‘husband of the President’, Bill
Clinton would be next level. Can’t
you just imagine him standing by
Hill’s side with an impeccable manicure, blowing kisses to the people
of the US and never wearing the
same suit twice?
After all, as a former President
himself, he knows exactly what is
expected of the First Lady — from
unconditional support (even at
times when most spouses would be
filing for divorce) to putting their
own career on hold, and overseeing the domestic side of the
presidential home.
No wonder people on Twitter
are already getting ready to have a
new favourite flotus — they can’t
wait for his inaugural gown (‘it’s
gonna be fire’), his baking recipes
and the inevitable trademark fashion item (can he be the one to finally trump Jackie O’s sunglasses?)
The only problem is that
Clinton hasn’t fully thrown himself
into his prospective new role yet.
Unlike previous potential First
Ladies, he hasn’t started upping his
fashion game or putting his life on
hold to become a permanent
unpaid plus one. He’s still running
his foundation out of New York —
as in, a city that is not Washington,
DC where he should be — and raising billions. It’s all very worthy, but
is he really First Lady material?
Hillary was slammed for her
work — as one of the 100 most
influential lawyers in America and
the first female member on WalMart’s board — when Bill was running for President in 1992. When
she pointed out that her career success was due to her working and not
‘staying home and baking cookies’,
she faced such a backlash that
immediate action had to be taken.
Cue the 1992 Family Circle
First Lady bake-off where Hillary’s
chocolate chip cookies beat Barbara
Bush’s and arguably propelled the
Clintons to victory.
As much as we’d like to image
Bill doing the same, later this year,
no one can seriously expect him to
participate in this traditional bakeoff (which, depressingly, was still
going in 2012 when Michelle
Obama’s white and dark chocolate
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chip cookies beat Ann Romney’s
M&M cookies).
And that’s exactly the point.
While all previous First Ladies
have had to go through the 1950s
rigmarole of being perfect suburban wives, Bill will not face those
same pressures.
Not even because he is a former
President, but because he is a man.
This mere fact of biology means he
is not expected to have cookie
recipes up his sleeve, understand
what décor would work best in the
Oval Office, or wear the latest fashions, albeit demurely. He will not be
trolled for his looks, or told to ‘drop
a few pounds’ like Michelle Obama.
Even Hillary, who has gone through
all of this herself, doesn’t expect any
of it from her husband. Last year she
said it had ‘crossed her mind’ to
appoint him as Vice President.
When told it wouldn’t work constitutionally, she said later that he
would be one of her key advisers.
“I’m going to ask for his ideas,
I’m going ask for his advice, and I’m
going to use him as a goodwill emissary to go around the country to
find the best ideas we’ve got,
because I do believe, as he said,
everything that’s wrong with
America has been solved somewhere in America,” she said during
a debate in January. Hillary Clinton
declares victory in Democratic
race, hails a milestone Play! 01:02
Bill could carry on working in
B>D=318C4
his own right, and even join
Hillary’s team. It’s a similar pattern
across the world: Angela Merkel’s
husband Joachim Sauer has been
left alone to carry on his work as a
chemistry professor, while Stephen
Kinnock worked as a managing
director while his wife Helle
Thorning-Schmidt was Prime
Minister of Denmark, before eventually becoming a British MP.
Their careers flourished while
their wives led their countries. It
would be churlish to say that they
should have given that up so they
could see the reality of life as a 21st
century wife, but it just goes to
show how much First Ladies have
sacrificed over the years — and
that it doesn’t have to be this way.
If men can lead full lives whilst
being married to a world leader,
then so can women.
So hopefully Bill will have his
moment in the shadows as First
Lady, and carry on his life in exactly the same way he always has. And
with no cookie bake-offs in sight,
perhaps he’ll set a precedent for all
future First Ladies. Because no matter how much he’d rather be called
‘First Dude’, ‘First Mate’ or ‘First
Gentleman’, if Hillary does become
President? To me he'll be Bill
Clinton, First Lady of the United
States — and first to break the outdated mould political wives have
been forced to fit for far too long.
(Courtesy: The Daily Telegraph)
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Sir — This refers to the article,
“Tough questions for Mehbooba”
(June 9) by KN Pandit. Problems
that have piled up in Jammu &
Kashmir during the past seven
decades cannot be solved in one
year. It should be done in a phased
manner. To begin, our leaders must
focus on the problems faced by the
people in the valley.
Anil Gupta
Via web
@bUcUbfY^WfQ\eUc
Sir — This refers to the article,
“Modi and Indian exceptionalism”
(June 8) by Anirban Ganguly.
Values have to be transmitted by
immersion — generation after generation. Only when the harmonious
worldview of sarve bhavantu sukhinah is embedded in a continuous
culturally spontaneous behaviour,
it sustains as it is expected to.
Seshadri
Via web
<UddY^WT_g^
Sir — This refers to the editorial, “Looking beyond Delhi” (June
8). Delhi Chief Minister Arvind
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Kejriwal has been a disappointment for the people who voted
him to power with a huge mandate. He came on the political
horizon on the pretext of his anticorruption crusade at a time
when the country was reeling
under corruption.
However, in his bid for power,
he forgot about fighting corruption, and started blazing all his
guns at Prime Minister Narendra
Modi. He is now seen siding with
those who have plans to form a
third front. His second agenda is
to have continuous confrontation
with the Centre on one pretext or
the other, unmindful of the effect
it may have on the development
of the State.
BP Srivastava
Noida
Cd_`TbUQ]Y^W
Sir — This refers to the editorial, “Looking beyond Delhi” (June
8). Delhi Chief Minister Arvind
Kejriwal, the former Indian
Revenue Service officer is daydreaming of occupying the office
of the Prime Minister. He presumably feels that the Chief
Minister’s chair is too small for his
great abilities. The way he mocks
Prime Minister Narendra Modi
so often, it seems that he wants to
convey to his supporters that he
can become a better Prime
Minister than Modi. The editorial has rightly diagnosed
Kejriwal’s disease of making “tall”
and “false” claims and promises
with no or little delivery.
M Ratan
Via email
4_eR\Uc`UQ[
Sir — This refers to the article,
“Sen Corker and his glass house”
(June 7) by Deepak Sinha. The US
is known for its double-speak. Its
policies have always been guided
by its own national and economic interests and not by moral scruples or ethical values.
It is the same US Congress
which had earlier denied a visa
to Prime Minister Narendra
Modi, when he was the Chief
Minister of Gujarat, that is now
applauding him.
Therefore, we must not
expect any drastic change in its
policy towards Pakistan or China.
Russia (or the erstwhile Soviet
Union) has been more reliable in
its support to India.
Arun
Via web
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ause, pause and effect holds
good for contemporary
India Inc. After years of furious expansion, including mergers
and acquisitions of cheaper global assets, it was time to pause as
corporates slowed down to examine their over leveraged balance
sheets. The 2008 worldwide meltdown took a heavy toll on companies small and big. This was a
tipping point between order and
chaos. In parallel, it became for one
and all the difference between what
one wanted and what one feared.
The width of an eyelash becoming
the determinant.
I remember Hindustan Lever
chairman Susim Datta telling me
years ago that M&A is one of the
sexiest things in business, but it
has a soft underbelly which is
always fraught with risk — with
cultural and human resource
issues dominant.
Tata Steel is the latest instance
of failing in its endeavour to
absorb a bigger company. I also
remembered now discredited
industrialist Vijay Mallya’s words
reverberating — “I am not a corporate museum, I will get out of
businesses which don’t have a
strategic fit with my core competence of liquor and beverages”. This
was almost 20 years ago when
Mallya began consolidating his
liquor business and jettisoning all
that did not fit.
A whole catalogue of reasons
has played havoc with corporate
blueprints: Business and commodity cycle downturn, prolonged
up cycle in interest rates, export
markets drying up, expansion
plans derailed due to environmental and forest clearances, consumption slowdown, judicial
activism, witch hunt by the 5Cs —
CVC, CAG, CBI, CIC and courts,
policy paralysis et al.
Corporates themselves began
to look into their mirrors finding
mountains of debt impinging on
their business performance. ‘Sexy’
leveraged buyouts of cheap international assets contributed in
some cases, while other factors
debilitated others.
Take Tata Steel — rising
costs, weak demand, over supply,
cheap imports and currency
volatility brought the company to
its knees. Tata Steel India, the
parent company, was keeling
over with C71,798 crore consolidated debt while its standalone
debt was C25,332 crore. When it
acquired Anglo Dutch steelmaker Corus in 2007, the $12.1
billion buyout was touted as the
arrival of the Indian transnational
corporation seeking a global
footprint, reminding me of
Datta’s ‘sexy’ nomenclature.
Even after exiting its assets in
UK and Europe, Tata Steel may
continue to be saddled with a
humungous 1,30,000 member
pension scheme, a liability no one
is willing to take over. In a late
April report by IIFL, this imponderable has been shown for what
it actually is — this could leave
Tata Steel in UK with no assets but
pension funds.
Gains from the asset sale
depend critically on how the
pension funds are dealt with.
Pension fund deficit has increased
to 485 million pounds sterling at
the end of FY 2015. Exit from the
pension fund might not be easy
since: One, Tatas might have to
contribute about GBP 3.5 billion
to sell the fund to professional
managers; two, The fund might
not meet the criteria for takeover
by the Pension Protection Fund;
and three, since July 2014, Tata
Steel has refinanced debt worth
$8.5 billion, of which $1.5 billion
was refinanced in December
2015. This included debt (borrowing of six billion dollars)
originally incurred in relation
with the $12.1 billion acquisition
of Corus Group Plc in 2007.
As bank debt became hot button, it was imperative for corporate India also to introspect on the
way forward. Self realisation is the
best whetstone, and as more and
more industrialists felt that there
was a quantum surge in threat
analysis to their own books and
businesses, they decided to shake
the tree and become debt free.
Deals Concluded:
Jindal Steel & Power: Sajjan
Jindal’s JSW Energy will buy 100
per cent of brother Naveen Jindal’s
Jindal Steel and Power 1,000 MW
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S
hould the Congress be worried
about the continuing erosion of
its workers and leaders? Are the
rats leaving a sinking ship? There is
no doubt that the party is losing its
organisational depth, moreso since
Prime Minister Narendra Modi
came to power. There is rebellion
brewing in various States. This week
saw the exit of two senior Congress
leaders — Ajit Jogi in Chhattisgarh
and Gurudas Kamat in Maharashtra.
While Jogi, a former Chhattisgarh
Chief Minister, has launched his own
outfit, Kamat wants to quit politics
altogether. To add to the confusion,
seven Congress MLAs have
also left the party in Tripura.
The erosion began before
the 2014 Lok Sabha poll when
leaders like Birender Singh,
GK Vasan, Jayanthi Natarajan,
KS Rao, R Sambasiva Rao,
Kiran Reddy, Jagan Reddy,
Jagadambika Pal and Satpal
Maharaj quit the Congress. NT
Rama Rao’s daughter ditched
the Congress for the BJP.
Others like Krishna Tirath,
Avtar Singh Bhadana and
Mangat ram Sharma also quit.
The leadership refused to
recognise the brewing storm,
fooling itself into believing
that everything was alright.
Jogi’s rebellion follows
revolts in Assam and Uttarakhand
where rebels left the Congress, blaming the leadership for not addressing their grievances. While rebel
Congress leader Himanta Biswa
Sarma played a crucial role for the
BJP’s win in Assam, former Chief
Minister Vijay Bahuguna almost
brought down the Rawat
Government in Uttarakhand.
Though Kamat’s decision to
retire from active politics came as a
bolt from the blue, he represents the
wounded sentiment of many loyalists. His exit will be a big blow for the
party ahead of the civic poll next year.
What should be worrying for the
Congress is that most of the leaders
have been Pradesh Congress
Committee presidents or general secretaries at one time or the other.
It is baffling that even now the
leadership has failed to grasp the
seriousness of the situation despite
rebels flexing their muscles in different parts of the country. First, the
grand old party must address the
leadership crisis. The party is confused about the role of Congress
vice president Rahul Gandhi. Will
Rahul Gandhi ever take over as the
heir of the party, and if so, when?
What will happen of Congress
president Sonia Gandhi then? A
organisational reshuffle is expected,
but there are apprehensions that
Rahul Gandhi might ease out the
old guard. In short, Rahul Gandhi
can’t inspire confidence.
Second, the Congress leadership
failed to see the brewing storm in
most Congress-ruled States like
Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur,
Meghalaya and Uttarakhand. Even
Karnataka is not quite stable. The
leadership had not detected the
undercurrent even as the rebels were
directly pointing fingers at them.
Third, the party is nearing a situation like it had faced in the 1990s.
thermal power plant in
Chhattisgarh at an enterprise
value of C4,000 crore.
Jaypee Group: Jaiprakash
Power Ventures sold two of its
hydro plants of 1391 MW capacities for C9,200 crore to JSW
Energy in September 2015.
Jaiprakash Power Ventures is now
left with three thermal power
plants and one hydro power plant,
which are also reeling under pressure led by fuel supply constraints
and weak demand.
Jaiprakash Associates has
agreed to sell its cement business,
except its Karnataka cement
assets, to UltraTech Cement, for
C15,900 crore. In FY16, the group
managed to pare down debt by
C25,100 crore. Jaiprakash
Associates sold the Jaypee Group
headquarters, commercial space
and 250 acres of land in its Noida
township project for C2,700 crore
to Axis Bank.
GMR: The group has sold 30
per cent stake in its energy arm
to Malaysian energy firm Tenaga
Nasional Berhad for C2,000 crore.
In March, the company sold 51
per cent stake in its 99km highway project in Karnataka to its
joint venture partners in C1,078
crore deal. Prior to this, GMR
sold 74 per cent stake in Jadcherla
Expressway to SBI Macquarie in
February 2013 and 74 per cent in
GMR Ulundurpet Expressways
to India Infrastructure Fund in
September 13. Both these stake
sales together fetched GMR
C428 crore.
The GMR group also
offloaded its stake in its foreign
ventures. It sold its 70 per cent
stake in Singapore-based Island
Power for C2,600 crore and two
coal blocks in its Canadian subsidiary for C201 crore in March
2013. The group also gave up its
40 per cent stake in Istanbul
international airport to Malaysian
Airports Holding Berhard for
C1,740 crore in April 2014.
Lanco Infratech: In August
2014, Lanco sold its Udupi power
plant to Adani Power for C6,000
crore. As part of the deal, Adani
took over the plant’s C4,000 crore
worth of debt and Lanco got
C2,000 crore in cash, which it used
for lowering its debt.
Suzlon Energy: In January
2015, Suzlon sold its German
subsidiary Senvion to private
equity company Centerbridge
Partners for C7,200 crore.
Bharti Airtel: In a deal worth
C1,925 crore, Airtel sold 2.91per
cent equity in Infratel through a
secondary market deal in February
2015. Then in October 2015,
Bharti sold about 8,300 mobile
towers in Africa for approximately C11,000 crore.
SREI Infrastructure Finance:
The company sold its entire 18 per
cent stake in telecom tower company, Viom Networks to
American Tower Corporation for
C2,931 crore.
Essar Group: In March 16,
Equinox Realty, the real estate arm
of Essar Group, sold its under-construction residential project,
Water’s Edge, in Bangalore to
developer SNN Builders for C300
crore. In February 2016, Essar
entered into a pact to sell its 1.25million-sq-ft commercial project,
Equinox Business Park, in
Mumbai to RMZ Corp for around
C2,400 crore.
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Just before Sonia Gandhi decided to
take charge in 1998, several leaders
like KC Pant, Aslam Sher khan,
Dileep Singh Bhuria left the
Congress. Around the same time,
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata
Banerjee floated the Trinamool
Congress. Sonia Gandhi’s entry
arrested the erosion, and she not only
unified the party but also brought the
Congress-led UPA to power — not
once but twice, from 2004 to 2014.
However, after Modi’s entry, neither
she nor her son have been able to
provide confidence to the party.
Fourth, the high command has
not done much to nurture
second-rung leaders. For
months, Congress leaders
from Punjab, Rajashtan,
Madhya Pradesh, Kerala,
Haryana and Chhattisgarh
have been complaining
against the Pradesh
Congress Committee chiefs.
In Punjab, the leadership
was forced to choose Capt
Amarinder Singh as the
chief ministerial face for the
2017 poll. Even the induction of leaders like Kapil
Sibal, P Chidambaram and
Ambika Soni into the current Rajya Sabha nomination list shows that the old
guard is not out. Many
senior Congressmen are worried that
the party may sink further if corrective measures are not taken.
As a corrective measure, the
Congress must first put the right
man in the right place and restructure the organisation. Second, it must
change its style of functioning.
Third, it must enthuse the party
workers with prgorammes and
schemes at the ground level. Fourth,
it should end confusion by making
Rahul Gandhi the president. It must
not allow this existential crisis to continue. Living in the past is not the
answer, and working for the future
is the way to go forward.
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C
loudy vision can take
place due to a number
of reasons. It can take
place through faulty/dusty
lenses, it can happen through
cataract, through fog, bad
windows. And the list is long.
But perhaps the worst type of
clouding takes place through
empty/incomplete slogans.
They cloud the horizon.
However, there are some
all-time favorites. Popular
ones include ‘removal of
poverty’ or ‘protect secularism’. Mercifully, ever since the
NDA Government came to
power, these slogans have
been somewhat muted as
popular psyche is registering
new messages. Not that
poverty or secularism is no
more an issue, but its just that
people are realising about
new elements, while others
remain to be recognised.
There is a realisation
about climate change, but
there is not sufficient realisation that climate change
impacts wheat production
and the quality of wheat. As
it were, with a rise in temperature, food prices too go
high. As some people rise
above poverty level, the availability/price balance shifts.
Worse, there is an
increase in the population
level, below the poverty level,
(if not more) than the numbers that rise above poverty.
It is strange but true that
there is a thundering silence
among the political class —
across various segments —
on population control.
Be that as it may, it is
important to realise that slogans too have their life. A
good second line in the hierarchy of the over-used slogan
includes the word ‘inclusion’.
This confounds even more
than it confuses.
The truth is that the
process of financial inclusion
began in 1955 when the
Imperial Bank of India
became the State Bank of
India. The next landmark
was in 1969. This was followed in 1980. There was talk
of priority sector lending;
kisan credit cards and it still
continues.
Many
Governments claim originality in repeating the past.
However, the truth is that
in real world, some numbers
do change, but percentages do
not. New phraseology is not
necessarily a revolution.
Take the case of Pradhan
Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana
(PMJDY) which talks of
universal banking services.
There is nothing wrong with
it. Claims have been made
about containing leakages
through this instrumentality. There is truth in the
claim, but one has to stretch
a definition to see how it is
‘inclusion’, the way it should
be, if those covered by it
have not entered the main
economic stream.
The life of a common
man remains in a tizzy.
Opening accounts is helpful,
but it does not cause economic progress. Perhaps the
process is being confused
for objective.
The answer lies in
encouraging demand-oriented savings. The number of
accounts opened under
PMJDY is large. Several of
them have no significant
deposits. Credit and remittances need to be customised
to lifestyle patterns. Income
streams of an average Indian
cannot be just a matter of
E8=0HB78;60DC0<
finding employment. There is
merit in the talk of servicing,
through the business
correspondent model.
As of now, there is much
heat over how to deepen the
penetration of financial services into the rural areas. No
prizes for guessing — the
post office system remains
the favourite.
It is a well-known fact
that India accounts for 16 per
cent of the world’s population
and only four per cent of the
global water resources.
Whether it be the venerable
wise ones of the Planning
Commission or the NitiAyog,
both miss a point. Water
shortage effects production of
rice and higher food prices
absorb the rise of purchasing
power. Little is left for pushing industrial growth. The
Reserve Bank of India continues to talk of interest rates.
Obviously, multinationals are also looking for their
own kill, big four consultancy organisations remain the
favourite of the institutions of
the present Government, as
they were of the preceding
one. Financial multinationals
including banks have their
own take. They will come
nowhere near the PMJDY. It
falls in the lot of the public
sector banks to keep pushing
for financial inclusion while
the cream of their assets
stand hugely monopolised
by the socially savvy and
politically influential.
Some names of the leading luminaries are too wellknown to be repeated.
Putting it simply, a desi model
is needed to solve the desi
problem. The present
Government cannot afford to
lose the opportunity.
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O
lympian and Arjuna
awardee Anju Bobby
George on Thursday accused
Kerala’s Marxist Sports Minister
EP Jayarajan, who had last
week described boxing legend
Muhammad Ali as a sportsman
from the State during his obituary reference, of allegedly
insulting her and others in the
Kerala State Sports Council by
calling them corrupt.
Anju, president of the
Sports Council, lodged a complaint with CPI(M) Chief
Minister Pinarayi Vijayan but
he opted to defend his colleague
in the Cabinet and party. Anju
was appointed Sports Council
president by the previous
Congress-led
UDF
Government and this is thought
to be the reason why Jayarajan
had allegedly turned against her
and others of the council.
According to Anju, who
had made history when she
won a medal in the World
Championships in Athletics in
2003, the incident took place
on Tuesday when she, along
with the council vice-president, went to meet Minister
Jayarajan, who is also a member of the CPI(M) central committee, after the new LDF
Government came to power.
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“We thought he would ask
us about the status of sports in
the State. Though this was the
first meeting between the
Minister and the council, he
said, “You were all nominated
by the previous Government.
So you all are other party’s
members.” He also said that all
appointments and transfers we
were making were illegal,” Anju
told the media.
According to her, Jayarajan
objected to her availing airfare
from Bangalore, where she was
based, to Thiruvananthapuram
for attending council meetings and other official purposes. “This is all illegal. This is all
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middle aged woman married a young man; nothing
A
unusual. What goes unusual is
the fact that the young man is
woman’s son-in-law. This bizarre
relationship was formalized in
Purnia where the two lovebirds
got their matrimony registered
in a court on Wednesday.
Asha Devi had got her
daughter Lalita married to
Suraj Mahto some two and half
years ago. But now they are living like husband and wife with
Asha even asking Lalita to
come and live with them;
though not sure in what capacity – daughter or sautan (husband’s other wife).
While people in Dhamdaha
are surprised over this relationship and stormed the court
premises to see the couple
dressed in red attire and a thick
lair of sindoor in her hair partings, Asha’s husband, whose
name could not be ascertained,
was in a state of shock. When
his daughter send an SOS to
him after coming to know about
the affairs between her mother
and husband, the man who
works in some factory in Delhi
rushed back and tried to reason
with his wife but to no avail
Everything was going
smooth between newly wed
Suraj and Lalita, who gave
birth to a son, living in Puraini
village in Madhepura district.
Suddenly Suraj fell ill and this
made the entry of his motherin-law in his life. Asha came to
see her indisposed son-in-law
and possibly that was the time
when they started loving each
other. After sometime though
she went back to her home in
Dhamdaha but love between
them continued blossoming.
They continued in touch on
phone and chatted for hours.
One day, Suraj left his wife
Lalita and son in his home in
Purani village and went to his
sasural to live there permanently
with his mother-in-law-turnedlover. Lalita cried and tried
hard to bring him back but met
no success. Then she informed
her father in Delhi who came
but too failed to separate them.
Last week on June 1, Suraj
and Asha went to some temple
in Madhepura and formalized
their marriage. Then the couple went to Tarauni village in
Dhamdaha and stayed there at
the home of one of his relatives.
His relatives also tried to reason with them but failed. On
Wednesday both went to
Dhamdaha civil court and
legally married each other .
corruption. I can stop this,” she
quoted the Minister as saying,
adding that he had accused all
the council members of
corruption.
The long-jumper clarified
that she had given a representation to the previous
Government for permitting
her to avail air fare for her travels between Bangalore and
Thiruvananthapuram for the
purposes of the Sports Council
and that this had been accepted. This had been sanctioned
by an order of the Ministry of
Finance, she added.
Stating that Preeja
Sreedharan, PR Sreejesh and
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Kerala Cricket Association
president TC Mathew were
the other members of the council, Anju said, “We don’t belong
to any party. Sports is our
party. We are just doing our
duty. If the Government can’t
accept that, it can ask us to
leave. But calling us corrupt is
unacceptable.”
Asked if she was planning
to quit from the council, she
told the media that no decision
had yet been taken. “We are just
sportspersons. It was my duty
to inform the Chief Minister
about the Sports Minister’s
behavior. Just because we were
nominated by the previous
Government, they can’t call us
corrupt and remove us on that
excuse,” Anju said.
Jayarajan had reportedly
ordered dismissal of all transfers in the council. When she
described to him the practical
difficulties of such a move and
how it could affect the lives and
careers of many persons, the
Minister threatened her, Anju
said. “When someone heads a
department as Minister, he
should have some understanding of how it works,” she said.
However, Jayarajan denied
the allegation and said that the
athlete was very happy when
she left the meeting and he had
no idea why she had made such
a charge against him. “No,
never… I haven’t behaved
rudely with her,” the Minister
said, adding that he did not
know that Anju had lodged a
complaint with the Chief
Minister.
Defending Jayarajan, Chief
Minister Pinarayi said he had
not insulted the athlete. “As far
as I know, the Minister had
asked her about her air travels
and told her that this was not
proper practice. How can that
be an insult? Anju had met me
and I told her that I haven’t
seen her as a politician,”
Pinarayi said.
Meanwhile,
the
Opposition attacked Jayarajan
for the insult he allegedly
meted out to the athlete. State
Congress president VM
Sudheeran wanted the Chief
Minister to control Jayarajan
while Congress’s former Sports
minister Thiruvanchoor
Radhakrishnan said, “One
shouldn’t say that all sportspersons of the State should be
loyal to a single party.”
Jayarajan had made himself
a laughing stock last week
when he described boxing legend Muhammad Ali as a Kerala
sportsman who had won many
medals for the State during his
obituary reference.
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<>78C:0=370A8Q 90<<D
irst time BJP MLA from
Chhamb Assembly conF
stituency in Akhnoor Krishan
Lal Bhagat’s name has surfaced
in the list of BPL beneficiaries
in J&K.
The list was prepared by
the officials of the Revenue
department on behalf of the
Consumer Affairs and Public
Distribution department.
After the discrepancy was
brought to light by the MLA
himself and the State
Government went ahead and
ordered suspension of
Tehsildar Khour and other
employees for wrongly incorporating name of the BJP
MLA.
Minister for Revenue and
Rehabilitation Basharat
Bukhari on Thursday said
Deputy Commissioner Jammu
has been directed to enquire
the negligence and prepare a
report within 7 days in this
regard.
On the instructions of
Minister for Revenue, Relief
and Rehabilitation Basharat
Hussain Bukhari, and Minister
for Consumer Affairs, Public
Distribution Department
Zulfkar Ali Divisional
Commissioner Jammu Pawan
Kotwal issued orders suspending Tehsildar Khour,
Block Development Officer
Khour and Tehsil Supply
Officer of CAPD Department
Khour in response to complaints of lapses in framing lists
of beneficiaries under NFSA.
The
Divisional
Commissioner also ordered
an inquir y with Deputy
Commissioner, Jammu as
Chairman into the incident of
wrong inclusion of the name of
:4BCDAE0BD:8Q 14=60;DAD
ontroversial Deputy
C
Superintendent of Police
(DSP), Kudligi Sub-Division in
Ballari district, Anupama
Shenoy who had taken head on
Karnataka Labour Minister PT
Parameshwar Naik, also the
district in-charge, had resurfaced several days after being
incommunicado and said her
decision to quit was final. Her
alleged Facebook posts had
sent jitters to the ruling
Government
and
the
Government was working hard
to put an end to this episode.
However in a great relief to the
Government she had denied
her Facebook posts and said it
must have been hacked.
The saga of Anupama
Shenoy an upright officer who
has been allegedly tortured by
the close aid of Chief Minister
Siddaramaiah’s
Labour
Minister PT Parameshwar Naik
has dented the image of ruling
Congress in Karnataka.
Anupama Shenoy had tendered her resignation on 4
June and since then her whereabouts were not known. She
resurfaced on Thursday at
Kudligi and said she was firm
in her decision to quit.
Addressing a Press conference
in Kudligi she said, “I stand by
my decision to resign.” Asked
about her Facebook posts, she
said “I don’t know about
Facebook; someone might be
doing it in my name, it might
have been hacked also.”
Karnataka police had
formed a special team to trace
her as her alleged posts on
Facebook levelling accusations
against Labour Minister PT
Parameshwar Naik, also the
district in-charge, had created
a flutter in political circles.
In January, Shenoy was
transferred allegedly at the
behest of Naik for putting his
call on hold, with the incident
triggering a storm. A video
footage purportedly showing
Naik making a boastful claim
about shunting out Shenoy
had also gone viral later.
Chief
Minister
Siddaramaiah has said the
Government would not take
any hasty decision and would
want her to continue in the
force, but also pointed out that
she was bound by rules.
Her Facebook posts, eventually she has denied, have
sent the Congress leaders in a
tizzy while the police still are
trying to verify whether the
account is being actually handled by her or someone else.
Meanwhile, Minister Naik,
who is at the receiving end, trying to put up a brave front on
the issue and said, “How can I
comment on what she is posting on Facebook? We are not
even sure if the Facebook
account belongs to her.”
Following protests by a
group of people against her for
taking three persons into preventive detention, Shenoy left
the office on 4 June after handing over her resignation letter
to subordinate officers,
instructing them to hand it
over to the Superintendent of
Police. Officials said Shenoy
was acting on a complaint by
Dalit activists against the extension of a liquor shop that was
blocking the way to Ambedkar
Bhavan nearby.
2WeVca`]]dE?acVaRcVdW`c`h_AcV^ZVc=VRXfV
:D<0A274;;0??0=Q
274==08
s the heat and dust of the
Assembly election has setA
tled, Tamil Nadu is getting
ready to witness another exciting and entertaining festival, a
festival of cricket. Come
August, the State will see eight
professional teams vying for a
prize money of C1 crore in the
Tamil Nadu Premier Cricket
League, which has been titled
TN Premier League.
N Srinivasan, former chairman of International Cricket
Conference who is also a leading industrialist in the country
is the master brain behind the
2:@=<1697EB5C9>2@<<9CD
State Govt orders suspension of Tehsildar
for wrongly incorporating MLA’s name
:Pa]PcPZP3B?BWT]^h
bdaUPRTbP]SbPhbWTa
STRXbX^]c^`dXcXbUX]P[
sitting
MLA
Chamb
Constituency in the beneficiary list under Priority Category.
The DC has been ordered to
furnish his report within a
period of three days.
CAPD Minister said that
Government will not tolerate
any lapses in the list of beneficiaries as transparency is the
top
priority
of
the
Government. He said that the
Government would ensure that
only deserving people are in
the lists.
Meanwhile, the State
Government has decided to
start the process of issuance of
new Ration Cards to consumers from 19 of this month.
D]X^]7^\T<X]XbcTaAPY]PcWBX]VWSdaX]V19?´b9P]bP\fPSUd]RcX^]^]R^\_[TcX^]^Ucf^hTPabQhcWTD]X^]6^eTa]\T]cX];dRZ]^f^]CWdabSPh
new venture. Addressing
reporters at Chennai on
Thursday, Srinivasan said the
TN Premier League has been
conceived in such a way that it
would bring out the best talents
from all over the State to
national mainstream. “Cricket
and Tamil Nadu are synonymous with each other. But the
sport has been hitherto confined to cities like Chennai. We
are taking the game to the nook
and corner of the State,” said
Srinivasan.
For the first time in the history of Tamil Nadu cricket,
eight cities/towns in the State
would have their own teams
locking horns in the League.
CVdYfWW]VZ_
:ADTRUcVZ_
HVde3V_XR]
Kolkata: In a major reshuffle in
the IPS cadre, ten senior police
officers were on Thursday
transferred to different positions in West Bengal.
Four officers, who were on
Compulsory Waiting, have
been given postings, officials in
the state secretariat Nabanna
said.
Rajeev Mishra, Additional
Commissioner of Police-III in
the Kolkata Police, has been
transferred as Inspector
General of Police (IGP),
Western Zone.
Sujoy Kumar Chanda, DC
Wireless, Kolkata, has been
asked to take over as Joint CP
(Establishment) in the Kolkata
Police.
Kalyan Mukhopadhyay,
Special Superintendent IB, has
been transferred as DC Traffic
(South), Kolkata replacing
Niladri Chakraborty, who has
been asked to take over as
Commandant, State Armed
Police, 3rd Battalion.
Debabrata Das, DC North
Howrah
Police
Commissionerate, has been
asked to take over as DC
Headquarters, Howrah Police
Commissionerate replacing
Ramendra Nath Banerjee, who
has been transferred as DC
Zone-II Howrah Police
Commissionerate.
Among the four officers,
who were on Compulsory
Waiting, Dhrubajyoti De has
been asked to take over as DC
Zone-II, Barrackpore Police
?C8 Commissionerate.
PTI
Srinivasan, an expert in integrating cricket and business is
out to make TNPL a part of the
day-today life of an average
Tamilian and hence the teams
have been classified based on
cities/towns. Names like
Karaikudy and Dindigul are
being featured in the cricketing
map of the country for the first
time.
He said the TNPL matches (T20) featuring eight teams
would be played at Chennai,
Tirunelveli and Natham in
Dindigul district. “This is an
opportunity for players from
the districts of Tamil Nadu to
showcase their talents. By staging the TNPL matches we hope
to develop cricket in the districts and also to take the game
to all nook and corner of the
State,” said Srinivasan.
The TNPL will get going by
the end of August and run into
September, said the TNPL boss.
The winner will take home a
prize money of C1 crore while
the runner-up will get C60
lakh. The losing finalists will
get C40 lakh each, according to
Srinivasan. Players participating in the three-week long
TNPL stand to get a take home
pay of C60 lakh.
The TNPL teams are
owned by eight business groups
based in Tamil Nadu.
Thoothukudi Sports Club,
Metro Nation, South Chennai,
Leika Sports Club, Coimbatore,
Kothari Madras, Madurai,
Ruby Builders, Kancheepuram,
VV Cricket, Thiruvallur, Tec
Solutions, Dindigul, and
Chettinadu
Apparels,
Karaikudy are the challengers
in the TNPL.
Srinivasan disclosed that
Star TV is the media partner
and all matches would be telecast live. According to R Mohan,
veteran cricket writer, the TNPL
could be the game changer
which the cricket lovers in the
State was waiting for. “Cricket is
the State game of Tamil Nadu.
TNPL will further revolutionise
the game,” said Mohan.
6D;14A6E4A382C
4XDQWXPRISXQLVKPHQW
GHIHUUHGRQHPRUHWLPH
?=BQ 60=378=060A
he pronouncement of the
quantum of punishment
T
to 24 convicts in the sensational
Gulberg society massacre was
once again deffered by a special
trial court in Ahmedabad on
Thursday.
It is expected that the court
would pronounce the much
awaited verdict on Friday. In
the 2002 Gulberg Society massacre 69 people including former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri
dead a day after the infamous
Godhara train burning incident
in February 2002. Out of 66
accused in the case, the trial
court had found 24 persons
guilty on June 2. It had also
dropped the conspiracy charge
under section 120 (B) of IPC
against the accused in the case
on the same day.
The court acquitted 36 and
during the legal procedure six
accused died. Of 24 convicts, 11
persons were found guilty of
murder while remaining 13
were convicted for different
charges including arson, rioting and unlawful assembly.
The court had kept final verdict
on quantum of punishment to
24 convicts on Monday but due
to arguments from both the
sides, it was kept on Thursday
but Judge PB Desai differed
judgement one more time.
Arguing in favour of capital punishment to all convicts,
5P\X[h\T\QTabP]SaT[PcXeTbcahc^WPeTPV[X\_bT^U6d[QdaVB^RXTchRPbT
R^]eXRcbfW^fTaTQTX]V_a^SdRTSPcPB8CR^dacX]0W\TSPQPS^]CWdabSPhU^aP
WTPaX]V^]cWT`dP]cd\^U_d]XbW\T]cb
?C8
the special public prosecutor of
SIT, RC Kodekar said that the
incident was the rarest of rare
as the victims belonged to
minority community were
charred. Earlier the victims’
lawyer SM Vora argued in
favour of maximum punishment to all the convicts as
according to him it was a case
of cold blooded mass murder.
He also said that immediate
family members of the victims
should be given compensation.
Advocate of the convicts
Abhay Bhardwaj argued that the
punishment should be according to the various sections of the
Indian Penal Code invoked on
the accused. Countering the
blame of cold blooded mass
murder, Bhardwaj said that it
couldn’t be considered as cold
blooded as the crowd provoked
only after Ehsan Jafri opened
fire. According to him the situation was tense outside Gulbarg
society due to the tragic incident
of Sabarmati Express near
Godhra Railway Station.
]PcX^](
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:4BCDAE0BD:8Q 14=60;DAD
?=BQ ;D2:=>F
B
ahujan Samaj Party chief
Mayawati maintained suspense over transferring her
party’s surplus votes in the
Rajya Sabha biennial polls
scheduled on Saturday.
“Two more days are left for
the election. You should wait
for the outcome to know who
got my party’s support in the
election for the RS,” asserted
Mayawati when askd whether
the BSP would support the
Congress candidate in UP as it
had done in Madhya Pradesh.
Mayawati was speaking to
media persons at her Mall
Avenue residence in Lucknow
on Thursday afternoon.
The stand taken by the BSP
has kept the political circles on
ternterhooks. Congress candidate for Rajya Sabha Kapil
Sibal is heavily banking on the
additional votes of the BSP
even as the SP has announced
to support his candidature.
The BSP has 80 MLAs in
the 403-member Assembly and
with 34 first preference votes
aturday’s Rajya Sabha polls
from Karnataka is crucial for
both the Congress and BJP to
maintain its tally in the Upper
House to add fire power to
counter one another. In the
number game it is sure for the
Congress to win two seats and
BJP one but the third seat is
crucial for the Congress which
has bet everything on it.
Undeterred by sting operations by channels and subsequent herding of independent
MLAs to resort, Chief Minister
Siddaramaiah is confidant of
the victory of its third candidate former top cop KC
1B?bd_aT\^P]SU^a\TaDccPa?aPSTbW2WXTU<X]XbcTa<PhPfPcXPSSaTbbX]VP
Ramamurthy. IT capital
?aTbbR^]UTaT]RTPcWTaaTbXST]RTX];dRZ]^f^]CWdabSPh
?C8 Bengaluru is witnessing hectic
parleys ahead of polls.
needed for victory of a candi- ed three candidates and is
Even though Election
date, the party can ensure the short of seven votes for the suc- Commission has not taken any
success of its two nominees cess of its third nominee.
decision so far on counterUncertainty prevails over manding the elections to Rajya
with 12 votes to spare.
For Rajya Sabha, the BSP the outcome of the polling as
has fielded Satish Chandra apprehension of cross-voting
Mishra and Ashok Sidharth, by almost all parties are rife.
while for the Legislative Since the Council polling witCouncil its candidates are Atar nesses secret voting, it would
Singh Rao, Dinesh Chandra be hard to assess who voted for
whom. But for the Rajya
and Suresh Kashyap.
In the Council, where 29 Sabha, the voting is open and
votes are needed for victory of the members have to show
a candidate, the BSP has field- their preference to the agents.
0Q^dc"
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PATNA: Hundreds of Nilgai or
blue bull were killed last week
in the Tal area of Mokama
which scared out the groups of
Asian antelope from the area.
This gave much respite to the
farmers whose standing crops
were being badly destroyed by
the animals. In an operation to
cleanse the area from Nilgai at
least 300 were killed by professional shooters brought from
Hyderabad. The farmers over
the flattening of their crops were
so worried and angry that they
actively helped the shooters
and even participated in killing
and driving out the Nilgai, the
main source of the destruction
of their crops. The killings of
Nilgai took a political turn with
Union Minister and animal
lover Menaka Gandhi raising
serious objection. Senior JD(U)
leader Neeraj Kumar MLC, at
whose behest the Nilgai killing
operation in Mokama Tal area
was launched, defended the
killings and said it has been
done under legal permission.
“How it is illegal in Bihar if it is
legal in Rajasthan and
Maharashtra.
PNS
B0D60AB4=6D?C0Q
:>;:0C0
could further reinclaims of large-scale
Idrugnforcewhat
cultivation in Malda a
border district of Bengal the
anti-narcotic bureau on
Thursday apprehended a
truck and seized 5,000 kgs of
opium and dried poppy plants
from Dankuni toll plaza off
Howrah.
The officials said the three
persons along with the driver
of the vehicle who were arrested had named a Trinamool
Congress politician on whose
orders the truck-load of
opium was being transported.
Malda is one of the three
Bengal districts reporting
large-scale illegal poppy cultivation. The other two districts are Bibrhum and
Murshidabad. Malda in particular has of late earned the
reputation of opium and fake
currency capital of eastern
India.
The district had hit
national headlines last year
after thousands of people
from Kaliachak had torched
BSF vehicles and a local police
station, attacked members of
other communities and blockaded the NH-34.
Subsequent investigations
revealed that the incident had
taken place in retaliation to
massive crackdown on the
local poppy cultivators many
of who conceded that they
were fast switching to poppy
trade mango and paddy cultivation as it fetched bigger
dividend.
It was also revealed that
the trans-border agents were
involved in the clandestine
poppy cultivation along with
the multi-crore fake-currency
and cattle-smuggling racket. It
was also found that a good
amount of the money was
used by the terror moles.
The NCB sleuths acted on
a tip-off and apprehended the
truck loaded with opium and
dried poppy flowers and
plants, sources said adding the
drugs were to be ferried to
Kharagpur from where it
would be taken to Odisha
and South India.
8AA=Y`aVde`SVT`^Va`ce
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=0H0=30E4Q ?8?0E0E?>AC
I
ndia’s first private sector port
Gujarat Pipavav Port Ltd
(GPPL) is eying at becoming
the ‘Port of choice’ for container, bulk, liquid and RoRo
cargo in Western India following plethora of opportunities as
a result of Modi Government’s
initiatives like “Make in India”
and “Sagarmala”.
Managing Director of APL
Terminal’s Keld Pedersen said
that with Government of India’s
initiatives such as “Make in
India”, “Sagarmala” coupled
with expanded coastal shipping, the see many new opportunities to accomplish its vision
of being the ‘Port of choice’ for
container, bulk, liquid and
RoRo cargo in Western India.
According to Pedersen the
larger capacity of Pipavav Port
would contribute in expand the
company’s services and flexibility towards the customers
and help India to meet its
tremendous economic potential through seamless logistic
solution.
He said that modal shift
incentives currently under evaluation by the Government of
India would further encourage
shifting of domestic cargo from
road to sea. Coastal shipping is
an environmentally-friendly
alternative to land transportation, reducing diesel fuel consumption and emissions, as
well as Indian roadway congestion, he said, adding that
the expansion project would
help the company to be future
ready.
APM Terminals Pipavav
(Gujarat Pipavav Port Ltd) has
recently successfully completed its capacity expansion project which would increase its
annual container throughput
handling capacity from 850,000
TEUs (Total Equivalent Units)
to 1.35 million TEUs.
As part of the expansion
plan, APM Terminals invested
around C400 crore. The investment included buying new
STS cranes, strengthening the
existing berth, dredging, and
the improvement of the container yard and internal roads
at the port. This investment
will increase efficiency and
productivity in the port operations.
For the bulk cargo handling business segment, the
company has a current capacity of 4-5 million MTs of dry
bulk cargo, 2 million MTs of
liquid bulk cargo and approximately 250,000 passenger cars
per year. Additional marine
side and land side areas available at port for future development
It is worth mentioning that
PM Terminals Pipavav [Gujarat
Pipavav Port Ltd.] is a part of
the $4.24 APM Terminals
Global Terminal Network of 72
operating ports, terminal facilities and 135 Inland services,
employing 20,600 professionals
across 69 countries around the
world.
6??;5>A;8>=B´B054CH
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Sabha based on sting operations
where independent MLAs from
Karnataka allegedly seen talking about money in exchange of
votes, Chief Minister
Siddaramaiah expressed confidence that with the help of associate members and some independents party’s third candidate could easily win.
He said “Our party’s third
candidate KC Rama Murthy
would get elected with the help
of 33 excess votes of the
Congress and five associate
members of the party along with
some independents who had
identified with the congress”.
In another development
former Prime Minister and
JDs chief HD Deve Gowda
directly accused of Congress of
horse-trading and poaching
JDs MLAs. Five of JDs MLAs
have defied the party and openly declared that they would
support the third candidate
3UDEKXIRU5DLOZD\
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LQ:HVW%HQJDO
put up by the Congress. He said
“Congress is insisting that the
elections go ahead as scheduled. The third Rajya Sabha
candidate will be able to get
only 33 votes, but still they are
insisting that the elections be
held on June 11. Is this horse
trading or donkey trading?”.
As per the numbers
Congress candidates senior party
leaders Jairam Ramesh and Oscar
Fernandes and BJP’s Union
Minister Nirmala Sitharaman
are sure to get elected. But the
third candidate of the Congress
KC Ramamurthy and JDs candidate industrialist BA Farooq are
fighting it out for the fourth seat.
Five JD(S) MLAs Zameer
Ahmed
Khan,
Cheluvarayaswamy, Akhanda
Srinivas, Iqbal Ansari and
Balakrishna have said they will
be voting for the Congress in
the Rajya Sabha and Legislative
Council elections.
Meanwhile, for the first
time in Rajya Sabha election
NOTA as an option has been
introduced along with the photographs of the candidates.
The returning officer and
Assembly Secretary S Murthy
said he has not received any
direction from the Election
Commission about the postponing or countermanding of
the polls due to the recent sting
operations carried out by some
private news channels. He said
was going ahead with the
preparation for holding election as per schedule.
According to Assembly
secretariat the number of votes
required to win is 45 in the 225
member Karnataka Assembly
(with no vote to the nominated Anglo-Indian member).
The ruling party has the
strength of 123 MLAs (excluding
Speaker
Kagodu
Thimmappa), while the
Bharatiya Janata Party has 44
and the Janata Dal (Secular)
has the strength of 40 MLAs.
The ruling party can easily
ensure victory of two candidates, and will be left with surplus 33 votes. It will be short of
12 votes to get the third seat.
The Congress is banking on
cross voting from disgruntled
JDs MLAs to snatch the third
seat. As JDs is facing internal
rebellion, feuds, the Congress
will certainty try to lure the disgruntled JDs MLAs to get 12 as
part of its strategy.
It is crucial for the Congress
to win third seat and the party
might also look at Independents
(9) and members of the
Badavara Shramikara Raithara
Congress Party (3 MLAs),
Karnataka Janata Paskha (2),
and Sarvodaya Karnataka
Paksha and Karnataka Makkala
Paksha (one MLA each) to lend
their support.
A:=WZ]VUZ_
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Lucknow: A PIL was on
Thursday filed in the Lucknow
Bench of the Allahabad High
Court, seeking a CBI enquiry
into the Mathura violence.
It is likely to come up for
hearing on June 13.
The Public Interest
Litigation, filed by IP Singh of
Azamgarh district, seeks a
direction to dismiss the judicial commission constituted by
the Uttar Pradesh government
D]X^]APX[fPh<X]XbcTaBdaTbW?aPQWdfXcWFTbc1T]VP[2WXTU<X]XbcTa<P\PcP
to probe the incident where
1P]TaYTTPcP\TTcX]VPc=PQP]]PX]:^[ZPcP^]CWdabSPh
?C8 clashes between the police and
encroachers left 29 people
B0D60AB4=6D?C0Q :>;:0C0 Nabanna the State secretariat dead last week.
said. The East-West metro proPetitioner’s counsel Ashok
eeping with Prime Minister ject linking Rajarhat in the Pandey said his client has alsoNarendra Modi’s slogan of north-eastern fringes of prayed for a probe by CBI or
according priority to develop- Kolkata to Howrah would a Special Investigation Team
ment over politics the Indian entail digging of tunnel beneath (SIT).
On June 7, the Supreme
Railways is planning to go full the Hooghly River.
Banerjee had cleared these Court had refused to order a
throttle insofar as increasing
Railway infrastructure in projects during her tenure as CBI probe into the incident.
the Railway Minister in the secA vacation bench of
Bengal is concerned.
This was made clear by ond UPA Government. The Justices PC Ghose and
Railway Minister Suresh State was also likely to get a Amitava Roy had said it was
Prabhu in Kolkata. The wagon manufacturing unit, it not inclined to pass any order
in the matter and asked the
Minister who met Chief was said.
Keeping aside political dif- petitioner to approach the
Minister Mamata Banerjee for
PTI
the first time after her massive ferences and praising the Chief High Court.
electoral victory in the State Minister, Prabhu said “she
elections said he had a detailed (Banerjee) herself was a very
and comprehensive discussion successful Railway Minister
with Banerjee regarding the and I had detailed discussion
improvement of infrastructure with her” on various issues.
“The State Government
projects and the Railways had
already started taking mea- has extended all cooperation.
The idea is how to redevelop
sures towards that.
In the discussions the the existing infrastructure and
Railways particularly showed increase it in the State” he
interest in early completion of maintained and added “we
mass transport projects like the have already increased the
East-West and Joka-BBD Bag share of investment in the
metro lines. The Railways had State.”
The idea behind the
also agreed to work alongside
the State Government to reha- Railway’s increased attention in
bilitate the residents displaced Bengal is to “create an inteon account of the East-West grated transport system in
metro project, sources at Kolkata,” he said.
K
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=4F34;78)Air India's “books
are so bad” that nobody will
buy it even if the Government
wanted to sell off the national
carrier, Civil Aviation Minister
Ashok Gajapathi Raju said on
Thursday.
Ruling out disinvestment
in the carrier that has a debt of
some C50,000 crore, Raju at the
same time made it plain that
the taxpayers' money cannot be
committed “for eternity”.
“Its (Air India) books are
so bad. I don't think that even
if it is offered, anybody would
come for it,” he said.
Grappling with mounting
debts and tough business conditions, Air India has been in
the red since the merger of then
Air India and Indian Airlines
in 2007 and is staying afloat on
a C30,000-crore bailout package
extended by the erstwhile UPA
regime.
Asserting that unlike others, he would not like to get into
“Air India bashing”, the
Minister also said that the carrier needs to function in a more
cohesive manner to deliver on
its turnaround goals.
“It is a nice airline. I like Air
India but I can't commit taxpayers' money for eternity.
That is not done,” Raju told the
news agency in an interview.
Buoyed by improving
financial situation and high
growth potential of the domestic aviation market, Air India is
putting in plans to expand its
fleet by another 100 aircraft in
the next four years.
“My feeling is that the
cohesiveness of the team has to
increase and where they have
worked as a team, they have
delivered, and where they have
not worked as a team, they have
pulled in different sides.
Nobody can put the clock
back. The quicker they realise
it the better,” he noted.
While there has been no
official announcement so far,
the airline has managed to eke
out an operational profit of
around C6-8 crore in the previous financial year. “The fact
that they have not made an
operating loss speaks volumes,”
Raju said.
8`gecf]Vd`feTRaaZ_X`WRZcWRcVd
=4F34;78)Capping of airfares in the back-
drop of passenger complaints of arbitrary
tariff hikes was today ruled out by the government which said that competition
among the airlines will take care of the
problem.
Civil Aviation Minister Ashok
Gajapathi Raju said restricting the airfares
will not make good business sense as it
could also jeopardise the Government's
regional connectivity plan as such a move
may discourage airlines to fly on non-profitable routes.
He, however, said a slew of passengercentric measures including “time-bound”
grievance redressal mechanism would be
unveiled very soon, emphasising that
India's civil aviation market was the fastest
growing in domestic passenger travel
demand.
It is expected that the Government was
going to announce steps to rationalise the
ticket cancellation charges and they are
likely to be capped around the base fare,
as against current exorbitant fees, as part
of passenger-friendly initiatives.
The Minister said at least 32 airports
built by Airport Authority of India at a cost
of at least C3,000 crore over the years were
lying “unconnected” and putting any
restriction on market-driven fares may
jeopardize government's plan to start
flight services to those airports.
Holding that putting a cap on airfares
may have an adverse impact on growth of
aviation sector, Raju said his Ministry keeps
a “continuous tab” on price movements to
ensure that the rates are under check.
His comments come at a time when
the government is discussing ways to
address issues related to steep fluctuations
in airfares, especially during peak seasons
and natural calamities. Minister of State for
Civil Aviation Mahesh Sharma last month
had announced that capping of fares will
be announced soon.
“These (capping airfares) are complicated problems. They don't have simplistic solutions.... Competition has by and
large taken care of the (ticket) rates,” Raju
HVViaVTee`dVVd`^V
bfRceVc]jSf^ad+:_W`djd4@@
=4F34;78)Challenges in retail,
energy and insurance sectors
could results in “quarterly
bumps” for India's secondlargest software services firm
Infosys, its chief operating officer has said. Speaking at the Citi
India Investor Conference,
Infosys COO UB Pravin Rao
said the company would face
volatility over the next few
quarters, due to weaker spending from these sectors.
However, the Bengalurubased company was still on
track to meet its full-year constant currency revenue guidance of 11.5-13.5 per cent.
“We still remain confident
of (our guidance of) 11.5-13.5
per cent. But at the same time,
given the volatile nature of our
business, given the propensity
of our clients to react immediately to some of the volatility, we
will expect some short-term or
quarterly bumps and ups and
downs, but for the year, we
FTbcX[[aT\PX]R^]UXST]c^U^da
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QdcU^acWThTPafTaT\PX]R^]UXST]c
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remain confident,” he said.
He added the guidance was
based on factors like large deal
wins, growth in top 10 accounts
and good momentum in the
fourth quarter that has usually
been challenging for Infosys in
the previous years.
“In the last couple of weeks,
we have seen results from retail
&DLUQQRQH[HFXWLYHGLUHFWRUV
VHWIRUDFRPPLVVLRQZLQGIDOO
=4F34;78)Vedanta Group's Cairn
India will pay one per cent of net
profit as commission to its nonexecutive directors, including mining baron Anil Agarwal's daughter
Priya and brother Navin, over and
above their sitting fees.
The Board of Cairn India,
which operates the nation's biggest
onland oilfield in Rajasthan, comprises eight directors, seven of
whom are non-executive. Of these,
four are independent directors.
The company has moved a
special resolution for approval by
its shareholders at its annual general meeting on July 21 for payment
of “a sum not exceeding 1 per cent
(or such other percentage, as may
be permissible under law) of the net
profits of the company per annum”
as commission to non-executive
directors.
The Companies Act of 2013
provides for a company paying
remuneration to its non-executive
directors by way of commission if
it is approved by the company at the
general meeting.
Cairn's shareholders at the
AGM held on August 18, 2011, had
approved the remuneration payable
to non-executive directors by way
of commission not exceeding 1 per
cent of net profits for 5 years commencing from April 1, 2011. ?C8
in both the US and Europe have
not been good — it's been
probably the poorest that we've
seen in recent times. At this
stage we don't know how retailers will react. At the beginning
of the year... We were optimistic
— now we're a little bit watchful on the retail space,” Rao said.
He added the company
continues to see challenges in
the short-term in the insurance
space.
“We have a good pipeline in
financial services. Last year,
barring insurance, financial services grew about 15 per cent and
we expect that momentum to
continue... Manufacturing we
continue to see good traction...
Energy continues to be a challenge, we don't expect recovery
to have much impact on the
spends,” he said.Rao said a surprise has come from the healthcare vertical.
“We are slowly starting
seeing some headwinds
because there is suddenly a
great deal of pressure on cutting costs primarily because of
patent expir y and deal
pipeline and in addition, we
are seeing some M&A action
which is leading to deferment. (This is) probably
something we didn't anticipate
in the starting,” he said. ?C8
told the news agency in an interview.
“Floors and caps go together. If you just
say I will only cap (air ticket prices) then
you won't have any airline. Anyone doing
business doesn't want to make loss,” he
said.
India's domestic aviation market has
clocked a growth rate of 22 per cent in the
last one year, the highest for any country.
Raju said his Ministry has taken up the
issue of high tax levied on jet fuel by most
of the state governments with the chief
ministers concerned.
“Prices of ATF is higher than in most
countries due to high tax,” he said making a case that lower levy on ATF can help
in harnessing the passenger growth potential.
“We need to bring down taxation. It
is no longer a sector that is serving the rich.
There was a psychology that it is for rich
and so it should be taxed high. From that
psychology activities have moved. Now
you are in line with the world and would
like to serve the common man,” he said.?C8
AfchRcSRT\Rd
>E?=4>5hZeY
RUUZeZ`_R]TYRcXV
=4F 34;78) PK Purwar has
been given back the additional
charge of Chairman and
Managing Director of MTNL
after Narendra Kumar Yadav
reliquished the top post on
completion of his tenure.
Purwar, the Director
(Finance) of MTNL, had earlier held the additional charge
between June 2014 and June
2015.
“Narendra Kumar Yadav
has relinquished the charge of
CMD of the company w.E.F.
June 8, 2016. P K Purwar,
Director (Finance), MTNL,
has been entrusted with the
additional charge of the post
of CMD,” MTNL said in a filing to the BSE.
Yadav, a Member
(Services) Department of
Telecom, had been given the
additional charge of CMD on
June 8, 2015.
The telecom PSU has
been without a full-time
CMD since May 30, 2014
when A K Garg retired from
the post. Purwar was given
additional charge after Garg's
retirement.
?C8
Confident that the national airline has the capability of
flying high, the Minister said it
is working in that direction and
in a veiled reference to criticisms, emphasised that he does
not like the idea of Air India
“bashing”.
As per latest DGCA data,
Air India ferried a total of 11.98
lakh passengers on its domestic
network in April, cornering a
market share of 15.1 per cent
during this period. “Let's wish
and hope that it (Air India) flies
high. I am not against the public sector and I am not for only
public sector at all costs. Public
sector has a role and private sector has a role. Let them work in
competition,” Raju said.
Civil Aviation Secretary RN
Choubey said, “Air India plans
to expand its fleet from 130 aircraft to 230 aircraft in the next
four years.... The airline now
expects to see net profit in
2018-19 financial year, two
years ahead of the timeline
fixed in the turnaround plan.”
The carrier is surviving on
a C30,000-crore bailout package,
spread across ten years,
announced by the UPA
Government in 2012 and the
funds are being provided subject to the airline achieving
certain operational parameters.
So far, more than C22,000 crore
has been provided under the
turnaround plan.
This equity infusion
includes the financial support
towards repayment of principal
as well as interest on government-guaranteed loans taken
for aircraft acquisition and the
annual interest outgo against
these loans itself stands at a
whopping C4,000 crore.
Government has allocated
C1,713 crore to the airline as part
of this bailout package for the
current fiscal against the carrier's request for C3,901.49 crore.
Apart from an estimated
operational profit of C6-8
crore, the Government-run
carrier's total loss is projected
to have gone down by almost
60 per cent to C2,636 crore in
the fiscal ended March 2016.
In 2014-15, it had a loss of
C5,859.91 crore.
?C8
2PabP[TbSTR[X]T\PaVX]P[[hX]<Ph
?=BQ =4F34;78
assenger car sales in India
declined marginally in May
P
even as some of the demand
shifted from sedans to the
newly launched utility vehicles
(UVs).
As per the data released by
the Society of Indian
Automobile Manufacturers
(SIAM) today, domestic passenger car sales stood at
1,58,996 units in May as
against 1,60,371 units in the
same month last year.
“Car sales were slightly
negative last month as some of
the sedan sales are getting
transfered to the utility vehicle
segment which saw launches of
various new compact SUVs,”
SIAM Director General Vishnu
Mathur told reporters here.
Moreover, the continued
slowdown in rural market have
impacted small car sales.
Passenger car segment has
also been impacted by shift
from diesel to petrol cars, he
added.
During last month, total
passenger vehicle sales rose by
6.26 per cent to 2,31,640 units
as against 2,17,984 units in the
year ago period.
“The utility vehicles led by
Hyundai Creta and other models like Maruti Vitara Brezza
and Mahindra TUV300 and
KUV100 have fuelled the
growth in the overall passenger vehicle segment,” Mathur
said.
Utility vehicles grew by
35.88 per cent to 58,793 units
in May as against 43,269 units
in the same month of the previous year.
During May, Maruti
Suzuki's domestic car sales
were up 2.59 per cent at 87,402
units as against 85,190 units in
the same month last year.
Rival Hyundai Motor saw
a decline of 8.21 per cent at
34,262 units as against 37,328
units.
Honda Cars India's sales
also declined 38.89 per cent to
7,415 units as against 12,134
last year. Tata Motors' car sales
were at 7,787 units in May this
year compared with 9,176 units
in the year-ago month, down
15.13 per cent. Renault India's
car sales zoomed to 5,849 units
during the month as against
just 224 units last year.
Maruti Suzuki's passenger
vehicle sales in May were up
10.55 per cent at 1,13,162 units,
while that of rival Hyundai
Motor India were up by 10.42
per cent to 41,351 units.
Homegrown utility vehicles major Mahindra &
Mahindra's passenger vehicles
sales were up 8.27 per cent at
19,635 units while Honda Cars
India saw a decline of 25.89 per
cent decline in passenger vehicles sales during the month at
9,954 units.
Tata Motors saw 26.74 per
cent dip in sales of passenger
vehicles at 9,456 units. Renault
India saw a massive 131.69 per
cent jump in passenger vehicle
sales at 8,343 units.
Total two-wheeler sales in
May rose 9.75 per cent
to15,15,556 units.
Motorcycle sales rose 3.34
per cent to 9,85,158 units from
9,53,311 units a year earlier.
“Growth continues to be
impacted by slowdown in the
rural sales. From a growth of
16.24 per cent in April, it has
come down to 3.34 per cent in
May,” Mathur said.
,QYHVWPHQWQRUPVIRU1,,)PD\EHWZHDNHG'DV
<D<108)Government is looking to tweak the investment
norms for NIIF (National
Investment and Infrastructure
Fund) to allow investors to coinvest in this sovereign wealth
fund as also in the individual
projects.
The norms would be
tweaked within the broad
framework of the investment to
take into account suggestions
from the domestic and overseas
investors, Economic Affairs
Secretary Shaktikanta Das said
on Thursday.
Das also expressed hope
that the retail inflation would
remain at 5 per cent this fiscal,
in line with the RBI's projection, and help India develop
into a low-cost economy in
terms of lower interest rates,
transaction costs and logistics
costs.
Speaking to reporters at an
event here, Das further said
India's economy is likely to
grow at 8 per cent this year on
account of good monsoon,
passage of the GST Bill in
Parliament and a slew of
reforms being undertaken by
the government.
“With a good monsoon
which we expect this year,
with the passage of GST, which
also the government is very
confident that it will happen in
the monsoon session of the
Parliament and the cumulative
result of all reform measures
being taken, this year we are
looking at 8 per cent growth,”
Das said.
In the fiscal year ended
March 31, 2016, the country's
GDP grew at 7.6 per cent. In
the fourth quarter of last fiscal,
the economy grew at 7.9 per
cent.
Das said the growth in
manufacturing, services and
agriculture sectors during the
last fiscal suggest that there has
been an improvement in all
these segments and will con-
tribute to the overall growth in
2016-17 fiscal.
He said a good monsoon
will add to a good agriculture
and will also create a lot of rural
demand.
The Secretary said reform
processes and the policy initiatives, that have been taken in
the last few months, will continue.
“We will see greater action
with regards to various policy
initiatives and with regard to
reform measures going ahead,”
he said.
On NIIF, Das said: “Earlier
we were considering NIIF to be
the mother fund under which
there would be several subfunds. Now after interaction
with investors from within and
abroad we realised that there is
equal amount of interest, perhaps greater interest to coinvest in individual projects.”
A panel headed by Finance
Minister Arun Jaitley reviewed
the progress of NIIF yesterday.
While co-investment in individual projects is important,it
is also important that the
investors come into the mother fund because there government equity will be only 49 per
cent, Das said.
“Therefore, we are now in
discussion with various
investors and they will co invest
in individual infrastructure
projects and also invest in the
mother fund,” the Secretary
said.
He said the Government is
also in talks with many domestic investors as well as multilateral institutions to invest in
NIIF.
“Some of the multilateral
institution have shown interest
to invest in NIIF and we are in
discussion,” he added.
He said a few projects have
been received for investment
under NIIF and the
Government has shared the list
with potential investors. ?C8
=]`jUdVjVd)"!
R__fR]Xc`heYZ_
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<D<108)UK-based reinsurer
Lloyd's of London is looking
at 8-10 per cent annual
growth in its India business,
a senior executive said on
Thursday.
At present, the Lloyd's
annual premium income from
within the country stands at
$200 million (around C1,334
crore).
Lloyd's currently underwrites business in the country
on an off-shore basis. It has
applied for licence before the
insurance regulator Irdai and
the company is likely to kick
off its operations in the country by early next year.
?C8
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S
ix new Test centres, including
Dharamsala and Ranchi, will
host five-day matches for the
first time during a packed home season for the Indian cricket team
beginning with the New Zealand
series in September.
A busy international schedule
awaits the Indian team in the coming home season with 13 Test matches, eight One-Day Internationals
and three T20 Internationals pencilled in by the BCCI.
Rajkot,
Vizag,
Pune,
Dharamsala, Ranchi and Indore,
upgraded as Test centres in
November last year, will host five-day
matches for the first time, BCCI secretary Ajay Shirke said in a statement.
The new centres would also
host Tests this season against the visiting New Zealand, England,
Australia and Bangladesh, the BCCI
announced after the meeting of its
Tour Programmes and Fixtures
Committee here on Thursday.
The home season will start with
three Test matches and five ODIs
against New Zealand followed by five
Test matches, three ODIs and as
many T20Is against England.
Australia are to visit India in
February-March, 2017 to play four
Test matches while Bangladesh is
slated to play a one-off Test match in
India for the first time since the
country got Test status.
The three Tests against New
Zealand would be played at Indore,
Kanpur and Kolkata while
Dharamsala, Delhi, Mohali, Ranchi
and Vizag are to host the five ODIs
against the Kiwis.
Five Test matches against
England would be held at Mohali,
Rajkot, Mumbai, Vizag and Chennai,
with the ODIs to be held at Pune,
Cuttack and Kolkata and the three
T20 games scheduled at Bengaluru,
Nagpur and Kanpur.
Australia are to tour India in
February, 2017 to play 4 Test matches to be played at Bengaluru,
Dharamsala, Ranchi and Pune while
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?C8
Hyderabad would be the venue for the
stand-alone Test against Bangladesh.
All these venues will get matches subject to the condition that they
have numbered the seats in the stadiums and fulfil all the guidelines laid
down by the BCCI, said Shirke.
The domestic cricket season will
singles
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16-member Indian cricket
A
team, led by captain
Mahendra Singh Dhoni, has
arrived here for a short limitedovers series beginning on
Saturday. The team arrived
here after a long flight after
leaving Mumbai on Tuesday.
The BCCI tweeted to
inform the arrival of the players at the Harare International
Airport with pictures of Dhoni
and some of his teammates
completing the formalities at
the airport.
The team will be playing
three ODIs and as many T20
Internationals
against
Zimbabwe between June 11
and 22. All the matches are
scheduled to be played at the
Harare Sports Club here.
The ODIs will be played on
June 11, 13 and 15 while the
T20 Internationals are scheduled for June 18, 20 and 22.
The new look Indian team
has come here without senior
players like Virat Kohli, Rohit
Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan and
Ravichandran Ashwin.
e`Y`deYZde`cZT5 ?EVde
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ricket Australia chief executive
James Sutherland wants players to
C
remain open-minded about day-night
6UTUbUbRUQdc6bYdjQd=UbSUTUc3e`
test matches during the 2017-18
Ashes series in Australia.
Sutherland said he respected the
concern of Australia captain Steve
Smith and others, but reiterated that
a pink-ball Ashes test would be a "natural progression."
Australia hosted the first daynight test at the Adelaide Oval last
year, beating New Zealand in a lowscoring match. The venue will host
another day-night test in November,
after South African players ended
weeks of debate by agreeing
Wednesday to be involved.
On Thursday, Sutherland said
day-night tests will allow for bigger
audiences at the matches and on television and predicted there'd be "somewhere between zero and two" day-night
tests during the next Ashes series.
He spoke after Smith, playing in
the West Indies in a limited-overs triseries, said the Ashes "works pretty
well with the red (regular) ball ...
Playing against England, we always get
the viewers and the crowds out, so I
don't think there is any issue there."
England captain Alastair Cook
has also indicated he'd like the 201718 Ashes series to be all traditional day
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kick off in September with the
Duleep Trophy, which was not held
in 2015-16 season. The tournament
is set to be played under lights with
pink ball for the first time.
This is being done to help Indian
cricketers, all of whom are expected
to take part, become familiar with
playing under lights with the pink
coloured ball, ahead of playing Test
cricket in these conditions at home
during the packed season.
During the season, 918 matches are to be organised by the Board,
including Ranji Trophy, Duleep
Trophy, Vijay Hazare Trophy,
Mushtaq Ali Trophy, Deodhar
Trophy, Irani Trophy, women's cricket and all other age group cricket.
Chhattisgarh has been added to
the Ranji Trophy schedule for the
first time. "This translates into 1,882
playing days between September
2016 to March 2017," Shirke said.
"I welcome the new Test venues
hosting this prestigious format of
cricket and their arrival will take Test
match cricket, to every corner of the
country," said BCCI President Thakur.
"We are equally excited about the
domestic season as we will be playing
the Duleep trophy with the pink ball
under lights and take this opportunity to welcome Chhattisgarh, who will
play Ranji trophy for the first time."
"A combined team of Affiliate
and Associate states will participate
in the junior age group tournaments, which will provide the much
needed opportunity to the emerging
players from these areas. This further
reaffirms our commitment to spread
the game by providing the appropriate platforms to our next generation
cricketer," he added.
BCCI secretary Shirke noted
that the advance announcement of
international match staging centres
for the coming season will give
them enough time to buckle up for
the task ahead.
"Some of the best teams of world
cricket are coming to play in India
this season and we are excited to
announce the schedule well ahead of
time. This gives the staging associations and the BCCI sufficient time
to prepare and present one of the
most memorable cricketing seasons
for our fans. I have full faith in our
team at BCCI to deliver international and domestic cricket simultaneously and engage the ardent fans on
all fronts," said Shirke.
?C8Q :>;:0C0
he iconic Eden Gardens has
emerged as the frontrunner to
T
host the first ever Day/Night Test
matches. Dates haven't been
announced for that series.
The Adelaide day-night test last
year was completed in three days, but
drew 124,000 spectators and television
ratings were also favorable.
"I think there's a natural progression for us to get to a stage where
Ashes test matches are played as daynight games," Sutherland said. "The
players are clearly an important stakeholder and I respect the views of
Steven and Alastair in saying that. The
Ashes is a great contest, and (it) will
no doubt attract huge audiences both
at the ground and on television.
"But I think the facts of the matter
are that by playing a day-night test match
you're actually going to get bigger audiences at the game and on television. It
even time-shifts games into a more
appealing time of day in the UK That's
another factor we need to consider."
Australia will host three tests
against South Africa in November, with
the series concluding in Adelaide from
Nov. 24, and will kick off a three-test
series against Pakistan with a Day/Night
match in Brisbane starting Dec. 15.
SA players had been reluctant to
play the Adelaide test after informal
feedback from Australian players who
had issues with pink ball's visibility
and durability in Adelaide test.
match in the country against the visiting New Zealand side even though
CAB president Sourav Ganguly said
it will depend on their upcoming
"pink ball experiment" from June 18.
"Nothing is confirmed yet.
Nothing has been confirmed yet.
Hosting a day night Test will depend
on the success of the Duleep Trophy.
We are also organising the country's
first day night four-day CAB Super
League final with pink Kookaburra
balls from June 18-21 on an experimental basis. We will see how it goes,"
Ganguly said.
An influential BCCI official,
though, said that if the Day/Night
Test match is held against New
Zealand, it will come to Eden
Gardens in all likelihood.
"The decision will be taken during the BCCI working committee
meeting on June 24th. We are hopeful that Eden will be allotted the
match. Also we will get a feedback
from CAB on their D/N experiment,"
the source said.
Eden's chances are bright since
the other two Test venues for the New
Zealand leg are Indore and Kanpur.
Kanpur's floodlights have been
a problem while Indore, for a match
of this magnitude, may not be the
best venue.
The Cricket Association of Bengal
has procured a dozen pink kookaburra balls for the super league final next
week which will be telecast live.
CAB secretary Avishek Dalmiya
said: "We will keep more grass for visibility. Kookabura world and subcontinent head are expected for the match.
We don't want to make a fool of ourselves. It depends on how the BCCI
takes it, how successful it is. That's the
way forward. We are trying something
for first time. The legacy will be with
us. We will give two balls each to the
finalists who will practice two days
ahead of the final," Dalmiya said.
;P]ZPUXVWcQPRZeb4]V[P]S ,QGLDQKRFNH\VHHNV
05?Q ;>=3>=
N
uwan Pradeep captured the prize
wicket of England captain Alastair
Cook as Sri Lanka reduced the hosts to
165 for five at tea on the first day of the
third Test at Lord's on Thursday.
Left-handed opener Cook was closing in on his 29th Test century when he
played round his front pad to the paceman, bowling from around the wicket,
and was was plumb lbw for 85.
Cook's exit ended a 173-ball innings
including nine fours. It also halted a fifthwicket stand of 80 with Jonny Bairstow,
44 not out at tea, that had helped
England recover from 84 for four.
Cook's wicket was no more than
Pradeep deserved after having Bairstow
dropped when on 11.
Moeen Ali, fresh from his Test-best
155 not out in the second Test at the
Riverside, was one not out.
But Cook insisted in the build-up
to this match that England were determined to correct their habit of losing
'dead' Tests in series they'd already won
following heavy defeats at the end of victorious campaigns at home to Australia
in 2015 and away to South Africa earlier this year.
Fielding an unchanged side, England
made a serene start after Cook won the
toss in ideal sunny batting conditions on
a placid Lord's pitch, albeit one offering
a touch of seam movement.
Sri Lanka made little impression as
Cook, presented with a commemorative bat before play to mark his achievement in becoming the first England
batsman to score 10,000 Test runs, a
landmark he reached at the Riverside,
and Alex Hales compiled a fifty stand
in 74 balls.
But Rangana Herath succeeded
where the pacemen had failed when, with
just his fourth ball, the left-arm spinner
had Hales (18), slogging across the line
of a ball that turned, caught by Sri Lanka
captain Angelo Mathews at slip.
By his own admission, Nick
Compton was playing for his Test
place. But England's number three, on
his Middlesex home ground, fell when
he was caught behind after failing to get
to the pitch of a gentle Suranga Lakmal
away-swinger.
Lakmal then made it two wickets
for two runs in five balls when he had
Joe Root (three) lbw, hitting across the
line, although Sri Lanka needed to
review Australian umpire Rod Tucker's
original not out decision.
At lunch, England were 71 for three.
Cook was 48 not out, with James Vince
unbeaten on three.
Vince has yet to make a major score
in his three-Test career and he fell for
10 on Thursday when Pradeep bowled
him with a delivery that trimmed the
top of off stump.
England were now 84/4— the fifth
time in their last seven Test innings they
had lost 4 wickets before reaching 100.
Bairstow revived England from the
depths of 83 for five in the first Test with
a superb 140 on his Headingley home
ground in a match that England eventually won by an innings and 88 runs.
The Yorkshireman should have
been out cheaply Thursday when he
clipped Pradeep firmly off his pads
straight to mid-wicket.
But Shaminda Eranga — included
despite being reported for a suspect
action at the Riverside — dropped the
catch and the quick-scoring Bairstow
cashed in with a boundary next ball.
&7ERRVWDKHDGRI2O\
?C8Q ;>=3>=
iming to gain in confidence before the Olympic
A
Games, the Indian hockey team
will be eyeing a podium finish
in the Champions Trophy,
beginning with a clash against
Olympic gold-medallists
Germany here on Friday.
On seven occasions thereafter, India have been edged
away from the podium as they
lost crucial bronze-medal
encounters. The last two
Champions Trophy events in
2012 (Melbourne)and 2014
(Bhubaneswar) feature among
the seven fourth-place finishes
that left Indian fans dejected.
"A podium finish is a realistic target we're chasing here
at this Champions Trophy,"
said coach Roelant Oltmans as
the Indian team went through
its training regimen ahead of
the German encounter.
Returning to the Olympic
Park in London also provides
India a chance to erase the
unhappy memories of the lastplace finish in the 2012
Olympics. Before that Indian
hockey used to romance the
1948 Olympic gold medal they
had won in London.
"We like a challenge, but we
have to execute our tactics in
match situations and keep
evolving," said Oltmans, who
has continued his rotational
policy to provide exposure to
all players ahead of picking the
squad for Rio de Janeiro.
Custodian PR Sreejesh,
who will captain the squad at
the Champions Trophy, and
penalty corner shooter VR
Raghunath are back in the
squad after missing the Sultan
Azlan Shah Cup, while Sardar
Singh and Rupinder Pal Singh
have been rested.
Young penalty corner shooter Harmanpreet Singh's fine
show in Sultan Azlan Shah Cup
secured his selection for CT,
where he will share the duties
with Raghunath.
For goalkeeper Vikas
Dahiya and colleague Pradeep
Mor this is the biggest stage of
their short playing career.
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tortuous build-up dominated by off-field
controversy and untimely injuries comes
A
to an end for hosts France when they finally
0?Q ;>=3>=
T
he European Championship enters
a new era with Spain seeking to
reassert its old supremacy.
Invincible between 2008 and 2012
while claiming back-to-back European
titles and finally tasting World Cup
glory , the Spanish halo slipped two years
ago with a humiliating blowout in Brazil.
How better to show that the firstround elimination in 2014 was just a blip
than by completing a hat trick of
European titles in Paris on July 10. It will
be a tougher challenge than before, with
the Euros growing by eight teams to 24
in France.
Although Spain's national team has
not collected a trophy since Euro 2012,
domestic clubs have swept up continental trophies for the three seasons. The
Champions League has been won by Real
Madrid (twice) and Barcelona while
Sevilla completed a hat trick of Europa
League titles in May.
The sternest challenges in France for
Vicente del Bosque's team are likely to come
from World Cup holder Germany and the
host nation, boasting a talented young
squad but whose plans have been derailed
— as so often — by off-field controversy.
Then there is the next rung of contenders yet to conquer the continent, just
the type of teams Del Bosque fears.
A golden generation of Belgium
players, embodied by Kevin De Bruyne
and Eden Hazard, has to live up to their
promise and start delivering on the
international stage for the world's secondranked team. England is defensively susceptible but has a plethora of fresh
attacking options, including Harry Kane
and Marcus Rashford, capable of challenging if not emerging with winners' medals.
Unlike at the World Cup, Spain's title
defense can surely not end at the first hurdle in France this month. Croatia, the
Czech Republic and Turkey await in
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Group D and even a third-place finish
could be sufficient to advance in the reconfigured tournament's new round of 16.
Germany is more anxious than Spain
about the group stage following setbacks
in qualifying and friendlies since lifting the
World Cup and veterans like former captain Philipp Lahm retiring. After games
against Poland and Ukraine, Germany
faces Northern Ireland, a first-time finalist which qualified as group winners.
And underdogs can thrive at the
Euros. Just look at Denmark winning in
1992 and Greece lifting the trophy 12 year
later. Neither nation made it to France.
What chance another surprise champion 12 years on? Albania, Iceland,
Slovakia and Wales joined Northern
Ireland in qualifying for the first time.
Only Wales boasts a true world-beater in its ranks. It's more than Gareth Bale's
goals that have powered the Welsh to
their first tournament since the 1958
World Cup. It's the dedication of the
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fter a gruelling qualifying
campaign, Euro 2016 gets
A
underway today with Cristiano
Ronaldo and the rest of the continent's biggest stars descending
on France having to fend off minnows aiming to make their presence felt.
This will be the first 24-team
European Championship, a
month-long marathon a far cry
from the eight-nation event when
France with Michel Platini were
last hosts in 1984.
France launch the tournament with a Group A game
against Romania on Friday. Les
Bleus remain the last host country to lift the trophy — named
after a Frenchman, Henri
Delaunay — and also won the
World Cup as hosts in 1998,
when Didier Deschamps was the
captain.
Now he is the coach of a side
looking to lift the spirits of a nation
beset by social unrest and fears of
a repeat of the Paris attacks last
November. The tension has made
some players nervous however.
"I would like to concentrate
fully on football during the Euro,
and I would feel much better if my
family is not sitting in the stadium," said Germany's Jerome
Boateng, who has told his wife and
children to stay away from the
country in case of an attack.
He was in Germany team that
was playing France when suicide
bombers blew themselves up outside the Stade de France on the
night of the November 13 attacks
that killed 130 people.
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world's most expensive player to commit
to the national cause when Real Madrid
provides the status, silverware and salary.
Just as Madrid teammate Cristiano
Ronaldo does for Portugal. For the 31-yearold Ballon D'Or holder who has won every
significant club and individual honor, a title
with Portugal is all that is missing.
The French are seeking the support of
a nation still reeling from a 2015 scarred
by attacks on Paris where the Stade de
France was targeted by suicide bombers
as France played Germany in November.
France's World Cup hopes were only
ended by eventual champion Germany in
the quarterfinals two years ago. Like
Spain, Italy and England couldn't even
make it out of their groups in Brazil.
Italy has a challenging first round,
with Belgium and Zlatan Ibrahimovic's
Sweden in Group E alongside Ireland.
Few of the 552 players and 24 head
coaches won't be feeling the pressure in
the 51 games across 31 days in France.
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on the streets of Paris. Strikes on
trains that go to the national stadium, and on planes that should
be carrying fans. With the eyes
of Europe and the world turning to France for the European
Championship, the host nation
isn't putting on its best face.
A tug of war between the
Socialist government and labor
leaders over changes to French
workplace practices is ensnaring
fans hoping for a month of fine
football and a great time.
Already Thursday, strikes
threw train services to the
national stadium into disarray
before the opening game it hosts
on Friday night.
Strikes are also planned
from Saturday on the national air carrier, Air France. In
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swanky Paris neighborhoods,
overflowing garbage containers spewed stinking bags of
trash onto the streets, uncollected by strikers.
With kick-off just a day
away, both the government
and labor leaders warned fans
to brace for hardship.
AP
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get Euro 2016 underway against Romania in
Group A at the Stade de France today.
Les Bleus' preparations on the field have
been distracted by claims from Real Madrid
striker Karim Benzema that his exclusion from
the squad was racially motivated.
Benzema hasn't played for Les Bleus
since October last year after becoming
embroiled in a sex-tape blackmail scandal that
targeted then international teammate Mathieu
Valbuena.
France's highest active goalscorer,
Benzema — who is of Algerian descent —
claimed coach Didier Deschamps had "bowed
to pressure from a racist part of France."
In addition, Benzema's Madrid team-mate
Raphael Varane will miss the tournament due
to a hamstring injury.
Coach Didier Deschamps' defensive
options are severely depleted as Barcelona's
Jeremy Mathieu also had to withdraw from the
squad, while Liverpool's Mamadou Sakho wasn't included as he was serving a provisional ban
from UEFA for doping.
Lassana Diarra, Kurt Zouma and Mathieu
Debuchy are also sidelined, and Deschamps
has acknowledged he never imagined being hit
with such headaches even just a few weeks ago.
"Everything that has happened to us
since the squad was announced on May 12,
honestly, even in my worst nightmares I don't
think I could have imagined it," Deschamps
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told sports daily L'Equipe on Wednesday.
Yet, expectations are still high that a team
boasting the precocious young talents of the likes
of Paul Pogba, Anthony Martial and Antoine
Griezmann can repeat the feats of the French
sides of 1998 and 1984 in winning the World
Cup and Euros respectively on home soil.
"We have the chance to play at home, there
will be pressure, but it will be positive," said
goalkeeper Steve Mandanda.
"We have the obligation to have a good
tournament and the objective is to win it."
Deschamps' men have been in fine form,
winning nine of their last 10 matches over the
past year with their only defeat coming to
England when minds were focused elsewhere just days after the November Paris terror attacks.
While France's forward line will be blessed
with pace and youth, there will be plenty of
experience at the back with all of the expected back four of Sagna, Laurent Koscielny, Adil
Rami and Patrick Evra in their thirties.
Romania's hopes of springing a huge surprise will be based around a solid defence as
they reached a first major tournament in eight
years with the best defensive record in qualifying.
Anghel Iordanescu's men conceded just
twice in 10 matches in qualifying behind
Northern Ireland in Group F and also held
European champions Spain to a 0-0 draw in
March.
However, without the star quality of a
Gheorge Hagi or Adrian Mutu as in years gone
by, Romania also struggled mightily for goals
in qualifying, scoring just 11 times.
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P
hilippe Coutinho completed a
hat-trick as Brazil routed Haiti
7-1 at Copa America Centenario
while Ecuador produced a gutsy
fightback to thwart Peru's push for
a quarter-final berth.
Coutinho conjured up the sort
of form which made him one of
Liverpool's most potent attackers in
the Premier League last season as
the Brazilians outclassed Haiti in
the first ever competitive meeting
of the two nations.
The 23-year-old attacking midfielder grabbed his first two goals
inside the first half hour of a onesided Group B game at Orlando's
Citrus Bowl in Florida.
Coutinho then grabbed his
third in the dying seconds of injury
time, curling in a spectacular shot
to complete a fine night's work.
Brazil, who had drawn 0-0 with
Ecuador in a lackustre opening
game last weekend, now lead Group
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B on goal difference, level on four
points with Peru, who were held 22 by the Ecuadorans elsewhere on
Wednesday.
Brazil manager Dunga was
left purring with pleasure at the per-
formance of Coutinho, who scored
12 goals in all competitions for
Liverpool this season.
Brazil's other goals came from
Renato Augusto (2), teenage star
Gabriel Barbosa and Lucas Lima.
Defender Filipe Luis however cautioned that Brazil would
face a sterner challenge against
Peru in their final Group B game
at Foxborough's Gillette Stadium
on Sunday.
Elsewhere, Ecuador frustrated
Peru's hopes of sealing their quarter-final berth, fighting back from
two goals down to snatch a 2-2
draw in Glendale, Arizona.
A superb individual
strike from West Ham's
Enner Valencia and a second half effort from Brazilbased midfielder Miller
Bolanos completed
Ecuador's comeback.
The Ecuadorans
had earlier been left reeling after falling 2-0 down
inside the first 13 minutes.
Peru, who had beaten Haiti in
their opening game on Saturday,
appeared to be cruising into the last
eight after the early efforts from
Christian Cueva and Edison Flores.
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uslims have traveled from all
over the world to stand shoulderM
to-shoulder in a Kentucky arena for a
final tribute to Muhammad Ali.
A fellow Muslim who shares the
boxing great's name traveled from
Bangladesh. Mohammad Ali arrived
with no hotel reservation, just a belief
that this pilgrimage was important
to honor the global icon in a traditional Islamic service.
The Ali from Bangladesh
said he met the boxer in the
early 1970s and they struck up
a friendship based on their
shared name. The Champ
visited his home in 1978
and always joked he was his
twin brother, he said.
He will join more than 14,000 people who have tickets to the service
Thursday in Louisville, which will be
broadcast worldwide and streamed
online, offering a window into a religion
many outsiders know little about, but
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have come to scorn.
Organizers say the service, or
Jenazah prayer, is open to all, but meant
especially as a chance for Muslims to say
goodbye to a man considered a hero of
the faith. U.S. Muslims hope the service
for the Kentucky native will help underscore that Islam, so much under attack
in recent months, is fully part of
American life.
"Muhammad planned all of this,"
said Imam Zaid Shakir, a prominent
U.S. Muslim scholar who will lead
Thursday's prayers. "And he planned for
it to be a teaching moment."
"One reason Muhammad Ali
touched so many hearts, he was willing
to sacrifice the fame, the lights, the
money, the glamour, all of that, for his
beliefs and his principles," Shakir said.
"That's moving and that touches people."
Timothy Gianotti, an Islamic scholar at the University of Waterloo, Canada,
who has worked for years with the Ali
family to plan the remembrances said
the service will consist of short, standing prayers said over the body, which in
this case will be in a coffin facing Mecca.
The Jenazah service lasts only a few
minutes, with people customarily standing in lines, divided by gender, as they
recite the prayers. At Ali's service,
Muslims lining up to join the recitation
will be separated by gender, but the
wider audience will not, Gianotti said.
Tickets are still available for Friday
service. But all 15,500 tickets for Friday's
memorial at KFC Yum! Center in
Louisville were claimed within an hour.